Chapter 3

3

Leaning back in her oversized, maroon, leather office chair, Lauren relaxed as she gazed out over the spectacular view of the sun setting over mountain peaks. It was the first moment she'd taken to just breathe all day long. And long was exactly the right word for it, too—her alarm had gone off at the ungodly hour of four fifteen a.m., and other than the hurry up and wait she'd done all day, this evening she hadn't stopped moving.

Inhaling deeply through her nose, she thought about how today was a test of her will and her patience, to say the least. The evening went by in a blur but had been infinitely more productive. She'd spent it showing some multimillion-dollar properties to a couple that had flown in from Dallas to look for a vacation home in the area.

For some reason, she wanted to rub that fact in Ben Stevens' face, to show him that that was how legitimate real estate agents spent their days. Which was ridiculous. Other people's opinions were of little to no consequence to her. And she certainly didn't waste her time trying to flaunt her success to her colleagues. Ever.

But she'd had a very successful day, and whether it was classy or not, she really wished a certain TV personality was aware of this fact.

The couple had been quite picky about certain features of the homes they looked at, features they didn't specify before Lauren had taken them out. This didn't give her even a moment's pause, however. Clients who didn't know what they wanted until they saw what they didn't want were the norm, not the exception.

In fact, Lauren would bet that, if there were a scientific study on the correlation between what factors a client said were important to them before they started house hunting and what factors they actually ended up basing their final decision on, the result would be that there was almost no relationship whatsoever.

Lauren understood this. It made sense, actually. People walked into a real estate agent's office with a list of practical items in mind—square footage, number of bedrooms, etc. But when you got them out into the field and they started actually walking through houses, it became more about if they could picture themselves living there. Did it feel like home? And most of the time that emotional connection with a property had little to do with square footage or number of bedrooms.

So the thing to do, in Lauren's experience, was to listen carefully as they talked to each other and to her while touring the homes. But the key was not to listen to their words so much—that was a rookie mistake. No, you had to learn to read between the lines. Read their body language, their facial expressions, and the looks they exchanged between them that spoke volumes. Those were the cues that would tell a skilled agent what features their clients were really looking for in a home. What features would make them walk into a house and make them feel as if they already lived there. And Lauren was not just skilled. She was brilliant.

And that was exactly what she'd done this evening with the couple from Dallas. Lauren saw within the first five minutes of touring the very first home that what they described to her over the phone as being on both their "wish list" and "deal-breaker list" had almost no relationship whatsoever with what was on their "subconscious gut-check list."

She'd made a split-second decision to scrap all of the homes she'd planned for the tour and spent a quick ten minutes setting up three new showings. She didn't even have to check the MLS on her Blackberry. Lauren knew the up-to-the-day inventory like the back of her hand—and not just the bare-bones specs of the houses either, but the intangibles. She knew the feeling that each home had.

As it turned out, they didn't even have to tour all three. Before they‘d even gone upstairs in the first property on Lauren's revised list, the couple had fallen in love and put in an offer. It was a stellar offer, too. Two percent above asking price. The older man and his somewhat younger wife felt they absolutely had to have it, and money was no object.

It was in moments like these that Lauren absolutely loved her job. Loved it . A lot of her colleagues stressed out about the instability of the market, the long hours, and the uncertainty of a deal falling through, the time and money that ended up being invested in deals that went nowhere. None of these things mattered to Lauren when compared to the high she felt when she closed a deal. The rush was exhilarating. It was unlike anything else she'd ever felt.

Except maybe...sex.

Yes. Sex. Good sex, anyway. That ran a close second.

She sighed and rolled her head from side to side, trying to stretch out a knot. Unfortunately, she thought to herself with regret , it's been close to a year since I've been able to actively analyze that particular comparison. Yep. Almost a year since she'd had any kind of action in that area of her life, and even then, it had been mediocre at best.

She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples with her fingertips. That had to be why she could still feel Ben's phantom lips on her hand. Why his deep voice was playing on repeat through her mind.

She was lonely . That was the only reasonable explanation for her insane response to Ben Stevens.

