“No, Rosa. I don’t want you to go to any trouble.”
She stood there with her hand on her hip. “Are you refusing my food again?”
“No. I know you’re busy.” I smiled.
“The two of you sit down right now,” she said as she pushed us over to the table. “I’ll make you some sandwiches. It’ll only take a few minutes.”
Paolo looked at me and smiled. “Shit, man. I could get so used to this,” he whispered.
After we ate the nice lunch Rosa made, Paolo left and I went to clean up Sierra’s bedroom. I picked up the picture she had sitting on her nightstand of her and who I assumed was her father. As I looked closer, I noticed it was taken right outside the café that was in the painting she just bought. She looked beautiful. There was a happiness about her in that picture that I had yet to see.
I was going over a few things in the guest house when I heard a knock on the door. I opened it and Rosa stood there with a dish in her hand.
“Here’s dinner for you. I’m leaving to go home now.”
“Rosa, you’re too kind. You really are.” I smiled.
“It’s no trouble. You’re a part of this household now and I’m here to make sure you’re taken care of, just like Sierra. So, eat up and enjoy. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“She’s not home yet from the office?” I asked.
“No, not yet. Have a good night, Cameron.” She smiled.
“Thank you for dinner, Rosa.”
She put up her hand and waved at me as she walked back into the house. I set the dish on the table and took off the foil that was covering the top. It looked delicious and I couldn’t wait to dig in.
After I ate, I put on my pajama bottoms and sat down on the couch to relax and watch some TV before going to bed. I had put up the shelves in Sierra’s closet and, now that one project was done, tomorrow I would start on one of the bathrooms. I saw the light go on in the backyard, so I got up and walked over to the window. I looked at my watch. It was midnight. What the hell was Sierra doing? I watched her as she took off the little sundress she was wearing. I gasped when she stood there, naked, and jumped into the pool. Instantly, I became hard. I sometimes pictured what she would look like completely naked and now I saw. She was even more perfect than I had imagined. Her curves were amazing, as were her perfectly round, large breasts. I felt like a fucking stalker for staring at her in the pool. But I couldn’t help it. As hard as I tried not to think about her, I couldn’t stop. Sierra Adams was way out of my league, but maybe, just maybe, I could show her that there was more to life than money and Los Angeles. After she swam for a while and I stood there and watched her, I noticed her looking around.
“Shit,” I heard her say.
I didn’t see her bring out a towel, so I decided to yell from the window.
“Do you need a towel?” I smiled.
She jumped and ducked down so the water came up to her neck.
“Cameron, what the hell!” she yelled.
“Do you need a towel?” I asked again.
“YES!”
I laughed as I grabbed a beach towel from the closet and walked over to the pool.
“This is not funny!” she exclaimed.
“Do you always go skinny dipping at midnight?”
“TURN AROUND!” she said as she grabbed the towel from my hand.
I smiled at her and turned around so she could get out of the pool and cover herself up. “Well? Answer the question.”
“Sometimes I do. I thought you were asleep. I didn’t see any lights on.”
“I was watching TV and I saw the light go on out here, so I peeked out my window and saw you in the pool.”
“Did you see anything?” she asked.
“No,” I lied.
I didn’t want to embarrass her. I could tell she was embarrassed enough.
“Are you sure?” she asked with narrow eyes.
“I swear, Sierra. I saw nothing. I just saw you in the pool and noticed you didn’t have a towel. Did you just get home from the office?”
“Yeah. I had a lot of work to do and a lot of problems to deal with. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to bed.”
“Me too.” I smiled with the thought of her naked body in my head. “Night, Sierra.”
“Night, Cameron. Thank you for the towel.”
Chapter 14
Sierra
I got out of bed extra early so I could arrange all my pretty shoes on my shelves. Ah, hell, I was up all night, anyway, thinking about Cameron and the pool incident. I texted Kirsty when I woke up and told her about what happened. She didn’t text me back, which I thought was odd.
“Hello? Are you in that monstrosity of a closet?” Kirsty yelled.
“Yes,” I yelled back.
“Oh wow, look at all those pretty shoes. Cameron did a great job with the wall,” she said as she handed me a coffee from Tim Hortons.
“Yeah, he did. My shoes are really happy now that they aren’t shoved in those little boxes anymore. Thank you for the coffee.”
“Speaking of Cameron, what was up with that text message?”
“I took a little dip in the pool last night around midnight and I forgot to bring out a towel and he asked me through the window of the guest house if I needed one.”
“So? That was nice of him.”
“My point is, Kirsty, that I think he saw me naked.”
“And?”
“What do you mean ‘and’?”
“You let your suits see you naked all the time. Why is Cameron different?”
My shoulders dropped and I just stood there and stared at her.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. You don’t have an answer. You should be happy if he did see you naked. With that body of yours, you probably got him all hot and bothered enough to where he went and jacked off.”
“OH MY GOD! I can’t believe you just said that.”
“Relax, Sierra. I’m hungry. Do you think Rosa fixed breakfast yet?” she asked as she left me standing in my closet.
