by Jo Watson
“Well, I can’t accept this.” I grabbed his hand and forcefully thrust the money into his palm.
“It’s a tip.” He smiled at me and tried to push the money back to me.
“I don’t accept such large tips.” I pushed the money back at him getting irritated at his blatant refusal. “I certainly don’t accept charity,” I lowered his tray table and put the money down onto it. Ben looked at the money for a moment or two, confused, and then looked back up at me.
“Sera, you’re the last person on earth I would ever consider giving charity to.”
“Really?” I was caught off guard by his statement.
“Sure. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as self-reliant, strong and independent as you. I mean, you’re the girl who was going to change her own tyre on the side of the road at night. You only called for help because you were missing the jack.”
“O … oh,” I faltered. I’d never thought of myself like that before. Self-reliant, yes, but strong, not particularly.
“It’s one of the qualities I like most about you,” he said with a smile. Again, I was caught off guard, and it must have shown on my face.
“This shouldn’t come as a surprise to you, surely you know by now that despite appearances, I don’t only want you sexually. I want much more than that, Sera.”
Despite the loud roar of the engines, everything suddenly went very silent between Ben and I. A part of me wanted to open my mouth and say the same thing back to him. But I didn’t. I didn’t even want to admit it to myself, let alone admit it out loud.
But he was right, this was more than just sexual. Much more.
32. Ass-Kicking Chick …
“Sera? Sera?” I heard Ben say and felt a little pat on my check.
“Huh?” I opened my eyes. Why was everything at an angle? I blinked and then became aware that my face pressed into something. Then I noticed the smell. Ben’s smell. And then I became very aware of the warmth of his neck and, Oh God, I must have fallen asleep, and worse, I must have fallen asleep on his shoulder. I quickly whipped my head up and looked at him.
“Sorry, I didn’t know I was, sorry, I must have fallen asleep.”
“Don’t worry.” Ben reached up and pushed the hair that had fallen into my face away. “Your little snores are cute.”
“No! I didn’t.” I reached up to touch the itch at the corner of my mouth and realized it was wet. I looked down at Ben’s shirt, and there it was, a tiny little wet patch. I had drooled on him. I had drooled, while I snored and slept on his shoulder. I wiped my mouth. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay, Sera, really.” And then he smiled at me. That smile. Dark, sexy, danger! “A little bit of drool doesn’t bother me, I mean, we’ve shared far more than that before.” He winked.
“Eeewww,” I laughed. “You just couldn’t help yourself there, could you?”
“Nope. You did leave it wide open for me, though.”
“Did not.” I shook my head at him.
“Oh Sera … you know I’m doing this on purpose, don’t you?”
“I’ve kind of gathered that by now. The question is why?”
“Because shameless flirting’s all part of the fun, isn’t it? Especially when it puts such a smile on your face.”
I quickly wiped the smile off my face, “I’ll make sure I don’t smile again then.”
“Try,” he said cockily.
“Is that a challenge?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Fine, throw your best one at me. Right now.” I folded my arms and looked at him, trying to give him my most serious, unshakeable look.
“Mmmm …” He looked me up and down. “It needs to be spontaneous. I’ll get you later. When you least expect it.”
“I’ll be ready,” I said.
“I’m sure you will be.” He leaned in a little closer and my eyes were drawn to his lips. An overwhelming feeling of wanting to kiss him rose up in me, but this would be the worst place and time for that.
“We better get going.” He broke the moment and stood up.
“Of course.” I started unbuckling my seat belt but stopped when I saw Ben reach up into the overhead compartment. His shirt lifted up and his jeans pulled down, revealing just enough of his stomach to make mine flip.
“Shit,” I whispered to myself. This man was harder to resist than chocolate. And that was saying something.
