by Selena Kitt
Beau suddenly gets very quiet and then serious. “Cameron Enders, if he hurts you I will personally kick his ass. You hear that, Tristan? You had better be good to my girl. She means the world to me and I will not tolerate stupidity from you, you get me?”
The smile that was plastered on my face in an attempt to hide my discomfort falls. Mouthing to Cami, I ask, “Is she serious?”
“I am absolutely serious, Tristan.”
I think I might throw up, but Cami just laughs. “I think he gets the point, Beau.”
“Good! So I don’t know what it is I am supposed to do, but I get the impression I’m gonna be earning my pay?”
Cami smiles, reaches up, and kisses me on the cheek. Whispering in my ear she says, “Don’t worry about her, she is harmless. She is just a bit overprotective. We have a long history, and I will explain it later, okay?” I nod and smile, relaxing a bit now that Cami has reassured me of Beau’s intentions.
“Yes, you’re going to earn your paycheck. I need you to book four tickets from Phoenix to Tahiti on Wednesday. The passengers are you, Naomi, Mick, and Jolene. Tristan and I will take care of your transportation and rooms here on Tarah. Go ahead and set up your return trip for the following Wednesday. There are only certain days that you can get in and out of Tarah to Tahiti and then back to the States.”
“Thank you, Cams!” she squeaks out.
“You’re welcome. Now get to work and I will see you guys on Wednesday.”
“Tristan?” Beau asked.
“Yes, Beau?”
“I look forward to meeting you, and I was only teasing you.”
“Me too, Beau. And I know.”
“Okay, good. Cams, I will talk to you later. I will email you our information as soon as I have it. Later, guys!”
“Bye,” Cami and I say together. Cami is grinning as I hang up the phone.
“She’s really not all that bad. She loves me and does her best to protect me. Beau was my freshman college roommate, and we have been inseparable ever since. We both look out for each other. I gave Mick the same speech when they started dating about six months ago.”
I can’t seem to wipe the smile off my face. My heart is warm with the idea of meeting Cami’s friends and with thoughts of our upcoming weekend.
“What?” she squeaks.
“Are you more worried about her kicking my ass or me hurting you?”
“Her kicking your ass.” She smiles and pats my leg.
“Good, then we have nothing to worry about.”
I don’t realize what has come out of my mouth until a moment or two later, and it’s far too late to take it back. Also, I realize, I don’t want to take it back.
I feel a sudden rush of adrenaline through my system as I realize that she hasn’t protested and her mood hasn’t changed. Is she really more concerned about Beau kicking my ass than me hurting her? She looks as high in the clouds as I am.
“Come on, our boat is waiting.” I start to climb out of the Jeep and turn to take her hand, helping her down.
We head toward the docks and down to the rows of boats. Most of the boats docked here are huge. Ocean cruisers built for long trips on the sea.
We continue down the docks until we come across a boat that is beautiful, glossy black, and very sleek. Looks more like it is built more for speed than pleasure, but boy, she’s beautiful. Leading Cami over to the ladder, I urge her to climb up.
“I know nothing about boats,” she says.
“Neither do I, and it’s not our responsibility to know anything about the boat. We are here to have a good time,” I say, reassuring her that we really are not responsible for anything but ourselves tonight.
“Sounds like a great plan to me.”
Chapter Seventeen
I’m watching her climb the ladder, eagerly anticipating her reaction when she reaches the deck above. The hotel manager had offered me my choice of boats, and I chose this one because it will accommodate the kind of night I want to have with Cami. I really want to show her a good, casual time. Show her that I really can just be a normal guy.
I hear her gasp as she reaches the deck, and I smile, knowing she’s seen the hot tub inside the screen-covered bow. We’ll ride out to sea while enjoying the hot tub, then have a nice dinner on the deck, near the stern as the sun sets.
