Chapter 7
Savi woke up to an arm thrown across her torso, crushing her and holding her hostage in bed.
A very big, very comfortable bed that was moulded to her body.
Jesse lay next to her, gently snoring away.
She studied his face in awe. It was no wonder the rest of the world adored him so much, had calendars of him on their walls and social media accounts dedicated to him.
She remembered seeing a viral photo of a girl at one of his concerts a couple of years ago who held up a sign that read ‘Jesse Montalvo will you be my baby daddy?’ and she laughed.
Would her fans ever do something like that for her?
Actually, yes, they probably would. Some of them were pretty creepy.
She had been rising in popularity the last few years, which was part of the reason she was constantly waiting for her brother’s identity to be made public, and she liked to hole up at the family ranch to get away from it all when she could.
First day at the cabin tradition was Danish pastries and fruit juice, which were always stocked by someone from Jesse’s team. It was usually his personal assistant, but knowing Jess, he would have given her a few days off and got one of his security team to do it before they arrived.
She always liked to surprise him with breakfast in bed, but this morning it was proving impossible. It was like his arm was made of concrete. Savi spent a lot of time in the gym, but even she couldn’t shift it without his input.
‘What are you doing?’ he mumbled, his face squashed into the pillows. Her pillow, not just his. Jesse never stayed on his side of the bed, and he never slept with his back to her. He was always on her.
‘Trying to be the world’s best girlfriend and bring you breakfast.’
‘You’re my breakfast.’ One eye opened and he had a devilish grin on his face. He looked more adorable than sexy, which Savi was certain wasn’t what he was going for. Nonetheless, her body reacted accordingly.
‘Pastries after. Can you pull the blinds across? The sun is not my friend this morning.’ She squinted, holding her arm over her face. Jesse got up and plunged the room into darkness, ambling back toward her.
A whole hour and two rounds of mind-blowing sex later, Savi was satisfied with a croissant, OJ and multiple orgasms. It had turned from her spoiling Jesse to him spoiling her, but she was enjoying every second.
She had to kick him out of the shower just so she could deep condition her hair without him distracting her, but even then he had gone down on her before he left. He’d ended up with the conditioner from her hands in his own hair, too.
‘Baby, I’ve got to make a work call. I’ll be in my office,’ he called out as she was doing her hair. She’d thrown on one of his oversized tour t-shirts with a pair of boxer shorts, her uniform for a lazy day at the cabin.
‘Okay! I’m going to call Ez.’ She hunted down Jesse’s spare laptop and went to sit out on the deck. The internet connection worked surprisingly well out here. Well enough that she could have a catch up with her best friend, anyway.
‘He hasn’t kidnapped you, then?’ Esme’s face appeared on the screen.
‘Of course not. We’re at the cabin.’
‘Ah, yes. The love shack.’
‘Ez!’ Savi rolled her eyes. Her friend didn’t exactly approve of the way Savi and Jesse spent their time together. She couldn’t understand why they didn’t just go public and then sue the hell out of anyone who published degrading articles about them.
‘Sorry, would you rather I refer to it as a sex dungeon?’
‘You’re cutting out!’ Savi yelled, shaking the laptop slightly so the picture wobbled.
Esme tutted. ‘Fine, I’ll shut up. Nice shirt, by the way. Better not post any photos on social media in it. Fans will go wild for that.’
‘Plenty of young women have t-shirts with Jesse Montalvo’s name and face on them, thank you very much. It’s not a big deal.’
‘But you’ve posted that you’re in the mountains, Jesse has posted that he’s in the mountains, so…
if you post a photo in that shirt, someone somewhere is gonna put two and two together.
’ Esme shrugged like it was obvious, and it should have been.
But Savi was so caught up in La La Land that she probably wouldn’t have noticed until it was too late.
‘What the hell am I meant to post for two weeks? I post every day. I’ve got a brand to keep alive.’ Savi ran a hand over her face. Why did this have to be so complicated? ‘I usually plan in advance to avoid situations like this. We can’t show us being in the same house.’
‘Better dig up some good old throwback photos.’
‘Some days I just want to post a photo of him and call it a day on this whole secrecy thing. It’s tiring.
You know, we haven’t had a real date in years?
The last one was two years ago, he flew us out to Bali where nobody knew us.
And then he visited there again last year, solo, and got swarmed by fans. There’s no escape.’
‘Stop escaping, then. Just get it all out there and go on with your lives.’ Esme suggested.
