But the entertainment ones were always a bit trickier. I'd have to be careful not to let Kelly trip me up. I knew the kinds of things that had been in the news about me lately, things that were making everyone, even Paul, a bit frustrated.
“So, Christian, as you probably know, the main reason that I've asked you here today is that you have recently been named the hottest bachelor in the United States. Can we just start with a talk about that title?” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. I couldn’t help but wonder how many other people in the world were walking around, faking happiness.
I laughed a little, shaking my head. “Well, it's of course very flattering,” I said. “I've heard about guys getting named the hottest bachelor in their city or things like that, but I thought Mr. USA had to be a model!”
Kelly gave me a smirking once-over and looked out toward the audience. “I don't know about the rest of you, but if Christian here isn't fit to be a model, then I don't know who is! In fact, I'd say it's only a matter of time before they have you up on underwear ads around the city.”
“You wish, maybe!” I said, even though I was inwardly rolling my eyes. Sure, I was hot enough to be up on those sorts of ads, and what I did with my personal life had always been, I held, no one's business except for my own. However, she did have to realize that for all the other things that had made it into the news, I did have some professional reputation that I needed to uphold. Not many young husbands would feel comfortable buying a house from someone they knew their wives were wanking to. It was disturbing, and yet a little hot.
“From what I hear in the news lately, there are other ways to get the great Christian Wall down to his underwear,” Kelly said, a gleam in her eyes, and of course that was where she had been heading with that remark. I might have seen that one coming.
I cut her off with my canned response before she could mention the whole underwear incident. It had been a stupid bet with one of my friends, fueled by way too much alcohol. We'd been out at this bar, and girls had been stripping their shirts off so that guys would do body shots off them. Originally, I'd ended up on the table with just my shirt off, but then one thing had led to another, and there had been these two sexy Swedish girls practically fucking me right there on the floor, their hands trailing everywhere.
Someone had gotten a shot of me stripped down to my black boxer briefs and laid out on a table for them to do body shots off of me. That photo had proceeded to be picked up by seemingly every entertainment source in the world. It wasn’t my finest moment by far, but one that everyone seemed to cling to as if they had nothing better to do. It was one of the incidences that had made Paul a bit exasperated. Or maybe more than a bit.
But, obviously, I couldn't just tell Kelly to fuck off.
Instead, I smiled at her. “If you're suggesting that we go out to dinner on Friday night, I'm afraid I'm already taken,” I told her. “I've recently started seeing someone. It's nothing too serious now, but I'm not sure how much longer I'll be the hottest bachelor in the U.S., unfortunately!”
“Oh, really?” Kelly asked, arching an eyebrow at me.
It was total bullshit unless you counted this thing that I had going on with this girl Megan, but that was more of a 2 a.m. drunken thing than anything else. I wasn't about to quit being a bachelor anytime soon.
“But the parties aren't going to stop, are they?” Kelly pressed. “It seems like you've been at all the red-carpet events lately; it seems like you and Jamie Michaels are getting pretty chummy, hmm?”
“Jamie's a great guy,” I told her. “I was lucky enough to meet him on a ski trip last winter in the Alps; we started out at Meribel, but at the end of the week, neither of us were ready to go back to the grind.” I laughed a little. “Fortunately, I could get some work done remotely, and off we headed to Italy for a second week in Cortina. He's an amazing skier and a great guy.”
“Some people might say that you have a little too much fun sometimes,” Kelly said. “Tell us what you think about that? Is life just supposed to be fun and games for some and toil and work for others?”
I shrugged and smiled disarmingly at her. “I’m not too sure about what life is supposed to be about, or if you could put it into one or two words.” I shrugged. “But as far as my crazy life, you know what they say. Boys will be boys. And especially for Jamie and I, who have access to some of the best toys in the world, from snowmobiles to dirt bikes and more, yeah, we're going to have a ton of fun. Of course, we're always safe with them, and we haven't dropped off the globe like we did during the ski tour. For me, things have been busy around the office as people book their last-minute summer vacation homes and start looking ahead to next winter. And Jamie's working on shooting his latest movie.”
