Caveat Lector: Obviously, if you guys haven't figured out by now, I went two beyond the number I originally intended for this particular creative passionate endeavor of mine. I'm not saying I sit on a throne of lies but... Obviously, I severely underestimated my frustration with certain past and present storylines and just an overall lack of certain characters. So this is now an un-numbered series, meaning if the muse strikes me, I might just fuck around and post even more additional stories in the future. For now, we're at six and I'm gonna try to get these six at least partially begun properly before I even think about entertaining any other possibilities.
Bless you, kind anonymous reviewer. Your review truly made my day brighter. I was of the mindset that literally no one was going to even give a shit one way or the other, because as I said in the reader beware of the previous chapter to this, I realize that my personal favorites are probably not the most popular ones among General Hospital fans. But damn it, they're mine and I love them and it just thrills me that even one person took the time to read my fic and leave a review. Thank you, thank you, thank you. To answer the question you asked in your previous review, my kind reviewer - Each guy gets his own standalone fic. I could've just squeezed them all into one but I was too afraid that I wouldn't be able to keep everyone's individual plot points I wanted to hit separate in doing so. And some of these men are like.. They're my babies so I really wanted to give every single one of them their own solo spotlight. That being said, there may be appearances from others through each one, but that's because I'm kind of like trying to write in the same format that the actual soap itself appears in ( jumping from scene to scene, having people that were in their own scene appear in others also, that kind of thing, you know the drill). Also, you are very,very wise to distrust Simon. Very wise.
The door to her suite was practically being beaten down and Lola sat up in bed, stretching and yawning. Grumbling at the early hour and figuring it was Simon popping by with a list of commitments and a schedule for the day, Lola didn't bother with the formality of pants. Instead, she wandered over to the door, raising to her tiptoes to peer through the peephole.
To her surprise it wasn't an all too cheerful Simon waiting outside her suite, but Logan Hayes. The man Simon handpicked to act as her bodyguard. And he didn't look thrilled about being awake at the unholy hour of 6 either. She caught herself having just a second's pause in which she debated telling him to hang on and racing to go and throw on some form of bottoms and at least brush the yuck off her teeth so her breath smelled okay, but in the end, she took a deep breath and threw the door open instead.
"Yeah?" Lola gazed up at the tall,muscular male. She stood a little taller herself. Stepping a little closer. "You realize it's fuck all o'clock on a Saturday, right?"
" You realize that being your bodyguard means I'm gonna be underfoot all the time, right?" Logan countered. His eyes happened to roam over the brunette, from her sleep tousled dark hair to almost endless bare legs. The fact that she was wearing an old and thin Harley Davidson shirt to sleep in and the fact that it left so little to the imagination to cover so much had him swallowing down a lump in his throat as he moved past her to step into the suite.
"This isn't my first rodeo with the bodyguard situation, I'll have you know." Lola answered after a good three and a half seconds of her mouth opening and closing but no actual words coming out. When he'd stepped through the door, he'd brushed against her just enough for her to feel the contrast created by hard muscles pressed against her soft frame. And to her further shock, the absence of the contrast drew a fleeting pout to her lips.
Oh, she shoved that one down real quick. Real quick.
"Oh trust me, I know. I've done my homework on you, Lola." Logan replied.
Smirking at her with that cocky smirk that was already proving to be both a small irritation and fuel for fantasies and desires that Lola normally prided herself on keeping firmly locked away. Lola scoffed at the statement, mostly to disguise concern. Just how much homework had the broody and handsome blond man standing before her done in two nights?
,, not enough to find out that Casteel is an alias." Lola reassured herself.
Logan chuckled. "It's pretty neat, ya know. With a little patience and the right information on a person you can find damn near anything on the internet." he mused, pausing to rub his chin thoughtfully.
"Oh?" Lola swallowed hard. Toying with the t-shirt she wore as she sat down on the black leather sectional, neatly crossing one bare leg over the other. Nodding for Logan to sit. "And just what does that mean, Mr. Hayes."
"First of all, it's Logan." Logan spoke up calmly. He sat down on the sectional. Close but not too close. Close enough that the end result was her perfume filled his nose and he took a deep breath. Firmly reminding himself that he was hired to do a job and the only thing he would be doing was that job.
