Aria slipped off her sandals, and Ben carried them plus his own shoes. The sand looked black beneath her toes, the water stretching out in front of them like a mirror reflecting the stars above.
"It's really beautiful," Ben murmured as they reached the water's edge.
Beautiful barely even did it justice. The water was like glass, cast with the lights from the pier. She could stare at it for hours.
She shivered against the chill brought on by the wind over the water despite the chunky sweater she wore.
He rubbed her shoulders but looked just as cold. "I wish I had a jacket to give you. Maybe we should head back?"
She shook her head. "The walk will warm us up. Plus, you haven't seen the best part yet."
"I think I have."
When she looked at him to see what he meant, he was staring right at her with a dreamy smile on his face that made her core heat and need pulsed through her entire body. "Charmer," she teased.
"Prince Charming?" He laced his fingers with her as they walked toward the pier on the sand.
She laughed. "I definitely did not say that."
"That's what I heard." He shrugged. "And, I agree."
Aria rolled her eyes. "I swear, I have no idea why I like you."
"But you do like me, so joke's on you."
"MOVE!" A kid came barreling past them, almost knocking her over, as they got closer to the pier. "PIKACHU!"
"What the fuck?" Ben grabbed her and pulled her out of the way of several kids now running past them.
Aria just laughed. "This is the best part I was telling you about. Come on, let's get a good seat."
"Are they playing Pokémon Go?" he asked. "Not that I'd know what that is."
Aria laughed at his embarrassed tone. "Suuuure you don't."
They walked up the beach away from the water and sat down in the sand. Kids were milling around the beach under the pier and nearby, their phones in the air. They'd randomly shout out the name of a Pokémon, and other kids would rush over with their phones held high. It was exciting and fun, and absolutely ridiculous.
"This is what you like to do? Watch kids play a game on their phones?" Ben asked, his elbows on his knees.
Aria wrapped one arm around his and leaned her head against his shoulder. "Yep."
"It does look like they're having fun," he admitted. "It's certainly fun to watch. They're bumping into each other."
"Sometimes I need to remember what it's like to be so unencumbered. So free. Just innocent kids playing a silly game, and enjoying life in the moment," she explained, curling tighter into him. God, he felt so good. Just pressed against his body, his thick arms and the warmth radiating off him. She'd never been so affectionate in her life, but with Ben, she never wanted to stop touching him. "Can you even remember a time in your life where you were so free, you'd play games on a beach in the middle of the night?"
"Never," Ben admitted.
She looked up at him, her chin on his arm and a heaviness weighing on her heart. There was so much intimacy in his reply, and she wanted to take everything he was offering her and ask for more. "Never?"
His face grew cloudy, troubled. "I started working when I was a teenager. My mother didn't stick around long enough to see me take my first step. My father raised me, and he was a great man—truly wonderful—but he was tough. He worked in the industry and had me working alongside him by the time I was thirteen. I've been working ever since."
"You never got to be a kid." Aria's heart ached for him, for the loss of his innocent childhood years, and a mother's love.
He shook his head. "Waste of time, according to my pops."
"My parents would spoil you," Aria said after a few quiet moments. "They'd love all over you. I'm the oldest of three girls, and my parents are still as in love as they ever were."
"I think I saw your mother on set...was that her?"
Aria nodded. "She's my manager, so she's with me on most projects. The rest of the time, she's taking care of my father. He has multiple sclerosis, and it's pretty advanced."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Ben leaned down and moved to kiss her cheek.
Turning her face, she captured his lips with hers instead. Soft, sensual, sweet...their kiss was affection, not lust. He pulled her down onto the sand until he was stretched out next to her, his top half leaning over her as they kissed.
She ran her fingers through his dark brown hair, parting her lips as his tongue explored her mouth. They were far enough from the pier to be alone, and the lack of lights left them in near darkness. She kissed him with abandon, putting her whole heart into it.
And it hurt. It hurt so fucking much.
Because in less than twenty-four hours, it would be over.
He'd be gone.
Chapter Nine
I'm in so much deeper than I meant to be.
Ben wiped his hand against the mirror in Aria's bathroom, removing the steamy fog from the glass. He looked...luminous. Happy. Relaxed. He hadn't seen that on his face in years, or maybe never.
"Ben!" Aria called out from the bedroom. "I cannot pick a script. They are all so good! I need your expert opinion."
"I'm an expert now?" He grabbed a towel from the rack and wrapping it around his waist. He opened the bathroom door so that she could see him standing at the sink. "About time you admitted my brilliance."
She laughed, glancing up from the bed where she lay surrounded by a pile of paperwork—scripts, from the look of it. She was only wearing a tight, white tank top and black lace panties.
Fuck. She's so sexy. Ben adjusted himself, taking a deep breath. Despite all the reasons he'd just gone over in the shower about why he couldn't, wouldn't, and shouldn't date anyone right now, one look at Aria made all his excuses seem...flimsy.
"I admit nothing," she teased. "But, you've practically grown up on movie sets thanks to your father. You know this business like the back of your hand."
