Lumberjacked

by Alexandria Hunt

  “Yeah, yeah…but I think I see a way,” Melanie giggled. I followed the direction she was looking and saw my favorite tall hunk of a man striding towards us.

  I gasped. “Aaron? How did he know we were here?”

  “I might have contacted him,” Melanie said in a knowing voice with a smile and a wink at me. “Aaron, you showed up!”

  “Of course I did, I couldn’t leave my two favorite Hollywood princesses stranded in the middle of the woods, now, could I?” he smiled, and my heart skipped a beat.

  “Of course not,” Melanie smiled back, sneaking me a sidelong glance. “Reagan, isn’t it nice of him to come get us?”

  “So nice,” I replied woodenly. I had to keep my distance in spite of the immediate reaction I had when I was near him. It was ridiculous how attracted I was to him, I couldn’t lie to myself.

  “Do you want me to carry this?” Aaron asked Melanie as he reached for her luggage. He didn’t even look at me, and my heart sank at his blatant refusal to meet my eyes.

  “Sure,” Melanie replied cheerily, but she gave me a look behind his back as he walked away. “What the fuck?” she mouthed at me.

  I shrugged my shoulders and trailed behind, trying not to stare at his fine, fine ass as he took his long strides back to his pickup truck.

  I wasn’t successful though, I was mesmerized and almost ran into the back of him when he came to a halt.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled and once again he ignored me outright. I glared at him when he wasn’t looking and made Melanie climb up in the front of the truck. I slid into the backseat and struggled to find my seatbelt.

  “It’s probably fallen behind the seat,” Aaron said when he noticed. They were both belted up and waiting for me so we could go.

  I fumbled and couldn’t find it, slid my fingers in between the seat and the back of it, trying to find the belt.

  My cheeks flared red, and I caught his eye in the rearview mirror. “It’s okay, I’m sure you’re a good driver,” I told him, narrowing mine.

  “I’m not going to take that risk,” he sighed, undoing his own seatbelt. He reached around and began to move his hands along the crack between the seat. I heard his sharp intake of breath as his hand brushed against my behind, and I wiggled away as if burned.

  His touch, just a simple touch, through all those layers of winter gear…damn…even that made me quiver with anticipation. I longed for him to climb over the seat, kick Melanie out, and take me right there in his truck.

  For a moment, our eyes met, and I saw my own naked lust reflected back at me in his. I was trembling as he pulled the seat belt out, handed it to me, and cleared his throat.

  “Uh, there it is,” he said softly. “Buckle up and I’ll take you back to my place to cool off. I mean, you know, get you out of those clothes. Damn, I mean let you take off your arctic gear, it’s still summer here, you know. You don’t need sled dogs or parkas quite yet.”

  I swallowed, my throat dry and resistant, and clicked the seatbelt closed. “Thanks,” I replied. “I wasn’t prepared I guess. And yeah, it’s hot in here.”

  He turned away, breaking our gaze, and I caught Melanie looking at me with a frown. “Seriously? Just bang him already,” she mouthed, flitting a look pointedly at Aaron.

  I followed Aaron’s tact and blatantly ignored her, instead watching the scenery go by as he drove us through the quaint town and up a winding country road to his place.

  I didn’t even protest though, like I knew I should have. I didn’t tell him to take us to a hotel.

  As much as I wanted to keep him at arm’s length, I couldn’t stop myself from playing this dangerous game. I couldn’t keep away from him.

  I had no idea what to expect, but I’d half prepared myself for some dingy little log hut in the middle of the bush.

  What I hadn’t expected was the beautifully crafted log home he drove up to. It was surrounded by forest up a long driveway, but the lawn was beautifully trimmed, the gardens were landscaped, and I could see a large greenhouse full of plants off to one side.

  The house itself looked just like a smaller version of the Kaslo Lodge I’d seen in photos. It was gorgeous, something people in LA would pay a few thousand a night to rent in Colorado.

  “Wow, I love your place,” I said softly as we got out of the truck.

