by Pamela Ann
“Ah, this is the life!” I closed my eyes and basked in the sun’s warmth.
I jumped when I heard a loud banging noise. I tensed and listened to see if I would hear it again. After a moment of silence, the banging sound started up again and gradually got louder and louder. Was someone at the door? I moved back inside and walked towards the front door. I peeked out the peephole, but there was no one there.
Okay…
The banging got frenzied. I tensed when I realized someone was having sex in one of the rooms. I have a house mate? Ah, fuck.
“Yes! Give me that meat, you dirty fucker!” a woman’s voice screamed. The banging got out of hand then. It sounded like hundreds of horses were galloping at the same time. The woman was screaming and it echoed all through the house.
Holy crap, she sounded like she’s getting some hard, heavy pounding.
I stood in the middle of the living room as I listened… hell yeah, I listened! It was like listening to porn in surround sound.
“Yes! I’m coming!” the woman screamed like she was being murdered.
Oh, dear. If this woman was going to be my housemate, she and I would have to set some ground rules. It would be a living nightmare if I had to hear those loud screaming voices all night.
After what seemed like a marathon of wall banging, it finally ended. How long have I been listening?
I was about to move when I heard a door open. A beautiful exotic woman—who looked like Sophia Vergara’s doppelganger, but with green eyes—came out of the room, wearing only a skimpy shirt. From the looks of it, it wasn’t hers. Her hair was wacky… banged up hair. Ha!
She was smiling, but halted when she finally saw me. “Oh, hello, I’m Alexia.” Without waiting for a response from me, she went over to the other side of the room towards the kitchen. Okay… that was odd.
“Lex, can you grab me some water, too?” a male voice yelled. I watched the door open and saw a black, tight-boxer brief clad Bass come out.
HOLY MOTHER FUCKING HELL! You have got to be joking!
“Emma?”
I squeaked.
FUCK!!!!! Floor, please swallow me whole.
“What are you doing here?” Bass asked as he came closer, wearing a weird expression on his face. I think he was trying to make sure it was really me. The closer he got I noticed his body had a nice glossy sheen of sweat that made his abs and shoulders much more pronounced. Gah! Stop gawking, Emma.
Did he just ask me a question? Where the hell did my voice go?
One.
Two.
Three.
I cleared my throat and spoke, not meeting his eye, “I was told this was my cottage.”
“Here you go, stallion.” Alexia kissed Bass on the lips and handed him his water.
“I thought this was mine. Jack himself arranged it for me,” Bass spoke in a tone I wasn’t familiar with.
“Barbara arranged mine.”
Bass cussed and left the room, mumbling about fixing the problem. I supposed the ‘problem’ was me?
Well, too bad. If he didn’t want to share this cottage with me, he could move out for all I cared. I was staying put, with or without the angry Bass Cole.
“The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.”
~Aristotle
Chapter Thirty
Bass finally emerged from his bedroom after a few minutes, looking as pissed off as ever.
“I’m going back to our room. Don’t make me wait too long, I don’t want to have to come and get you. You still have promises to deliver, stallion,” Alexia teased then sauntered past us towards the bedroom.
Stallion? Blah.
“Jack said the extra cottage was given to the costume designer people. Fuck!”
Well, his obvious disdain towards me couldn’t be any clearer. Did I expect him to greet me like this after months of not seeing each other? Hell no. Was I hurt? A thousand times yes. As much as I wanted to retaliate and stomp about, I didn’t want to argue with him. I just had to ignore it. Time to suck it up, Emma!
“Whatever.” I shrugged and moved past him. I chose the opposite side of the house, the room farthest from his, which was only two doors down. It wasn’t far enough, but what choice did I have? I certainly was not going to be sleeping in the villa with the rest of the crowd.
I checked my room out. I had a huge bathroom and a massive bedroom with a very stunning view of the sea. It was enough to make me able to tolerate Bass and Alexia as long as they didn’t fuck like rabbits all night or get in my business. I was still appalled and disconcerted about my encounter with Bass, but if he wanted to act like a total asshat, so be it. I would not let it get to me because the more I thought about it, the more I would be distracted and I needed all my concentration focused solely on my job. I’d just have to suck it up.
