When I get my arms around her she melts right into me.  It’s good.  I’m holding my dream girl close and neither of us cares who knows about it.  At this point I actually have a grudging kind of affection for the whole stupid show.  God knows it gave me the push I needed to reclaim what I’d lost.

“Oh!” Ren exclaims suddenly and pulls away.  “Gary called.  He called my cell phone which I thought was a little weird but it turned out to be a suspiciously nice conversation.”

“Oh yeah?”  I turn her around so her back is against my chest and my arms are crossed over her body.  We stare out at the mountain views while I breathe her in.  “How’s that?”

“He started off by telling me he’ll arrange a private screening in L.A. so we can see the episodes before they air.  He’s expecting the show to be a huge deal.  I warned him that people want scandal and dirty laundry.  They don’t want to see a happy ending.  He just chuckled and said, ‘Very wrong.  That’s exactly what people want, Miss Savage.’  I don’t know, maybe he’s right after all.  We’ll find out soon enough.  That screening he’s talking about, that’s supposed to be in August.  Next month.”

“Hmm, that’s nice.  Too bad we won’t make it.”

She runs her fingers over my forearm.  “No?  You told me that despite all the places you’ve been, you’ve never managed to set foot in California, let alone Hollywood.  Don’t you want to view all the decadence of our family origins up close?”

“Hell no.  I want to be holed up deep in the Smoky Mountains wilderness with you, no one around for miles.  I have my own plans you see and quite a few of them involve the cooperation of your body.”

She looks amused. “My body would be pleased to comply. I can’t quite abandon modern feminism though. My mind would like some attention too.”

“You’ll have it.”  I turn her around and take her face in my hands.  When I cup my palms together her face fits there perfectly, like it was sculpted for that purpose.  “I want to show you the caves and the mountains.  I want to get you underground and see the look on your face the first time you get a load of the Round Room. Remember the first time I brought you into a cave, Ren? And when I’m done showing you everything I know, I’m going to take you with me and we’ll explore the rest of the world together.  That’s a promise.”

She tilts her head with wonder.  “How do you do that?  You make it sound so perfect.”

“It is perfect, baby.”

A shadow crosses her face.  “Sometimes I think I’ll wake up in my lonely Vegas apartment.  Just me, my couch and my regret.”

“No more of that. No more regret.  Just us.  You just name your destination and we’ll go.  You want to go to California and consort with the illuminati I’ll take you there.  I’ll even wear a tux to blend in.”

She smiles.  “You are overcompensating.  I thought you knew you weren’t getting a red carpet kind of girl.  You’re getting a cotton candy on the boardwalk kind of girl.”

“I can handle cotton candy and a boardwalk.  I’ll even join in on the carnival, take you for a ride on the Ferris wheel.  What the hell is so funny?”

Ren is laughing so loudly the sound echoes across the valley.  She keeps shaking her head when I ask her what is so amusing.  Then she throws her arms around my neck and jumps up, her legs around my waist.

“I’ll ride anything with you, Oz.  But of all the plans in question I like yours the best. I want to see everything with you.”

“And you will,” I promise, kissing her.  “We’ll make every pair of lovers on earth shake with jealousy.”

“Swear it,” she whispers, tightening her legs around me, moving her body so that her hot center rubs so hard against my abruptly aching cock that I consider dragging her behind the nearest building to find the relief we both need.

“I swear it.”

I do.  She’s got me.  Always has, always will.

“There’s no more cameras, Oz,” she purrs, licking at my earlobe, nipping at my neck.  “There’s only us.”

That’s it.  We’re fucking doing this.

In a fitting move I carry her over to the far side of the brothel where there’s a short wall forever bathed in shadow.  Wordlessly I strip her shorts off, palm my cock, get her against the wall and wrap her around me in a way that lets me find the best angle inside.

It’s a dirty thing to do but she loves it.  I love it.

That’s the way it is between us, sometimes sweet and sometimes filthy.

Sometimes it’s such a powerful connection I start to doubt that being with anyone else was ever possible.  It seems like it’s always been her.

Ren comes hard and sighs into my ear.  I follow with an explosion that sends my fist into the brittle wood of the building.  We’re both dusty and sweaty but it was well earned.

I would have carried her back to the big house but she hops down, pulls her clothes together, and takes my arm for the short walk.

We reach the heart of Atlantis Star just in time to see the dust cloud from the truck of the departing crew.

The only one around watching them go is Brigitte.  Monty is still skulking around on a hunt for cameras, Spence ran into town for something horse-related and Ava is where we left her, having fun with her little boy.

Brigitte Savage looks kind of like a little girl, standing there in the dust wearing a plain pair of jeans and a white t-shirt, twirling her red hair around a finger.  It’s one of the rare times she’s not getting on my nerves right off the bat.  She looks up when we approach, notices our clasped hands and gives a vague smile.  Then she shrugs, sighs, and looks into the distance.

“What now?” she says in a low, confused voice that I’m not sure she meant for anyone to hear.

Ren leaves my side and swings an arm around her sister’s thin shoulder.  “Whatever you want, Bree.  Go after it.  I have nothing but faith in you, little sister.”

Brigitte doesn’t look like she’s listening but then suddenly she throws her arms around Ren and they hug tightly for a full minute.  I can’t hear what Bree says when she whispers in her sister’s ear, but it’s something that makes Ren glance back at me and blush.

When Brigitte starts heading my way I’m all prepared for something obnoxious to come out of her mouth.  She stands there with her hands on her hips and gives me an arch look.

“I know you’ll be good to her, Oz.  Because if you’re not I’m going to feed you to Monty.”  She giggles, grabs me for a quick hug and then bounces over to where Alden and Ava are living it up in the chicken coop.

I nod at the cloud of feathers.  “What do you think Spence is going to do with all those chickens?”

Ren smiles.  “I imagine he’ll keep looking after them.  Ava and the baby are sticking around for the time being and if Alden’s pets turn into fried nuggets someone will have some explaining to do.”

“Monty going back to San Diego?”

“No.  I didn’t tell you?  In a shocking turn of events, Monty got a job.  It’s even legal.  He’s going to be bartending at a place in Consequences.”

I tug on a strand of her hair, sifting it through my fingers.  “So how long do we need to hang around until we’re cleared for departure?”

She kisses the hollow of my neck and then smiles prettily.  “We can leave tomorrow.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, what did your sister ask you that made you turn all red?”

Ren smiles, bites her lip.  “She asked if I was going to marry a man named Oscar Savage.”

Oscar Savage. 

For a long time I told myself that he didn’t exist anymore because he was always an invention.  That’s not true.  I’m not about to go strolling around and claiming to be a Savage but it would be false indeed to say he never existed.

“You didn’t answer her, did you?”

“Oz.  I can’t answer a question that was never asked.”  She’s teasing but the blush is rising in her cheeks.