The Real Thing (9 page)

Raine
listened with half an ear
as she stripped off her jeans and
sw
e
ater
and slipped on a short silk robe. It wasn’t like she needed to pay attention, anyway.
Reginald planned her
schedule,
and Chloe got her where she needed to be on time. Raine had been letting someone else worry about the details of her life for so
long
, she didn’
t
know how to
live
it any other way.

As Chloe gave her a synopsis of the scripts she mentioned, Raine went into the master bathroom to fill the Jacuzzi. If she’d really spent the weekend at the spa instead of a cabin in the middle of nowhere, she wouldn’t need a soak in the hot tub to ease the tension tightening her shoulders
. But if she’
d
spent the weekend at a spa instead of a cabin in the middle of nowhere, she wouldn’t have
met Logan and
had the most
amazing
sex of her life
.

Her eyes
suddenly
filled with tear
s
at the memory
. She quickly wiped them away.
What the heck was going on with her?
She’d known
Logan
for two who
l
e days, during most of which he’d been a jerk.
How could she possibly be missing him?

Because when
he wasn’t being a j
erk, he was the kind of guy she
could see herself
falling for.

She shook her head. What was she saying
, t
hat she and Logan should date? That was insane.
What
they’d shared
up
in those mountains
wasn’t real. A relationship
like theirs couldn’t survive outside that cabin. She and Logan were from t
wo completely
dif
ferent worlds—ones that would
n
ever cross paths again.

Even if they did, it wouldn’t matter because she was getting married in two weeks.

She and Cameron
were supposed to have left for The
Scene
over an hour ago, but Raine still wasn’t dressed yet. Chloe had picked something out for her that morning, and though it was one of
her
favorites
—
a sexy, little black dress
by a designer she loved—she
didn’t feel like wearing it.
S
he
’
d put it back in
the
closet in favor of a splashy sequined number,
but that didn’t work,
either.
Neither did the
sil
ky slip dress
,
or the leather
mini skirt and
lacy bustier
,
or the
dozen
other outfits she’
d tried after that,
all of which were now lying on the bed
in a heap.

“What about this?”

Raine turned to find a frustrated Chloe holding
up a curve-hugging gown with a
plunging neckline. She
chewed on her lip as she considered it, then shook her head.

“I’ll just go with the first one you picked out.”

Ignoring
her friend’s
exasperated sigh, Raine
shimmied
into
the
little
, black dress she’d
tried on earlier.

“Reginald wanted you and Cameron at the club by ten,”
Chloe
said as she followed Raine out of the room and down the stairs.

Raine
bit her tongue.
Reginald was lucky she was go
ing at all.
Between the interviews and photo shoots her manager
’
d had her
doing, the week had been crazy,
and she really didn’t feel like having to put on act tonight, too.

Cameron was waiting for her in the living room,
primping in front of the mirror,
and he turned at the sound of her footsteps.
Raine braced herself, sure he
’d be pissed
wi
th her for making him wait so long.

“Sorry,” she said. “It took forever to find something to wear.”

He shrugged. “Whatever
.
”

Cameron turned back to the mirror to check his reflection one more time before following her to the door.
Raine
knew
she should be happy
he hadn’t made a fuss about making him wait,
but
she wasn’t. H
e didn’t even seem to care enough to
notice
they
were running late.

“Remember, Reginald wants you to sit on Cameron’
s right when you’re at the club.
”
Chloe’s platform shoes echoed on the marble floor as she walked alongside her. “And he wants lots of PDA
s, too. Photographers are go
ing to be snapping your picture
the whole time you’re there.”

Raine
ground her jaw.
It was like a damn movie script
. She was
surprised
her
manager hadn’t given her and C
ameron lines to memorize, too.

They drove to the club in silence, but as soon as they stepped
out of the limo, Cameron’s arm
went around her so naturally she almost believed they were as in love as all the tabloids claimed
. If cameras weren’t flashing, she would have
shrug
ged off his embrace
, b
ut they were flashing, so she couldn’t. To
fight
the urge, she concentrated on
smiling at the paparazzi as she and
Cameron
went into the club.