Once she’s safely on board, I climb up and find her looking around. Her gaze fixes on a table near the hot tub that has been set with a bottle of champagne and fresh, bright red strawberries. I walk up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist, and whisper in her ear, “Would you like some champagne? It’s Bollinger. ’99, I believe.”
“Oh, one of my favorites. I’d love some, please.” She turns slightly in my arms so that she can see me. “This is beautiful. Thank you.”
I smile and bring my lips to hers in a chaste kiss. “You’re most welcome.” I release her, reach for the champagne, and pour us each a glass.
Today while we were apart, I missed her terribly. It was so hard to stay away from her, but I knew that I would make up for it tonight. It didn’t take me long to recognize her down on the beach when I decided to go for a swim in the pool. When I looked down at the beach, there she was, lying on her stomach. Her corset and fairy wings were hard to miss, even from eight floors up.
It wasn’t hard to stay hidden. Every so often she’d look up and scan my balcony, then look away again with clear disappointment on her face. Cami isn’t exactly a poker player. Each time she turned back around, her shoulders would slump just a little more.
In a way I felt bad for hiding from her, but it was a great comfort to know that she too was looking for me. I didn’t want to interrupt her time down at the beach. My feelings for Cami are blossoming really quickly, and I know that if I let my emotions get the better of me, I’ll push her away. I stayed away until dinner, for her. I was hoping she too would miss me.
“I really missed you today,” I say.
She smiles at me as I hand her a glass of champagne. “I missed you, too. I kept hoping to see you up on your patio. I had this weird feeling I was being watched.”
I smile at her as sweetly as I can manage. “You were.” Her eyes widen at my words. “Well, Tyson was keeping an eye on you from near Blu’s patio, and I spent a good deal of time in the pool watching you, too. I saw you looking for me.”
She lets out a gasp. “Why?”
“I felt better knowing that you were safe. That, and I had a hard time keeping my eyes off of you. No reasons other than that, Cami.”
Her answering smile is comforting. “Okay, I can deal with that. Though you have to realize that no one knows me or who I am.”
She has a point, but I am not going to let her use it against me. “That may be, Cami, but people know me and you’ve been seen with me. I just felt better knowing that there were eyes on you.” Also, I know full well what people can be capable of when they want something.
And then, because I feel like the mood needs lightening, I add, “Plus it gave Tyson something to do. Once we had tonight and Friday’s arrangements made, he was making me crazy. He doesn’t do well with little or nothing to do.”
Cami laughs. “Fair enough. Would it make you feel better if I spoke to Trinity about having my own bodyguard?”
Her question throws me off guard. I hadn’t even thought that it might be necessary for her to have her own regular security detail. “That may be good once we get back to the States, but I don’t really want to talk about that tonight.” As I say this I hear shoes clicking on the deck and the captain appears on the other side of Cami.
“All are on board, sir. Are we ready to push off?”
“Yes, captain, we are. Thank you.” He bows his head in acknowledgement and leaves Cami and me alone again. Turning to Cami, I ask her, “Would you like to relax in the hot tub while we head out to sea?”
In answer, she sets down her champagne glass and reaches for the button of her shorts. She takes her sweet time unbuttoning them, teasing
me. Her eyes are on me, looking me up and down, hooded by her lashes. The look is so seductive that I feel the need for Cami growing hot throughout my body. Slowly she pushes her shorts down, revealing the skimpy string of her bikini bottoms. My mouth goes dry and my lungs devoid of oxygen, but I don’t care.
After a few moments she is now sans shorts, and I pull in a long, deep breath. Working my lungs again brings back my focus. I start emptying my pockets. Removing my watch, I place it, along with my wallet and cell phone, onto the table.
Grabbing the bottom of my shirt, I pull it up in a swift, non-seductive manner. Just before the shirt covers my eyes, I catch a glimpse of Cami sneaking her own look. Toying with her, I flex my muscles, taunting her, giving her a show.