  He grabbed our things and laughed. “I’ll bet you were expecting some hillbilly shack, weren’t you?”

  “No, not at all,” I lied, rolling my eyes at Melanie.

  Whatever I’d been expecting from Aaron, be it the house or the man himself, he continued to surprise me.

  And that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

  * * *

  “This is the place, I think we need to film the show here,” Melanie said after Aaron and the real estate agent walked us through the log mansion.

  Aaron’s house was gorgeous, a sprawling log home on fifty acres of wooded land, but this one was over the top. It looked like the lovechild of a Vale ski chalet on steroids and an Old Hollywood mansion.

  The house had eleven bedrooms, a formal living room, a chef’s kitchen, and a smaller prep kitchen, an indoor pool, servant’s quarters and a private screening room. There was more than enough space for the cast and crew of Lumberjacked, and enough room to keep away from Aaron as the show started filming and he had to start flirting with the girls.

  I didn’t think I’d be able to watch that in person, so I planned on hiding out in the editing room a lot and watching it go down after the fact. I’d have trouble not shrieking and scratching the eyes out of every hot blonde we’d chosen if Aaron so much as looked at them.

  I’d already resigned myself to the fact that Melanie would have to take the lead on this production. Melanie was my right-hand person for most shows, but this time I’d let her take on a few more duties, like directing shots and setting up dates and such.

  “Yeah, I agree,” I said, turning to the agent. “Get the contract sent to my assistant, and we’ll have the deposit in by tomorrow end of day.”

  “Sounds great,” she beamed. She was practically wagging her tail if she had one. I supposed the real estate business wasn’t exactly booming around here, and her commission would be a nice slice of what we were paying to rent the mansion for the month. “I can’t wait for this to all start, I seriously can’t believe you’re bringing Hollywood to our little town. Woodbridge has never been this busy. And Aaron of all people, our most eligible bachelor being showcased to the whole world! So exciting!”

  I turned to her with a smirk. “Oh yeah, your town’s most eligible bachelor is going to become the world’s most eligible bachelor in a few short weeks.”

  Melanie led her away to hammer out the details of the contract while I hung back to enjoy the view.

  “It’s magnificent, isn’t it?” Aaron said from behind me.

  I jumped and squeaked at the sound. I’d assumed he’d gone off with Melanie. “I-it is, yeah, you can see clear across the whole valley.”

  “My family cut the logs for this place,” he told me proudly as he stood next to me. “I think about that when I wander around here—which one of these beams my great, great grandfather cut himself.”

  “That’s amazing, such a family connection,” I replied. “I’ll be sure to bring that up in the show.”

  “It’s not necessary,” he said. “I was just making small talk, not trying to show off for your program.”

  His brows furrowed together, and I hated how gruff he was around me now. It confused me on one level, but on another, it made it easier to keep my distance…so in a way, he was doing both of us a favor.

  “I didn’t mean it that way,” I replied. “Thank you for sharing your family history with me.”

  “It’s all about the show with you, isn’t it?” he grumbled.

  I was about to retort, to defend myself, but what could I really say? It had to be all about the TV show for me, I had no other choice. Not only was this going to keep my career moving forward, b
ut it was going to prove a lot of people wrong about me. Nick especially.

  “I should check on Melanie,” I said briskly before turning and walking away quickly before I said anything I was going to regret. He was so frustrating and so undeniably hot. This was going to be a tough four weeks, but I knew I could get through it.

  If I could keep my eyes on the prize and ignore my towering attraction for the brooding center of my program.

  10

  AARON

  “Check the mail and come up every second day or so to make sure everything is in order,” I told the neighbor’s teenaged boy, Sage. He was my usual house sitter, and I trusted him. Sort of. I mean, as much as I trusted anyone with my house.

  He hadn’t burned it down or destroyed it the last time he’d watched it, though, so he was okay in my books.

  “Can I come see you on set some time?” he asked, his eyes glittering at the thought of meeting all the hot girls who had been chosen for the show.

