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The sun was beating down on him as he drove through the posh neighborhood, completely at a loss for something to do. Being cooped up in a fancy hotel for four days wasn’t exactly his idea of fun, so he decided to go for a drive. Now, here he was driving with the top down in an expensive “custom rental” with no where to be but here and no one to please but himself. Life was good.

“Who the fuck am I kidding?” Nick grumbled to himself as he signaled and made a left hand turn. “This is just as damn boring as being stuck inside. Driving just isn’t fun by yourself.”

His cynical thoughts were cut short by the ringing of his cell phone. Quickly, he glanced down to see who was calling. Howie. Did he want to answer or not? After the fourth ring, he decided he would or his voicemail would pick up.

“What’s up?”

“Hey, man,” Howie’s voice was cheerful. “What’s goin on?”

“Nothin much, man,” Nick answered as he came to a stop at a red light. “I decided to go driving, but it’s not quite having the effect I thought it would.”

Howie chuckled. “What would that be?”

“Oh, I dunno. Something peaceful or some other equally lame bullshit like that.” That elicited a loud laugh from Howie. “What are you up to?”

“Not a damn thing. Who knew L.A. was this boring?”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, man, you wanna go grab some lunch?” Howie asked brightly.

Nick thought for a second considering whether or not he was really hungry. As if on cue, he felt his stomach rumbled lightly. He laughed to himself. “Sure. Want me to come pick you up?”

“Absolutely! Knowing you, you got some sweet ride that anybody else would be crazy to pay for.”

“You know it! Okay, I’ll be back at the hotel in a few.”



AJ stretched out by the pool and closed his eyes, smiling to himself. “Now this is the stuff that I never get tired of,” he mumbled quietly to himself.

“Really?” a soft voice asked quietly. “I thought that would be having your choice of women.”

Opening his eyes, AJ had to squint because of the harsh sun. Standing at the end of his chaise lounge was a tall blonde. At first, he almost didn’t recognize her, but upon closer inspection he realized the woman (and she was damn good looking in his opinion) standing over him, was in fact, his ex. Cassie McKenzie. It was no surprise she was nearly unrecognizable for her once long light blonde hair was now chin length and dark blonde. She was also more tanned and shapely than AJ remembered.

“Well, you’re being quite rude,” she offered a teasing smile as she gracefully stretched out in the chaise lounge beside AJ. “Is this any way to treat an old friend?”

AJ narrowed his eyes at her and smirked. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware that we were considered old friends. You’ll have to forgive me.”

“Oh, Alex, come on. What happened between us is in the past. We’ve both grown up since then, right?”

AJ nodded.

“Good,” she gave a satisfied smile.

Looking at her in amazement, AJ had to wonder how she could be so nonchalant around him. While she did have a point, thinking about what she had done to him still made his face burn with humiliation. “Will you excuse me for a minute?”

“Sure,” she smiled again, this time almost seductively.

Getting up, AJ headed back into the hotel headed for his room. Stepping into the elevator, he heard a woman calling for him to hold the doors.

“Thanks,” she said breathlessly without looking up.

“Yeah.”

“Oh, AJ…” she said quietly.

Glancing up, AJ was face to face with Bianca for the second time that day. “Bianca,” he said coolly.

He heard her take a deep breath and saw her turn toward the front of the elevator hesitantly. Suddenly, she turned to him again. “Look, I know things were kind of awkward between us earlier. And—”

“Really?” he interrupted, “I didn’t notice.”

She took an impatient breath. “I just wanted to apologize for causing a scene. I still want us to be friends… like we were…”

AJ rolled his eyes. “That’s a sweet gesture, Bean, but I dunno if that will work.”

“Well, let’s just take things slowly. Let’s go out for dinner tonight. Can we do that? Kind of like starting over,” her voice was soft.

AJ thought for a moment. “Yeah, okay,” he finally conceded.

“Good,” she smiled slightly. “I have a 7:30 reservation at Cili? Is that okay?”

