by Cassie Cross
I’m caught in between thanking him and dragging him back inside, but he makes the decision for me when he leads me toward the truck.
It’s about a foot off the ground, and I’m so short he has to help me up into it. He takes my hand and rests his palm on the exposed skin at the small of my back to steady me as I climb up.
The heat from his touch feels like a brand.
Since River and I have done this once before and we know each other a little better now than we did a couple of weeks ago, our walk down this red carpet is a little more practiced than it was the last time. It’s a lot less hectic, thankfully, since this event is much more low-key than the last one. So much more low-key that we’re publicist free tonight, and it’s just the two of us.
We take a relaxed walk down the carpet, talking to reporters with well-practiced answers. River holds me close and it feels normal, it feels right, even. I’ve come to welcome the warmth of his skin on mine. We take a few pictures together, and a couple alone. We run into Emmy from Entertainment Now!, who snags me as I’m getting ready to walk off the red carpet.
“You’re here with your new guy tonight, Skye,” she says, hamming it up for the camera as River’s fingers curl around my waist. “What’s it like to see this campaign come to fruition, especially since he not only modeled for it but had a hand in formulating the fragrance, too?”
“I’m really proud of him, honestly. I know he worked hard on the fragrance and the campaign, and it’s good to be here celebrating the fruits of his labor. I think River looks handsome no matter what he wears, so the pictures are definitely winners for me. I have a few stashed at home.”
Her eyebrows raise. “You do?”
“Definitely. Although I’m also lucky enough to have the real thing. And the cologne is wonderful, ladies. When it comes out on the fifteenth, make sure to go out and get some. It smells amazing, and makes it really hard for me to keep my hands off this guy.”
Emmy thanks us, and as we’re walking away, River leans down and whispers, “You can’t keep your hands off me, huh?”
I laugh and wrap my arm around his waist. Partly for show, but mostly because I want to. “Whenever I manage to do it, it’s with great difficulty.”
“Good to know.”
We walk into the party, which is full of bright lights and thumping bass. There’s a DJ in the corner, and some people mingling, some filling the dance floor. It’s River’s night, so I just follow his lead, and we flit from group to group for about an hour or so, and get separated when a director I worked with a couple of years ago flags me over. Once we’re finished chatting, I go looking for River and my attention gets pulled to some commotion at the back of the bar.
A small-ish group of people is huddled around in the corner, cell phones out. When I get close enough to see what’s going on, I realize that River has some douchebag by the collar, pressing him up against the brick wall. Fury radiates off him in waves.
“Don’t think for a second that I’m gonna let you get away with what you did to her,” he says angrily. One of the bartenders is trying to separate them, but it’s like River doesn’t even know he’s there. He looks like he’s about to snap, and although the target of his anger has this shit-eating grin on his face, he’s not having much luck concealing the fear in his eyes.
“Prove it,” the guy says.
River moves in closer. “The only reason I’m not is because Casey wants to be done with your lousy ass. But I have lawyers on retainer just waiting for her go ahead, and I have enough money to bury you in lawsuits.”
I have absolutely no idea what he’s talking about, but I do recognize barely restrained anger when I see it, and I’m not about to not live up to my end of the bargain and let River get into a bar fight on my watch.
I break through the crowd, and step up despite some of the men trying to hold me back. I take hold of his free hand and run my fingers long his bicep. His muscles relax the second he feels my skin, but his fury doesn’t abate until I say, “Hey. He’s not worth it. C’mon, River.” I tug on his hand. “Let’s go. Let’s get out of here.”
River flexes the hand that’s gripping the guy’s collar once, then gives him another shove and lets him go. I reach up and run my fingers along River’s stubbled jaw, and turn his face toward mine so he can see me. “Let’s go outside, okay?” I twine my fingers with his. “C’mon.”
“Yeah,” the guy laughs. “Go on and let your girlfriend take care of it.”
He’s real bold for someone who was pinned to a wall a second ago. “If you want I can let go of his hand and he can give you the beat down I’m sure you so richly deserve.”
That fear is back in his eyes for a second, but he doesn’t say anything. I don’t know this man or what he’s done, but I’m growing to trust River’s judgment, so if he wants to beat this guy’s ass, I’m sure it’s for good reason.
And I intend to find out.
He’s just shaking with anger, but luckily none of the suits seem to have seen what just went on. I lead him to the doors we walked in through, and hold his hand until we come to a park bench and sit down.
He rests his elbows on his knees and leans forward. I run my hand up and down his spine, hoping it provides some kind of comfort to him.
“You wanna tell me what went on back there?”
He rubs his hand along his face and turns toward me.
“His name is Marcus. He’s a screenwriter whose father used to be a studio head. Casey dated him for a little while about a year and a half ago. I don’t know if I ever told you, but she’s always loved writing.”
“No,” I say, continuing to rub his back because it seems like it’s helping. “You never mentioned that.”
