Wildfire behind the came.., p.1
Wildfire (Behind the Camera Book 2), page 1
WILDFIRE
BEHIND THE CAMERA
BOOK 2
MAGGIE MCINTYRE
DISCLAIMER
This is a work of fiction, and any similarity to any events, communities or individuals is pure accidental. It involves descriptions of fire-damage and injury though which may prove distressing to people affected by the events around the US and Australian wildfires of recent times.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
1. 6 am, Saturday
2. 8 am, Saturday
3. 12:30 pm, Saturday
4. 2 pm, Saturday
5. 3 pm, Saturday
6. 4 pm, Saturday
7. 6 pm, Saturday
8. 8 pm, Saturday
9. 10 pm, Saturday
10. 1 am, Sunday
11. 3 am, Sunday
12. 4 am, Sunday
13. 7 am, Sunday
14. 8 am, Sunday
15. 9 am, Sunday
16. 10 am, Sunday
17. 8 am, Sunday
18. Noon, Sunday
19. 2 pm, Sunday
20. 4 pm, Sunday
21. 6 pm, Sunday
22. 8 pm, Sunday
23. 11 pm, Sunday
24. 7 am, Monday
25. 10 am, Monday
26. 6 pm, Monday
27. A New Look
To the reader
Book three: Love and Money
About the Author
Other books by Maggie McIntyre
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to Nicci Robinson of Global Wordsmiths for her cover design, production design, and project management. Thanks and appreciation also go to my excellent beta-readers, Suzi Hautaniemi and Cornelia Borner.
I’d also like to thank my friend Nancy McClaren for hosting my trip to beautiful Oregon in July 2019. It was my visit to Portland and our trip along the mighty Columbia River which inspired this story, and brought Cat and Katherine north from LA.
DEDICATION
The book is dedicated to all firefighters, the men and women who risk their lives to keep others safe, and especially to the memory of my father, who worked as a firefighter for more than thirty years.
CHAPTER 1
6 AM, SATURDAY
Too Happy by Half
Catriona Sinclair woke at dawn and observed her beloved, Kat Konrad, sprawled semi-clothed across the pillows beside her. It had been a long and steamy night, and the woman responsible for most of the excitement was still sleeping it off.
It had taken them a full week to recover from the sudden violence which had rocked their first precious days as a couple. But now, Cat’s nasty experience of being held at gunpoint was behind her. They were settling in together, sharing Kat’s bed, and blending their vastly different lives, while learning how each other operated, and exploring boundaries. The heatwave which had scorched the grass across Katherine’s elegant grounds all summer had abated slightly, and everything in the garden was lovely.
It would be, that is, if Cat would only let it. She knew she was adored as the new—if still secret—girlfriend of rich and famous TV mogul Katherine Konrad. She was cosseted and cuddled, and most definitely spoiled rotten. So why couldn’t she just lie back and enjoy it?
That was the problem. Oysters need a certain amount of grit to create pearls, and Cat was already finding this new life of hers just a little too smooth. She knew she was being ridiculous, and childish, not to mention, thoroughly ungrateful. What made it even more so was the spectacular sex she enjoyed with Katherine every night. Cat had been in a quivering state of arousal since she’d moved into Kat’s palatial Pasadena home ten days earlier.
The hours they spent apart while Katherine ran the world as CEO of Montpellier Media, and she drove her new Nissan Leaf thirty miles across Los Angeles to the Penguin production company in Newport Beach, left Cat aching with longing. She felt like a bitch in heat. She couldn’t wait to drive home as fast as she could at the end of each day and jump on her lover as she came through the door. Their long nights together in Katherine’s vast king-size bed never seemed long enough.
Catriona had never before felt so sexual, but Katherine had flicked a switch in her that lit her up like a firecracker. She was in love... so in love, she could sing with joy...sappy songs. So what exactly was the problem?
In some ways, Cat just couldn’t believe it was real. In some ways, it still felt like a dream. She seemed to be floating along on some magical cloud. But Catriona didn’t trust magic. She was used to hard, gritty reality, and earning everything through hard work. Being given this happiness just didn’t seem right or natural. Katherine was too wonderful, too adoring, and too sexy. Cat felt she didn’t deserve her, or any of this luxury into which she’d suddenly been plunged.
“I can hear your brain thinking again. Stop it and lie back down.” Katherine, who could already seem to read her mind, murmured as she stirred beside her and lazily lifted an arm to pull her in against her body. She was warm and pink, beautiful and infinitely seductive, with her blue eyes and perfect profile.
Cat sighed grumpily at her own idiocy and cuddled down into her lover’s embrace. They lay together in the dawning light, as Katherine amused herself by drawing pictures with her fingernails across Catriona’s breasts.
“How are you both this morning my little darlings?”Kat fingered Cat’s nipples provocatively in turn and then took the aroused rose-tinted nipple on the left between her teeth, gently tugging it. Cat moaned, which always set Katherine off into a tailspin of excited carnality. And so followed another five minutes of sexual fun and games.
