AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Do you need a hug?”
Feeling broken, Gianna walked into her friend’s outstretched arms and allowed the sobs to come. “I’ll never trust a man again. Ever. That I swear.”
Chapter One
Six Months Later.
“Sex and intimacy are two different things. In her book, Chastity Reed talks about self-understanding and self-pleasure. A woman should own her sexuality. She has even created her own sex toy line that is flying off the shelves. I can’t wait to meet her. Is she here yet?” When Gianna didn’t get a response, she looked through the oval vanity mirror searching for her manager, Rock Drum, and found him leaning against the wall looking like he’d swallowed his tongue. “What is it? Are you uncomfortable with this topic? Or are you still upset that I changed my mind about the original guest you’d scheduled? Come on, what do you think viewers want more? An episode about sex or cooking? You know a lot of the viewers are freaky.” She smiled, enjoying teasing him.
“Gi, I need to—”
She recognized the throaty octave and dismissed him with a wave of her hand. “You’re not going to give me a lecture, are you? I know Chef Malcom is an old friend of yours, but he’s dull and has a weird nasal twang that reminds me of a Saturday morning cartoon character. If you want ratings like you preach about all the time then we have to spice things up. Chastity is spicy.” She applied mascara to her lashes, but when he remained silent, she turned on the stool and gave him her full attention. “Rock, you’re killing me. What’s wrong?” It was then that she saw the rolled-up magazine he held in his beefy fist. He’d been a pro-wrestler before he became a media manager so he had a tendency to take on a warrior-like stance when something was bothering him. At six-five, and as bulky as he was tall, he could be intimidating, but he had the heart of a teddy bear. He and Gianna made a great team.
His lips thinned and he turned his grey eyes on her. “I don’t know how to tell you something.”
“Is this about the guest? Is she not coming?” They’d been in similar situations before and had always managed to find someone else to fill in at the last minute. “Okay, do you need to call your chef friend? Maybe I can get him to forget talking about his recipe for stuffed pork tenderloin and talk about his sex life with his Scottish model girlfriend. What’s her name? Brie? Or Brenda?”
“Cassandra,” he said dryly.
“Oh, I was close.” She laughed.
“The guest is still coming.”
“For heaven’s sake, Rock. Just spit it out then.” She didn’t like playing guessing games.
“I’ve been debating whether I should talk to you after the show, but I think you need to be prepared in case a caller mentions it. It’s imploded all over the internet this evening.”
“What’s all over the internet?” Her throat tightened. She’d only seen Rock this bothered twice. Once when they were on tour and had just finished a show and an enthusiastic fan grabbed her wrist. What ensued then hadn’t been pretty. Rock pinned the man down until the police came.
The second time was after the debacle at the The Toni Todd Show. Rock had insisted from that point on she’d never go to another event, or show, alone.
He took a step and dropped the wrinkled magazine on the vanity.
“I don’t have time to read…”
“Look.” He tapped the page.
Smoothing out the magazine, she spotted the headline.Pro baseball player, Sunny Banks, announces his engagement to Vivien Trego after the cheating scandal dies down.
Gianna’s heart skipped a beat. A familiar ache swirled through her chest, but she kept her composure. Giving the magazine a shove, it fell to the floor in a useless heap. She’d left Sunny, and his affair, in the past. She’d done a lot of damage control over the last six months and no way would she allow his engagement to rattle her.
And yet it did.
“Are you okay, Gi?”
Sighing, she stood and gave Rock a tight hug. She pulled back to see the blush in his round cheeks. “Thank you, but this isn’t a surprise, not really.” She backed away and slipped on her earrings.
“You’re a queen. When the time’s right you’ll find the right man.”
“I’m not looking.”
For the first few months after the breakup, Rock and Mallory had been her rock, encouraging her to get through another day by putting one foot in front of the other. The breakup had been hard, but the hardest aspect had been finding tolerance for the scandal that followed. The media could be brutal and they seemed to enjoy making Gianna the punchline to every baseball joke. The most heartbreaking had been when right after The Toni Todd Show Sunny’s publicist had issued a response stating that he and Gianna’s relationship had been over for months before his affair started with Vivien. His fans had supportedhim, calling Gianna “cold” “a drama queen” among other things, especially since the photo of her pushing Vivien in the elevator had surfaced. The media had regurgitated the story every chance they could, just like now. She refused to read the story—and she refused to allow herself to wallow in self-pity.
“That’s not all I came to tell you.” He paced the floor then faced her.
“Please tell me it’s good news.” Seeing his frown deepen, she prepared herself for more bad news.
“I wish. You’re no longer on the top thirty most popular podcasts.”
