by Dani April
Just then Peaches let out a shrill bark and Cream gave a little yip at her side. This stilled the writhing bodies on the bed. Chrissie caught Zach’s eye.
“Oh my God,” he said, and Chrissie could only stare at him. There was a liquid pop as his dick came out of the girl’s pussy. He struggled to sit up on the bed.
“Chrissie, baby!” Zach’s voice was pleading. “I know this looks bad for me, but honestly, I can explain.”
Chrissie was too stunned to move or speak.
“Hi, Chrissie,” the raven-haired beauty on the bed called, not bothering to cover her nakedness.
Zack climbed off the bed. He was still hard. Chrissie noticed that he wasn’t wearing a condom.
“Baby, it’s not what it looks like.” Zach had utter desperation in his tone. “Don’t go getting all crazy on me like you get sometimes.”
Peaches and Cream both started to give shrill yaps. Chrissie felt dizzy and sick to her stomach. She thought the baked salmon she’d had for lunch was about to come up all over the carpeting.
“Why don’t you stay and join us, Chrissie?” the raven-haired beauty asked her.
Zach was looking around the room for his pants. As he dodged left and right, his cock was bobbing in the air. Chrissie was staring at it but realized it made her feel sick to watch.
“I think that if you stay, Chrissie…” Zach fell to his knees to retrieve his pants from under the bed. “We can all talk and work things out. You’ll see.”
Chrissie was already starting to back away. She was tugging on the leashes for Peaches and Cream to follow her. She knew that she was sweating now and that it was going to ruin her appearance for the dinner tonight.
Zach pulled up his pants, fisting his swollen cock down one of the legs. The desperation he had shown a second earlier was starting to change to that smugness that gave him such a punk rock quality in his band. He wiped some of his long hair from his eyes and gave Chrissie his best pretty-boy smile.
Chrissie couldn’t take it anymore. She yanked hard on the leashes and turned and ran back down the hall, the little legs of Peaches and Cream having to pump to keep up. She reached the still-open door of Zach’s room and ran through it, throwing down the card key she had used to enter onto the rich carpeting at her feet.
She ran down the long north-side hall. Both of the dogs yelped behind her because she was pulling too hard on their leashes. She wasn’t going to wait for the elevator and instead headed down the winding, marble staircase, taking them two at a time.
Her life had just changed dramatically. The most gorgeous man on the planet, at least that was her opinion of Zach, had now become sullied for her, and she didn’t want to ever see or even think about him again. Zach had been the most important thing in her life, and now in the blink of an eye, he was gone.
* * * *
Outside, day had quickly turned into night. A snowstorm had started, and a wind was attacking the front of the massive hotel. Chrissie stepped out through the doors in the front lobby, the automated doors sliding back as she approached them.
She had been to her room just long enough to get her fur coat. Peaches and Cream were still obediently walking on the leashes at her side. She knew she had to get outside into the fresh air, even though a Colorado blizzard had just started and the air was blasting in her face with the impact of a subzero temperature.
Fortunately, she had avoided Melinda when she went to her room and hadn’t seen her daddy or any of her PR people. Tears were streaking her face, and though she desperately tried to paw them away, they wouldn’t stop falling. For too long now she had only had one good thing in her life, and now fate had taken even that away from her.
Not too many people were out and about the hotel at that moment. Most of the movers and shakers were up in their rooms getting ready for the big dinner that night, and the approaching blizzard had driven everyone but the valets from the outdoor concourse. Chrissie felt the tears freezing to her face even under the protection of the awning of the parking area.
One of the uniformed valets saw her and the dogs standing by themselves just outside the lobby doors and ran over to see if he could assist. “Good evening, miss, need me to get your car for you?”
Chrissie only looked at him and choked back a few more tears. She didn’t have a car with her out here. A limo company had brought her and her entourage in from the airport, and they were supposed to be going back to California tomorrow, so there had been no need to acquire cars just for a single evening.
She was trapped here. This expensive hotel was a nightmare, and she could see no way out of it. “I’m sorry,” Chrissie told the valet. “I don’t have a car.”
He looked at her for a few seconds like she must be crazy to be standing out in the freezing and howling wind of the night. It was obvious that she had been crying, and she was certain she looked worse than she ever had before in her life, but at that moment she didn’t care.
“I really just came out here to get some air.” She tried smiling, but her smile wasn’t even working.
“Yes, ma’am.” He tipped his cap to her and headed back over to his station where his fellow valets were all watching him from.
“Chrissie Murphy?” A young woman stepped up to her carrying a small digital camera and wearing a press badge around her neck. “I’m Katherine Meyers from HN Press in Hollywood.”
Chrissie only stared at her. She had no smile left for the press or anyone else. More tears were streaking her face, but she just let them fall, her fingers too numb in the cold to try and battle them.
“I was hoping I could get a few pictures?” the young woman asked her. If she noticed the tears and all of the emotion, she was doing a good job of pretending not to see, and then again even with the overhead lights it was pretty dark out here, so maybe she just couldn’t see.
“Do you want to go back inside? It’s really freezing out here.” The young woman rubbed her arms to keep warm. She was only wearing a lightweight jacket and not the fur that Chrissie had on.
