Page 12 of Vegas Love (Love 1)
"Heyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"
Still keeps running.
A stitch in my side causes me to stop and catch my breath.
I'm getting ready to yell at the top of my lungs when he stops.
Turns around.
And, ohmifuckingosh, it's him.
I think.
Maybe?
Most of the night is so blurry I don't remember, but I do remember how he looked in the morning.
"Well, well," he says, strutting up to me. "Long time no see."
There's sweat running down the middle of his chest. I find myself mesmerized by it and watch it roll between his pecs and down through his well-defined abs.
And his abs are as delicious as I remember. I want to have a picnic on them.
"What are you doing here?" he asks me.
"What are you doing on my beach? Are you stalking me?" I accuse.
"Uh, I think you're the one screaming like a maniac all the way down the beach."
"You heard me?"
He shrugs, pulling the towel from around his neck and patting it across his chest.
God, I want to be that towel.
"What are you doing here?" I ask again, mostly because I can't think of anything else to say.
He points down at his tan, shirtless, buff-ass body and says, "Running? What are you doing here, Hotass?"
"I live here. And I've been trying to find you and no one knows a Ben Smith. I even looked at the guest list."
He smirks at me. "Missed me so much you're going over the guest list? I bet there was no Ashley Simmons on it either."
I fold my arms across my chest and huff, "Why were you at the wedding?"
"Because I was invited," he replies smugly.
"Harper and Maddox don't know who you are."
He grabs my hand and looks pointedly at the ring on my finger. Why the hell did I put it on this morning?
"I'm glad to see you're still wearing it." He holds his hand up and flashes a wedding band. "Me too."
"What the hell is up with that? Why would you spend like a quarter million dollars on a ring for me?"
"Two rings, actually. I got you both a wedding and an engagement ring." He touches my face tenderly. I wasn't prepared for it. "You deserved the perfect rings."
I back away from him, all of a sudden feeling pissed. "Tell me your real name."
"If you wouldn't have ditched me in Vegas, you'd already know my name."
Smart ass.
"I panicked," I tell him.
"Your problem."
Carter Crawford sticks his head out of a nearby house and yells, "Bacon's ready, bro."
Bro? It sinks in. Why he looks familiar.
"Are you his brother!?"
He shrugs.
I point my finger at him. "Tell me your name!"
"Cash Crawford. My parents saved the best for last."
I punch him in the chest.
"Ouch," he mutters.
I throw my arms up in the air and start screaming and stomping in the sand. "What the fuck? Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I can't even fucking believe this. Fuck me!"
He grabs my arm and puts his smug face close to mine. Even though he's sweaty, he still smells good.
"You wanna fuck, Hotass, all you have to do is ask."
"I don't want to fuck you. I want to fucking kill you! Why didn't you tell me you were my agent's brother? And we were on Carter's plane and you never said a word!" I throw my hands out to my sides. "For god sakes, I've kissed Carter."
"I won't hold that against you. It's hard to resist the Crawford charm."
"How many of you are there?"
"Just Cade, Carter, our sister, Chloe, and me. And, thankfully, you didn't do anything but kiss Carter, because that would have been awkward at Christmas."
Oh, he makes me mad. "But you told me you're from Seattle!"
"You asked where I lived. I'm from here originally, but I live in Seattle. But don't worry, I won't be here long."
My face drops, the anger sliding out of my body as disappointment takes over. "You're leaving?"
"I'm getting my own place."
"Where?"
"Not sure. I haven't gotten that far yet."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you said you wanted a no-names, one-night thing."
"And you were okay with that?" I huff.
"Yeah, sure. Why not?"
I look at him with disgust. "You're a pig."
"Takes two to have a roll in the mud, Hotass."
I point toward myself. "Take a look at my face. Can you see how pissed I am?"
"I see how cute you are." He leans to the side and looks behind me. "And you have a mighty fine--"
"Oh my god. Stop looking at my ass!"
He gives me a sexy smirk and rakes his teeth across his lip. "Would you rather I spank it?"
I grab my hair and stomp my feet in the sand. I cannot even believe this.
"Your little tantrum is turning me on. All that pent up anger. I want to help you release it."
I exhale audibly and internally chastise myself for behaving like an idiot. "Why didn't you come find me?"
"Because you left. I was crushed." He holds his hand over his heart. "Besides, you didn't tell me your real name either."
"Oh, like you didn't know."
"I need to go eat my bacon. When you calm down and want to have a civilized conversation, let me know. I'll be around."
He grabs my face, kisses my forehead, and then turns around and walks away from me.
The kiss makes me melt. His walking away pisses me off.
I spin on my heels to march back toward my house.
But I can hear him laughing at me.
And I can still see the smug look on his devastatingly handsome face when he saw I was wearing the ring.
He calls out, "You like bacon?"
I turn back around and walk toward him. "No, I don't want--wait, did you tell your brothers about us?"
"Nope. I don't kiss and tell."
I stand close to him. I can't help it. Part of me wants to wrap my arms around him and kiss him. The other part of me wants to punch him in the face.
He doesn't wait for me to decide. He grabs my hand and leads me to the house.
And damn if I don't like the forceful way in which he does it.
When we walk into his brother's gleaming stainless kitchen, he points at me and says, "I picked up a straggler for breakfast. She says she knows you."
"Hey, Ash," Carter says.
"I saw him running--thought he was you. Realized he wasn't and then you asked about bacon and--"
"You thought I was Carter?" Cash says. "I'm way better looking than him, not to mention bigger."
Carter swats his brother on the back of the head then flashes a bicep. "No way my little brother is bigger than me. What do you think, Ash?"
"Uh." I gulp, thinking about a different part of Cash. "It's hard to tell. Cash is a little taller--"
"Only because he has on running shoes," Carter counters. "Anyway, you two should have met at the wedding, but Cash's flight got delayed and he didn't make it. Hell, I think I might still be hungover from the wedding." He points to me. "She kept making me do shots." He lowers his voice. "I heard about you and Zach. Sorry."
For a second, I'm like Zach who?
I look at Cash shoveling huge bites of an omelet into his mouth.
"My brother will probably be seeing you around. He started working for Cade."
"Oh, did he?" I say, suddenly fuming again. "Hey, thanks for the bacon. I have to get going--get on set. Uh, nice to meet you--um, what was your name again?"
Cash gives me a devilish grin. "You can just call me Sexy."
Carter says, "His name is Cash."
I shake his hand. "Very nice to meet you, Cash."
My Business
Cash
I go to the set right after breakfast and meet the director and most of the staff. Ashlyn is in hair and makeup, so I don't see her until she's on sta
ge doing an emotional scene where she's comforting one of the other mutants. She tells him about her life and how she's been on her own since she was a teen. How even though his mother died recently, he knew what love felt like.
After reading about her personal life, I can't help but wonder if the emotion she puts into the scene is motivated by her real life.
Watching a movie being made is interesting and tedious, with the multiple takes and different variations of the same scene. I'm also learning a new language. To me, blocking always involved hitting another guy with football pads on. But here it means something entirely different. It's planning out the actors' movement on stage in relationship to the lighting and camera angles.
I also get to see what it's like when they shoot in front of a green screen. During the emotional scene in the movie, there will be an attack on the mutant's hideout, so she and the other actor have to pretend there is an explosion behind them. The movie's assistant producer seems to have taken me under her wing and has been sitting next to me all day explaining everything in great detail. She may be flirting with me too.
Doesn't matter though.
