Chapter 5

5

Lauren was relieved to have the events of the previous day over with. As intrigued as she was by Ben on some levels, her overwhelming feeling towards him was annoyance at his juvenile antics.

Yes, as glamorous and exciting as the prospect of being part of a film production crew would sound to most people and—in all fairness—had actually sounded to her when the idea was first broached, Lauren was extremely glad to be getting back to her old life.

Take what she was doing at the moment, for instance; grabbing a quick and fun lunch with Sam. They didn't have enough time during their lunch hours to do a whole lengthy sit-down-and-order-and-have-to-wait-for-the-check production of it, so they grabbed some pre-wrapped sandwiches at Two Scoops ice cream parlor and were sitting at a sidewalk table, eating them and catching each other up on their lives.

Sure, it wasn't what most people would consider the height of excitement and glamour, but hey—good food, good friends, and the distinct absence of anything or anyone who was aggravating and annoying her? Lauren would take it.

"So, Sam," Lauren asked with interest, "what has it been like working side by side with your hot man day after day? It seems like you guys would be too distracted to get any actual work done."

Sam was one of the two ski pros at Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures. The other one was her fiancé, Luke, and the two of them were still firmly in the 'honeymoon' phase of their relationship, even though they hadn't yet gotten to the actual honeymoon. Which is to say, they were pretty much obsessed with each other.

Sam smiled a dreamy, twitterpated smile. "Oh, you know," she said. "We do manage to get a thing or two done now and again. I love working with him, getting to be around him all the time. All day long, I feel like there's this electric current running through me."

"That's lust," Lauren informed her with a small grin.

Sam got a knowing look on her face. "Well, you would know," she said.

Lauren looked puzzled. "Excuse me?"

Sam's lips turned up in mischievous smile. "Hottie Host Boy sure seems taken with you, and—sorry, Laur, but it's true—you seem awfully taken with him as well."

Lauren crinkled her forehead. "First of all, if you define 'taken with me' as treating me like the hired help, then yes, I suppose he is quite taken with me. And as for me being taken with him? Well, I'm not even going to touch that statement with a ten-foot pole, except to say that you are dead wrong."

"Whatever," Sam smiled serenely.

"Sam, he's arrogant, condescending, and has no respect for other people's time. Do you honestly think that is the kind of man I would be attracted to?" Lauren knew that she might be painting herself into a corner, but she absolutely did not want her friend to turn this into something it wasn't. Especially now that Ben was going to be in town for the next two weeks.

"Let's see. Tall, dark, handsome, successful, obviously not intimidated by you, and more sparks flying between the two of you than the Fourth of July." Sam looked up as if she were giving it serious consideration before looking back at Lauren. "Ummm, yeah. Yep, I abso-freakin'-lutely think that's the type of man you would be attracted to."

Internally, Lauren had to admit that Sam made some decent points. But there was no way she was going to admit that out loud. She realized that there would be no use in further attempts to get Sam to come around to her side in this argument. Regardless, she couldn't stop herself from at least giving it one more shot. When she opened her mouth to try, however, she saw Sam glance just over her shoulder at something that caused a sly smile to creep across her face.

"Well, speak of the devil," Sam said quietly, and Lauren felt tingles run up and down her neck.

Before she could turn and confirm her suspicions of what—or rather who—Sam noticed over Lauren's shoulder, she heard Ben's smooth voice from just inches behind her.

"Hello, ladies," he said, approaching the table and, just as casually as you please, placing his hand on Lauren's shoulder.

She wanted to be irritated at his intrusion. Or, at the very least, unaffected by it. But she just couldn't seem to muster up any kind of frustration or neutrality over the competing sensation raging through her—butterflies.

Butterflies?! She was so not a butterflies kind of girl. But there it was. Undeniable.

Without being too obvious about it, Lauren twitched her shoulder just enough so that Ben's hand was cast off of it. From the looks of the smile on his face, however, he seemed completely unaffected by this small rejection.

Ben sat down at their table, taking the empty chair.

"Oh, please. Feel free to join us," Lauren deadpanned.

"Thanks. I think I will," Ben replied smoothly, as if she'd been utterly sincere. "Those sandwiches look delicious. I believe I will go and get myself one. Be right back, ladies."

And with another flash of his brilliant smile, he disappeared inside Two Scoops, joining the queue of people waiting to be served.

As soon as the glass door to the ice cream parlor shut and Ben was safely out of earshot, Lauren turned to Sam and, in a harsh whisper, said, "Seriously? Who does he think he is? No one invited him to sit with us, and why does he think he has the right to touch me? Did you see him with his hand on my shoulder? Not okay."

Sam was quietly amused. "Was it really though? Was it really not okay?"

Lauren badly wanted Sam to see her side. With conviction, Lauren began, "It was so…presumptuous, so…familiar..."

"So hot," Sam finished.

