Taking the Leap (River Rain 3)

Incidentally, they were red too.

It was too bad they had neighbors, because those long legs, all that hair, that smile, he wanted to sit in his chair beside hers on the deck, pull her in that dress astride his lap and do things to her that didn’t need an audience.

Instead, he opened the door, dealt with Zeke and Montana accosting him, and called, “Hey, baby.”

“Allo, chéri.”

“Getting a beer, and I’ll be out. You need a top up?”

She shook her head.

He jutted up his chin, went to the kitchen, dropped his messenger bag on the counter, grabbed a beer, and headed back out.

Before he sat in his chair, he bent and pressed his lips against hers.

He pulled back. “Good day?”

“An interesting one.”

He couldn’t see her eyes due to the sunglasses, but there was something about her voice he couldn’t put his finger on.

But having a year under his belt with this woman, seeing her exclusively for nine months of that, and living with her the last two, Judge decided to take a load off before he asked, “What’s up?”

“I talked with Dru today.”

Dru was Judge’s stepsister who was more like his sister-sister, only they didn’t share blood and his father had never been able to officially adopt her because Dru’s biological father was an asshole.

“She okay?”

“She was very interested to know that your dad’s sending one of his planes out here for Rix and Alex’s use tomorrow.”

This was perplexing. Dru was always into knowing what her big brother was up to, including work.

But not that deeply into it.

She also knew Rix, and they were tight.

But he had a feeling that wasn’t it either.

“Why was she very interested to know that?”

Chloe turned to the view and took her time having a sip of her wine.

When she was done with that, he felt his lips had tipped up because she was red-hot when she was being super cool.

“She has a loose acquaintance in New York who’s getting married in October.”

At this seeming change of subject, Judge settled back and took a long pull from his beer, because Chloe was telling her story, and clearly, she intended to take her time doing it.

Since she looked good and smelled good, and because she wasn’t cooking, that meant either he was (when he wasn’t) or they were going into town to grab a bite (which was what they were going to do), then later they’d come home and maybe watch some TV or read, but definitely in the end they’d go to bed and fuck, he felt she could take all the time she wanted.

“Yeah?” he prompted when she didn’t speak.

“Yes. And apparently this friend keeps track of a variety of things, including the Elsa Exchange.”

Suddenly, he wasn’t a big fan of hanging and listening to Chloe’s story, considering the Elsa Exchange was a YouTube gossip show with a massive following, and its sole commentator, Elsa Cohen, spent a lot of time keeping tabs, and sharing them, about Chloe’s and Judge’s families.

“What now, Coco?” he demanded.

She turned to him. “Did you know that Elsa found out Rix’s name, and she named him, fully, and also repeatedly, when she also showed several pictures of him, with you, with your dad, with Dru? This when she was doing all that reporting on us after your mom passed.”

He’d not spent a second watching the Elsa Exchange after Elsa had interviewed Corey Szabo’s ex-wife and rocked Chloe’s world, so he had no clue this had happened, though he did know their families were a favored topic of conversation.

Rix being pulled into that garbage, he liked this even less.

He felt his mouth get tight.

It went with the territory for Chloe. Her mom, Imogen Swan, and dad, Tom Pierce, were two of the most famous people on the planet (especially Genny, whose new hit program that had started streaming last month had put her back on top as Hollywood’s darling). Not to mention, Chloe had grown up essentially a family member of Corey Szabo, who was also one of the most famous people on earth, and on top of that, prior to his death, had been one of the richest.

Then, after her mom and dad divorced, Genny reunited with a lost love, Duncan Holloway, who was famous in his own right for being self-made, wealthy and an outspoken environmental activist.

Duncan was also, incidentally, Judge’s former boss.

Further, it came with the territory for Judge, whose father was born into brash Texas oil wealth, then went on to make his own considerable fortune, and as such, had been dogged by the gossips and paparazzi for decades.

Thus, when Chloe and Judge got together, and that was outed after Judge’s mom essentially, albeit inadvertently, killed herself after taking a cocktail of vodka and valium, they’d somehow become the It Couple.

This meant attention for them.

And the person who seemed most fixated on them was Elsa Cohen.