Heat Wave (21 page)

‘I believe in energy,' she said simply. ‘Sometimes, things in your life block your good vibrations up, and you have to figure out how to get those fuckers flowing again. For me, that's sex, baby!'

Maybe it was the inebriation or my lack of sleep, but she actually seemed to make sense to me. ‘You're so wise, Clara.'

‘Shut up, bitch, I know it.' We hugged it out.

The goodbyes continued as we roused Callum and farewelled Lars. Tara and I embraced last.

She whispered in my ear, ‘Remember what we spoke about, okay? And come and visit me in Melbourne—Chris and I would love to have you stay.'

‘Thanks.' Warmth flooded me with the knowledge that a solid, normal relationship could survive and flourish even when it began in a pot of madness and hyper-reality. It was also comforting to have Tara on my side—maybe the slender blonde wasn't as verbally assaultive as Clara, but there was a strength to Tara that I admired.

Then, it was just my cowboy, the film crew and I left. Tanner sagged heavily against me. ‘Oof! Come on, my drunken lover, let's get you into bed.'

‘Yeah, girl. I shoulda known you, you jus' wanna get me naked!' He was beyond the point of making sense, just a happy, liquor-filled, exhausted mess. He took one step, then collapsed, while I flung myself around his waist to prevent his face-plant.

Greg had appeared—at some stage the film crews had changed shifts, and I caught my friend's eye. ‘Um, I know you guys aren't meant to interfere, but … a little help here?'

‘Hobo, you know Maxine is going to spank my arse for this …' Greg grumbled, but still crossed to Tanner's side and looped his arm around him. ‘Come on, Mr Tanner. Jesus, what is it with you two? Neither of you can hold your booze for buggery …'

With Greg in shot, Marc the producer rubbed his bleary eyes. ‘Let's call it a night, guys.' The crew dissipated, leaving Greg and I to support Tanner between us as we left the club and began to make our way down the long hall to his room.

‘Bloody hell, he's heavy!' exclaimed Greg, sweating under his load. ‘Is it the weight of his gold-lined cowboy boots? Or all the muscles? Poor guy—imagine having the burden of lugging all those bumps and lumps everywhere.'

I pulled Tanner's key card from his pocket and swiped his door open. ‘Greg, don't be mean. With great six-packs come great responsibility.'

Softly, we laid Tanner on his bed. He moaned once, reaching out to the other side of the bed. ‘Maddie? Maddie!'

‘I'm here, baby.' I knelt beside him, smoothing his sweaty brow and watching the slow smile cross his face.

‘Love you, Maddie-girl.'

‘Love you too, Tanner.'

He raised a single arm in the air, barely able to keep it lifted. ‘I am gonna
make
love to you! Jump on!'

He bucked once on the bed with a grunt, then his arm fell over his face, his energy spent. I giggled. ‘Another night, cowboy. Sleep well.'

‘Noooo! Stay with me.' He latched onto my arm and dragged me down next to him, cuddling me like a baby koala.

Greg cleared his throat, his subtle reminder of what the producer had told me earlier. ‘Baby, I can't stay. I was only allowed to stay with you until six am, and it's twenty to now.'

‘But …'

‘It's okay. Get some sleep, you have another date today.' I kissed his closed eyelids softly. ‘We have all the time in the world together.'

He snored, a dopey smile still on his lips. I eased my way off the bed and met Greg in the lounge room, speaking softly. ‘Thanks for your help, Gregorous.'

‘No worries, Hobes.' Very discreetly, Greg nodded at the fixed camera in the corner of the ceiling. ‘Hey, we should catch up. How about late this afternoon? Our favourite spot?'

The deck with no cameras.
‘I'll be there.'

‘Night, Maddie.' Greg slipped out, leaving me alone in the room.

Suddenly, exhaustion hit, along with the overwhelming urge to pee. I padded quietly into Tanner's amazing bathroom; there was no singing toilet, but there was a spa bath the size of a Mini Coupe with a spectacular view of the sun rising over the gold-tinted ocean. I shivered at the thought of all the naughtiness that could be had in a tub like that—if there weren't a bunch of cameras around to capture every move.