Lauren shook her head, and Sam—who'd been giggling softly through Lauren's diatribe—burst out laughing.

"I don't see what's so funny," Lauren said demurely with a raised eyebrow.

"Your face," chuckled Sam. "If you could've seen the way you flushed when I said it was hot... Oh wait. Just grab a mirror. You're doing it again!"

Just then, Sam's phone chimed and she brightened visibly, pulling it out of her pocket.

"It's probably Luke," she chirped happily, swiping at her phone. Her grin spread even wider at the information her fingers uncovered. "It is!" she trilled, laughing as she then read the text. Sam beamed as she happily shared, "He loves to text-flirt, all throughout the day. I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. I found out that I can actually be sassy if I try."

"Kind of like how you can be funny if you try?" Lauren inquired dryly. Sam's corny attempts at humor were a well-known, long-running joke in their group of friends.

Sam stuck her tongue out and retorted—yes, somewhat sassily— "Luke thinks I'm hilarious. And that's all I really care about. So there."

After this response, however, she became completely absorbed in typing her reply to Luke, her face a mask of focus, her thumbs flying over the small keypad.

While Lauren waited for her friend to finish sexting with her fiancé, Ben returned, sitting as he unwrapped his sandwich. When he looked over at her and their eyes locked, Lauren felt the air leave her lungs in a whoosh and tingles spread from her head to her toes.

She looked back down at her food, trying to ignore her traitorous body's reaction to Ben's deep, puppy-dog, brown eyes. Lauren fidgeted in her chair. She couldn't sit still. With Ben beside her, she felt as tight as a high wire, all tension and jangling nerves. After less than a minute, it became simply too much for her to handle, and she began to gather up the remnants of her lunch.

"Sorry to have to rush off like this," Lauren said in hurried voice to Ben, making an excuse. Anything to get out of there. She felt as if she couldn't breathe, like she was a tightly coiled spring about to snap. "Sam and I really have to get going."

At the sound of her name, Sam's head popped up from her text message composition. "Hmm?" she asked, distracted.

"I was saying that we really have to get going," Lauren clarified for her, hoping she would pick up on the cue and just go along.

Sam wrinkled her brow in puzzlement and exclaimed, "I haven't even finished my sandwich yet!"

Okay, so...too much to hope for, then.

"Well, eat it in the car, then. We have to go," Lauren said urgently.

Sam shrugged in acquiescence and wrapped up her sandwich, stowing it in her purse.

"Bye, Ben," Sam said cordially as she got up from the table. "Nice to see you. I'm glad you came to have lunch with us."

Ben laughed. "I think that makes one of you," he joked, winking at Lauren.

Lauren stood up straighter, her spine stiffening. "Well, it's not as if I were expecting you," she said defensively.

"Oh, I know," came Ben's languid reply, which he paired with an equally frustrating knowing smile.

Lauren knew exactly what Ben was doing. He was goading her. It was obvious. Even though she knew she was doing exactly what he was baiting her to do, she found herself adding, "I'm not leaving just because you're here."

Ben laughed, "Darlin', I never thought that."

"Good." Lauren tried to ignore the thrill that raced down her spine when Ben referred to her as darlin' . She knew it was now going to be added to the descriptive words Ben used last night that kept running through her mind, unbidden.

Cute. Adorable. Darlin'. Yep, they were going to be on constant repeat.

"Until you brought it up, that is."

Lauren's eyes narrowed. She didn't want to let him have the last word, but she couldn't think of anything to say. Her brain was short-circuiting. She knew that Ben knew exactly what he was doing. She was being played like a fiddle.

It wasn't just his lazy yet appreciative assessing gaze or his slow and sexy smile. The thing that was the most frustrating about the way he was looking at her was that his smile seemed to be hiding some amusing truth, something that he, and only he, was privy to. Something that he wasn't about to let her in on.

And. It. Drove. Her. Up. The. Wall.

She didn't like his 'cat that ate the canary' attitude. She didn't like it one bit. But she didn't want to get into an argument with him right in front of Two Scoops either.

She settled for maintaining her dignity and simply bade him goodbye, turning on her heels and striding towards her car. Before she reached it, though, she heard him call after her.

"Oh, and by the way...Lauren?"

Determined to maintain her dignified bearings, she turned to face him, her back straight, her countenance placid.

"Yes?" she asked politely.

That damn 'cat that ate the canary' grin spread even wider.

"You have mustard on your mouth."

--- ~ ---

By the time Lauren and Sam pulled into the parking lot at Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures, Lauren had worked herself up into a self-righteous state of indignation. After they left Two Scoops, they stopped by Sam's house so that she could grab some papers she needed that afternoon, and then Lauren drove her back to Mountain Ridge because she needed to stop by and see Amanda about some investment properties she and Justin were thinking of purchasing.

