Falling Fast (7 page)

The sex-goddess legs were followed by a wispy sheath of red silk, which moved enticingly around and between the woman’s knees. Brandon held his breath. For one split second, he had forgotten about the mystery woman who had been haunting him.

But when the 30th contestant finally got all the way out of the car to stand somewhat uncertainly on the pavement, Brandon’s heart began to pound in an uncontrolled rhythm.

It’s impossible
, he told himself, even as he prayed that the vision before him was real. He took in the red highlights of her hair, her phenomenal breasts that were barely contained by her spaghetti strap dress, he was afraid he had conjured her up through shear will. But when he looked back at the woman who was gingerly taking wobbly steps towards him, without once looking up from the ground, he realized his most fervent wish had actually come true.

His dream woman was being offered to him by the show’s producers! He wondered if there was some way they could have known that he had met her once before, however briefly.

Had they spied on him? Flicking a quick glance to Joe, he knew the idea was preposterous.

Nonetheless, based on the contract he had signed, he risked losing her forever if he didn’t play his cards right. Somehow, he needed to act like he had never seen her face before tonight.

Brandon was overwhelmed by her nearness already. But his future happiness depended on his finding a way to warn her not to let on that she had ever seen his face before. He took a deep breath and prepared to give the acting performance of a lifetime, when the gorgeous woman of his dreams looked up at him and gasped, tripping and falling straight into his arms.

“It’s you,” Alexa whispered into his chest as she fell against him in a graceless heap.

“You don’t know me,” he said into her hair, so softly that she hardly heard him.

Oh, so this is the game he’s playing,
she thought sarcastically, still trying to deal with the fact that her mystery man was Mr. Right.

She had been so concerned with keeping upright on her heels and smoothing the wrinkles out of her silk dress, she hadn’t looked up at him until the last possible second. Alexa couldn’t have been more shocked if Big Bird was standing before her.

She was staring straight into the eyes of the guy she had dumped chili on and then ditched at Murphy’s. He had one hand on her waist to keep her steady, but it was having the opposite effect – she couldn’t ever recall having such a bad case of goose bumps.

In a voice as delicious and warm as she had remembered from her dreams, he said, “Hi there. I’m Brandon.”

“Brandon,” she breathed, unable for the moment to do much more than gawk at him.

Their eyes held and Alexa’s heart began to beat right out of her chest. “I’d love to know your name,” he said

But the smile playing along his lips so mesmerized Alexa, she was barely able to remember her own name. “Um, I’m, uh, Alexa,” she said finally, blushing furiously.

She realized she was making a complete ass of herself — not just with Brandon, but on national television to boot! Regaining her composure, she said, “I’m really sorry about tripping and falling on you. I can’t believe I was so clumsy.”

“Believe me,” Brandon said somewhat hoarsely, “It was no problem at all.”

Alexa forgot her self-control and was drawn into his deep brown eyes.
I could stare into
them forever
, she thought and then caught herself.
I could stare into them forever?
She was in dire straits if she was having such stupid thoughts.

Taking a step back to put some distance between them, she reminded herself that she had an undercover reporting job to do, and she adopted the guise of oozing femininity by fluttering her eyelashes.

“I can’t wait to find out more about you tonight,” she said, then concentrated on negotiating the flight of steps in her heels.

Thank god I didn’t brag to him about my big cover story at Murphy’s
, she thought with relieved hindsight,
or I would have blown the whole thing before even making it to the starting
gate.

But when she opened up the front door to the mansion to let herself in, and she saw the group of women that faced her expectantly, she wasn’t sure it even mattered.
How am I ever
going to compete with these women?
She was going to have to do a much better job of captivating Brandon during the next couple of hours than she did by falling all over him when she got out of the limo.

Hopefully her new found acting skills hadn’t disappeared.

* * *

As Alexa walked away and Brandon tried to deal with the shock of seeing her again, Joe walked back in front of the camera and turned to Brandon with a greasy smile. “It certainly looks like some of these fine ladies have caught your eye. Are you ready to head into your mansion to get to know them a little better?”