“Any details you can share about that?” She wagged her eyebrows.
I laughed. “Jamie's totally close-mouthed about it,” I told her, and that one wasn't a lie. “You probably know more about it than I do!”
“We wish!” She glanced toward the cameras as if including the audience in her ‘we.' “Christian, one more question before we let you go: any details you can give us about this mystery woman who has captured your interest?”
I mimed zipping my lips and throwing away the key, laughing at the noises of protest from many of the female audience members. “A gentleman never kisses and tells,” I said, holding up my hands. “Anyway, I believe in true love and all of that. I'd hate to think that I jinxed things by getting too far ahead of myself.”
“Aw, that's sweet,” Kelly said. She looked back out at the audience and began to introduce the next segment of the show; I gave a little sigh of relief, keeping the smile plastered on my face, and tuning her out.
Despite all the talk about this woman who I was supposedly seeing, I didn't even have to try to take her home that night, really. She would entertain me for the night, or a bit of it, for sure. The way she subtly eye-fucked me before the interview gave me full assurance. I was fucking her within an inch of her life later.
I walked off stage with various members of her crew patting me on the back and shouting words of encouragement. I needed a shower, and then I was headed to find her again.
Funny enough, I ran into her as I was finally coming out of my long shower. I'd done my best to scrub off the excessive makeup they'd covered me with prior to the interview, highlights and eyeliner and all sorts of silly things that combined to make me look better under the harsh lighting of the studio. Finally, I felt human again. Like a man.
“Oh! I didn't realize you were still here,” Kelly said as her eyes went a little wide. The soft smile playing at the side of her lips let me know that even though she might be a little surprised, she was happy about it.
I smiled at her, running a hand back through my still-damp hair. “Yeah, I chatted with a couple of the other guests for a bit and then got someone to let me into your dressing room so I could take a shower. I hope that's okay.”
I watched her expression carefully and, yeah, she was probably already wet in her panties. I could only hope her panties matched that flash of a bra that I'd seen. I could only imagine the way the black lace would look across her tight, sexy skin. My cock twitched in my pants at the thought of gripping it and running in along her soft curves.
“It’s perfectly fine.” She licked her lips and eye-fucked me again. “Did you like it?”
I chuckled. “The shower? Yeah. There was this hot guy in there, and he let me run my hands over his wet, muscular body.” I winked. “Wait. That was me…”
She laughed. “You’re so full of it. I swear the world waits in wonder for your next stunt or to see who you really are under that handsome mask.”
“I’m just me.” I lifted my hands to the side and gave her the cutest little boy look I could. “And me wants to know if you'd let me buy you a drink. It’s a ‘thanks’ for not totally destroying my reputation like so many entertainment anchors seem to want to do lately,” I told her, cocking my head to the side and smiling down
at her.
There was a moment of indecision on her face, but then, she smiled. “Sure thing,” she said. “Can you give me ten minutes to get changed out of my suit, though?”
I spread my arms generously, nearly snorting as I saw her eyes dart down toward my abs. “Take as much time as you need,” I told her. “I've got some work emails that I need to answer, so I'll just lurk around the break room doing that.”
“Great,” she said and disappeared for a bit.
My mind became a playground of possibilities. I loved women. Especially when they were naked and moaning. Chill bumps pinpricked my skin as lusty images rolled through my mind, one after the next. I was heated and panting a little by the time Kelly showed back up.
“You ready?” she asked, looking like heaven.
“Yeah. Let’s get out of here.” I stood and lifted my hand. “Lead the way, beautiful.”
“Oh no, don’t you start that.” She laughed as she turned and walked in front of me. I let my eyes run down the long line of her back to the thick curve of her ass. Wonder if she likes anal?