There was a soft knock on my door and I spun around when it opened. A young girl gave me a nice smile. “Ms. Anderson, my name is Maria. Your luggage is here. Takis will be bringing it in very soon. I’m here to inform you that there will be afternoon tea and snacks at the main villa in an hour. There is a directory next to the telephone in the living room. You can call for someone to come get you when you’re ready, if you like. Have a good afternoon.” I gave her an easy smile, thanked her and Maria smiled brightly and nodded her head before she opened the door a little wider to let the guy, who I assumed was Takis, bring my things in. I gave him a tip and said a quick thank you.
Once they left my bedroom, I dragged myself out of my jet-lag funk and headed to the bathroom. After a quick shower, I wore a long, pale, lemon-colored halter-top dress and finished it off with studded gladiator-style slippers. With a quick application of peach lip gloss and a hasty fluff of my long blonde hair, I was set to go. Since the studio asked me to grow my hair longer, I had been scared to go to a salon and get it trimmed. It was odd, yes, that I hadn’t had a haircut in a long time, but I was hesitant. You see, from experience, stylists always nodded and pretended that they understood when you tell them that you only want half an inch off, but once you were in that leather chair, bounded with clips and the shampoo cape, you were at their mercy. More times than I could count, these people did not follow through with instructions. I hadn’t minded it before, but with this movie, it was critical for me to follow through. I certainly didn’t want to bother with extensions, so I ended up taking care of my own problem.
After endless research on the internet, I had found my salvation. Coconut oil, hot or cold. I had been applying it twice a week on my hair and it looked healthy and lustrous and most importantly, longer.
When I surfaced from the room and strode past Bass’s door, I could hear laughter and something twisted inside me. I pushed forward and skittered out of the cottage. I needed a good walk to clear my troubled head and the ten minutes to get to the villa, did the trick, mostly. The villa was humungous. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought I walked into an acropolis.
I was ushered inside a large banquet room. It was vast and airy and had all glass walls that overlooked the Aegean Sea. It looked like a shimmering blue jewel and reminded me of Bass’s beautiful eyes… the eyes that were gazing in Alexia’s this very moment, I thought painfully.
There were a lot of people already here and when Ross Maitland saw me, she got up and introduced me to some of the other actors that I hadn’t met. There were possibly five people my age; three guys and two girls. I thought they may have been cast as Logan’s friends.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man stand up. I spun around and found a set of light blue eyes, fringed with sooty dark lashes. I was taken aback by his ravenous gaze–he was looking at me like I was his dinner. Barbara was right; I was going to be tested like mad. I was surrounded by hot men. God, help me. The man before me was the real deal. A real Greek Adonis.
Ross suddenly gushed. Yeah, I know the feeling. “Emma, meet Dimitris Kosta, your soon to be fake husband in a couple of days.” Why was I frozen again? How many
times did this have to happen to me? Fuck!
He held out a large, tanned, beautiful hand to shake mine. “Kalispera, Emma. I am Dimitris.” He said, telling me ‘Good evening’.
Damn, deep dark voice, too. Why couldn’t he just have a squeaky, high-pitched, annoying voice? Why did he have to be armed with the whole hot package? I eyed his over six-foot frame; he wore skinny chinos that showed off his powerful thighs and a powder blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his thick, wavy dark hair was trimmed neatly. My intrigued eyes roved about and took in his chiseled sculpted cheeks, strong jaw, straight nose and tantalizing smile. If he tells me he plays soccer…
I. Am. Fucked.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dimitris,” I murmured, not meeting his eyes because I was so intimidated by him. Who wouldn’t be? I had just barely recovered from my shocking encounter with Bass and now this!
“I will leave you two young people to talk. I’m sure you both have a lot to discuss,” Ross excused herself and joined some others across the room.