  “Yeah, sure. Text me when you want to come over, and I’ll let you know if it’s good.”

  “Oh god, that’s awesome. Thanks so much, Mister Remington.”

  “Call me Aaron, Sage, it’s never been Mister.”

  “But you’re on TV now, I just thought, you know.”

  “I’m not on TV yet,” I chuckled, “and it changes nothing, alright?”

  “Sure, Aaron,” Sage replied, but I could see it in his eyes, that glassy look he was giving me, like I was some kind of damn celebrity or something.

  I’d seen it from more than a few people around town lately, and now that I was heading over to spend my first night in the bachelor house, it was even more intense.

  Thank god my own family wasn’t impressed, they’d ribbed me as usual last night at Mom’s dinner. We tried to meet a couple times a month at my mom’s place, but I’d be sequestered in the Kaslo Lodge for the next four weeks, so they’d gone overboard with the jokes to make up for me missing the next dinner.

  My family could be jerks at times, but we all loved each other fiercely. That was part of the reason I was hiding my younger brother’s betrayal, I couldn’t let them find out how much he’d screwed us and almost ruined our Mom.

  I was the oldest, so it was my duty to shelter them from the truth.

  Unless he fucked up again—then all bets were off, in my opinion.

  I gave the spare keys to Sage, grabbed my small bag, and hopped into my truck.

  The drive over there was almost surreal, that I would be so close to home and yet so far away, like I was traversing the landscape into another world.

  It would be an adventure, that was for sure. I had watched a few Bachelor-style shows on YouTube, and I don’t know if I would have signed up, had I known the kind of shit I was setting myself up for.

  Girls were catty, competitive, and fucking insane, it seemed, and all that was like gasoline to the bachelor’s flame. And by flame, I mean the fact that he kissed or fucked them all.

  I wasn’t exactly the virginal type, but the production team would soon be learning that wasn't my style at all. I wasn’t going to strut around like a stud in the middle of a herd of mares, I would find the one girl who repelled me the least and stick with her.

  If Reagan let me. Or if my heart let me, if I was honest. It was still mixed up, even after that stupid article about her and her ex, Nick.

  Nick fucking Evans. I’d done a little reconnaissance on him during my online explorations as well. He was quite the Hollywood bad boy—meaning he was a pig. They’d dated for a while and had ended things last year sometime. The timeline wasn't really clear, and it seemed half the gossip site just made shit up on the fly.

  The one thing they all seemed to agree on was that Nick and Reagan were rekindling their romance.

  Along with the dog park sighting, it had been rumoured that Nick was kept busy all weekend long by a curvy girl with long, thick, blonde hair and a little dog.

  I gripped the steering wheel and clenched my jaw all the way up the driveway to the Lodge. I sat in my truck for a moment after I cut the ignition, just to give myself a moment to collect my thoughts and regain composure.

  I wasn’t one to come between a Hollywood princess and her pretty boy prince after all.

  Taking a deep breath, I mounted the stairs and stepped into the spotlight.

  * * *

  “Now we just need you to stroke Tiffany’s hair next to the fire. You just had your very first one-on-one dinner with a girl, and there needs to be a connection,” Melanie told me as I stared at the stranger sitting next to me on the sofa.

  “Just pretend I’m somebody you’re interested in,” Tiffany told me with a giggle. “I mean, we’re both here just to further our careers and not actually find love, right?”

  “Yeah, sure, sweetheart,” I said with my mouth set in a grim line. It was week two of shooting, and all the YouTube videos in the world couldn’t have prepared me for the unreality of reality TV.

  Every second of every day was carefully scripted, and the only alone time I got these days was late at night, after all the cameras retreated.

  We’d already done a few axe ceremonies where I’d chosen the first girls to literally give the axe to. Melanie and the crew had come up with it when they’d realized getting live roses this far north at this time of the year wasn’t an option.

  I’d chosen an incredibly spoiled girl from New York with a visible wedding ring tan on her finger as the first one off the show. Apparently, she’d slipped through the background screening somehow and was really married to some poor schlub back in LA. She and I had been like oil and water, so axing her was easy as pie.