“She moved here to be with me, and also to pursue that. I hired her on to work for me because she’s a good worker and I wanted her close, but also because I didn’t want someone else running her ragged to the point where she wouldn’t have time to write. I also thought that working with me would help her learn the business and make some contacts. Of course one of the contacts she made was with Marcus.”
“What did he do?”
“Casey told him that she had a few treatments she was working on, and he asked her to show them to him.”
Oh no, I can see where this is going. “He got super focused on one. Not one of her better ones, surprisingly, which I’m thankful for. But this one was the most fanciful, the one with the most potential to stand out from a crowd. She trusted him when she shouldn’t have, and they started working on it together. He added a few things here and there, but the bones, the bones were her’s. Anyway, he ditched her one day, stole her screenplay, and he and his production partners sold it. It wasn’t for a huge amount of money, and it’s stuck somewhere in development hell for now, but it would’ve made a difference to her, and just kind of soured her on the whole thing. I could kill him for that more than any of the other stuff.”
“Why don’t you sue him?”
He lets out a sad sigh. “I wanted to. I was ready to, and I told her I’d throw as much money at it as I needed to, but she just wants to be done with him. And she’s headstrong and stubborn and her idea of revenge is writing something bigger and better that no one can say no to.”
I laugh, because she’s a better person than I am. “Sounds like she has the right kind of attitude to make it in this soul-sucking town.” There are dozens of stories like hers, and none of them ever get the recognition that they should. I understand why he’s so angry, especially since she decided to just let it go. Guys like Marcus walk all over people all the time, and they rarely if ever get their comeuppance.
“I see that asshole and his buddies everywhere and they never miss a chance to throw Casey in my face. I wish she’d just let me take them to court.”
I huddle closer to him, till our shoulders are touching. “I think the desire for revenge like that is baked in to a sibling’s DNA. If anyone ever screwed me over like that, my brother would want to beat their a
sses, too. Although I do think it’s admirable that you’re respecting her wishes.”
“It kills me to do it,” he whispers, wringing his hands.
“I know.”
We sit in the quiet for a few minutes, just listening to the traffic on the 405.
“I had a good time tonight,” I tell him.
“Even though you had to break up a fight?”
“Well, it wasn’t a fight yet. But yeah, especially because of that. Given the fact that rehabbing your reputation was part of this whole bargain, I was kind of curious about what the fighting was about, but figured it would all come out in due time.”
“Did you lose any respect for me?”
I reach up and graze the back of my fingers along his cheek. “Gained some, actually. I figured your fighting would be some dumb testosterone-y thing. I wasn’t counting on the chivalrous, good brother aspect. Although I should’ve, getting to know the kind of guy you are.”
He looks at me, holding my gaze for this long, tense moment. “What kind of guy am I?”
“You’re the kind that’s beautiful on the inside in a city that’s full of people that are only beautiful on the outside. I mean, obviously you’re also beautiful on the outside, but it’s the inside part that counts.”
He laughs, then reaches up and cups my face. “You’re beautiful on the outside, and where it counts. Your smile just lights everything up.”
“I think that’s because of you,” I admit. “You make me happy in a way that I haven’t been in a long time.”
He stares right into me, past all of my defences, then his gaze slips down to my mouth. The air is charged, full of something inexplicably exciting, and I lick my lips in anticipation for whatever comes next. With him? I know it’s gonna be nothing but good.
“You make me…” he says, words failing him. His thumb brushes across the curve of my chin. “You make me…”
Then he presses his lips to mine, soft and wanting. He steals the breath from my lungs and makes me want more of this breathlessness. I let out this soft whimper into his mouth, and he opens up for me, brushing his sweet tongue against mine. I lean in for more when a smattering of flashes go off pulling me out of the moment.
The moment is gone, lost forever, and River grabs my hand and rushes me over to the car.
He helps me in, and we sit there, breathless, looking for the culprit and finding nothing.
“Did you know they were there?” I ask, wondering how much of what just happened was even real.
He looks like I smacked him. “Of course not.”
That makes me feel a little better, takes away some of the anger that’s coursing through my veins. I choose instead to focus all of it on the intense feeling of violation that’s stabbing through my gut.
“Will you take me home, please?”
“I didn’t know they were there, Skye.”
“Okay,” I tell him softly.
“Please say you believe me.”
I nod. “I believe you.”
He fires up the engine.
Chapter Eight
The days following our kiss are awkward to say the least. It was going to be a natural break in our time spent together anyway, because River and Casey had a wedding to attend in Florida already on the books, so Claudia and Keith had already arranged for us to meet up on the island for our “getting serious getaway.”
We’ve texted a few times, but the closest we’ve come to addressing our kiss is with vague declarations of we need to talk.
Apart from the personal turmoil that it tossed me into, the pic of that kiss certainly accomplished what it set out to: setting the internet on fire. Turns out it was taken by a couple of newbies trying to make a quick buck, who were hanging around looking to catch something salacious and didn’t even have good enough equipment yet to take photos in the dark sans flash.
