Fairytale Love - Becca & Brian(30)

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.