

### One Night In Heated Snapshots

Book One

SPECIAL EDITION

By

Ashley C. Harris

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Praise for Ashley's Novels

"One Night in Heated Snapshots by Ashley C. Harris was a good quick romantic read that will have a part two to it... This author really works her magic with these two characters in her presentation of them. I liked the twist and turns of these two coming together showing the family controversy, much growing up, perusing a career and then even love.. I found the characters were well developed, colorful, believable and well portrayed only helping to give the readers a good romantic story."

-Arlenas Book Reviews

"Memorable characters and plot momentum will keep the reader fully engaged right up to the pulse-pounding, dramatic conclusion with a stunning ending that I didn't see coming! Shock Me is a gripping beginning to a new series. I, for one, look forward to the future adventures of these characters."

-Lusty Penguin

"Shock Me by Ashley Harris is a story with new, fresh premise and I believe that fans of paranormal young adult novels will be thrilled to read it. I was completely hooked after reading prologue.. Ashley Harris managed to masterfully confuse you and leave you wanting more."

-Ja čitam, a ti?

"I loved this book so much I finished it in one sitting.. Where do I sign up for the second book's blog tour? I'm so excited."

-Endless Reading

"I think the summary for this one doesn't begin to really summarized Shock Me. In a way, I found it misleading because there's so much more to it. I couldn't stop reading it once I started. The story hooked me up from the beginning to the end. Most especially the ending. I'm glad that it was written in a third person's point of view. It made it easier for me to understand them. The story itself was written very well and the mysteries surrounding it kept it more interesting and better. It's like when one secret was revealed there's another secret."

-Musings In Fiction Alley

"Shock Me is a very nice, light read. It is a fast-paced action book with a little romance, and it is a perfect way to pass some time. It was good enough that if the author wrote a sequel to Shock Me, I would definitely read it... "

-Books With Pizzazz

Also By

Ashley C. Harris

TROLL SERIES

(1)Troll

(2)Troll Cries

(Stand-alone) Troll Whispers

(3) Troll Rise

THE SHOCK ME SERIES

(1) Shock Me

(2) Sparks

(3)Collide

(3.5) New Divide

(4) Ignite

(5) Power

THE ONE NIGHT IN SERIES

(1)One Night In Heated Snapshots

(2)One Night In Close Exposure

THE LINES NOVELLAS SERIES

Lines Part 1

Lines Part 2

Lines Part 3

One Night In Heated Snapshots

Book One

Of

The One Night In Series

Ashley C. Harris

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright 2013 by Ashley C. Harris. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Author.

www.ashleycharris.com

Cover design by Amber Harris : <http://www.amberhdesigns.com/>

Third Smashwords Edition February 2017

The author acknowledges the copyrighted or trademarked status and trademarked owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction: Nerd, Business Accounting, College Professor, Olympic, Olympics, Swim Team, Swim Champion, Beer Pong, Pot, Jock, Breezeway, Kate Middleton, Ryan Phelps, Michael Lochte, Italian, Latina, Miami Beach, Soda, Red Bull, Mile High Club, New Jersey, Jersey Shore, Mario Lopez, Will Smith, 'Welcome to Miami', Miami Airport, Miami Grand Hotel, Heat,Vivid Image, Grand Palm, African Refugee, Bar and Grill, Grilled Cheese, Spanish, Pina Colada, Dancing With The Stars, Reality Star.

Dedicated to:

The king of kings. Prince of peace.

Jesus Christ,

the one who is, was, and is to come....

One Night In Heated Snapshots

Chapter One

Beth's business accounting class seemed to stretch out into infinity. Her professor was supposed to dismiss the class ten minutes early but he held them over, talking about everything except the study questions for the next exam.

"One day soon, you'll all be graduates searching for jobs, going on countless interviews, and wishing you were back here sitting in my class studying for this test! You'll wish this was all you had to worry about," the professor spat with a hateful, slightly insane smile. All college professors were slightly insane in Beth's opinion. Did they really think their students, once free from four to five years of heavy studying and unpaid internships, were going to wish they were back in this little grey room aspiring for more tests?

Absolutely not!

Another four long, terrible minutes later, the class was finally dismissed. Beth stood stretching; she couldn't get outside to the fresh air fast enough. The day had come and gone and it was now dark outside. There were hardly any stars in the sky, nothing for her itching hands to capture with her camera phone. Her classmates swarmed around her, walking in heavy fogs, half-asleep due to their late night classes. Surely there is something interesting afoot, if only for a moment...

All she could see was a couple near their college's late night study cafe. Their age, either young freshman that were barely eighteen or almost thirty somethings still on campus to earn their doctorates, was unknown. She could only see their slender frames as their lips began meeting. The woman pulled away, giggling. Was this their first kiss, first physical encounter?

Before Beth even knew what she was doing, she slid the touch panel on her smart phone open, turning her camera app on. Holding her phone up, she watched as the man caressed the woman's cheek and pulled her back to him. Beth clicked her phone, capturing the stranger's lips meeting again, more desperately and heated this time. All thoughtless heavy passion took over in each of her shots. Then the two shapes melded into one, disappearing into a shadow as one of a hundred late night study hookup's ensued.

I wonder if they even know each other?

Beth spied a few wondering eyes looking her way, her fellow business students questioning what in the world she was doing. Not only was she staring openly at a couple devouring each other in the distance, but she was taking pictures of it all. As if Beth was some kind of a pervert or something. Gosh it's not like I have my smart phone on zoom. She rolled her eyes back at those who questioned her, not caring what they thought. She wasn't just a boring business major, she was also doubling as a photography major and now she had half of this week's photography assignment done. Score.

She hurried home, not at all afraid of the night, moving to the beat of her stomach growling as she ran up her apartment stairs to her door. Oh my gosh! Please not tonight!

Beth's footsteps came to a screeching stop as she came eye to eye with perhaps the most adorably handsome and most annoying guy on the planet, her neighbor, Sterling Johnson. He was most annoying because where he went the entire men's swim team and a league of female bimbo groupies went with him. He was either always gone away at swim meets and all day practices, or he and the other swimmers were at his place next door, screaming, partying, and playing pranks on one another; keeping every neighbor that was trying to study and sleep up all night in the process. And because Sterling was the best swimmer their college had ever had—bringing their school tens of thousands in endorsements and the promise of him one day competing on an Olympic level—Beth and the other students could call and complain about the swim team all night and no one ever did anything about it.

Sterling was sitting, rocking back and fourth, on the ledge that was between their doors on the second floor. His light blue eyes made contact with Beth's own blue pair, sending a shiver down her spine as she nearly tripped over her own two feet. The females that were standing next to him and the other swimmer by his side turned and made eye contact with Beth. The girls looked at her with, 'back off, we got here first,' faces. Well unfortunately for them Beth lived here and she had to get through.

"Hey, Bethany," Sterling mouthed as he held his phone up to his ear, waiting for someone on the other end to answer.

"It's just Beth," she corrected him, pushing past the bimbo girls and unlocking her apartment. He always acted friendly with her even though they weren't on a friendly basis in any way possible. She'd had to knock on his door many nights, screaming and nagging at his company to quiet down. No, they weren't friends. Not at all.

The fact that he called her Bethany was so aggravating. She didn't want anyone calling her that, most of all him. Yet, ever since move in day last year when their RA posted her full name for everyone to see, Sterling hadn't stopped calling her by it. God, I loathe him.

Getting past the small crowd, she slammed the door behind her, shut her front window, and quickly started to make dinner. She had tons of photography homework and her only prayer was that she wasn't woken up at all hours of the night by the hot, way too gorgeous, swim champion next door.

***

Her prayer went unanswered. Beth's father always told her when prayers turned out that way it was for a reason. That God was working behind the scenes, doing something exciting. Well she found that hard to believe as music thundered into her apartment on Sterling's loud speakers like a friggin bomb was going off next door.

The beating sound actually made the photos and papers on her desk blow all over the place, like a storm was brewing. She called the RA's, put a pillow on her head, and even tried earplugs, but none of it was working. Finally Beth knew she would have to take measures into her own hands.

She threw on jeans and an oversized coat to cover the fact that she didn't feel like putting on a bra. Barely able to think, she rushed to the bathroom, combing out her long blond hair and pulling it into a ponytail. Why she felt the urge to look somewhat decent she didn't know. She grabbed her camera off the wall, looped it around her neck, and chose not to think about it.

Stepping outside into the cold night, she marched quickly past one of the drunk swimmers that was talking to a gyrating, big breasted redhead at the front door. Once inside, Sterling was the entire party's focus of attention. People cheered as he won every single beer pong round, forcing his rivals to drink until their stomachs blew and they vomited everywhere. So gross!

Beth turned her flash off and brought her camera up to eye level, beginning to take pictures and video of everything all at once, catching a dozen dreadful, slothful faces in every frame. She was looking for something truly incriminating, and it took only two seconds to find it.

One of the shorter swimmers with jet-black hair was smoking pot with a girl on each side of him. He took a puff and handed it off to the girl on his left who was admiring his swimmers muscles. The type of muscles and hard defined abs that made these guys feel like gods when they were merely just drunk mortal boys about to go down.

A few more snaps and Beth was satisfied. She turned around, taking more pics as she left, including a picture of Sterling's face as his eyes met her camera's lens. Snap! Beth bolted for the door, moving quickly, but Sterling was just as quick. He was on her tail as they stepped onto the porch near her door.

"What do you have there, Bethany?" he called after her as she pulled out her key. She wasn't afraid of him. He was big and strong, a total jock tool, but Beth knew that he was not capable of hurting a woman.

"I don't respond to Bethany!" she reminded him.

"Fine, what do you have there, Beth?" He stepped in front of her, gently stilling her hand on the doorknob as he looked down at her tired, frustrated face.

"What I've got is Sterling Johnson, future Olympic athlete, giving out pot at his party. Sounds like a headline that should sell decently, don't you think?"

"I don't smoke pot or anything else for that matter," he told her honestly, his voice filling with what was possibly a little fear, or maybe the rise of a challenge.

"That's not what these photos will say. Maybe you should try keeping better company." She fought against his hand to turn her doorknob. His warm, gentle touch on the ice-cold knob was almost too much to bear. Especially with the way he looked at her, like he could see down to her soul. She forced her eyes away, trying not to think about his golden brown hair that still seemed soft and flawless after hours of partying and getting down. His dark blue sweater showed off how long, lean, and ripped his chest was. He he looked like Ryan Lochte, but with the abs and height of Michael Phelps. It was enough to make girls everywhere swoon, and Beth had to fight hard not to swoon herself.

"Ok, Beth, what do you want?" he asked her.

"A decent night's sleep before my exam! It's what all your neighbors have wanted all year, but you continue to party all the harder every time we ask for some consideration."

"Ok, I'm sorry. I'll turn the music down. Happy?"

She looked up, meeting his gaze, still majorly pissed off as she rattled the doorknob. He removed his hand but remained blocking her way as she opened her door.

"Come on, truce?" he asked her again, turning his voice all flirty. Gosh, did he get away with everything this way?

Before she could answer, a blast from the music still pounding at his place sent two frames on her wall crashing down. They landed onto a stack of photos, causing them to fly everywhere in a chaotic mess. A few of them actually escaped out her front door before she could chase them down. Sterling managed to catch one. In his hand, he held the still wet photo of the blurred couple kissing that she had shot earlier that night. He looked down at it, taking it in, and then to Beth.

Her face turned bright red as she ripped the photo out of his hand. "It's for a class assignment," she mumbled, embarrassed and mad at herself. "And unless you plan on shutting down the party, count on these photos—" She held up her camera, "—being all over the news tomorrow night!" Then she pulled her door shut, quickly slamming it in his perfect face.

About five minutes later, his music was turned off and she heard the shouts of the party moving elsewhere. Finally she could get some sleep and think of something else other than Sterling Johnson and the way his deep voice was enough to take her breath away.

***

"Come on Caleb, the party's moved elsewhere," Sterling told his best friend, as he helped him off the floor. Caleb was so drunk and out of it, there was no way Sterling was going to let him wander too far alone.

"All the girls are gone?" Caleb asked confused.

"Yes," Sterling laughed. "Do you see any of them around?"

Caleb moved his eyes from the left to the right, seriously searching like a drunken fool for a female to pop out.

"I don't believe it." Caleb hiccuped, as he rubbed his finger through his bright red hair. "Where you are, hot girls follow."

Sterling half-rolled his eyes and grinned as he dropped his heavy friend and fellow swim mate onto the couch. Sterling's reputation around this place had evolved into something he didn't even recognize half of the time, and he never went for the girls that made it too easy. He chuckled as he stepped into the shower thinking about Bethany, the girl next door. The only one who had never made anything at all easy for him. That girl will always loathe me.

Halfway through his shower, as Sterling's mind began to wind down from all the celebrating he and the team had done after winning their swim meet, he heard his phone go off. The ring coming from it was the ring he'd programmed specially for his sister. Given that it was the middle of the night, he knew something had to be extremely wrong for her to be contacting him right now.

He got out of the shower, not bothering to throw a towel around himself as he answered the phone. What he heard on the other end was enough to make his blood boil.

Chapter Two

The next morning, Beth nearly ran into Sterling again as he was coming up the stairs from what had to be swim practice. Who could party all night after winning a swim meet and then get up for practice so early the next day? Beth shook her head in disgust and purposefully took the elevator to avoid him.

Later in Business Management, she took her exam while her friend Tara covered for her in their black and white photography class. Beth and Tara always covered for each other in classes, it was the only way they could both survive being double majors in classes that constantly clashed; they owed each other.

"I need a favor!" Tara called on the phone, panicked.

"Of course, anything," Beth reassured her.

"My models for our intimacy assignment in photography just totally bailed on me," she told Beth in a rush.

"You mean the assignment due today? In only a few hours?" Why did Tara constantly leave things until the last minute? This trait was probably going to cost her friend entry into Vivid Image Magazine's big traveling photography contest that every photography graduate was gunning for. With that contest in mind, Beth had worked extra hard on her assignment all of last week and then edited in the blurred couple kissing from the other night for a final sizzling effect.

"Yes, yes, I know, I should have worked on it last night instead of partying, but now it's due and I need you and one other person to play model for fifteen minutes while I snag some kind of passing shot."

"Me, model? I'm sure we can find someone else—"

"I've tried calling everyone! No one answered except you, and I need you big time. Please, you're tall, blond and beautiful, and the photo will be blurred anyway, so please?"

Twenty minutes later Beth walked into the photography studio, not excited and very time conscious as she heard the sound of cameras flashing.

"That's great, really great," she heard Tara say. Tara's voice was strangely high, excited over something or someone.

Beth heard the sound of a deep voice chuckling and then asking Tara if she wanted him to take his shirt off.

"Yes, please!" she heard Tara squeak as Beth walked in. Again, Beth stopped right in her tracks, her train of thought totally gone by the sight of a half naked Sterling Johnson in front of a green screen in their photography studio. Beth had seen him shirtless a million times, but each time was enough to make her knees buckle. What was he doing here?

"Beth, great! You're here. Now we can really get started. Would you by any chance be willing to take your shirt off, too?" Tara asked her, as Beth stood there flabbergasted.

Sterling's smile deepened as he looked Beth up and down. "Yes, Bethany, by all means, please do."

"Not in a million years!" Beth snapped at him, then she turned her fury on Tara. "What's he doing here?"

"He's the only decent guy who volunteered to help a photographer out as I trekked up and down the breezeway begging. What's the problem?" She looked at Beth, demanding silently she play nice so Sterling wouldn't bail.

Beth grabbed Tara tightly by the wrist and pulled her close, whispering, "I can not take a picture with him," she hissed.

Tara looked at her desperately. "Please, you owe me." She looked back and fourth from Beth to Sterling, who was pretending to check his phone with the biggest smile on his face, as if he enjoyed getting under Beth's skin. "I mean look at him, he's absolutely gorgeous. There could be worse jobs. It's this or I take a photo of you tonguing your own hand," Tara continued to whisper. "Please, it will only take fifteen minutes."

"Fine." Beth finally agreed. She walked up to Sterling and stood near him awkwardly.

"Fabulous!" Tara yelled as she not so gently pulled Beth's hair out from its bun and fluffed it, before taking a step back and grabbing her camera. "Ok, look sexy!"

Beth made the mistake of meeting Sterling's smile as he took a step two inches closer to her. He was silently laughing and she wanted to deck him. Tara snapped a few shots. "Ok, this isn't smoldering at all. Can you guys, like, touch?"

Another step and Sterling placed his hand behind her back, his fingers making her shiver. He placed his other hand on her hip and moved closer still as Tara instructed him. Their foreheads were nearly touching as Beth tried to avoid his deep gaze.

Gosh, this cretin doesn't just have a six pack or an eight pack, it's like he has enough muscle indents to make an actual twelve pack! As if that wasn't all, his shoulders and arms were long and strong.

"Beth? Hello, Earth to Beth."

She snapped her head up, embarrassed she'd totally zoned out.

"Will you do it?"

"Do what?" Beth asked. Wasn't she surely doing enough?

"Take your shirt off," Tara insisted.

"No way!" Beth snapped, taking a big step back out of Sterling's arms.

"Come on, you'll have a bra on which is practically like a bathing suit and that way I can get a picture of bare shoulders touching bare shoulders. Your face won't be in it, promise."

"What's the matter, perfect Bethany," Sterling whispered. "Are you afraid?"

Anger pulsed through her. The nerve of this guy. No, she wasn't so much of a good girl that she was afraid; in fact she happened to be wearing one of her deep blue Victoria Secret bras that had the greatest push up effect. She just didn't think Sterling deserved to see her in it. But after his insulting challenge about her being too perfect and nervous, she made a thoughtlessly quick choice and peeled her shirt off, shocking Tara and Sterling both.

"My face ends up in this and you're dead," she told Tara as Sterling just openly stared, his gaze traveling from her cleavage to her face. Really, as if he hasn't seen a full chest before. Beth secretly prayed she looked sexy. Oh, please God.

The way Sterling walked up to her was definitely different this time, it was like he was hesitant to touch her for a moment. And then there it was again, his warm, rough touch running down her spine. They looked at each other, two people who always got under each other's flesh and refused to back down.

Tara began snapping photos as Sterling pulled Beth close. She leaned into him just to let him know he wasn't going to make her nervously shiver this time. At least not where he could see anyway.

Tara went crazy, loving and oozing over every shot. "Can you put your lips on her neck," she asked before Beth could say no. Sterling looked up at Beth as he did so, in an almost haunting manner. His lips were soft and gentle, and his eyes never left hers as he kissed her throat, giving her a preview of forbidden things she and this athlete could do.

Tara's camera stopped. "Crap, the battery! Please—" She held her hands up frantically before Beth could move away. "Just give me two seconds!"

She rushed off to get a battery, leaving Sterling and Beth alone with each other. In what twilight zone am I really doing this right now? Beth wondered as Sterling looked back and fourth from her sexy bra to her face with a cocky smile, making her very annoyed.

"What?" she hissed at him with dagger eyes.

"Since I'm helping your friend out, do I get those pictures from my party the other night deleted?" he asked.

"Oh, so that's why you're doing this?" she accused him. Of course Sterling Johnson wasn't that nice.

"No, not at all," he answered. She didn't believe him. "I'm always willing to help a photographer out," he told her as if that made perfect sense. It didn't. "But will you?"

Tara returned as Beth looked up at him, wishing she had worn super high heals so he didn't seem so damn tall and handsome. "No," she told him. There was one week of school left filled with exams and she'd blackmail him the entire time.

He pulled her back, very close to him, until all skin was touching skin, as if to rebel against her words. Tara loved it, getting super close to them as she shot their bare shoulders and the bottom half of their faces. Beth had never realized how awkward and intruding it could be to be in front of the camera as the photographer went wild, breaking the third wall. Tara was so close as Sterling leaned down one last time to fake kiss Beth's neck, and then in Tara's last flash, he kissed Beth's mouth.

His lips touched hers only for a moment, but the move made Beth go still. She didn't expect how both hard and smooth, and pleasantly moist, the quickness of his lips would feel. Then of course, the shock wore off and she pushed him away angrily.

"That was great!" Tara screamed as she jumped up and down. "I'm going to have the best photos in the entire class! They're going to be SO HOT!"

Beth had her shirt on and hair up within two seconds. Sterling laughed as he slowly pulled his shirt on and walked past her. She expected him to say something cocky and crude, instead he only smiled as he rubbed his hand through his golden brown locks. "Since the first day I saw you," he started to say, "I've dreamt and prayed about doing that. Guess God finally heard me."

Then their school's legendary swimmer was gone, leaving Beth paralyzed. Not because she believed his comment to be true. It was ridiculous! He had access to every other girl on campus and Beth was a nerd if there ever was one. Yet talking about God and praying... How did he know those were the kind of random things that stilled her? What Sterling had just dared breathe couldn't be true. And her lips enjoying his kiss, that couldn't be true either.

I despise him!

***

Sterling left the photography building elated. He'd had the hots for feisty Bethany Jacobs since the day she'd moved in and he'd watched her climb their apartment's roof to take photos of the stars. She was a photographer like his mother had been, but with the body of a blond, blue eyed Kate Middleton. She had perfect pouty lips and cheeks that turned red at the drop of a dime. Even the way she looked at him so crossly was sexy. It was enough to make him wish that everything he did didn't absolutely annoy the hell out of her.

She didn't respond to his flirting like most college girls. No, Beth had this deeper depth he found intriguing. He'd always wanted something to manifest between them before school's end, but had pretty much accepted his fantasy would never happen. Until somehow, today, after he'd agreed to help a spazzing photographer, the girl of his dreams ended up being his fellow model. The girl he'd never truly be good enough for. So when the opportunity came to steal a kiss... who could blame him? If only he'd ever get the chance to steal more.

Chapter Three

Beth tried to forget about Sterling's devastating words the entire last week of exams. He was away at a champion swim meet that was being broadcast all over. Even when he's away I can't escape him! When he returned after almost setting a new world record, he was surrounded by wild college swim fans as usual, making it easy for Beth to avoid him.

On the final day of black and white photography studies, she and Tara sat side by side. Their teacher handed them each a portrait face down, not giving any clues with her body language whether or not they had earned a decent grade, or whether she had qualified them for the Vivid Image post grad contest.

Beth froze when Tara turned over the photo of Beth's cropped lips, shoulder, and neck next to Sterling's. It didn't even look like her mouth his full lips had landed on. Beth's face turned bright red as Tara muttered "so hot," and then went on reading her final grade.

Beth turned over her own photo. The photo their teacher had selected had been her favorite from the entire year. Beth was looking down at the picture she'd taken of a child on an African missions trip. The skinny refugee was looking up at the moon as it moved, causing everyone to watch as it covered the sun. Beth had been fortunate enough to snap the photo of a lunar eclipse. It was her favorite photo ever. At least this professor has some taste. She looked back to Tara's photo. Maybe not...

Then Beth went on to read her final grade. An A! Not only that, her teacher had submitted her portfolio for the Vivid Image Magazine contest and they'd accepted it.

"Holy God, are you going to go?" Tara asked her.

