So I Married A Rockstar - Season 2

Ch. 15: Strip Or Secret

"Gotcha," I said, triumphantly showing my hand.

Finn sighed and threw down his cards. "Again?"

I gave him my sweetest smile. "Told you I was good. Now, what would you like to take off next?"

Finn had already lost his shirt and both his socks, and if the stakes hadn't been this high, I might have been distracted by the way firelight from the stove was dancing across his bare skin, casting shadows along every ridge of muscle, making his already insanely-cut abs look even more defined. All he was missing was a glistening sheen of oil.

Anticipation shivered through me. What would he lose next? His belt?

Finn's eyes dropped down as if he was thinking the same thing.

"I choose secret instead of strip," he said.

Goddamnit, I'd forgotten about that rule. It had seemed like a good idea at the time – I wanted to know more about Finn as much as I wanted to get him out of his clothes – but now I wanted to punch myself in the face.

"How does this work?" I said, realising that I hadn't put much thought into it. "Do I get to ask about something or do you have to volunteer a secret?"

Finn rubbed his palm across his chin, thinking. He hadn't shaved this morning and the faint sound of bristles scraping against his skin made something twitch between my legs.

"You can ask, but if it's a question I don't like, I'm not answering it," he said.

There was so much I could ask, but I didn't want to push too far with my first question.

"What happened with you and Penny Lang? For nearly two years, you were the golden couple of the pop music scene, and then suddenly you weren't," I said.

Finn was silent for a moment, his eyes boring into me. "Are you planning on working this into your interview?"

Stung, I replied, "I'm not asking as a journalist. I'm asking as a friend."

Quiet fell. The fire crackled in the background.

"Did you know I was dating someone when I auditioned for Starfinder?" Finn said.

I shook my head.

"Her name was Gillian. We went to school together and we'd been a couple for about five months. She was so excited when she found out I'd landed a spot on the show." Finn's jaw worked. "When the Starfinder producers put Momentum together, they thought we'd be more appealing to the teen girl market if we were all single. They considered Gillian a distraction. So they removed her."

"What do you mean?"

"They pressured me into breaking up with her."

"Can they do that?" I said.

Finn shrugged. "It's not illegal, is it?"

"No, but it's pretty fucking unethical."

He gave a harsh laugh. "Tash, by now I'd think you'd understand that a huge part of the music industry is pretty fucking unethical."

I didn't know what to say to that.

"Gillian deserved better, but I was sixteen and being offered the world, so I did as I was told. Credit to her, she didn't run to any tabloids once I'd dumped her. As far as I know, she's never said a bad word about me." His mouth made a bitter shape. "Not publicly anyway, but I'm sure her friends have heard her call me every name under the sun."

"Do you miss her?" I asked.

His eyebrows shot up. "What? No. That was years ago, I was a kid."

"But you still feel bad about what happened?" I guessed.