When we arrived at the National Park in Namibia after a two-hour-long drive in a shuttle, everyone was in high spirits, except me. It felt like I’d just opened some kind of sleep floodgate and every time I blinked it felt like I was going to fall unconscious. I was exhausted, more tired than I’d felt in ages. And of course when I saw the room I was staying in, the tiredness grew. We were staying in the most beautiful rooms perched high up on massive boulders that overlooked the national park below. All the rooms were separate and connected with wooden walkways.
“So meet for drinks on the deck at six and then dinner,” Ben had said. It was only three in the afternoon so I had a glorious three hours to bath and catch up on a little sleep. And when I saw the bath …
The bath was set up against the window that looked out over the plains of the savanna below. There was a watering hole at the bottom of the rocks and elephants were drinking from the water. The bath was one of those huge round things that was probably more suited for swimming than bathing. I walked past a complimentary bottle of wine on the bed and poured myself a glass while slipping into the bath. The water was warm and the bubbles were so soft that it felt like I melted into the back of it.
I sipped the wine and wondered how long it had been since I had had the time to do something like this.
My phone beeped and I peered over at it on the top of the closed toilet seat.
Ben: What are you doing?
I grabbed a towel, dried my hands and took my phone.
Sera: Bathing.
Ben: Dear God!!!
Sera: What are you doing?
Ben: On a recce with the photographer to look at the places we’re shooting at.
Sera: Cool. Have fun.
Ben: Not as much fun as I could be having if I were with you …
Ben: How was that?
Sera: Good. But I’m not smiling.
Ben: You’re lying.
Sera: Nope.
Ben: I don’t believe you.
Sera: Bye, Ben.
Ben: Bye, Sera.
He was right of course, I was smiling. But I wasn’t going to tell him that. I finished my glass of wine and climbed out the bath. I walked onto my patio with my towel wrapped around me. It was beautiful and warm here and I still had two hours before I needed to be up there for drinks. I set my alarm clock and lay on the lounger outside and closed my eyes. Only the sounds of nature filled the air. No hooting horns or cars or downstairs neighbors getting into arguments. Just crickets and birds and the distant call of a baboon.
For the second time that day I was being woken up by the sound of Ben’s voice. I vaguely opened my eyes and realized it was now dark and I was still wrapped in my towel and lying outside on the patio lounger.
“Come, let’s get you into bed.” Suddenly I felt weightless as Ben lifted me up and carried me inside all the way to the bed.
“I need to get ready for dinner,” I whispered in a half-asleep way. I was in that strange state where you teeter somewhere between sleep and consciousness and feeling like you’re not entirely tuned into reality and the world around you.
“That was hours ago.” Ben lowered me to the bed.
“Really?” I clutched my pillow and curled up my legs. “I think I pressed the snooze button.” I grabbed another pillow and pulled it towards me, feeling something loosen around me. A cold breeze caught the side of my body and I realized that my towel must have opened.
“This is damp, you can’t sleep in it.”
And then I realized that it wasn’t magically coming off by itself, Ben was pulling it off me and replacing it with
the fluffy duvet as he went. He reached over me and pushed some of the scatter cushions away. For a moment his whole body leaned over mine and I’m not really sure what I was thinking, I don’t think I was thinking in the state I was currently in, but I rolled onto my back and pulled his face down towards mine.
I laced my fingers through his hair and held his face mere millimeters from mine. My eyes were closed, and I took a deep breath, savoring his smell and closeness and then pulled him in closer and kissed him.
“Fuck, Sera,” he whispered against my mouth as I pulled him even more. He had nowhere else to go but climb onto the bed and kneel over me. I continued to kiss him; it was warm and soft and slow. It was the perfect combination of a million different things that had blended together in my strange, dreamlike state. And I didn’t want it to ever end.
I finally untangled my lips from the kiss and pulled away ever so slightly, not because I wanted to stop kissing him, but because I wanted to look at him. The room was dark but a small beam of moonlight was rushing through the window, and in this position, the silver light clipped the side of his face, illuminating him just enough to make out the sexy, ghostly curve of his features. I took him all in, God he was beautiful.