Beth wasn't sure. Going on this photography contest, that was also a chance for a future job, meant she would have to miss walking for graduation in order to be on a flight to New Jersey and then sizzling Miami, where the contest winners would be announced, this upcoming Saturday.

"Beth, you gotta go!" Tara urged her.

The only answer Beth could give her was a big fat, "Yes!" Beth was going to Miami.

***

"Going to Miami? You're going to miss out on walking after five years of two majors, and a lot of hard work, for Miami? Are you kidding me?" Her mom nagged her on the phone as Beth packed everything up. It was raining and thundering hard outside, the perfect time to pack.

"Mom, it's not like you can be here and this is a huge opportunity only a few get picked for each year," Beth tried to tell her.

"Ok, explain this whole Vivid Image to me again."

Beth rolled her eyes as she began to tell her mom for the third time. "Vivid Image, the largest photography magazine in the world, is allowing thirty-three northern college graduates the chance to compete in a one day, two state contest. All graduates who participate get their photos in the magazine's upcoming student issue and the grand prize winner gets all their student loans paid off and possibly a traveling photography job offer. Mom, it's so huge!"

"But if they offered you the job, Beth, would you really take it?" her mom asked her, stress in her voice. Did she miss the part about all her college loans being paid off?

"Of course, Mom, photography is my passion," Beth tried to explain; it's all she had wanted to do ever since she was a little girl.

"I just always thought you'd swing more towards a business type of position."

She could still hear the nerves in her mom's voice. It wasn't because her mom was cruel. Beth's father died on a mission trip and the thought of Beth traveling wore on her mother's fears. But Beth was made to travel and do photography, and she could feel that in her soul. This place was not her home.

Thunder cracked and Beth lost reception. "Mom... Mom?" She hung up the phone and looked out at the rain through her front door's small window. That's when she spotted Sterling, alone for once, outside under their front deck awning. He was talking to someone on the phone in the rain. Figures he still has reception, thunder storm and all!

She rolled her eyes as she looked at him, trying not to remember the shivering sensation of his lips tasting her own. He was facing halfway away from her, unaware of her presence. His face full of stress and anger. What? Has he got a swim fan knocked up or something? She found herself scooting closer to the door against her better judgment. Was it terrible to admit that as Beth preferred her own privacy, she didn't always mind invading others as long as she didn't get caught?

No need to ponder my flaws now, she told herself as she got within earshot. It was raining hard and she doubted she'd hear the conversation anyways.

"I don't want to speak to another one of my dad's secretaries! I want to speak to my dad!" Sterling was yelling over the thunder. Wow, she'd yelled at him several times for being too noisy, but she had never seen him get upset, not even once. His features through the small door window were livid. Beth actually pondered taking a picture she'd later blur out for a future assignment but then stopped herself. God I'm sick, she thought.

"He can't talk, really? You expect me to believe he is not in there screwing his new—" thunder struck, stopping Beth from hearing, "—who he's put in charge of pretty much everything over his children! Over my sister, who called me crying! She has nothing now." There were more words exchanged, then Sterling laughed wickedly. "Oh, I'll make him pay. Do you think I actually believe he cares about my swimming success? If he cares so much how come he hasn't come to a single meet since I was ten!"

Instead of hanging up the phone, Sterling actually threw it over their apartment's ledge. He was shaking. Dear God, I've never seen him like this before, she thought as she ducked under the window. She actually felt bad for him. Their college's worshiped athlete had a father who hadn't been to one of his meets in what, fourteen years? That was crazy. So was the sight of the usually cool and smooth Sterling angry as he stepped out into the rain and closed his eyes. Is he losing his mind?

Beth leaned her head closer, looking out the window as it seemed like something about him was changing mentally. As she took her next step closer, her front leg hit the door. Her heart raced but she told herself no one could hear her clumsiness over the sound of the pouring rain. She was wrong. Sterling's blue eyes snapped open, making contact with her own nosey pair as she quickly ducked away.

Did he see me? Her mind panicked as she stayed crouched down for another full ten seconds. Why didn't I use a camera lenses and watch this from afar! She thought to herself. A few minutes later Beth slowly peeked out the window again and Sterling was gone.

What Beth dreamed of that night was something she would never admit too, even if her life depended on it. She dreamt of being locked outside her apartment in the pouring rain and thunder. After many useless attempts to get inside, she turned to her neighbor, banging on his door. Hoping someone could help her get out of this downpour. No answer. Beth tried several more neighbors and nothing.

She ran under a half-broken ledge, crouching down, trying to hide her face from the rain. It was so hard to see. Then she heard a sound in the distance, the sound of a tree branch snapping... or perhaps someone coming her way.

"Hello?" Beth yelled. Then suddenly he was there, in the rain, soaking wet. Sterling Johnson. He was shirtless, like he'd been when they'd taken photographs together, and she felt hypnotized by the way the water slid off his chest. "Sterling?" She called out. "Do you know how we can get inside?"

Then he grabbed her, pulling her up into the rain. It was so chaotic around them, all they could see was each other. He pulled her close and instead of doing something useful he dared only to kiss her again... and then again. His arms were like electric shocks of lightning as they came around her trembling form. Then she was kissing him back and she couldn't help herself any longer. The way he felt and tasted...

Then Beth woke up, sweating, unable to shake off what she had just dreamt. The truth was she wished she could go back to sleep so she could get more.

Chapter Four

She had arrived at the airport an hour and a half early. Going through check in and security had been a breeze. Now with a granola bar and computer tablet in hand, she sat outside gate C9 nervously reading an email from Vivid Image Magazine. Concentrate on this, not your dream last night! She commanded herself.

The email started out congratulating all the graduates in the contest for making it this far and showing interest in the magazine and it explained who this year's judge was over all the photos; a very young sexy-looking Latina woman who would meet them all at their second destination, Miami Beach.

Beth had never been to Miami, or Florida for that matter, and the excitement that shot through her was like drinking a double espresso. Her entire face lit up despite it being so early in the morning. She'd packed one bathing suit and some shorts and t-shirts. Hopefully that would be enough because all her other clothes were for more up north weather. This isn't about clothes, it's about pictures. She reminded her brain.

The next part of the email listed several places the graduates would be going before their final tropical destination. Some people would be going to Tennessee, Atlanta, Chicago, or the North Carolina mountains. Others would be going to Kansas City to photograph the damage from the recent tornadoes that had terrorized the area. Last but not least, the email touched on where Beth would be sent to; New Jersey. She would be there to capture the newly built city and how it had changed and remolded since hurricane Sandy's kiss of destruction. It had been a good while since Sandy had touched down, but apparently there was still much more to be done. That's what Beth needed to capture. This was right up her alley.

Beth didn't get a peek of her competition until minutes before call for boarding; Sabrina Gomorra and Jack Farmers. Late as always... how professional. They were both the most wild and edgy of her college's photography BFAs, and both were the professor's favorites. They were also an off and on again couple, giving them an edge in this photography game because neither one of them would be alone this entire trip. They looked at Beth like beating her little lonely self would be easy. That sent an edge of competitiveness deep within Beth's pulse. Get ready... she thought. For once the cruel, overly confident, teacher's favorites are going to be beaten.

Their plane's seat numbers were called and they all boarded promptly. Beth kept her photography bag near her feet and wondered if the pillow she bought in the gift shop to lean back against as she edited made her look like a child. Sabrina made eye contact with Beth and the pillow and rolled her eyes. Her and Jack were in the seats across the aisle from Beth. Joy.

"Care to waist some time and play Mile High Club once we take off?" Beth heard Jack ask Sabrina. Gross!

Sabrina slapped Jack on the shoulder and giggled flirtatiously, calling him in with her fluttering eyes. "We have to concentrate on the task at hand," she warned him. "But perhaps... "

Beth closed her eyes against her pillow and faced away from them. The disgusting images they were putting in her head of the two of them wanting to hookup in the plane's gross bathroom was enough to make her puke. Gosh, when is this plane going to take off? She thought as she tried not to think of her own perverseness from last night's hot and sweaty dream. Kissing Sterling in the rain. Had her imagination gone crazy? Perhaps it was her subconsciousness's final goodbye to a year long gorgeous and annoying neighbor because she knew she'd never see him again; unless it was watching him on a TV swim meet and that distance was just fine by Beth.

She heard the attendant call to whomever was waiting outside for standby. Beth was almost zoned out at this point until she heard a familiar high pitched laugh that sent her eyes bouncing open. Only one person laughed like that... the kind of laugh that shouldn't come out of a man and stung your ears at all hours of the night. That was Sterling's best friend and fellow swim mate's laugh, Caleb Weiner.

Caleb laughed and bounced onto the plane, paying no attention to all the people in first class he was disturbing. "Told you standby and a Red Bull was all that was needed to get us here. Dude, we never fail!" Who Caleb was babbling to wasn't revealed until they stopped in front of the seats that were right in front of Beth. Sterling Johnson! The world froze for a minute, and Beth wondered if she was back in another one of her spicy dreams. Was none of this real? Would a tired, slightly out of it looking Sterling push past the seats, pick her up in his arms, and ravish her again like he did in her dream last night?

A bright red hot flush went down her face as Beth blinked several times and then pinched herself. No! No! This wasn't a dream. So what was happening? Caleb hoisted their luggage up onto the overhead as Sterling's eyes first went to Jack and Sabrina, and then across the way to Beth.

"Hey!" Jack yelled at the swimmers. He had been in charge of all of this year's swim and sports photography, so he knew the guys well. "What the hell are you two doing here?"

"Plotting schemes and plans of havoc," Caleb joked, and then Sterling did the oddest thing; he elbowed his friend, hard. It must have been because they were on a plane and you really shouldn't talk about 'plans of havoc.' Sterling's eyes returned to Beth's, and he blinked just like she had, testing if she was really there in front of him. He looked surprised to see her and that made two of them.

"What are you photo nerds doing here?" Caleb asked Jack as Sterling took the window seat, putting him right in front of Beth. Awkward.

"We are here, all expenses paid, competing for a magazine called Vivid Image," Jack bragged to Caleb. Beth noticed Sterling shake his head upon hearing the magazine's name. Weird. This time Caleb elbowed Sterling as he continued to talk with Sabrina and Jack. "You don't say... that's cool. So that means you guys are all going from New Jersey to Miami Beach, right?" he asked them.

"How do you know where our final destination is?" Sabrina asked him, she had an interesting point.

"Anything with a grand prize of paying off student loans and getting to go to Miami Beach for free is worth remembering. I heard the contest mentioned over the load speaker in the breezeway yesterday, and it gave Sterling and I this great idea. Why not have a few days off before our next swim meet partying it up on the hot Miami shores and land of string bikinis? I have fraternity brothers in New Jersey, so the layovers no big deal to us." He patted Sterling's stiff shoulders.

Jack gave Caleb an approving nod, and then Caleb reintroduced himself to Sabrina as if she was Jack's grand hot prize in life or something. Guy code was so transparent. All the while Beth sat there flabbergasted as she stared ahead at Sterling's broad shoulders. He is going to New Jersey and Miami! What were the impossible odds of that? It didn't make sense. Beth had prayed for no big distractions during this competition and had just been landed with the biggest, most annoying distraction of all.

And the plane hadn't even taken off yet.

Chapter Five

They were told all the turbulence would prevent them from using electronics so that stopped Beth from researching as much about New Jersey as possible. All she could do was close her eyes and pretend to sleep. At one point she was sure she heard Sabrina and Jack both getting up for the bathroom at once. A few people on the plane laughed at the sound of only one stall being open and shut, giving everyone a big idea on what was happening in there. Good God, it is like seven in the morning, is this really necessary? Then she wondered if Sterling was a part of the Mile High Club himself and grew even more frustrated with her head.

Sabrina and Jack's unnecessary thrashing caused the newborn that was sleeping in the backseat of the plane to wake and start crying. The high pitched screams in the small space were enough to cause everyone to moan and gnash their teeth in despair. Beth's eyes partially opened a crack, and she noticed Sterling turn and look back at her, as if to check and see if she was still asleep, then he turned and looked at Sabrina and Jack's empty seats. Then over the screams and a half-dozed off mind, Beth swore she heard him whisper, "You really think I should do this?"

Caleb nodded and whispered back, "Hell ya, man." Then he said some other words that were too hard to hear over the sound of the infant's tantrum. "You've gotta get some payback and finally prove your point once in your life." Beth heard Caleb say next. What in the world were they talking about? Some kind of big swim scandal? "Especially if your inheritance is at stake."

The two guys shushed up as Jack and Sabrina resurfaced. Jack was all smiles and tired enough now to sleep the rest of the plane ride, while Sabrina was getting nasty looks from everyone on the plane who couldn't believe these college kids had the nerve to wake up a sleeping baby. Sterling and Caleb never said another word, and again Beth tried not to think about them. Focus, focus... soon you'll be taking life changing photos.

***

It became easy not to think about Sterling the moment she felt the presence of someone sitting next to her in the empty seat. Her eyes popped open.

"Oh, I'm sorry mam, I didn't mean to wake you," said a smooth, deep, manly voice. Beth took in the view of the tall, cute Italian stranger that she had spotted in line for check in hours ago. "Do you mind if I sit here for a while. I have the seat next to the baby, and I can't take it," he said with eyes that looked like they had a major headache. Beth couldn't blame him, she was getting a headache from the continuous cries herself right now and she was twenty seats away. And this guy was seriously hot! He was about thirty, wearing a nice business suit, and could pass as the Jersey Italian version of Mario Lopez. Immediately she sat strait up and removed the dorky pillow that was apparently a bad idea to bring. Please Jesus, don't let me have bed head.

"No problem, I'm Beth," she said with a smile as he reached out and shook her hand. He had a nice firm gasp. Hot...

"My grandmother's name was Beth. What a beautiful name, it means temple right?"

Wow, he has brains too? "Ah yea, I think so," she said shyly as she felt her face blush. At this point, she noticed Sterling turn all the way around and look at the guy who was sitting next to her, suddenly interested in what was happening. A thrill went down her spine as she wanted him to notice this and yet had no idea why?

"My name's Jeremy," the hotter by the minute stranger told her. "What brings you to New Jersey?" She told him a very short version of her photo contest, and how she needed to capture new things that had been built or re-built in Jersey since Sandy touched down. This got Jeremy started on his life in New Jersey and about his parent's Italian bakery that was completely flooded, but now rebuilt on higher ground, and how the entire town came together, helping each other as they went up to a month without power in the freezing cold. His story sent a shiver down her spine. It was the kind of story Beth wished she could capture in a still image forever.

Then Jeremy mentioned how cool he thought it was that she was into photography and going for her dreams. Sterling didn't turn his head again, until the pilot announced they'd be landing, and Jeremy suggested he give her his number just in case she got lost around the city. That made Sterling turn his head around and actually roll his eyes. How rude!

Beth choose to block it out; to not think about Sterling, the guy everyone wanted in their life. Who shouldn't even be on this plane with her. Instead, she choose only to take in this totally cute, older, wiser guy. A man... and pretend the college boy she had been dreaming about last night wasn't in front of her. After the number exchange, Jeremy went back to his seat and Beth's hormones were stirred and excited for an adventure. A photography adventure! She reminded herself, as her fingers itched to hit her camera's buttons.

Chapter Six

Getting off a plane and to the outside air always felt good, and New Jersey had fresh air like Beth wasn't expecting. She was imagining a city like New York, with a touch of the TV show The Jersey Shore. Yet the air was fresh, the sky was blue, and there were lots of northern trees.

She went right into photography mode, all memories of the bizarre plane ride gone as she pulled out her camera and snapped everything that breathed. The coast of Jersey, the beach part, had been hit the worst and that's where Beth needed to go. Looking at her watch, she warned herself she had four hours to do this and get back to the airport or she'd miss her flight and disqualify herself from the contest.

Oh the pressure...

She could handle it. Beth was a traveler. She'd been on mission trips in some of the poorest parts of the world as a kid, New Jersey should be cake. She hailed a cab and immediately asked the driver to take her to the worst hit areas still being rebuilt. He nodded like this was a common thing even though Sandy had hit the shores so long ago. Lots of time had passed and the world had forgotten most of it, moving on to other problems.

He drove past small cities and neighborhoods alive with construction. New roads being rebuilt, new plazas being put up on top of man-made new dirt hills of land. She got out of the cab when she saw a new giant house being constructed on the beach. It was being built up on this colossal supper dock that had to be almost twenty feet tall. A few feet away from where the men were building this, lay something that looked like a skeleton of a mansion that was there before this new one was ever conceived; its side walls and roof were in the water and had become a kind of sand dock. Why it hadn't been removed Beth didn't know, but what a photo. A new giant home being built up high, amidst an old drowned out house's bones. If another storm hit would this massive dock be enough?

Snap, snap... she took dozens of shots.

Beth was glad she wore running shoes as she walked through the sand, careful not to venture off too far from the main road. She could not lose track of time or an area with cabs. She stumbled upon a half-revived restaurant on the shore, where they were actually serving out of half of it as the other half was being constructed. People were laughing, children were playing, servers were moving with haste; all going about life with everything being reassembled around them. Beth snapped away, her camera was on overdrive and people looked up at her like she was a little crazy as she twisted her body in weird angles to get the right photos.

After almost an hour had gone by, and it hadn't been a short drive to get to the beach either, Beth waited by the side of the road as she called a cab.

"Where would you like to go?" the driver asked her, and Beth truly had no idea. The Jersey Shore would be too obvious, that's definitely where Jack and Sabrina would be heading, and Beth's photos couldn't be the same as theirs. They drove inland, by a massive university campus. How glad Beth was that she didn't have to return to a building like this for more school. However, she did spy men walking back and forth from a truck, installing what looked to be generators into the grounds and basements of the school. This was kind of cool to get, the finishing details of a city learning to survive the terrible rumble of a hurricane.

She paid the driver and got out of the car, trying to look like just another student as she got shots of these men's hard looking hands carrying new generators. Thank God for the invention of zoom lenses, Beth thought as she snapped intricate details. The clouds above her covered the sunshine, creating a dark shadow in all the pictures. Come on, come on, bring back the sun, Beth thought as she continued to take snap shots. Still in a shadow of darkness, Beth felt someone behind her and turned around, taking another shot. Snap!

A tall, heavy, rough looking character smiled at her, revealing a missing front tooth. "Hi," he squeaked as Beth took a step back. Where in the world had this character come from? Had she been so consumed in her shots that he'd been standing there the whole time? "What a beautiful girl with a beautiful camera," the stranger said as he stumbled, smelling of smoke and alcohol. Beth quickly looked around. The men across the street at the college were way farther than they looked to be through the zoom of her camera. She quickly glanced to the left and then the right... Beth was alone in the shadows. What had she been thinking?

"Do you want to take my picture?" the stranger then asked her. There was something not quiet right about him. Something void in his mind, alerting her that this guy who was so much bigger than her had some kind of problem. She took another step into the road, her feet ready to dart.

"Or how about I can take yours pretty thing?" he took another step, his hand reaching out, about to touch Beth's camera.

"No!" Then she was darting away from him, across the road, through oncoming traffic. People honked as both she and the creep managed to make it across the street, but no one was stopping to help her. Her world became dizzy and panicked. The man was angry now, something perverted in his eyes. He grabbed again at her camera, trying to take it for himself. Steal it right in the grey of daylight.

This camera was part of Beth's life. Her expression in a world of confusion, and her ticket to paying off her student loans. She pulled the camera cord, going in the opposite direction, pulling away from him as she continued to scream. Hoping someone, anyone, would come to her aid. No! Please God! I can't get robbed right now!

The strap on her camera snapped, causing both Beth and the thug to fall. The camera came crashing down, landing inches away from her fingers. The creep actually stood back up, able to move way too fast for his lard filled body. His eyes were on the camera prize as he went to take it. She screamed again, desperate and shaking. Then suddenly a fist collided into the thief's face.

Sterling's fist.

Chapter Seven

Caleb had left Sterling a while back for the group of girls that were piled into his fraternity friend's room, ready to start drinking in the middle of the day. Sterling, on the other hand, had hit the campus's Olympic sized pool; ready to swim until his bones ached. He inhaled the air above the water in-between holding long deep breaths. He was trying to figure out what the hell he should do. Should he go along with his friend's somewhat genius, and somewhat messed up, plan? Or should he spend the day in the water and then take the first flight back to his home campus and coach?

Coach Hurley would kick my ass just for thinking about this. For thinking of anything outside of training and winning. "Revenge and payback is nothing but a fools high," his coach had always told him. Once out of the water, he walked outside into the cold shadowed air and looked at his watch. If they were going to go along with this, now was time to get going. I might as well forget it, just let fate be fate. He started to turn back to the indoor pool, when he heard a familiar scream.

Sterling turned, looking for the source of the sound. That's when he saw her, Bethany Jacobs, the hot neighbor that had screamed at him a million times over to quiet down. She was here, on the university campus, laying next to the road as some big guy was moving in for her camera. Sterling's swimmer legs plowed him forward. Muscles moving, adrenaline rushing, as anger shot through him before he could even process what he was doing next. His fist met the side of the guy's face, sending his fat jaw wide open, spitting in shock as Sterling knocked him into the ground. He turned back to Bethany, every part of her was red and weak, her eyes tearing and that only angered Sterling more as the guy got back up and looked him up and down, making a decision. Sterling came back at him before he could make up his mind. He punched him again, hard in the stomach, and the guy yelped in pain. Something strange shone in his eyes as he whimpered away.

What does this douche have, some kind of an IQ problem? That didn't excuse the fact that he was going to mug Beth right in broad daylight. Sterling watched him run, then turned back to his neighbor who was still on the ground. She reached for her camera and cradled it like an infant. He was down by her side in less than a second, getting his cell phone out.

"Can you move?" he asked her, his voice still hard with anger, as if ready for the thug to return.

Beth nodded but didn't answer.

"Do you want me to call 911?" he asked her next as he gently pushed some of the hair that was draped over her petrified eyes out of her face.

"No," she breathed and that's when she snapped out of it, regaining the old Beth look of feistiness as she sat up. He helped her, getting her onto her feet, steadying her petite little body. "You, you... " she looked at him in awe. "How are you here?"

"I took a flight here Bethany. I was sitting right in front of you," he answered her slowly.

"I know that!" she snapped at him. "I mean how are you here, right before he... " she was silent as she processed what that guy could have done to her.

"I was using the campus pool to get some extra swimming in. Don't worry, I'm not stalking you," he told her, and she looked at him like she wasn't sure if that was true. Her eyes traveled up and down his still tense and angered torso as if recalling a memory.

"Don't you want to thank me for saving you?" he asked her next. Still, even after all this, he could never do right by this girl.

"Thank you," she finally admitted, then she blinked her eyes several times, holding her head. "God, I think I still must be dreaming," she mumbled, sounding a bit crazy, but then again she had been knocked to the ground. Maybe she'd hit her head? He gently moved more hair out of her face as her eyes met his with nervousness.

"You sure you don't have a concussion?" he asked her.

"I think I'm fine," she said as she stepped away from him.

"Out of all places to photograph, you picked here?" he quizzed her, sounding a little more sarcastic then he meant to, but then again he understood more about this contest then she'd ever know.

