“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’ll 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.
He’s been out here for a while, so there’s this thin sheen of sweat on him, making his skin glisten in the sun. It makes him look more like a model than he usually does, and it also makes me want to lick him from stem to stern. His bright blue swim trunks aren’t doing much to discourage that desire either; they show off his perfect ass, and his muscular thighs.
The last time I saw River he was holding a man up against a wall, but here, now…I kind of want him to pin me to one.
“Hey,” he says, pulling me out of my horny daydream.
His hungry eyes linger on me, making me shiver. There’s naked lust written all over his face, and no cameras around here to fool. Just the two of us, the air crackling with tension and want, a powder keg ready to explode.
He walks over to me with long, sure strides and comes to a stop right in my personal space. It’s closer than we’ve been in a week, but still not close enough. His arms move slowly toward me, like he can’t figure out where he wants to touch. He settles on gliding the backs of his fingers down my sides, and this cocky smile makes its way onto his gorgeous face when I sway on the spot.
“Are you trying to kill me looking like that?” he asks, voice low and rumbling.
I smile. “No. I’d very much like to keep you alive.”
He moves in closer, to kiss me or to say something, I don’t know. He’s interrupted by Casey yelling at us from the sliding glass door
