Andrew
He had expected her to win but not to see her running back to the camp in her bathing suit. Having that image in his mind didn't make anything any easier. IBC was going to love her for it, but he wished he could reach into his mind and erase each haunting detail.
He still remembered the feel of her breast in his palm when he had kissed her in the pool house. He could add the image of her tanned skin to the memory of her warm flesh. He had tried so hard to forget the feel of her body pressed against his. Seeing her almost naked breathed new life into his old obsession.
Mercifully, she went into her tent and he focused again on the task ahead. The clothes seem to make a difference to Vy's speed, and he chose the crossfit gear, which was durable and light.
He was making a pretty good time, with the first key. He didn't hesitate in front of the thorn bush, and he didn't get squeamish about the stinky millipedes. Finding his way to the lake took longer than expected. He saw Vy's clothes on the shore, and the image of her running half naked toward him made him swallow dryly.
He had to win this. If he didn't, she was going to throw away the points, he just knew it.
He ignored the uncomfortably cold water, and went into the deep end. He almost lost his way back to the camp a couple of times, and he had to slow down to check his compass. He picked up the pace and ran as fast as he could all the way to the timer.
She was cute when she smirked like that. It didn't come easily to give her the bad news, and her reaction came as no surprise.
"Fuck the rules."
If she was anyone else, he would have high fived her for that. But she was who she was, and his mind went a very different way.
#
With every new challenge, she was taking more risks.
Slow walking over burning coals? The soles of Vy's feet were burned, but she won. Drink deer blood? Vy closed her eyes and downed glass after glass, setting the bar so high that the others hadn't even attempted to beat her. Swim among jellyfish? Vy had the most welts on her skin.
The last challenge scared him to the bone. The fear that she would get injured grew with each day. The contestants were supposed to gather as many tokens as they could, running from tree to tree on a network of narrow suspension bridges, made out of ropes and steel cables. And to make it more challenging, the high rope course would be at night, filmed with infrared cameras.
On the last day, they had an early dinner.
"I can't stand this stupid silence anymore," Shane exclaimed.
"How do you call this silence?" Vy asked. "If I never hear another owl in my life, I'll be happy!"
"I don't think they're owls," Melinda said.
"You know what I mean," Vy said, and reached down for a stone and chucked it in the direction of a birdsong.
She smiled contentedly at the indignant squawking.
"We have two singers here," Dorian said. "How about it, Andrew? Vy sang every night for the first week."
"Why only the first week?" Andrew turned to Vy curious.
She chased a morsel of food around her plate, answering without looking at him. "We had a trial that was kind of hard on my voice, and I needed a break."
"But you're better now," Shane said. "I heard you humming the other day."
"Humming is not the same as singing," Vy said.
Andrew could tell from her body language that she was embarrassed.
"What were you humming?" he asked.
She waved her hand dismissively. "An old Waves song."
"Someone's missing TC hard," Kayla said in a sing-song voice.
Vy took a bite of the stale bread. "What I miss is the food from Sing," she said.
"I can sing for you tonight," Andrew said. He watched Vy from the corner of his eye. "Speaking of old songs, I haven't sung Dark Dream in a long time."
Vy coughed, choking on her food.
"You okay?" Melinda asked, and poured Vy a glass of water.
"Fine," she said hoarsely. She coughed a few more times. "It's, umm, it's my favorite song."
Still. His heart leapt when he heard that. Still number one in her heart. He wondered if he could still sing it in public. Ever since he heard her version, he'd played around with the song in those nights when thinking about her didn't let him sleep.
"I heard you sing it," he said.
It looked like Vy had stopped breathing. He couldn't get enough of the sight of Vy failing to hide her emotions. He was high on the awareness that she still vibrated for him.
"Last year," he went on, "at the Summer Festival."
She turned to look at him, and the connection fired between them again. Just like it had on the stage, the very first time he laid eyes on her.
"I didn't know," she whispered. "I didn't think you were there."
That explained her reaction. She hadn't believed he was really there. Just like she hadn't believed that Andrew King would be all over her in the pool house that night. He should stop. He should sing something else. He didn't even have a guitar to cover if his voice slipped during the song.
"Carter thinks you sing it better than me," he said. "I worked on your version."
She shook her head. One day maybe he would sing her the song she loved, but he accepted that it shouldn't be then and there. So, he sang other songs, more cheerful, more engaging, popular enough for everyone to join in.
They retired to their tents to get ready for the last challenge.
Fear for her rose inside him with every minute that took them closer to the last trial. He had read the determination to win in her every gesture.
Carter had told him she needed this win, but even Carter would choose to keep her safe. He had to distract her somehow, to get her to miss the start of the trial and she'd be safe.
From everything he knew about Vy, he was sure that she would put someone else's safety above her own. If he wanted to save her from herself, he would have to put himself in danger.
