Mogul (13 page)

Her chin quivered as her eyes welled up with
tears. She wore no makeup and her hair, now washed and combed
straight, hung in a half-dyed curtain towards her tiny shoulders.
She looked like a child in the hospital bed, and – despite it all –
looked genuinely concerned for the health of her baby. She cuddled
her stomach constantly as if already holding him or her in her
arms. Finally she shook her head. “Of course not,” she said softly.
“I’m just scared, Vanni. Scared you’ll cast me aside for someone
else. You weren’t thinking about me or the baby you thought I
carried when you kissed Andy in that church. You were being
selfish. How am I supposed to trust you now?”

“The same way I’m supposed to trust you,” he
said pointedly. “This isn’t about you and me anymore.”

She nodded without looking at him, and then
curled up on her side. “I’m tired, Vanni,” she said. Now that she
wasn’t vomiting every few hours, she had finally been able to get
some sleep. “But don’t leave until I go to sleep,” she pleaded with
the wide-eyed innocence of a child. She was scared, she was
virtually alone… and she needed him. He suspected that would always
be the case. He sighed as he sat in the chair next to the bed.

He had to reconcile the fact that she was
going to be as dependent upon him as any baby would be; both
financially and emotionally. She wasn’t like Andy. Andy had already
set up a trust fund for the baby, she had taken out life insurance
– she was even going to go back to work. She ate right, she slept
and took care of herself, she had been stepping up as a mother ever
since she found out she was pregnant. She would never play the
victim just so he would take care of her, or force his hand so he
could never leave.

Most of all she wouldn’t lie to him. Usually
she did the exact opposite – she always told him the truth whether
he wanted to hear it or not. Mostly not. She was a partner in life,
not a dependent. It took him a long time to give her his trust but
now that he had, there was no going back. He’d never swap Andy for
Holly. The only reason he had ever slept with her in the first
place was because he thought Andy had chosen Graham. He couldn’t
have what he wanted so he opted for the consolation prize.

Little did he know it would come back,
repeatedly, to bite him in the ass.

But now that he had Andy, he was determined
to keep her. Though she wanted details for some masochistic reason
he couldn’t fathom, he decided to give her cursory information to
ensure they still were able to talk about it, without hurting her
any more than he had to.

He’d hurt her enough over the last four
years.

He didn’t seem to realize that his
withholding any information whatsoever did exactly what he was
trying to avoid doing. She wanted to be assured that he wasn’t
falling for Holly’s old tricks. Andy didn’t buy the poor little
damsel in distress routine. She believed everything Holly did was
carefully calculated. She had one purpose: to nab a famous baby
daddy. Now that she was finally pregnant, there was no way she’d
ever let him go.

And Vanni was driven by guilt just enough for
it to work.

That was why Andy woke up early that Monday
morning. This was the week he would tell the press about their
upcoming engagement and their own baby. This would make her feel
like they had made a solid commitment, one that he’d never been
able to make before. He had made it to Lourdes, he had made it to
Kat… he had even made it to Holly.

It was Andy’s turn. And she couldn’t
wait.

Sure, it would make things more complicated.
And sure, it would paint a huge target on her back for all those
fans who believed Vanni belonged only to them. The presents still
showed up on the door, and got increasingly more graphic and
obscene. It was scary, especially after looking down the barrel of
Talia’s gun. But they would do what they had to in order to keep
their family safe.

She was already looking into new homes,
primarily in gated, exclusive communities. As much as Vanni had
loved their little beach house, it wasn’t equipped for a newborn.
There was only the one loft bedroom, and the security in the
neighborhood was lax enough that PING could follow his every move.
Andy wanted something large enough they could grow into it, with a
studio for him and an office for her, along with a nursery for the
baby and maybe even a big back yard for a dog someday.

It was crazy to think of planning a
white-picket-fence future with a husband who was a superstar, but
the weight of the heavy ring on her left hand was all the
permission she needed to do so.

She watched it sparkle in the sunlight as her
hand slid across the solid muscles of his back. He moaned a little
in his sleep as he turned to face her. Their normal loving routine
had been curtailed by the Holly development, and suddenly Andy
missed her man. She snuggled close and kissed his satiny skin as
her fingers traveled over his back and down over his hips.

His dark eyes opened and focused on her face.
He always loved waking up to Andy. It was as if dreams lost their
luster when he could wake up to this woman day after day. He had
everything he wanted. No words were needed as he reached over to
kiss her.

She pulled him down on top of her. Where her
hunger came from, she wasn’t sure. But nothing could satisfy her
except for Vanni in her arms. She wrapped her arms and legs around
him as she brazenly explored his mouth with her tongue. Each kiss
led to another until everything that had kept them apart all
weekend evaporated in an instant. Night clothes were discarded
quickly and neither said anything as they meshed body and spirit.
It was quick and explosive, and much better than any annoying alarm
clock.

He collapsed to her side, sweaty and out of
breath. He wore that lovable smirk on his face as he turned to her.
“Mornin’.”

She giggled and snuggled up into the crook of
his arm. He pulled her into a tight, possessive embrace. It had
only been a weekend, but God, he had missed her.

She hadn’t gone anywhere in body, but she had
definitely kept her heart under glass. He hated that. He never
wanted to go back to that again.

“Looks like you woke up our little Bean,” she
said.

“She’s kicking?” he wanted to know.

She nodded with a serene smile, and then lay
back on her back. He found the pooch on her stomach with ease –
that little bundle that grew more prominent by the week. His large
hand cupped her abdomen and he waited.

“I don’t feel anything,” he whispered.

She grabbed his hand and pressed it down far
firmer than he would have dared. Before he could ask her if that
would hurt her, he felt the slightest flutter under her skin. Tears
sprang in his widened eyes as they met Andy’s. “Oh my God,” he
said.