“Start what?” I asked innocently.”
“You know what.” She laughed and moved through a large crowd of people.
From there, it was easy enough to lead her out to the street with a hand at her lower back. “You know,” I said slyly. “My place isn't that far from here, and rather than going out to a bar, I've got a really good wine that you might like. I picked it up the last time I was in Italy.”
Kelly moved onto the street and glanced over at me as she bit her lower lip, no doubt thinking about that imaginary girlfriend. Sure enough. “I thought you were interested in someone?” she asked.
“We're still pretty casual,” I said. “She's not going to protest if I have you over for a glass of wine. I think people are putting a little too much weight on the relationship anyway. She’s not wearing a ring, and I’m not buying one. And here’s this… what with you interviewing me and all, we're basically coworkers, right? It’s like a coworker happy hour. At my place.” I lifted an eyebrow, hoping like hell my antics would work.
Kelly laughed. “Maybe just for the day we are,” she agreed. “All right. I'd love to. Anyway, I can only imagine what kind of pad the world's hottest young real estate bachelor lives in.”
I shook my head, still smiling. “I hardly think I count as the world's hottest young anything,” I told her. “Maybe the city's hottest young real estate bachelor.” I winked at her, and could practically see the way she melted.
Of course, she didn't see much of the penthouse apartment that I lived in. I cornered her as she was taking off her shoes, crowding her up against the door as much as I thought she'd let me. “You’re a very attractive woman; do you realize that?” I told her.
“Oh no,” Kelly said, laughing and shaking her head, but making no move to leave, even though she must know what was about to happen. “I'm not going to be just another of your flings, Christian Wall. You can forget all about that.”
I sighed. “That's a pity,” I told her. “I'm pretty sure you're the world's hottest young journalist. We would have made quite the pair.”
Kelly bit her lower lip. “Do you think so?” she asked breathily.
Playing on a woman's weakness to want affection was all too easy. And it was a pretty easy guess that anyone who had chosen the entertainment field definitely had an underlying need to be wanted, namely by the masses. For some reason, it seemed like the hotter a girl was, the more worried she was that she was a no one.
“Fuck yes,” I whispered seductively. “I’ve been hard since I got to the studio.” My eyes moved down her body. “I’ve imagined making love to you twenty times since the interview started.”
Suddenly, Kelly surged up and kissed me, as I might have predicted that she would.
I slowed the nervous motion of her lips, stroking a hand down her back to calm her down. Even though I wanted to make this quick and dirty, to make her scream my name. I could tell I would have to go a bit slowly with her. She clearly didn't have that many one-night stands, and she had to know that this was a one-night stand; she was in entertainment, and she had done her research before interviewing me.
I lengthened the kiss, allowing it to deepen into something slow and lewd, our tongues twining around one another's. I slid my hands up under her shirt, stroking them tantalizingly across her skin before lifting the garment up over her head, revealing that lacy black bra that she'd unknowingly been teasing me with. It was thin, flimsy, and I could see her nipples were already pert little nubs beneath the fabric. I bent down and raked my teeth over those two points of pleasure while my hands worked at her jeans.
Then, once I'd stripped her down to nothing more than lace, I led her into the bedroom. She looked gorgeous sprawled out across my sheets like that. I kept a burning gaze on her as I stripped off my clothes, and then I crawled across the bed toward her, nudging her knees apart so that I could crawl between them.
I licked and sucked my way up those luscious legs of hers and then pulled her panties down away from her pink pussy, bending in to kiss that as well. Even with something that simple, she was arching against the sheets, and I knew this was going to be over fast.
It was a pity. I always hoped to find a sexy girl with a bit more stamina. But then again, if her stamina was that good, it probably meant that she slept around a lot, and I wasn't exactly looking to sleep with a slut.
Sure enough, though, it wasn't long before Kelly was gasping out my name and coming, her pussy pressing hard around me and her hands clawing desperately at the sheets. I kept going, managing to bring her to come again and again.
