Fairytale Love - Becca & Brian(26)

"Becca, you are paired with Colton."

Colton.

Even though he knew he should be happy that Becca was going to be  competing with a good guy like Colton, he wasn't. If there was one guy  here who Becca would actually fall for, it was Colton. Tall.  Good-looking. Built. Cowboy. Business owner. The guy was like a girl's  wet dream come to life, and from the short amount of time that Brian had  spent around him, Brian knew he was actually a good guy.

None of that would have even bothered Brian except he'd seen the two  talking earlier when Colton had whispered something to Becca after she'd  taken her card and her face had lit up the way it did … with him.

That old, familiar tightening in his chest was back with a vengeance.  Shit. He felt like an elephant was sitting on his rib cage.

"Okay, so this is the first ‘family dinner.' Take your seats-you'll find  place cards on the chairs. You will sit in that same location every  time we shoot a scene here. Even once couples start leaving, you do not  switch seats. Capisce?" When no one answered him, Gavin clapped his  hands together again and exclaimed happily, "Capisce!"

Everyone turned and made their way around the table to find their seats.  When Brian located his, he looked up and felt exactly like he had when  he'd gotten bucked off the horse he'd been riding at the carnival in  first grade. He'd fallen flat on his back and the wind had been knocked  clean out of him.

Becca stood facing away from him, and for the first time tonight, he got  a glimpse at the back-or more accurately the backless-part of the dress  she was wearing. It was deep purple, and from the front, it looked like  a normal dress she would wear. It was sleeveless with a conservative  scoop neckline, and it hit her just above the knee. But now that he'd  seen the entire thing, he knew it was not like any dress he'd ever seen  her in before. Her entire back was exposed. The scoop in the back was  not nearly as conservative as the one in the front. It stopped just  below the indentation of the bottom of her spine.                       
       
           



       

Brian's eyes drank in the smooth expanse of her ivory skin, the sensual  curve that ran down the length of her back, the soft slopes of her  shoulder blades. His eyes moved lower to the outline of her  heart-shaped, rounded backside and he was a total goner. He couldn't  breathe, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but stare at his best  friend's assets.

"Look. Our seats."

He heard Brooklyn's voice, but it sounded far away or like she was speaking to him from under water.

Then, he felt her wrap her fingers around his arm, and as much as he  wanted to pull away from her and go be with Becca, a small voice in his  head reminded him that not only was Brooklyn his ‘princess,' but he was  also being filmed. He didn't want to make a scene or embarrass Becca.

He was barely able to rein in his out-of-control, totally over-the-top  response to seeing Becca in that dress. But when he did, he turned to  Brooklyn to give her his full attention.

Not because he wanted to. Because he had to.

* * *

Becca shifted in her heels, uncomfortably, feeling naked. She really  wished she'd worn something else. Her cousin-in-law Amber was a clothing  designer who specialized in women's dresses, and when news had broken  that Becca was going to be going on television, Amber had shown up at  her door with tons of clothes. Not just for Becca to wear, but also for  the other contestants if they wanted to wear them. Amber said that it  was like free publicity.

So she'd taken the clothing, although she could not blame her discomfort  on the fact that she'd agreed to wear the samples. Nope. There had been  several much more conservative dress options. But for some reason, when  she'd seen the va-va-voom dress Brooklyn was wearing, she'd put this  dress on without even giving it a second thought. And that was before  she knew that Brooklyn was Brian's ‘princess.'

Seriously?!

Why did it have to be her? Becca was trying to keep an open mind with  the girl, but something about her rubbed Becca the wrong way.  Specifically, the way she kept rubbing up on Brian like a cat in heat.

"I think this is us," Colton said as he removed the hand he'd placed on  Becca's lower back and pulled out the chair that had her name on it.

"Thanks," Becca smiled at him as she sat down on the high-backed, padded, velvet chair.

Relief and irritation flowed through her as she took her seat. Relief  because she could lean back and cover her totally bare back. And  irritation over the fact that Colton's hand resting on her lower back  hadn't even registered on the wowza scale when all Brian had to do was  look at her and the scale exploded.

What was wrong with her? Brian was off-limits, and Colton seemed like a  really nice guy. Not to mention he talked with the sexiest Southern  drawl. It was like everything he said came out at just a little slower  speed than everyone else.

Placing her napkin on her lap, Becca was surprised when there was  suddenly a large plate with chicken, scalloped potatoes, and vegetables  in front of her. Well, at least she could eat the potatoes and veggies.  They looked delicious, too.

"Everything okay?" Colton asked as she looked at the plate.

"Oh yeah. It smells delicious." She nodded with a smile.

She cringed inwardly at how fake her voice sounded. It was so weird to  try to have a normal conversation with someone when she knew that they  were being recorded and filmed. She didn't know how the others were  doing it so well. She felt stiff and was second-guessing every word she  said.

While the other four girls had been upstairs all getting settled,  unpacking, and looking around their suite, they had been talking and  laughing. Mainly talking about themselves. Becca had barely said one  word. Actually, that's all she'd said. One word. Brooklyn had asked her  if she and Brian had been friends for a long time and Becca had said,  "Yes." That had been it. Her great contribution to the conversation.

It wasn't just that she was having a hard time feeling comfortable in  front of the cameras. The other issue was that, although she wasn't even  close to as private as her sister Jessie (who basically thought  everyone was on a need-to-know basis and no one really needed to know  anything), she wasn't sure that she wanted her business broadcast for  the whole world to hear. Not that she had that much ‘business' to speak  of. The most scandalous thing she'd ever done was fall in love with her  best friend, and she certainly wasn't going to be broadcasting that  piece of info for everyone and their brother to hear-definitely not on a  show where he was competing against her for love.

Becca felt Colton's stare on her and she turned to see that he'd  narrowed his eyes like he was trying to figure her out. "What?" she  asked, not having any idea what could possibly be so mysterious about  her that he would look like that.                       
       
           



       

A small smile crept up on his face. "You're a vegetarian. Aren't you?"

"Oh. Yeah, I am." Becca felt heat creep up her cheeks as she spoke. It  wasn't that she was embarrassed about the fact that she didn't eat meat.  That wasn't it at all. No, her flush stemmed from the unadulterated,  undivided attention Colton was showing her. "How did you know?"

"I saw it in your eyes when you looked at your chicken," he told her.

"Wow. That's very perceptive of you." She wasn't just saying that in a  sad attempt to flirt. She was actually impressed by his sleuth skills,  so she told him so, "I'm impressed."

He winked as he said, "I'm hoping that won't be the last time I impress you."

Becca smiled. "I don't know. You've set the bar pretty high. I mean, what could you possibly do to top that?"

He leaned slightly forward and lowered his voice, his eyes dancing with flirtation. "Is that a challenge?"

"Yes, sir. I believe it is." Becca nodded as she stared into Colton's emerald-green eyes and felt … nothing.

Why? Why couldn't her lady parts sit up and take notice of those  gorgeous, green eyes instead of the light-brown eyes that belonged to  the one man she absolutely could not risk losing.

A sound of glass clinking was followed by a loud voice announcing, "Can I have your attention?"

Becca turned to see Jax standing up at the end of the table, hitting his fork against his wine glass.

Of course. He would be the one to interrupt everyone's dinner just to  draw the attention back on himself. She still couldn't believe what  she'd heard when she'd walked into the dining room. No, actually she  could believe it. He seemed like a male-chauvinistic type.

All eyes turned towards him, and he set his glass down and cleared his throat.