Lauren hadn't been involved with anyone since the acrimonious breakup with her former boss back in New York. Things got very ugly when he attempted to blackmail her into continuing their affair by damaging her reputation and making it impossible for her to work for any other broker in the city.

Lauren left the negative situation in New York and returned home to Hope Falls to help her childhood friend Amanda deal with the loss of her father, Parker Jacobs. Once she'd been reunited with Amanda and the other two members of the Fabulous Four (her childhood best friends), Samantha and Karina, Lauren realized that she wasn't living the life that she wanted. New York had served its purpose in her life, but that chapter was truly over. Hope Falls was where her heart lay.

She didn't leave New York with her tail between her legs though. That wasn't her style. No, Lauren made sure that Jim Prescott was served his just desserts.

Being involved with Jim so intimately, made her privy to all sorts of juicy skeletons that he carefully locked away in his closet. Luckily, Lauren—never one to be comfortable with an imbalance of power—employed the foresight and protected herself by obtaining the metaphorical key to that closet. When threats were made against her, she turned that key over to the authorities in the form of proof of all his dirty doings—among them fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering.

When things went sideways, did Lauren get flustered or upset, get her feelings hurt or crushed? No. Lauren didn't function that way. She didn't get emotionally involved when it came to relationships. It wasn't that she was coldhearted. She felt affection for any person she was in a relationship with. But she just didn't get terribly invested in them. That way, if she were betrayed, she would never be left devastated.

Instead, she got even.

Not in a revenge, how-could-you-do-this-to-me, even-the-score, make-him-pay sort of way.

No, it was more tit for tat, a righting of the scales of justice. It boiled down to this: if you wanted to step into the ring with Lauren, you needed to know chances were that you were going to lose, and even if you didn't lose, you were sure as hell going to leave the ring beaten and bloody.

She learned the lesson that the only person she could truly depend on was herself. Trust no one. And never let people get too close.

Her mom made that mistake. Not once, not twice, but five times. The first mistake was with Lauren's double-life-having father and then with a string of four men, all losers in their own way.

Truth be told, Jim didn't even rank on her mother's loser scale. Lauren moved on from her relationship with Jim and honestly held no ill will for the man. He looked out for number one. She understood that completely. His only mistake was underestimating Lauren's ability to do the same.

Lauren knew that she didn't miss Jim. Her feelings on that score were crystal clear. Her current loneliness didn't muddy them in the least. However, she did miss being with someone. The closeness. The company. The sense of belonging. The spark of flirting.

The sex.

Yep. She missed having a man. And watching her three best friends fall madly in love over the past few months didn't help in that department either.

Not that she wanted exactly what they had. Lauren was a realist. She knew that she wasn't made up that way. She wasn't going to meet and fall head over heels in love with her "soul mate." She wasn't built for that kind of all-consuming, control-releasing romance. She would never surrender her heart to another person because she would never be able to trust them to take care of it as well as she could. Simple.

It wasn't that she had anything against the concept itself when it came to other people. On the contrary, it seemed to be working beautifully for her friends. Lauren was simply not cut out for it.

No. She was looking for three things: compatibility, honesty, and sparks. Not the kind of sparks that set off a three-alarm fire. That was too out-of-control. She wanted just enough sparks to make things fun. Exciting.

She wasn't expecting to be engulfed in a fiery inferno of lust like Amanda, Karina, and Samantha recently succumbed to. No, she wouldn't want that. She just needed a sparkler, not fireworks. Fireworks were for other people.

Lauren felt more than a little ridiculous moping over her lack of a relationship status. After all, she prided herself on her independence. But reminding herself that she was an independent woman didn't take away the fact that she had to admit—albeit reluctantly—that she wouldn't mind having someone in her life. It was just too bad that there was no one she was even remotely interested in.

Suddenly, unbidden, an image of Ben popped into her mind. No. Absolutely not. Shaking her head vigorously to rid herself of that thought, she purged the picture of him mercilessly from her brain.

No. Just...no.

There was absolutely no way that anything was going to happen between her and Ben Stevens. She didn't even like him. He was arrogant, cocky, inconsiderate...annoying. Not to mention leaving. Soon.