I shook my head and walked downstairs. Before I entered the kitchen, I peeked around the corner to make sure Cameron wasn’t in there. I didn’t want to see him after last night. The more I thought about it, I knew he saw me naked. I quietly opened the front door and climbed into the limo.
“Where are you? I’m ready to leave,” I texted James.
“On my way, but you never leave this early. What’s going on?”
“Just hurry up and get here!”
I sent a text message to Kirsty.
“Get your ass in the limo NOW!”
“But Rosa is making me breakfast.”
“We’ll stop at a drive thru. GET OUT HERE!”
The door opened and Kirsty climbed inside. James pulled up and opened the door.
“What the hell is going on, Sierra?” he asked as he got behind the wheel.
“I don’t want to see Cameron. Let’s go!”
“Sierra thinks Cameron saw her naked last night because she went skinny dipping and he brought her out a towel.”
“So. You don’t seem to care if guys see you naked.”
“Right? That’s exactly what I said,” Kirsty replied.
“I hate you both. Now drive.”
****
Later that day, I received a call from Delia.
“Hello,” I answered hesitantly.
“Sierra, have you talked to Ava yet?”
Shit. “No, I was going to have James pick her up later and bring her over to my house. I’ll talk to her over dinner.”
“Very well.” Click.
I rolled my eyes and sighed as I sent a message to James.
“I need you to pick up Ava before picking me up at the office.”
“All right. Does she know I’m coming?”
“Yes.”
Actually, she didn’t know, but I was going to tell her now and I dialed her number.
“Hello,” she answered.
“Hey, Ava. James i
s going to pick you up in a while and then we’re going to hang out at my house, have some dinner, and talk.”
“Let me guess. Delia?”
“Yeah, but we haven’t really had a chance to talk in a while, so I think it’ll be good for us. I’ll tell Rosa to order us pizza and salad.”
“Okay!” she said with excitement.
****
We could smell the pizza from the driveway. As I said goodbye to James and Kirsty, Ava and I walked into the house and followed the smell to the kitchen.
“Hey,” Cameron said.
“Ava, this is Cameron. Cameron, this is my sister, Ava.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Ava.” Cameron smiled as he held out his hand.
“Is this the escort?” she asked.
“How did you know about that?” I asked with a smile.
“I overheard Mom telling my dad about it.”
“Cameron is my builder/remodeler. He’s redoing some things in the house.”
“I figured.” She smiled.
“Don’t tell Delia, though. Let her think the worst.” I winked.
Rosa put the salad in a bowl and set it on the table. We helped ourselves to the pizza, and when we sat down to eat, I started my talk with Ava.
“So tell me about this boy you like.”
“He’s so amazing, Sierra. I can’t wait for you to meet him.”
“How old is he?” I asked.
“Sixteen.”
Cameron sat there, listening as he ate his pizza. I wasn’t sure if he should be present during our talk, but Ava wanted him to stay.
“You’re so young, Ava. It’s okay to like this boy, but just don’t let him deter you from what’s going on in your life. Don’t give up anything for him.”
“I’m not,” she said.
“Delia seems to think you are. She doesn’t think you’re working as hard as you should be.”
She shrugged her shoulders as she took a bite of her pizza. “Boys complicate things. They come into your life, make promises, break your heart, and then leave without giving you or your feelings a second thought. You’re too young to have to go through that and I don’t want to see you get hurt. Listen; just do me a favor. Focus on your competitions first and then on this boy. Because if you don’t, Delia will never stop. Deal?” I asked as I held out my hand.
“Deal,” she said as we shook hands.
Cameron went back to his house while Ava and I ate some ice cream and continued our girl talk. After James took Ava home, I poured a glass of wine and took it outside on the patio. I curled up on the lounge chair and read a text message I received earlier from Chris. As Kirsty would say, another one of my suits.
“Hey, babe. It’s been a while since we went out for drinks. Why don’t you give me a call and we’ll set something up. I’d like to see you again.”
****
Cameron
It was such a beautiful night out that I decided to go for a swim. I grabbed a towel and when I walked out the door, I saw Sierra sitting in the lounge chair, looking at her phone.
“No tequila tonight?” I smiled.
She looked at her glass and then at me. “No, I decided to be bold and go with the red liquid tonight.”
“Ah, that is very bold of you,” I said. “If you don’t mind, I was going to go for a swim.”
“Sure, go ahead. Swim away.”
I did a few laps and then got out, dried myself off, and sat down in the chair next to Sierra.
“My shoes thank you.” She smiled.
“Well, you can tell them that I said welcome and that I was happy to accommodate them.”
Sierra took a sip of her wine. “I will.”
“Ava seems like a nice girl,” I said.
“She is. She just needs to be a kid and not be pushed into growing up so fast.”
“You know, not all boys are like you described to her,” I said.
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that. All men are cut from the same cloth. Have you ever broken a girl’s heart?”
“Once. But I didn’t disregard her feelings. I talked to her and explained to her why it wouldn’t work. She eventually understood. Have you ever broken a man’s heart?”
