ROMANCE: The Bad Boy Meeting

by Kevin, Amanda

  I pushed the door open and back into the room, locked the door and looked around me. I was in a small study. There were mostly book shelves but there was a desk and three large chairs around a fire place. I ran for them, grabbed one and dragged it towards the door. The men on the other side of the door banged against it.

  “Someone go get me a fucking hammer!” One of them shouted. I inhaled sharply as I pulled the chair in front of the door. I took slow breaths trying to calm my racing heart as I looked around the room. I was looking for a china cabinet. There. In the corner.

  I ran towards it. I heard the first pound of a hammer.

  I didn’t have time to pick this lock.

  I grabbed the knife from my pocket, stepped away from it and threw my knife at it as hard as I could. I watched as glass shattered onto the ground.

  “Get this fucking door open!” I heard the old man shout. I raced to the china cabinet as I heard them breath through the door.

  “Get her!”

  “AJ!”

  My head snapped towards the window. Ken stood there staring at me. He flashed me a grin. “Looks like you’re having all the fun. Get the necklace, let’s get out of here!”

  I reached out for the black and white necklace. I froze as I stared down at the symbol on it. Oh my gods above and below.

  “AJ!”

  Right. I snapped back into reality. I looked behind me. They were almost in side; the man pulled a gun out and aimed it at me.

  I moved just in time, rushing for the window and jumping out. Ken grabbed me as we both ducked down.

  “Their outside! Go, go, go!” I heard the men run towards the front door.

  “Let’s go.” Ken pulled me to my feet and we hightailed it to the car.

  The urge to laugh overwhelmed me and I wasn’t sure why, but I let my laugh escape as I heard the door open behind me. I heard three shots fired as we made our way past the gate and down the driveway.

  My heart pounded in my chest as I slid into the driver side seat, gunned the engine and speed away from the house as three men jogged down the driveway.

  I dropped the necklace down in his lap suddenly sober. “You said this was a family heirloom?”

  “Yes.”

  “So…”

  “Yes. My family was one of their first five.” The first five werewolf families in the United States. They were pretty much gone now. “My grandfather was murdered because of this necklace 50 years ago. My mother always wanted to find it and steal it back but…” I didn’t need him to finish the sentence to know what he would say. Instead I reached out and took his hand in mine. I squeezed his hand gently.

  “It’s yours now. It’s back with its rightful owners.”

  “And it’s all thanks to you AJ.”

  My cheeks burned.

  He pulled his hand away from me and sipped the necklace on, a deep breath escaping him as he closed his eyes and leaned against the back of his seat. “What do you say; do you want to hang out here a little longer or just head home?”

  “Well, I’m not sure us hanging out here is a good idea. Those guys will be on the lookout for us.”

  “Good point. You know, I have a friend who has been looking for something.… Maybe you can help him with it. He’s managed to track one down but it’s in Paris.”

  I almost lost control of the car. “Paris?”

  “Yea, we could get him to meet us there. If you want, or do you have enough clothes for that kind of trip? What am I talking about, you just made $7000. You can afford to do some shopping in Paris.”

  I stared blinking out the window as we pulled into the hotel and I came to a stop in a parking spot. I turned to Ken. “What do you want to do?”

  He grinned. “I want to take you to Paris.”

  BRIDE AND THE BILLIONAIRE BEAR

  Phase

  Part one

  Blythe’s jaw swung open as she let out a massive sneeze, little driblets of snot coming out of her nose and mouth. She huffed out a breath of annoyance, staring at her palm, which was now streaked with the ruby red of her lipstick. She pursed her lips as she wriggled her fingers. There was nowhere for her to clean herself. Inside of that pristine limo, the only thing even partially resembling cloth was the thirteen thousand dollar, jet black dress she was wearing. It seemed sacrilegious to purposely wipe anything on that. “Ca—“

  She turned to her boyfriend, who sat a mere foot away from her. His knees were turned towards the door, while his delicate fingers were wrapped around the door handle, as if he were ready to escape at any moment. His plump, pink lips bobbed up and down, colliding with each other as he mumbled things to himself…

  “Scene 27…. Line three…. Shot five….”