"I found something somewhat interesting to photograph here, yes," she told him matter-a-factly. "Not that you would understand anything about... " she started lecturing him as she looked up at her watch, then she stopped. "Oh God! Oh God!" She let out a high-pitched whimper as she looked back and fourth from him to her watch. "We're going to miss our flight!"

This was something he knew, and his non-sense of urgency heated her face in her usual mad at him mannerisms. "How can you just stand here? We need to get moving!" So maybe her yelling at him to get going was a sign the plan should take place? He didn't know.

"Ok, calm down, we need to grab Caleb," he told her and she shook her head, walking away from him.

"We don't have time," she started to say as he pulled her back to him. The movement panicked her further.

"If you think I'm letting you go off by yourself, on this campus, after what just happened... " he told her sternly, his word on her safety becoming law. "We'll grab Caleb and get going, but you're going to have to trust me." She looked at him like she wasn't capable, but the protectiveness in his voice seemed to stall her enough for him to take her hand and pull her towards where Caleb would be. In a room full of girls, booze, and trouble.

Chapter Eight

Beth could not believe she'd let Sterling talk her into this and waste precious time. He had saved her, but now she was in a world of insane madness. They found Caleb surrounded by three girls and he was trying to talk two of them into making out with each other. The sickness and weakness of boys needing more than one girl was enough to make Beth sick.

"Hey, bro," Caleb smiled as Sterling pulled him out of the room like an annoyed older brother. "Does this mean we are still going for the plan?" Caleb asked him, not noticing Beth until Sterling silenced him. "You?" Caleb looked up and down at Beth's still petrified frame. "What are you doing here? Or should I ask, what have both of you been doing together?" Caleb looked back and fourth from Beth to Sterling with suspicious eyes.

That's when Beth let out an, "Are you kidding me!" response, keeping deeply hidden any desires she had for Caleb's best friend. At least she hoped she was keeping them hidden.

"Let's just get going," Sterling commanded Caleb like a dog as the two boys walked at a pace that was almost hard to keep up with due to their tall heights and long legs. Thank God Beth had been made to move. She eyed Sterling suspiciously as he called a cab.

"What plan is it you two keep talking about?" she asked him, hands on her hips. His handsome puppy face hardened, hiding something as he nonchalantly didn't answer, frustrating Beth further.

"Shot gun!" Caleb yelled out as he hoped in the front seat of the cab. That meant Sterling and Beth were stuck sitting next to each other, and the space behind the cab did not look large. Sterling opened the door for her, his strong hands ushering her in as she buckled her seatbelt and tried to regain bits of sanity. She looked at her watch as Sterling sat down. More dread seeped in. "We are not going to make it," she said as Sterling met her eyes.

He shook his head as he pulled out his wallet, and then said the strangest thing, "Have faith, if there is a way we'll find it." Then he handed the cab driver a wad of cash and in a deep stern voice told him they needed to get to the airport as fast as possible. However much he handed the guy, it made him blast off. The car went from zero to seventy instantly. If Beth had eaten lunch, she would have surely lost it. The cab driver began weaving in and out through traffic like a mad man, and almost running red lights over and over again.

"Wa-ho!" Caleb cheered, enjoying every second of the heart speeding journey. Beth gripped the hand rest in her door, not sure what to think of the whole thing. The driver sped through another yellow light. Cars honked as he made a quick turn through a busy intersection, the harshness of the turn making Beth feel like she was going to fall through her seatbelt onto Sterling's lap. Her free hand grabbed the closet thing to it, gripping tight, until she realized that 'thing' was Sterling's knee. "Sorry," she mumbled as she moved her hand away.

He chuckled, reminding her with his eyes they had posed together shirtless a week ago for a photo shoot. That sent a rush of heat and fury to her face as she turned away from him, trying not to recall the brief contact of his lips on hers. The quick taste of him...

The cab driver screeched the brakes as they pulled up to the airport's drop off, and before Beth could move to quickly to help with the rest of the cab fee, Sterling again took care of it. What, did the swim team's sponsors feed these guys with cash or something? She thought as she said thank you and he and Caleb helped rush her through. They got right up to the ticketing area and that's when the airport clerk delivered the bad news.

"I'm sorry kids but the plane is taking off now and you haven't even gotten to the security line yet."

Panic and defeat pulsed through Beth, with regret at the forefront. Why hadn't she just gone straight back to the airport after the beach photos? Why did she have to stop and take pictures of generators being installed? What had she been thinking? She had blown everything. Sterling turned to her, blue eyes meeting hers.

"Remind me of the rules of the contest again," he asked her. She'd never told him the rules in the first place. He kept on talking, "You have to be in the lobby to check in by the time the CEO makes his speech right?"

"Technically yes," she answered, not sure why that mattered now. Sterling turned back to the airport clerk. "Do you have any other flights leaving for Miami soon?" he asked the guy.

"Yes," the man said after confirming it on the computer. "There is a flight leaving in forty minutes, but all three of you would have to pay for new seats and that's very expensive to do half an hour before boarding," the man warned them as if they were all just teenagers, they were all in their mid-twenties for crying out load.

"We'll take them," Sterling told the man. Beth looked at the five hundred dollar per ticket pricing and nearly went weak in the knees. She couldn't afford that. College had drained her accounts of nearly everything.

"Sterling I can't afford to... " she started to tell him, but he ignored her as he pulled out his own credit card. There was no guarantee she'd be able to repay him, she was about to protest again when Caleb stopped her.

"Relax," Caleb said as his tall side grazed her shoulder. "Sterling's dad is loaded."

Sterling didn't say a word or meet her eyes as he paid the bill, but his jaw went a little stiff at the mention of his father. So, Sterling's family was rich. Beth hadn't seen that coming. He might have been a jock but he'd always acted pretty down to earth. Did he pay for everything amongst his friends she suddenly wondered? Caleb wasn't even thanking him. She didn't have time to mentally delve into this further, from there they had to rush again to security, and then practically run all the way across the large airport to their gate. When they finally came to a stop in line, Beth breathed what she should have been saying all along. "Thank you, I don't know why you'd do all this, but thank you."

Sterling leaned his head down close to her shoulder, whispering so only she could hear. "Maybe, just maybe, I'm not the annoying jerk you think I am." His breath was warm on her neck, making her body want to shiver and her imagination want to stir. "Maybe I'm a decent guy." His eyes met hers, as if trying to show her something deep within. She had to fight not to blink as this closeness reminded her so much of her dream. Of all her clothes wanting to melt right off...

"Maybe," was all she could say back before their private moment was gone and the woman at the gate took their tickets.

"So we got two seats next to each other, and one in front of the other two alone," Caleb started to say as he tried to read what his friend wanted. Again, their guy code was transparent.

"I better sit with Beth so some weirdo doesn't come try to sit next to her again." Sterling told his friend, and Caleb winked as he nodded. Weirdo. Beth's thoughts went to the mugger but that guy hadn't tried to sit next to her. Then she recalled Jeremy, the hottie from their first flight.

"The guy on our first plane was not a weirdo!" she told Sterling. "He was charming and a gentleman."

Her defense made him roll his eyes. "He was a goof if there ever was one," was all he said. That couldn't be jealousy in his voice could it? They boarded the plane, and when Sterling went to lift Beth's bag onto the overhead compartment she stopped him.

"I'm actually going to edit on the flight, but thanks." He nodded and they both took a seat. She was pressed up against the window with Sterling's arm touching hers. The way his skin was both cool and warm didn't make sense to her, but even the smallest touch felt good.

Once the plane took off, they were finally allowed to turn on electronics. She wasted no time plugging in her camera to her laptop and getting to work. Beth started flipping through all her photos quickly, working with haste as she kept glancing at the clock. It was a two hour flight to Miami, then who knew how long from the airport. Would she make it? If she did, she'd have to have her top pictures ready to hand over to the magazine. She was feeling the pressure, and Sterling looking over her shoulder at every photo instead of watching the movie that was playing on the plane wasn't helping.

"Wow, these are really good," Sterling told her as he looked at the photos of the house shell, still halfway into the sea as people were rebuilding right next to it.

"Thanks," Beth said. She kept on editing, trying not to look at him so she wouldn't be distracted. "Hopefully they'll be good enough."

"Oh, I know they will be," Sterling said, still looking at Beth's work confidently, as if he could understand the art of good photography. Then he revealed something to her. "My mom loved taking photos, she even had her own photography business while she was alive. Taught me a thing or two." His voice came out low and deep when he talked about his mom; there was a quietness to it, making her editing slow down as if something private was about to be passed between them.

"You're mom passed away? I'm sorry," she commented, her face finding his. This time it was Sterling who didn't make eye contact.

"Don't be, it happened so long ago. I was ten."

"That doesn't make it any less painful, I would know." He turned back to her, as if this plane had become their own private space. Privacy amongst strangers was sometimes the most comfortable privacy of all. "My dad passed away when I was fourteen," she admitted.

"What did your dad do, if you don't mind me asking?" His face inched closer. Beth took a deep breath, trying not to get emotional.

"He was a pastor," she told him.

"That makes sense," he commented back, and she knew right away what he meant. What everyone always meant. Beth was a good girl or at least everyone assumed her to be. Sometimes that bothered her, but not today.

"So your mom had her own photography business?"

"Yea, she turned it into this big thing right before she died."

"That's why you like helping out photographers," she said, putting the pieces together, remembering his past words at their photo shoot when she had thought he was being a smart ass.

He seemed to be thinking of the same moment as well. "Now you see I wasn't lying."

"Guess not." It was amazing how both their minds switched from the voidness of death that they had in common, the loss of parents, to suddenly thinking about the moment when they had posed together half-naked a week ago. It was twisted how young hormonal minds could come on and off track so quickly. For the first time she felt like Sterling could actually be a friend, and half-smiles passed between their faces. A piece of Beth's hair fell in her eyes and instantly Sterling was reaching across her, using his fingers to brush it behind her ear.

The move was intimate.

"I better get back to work," she told him with rosy cheeks. Then she turned away from him and started editing like a mad woman. Doing anything but meeting the glimmer in Sterling's gaze again. As she realized perhaps they weren't so different... that was the scariest thing of all.

Chapter Nine

For an hour, Sterling watched Beth edit as she kept her eyes off of him. They were now only twenty minutes away, and right as she hit the save button the plane started to shake. Turbulence sent some people's meals flying off their trays and woke Caleb and his loud snores awake.

The 'turn off all electronics' sign came on as the pilot instructed everyone to buckle their seat belts. They weren't very far from Miami he told them all, they just happened to be flying into a storm. That was typical Miami, Florida. Of course it was raining when Sterling was coming home. Beth put her computer and camera away safely as their seats gyrated and bumped wildly.

The plane jarred to the right, sending Sterling's hand onto Beth's upper thigh, truly by accident. She felt so good in his grasp, her skin warm. Her face went bright red as he met her eyes. "Sorry," he said as he moved his hand off her. Beth didn't say anything, instead her body shivered right there in front of him, like she'd been filled with an electric charge, and that was so hot. Everything about Beth was hot, and it would be a lie to say he didn't want her badly.

The plane jerked again and his hand fell to her thigh once more, resting there even higher. She didn't push it away. The masculinity inside him roared to life, and it was hard to think of anything else but tasting Beth's lips again. Of taking what he wanted even if it wasn't right; even if he was here for the wrong reasons... reasons that involved Beth's photo contest in ways she didn't understand.

He didn't move his hand off of her thigh this time, instead he waited as the plane stirred with more violent shaking. Waiting for Beth to give him an evil look or perhaps smack him across the face, which would be well deserved. Yet none of that came, and his imagination ran wild with things that would make Bethany Jacobs more than just blush. Imagining what it would feel like for his hand to go all the way up her thigh, reaching further...

***

Beth hadn't been able to move or breathe. When Sterling's hand rested on her thigh it felt... good. Good and dangerously wrong all at once. Was he interested in her? Did she want his hand to be there? YES! Her hormones screamed. The plane bounced as it went down, right into the heavy pouring rain. Welcome to Miami...

This wasn't what Beth imagined when she'd first heard that famous song, 'Welcome to Miami' by Will Smith, as a child. She'd never thought of a bouncing plane, a ticking time clock photography deadline, or Sterling's big hand on her leg and how good it felt. For a few moments it felt like they actually could belong together, and her body liked that idea. Snap out of it! she tried to tell herself, but the adrenaline of the plane ride and the heat of his hand was sending what felt like shock waves up her legs, making something inside her purr.

Finally they touched ground, and Beth dared meet Sterling's hunter-like stare. He moved his hand but they kept glancing at each other, forbidden possibilities passing between their gazes.

"You two ready to roll?" It was Caleb's voice that pulled Beth out of the trance first.

"Yep," Sterling answered, and Beth dared to look down at her watch. They had twenty minutes to get where she needed to be, and everyone knew by the time all the travelers got the carryon's down and slowly got off the plane, another fifteen minutes would go by easy. Caleb and Sterling were the first to stand in the aisle when they could, Beth wiggled her way between them with her camera equipment.

"Let me carry that for you," Sterling's voice commanded.

"You don't have to do that, I got it," she started to protest, but Sterling took the bags right out of her hand.

"We'll get there faster if I'm holding your stuff, trust me."

So she let him take her bags and the moment they were given permission to get off, the boys plowed through the small aisle, shocking some travelers as Beth followed. They were off the plane and in a fast jog in moments, and these swimmers could move. Sterling took the lead in front of them as Beth struggled to catch her breath and follow him through the crazy giant Miami airport.

Sterling knew his way around; they were to a row of taxi cabs in a few moments. Again he handed over a big wad of cash along with orders to get them to the Miami Grand Hotel as soon as possible.

"Yes, Mr. Johnson," the taxi driver nodded, and Beth wondered how and why he knew Sterling's last name?

Here we go... She thought as she took a deep breath and looked at her watch.

Chapter Ten

It took all of fifteen minutes to arrive. The difference between Miami and every other big city was definitely the sky she derived on the way there. Even on a dark rainy day, it was like you could still see bits of sunshine through the clouds. There were palm trees and green foliage laced between every building and graffiti covered wall; this definitely was a strange and beautiful tropical melting pot.

Humidity made Beth's hair go super curly and wild as she hurried inside the hotel's grand lobby. There were graduate students and clumps of people everywhere. It took her a full minute until she spotted Sabrina and Jack checking in with a woman in a black suit, they were receiving name tags. "You got this," she heard Sterling whisper beside her, then he pushed her forward until she was in line right behind them.

Sabrina was the first to turn around, stopping right in her tracks when she laid her eyes on Beth. "You, how did you—" she started to ask rudely, but Beth pushed past her to the woman.

"Hi, I'm here to check in," she said nervously, hoping to God that by some miracle she wasn't too late.

The woman smiled politely. "Well you've made it just in time, what was your name?"

Beth let out a big breath of relief as she quickly gave the woman all her information. She really hadn't thought she would get here. What were the crazy odds of everything happening the way it did? Check in ended with her handing over a hard drive of her edited photos, and she prayed they were really up to par, as she had been greatly distracted on the flight because of a different kind of heat that didn't come from the Florida sun.

Beth found Sterling standing there in the middle of the hallway, as all kinds of graduates looked upon him and drooled at his tall swimmer's body and his bright blue eyes. Eyes that were on her's with a satisfied smile. Now what to say to the guy whom she'd spent all year yelling at, rescued her, and paid for her to get here? Oh boy...

"They let me check in," she told him as he nodded with his hands in his pocket.

"See what happens when you trust me."

What could she do besides nod, smile awkwardly, and try not to think about the way he was now looking at her. "Thank you so much for everything."

"It was no problem, I needed to get here anyway," he told her next, as all of Beth's questions came back.

"You never told me why you and Caleb really wanted to come here," she dared ask him. A half-serious look crossed his face, like he was still making up his mind. They were both standing so close now in the crowd. The doors to the lobby were being held open, making the whole room feel uncomfortably humid. Perhaps everyone needed to take a layer off. In Beth's case... maybe a few layers.

The entourage the doors were being held open for finally walked inside. A group of ten of Vivid Image's top magazine heads, here to judge the contest and give a speech to all the arriving graduates. The youngest of this entourage was the sexy Latina woman Beth had read about in Vivid's email. She was in a short black dress and kept her sunglasses on even as she walked inside. They handed her a microphone as all the students were asked to form a half circle around the executives.

Beth turned to Sterling and Caleb, about to say goodbye, but found that both boys were suddenly gone.

Chapter Eleven

The woman who was in charge of the graduate photography contest and student issue's name was Monica Gomez, all the contestants came to learn. Her speech was short, simple, and a bit emotionless as she congratulated everyone for making it this far. She explained that they needed to report to the hotel's 'Grand Palm Ballroom' to print and hang all their photos. They also found out the top twenty graduates would be emailed the next morning if their photos were in the final round to be chosen. After Ms. Gomez finished, the next speech came from last year's winner, and then a final long speech from Vivid's grey haired CEO.

A short time later Beth stood in line behind three other graduates, waiting in a giant conference room as her photos printed. Then she'd have to mount and hang them gallery style. After that perhaps she'd collapse. She still couldn't believe the manner in which she'd made it here. A day of travel and craziness was blurring as jet lag kicked in.

"That can't be true," one of the female's in line behind Beth whispered.

"Oh it is," another girl told her. Their whispers weren't quiet at all. "Monica Gomez was a graduate photography winner only five years ago. She scored the traveling photographer job after she won and became personal assistant to the CEO's daughter who used to run the student program. Three years into working for the company, Monica and the CEO were caught in bed together by his newest wife!"

"Holy crap, what happened?" someone else in the line asked the gossiper.

"The CEO's daughter tried to have Monica fired from the magazine. Instead the CEO kicked his own daughter out of running the student program and gave her job to Gomez instead."

Beth would have continued listening if it hadn't been her turn to take her printed photos and walk off to her assigned space of wall. What a scandal if all that was true, Beth thought, but then again her mind was too much in a state of exhaustion from all the flights to think about it

"Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down," her father would tell her if he was here. With that in mind she mounted her photos as professionally as possible next to her name; then grabbed her camera and snapped a picture of the set up to send to her mom. She said a prayer, hoping and praying that all this work and crazy adventure would lead to all her student loans disappearing. Please God... what a miracle and blessing that would be for any student who needed to pay off their bachelor's degree.

Soon after, she took the elevator up to her hotel room, finding the right door. She walked into the small and quaint tropical single and purposely fell right on top of the freshly made bed. She laid there for a few minutes, gaining some sanity and would have stayed there all night if it wasn't for the fact that she hadn't eaten since four that morning. After calling her mom, she quickly changed into her only bikini, shorts, and top. Down by the pool and the hotel's beach there was an outdoor restaurant bar and grill. Her plan was to order a grilled cheese and call it a night.

Before leaving, she quickly looked in the mirror, making sure she looked alright. Feeling drab, she pulled her hair out of its long ponytail, shook it, and then looked at herself again. Trying to feel just a little bit sexy she spritzed on perfume. Why in the world does it matter how I look or smell right now? The answer was wrong and clear in so many ways... because Sterling could be down there. Of course he would be. Sterling will absolutely be at the pool, surrounded by hot gorgeous Floridian girls... joy.

Walking in a hurry, she made it past the large pool, putting her sunglasses on. She didn't spot him until she was standing at the bar, about to order her food to go. Someone let out a load whistle behind her. When Beth didn't turn the first time, she heard another whistle again. Turing around, there was Sterling at the furthest bar table in the back, sitting by himself. He'd changed into a long white, button down top. He wore glasses too, hiding his face like Beth was even though it was practically night. Through his light shirt, she could make out his ripped chest and swimmers arms. His full lips pouted as his face smiled, and he said to her loud enough for her and a few others to hear, "Do I really need to whistle again to get you over here?"

Beth walked up to him slowly, taking her sunglasses off. She was already feeling self-conscious in her shorts, and Sterling was staring at her legs. She could feel it. His gaze traveled up.

"I don't respond to whistles, I'm not a puppy," she let him know without trying to sound to bitchy; but somehow with him if she wasn't shivering or tripping over herself in his presence, then bitchiness was always the easiest option to keep him away.

"How about hot food then?" Sterling held up one of his three plates. He'd ordered chips and guacamole, tortillas, black beans, and plantains, a full plate of chicken and broccoli, and he also had an over flowing Pina Colada in his hands.

"You ordered all that just for you?" Beth asked him. Each meal was enough to feed three.

"Yea, my eyes were a little bigger than my stomach," he told her as he pulled out a chair. Beth sat down and leaned away from him nervously. She'd sit for a little bit, she owed him that much and more after everything he'd done, but then she'd get back to her hotel room. This being friends with Sterling was still unfamiliar territory.

"Can I help you?" One of the female servers came up and asked, as she eye'd Sterling with a side smile.

"Get this beautiful creature a Spanish plate and a Pina Colada please," he answered for Beth.

"Wait, I don't need that much, really," Beth started to say as the waitress walked away, ignoring her.

"You're in Miami," he told her. "At one of the most famous hotels on the beach. Order the local food, trust me you will be glad you did."

She was starving so she didn't argue further, though she could have. "You seem to know a lot about Miami," Beth told him, recalling how he knew his way around the airport and insisted the cab driver take a short cut to get to the hotel fast.

"I should, I was born and raised here," he said as he took off his shades, revealing his ocean blue eyes.

"You're from Miami?"

"Floridian all the way." He took a sip from his drink as a giant white Pina Colada was placed in front of Beth. Her stomach growled loudly as she continued to smell his food while she waited for her own. As if sensing it, Sterling pushed his own plate in front of her.

"Dig in," he nodded.

A little hesitant, she bit into the salted homemade tortilla chips that melted in her mouth, next she tried the sugary plantains and also the hot yuccas. She tried the spicy guacamole as more plates of food were put in front of her. It was all mouth watering and tasted magical on an empty stomach. She realized how hungry she was as she ate and ate, and Sterling joined her. They downed plates of food like pros and then Beth reached for her cold drink to combat the spice. It was strong of alcohol, something she'd usually hate, but in this outside humidly a cool drink felt good. All nourishment felt good at this point.

Sterling seemed impressed by her appetite as she caught him eyeing her. "So why move from Florida to go to school and train up north? This place seems perfect for a future Olympic swimmer to stay in."

He shrugged his shoulders. "You'd think so, but Miami according to my family is all about art, expression, and photography. I was always the only one into sports and when my coach got an offer to train up north at our college, I went with him."

"So how long has it been since you've been back here?" she asked over the Latin music that was turned on near the beach. People around them were drinking and dancing, the area filling up with more bodies by the minute. No wonder Sterling was always a party animal. Now that she knew he was from here, it made sense. He blended in with this tropical oasis. Florida was hot and breathtaking, even after a rainy day, and so was he.

"A year. Ever since my older sister moved out of the area I've had no reason to come back," he said as his eyes drifted from her, talking about his family as if there was some sort of grudge.

"You have any other relatives here?" she dared ask him next as she looked around. The dancers on the beach in the moonlight were beguiling. They moved to the rhythm of the night like pros. Not knowing when she'd ever be back here, she pulled out her camera phone and began snapping pics. Sterling probably already thought she was weird, what would taking more photos of strangers matter.