“It should be illegal to look like you do,” I whispered.
“I could say the same about you.”
I shook my head.
“You’re so wrong about that,” he said emphatically, “trust me.”
Even though I wasn’t entirely sure I believed him, it still felt good to hear. I pulled his face down again for another kiss. This time it was a short one. I stopped and rolled back over onto my side and pulled the blanket and pillow towards me.
“Goodnight, Ben.” I closed my eyes and fell back into a deep sleep with a smile on my face.
33. Dreamy Blue Eyes, Big Thighs
I sat up in bed the next morning with a fright as the phone next to me rang. I grabbed it and answered in a sleepy voice, “Hello.”
It was an automated wakeup call which caused me to shoot up onto my feet. It took me a moment to recall the night before; the bath, the sleeping outside the … Ben! Ben was definitely part of that recollection and so was kissing him! I had kissed him. Shit! What the hell had I been thinking?
I grabbed some clothes and put them on, rushing out to the reception area where I’d seen the breakfast tables set up the day before. I couldn’t believe I’d missed dinner last night, what was everyone going to think of me? I was mortified, I’d have to tell them that I’d slept through it. I raced down the little wooden walkways that connected the rooms and jumped in fright, as a monkey flew past me.
“Shit!”
And then another one shot across the walkway, running clumsily as it held a candy bar in its hand. Someone must have left their window open, I thought as I stopped and looked to see if any others were coming. But the path was clear and I raced back up the creaky wooden slats to the breakfast area.
When I got to the table everyone was there, including Ben. The model was not, she was probably staying away from solids. I looked around quickly trying to determine where to sit, but all the seats were taken.
“Hey, how do you feel?” Becks turned and asked me.
“Um …?”
“I told them about the plane sickness,” Ben jumped in. He stood up and pulled a chair from a nearby table and placed it next to his. It was a tight squeeze.
“Plane sickness?” I asked.
“Like car sickness, but with planes,” he replied, gesturing for me to sit.
“Oh, that.” I nodded.
“I got it on a long flight once too,” the woman in production told me. “It’s the change in the pressure, can make you feel queasy.”
“Yes, it can,” I said sliding into the chair that Ben had arranged for me, the chair that was awkwardly squeezed in and completely too close to him. I made a very deliberate attempt to lean as far away from Ben as possible, even though I was basically sitting on his lap.
I was so busy trying to move away from him, that I hadn’t really thought about the impact this would have on the person on the other side of me. I was leaning so far over, that my entire head was practically up against the other guy’s chest.
“Sorry.” I quickly pulled back as my forehead connected with his chin. The man next to me smiled.
“No problem,” he said with a slight twinkle in his devastating blue eyes. I straightened myself up again and wiggled into my chair, bumping the same blue-eyed man with my knee, twice.
“Sorry,” I said again, quickly reaching out with my hand to touch his arm in an apologetic manner. I felt his hand come down on mine and our fingers grazed. A tiny little spark shot up my spine.
“It’s a bit of a tight squeeze.” He let his fingers linger a second too long and then pulled his chair back to give me a little more space.
“Thanks.” Oh God this guy was gorgeous too, in the complete opposite way to Ben though. He had a surfer quality to him, tousled shoulder-length blond hair, tanned skin, blue eyes that were the color of the sky. He looked casually unkempt, not in a dirty hobo way, but in that sexy scruffy way. He was wearing a casual t-shirt, I tried not to make it obvious but I quickly glanced down and saw that he was dressed in a casual pair of shorts … mmmm, big thighs. You know what they say about a man with big thighs … As JJ might say.
I quickly flicked my eyes back up to his, but clearly my glance down hadn’t gone unnoticed. He smiled at me slowly. It oozed sex and charm and I felt my mouth involuntarily flutter at the corners and my lips curled into a smile. And as for that accent, what was it? Italian? French? I couldn’t place it but he could probably tell me I was dying and it would still sound good.