Ben couldn't argue with that. He'd been groomed early on to take over a company like Shepherd Films, although he'd certainly had his sights set higher than one of the oldest studios in Hollywood that was mostly floundering.
"I used to, at least." He had an uphill battle in front of him, and this was just another reminder why there was no time to add a romance to his life.
Particularly an actress who is working on one of his films. He'd already made that mistake once—and he'd married her.
Two torturous years later, his ex-wife had dragged his name through the tabloids accusing him of everything possible just to get as much of his hard-earned wealth as she could. She'd succeeded, too. He'd paid a hefty sum to end that chapter of his life, and there was no way in hell he was going to put himself in that position again.
"How was your shower?" Aria asked, smiling from the bed. That smile. He'd never seen anything like it. It seemed to reside in her eyes even more than her lips, lighting her entire face with a pure joy he could only dream of.
"Good," he replied, walking into the bedroom. "Would have been better if you were in there with me."
Aria giggled, but shook her head. "After the last thirty-six hours, I'm surprised I can still walk. Plus, I've got to go through these scripts."
"I thought this was our vacation weekend." He pulled off his towel and tossed it at her. "No work. No experts."
She batted the towel away, but there was no mistaking her eyes dipping down to his pelvis. She chewed on the edge of her lip, and damn, he nearly came at that very sight.
"I'm trying to pick my next project. So, help me, Mr. Hollywood Big Wig."
"Pick whichever pays the most," he joked, grabbing a fresh shirt and pair of boxers out of the bag of clothes he'd had delivered to her apartment earlier today. Adding a pair of sweatpants, he finished dressing and dropped onto the bed behind her, kissing her shoulder. "What are you looking at?"
"Well, there's a sci-fi movie that says I've got the role—no audition." She held up a thick script and leaned back against his chest, flipping through the pa
ges. "I'd be playing a half-human, half-robot who learns to feel emotions by falling in love with a time-traveling alien while pregnant with a werewolf's child."
"Pass."
She glanced up at him, chuckling. "That fast?"
"I literally don't have to think about it a second longer. Hard pass."
"Okay, fair. The only thing I found redeeming about this script was that I wouldn't have to audition for it."
Ben nuzzled her neck, kissing down her shoulder. "Soon you'll be getting so many script offers you'll never need to audition again."
She made a happy murmuring sound, almost like a soft hum. "Wouldn't that be nice?"
"It's going to happen," he repeated. After seeing her on set, and knowing her background, he had no doubt.
"Okay, well what about another period piece? This one's a Victorian-type romance. The heroine falls in love with her fiancé's brother, and it destroys both of their families." Aria handed him the script.
Ben opened it up and read the first page. "It's well-written. That's a good sign."
"I'd need to audition in London this week," she explained. "I might not even get it."
He had no doubt she'd get anything she auditioned for, but the distance bothered him. It shouldn't. After all, today was their last day.
But, fuck...it bothered him.
"What else is in the pile?" He put the period piece script to the side. "Anything shooting in America?"
She picked up a thinner script. "An HBO mini-series in New York. I think I have a great shot at this. There are only two other actresses called in for it."
"The first woman to pass the bar and become a lawyer in New York City...based on a real story. Interesting. You'd do very well in it," Ben commented, reading over the front of the script. "Is there anything in the pile that shoots right here in Los Angeles?"
She let out a small laugh. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you didn't want me to leave."
He remained silent even though everything inside him screamed, I don't.
"There's this one," she continued. "But it's a stretch that I'd get the part. This one is going to be huge—major money backing it."
"Scarlet's Letters is going to be huge. You're going to be huge," he assured her. "What's this one about?"
Her face lit up as she began to speak. "It's based on a bestselling novel titled Murals about a famous female graffiti artist on the run from the police for the murals she creates in the middle of the night. All of her art makes political or human rights statements, and she becomes the voice of a revolution."
"Who's producing that?" His interest was immediately piqued. That script sounded fantastic. "And I vote that script."
"Because it's Los Angeles?" Aria put the script down on the bed and climbed onto his lap. "Are you trying to keep me close, Ben Lawson?"
She was a siren, brushing her lips against his jaw. Her voice low and raspy, a whispered question he didn't want to answer. He couldn't answer. The answer was too overwhelming.
"Aria..." he warned. The husk in his voice betrayed his feelings almost as much as his length pressing against her.
Her lips found his and he grasped the back of her head, pulling her to him. Devouring her lips, he pulled her down onto the mattress with him, knocking all the scripts to the ground in a flutter of papers.
"Tell me the truth," she whispered again. "Tell me you want me to stay near. Tell me this weekend meant as much to you as it meant to me."
The way she stared up at him, he couldn't lie. But he couldn't speak. He didn't know how to say what he was feeling, because he wasn't even sure himself.
"Ben, please..." she begged. "I need to know it's not just me. I'm going crazy here. We've spent two days together—that's it. I get how crazy that is. I'm not asking for a proposal or for you to profess your undying love. I swear, I'm not. I just need to know this hasn't been in my head. Are we real?"
What was he supposed to say to that? This was the most real thing he'd experienced in his entire life, but it was also ending in a matter of hours.