“That’s fine,” AJ answered as the elevator doors opened on his floor. “See you then.” He wasn’t sure why he agreed to go to dinner with Bianca, but for some reason he said yes. Stepping into his suite, AJ found his suitcase and plundered through it until he came up with his iPod. “Maybe she’ll get the hint…” he mumbled to himself and journeyed back to the pool.



“So, Duckie, what are you gonna do to entertain me?” Julie asked as she followed him into his bedroom and plopped herself down on his oversized bed.

“Well,” he paused to get his shoes out of his closet, “I was thinking I could cook you dinner here. Of course, I’d have to go get groceries, but that’s okay. Unless you’d rather go out,” he added quickly.

“No,” she laughed. “Dinner here is perfectly fine with me. I’m still a little jet-lagged to be totally honest, so the thought of having to dress up to go to a fancy-schmancy, stuffy old restaurant kinda makes me cringe.”

Brian chuckled. “You are right. Is there anything special that you want?”

Julie thought for a minute before answering. “Actually, I’ve been craving some potato soup lately.”

Brian smiled. Uh oh, he thought. I hope I can pull that off. “Okay, I can do that.” I hope.

“Yay,” she grinned and clapped her hands together excitedly. “This is awesome… I can’t remember the last time a guy cooked for me. And I don’t think you’ve ever cooked for me before you slacker!”

“Well, I will make up for that tonight,” he grinned and slipped his shoes on and stood up.

“Want me to go with you?” Julie questioned.

“Nah… I’ll go. You stay here and get rested up, okay?”

“Sure,” she grinned.

Forty-five minutes later, Brian was all stocked up on ingredients for potato soup and a romantic evening. Smiling to himself, he entered his hotel suite as quietly as possible. It was quiet inside, so after putting the groceries in the kitchen he went to check on Julie. He found her in the same spot he left her—on his bed. Only now she was sleeping. He smiled, not wanting to wake her, but knowing he had to.

“Jules?” he said quietly as he gently shaking her.

She stirred and finally opened her eyes. “Hey.”

“Have a nice nap?”

“Oh god, it’s not morning is it? Did I ruin dinner?”

“No, no… I was just waking you up before I start on dinner. I thought you looked a little stressed and tense, so I booked you for a massage and some other girlie stuff while I make dinner. Is that okay?”

Her eyes went wide. “Is that okay?” she repeated his question. “Heck yes! That is perfectly okay with me.”

Brian grinned and nodded. “Okay. Well, you can go ahead and go. You only have to go downstairs. Mark can show you where to go,” he said referring to his bodyguard.

“Wow,” Julie whispered and placed a kiss on his cheek. “Thanks, Duckie.”



“I’m sorry, Mr. Richardson, I can’t give you that information,” a short, pudgy woman with glasses said firmly. Leveling her gaze at Kevin, she frowned.

“Look,” Kevin paused to glance at her nametag, “Rose, I know you are only following company policy, but you don’t understand how important this would be for me.”

“While I do sympathize with you, Mr. Richardson, I’m still not allowed to give out employee information. To anyone.”

Kevin felt his face growing hot with rage and he sucked in a breath to try and calm himself. “Well, can you tell me when her next shift is?”

“Mr. Richardson, I think you need to be going now. I would hate to have to call security,” Rose said as politely as possible.

“Damn it,” he yelled and slammed his fist down on the marble counter top. “I’m not asking for fucking money or any shit like that. All I want to know is where I can find Brianna Chambers. Or, hell, I dunno, her fucking schedule?”

Startled by his outburst, Rose narrowed her eyes. “I’m quite aware that you are use to getting everything you ask for because of who you are, but that is not going to happen today. And if you have another tantrum I will have no choice but call someone to escort you out of here.”

“Un-fucking-believable!” he roared again, this time sending a vase of flowers flying off the end of the counter.

Rose quickly jumped to her feet and grabbed the phone off its cradle, but just as she was talking to someone to get a guard to come and take care of the situation, Kevin stormed toward the elevator.

When the elevator doors opened, Kevin ran into AJ.

“Dude, why do you look so mad?” AJ quickly spun around expecting Kevin to stop and talk.

“Fuck off,” he growled darkly and stepped into the elevator ignoring the astonished expression on AJ’s face.