He stared at the ceiling of his tent, unable to sleep, waiting for the blaring of the alarm to announce the start of the last challenge. The noises from outside told him that the film crew had arrived. He got out and was greeted by Randall Storm with his customary energy and good humor.
The full moon made the campfire redundant. Andrew and Storm watched as the contestants crawled out of their tents with various speeds and levels of excitement.
Vy yawned and stretched her arms, pushing her chest up. Andrew barely dragged his eyes from her breasts.
He couldn't stand the surge of mixed emotions. He was drawn to her and he feared for her.
She swayed slightly when they filed toward the aerial rope maze that would be the site of the last challenge. His heart twinged. He could feel that something horrible was going to happen if he didn't stop her.
Storm was at the starting point with the contestants, and his role was on the other side, waiting for them on the ground, when they climbed down from the tree at the end of the high rope course.
The first to go through the course, Melinda Wilmotte, finished in twelve minutes, collecting five out of the ten tokens in play. Shane got through the course in eleven minutes, collecting eight tokens.
They were both on their way back to the campsite when Vy set off. The white knuckled grip on the balustrade was the only outward sign of his fear. Fixed cameras captured his reactions, and he kept his features blank, unwilling to betray the dangerous rhythm of his heart.
She moved incredibly fast, displaying dreadful recklessness. More than once, her feet slipped off the wood planks when she tried to get to the tokens. She grabbed onto ropes to steady herself, but let them go almost immediately in an attempt to collect the token faster. Vy had three of them in the first two minutes.
He saw her reach unsafely toward the fourth token, and he couldn't take it. He took a step closer to the open torch and his sleeve caught fire when he bumped into it. Vy was gripping the fourth token when she saw the welcome pavilion catch fire. She started sprinting over the ropes and beams, without stopping to collect any tokens. He was trying to put out the fire when she tackled him to the ground and out of the burning wooden structure.
Her lithe body was draped on top of his, and she was patting frantically at his clothes, as if she could still see flames.
"I'm fine," he said, trying to grip her wrists, but she kept snatching her hands away. "Vy, I'm fine. We're both fine. We got away."
She scrunched her eyes closed and breathed harshly through clenched teeth.
"Don't you ever do this again," she whispered hoarsely, raining weak punches over his chest and shoulders.
"I promise," he said, but she kept hitting him, weaker and weaker, until she broke down sobbing into his chest.
"Come on, Vy, calm down," he said, but she didn't seem to hear him. "It's all right. Everything is all right now." Silent sobs shook her body. His fearless girl was breaking apart. He wrapped his arms around her and whispered soothingly in her ear. "Don't cry, baby. Don't cry. My baby, my Queen, please don't cry. I promise anything, just stop crying, baby."
He pulled her flush against him, and the chaste kiss on her temple seemed to calm her down. She turned her head and suddenly his lips were on the corner of her eye. Then on her trembling eyelids, and on her cheeks, soaking his lips in her tears.
"You can't get hurt, ok?" she mumbled, sniffling. "Please. Please, Andrew, never get hurt."
"I'm okay, baby. You saved me."
She found his mouth with hers, and took back her tears. The subtle change of tension in her body told him the fear and anger had passed. Her desire poured fire into his veins. They both heard the sound at the same time. Vy scrambled to her feet and he did the same, trying to conceal the obvious sign of his arousal.
"Everyone ok?" Dorian asked.
Marcello showed up behind him. "What the hell happened?"
"Does it look like everything is ok?" she asked in a high pitch voice before running back to the camp.
"The thing caught fire," he said, considerably calmer than he felt.
He desperately wanted to run after her. To gather her in his arms and hold her tightly under the moonlight.
As always, he stayed to do his duty. They filmed the rest of the episode and when it all wrapped up at dawn, he allowed himself to think about what had happened.
Who was he trying to fool? He hadn't come because Carter asked him. He was there because he wanted to be with her. How much confirmation did he need that she felt the same? She'd been offering herself to him for months.
So what if she was his age when he was crazy about Lilah? So what if Lilah had trampled all over his heart? He was not like Lilah. He didn't want Vy as a trophy to add to a collection. His attraction had nothing to do with power games. Lilah had wanted to keep him under her thumb as an artist. She had used sex to make him keep the company's policy.
He didn't even mind that she was Carter's girl in so many ways. She would be his in the only way that mattered. As soon as they got back to Illyria, he was going to ask her out.
Until then, he had one more thing to sort out. He had to find out how much the hidden cameras caught from that scene. He didn't mind if they had the part when Vy had rescued him, but the rest... her tears, his words, their kisses… those had to be their secret.
The coronation ceremony was brief and Vy seemed to be genuinely happy for Dorian. The King of the Jungle title came with a hefty prize, but if what Jeanne paid her for playing Dusk was any indication, she was already earning serious money.