Lauren wasn't looking for a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am sort of hook-up. One-night stands did not appeal to her sensibilities, and even if they did, she would certainly choose a more worthy partner in short-lived lust than Ben.

So then why, at the thought of one night with Ben, did Lauren feel her belly tighten and her pulse begin to race?

No. Stop this, she quickly reprimanded herself. Get a grip.

This reaction and the fact that Ben Stevens had occupied so much of her mind today only proved that he'd gotten under her skin, nothing more. It was merely that he was an irritation. That was all. An irritation that would soon be gone.

Her phone buzzed, causing her to startle a little. Good lord, she really did need to get ahold of herself. She took a deep breath and reached for it, hoping that it was the seller's agent calling to inform her that her clients' offer had been accepted.

However, when she picked up the phone and looked at the screen, she saw Karina's dark, lovely face looking back at her. And because it was Karina, of course, she was sticking her tongue out in the photo. Lauren smiled and hit the button to answer the call.

"Hey, Kar. What's up?"

"Hey, babe. So they ran out of daylight here at the house and production wants to get some 'day in the life' shots around Hope Falls. We're heading over to Sue Ann's to do a dinner scene. Could you meet us there?"

"I don't know, Karina. It's been a really long day and I'm waiting to hear back on an offer I just put in this afternoon."

"Please, Laur? Pretty, pretty please with sugar on top? Everybody's going—Amanda, Justin, Sam, Luke, of course Ryan...but it's not the same without you. Please please please please please—" Karina singsonged.

"Okay, okay," Lauren cut her off with a laugh. She'd seen Karina do that routine since elementary school and knew that she could keep it up for hours without breaking a sweat. "Let me run home and change. I'll meet you all there in thirty."

---~---

Thirty minutes, on the dot, later, Lauren pushed open the familiar front door of Sue Ann's Café on Main Street, but that was the point where the familiarity ended. The cozy café was utterly taken over by cameras, lights, cords, and intense people with clipboards and headset mics scurrying to and fro. One of those serious individuals, a young woman in her early twenties, walked purposefully up to Lauren before she could even scan the room and get her bearings.

"Are you Lauren Harrison?" she asked briskly. At Lauren's nod, the woman took her arm and said authoritatively, "Come with me please." As she led her across the room, stepping over bundles of cables as they went, the woman pressed a button on her belt and spoke into her mic. "I've got her, I'm bringing her over."

Lauren felt vaguely as if she were being placed under arrest.

Through the forest of cameras and light stands, Lauren saw a large table with all her friends sitting around it emerge. The production crew had taken several of the smaller rectangle-shaped tables from the middle of the room and pushed them together to create a large, family-style gathering.

Lauren was directed to sit in one of the two unoccupied chairs. She did as she was told, trying to take in the scene and process all of the chaotic energy.

"Hey, Laur! Isn't this fun?" her friend Amanda beamed from the end of the table. Amanda leaned forward to be able to make eye contact with Lauren, her blonde, wavy hair bouncing as she did so, the china-doll skin of her cheeks flushed rosy with excitement.

Lauren smiled and nodded her head pleasantly. She didn't share in her friend's enthusiasm, but she certainly didn't want to be a party pooper.

"I just like being on camera without it being all about me," piped up Sam, the fourth member of the Fabulous Four. "Not to mention, no one's trying to make me dress skimpy, so that's a double bonus!"

Sam, the petite, red-haired, and freckled athletic one of the bunch, recently retired from a career in professional snowboarding. While the competition aspect of her career had been very satisfying, she'd never been entirely comfortable with doing press photo shoots and ad campaigns—particularly when they tried to dress her in a bikini.

Lauren smiled at Sam, who turned back to her fiancé, Luke, and continued chatting. Lauren glanced around the table. Yes, they were all here, and all coupled up. Amanda with Justin, her first love, who'd come back into her life a few months ago after a ten-year absence. Karina with Ryan, the man she'd fallen in love with as much for his poet's soul and musical artistry as for his sexy, good looks. And Sam with Luke, the guy she'd been crushing on since she was a teenager and who, a couple of months ago, had actually become Sam's first ever boyfriend, breaking Sam's long streak of being married to her sport.

