Here's the latest chapter of this fan fiction story. I hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading and the comments.
Matt had been invited to be on more than a few radio talk shows during his stint in the City of the Angels. He had become somewhat of a folk hero especially after he had turned his back on his life as the head of one of the nation's top conglomerates, a decision that most in the business industry viewed as being somewhat crazy. Gave the majority of his earnings to his new charity foundation and then spent the bulk of his time putting his military intelligence training and investigative skills to work. More than a few business analysts had a field day with that decision.
He had wound up spending one early morning on the famed radio show, Mark and Brian, arriving before the sun had even risen above the horizon while the two men grilled him on his life and vocational choices.
"You made millions to prove to your old man that you could do it on your own," one of them he couldn't remember which one asked, "and then you gave it all up, the business trips, the executive board invitations, the keys to the kingdom that most of us can only dream about…to become a hired hack who sits in cars with binoculars all day and watches people?"
That summary of one of the most important decisions in his life had given Matt pause and he almost retorted something back before realizing he needed to save his energy for the portion of the interview pertaining to his social calendar and reputation as one of L.A.'s reputable playboys. And he couldn't blame the two hosts for looking at him as if he were at the very least, eccentric. Because during the past year or so, most people in his business and even social circles including more than several women as pillow talk had asked him the same questions of why he had given up a bulk of his fortune. But one constant in his life had not, had simply accepted his decision and had done everything to help him change the priorities in his life as if it were just a given that he, they had needed to embrace the change that life delivered.
And that one person had just walked away from him, hiding her tears, more to add to the ones he had given her.
"C.J…"
He started to call her back and then realized that he didn't know what to say. His body still felt her in its embrace as the sensations that their interlude had brought began to fade just as she had just reached her horse and had grabbed the reins. Change had been in the wind, the most important one in his life of career trajectory changes and decision making on a dime and it was slipping away from him with each step she put between the two of them.
The interview had turned out not too badly for him and had scored the show some of its highest ratings, so much so it had been rebroadcast every day at 2 a.m. for a week timing with the release of the People magazine that had included him among its roster of sexiest men. And looking back, he knew he had been lying if he hadn't played that role, keeping his body fit not just for his work by swimming laps daily, running and lifting weights in his custom gym at the office. His social roster of dates had filled up rapidly even though he never really had owned that black book that had been the subject of rumor of speculation. The one that someone had claimed to have discovered in the trash and had tried to auction off on EBay.
Though seriously this whole jet set playboy reputation of his mixed a good dose of myth with reality. Yes, he had relationships to varying degrees with many beautiful women since he had been a football star in high school but mixed in his roster of so-called conquests, were several engagements and even a larger number of times when his own heart had been broken since he had fallen in love for the first time with an older woman when he had been 13. He had loved her from afar and she hadn't had a clue about the depths of his feelings…until they reunited on a case several years ago. One fiancée killed by a serial killer, another woman he loved killed years later by the same man and then there had been Elizabeth.
The most recent great love of his life. But then again, as time had passed and the ache in his heart had faded, he had realized that though he had deeply cared about her, what had been the driving force behind his decision to propose to her had been the idea of being in love, of finally finding someone to spend his life with and raise a family.
Of course the wedding had gone kaput and while he grieved the loss of Elizabeth, he soon dusted off his social calendar and returned to the game. But even though he had been able to draw a flock of women to him, he didn't feel the same rush that he had felt when he was younger. And then he hadn't even noticed when it begun to happen, but he found himself focusing on one woman in particular, the one who was running away from him and getting away.
C.J. returned to the stable and noticed that when the paint had dried, it had turned the colors a shade or two paler. She smiled as she trailed her fingers along the sides of one of the stalls which had held old Gutbuster in during his wilder days back when Matt had lived on the ranch and they had spent so many happy times here. Sitting on the chair next to the desk, she looked up at the newly polished rodeo awards and trophies that still lined the shelves showing the accomplishments of three generations of Houston men. The tears had dried up and during the ride back to the stable through the quietness of the summer afternoon, she had time to think about what had happened or nearly happened between them. When he had started unbuttoning her blouse, her skin had tingled where his fingers brushed it and his breathing which had quickened on her neck. And her body had responded to his handling as if I were familiar, even though they were crossing into unfamiliar territory that had stood between them all of these years.