"Only my father, but we don't really talk much," he told her as she snapped pictures. She turned back to him, the two full Pina Coladas she'd drank made it hard to pay attention. "I'm sorry to hear that," she answered. He shrugged as he looked from the photos on her phone to her body language.

"Want to dance, Bethany?" he suddenly asked her, his eyes lit up with daring excitement.

"Oh no, I can't dance," she answered as she felt both her face and chest turn bright red with just the thought.

"Everyone can dance," he tried to tell her as she shook her head. "Come on, one song, I promises it will be fun." He stood, getting closer to her and looked down into her eyes. Why did he have to be so tall and breathtaking? Beth found herself standing up too, just to distance herself from his closeness, but then he took her hand. His warm touch made something inside her chest dance as he pulled her gently towards the dance floor. Soon they were in the middle of it and there was no way out.

Oh God, how did I get here? She thought as she tried to move her body, awkwardly clashing with the Miami locals that were grooving like they were on Dancing With The Stars. No amount of alcohol would have taken her fright away until Sterling spun around her, moving to the beat in the goofiest manner she'd ever seen. People around them looked and laughed at his silliness. You'd think this golden boy would be a pro dancer but that was not the case at all. His moves were silly and dorky, suddenly making Beth's dancing look more decent as she tried to help him look normal. Sterling didn't seem to care how bad he looked, as people laughed at him he laughed at himself. Gaining some of the crowds applause, Beth's swaying and shaking to the music suddenly didn't feel so awkward. After a few moments, everyone forgot about the two silly dancers and Sterling took ahold of Beth's hands as they danced together some more. Their bodies touching as the moonlight was covered by clouds and the music spiked louder as they all partied in the dark.

Sterling pulled Beth to him even closer, his dance moves becoming solid and clean. She wondered if his bad dancing had been a way to relax her, but didn't have much time to think about it because they were moving so close she could practically feel his breath down her neck again. Her body reacted to an electric pulse every time their bodies touched. He lifted her arms into the air and then traced his own hands down her until his fingers were gripping her sides and holding her hips. His head was leaning further and further down in the process, getting close to Beth's face.

Her heart was beating against his chest a million miles a minute. This kind of thing shouldn't have been happening, but it was and her body could barley handle it. She trembled against him as her hands fell against his shoulders. It would have made every kind of sense to pull away, instead he whispered, "I really want to kiss you right now."

Beth didn't know what to say, she'd lost her voice, her ability to talk or think. Then he lowered his face to hers, his full lips grazing hers once, then twice. Then he pulled her even closer, up onto her toes, her body molding into his as his lips grazed over hers again, and then her mouth parted and they were truly kissing at last, and it was fantastic, better than her dream as she surrendered to him.

Their kiss grew deeper and only until Beth finally needed to breath did she pull away. Sterling still held her up on her toes, gently in his arms, as he evaluated her shocked face. Their eyes met again, and Beth wanted to feel those incredible full lips of his against hers. She wanted him all over her, devouring every part she had. His hungry eyes seemed to glow just as impressively as the moon above him.

"I have to go." It wasn't what Beth wanted, in fact it was the sheer opposite. She wanted Sterling more dangerously than she had ever wanted any other guy. Wanted him pulling her close again, tasting her, but instead like a perfect gentlemen, the moment she spoke he let her go.

"You have to go now?" he asked her over the beat of the song, disappointment in his voice. She felt like a part of her soul was breaking.

"Yes, I have to go." Then she turned away from him quickly. Leaving him in the dark, she darted back towards her hotel, never looking back.

Chapter Twelve

She tossed and turned in what was the most comfortable, softest hotel bed she had ever laid on. Eyes clenched closely tight, she tried to sleep. Tried to find that exhaustion that had plagued her earlier. Four hours had gone by, it was almost two in the morning, and Beth's mind was awake and alive. Thinking about Sterling, about their kiss, about his words... His voice haunting her in her head, telling her imagination over and over again that he wanted to kiss her.

A whole year of loathing but now she saw it all so clearly. She'd wanted him from the moment she'd ever saw him. Her body hungered with excitement over things it could have done; could be doing right now. This was so wrong, wrong on every level, but she was fevered with want and wanted it all this second.

She sat up and tried to watch TV. When that didn't calm her she checked all kinds of boring social media on her phone. Nothing was useful. Nothing equaled what was happening here in her real life. What did Beth do when she couldn't calm her mind? She prayed and then edited photos. It was a geeky fact but that was her, and it was exactly what she needed to do right now.

Grabbing her laptop and throwing a sweat suit on, hair in a messy bun, she headed down to the hotel's second floor where there was a wifi room for guests right next to the hotel's gym and sauna. There was barely anyone around, most of the floor vacant except for the sound of one or two machines clicking back and fourth in the gym. What kind of people worked out at two in the morning? Beth couldn't imagine. Crazy people like herself clearly.

Opening up her laptop, she plugged in her camera chip and began editing old photos from school. Her mind wanted to enhance and pick apart the few photos she'd taken in Miami, of this crazy city. Of the couples dancing earlier... right before she and Sterling had... No! No! No! She stayed away from that. After a while, she began feeling relaxed as she edited away. These were the kind of moments when she knew without a doubt she was made to be a photographer. What other kind of people were calmed from staring at pictures in the middle of the night?

The sound of a high pitched giggle made Beth turn. The wifi room was full of windows and she could see a couple coming out of the gym, laughing as they raced to showers together. Beth's mouth dropped open when she recognized one of their faces. It was none other than Caleb, his laughing screech making her stand right up. He was unaware or didn't care that anyone was watching him. His lips moving down a beautiful woman's neck who had the body of a fitness model; their sexiness was over the top. They felt each other up right out in the open. Stopping short of the shower room for a moment, the woman's hand ran right over his package as he backed her up towards the door.

The shocking scene took Beth's mind right back to where it had been less than an hour ago. When she was in her room, unable to sleep, her imagination giving into every fantasy one could ever have about Sterling that was possible. Immediately Beth's heart started beating, alerted that what she was thinking was wrong. That Miami was casting a spell on her, a spell on everyone here, as she watched Caleb and this over the top sexy Latina wrestle each other against the shower doors passionately. Caleb was kissing her neck again, revealing a full shot of the woman's face. Oh my gosh! It couldn't be... Monica Gomez.

Beth blinked, she was seeing wrong. No, it was her. Monica Gomez! Caleb was swapping tongue with the woman who was in charge of Vivid's photography contest! The same woman, only five years their senior, rumored to have had an affair with Vivid's CEO and was engaged to him now.

Caleb finally pushed her into the showers and they disappeared. The sound of their bodies coming together in passion echoed down the hall. Holy crap, I have to get out of here! Now Beth's mind was split and tangled, thoughts of her own yearnings mixed with thoughts of what this woman could do to her if she knew Beth had seen her with Caleb. Could it jeopardize Beth's photos in the contest? That was probably a ridiculous notion, but with her mind in so many directions, it was definitely time to go.

Of course the elevator was right across from the showers. Beth hurried, pressing the button for it to come to her floor. As she waited impatiently, she heard the drumming sounds from the shower stopping. Had everything ended that quick? God, where is this elevator? She pressed the button again, trying to rush it to come.

"Promise me you won't tell anyone?" she heard Monica say to Caleb as they were coming towards the shower doors.

"Who would I tell?" She heard Caleb confirm.

Beth pressed the button again, the elevator wasn't coming. It was too late. Both Caleb and Monica were going to see her. Overly panicked, Beth's eyes found the closest room next to her, the hotel saunas, and dived in. Inside the dry heat, feeling ridiculous, she waited until she heard Caleb and Monica get on the elevator that finally opened and leave the floor. She also thought she heard the sound of a camera flash... but that wouldn't make sense. I'm a photographer who is hearing things.

She opened up the sauna doors, beginning to sweat as cool air poured in around her from the hall. She had been in a sauna in sweats, what was she crazy? She pulled her jacket off, revealing her tiny shirt underneath it just as she heard someone walk by.

"Yea, I got the photo. It's all taken care of, but man Sis I don't know about this?" Said a deep, sexy, slightly burdened voice as someone came out of the gym room behind her. She'd recognize that voice from anywhere. It sent shivers down her spine, haunting her as Beth picked up speed, walking away quickly before he could—

"Bethany?" Sterling spotted her. Perhaps it was the sudden dash away that caught his attention. She heard him get off the phone as Beth stilled in her tracks, deciding to turn around even though right away she sensed trouble; the best, most delicious kind.

She turned and made eye contact with his lightly worked out, man in shining armor form, and right away she felt tiny and a mess. Her hair was in a bun, her face void of any makeup, and part of her midriff was showing. Why would this guy want her, in this state, when she'd been rude to him since the day they'd met? Yet he walked towards her, his eyes looking her up and down, over and over in amusement; going from her tiny top to her flushed face.

"What were you doing coming from a sauna at four a.m.?" he asked her, a puzzling smile settling over his face.

What to say that wouldn't make her sound like a complete loser? "I was editing photo's, I only stepped into the sauna for a moment." Yep, a complete geek that's what I've just told him I am. "What were you doing?"

He was hesitant before he answered. "I... was working out."

"At four a.m.?" she asked him back, trying to make him sound partly crazy as well with no luck.

"I am suppose to be training for the biggest swim meet of my life next month," he reminded her.

"Good point," she said, her mind suddenly remembering something. "Crap," Beth brushed past him, their bodies bumping in awkwardness, making butterflies in her stomach topple over as she remembered she left her laptop in the sauna room! Thank God it was a dry heat sauna and not a wet one. "I left my laptop in there," she explained as she heard Sterling chuckle. Beth popped in the hot room, grabbed her laptop, and then spun back around into the hall. Sterling was right behind her and she almost bumped into him again.

She planted her feet into the ground stopping short, hugging her laptop as she stood against the sauna door only a few inches from him.

"You're adorable you know that," he told her like she was a small child.

Irritation filled her voice. "Are you making fun of me?" Her hands would have flown to her hips had they been free.

"Maybe," he chuckled as she hit her hand against his arm; the move coming out playful; a new comfort between them that had never been there before. Beth felt her face turn bright red again as Sterling moved even closer to her, leaning one of his hands against the door behind her.

"If I over stepped by kissing you earlier tonight, Bethany," he started to say, his voice turning gentleman-like and serious, "I'm sorry." He held her gaze for a moment, and she was unable to breath. Her insides trembled, knowing what could come next. What she wanted to come next.

"Don't be... " she couldn't think of what to say. " The kiss was nice." Everything inside her raced. Her answers were dorky, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered, except Sterling's eyes deeply set on hers as he leaned his head down. Closing the space between them, his lips met hers again, kissing her lightly for a moment, gaining her silent permission before he grabbed her close, pushing up against her, kissing her more roughly. He was hungry for her and wanted more, and so did she.

Her body radiated with excitement. His hands fell down around her, finding her waist, her hips. Then one left her as it reached for the doorknob by her side, opening the door behind her as he walked them in. Their faces separating only for a moment as she took in that they were really alone together in a dark sauna, and they were making it hotter.

It was her that kissed him this time, pulling him back to her. Surprising them both, because she wanted this. Her body and her soul wanted this and there was no going back. Their tongues in unison as his free hand sailed up to her breast above her shirt and then sank down before coming back up to feel her again underneath. Her heart was racing, her body shaking, exploding as she let out a sigh when their lips parted and he began to kiss her neck. He took her down to the sauna's laying area and as they came down onto it, wrapped into each other, his hand that was gripping her waist sunk lower, coming down between her. A part of her was squirming and exploding between her legs; anticipating his fingers as they explored.

Her body shook, as they kept kissing, sweat dripping down them both in a breathtaking exchange. It was like a scene from a movie, the walls around them starting to fog from all the heat building in the room. Beth let out several more gasps, and then his hands were up, coming around her again. Lifting her with him as he stood. He was carrying her, her body wrapped around him, as their lips still danced with one another.

Outside the back door of the sauna cool air stung them; coming all around, consuming as he carried her to the hotel's small indoor pool room that connected to the sauna rooms. They were still alone, only themselves and a year's worth of unresolved attraction and tension on the loose. He walked them a few steps into the pool. The water only grazing her feet lightly, cold against her overly hot skin. The shock of it brought her out of their kiss as he steadied her down off him. They were both standing a few steps into the water, uneasy on what they were supposed to do or say. Who could think when all they wanted was more?

"Is this ok?" he asked her, his voice heavy as he grazed her lips again. She nodded, needing his warmth as she pulled him back to her. Her hands searched underneath his gym shirt, feeling his hard abs and all their indents. He peeled his shirt off in two seconds. Gosh, was someone this good looking really kissing her so passionately like this?

Then he peeled her own small shirt off, revealing another one of her lingerie bras as he kissed her neck excitedly. They went completely into the water, keeping each other warm as she felt her sweat pants, so loose in the water, fall off. Her skin feeling just how big and alive Sterling's was. He took her down, further into the pool against the wall. His hands exploring her again, making her thrive and scream, and then he was fully inside her, so large, and they were one.

***

Nothing came to an end in pool, in fact that was only the beginning. They rode the elevator up to the top floor of the hotel and it opened right into Sterling's hotel suite. Then they were doing it again... unable to stop. Exhaustion didn't come until they'd done it several more times, and then sleep entered their minds like a plague; deep, deep, sleep. Beth dreamed about her and Sterling back on campus, kissing in the rain. Melting with it as it poured down, altering them both forever. Little did she know that after their one night in Miami Beach, nothing would ever be the same again.

Chapter Thirteen

Sterling had come here with a plan and his sister's approval of that plan on the phone, his best friend Caleb in tow to help him do the dirty work. They were suppose to prove something, even though his instincts told him it was all wrong; all of it. His coach, who was more of a father to him than anyone, would be so disappointed if he knew what Sterling was really up to.

Then she, Bethany, the beauty that lay in his arms; she had turned up everywhere, haunting his every move. Taking over his mind. His want and attraction for her winning over everything. He awoke before she did and stared at her raw beauty. She was a breathtaking, innocent girl, inside and out, and he wanted to do right by her. So, he moved slightly, carful not to wake her as he found his phone on the floor near his bed. He sent a quick text to his sister, telling her the plan was off. As the phone's light made Beth's eyes start to open, he quickly turned it off.

She took a deep breath when she realized she really was waking up next to him, in his bed and in his arms. Her facial expressions so easy to read, nervousness and uncertainty were flooding her now. He felt her pulse through her wrist in his hand speed up as she stared back at his naked form, twisted in the hotel sheets.

"We really did all that didn't we?" she asked him, half worry and half astonishment filling her voice.

"Yep," he said gently as he moved the strand of hair that was falling over her face behind her ear. Didn't she see that she was so hot... so beautiful?

"What were we thinking?" she asked him next.

"I don't think we were," he said with a gentle smile and then slowly kissed her lips once more. Making her shiver in his arms, their kiss deepening as it calmed her down. It was like their first kiss all over again. Her body calming in their embrace as she lay next to him, both of them truly not believing this dream but enjoying the moment.

A few seconds later she jolted up, away from him. "Oh God, the photo contest! Can I see your phone?" she said in a panic. As he handed it to her, he quickly wished he'd deleted that text he sent to his sister. Beth flipped away from it quickly, hopefully not understanding what it could mean. She pulled up the internet, going to Vivid's website, and pulled up the list of the graduate finalists who were announced this morning.

Sterling saw Beth's name on his phone right as she did. Then the biggest, most unbelievable smile filled her face as she gasped, "I made it, I'm in the final twenty!" She kept staring at her name, not believing it as Sterling sat up, his arms coming around her shoulders as he kissed her neck.

"I knew you would," he said, proud of her because he could have helped secure her name in this contest but he hadn't needed to. Beth had done this all on her own. She was a truly great photographer.

"Let's celebrate. Let me take you to a nice breakfast," he offered, hoping she wouldn't want to distance herself from him the way most people usually did the morning after waking up in bed together.

"Ok," she said hesitantly, looking deeply into his eyes as her face flushed red with nervousness. Beth smiled, really smiled, and then she pulled his arm, bringing his body back to hers as they kissed, a real deep kiss. Beth was finally happy, he could see it, taste it, and he didn't want the real reason he came to Miami to ruin that for her.

They kissed like they'd never kissed anyone in ages.

***

Later that day Beth got out of Sterling's shower. Looking at herself in the mirror in awe, she practically didn't recognize herself. Was she really in the penthouse with Sterling Johnson, showering after a night of becoming lovers? What did that say about her and her morals? It had all happened too fast, and she knew it, but everything still felt so oddly good. Like she'd entered a new chapter of her life unscathed. Her photos after yesterday's craziness were really in the top twenty, and her and Sterling were actually good together. More than good, her body still felt a kind of left over high from last night. A high she'd never let herself feel before. God, who am I? She thought as she looked at herself.

Her stomach growled in response and that was enough to get moving. She dried off and dressed in the hotel's robe, her clothes from last night were still wet so that was a no go. She'd given Sterling a key to her room and he said he'd be back with some clothes from her suitcase in a few minutes.

When she heard the elevator open, she left the bathroom to go meet him, but it wasn't Sterling standing in the penthouse room. Beth jumped back, going back to the bathroom quickly, freaked out and hoping she was unseen. She wished the old man in Sterling's room was a stranger, but she recognized him. It was Vivid's CEO! Beth had seen his picture in the magazine half a dozen times and distinctly remembered him giving a speech after Monica Gomez's speech yesterday. Why would he be up here? It didn't make sense.

Why? Oh why, would he be here? Oh God!

The elevator behind him reopened. Sterling stepped into his suite and then stopped when he saw the intruder.

"What are you doing here?" Sterling demanded, his voice becoming emotionally heavy and pissed.

Beth stayed in the bathroom, hiding and not understanding until the CEO breathed, "Well you charged the penthouse and all your out of control airline spending to my account. How did you think I wasn't going to find out that you were here... Son?"

Chapter Fourteen

"Don't call me son," Sterling answered the man coldly.

Beth stayed still in the bathroom listening, not believing what she was hearing as everything she thought she understood changed.

"Well I am your father, despite the fact that you've used your mother's maiden name ever since your swimming hobby took off. Thanks to my help might I add."

Sterling's face turned fiercely red, and Beth had only ever seen him mad one time before this, when he was on the phone many nights ago when she'd watched him outside her room, yelling at someone in the rain.

"Swimming 'hobby,' Dad? Swimming's been my life since I was eight. Even when Mom was so sick that she was losing all her hair, she still made sure everyday that I was taken to swim practice because she believed in me. Where were you when she was sick? Oh yea, that's right, you'd already left her by then and had taken half of her company from her!" Sterling's eyes were so mad, his whole demeanor distorted upon confronting his father.

"Vivid was our company. Your mother and I both poured our lives and savings into this magazine. My half was more than owed to me."

Sterling laughed. "Well you've given over half of your half away in your many divorce settlements. I guess Monica Gomez will be the next woman who gets a piece of the pie when you marry her without a prenup, like you have all the others."

"Don't you dare bring my future wife into this!" his father yelled back at him, his blue eyes just as fierce as Sterling's, making them suddenly look very much alike. Sterling's dad was ancient and worn down but Beth saw the resemblance loud and clear.

"Your future wife could be your oldest daughter's younger sister! I still can't believe you fired Stacy for that whore! Taking away her piece of the magazine for some ass, you're disgusting!"

"Oh, you think you're so high and mighty," his father flung his hand at his son, dismissing him coldly. "You wait until you're my age and see what decisions you've made. You wait until a few years from now when you get some girl pregnant that you're not even prepared to be with. Why do you think I married your mother and stayed with her so long? To do right by Stacy and then by you. And how do you kids thank me? You don't even carry my name or support the magazine's events. Until you grow up, why don't you lay off my company's accounts or I'll have your inheritance garnished all together!"

With that the man was gone. Sterling smashed his hand into a vase on the suite's marble table, causing it to crash and shatter all over the floor as he stomped into his room with all his muscles bulging in anger.

Beth's stomach sank, he probably had forgotten that she was in there. With her clothes on the table, not knowing what else to do, Beth quickly got dressed and pressed the button for the elevator. She needed to wrap her mind around things. All the bliss she was feeling had evaporated. Sterling had withheld a truth from her. He was the CEO's son of the contest she was currently a contestant in. What else had he lied about? What else was going on? God, what had she been thinking? She'd slept with a boy she'd lived next to all year but barely knew. The morning after honeymoon was over as reality and feelings of regret hit her like a smack in the face. God, if her family only knew what she had done. She'd had a one night stand in Miami when her mind should have been on work.

She held her head down in the cold elevator, trying to think. Before it got on her floor, it opened two floors above hers and Sabrina and Jack stepped inside. They pressed the button for the lobby. Jack seemed happy enough. Beth had seen his name in the top twenty this morning. Sabrina on the other hand had eyes that were stained red and puffy, she looked just as big a mess as Beth. When the two girls made eye contact, Beth knew things were about to get even worse as Sabrina's temper and bad sportsmanship took over.

"You! Your photos weren't even that good. A house in the New Jersey water, who cares! How the hell did you make it to the top twenty and not me? You didn't even make it to the plane on time, I know someone inside this contest had to be helping you!" she spat bitterly. "Your spot on that list should have been my spot! There's no way you got this fairly!"

Beth stood there speechless. Any other day she would have ignored Sabrina's insults but as Jack shushed her, Beth's entire insides shook. The elevator stopped at her floor and she got off slowly, waiting for the door to close behind her until she sunk down on her knees. Her breath gone. Sterling, her lying knight in shining armor had long forgotten her.

Yesterday had he insured her photo in the contest? Pulled some kind of string behind his father's back because he wanted to sleep with Beth? Had sex and not her photography gotten her all this? Beth felt lost, lost and shamed because she'd trusted someone she knew was bad, bad from the start, and she now questioned if her top twenty photo was a cheat.

Chapter Fifteen

Caleb was hungover and confused as he stood in the lobby in a long line for coffee. The whole point of this trip was to help Sterling prove to his father that his new fiancé was a super sexual philandering cheat. Caleb had gone out with her last night, and Sterling had captured the heated snapshot of the two of them together. He was looking at it on his phone as he read over his text that the plan was off.

"What the hell?" Caleb mumbled confused as Sabrina and Jack got in line for coffee behind him. Sabrina was ranting and raving about something and Jack was ignoring her as usual. Women...

Despite Sterling's instructions to delete the photo, Caleb continued to look at it, admiring his handy work. That was until Sabrina saw it. "Is that who I think it is?" she asked him, and suddenly beyond Caleb's or Sterling's control, the plan was back on.

***

"Beth!" Sterling shouted as he knocked on her door. He'd been knocking for several minutes with no answer so he began to pound. "Beth, please open up, let me explain!"

When he'd seen his father in his hotel room, standing there smug and stern like an authoritarian when he'd been completely irresponsible most of Sterling's life, he'd lost it. He'd yelled at his dad, broke a vase when he'd left, and stormed into his room in blind anger; a lifetime worth of resentment suddenly back alive in his mind. A few minutes later, when he'd fallen on his knees begging God whom he never felt worthy enough to talk to but prayed to anyway in his times of feeling alone, for some peace, that's when remnants of his time with Beth had come to his mind and he realized she had been waiting for him, in his room. And now she was gone. No doubt she'd heard everything. Oh God...