Brandon forced a smile on his face. Being a part of this show was going to be far harder than he thought. Not only did he have to joke with the smarmy producer and deal with thirty women who wanted nothing more than a ring on their finger, but he had to pretend he didn’t already have strong feelings for Alexa.

Assuming the role of a cocky bachelor on the prowl, he grinned enthusiastically and said,

“You betcha, Joe. I’ve definitely got my eye on several of these hot ladies waiting for me in the living room.”

He knew he had hit his mark with the disgustingly macho statement, but as the cameras followed him up the stairs and into the house, he was disgusted with himself.
You betcha?
He had never used such a lame phrase before. And any guy who referred to a group of women as

“hot ladies” sounded like a complete jerk.

Praying Alexa would be able to see through his machinations, he opened the door and said, “Welcome!” in greeting to the contestants.

The redhead who had arrived first slinked up to him and put her arm through his. “Come in and join the party,” she said in what was supposed to be a sultry voice, but instead made him want to shake her arm off of his. “We couldn’t wait for you to join us.”

The invitation in her eyes was painfully clear, and Brandon wanted to wash the feel of her right off of him. As gently as possible, Brandon extricated himself from her grasp and made a quick scan of the room for someone who could provide him with a bit of a breather. His eyes caught on the petite blonde standing near Alexa. Something about the blonde seemed comforting, so he said, “I think I’ll grab a beer.” After he had picked one up from the well stocked wet-bar across the room, he made a beeline for her.

“Hi again,” he said. He could feel Alexa’s gaze piercing him as he deliberately gave his undivided attention to the blonde. “Tell me your name again.”

“I’m Brigit,” she said. In her sweet, pretty voice she said, “It must be so hard for you to remember anyone’s name, meeting us all so quickly. This is my friend Alexa,” she added.

Brandon nodded curtly at Alexa. “You two are friends?”

Brigit smiled warmly. “We met at the auditions. I was so thrilled when she walked through the door tonight. I have to admit I was sort of nervous at first, but she’s been making me laugh so much I’m starting to have a good time.”

Thinking she might have said something wrong, the blonde stuttered slightly, turning a fetching shade of pink. “Not that I wasn’t having a good time, but...”

Alexa put her arm around Brigit and said, “I’m sure he knows how you meant it,” giving Brandon a warning look.

Trying not to stare at Alexa - she was wearing the most incredibly flattering, low-cut red dress – he turned back to Brigit and confided in a low voice, “I’m sort of nervous too. That’s why I came to find you right away. There’s something about you that I just knew would soothe my nerves.”

Brigit beamed at Brandon and he worried that he was getting her hopes up. She was incredibly sweet and might have been the perfect wife for him at one time. Now it was Alexa or nobody.

“I’m glad we got a chance to know each other a little better.”

Brigit smiled happily. “Me too. But Alexa and I don’t want to monopolize all of your attention,” she added with a slight frown between her eyebrows. “It wouldn’t be fair to the other women here who want to get to know you.”

“I like a woman who plays fair.” Reaching for Brigit’s hand, he gave it a light kiss. “I look forward to seeing more of you.”

Turning to Alexa he said, “Oh and you too,” in a curt voice, and then strode off into the crowd of women who were ready to devour him.

* * *

Alexa was irked by Brandon’s complete dismissal of her, so when Brigit dreamily said,

“Isn’t he sweet?” Alexa was caught completely off guard.

“Him?” she said. “Sweet?” she snorted.

Brigit snapped out of her dreamy state and Alexa tried to remove her foot from her mouth. “What I mean is, he’s so, uh, hot, I have a really hard time thinking of him as sweet.”

Brigit giggled. “You’re so naughty, Alexa!”

Afraid she was going to keep blowing it with too much small talk, Alexa decided to get down to the business of unearthing the deep, dark secrets of as many of the contestants as possible, as quickly as possible. No matter how guilty she felt about it, Brigit was the best place to start.

Giggling, thankful that she had practiced making the sound all week so that she wouldn’t sound like she was going into cardiac arrest again, Alexa said, “Oh Brigit, you know me so well already!” Moving in for the kill, she said, “Now that we’ve had our face time with Mr. Right, let’s go get another glass of champagne and have some girl talk.”