Absolutely not any of the other things he'd been fantasizing about in the space of the two days since he'd been hired to step in as Lola's bodyguard.
No sir, not him.
"Well? I'm waiting." Lola played it cool. Annoyed with herself when she just wasn't close enough to the surly blond Texan for her liking and found herself scooting just a little closer.
Why had Simon went and hired the literal embodiment of her dream type this time? Normally, he tended to stick to the seedier ones. The ones who didn't appeal to her at all. The ones who were dumb as fucking dirt.
,, so he can pay them off and get away with whatever the fuck it is you know he's been up to for years now." the thought played at her brain and she scowled just a little. The scowl turning to a smirk as she decided to attempt calling Logan's bluff.
Because he couldn't possibly have found out anything about her past. She'd paid dearly to have everything in regards to all of that sealed. Buried and locked away so well that she could literally just leave town and vanish tomorrow and no one would ever find her if she so chose. Sometimes the idea really started to look more and more appealing to her.
Especially when the cameras were being shoved in her face and every move she made, wound up in some tawdry gossip column for public fodder.
"Well? Am I to take your silence to mean that you know nothing?" Lola asked, giving her most innocent look as she said the words.
Logan shrugged. Smirking. Dropping the bombshell with just two words.
"Lola Cassadine."
Lola's mouth opened and closed and she stammered in shock. Only Simon knew, to her knowledge.
"You were raised in Greece. You attended elite boarding schools, even thrown out of one or two. I dunno who your father is yet but.. If I already know your real identity and the name of at least five of the seven boarding schools you were shuffled between, Lola.. Stands to reason I can keep going if I wanna, hm?" Logan shrugged. A humorless look on his face as he took a deep breath.
"How did you find all that out in two nights?" Lola managed to stammer. Pouting a little and fuming because that information was supposed to be under lock and key.
"I'm your bodyguard. I'm paid to find out this shit because the answer to whom your stalkers might be might well be tied up in the smallest and most non-significant detail, darlin. I'm not the kinda guy who is just gonna take a serious risk without knowing exactly who I'm takin it for."
"You better hope Simon doesn't figure out that you're actually good at your job and not a bumbling idiot like the other three he chose." Lola mused. Pulling herself off the sectional and holding out her hand to Logan. Logan eyed her hand warily, pulling himself up without bothering to take the hand offered.
"Where are we goin?"
"We're going for my morning jog, Officer Hayes. Or is there some problem with me, wanting a little fresh air?"
Logan chuckled. He knew he'd flustered her because she was just going to walk to the door without bothering to go and throw on pants. His smirk grew as he mused calmly, "I'm fine with a little fresh air. But as an officer of the law, ma'am.. I'm gonna have to ask that you take time to put on pants before we go anywhere. Can't arrest my own client, can I?"
Lola's mouth opened and closed and her nostrils flared. She grumbled and turned away from the door, storming into the sleeping area of her suite. And once she was out of sight, Logan leaned against the door and took a few deep breaths.
Just what the fuck had he gotten himself mixed up in? As soon as Spinelli found out she was a Cassadine, that should've been his sign to call in. Appeal to Jordan to find one of the other guys to do this. Hell, West could've done this, he'd once been thought to be an actual Cassadine.
And Nathan West wasn't in danger of becoming attracted to her, either.
No, that was all him.
,, me and my fucking type."
Lola pulled herself together and the first thing she did was text Simon in anger. She'd specifically told him to do whatever he had to. To make any and all information about her life prior to signing with his agency and taking up the mantle Lola Casteel disappear. And yet, here they were. Apparently, he hadn't done what she told him to do, because Logan Hayes, a detective at some little New York police precinct could take two days, the bare minimum of background she'd given him the night he was hired and he could pull up not only her given name but the fact that she'd been raised in Greece and she'd spent the brunt of her life shuttled back and forth between boarding schools.
He even knew that the reason she got thrown out of one of them was because she'd gotten into several physical altercations between herself and a group of girls who set their sights on breaking her.
If he found this in two days, she was almost afraid of what else he'd dig around to find out.
Logan knocked on the door to her sleeping area. "You comin? Some of us don't wanna jog in the fuckin heat."