Lauren sighed. Happy couples. She was surrounded by nothing but happy couples.

"We meet again," she heard a voice behind her and felt the tiny hairs on the back of her neck rise before she even consciously recognized the voice as Ben's.

Lauren steeled herself and turned to face him, meeting his gaze just as he finished lowering himself into the seat next to hers. She saw that he'd changed clothes and was now wearing a dark-grey button-up shirt with fitted, dark-blue jeans.

Before she could stop herself, Lauren caught her breath. He looked good, and despite Lauren's best efforts not to notice...she did.

Ben gave her a megawatt smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. Hmmm, his eyes, she thought. His deep, coffee-colored eyes...

She shook herself a little. She'd gotten carried away by thinking about all those happy couples, she told herself. Yep. That's why thinking about the color of his eyes started to send her off into a little daydream trance. Right? Right.

All that aside, however, she couldn't help but notice something else about his eyes besides their intoxicating coffee coloring; there were dark circles beneath them that, up close, the stage makeup didn't entirely hide.

"Ben," Lauren said stiffly in acknowledgment.

Once Ben was seated, it was like the room came to life and everything started to happen very quickly. The director came over and instructed them to just speak normally. He wanted to create a natural atmosphere of friends getting together for dinner, to which Lauren's immediate thought was, Then why is Ben here? This caused her to smile a little to herself.

Lauren heard someone yell, "Roll sound."

"Rolling," came a voice from the corner.

"Background action."

"And...action."

All of her friends started animatedly talking at once. This didn't seem very 'natural' to Lauren, but who was she to judge the mysterious world of reality television?

She felt Ben's attention turn to her, and he asked, "So, Lauren. How long have you and Karina known each other?"

It was an innocent enough question, but for some reason, it caused Lauren to bristle in irritation. She remembered, though, that she was being filmed and hid this reaction as she politely turned towards him and said, "Since we were in elementary school."

"And what about Sam and Amanda? The same?"

"Yes."

"And I seem to remember hearing something about a nickname. The Fabulous Four, I think it was?"

"That's right."

"What's the story with that?" Ben's voice had something of an edge underneath it now, something that telegraphed less 'genial host' and more 'man on the hunt.' It was primal, intense, but it was just under the surface.

Lauren felt the back of her hand begin to tingle again with the phantom imprint of Ben's lips, but she sternly shut it down, scolding herself internally.

"No story," Lauren replied, feeling a little self-satisfied that her short replies were bringing out an authentic side of Ben, cracking the perfect veneer, even if that rawness did still linger right underneath the perfect surface.

"Brothers and sisters?"

"One."

"Brother or sister?" Ben moved a little closer to Lauren, never breaking eye contact.

Lauren desperately wanted to look away, but she felt powerless to do so. Ben was staring at her so intently that she felt as though he could see into her very soul. It was quite unnerving. However, she knew that if she looked away first, then he would be the victor in this subtle power play they were locked in, and Lauren didn't enter contests with the intention of losing. No. She was not going to let that happen.

"Sister."

"Older or younger?" As Ben spoke, he inched ever closer to Lauren.

"Older."

Lauren noticed—as he moved closer to her—that his eyes, which appeared at first glance to be dark chocolate through and through, actually faded into a lighter caramel shade in the center. It was hypnotizing.

"Are you close to your family?"

"Somewhat."

Lauren was surprised at the ease in her own voice as she heard the answers to these questions, which she considered quite personal, leave her lips. Normally, she wouldn't have been comfortable discussing a topic like her family with someone she'd just met, regardless of the short and shallow nature of her responses. It was almost like Ben had lulled her into a trance.

She knew that cameras were rolling all around her and she needed to appear as if she were happily engaged in a friendly conversation. Yes, Lauren decided, that must be it. It had everything to do with the fact that the cameras were rolling and nothing to do with this so-called ‘spell' she imagined she was under.

Ben scooted even closer to Lauren, and for a fleeting second, she thought he was going to close the short distance between them and kiss her.

