Wild Renegade (6 page)

"I
should have never slept with her. That was a big mistake."

"And
how do you know this Nicole chick isn't also a mistake?"

"I
just do. Now can you please shut the hell up?" I grunt, taking another
long drag off my cancer stick.

"You
get ashes in my ride, I’ma shove that motherfucking thing up your ass," he
grumbles.

Chapter
Four

~Nicole~

It's
been a few days since the whole sex incident with Ace. It is now Tuesday and we
are working really hard on perfecting some of the dances. The only person
giving me a hard time about what happened at the club is Hillary, who is
forever giving me dirty looks and making snarky comments. I swear I feel like
I'm back in high school with this chick. Everyone else basically acts like
nothing even happened, which I'm grateful for.

It's
not until four o'clock that we are able to take a break. I check my phone and
see that I have a text from Raelynn asking me to call her when I get a minute.
I head out to the terrace for some privacy so I can call her back and make sure
that everything is okay.

"Hey,
Nikki!" Raelynn answers after a couple rings.

"Hey,
Rae, what's up?" I reply.

"Okay,
so I was in the grocery store today and you know how I like to glance at the
tabloid mags while I'm in the checkout line, right?" she asks.

"Yeeaaahh?"
I drawl, not sure where she's going with this conversation.

"Well,
the first time I saw this story, it caught my eye, so I read it really fast.
When I glanced at all of the other magazines, they each have the same story,
some making it a bigger headline then others, but still, it's in all of
them..."

"What
are you talking about?" I ask in confusion.

"Did
you really have sex with Ace Vaughn in a club bathroom?" she asks in a
rush.

I
gasp loudly. I stumble over to the little bistro table and drop heavily down
onto the chair. No! No, this can't be happening! I bring a shaky hand to my
mouth.

"I'm
going to take that as a yes. Dammit, Nicole! What were you thinking?"
Raelynn scolds.

"What...what
do the articles say?" I whisper.

"That
you - an unidentified woman - and Ace were all over each other on the dance
floor before disappearing into the men's bathroom, where club-goers confirmed
that you two were having sex in one of the stalls," Raelynn says in
disgust.

"How
do you know it was me?" I ask.

My
heart is pounding and I swear that I'm about to have a heart attack. This can't
be happening to me!

"There
were pictures of you two together. I saw one of you guys dancing together.
There was another one of you two disappearing into the bathroom and then
another of you sitting on his lap on a couch. They are all a bit grainy and dark,
but I know you when I see you, Nicole."

"Oh
my god," I breathe.

"Is
there something going on between you two? Because if there is, that would make
this situation so much better," she says.

"No,
I was drunk and stupid. It was a one night stand," I whisper.

"Jesus,"
Raelynn bites out.

"Do
you think my parents know?" I ask hoarsely.

"Not
unless they saw the magazines or someone saw them and recognized you then told
your parents."

I
close my eyes. This is a nightmare. It would be one thing if Ace and I were
dating, but now I just look like some slut he picked up in a club. And god forbid
my parents find out. My Roman Catholic, straight off the boat, Italian parents.
Nightmare, I tell you! They are going to disown me if they find out. They
probably think I'm still a virgin! They've told me many times that they
expected me to wait until I marry a nice Italian boy. Fuck me! I'm doomed.

"Alright,
Rae, I gotta go, I'll talk to you later," I murmur.

"Okay,"
she says sadly. She knows exactly what I'm thinking.

We
hang up and I sit there for a moment. I feel like I'm drowning. I am officially
a whore. Wow. I never thought that would be a label attached to me. I am not a
crier, but right now, I can feel the tears welling up in my eyes. Fucking Ace.
I wish I’d never taken this job. I need to get out of here and think over this
whole disastrous situation. I collect myself as best as I can so I can go tell
Kara that I have to leave.

I
walk back into the studio and head right to Kara, who is actually talking with
the one person I had hoped to avoid – Ace. I steel myself as I walk over
to them.

"Excuse
me, Kara, can I speak to you in private for a moment?" I ask, my voice
shakier than I would have liked.

Ace
immediately frowns at me. "Is everything okay? You look really pale,"
he says in concern.

I
can't even look at him right now, so I just shake my head quickly. Kara is also
now frowning. She takes my arm and leads me away. We step out into the hall and
I tell Kara that I'm having some personal issues that I need to take care of
right now. Thankfully, she's understanding and tells me to take off. I thank
her and follow her back inside so I can grab my stuff. I quickly gather it up
and head for the door. I make it to the hallway before I hear Ace's voice
behind me.

"Nicole,
hold up," he calls.

I
shake my head. "I can't talk to you right now, Ace," I croak without
turning around, continuing to walk as quickly as I can toward the stairs. If I
wait for the elevators, I will get stuck talking to him.

Before
I know it, he grabs my arm and whirls me around. "Tell me what's going
on," he demands, his crystal blue eyes boring into mine.

"Go
read a fucking tabloid, you'll figure it out soon enough," I snap,
wrenching my arm out of his grasp and racing toward the stairwell.

I
hear him bite out a vicious curse as I burst through the door and run as fast
as I can down the steps. A breakdown is threatening to take over but I need to
get to my hotel room before that happens. My life has never felt as out of control
as it does right now and it's freaking me the hell out.