  Since then my decisions had been completely random. Basically anyone who wasn’t Reagan was fair game.

  Speaking of my current obsession, I still hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Reagan, but I swore I could smell her perfume in the hallways at times. I knew she was around, and although I was grateful she wasn’t a continual distraction or part of the team coaching me on how to seduce these girls, it drove me fucking nuts to not see her.

  I was moody as hell, moodier than usual, according to Melanie. I believe the term she used was “a grumpy fuck-face,” but only when she thought I couldn’t hear her.

  “Come on, Aaron, I know you’ve gotten laid in the past, how did you manage that? Do you need me to show you how to do it?” Melanie smirked and the crew snickered.

  “I know what I’m doing,” I mumbled as I touched Tiffany’s hair. I swear I could feel Reagan’s eyes burning into me. It wasn’t so much that she was watching me alone in her little editing booth, it was that she had time to analyze me, to critique me and find me lacking next to her Hollywood boyfriend.

  And that was what angered me. It felt one-sided somehow, like she was smugly judging me and finding me inadequate.

  And who the hell was she to judge me? Miss LA Princess, Hollywood royalty? What the hell did she know about the real world? She was superficial, a seasoned actress, more concerned with parading around the city with her boyfriend draped on her arm than living in reality.

  It got my back up, and I decided I’d damned well give her something to watch.

  I leaned in and stroked Tiffany’s hair like I meant it. I whispered something dirty in her ear and watched her eyes widen in surprise and arousal. I moved closer and breathed onto her flesh, watched her cheeks flush, and felt her heart rate speed up under my hand on her collarbone.

  I brushed her hair back and nipped her earlobe gently. I swirled my tongue around the shell of her ear, and kissed her softly, letting my beard tickle her erotically. She gasped and arched herself towards me, falling into my arms. I couldn’t help but wrap them around her and let her close her eyes and go limp against my chest.

  I bent and kissed her forehead, traced her lips with the tip of my finger and trailed it along her flushed skin to the back of her head, where I cradled her and stared at her face like I was in love.

  I waited a moment, then looked up. “How
was that?”

  The crew was staring at me, each one with their jaw hanging open, strange expressions on their faces.

  “That was, uh,” Melanie gulped and frowned. “That was perfect, why did it take you so damned long to bring it?”

  “I’m not an actor,” I replied steadily, amused at her own flushed expression of desire. “This shit doesn’t come easy to me unless I mean it.”

  “So you meant that?” Tiffany asked breathily, looking up at me with hope shining in her eyes.

  “Sorry, sweetheart,” I replied, smiling to soften the blow. “I’m not a big fan of city girls, and I said it doesn’t come easy, not that it doesn’t come at all. I can still bring it, it just takes more shoving for me.”

  “Well I’m going to keep shoving you, Aaron,” Melanie grinned. “That was pure television gold, my friend. You’re going to make the studio very happy.”

  “I’m glad somebody’ll be happy,” I grumbled, immediately sinking back into my grumpy persona. I was pleased with myself, though, and thinking about Reagan watching that little performance alone in the dark brought me a great deal of satisfaction.

  I released Tiffany; she stood on shaky legs and brushed her dress straight. When she walked away, she seemed unsteady. Man, I knew I had a certain effect on women, but didn’t think it was that immediate or powerful.

  If only I had that effect on the one woman I was interested in.

  Life was funny that way, I guess.

  11

  REAGAN

  “He was on fire today!” Melanie exclaimed when we sat down to review the day’s film. “He was like a totally different guy, I think there’s got to be something between him and that Tiffany girl.”

  I narrowed my eyes and grimaced. “I doubt that, he’s such a cold fish to everyone on the show.” And myself, I was thinking. I hadn't seen Aaron that much since filming had started almost two weeks ago, but his presence was everywhere I went in the house. It drove me crazy, knowing he was every inch of the space I walked through late at night when I knew he was safely sleeping in his room.