Chapter Fifteen

Two hours later, Ginger had done the deal, and she was back at the Hacienda. Seeing Jenna had totally sucked. Hearing the raw, brutal truth about the former star’s lingering feelings for Elliot had been like dying the death of a thousand cuts, but Ginger was more certain than ever that this plan would catapult her career to the next level.

As she started up the front steps, Kat rushed down from the control room to greet her, strawberry locks flying high in her standard ponytail. “Marlon’s looking for you.”

Ginger nodded with confidence as she followed Kat up the walkway to the crew’s onsite headquarters, a converted two-story garage. Inside the darkened upstairs room, the monitor screens were filled with different angles of The Panel discussion in the den where they were still deciding on a challenge winner. Marlon glanced at Ginger and Kat as they entered and gave them a nod before returning his gaze to the screens. Whatever he wanted must not be urgent.

While The Panel dissected the day, Ginger picked a spot between Matt and Kat to listen in on the discussion.

“I like Hannah—I do, and she’s beautiful, but maybe she’s too intense?” Anna was saying.

Michelle agreed. “I liked his energy with Maggie more.”

“Except they were acting like lab partners.”

“I sensed some real chemistry there.” Pen poised on her notepad, Lavonne gave herself a grin for her own cleverness.

“Your boy looked good today,” Matt mumbled from beside Ginger.

She nodded. “Good.”

“Did you…?”

She cut him a look and tried to sound triumphant. “It’s happening.”

“It’ll be interesting.” Matt gestured at the monitors. “Anything’s better than this.”

Jenna’s return would take the show to a new level. Instead of merely a notion about his past, Elliot would be forced to confront it. Jenna had faltered during her season with her fear of not being enough for Elliot.

At the time, Ginger had privately scoffed at Jenna’s insecurities—a gorgeous, statuesque pediatrician who had everything in the world going for her, including four men willing to leave their lives to marry her, but Elliot had brought up all her deep-seated doubts about herself put there by past failed relationships. She’d downplayed their obvious physical connection because she’d thought that being enough for Elliot meant she had to be the entire package, and no one truly believed they were ever all that.

It was weird the way the show worked, but it did, by reminding people that it was the little things that made a relationship work—not attraction, not passion. In the end, most of the stars and their Panels based their decision on practicality and compatibility.

And it was depressing, frankly. A big disillusioning moment that one really must be old enough and done enough to face. There was a reason America had been pissed when Jenna’s Panel ignored her feelings for Elliot—the audience wanted to believe in the fantasy, too. But Prince Charming didn’t slay dragons before coming home to ravish his princess. Prince Charming was a web designer who needed step-by-step instructions on how to season a roast.

And Ginger couldn’t have taught him that to save her life. She didn’t have a domestic bone in her body. Maybe she should let Anise give her cooking lessons or force herself to do her own laundry instead of having it sent out once a week. She should fire her bi-weekly housekeeper and sweep her own damn floors. She could maintain a home if she wanted to—she cleaned up the Hacienda all the time.

And while she couldn’t picture herself ever bearing or caring for an actual child—she might have it in her somewhere. It was biological, right? Her sister had managed, and they had the exact same DNA. Maybe Ginger’s clock hadn’t started to tick yet. She was only twenty-eight, and she’d been focused on other things… It didn’t necessarily mean she was broken.

As The Panel dispersed, Ginger rose from her chair, readying herself to go home and drown her own insecurities in a bottle of Zinfandel. Marlon pivoted her way, and they met in the middle of the room.

“I spoke with Jenna,” he said.

“And?” Ginger’s eyebrows lifted in expectation and feigned confidence.

His smile was deferential. “You’re a genius. It’s exactly what we need.”

“I didn’t know if you’d go for it. Her contract…”

“We’re handling it. I know I asked you to think outside the box on this one, but you’ve gone above and beyond here. Really. I didn’t think this was even a possibility… How’d you know she and Eric weren’t working?”

“I keep tabs,” she said. And anyone with eyes could have seen the regret on Jenna’s face when they’d filmed the final “reunion” episode, right before Ginger had hopped into the limo to “grab a drink” at the Hilton with Elliot. After all, he wasn’t some average, well-off thirty-something good enough to pass the time with on your path to happiness. He was Elliot Hale. And Jenna had been an idiot to think she could forget him.

“She’ll be here tomorrow,” Marlon said. “We need to make a plan.”

Ginger could have puked. Tomorrow? That was like—tomorrow.

“We also need to figure out a way to spin this so Jenna doesn’t look like a flake.”

Ginger had already thought about that. “She should meet with The Panel first. If they don’t want her back, I think it’s a lost cause.”