Cat’s defenses, which had never really been effective against Katherine, now melted completely and she ached for Katherine to bring her yet again to orgasm. This took relatively little effort, and afterward, they lay entwined together, damp with sweat and the inevitable intensity of female love.
“Oops,” said Katherine, with a smile worthy of a Cheshire cat caught with both its paws in the cream.
“You mean, it happened again?”
“Sorry. I know I’m like an impatient bridegroom who comes before he even touches his bride. Making love to you—especially after a few hours of sleep—makes my body ignites of its own accord.”
Katherine was talking about her own orgasm which had delivered a double whammy even as she’d brought Cat to climax. Cat felt it too and chuckled.
“What we do to each other is contagious, that’s all. We shouldn’t be allowed in public. We’re a danger to ourselves and others now.”
Katherine sighed with happiness. Cat grinned and writhed sensually, driven by the feel of the cool sheets beneath and Katherine’s incessant fondling of her breasts.
Cat knew that her long red hair and her breasts drove Katherine wild. Her older lover already told her that if she could, she’d keep Cat locked up as a concubine inside her private harem.
This was strictly a fantasy only suitable for their short working honeymoon, which would soon be over. Katherine’s three young daughters would shortly return from three weeks’ vacation with their father, and normal life, as far as it could, would resume. Trotting about the house, even half-naked, would then be off the agenda.
“What was troubling you earlier?” Katherine asked. “You were worried about something. I can always tell.”
Cat looked into her lover’s deep blue eyes, which could at times seem as warm as a deep bath, and at others, turned as icy as the northern waters of the Pacific on a dark day in February, especially if she saw something she didn’t like.
“I’m so conflicted. I worry about being this happy. I mean...all the things you take for granted, like housekeeping staff, and a swimming pool, are so beyond what I am used to. I keep pinching myself.”
“Don’t worry about it, darling. Just enjoy it. Even though I couldn’t whisk you away to a Caribbean island right now, we’re still virtually on honeymoon.”
“But I want so much to have something I can give back to you. Everything comes from you. What can I contribute? I feel such a lightweight, and it all overwhelms me.”
Katherine pulled herself up the bed slightly and looked at Cat seriously.
“I know you laughed when I suggested it, but I did want to discuss this properly before we started, remember? Yes, we both know I’m older, richer and more experienced in many things...some of which I’m not especially proud of...and, yes, I am certainly more powerful in the eyes of the world, but you know how damaged I am...and I don’t even want to get into how many character flaws I have.
“I’m like a car which has been in a bad accident. I need more than a paint job to make me as young, and pure and sweet-hearted as you. Besides, I fear I’ll hurt you again and make you cry. I can’t help being sadistic. Sadly, it’s in my nature.”
“I don’t believe that. Stop putting yourself down.”
“I don’t need to. Others will do it for me. Don’t forget most people in the entertainment business hate me. They’ll sneer at me, and pity you, if they bother to look at us at all.”
“I don’t think so! What happens when we go public?”
“Give it time. We’ll find a balance. It’ll be OK. You make me happy, and I so love to tease you. I can’t resist. Does that make you feel any easier? Of course, I can always rough you up and make you sleep on the floor beside the bed if it would make you even happier and help you settle in properly.”
Cat snorted with laughter and realized what a fool she was being. But
Abbie, her darling, hippy, artist mother, who lived in a trailer park in Portland, and made most of her income by selling glass beads, still thought she’d parted from her boyfriend due to his infidelities, not hers. Her Quaker minded grandparents, who homesteaded up in the deep woods on the Washington State border, and who had raised her with strictly frugal ethics, knew even less of her daily life in LA.
“How am I going to introduce you to my family? I suppose that’s the real anxiety I have,” she admitted. “I’ve never told you, but Mom lives in a trailer...the same trailer where she raised me...and she lives a kind of alternative lifestyle, you know.”
Katherine looked remarkably unfazed by this. She jumped out of bed, pulled on her robe, and said, “So let’s go up and visit her then. Call Alaska Airlines and book us on the first available flight out of Burbank to Portland this morning. We can be there for lunch. It’s Saturday and I’ll cancel everything I have scheduled down here over the weekend. If it’s important to you, then it’s important to me!”
“Wow! Just like that?”
“Yes. Just like that. The more you put it off and procrastinate, the more of a worry it will be to you.”
So Catriona booked the flights and began to call her folks. It was indeed time they all met Katherine, and what could possibly go wrong?
CHAPTER 2
8 AM, SATURDAY
Just a Little Weekend Trip
What could possibly go wrong?
The answer to that question came all too soon. As soon as she picked up the phone, her mother said, “Hi, darling! I can’t stop now. I’m already late for the market. Can we talk about it this evening?”
“Mom, no, look I’m coming up to see you today. With someone special who wants to meet you. I’ve booked a 10 am flight and we’ll be in Portland just after noon.”
“But Cat, darling, it’s Saturday. It’s the busiest month of the year as well. I can’t possibly leave the market, and I’ll be tied up all day tomorrow as well.”
