The Rock Star's Virginity

Part 1

ONE

"Only six weeks left until you get your happily ever after. Better get that arse in perfect shape, so that hot man of yours won't be able to keep his hands off it. By the time I'm done with you, he'll be begging to s***k you. Come do cardio on the treadmills with me," Violet insisted, tugging on Flavia's towel-laden arm. "Pilates works your core, but you'll need stamina for your wedding night. You and James can thank me later."

"No s******g and definitely no kink allowed at my wedding night." Flavia snorted. "And my stamina's just fine. I spent over an hour chasing Mum's new, stupid horse through the bush paddock yesterday. I've told Dad to get higher fences to keep him in, but until he does, the minute something spooks him, he's up and over the fence, and I have to catch him before he runs onto the road or something. I'll talk to you while I do my stretches, but then I have to go the hairdresser's to book an appointment for my trial. I told them my hair won't curl, but David says otherwise."

"You aren't married yet? What's taking so long?" teased Robbie the personal trainer as he wandered past. "When's your bachelorette party? I heard you were looking for a stripper."

Violet laughed. "I wanted one, but you're out of luck. Flavia won't have any strippers at her hen's night. Besides, we're leaving the country. We're having a week in Bali, just the bride and her bridesmaids. Cocktails by the beach, daily massages, the works." She winked at Flavia. "Our expert travel agent here knows all the best places and what to do where."

Robbie didn't seem to be listening. "I bet her boyfriend will have strippers at his bachelor party. If the best man doesn't book strippers, he's not doing his job properly. Of course, sometimes he does his job too well. Check out this guy. He organised his mate's buck's night, but he didn't get a stripper." Robbie whipped out his phone and swiped at the screen until he appeared satisfied. "Here he is. This guy hired a p********e for his mate's buck's night, then got him so drunk that he passed out before he could enjoy his gift. So the best man, taking his role very seriously in the most traditional way, stood in for the groom and gave it to her instead." He held out his phone for the girls to see.

Violet squinted at the screen. "Bit blurry. You can't see much."

Flavia leaned over and nodded in agreement. She could just make out the couple – one with enormous boobs and the other looked vaguely male. He wore a watch that looked a little like the one she'd bought James.

Robbie swiped the screen. "How about now? He was really banging her."

Flavia's heart stopped. The sordid shot showed far more than she wanted to see. A girl with too much makeup and a fake grin plastered on her face bent over someone's dining table, while a man who looked frighteningly like James ploughed into her from behind. It couldn't be – surely it was just a coincidence. Some other bloke who just looked like James. James had been on a pub crawl with his mates on Saturday, not a buck's night. It couldn't be him, and if she only looked harder, she'd see that.

"Do 'er, mate! Just like you'll do your hot little Vee on your wedding night!" one of the onlookers slurred.

Hot little Vee?

Flavia stared at the screen, unable to look away. She recognised the watch he wore. His favourite pub crawl t-shirt, the one with a sozzled frog on the front, wrinkling with every thrust. When he pulled back, she glimpsed that mole beside his treasure trail that no one but she had ever seen...

"That's disgusting. I can't believe you filmed a couple having s*x," Violet snapped.

Robbie shrugged, his eyes still firmly turned toward the screen. "Wasn't me. Someone stuck this up on the internet and I only saw it when someone showed Davo what he might've missed out on, drinking too much on his buck's night."

Violet's cheeks turned an angry shade of pink. "Whatever. Put it away, Robbie,"

Flavia couldn't think. Couldn't speak. How could James...

She found herself standing outside in the rain, with no memory of leaving the building, as Violet thrust her gym bag at her.

"Are you all right?" Violet asked. "You never forget your stuff. You're Miss Organised. No one else could have handled that last ash cloud nightmare the way you did when your manager was away AND earned Rookie of the Year at the National Travel Industry Awards. Fifty stranded exchange students, all home in time for the start of term. They created the category for you. Your wedding is going to be the best-planned event since the last royal wedding."

Flavia laughed bitterly. "Even if the groom's been banging prostitutes behind my back while promising he'll save himself for marriage, like I am?"

Violet's eyebrows flew up into her fringe. "James? I don't believe it. I know that picture looked a little bit like him, sure, but it couldn't be him. He has a doppelganger who – "

"Wears the same shirt and watch, and has an identical birthmark to James?" Flavia's voice shook. "It's him. I'd know him anywhere, Vi."

Violet grabbed Flavia's shoulders and looked deep into her soul, even if the view was blurred by the bride-to-be's rapidly multiplying tears. "If it is James – and I'm not saying it is, seeing as I didn't get a very good look at Robbie's phone and it was a bad picture anyway – what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. Call off the wedding, call the police...can you get arrested for sleeping with a p********e? I know it's illegal in America. Go over to his house, key the paintwork on his car and s***h all the upholstery, then drive it into the river. No, first I'm going to get laid. Then I'm going to tell him I'm not a virgin any more, before I trash his precious baby." Flavia let out a shaky laugh. "Listen to me – I'm so angry I'm trying to plan grand theft auto and I can't even do that right."

"Okay – first, p**********n isn't illegal in Australia. Not for the girls who do it or the guys who pay them. Murder is illegal, though, and so's damaging his car. So no police and no cutting." Violet took a deep breath. "I want you to go straight home. If you want to steal cars, I'll borrow one of my brother's computer games and you can play that all night, if you like. If you're seriously looking to get laid, promise me you'll wait for the weekend, or at least until you've talked to James. Promise me, girl." Violet's eyes pinned her.

Flavia sighed. "All right, I promise. It's not like I'd know how to pick up a guy anyway. It feels like James and I have been together forever. Now, I don't know what to do."

"You and James will work this out, you'll see. Now: home, dinner, distraction, then bed. In that order."

Flavia nodded numbly. How could anyone work out a future this shattered? One thing she knew for sure: when she did come up with a plan, it would be all about revenge. No one ripped her heart out and got away with it unscathed. Not even James.