“Then I’ll have her come up here tonight. I want this, Ginger. And we can give Eric a chance later if he wants—we’ll make it right for him, too, but I want Jenna and Elliot.”

“I figured you would.”

Marlon’s broad smile was so dazzling Ginger had to fight an urge to shield her eyes.

“I’ll let Matt know to prep The Panel.” She’d need to speak with Kat, too. With so much to do all of a sudden, her heart wouldn’t stop sinking.

It was only disappointment, though. Not devastation. It was what she got for trying to draw outside the lines. At least she’d gotten to have sex outside.

That was fun.

And it would have to be enough.

Determined to find someone to break him free of the Hacienda after his afternoon tiling challenge with Maggie and Hannah, Elliot returned to his guesthouse to change into his regular clothes. He was craving a decent burger and a cold beer and was hedging his bets on Davis or Jamie to bust him off this hillside. Anything to give him a break from this alternate universe he’d found himself in.

He took a clean gray shirt out of his closet and pulled it on over his T-shirt, fastening the first button when the door to the cottage opened.

Ginger slipped inside, and his pulse skyrocketed.

She closed the door, leaning against it and giving him some kind of look. Not the sexy kind, though she was always sexy. More like they needed to have a serious talk.

He hesitated over the bottom button of his shirt. “What’s up?”

“We have a schedule change tomorrow.” Her eyes scanned him head to toe, resting finally on his face.

His blood simmered beneath his skin. A moment ago sex had been the last thing on his mind, but with her in the room, staring at him like that…it was like the power had been restored after a blackout. His entire body roared to life. He’d have been hard-pressed to name any other person who’d ever had a similar effect on him. She made him want to beg for it.

What he’d experienced throughout the day was the opposite of this feeling. Real problem-solving, teamwork, and communication. But the chemistry between him and Ginger burned through all those warm, fuzzy feelings—and wasn’t that the problem he’d come there to solve? After all, no one could build a foundation beneath a structure that was already on fire.

But he wanted her so much his hands shook.

“We’ll be shooting out back,” she said when he found himself at a loss for appropriate words.

He nodded, only barely processing the information. Her unexpected presence gave him the filthiest thoughts.

Should she be there? After what had happened with Matt?

“You and I need to debrief the day. I need you back in what you were wearing earlier.” Ginger took a step away from the door and toward him, an eye on that bottom button he’d left undone.

His cock jutted painfully against the fly of his pants and a tight band of tension formed around his chest. “Is that the reason you came in here?”

“Yes,” she said.

“The only reason?”

Her gaze moved to the front of his pants where she got an eyeful of the way he was straining. Her tongue wet her lips, and she swallowed. “I should go…”

“I could use a minute.”

“How are you gonna—” She stopped herself, giving her head a firm shake. She headed back to the door. “None of my business.”

At that point he would have killed to make himself her only business. Forever and not for a season.

“I won’t miraculously stop wanting you, Ginger,” he said as her hand gripped the doorknob. “No matter how many women they think I’m compatible with.”

“We got caught, Elliot. It’s over. It’s been over.”

The words weren’t a wet blanket that time. They were a knife to the heart. It was surreal how much they hurt. More than he wanted to touch her, he wanted to mean something to her—to matter. There was no point going through the motions anymore.

It was clear to him now. He’d ruin the show as sure as he was standing there. Better to leave before anyone got too invested. “I can’t do this,” he said.

She turned, a frown on her face. “The interview?”

He held out both arms, a gesture at their surroundings. “This. It was a mistake. I need to quit.”

“Jesus, Elliot, not this again. Your contract says—”

“I know what it says. I know you can sue me. But I quit, and you might want to let your people know ’cause it’s the only thing I’ll be talking about in your interview.”

Elliot’s expression was tense, unyielding. He meant every word, but Ginger couldn’t let him go through with it, not when they were so close to giving him what he came back for.

One more day.

Literally all she needed was one more day and she’d deliver him the girl of his dreams. “Look—if this is about me, I’ll talk to Matt. He already said he’d produce you. It’s not a problem.”

Elliot grabbed hold of his crotch in a lewd, yet effective, display. “This is a problem.” He let go, just as fast, turning his back on her and shoving his hands through his hair in frustration.

She could barely breathe. His frustration pulled at her. Everything in her wanted to touch him, smooth out all his doubts.

“I want out,” he said. “I don’t want this. Find someone else. This isn’t me. I never should have come back here.”

Unable to tolerate the despair in his voice, she crossed the room, hands up to touch him, but stopping short. “Elliot, please.”

He stiffened, turning around only to startle at how close she was standing. He held up both hands to keep her away. “I need you to go. I’ll be ready in a minute.”