Brigit exclaimed, “Oh what a great idea!”

Alexa got two full glasses of bubbly from the wet bar and then joined Brigit on one of the plush couches in the huge living room. “I’m just dying to know what your whole story is.”

Brigit looked confused. “What whole story?”

Alexa tried to be a little more subtle by sitting back against the cushions and asking, nonchalantly, “You know, why you tried out for the show.”

Brigit’s eyes dimmed, but the look was gone so quickly Alexa wondered if she had imagined it. Answering Alexa in an overly bright voice, Brigit said, “I’m ready to settle down.”

Alexa knew there had to be more to the story than that. “What about the boys back home in Oregon?”

Brigit sighed unhappily. “There was one, but...” She broke off mid-sentence and took a dainty sip of her champagne. “It didn’t work out.”

Alexa fought against the friendly bond she felt developing between them. Even if Brigit wasn't a brainless sellout, Alexa firmly reminded herself that she had a job to do.

* * *

Brandon was having a hell of a time concentrating on anything other than Alexa. From the corner of his eye he had been watching her drink champagne on the couch by the fireplace and wished it was him sitting next to her instead of Brigit.

The next thing he knew, she stood abruptly and tossed back her champagne in one lusty gulp. He couldn’t keep from grinning. Now that was the girl he had fallen for so quickly. If he knew anything about her, she was probably starving right now. Too bad all of this schmoozing had completely destroyed his appetite.

Not that the women were all bad. One was a physicist from Chicago, another was a pediatrician from Miami, and yet another was a college professor from southern California. A week ago, he would have been salivating over the abundance of choices he had been given.

But now, all he wanted was one intriguing, unique, and incredibly sexy brunette in a red dress.

He was about to go check on her when Joe strode arrogantly into the room, announcing to the contestants that he was going to take Brandon into the study to give him some time alone to make his decision. Brandon couldn’t wait to get the night over with.

Once in the overly masculine room, Joe pounced. “How’s it going out there, buddy? A little overwhelming, isn’t it?”

Brandon nodded. But far more overwhelming than having to pick ten women out of the bunch, were his feelings for Alexa. Every time he saw her or thought about her he felt like he had been punched straight in the gut.

Joe cut into his musings. “How about a little inside scoop on this incredible bunch of women? Who has caught your eye already?”

Brandon rattled off the names of three or four of the more intelligent women. “Oh, and Brigit,” he added with a smile. She was like the sister he never had.

Giving an inward sigh of relief that he had managed to remember some names, he thought he was off the hook. Unfortunately, the producer refused to make it easy for him. With a cunning look, Joe said, “You left one name off of your list that I expected to hear.”

“Who’s that?” Brandon asked, rising to the bait, knowing he should have included Alexa onto the list.

“Alexa. She's quite a looker, isn't she?”

Now was the time for Brandon to pull off his act. “How could I have forgotten her?” he said, pretending to laugh at himself. “With a body like that, of course she’s on the list, Joe.”

He hoped Alexa never saw this interview aired. If she ever got wind of the garbage he was spouting, he’d be in the doghouse, for sure.

But the worst was yet to come. Joe motioned for the cameras to be shut off. “Your wild card is Shelby,” he said in a distinctly feral way.

Brandon couldn’t keep the grimace off of his face. “The frosty redhead?”

Smirking, Joe added. “That’s right. She’s not getting along very well with some of the other girls — Alexa in particular — which will be extremely good for ratings.”

“I would never choose her in a million years.”

“It’s all in the contract, Brandon.” Motioning for the cameramen to start shooting again, Joe smiled falsely. “I wish you the best of luck with your difficult choice tonight.”

Alexa was amazed by how nervous she felt as she waited with the other twenty-nine contestants for Brandon’s decision. She told herself it was nothing more than wanting to get to the next step so that she could write her expose, but somewhere deep within her heart she suspected she might be lying to herself.

Shelby, the redheaded contestant who had angrily shushed her and Brigit that first day when they were filling out their applications, walked up to her and said, “Nice stunt.”