  Blythe cocked her head to the side. She hadn’t seen this in him in a while. Behind him, they drove past the empire state building. She smirked to herself. It was so unremarkable.

  “… what about the hairbrushes? Shit the hairbrushes. Connaire. It was sitting right there…. It’s a flaw…” He started biting his nails.

  Blythe reached over to him, grabbing his hand and placing it in her lap. “What about the hairbrushes?”

  Caius’s hazel eyes flashed wide, his head giving a little shake because he had not realized he was saying those things out loud. His broad chest inflated with his breath, but stayed there as his lips stretched into an eye-twinkling smile and he placed his hand on her cheek. “I’m sorry, love.”

  Blythe put her hand over his. Even though he’d been in the United States for about three-fourths of his life, it was nice to hear that his Irish accent hadn’t gone anywhere. “You’re nervous. It’s understandable.”

  He nodded, a lock of his hair shivering with the movement, and let out his breath.

  That’s when Blythe leaned over, planting a kiss on his cheek. “But you shouldn’t be. This film is brilliant.”

  “Only because you starred in it.” Caius pulled away to look Blythe in the eye.

  Blythe’s face flushed red. “No,” She mumbled. “Because you directed it.”

  Caius chuckled. “I love it when you lie to me.” And with that, he kissed her.

  One touch of his lips and Blythe wanted to mount him right inside of that limo. She didn’t care if Chris, the driver, would hear them rolling around in the back seat. She needed him to be inside of her, needed to be as close to him as possible right then and there.

  But then the limo screeched to a stop.

  Even through the tinted windows, Blythe could hear the ruckus of hundreds of people crowded around a small red carpet. The small explosions of camera clicks punctuated the noise in the air. Blythe squinted at the bright lights, her heart fluttering a little at all the sound and excitement. She watched as Chris stepped out of the driver’s seat and rounded the front of the car. Caius came out first and the crowd’s cheers grew at this exposure. The door hung open as he extended a hand out to Blythe.

  She looked up at him, taking in his inviting smile, his twinkling eyes, his long ponytail of hair hanging just off of his shoulder. She felt a flutter of excitement as he grabbed her hand and guided her out of the limo. As soon as her loubitons hit the fuzz of that carpet, a light flashed so bright she couldn’t see a thing for a good couple of seconds. The noise rushed in soon after and her veins coursed hot with adrenalin. She was more than ready to show her work to the world.

  The line of fans came first.

  “Blythe!”

  “Oh my God!”

  “I love you!”

  “I’m gonna cry!”

  It was a strange thing feeling this kind of emotion from people who would probably never meet her. It was strange being told that she was an inspiring performer when half the time she had no idea what she was doing. Half of the time, she was leaning on Caius for support: like right at that moment.

  He wrapped his arm around her like a small cage, claiming ownership and yet protecting her from everything else. She felt as tall as a goddess with those heals and that dress and yet, somehow, h
e was always bigger than her. Her lips stretched into a smile as she let her excitement swamp her nerves.

  She was so lucky.

  “See. This isn’t so bad.” She whispered into his ear. At her height, she hardly had to stretch to reach it.

  He nodded. “Only because you’re here.”

  That intoxicating voice made her swoon still…. Four years into their relationship. “Oh I love you, Caius.” She hissed.

  He nodded. “I’m gonna do something. Just go along with it.”

  Before Blythe had a chance to question any of this, Caius dropped to one knee right in front of her. For a split second, in the beginnings of things, she felt exposed and a flash of agitation crossed her face. But then she looked down at him, and it all started to make sense. He pulled out a small velvet box and opened it. A strange hush descended on the crowd of people closest to them.