Lazy, hungry eyes are raking over my body and she slowly peels them away. A rush of disappointment runs rapidly through my body as she grabs her glass and turns away. As she sinks slowly, deliberately into the hot tub, I notice that her ribbons from last night are gone.
“You seem to be missing something,” I tease.
She tenses, and a faint red flush slides over her skin. In a slight panic she looks down and around, like she might have lost her bottoms. “Huh?” she finally replies.
I chuckle. “You’re missing ribbons, and your leather is back?”
“Oh!” She turns, smiling at me. “I don’t like to get the ribbons wet. They break down and look horrible after a couple of soakings. The leather stands up better, and threading my back is a bit of a challenge, so using leather allows me to thread it once and be done. I can get most of it, but the top couple are a lot harder to reach.”
“I see. Makes sense.” She really is a perfectionist when it comes to the little things. I like it. What had caught me by surprise earlier was the fact that she had put on a bit of makeup before going down to the beach. These little things tell me that she really cares about her appearance, and I like that even more.
Today she is wearing a hot pink bikini. I’d pegged her as more of the gothic type, and with her tattoos and piercings, it’s easy to come to that conclusion. She has a rather eclectic style and seems to wear what she’s comfortable wearing. She cleans up nice, but I have no doubt that she could make sweat pants look good.
Coming to the realization that I’m staring at her, I mentally shake my head to clear it up a bit. Just as I’m about to take a step into the hot tub, the lights come on, illuminating her from below. Surrounded by warm, liquid light, she looks like an angel.
As I lower myself into the water I notice that Cami is watching me intently. She starts looking at my chest, at the dragon’s head, and it dawns on me that she hasn’t really gotten a good look at my ink yet.
“I saw the wings and the spinal work,” she says. “I also noticed the tail on your leg. Now a good look at his head on your chest. Is there more?”
“Just on my legs. The tail comes out here.” I point to my left upper thigh and lift my swim trunks so she can see the outer thigh. I roll my leg outward so that she can see the inside of my leg where the tail comes out. I watch as she takes in the concept. Then I reach for the other leg of my swimsuit, revealing first my inner right thigh where the tail goes in, then rotating my leg so she can see where the tail comes out the other side. The barbed tail comes out again below my knee and hangs around my ankle, taking up most of my lower leg.
She takes a minute to admire all the work. “It’s a very beautiful tattoo, Tristan. Your artist is amazing.”
I smile. “I did the drawings myself and he worked his magic. I never thought that it would turn out as beautiful as it did.”
“How long did it take?”
“It took about seventeen six-hour sessions to complete the entire piece. I started it after we finished up the first Burning movie. While we were filming, I started to shop around for tattoo artists. It took me a while, but I found a great artist in Texas that specializes in dragons. We met, talked. Then about a week later we got started. We traded off the traveling and here it is. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”
I don’t continue the story. I can tell by her expectant look that she wants to know more, but I can’t, not yet. The reason behind my dragon is deeply personal and slightly depressing. Not exactly the type of conversation for a second date.
To take the pressure off, I say, “I know you want to know more, and I want to tell you, but tonight is not the best night.”
She nods in agreement, taking a seat opposite me. “When Bobbie died, I was so angry that I wanted to just fly away. So Beau and I did. We went to Portland. We stayed up there for the majority of last summer so I would have time to have the work finished.” She seems to sense what I was thinking; though we discussed her tattoos over dinner last night, there seems to be a bit more to the story.
“I was crushed when I heard about Bobbie passing away,” I say, “and I was unable to make the funeral because of my shooting schedule. By the time I was able to get there, he’d already been buried. I visited his grave a few times in June.” I pause. Bobbie had really been a decent person to me. Until I met Cami, I would have thought him to be a good friend, but now it is seeming more like I was his paycheck than a friend.
“You know, Cami, if I had known Bobbie had a daughter, I would have reached out to you sooner, expressed my condolences on his passing. Your father was a good business man and treated his clients well.”
