Scornfully Yours (Torn Series) (36 page)

We grabbed our iced beverage and said our thanks to the smiling girl. “See you guys then!”

With a quick wave, I walked towards the cart that said ‘Ms. Emma Anderson’. Wow, everything was done efficiently around here.

“Herete, I’m Anaxos and I will be driving you to your cottage,” a man in his fifties-
ish
greeted me with superb hospitality.

“Hello, yes, that would be lovely, thank you,” I gave him a bright smile before I slid into the second row. From the plane, the island was huge. I saw a lot of orchards and olive trees. I was told that the other side of the island was where other people lived. I saw big villas lining
the shore and other regular cottages too. I heard the owner of the island only sold the land for others to build houses on if he knew them personally. The rest of the population, it seemed, were the people who worked for him and made the island their home. So, I guess it’s like their own little exclusive hideaway.

The ride to the cottage was a breath taking scenery. The cottages were right about the shore. The wide pathways were lined with beautiful colorful flowers and boulder rocks. I could see the expanse of the villa from afar. It sat atop of a hill. We passed a few cottages and it seemed that they were half a mile apart. I had no idea why they called them cottages when they looked like a freaking dream houses. They were all in white with hot pink bougainvillea crowding them. They were perfect!

After what seemed like ten minutes, Anaxos finally stopped at the very end of the pathway. The cottage was a bit bigger than the ones we passed by. The other ones looked like they had two bedrooms, but this one looked like it had four.

Excited, I hopped out of the pimped out cart. “Thank you, Anaxos.”

He gave me a toothy smile, “No problem, despeenis. Here is your key. Enjoy the beautiful islands of Greece. Have a good day. Your luggage will be delivered to you very soon.”

I gave him a quick wave before he jumped back in and drove off. Bubbles of excitement rushed through me as I used my key to open the cottage.

The moment I walked in, the glaring view of the Aegean Sea greeted me. Glass doors and floor-to-ceiling glass before me, past it was a large shaded patio with an all-white pergola adorned with the twining hot pink bougainvillea again. I strolled towards it and checked it out. It even had an outdoor rattan canopy bed, table for six, lounge chairs and the pathway to the beach. I moved over to the white cement railing and took a long whiff of the sea air.

“Ahhh…this is the life!” I closed my eyes and basked in the sun’s warmth.

I jumped when I heard a noise. I tensed and listened to it carefully. There was nothing….
nothing
….then…the
banging
sound began again. I tensed once the banging got even louder.

Was someone at the door?

I moved back inside and walked towards the door. I peeked at the peephole, but there was no one there.

Okay…

The banging got frenzied. I tensed when I realized someone was having sex in one of the rooms.

I have a house mate?
Ah, fuck.

“Yes! Give me that meat you dirty fucker!” A woman’s voice screamed. The banging got out of hand then. It was like a stampede or like hundreds of horses galloping at the same time. The woman was screaming. Her unadulterated scream echoed all over the house.

Holy crap
, she sounds like she’s getting some hard heavy pounding.

I stood in the middle of the living room as I listened…
hell yeah I listened!
It was like listening to porn…but with surround sound.

“Yes! I’m coming!” The woman screamed like she was being murdered.

Oh, deary. If this woman was to become my housemate, she and I would have to set some ground rules. I didn’t want these kind of loud screaming noises keeping me up late at night. That would be a living nightmare.

After what seemed like a marathon of wall banging, it finally ended.

How long have I been listening?
A long while…

I was about to move when I heard a door open. A beautiful exotic woman (who looked like Sophia Vergara’s doppelganger but with green eyes) came out of the room wearing only a skimpy shirt. From the looks of it, it wasn’t hers. Her hair was wacky…
banged
up hair. Ha!

She was smiling but halted when she finally saw me. “Oh, hello, I’m Alexia.” Without waiting a response from me, she went over to the other side of the room towards the kitchen.

Okay…that was  odd.

“Lex can you grab me some water too?” A male voice yelled as I watched the door open and a black tight-boxer brief clad Bass came out.

HOLY MOTHER FUCKING HELL! You have got to be joking!

“Emma?”

I squeaked.

Fuck!!!!!

Floor, please swallow me whole.

“What are you doing here?” Bass asked as he came closer, wearing a weird expression on his face.

I think he was trying to make sure it was really me. The more he came close to view the more I noticed how his body had a nice glossy sheen of sweat. It only made his abs and shoulders much pronounced. His cheeks were even flushed. Gah! Stop gawking, Emma.

Did he just ask me a question?
Where the hell did my voice go?

One.

Two.

Three.

I cleared my throat, not meeting his eye. “I was told this was my cottage,” I finally spoke after the gawking.

“Here you go stallion,” Alexia kissed Bass on the lips and handed him his water.

“I thought this was mine. Jack himself arranged it for me,” Bass spoke in a tone I wasn’t familiar with.

“It was Barbara who arranged mine.”

Bass cussed and left the room. I think he was mumbling about fixing the problem. I suppose the ‘problem’ was me?

Well, too bad. If he didn’t want to share this cottage with me, he could move out for all I care.

I was staying put, with or without the angered Bass Cole.

“The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.”

-
Aristotle

Bass finally emerged from his bedroom after a few minutes looking as pissed off as ever.

“I’m going back in the room. Don’t be too long. You still have promises to deliver stallion. Don’t make me wait too long or I’ll come and get you,” Alexia teased and sauntered past us towards their bedroom.

Stallion?
Blah.

“Jack said the extra cottage was given to the costume designer people. Fuck!” 

