whew! don't know what happened there, but i ended up with chapter two in here twice on one page. well, i 've fixed that, so it's all better now. sorry!

Disclaimer: dont own the F4, never will

Chapter 2

What was it about Johnny Storm that made her stomach fill with butterflies? Maybe it was his adorable grin. Or perhaps it was the fact that you could see the powerful muscle beneath his shirt rippling with every move he made. But those seemed more likely to make her heart pound in her chest, rather than make butterflies. Maybe the butterflies came from the way he had looked her up and down when she came down the stairs in her tank top and pajama pants. Yes, that had to have been it.

But she had been warned well. According to Reed and Susan, Johnny was quite the "ladies' man" and never had any real intentions for any of the girls he dated. And there was quite a long list of girls. Indeed, he had been with at least six different people since the accident in some form of a relationship, not including the brief fling right before or the impromptu dates he came home with. Johnny was a rough and tumble kind of guy. And Reed had stated before, while trying to be polite about Sue's brother, Johnny left broken hearts in his wake, wherever he went. It was a warning, she was sure. Especially after what had happened to her before.

Robbie had seemed like such a sweet guy when they had first started dating. And Cayleigh thought she had been truly in love with him. She gave a hoarse laugh. Robbie was in jail now. Attempted rape, repeated assault and battery, and sexual harassment had been the charges. How was it that love could really be so blind? Johnny didn't seem anything like Robbie at the moment, but she knew now, things could change in a heartbeat. But could he actually hurt her like Robbie had? She shook her head, knowing she shouldn't get tangled up in anything. It was way too soon.

Taking out a pair of designer jeans from one of Sue's bags, she stripped down and tried them on. They fit pretty well – they were tight, but comfy, and they certainly accentuated the natural curves of her body. She looked at herself in the mirror and grinned. Oh, yes. She already loved New York.

She rummaged through the other bags, trying on everything as she went. She had to admit, Sue had a great eye for fashion. After detaching all the tags, she hung everything up in her new, huge, walk-in closet, and dressed herself in a pair of her favorite fitted sweatpants and a tank top. She drew her unruly red locks up into a tight ponytail. Her green eyes flashed as she gazed at herself in the mirror. Cayleigh let a smile split her face. Deciding against makeup for today, she simply washed her face with a damp washcloth and headed back downstairs.

Sue and Reed were just about the step into the elevator. "We have a meeting with the wedding planner. We'll be back later for dinner," Reed said, noting the questioning look on her face.

"Okay," she replied, nodding. "I can eat anything here, right?"

"Have at it, kid," he stated with a smile.

"Thanks."

Cayleigh slowly made her way to the kitchen, settling on some sort of cereal for breakfast. When she got there, she found Johnny digging in the fridge.

"Looking for something in particular?" she asked, quirking a brow.

Johnny spared her a glance and another one of his trademark smiles. "Just milk. I think Pebbles drank the last of it, though."

Cayleigh groaned. "Are you kidding? How am I supposed to eat cereal without milk?"

"That is what I would like to know," Johnny grumbled. "Ben, did you finish off the milk this morning?" he yelled to the other side of the apartment.

"What of it?" Ben shouted back.

"Never mind," Cayleigh said. "We'll just have to go get some more."

"We?" Johnny inquired, looking to her.

"Well. We both want milk, right? So doesn't it make sense that one or both of us should go out to get it?"

Johnny gave her a skeptical glance. "You do know this is NYC, don't you?" When she nodded, he continued, "You have no idea where you're going, and I'd get mobbed. Now, what do you suggest we do?"

"You could tell me where to go…" she began.

"Or we could go incognito," he stated. He picked up his sunglasses off the counter.

"That's your disguise?" she asked, doubtful. "Sunglasses?"

"They work wonders," he replied, flashing a smile and offering his arm. "Shall we?"

"Shall we what?" Ben questioned, lumbering into the kitchen with a suspicious look on his face.

"Go get milk, Rocky, since you apparently drank all of it this morning," Johnny quipped. "So if you'll excuse us…"

Before Ben could say anything further, Johnny grabbed Cayleigh's hand and dragged her quickly to the elevator and pushed the button. The elevator bell rang and the doors slid open just as Ben made it into the foyer.

"Stay out of trouble, both of you!" he yelled as the doors closed.

Johnny tipped his shades down his nose and made a frustrated noise. "And you used to have a crush on him?"

Cayleigh giggled and looked away. "Yeah. A long time ago."

He looked at her for a couple of beats. "You don't have a boyfriend now, do you?"

"No," she replied, quietly.

Johnny stopped his line of questioning immediately. He could tell it was a sore topic with her, so he dropped it. They remained in an uncomfortable quiet until the elevator opened again on the first floor to the lobby of the Baxter. She followed him out in silence until they reached the parking garage. Johnny came to a stop in front of a red Porsche and pulled his keys out.

"This is your car?" she asked, staring at the expensive sports car.

"Yeah," he answered, smiling as she ran her hands over the exterior of the Carrera GT Cabriolet.

"Wow. And I thought my Scaglietti was cool."

"That Ferrari is yours?" Johnny murmured, just loud enough for her to hear, looking over to the green sports car next to Reed's SUV. "Sweet ride."

"I really wanted the Beamer K1200 S, but Daddy wouldn't even let me test drive it," she responded, sounding slightly disappointed.

"You like bikes?"