“No! I’m not going back in there,” Chrissie told her, her voice too abrupt.
“Listen, I’d do just about anything to get your permission for a few pictures and maybe a brief interview.” The press people always knew how to bull their way ahead.
Chrissie ignored her for a few seconds and let her tired mind think. She wasn’t going to deny herself anymore, and she had to get away from this terrible place first. If she went back inside, back to her suite, to the dinner that night, her daddy would just control her like he always did, taking her freedom from her and discounting her feelings.
“I hear a rumor going around that you’re about to sign a deal for a major blockbuster that starts shooting next month. Is there any truth to that, or is that just another rumor?”
Chrissie looked out past the end of the huge awning draped over the circle drive. The snow was starting to blow up under it now and coat the red carpeting leading out to the parking area. She had no way of getting away from this place unless…
“Do you have a car?” she asked the girl from the press.
“I’m sorry? What?” This was not an expected response and took the press girl back.
“Do you have a car here at the hotel?” Chrissie repeated, her words now hurried and somewhat muted by the cold wind blasting under the awning at them.
“I have a rental. Why?”
“Will you give it to me?”
“I’m sorry, why would you want my car, Miss Murphy?” Now the press girl literally took a couple steps back away from her. She thought she was crazy just as the valet had a moment earlier.
“You just told me you would do anything for an interview.” Chrissie threw the girl’s words back at her and knew she was probably being rude to her, something her daddy had taught her to never be. “So I’m telling you what you can do for me. Will you do it or not?”
The press girl stumbled over her words. “Look, if you want me to drive you somewhere, I’d be happy to…�
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“I don’t want you or anyone else driving me anywhere ever again in my life.” Chrissie was definitely being rude now, but she couldn’t help it. At that moment she hated everyone in the world, and she thought that probably even included her daddy. “Now will you give me your car, or won’t you?”
The press girl looked over her shoulder as if this was some kind of setup for her, but no one else was around. They had all fled indoors from the storm. She didn’t answer and turned away. Chrissie wanted to say a bad word but just thought the bad word in her mind. Now that the press girl had left her she didn’t have any other options.
She looked down at Peaches and Cream. They looked up at her with pathetic little faces, both dogs trembling against the cold gust of wind. Chrissie didn’t even feel like comforting them.
All she was left to do now is go back up to her suite, lock the door against Melinda and her daddy, and take about a hundred of those fancy sleeping pills the doctor had given her on tour last month in Europe. They would put her to sleep for a hundred years and there would be no way Daddy or anyone else could wake her up no matter how hard they tried, and she would be relieved of the pain of having to think about Zach and all her lost dreams.
When she turned the press girl had returned and was standing at her side. She held out her hand and in her palm was a numbered valet receipt. She gave it to Chrissie.
“It’s a blue Ford,” she told Chrissie. “I mean, what the fuck, it’s only a rental. But promise me I get to sit down for one hour and do an exclusive with you, photos and the works?”
Chrissie’s mind was still off in some other world and wasn’t too sure what this meant. She only nodded her head and gave the press girl the faintest of smiles, definitely not a Chrissie Murphy smile. The number on the valet tag said “13,” not very lucky, but Chrissie would take any chance to get away from that hotel.
Chrissie motioned for the valet again. He went running back across the lot to her, looking cold and underdressed in his uniform. Once again he tipped his cap to her.
“I’m sorry,” Chrissie told him. “I do have a car here after all. It’s a blue Ford. It’s only a rental. Would you please get it for me?”
He took the receipt from her and went running off to the lot where he disappeared for a few minutes in the white whirlwind of the blizzard. The next thing Chrissie knew, a blue Ford was driving up in front of her and the valet was jumping out from behind the wheel to hold the door open.
Chrissie put a twenty dollar bill in his hand and helped Peaches and Cream jump up onto the seats.
“Thank you, ma’am.” The young valet tipped his cap to her again. “Please be careful driving out there in this storm. They’ve posted a blizzard warning for tonight. It’ll be kind of rough driving.”
“Thanks,” Chrissie told him and closed the door. She pulled the blue Ford away from the circle drive and out from under the awning into the heart of the blizzard. Her wipers and heater were working overtime to knock the snow and ice off her window.
The only problem was she didn’t have a clue as to where she was going.
Chapter Two
The three guys were rowdy and having fun. The truck they were in was driving way too fast for the county road and the blizzard that was just starting to whirl outside. The sun had just gone down, the headlights were turned on, and the wipers were frantically trying to keep the wind shield clear of flying snow. Inside, the heater of the truck kept things warm and cozy.
“Shut up, man!” Ethan, the driver of the truck, yelled at his brother.
“I’m telling you, bro, this is the quickest way to get to the cabin,” Brad responded to Ethan and punched him in the shoulder to quiet him down.
“It might have been the fastest way if we weren’t driving in the middle of a blizzard,” Scott, their baby brother, yelled from the back seat and threw a football up front to Brad.
There was a loud whoof from the seat next to him. This was his big overgrown mutt of a dog. “We better make it there soon, guys. I think Skipper has to go to the bathroom.”