Well, his obvious disdain towards me couldn’t be any clearer than this. Did I expect him to greet me like this after months of not seeing each other? Hell, no. Am I hurt? A thousand times yes. As much as I wanted to retaliate and stomp about, I didn’t even want to argue with him. I just didn’t want to. I just had to ignore it. Time to suck it up, Emma!

“Whatever,” I shrugged and moved past him. I chose the opposite side of the house, the room farthest from his which was only two doors down. It wasn’t far enough but what choice did I have? I certainly was not going to be sleeping in the villa with the rest of the mature crowd.

I checked my room about. I had a massive all-white bathroom and a big bedroom with a very stunning view of the sea. It was fair enough. I could tolerate Bass and Alexia as long as they didn’t fuck like rabbits or get in my business. I’m still appalled and disconcerted about my encounter with Bass but if he wanted to act like a total asshat then so be it. I would not let it get to me because the more I thought about it, the more I would be distracted and I needed all my concentration focused solely on my acting. I’ll just have to suck it up.

There was a soft knock on my door and I spun around when it was opened. A young girl gave me a nice smile, “Ms. Anderson, my name is Maria. Your luggage is here. Takis will be bringing it in very
soon. I’m here to inform you that there’s afternoon tea and snacks at the main villa in an hour. There is a directory next to the telephone in the living room. You can request for someone to come get you if you like. Have a good afternoon, Ms. Anderson.”

I gave her an easy smile and thanked her, “that’s great, Maria. I’ll be heading out once I shower and change.”

Maria smiled brightly and nodded her head before she opened the door a little wider to let the guy named Takis bring my things in. I gave him a tip and a quick thank you.

Once they left my bedroom, I dragged myself out of my jet-lag funk and headed to the bathroom. After a quick shower, I wore a long pale halter-top lemon dress and finished it off with studded gladiator-style slippers. With a quick application of my peach lip gloss and a hasty fluff of my long blonde hair, I was set to go. Since the studio asked that I needed my hair longer, I was scared to go to a salon and get it trimmed. It’s odd, yes, that I haven’t had a haircut in a long time but I was hesitant. You see, from experience, stylists always nod and pretend that they understand when you tell them that you only want half an inch off. But once you’re in that leather chair, bounded with clips and the shampoo cape, you’re at their mercy. More times than I could count, a lot of these people do not really follow through with instructions. I hadn’t minded it before, but with this movie, it was critical for me to follow through. I certainly didn’t want the bother of extensions and so I ended up taking care of my problem.

After endless research on the internet, I found my salvation. Coconut oil, hot or cold, I applied it twice a week on my hair. My hair looked healthy and lustrous and most importantly, longer.

When I surfaced from the room and strode past Bass’s door, I could hear laughter. Something twisted inside me, but I pushed forward and skittered out of the cottage.

I needed a good walk to clear my troubled head.

It took about ten minutes to the villa. I was thankful that there was another route to get there instead of following through the winded path that the golf carts used. The villa was atrociously humungous. If I didn’t know any better, I would think I walked into Acropolis.

I was ushered inside a large banquet room. It was vast and airy and had all glass walls that overlooked the blue jewel that is the Aegean Sea. The color itself reminded me of Bass’s beautiful eyes…well, those eyes are gazing into Alexia’s this very moment, I painfully thought.

There were a lot of people already here and when Ross Maitland found me, she got up and introduced me to some of the other actors that I hadn’t met yet. There were possibly five people my age, three guys and two girls. If I was right, they were Logan’s circle of friends.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man stand up from the table. I spun around and found a set of light blue eyes, fringed with sooty dark lashes. I paused for a second, taken aback, since they were penetrating me like I was going to be his dinner.

Barbara was right, I was to be tested mad. I am surrounded by hot men. God, help me. This man before me was the real deal. A real Greek Adonis.

Ross suddenly gushed. Yeah, I know the feeling, “Emma, meet Dimitris Kosta, your soon to be fake husband in a couple of days.”

Why am I frozen again?

How many times does this have to happen to me,
today of all days?
Fuck!

He held out a large, tanned beautiful hand out to shake mine. “Kalispera, Emma. I am Dimitris.”

Damn, deep dark voice too. Why couldn’t he just have a squeaky, high-pitched, annoying voice? Why did he have to be armed with the whole
hot
package? I eyed his over six-foot frame. He wore chinos that showed powerful thighs and a powder blue dress shirt with folded cuffs pushed back to his elbows. His thick wavy dark hair was trimmed neatly. My intrigued eyes roved about and took in his chiseled sculpted cheeks, strong jaw, straight nose and tantalizing smile.
If he tells me he plays soccer…

I. Am. Fucked.

“It’s pleasure to meet you, Dimitris,” I murmured not meeting his eyes, intimidated.
Who wouldn’t be?
I barely just recovered from my shocking encounter with Bass and now this!

“I will leave you two young people to talk. I’m sure you both have a lot to discuss,” Ross excused herself and joined some other people.

I had to leave and sit somewhere. Maybe I should just blurt out “later dude.” Instead, I tried to compose myself. “I’m going to go to the buffet and get something to eat. I’ll see you around, Dimitris.”

He moved next to me and placed his hand on my back. “Let’s go get you some food. Greek food is the best. You’ll love it.” I’m sure.

Once we got to the buffet, Dimitris pointed and explained the dishes. I noted that he was quite passionate about his Greek food and heritage. He was amiable and easy to converse with. He took charge loading our plates with Spanakopita, kalamarakia (calamari but a bit harder to roll with the tongue), salad and some other stuff I didn’t catch. He then loaded desserts on two plates with baklava, loukoumades, halva, finikia and amygdalota. My stomach growled when I got a whiff of the sweet smelling dessert pile.