She felt Keanu’s intense, bright, blue-eyed gaze on her, searing her skin through the white gauzy blouse she wore over her tank top.
On cue, she felt her ridiculous nipples respond. She nonchalantly crossed her arms, hoping to hide her body’s telling reaction.
As though it was the noonday sun, the heat from his stare scorched her skin, blazing hot and heavy against her neck. And the intensity brought the same reaction as the noonday sun; she was instantly hot and bothered.
Sonia reached a hand up and massaged her fingers over the back of her neck, hoping to relieve the suddenly bunched muscles. She forced herself to concentrate on her crew.
“I need a small group, including one of your assistants,” she began, speaking to her film editor before turning to the others, “to follow the men heading out to the south pastures. The foreman has already okayed it, and recommended the crew get there by no later than 5:00 a.m.” She held up a hand and waved it back and forth to negate the volley of protest she knew was coming her way. “I know they’re just repairing fence, but it’s all a part of ranch life. I don’t want to miss out on an opportunity for some good promo like we did yesterday, Sheldon.” She turned and pinned one of the location manager’s assistants with a stare.
Although they’d been on site, filming for over two months steady, and would soon wrap up filming, Sonia knew from experience that there was no such thing as too much film.
Her location manager had recently gone on maternity leave and left her assistant in charge, believing, as everyone did, that the six-episode series was wrapping up and the crew disbanding. Although she was competent, as were all of the crew, the assistant manager was not as experienced as her boss and Sonia had been forced to do some quick training to get the young woman up to speed.
Sonia felt lucky to be working with such a talented and creative group on her series. Even though most of her crew were young by industry standards, they were excited to work with her, and they worked well together, just as eager as Sonia to see the show a success.
Sonia couldn’t fault her location manager or her assistant, because in all honesty no one had had any idea the show would be such a megahit so quickly.
Sonia was proud of her crew, as she had been hands-on in the selection process once she’d signed on as producer.
After only a few airings, the show had gone nuclear. The hot new show, became the “it” show, garnering the type of ratings they’d only dreamed of in network television heaven. The response alone, after just the pilot episode, had been an indication to Sonia that the network would approve more episodes; however, before the last episode had been aired, she’d heard from the network execs that they wanted a full season. And today she’d been notified that the network wanted a second season, when the first hadn’t even been completed.
To say the show was a success was putting it mildly. From the network executives to the chatter on social media, everyone knew they had a winner; the combination of ranch life and Hawaii was one their key audience seemed incredibly enthusiastic about.
Again, Sonia felt the heat from his stare on her back, making her body...tingle. She kept her attention focused on the meeting.
It wasn’t just the beautiful location, exotic local and unique features of a Hawaiian ranch that had been the reasons for the early success of the show.
It had been directly due to the appeal of the sexy twin bachelors, Keanu, “Key,” and Nick Kealoha—that had been the major reason. And Sonia didn’t need to see the show’s research report to tell her that.
The twins had more sex appeal than any two men should be allowed, by state law, to have, and although they were identical twins, Keanu seemed to have a fraction...more appeal. At least for her....
Whenever she was within visual distance of the man, all of her “Hollywood sophistication,” as he’d once called it, went right out the window.
The man did it for her. Plain and simple.
Unfortunately, she did nothing for him. Well, outside of irritating the hell out of the man. She sighed.
Keanu seemed to have a permanent scowl on his face whenever she was around him. But none of that mattered, anyway. It was probably a good thing she did nothing for him in the way of attraction, because it couldn’t go anywhere.
Not that she could or had let Keanu know exactly how attracted she was to him. She was the producer on the show, not one of the hundreds of groupies the ranch seemed to have, women who came by the site just to get a glimpse of Hawaii’s new Dynamic Duo, the cheesy but—Lord only knows—accurate name the sexy twin ranch owners had been dubbed by the media.
“The show is doing great, better than expected. The ratings are continuing to top the number-one spot,” Sonia stated, forcing thoughts of Keanu from her mind and focusing on her staff. “And we’ve been renewed for a second season!” She waited for the exclamations of excitement to calm. She had just been given the news, and although she wasn’t all that sure that they’d be able to convince the Kealohas, in particular Keanu Kealoha, to allow them to continue, she kept that part to herself.
She smiled at her staff, knowing pride was in her voice. But she had invested a lot in the show. Once she had agreed to produce it, she’d made sure that every aspect of the show was given attention it deserved.
She knew that Keanu and his family had given permission initially to bring awareness of the impact of ranching on the environment to not only Hawaii but also the world. It wasn’t for the money, as they were one of the most profitable ranches in Hawaii. Neither was it for attention, even though the ranch now had tours for tourists, mostly women coming out to see the sexy twins of Kealoha Ranch.
They had done it for a much more noble reason. Although she didn’t fully understand the whys of his agreement, she hadn’t looked a gift horse in the mouth after he’d finally agreed.
Her only hope was that Keanu would continue to tolerate them on his ranch, as more and more she got the impression the sexy cowboy was less than pleased with their presence.
“Is the direction for the show going to change?” Briana, her director of photography, drawled the question.
“That’s a good question. So far the objective remains the same—why tamper with what works? As for a second season and the direction, we’re going to keep going in the same vein. Show all aspects of ranch life. We can worry later about editing out what doesn’t work.”
“Now Ms. Sonia, you can not deny that a big part of what is making the show a hit is Mr. Fine and his equally gorgeous brother...Mr. Finer,” the woman drawled, her Southern accent and way she drew out the word fine making Sonia laugh despite herself.
Briana was from Tennessee, and her drawling manner of speech, up-front manner and dry wit, coupled with the magic she brought to the angle of her camera had been the reasons Sonia had hired her to lead the camera department.
“I say we take it up a notch! I can see it now,” she began, warming up to her theatrics. She closed her eyes and placed her hands in front of her face, mimicking a camera as she spoke. “Sweat dripping from their naked chests, the amber glow of the setting sun behind them as the twins come home from a long, hard day, wrangling—” she paused dramatically “—cattle.”
Everyone laughed at her antics, including Sonia. Besides the magic she brought to her camera work, drama was most definitely Briana’s middle name. But that same drama, when channeled, was what also had brought the young woman awards in her field.
“Of course I am fully aware of the...impact...of the twins on the show,” Sonia conceded, and held up a hand admitting defeat once the laughter died. “I just don’t want to miss out on good footage. That is what makes the show work. All aspects. Fine is wonderful, it works,” she said, and ignored the snicker of laughter from her female-dominated crew. “But if we don’t capture the heart of the ranching life, it’s all just fluff,” she replied, sobering. “And not only do I not produce fluff, I don’t