The entire time that the two of them were in the car, Lauren did nothing but vent to Sam about the nerve of Ben Stevens.

"I mean, the way he just sat there with that self-satisfied little smile as he said"—she lowered her voice to mock his inflection—"‘O h, and by the way, Lauren, you have mustard on your mouth.' I mean, come on. That is a perfect example of how he is intentionally trying to get under my skin."

Sam nodded her head and, although she was more focused on the screen in front of her, dryly intoned, "Yep."

Lauren looked over at Sam as they pulled into their parking space. She still hadn't raised her head from her phone.

"Okay, Sam, we're here now. You can actually go flirt with him in person," Lauren said, amusement tingeing her voice.

Sam looked up, as if from a trance, and saw where they were. "Oh, good!"

Lauren smiled. "Glad someone's happy."

"Come on, Lauren," Sam laughed. "You know you like Ben. I may not have a ton of experience with relationships, but even I could see that. Back there, all of that was foreplay. "

Lauren crinkled her forehead. "No, it wasn't. And I don't like him. Ben drives me crazy."

Sam shrugged. "There's a thin line between love and hate."

"Well, that's a line that I definitely won't be crossing," Lauren stated firmly.

Sam grinned broadly. "We'll see," she said airily.

"We sure will," Lauren said resolutely and with conviction.

As they got out of the car, Lauren was supremely annoyed to see that, a mere two cars over from the space where she and Sam parked, Ben was climbing out of his rental car.

You've got to be kidding me.

He spotted them over the tops of the vehicles that lay between them and smiled broadly just as Sam was hugging Lauren goodbye before she quickly strode off towards her office.

"I just can't shake you today," he teased. "Tell the truth now. Are you following me, Lauren?"

Lauren's arched eyebrow reflected the coldness in her voice as she replied, "Hardly."

"I don't know," Ben persisted in his lighthearted banter. "It kind of seems like you are. Although, it's not like I could blame you. You wouldn't be the first woman to be so overwhelmed by my charms that you couldn't get enough."

Although she was usually too reserved for such displays outside the company of the Fabulous Four, Lauren couldn't help herself—she rolled her eyes. Instead of doing what she knew she should do with this kind of foolishness, which was simply to ignore it and refuse to engage, she responded, "It would be somewhat difficult for me to be following you, considering that, at both places we've seen each other today, I arrived first. The more likely scenario is that you're following me," she finished flatly.

"Oh, now why would I be doing that?" he continued in the same playful tone. "That would take all the fun out of wondering when and if I might randomly run into you and hoping that it would be soon."

Lauren's eyes widened slightly. Beneath the light tone, she recognized the ring of sincerity. Was this true? Was he actually hoping that he might run into her?

Lauren knew logically that it was probably just a line. He was a charmer. A professional salesman and celebrity. There wasn't a less sincere combination unless politician was added to that equation. Yet, somehow, for the first time in her life, her brain wasn't running things. Her heart and hormones were definitely staging a mutiny.

"Oh, I..." she trailed off, feeling totally and completely off-balance, and then finished lamely with, "That's nice."

Ben smiled a small, sweet, seductive smile. "It is nice," he confirmed. "Seeing you is really nice."

Ben's soft and flirtatious words put Lauren off her game more than any amount of his taunting or teasing ever could have. Verbal barbs she could handle. She could deflect and return those all day. But sexiness wrapped with sincerity? Coming from this man, the one she was trying to resist being attracted to at every turn? That just about undid her.

Lauren turned and started up towards the offices, deciding that simply leaving the situation was the only way she could gain the upper hand—or even remain steady on her feet for that matter. Her tactic was in vain, however, as Ben merely fell into step behind her.

Lauren felt anxiety and panic rise over this new out-of-control feeling inside of her. Distance. Space. That's what she needed to put between them. Picking up the pace, she decided that speed was her best friend—she needed to get away from him. But this plan backfired as well; she quickly found out that her four-inch heels were not made for walking quickly in the light dusting of snow that coated the parking lot.

The heel of her right foot sank down unexpectedly, upsetting her balance, and with little-to-no control over her extremities and no way to stop it, Lauren felt herself begin to fall, hurtling quickly towards the ground at a frightening pace.

In her mind, she knew that, at any second, she would be flat on her ass in the snow, but there was literally nothing she could do about it except try to brace herself for impact. It was simply going to happen, no matter what her feelings about it were.

Yet...it didn't.

The instant before her derriere hit the white stuff, she felt strong arms catch her from behind and lift her neatly back onto her feet. For a moment, she couldn't move. The feeling of Ben's strong arms overwhelmed her completely.

After she was finally able to control her muscles again, she let out a shaky breath, thanked him politely, and stiffly walked the rest of the way to Amanda's office without looking back.

It was ironic, she thought to herself grimly, but the feel of this man's arms around her had frozen her body more completely than landing in the snow ever could have.