“Just cool it, you guys, before you make me wreck the truck,” Ethan screamed back at Scott and Skipper but laughed in spite of himself as his two brothers began a game of catch with the football from front seat to backseat.
“Hand me up another beer, Scott,” Brad called back over the seat to his brother.
Scott complied and handed over the can to Brad. “You want one, Ethan?” he asked his older brother.
“Shove it, man!” Ethan laughed at him. “I’m driving in a frig’n snowstorm now in case you hadn’t noticed. The last thing I need is a brew.”
“Sure tastes mighty good along about now.” Brad laughed, licking the foam off his lip.
Ethan reached over and hit his brother on the shoulder. Both men laughed. A song came over the radio. Even with the storm raging outside, the three brothers were having the time of their lives.
“So, Ethan,” Scott asked from the backseat, “what were you saying about the all-men woman-haters club?”
“We’re the charter members right here in this truck,” Ethan told him and wished he could take a sip of that beer.
“You guys are pathetic,” Brad told them. “But you know what? I’ll have to second that notion about the all-men woman-haters club. Guess that means I must be pathetic, too, huh?”
“Well, it’s not like any of us have done too well with women,” Scott commented, taking a big swallow of his beer and throwing the football back over the front seat into Brad’s arms. Skipper leaned over his lap, his big, pink tongue lolling out of his wide-open mouth. Scott let the dog lap up a few sips of beer.
“Aw, fuck that,” Ethan said, easing off the pedal a little as he felt the truck slide beneath them in the falling snow.
“That’s what we want to do, bro,” Brad said, and all three brothers laughed. “That’s what we want to do…”
“Yeah, but it’s like the last time I asked a girl out…” Scott had to think for a moment. “Hell, I don’t even remember when that was.”
Ethan retrieved the football from Brad and threw it back at Scott over his shoulder. Skipper barked again and moved out of the way. “That’s because it was a hundred years ago, man!” He laughed.
“We’re on vacation here, remember, bro?” Brad told him. “Let’s move on to brighter subjects.”
“Turn that crap off!” Scott called from the backseat at the country western song playing over the truck’s radio. “Put one of my heavy metal CDs in, please?”
“Not a good idea.” Ethan laughed at him. He had to squint out the window now to see the road ahead in the flying snow. “Heavy metal and beer, you’ll get buzzed, man.”
“I think that’s his general idea, bro.” Brad laughed. He put a new-wave metal group into the CD player to appease his brother, and the sound was soon thumping off the walls of the truck.
In the backseat Scott took out his phone and pulled up the latest weather forecast onto the touch screen. “Blizzard warnings are out for the next seventy-two hours. Damn, this shit’s really coming down.” Scott didn’t really sound worried. He laughed and took another swig of his beer. The monster truck they were driving in had extra wide tires with plenty of traction and four-wheel drive. They could get through no matter how bad the storm came down.
“I thought you said he had to go to the bathroom?” Brad inquired about the dog.
“He does.”
“Then stop letting him drink beer.” Brad banged the football off of Scott’s head.
“I just hope when we make it to the cabin we’re not stuck shoveling snow all week like we were last time,” Ethan said, paying careful attention to the road as he felt the truck slide beneath him again.
“If we do, we’re playing poker for it just like last time,” Brad told him in a loud voice, thumping him on the shoulder harder.
Ethan laughed to himself as he realized his brothers were too wild to drive with during a blizzard. They were making the dog nervous. This
should be an interesting drive.
“Relax, guys,” Scott told them from the back. “We only have twenty-eight miles to go. I just saw the mile marker back there.”
Scott threw the football again. Ethan plucked it out of the air and stored it under his seat. There would be no more catch to distract him while he maneuvered the snowdrifts that were quickly forming on the road outside.
“Man, when was the last time the three of us came up here, anyway?” Brad asked.
“Before you even met Gena,” Ethan told him.
“Hey, bro,” Brad cautioned him. “We are on vacation this week. No bringing up bad memories.”
From the backseat, Scott started laughing at the mention of his brother’s former girlfriend and fiancée. “Oh man, I liked Gena. If you could get past the fact she was a bitch most of the time, she was pretty cool.”
“Right, little brother over here used to like her, too. Before he hated her, that is.” Ethan couldn’t resist the urge and punched Brad back, giving as well as he got. Both men laughed.
“No more Gena talk,” Brad told his two brothers in a mock voice of warning.
“Hey, Ethan!” Scott reached over from the backseat and put his hands over his brother’s eyes, causing them to briefly swerve. Ethan quickly swatted him away. “How many women have you gone through in the last year?”
“Don’t ask.”
“Have you slept with every woman under thirty back in Canyon Creek?” Brad asked his older brother, picking up on his reputation as a womanizer.
“Yeah, I have,” Ethan admitted a wicked smile on his face. “Except for one…Gena…”
Ethan exchanged punches with his brother again. He knew he was going to have to calm them all down soon or he would wreck the truck in the storm and send them all plunging to their deaths in one of the mountainous gullies along the side of the road. But damn it, this was their vacation, and he was determined to enjoy every minute of it no matter what Mother Nature threw their way.