"Yeah. I was really hoping to get one for my birthday last year, but no dice."

"Would you rather ride on one to get the milk instead?" he asked, walking up to the bike parked next to the sports car. He pulled a helmet off the back seat and offered it to her.

"Really? This is yours too? Wow, I've really wanted one of these." She took the helmet and put it on, fumbling with the straps, trying to shorten them as she eyed the BMW, expensive no doubt. She recognized it as a K1200 RS.

Johnny slid his helmet on and turned his attention to her. "Need a little help?"

"I really should have done this before putting it on," she complained.

Johnny batted her hands away and grinned, then tightened the straps, clicking the buckle together when he was finished. His warms hands brushed against her throat briefly and heat radiated through her whole body. He whacked the helmet gently. "Feel lose?"

"No," she replied. "It's fine. Let's go."

Johnny swung his leg over the bike and situated himself, before motioning her to climb on behind him. Cayleigh glanced down at the body of the bike, looking for handles. There were none. As Johnny turned on the ignition, she leaned closer to him.

"What do I hold on to?"

"Use your imagination," he stated with a grin, over the sound of the engine revving up. He kicked off the ground, jerking the bike into motion, and Cayleigh had to quickly latch onto his waist to keep from falling off.

"I like the way you think," he quipped.

"Self-preservation," she returned, pulling herself closer to him and wrapping her arms around his lower torso. Johnny cut the corner coming out of the garage close, causing her to dig her fingers in to his abdomen. She could feel the powerful muscles rippling under her fingertips, and she grinned. I wonder what he looks like with his shirt off, she wondered.

He tore down the streets, headed toward the nearest quick mart, about ten minutes from the Baxter. New York drivers were crazy, it seemed. There were a couple moments along the way that Cayleigh wondered if they'd make it to the store alive, let alone back home. It appeared Johnny was one of the better drivers in the Big Apple. A frightening thought, indeed. They did, however, make it to the store in one piece. Conversely, Johnny's wonderful disguise of sunglasses did not work.

A made-up, garishly dressed young woman pranced over as soon as they walked in the door. Her denims looked like they'd been painted on and her shirt was cut down so far that it left little to the imagination. She flashed Johnny a brilliant smile, completely ignoring Cayleigh. "Excuse me, but aren't you the Human Torch?"

Johnny only glanced up from the date on the milk jug momentarily the first time. He did a double take and looked back at her. His trademark grin spread over his face. "Why, yes, I am. And who might you be?"

Cayleigh rolled her eyes and sighed before grabbing the milk from Johnny's hands. If Johnny wanted to flirt with this brainless buffoon, that was perfectly fine, as long as he didn't tangle her up in it too. She vaguely heard the woman tell Johnny her name was Annalisa, but that he could call her Annie. Then she asked in a not so subtle way if Cayleigh was his girlfriend. She almost laughed at that – please. This woman was desperate.

Johnny did laugh. He glanced at her and gave her a wink. "Not yet," he said, giving her a pouty, adorable look and blowing her a kiss. "No. Actually, Cayleigh and I are just friends."

Well, Annalisa didn't like that too much. In fact, she took it as her cue to start glaring daggers at Cayleigh. Apparently, she was a threat now, no longer ignorable. This was getting to be too much. All Cayleigh wanted was some milk for her cereal – not a confrontation.

"And we really need to go," Cayleigh added hastily, pulling Johnny towards the cash register. She handed the milk to the clerk and gave Annalisa a smile, before turning away to pay.

Johnny made sure he had Annalisa's phone number by the time she was ready to leave.

"Great disguise, Storm," she cracked as she hopped on the bike behind him. "Works wonders, does it?"

"Yeah. Chicks love it."

"If all it attracts is 'chicks' like that, then you better look for a different disguise."

"She was gorgeous," he argued.

"She was trashy, and she had just as much sense as the handle grip on this bike. You can do better than that, Johnny," she returned. "You're not really going to call her, are you?"

"Oh, I get it. You're jealous, aren't you?"

This time, Cayleigh did laugh. "Oh yeah. That's it. Honey, if I had a guy like her, I'd drop his butt so fast he wouldn't even know what hit him."

Johnny was quiet for a moment. "A guy like her? How would you describe her?"

"Slutty. She's probably been with so many guys, she can't even remember their names. She dresses like a whore. There's a difference between dressing offensively and dressing sexily. And she probably doesn't have enough common sense to get in out of the rain."

"So your ideal man would be…"

Cayleigh shot him a look from the back of the bike. "Why do you want to know, Mr. Annalisa is gorgeous?"

"Just curious."

"Well, he would have to be relatively smart. I would like to be able to carry on a decent conversation with him. He shouldn't have a list of exes that's longer than my grocery list. A sense of humor would be nice. Romantic, sweet, thoughtful, maybe a little protective, but not obsessive…not like Robbie," she added as an afterthought.

"Who's Robbie?" Johnny immediately picked up.

"Never mind," she quickly responded. "It's no one."

Johnny remained silent after that. It was really hard for him to think with the noise from the engine rattling around in his helmet, but he assumed that Robbie was an ex-boyfriend. And apparently, he had done something that Cayleigh didn't want to talk about. Maybe that was what Ben had been talking about earlier this morning. He wasn't sure, but he certainly planned to find out. And if he was going to win Cayleigh over, he was going to have to leave behind his days of jumping from woman to woman. He could do it – couldn't he?