She felt her eyes widen and her breathing start to hitch. She heard a tiny, low moan come from Ben's throat as she absently licked her lips.

He smirked playfully and leaned in, but to Lauren's surprise, his lips brushed past her mouth and continued back. She felt his hot breath against her ear as he whispered gruffly, "Ever thought about removing that stick from your ass and loosening up?"

With all the physical sensations that Ben's nearness and touch were causing to flood through her, it took a moment for Lauren to process what he'd just said. When her brain finally caught up to the conversation, she jerked away from him, hissing, "Excuse me?"

"Cut!" she heard a shrill voice ring out across the room.

Ben looked away, his attention diverted by the director, who'd walked over to speak to him.

Holy moly.

What in the world just happened?

Lauren looked clandestinely around the table to see if anyone else noticed the interaction that had just taken place between her and Ben. It seemed that she was in the clear, and she relaxed a little bit more as she glanced from friend to friend. They were all completely engrossed in conversation and flirting with their significant others, and she couldn't have been less on their radar.

That is, until she reached Karina. Karina was looking at her and held her gaze while a slow, sly smile spread across her face. Karina then raised her glass in a faux toast, winked at Lauren, and wiggled her eyebrows up and down.

Lauren wanted to die. She narrowed her eyes at her friend, hoping to convey that there was no funny business going on.

She was fuming. What an ass. She couldn't believe his nerve. Who in the hell did he think he was? He didn't know her. He didn't know anything about her. Arrogant jerk.

After speaking in hushed tones to Ben, the director stood. "Okay, people. That was great!" he enthused. "We're gonna reset and go again. I like everyone's interaction. You don't have to do exactly the same thing as you did last take, but if we could get the same feeling, that would be awesome."

I'm not so sure about that , Lauren thought to herself.

--- ~ ---

What in the hell was going on? Ben couldn't believe what just happened. He almost felt like he was having an out-of-body experience. Like he was watching himself alienate Lauren, without the ability to do anything about it. He needed to get it together. Never in his life had his charm and ease with people failed him.

So what in the name of all that is holy was happening to him now?

It was as if another person had come in and taken control of his body. And that person was a complete asshole.

He knew he was pissing Lauren off, but he just couldn't seem to stop himself. Why was she having this insane effect on him?

Sure, admittedly, he was attracted to her. No question about that. She was gorgeous; luminescent, green, catlike eyes, silky, white-blonde hair, and legs so long and shapely that just the sight of them made his mouth water. But—drool-inducing legs aside—she wasn't even remotely his type.

He liked girls who were easy, and not in the sexual way—although that certainly didn't hurt. He liked girls who were no stress, no drama. Girls who made no demands on him. Girls who didn't want any more than what he was willing to give—which was basically a good time. He never lied to them, never promised anything. He was always upfront—he simply didn't do complicated. It wasn't in his relationship wheelhouse.

And if there was one thing Lauren screamed, it was complicated .

His behavior made absolutely no sense to him. He knew he should just keep his mouth shut around her. Do his job as painlessly as possible and get the hell out of there, never to see her again.

But damn. Shutting his mouth seemed to be the last thing he was able to do around her. It was like she was a beehive and he was a little kid who just couldn't resist the impulse to keep poking it with a stick.

And now it was even affecting his work. So much so, that his director had come over to tell him that this wasn't a date, and he needed to talk to some of the other people at the table.

He shook his head to clear it. He was working. He never let anything distract him when he was 'on.'

And this disturbing phenomenon didn't just start at the dinner scene shoot. No. All day after he'd met Lauren, he hadn't been able to shake her from his thoughts. He felt completely off-balance during the entire Karina Black shoot as well. Probably the most important shoot of his life.

He needed to lock this down, and quickly. They were scheduled at this location for three more days, and he needed to have his head in the game for every minute of it from this point on.

He'd worked too long and too hard and had too many people depending on him to let something like this come in from left field and undermine his confidence.

Ben heard the assistant director's voice call out, "Roll sound."

"Sound rolling."

"Background action."

"Action."

Ben took a deep breath, pasted a smile onto his face, and dove into his role.