“Tristan, my father was a great business man, but as I said, he and I were never close. But believe me, I’m glad that you had Bobbie to turn to when you got thrown into Hollywood. Hollywood is scary, even if it’s something that you are after or want. I personally am scared to death of Hollywood. Though it didn’t stop me from obtaining a PR degree.
“I got a dual degree, actually, in PR and business management. And graduated with honors. I think subconsciously I wanted to please Bobbie and give him something to be proud of.” Her voice takes on a somber tone. “I’ll never know, though, if he was proud. I do know that he didn’t attend my graduation, so…” She takes a deep breath. “I never even told him what my degrees were in. But I have my suspicions that Bobbie knew because I discovered that his will was last revised about thirty days before my graduation. The only other revision happened within a few months of the death of my mother. I don’t know what it said prior to the change, but I suspect that it had something to do with my impending high school graduation.”
“Why high school?” I ask her, confused.
“Well, knowing that I would be turning eighteen sooner rather than later, and given what the final will said, I’m assuming the original change has to do either with the business or the property he owned.”
My heart suddenly feels so heavy and somber. I honest to God feel like crying right now. Her pain is evident in her voice, and here she is sharing all this with me and I can’t even explain my tattoo. “Cami,” I whisper. Standing up, I reach out to her, grab her hand and pull her into my arms. “I cannot account for how Bobbie felt or what he knew. But I can tell you that he was a very stupid man for not seeing the beauty in you as a whole. I can’t imagine anyone not caring about you. You are such a gentle soul.”
I try to sit down again with her in my arms and she resists. I sit anyway, looking up at her, I ask her, “I’ve been wondering about something since last night.” She nods in acknowledgement. “What about your brother?” I ask. “Why wasn’t he left in charge instead of you?”
She sits back down, closer to me, but still just out of reach. “Mark has washed his hands of anything regarding Bobbie. He wants nothing to do with the business. Bobbie recognized Mark’s separation from him and changed his will to hand the business over to me.
“Mark has a law firm in Dallas with his wife and the twins. I have not seen them since last Christmas, but we talk about once a month or, so and that is about the extent of our relationship. He is only two years older than I am, but we were both raised in boarding schools in two different countries. We never got to know one another. Bobbie of
course was responsible for Mark and I being so distant. It’s something else that bothers me about Bobbie. But that’s a whole different story.”
I nod. I figure that she’s told me more in the last two nights than maybe even Beau knows about her life before college. I feel like I need to share some information about me and my past with her to reciprocate.
“As I told you last night, I was really close to my mom, but she passed away during my freshman year of college. I never knew who my father was. Still don’t know to this day, and frankly, it doesn’t really matter to me.”
“Why?” she asks.
“Well, to be honest, what can he do for me now? I’m an adult, and the time that I needed him was when I was younger. But my need for him was never about me, it was always about my mom. I watched her struggle with multiple jobs, working insane hours, doing everything she could to give me everything I needed. One of my biggest regrets in life is that I was never able to take care of her.” My heart aches and I absentmindedly rub my chest. A habit I have then I’m hurting inside.
Cami cocks her head, a million questions in her eyes, but she doesn’t ask them. She just admires me from across the hot tub. I decide to continue talking, let her come to me when she is ready.
“Shortly after I hired Tyson, some random guy showed up, claiming to be my father. The man did look a little like me. For all I knew he was the real deal. But Tyson proved his loyalty to me by screening him and getting a DNA test done before I really got involved in the situation. When the results came in, Tyson told the man that I was not his son and later had him arrested for harassment and stalking. The guy kept tying to get close to me, insisting he was my father. He had no idea that Tyson had managed the DNA test until he got arrested and charged with harassment and Tyson appeared in court on my behalf. I would’ve gone myself, but the prosecuting attorney told me that there was no reason for it, and it would only bring further attention to me. But by the time the trial rolled around, it had become evident the guy only wanted money.”