Falling Fast (13 page)

But Alexa was oblivious to his admiration. “You never told me that my father was an entrepreneur,” Alexa said in a stunned voice.

Sophie tossed her blonde hair back over her shoulder. “The Atkison women can’t help but be drawn to successful businessmen.”

“We can’t?” Alexa’s face was a mass of confusion. “But you and Mel are always saying how you like a man with a small brain and a big-“

Sophie cut Alexa off, saying, “Nonsense,” while giving Brandon an exasperated look that said,
It’s so difficult to be a mother. Do you see the kind of attitude I have to put up with? And at
my own dinner table?
“My darling Alexa is so fanciful. Must be why she’s such a wonderful writer.”

“I am?”

Mel nodded her agreement. “That story you did about the high school kids who cut class and were caught making out in the cemetery by the railroad tracks was hot.”

Alexa’s face turned another shade of red and she looked back and forth between Brandon and Mel with alarm. “I wrote that when I was fifteen!”

Mel’s eyes got wide. “Don’t get your thong all in a wad, or anything, Alex. All I’m saying is that it was a pretty steamy story. Who would have thought you had it in you? Anyway, it was way better than all of those femin-“

“I doubt Brandon wants to hear all about my little stories.” Alexa turned to him in a panic. “Tell them about your mom’s quilting business.”

Brandon didn’t think Sophie or Mel were going to be the least bit interested in quilting, but he would have done anything to ease Alexa’s obvious anxiety – even bore her mother and sister half to death.

Even though Brandon knew Sophie and Mel were sizing him up for the kill – his money, his looks, how much of a bang he packed in his slacks – it was obvious to him just how much they loved Alexa. If they were tough on him, it was because they wanted Alexa to be happy. He got the feeling that it would take a truly great man to measure up.

He wondered, briefly, if Alexa knew how special she was to her family. Certainly their method of showing their love was a little off kilter, but they were charming in their own special way.

He reached under the table for her hand and begun to stroke his thumb rhythmically back and forth across her palm. He tried to keep his mind off of his racing libido, but as Alexa pressed her thigh closer against his, he realized he had lost the battle.

He just couldn’t control his feelings – sexual and emotional – where Alexa was involved.

So when she said, “I’ll clear the plates and get dessert,” and ran into the kitchen with a stack of them, he quickly said, “I’ll help,” and followed close behind her.

By the time the kitchen door had closed behind him, Alexa was standing in front of the kitchen sink, propping herself up with both hands. He stepped behind her, brushed her hair aside to bare her back to his eager gaze, and began to knead the tight muscles in her neck and shoulders.

“Ooh, that feels so good.”

“I know,” he murmured in a low voice.

Slowly, Alexa turned around in his arms, coming face to face with him, her gaze slightly unfocused with budding desire. He had hoped that she would let her guard down again with him tonight, of her own volition, without the aid of alcohol. Unfortunately, her shoulders went stiff beneath his fingers.

“As much as I’m enjoying this, we’d better bring dessert out or they’ll wonder what happened to us.”

Brandon pulled her closer to him, trying to draw her innate sensuality back up to the surface. “I already know what I want for dessert,” he said and then lightly flicked his tongue into the corner of her mouth.

Reaching for him, she pressed her lips against his and kissed him passionately. But then, she abruptly pushed away from him. “The cameras will be coming in any second, I just know it,” she muttered unhappily.

Reluctantly, Brandon stepped away from her alluring body heat, and poked his head out of the kitchen. “Looks like we’ve got some time off.”

Alexa peeked into the living room and was amazed by what she saw. Sophie and Mel were cuddled up to the two cameramen in the living room in front of a roaring fire, and the ever present cameras were sitting in a heap on the dining room floor.

Silently closing the door behind her, Alexa faced Brandon, who was leaning against the sink, the tension in his body palpable from across the room. She had never felt so uncertain about anything before. Ever since she was a little girl, she had always known exactly what she believed, and what she wanted out of life. But now, having met Brandon, she felt lost.

More than anything, she wished she could give into her feelings for him. But how could she explain her behavior in her cover story? The readers of
ROAR
would think she was just another pathetic woman, unable to resist a man.