But then that part of her that had held him off caught up with the rest of her that wanted to tear his clothes off and draw him inside of her, and she had pulled away. She knew that action and the words that followed had hurt him, had heard it in his voice even though he had downplayed it. She knew if she hadn't stopped him, then in a matter of minutes, their lifelong friendship would have been irrevocably changed. And for better or for worse, she wouldn't know until they had stepped across that threshold and really saw each other for the first time what would replace it.
If she had truly given herself to him in a very new and exciting way and he had walked away from it and her…sadness crept into her heart again. Because she had seen him walk away from many women, including the one who had nearly sliced her throat open because she had actually believed that Matt had left her for his best friend. And she didn't want to be added to that list.
Even with all the danger they both faced, she knew that he was the only person on this earth that could truly hurt her.
She reached out for one trophy, the one that had won him Cayenne, where he with the help of Bo and Lamar had crafted the perfect chili to win the competition and the paint filly. Oh they had tried to trick him by substituting a miniature horse and convincing Matt that it had shrunk when it had gotten wet, and when C.J. led out the real thing, the look in his eyes was that of a man in love…with a four-legged filly and not really seeing the woman next to her.
She sighed putting the trophy again and watched the streams of sunlight sift through the windows, as darkness surrounded them. In the distance, she heard the rumble of thunder.
Matt opened his eyes and looked up, nothing that the sky which had been so vividly blue when he closed his eyes had filled up with darker clouds during the time he had slipped away. Feeling the heat, he had lay on the grass near the lake and closed his eyes…just for a second he told himself. But he had fallen asleep.
They sat inside of the cabin of his Lear Jet content to let Matt's pilot fly them back to L.A. after they had refueled in Dallas. Matt had arranged for some barbecue takeout for them to enjoy on the last leg of their slight and C.J. had kicked off her shoes and joined him as Matt adjusted the armrests on several seats to give them more room. While in Dallas, they had stopped off at a condo he owned and had showered and changed, feeling much better when they reboarded the luxurious jet.
After they had eaten the delicious food, he had wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer to him, as he had regaled her with the story of how he and Vince had teamed up to overthrow the terrorists on the plane and get onto the island without Marquis being any the wiser. When he asked her about her experience during those several days on the island without him, she had shrugged him off and had deftly changed the subject, asking him about where Vince had gotten his wings. As he watched her skillfully draw him into a boisterous conversation about the early days in L.A. before he and Vince had become close friends, something had nagged at him but he had fallen under her spell, her way of spinning words together as he often did.
As he woke up from his dream with its details fading, he felt the breeze hit his skin with a hint of warm moisture and realized as it often did this time of year, the weather changed fast. One moment the sun would be shining, the next hidden behind a layer of rain falling like sheets from the sky, the winds swirling around picking up loose dirt and grass on the ground. He heard his horse whinny in the distance and thought it might not be a bad time to head on back to the ranch house.
His horse remained tied to the fence but was tossing up her head, her eyes a bit wide from the storm that threatened to overtake them. Matt untied her and got aboard, pulling her reins and starting across the meadow.
C.J. stood by the doorway looking at the sky which had darkened as it would like clockwork this time of day for the rest of the month. The air filled with dampness and the wind felt both cool and warm on her face. She had brought Chelsea into the barn and decided to remain inside until the storm blew over on its way to the mountains.
She walked over to her horse and stroked her mane, wondering if Matt had seen the clouds and headed back to his guest house to wait it out. Hopefully he had already started back so that he and Cayenne wouldn't get caught out in it. His filly didn't have much experience being out in stormy weather and if she didn't know that Matt had been in the saddle before he had been walking, she might have been worried that the young filly might toss him before taking off. Still…
Not wanting to worry about him, she pulled out her phone and saw more emails, including another one from "An Old Friend" which naturally she decided to read first. This time there was only one sentence and it made her heart go cold.
You have one minute to change my mind…
Matt rode Cayenne keeping her under a tight hold so she wouldn't toss her head around and try to dash off. The tree branches rustled around them, and the long grass undulated in waves across the meadow, a sea of green and tan.
He found himself under a tree, not the best place to be during a thunder storm and wondered if C.J. were still at the stable or had headed back to the ranch in anticipation of the monsoon. Either way she would have shelter, as he knew she had too much sense than to ride around in this weather, much more than he did, he thought. The rain came down around him and he knew he would get soaked, so he made a quick decision. Not to ride back across several meadows and a formerly dry creek now turned raging stream to the ranch house but to head off to the stable instead and hole up there until the storm passed.