~Ace~

I
hang my head as Nicole disappears through the stairwell door. Fuck. I can't
imagine what kind of shit is in the tabloids that would make her this upset.
She looked like she was about to cry and that is so not like her. I pull my
phone out of my pocket and pull up the Internet, then Google my name and recent
stories. What pops up has my heart sinking in my chest. I rake a hand down my face
in frustration. Damn, no wonder she's upset. There are pictures of us at the
club, sucking face on the dance floor, heading into the bathroom, and then us
sitting on the couch with her on my lap afterward. And the title of "An unidentified
woman" really breaks my heart. Like she's some hooker I just picked up off
the street. If it were anyone else, I wouldn't really care, but this is Nicole.
She's not just some "Unidentified woman." I never wanted this to
happen to her, of all people. Fucking paparazzi.

I
immediately call Lizette. I explain to her what's going on, and we come up with
a plan to counter the story; all I need to do is get a thumb’s up from Nicole to
go through with it. Then our publicist will put out a press release. I'm not
going to let those assholes taint Nicole's name.

I
tell Kara that I need to skip out early. She's not happy about it, but she
really doesn't have much of a choice. I tell the guys that I'll talk to them
later before I grab Alex, who is hanging in the lobby of the dance studio with
the other bodyguards, and we head right over to Nicole's hotel.

Alex
and I get to Nicole's hotel in about twenty minutes. A couple of people wanting
autographs stop me in the lobby before we can make it to the elevator. Once we
finally get up to her room, I knock on the door.

"Go
away, Ace," Nicole calls through the door a few moments later.

"Nicole,
we need to talk, please let me in," I reply.

I
hear the lock disengage right before the door opens. My stomach drops at the
sight of a disheveled, red-eyed, blotchy-faced Nicole that appears. She's
obviously distraught over the whole thing. I never intended for this to happen.

"Shit,
I'm so sorry, Nikki. Can I please come in? I think I have a way to fix this."
I sigh.

She
just nods and steps aside to let me in. Alex hangs out in the hallway while I
go in and shut the door. Nicole crawls onto her bed and sits Indian style in
the middle of it. Her dark hair is up in a messy ponytail and her eyes are
bloodshot, a telltale sign that she’s been crying. I sit on the bed with her,
but up by the headboard so that I can lean back against it.

"My
best friend saw it and called me. I'm just dreading the phone call that I’m
going to get from my parents," she says softly.

"Listen,
I talked to Lizette about it, and we think the best thing to do is put out a
press release letting everyone know that you are not just some "Unidentified
woman."
 
We're gonna tell
everyone that you're my girlfriend and that we've been dating for a couple of
weeks," I say, watching her to gauge her reaction.

Her
eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "But...I'm not your girlfriend," she
replies slowly.

"Well,
you're gonna have to pretend to be for a little while, just until this blows
over. Then we can publicly break up, and we can make sure your name won't be
tarnished," I say.

"What
do you mean by ‘pretend’?" she asks, narrowing her eyes at me.

"We'll
go on a few public dates, act like we really like each other, maybe even hold
hands," I say wryly and shrug. "Give the paparazzi something positive
before they go running with the negative."

Nicole
studies me as she seems to think it over. Then she nods slowly. "Yeah,
okay. That sounds like a good plan."

I
smile. "Great."

"I
just...I can't believe this even happened in the first place." She groans
in aggravation.

"It's
the joy of smart phones. Someone probably took those pictures with a cell phone
and sold them to the vultures. I'm sorry that you got caught up in this,"
I murmur.

Nicole
waves that away. "It's my own fault."

"Ouch."
I grimace.

She
gives me a dry look. "What do you want me to say? It's been a pleasure
being your one night stand? Cause it hasn't. I should have never gone out with
you that night."

"You
act like you don't like me at all." I complain.

She
rolls her eyes at me. "If I didn't like you at all then I would have never
even come close to sleeping with you, Ace."

"Nice
to know," I scoff.

I
pull out my phone and send Lizette a text giving her the go-ahead. Better to
get it out there sooner than later.

"Alright,
I just let Lizette know that we're good to go. We'll get our story out there
ASAP and get this taken care of," I say.

"Thanks,"
Nicole says gratefully.

Before
I can reply, Nicole's cell phone starts ringing. She stiffens and glances over
at the bedside table next to me, where her phone is sitting. I glance over at
the scene and wince.

"It
says, ‘Mom calling,’" I say apologetically.

"
Motherffff
....give it to me," she bites out, holding
out her hand.

I
hand her the phone. She answers it and places it to her ear. "Ciao,
Mamma."

Oooh,
she speaks Italian. Ace likey. I listen to her as she seemingly argues with her
mother in Italian. She is doing a lot of starting and stopping, which probably
means that her mother keeps cutting her off. She sighs heavily and drops her
forehead into her hand.

She
murmurs a few final words that sound totally dejected before saying, "Bye,
mamma."

I
wait patiently as Nicole takes a couple of deep breaths. She finally looks up
at me. She looks completely defeated and distraught. I frown. I really don't
like seeing her like this. She is such a strong woman.

"My
parents are demanding to meet you. I told my mother that we are dating after
she basically called me a slut and she said that they insist on meeting you as
soon as possible," she says despondently.