Savi had thought about it endlessly. But she had brought it up with Jesse before, and he wasn’t game. He was right, though. Their life together as they knew it would be over. Jesse’s world was an intimidating one, and he was just trying to keep Savi out of it.
‘What’s new with you?’ she sighed.
‘Sav, I saw you three days ago. I know you’re trying to change the subject. But anyway, there is nothing new with me, my life is very mundane and boring, and my relationship is perfect.’
‘Great, thank you for rubbing salt in the wound.’ Savi wished she had a beer.
‘You’re very welcome,’ Esme teased. ‘Oh, have you seen any of the articles about Marco?’
‘Articles?’ Savi questioned. She had been steering clear of her phone, trying to fully unwind and enjoy her time with Jesse before being dragged back to reality. She was only chatting to Esme because he was on a call.
‘He’s gone off the rails!’ Esme said it like it was exciting, something fun to gossip about.
‘In what sense?!’
‘Oh, not in a Brett-Anderson-Drinking-Problem sense,’ she waved her off, referring to Brett’s battle a couple of seasons ago.
‘But he was seen leaving a club in Paris with two leggy blondes last night and yesterday lunchtime he was photographed kissing a completely different woman slap bang in the middle of the viewing platform on the Eiffel Tower. Then, today–’
‘Wait, wait, wait. Slow down, Ez,’ Savi hushed her right as Jesse appeared, shirtless. He gestured for her to continue her call and sat down opposite her, taking a bite into his Danish. ‘Marco isn’t that kind of guy, is he?’
‘No, which is why this is such a huge thing! So today, he was snapped on his yacht in Monaco, stark naked with a fourth woman!’ Esme’s eyes were wide.
‘He’s just living his life, let the poor man be!’ Savi knew this wasn’t like him, but why shouldn’t he have a little fun? Everyone was entitled to; it was just unfortunate that his adventures were being documented in the press.
‘But do you think this is because of me?’ Esme grimaced.
‘Umm… honestly? Probably. But it might not be! Maybe you rejecting him has made him shift his perspective and he figured life’s too short.’
‘I reckon this is the new Marco, you know. I hope it is. Anything to stop him crying at parties over me. God, that was horrendous.’
‘Maybe he’s mad at you now. And me, for letting him pour his heart out. He’s channelling his rage into a string of meaningless sex.’
‘Can you blame the bloke?’ Jesse chimed in from across the table. ‘He’s heartbroken, gotta let him get it out of his system. Sex is a good release.’
‘Hey, Jesse!’ Esme shouted.
‘Howdy, Esmerelda,’ he replied, to which Savi offered her a sheepish smile.
‘How did you kn—’ But before she could finish, Jesse had leaned over, shut the computer lid on her and taken Savi’s face in his hands, leaning in close to capture her lips with his own.
‘We were talking,’ Savi smiled up at him, not in the least bit offended. It was his and Esme’s thing, fighting over having Savi to themselves.
‘I know. But I also know she’ll call you when this Marco guy hits the press with his fifth sexual conquest of the week.’
‘Want to hike to the waterfall?’ Savi asked, desperate to get her nature fix. Despite growing up on a ranch, surrounded by dust and dirt, she was a water baby at heart. Lakes, rivers, pools. It was where she was happiest.
‘Sure. Let me go and pack the essentials.’ By that, he meant beer, water, snacks and sunscreen. None of which he would let her carry, despite the fact she was an athlete and was more than capable of lugging a backpack over some rocky terrain.
It wasn’t until they reached their favourite waterfall an hour later that Jesse finally relaxed.
He may have done this same hike every time they came here, but he was pretty pathetic at it.
He complained that everything hurt, that his walking shoes were rubbing, the bag was heavy, he could feel the sunburn coming on and that the hike was far longer than he remembered.
The view, aka Savi stripping off and standing on a rock with zero clothing on, shut him up.
‘You always do this,’ he smirked.
‘Why wouldn’t I? Nobody’s around. Just you, me, and nature.’
‘Guess I’ll join you, then.’ He set the bag down and copied her.
‘I didn’t come here to stand on this rock all day, let’s swim.’
She trod carefully into the water, cautious of slipping like she had two years prior. Her old phone was still down there, somewhere. Surrendered to the fish.
‘Do you ever regret leaving Wyoming?’ Jesse caught up to her and ducked under the waterfall, reaching for her as he shook his soaking wet, dark hair out.
‘Never,’ she responded firmly, and she meant it.
‘Even with Wes?’ Jesse frowned.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Don’t you ever wish you could be there to help him?’