C.J. sat on the cot gazing at the email, unable to take her eyes off of it because now she knew… Only one person could have written and sent it and that person…no it couldn't be, he was locked up in prison as surely as her ex Robert had been and thus unable to send emails to people on the outside. She ran her hand through her hair and tried to stop herself from shaking.
Marquis Duval, Sr.
The man who had made her life hell while keeping her on his damn island, who had threatened Matt and had used her to force him to recant his eyewitness testimony that would have put his son, the assassin in prison for life. After Matt and Vince had crashed Marquis' party, the father had joined the son in the federal penal system.
No, this couldn't be him…it had to be someone playing head games with her to get him to think that it was the man who had haunted her life after he had left it. But surely he was still locked up inside a maximum security jail cell inside the most secured facility in the country, where they kept the worst criminals. But if someone was masquerading as him, did that mean that it was someone with a grudge against her, against Matt? And if so, did Matt know that a threat existed? He certainly didn't act like it, at least not while he had been visiting the ranch and working it, just as she had been doing before relaxing with some beers on his porch at the end of the day. That's when he hadn't had his hands or his lips on her.
She saw lightning flash just outside the small window, followed by a crash of thunder amid the rain striking the roof of the stable and she hoped he had made it back safely. And that danger hadn't been following just behind him.
Matt saw the stable ahead of him and rode Cayenne all the way up to the stable, jumping off and leading her inside. He looked up and saw a light shining at the end of the hallway and realized that C.J. must still be here. He put up Cayenne and then saw Chelsea standing placidly in the next stall so he walked on towards the tack room. Where he saw C.J.
She had turned around towards the door, hearing his familiar boot steps. As he entered the room, his hair drenched from the rain and his clothes wet, she just stared at him for a long moment as he took in the sight of her and saw the same earlier emotions mirrored in her eyes, along with a newer one that stopped him in his tracks.
"C.J…"
Something passed over her face as if she had made a decision and that's when she walked purposely towards him and threw her arms around him, drawing him closer to her before he knew it. She pressed her body against his own, meshing her softness with his hardness and he sighed, as he drew in her familiar scent of lilacs mixed with sandalwood and something else along with the immense pleasure of her fingers running through his hair. Her own tousled hair and rosy lips made his heartbeat quicken as his eyes widened, afraid to look away for fear this side of her she had unleashed for him alone might disappear as quickly as it had appeared.
She looked up into his face, just inches away from hers and traced his mouth with her finger tips. Thinking he could be doing much better things with it than talking. Knowing that the two of them had done enough talking…at least through words.
"No words…," she told him, "no regret…just us…here."
He nodded, soundlessly and wrapped his arms around her waist, caressing her hips as he looked at the most beautiful sight he had ever witnessed standing before him, allowing him in to really see her. He didn't know what he wanted to do first now that he finally had the chance, where he wanted to explore with his hands…and his mouth, the possibilities well, they were in front of him. She saw his indecision and smiled, grabbing his hand and rubbing it in between her own hands. Caressing them slowly and surely while looking straight at him and his eyes grew moist. His breath caught in his throat because just thinking about those hands…
"I've been out in the rain," he started to tell her but never finished, because she drew him down and her mouth had covered his own and any words he might have just slipped away as his body took control.
"I know," she said softly, when she released him from her kiss.
"I didn't…bring anything…" he whispered against her.
She smiled at him, tilting her head.
"It's okay," she said, "No worries…I'm on the Pill."
And that's when he really knew that she wanted to make love with him, a thought that threatened to overwhelm what control he had over his own feelings that hadn't been undone by her already.
He kissed her this time and she let him lead, his fingers a bit clumsy as they moved to unbutton her blouse. She almost smiled at the thought that he seemed less than the suave Casanova that she had imagined him to be, almost buying into the mythology about her best friend. But then when he slipped her blouse off of her shoulders onto the floor, she decided to focus on getting his clothes off like a present she had been waiting years to open and enjoying what was underneath.
The floor soon became piled with clothing, not that they paid any attention, until finally he swooped her up and after taking her mouth again, he moved their action to the small bed and soon enough, they forgot about the rain, the mustiness of the stable and the rest of the world, so focused as they were in each other and the pure joy of their bodies joining where their hearts had waited, together at last.