She flashed me her beautiful smile. “No. It was always the other way around. I have a habit of turning men gay.”
“What?” I chuckled.
“You laugh, but it’s true. I caught two of my ex-boyfriends in bed with another man. That was years ago, but I’ll never forget.”
“You do realize that it had nothing to do with you, right?” I asked in all seriousness.
“Yeah, I know. But still it hurt.”
“What about that Ryan guy?” I asked.
She finished off her glass of wine and looked straight ahead at the beautiful view of the hills. “Nah, he just left me for some whore he met on the internet. Told me he was going on a business trip for work, called me a few days later, and told me that he wasn’t coming back. I guess the seven years we spent together didn’t mean a fucking thing.”
The sadness in her voice became more real to me than before.
“That’s the reason I don’t get into relationships. Royce, the guy you saw in my office, he’s casual sex. No strings, no dating, no commitment. Just sex. In fact, all the suits I date are that way. When you’re in the corporate world, you have two types of relationships: the no-strings relationship and the mistress-type of relationship. I prefer the no-strings. I won’t date a guy who’s in a relationship. I wouldn’t do that to another woman. No strings, no hurt.”
I sat there and took in everything she said. Was she saying these things to let me know that she wasn’t interested? I knew she was interested in me. I could tell by the way she looked at me and I wanted to get to know her better. If she thought she was going to scare me off by saying those things about her suits and relationships, she was wrong; dead wrong. I’d thought about Sierra every day since I first saw her standing in line at Starbucks. She was the last thing on my mind before I fell asleep every night and she was the first thing on my mind when I woke up. I was conflicted because I didn’t know how to approach her and tell her that I wanted to take her out. I didn’t know how to tell her that I was desperate to kiss her beautiful lips and I didn’t know how to tell her that I wanted to hold her hand in mine. But then again, I was also scared because I had no plans of staying in Los Angeles.
Chapter 15
Sierra
I was sitting at my desk when Kirsty came busting through the door.
“What are you doing for your birthday? Wait; don’t answer that. I’ll tell you what you’re doing for your birthday. We are celebrating it at Lure and you can’t say no because I already booked it and I had to give a large, non-refundable deposit. The only thing is, since your birthday is on a Sunday, we’re doing it on Friday night. Saturday was already booked,” she pouted.
“Really? You really want to do this for me?”
“Of course I do.” She smiled. “You’re my bestie and it’s a big birthday for you. So we’re doing it and that’s all there is to it.”
I sighed. She knew damn well I hated big parties like that, but it meant a lot to her to put this together for me, so I agreed.
“Fine.”
“Yay!” she exclaimed as she jumped up and down. “You’re going to have so much fun!”
I rolled my eyes at her enthusiasm and then told her about Cameron.
“Did you know that Cameron’s birthday is the same day as mine and he’s also going to be thirty?”
“Shut the fuck up! Are you serious? Wow. What a coincidence, Sierra. I’m inviting him so we can celebrate his birthday too.”
“I doubt he’ll come. He doesn’t seem like the type of guy who gets into those things.”
“He’ll come. Trust me.” She smiled as she walked out the door. A few moments later, she popped her head back in. “Oh, by the way, I signed us up for ballroom dance lessons. James is going to be my partner, so you better find one fast. Lessons
start tomorrow.”
“What?! I’m not taking ballroom dancing lessons. What the hell is the matter with you?”
“I figured you’d react that way. You really have no choice. Areulia and Co. are looking for a new advertising agency. They’re one of the biggest ballroom dance companies in the world. This account means millions. So you’re going to brush up on your ballroom dancing skills and know what the hell you’re talking about when you meet with them in a month. Word on the street is that they only are interested in those who are as passionate about ballroom dancing as they are.”
“So why the hell are you taking lessons? Why can’t James be my partner?”
“Because I want to dance with him.” She winked. “Find someone. Ask one of your suits or, better yet, get Builder Boy to join us.”
“I’m firing you!” I yelled as I threw my stress reliever ball at the door.
The day was a big clusterfuck, as usual. I left the office around ten p.m. and, when I got home, I headed straight to the kitchen and pulled out the bottle of tequila and did a shot. I looked out the window at the guesthouse and all the lights were off. He sure goes to bed early, I thought to myself. I was startled when Cameron walked into the kitchen, wiping his hands on a cloth.
“Whatcha looking at?”
I put my hand over my heart, as it felt like it was going to jump out of my throat. “My God, you scared me.”
“Sorry.” He smiled.
“Why are you still here?”
“Why are you just getting home?” he asked.
“Excuse me?” I said.
“I’m still here for the same reason you’re just getting home. There were more problems with the tear out in your bathroom than anticipated, so I didn’t want to get behind.”
“How is that the same reason as mine?”
“Were you at the office?” he asked.
“Yes. It was a big clusterfuck of a day.”
“See. Same reason. Your bathroom is one big clusterfuck.” He smiled.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay. I don’t want to know what kind of clusterfuck it is; just rebuild it. Would you like some tequila, since we both had such clusterfucks of a day?” I asked.
“I would love some. Thank you.”