Fairytale Love - Becca & Brian(25)

After shooting one last glance over to Lance Sparrow-who, up close,  almost looked like the wax figures she'd seen at Madame Tussauds in  Hollywood-she took her spot back in the pack.

Leaning down, Colton whispered encouragingly in a barely audible tone, "Good job."

Becca grinned, feeling ridiculously proud of herself. Had she cured  cancer, uncovered a drug ring, fed starving children? Nope. All she'd  managed to do was follow directions that were easy enough for a child to  perform. Still, it felt nice to hear Colton say that she'd done well  anyway.

Her attention was, once again, pulled to the center of the room as she  watched as Brooklyn made her way to the front. The pretty blond wiggled  her fingers at Lance in greeting before making a big show of digging  into the bowl and selecting a card. When she turned to the group at  large, Becca found out exactly what ‘seductive plotting' looked like.  Brooklyn had nailed it as she looked at each one of the guys, in turn,  like she had plans of the sexy variety in mind.                       
       
           



       

It was impressive. No way in a million gazillion years could Becca have  pulled it off, but she had to give credit where credit was due.

After each contestant had selected their blank cards, Lance Sparrow held  his hands out much like she remembered seeing Mr. Roarke do on the  television show Fantasy Island. "Welcome to Stone Castle, where one  lucky couple will find their fairytale love."

He held his too-big smile for several seconds before dropping his hands  down by his sides. The second he did that, his entire demeanor switched  right before her eyes. It was bizarre.

His face fell and he spoke-to whom, she wasn't sure because he wasn't  looking at anyone in the room. He was looking down at the ground as he  said, "Do we have it?" There was a pause, and then, without another  word, he nodded and turned around, disappearing to … somewhere.

Becca looked around to see if anyone else thought that this was odd. And  by anyone else, she meant Brian. What she saw was that his head was  leaned down as Brooklyn whispered something in his ear.

The sight made Becca sick to her stomach.

"Okay. We need everyone to grab your luggage and head upstairs to find  your rooms. The girls are in one suite and the guys are in another.  There are cards with your names on them above the beds you've been  assigned."

Everyone moved back to the foyer, and Becca was, once again, struck by  just how breathtaking the castle was. She couldn't get over how much the  entryway looked like what she imagined a Roman cathedral looking like.

Just as she was reaching for her bag, she saw Brian's hand reach for it.

"I've got it," she heard herself snap.

He froze, and she looked up at him. Obviously, he was taken aback by her tone. She was taken aback by her tone.

"I got it." This time, her words came out sounding much friendlier.

It looked like he might have a follow-up question for her, but Brooklyn  showed up beside them and started talking to Brian. Becca took the  opportunity of him being distracted to grab her bags and head upstairs.

Halfway up the grand staircase, Becca couldn't help herself. She looked  over her shoulder to see if Brian was still talking to her. He was. And  not only that, but Brooklyn also had her hand ‘casually' resting on  Brian's chest.

Turning her head back around so fast that she was worried she might have  given herself whiplash, Becca decided no more looking back. Best to  keep her eyes straight ahead from here on out.





Chapter Twelve





The doorway rattled as all the men made their way inside the dining  hall. Brian tried to take in the amazing works of art hanging around the  room, but he was having a hard time seeing since his eyes were  watering. He was practically choking on the intense smell of aftershave  and cologne. Apparently, most of these guys did not operate on the ‘less  is more' philosophy. At least, down here in the dining area, there  wasn't a cloud of the stuff like upstairs. In the guys' suite, Brian had  barely been able to see a foot in front of him.

There was a quiet rumble of trash talk going on. The guys in this group  seemed highly competitive. Not that Brian wasn't-he absolutely was. He  just didn't usually talk out his ass. And since he had no idea what the  next few weeks would entail, he didn't feel like making an idiot out of  himself by predicting that he would be the last guy standing, especially  when everything they said was being recorded for posterity.

