He throws his head back and laughs. “Fine.” He holds up his hands. “I’ll get the coffee; you get your ass outside.” I salute him with my hand and get up when he leaves the room. I go to the bathroom and clean up, washing my face. I grab one of his T-shirts and a pair of shorts. His T-shirt fits me like a dress, and his shorts are falling off me, but they smell like him, and I could literally bathe in his pheromones. I hold the clothes in my hand to stop them from falling off me. I open the door and hear the crashing of the ocean. Walking to the railing, I look over and see people already in the water. Beachgoers walk along the shore as the surfers catch the waves, the sun shining bright with not a cloud in the sky. “You listened.” I hear Carter behind me and turn around to see that he is carrying a silver tray. I turn and walk over to help him when he puts the tray down on the glass table that is in front of an L-shaped couch.
“What did you do?” I ask him, looking at the bowl of berries that he brought up along with two coffees, some orange juice, and a couple of containers of yogurt.
“Well, I know you eat yogurt and berries for breakfast with granola, but I didn’t have that,” he says with smile, and I walk to him.
“You were paying attention?” I wrap my arms around him, and the shorts fall to floor. I laugh, but even with my arms up around him, I’m still fully covered.
The wind blowing lightly has some of my hair flying in my face, and he pushes it behind my ear, cupping my face. “When it’s about you, all I do is watch.” I lean up and kiss under his chin. “In a non-creepy stalker kind of way, of course.”
“Of course,” I answer. Laughing, I release him and step out of the shorts. I pick them up and take them with me to the couch, stopping to grab the cup of coffee he made for me.
I sit on the couch with my feet curled up under me and take my first sip. Carter comes over and sits by my knees slouched down and watching the water with his own coffee in his hand. “What do you want to do today?”
“I was thinking I could do some laundry and maybe get some sleep,” I tell him, looking over at him.
“Let’s go out for dinner,” he says, sitting up and grabbing the bowl of berries and handing it to me. I grab a strawberry and bite down, savoring the sweetness as it hits my tongue. “I want to go out for dinner.”
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “The press will be all over you. You have been really quiet for the past three weeks, so they are waiting for a Carter Johnson sighting. You and I both know they are waiting for something salacious to report on.”
“So what? I won’t do anything bad. I’m going to a restaurant to eat a meal with a woman, and I’m leaving with the same woman,” he points out. “It’s a business dinner.”
“I don’t know,” I say softly, thinking of a million reasons why we shouldn’t but knowing it’ll just take one sound reason to convince me to go.
“I want to take you out on a date,” he says. “I want to go out with you and sit at a table and eat. Maybe hold your hand in the car.”
“It’s just not that easy, Carter.” I look at him, and he grabs his own strawberry.
“It is that easy,” he argues. “I want to take you out on a date. What if we go to a quiet restaurant?”
I tilt my head, taking him in. “I just want to take you out,” he says softly. “I want to go out to eat with you. I’m not saying that we go there and fuck on the table.” I shake my head and roll my eyes. “It’s one meal.” He takes my coffee from my hand and places it on the table in front of him. “We don’t even have to order an appetizer.” He pulls me onto his lap, and I straddle him. “We can even order before we get there.” He pushes the hair away from my shoulder on one side, then leans in and kisses my neck. “I just want to be out with you.” He repeats the action on my other side. “Please.”
“Fine,” I tell him, giving in to him even though I know it might not be the best thing. But when he smiles, I know that it’ll be worth it. “I do have to go home.”
“Okay, let me take a shower, or we can shower together, and then we can go to your house,” he says, and it’s almost like he doesn’t have a care in the world. I don’t have time to answer him before he stands up with me holding on to him. My legs wrap around his waist and my arms wrap around his neck. The shower really doesn’t go as planned. I mean, if you planned to stay in the water fucking until the water was so cold it felt like ice, then our plan succeeded. To go home, I put on his shorts and tie the waist in a knot on the side.