He'd rushed down to her hotel room, only to find a closed door in his face. No Beth.

"Beth, please!" The truth was, as pathetic as it seemed, Sterling wanted this girl, enough to actually pray for a kiss, and then more. If that made him any less of a man, he didn't care.

"Bethany!" No answer. He pounded, simply wanting to explain himself; tell the whole story of his mom, who started Vivid Image magazine, and his life after she died, but he never got to. The neighboring guest next to Beth's room came outside to see who was pounding and yelling in the halls. After another few minutes, Sterling was forced to leave.

***

Bethany had been walking along the beach feeling the ocean's cool breeze against the hot humidity on her skin. The weather here in Miami was very much like Sterling's touch, to hot to handle and cool all at once. The memory of their night together crashed with her new information about him. The possibility of her own photography work not truly earning her a fair place in this contest was too much to bare. The more she thought about it, the more anger took over. As she was rounding the corner back to her room, she heard her name shouted, her entire name.

"Bethany!"

Only he ever called her that... Sterling. He was at her door, unaware she was down the hall watching him. Her entire form froze. Could that be true regret on his face as he knocked one last time? Then, after disturbing her neighbors, he left going in the opposite direction down the hall, leaving her.

She stood there watching him walk away, unable to speak. Did he regret forgetting about her, regret lying? Could he be sorry? Or did he just want another bed session after he'd already gone to the trouble of securing her photo in this contest? She felt overwhelmingly confused and still mad as she watched him disappear. Was he truly out of her life this time? After all college was done, and after tonight's ceremony why would she ever see him again?

There's too many questions in my head right now! She thought, as the only answer rang loud and clear. She didn't just want to see him again, she hoped too.

Chapter Sixteen

"Your father canceled our rooms, Sterling, so what's the plan? Coach is going to be expecting us home soon," Caleb said as he grabbed food off the Vivid banquet buffet. He was chowing down while Sterling scanned the area. His eyes landing on Beth who was standing near her photography work while shaking onlooker's hands. Her long blond hair was down and alive with curls. Her curves shown off perfectly in a little black dress and the small jacket she wore on top. Sterling began imagining what she looked like with no jacket when Beth turned around, as if sensing his stare.

Her face filled with deep frustration upon laying eyes on him. The energy between them kept their eyes locked on each other in the busy room; even as Beth continued to greet other people, her gaze never fully left him. Right after this event was over Sterling planned on talking to her. Before then he didn't want to ruin her potential moment. He insisted to Caleb on staying in the most congested part of the crowd, to avoid his father spotting him and having another heated moment. It was amazing how this room, this environment of photographers was where his mother, sister, and father had always thrived. Sterling felt so out of touch here; his area of thriving would always be in the water.

The night went by quickly, and after a while Beth only looked his way every once in a while. He really hoped she was the winner, and it would all be fair and square, because he hadn't used any of his influence at all.

"Time to announce this year's winner," Monica Gomez announced with a crafty seductive smile. She had an envelope in her hand, and any moment the winning picture would pop up on the computer screen behind her and she'd read the winner's name. Sterling hoped and prayed the winner was Beth.

The winning picture came on board, and the entire crowd gasped.

***

Beth and everyone else froze. Any moment the music would clearly stop. Every top twenty college graduate had been hoping to see their picture, hear their name. Beth had been praying, forgetting about Sterling for a few minutes while her mind was finally on what it should have been, wanting to win. Now everything was very, very wrong.

The winning picture was not on the walls of any of the top twenty, it wasn't even a picture from any of the other college graduates who hadn't made it that far. The giant photo on the screen in front of everybody was of Monica Gomez, half clothed and being fondled by none other than Caleb Wiener, outside the hotel's showers. The crowd gasped and Monica let out a shocking scream and ran off the stage.

With her gone, every Vivid employee at the banquet began to gossip and whisper as all the students started asking what was happening and who had won. Beth's eyes went to a bright red Caleb, who was trying to back out of the room, mouth full of food, without anyone noticing. He had angry eyes on Sabrina, who was leaving the room next to him with a smile. They both were leaving behind Sterling, whose form was perfectly still and unreadable as Beth's eyes went back to the photo.

It was all too familiar to her because she had been there in real time. Spying on Caleb and Monica last night, not by choice, as she hurried to leave. The only other person who had been on that floor, who would have been able to take a photo of that moment was Sterling. In fact, she had heard a camera flash right before she stepped out of the sauna and into his arms. Her face turned cold as all of Sterling and Caleb's past whispers of a plan took hold in her mind. Then Beth understood all too well what had happened.

She found herself marching up to him; she was hurt, seeing red, unable to think about anything except for her annoying lying neighbor, who had invaded her contest, ruined this banquet, and slept with her right after securing the photo to do so.

"You did this didn't you?" Beth found herself right in front of Sterling's tall body. The crowd was wild around them, people beginning to leave. No one paid attention to Beth's words except for Sterling, who for the first time was speechless. "This is why you came here?" she asked him again.

Sterling's face looked angered as he shook his head and answered. "Yes."

"You had your friend sleep with your father's fiancé, and after taking the photo you what, thought you'd celebrate by sleeping with me?" Her voice became pained, shaky, her skin red with anger. No doubt her eyes were a burning bright blue, about to cry as she accused him.

"That's not what my time with you was about. I—" he had no words, couldn't finish. "The plan was suppose to be off. I came here only to talk to you."

Beth shook her head as her face turned back to the heated photo on the wall, and then to Sterling. How could she believe anything that came out of his mouth? "I don't believe you. You came here to make a big commotion, like you always make big loud commotions, and humiliate your father. You've ruined this contest for everyone." With that she turned to leave, as more and more tears came out of her eyes. It was truly pathetic to cry over this but she was. She'd made nothing but mistakes, all for not. She'd missed walking in her graduation to be here, all to be screwed by Sterling Johnson in more ways then one.

She never wanted to see him again.

Chapter Seventeen

Four Years Later

Beth, now a more grown up version of herself, sat in her office, going over photo assignments. She knew the entire company she now worked for was super busy trying to produce a stunning cover that would out sell Vivid Image's upcoming issue. Ironically it was because of that legendary magazine that Beth was even working here. It's name along with one other was constantly haunting her.

Four years ago Beth had been a part of the Vivid Image graduate contests fiasco, the winning results of which had taken forever to announce. Apparently due to Monica Gomez being fired at the time, and the whole mess for the graduate issue that had taken place behind the scenes, all top twenty students had been named winners and each got a small portion of their student loans paid off; which was better than nothing for Beth. The cover image on the graduate issue that year was of Beth's and one other winner's photos. Having her work on Vivid's cover—her current company's biggest competition—helped her secure a more than decent job; one she needed not just to support herself but one other. Yet, she still wondered what would have happened if things had gone differently, and Sterling's face came to her mind more times then she could control.

The summer after Beth's graduation, Sterling had tried a few times to reach out to her, saying he was sorry for all the trouble he caused and so on. Beth had been out of Miami, home living with her mom, looking for a job, and wanted all memories of him behind her. That was, until she woke up nauseated in bed one morning, and found herself taking a pregnancy test.

What had one night of mouth watering passion in Miami cost? Everything... Or at least, it had seemed like that at the time. Now Beth lived a completely different life, she was no longer a girl transitioning into adulthood. She'd been forced quickly to become a woman and grown adult.

Over time Sterling's name had became bigger and bigger in the press. He became one of America's future Olympic eligible bachelors; but he never seemed to ever settle in a relationship, despite the many women that wanted him, and all the famous super models he was constantly on and off again with. Thinking about it made Beth shake her head. Why do I torture myself like this?

When her photography partner and best friend from college, Tara—whom Beth had helped secure a job here—came into the office all smiles, Beth knew right away something was up.

"What's going on?" She asked her.

Tara smiled innocently. "Our next potential photography assignment is in the elevator, on his way up to discuss terms with the company. Having him here is going to blow our competition out of the bag. I wonder who they'll choose to take his picture?" Tara stared at Beth with a scheming smile.

Beth eyed her suspiciously. Their company dealt with capturing photos of high end public figures and celebrities all the time. Who had Tara so excited that she didn't want to spill his name?

"Who is it?" Beth asked her. Tara's excited behavior reminded Beth of their old college days, back when Tara would drool over every hot fraternity boy that had walked down the hall.

"You're about to find out," Tara winked. "He's getting off the elevator now and coming our way."

Beth turned her head expecting a hot TV personality, or maybe a reality star, nothing out of the ordinary. Instead her heart sped up like it was on speed. Her eyes blinked unsure as she felt herself about to trip over her own two feet. Sterling Johnson, with his agent in tow, was walking towards her boss's office. His blue eyes were about to fall right on Beth's, who was in the glass office next door. He was even hotter than he had been so many years back. His lips just as kissable as she felt the pulse within her chest speed up. It became evident in that moment as her boss came out to greet him, right as their eyes were about to find each other again, that Sterling and Beth's story wasn't the least bit over. It was just getting started, and this time the photos these two would be creating would be the scandalous headlines everyone was dying to see. They had no idea what was about to be uncovered.

###

One Night In Heated Snapshots is the first of a two part series

written by Ashley C. Harris.

Continue reading for a sneak peek of book two, One Night In Close Exposure.

 (Click here to subscribe to the author's newsletter to win special book swag and get entered into her latest e-reader GIVEAWAYS.)

Also By

Ashley C. Harris

TROLL SERIES

(1)Troll

(2)Troll Cries

(Stand-alone) Troll Whispers

(3) Troll Rise

THE SHOCK ME SERIES

(1) Shock Me

(2) Sparks

(3)Collide

(3.5) New Divide

(4) Ignite

(5) Power

THE ONE NIGHT IN SERIES

(1)One Night In Heated Snapshots

(2)One Night In Close Exposure

THE LINES NOVELLAS SERIES

Lines Part 1

Lines Part 2

Lines Part 3

For more information and news on Ashley C. Harris's upcoming books go to:

http://www.ashleycharris.com/

You can also find her on:

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Snapchat: Author_ACHarris

Special Thanks From The Author:

Special thanks to graphic designer Amber Harris, my parents David and Karen Harris, Mitchell Lane, and everyone else that encouraged me to pursue publishing this book. To my wonderful editor Cameron Yeager, who was amazing to work with in every way, and all the other proof readers who helped me. To my publicists Danielle Barclay, Anjana Vasan, and everyone else at Barclay Publicity. The adventure of this series has just started and I thank you all.

Continue reading for a sneak peek of the second novel in this series, One Night In Close Exposure.

### ONE NIGHT IN CLOSE EXPOSURE

### Chapter One

The Missing Piece Of The Past

"Beth, you need to go... " is what her mom had told her repeatedly all week long the moment there was breaking news that Sterling Johnson, and a whole slew of other Olympic athletes, were flying into Beth's city for the governor's honorary ball. Beth knew her mom was right, what other chance would she get to talk to Sterling at this point, especially now that he had actually broken a new world record and joined the U.S.A. Olympic team? The answer was none.

Too many people had begun calling him the minute his Olympic swimming status was announced on a national level, which is why he must have switched numbers, breaking off the possibility of Beth getting ahold of him again. Well, not all possibility, but the truth was she hadn't ever wanted to face him after their one steamy night that had ended so wrong. But now, just as Sterling's stellar Olympic news was announced, she had learned her own life stopping drama. In fact, she was pretty sure her life was over as she imagined her dreams and aspirations suddenly crashing to the floor. Oh God, how can this really be happening to me? How can I do this, Lord?

She entered the ballroom with waves of hot nausea assaulting her. Smells of seafood and other appetizers were making her stomach turn in the worst possible way. Of course, her stomach had been turning for two and a half months now; she just hadn't realized it was morning sickness until it was too late. I've been so foolish...

There was a big yellow taped off area where media was not allowed to pass and yet Beth stood at the very edge of it with her photography media badge, looking. Would she be able to get Sterling's attention ahead of time before the speeches came? A bodyguard warned her with his stern eyes not to dare take a step further and trip up the rope.

Nervous energy caused her to tremble at the thought of speaking to Sterling now, looking upon his tall height and too ripped abs, ripped in a way that made him this next generation's newest Michael Phelps and Michael Lochte rolled into one. Young fans posted statuses on the web that Sterling's face was far more handsome, far more perfect, than any swimmer before him. His photos had been spread across all the papers, capturing his best angles. Beth had to admit, it seemed like they were right.

If only everyone knew the true man and his motives under that swim cap. Beth had been crushed. Jesus, why didn't you give me the sense to run? Beth wondered as she trembled, nausea catching her again and again.

"What the hell are you doing here?" came the hissing voice of Tyler Radeler. He was an unpaid intern at the new company Beth had gotten a post-college paid photography internship at. He was also her biggest competition when it came to which of them would move up to having an actual job at their top media and photography company.

"I thought you said you weren't trying to cover this, that you loathed Olympic athletes and jocks. That they are all 'awful,' or something along those lines," Tyler said as he stuffed pieces of sushi into his mouth and spoke while masticating his food. The smell and sight was enough to make Beth feel like what she ate that morning was slowly rising to the surface. Who says getting pregnant makes you fat? Beth was having trouble keeping weight on right now due to the retching.

"I changed my mind," she told him as she turned her body around to face away. He didn't get the hint as his body turned with hers, and behold, in front of them was one of the most beautiful female swimmers who had participated in the last two Olympic Games: Catalina Veselov.

She walked into the ball in a sequined blue dress that made her look all but nearly naked in the best possible way. Parts of her back, the space between her legs, and the top part of her chest were covered with sheer, shining fabric that threatened to move at any moment but didn't. Tyler's mouth dropped open as he took in the girl and nearly forgot to do what he was here for, to snap a time stopping photo.

Beth, unlike the others, would have zoomed in on her face, rather than Catalina's body. It held a secret, something calculating, though perhaps Beth was seeing that out of envy as she was forced, due to her circumstances, to wear baggie outfits in order to cover her expanding belly. If Tyler or my boss finds out I'm pregnant, Tyler will be given the photography job over me, I'm sure of it.

Beth's thoughts began to spin as her nerves continued and the climax of the evening approached. "Your aspirations can't be what haunts your feelings anymore," Beth's mom had told her as the two of them teared up when Beth announced she was pregnant. "You need to think about this unborn person inside you, and about his or hers father who deserves to know what's going on." Too bad nothing had ended on good terms their one night together. In fact, the entire time Beth and Sterling had been neighbors in college they had been arguing constantly just to see who could piss off the other first.

Right as Beth's mind reregistered all this, he entered the Governor's Ball and cameras began to flash wildly. America's new mega athlete was here, and just as the magazines and tabloids had framed him, Sterling looked better than ever. His blue eyes landed right on Catalina, who was now lifting her hands to her hips as he approached. He didn't see Beth who was being suffocated by all her fellow media minions.

The athletic duo walked right passed everyone to the refreshment area for the governor's guests. It was time for the governor's speech which was on the importance of the Summer Olympics and how it, like the Winter Olympics, had the ability to try and bring the entire world together despite everyone's many differences.

God, I'm going to have to yell to get him to see me. And if he does spot me, will he even be willing to talk? What was I thinking that as an intern from a media company I'd be able to just pull him aside?

How ironic that their entire college life together was of Beth trying to get Sterling and his crazy partying friends to give her peace, quiet, and space. As she looked around at the crazed public and flashing media, she realized with Sterling she'd never have that.

Her mind was panicking as her eyes searched for a way to get passed the press ropes. The security guard near her and Tyler seemed to be reading her mind as they edged closer. She probably seemed like an overzealous, first time photographing swim fan. If only everyone in the room knew she was carrying Sterling Johnson's child. How can this really be my future, God? She wanted to cry as the governor began his speech, and as Beth moved to the other side of the ropes, she didn't notice who was behind her on the media side disguised tonight to stay hidden from his son: Sterling's father.

The two men, who to Beth seemed to be cut from the same cloth, had always been at odds, always calculating against one another. Sterling had quoted to too many journalist when asked about his dad's magazine success that it had nothing to do with getting Sterling here. In fact, as of recently, his father had disowned him and had done everything he could to stop his son from getting to this successful point, including cutting off Sterling's finances during the crucial, most expensive part of traveling and competing in pre-Olympic events. Sterling's coach had pretty much mortgaged everything he had betting on Sterling to get here tonight, and his bet and love for the young man had paid off.

The hooded gray haired man who was almost as tall as his son stood behind Beth as she kept trying to edge herself closer and closer to getting beyond the other side of the rope. That was until the governor invited both Sterling and, to Sterling's shock it seemed, Catalina up to the stage and announced in front of the whole world that this year the new fan adored prince and princess of the American swim team would not only be competing in the Olympics for themselves, but for an unborn child. Then Catalina went into detail that she had just found out that morning that she was two weeks pregnant with Sterling's child. The public went crazy; would she really be competing still on the US team? Catalina pledged that this was the best life changing news she'd ever learned and for both her country and her future baby, she would be going for gold.

Beth's entire form wanted to crumble as she felt like all the air was being sucked out of her lungs. How could all of this, any of it, even be her reality? Her time in Miami with Sterling and entering the Vivid Image competition that brought them together had been the biggest mistake of her life. As the world around her threatened to cave in, Sterling's father approached and placed his hand on her shoulder as if he seemed to know everything that was going down.

What was about to be exposed next would change life for all of them as he presented to her the only two solutions left to her now.

### Chapter Two

Four Years Later

Beth rushed into her office nearly late to work again. Camera in hand, she jetted to her desk to upload photos into her media company's database that she had spent most of the night editing. Body tired from also getting Jewel ready for daycare, Beth felt exhausted, but she would not show it.

Tyler, who held a position just above Beth's, sat in his glass office across from hers as their secretary Sheila, a.k.a, Tyler's hook-up buddy, sat on his desk in a short red skirt that was riding further and further up as they chatted. Beth found herself rolling her eyes just in time for Tyler to catch her through the glass. The two of them were sworn enemies at work. Thank God Beth had Tara, an old college girlfriend, working in the office next to hers.

The young ladies spent a quarter of their work time halting Tyler's schemes to advance even higher in the company, schemes that often involved him cheating his way to the top while throwing them all under the bus. If they had thought college was competitive, working here was like the WWE. Everyone had to fight to make a name for themselves and keep their jobs and internships.

They all stepped out of their offices to the center of the room as their boss, Mr. Everett, entered with a coffee in hand to start the morning meeting. "How is everyone today?" he asked them all with a tired smile as his eyes bulged from the caffeine high. Mr. Everett had recently gotten married for the third time and his new love life had turned him into a love struck, exhausted man. Beth wished she could relate to the feeling.

Tyler sipped his chai latte as he answered their boss's question. "I'd be better if I had gotten Beth's media photos by our actual 7:30 a.m. deadline, but thanks to Sheila's help I'm dealing with it."

Tyler was an idiot. Beth was surprised he didn't accuse her near lateness due to diaper duty again. Jewel was way beyond the diaper phase, but being the only young single mom here, she was used to being used as the scapegoat.

"That's funny, not only did I find Beth's photos uploaded on time, but according to the listed deadline I found they were ten minutes early," said Ari as he walked into the office with a water bottle and computer tablet in hand that he used to track the latest stories. Every girl in the room except Beth stood up a little taller. Ari was way above average in looks and was the number one reporter and journalist on their broadcasting division network.

The photography division Beth worked for was in charge of pumping out great photos for Ari and the other reporters' stories, as well as working on everything from website pictures, book covers, and photos for their company's different line of magazines. Ari was a big shot, every other company around wanted him, and yet he stayed loyal to his roots. Whatever he said at their meetings was usually a go and thanks to a blessing from heaven, she and Ari had been old friends and he had always shown loyalty to Beth. Tyler smirked at him wickedly as Ari nodded his head in a way that said, "try all you want, but you're not bullying these girls."

Beth gave Ari a tired smile of gratitude as her boss gave her a warning look. He hadn't forgotten his mistake of giving Beth a paying job over Tyler. Beth hadn't told him she had to leave for maternity leave until after scoring the full time position, shocking and pissing off her boss and changing the way most people there looked at her.

She knew despite all these circumstances she would perform well and work hard because that was the kind of person she was. She'd always give them a reason to keep her here. This place was the last of her goals and dreams and she fought to keep it on solid ground while other parts of her life were uncertain. Her father had always told her, being a missionary pastor, that nothing was ever really impossible through Christ's strength.

As if I really deserve God's love, strength, and success now. She let the thought go. Judging people, including herself, wasn't what God had in mind through his sacrifice. She tried to focus back on the meeting as her boss and Ari spoke about some big secret project that would have both strong media and photography ties and had something to do with young college people. How vague.

"And this, without a doubt, will finally spike us above Vivid Image for our photography online and in print outlets," Beth's boss went on. Just the name of that magazine made Beth's head shoot up, her whole body jolting in the rawest kind of way.

Vivid Image was the highest selling photography magazine in the US and most of Europe. It was the magazine who had sponsored her college's graduate photography contest that allowed some of Beth's loans to get paid. A contest that could have erased all her debt, if it wasn't for the scandal caused by Sterling and his friend. He'd turned Beth's world upside down when she'd tried to make a name at Vivid Image, and talks of it now sent shivers down her back.

It was also the magazine owned and founded by Jewel's grandparents.

A feeling of regret washed over Beth as she remembered why she'd had to do everything she did when it came to her little girl, the biggest love of her life, and the gnawing deal she had chosen to make.

"Well, I defiantly would love the opportunity to be a part of this and help bring Vivid's rating to the ground while working hard to make our own rise," Tyler spoke up fast and loud before any others could join in. Work hard? Please, Beth thought. Tyler was an expert in getting others to work hard for him and then taking all their credit while he screwed around.

"I would love the chance to take this myself," Tara chimed in as she tried to step in front of Tyler and eye their boss with a hint of bribing seductiveness in her eyes. Beth stopped herself from shaking her head. What was Tara thinking? Their boss was a married man. That and he was super old.

Geez, what isn't affected by sex around here?

My career... unfortunately...

Even Ari was staring at Tara. "And I'm two weeks ahead of all my deadlines," she added over Tyler who was scoffing like Tara being ahead of a deadline was a joke. Once upon a time, it used to be. In college she was late with everything, but now when being on time was what made you money, she was ahead of them all.

Something inside Beth dropped as Tara continued to speak. She should have been happy her friend was ahead in her work, and yet fresh envy seeped through her veins as a few others started practically shouting that they too were way ahead of all their assigned projects. With Beth's precious, yet completely time consuming daughter, she had to push hard to make every deadline, and always just by the deadline. Doing things weeks ahead of time seemed impossible now.

Still, she had to try for this, even if the odds were pretty impossible. "I'm definitely interested in helping any way I can," she spoke up with all her courage and her voice stood out for a only short moment. Her boss finally began quieting them all down as he informed them he'd be making his decisions on who would be participating and that more information would be coming out very soon.

