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“You guys aren’t bad yourselves,” I jibe, and a grunt of protest by all three follows my jesting but lackluster response. “And by that..” I prop myself up to look at each of them. “I mean I love you.”
Their faces shine with the matching emotion, and I lay back on Bennet’s shoulder, Gabe rubbing my bare legs as we catch our breaths. Nearby, birds tweet in the woods, and all is serene and calm in this manufactured paradise that won’t exist in a week’s time. But I’m about to disrupt that peace before that.
I have to tell them about the meeting with the producers and ruin whatever fake accord this place has brought us.
And I’m terrified of how it will go.
CHAPTER 28
Bennet
Iexpect to feel some shame or guilt associated with what we’d just done. My feelings about sex are hardly prudish, but I like to keep that part of my life private. But just like it had been with Stella and Gabriel, adding Forrest to the mix was not shocking or mortifying in any way. It’s natural, right, as if we are all bound together through Stella. She’s our common thread, but it is unbreakable.
All the same, I am the first to rise and re-enter the house, heading up the stairs to shower. After I finish bathing, Stella is sitting in my bedroom as I exit the ensuite, a towel draped around my hips, water dripping over my naked chest. She’s wrapped in a thick terrycloth robe, her head cocked up toward me.
“You coming in for a private round?” I tease, but my joke falls flat as I see her face. Drawing closer to her, I perch on the bed at her side, brushing her dark hair away from her face. “What’s going on now?”
I wince at the way I’ve worded the question, my earlier thoughts about the foursome we just had by the pool still fresh in my mind. Is she regretting that now? I hope not.
“I don’t know what to do,” she confesses. “I’m coming to you first because you’re the least likely to freak out.”
My pulse quickens as I realize I’m really not going to like what she’s about to say. “What happened, Stella?”
“The producers,” she blurts out, and I breathe easier. “They’re blackmailing me.”
My chest constricts again as I go through a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.
“Start from the beginning,” I instruct her. “And tell me what’s going on.”
She raises her head and meets my eyes, beginning with the meeting earlier that morning. “They want me to pick one of you for the finale—you or Gabe.”
I shrug indifferently. “Pick Gabe. I don’t care,” I tell her, misunderstanding her anguish.
“It’s not that simple,” she insists. She pivots her body toward me, the swell of her perfect cleavage through the open flap of her robe catching my eye. It’s inappropriate for the moment, but I can’t resist drinking her in. “Not only do I have to pick one of you, but I also have to humiliate the other two publicly.”
My brow furrows. “How?”
“As badly as possible,” Stella sighs. “I totally refused to go along with it. I told them I would pick someone for the finale, of course, but I won’t make any of you look bad. Forrest is a freaking A-list actor. I’m not going to say some of what they expect me to say about him.”
My scowl deepens. “You said they’re blackmailing you. How? With what?”
She waves her head and looks away as if to say she’s not sure, but I can tell she just doesn’t want to say it aloud. My hand reaches up to capture her chin with my thumb and index finger. “I want to help, Stella, but you have to tell me how.”
Her luminous dark eyes mist over as she bites on her lower lip. “I’m not sure exactly,” she admits. “Anya said something about catching recordings of us in the house. I’ve been wracking my brain, trying to remember what they could have seen?—”
I stare at her. “What are they going to do with the recordings?”
“Make them public.”
My blood goes cold, and I stand abruptly. “Oh, hell no,” I growl. “I’ll burn that studio to the ground before that happens.”
She sits back, shocked and awed by my response. “What are you going to do?”
“First, I’m going to put some pants on,” I tell her, striding toward the closet. “Then we’re going to talk to Gabe and Forrest.”
“They’re going to freak out!” Stella groans, and I turn to her, a pair of boxers and jeans in my hands. Shamelessly, I drop the towel, enjoying the way she tries not to look as I slide into my clothes.
“They have a right to know about this,” I remind her. “And you’re the one who is always talking about how we’re a team. If we’re going to get through this, we’re going to do it together—all four of us.”
