Page 18 of As the World Falls

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Page 18 of As the World Falls

“Fancy meeting you here.”

“I really can’t take you anywhere, can I?” She made a show of looking exasperated as she pulled her cart up next to his. She scanned his basket casually, noting with frank surprise that everything on his portion of the list was neatly there. There was no way he had managed to grab that much when he had been playing on his phone the whole time, not when he had never been to that store before and had no clue of where things were located.

“Did you pay those kids in autographs to do your part of the shopping for you?” She asked, giving him an incredulous look as the realization dawned on her.

“Maybe.” Kris tried to look innocent, sliding his sunglasses high onto his forehead and giving her a puppy dog look to get himself off the hook.

“Unbelievable, I leave you alone for twenty minutes and you acquire minions to do your bidding. If I wasn’t annoyed, I’d be proud. It’s kind of an ingenious idea.” She tried to look put out, between the texts and the photos, and the teasing, she had every right to be but with a smile tugging the corners of her mouth and his baby blue eyes searching her face, it was a lost cause. It was official, the man was her kryptonite, and she had no shield against how he made her feel. He got away with things that she would have dropped other people for easily.

“All my ideas are ingenious, and what good is star power if you aren’t going to use it once and awhile?” He stretched and flexed his shoulder, extending his fingers and looking at the nails. “And you said I should learn to ask for help more. I am still healing after all.”

“Oh,nowyou admit to that, when you’re trying to get out of trouble, of course.” He was almost completely recovered; he could go a full day without wearing his sling and the pain in his lung and ribs was down to minimal, only present if he truly over did things. Cath leaned in and ran her finger down the neck of a large bottle of spiced rum he had set in the upper portion of the basket. “If you are going to outsource, you should train your boots better; I don’t recall this being on the list.”

“No, but eggnog was, and they seem to go hand in hand, I made an executive decision.” He returned the gesture, leaning over to peer in her cart. He gestured to the red and green boxes she had put in her cart. “And those? I don’t recall gingerbread house kits on the barracks supply list you made.”

“It’s not a barrack supply list,” she protested as they started towards the cash.

Kris lightly bumped her cart with his and followed her towards the cash register. “Babe, it’s alphabetized and organized by need and quantity. You could run a field camp with it.”

“I have, actually.” She guided them into line, ignoring the curious stares they were getting from other shoppers. True to what Kris had told her, she found that it was getting easier to disregard the feeling of constantly being watched and scrutinized. They made a gorgeous couple, him tall, tanned and muscular, she blonde, lean and toned. Coupled with his A-list status, and the fact the press knew they were an item, it was almost a given now that they attracted attention. If she let herself be bothered by that fact, she’d never leave the damn house again.

Taking the opportunity when given, Kris came up beside her and slipped his arms around her waist, hugging her close. She leaned into him, enjoying the feeling of being wrapped in his arms as they waited in the queue. The line was moving at a snail’s pace, not unexpected considering the grocery orders were large and the staff was exhausted after a busy holiday season. Cath felt her eyes begin to drift over the magazine selection by the cash, by passing most of the cooking magazines and sweeping over the tabloids until something caught her eye, causing her to take a sharp breath. She reached out and grabbed one of the magazines with a snort of disbelief.

15

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” The headline was bold with large letters proclaiming, “KRIS AVERY TAKEN?” Smaller letter’s read:“Hollywood’s favorite ladies’ man is off the market: Who exactly is Cath Black?”An accompanying photo was split into two slightly grainy images, one was of the two of them leaving an Italian restaurant where they had gone for dinner a couple of weeks before; she had been helping him along to the car as he had still been in pain from the accident. The other was of the main administrative building at Pendleton where her office was located. She held up the magazine for Kris to see and began to flip through it looking for the article. “How the hell did they get these photos without us noticing? Withoutmenoticing?”

“Because it’s what they do and believe it or not some of them do it really well.” He gently took the magazine out of her hands, flipping it shut firmly. “Take it from a seasoned pro, don’t read it. It’s not worth your time, most of what they write is shit.”

“You read them all the time,” she pointed out. His morning routine often included coffee and checking his phone to see what was going on in the entertainment scene, to see if anything significant had occurred since the day before.

“I check the online rag sheets,” he conceded. “But only because I feel like I have to keep tabs on what they are saying about my movies. I try to ignore the stuff about my personal life.”

“I swear, the next photographer who tries to get a photo of me at work is going to get a right hook to the jaw,” she threatened, balling her hands into fists and making a noise of disgust at the invasion of privacy. “I can handle it in my personal life, I have no issues with it when we are out together, but Pendleton is fucking off limits. The last thing I need is for my position with Special Forces to be compromised. We may need to talk about doing something legal, a cease and desist or a restraining order.”

“This is why my lawyer is on speed dial, I’ll call him right away after the holidays.” He rolled the magazine up and tapped her on the shoulder then made a tossing gesture. “I’ll tell you what, if you want, I’ll buy all the copies here and we can burn them in the fireplace at the condo tomorrow night. It’s what I normally do, they make great kindling.”

“Very tempting.” She scowled at the cover and tossed it back on the shelf aggressively. “You know, if they were going to risk sneaking photos on the base, they could have at least included my rank. I busted my ass off for that.”

“And a fine ass it is.” He slid his hand down her back, cupping her ass and giving it a squeeze of affection.

“Aiming for more bruised ribs, eh?” She quipped, making a halfhearted gesture like she was going to elbow him.

“Oh, I see your plan, you do that and keep me living on base with you longer.” He made a put-upon face. “Then you get to keep me all to yourself.”

“Well, I do love those energy drinks you stash in the fridge.” She heaved an overly dramatic sigh. “It would be an utter shame if they disappeared.”

“I knew it!” He wagged a finger at her and gestured to the multiple cases of drinks in the cart. “I knew you were stealing them!”

“What can I say, I love that fake chemical taste, it reminds me of eating MRE’s in the field.” She shuddered at the memory and began loading their purchases on the grocery belt then followed the items along as the cashier began to ring them through.

In a short matter of time, their groceries were through and bagged on the end of the belt. Kris stepped forward and reached for his wallet automatically, only to be beaten to the punch by Cath. He’d been paying for far too much lately in her opinion, and she was determined to equal out the playing field when she could. “You pull that card out, you lose fingers.”

He leaned in close to her ear as she passed the cashier her card. “That’s twice in under ten minutes you’ve mentioned violence, if you want to take me home and give me a good toss around, I am all for it.”

“Don’t give me any ideas.” She began passing him the bags to load in the cart.

“How about fantasies?” He wiggled his eyebrows at her and began to push the cart towards the doors.


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