They'd agreed on that. They both needed that.
"Just tell me." She gripped his hips with her knees, pushing her core against him. "Please."
Ben reached down between them and gripped the hem of her black panties, pushing them down her legs. His boxers were gone next, and he pushed inside her. He had to feel her, be enveloped by her, consume her. Growling again, he sunk his teeth into her shoulder, unable to say what she wanted to hear.
She cried out, her back bowing off the bed as she pushed her hips toward him, taking every inch of him.
"I want to tell you," he whispered in her ear, thrusting into her. "I want to, but I can't. Tomorrow, we go back to strangers. We go back to...nothing. And it's going to fucking break me, Aria. It's going to break me, and I have no idea why."
Tears slid down her cheeks, and she pushed her hips against him. "I'm already breaking."
Ben pushed his arms under her back, wrapping himself entirely around her as he thrust in and out. "God, Aria."
She moaned, burying her face in his shoulder. "I'm so close, Ben."
He wasn't wearing any protection, but he wanted to feel her unravel. He needed to feel her unravel. At the very least, he wanted to give her this.
"Ben?" She blinked, looking up at him confused as he pulled away from her and slid down her body. The moment his tongue slid across her core, she jolted and gasped. "Oh!"
She came in seconds, slamming her hips against his mouth as he sucked and nibbled and licked until she was shouting for him to stop.
Aria gasped and moaned. "No more...I can't!"
As her climax subsided, her left soft kisses on her core and slowly traced his way up her stomach. He found her left breast, taking her nipple between his teeth. She shuddered and moaned. He cupped her other breast in his hand, squeezing her nipple between his fingers.
Aria pushed against him, turning him onto his back and climbing on top. "My turn."
He lifted one brow, waiting for her move.
She slid down his body slowly, scraping her nails down his abs and kissing his stomach. Her tongue trailed the line of his muscles as she moved south.
He could barely contain himself when she wrapped her full lips around him, taking him deep in her throat. "Damn it, Aria. Your mouth...fuck, that feels so good."
She slid her tongue around him, her fist wrapped around his base. Moving up and down, she brought him to the edge and pushed him over.
"I'm coming," he warned, trying to push her away.
She held on tighter, gripping his ass and demanding he give her everything he had. Lights exploded in front of his eyes and he burst apart inside her mouth.
Trying to catch his breath, he stared up at the ceiling. He'd had blowjobs before, but this was different. It wasn’t like she was some pro or had some special tricks. It was like…they fit.
She crawled up his body, collapsing on his side with one arm and leg flung across his body.
Swallowing hard, he tried to keep his emotions at bay. But he couldn't. He just couldn't keep his heart from throbbing against his rib cage. "Aria?"
"Mmm..." She murmured sleepily against his chest, her body getting heavier as sleep began to overtake her.
"We are real. This is real."
She turned and kissed his chest softly. "I know."
"Tomorrow..." He swallowed again. "I'm going to miss you, Aria. I barely know you. It seems crazy..."
"It is crazy," she whispered, hugging her arm tighter around him. "Completely nuts."
Ben turned to face her, taking her chin in his hand and searching her blue-gray eyes. "Tonight might be it, but I'm not going far. I'll help you get whatever script you want. Anything you ever need in your career—just call me."
"Ben, that's not why I'm with you..."
He shook his head. "I know that. I know what this is. I know we're real." A solitary tear slid down her cheek, and he wiped it away with the pads of his thumbs. "And I know tomorrow we go ba
ck to reality. But you're a part of me now, Aria."
"Ugh...Ben!" She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Why can't we just make this work?"
Even as she said it, he could hear her doubt. He could hear that something was holding her back. Something unresolved in her life, her past. She was in the same boat he was.
Her question was as unresolved as he felt.
He wanted them. He wanted an us. And at the same time...he didn't. He had too much on his plate, too much on his heart. He had nothing to give another person, let alone himself.
But in that moment, he knew saying goodbye might be the biggest mistake he'd ever make.
And he'd already made it.
Chapter Ten
Aria opened her eyes slowly, a ray of sun shining across her face. She shielded her eyes and turned toward Ben.
Except her arm fell on the empty mattress.
She didn't get out of bed and look around. She didn't call out for him. There was no need to. She knew immediately...he was gone.
It was Monday, and their free-agent weekend was over. They were over. She hadn't expected to feel such a hole in her heart, such an emptiness in her very existence. And yet, the pain of Ben's departure was worse than any break-up she'd been through.
And they hadn't even been a couple.
It had been a fun, intimate weekend with a man she barely knew. A man she had an intense connection with, but a man whose life wasn't compatible with hers. Hell, it was a lot more than just their lives that didn't match up.
Ben was angry. His very existence was angry. His natural state of being was tenseness and frustration. She wasn't fully aware why—though she could guess his recent divorce and the stress of his new job were contributing factors.
The sweet, loving side of Ben she'd gotten to know...that probably wasn't even really him. It was just a role they were both playing in the shared fantasy that was their weekend.
NUDES: A Hollywood Romance (Exposed Book 1) Page 6