As the meeting lingered on, Beth found herself having to leave a few minutes early as her phone vibrated to a beat she saved only for her mom who was in charge of picking up Jewel from daycare, something Beth's siblings didn't think she should always volunteer to do. "Mom could be going to social groups for old people," Beth's brother Ben constantly told her on the phone. Yet Beth's mom insisted stubbornly that she wouldn't want to be anywhere else but by her first grandchild's side. She even offered to babysit late at night so Beth could try to get out there and start dating. Yeah right...

As Beth walked out of the meeting, down the hall toward her office, she noticed Tyler had slipped out of the meeting early too. The curtains across his glass office door were drawn closed, which was against their company's rules, but he must have been in too much of a hurry to draw them efficiently because Beth could see through a few cracked blinds. Sheila was straddled across Tyler's lap on his office chair while his hands were somewhere unknown as they tried to do something quick before the meeting adjured.

"They're going to have to bleach Tyler's entire office daily before someone steps in there and catches something," Tara often whispered to Beth with a tone full of scandal. Beth was mortified right now as she saw Tyler spot her eyes through the cracked blinds. His disgusting smile widened making her want to vomit. God, help me...

She closed her own blinds fast, trying to distract herself by answering her mom's call with nervous energy. Could something be wrong that her mom was calling now?

"Everything's fine," her mom insisted. "I'm just calling to check on things and see if the Disney and Holy Land trip in Orlando is still a possibility for Jewel?"

Beth had already told her a million times no. "Mom, I appreciate you wanting to take her but five days is way too much for you to handle on your own."

"I'll hardly be on my own, dear, Ari's mom will be by my side along with all the ladies from our church group who will all have their children and grandchildren in hand to see Mickey Mouse, just like your father and I did with you. Besides, you're always welcome to come."

"Mom, I can't take any time off," Beth started to tell her. Even if she could, Florida was pretty much a place of forbidden temptation where she knew she should never return. It's where her and Sterling had... well, everything. And even though he hadn't been back to the state in over a year according to the celebrity sites online, Beth just couldn't see herself stepping foot there ever again.

"Oh come on, dear, please think about coming with us. A vacation would be good for us all and I know Jewel would love it the way you did as a little one. Please, I'm going either way. Do you really want to deny your mom unforgettable moments with her beautiful granddaughter?"

Guilt seemed to be passing down Beth's chest along with the warm cup of coffee she was consuming as she pulled up new assignments. Beth's mind was torn to pieces as she thought about her mom traveling alone. Her mom had seen the world but ever since their father had passed away on a mission's trip, Beth's entire family spazzed when any of them went on a trip by themselves. Mom will be with her church group, traveling within the States not a third world country. She'll be fine, Beth reasoned as she remembered to breathe.

She pushed to bring the conversation to an end as Ari entered her office with a smile. He had all three of his cell phones, a tablet, and files in his hand. That meant one thing, breaking news time. "Mom, Orlando's out for Jewel and I, gotta go."

"Tell her I say hey," Ari started to say as Beth turned her phone off.

"Next time," said Beth. Holy crap, half the workday was almost over and she had so much to do.

"Why aren't you going to Orlando with our moms?" he asked as he checked his multiple phones that were vibrating with texts.

Beth wished she could say the real answer, to anybody, instead she said, "I've used up all my paid vacation days already with all of Jewel's sick days. She's at that age at daycare where kids just give each other everything from chicken pox to ear infections." And not to mention the US had the measles to worry about again.

"Wow," was Ari's non-relatable reply.

God my life makes me feel so old.

"It's too bad you couldn't find yourself an assignment in Florida to help our ratings and give you an excuse on your time off to stand in theme park lines with your mom," he teased. Beth could think of other things she'd rather do.

"Oh yeah, too bad," she mouthed as she shut her laptop upon realizing Ari wasn't planning on leaving her office. Beth could see Tara over the back of his shoulder looking through the glass curtains while making googly faces. Beth was too busy to think of her childhood friend like that, too busy most of the time anyway.

"Ari?" she spoke loudly as her hands flew to her hips and she had to stand in front of him to pull his eyes away from his phones. "It looks like you have a million things going down for breaking news, why are you attempting small talk right now?"

"Because," he finally said as he looked up and caught her eye, making her feel like Ari was always trying to discover the secrets that haunted herself. "As you probably suspected, I want something," he admitted.

"Is it something I have a choice in?" she asked.

The right side of his lips and cheeks raised in one of his crooked, yet who could say no to smiles. "Not really," he muttered as another crazy part of Beth's day was about to begin.

### Chapter Three

Sterling

Sterling made it back to his penthouse hotel room utterly exhausted. His left leg was killing him after his coach had set up his arrival with two trainers, a physical therapist, and a paid nutritionist who all had appeared at his door. The first trainer was there to give him athletic yoga sessions to warm up his body and help supposedly regenerate and stimulate broken bones. Then a hard core male endurance trainer was next who had spent his time asking Sterling if he wanted to endorse his workouts. When Sterling said no, the guy spent the next two hours kicking Sterling's ass doing every kind of killer exercise imaginable.

Then of course, Sterling and Richard Cremma, an older swimmer who had swam in the Olympics ten years ago and earned the name "Dic Cremma," due to his wild antics, had raced each other for a few hours. Right when Sterling had showered and was ready for room service and sleep, he'd made the mistake of opening his penthouse door to find Cremma with two models that Sterling had seen on either some kind of fitness magazine or calendar. They were both giggling and laughing, already a few drinks in when he tried to tell his buddy this was a bad idea.

"Come on, your agent booked this place because there is a private bar for penthouse guests only right down the hall, no press or cameras allowed. Have one drink with us before you leave town for old time's sake."

One drink and two models multiplied in to several drinks for Dic and four other models that had been invited by their friends to join the fun. Sterling had agreed to one quick dance after the girls had drunkenly begged him to the point of drawing a scene. Two minutes onto the dance floor the model dancing closest to him drunkenly wrapped her arms around his shoulders and started trying to kiss his neck before he even knew what was happening.

Sterling peeled her off of him quickly as he was pretty certain any moment the sloppy, intoxicated beauty would ralph all over his shirt. He said good-bye and had almost made it down the hall through his door when suddenly hands were grabbing playfully around his waist, trying to sink lower.

What the... ? He turned around in his doorway and found himself staring at a model who had joined their crowd last and hadn't seemed as drunk as the others. She'd actually been able to have a somewhat real conversation with him. As real as people are in my world.

"Hey there," Sterling said as he peeled her long arms from around him and tried to back up into his room while keeping her at a distance.

"What's wrong, Mr. Johnson, you don't want me to come inside?" she taunted, moving her body to the music that he could still hear blasting from the bar down the hall. Too bad the dancing back there had been too much because he really did love this Pharrell song. The model's short red dress seemed to be getting shorter as she lifted her hands into the air and moved to the rhythm of the beat, meaning to both dance and show herself off. If Sterling had thought college was wild back in the day, he had had no idea what was coming.

She wasted no time. As he found his eyes gawking uncontrollably for a moment at her leggy form, she took advantage by taking several more steps forward, making them both move deeper into his doorway, then his bedroom as his legs took several steps back.

What am I doing? Stop, you know this is a bad idea, Sterling told himself. He'd learned to never be this easy or sloppy.

"Come on, let's have one more drink together, it will be our little secret," she winked.

For a moment sweet temptation dripped through his mind. He usually never went for girls that threw themselves at him, he much rather preferred a chase, unlike most of his friends. But it had been so long since he'd been given any kind of chase or been with anybody for that matter, despite the way the tabloids painted him to be. Her long, curly brown hair and bright green eyes were shining as she pushed herself further into him, pressing up against him so he could feel her every curve and crease.

What would be the harm in giving into a yearning for one night? I really, really shouldn't... There has got to be a wiser choice than her, he tried to tell himself. But she managed to get him to walk further back into the room as her eyes went to his mini bar and then back to him. It was time to make his nutritionist very unhappy as the model pushed herself past him to open up the bar and pour them both two glasses of ridiculously expensive Champaign with the upmost confidence.

The tiredness in his body was being replaced by a different kind of excitement. He suddenly felt very much alive and aware as she sipped her glass slowly while pushing one for him in his hand. "Come on, Sterling, let me help you relax," she prompted him as she lifted her face to his. The part of him that was screaming that this chick was going to go straight to the tabloids tomorrow morning was getting duller and duller. Maybe for once that wouldn't happen, for once maybe he could trust one moment outside the water.

The Champaign stemmed glass was still in his unsure fingers. He was about to give in, be a man, and just down it when she dared lift it out of his fingers, playfully taking a sip from what she'd given him and then pressing the rim of the glass to his own lips exactly where her red lipstick had left an imprint. "Come on, this can be our little secret."

He took his hand to meet her own and downed the bubbly drink as her lips drew closer and closer to his. Hers were actually pretty chapped and her kissing style was sloppier than he wanted it to be, but since he was about to do something he would majorly regret, he figured he might as well enjoy it as his hands went to her side. Slipping them down her back, he was about to pull her to him more when she accidentally kicked one of her heels into his left leg, right near the spot where he had had his last of three surgeries.

"Wow! Hold up a sec," he tried to say nicely, his voice husky, as she giggled an apology and started quickly getting her heels off. She had the strappy kind of stilettos that had several laces and as she tried to untie them sexily and failed, Sterling found his eyes drifting to the right, and then back to her, and then suddenly back to the right again. A small alarm was going off in his head as his body's reaction from a moment ago threatened to make it harder and harder to think.

Sterling looked to the top of the mini bar where the model had placed her silver purse in an odd way with it cracked halfway open so her phone was standing up, almost as if it had been propped, with the small camera lens on it sticking out. This kind of thing wouldn't have alerted him before he had become famous, but now... Life was insane and he wished he could somehow swim and live a private, simple life all at once and be his old self again. But the world didn't work that way.

Sterling moved a foot away from her as she tried to reach her hands back around him and undo his shirt's buttons. He grabbed the camera phone that had been placed to film his bed perfectly and—low and behold—it had been turned on and was recording.

"Get out," he hissed as her face contorted into shock.

"Come on, I was just trying to have a little fun. I thought you'd be into it," she flirted as she tried to undo his shirt further and get him back into the mood. He pressed DELETE on her phone and found she had about ten other videos and crazy photos from in the bar when Sterling had been jumped by another female. She was defiantly planning on going to the tabloids with all this; these shots were way above and beyond Instagram.

"I said get out," he hissed more sternly as he peeled her off of him in a way that said he'd had enough.

Her face turned rotten as she ripped her phone out of his hands. Then she scooped up her tacky shoes and started trotting toward his door. "No wonder Catalina dumped you after she got rid of your bastard child!" was her last rude, soul burning comment before she slammed the door shut and left him alone.

He ground his teeth together, pissed and suddenly so mad at himself. He had almost given in to what would have been a bad train wreck of events. Sterling thought of a hundred curses in his mind as he moved to go and take a shower to cool off. As always, he'd be spending this night alone. He could hardly trust anybody anymore.

This life of being always watched and a scandalized celebrity, of everyone wanting something from him, while all the while he tried to keep his memories of the last Olympics hidden, all this had transformed him into a different person than he was before.

When would a real down to earth woman who could offer him a true sense of trust ever come? Someone who had nothing to do with the media?

### Chapter Four

Beth

Ari and Beth wrapped things up after covering crazy riots and protests on the other side of town. Riots over how the government was getting ready to once again try and fight more terrorism. She had her head down as Ari drove, busying herself with clicking through her digital photo bank, reviewing the images she had just captured of many angry shouting people who were mostly students. The lines on their faces as she zoomed in... they had the look of those who were tired and so lost, and yet they were all so young.

Everyone is so ballistic when it comes to rallying lately, this will definitely be referred to in history as an era of protest and uproar, Beth thought as she pondered everything that was happening around the world.

I wonder if it was like this right before World War Two? When nobody wanted to go back into another war, admit to another mega threat, her mind went on as she thought about pictures she had studied at her university of protesters boycotting that very war before it started. She recalled having to examine and write reports comparing activist that alienated themselves in the streets, shouting for peace while getting high; high enough to burn property down in the name of making a difference. Beth had then been made to study and compare pictures taken in the war field by other photographers, bringing revelations home for everyone's eyes to see for the first time of World War Two crimes. This is why Beth's craft was so powerful, it could bring truths and things that were meant to not get exposed to the light.

Nothing in history has really changed.

She selected her favorite photos for Ari to take with him and run alongside his story tonight on the news, right as he pulled up to her condo building. Beth looked at the time. It was almost eleven o'clock; she'd missed an evening of putting her little one to bed, and her mom had stayed here the entire time watching Jewel with no complaint. Can't I split myself in two and be able to experience what should be the most important things, just this once?

Of course, there was the option to quit her job and her dreams completely, those words and bribes were there lingering behind her shoulder all the time. Words from Jewel's grandfather, who offered Beth anything she needed to keep Jewel a secret until the time was right.

"Thank you for doing this for me, Beth, I really appreciate it," Ari began as Beth turned toward him. Who were they both kidding, Ari could have picked anybody and the fact that he picked Beth was going to definitely spark jealousy in the office. The other photographers would scratch each other's eyes out to be Ari's right hand man or woman. He constantly gave Beth the opportunity to do these assignments because it helped grow her dreams and keep her job, and he pushed back deadlines, sometimes days back, just so she could meet them. What did I do to deserve such a great friend? Mercy was clearly the answer.

Right as that thought popped into her head Beth thought if she ever had another little girl, a sister for Jewel, Mercy would be a great name. Where is your mind taking you to now! the realistic part of her screamed. Her meeting someone anytime soon and being able to handle another kid and work would be impossible.

"Any time, and thanks for the ride."

"Yep, don't sweat it. You can take your time and send the—"

"I just emailed the photos to you now, Ari," Beth finished for him. "I've got to learn to stay way ahead of deadlines again. Tonight can be a productive start."

He smiled. "You're already the most productive person I know remember," he told her and Beth seriously doubted that. Liar...

He looked out to Beth's grand high-rise doors where a doorman waited at the entrance. Beth often found herself embarrassed by the size and grandiose of this condo she was being put up in, it didn't match her or the small missionary background her family came from at all; she was out of place here, as she felt out of place in almost everything now.

Ari had seen her building before of course and was successful enough to afford the same, and yet his eyes always looked so investigative as he looked from the doorman to Beth every time he dropped her off. She knew his curiosity made him wonder how she afforded to live in such a place as a single mom and how she was getting ready to send Jewel to the private, prestigious pre-school that was just around the block. That school was why Jewel's grandfather had insisted Beth live here.

I can afford all this because I'm a liar too, Ari. If only I could tell you the truth.

"I know work is extra tough on you being a single parent while having the looks of someone who could still be in college," Ari was saying as Beth felt her cheeks get a little hot. She didn't know if his words should be taken as a complement or insult. "But your digs aren't too shabby, Ms. Jacobs."

"Um, thanks, I think," she mumbled as she gathered her things and opened the passenger door. Ari's hand reached out and grabbed hers gently as she looked back to him, confused.

"Your mom told me Orlando is a big no for you with her, my mom, and the whole big group, but did your mom tell you I might be going there?"

Beth looked at him strangely. "You'd miss work?" That was very unlike him, especially to miss it for a church trip when Ari was a single, young, no kids or baggage type of guy. Something was up. He made a face like he knew she suspected something. "I didn't say I wouldn't be working when I went. Nor did I say you won't be either if you're chosen to go also."

"Ari, I can't," she said as she stepped out of the car, a little annoyed. She couldn't just take off work at a whim, what was he thinking? He only smiled at her and drove off, leaving Beth clueless with her doorman who was holding the door for her to enter.

* * *

That night Beth was only able to shut her eyes for a total of an hour, and what she dreamt she didn't like, not one bit.

Beth was in college, a freshman all over again, and her campus was ten times its normal size with twists and turns along the student's walking paths that rose up and actually went into the air like a rollercoaster track. It was freezing and windy out and Beth was in her giant winter's jacket as she clung tightly to a new school schedule that she couldn't recognize or understand. Looking to her watch as she moved past students, trying to decipher where her first class was seemed impossible. That meant she'd be more than a little late, and Beth was not the late type back then. No, if she didn't find her class soon she'd probably get an absence, and that would clearly doom her grades and college future. Beth panicked.

She tried asking other freshman students for help, but no one seemed to know what they were doing or where they were going as the walkways they were on rose up and curved. The college buildings around them also seemed to be morphing, almost turning upside down, as they all continued to move.

"Please, does anyone know where business finance is?" Beth asked a group of girls that looked older.

"Sure, we'll show you," they told Beth as her intimidated frame filled with relief. Her long blond hair was flying in every direction as she tried to twist it into a bun with her free hand as they walked. Then Beth's guides suddenly stopped.

"Whoa, hotness, whose that?" one of them gasped and Beth didn't understand why they were stopping, they were all going to be late. And there were a million hot guys that looked just as lost as the whole campus did right now. How in this blustery weather could the girls single one out from the rest?

Then who they were looking at came into view, and Beth understood immediately as something within her trembled. Sterling Johnson walked before them, and where he went the wind seemed to stop. He wore short sleeves as if he had his own personal sun on his back and was only eighteen in this moment, a young freshman in college like Beth. Yet for him being a freshman, he certainly defied the odds of looking good. Where all the other guys were still coming into themselves and looked like boys, Sterling already stood out as a man.

Beth found her eyes examining his super tall frame and tight abs that she could see underneath his buttoned up shirt. He had arms that were long and looked like they'd been made to row ships or glide through tidal waves for years to come. She had never seen someone so in shape as if he'd been ripped right out of a male swimmers magazine.

"Is he the new athlete everyone's been talking about?" one of them asked. "The one from Florida, or was it California, something like that?"

Beth's guides now gossiped like she was invisible, all means to help her had been forgotten.

"Rumor has it our school's betting he'll be the first big Olympic swimmer to have graduated from these halls. They're giving him a full ride, not that he needs it."

"Forget about swimming, there are other things I'd like to do with him," the first one teased and all the girls started giggling as they all walked up to him, leaving Beth in the dust. They were going to let him pick which one of them he wanted, which disgusted Beth more than ever.

Whoever this cretin is, he sure is annoying! Beth thought as everyone around began acting on his every need. Meanwhile, Beth looked to her watch to find that hours had gone by, and yet she still had no idea where her class was. She was lost, and one way or another, she decided it was Sterling's fault. Then he looked straight across to where Beth was making an annoyed face at him. As she caught his eyes, he opened his mouth to say something when the sound of an alarm woke Beth right up.

Bloody hell!

She awoke feeling unrested. Like she was still going to be late to class or something, which was ridiculous. Yet the feeling lingered as if something was ahead that she couldn't escape from. She hated having dreams like that. Dreams where she was back in school or where she couldn't figure out simple things like how to get to where she needed to be. Sterling's appearance in her dream didn't shock her either. He had always shown up in her sleep at the most frustrating times, reminding her of her own secrets.

The only thing that brought her peace was knowing he was far away on an Olympian's journey. His drama—some of which was due to his celebrity status and bad decisions, and a lot more was due to things he could never control—wasn't near Beth or her daughter, and that's the way it needed to stay.

* * *

Later the next morning, she sat in her office going over photo assignments. Everyone in her entire company was super busy trying to produce and come up with a stunning cover that would out sell Vivid Image's upcoming issue that was rumored to blow Beth's company out of the park. She wondered what the secret assignment was that Ari and her boss had been talking about, and would that come into play before the magazine her photography branch was working on hit the stands?

Vivid's name, along with one other, is constantly haunting me. Will it ever stop? Beth thought as she browsed through photo ideas, trying to come up with a fresh new editing style that would make her work stand out. Noise outside interrupted her thoughts and she wondered what all the commotion could be. It usually was never loud or unruly in this part of town. Tara came into the office all smiles and Beth knew right away something was up.

"What's going on?" she asked her.

Tara smiled innocently. "Our next potential photography assignment is in the elevator, on his way up to discuss terms with the company." Her voice was high pitched, like she couldn't catch her breath because she couldn't believe the odds of something and wanted to shout out the news. "Having him here is really going to blow our competition out of the bag. I wonder who they'll choose to take his picture?" Tara then stared at Beth with a scheming smile, having no idea what the gravity of her words could mean.

Beth eyed her suspiciously. Their company had dealt with capturing photos of high-end public figures and celebrities all the time. Who had Tara so excited that she didn't want to spill his name? Her excited behavior reminded Beth of their old college days, back when Tara would drool over every hot fraternity boy that had walked down the hall. "Who is it?" Beth asked her.

"You're about to find out," she winked. "He's getting off the elevator now and coming our way."

Beth turned her head expecting a hot TV personality, or maybe a reality star, nothing out of the ordinary, and truth was she had way more important things to worry about than Tara or Ari's schemes. Instead, her heart sped up like it was on speed. Her eyes blinked unsure as she felt herself about to trip over her own two feet. No... It can't be!

She blinked through the glass in her office like a deer about to be run down and yet refused to move because it just couldn't believe something of this momentum was coming to smash it. I'm still dreaming, that's the only plausible explanation... She trembled, her arms coming around to hug herself unconsciously as she looked and saw Sterling Johnson, with his agent in tow, walking toward her boss's office.

Beth began backing up a few steps only to bump right into her own desk and the pain of it shot through her heels. His head was moving as he chatted with his agent in an intense discussion and his blue eyes were about to fall right on her. Jesus! And he was even hotter than he had been so many years back. His body seeming even taller and bigger. Hotter than he was on TV, in all the public photos, and constantly in her annoying dreams. His lips were just as kissable as ever as she felt the pulse within her chest speed up like she might have a heart attack and seizure at any moment.

Beth wasn't the only person to notice; people around the office were standing up, excited and shell-shocked. Beth was terrified as a thousand memories crashed back into her head and she realized this truly wasn't a dream. The impossible was really taking place right now as her boss came out to greet him. And Ari, her Ari, was right next to her boss, excited to shake Sterling's hand. All as Sterling and Beth's eyes were about to find each other.

Beth realized quickly that if she didn't make a move and bolt, escaping now, than her and Sterling's story would cease being over, and instead everything would threaten to being closely exposed.

### Chapter Five

Sterling

Sterling walked into the photography wing of the building, taking in his father's company's biggest competition. He was still exhausted from yesterday, and today would be just as busy, but for the moment, he tried to focus on the first media task that he would actually have control of for once.

He and his agent walked closely toe and toe as they chatted about the recent news that had shocked them both that morning, and it wasn't the photos of Sterling's "private bar party" last night that were posted online. No, that hadn't shocked Sterling at all, but the news of a stabbing homicide that took the life of a retired Olympic basketball player did. Hopefully it wasn't related to the terrorist group who'd tried to wreak havoc on the previous Olympics and had put out a statement online three and a half weeks ago that when translated to English read everyone who supported the American athletes better watch their backs as the games drew near. This and threats abroad had the whole country protesting over how much action to take.

If there was a link would Sterling need to retreat from the public for months again and throw today's business of helping this company and one talented college student out the door? Would all anybody talk about be the terrorists agenda and not swimming or the actual Olympic games that were supposed to be a symbol of the whole world coming together. No, I'm going to control the press and do something I actually want to do for once, something that won't try to twist my reputation further in the process.