Maybe, we'll go for a holiday when we get out of here.
I wanted a real vacation, on land, somewhere with just Tanner and me. Lars had mentioned his empty chalet in the Swiss Alps—maybe a few weeks of snow and sex might be just what we needed.
Hot chocolate, hot saunas, hot nights … Mmm …

After washing my hands, I quietly left Tanner's suite. As I closed the door gently, a voice startled me. ‘So this is how the pious Miss Maddie really operates.'

I spun to see Callie leaning against the far wall, staring at me with utter loathing. ‘I should have known you were feeling desperate after yesterday's lame-arse efforts to fuck me over, but a walk of shame …' She shook her head and clicked her tongue. ‘I wonder how this will look on your fancy resume?'

Part of me wanted to defend my virtue, to yell at Callie that I hadn't slept with Tanner and that I was more of a lady than she'd ever be.

But then I looked a little deeper. Beyond her worn jeans and chequered shirt combo, I saw a sleep-deprived girl with rumpled hair, who'd been awake all night waiting for Tanner to come home. There was something a little manic in her eyes, a look I'd seen on directors before when they were obsessing over getting a certain shot right and couldn't move on.
Callie hates losing,
I realised.
She can't handle this.

‘Callie, you can think what you like, and the producers can edit tonight to look however they want, and I really have no control over that. But I do know that whatever you pull, whatever sneaky tricks you have up your sleeve, whatever you do or say—Tanner loves me.'

I smiled, feeling his love burn inside me, a reminder of the man who stood by my side, even while he was passed out in his cabin. ‘What we have? You can't break it. He's not going to leave me because you come up with some more trivia about his likes and travel preferences. I think it's time you get your head around that fact, because this cruise is coming to an end soon, and when I leave here, it'll be with Tanner by my side.'

She goggled at me silently, an open-mouthed fish gaping for air. I didn't feel any malice towards her anymore; she was as impotent as a shrieking monkey inside a zoo cage. I began to walk away, leaving her to process, but as I reached the end of the corridor, her voice screamed after me, tight with rage, ‘You think you win, bitch? Nobody
ever
fucking beats me! I get what I go after, you just wait and see.'

I kept walking, feeling sorry for her.
Love isn't a matter of beating anybody, Callie. It's not even a game, so you can't win anyway.
Content, I headed for my room, wanting only to fall into bed and drift off to sleep with Tanner's smile under my eyelids.

***

Tanner and I are riding seahorses. We gallop through the underwater fields, where mermaids with Clara-faces sing 1D ballads as we pass by.

The movement of the horse under me is slow and fluid, and heat begins to build between my thighs. I look over to Tanner, but he is now on the other side of a wide undersea ravine.

‘Come on, Maddie-girl—take a leap!'

He waits for me, naked on an underwater bed, while a tentacle monster waves happily from the next mattress over where it is ravishing Maxine. Or perhaps she is ravishing the monster …

I'm beyond horny; I need Tanner inside me, now. I spur the horse on, and it springs high above the chasm. And just as my fingers reach for Tanner, I fall, drifting down into the gaping crack in the seabed. I scream and look up towards Tanner, but the darkness closes in around me, and a malicious baby giggle echoes from nowhere and everywhere as my lungs collapse …

The strangled cry woke me, scaring the shit out of me until I realised it was my own throat making the gasping sound. The sheets had knotted themselves around me and I kicked at them violently, as if they were to blame for my awful dreams. My mouth was parched, my pulse thundering, and my core swollen.
Dammit!
How did I end up terrified and sexually charged at the same time?

Checking the time, I saw it was late in the afternoon
—
time to meet Greg. I needed a cold shower, although I briefly toyed with the idea of running a deep bath with enough bubbles to hide some self-service action. Eyeing the black fixed camera in the corner of the bathroom, I couldn't bring myself to do anything though. Bad enough the world was watching me trip and klutz my way across this ship
—
be buggered if I was going to throw them anything else to humiliate me with.

Showered, calmer and slightly less horny, I shucked into a pair of fitted white shorts and a filmy kaftan over a silver bikini top. My iPad chirruped with a new message, letting me know there was a deck party at eight pm. Although I wasn't sure if I could back it up two nights in a row, knowing Tanner would be there put a little bounce in my walk as I hurried out the door to meet Greg.