But didn’t feminist literature preach that women should be in control of their own sexuality? Wouldn’t Alexa be justified in indulging her attraction to Brandon?

She decided she wasn’t going to worry about society’s opinion of whether or not she should have sex with a man she just met on a TV show.

Alexa was going to take what she wanted. And she was going to take it right now.

“I never thought I’d see the day when I was so glad that Sophie and Mel can wrap men around their fingers. Come with me,” she said as they tiptoed out of the kitchen and down the hall to her bedroom.

“Do you know how much I want you?” he whispered against her lips.

She boldly replied, “Not nearly as much as I want you. Now, shut-up and love me,” she said and then pulled his face down to hers.

* * *

A while later, Alexa looked into his beautiful blue eyes and wondered what she should say to him. Would, “That was mind-blowing,” be okay? Or what about, “Could we do that again right now?” Or even, “I think I love you. Do you love me too?”

But before she made a complete fool of herself, a knock sounded on the door. “Honey,”

Sophie called. “The cameramen will be filming again in five minutes.”

It took a few long moments for Alexa to find her voice as she lay sweaty and sated under Brandon’s perfectly muscled body. She finally called out, “Thanks mom. We’ll be right out. I was just showing Brandon, uh, a few things in my old room.”

Alarm welled up inside of Alexa. What had she done? She hadn’t actually justified to herself that it was okay to have mind-blowing, earth-shattering sex with the star of her undercover story, had she?

Jane is going to kill me
, she thought as she scooted away from Brandon, trying to act calm and collected as she stood naked before him.

“Alexa,” he said, as he handed her the red silk thong, “we should talk about this.”

Turning away from Brandon in a small effort at modesty, she slipped on her panties and reached for her dress by the door. Quickly pulling it over her head, she said, “What’s there to talk about?”

Brandon stood up and slid on his boxers. “Everything. We need to talk about what this means. About us, our relationship.”

Alexa thought frantically about how to deflect his questions. The last thing she wanted to talk about was their relationship. What was she going to say?
I’m doing an undercover
assignment for a national magazine to expose you as a misogynistic jerk. But hey, thanks for the
mind blowing orgasms.

For a moment she was afraid she was going to do something really pathetic like throw up, but she was saved, yet again, by the loud voice of her mother, obviously trying to warn them that the cameramen were on their way.

“Quick,” Sophie hissed from the hallway, “they're coming.”

Brandon shot Alexa a disgruntled look as he quickly finished dressing. Alexa remade the tangled sheets on her bed, and then slipped on her heels while surveying the room to make sure everything was in order. Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror above her childhood dresser, she was thankful for the small stash of makeup her mother kept in every room for unexpected touch-ups. Reaching into the top drawer, she pulled out a brush and a tube of lipstick. While Brandon stood behind her, his expression unusually grim, she quickly ran the brush through her hair, and reapplied some lipstick.

“Ready?” he said.

She nodded and he unlocked the door.

“Take a deep breath,” he counseled her. “It’s back to being under the microscope.”

She put her hand in his outstretched palm. “Let’s do it,” she said, and they stepped out of her bedroom and headed down the hall to rejoin her family and the cameramen.

Alexa was impressed by not only how normal and poised she acted after their secret sexual interlude, but also by how good Brandon was at acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Which was when it struck her: Maybe having mind-blowing sex on the second date
was
perfectly normal for a guy like Brandon. What if he was planning on repeating his performance with Brigit and Shelby during their family dates?

Suddenly, Alexa knew she was indeed going to throw up. Without a word of warning to anyone, she fled the room and barely made it to the bathroom in time.

A week later, Brandon was still wondering how everything with Alexa could have gone so wrong, so damn fast.

After he and Alexa had made love, when she was lying in his arms trying to catch her breath, he had all the proof he needed that they were destined to be together forever. Their intense lovemaking only confirmed what he already knew: Alexa was his one-and-only soul mate, the woman of his dreams that he had been waiting for his whole life.