It was enough to push my engagement on social media up by the thousands, people flocking to follow me for the next tidbit, commenting on unrelated pictures asking for more.
So, this little experiment is working out well for my professional life, it’s just thrown my personal life into havoc. It’s left me scared as hell and wanting more. Wanting to end the whole experiment to get some space from River so I can clear my head, and left me wanting to hold on tight and never let go.
It’s why I’m kind of glad that my trip to the Caribbean is alone. Claudia chartered a plane to get me here undetected and avoid the weirdness of us arriving separately. She’d tried to convince River to take me to the wedding with him, but these are longtime, close friends of his family’s and he didn’t want to turn their day into a photo op.
Makes me like him even more.
Keith’s brother’s house is on a private island just off the mainland, only accessible by boat. It’s full of brightly colored mansions that are probably worth ten times my own house. He also owns a bungalow on this tiny little island about two football fields away with its own private beach, which is where our first photos are scheduled to be taken.
I arrive at the house early in the afternoon, while River’s out for a run. The first thing I do is grab my bikini out of my bag and make my way out onto the deck to get some sun. Fresh air has always done wonders for me, and I’m hoping it’ll help clear my mind to make sense of the mess that is my personal life.
I get situated on the sunporch with a bottle of water and a magazine, and let the sound of the water lapping against the docks soothe my nerves.
It’s not long before I hear a pair of footsteps padding across the deck. I steel myself for River, but when I peek out from behind my sunglasses, I see a person I’ve never met before.
“Hi,” she says sweetly, taking a seat on the lounge next to mine. “You must be Skye.”
“Hi Casey,” I say, sitting up to greet her properly. “It’s really good to finally meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“You too,” she replies. She looks a lot like River, even more so than in her photos. Same bone structure, same eyes. I’ve seen some pictures of their mother, and she’s a spitting image.
“How was the wedding?”
“It was good. It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other, so it was nice to get together for such a happy occasion. It was nice to get some time off work, too.”
I laugh. “Is your brother working you hard?”
“Oh yeah, he’s brutal,” she teases. “But he’s been happier lately, until the past week or so.”
Yeah, I know the feeling. “Yeah, that’s…complicated.”
“Most things with my brother are,” she says. “Whatever’s going on with you two isn’t my business, but since we’re here, I thought I’d throw out the obligatory, if you hurt him I’ll kill you threat just to get it out of the way.” She says it so sweetly that it’s weirdly even more threatening.
“I don’t want to hurt him,” I tell her honestly.
“You made him smile, and then he stopped.”
I nod. “I know.”
“Is it because of those pictures of you guys kissing? Because those weren’t a setup.”
“I know,” I tell her. “He asked me to believe him and I do.”
A long stretch of silence flows between us. “I saw what happened with Cam,” she says.
I laugh bitterly. “I’d be more surprised if you hadn’t.”
“My brother would never do that to you, and I think deep down you know it.”
I collapse back into the chair with a sigh. “Deep down I don’t know what I know.”
“Maybe a tiny deserted island would be a good place to think about it.”
That’s an unwelcome reminder of what I’m actually here to do, which isn’t to relax, but to sell, sell, sell.
“What time are we supposed to go over there for the pictures?”
“Four. There’s a beach along the south side of the island, behind the bungalow. They’re gonna be on that side, because it’s easier to get the pictures there than from the bay side. They’l
l be around here tomorrow, and then tomorrow night, Claudia wants you to go have dinner on the mainland.”
I sigh. Of course she does. “Okay, that sounds like a plan.”
I stretch myself out on the lounge, and Casey does the same.
A few minutes later, I look over and say, “I heard you write screenplays.”
She tilts her head in my direction. “I’m great at starting them, not so great at finishing. I have about twenty in various stages on my hard drive.”
I hum. “I’m starting a production company next year. When you finish one, send it over and we’ll see what we can do, deal?”
She grins. “Deal.”
Chapter Nine
I choose a bright pink bikini for the day. It’s cute and skimpy, just the kind of thing a girl on a long weekend with her boyfriend would choose to wear on a private beach with him, until things got heated and he ripped it off.
If the relationship were real, that is.
I’ve got a sun hat and a bag with a couple of towels, sunscreen and some other things just in case. I have no idea what exactly we’re going to do over there. A week or two ago we were on track for being able to make out in front of the cameras, but now that seems too intimate, too close to my heart to let the world in on it, which yes…I see the irony of not wanting to let the paparazzi in on a relationship that was designed specifically to attract them.
Claudia told us to wing it, but I don’t feel confident winging anything with River right now. Before we had a plan, and now I just have…feelings. Too many of them to be able to make sense of, which isn’t exactly conducive to frolicking in the sun for some pictures.
River’s out on the dock, prepping the boat. Keith’s brother’s jetski is out of commission, but there’s a perfectly good rowboat available. The private island is about two football fields out in the distance, and River insists that he can make it. Part of me thinks he wants to show off for me, and I’m okay with that. There are worse things than watching a gorgeous man get an upper body workout.