  Blythe realized what was happening. Behind those hazel eyes, there was a man deeply uncomfortable with this; an undeniable authority that cringed at the thought of getting on one knee in front of anyone.

  As Blythe looked down at him, she felt like the only one around. The only one that mattered. So, she said, “Yes,” a girlish giggle coming out of her mouth.

  He shot up from the carpet, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her off of the ground. More cameras. More cheers. Blythe felt like a princess in his arms. She couldn’t believe she had actually made it. She was so happy about the massive rock on her ring finger that she didn’t even realize that the intimate crowd in the movie theater didn’t even get the joke in the first scene of the film. Nevertheless, they got through the premier with enough laughter, applause and tears for a lifetime. They went home feeling more than accomplished.

  The next thing Blythe knew, they were getting calls from all of the major TV networks. Months later, when their wedding planning had already reached full swing and she had landed another job, she somehow managed to fit time in both of their schedules for a Good Morning America interview.

  She sat in the high chair in her semi-casual attire, staring at Robin Roberts with a smile plastered onto her face. She could sense Caius’s disapproval: they had been up since a little after five that morning and he was more than exhausted.

  “So, tell me about that ring!”

  Blythe blinked twice. She couldn’t understand how a person could be so freaking excited that early. “Oh…” she lifted her ring finger.

  Robert’s almond eyes went wide at this as she sucked in her cheeks. “This is absolutely exquisite. Can we get a camera on this?”

  Some guy zoomed in on the camera he was holding.

  Blythe could see Caius smiling out of the corner of her eye.

  “Tell us about it?”

  Blythe sucked in a deep breath. It seemed odd talking about her wedding ring with another woman when her fiancé was mere feet away from her, almost blasphemous. But that was the job, so, “It’s a vintage white diamond.”

  Roberts raised an eyebrow and turned to the audience, the whole thing horribly staged. “We actually did some research and found…”

  Oh God. Blythe never wanted to know what Caius had determined was an appropriate amount of money to spend on her.

  “… It is valued at a staggering, 2.4 million dollars.”

  Blythe’s heart skipped a beat.

  Wow.

  “So tell me what led to this whole romance? How did you two meet?”

  Blythe looked at Caius. It was time for him to do some of the work.

  He glanced at her before saying, “I met her when I lived in Portland. I did mostly independent films at that point in my life and she did mostly modeling.”

  That eyebrow on Roberts’s forehead went up yet again. “A model?”

  Blythe nodded. “I was the epitome of the pageant girl.” Then she stopped talking. She hated that part of her life.

  So Caius picked up. “Anyway, she auditioned for one of my films and I fell in love with her.”

  Roberts leaned into him, her eyes wide with infatuation.

  It was something Blythe had become accustomed to: watching other women swoon at him right in front of her with such openness.

  “Just like that?”

  Caius lied, “Of course.”

  It wasn’t, “just like that.” They had hated each other at first. They hated each other for years. But then they needed each other…and then they loved each other.

  ***

  Blythe pretended to yawn. Their private jet had started its descent into Portland and her ears were popping again. The low murmur of voices from the camera crew in the back of the plane drifted towards her over the roar of the aircraft rushing through the sky. Across from her sat Caius, his eyes buried in the rough manuscript of a new script. Working. Always working.

  She let out a sigh to herself, pressing her back against the designer leather and pursing her lips. Her stomach flopped about nervously in her gut. She was terrified of staying with her mother after three years of ignoring her calls. They had agreed on a small reality special shaped around their love story. $3 million to start, then royalties on top of that. It was like getting payed for good publicity. Yet, as the plane took a nose dive and she got much closer to home than she had been in a long time, she couldn’t help but to regret her decision.

  She felt a firm hand on her knee and looked up to find Caius staring down at her, his manuscript cast aside and his eyes wide and focused on only her.

  “I’m excited to meet your mother,” He said.

  It was simple. Elegant. And perfect. Blythe smiled. Suddenly, she wasn’t nervous anymore.