"Okay, fellas." Jennifer, the PA, walked in looking down at her  clipboard. When she looked up, she stopped up short. "Wow. You guys look  nice."

Brian looked at the other four guys and had to admit that they had all  cleaned up pretty nicely, himself included. Tonight, they'd been  instructed to dress in cocktail attire. He was wearing a maroon  button-up shirt, dark gray slacks, and black dress shoes. Most of the  other guys were wearing variations of the same thing. With the exception  of Colton, who was wearing cowboy boots, and Jax, who was wearing a  white button-up shirt-which he had decided not to button up-and cargo  shorts with tennis shoes.

Brian had seen Gavin's expression when he'd seen what Jax was wearing.  For a moment, Brian had thought he was going to say something about it,  but instead, he'd just briefed the guys on what to expect the first  night in the house and once again went over the ‘no sex in the champagne  room' rule that he'd said would only be lifted on the final overnight  dates the two remaining couples would be going on.

Brian didn't blame Gavin for not saying something to Jax about how he  was dressed. There was no way he'd want to get into it with Jax. Not  only was that guy huge and a professional weightlifter, but he also  seemed like he had a short fuse. Not a combo anyone in his right mind  would want to agitate. ‘Don't poke the bear' fit better in this  situation than any he'd ever encountered before.                       
       
           



       

"Sorry." Jennifer shook her head, looking a little embarrassed for  making that observation. "The girls are running late, but they should be  down any minute." With that declaration, she spun on her heels and was  out the door so fast that her ponytail trailed after her as she sped  through the door.

When she was gone, Jax turned and threw his arms up. Even in this  massive space, he filled the room. "Of course they're running late!  Probably caking that shit all over their faces. Don't they know all we  care about is tits and ass? We don't give a shit about anything from the  neck up. It's all the same when the lights go out."

As Jax moved to give Blake a high five, Brian noticed that all five of  the women were now standing in the doorway of the dining room. He had no  idea how much of Jax's little speech they'd overheard, but from the  looks on their faces, they'd definitely caught a sentence or two.

"Excuse me?" Brooklyn crossed her arms and looked like she was about to spit fire from her eyes.

Jax's face froze in horror as he stared at the other guys, his eyes pleading for a little help. None came.

You're on your own big guy.

"What?" Jax turned to the girls, a huge smile on his face. "I was kidding. I knew you were there."

All of the ladies looked at him like they knew exactly where he could  put that apology, and it involved someplace where the sun don't shine.

Brian tried not to laugh. He didn't want to make the situation any worse  or add fuel to the fire. He was rescued when Gavin stepped into the  room, speaking quietly to both Lance and Sabrina. Lance was holding his  script in his hands, rehearsing his lines under his breath. Sabrina's  eyes were glued to her iPad, and it looked like the only one listening  to Gavin was Gavin.

"All right. So here's the deal, kids." He clapped his hands together loudly, and it felt like it shook the walls.

Brian was still getting used the acoustics in this place. The smallest  noise could sound a thousand times louder, and the opposite was true as  well. In the staircase and foyer, someone could be right next to him  talking in a normal voice and it sounded like they were whispering.

Continuing, Gavin said, "You've all been paired up, and from now on, you  will be doing things as couples. You'll eat together, compete together,  and play together. But please, let's keep it PG-13."

Brian noted that Gavin stared pointedly at Brooklyn when he made that statement.

"All right. So here are the couples. First, we have Madison and Jax."

Jax looked over at Madison, who looked not so happy about the prince she'd been given.

"Next up is Leah and Blake. Then Brian and Brooklyn."

Brian heard Brooklyn say, "Yes," under her breath as she turned and  winked at him. He also saw Becca's entire body tense at the  announcement. He was glad that Becca hadn't been paired with Jax. That  guy was an asshole. The other guys seemed fine. The only one he really  wouldn't want her to be with was-