When we get into my apartment, I open all the windows to clear out the stale air from the past two weeks. Opening the drapes, I let the sun in. He goes to the couch and sits down, grabbing the remote and making himself at home.
“There is water in the fridge and nothing else really,” I tell him and look at him kick off his boots and lie down on the couch, turning on the news. He lies there in his gray chinos that are just tight enough with a white T-shirt and black jacket. Grabbing his phone and going on Instagram, he then looks up at me. “You finally accepted my follow request.”
I roll my eyes at him. “It’s not that big of a deal,” I tell him and then see him looking at his phone and smiling.
“Scenery pictures, my ass,” he says. “This picture of you in the ocean with your back to the camera looks like you’re topless,” he says, trying to zoom in on the picture. “I think I’m going to report it.”
“Don’t you dare,” I say and walk the rolling suitcase to my room. Opening it, I put a load in the washer, then undress and change into my own shorts and T-shirt. I walk out to the living room and see that he is sleeping, and the television is watching him. I walk back into my bedroom and look at the time; it’s already five, and our reservations are at six thirty. I fix my hair in the bathroom, leaving it loose and in beachy waves, and leave my makeup light like every other day. I walk into my closet and grab my white jean capris. I grab my black strapless bra and then the black off the shoulder ruffled loose shirt with sleeves that flow to mid-arm. I grab my new black strappy Louboutins my father just sent me, zipping the back closed. I stand and then look in the mirror. Grabbing my black Chanel purse, I switch my stuff and when I look at the clock, I see it’s time to go. I find him still sleeping, and I go back and forth with letting him sleep or waking him.
“I’m up,” he mumbles and looks over at me, his blue eyes going dark. “Jesus.”
I look down at my outfit. “Is it not enough?”
“How do you make a loose top and jeans the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen?” he asks, getting up and putting on his boots. “You ready?” He gets up and walks to me, and then bending to kiss me. “You look beautiful.”
“Thank you.” Smiling at him, I wipe my lip gloss off his lips. He grabs my hand, and we walk out together with our hands linked. He opens the passenger door and waits for me to get in, then steals another kiss. This one is a touch longer, neither one of us wanting to end it. He finally pulls away, closing the door and walking to his side.
“You ready?” he asks, starting the car and putting his sunglasses on.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I answer and look out the window while he makes his way to the restaurant. I don’t know what I’m expecting, or maybe I’m just expecting to be slammed with the paparazzi, but it’s nothing like that. We pull up to the restaurant, and no one is there. The valet opens the door for me while another valet attendant walks to the driver’s side, holding the door open for Carter. I step onto the sidewalk and hold my purse in my hand, waiting for Carter. He comes to my side and puts his hand on my lower back, making me walk into the restaurant first. The hostess smiles at me, but then sees Carter and smiles even wider.
“Hey, we have a reservation for Johnson,” Carter says, not even looking at her. His eyes roam the restaurant as she grabs two menus and asks us to follow her. She finds a table in the back and sets down the menus with a smile before slinking away.
“Have you been here before?” I ask him, grabbing the glass of water from the table and looking at
him grabbing the menu.
“Yeah, a couple of times,” he mumbles, and then the waiter appears to tell us the specials of the night.
“I’m going to use the bathroom,” I tell him, getting up. I want to go over to kiss him, but I stop myself. “This whole thing in public is harder than I thought.”
“Is it?” He smiles and grabs his own glass of water. “I guess following you into the bathroom to cop a feel and maybe an orgasm would be a red flag?”
I glare at him. “Don’t you dare.” I turn, leaving him to chuckle to himself. The bathroom has four stalls in it, and all of them are the same size. I’m sitting down when I hear the door open and the sound of two women coming in.
“Did you see Carter?” one of them asks, and I hold my breath. “Fuck, he is even hotter than I remember.”
