Chapter 12

Riley

We flew throughout the night, and Ethan barely moved through the whole event. Not even when we hit a pretty bad storm near the end of the trip. It was almost lunchtime the next day in Rio when we finally got off the plane. I'd never been so glad to see solid ground before. Not being someone who'd flown more than once in my life, I'd held it together pretty well through the whole ordeal. Having to help Ethan was almost a godsend. It kept my attention on him and not on my worries about being in the air for so long.

I'd tried to sound like a Billy-bad-ass with Deza the day before like dying on the plane was all part of the risk, and was no big deal. Truth be told, I was terrified and hiding it like I did everything else.

"It's beautiful here." Ethan moved up beside me, looking a little too pale still.

"Yeah. How are you?" I turned to face him and reached out to press the back of my fingers to his forehead. "You feel good."

"You ain't seen nothing yet, baby doll." He winked and turned as Deza moved up beside us.

"All right. We have two small cars coming to take us to the beach condo we rented. You boys ride together and me and Riley will ride together. We get the first car that comes though. I need a shower or I'm going to turn into a class-A witch." Deza gave us a look as if to compound her words with truth.

"Turn into? What are you now?" Ethan chuckled and lifted his hands as she moved to pop him. "Be careful with the goods please. I'm feeling better, but I'm not nearly one hundred percent yet."

"You'll be better by tomorrow. We have the rest of the afternoon to lay around the condo, or soak up the sun for those of us who are desperate for a tan." Frank pulled up the sleeve of his Hawaiian shirt and we all flinched.

"Oh the agony of the whiteness." Ethan turned and acted as if he were ducking from a nuclear blast. "That's bad, man."

"I told you." Frank chuckled. "Here is car one. You girls go ahead."

"Unless you want to go with Deza and I'll ride with Frank. I know you're not feeling good." I turned my attention to Ethan.

"No. I'll be all right. Really." He smiled. "You're being too sweet for your own good. I wanna marry you instead of just turn you into my bedroom toy. Be careful, woman. You'll get yourself in too deep."

"Does he use these lines on everyone?" Frank snorted.

"Nope. I'm going to give Riley the down low in the car. She's in trouble and the boy has hearts in his eyes."

"Hey. We're right here." Ethan winked at me. "Hearts in my eyes? Dumb. You guys are old."

It was interesting how open everyone was with one another. I wasn't sure if I would ever get there, but it was fun to watch the others in action.

"Yes, well, I'm taking my old ass to the condo." Deza moved toward the car as Ethan motioned for me to join her.

"I'm good. Go to the condo. I'll find you tonight and we can have a drink or something." His eyes moved across my face as if memorizing me. How easily it would have been to fall in love with him.

I was lying if I thought I wasn't already there, but was it him that I was in love with, or his talent? Or the parts he played, even better yet?

"All right. Thanks." I rolled my bag to the small car, and thanked the driver for loading it for us.

Deza was resting with her eyes closed when I got in. I didn't want to bother her, so I pulled out my phone and worked through the text messages I had from Charlotte. She was about the only one I spoke with. It would seem that my boss from the restaurant had called a few times in the last day to apologize for being so harsh with me. Funny how people realized just how good they had it, but only when it was gone.

"Did Ethan offer you a friends with benefits-type relationship?" Her voice caught me off-guard.

"Hm? No. I don't think so." Embarrassment raced through me. He's hinted at it, but I couldn't really tell if he were being cheeky or honestly wanted me to come to him when I was horny and away from home. It seemed far too casual for my liking.

"You sure? You can tell me, you know." She pinned me with a hard stare.

"He might have mentioned it, but honestly, I figured he was just kidding."

"Right, well, he wasn't." She rolled her eyes. "I swear that boy is going to be the death of me."

"Did he mention it to you?" Horror raced through me that they were that open. The teasing and picking at Ethan about his man-parts and stuff, I could get used to. Getting into the intimate details of my sex life? Not so much.

"Yes! Yes, child. He wanted to make sure I was good with it." She pressed her hands to her face. "He has absolutely no sense of modesty at all. You should be warned. If you were on one film with us, no biggie, but knowing that you're most likely going to do three? That's three to four years of working together. Be warned."

I forced a laugh and leaned back, turning my face to look out the window as we passed the busy city and headed out to the water. She seemed to take the hint that I was done talking for the moment, and I was grateful for the silence.

I didn't know how I felt about him mentioning to Deza a friends with benefits relationship between us. Where the idea of stripping him naked and making him moan was something I could find at the edge of my desires, it was a risk. A risk I wasn't sure I was ready to take. My daydreams were more than enough for now, and even though getting sweaty and rolling around in the sheets with him was inevitable, I was going to hang on for as long as I could. Hopefully.