He tried to stay away from her as much as he could. A few hours, and they'd be in Illyria. He would put his heart at her feet once they were back home.
Vy dawdled at the campsite, as if she wasn't quite ready to leave that place behind her. On any other day, he would agree but not that day. That day he wanted time to fly until they got back. He felt like he was going to explode if he didn't tell her how much he loved her.
The others were rushing toward the speedboat that would take them to the private airport. Vy lagged behind, dragging her feet, staring at everything like she saw every tree for the first time. He stopped until she caught up with him.
"You'll always be my Queen," he said.
As soon as she met his eyes, he realized that it had been a mistake. If he didn't run, he was going to kiss her then and there, and waste any chance of keeping their secret. Before she could react, he turned on his heels and hurried to catch up with the others.
A few hours, my Queen. Give me a few hours.
On the plane, she sat with Melinda Wilmotte, and he went to sit next to Randall Storm.
"Did you film my accident?" he asked as soon as the noise of the engines ensured their privacy.
Storm put down his glass. "Yes," he said. "And what happened after."
"Who saw the footage?" he asked.
"So far, only me and Yates."
He hated Yates. One of the slimiest producers he had ever met. Running some of the most successful shows on TV kept him on top, despite being an abject human being.
"It was on one of the stationary cameras," Storm said. "He goes through them before handing it over to the editors."
He sounded almost apologetic.
"Thank you for the honesty," Andrew said. "I'll talk to Yates."
"Be careful," Storm said. "It's clear the kid cares about you, and you were both overwrought. But he can make it look ugly."
King smiled coldly. "I don't think he will want Paul Cesara to launch a crusade against IBC's health and safety policies, or their treatment of artists."
"Are you sure Paul Cesara will be on your side if he sees that?" Storm asked.
That was an excellent observation. And an issue he did not want to consider at that moment.
"I don't know what he would do to me, but he won't allow anyone to harm his daughter."
He had a good relationship with Paul Cesara since he started working with Vanilla Velvet, and the guy was hands down the coldest and scariest man he knew. As a father, he was sure that he would put Yates into the ground if he did anything against Vy. If Paul would do the same to him, he would have to wait and see.
"Might not come to that," Storm said. "Yates thinks the world of you. He couldn't believe his luck when Carter suggested your name as special guest. You may do another show with him and get the master tape."
Of course Carter had something to do with it. Maybe it was for Vy's sake, or maybe it was some twisted lesson he was teaching his protégé. It didn't matter. Carter, Yates, or Paul Cesara, none of them mattered. He would take on the whole world as long as Vy wanted him by her side.
"What will it take for you to keep this quiet?" he asked.
Storm looked into the middle distance. "You don't even remember me, do you?"
Remember? He had no idea what Storm was talking about.
"Just before you left the Star Factory," Storm said so quietly he had to strain to catch his words over the roaring of the engine. "You walked in on us in the dressing room. You punched Thompson. You told him that if he ever touches any of us, you will beat the shit out of him."
He remembered. He was messed up because of Lilah… all he wanted was to be out of that place. He hadn't even known who the kid was.
"I was fourteen," Storm said. "I've always been too embarrassed to thank you for what you did."
Andrew shook his head. "It's not… I just… If I hadn't been so wrapped up in myself… I should have done something sooner."
"At least you didn't know," Storm said.
"I should have known," he said. "When I think back… how did I miss the signs?"
"They were all afraid of you," Storm said. "I never figured out why. You were a kid, like us. You'd been there since you were younger than us. And they never touched you, did they?"
He set his jaw. "No," he said. "Not like that."
Storm nodded. Maybe he didn't know the details, but Andrew was sure he understood. His hands clenched into fists. He thought about Vy again. She had a crush on him. Was it fair to her? To shape the rest of her life because he could.
He wrestled with those questions for the long hours of the flight.
"I won't need transport," Vy told Storm when they got off the plane.
Neither did he. He wanted as little to do with IBC as possible. His jeep waited in the long-term parking of the airport. He stayed back while the IBC limousine drivers helped the others with their luggage. Vy was a few steps in front of him, and he fought hard against the urge to take her hand.
Tomorrow.
She'd been away from her family for a month. He could wait another day. He froze when Vy dropped her bag and ran into the arms of a young man he didn't know. He picked her up and spun her around a few times.
He had expected to see Sebastian. Or Alice, or Bryce. Hell, he had half expected Carter to be there to gloat over the trick he had pulled on him.
He staggered back until his back hit a wall. He watched the young man put his arm behind her back. Vy seemed unsure on her feet, but she had chosen the man who would help her deal with the exhaustion.
She had been his to lose, and he had lost her.
Stalking her from his hidden booth for weeks didn't count. Holding her in his arms for a few moments after she had saved his life, didn't count. He'd been the one to keep his distance and now that he wanted to act on his desire, she was already with someone else. She was building a life for herself. A healthy life, with someone her own age.