“I know,” the second voice says, “and I have to say he gave the best head of my life.” My heart sinks. I get up, flushing the toilet, and the women stop. I open the door and come out to see the
hostess from before standing there touching up her makeup. She opens her mouth when she sees me. The other woman has to be a hostess also since they are dressed the same. I ignore them, going over and washing my hands, then leaving them in there. My heart is pounding when I finally get back to the table and see that Carter is on his phone. He looks up, and he must see it on my face that something is wrong. His eyes fill with worry.
“What happened?” he asks, leaning in, and when I grab the glass of water, my hands shake a touch. “Erin.”
“Oh, nothing,” I say, putting down my water glass. “Just overhearing a couple of the hostesses in the bathroom discuss your oral skills talent,” I say, looking down at the menu now, not really reading.
“Erin,” he says my name softly. “Look at me.”
I shake my head. “Not right now, Carter,” I tell him. I feel the table move, and he gets up.
“We are leaving,” he says, and I look up now. “Let’s go.”
“No,” I tell him. “I’m not going to leave because then they are going to know it got to me.”
“This was a stupid idea,” he says and returns to his seat when he sees that I’m not getting up.
“No, it was a nice idea,” I tell him. “Maybe next time, you should choose a place where you didn’t fuck the hostesses.” He doesn’t answer because the waiter comes by and takes our order. When he walks away, I look back at Carter.
“I hate that our night is ruined because of this,” he says, shaking his head. “All I wanted was to take you out.”
“You have a past,” I tell him, leaning in. “A very active past.” Shaking my head. “It was bound to happen.”
“I regret it,” he says, and I watch him. “This moment, right here, makes me regret every single thing I did.” He shakes his head. “I’m sorry.”
“It is what it is,” I tell him the truth. “It could be worse.”
“Really?” he asks, his voice defeated. “How could it be worse than I feel right now?”
I try to think of something, a smile forming on my face. “I have no idea, but I’m sure someone with a phone will post a video of previous encounters.”
He laughs. “Thank you,” he says, and I look up at him. “For not letting this ruin the night. For giving me tonight.” He stops talking. “And for coming home with me.”
“Oh, I never said I was going home with you.” I point at him.
“We will see.” He smirks at me, and I know with him, I will do whatever he wants to do. I’m not even going to lie and say I fought him. The second we got into the car, he drove straight to his house. We didn’t make it to the bed the first time, nor the second, but by the third, we were actually in a horizontal position on his bed, and it was fucking spectacular.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Carter
“And cut,” Ivan says, and I get up from the chair. We are in L.A. on the lot that Hillcrest owns to film for the next two weeks before we go back to Montana to finish it. “It was good.” Ivan comes to me. “This take, you had more heart in it.”
I nod at him. “It’s starting to sink in that he may never see his daughter again,” I tell him. This script is gold. It could have gone to a dozen other actors, but I fought for it, and now I am playing my dream role.
“Perfect. See you Wednesday,” he says and walks away. “Don’t forget the dinner we have with the crew Friday night. Yeah?”
I nod, grabbing my phone and checking my calendar. Tomorrow is the Grammys, so I have the day off, but I have to be on set Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday bright and early. I walk out to the trailer and open the door, finding Erin sitting at the table. We’ve been inseparable for the past two and a half weeks, and every night I slip into bed with her, I sleep better than I did the night before. After the restaurant, I thought she was going to call it quits. Fuck, I don’t even want to think about it, but she didn’t. She sat at the table with her head high and enjoyed the whole meal, never once giving those girls any inkling that it bothered her.
“Jessica, that would be amazing.” I hear her talking on the phone when I walk in and grab a bottle of water. “Friday would work perfect. He can sit down with you at five.” She looks over at me, and I nod. “I will see you then. Thank you.” She looks at me. “I just got you an interview with Jessica Beckett.”
“Cool,” I tell her, not sure what to say.
“Cool?” she repeats. “Carter, it’s better than cool. It’s the best thing that you could ask for. She doesn’t do interviews anymore. So the fact that she is for me is huge.”
