She was still trying to get her breathing under control when she felt strong arms come around her and realized that Colton had picked her up off the ground and was spinning her around. She squealed in surprise as her arms flew around him.
As he sat her back down, he said, "You did it!"
Becca smiled. She looked up at how tall the wall was, glowing in her achievement, and as she did, she saw that all of the other couples were still on the wall. A few of them weren't even halfway up.
She jerked her head to look up at Colton. "Did we win?"
He smiled broadly. "Yeah, we won."
"Really?" she asked, not believing that could be possible.
Colton just nodded with his wide grin still in place.
"Oh my gosh!" Becca cried and jumped into Colton's arms, wrapping her arms around his neck.
She squeezed her eyes shut the way she always did when she felt overwhelmed or swept up in a moment. Colton's arms enveloped her as he held her firmly against his body.
They'd actually done it. She'd done it. That was amazing.
When she opened her eyes, she saw that Brian and Brooklyn had made their way down. They'd come in second. That was great! Becca was so happy that …
Wait. Now she and Colton had immunity and Brian and Brooklyn didn't.
She froze for a moment before releasing her hold around Colton's neck. Sensing her shift in energy, he slowly set her down on the ground.
"What's wrong?" he asked with genuine concern shining through his emerald-green eyes.
"Nothing." Becca tried to smile brightly.
Colton gave her a strange look, but before he had a chance to comment on her three-sixty, the twelve-year-old-looking kid was back to help her out of her harness.
Becca could not believe that she'd messed up so badly. She wasn't here to win. She was here to be there for Brian and help him win. Honestly, she hadn't thought for a second that she'd actually win. Pass out, maybe. Throw up, yes. There'd been a really good chance of that. But come in first? No way, Jose. Not in a million, trillion years had she thought that was a possibility.
She needed to go talk to Brian, to explain. But since their every word was being recorded, she didn't really think this was the best time. But still … If she could just get five minutes with him to explain.
Leaning forward, she saw him hugging Brooklyn, who looked like she was crying.
Crying? What did Brooklyn have to cry about?
As if he felt Becca's stare, Brian lifted his head, and when she caught his eye, he gave her a little thumbs-up behind Brooklyn's back and smiled a smile that told her he was proud of her. Now Becca wanted to cry. She'd just cost him immunity, but he was happy for her.
Yep. That was Brian.
Chapter Fifteen
Beads of sweat formed on his brow as waves of heat rolled off the large lights that were shining directly on the cast as they stood, coupled up, in the makeshift studio that was originally the ballroom of the castle, where they were filming the first live elimination show. The heat was stifling in this room. Brian had actually been surprised this week at how cool the castle had been. Even when it had been a hundred degrees outside, it had been a comfortable seventy-five inside the stone structure.
As they waited to come back from the commercial break, Brooklyn shifted her hips in front him, rubbing her backside against his groin like a cat in heat. She'd been upping the PDA over the last day or two. Brian knew that it was good for the show. Both Sabrina and Gavin had told him that viewers were going to love their "heat." He figured he must be a better actor than he'd thought because there was zero heat being generated between him and the blonde who thought she was the hottest thing walking.
Unlike what seemed to be developing between Becca and Colton. For the last four days, Brian had watched them share private moments, inside jokes, personal victories. When Becca had made her way to the top of that rock wall, Brian had felt equal parts ridiculously proud of his best friend and painfully heartbroken that he hadn't been the one beside her to share in her victory.
No. That honor had gone to her ‘prince.' Brian had seen her stop halfway up, seen the look on her face. She'd been scared and unsure. Then, he watched Colton rub his hand on her back and calm her down. Center her. Help her get over her fear.
Brian had watched it all play out right in front of his eyes, unable do a damn thing to stop it. Helpless. That's what he'd felt. Totally and completely helpless.
And he had no one to blame but himself. He'd pulled her into this crazy situation. Becca was here because he dragged her to that audition just because he wanted to spend time with her. He shook his head. That had sure backfired.
She'd met Cowboy Colton because of him.
Looking down the row to where Becca stood in front of Colton, Brian felt his heart breaking wide open in his chest. She looked drop-dead gorgeous. Her silky, dark hair fell in waves around her face. She was wearing a strapless, red dress that hit her just below her knees. The strappy, black heels she had on her feet, showcased her toned calves so perfectly that he thought they should be illegal.
Brian hadn't just done a double take when she'd walked in with the other girls tonight. He'd done a quadruple take. That dress fit her like it had been made for her; and it probably had been. He was pretty sure Amber had made that dress, specifically, for Becca. He remembered when she'd shown it to him last summer and told him that she didn't feel comfortable wearing it because of the slit that ran up her left thigh. Brian remembered thinking, at the time, that it was adorable how conservative she was.
Now, he wanted to take her to the nearest dark corner and run his hand up that slit. Dip his fingers between her legs. Slide up the soft skin of her inner thighs, stopping only when he reached her core. Then rub her wet center until she-
"Hmm, someone's awake," he heard Brooklyn purr as she rolled her hips against his now semi-hard erection.
Shit. He might be playing this game, but he did not want to lead this girl on. Now she actually thought the stripper moves she was pulling, as she grinded against him, were turning him on.
An applause track played them in from commercial and Lance, who'd been on the phone, didn't miss a beat and stepped on his mark. "Welcome back to Fairytale Love. I'm your host, Lance Sparrow, and this is the live elimination show. Each week, one of the couples behind me will be packing their bags and leaving this love land without their storybook happily ever after," Lance said directly into the camera, reading off a teleprompter.
"After last night's debut episode, we were flooded with tweets, posts, and messages on our website. Thousands of you chimed in, hashtagging your favorite and not-so-favorite fairytale couples."
Lance paused while a laugh track played to make it sound like there was a studio audience.
"Let's read some of those now. Player84 says, ‘Jax is a badass but his princess is a whiner. #jaxminusmadison.'"
Brian heard Madison gasp next to him. He looked over to see Jax smirking as he winked at the camera.
"Sweettea92 says, ‘Yawn! Could Leah and Blake be more boring? #fallingasleep #getapersonality.'"
Brian cut his eyes over to see what, if any, reaction Leah and Blake had to the tweet. Blake was still staring like a deer in headlights at the camera and Leah never let her pageant smile falter.
Oookay.
Just as he was about to return his attention to Lance, he caught Becca's eye. His pulse raced. Her blue eyes sparkled as her red, full lips turned up into a small, knowing smile, and Brian wanted to grab her and pull her out of here, press her up against a wall, and kiss her so hard that she didn't know where she stopped and he began.
Since he couldn't do that, he winked at her and was rewarded with a slight blush creeping up her cheeks.
She looked back towards the center of the room, where Lance was holding court, and Brian realized that, as much as his hormones were on overdrive, as badly as he wanted, craved, Becca, he missed her more. He missed his best friend.
All week, they'd barely spent five minutes together. When they were all together as a group, all of the couples were paired up, and if they weren't doing a group activity, then all the guys and girls were separated. The guys were given talking points to bring up as they worked out or swam. He assumed the same thing was going on with the girls.
Gavin had pulled Becca and Brian aside to film for about twenty minutes, but it's not like they'd had a real conversation. They'd had a script that they were told to loosely follow. The entire thing was just them talking crap about the other cast mates. When they'd refused, Gavin had not been a happy camper. He'd huffed and puffed, and Brian had half-expected him to try and blow the castle down. But after realizing that they weren't going to give in to his two-year-old-style tantrum, he'd directed them to just talk about their experience, "check in" with one another.