Lola mimicked him under her breath and swallowed down the lump in her throat. She pulled on a pair of vibrant red Nike running shorts and grabbed her favorite pair of running shoes, pulling them on. Then she stepped out into the main area of the suite.
And right into Logan's taller, muscular frame. Logan chuckled. Gazing down at her for a second or two as he shook his head.
"What's so funny, hm?"
"Just how rattled you were when I told you all that. I could've kept goin, darlin. What I told you doesn't even begin to cover everything I found out about ya."
"I'd really rather not." Lola mumbled through a clenched jaw as she filled two water bottles in the sink at the small kitchen space of the suite, turning to hand Logan one, taking the other for herself. "In fact.. I'm going to have to ask that you never. And I mean ever.. Refer to me as Lola Cassadine. I've worked my ass off to forget that part of my life. I don't want it dredged up."
Logan nodded. "Given what my father's told me about his dealings with that particular family, can't say I blame ya."
"Oh trust me. I doubt your father knows the fucking half of it." Lola muttered, an almost bitter and sad look playing at her face that had Logan gazing at her in concern for far longer than he'd ever care to admit. She spoke up again quietly. "They're all fucking vile. Every single one."
"See, that's where I'm gonna disagree. If you knew Nicholas, he's not that bad a guy. Very charitable." Logan mused about his former girlfriend Lulu's half brother. "He gave my ass a chance."
"Then he's probably not entirely a Cassadine, either. Because all of us are evil and vile in some form. Just.. I wish I hadn't gotten stuck with the life I did. Kind of why I enjoy modeling and acting. Acting lets me be literally anyone but who I actually am."
"Yeah." Logan chuckled, nodding. Taking a long sip from his bottle and trying not to watch her as she stretched to prepare for her little jog. When she sprang up from the floor, she smirked at him. "C'mon, Hayes. The loser is buying lunch."
"Oh they are, huh?"
"Mhm. Now let's go, already." Lola pushed open the door to her suite and stepped into the hallway, jogging to the elevator. Logan caught up to her, passing her up easily. Calling out to her in a teasing tone, "Caveat is that you can't use the fuckin elevator, darlin. Now let's see how active you really are, hmm?"
Lola rolled her eyes but smirked softly. Eyes glued to his body as he jogged on in front of her. She caught up to him, calling out cheekily as she passed him up and started to dismount the first staircase of a total of six left to go, "On your left, Officer."
"On your left, officer." Logan mimicked, grumbling as he picked up the speed easily. Catching up to her in the second stairwell and passing her. Taunting her as he did so with "On your right, darlin. C'mon. You can't already be gettin tired on me."
"Oh you're fucking on. You are on." Lola grumbled, digging down deep. Pushing through the slight tiredness she was starting to feel. Catching up to him as best as she emerged in the lobby, drawing the stares of quite a few of those suit and tie types that seemed to flock to this hotel for business trips.
Lola laughed, tapping Logan's shoulder just as he went to open the door leading out into the street. "I feel like I want barbecue today, just so you know."
"Darlin, that's gonna go straight to that ass of yours."
"So? I'm not particularly inclined to care one way or another. Maybe if I get myself fat these fucking paparazzo will fuck off and away and stop waiting for the sex tape that's never going to happen." Lola teased right back, making Logan snicker and shake his head at her words.
"Okay, fine. But if we're gonna get good barbecue, darlin.. That's not gonna happen here in Port Charles. We're gonna have to go fifteen minutes out. Out by the lake."
"Fine with me."
"An additional caveat.. I'm only buyin if you make it three blocks. Because that's how many I normally make."
"The fuck, sir? Are you some kind of goddamn robot?"
"Nah. Ex military. I got in the habit when I served. Kind of stayed in the habit after my time was up. Gives me time to think and shit..."
"Why am I not surprised at all?" Lola muttered to herself, tilting her head slightly as she gazed up at him. Trying -and failing miserably at not getting all lost in his eyes like an idiot. She literally had to remind herself that doing so would weaken her and the last thing she wanted was to feel weak in any way.
Was already weak enough, Lola lamented to herself, that Simon continuously hired bodyguard after bodyguard because he wouldn't just let her do what she'd been doing her entire life at this point and protect herself from some unknown threat.
Did he not realize just yet that being raised Cassadine meant you learned to sleep with one eye opened?