“Stop,” Kelly whimpered, pushing back against my shoulders. “It's–It's too much, Christian.”
I rolled my eyes and pulled out, jacking myself hard for a few moments before coming across her tits. That was never my preferred way to finish, but that seemed to be the way it always happened with women at this point. They just couldn't handle me.
I slipped out of bed and began collecting her things for her, ignoring the disappointed look she gave me. What, had she thought I was going to let her stay over in my bed? The thought was almost laughable. I escorted her back downstairs and got her into a cab. That was the most I had to offer.
Chapter Two
Gretchen
I took a deep breath of the morning air and let it out slowly. It had rained a little the night before, and the beach looked practically pristine, with all evidence of people washed away. Granted, the beach tended to never look the same from day to day. And I should know. I'd had my shop here on this little stretch of beach for a few years now, and I was out here every morning, before my first client came, with a cup of coffee. I loved having that little routine to start off my day, to give me a moment to just breathe in the place and relax.
I could never imagine leaving Hawaii. This place had always been home. I smiled a little, thinking of how lucky I was to live in paradise, but I was startled out of my thoughts by someone calling my name.
I turned and saw Mina dropping off some trash out back from her pineapple shop next door, and I smiled even wider, hopping off the back porch of my own building and going over to meet her.
“Morning, Mina,” I greeted and offered her a warm smile.
“Good morning,” she said and smiled back. “How's it going today? Are you busy?”
I laughed a little. “You want to know how many pineapples you're going to sell today?” I teased.
Mina's eyes glinted with mirth. “We both know that you've been instrumental in drumming up business for me lately,” she said. Then, her eyes grew serious. “I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate that.”
“Well, honey, there's nothing like coming to paradise, getting a good massage, and then wandering over next door for a healthy pineapple shake!” I put my hands on my hips and rested in the warm feeling of living in paradise. It was a blessing too many took for granted and too few enjoyed.
“T
rue,” Mina said.
“You could do with a massage soon yourself,” I said, critically noting her posture. I'd been a massage therapist for long enough that I could tell she was a bit slouched, her shoulders a bit out of alignment from where they should be. “You're doing too much heavy lifting. I bet.” I moved around behind her, and she laughingly turned away from my hands.
“Yeah, yeah,” Mina said. “I do need a massage soon. But I have to finish opening up shop before the morning rush comes through!”
I sighed and shook my head. “You need to-”
“Put myself ahead of my work,” Mina finished, cutting me off like she did often. “I know, you tell me that often enough. And I will, once I marry a millionaire and don't have to worry about the bills!”
I snorted and shook my head. “Where do you think you're going to meet a millionaire?”
“It'll be one of your customers coming over to get a pineapple shake after his massage, of course!” Mina said, winking at me. “Anyway, I'd better get back.”
“Yeah, me too,” I said, sighing. “We should go out for dinner sometime this week too, though. I feel like we haven't caught up in too long.”
“We see each other every day,” Mina pointed out.
“Yeah, but these ten minutes conversations aren't cutting it for me,” I told her. “I need a sit-down dinner where we can really dig into our lives together. It’s been too long.”
“Aw,” she said, pulling me into a hug. “Let's start with getting lunch today; what time are you going?”
I grimaced. “I'm booked solid until three, unfortunately.”
“Three, it is,” Mina said, nodding her head. “I'll get Sandy to cover for me.”
“Good,” I said, laughing a little. When Sandy had first started working for her, Mina hadn't trusted him to even work in the front of the shop while she was in the back doing inventory. It was good that she was relaxing a little.
We said our goodbyes and I headed back into my shop, whistling a little as I washed out my coffee mug. Every day was a new day in my field. I met new people, most of them needing relief and finding it at the tip of my fingers. It was a great job and a good feeling every day. I helped people relax and find peace. It was something we were all searching for. Some of us just made serenity a priority better than others. Like me.
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