She was laughing and crying as he kissed
planted a soft, long kiss on her tummy. “I love you, baby Bean,” he
said before he rose up to kiss Andy. “And I love you. Best of
all.”

They shared another long, slow kiss. She
dragged herself from the bed before they headed straight for round
two. Today was a workday, and they didn’t have the luxury of
hanging around in bed all day.

He pouted as he followed her to the shower,
which he insisted they share. He took his time bathing her, and
then got even using his fingers to work her into a frenzy. She had
to lean against the wall as he gave her something naughty and
exciting to think about all day.

It made meeting up with Graham later that
morning even more awkward, especially since Vanni was not shy about
staking his claim where Andy was concerned. Everyone at the studio
knew they were a couple, some even were privy to the information
she was his fiancé. Thanks to a confidentiality agreement, everyone
was bound by a code of silence until the official press release was
issued that Friday.

It was a safe little bubble where Andy
finally felt acknowledged and valued.

Shannon wasn’t too keen on the current
controversy with Holly, especially when it got back to her that her
high-paid celebrity judge was engaged to someone else who was
likewise in the family way. She met with Graham and Dixie early to
express her concerns.

Dixie waved it off that, while they didn’t
want to focus on it, the controversy could drive initial ratings.
“If people see us the first time because of this,” the firebrand
redheaded media mogul explained, “then they’ll keep tuning in.”

Graham nodded, but his investment in Vanni’s
remaining a judge wasn’t completely altruistic. He liked the fact
that he could see Andy every day thanks to the new show, and it
worked to his favor that Vanni was still screwing up the way he had
always screwed up.

There was still a kernel of hope that she’d
eventually pull her head out of the sand and see that he was all
wrong for her, especially now that she had a baby on the way.

Graham was thoughtful and attentive when
working with Andy, which didn’t escape Vanni’s notice. In fact he
watched every encounter and read between every line to see what was
really being said between them. The minute the news broke about
Holly, Vanni had feared that Andy would run screaming back to
stable, uncomplicated Graham. So far she hadn’t, but that didn’t
mean he didn’t still harbor some of those fears she might.

They had been through too much, this past
year especially. Andy had finally gotten out from under the
oppressive cloud of obligation. If she left him now it would be
because she chose another man.

The more he watched Graham with Andy, the
more Vanni understood that there were deep feelings between them,
and a connection he wasn’t likely to break.

Worst of all he couldn’t even make a big deal
about it because across town in a Hollywood hospital lay another
woman pregnant with his child.

Andy made the disheartening discovery he was
now the one under the oppressive cloud.

With a sigh he realized she was being far
more magnanimous about his situation than he had ever been about
hers.

He truly didn’t deserve her, but somehow she
loved him anyway.

He stuffed down any distaste he may have felt
for Graham and his working relationship with Andy, and they got
down to business.

Vanni met the other two judges slated to be
on the show. Allison Ewing was an older, country singer who had
made a name for herself in the 1980s as a Honky Tonk Party girl.
She’d married and raised a family in the interim, but her
straight-shootin’ approach to life, music, and even politics, had
kept her in the public eye even after she had retired from music.
Her hair was still bleached blond and teased to high heaven, and
she had a thick Oklahoma accent that could have been annoying and
abrasive had it not been for her bright blue eyes and ready,
Southern smile.

Ryder Reed was a producer from New York. He’d
made careers out of Internet stars with his own start-up company.
He and Graham would be in competition for the contestants that
emerged from the competition. Ryder wanted young, urban and
marketable, but he was known for championing those other, larger
labels might have ignored entirely. A couple of novelty acts had
top-ten hits thanks to Ryder’s ability to think outside the
box.

The judges were split apart
for the first round of auditions, where they listened to demo tapes
only in the privacy of a sound booth, rather than live auditions.
Unlike other shows, that often produced train-wreck auditions,
these were a little more challenging. It wasn’t a matter of these
contestants being talented; it was if they were talented
enough
based on the
strength of their production value alone. Each hopeful sang two
songs, one with musical accompaniment, and one without. At that
point each judge would score based on their individual criteria to
bring the contestants back for the live auditions the following
week.

The original screening process had produced
more than two thousand quality contestants for this first round, so
it was up to the judges to go through and narrow the field down to
a hundred or so semi-finalists. Those contestants would come back
the following weeks to perform live with a band, to see if they had
what it took to be legitimate stage act.

Andy left Vanni to do his judging while she
worked more with the production team. She had her own office, and
that was where Graham found her that afternoon when they all broke
for lunch. He brought a sandwich from the lunch truck, along with a
box of juice. She gave him a grateful smile. In order to get things
up to speed by the following week, they were swamped. She might
have worked through lunch had he not intervened.

“Always looking after me,” she said as she
turned away from her computer and opened up her juice.

“Always,” he promised. He sat in the chair
opposite her desk. “So how did things work out this weekend?”

She shrugged. “It is what it is. I think
Holly is just going to be a complication for the foreseeable
future.”

He nodded. “I talked to a doctor about a
fertility test,” he said. “They can be done while she’s pregnant
but her doctor would have to sign off on it since it comes with
certain risks. Since she’s so ill, that may delay things.”

She gave him a good-humored smile. “I
wouldn’t expect it any other way. We don’t do easy,
apparently.”

He nodded. He wanted to add the only reason
he knew about the fertility test was because he still held onto the
hope she might be having his baby instead of Vanni’s, but it was a
futile battle at the moment. He’d just wait until Vanni screwed up
– again – and she came running back to him to fix it.

Again.

It wasn’t a matter of if. It was a matter of
when.

“My security guy says you have received a
couple more suspicious packages,” he said. “Is there a problem I
should know about?”