“I can’t let you blow this all up in an interview.”

“You can’t stop me.”

“I can’t lose you!” Her words shocked them both.

For a second he looked hopeful, but the expression on his face shattered in a heartbeat. “For the show you mean.”

She tried to keep her face blank. “What else would I mean?”

His features set, eyes direct and determined an instant before he took her by the waist and pulled her flush up against him. “For us,” he said. His eyes searched hers, his brow furrowed with anxiety or pain. Or maybe it was confusion, like she was feeling. Who are we, and what the hell do we think we’re doing?

Before she had any answers, she was kissing him, pressing her lips to his and driving her tongue into his open mouth.

He responded with impossibly more need. The kiss became the most passionate one they’d ever shared, like there was something deep inside the other they couldn’t get at any other way. She clung to him incredibly desperate, both to kiss him and to claim him.

This wasn’t like her. It made no sense. She shouldn’t have any feelings for him. She shouldn’t even be there. But physically there was nothing she wanted more. Worse, she thought she needed it. They kissed forever. Hands in hair, arms wrapping and releasing, panting breaths that only fueled the desire for more and more. “Touch me,” she whispered.

His hand shoved into her pants from behind, long fingers finding their way past her panties and around her ass, entering her and bringing her even closer to him.

She gasped in surprise even as her body squeezed to lock his fingers in place. She still couldn’t shake the feeling he belonged to her. It made him so, so hard to let go.

His fingers moved in a driving rhythm, met halfway by her pulsing hips against his fully erect cock. Depraved and lustful—wanton with desire—she shattered and came on his hand, her teeth driving into his collarbone to keep quiet while her world blew completely apart.

“Feel how hard I am for you,” he whispered.

“I can’t…” God, she wanted to though. She wanted to take him in her mouth, taste every inch of him.

His mouth took hold of hers again, and he walked her into a wall, hips pressed close to keep her in place.

“God, Elliot, someone’s gonna come in.”

“Everyone else knocks first.”

“The crew is waiting for us.”

“I’ll make it fast.” He gave her another kiss that vibrated the insides of her bones.

Grabbing a condom from his nearby nightstand, he didn’t waste another second. His pants were undone in less than a heartbeat, and he’d already pushed hers down to her knees. While he rolled on the condom, she kicked her pants off the rest of the way. In a scorching-hot show of desire and dominance, he lifted her body and pressed her against the wall. His hands on her bare ass, he ground his rigid cock into her crotch and inhaled her neck with his mouth.

She tried to catch her breath. His body burned like it was on fire. Lucky for him, she was soaking wet. With one slide of his cock through her drenched center, the problem was solved. She gasped at the suddenness but couldn’t deny for a moment it wasn’t exactly what she needed. Shuddering still, he breathed, his forehead against hers. In a moment, everything relaxed between them. Like they’d crossed some finish line.

Something twisted in her heart, a pinch of painful longing. She hugged him close and breathed him in as her body melted into his. His cock twitched inside her, bringing them both back to the present. She clenched around him. “Hurry,” she whispered.

He gave a rough shove upward and her walls closed down tight.

Taking his face in her hands she brought his mouth back into alignment with her own. She’d never wanted to kiss anyone so much. “You’re ruining my life.”

“I don’t know how to stop.” He thrust up again, stilling at the top.

She quivered, full and satisfied. Complete. Her breasts rubbed hard against his chest as he pumped himself deeper and deeper inside her.

“How are you so hot?” His hands tightened in her hair. “Fuck… Can you feel how much I want you?”

His words took everything to the next level. “Uh-huh.”

“I can’t think about anything else. I want you so much.” His movements gained momentum until she was bouncing up and down on his dick. His hips circled and he pulled all the way out before shoving his cock back in.

“Oh my God…”

“Do you want me like this? Do you want me the way I want you?”

She nodded, unable to speak. She was gasping for air.

He thrust into her again. “Tell me.”

“Yes, shit…oh God…yes.”

“Tell me we can have this.”

Biting his lower lip, she opened her mouth wide against his, her fingers frantic in his hair.

He sank his tongue in as deep as his cock. The kiss undid her, lighting the fuse of an orgasm that obliterated all reason.

She shuddered around him, her mind reeling from the overwhelming sensation as his fingers drove hard into the flesh of her ass. Bucking against her, he grunted as his own release took hold, tightening his muscles and sending a seismic quake through his entire body. His pleasure penetrated every inch of her.

She ran her fingers through his hair, a fine mist of sweat making him glow, dampening his dark, thick locks. “Please don’t go,” she said, and she couldn’t say for sure what she meant by it.

His forehead came to rest against hers again. “I can’t stay if I can’t have you.”