"If you're so insistent on bringing to life this media spectacle, we're going to have to do this right," his agent told him as they turned the corner and saw young photographers taking double and triple takes and then pulling out their cameras as fast as they moved outside their doors. It was Sterling's trained reaction to look away and ignore people who tried to take pictures of him when he didn't give them permission to, but he had to remind himself that in this very second, this was exactly what he'd been counting on to go down. And any of these young professionals could have been like his very mother twenty years ago who had been a photographer herself. It's weird the way life works, he thought. I was born from parents who made fortunes from the media business and now these are usually the things I live to avoid.

Just smile, relax, and be calm, he reminded himself as he stood up straighter and made it to the end of the office where the main manager, Mr. Everett, was excitedly waiting for him. The employees' voices were getting louder and louder like a small frenzy.

"Sterling, such an honor to have you here," said Everett as the man shook his hand. "This is Ari Fisher from our late breaking news team and the head of our media branch."

Ari and Sterling shook hands next. Sterling had read up on Ari before this on the plane ride into the city, he was a big investigative journalist and news breaker here. Someone who deserved major props, especially since he was not much older than Sterling himself, and also someone to be careful of. Both men shook hands with firm grips and Ari repeated his boss's words with sincerity, telling Sterling what an honor it was to meet him and how he was excited that with Sterling's help one college student would get the chance of a lifetime.

This whole media task had really been Sterling's sister's idea. But Sterling nodded his head just the same because the role he'd want for her in this place wasn't ready to be revealed yet. None of these people suspected what Sterling was getting ready to do with this company.

"Whoever you've used for pictures on your last few stories, I'd appreciate it if you could get them in on this," Sterling told Ari, wasting no time as he looked at the sea of people who were getting closer and closer. Sterling only had a short time to pull this off before getting back to real life and wanted the best working on his terms.

Ari's eyes seemed to widen as his smile grew bigger. "Trust me, I'm way ahead of you on that," he told him. Everett's eyes widened toward Ari disapprovingly, but the young reporter was ignoring him. How interesting... Could Everett not trust or like the photographer Ari enjoyed working with?

As they all discussed things further on how this was going to blow Vivid Image out of the water, keeping their voices low, he continued to look around. That's when his vision drifted over to the one person still in her office and Sterling saw someone that looked familiar to him. For a moment, his eyes kept moving on as something inside of him alerted him to look back. His vision shifted back to that office, where that person, a young woman, a hot young woman by the looks of it, had turned around so she was facing away from him toward her desk. It seemed this blond was doing everything she could not to dive over her table and hide underneath it.

Strange, I could have sworn she looked like... Someone Sterling hadn't thought of in years. Then there was a different person right in front of him who had pushed his way right past the photography crowd causing one of the bodyguards that was standing next to Sterling's side almost unseen to come out of nowhere and block this new male photographer that couldn't wait to shake Sterling's hand.

"Hey, what are you doing?" the photographer started. The guy must have just been eating lunch because he had food in his teeth. "I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm a hug swimming fan. Ari, tell him."

"It's ok," Sterling told his bodyguard who grumpily let the guy go.

The man exchanged dirty looks with the guard as he straightened his jacket and then faced Sterling and Ari head on. He was a half a foot shorter than them both.

"Let me try this again. Hello, Mr. Johnson, such an honor to meet you. My name is Tyler Radeler. I'm a lead photographer here... you might be familiar with my work through Ari." Tyler gestured for Ari to jump in, but Ari was silent as Everett chimed in instead on all of Tyler's recent awards.

Sterling finally asked, as he was growing shorter on time and more photographers where edging up behind them, wanting a chance to talk too, "So, Ari, is this the photographer you've used on the last few interviews and investigations that I've seen on TV?"

"While Tyler is very talented as he's already described, I actually prefer to work with one other person here." Ari gestured past the mob toward the smaller back office where Sterling had seen the hot female figure inside moments ago. The office was now empty and yet, one familiar person outside it caught his eyes.

Her hair was different, shorter, and she was wearing monster heels that made her almost Sterling's height, but was that... What was her name? Taylor? No, Tara. She was a photographer from Sterling's own university that he remembered for one reason and one reason only. Her smile widened toward him, as if Tara knew what Sterling was suddenly remembering, and it made his eyes jet back to the empty office and then farther past it to the end of the hall where the blond he had seen seconds ago was pressing an elevator button to escape. Ari followed his eyes and shouted above the mummer.

"Beth, come up here! I want you to meet someone."

The name confirmed what he thought was only his imagination. Bethany Jacobs.

Well, damn...

Sterling found himself taking a step forward without even thinking about it to look past the sea of people to her too still form as she reluctantly turned toward them all slowly, clearly only because she'd been put on the spot. Her face was similar to how it looked years ago, when he had been a different, much more innocent person. When they had been neighbors in college, and back then, just like now, she did not look pleased to see him.

To be fair, back in the day he and his wild swim mate's had thrown massive college parties. Her loathing of him and his commotion, and the fact that she had been so different than everyone else, had always made him want her. Too bad after the one heated night they had finally got together he and his friend's crazy scheme against his dad had ruined everything.

Finally, she straightened up and walked toward everybody, and Tara joined her side as if Bethany needed the support. Tara was all smiles as Beth walked up beside Ari and Sterling could really take her in. Her face was thinner, paler, making her light blue almost ocean colored eyes standout. Her shoulders were thinner too and yet her breasts and waists—he tried to resist not checking them out and yet he couldn't help himself—were more curvy, in the best possible way.

"Sterling, this is Beth Jacobs, the photographer who helps me on most of my assignments, and the one I believe you referred to for being on this special project."

Beth's eyes widened as she moved her mouth to form a protest but she seemed to be short of breath. Even after four years, she still couldn't look at him full on.

"Well, Beth, you better give Ari a big thank you, it seems I have no choice but to send you to Florida with these great gentlemen here."

"What?" Finally, he watched her find words, as her voice seemed to be growing more and more shocked by the minute.

Everett seemed even more irritated with her delayed speech. "You're going to Miami, on the first flight out tomorrow," he told her.

"And then from there," Ari added, "Orlando."

### Chapter Six

Beth

You're going to Miami, and from there, Orlando...

The words repeated in Beth's head over and over as they got twisted and lost. Miami, Orlando... on assignment with Sterling Johnson. She thought she was going to be sick. Out of all the ways she imagined about running into Sterling again, where there was so much to say, this wasn't how she pictured things would ever go. This honestly can't be real! Why, God? Why? How was I just put in this situation?

There was so much to say to the now famous, world known Olympian, Sterling Johnson. About how one night of heated circumstances when she should have only been worried about taking snapshots had changed her life; while creating a whole new life in the process. Yes, there was so much to say and yet in front of all her peers, her childhood friend Ari, and her boss, all Beth could do was stand there and not speak a word as Sterling looked into her eyes and her fate was sealed.

You're going to Miami. Of course, Sterling hadn't said a word to her either, he'd just stared at her with this terrible smirk, like "What are the odds?," as he looked over her form again and again, probably wondering what happened to the old put together, younger version of herself who held some kind of secret sexiness underneath the many layers he'd peeled off—literally. Well she's long gone no thanks to you!

Actually, Beth was as much to blame, but she couldn't go there. Instead, the minute Sterling left she'd been bombarded with dirty looks from Tyler and her peers. They no doubt suspected she had some kind of steamy thing going on with Ari to get this job. Why else would he keep suggesting Beth, the single, unworthy mother, for his top assignments? And Tara, who had no idea Beth and Sterling had hooked up, had been all smiles as she—ever since taking Sterling and Beth's staged heated snapshot—had always told Beth that her and the athlete had some kind of secret chemistry. I'm going to throw up! Or I'm going to faint. One of the two, maybe both.

After Sterling had left, Beth yanked Ari into her office, wishing so badly the walls weren't see through so she could properly chew him out and cry all at once instead of trying to keep a fiery calm as all eyes were on them.

"Now listen to me... "

"Beth, no need to thank me, this is perfect. I was so excited to tell you, I was—"

"Ari, I said listen to me, listen to me very closely!" Hearing the fierceness and panic in her words finally stopped him. "You have to undo this, and undo this now. Tell the boss you want someone else, tell him that."

"I don't understand?" he started to interrupt, his face looking suddenly hurt. He clearly had been excited to tell her about this, something he'd probably had to keep secret under contract, and she was crushing him.

"Ari, please, you just have to make this—" She was going to say "go away" with teary eyes when suddenly her office door opened and her boss and, of all people, Tyler, walked in. Beth immediately tried to straighten up and hide her crazed emotions. Perhaps she could trust Mr. Everett—or perhaps not—and Ari with the biggest secret of her lifetime, but not Tyler. If he knew any truth to why she couldn't photograph Sterling's big ratings boosting assignment he'd tell the world for a handsome advance.

"Well, you've sealed our fate on who will be the number one photographer at your side. Congratulations, Jacobs," her boss told her as she tried to find the courage to speak up, but he kept interrupting her. "Ari tells me he has arranged for your daughter to be taken care of while you're gone. This assignment is a day and a half long and during those thirty-two hours I'll need all the attention that I can get from you, no excuses this time."

Beth eyed Ari, feeling hurt that he clearly had talked to her boss about all this before going to her.

"Arranged day care for my daughter?" she asked him with an edge to her voice.

Ari looked at her uncertainly as he searched to know what to do. Clearly he thought this was all going to be a good thing. A surprise for Beth. More like a nightmare.

"I, um, told your mom there was—"

"Her mom? What, is Beth thirteen and not a professional?" Tyler hissed under his breath.

"—a secret assignment that would be taking you to Miami and then Orlando that will run into the days she wanted to take Jewel on the Disney trip, so it should be perfect for the three of you. When you're done with the assignment, you can have the rest of the days to spend time with her and Jewel."

"All of those days of which you'd get pay, as long as you can be on your game like never before and give us the photos we need. This project is going to make our entire year and it's very important to all of us," Mr. Everett stated. Clearly no one but Ari was happy about Beth's special treatment, and her boss seemed to be getting more and more angry with her hesitation.

She kept trying to form words but everyone kept interrupting her. "Did you not say, Ms. Jacobs, when our entire team was discussing this secret assignment that you wanted to help? I'm giving you time and a half, plus paid days off for a vacation when the assignment is over, all at Ari's request, and Sterling Johnson asked specially for the photographer that's been on all of Ari's assignments as of late. That's you. You will be going or I don't know why you're working at our company and wasting everyone's time here," Mr. Everett told her.

Beth truly was trembling, she wanted to cry. Working here was the biggest part of her dream she'd been able to hold onto, so she either did this and faced her biggest fears and risked exposure of her biggest secret, or she'd quit and her aspirations were done. She didn't know what to do and she truly felt like she couldn't feel her feet.

What will my fate be now? she wondered.

* * *

Beth had gotten no sleep as she and her mom packed her and Jewel's things and readied themselves all night. Of course, her mom had no idea that Ari's sneaky plan to get Beth this mega assignment had anything to do with Sterling. Once Beth knew, she immediately went to her only parent and had to also then call Sterling's father, who tried to stop her from going and then wanted to know all about Sterling's "secret assignment" that could out sell his company. Of course, Beth didn't tell him that part. The truth was she didn't know that half of it yet, nor could she refuse to do this and just lose her job.

She had been shaking, feeling as though she was losing her mind, as his dad argued that she didn't need to be working, that he would cover her every living expense so she would never have to come clean until the time was right—a time of his choosing. But as Beth talked things over with her mom, she was sure of two things: She wanted to keep her job, to work hard and achieve her dreams, and one day Sterling would have to learn the truth, sooner or later.

"Maybe this trip is fated so you can finally come to terms with him," Beth's mom lectured her as Beth went over again everything her daughter would need for traveling. Beth had too much on her mind to think things through right now or try to attempt to look at a "bigger picture." With a ticking time bomb on her shoulders, she figured she'd have the whole uncomfortable flight to think about the new decisions that had pretty much bombarded her.

Later, she was the last to arrive to the private jet with a heavy suitcase full of camera equipment and a few clothes in a bag in hand. The plane's extreme security had agents that used scanners to pretty much x-ray her whole form and then when they were done they moved to examining all her equipment. They were all over it, moving it to and fro roughly to the point where she was going to lose her mind.

She felt like her face was exposing her every nerve as all kinds of thoughts ran through her, some, a lot, were thoughts of being on another flight with Sterling. A private flight just for him, my company, and his staff. Other extreme emotions were dedicated to constantly checking up via phone on her mom and daughter's flight that would be leaving in a few hours and would be taking them straight to Orlando. This would be Jewel's first time on an airplane and Beth wouldn't be there. Her mom, Ari's parents, and the entire church group would be with her... but still. It was a nagging feeling that made her feel like a bad parent.

She entered the plane last and there were even more security agents inside than out. Sports agents and interns were aboard, and media people from Ari's broadcasting branch were all sitting toward the back. Right away, as her eyes tried to stay off Sterling who was sitting in a more private area at the head of the plane, it was like all her annoying senses were zoomed in on him only. This can't be real. I can't be getting on a plane with him right now.

Yet, she was, and even without looking at him further as she made her way to the back, it was as if she could continue to see by magic how much taller he was than everyone else, even when he was slouching on the plane's overly large and actually very comfy seats. Through the side of her eyes, she glimpsed for a moment his overly broad swimmer's shoulders and long arms that rested on the empty seats beside him. His midnight shadow dusted his cheeks and chin and framed his face in the most sexy way even from afar. And for a moment, she even glanced at those dangerous lips of his that went right into a curious smirk upon seeing her enter. Lips that at one point had trailed her neck and shoulders, and then other places in a past that never quite felt like her own.

Now besides looking like a train had hit her, Beth's face and neck were definitely flushed red, sticking out against her light blond hair and blue top, and this was all from that one glance of Sterling Johnson. How was she ever going to survive the next thirty-two hours?

Ari helped her with her bags. He had saved a seat for her and had been saying something, but she had zoned him and the rest of the plane out entirely, not hearing a word. She nodded her head, pretending to agree and for the first time noticed Tyler who was sitting across from them with a few cameramen beside him. Of course, he was making comments to the peanut gallery about Beth being the last one on board for their three thirty a.m. flight; fortunately no one was paying him much attention.

If he dared mention it was because she was a young mom who had to drop Jewel and her mom off super early at the commercial airline down the road before driving here, she would seriously go A-wall. Fortunately after some harsh words with Ari, he said no one would mention her single parent status while in front of Sterling and his people, though she had never told him why this was so important.

As the plane began to roll, getting ready for flight, Beth popped a fresh stick of gum in her mouth, and the smell of breakfast permeated the cabin as the pilot gave them a welcoming spiel on his intercom and explained that food would be served once they were in flight. Coming out of the help's small kitchen quarters on the jet where three tall, model thin stewardess who had long angular faces, thick eye lashes, and Angelina Jolie pouts. It took a mere moment to figure out none of the bombshells were American. These stewardesses had thick Swedish and Russian accents that made them fantasy worthy, and if there was anything worse than being stuck on a plane with all men, it was being stuck on a plane with a few extremely hot non-American stewardesses that screamed out sex the moment they stepped into view.

Kill me now.

Every man, even Ari, as if being invisibly pulled by marionette strings, sat up straighter and even this early in the morning hour became aware of these beautiful ladies who took everyone's breakfast order. Beth could see where these women's eyes were excitingly going as they made their way to the front of the jet to Sterling, their faces blushing as they asked the Olympian and world celebrity bachelor what he'd like to be served.

Beth was sure if he said one of them, or perhaps all three even in front of this entire flight, these bimbos would have happily complied. Upon watching them and Sterling, and then seeing the girls' excitement as they walked away, trying to stay calm and collected, Beth could pretty much imagine what they were whispering in their unfamiliar language. They probably prayed that by the end of the flight they could at least get a picture or two with him to post online, among other things.

This caused Beth's eyes to again take in everyone on the plane, even the sports agents. There was something about being around a world famous person that made everyone so much more excited and on edge. Like they all had something big that could be gained by just breathing the plane's air and being associated with someone like Sterling. And as she read their behavior and then dared look at Sterling who was sitting alone, his tablet in hand as he was flipping through online pages, something about his perfect face now seemed guarded and locked down. That's when she reminded herself Jewel's father was a foreign thing to her now, and she didn't really know what he was capable of at all.

* * *

Sterling

As the jet lifted into the air and one of Sterling's favorite songs hummed lightly in the background, a hot breakfast was also getting ready to be served at an all too early time—then again it's not like he kept much track of time zones anymore. Anytime was a good time for food as long as it wasn't right before a race, he supposed.

He used the beat in the music to keep his face neutral, not revealing the annoying tendrils of pain that stung his left leg and foot. The pain always started stinging and twitching during flights and held extra tension during strange weather storms. Storms hitting up his home city of Miami were pretty much a usual, but it would feel good be home even for a short time. Maybe he'd even find the piece of himself that he'd lost there.

Science still had work to do when it came to surgical reconstructive surgery he thought as he continued to grind his teeth. For a few moments, he remembered being in the water when a bomb went off, right as he was touching the wall and claiming gold. If he had been three seconds slower during that Olympic game his whole leg would have been lost the analysts had said.

Now in real time, it was his job to make everyone forgot about those attacks that had ended the careers of others that hadn't been so fortunate. "It's time to get the public's thoughts back on what the Olympics and what competing should be about, not danger and fear," his coach had told him before he flew out to start this competition. "This should help with that."

Trying to keep all these true motives hidden from his face and off his lips was always a task he had to do now, and he wondered if his face was showing something else. Like how all these thoughts had been hit by a plague of a mental déjà-vu when the person he'd been secretly waiting to get a glimpse of again since yesterday walked onto the jet.

Beth Jacobs. Clearly she was already loathing being on this jet right now. He could see her as if they had been back in college just yesterday. His phone vibrated within his hands with alerts of a new incoming image he had requested. He shouldn't have been looking into this info, but his curiosity and the results made him grin.

* * *

Beth

Beth and Ari waited as the front of the plane was served food first and everyone on their media team in the back was served more pages of countless contracts. They had already been made to sign confidentiality agreements up the yin yang, as well as social media guideline adherences while working with Sterling and so on. Now what was put in front of them was an outline of their various assignments while on this "quick trip," all centering around a contest Sterling's publicist, the agent's athletic committee, and Beth's company's media team had cooked up. Of course, another college contest with the Johnson's. Because the last one had turned out so well with Mr. Johnson, Sterling and his partner in crime Caleb, and Vivid Image.

Surely, this spectacle would go differently with all these professionals involved? The last page was a strict guideline that pertained more to Ari and the one other television journalist who they would be meeting who represented their companies Miami Media branch, someone named Monica Potter. This guideline gave them a giant list of questions they were and were not allowed to ask. "Oh come on, these are fluff questions," Beth heard Tyler complain. Tyler was here because he was referred by Mr. Everett to be Monica Potter's personal cameraman for when she got to cover Sterling as well.

The questions they weren't supposed to ask where really none of Tyler's business anyway. All Tyler really wanted was the facial reaction to juicy questions that would allow his photographs to be twisted and interpreted into millions of words.

Distracted by sensing eyes on her, Beth glanced back up to the front of the plane with trepidation. She swore she caught Sterling with those paralyzing looks on her again, but now that she'd looked up, his attention was back on his phone as he was pressing a button and staring at the screen. If she had her photography camera ready and was able to mega zoom on his jaw, would that be a smile he was finally revealing? Whatever he was looking at seemed entertainment worthy for the famed bachelor who otherwise appeared so guarded.

Beth felt her own phone vibrating within her purse as she brought it to her lap and unzipped it. Her eyes still threatened to linger back to Sterling as the energy around her suddenly felt different. She couldn't describe it, like a tide was turning. She turned on her phone and the world stopped for a moment.

Beth blinked, unable to believe it as she looked. The first thing that had flashed on her phone was a yellow screen with an app name called Siren that stood out brightly in red graphics. An app she had never downloaded or ever seen before. Then the word Siren disintegrated into the snapshot that had ruined her Vivid Image competition four years ago, the one of Sterling's father's young fiancée in the arms of Sterling's best friend Caleb, as they were peeling each other's clothes off. A picture Sterling had taken.

Ari's eyes went from Beth's stunned, pale white and confused face and then toward the picture as Beth slapped her phone into her bag. Her heart was pounding as she caught Sterling's eyes on her again. Had he really just sent her the photo that had ruined everything? Underneath the app's Siren name that was now in the lower left corner, the words "from SJ" had appeared. From Sterling Johnson? And if not him, which would be an awful and bizarre thing, then who?

Who was toying with her?

### Chapter Seven

Anger pulsed through Beth as she, Ari, and their entire media entourage were dropped off onto the Miami mega college campus. They had been picked up by vans that had her company's name all over it, so when people saw Sterling's limo next to their vans... Ta-da, more build up for their newest print and online magazine issue, and all TV coverage that would soon be coming.

She'd been going back and forth with texts from her mother reporting her and Jewel were finally boarding their plane after hours of waiting. Her mom told her it was no big deal, that she had taken Jewel to eat at a kid friendly restaurant the airport had, and then they went shopping through gift shops.

Beth could only imagine the gifts her mom had bought her daughter already and they hadn't even gotten to Disney World yet. Her mom loved spoil her grandchild as all grandmothers did, Beth supposed. As she texted her mom to call her when she arrived, she couldn't help feel like her fingers were shaking because she was so horrified. Horrified Sterling, who didn't even know what he and Beth shared, or somebody else somehow sent her that photo via an app that she had never even heard of or downloaded before. And as many times as she tried, she couldn't delete it. What is happening?

"Are you ok?" Ari asked her as Beth stared wickedly at Sterling's limo's doors with suspicion as they were opened by the driver and Sterling and his agent stepped out. What would be his reasons for wanting to make me so mad, to remind me of our past? Jesus, who else could this be from? It has to be from him. JS... Her eyes snapped away from Sterling before he could spot her glancing and onto Ari.

"Of course."

Ari examined her face that was lying to him, and he clearly knew it. Her behavior since Sterling walked into her work yesterday probably seemed very peculiar to him, and was getting even more so by the minute. All this was crazy.

"Beth, what's going on here?" he tried to ask as Tyler walked up to them and slapped his own pair of expensive sun glasses on. Who was Tyler trying to fool? His arrogant idea of "coolness" only made him look more desperate.

"So this is the biggest college near Miami beach? Ha, my Ivy League is twice the size. Hopefully we get to see some major babes that make this place worth it," he said as he shined his camera lens with his shirt. "Right, Ari?"

Ari and Beth said nothing to him as a million insults came to her mind, and that's when she knew her temper was flailing. Her glance at Tyler was enough to make him feel her major disgust.

"Geez, Beth, buzz kill much? We're in Florida for Christ sake. There are a lot of people back at our office that would have paid to be here, people who don't get special favors like you," he lectured and then began to walk away. This was Tyler's typical personality; if any woman who was competition looked at him crossly, the rude comments flew out of his mouth upon instinct because he couldn't handle it. "Dumb bitch," she heard him whisper as he shuttered off.