Walking out onto the camera-less deck, I found Greg sitting on a stack of life vests with Sumara straddling across his lap. Their kiss was so deep, I wouldn't have been surprised if one of them opened their mouth a little wider and swallowed the head of the other. Meanwhile, Sumara's fingers where dancing down between Greg's legs and his hands were under her shirt, the outline of his knuckles giving a clear indication of his second-base status.

‘Ahem,' I said coolly, taking a little delight in watching them both spring apart.

‘Maddie!' Greg blustered, his face a magnificent shade of pink that belonged in Ricky's colour swatches. ‘Sneak up on us, why don't you, Hobo!'

Sumara didn't seem fazed, leaping up to hug me as if we hadn't seen each other in months. ‘Maddie! Oh honey, I'm so sorry again about the other night, it was such a mess. But Greggy said you and Tanner are all okay?'

I grinned. ‘We're good, thanks, Sugar. I think we're past allowing any of this realty crap damage our relationship now.' I sat down on the wooden deck, warm from the tropical sun, and allowed myself to relax back onto my elbows. ‘I don't care what they throw at us now
—
we're going to make it.'

Greg and Sumara shot each other uncertain glances. ‘Good to hear, but I think you'll be glad for some insider info,' said Greg, sounding cautious.

‘Bring it on,' I scoffed. ‘It won't make a difference.'

It was only when I realised how serious Greg looked that I started to feel a tendril of worry wrap around my heart. He shook his head and said, ‘I hope so, Hobes, I really do.'

I had to know what I was dealing with. ‘Talk to me.'

Chapter 17

Five days later, I was enduring another deck party, lurking on the outskirts of the group and drinking in the sight of my cowboy. Since our date, we'd seen almost nothing of each other; Tanner had been busy with back-to-back dates, while I'd kept mostly to myself, missing him powerfully and trying to keep my spirits up. We only had to make it through the rest of the cruise, and everything would be okay.

But first, I had to deal with Miles and his special brand of torture. ‘Welcome back, my lovelies!' Miles was in fine form, his considerable girth crammed into a violet paisley shirt with white cuffs. ‘It's only been a few days, but I must say, I've missed our special deck parties! So much fun to be had at these little get-togethers.'

From towards the back of the group, I barely restrained a snort. So far at the ‘little get-together', there had been three cocktails thrown into heavily made-up faces, a screaming match between two girls wearing the same outfit (I suspected Ricky of deliberately stirring the pot) and a make-out session between two of the girls during a game of ‘pass the ice cube from mouth to mouth' that had bordered on pornographic.

From the low stage, Tanner caught my eye, and we shared a small smile. We'd been deliberately keeping our distance since the party began in an attempt to fly under the radar. The last thing I needed was any more drama from Callie or any other assorted reality professional.

‘You've probably all been wondering what on earth everyone else has been up to with the delectable Tanner,' Miles said, a malicious gleam in his eye. ‘
Is he falling for someone else? Is my relationship as strong as hers? How much does he really like me?
'

I was half-listening, half-daydreaming, imagining organising our flights back to Texas after filming wrapped, making out in our first-class seats.
Maybe, we'll stop over in Japan …

‘And because Unckie Miles looks after his ladies, I'm going to give you all a recap of the last few days.' With a pudgy wave, he indicated the big screen as it brightened with the
Ship of Lust
logo.

Silly, the circus performer, appeared on the TV. ‘If Beau is after a woman who is flexible enough to handle his lifestyle …' She lifted her foot directly over her head and stood in perfect splits. ‘Then I'm the girl for him!'

A short montage showcased their date, with Silly showing off her best and most provocative moves. She'd had a pair of rings and an aerial silk hung over the stage of the ship's theatre, and even had Tanner lifting himself upside down, his muscles roping along his back and chest like forged steel. Every woman in the vicinity sighed, myself included.

A close-up of Silly saying, ‘Beau? Can I ask you to help me stretch out?' Then another series of shots with Tanner awkwardly doing as Silly had requested, pressing on her inner thighs and stretching her legs to the floor in a wide split. Her face was rapturous; his was deeply uncomfortable.

Sassy was next, the funky stylist taking Tanner on a shopping trip around our island port earlier that day. I'd gone for a quick walk around the adorable town centre, but after the twentieth local woman offered to braid my hair, and all the honeymooning couples had made me feel wretchedly lonely in the romantic setting, I'd gone back to the ship and had a long soak in my tub instead.