  The pilot eased their plane onto the runway of the small private airport just outside of Portland. Before the aircraft had even reached a full stop, the camera men were preparing their equipment. Blythe unbuckled her belt and stood up, stretching her hands over her head. The last, sorry conversation she had had with her mother was more than depressing: her mother crying over the phone, asking for more money and more money and more money; guilting Blythe into writing her check after check.

  As she descended the steps of the jet, she couldn’t help but feel a little nostalgic. There was her mother, looking tiny on the giant runway just twenty feet away from her. She slipped the hood off of her yellow parka, revealing a full head of black hair streaked with gray. It rustled in the wind.

  “Mom.” Blythe murmured to the sound of cameras clicking over and over again. Her eyes stung with tears in spite of it all.

  “Oh B.” she said, as if they were long lost lovers.

  Blythe could feel the warm salty liquid of her mother’s tears seeping into her cardigan. She resented her mother for it, hated the fact that she would even deign to cry after all that she had done and said to her.

  “Blythe?” Caius’s voice slithered into her ear. She could feel his hand on the small of her back.

  Blythe stepped back, her hand clasping his. They were like two magnets, coming together as if the rules of nature had already necessitated it. “This is Caius O’Neal…”

  Her mother nodded eagerly. “Right. I know.”

  And there they were, those big, glossy eyes.

  Blythe vomited a little in her mouth. “I think it might rain.” She said in a short voice as she watched the two of them shake hands.

  Her mother cleared her throat. “I’ll take you home, then.”

  Blythe resented that. Home? Nevertheless, she nodded at the camera men behind her. They gathered their things and followed the three of them to the rows of cars awaiting them. The oldest one; the biggest one; a forest green jeep with faded paint, was the one Blythe went straight to. It was her mother’s car, where she had practically lived while her mother drove her around, forcing her into this pageant and that in the hopes that she would become successful. Her mother betted on Blythe as the only justification of her failures as a wife and career woman.

  Soon enough, they had driven through the narrow back roads, the dirt paths and through a small community of houses. Th
e cars piled into the col-de-sac at the end of the street. Her mother cut the engine as Blythe jumped out. She couldn’t tell whether it was the anticipation of being inside of her childhood home, or the utter inability to spend another moment with her mother that propelled her forward. Either way, she needed to get inside.

  Her mother’s hands shook as she unlocked the door.

  Soon enough all seven of them had poured into the small front hall. Blythe glanced around. Everything looked exactly the same, albeit a little faded and a little smaller.

  “I, uh, fixed up your room for you.” She said, her eyes illuminated by the red light of a camera.

  Blythe nodded, grabbing Caius’s hand and leading him up to her bedroom. She pushed the door open, her heart swelling at the sight of it all: a queen sized bed covered in a cozy, but faded looking quilt. A wall covered in medals and another wall covered in shelves, which housed trophies. A Miss Oregon sash hanging on a hook right beside her window. A dresser covered in all of her old favorite drugstore cosmetic brands. A bowl of sponge rollers. An old mug.

  “Wow.” Caius said.

  Blythe took one look at his raised eyebrow and burst into laughter. It was like the two of them had stepped inside of a time machine. “You have no idea how bizaar this is for me.” She whispered.

  He wrapped his arms around her, planting a kiss on her forehead. “No. I think I do.” With that, he shifted his gaze to the lone camera man that had managed to fit himself into the room.

  He nodded and backed out of the room.

  Blythe smirked at this. It was something she couldn’t have ever accomplished. Caius had a talent for getting people to do what he wanted them to, even if he never verbalized it out loud.

  When she turned back to look at Caius, his deep frown and furrowed brow wiped the smile off of her face. She wrapped her arms around his waist. “What’s up with you?”

  He looked down at her, his eyes widening as if he was being made aware of her presence for the first time. “What do you mean?”

  Blythe nudged him. “You’re being odd.”