I had to leave and sit somewhere. Maybe I should have just blurted out, “later dude.” Instead, I tried to compose myself. “I’m going to go to the buffet and get something to eat. I’ll see you around, Dimitris.”
He moved next to me and placed his hand on the small of my back. “Let’s go get you some food. Greek food is the best. You’ll love it.” I’m sure I will.
Once we got to the buffet, Dimitris pointed and explained the dishes. I noted that he was quite passionate about Greek food and his heritage. He was amiable and easy to converse with. He took charge, loading our plates with spanakopita, kalamarakia— which was calamari, but a bit harder to roll with the tongue—salad and some other stuff I didn’t catch. He then loaded desserts on two plates; baklava, loukoumades, halva, finikia and amygdalota. My stomach growled when I got a whiff of the sweet smelling dessert pile.
Both of our hands were full with two plates each. Much to my surprise, Dimitris didn’t head towards the tables where everyone was chatting. Instead, he walked out the main entrance towards a grassy hill-top that overlooked the sea and found us a spot where we could sit and eat.
“How do you like Greece so far?” the Greek man who sat before me asked with a winning smile.
“It’s great so far. I’ll let you know once I have explored more of it.” I took one flaky spanakopita and savored every bite. Delicious, I thought with satisfaction.
“I’ll show you my country. You’ll love it.” A soft breeze passed through us and I noticed how the ends of his hair curled around his eyes. When he looked at me, I noticed how clear they were.
“Your eyes, they’re very unusual, like crystals. I’ve never seen blue eyes like that. It’s very distracting,” I remarked out loud.
“I could say the same about your eyes, Emma, but I would be lying because I find the whole package distracting.” Dimitris’s eyes studied me and lingered on my cleavage.
Huh. How long did that playboy side of his take to come out? Fifteen minutes, tops? “Well, I suggest you become accustomed to it. You and I will be spending a lot of time together.”
Dimitris brushed the crumbs off his fingers and laughed. “Yes, you and I have two good naked scenes, no? How long have you been an actress?” I was entirely new to this. Would he still take me seriously if I told him I was an amateur?
I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “Actually, this is my first role in a movie. I’m overwhelmed to be honest.”
That definitely intrigued him. “A virgin actress! How exciting. We’re going to have fun.” Hmm, right. Don’t think so.
We had just finished eating and I was about to burst out of my dress. The food was totally delicious. I was already looking forward to our dinner tonight.
Dimitris looked at the scenery as did I. It was really beautiful here. “I have a party tonight in Athens. Will you come?”
I wiped my mouth with a napkin before responding, “Sure. What time?”
Dimitris gave me a dazzling smile. “I plan to leave after dinner. I will meet you back here at the villa, say at ten tonight? I have to speak to Martin about something important.”
Partying in Athens? How far was that from here? “Okay, I’ll see you then.” We both got up and he gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before strolling back inside.
I walked back to the cottage and was surprised to find Bass. He was alone, out on the patio, enjoying a beer and lounging in only a pair of surfer shorts. Where was Alexia?
He strode back inside when he heard me. “Where did you go?”
I looked at him strangely. Why was he talking to me? Especially after the shitty welcome I got from him.
“Why?”
Bass frowned at my question. “I was worried.”
I snapped. “Well, don’t. You can go ahead and keep screwing Alexia. I’m going to take a nap. Oh, and please stop making her scream like she’s getting murdered because I might just murder you both if you interrupt my sleep.”
“I sent her home.”
What? “Why would you do that?”
“You’re here. We’re sharing a house together. I don’t want to offend you. I apologize for my attitude earlier. You just caught me by surprise. I didn’t expect you to be just standing there, listening while I had sex with another woman.”
I folded my arms and glared at him. “I wasn’t listening on purpose, Bass. Hell, I bet the entire island heard her scream. I honestly don’t care about your sex life.” I harrumphed and turned around to leave, but he caught my arm.