The hostess immediately showed them
to a table
—
one that Reginald had picked out, she was sure.
Raine ordered a chocolate martini
,
then sat back in her seat.
Beside her, Cameron
played
the
adoring
fiancé
by putting
his arm
around her again and
nuzzling her neck.

Raine played her part, too, though with more difficulty.
T
he fact that Cameron hadn’t said anything about her keeping him waiting still irritated her.
Logan wouldn’t have liked cooling his heels for two hours while she changed clothes. He would have stormed upstairs and reddened her ass for sure.

She almost choked on her drink. Where the heck had that thought come from?

Raine immediately
tried to put the sexy artist out of her mind, but the man simply refused to go, damn him. And the thought of him spanking her for taking so long to get dressed was suddenly all she could think
about.
A week ago, spanking had no place in
her imaginat
ion, but since then it crept into her fantasies on a daily basis. Even
now, her
head was going places it shouldn’t. Rather
than fight it
like
she should have, she
let it play out.
It was
way more fun than talking to Cameron, that was for sure.

And so, right there in the middle of Hollywood’s hottest nightclub, while sitting beside the man she was going to marry, she closed
h
er eyes and indulged in a vivid
sexual fantasy.

Logan wouldn’t have waited downstairs for her like Cameron had
. I
nstead, he would have come
into her
bedroom and demanded to know why she was taking so
damn
long.
She’d toss
yet another dress onto the already huge pile of clothes on the bed,
then
turn to him wearing only her
bra and panties
, and
announce
she had nothing to
wear.

He’d lift
a brow
and
regard the clothes on the bed for a moment before giving her a stern look and telling her to get dressed. She’d give hi
m a sexy, little pout and again
insist she had nothing to wear
.

H
is mouth would quirk in that sexy way
that
it did
. “You’re looking for a spanking,
aren’t you?”

“
Of course not
,” she’d tell him. T
hen, to hide her
blush, she’d busy herself with
something else. Like brushing her long hair
.
With an old-fashioned wooden hairbrush.

Raine shifted a little in
the club’s cozy booth
, her pulse suddenly fluttering at the idea of being spanked with such a thing. A few day
s spent with Logan, and she was
turning into a complete spank
oholic.

Back in her fantasy, Logan
came
to stand behind her
. T
heir gazes
met
in the mirror
, and she stopped brushing,
the smoldering look in his dark eyes
making her tremble.

“Well, my sweet, little brat,” he
said softly as he took
the hairbrush from her suddenly nerveless fingers. “I think a spanking is ex
actly what you need to help you
finish getting dressed.”

She
’d protest
, but
wouldn’t
fight him all that much as he led her over to the bench at the foot of the bed and guided her over his knee.

He
’d start
by giving her a dozen or so spanks with his hand
until
her
ass
tingl
ed
.
Then, e
ven though her lacy
panties left
most of her
cheeks
exposed,
he’d
pull them down, telling her that the rest of her spanking must be done on the bare. She’d tense as she waited for the first smack from the hairbrush, but he
’d
surprise her by gently caressing her
derriere
with his hand.
His hand would
slide down between her legs, his fingers glid
ing
along her folds until he found her clit
. Then he’d make
gentle circles on
the
sensitive pleasure
bud
before slipping two of his fingers deep into her already sopping wet pussy. He
’d thrust his fingers in and out on
c
e, then twice before
pull
ing
out.

Desperate for more
, she
’
d protest,
only to
squeal
in
surprise when the wooden hairbrush
came
down on her
bare ass.
Sitting
there
in the club, she could just imagine the sting
such an implement would deliver. S
he shifted
again
in her seat.

Logan wouldn’t spank her too hard
—
it
’
d be her first time
getting
spanked with the hairbrush
, after all—
but hard enough that her ass
cheeks would be hot and stinging, and quite red. The thought had her so wet she actually let out
a
little
moan.

Beside her, Cameron looked at her questioningly
.
“You look flushed
.
Are you feeling okay?”

Raine opened her mouth to tell him she was fine, but then closed it again. It was completely wrong to turn this to her advantage and use it
to get out of this glorified photo opportunity
, but she was going to do it anyway.

“I’m suddenly not feeling very well,” she said quietly. “I think
maybe
we should leave.”

He rested the back of his hand against her cheek
, then frowned.
“You
’re burning up.
”