Slowly, she crashed back down to her senses. “Then we both lose everything. How’s that a happy ending?”

To make her point for her, several text tones erupted from her phone, which lay, discarded with her pants, at Elliot’s feet.

She found her footing and took in the state the two of them were in. Disheveled would have been putting it mildly. “Please put yourself back together so we can finish the afternoon.”

Picking her pants up off the floor, she shouldered past him to the small bathroom, wetting a hand towel and using it to wipe herself off.

Elliot appeared next to her, taking the towel and using it on himself before refastening his pants. She dealt with her hair because he’d made a mess of that, too. Do your job, Ginger.

“Nothing’s set in stone, Elliot. If you come down and do a normal interview with me about the day, we can pretend none of this ever happened.”

“I can’t do that.”

Furious with herself and with him, she pinned him with a glare. Without her pants on, she had to compensate with a commanding tone. “I can’t let you go out there and blow the show to pieces. The network would sue you, and life as you know it would be over. And I could lose my job. This is fun, but it’s not worth that.”

His jaw ticked. “It’s not fun.”

“Then what is it?” The second the question left her mouth, she was positive she didn’t want an answer.

His lips parted with a ready reply, one she was certain, judging by the look on his face, would have scared the shit out of her, but he blinked, closing his mouth and changing direction. “I guess it’s nothing. According to you.”

Could she let him think that? Go on about her day as if the way he seemed not only to want her but to need her didn’t mean anything to her? She should, of course. For the show. But standing in that small room, the two of them, alone, it was hard to lie. Not when, for the first time in forever, she was feeling something for the man beside her. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him. If he would agree to stick around one more day, then Jenna would be here to soothe all his wounded pride and make his life good again.

The idea hurt like a kick to the chest. But it was still the job. It was still her future.

She put her pants on. “Can you please try to get through the rest of this week? If you still don’t think there’s anything here for you, then maybe we can figure something out.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, Elliot.” Her head snapped up the second she zipped her zipper. “I’ve never been in this situation before.”

“What’s one more week gonna do?” he asked.

“It’ll give me some time.”

“If I give you one more week, then I want something in return.”

She didn’t like the sound of that. “What?”

“A night.”

Her heart stuttered so hard, she coughed. “What?”

“One night. With you.”

“We can’t—why would I—why?”

“It’s my condition.”

Goddamn this guy again. He was so good at exploiting her weaknesses it was like he had a manual on how to operate her. She was so tempted. In a night she could explore all the parts of him she hadn’t yet been able to in their rushes to the finish line. She might even be able to have her fill, add the notch to her bedpost and move on with her life. And he could move on with Jenna.

It was absurd. She refused. “We’d get caught.”

“Not if I come to your place.” With a hand on her hip, he moved closer. “Or do you have cameras in the ceiling there, too?”

While he inhaled her hair, she couldn’t resist the chance to explore his chest with her fingertips, the hard lines of him beneath his shirt. “You’d never be able to get away,” she said.

“I’d figure something out.”

“It’s a terrible idea.”

His mouth met her neck and heat exploded from the spot, melting her limbs all over again. Why couldn’t she say no to him? It was such an easy word, and she’d said it more than a million times. He was breaking her piece by piece. “It’s one night,” he whispered.

So was the night at the Hilton. The night in the woods. It was never just once with him.

“One night and it’s over,” she told him. She needed him to say it, too.

“We’ll see…” He licked his way up her neck to her jaw, closing his mouth around a lingering kiss beneath her ear.

“You have to promise. If I say it’s over, you have to let it be over.”

“Only if you mean it.”

“When I say it, I’ll mean it.”

Like he couldn’t help himself, his lips met hers, first like a sip, and then like a long draw from some well he’d found inside her. A kiss made of pure longing, searching and deep.

Unwilling to let herself get completely lost in it, Ginger broke away, her own thoughts barely making sense. “You have to finish the day first.”

“I’ll meet you in a minute.” He brushed his hands over the shoulders of her jacket, straightening it where it had bunched.

She stepped around him and left the bathroom. She checked her pocket for her phone. Once she was sure she was leaving nothing behind except the man she wanted more than she wanted to breathe, she exited the guesthouse.

“Jesus Christ, there you are. What the fuck?”

Kat’s tone was abrasive as she caught Ginger coming out the door.

Cornered, Ginger had to think fast and act innocent. Voiding her face of all guilt and regret, she walked past Kat with purpose. “Sorry—he was ranting about Amanda. I had to tell him she wouldn’t be staying.”

Kat grabbed her by the back of the arm, yanking her to a stop. “Ginger, cut the shit. I talked to Matt.”