"It's so easy to spot a fool by the fruit of what comes out of their mouth," she heard Ari whisper in her defense as he looked at Tyler, even though she had been totally blocking Ari out this entire trip too. "Rotten fruit."

She tried to push her anger away for a moment and meet his eyes again, attempting to sound like her normal self. "You're so right, Ari," she said and then she started walking off. That's when she decided she'd try to hold her tongue this entire assignment, not saying a word to Sterling, and if he proved to be more of a cretin than she ever thought he could be, then being foolish and telling him about Jewel at this point in his life was out of the question.

* * *

Sterling

Being back on a college campus felt so surreal and almost foreign to Sterling now. Right after graduation, he'd been whisked to such a different setting that as he walked through this campus now, it just gave him a bizarre feeling. He looked toward the one person in their group that wasn't googling their eyes at him like he was a mega celebrity, a term he cringed at whenever he heard it.

He found himself watching her until she seemed to sense him and finally met his glance with a look of such distain that it shocked him for a moment. Her look hadn't been to this scathing a degree yesterday or earlier on the plane. He had to blink to make sure he wasn't misreading it. Nope, he wasn't. She was looking at him like he might possibly be the scum of the earth right now.

He moved his guarded eyes away from her, trying to figure what had made this girl who was a stranger to him now so angry as another van pulled up with a Miami media personality hopping out of it, another lead journalist who worked for Beth's company's South Florida branch. She and that Ari guy were shaking each other's hands as the Tyler guy looked this media woman up and down like his eyes had struck gold. Monica Potter was who Sterling's team told him her name was.

Monica's eyes went straight to Sterling's, ignoring Tyler, and there was something about this journalist that rendered her familiar. She looked at him seductively, her plastic beauty not coming close to the way Beth's looks and mind turned him on. What had he even been thinking two nights ago when he'd almost invited that model who was so similar looking to Ms. Potter, whose looks didn't even touch Beth's either, into his bed?

The moment's lull of early calm amongst the media team ended when suddenly the college's first early morning classes got out and he spotted the first student who spotted him within two seconds. A young college girl, who was dressed like the typical Miami chicks Sterling had grown up with. She was instantly blinking as she recognized him and began pulling aside others, trying to get their opinions on if it was really Sterling Johnson who was standing on their school grounds. Next phones were flying out as more and more people were connecting the dots as they looked upon the media crew and then back to Sterling. His security approached his side and about two seconds later, everything went ballistic.

* * *

Beth

"Holy God," Beth heard one of the film crew mutter as hundreds of students were crowding around them as they were almost to the campus's swimming arena. People were pushing each other and shoving, college girls everywhere were freaking out. The amount of people who were asking for autographs and to take a picture with Sterling was out of control. He stopped to take only a few as his security tried to push him along toward the guarded arena. Police officers were stationed to keep non-swimming students out and Beth wondered why they couldn't have snuck through the back and avoided all this? Because everyone's counting on publicity to make our "secret assignment" turn into a major buzz, she reminded herself.

"This footage is great!" Tyler was saying as they all snapped pics. "People will be Instagraming photos of him and our company's name. It will be all over the web within the hour!"

Beth's zoom lens was all over crazy fans who were asking the campus police if they could just get into the swimming arena for a moment to get one picture of the stud. One girl was even tearing as she yelled out how Sterling's earning the gold after being partially injured in the Olympic attacks had inspired her to overcome her addiction to prescription drugs and how she was so sorry about the death of his unborn baby.

Those words made Beth's stomach drop as her breath caught for a moment. She fought to regain her composure as her mind told her that if she thought her own college days where Sterling was practically worshiped were bad, then the crazy mob of people that were acting star struck now was a nightmare.

Sterling's own shielded face seemed to only soften when his eyes hit the water and for a second he looked like the smiling and teasing guy she used to remember. Beth found herself snapping a close up of his eyes at that moment without even thinking. As if a part of her wanted to freeze the innocent part of him within her head and give her hope because those close up eyes of his where the same color as her daughter's. Beth's heart sank. What would he say or do if he knew?

The swim team that consisted of both males and females, who were so hyped up and surprised when Sterling walked through the door, went ballistic as they feasted their eyes on America's hottest swim stud. A great amount of time passed trying to calm these young adults down. Then Sterling, their hero, stood as all the video cameras turned on and an audio team signaled that they were ready. Finally, what was going on could be explained to everyone as Sterling's famed sports agent stood by him and started announcing what could be the contest of a lifetime for the students.

"There is power in always being ready, always having your disciplined source of energy within yourselves because you never know when an opportunity will come knocking at your door," Sterling's agent lectured as video cameras filmed him and the smell of strong chlorine permeated the air.

Beth tried to pay attention as she overheard Monica whispering to Ari. "If it's ok with you, Ari, I want this whole section voiced over. When we interview Sterling we can have him explain the whole contest to make sure the audience feels he's the brain behind all this, then we can cut back and forth to this B-roll footage for the TV segment."

Beth rose her camera to her face and nudged her way forward as Monica made an annoyed sound at Beth for daring to do her job and take pictures. Beth wanted to hear more of the contest's rules and take more pictures of the excited swimmer's faces as they stood with a pool backdrop and watched.

"So today, an unexpected opportunity has come to you boys and girls." the agent went on. "You will all have thirty minutes to warm up, and then in the spirit of the Olympics, we're going to hold a race. The top male and female winners will be flown on one of Sterling's jets to Orlando tonight to compete with three other Florida college's top swimming students first thing in the morning. You'll be racing right where last year's prequalifying was held. The winner of that race, upon graduation, will get to train with Sterling and his coach for the next six months, all expenses including competitive fees paid for."

After that sentence, the students got so excited that three of them began jumping up and down, a few looked panicked, like perhaps they shouldn't have spent their entire night partying not knowing this moment would be upon them, and others crazily cheered and then were whipping their clothes off to dive into the water and start warming up as soon as possible.

Sterling's face was smiling as he watched these people who were only a few years younger than him and Beth dive into the pool. Beth figured he said something cocky or comical to his agent because he had him laughing as Sterling then did the most unexpected thing; he stripped his own clothes off revealing a very small swimming speedo underneath it.

My God, did they really let Olympian's wear those things?

Sterling had even more long muscles than he had the last time she'd seen a poster of him on a wall. His unreal body pulled everyone's eyes toward it and of course, toward his speedo area. Concentrate, Beth, concentrate, she had to tell herself. None of these circumstances were normal, including seeing an ex of sorts strip down in front of you, no questions asked.

He had his goggles ready, pulling them over his head, and the most satisfying look hit his features as he dove into the water and did a few practice swims up and down the Olympic sized pool with the other students. He really was amazing to watch as others stopped swimming to just stare and a few overly confident guys jumped into the swimmers lanes next to him to try and warm up while keeping stride.

"Foolish, they should save their speed for the race," she heard Sterling's agent murmur as Beth slipped her camera into an underwater case as she went to hold it in the water, her anger forgotten for a moment as the perfect idea for a shot came into her head. It would be even more epic of a picture if she was fully in the water, shooting at an angle people hardly got to see, but this would have to be close enough.

Is it bad that I think some of these students are drool worthy? she wondered as she struggled with wet hands to take a spectacular picture. She saw through her camera screen fast moving rows of ripped male abs and strong biceps... heck even the female swimmers had perfect bodies. She moved her camera several feet, expecting Sterling who was approaching to back kick the wall and turn to swim back to where he had come from like he had for the rest of this warm up. But instead, his hand came right out of the pool, grabbing the railing right near where her hands were and he paused for breath. Barely winded after going up and down several times, he looked through his green goggles and smiled.

His wet and cold fingers that had almost touched her arms had her instantly on the verge of trembling. She was shocked he was stopping to talk to her, or perhaps let her take an incredible close up picture of him right now, a picture of one of the most famous Olympians of her generation. "Bethany," he breathed as other students kicked the wall several feet away, turning and nearly splashing them as they continued to warm up. His smile made her head feel dizzy in the best and worst way.

"Sterling," she answered, her voice sounding rigid and horse. Of course, he'd still choose to call her by her full name because he remembered it annoyed the hell out of her. Had this perfect face who loved the water so much really taken his time to also send her that photo earlier? The question popped into her head as his face lingered closer and closer and she was raising her heavy camera out of the water to escape the hot moment.

"I hope you found an interesting shot, Beth," he said then as he actually helped her lift her camera right out of the pool with one hand. Found an interesting shot... as in the one from SJ on her phone? The picture that had helped her realize Sterling was a liar? She looked at him as her features went still, trying to decipher what she prayed couldn't be. Could he see the shocked anger in her eyes? His own features suddenly looked as if there was something hidden about them as well.

Looking away, she realized then her media team was suddenly watching the two of them as a sports agent blew a loud whistle, announcing it was time for the race to start, and then Beth looked toward the water as Sterling was swimming off, away from her.

### Chapter Eight

Beth

After an epic race where college students swam like their lives depended on it against each other, knowing only two, one young man and one young woman, would get picked, it was the woman who got the best time score. She was ecstatic and started jumping up and down with the male winner as Beth enjoyed photographing her. She captured her smile as wet droplets of water fell from her face. The moment was only ruined briefly when she then jumped into Sterling's open arms and gave him a big hug. Beth stilled the hand on her camera as Tyler, who was next to her, kept snapping images galore.

Seeing this made Beth remember when Sterling had pulled her into his arms and they had started kissing passionately in a pool years ago here in Miami. It had been so long since anyone had done that to Beth again. That was when she had only herself and her dreams and impulses to drive her like this girl.

The Miami reporter, Ms. Potter, approached Sterling next. Was it just Beth or had she undone three more buttons from her blouse, revealing ample cleavage courtesy of a plastic surgeon that had also pulled her eyes way too tight? Something about the way she swung her hips made every other female in the room wish they had more confidence.

She was telling Sterling about all the voiceovers she and Ari needed him to do for their three series of interviews. Sterling agreed to do the first interview now and also said he wanted to get this all done before lunch time, then they needed to get to Boca. Beth's own stomach rumbled upon hearing this. Heading to the Boca Raton campus on the way to Orlando filled her with a different nervous rush. Beth's youngest brother Ben went to the Boca college, and he knew full well about who Sterling was to Jewel.

"Looks like you got some good photos back there. Did Sterling Johnson actually try to have a conversation with you?" Ari asked Beth as they followed the entourage to an upper level railing that served as both a second floor hallway and a place for people to overlook the pool and the races.

Beth thought about how close Sterling's arms had come to her when she'd been photographing in the water and shivered.

"We exchanged a few words, Ari, no big deal," she said as she pushed for a new subject with him. The thought of Ari finding out the truth about her and Sterling's past filled her with nothing but anxiety. "Is this your big interview we are walking into right now?"

Ari rolled his eyes. "No, Monica wants her interview first for "On Miami Soil." In other words, she wants first dibs on him. It's fine though because after his voiceovers she gets to ask a total of ten questions. Later today, I'm allowed to ask over twenty. Yep, we've flown across the states for twenty questions on camera with a star."

"I'll make sure I get the best possible profile pictures I can for your interview, good enough to run big on TV and beat Monica Potter's," she promised Ari with sincerity as a smile lit up in his eyes.

"Oh I already know you will, Beth." This interview during the contest, as silly as it seemed, would be career boosting again for Ari. Beth would come through.

The lighting department and makeup artist readied Sterling for the questions. Beth was tempted to snap a photo of the makeup artist trying to dab extra foundation on Sterling as he frowned in disapproval. "This will stop your skin from shinning on TV," she tried to say.

"I think I'll take the risk," Sterling told her as he and Beth's eyes made contact again in a lighthearted moment for once as an extra shiver went through her entire torso. The moment was interrupted as Monica put even brighter bronzer on her cleavage in the most obvious way and then turned to Sterling and batted her eyelashes at him as the cameras began rolling. His face became shielded as she asked her first five questions.

"Ok, let's take a break from this and begin your voiceovers that will be played over the intro into the contest segment."

This next part took a while, as Sterling talked about the contest over and over again, selling how hard people train in and out of college to work toward becoming professional athletes and try to qualify for the world games, how most athletes family's have to mortgage their homes just to afford all the contest fees, coaches, travel costs, and so on, and how excited he was for the winner of this competition to get all of that paid.

Everyone was super worn out and hungry by the time he was done and Monica reminded him she got five more questions before all this footage went to the editing room. He agreed and her first two questions in his tired, hungry state didn't seem to alarm him at all. It wasn't until she suddenly asked him about the attacks at the last Olympics that Sterling's face became guarded as he sat up and answered very carefully about how they were tragic, but how the public needed to get focused off of them and onto what the games were really about.

They had all been instructed not to ask him about the attacks, yet this plastic vixen was pushing her luck. And then she dared ask him the question they all had been warned in their contracts was off limits, especially as the cameras were rolling and a recorded facial reaction of Sterling could be captured and sold to the tabloids through the back door.

Monica looked to Beth, staring right through her camera as Beth found her camera trigger finger go still. What was that about? Then the woman's eyes were back on Sterling as she said, "Yes, and you are a true hero to us all Mr. Johnson. Our hearts pounded with you as the world watched you and Catalina through the games... You earning gold and Catalina coming close to bronze after the death of her baby after the terrorist bombing attacks. Do you think about what it would have been like had the terrorists not succeeded that day? What it would have been like had you had a chance to be a father?"

With those words, Beth found herself not wanting to flash another photo, her own childhood instinct to capture everything on lens stilled. Her face automatically looked away, a natural response to hide her own hurt and secrets when it came to this subject. Because little did anyone know here that Sterling was still in fact a father.

The awful attacks at the Olympics and the fact that Catalina had lost her child in them had been yet another reason why Beth hadn't ever later come forward to Sterling. The death of his other unborn child had been so tragic and had been engraved right into American's new Olympic history that another woman going public with a second pregnancy and child of his about to be born would have thrown a tragic event into a media circus.

Everyone seemed to be speechless for a moment as Sterling's face cringed, his happy TV front came down as his dark, moody, and guarded eyes returned and he snapped, "Turn off the cameras! Now!"

Then he went ballistic.

### Chapter Nine

Sterling

Red hot anger poured through Sterling as he snapped and yelled for all the cameras to stop and he found himself on the phone with his lawyer. He usually tried not to be such an ass, but Catalina's name always made him angry beyond belief, and it was for reasons very few people truly knew about, reasons that had been forced quiet while lies in the media took over.

Images flashed through his head of the nutcase coming onto him in the past. It had been the night he and the entire Olympic swim team were all gathered together because they'd all just made it big time after their qualifying races. Catalina had begun flirting with him as people chatted that Sterling's face would become the next big thing. But, even as they all drank and for one night celebrated wildly, he hadn't been into her and yet he'd woken up after passing out with her accusations that they had at some point hooked up.

A moment that had never happened, of that he was about ninety percent sure of. Catalina had been with his teammate Justin Lionheart, one of a few tragic swimmers who had lost both his legs when the first bomb went off during the games. Catalina kept her version of the story, that it was Sterling's child she had lost, because his name made her name bigger and because she didn't want to admit she'd aborted her and Justin's child way before the torch of the Olympics had even gone aflame. The entire lie was nothing but a publicity stunt for her, a way to make her an unforgettable name in the Olympics forever. Meanwhile, some Olympians had lost their lives and others their abilities to ever stand or swim again after tragedy.

His lawyer finally answered the phone as Sterling found his mind racing, how much longer would these bullshit lies keep spreading? All while his team and Justin Lionheart's team told him to just let the messy lie die by not disputing it or talking about it.

"What's going on?" his lawyer asked him. Sterling hadn't wanted Beth's media company to find out like this, that he was technically their new boss until he handed this media machine over to his sister and upped their stock, not to mention he hadn't wanted word to get back to his dad until he'd made his father's company number two to this one. But there was no way he'd put all his money into this just to see Catalina's name brought up again.

"Have my anonymous buyer announcement made public and make it known I want chairman of the board immediately," he ordered the man. "Then call this jacked up company's vice president and tell him I want Ari and Monica Potter off this assignment permanently."

* * *

Beth

Everything that happened next was a mental blur. Sterling stormed off, followed by his agents. Monica seemed all too pleased she had gotten that kind of reaction. Beth heard her talking about how "that look just explains it all," whatever that was supposed to mean. "Imagine if he knew what my next question was...

Maybe she was thinking about if that reaction was ever aired, Monica's and Sterling's faces would be aired everywhere along with Tyler's key photos of the entire scene. Too bad Beth was sure Sterling's people would never let that happen. Beth felt Monica's eyes on her in an eerie way before her eyes were on Ari who was being reamed out by Sterling's agents as if he had known the questions she was going to ask.

Beth wanted to step in and defend him, none of this was Ari's fault, but it wasn't her place. Instead, her attention was drawn to her phone's vibrating. She thought it might be her mom until she looked at her screen and froze all over again. There was a picture of nearly bare shoulders and the straps of a revealing sexy bra, and near the pale skin on the shoulders were lips, Sterling's lips, and that fair skin's was Beth's. This was the photo Tara had taken of them while they were in school being forced to pose together.

Beth found herself shaking as she looked around. Why was this happening to her again? She couldn't shake the feeling someone was watching her right now, like in her imagination a camera was going snap, trying to piece together who Jewel's father was. That or Sterling was so mad over this Potter stunt he wanted to make Beth also pay, but in a different mental torture kind of way.

This is crazy!

It took Ari yelling "Please!" to snap her back to reality.

"I don't think you understand, kid, my client Mr. Johnson bought out your company anonymously last week, that makes him the boss of your bosses and gives him creative control. He told you dopes in black and white you couldn't ask questions like that, yet you did, so he's ordering you and your female reporter in crime to be suspended."

Beth stood shocked. Sterling had bought the company she worked for? What? No, she had to have misheard that. What kind of person just randomly buys companies? The only other person she had known to do that to get ahead was Sterling's dad. Holy crap...

Did that really mean Sterling was her boss? With the power to not only take back his exclusives when angered but to actually suspend or fire people? Jesus! If that wasn't crazy enough, Ari was getting suspended and she couldn't let that happen. If word got out in the media that Sterling refused to work with Ari, and even suspended him, that would take away his pull as a top media reporter.

Beth found herself putting her camera away and bolting. It wasn't hard to figure out that Sterling had headed back to his limo because students were all facing that direction and taking photos as if it was the royal wedding or something.

A security guard tried to block her from reaching a roped area as she pushed herself past a group of girls. Gosh, I thought my college days with Sterling were bad. She fibbed and told the guard that she needed to get to the media vans because she'd left her things in there. He shouted at her that it didn't matter, that she couldn't cross until Mr. Johnson gave her permission to.

But then the waters seemed to be miraculously parting as Sterling stepped out of his limo. He must have seen Beth trying to get through. Taking the deepest breath of pissed off courage, she found herself marching up to him. Right away he must have sensed her frustration because he actually rolled his eyes at her. After all these photos appearing on her phone, the fact that she was halfway around the country because of him, and his crazy reaction toward Ari... Oh hell no!

"Why do I get the feeling it wasn't really your things you came to retrieve here, sweet Bethany?" He said her name in a way that was mocking because she clearly didn't look sweet right now. His tone irked the hell out of her as did being called her entire name, and Sterling knew that.

"It's Beth!" she said and then calmed her voice down when she realized she was yelling and students were watching. She tried to hide the anger from her face and lower her voice as she got closer. Sterling's own face was completely shielded as he was now looking at her the way he looked at everyone else, like he didn't trust her or the people she worked with. Yet she could definitely sense his annoying smirk underneath his shield's surface too, and something else, something she couldn't describe as she felt her chest grow uncomfortably warm.

"Ok, Beth," he said, his voice getting tighter and tighter. "What is it you really want right now that I can assist you with?"

"For starters, Ari nor the rest of our team have ever met or worked with that other reporter. It's not fair to punish him for what she did. No one can even find Monica now so she clearly knows she's in the wrong. You don't need to overreact, exposure of that moment won't be happening," she said as her heart pounded, suddenly wondering if his anger was because he had been in love with Catalina. Catalina, the mother of his other child that was dead.

"Beth," he tried to calm his voice as he looked her straight in the eye, as if he wanted her to understand why he was acting like such a douche. "When you're in my position, everything, even the dumbest lies become exposed. Privacy stays far, far away."

Beth found herself taking a deep breath as he step closer. What must it be like to be him... Sterling and Beth were only in their mid-twenties and yet his actions as an Olympian effected so much. And his gaze still looked intense right now.

"So," his voice cracked with a fraction of compassion, "you want me to help your friend, is that what you're making a spectacle about right now?" he asked as she felt her face getting more and more red. A spectacle?

She took another deep breath as she stared at part of her team approaching the ropes and security asked Sterling if they should be let in too. He said no, as he and Beth stood close in the smoldering sun.

"I want you to not punish a decent guy. Do you still have it in you to be decent, Sterling?"

He paused, and they shared a long look as he finally breathed. "Fine."

"Fine?" she asked, wondering more and more if he had sent those pictures to her. God, who are you really? she wanted to ask.

"I'll make the phone call to get Ari reinstated on one condition."

"What's that?" she asked as he took another step closer and made the inside of her pulse want to explode.

"I want the slate wiped clean between us."

"Wiped clean?"

"Clearly you're still holding a grudge. I'm asking you to forget our past so we can work well together the rest of the day."

That was a little hard to do considering what he didn't know, but if he was asking this, then was it possible that maybe he wasn't the one sending those photos? Maybe he really didn't want this experience to be awkward or terrible. The question is, if not Sterling, then who? Beth wondered as she tried to play investigator instead of photographer.

"Fine."

Then, as he raised his phone to call his lawyer, she saw it, the Siren app was loading, and her heart shattered. This was all some kind of sick game celebrities must play on normal people. This was why his father had told her to keep Sterling away until his swimming career was done. Until this hyper version of him was over. He was sending the pictures!

"What the hell is wrong with you?" And then she saw their picture flash on his phone as he gave her a questioning look.

"What's this?" He looked confused as he noticed the picture on his phone, and just as she was about to go absolutely ballistic on him, there was the piercing sound of a gunshot, stopping her heart.

Everything was suddenly a slow moving blur as Sterling, who was rigid and guarded before, was diving around Beth now. All the animosity and weird energy between them was gone as their bodies collided and he was shielding and taking her down. His skin was warm, strong, and protective. Nothing was making sense.

His security team was diving around them too—well, around Sterling, whose arms were around Beth as they hit the ground. People were screaming and students beyond the ropes were going crazy as they still managed to snap phone pics. Unbelievable... yet, in a sick way, if Beth had been a bystander she would have been just as bad.

So many bodies were pushing Beth and Sterling hard to the floor, her heart was racing like it was about to stop. Oh my God! A gun went off! Has someone been shot? Has Sterling? As he held her tight and she felt all his weight on her, their eyes locked on each other and they became so close that for a moment there was no celebrity, or Olympics, or media photography ambitions, or regretful feelings between them from the past, just a recognizing of something deeper. That truly, for whatever reason, they did care about each other.

Then the world around them sped back up as an alarm on campus was blasting and Sterling was pulling Beth up the next instant as he shielded her body so only his back was exposed as he half lifted and half pushed her into his limo. Then the vehicle was talking off.

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