Looks Can Be Deceiving

Chapter Seventeen

"Richard! Stop!" Stella giggles as Richard kisses her neck. "We are in a logistics meeting!" she almost screams to scold him but her smile is too big and she needs to be quiet in case one of the other boys hears them.

Richard went to his room and to bed at 9pm, the other boys asked him why he was going so early but he just said he had to sleep to catch up and looked at Stella. She knew he wanted her to follow. She made up an excuse as to why she had to go to bed and 20 minutes later and snuck into Richard's room. Both of them locked their doors, so the boys couldn't get in.

"Right. Right." He nodded, pulling away smiling. "Logistics." He looks at her as they both sit crossed legged on his bed. "We keep this a secret. We probably can't go on any dates." Stella's face expresses how sad she is but she regains her composure and smiles.

"I know."

"What we can do," he grins pulling Stella's waist to quickly she topples onto Richard as he moves to lay backwards, "is spend time together like this in the hotels and we can pretend we want to rehearse more and just hang out together. Maybe we can go on a few dates for the cameras. Keep up with the idea that we're fake dating?"

"We could, couldn't we?" she smiles. She tucks her hair behind her ear and leans down to kiss Richard. Richard takes control and rolls them around, holding himself up with his forearms as they kiss. Her legs wrap around his waist keeping them together tightly.

Richard pulls his lips from hers, "maybe I can talk to Ali tomorrow about us going for another date?"

Stella smiles and they spend the rest of the night kissing and holding each other. Richard wakes up the next morning before Stella and without waking her up, he picks her up and carries her to her bed. When she wakes up in her bedroom, she's confused but Richard left her a small note.

'You're very cute when you're asleep. Didn't want to wake you up to make you go back to your bed. See you soon.'

Stella smiles when she sees his note and jumps out of bed hoping Richard is with the rest of the boys in the main room. She can hear all of them. It's not unusual in the morning for Stella to hear the boys screaming about something. Usually it's whatever game they've been playing, that sets them off.

"Morning everyone." She gleefully enters the room and her smile beams when she spots Richard in the kitchen leaning against the counter eating cereal. "Move." She grunts pushing him with her hips to gain access to the cupboard he is standing in front of.

"Geez Shawty." He fights back moving along. They look at each other and want to laugh but they know they have to keep up appearances of anger and hatred. Richard moves away and Stella makes herself breakfast. "I'm going to go speak to Ali." He tells everyone looking to Stella so she knew he was following last night's idea.

Stella sits with the boys while she eats her breakfast, waiting for Richard to come back and take her to their fake date that is actually a real date. Stella moves to her room once she's finished eating and prepares for her date. She tells the boys she's dressing for the day and spends an hour getting ready.

"Stella!" Ali calls out while knocking on her bedroom door.

"Come in." Stella is applying her lipstick and turns to Ali. "What's up?"

"Richard told me." She whispered. "So I'm going to pretend that I'm forcing you on this date yeah?" she smiles.

Stella blushes. "Yep." She nods.

"STELLA I KNOW YOU DON'T WANT TO BUT YOU HAVE TO!" Ali over exaggerates her voice and Stella recoils at the volume.

"You're not good at this." Stella responds by scratching her eat hoping it will stop ringing.

"What's going on in here?" Chris asks, opening the door.

"Ali just told me I have to go out with Richard."

"Didn't you, like, just have a date?" he speaks with frustration lacing his voice.

"It's been a while." Stella responds slightly defensively.

"It's been too long. Fans are going to get over this idea if they don't go out again soon."

"Whatever." Chris rolls his eyes walking out of the room.

Ali winks walking out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Stella hears a noise, "Psst."

"Hmm?" she turns around looking around her room and sees the adjoining door slightly opened. She smiles walking over and opening the door. "Richard?" she calls out. Richard is standing on the other side of the door waiting for Stella.

"Wow Mamita." He smiles looking her up and down.

"Why are you whispering out to me?" she laughs.

"I just wanted to make sure you were alone." He justifies. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah but what are we doing?"

"I thought we could go to the aquarium?"

"Yes!" Stella jumps up and down excited. "I better go back to my room and wait for you out there. Are you almost ready?"

"Yeah just a few minutes."

Stella and Richard walk 15 minutes to reach the aquarium. A few fans take photos of them as they walk and ask if they can take photos with them. It makes the walk a little longer then it should. They spend the time at the aquarium giggling together, watching a few animals and Stella squeals from excitement when she sees the penguins.

"They're just so cute!" she squeals.

"Not as cute as you!" he grins, pecking her cheek.