Duh! Cat had stupidly forgotten the pattern of her Mom’s jewelry selling business. Weekends were prime time for selling at the craft market, and every dollar counted.
“We’ll come to the market and see you there. Maybe we can help out on the stall. “
“You know it’ll be crowded. I can only afford a small booth. But of course, I’d love to see you. Can you stay the night?”
Cat visualized her and Katherine bedding down on the four-foot bed in the tiny back bedroom of the trailer, and she could see the problems. Oh, dear, why did life always throw up so many complications?
“I’m sorry, Mom, I forgot you’d be working. I hoped we could get out of Portland and spend the night up with Grandpa and Granny. But if you need to stay open on the stall all week...”
Katherine had been eavesdropping on this call through the speakerphone and whispered to Cat, “How much does your Mom clear in profit and take home on a good day at the market?”
“Maybe $300, possibly $350.”
“Tell her I’ll pay $1,000 for her company for the weekend. It’s far more important she has some free time with us than at the market selling jewelry all day.”
“But, but?”
“Go on. Suggest it.”
Cat sighed gulped loudly. Introducing her two favorite women to each other was going to be even more complicated than she’d feared. She had planned to inform her Mom about Katherine’s financial standing very gently...not plunge into it as Katherine was suggesting.
“Mom? Sorry. Are you still there? Look, my friend says she really wants to meet you, and she is willing to compensate you for the stock you won’t sell. Please just take the weekend off and come up the river with us.”
“She?” Abbie immediately picked up on the pronoun. “I assumed it was a new boyfriend you are bringing with you for my approval? So who is the rich little girlie we’re talking about here?”
Behind her, Katherine laughed while she poured coffee for them both. Cat flapped at her crossly to keep quiet, and then answered, “She’s not a rich little girlie, but she’s...well, she’s my girlfriend. You are almost the first to know about it. That’s why it’s important we visit today, Mom. She’s quite well-known. Oh, hell, you might as well know...I’m talking about my boss...Katherine Konrad.”
There was an astonished silence for a few seconds, then, “Hell, yes, then. Of course, she can make up the cash! I know how crazy you were about her as a kid, but this is something else altogether. But naturally, I want to meet her. The woman is on first-name terms with Michelle Obama! Bring it on!”
As always, Abbie didn’t fail to surprise her. She didn’t sound shocked at all...not by Kat’s gender, fame, nor her money. She left Cat wondering why she had worried so much.
“Oh, thank you, Mom. You’ll love her, I know.”
“Of course I will. She’s a Democrat and did a wonderful exposé of corruption in the White House recently, didn’t she? That’s enough for me. Would you like me to call up the oldsters and warn them?”
“Yes, please. Our plane lands at 12.17pm.”
“I’ll be there. We can all squash into the front seat of the pick-up, and I’ll drive us into the woods. I’ll be so happy to see you, honey. It’s been too long since the Easter break.”
“I know. Bye, Mom. I love you.”
Cat ended the call and turned back to Katherine, who was still in her bathrobe they don’t return until Wednesday!
and looked adorably self-satisfied as she passed her a mug of coffee. She nodded in approval.
“Well, that’s settled. I’m just going to tell Maria we’ll be gone until Sunday evening, and then I’ll take a shower. Did you book a flight back?”
“Yes, of course!”
“And we can visit your grandparents as well, by the sound of it?”
“Yes, and I hope you don’t provoke them too much. Grandpa loves to argue with a stick, just for the heck of it.”
“Me? Provoke anybody? I have no idea what you mean. I guess by your Mom’s comments he’s not a right-winger at least.”
“No, far from it! Grandpa used to be a political science professor, but he lost his job after he led a demonstration on campus against Reagan back in the seventies. He never went back to regular salaried employment after that. He’s a lifetime follower of Scott Nearing, the back to the earth radical writer. Self-sufficiency, pacifism, and all that kind of thing. He writes a lot about alternative economic models in his spare time.”
“It all sounds rather interesting. I am looking forward to meeting them. Let’s get a move on then.”
Online, the Alaskan Airways flight looked quite full, and Catriona was grateful she had swallowed her pride and booked them into the business class as far as Portland on the first leg of the trip. She presumed Katherine would have long ago forgotten what flying economy was like, but she was at least able to use her frequent flyer miles to knock a few dollars off the cost on the Montpellier credit card.
From Portland, their plane would head further north to Seattle and then to Alaska...a place Cat had only dreamed about visiting. It was beginning to dawn on her how many new opportunities might be opening up for her...riding as she was on the jet stream of Katherine’s wealth.
This thought made her think even more about various modes of transport. She wondered if Kat had even considered owning a private jet at any time. Montpellier had two helicopters assigned to its news channel, but she didn’t know enough about it to know how available they might be. In any case, this was a purely personal trip, and she was as excited as a child as Kat’s driver, Charlie, drove up to the front door to take them to Burbank Airport.
When she looked at him, her mind immediately jumped back to the night of the thunderstorm, when he had driven them both to the Hollywood Screen Writers’ dinner. That was the night of their big show-down. What a difference a few weeks had made.