“Let me make it up to you then. I’ll make dinner tonight and we can dine outside on the patio.” Bass’s lazy, dimpled smile surfaced. That caught me off guard. I used to drool over his stupid smile and now… I still did… but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing.
“I’m going out tonight. I got invited to a party.”
His hold tightened on me. “Party? Where?”
I gave him a bright smile. “With Dimitris Kosta… in Athens.”
Bass let go of my arm and cussed. “You barely just got here and you’re already going on a date? Are you fucking kidding me?” Nope.
“See you later, Bass.” With a quick wave, I left him there. I walked to my bedroom and took a nap.
Forget Bass and his stupid beautiful eyes… and his stupid smile, too.
~E~
“I do not believe this! Go change, Emma!”
That’s not going to happen, buddy. “You wish.” When I had come out of the bedroom to call for a ride to pick me up, Bass was waiting for me in the living room.
Bass’s eyes raked all over my body and I flushed from his scrutiny. “Your skirt is indecent, your top is too revealing and those fuck-me heels need to go.”
My fingertips touched the end of my short skirt. “It’s not that revealing. I’ll be okay as long as I don’t bend over.” I was having such a ball at making his blood boil. Before he could muster a response, a knock came at the door. “That must me my ride. Have a good night, Bass.” I sauntered past him and went out.
Before I managed to close the door I heard him yell, “Fuck!” I smiled at his frustration.
Jealousy was a bitch.
When I got to the villa, Dimitris was waiting on me, looking hotter than ever. “You look perfect, Emma.” His light eyes were shining in the dark as he admired me. I murmured my thanks, feeling shy all of a sudden.
“There’s been a change of plans. I hope you don’t mind, but I want to take you to dinner then we’ll head out to the party afterwards.”
“Sure, I would love to see more of Athens. I can’t wait.” I gave him a great big smile before he ushered us to the waiting car.
“Sas efharisto, Emma.” Thank you.
Since he never mentioned how we would manage to get off this island, I was a little apprehensive when we got to a small air strip where a black helicopter was parked. I was maybe thinking along the lines of a speed boat...
Once he thanked the driver
, the golf cart drove off. I stood there, eyeing the daunting black thing. “Um, where’s the pilot?” I didn’t see anyone out here other than us.
Dimitris just gave me an amused smile. “I am the pilot. Come on, beautiful Aphrodite, your chariot awaits.” Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty and pleasure.
I swallowed. No way. “I don’t know. I, uh, I’ve never been in a helicopter before.” I didn’t plan on dying tonight either.
“Don’t worry. You’re safe with me. Let’s go.” Oh, fuck it.
Once we were seated inside the cockpit, he turned and flicked a lot of switches on. I had a hard time keeping up. As he handed me a headset, I looked at him, deadpanned. “How long have you been doing this?”
His light blue eyes glowed. “Ever since I was twenty, five years ago.” He touched my jaw and our eyes locked together. “Just trust me; I will not disappoint you, Aphrodite.”
I smiled a tad hesitantly. “Just try not to get us killed. I would very much appreciate it.”
With a throaty laugh, he turned on the rotors and swiftly lifted us up in the air. Scaredy cat that I was, I sat still and prayed for a safe landing with my eyes closed. About twenty minutes into the ride, Dimitris spoke.
“Emma, watch as we fly over Athens, it’s a magnificent sight to see from up here,” Dimitris’s sexy accented drawl came through the headset.
Men and their sexy accents. It was hard to resist ignoring them when they started talking, especially when they were as good looking as Dimitris.
Sure enough, when I opened my eyes, the glittering lights of Athens below us sparkled in the black of the night. They were beautiful. It sort of reminded me of the view at Bass’s house. Of course, Athens was much more fascinating than the view of Los Angeles. I realized that this had been the first time I’d even thought of Bass since Dimitris and I had left.
About ten minutes later, Dimitris landed on a helipad of a tall building. Apparently, he owned the entire building. The top two floors were used as his apartment and the ‘party’ was on the third floor. We ate our meal that his chef prepared–an authentic Greek meal just as he had promised–in his apartment.