The sound of Ben biting into a slice of toast snapped me out of the blue-eyed moment I was busy having. I looked over at Ben, I’d kissed him last night. Oh crap! And now I was sandwiched between Kissable Lips and Dreamy Blue Eyes Big Thighs. It was all just a bit too awkward for such an early hour in the morning—or any hour. I jumped up and headed to the table where the buffet was and started pouring myself a big cup of coffee. But just as I’d filled my cup, Ben was next to me making himself a slice of toast.
“So you know you kissed me last night?” he whispered into my ear with a smile in his voice.
“Really?” I feigned shock. “I doubt that.”
“No, you definitely did.”
“Sorry, have no recollection of it at all.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I was asleep all night. How could I have kissed you?”
“Nope, you were definitely awake when you kissed me and pulled me onto you in the bed.”
“I did not pull you onto me in the bed.”
“You were all over me, Sera. I was the one that had to hold you back. Practically fight you off.”
“I was not!” I realized I’d said that way too loudly as a few people turned and looked at me—including Blue Eyes. I forced a small chuckle. “I was not aware of that!” I quickly corrected loudly. “How fascinating. Really interesting.” I took my coffee and slid away. Ben put another slice of toast on a plate and slithered after me.
“Stop following me,” I hissed under my breath. “People will start to notice.”
“Only if you admit to kissing me last night.”
“Fine! Fine, I kissed you last night. Okay.”
“And you pulled me onto you on the bed.”
“Yes. Yes. I pulled you onto me on the bed.”
“And it was really good,” he said.
I swallowed and my face flushed a little. I scooped up some pancakes and popped them onto my plate. “It was good,” I mumbled under my breath.
“Sorry, what? I didn’t hear you?” Ben jabbed a fork into one of the pancakes on my plate and put it on his.
“It was really good,” I said a little louder so he could hear this time and then took a sip of coffee.
“I mean, you basically confessed your undying love to me last night, Sera.”
“What?” I half spat my coffee out and then started coughing.
“Too hot to handle?” He gave a tiny chuckle, before striding back off to the table. I quickly glanced behind me and realized that Angie had been watching us. I turned away quickly with a plummeting feeling in my stomach.
34. Collarbone Assaulter …
The shoot that day was hot and relentless. The scenery was amazing, though, and the shots looked great—even if the photographer kept screaming at the model and saying how “disgusting” everything looked. The photographer, Giovanni was his name, also happened to be Mr. Blue Eyes from breakfast.
As the story went, he was some kind of famous, savant-esque photographer from Milano who was apparently a bit mad, but the best money could buy. The mad thing everyone could vouch for, because no one watching him work would say he was a sane man. He screamed and cursed and gesticulated wildly. He threw himself on the floor, took photos while doing a headstand and was now topless, his shirt tied around his head like the Rambo of the photography world. I caught Ben’s attention a few times and rolled my eyes in solidarity as I could see he was fighting the urge not to scream at the guy himself.
Our first location was on the Soussvlie, a dry, barren desert-like land. I’d never seen such a strange, alien landscape before. The ground was made up entirely of dry white mud that had cracked in a million different places giving it an uneven surface. The white landscape was punctuated with the remnants of dead trees. They stood out of the ground like lonely black carcasses. In the distance, the bright red sand dunes rose up. And in the middle of it all, a baby-blue sports car that looked so out of place there it was breathtaking.
What also looked really out of place was Cindy, climbing out of the car wearing a short, tight, gold evening dress. Her legs went on for ten miles, and her thimble-like waist attached itself to two of the perkiest, well-proportioned breasts I’d ever seen. I knew this, because she also had no shame when it came to changing in and out of clothes. I tried hard not to gag as she pouted and jutted out her collarbones while climbing out of the car in her eight-inch heels.
“What the hell is this?” Giovanni screamed and everyone came to a dead halt. We all looked around to see what he was screaming about in a kind of panicked state. The best thing to do was to keep this guy happy.