“You did good, baby,” I say, walking to her and leaning down to kiss her with a smile. “You deserve a reward,” I say, and my cock gets hard just thinking about her. I swear we have sex sometimes five times a day, and it’s never enough. Not for me and not for her either. This morning, I was the one who was woken up with her sliding her mouth over me. I had one eye open when she rolled the condom on and then slowly slid down on me. It was slow until she started to come, and then it took off.
“Put that thing away,” she says, pointing at my cock that is now up and ready. “Sylvia and Ryan are due here any minute, and I’m nervous.”
“Don’t be nervous, baby,” I whisper to her, and I’m about to lean in and kiss her when the door opens, and I see Ryan coming up the steps. I move away from her and cover my cock with both hands in front of me.
“Hey, there you guys are,” he says and then looks over at Erin. “I just saw Ivan.” He comes in and Sylvia follows. “I have to say I haven’t seen him smile since he filmed Russian Roulette.”
We both laugh at that comment only because it won him an Oscar. I walk over to Erin, and she moves over, so I slide in next to her, and Sylvia comes in and slides in right before Ryan takes a seat in front of me.
“Good news,” Erin says. “Jessica is coming out on Friday to interview Carter.”
“I can’t believe she’s going to do it,” Sylvia says, and I look over at Erin with a smile, proud of her. “The buzz for this movie is through the roof, bigger than the buzz for Adrenaline Run, and that was insane.”
“You did good,” Ryan says to her. “Now to the reason we are here.”
I look at them and then at Erin, who looks just as surprised as me. “As you know, the Grammys are tomorrow.” I nod. “And I get that you would like to have a date, but . . .”
“I’m fine going solo,” I tell him. I mean, I’m not going solo, I’m going with my woman, but he doesn’t need to know that small detail.
“Really, and about the after party,” he says, and I just shake my head.
“Not an issue. I have an early call the next morning, so my plan was to walk the red carpet, interview with whoever Erin tells me to speak to, and then bounce as soon as the event is over.”
Ryan looks over at me in shock and then at Erin who looks equally shocked by all the plans I made. That and I already set a plan into motion for when I take her back to my place.
“Sounds like you h
ave everything worked out.”
“I do,” I say, and my phone buzzes. “I’m due on set in fifteen minutes.”
“Perfect,” Ryan says, getting up. “We will come with you.” Leading the way to the stage with Ryan on one side of me and Erin on the other, I prepare for the scene, blocking everything and everyone out. When we finally finish the scene, I walk out and see only Erin there.
“Where is everyone?” I ask her, looking around.
“They left five minutes ago,” she tells me as we walk to the trailer. “Is that the last scene for the day?”
“Yeah,” I say, and we get our things and get into the car. I don’t have to ask her if she is coming over. She usually does, and then we swing by her place in the morning for her clothes. She doesn’t listen when I tell her to bring a bag, but soon, I’m just going to throw shit in a bag for her, and she can wear what I pack.
“I should sleep at home tonight,” she says, and I just shake my head. “Carter, Ryan has the glam team coming to my house at one.”
“Okay, I’ll drop you off at noon then,” I tell her. “Problem solved.”
“I haven’t slept in my bed in over three weeks,” she moans. “Three weeks.”
“I am in the mood for Chinese, what about you?” I ask her, ignoring her comment. Hell, if it was up to me, she would be moved in.
“You can’t ignore the topic every time it comes up,” she points out, and I finally pull into the driveway. She gets out of the car, grabbing her purse. “You are very annoying when you get all barbaric.”
“I sleep better when you’re here,” I tell her honestly. “And me sleeping better is showing on the screen.”
“So I’m doing this for the good of the movie,” she says, laughing as she walks to the front door and unlocks it. “You will stop at nothing.”
I wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her to me. “Not when it comes to you and being in my bed.” I kiss her neck and press my cock into her ass. “Are we eating before or after?”
Hollywood Prince Page 16
