Hollywood Princess (Hollywood Royalty 2)

She doesn’t answer me. Instead, she just bursts out laughing because I tell her this every single time I’m on this bus for more than two days. I can’t answer her because Brian’s husky voice says, “I’ll remind you, babe.” I watch Jessica on the screen, seeing her eyes widen, and then I turn my glare at Brian.

“I told you not to call me that,” I hiss, then come back to Jessica. “Um …”

“Um? I’d say that’s a good word, all right,” She turns on her side, her head sinking into the pillow.

“I’m going in my room.” I get up from the couch and then hear him grumble as I walk into my room, close the door, and then collapse on the bed. “I’m in hell.”

“I think you have a lot to explain,” she tells me, and I just nod. What can I say? I don’t even know what to say. We had massive amounts of foreplay, and he refuses to do me, so I’ve stopped till he gives it up. So instead, I give her the little pieces of the truth.

“I had to amp up my security, then guess who walks in as my bodyguard? Christ on a cracker, it was Brian,” I tell her, and her eyes go wide yet again. Yeah, everyone in my inner circle and the ones I trust with my life have all heard about Brian and my schoolgirl crush on him. “Yeah, so he swaggers in here, and I’m not kidding with the swagger.” My eyes roll, and she laughs at me. “I just . . . it’s so irritating . . . I’m supposed to be ignoring him and all this shit, and he’s basically my shadow.”

“Well, at least he’s not an asshole who pretends to be your friend and then tries to kiss you and then ignores you.” She goes into the whole story about her and Tyler, and I want to tell her to run the other way. It’s no secret they don’t like each other.

“He already fucked Roxanne a while back,” I inform her, and she just closes her eyes softly. “It was a one-night thing.”

“How do you know?” she asks me. Her tone is pissed, and I just wonder just how much she hates him now.

“We share the same stylist.” I tell her the only bit of information I have. I’m not going to go into detail about how hot it was and that he rocked her world so hard she is dying for a repeat. “So what are you going to do?”

“Fuck if I know. What are you going to do?” She turns the question around on me. “I think I’m going to ignore him to give him a little taste of his own medicine.”

I laugh at this idea. “I think the only thing that men can’t handle is when you ignore them.” I hear footsteps, and I don’t know if my door is going to open or not, so I wait a second before continuing, “I did that to Brian, and he snapped after four hours.” I try to hide the smile on my face, but I can’t. It was a good day.

“What did he do?” She asks the same question with a twinkle in her eye.

“He told me that he would put me over his knee and turn my ass red.” I think back on the day he said that, and knowing that my knees got weak the minute he said it, Jessica’s only reaction is her mouth hanging open. “Yeah, but not yet. Because he doesn’t eat where he shits, or shits where he eats, or however the hell that saying goes.”

“I get that.” She tries to be rational, but I’m past that point, so I just glare at her. “What? It’d be really awkward if you guys hooked up and then you dumped him, and he had to watch you flirt with other people.”

“I don’t flirt,” I hiss. “It’s called Southern charm.” She laughs at me, and we talk about nothing and everything. About my tour, about her tour, about the journalists on her tour.

“I have someone trying to FaceTime me,” she tells me. “Can I call you back?”

“Yeah, go and be good and safe and please try not to kill him.” I laugh at her, and she points her finger at the screen.

“Go see your babe.” She smiles at me, and I glare at her while she disconnects.

I toss the phone on my bed and then get up, going to the door. I come out and see that he’s still on his phone. “Have a good chat?” he asks me, not looking up.

“Yeah,” I mumble and then open the drawer, grabbing a granola snack. Going to the couch, I sit on the other side of him. “How long until we are there?”

“We should be getting to the car in about thirty minutes, and then I changed the plans for tonight.” He looks at me, and then I just stare at him. “Since it’s just the two of us, I went for a smaller place, but it’s right on the beach.”