Real life – worse, reality TV – had intruded upon what should have been the best night of his life. As soon as they reemerged from her bedroom, Alexa had become ill. Brandon had wanted to check on her, but Sophie had forced him and the cameramen to leave, insisting that her daughter must have come down with food poisoning and needed her mother to take care of her.

Privately.

But Brandon knew better. Or at least, he thought he did. It was the damn TV show getting in between them. Instead of being able to savor each other in private, their every move was broadcast to millions throughout the world.

Worst of all, Brandon hadn’t been allowed to see or speak to Alexa for nearly a week. He felt like a clod, guilty of loving her and leaving her. If it were up to him, he never would have behaved so inattentively. As it was, he missed everything about her – her smile, her laugh, her sharp mind. He even missed her ever-changing moods.

His other two dates, which were thankfully over and done with, had gone pretty much as he had expected. Brigit’s parents, in Oregon, were sweet and welcoming. Her older brother was protective. Hanging out with Brigit was, as always, fun, but not earth shattering. The closest they had ever come to a kiss was a brotherly peck on her cheek at the end of the night before he headed back to his hotel.

Shelby’s family in Miami, on the other hand, was a different bucket of worms. They were alternately cloying, then insulting. Brash, then sugary-sweet. Her younger sister propositioned him outside the bathroom. Her mother flashed her panties at him as she bent over to pick something up off the floor. And her father tried all evening to sell him an insurance plan.

By the end of the night Brandon actually felt sorry for Shelby.

But just because he knew Shelby’s hard shell was an act she put on to protect herself from getting hurt, didn’t mean he wanted to kiss her. She insisted on walking him out to his limo after dinner and puckered her lips for a kiss. He had turned his head to the side and merely hugged her instead.

Just when he was on the verge of escape, Shelby had thwarted his quick getaway plans by sliding into the limo beside him and locking the door with one blood red tipped finger.

Trying to let her down easy, Brandon yawned and said, “You know, it’s been a great night, but I’m really exhausted. I’d better get to bed.”

But instead of taking the hint that he wasn’t interested, instead of graciously accepting defeat, she licked her lips and said, “That sounds just fine to me.”

Brandon’s frustration was perilously close to bubbling up onto the surface.
Why can’t
she take a hint?
Before he could think of another harmless, yet crystal clear, brush-off, Shelby had climbed on top of him and forced her tongue down his throat.

Brandon was dumbstruck by her behavior. Prying her hands from his shirt, he pushed her off of him. “I think it’s time for you to go back inside.”

Shelby’s face had contorted into a mask of rage. Brandon had reached past her for the door handle and pushed the door open to the balmy summer air. “Thank your parents for dinner again for me. Goodnight, Shelby,” he said, his dismissal unmistakable.

Giving him a venomous look, Shelby leapt out of the limo and slammed the door in his face. Brandon forced himself to calmly lean back into the leather seat, his expression betraying none of his feelings. Although he had little respect for Shelby, he didn’t think it was fair to let millions of viewing strangers see how little he thought of her and her games.

Brandon heard Joe’s shoes hammering on the tile floors outside of the study and stood up just as he entered the room.

“We’re just one heart ceremony away from the big night. You must be very excited,” Joe said in his booming, made-for-TV voice.

Brandon thought about spending a lifetime with Alexa in his arms and grinned, his disastrous date with Shelby forgotten. “You know what, Joe,” he said, “I really am.”

“Somehow you have to send home one of our three final contestants. Shelby is hot, Brigit is cute, and Alexa is exotic. If it were me, I’d want to make a sandwich out of them all.”

Disgusted with the producer’s lewd behavior, Brandon fought to keep the disgust off his face. Forcing a laugh, he lied and said, “It’s not going to be easy.”

His response only served to egg Joe on, however. “Kind of like sipping from three glasses of wine and trying to figure out which one you’re going to buy a case of, huh?”

Brandon just stared at the producer. “Something like that,” he said in a low monotone.

Still clueless, Joe stood up. “It’s nearly time to make your choice.” He motioned for the cameramen to leave them alone and then said, “As you know, per our contract, there are no more wild-cards. The choice is now 100% up to you. And I’m definitely looking forward to consoling the loser,” the producer added lecherously before leaving the room.