by Ally Decker
"You okay?" he whispered, brushing the tips of his fingers over her arm.
Tara nodded and smiled back. "I'm good."
They watched each other for a while and when she looked away, he let himself focus back on the group. Maybe whatever was bothering her had passed. It was no use worrying about it now. Not when he had what he wanted, right here, right now.
***
He woke up early with a low-level headache threatening to get the better of him, so he got up to swallow a pill and drink two glasses of water before going back to bed. Tara moved further onto his side of the bed while he was gone, so he lay down carefully, shifting until she was pressed along his side. She moved again in her sleep, putting her head to rest on his shoulder and he watched her for a while, smiling.
He let himself drift off, and when he woke up again, it had to be at least an hour later, maybe more, judging from the light coming in through the windows. The headache was gone and he was in a great mood, but his stomach was insisting it was time to get up and get some food. He turned his head to see Tara still sleeping next to him, and he smiled at the way her hair was all over the place, covering most of her face and tangled against the pillow. She was usually careful about keeping it under control, but Jeremy liked it like this, too.
You like her every way, just admit it, the voice in his head pointed out, and he did, he could absolutely admit it to himself. He could admit that it was even more than that, too. It was the telling her part that he was struggling with. Once again, he promised himself he'd do it before the week's end, but once again he decided now was not the time.
He slowly untangled from Tara and the sheets, and got up. He stretched his back as he watched the forest behind their cabin and thought that maybe today would be the perfect day to have breakfast in bed. He brought the food in from where the staff had left it earlier, but since Tara was still asleep, he decided to take a shower first, only snatching one waffle on his way, so his stomach would temporarily settle.
The cabin had better water pressure than some of the expensive hotels he'd stayed in, which was ridiculous but appreciated. He showered, shaved, and went through his skin routine. He put on new boxers before coming out of the bathroom, only to see Tara sitting up, blinking slowly. She ran a hand through her hair and winced when it caught on a particularly stubborn knot.
"Morning," he said, walking up to the table. "You awake?"
She tilted her head a bit, as if considering the question carefully. "Half-awake, but hungry," she finally decided.
"Perfect, since I'm starving." He picked up the tray. "How about breakfast in bed?"
After a moment of staring at him, she nodded. "Great," she said and got up. "Give me just a minute."
She disappeared in the bathroom, so Jeremy got busy setting down the tray and climbing into bed carefully. He poured them both coffee and fixed his. He knew how she liked hers, but she'd once told him that nobody could make it just right and she preferred to do it herself, so he didn't touch her cup. He looked at the breakfast spread and hoped Tara would not take long, because his stomach was getting loud.
Luckily for him, she was indeed out of the bathroom quickly. Her hair was under control now, and her breath was minty fresh when he leaned in for a kiss after she got back into bed.
"Good morning," she told him with a quirked up smile as she added milk and two sugars to her coffee.
"It's looking good so far," he said, reaching for another waffle.
And it was. Whatever had been bothering Tara yesterday, it seemed to be gone, at least for the time-being. She was relaxed and joking, and leaning into his side as they ate, and Jeremy caught himself a few times right on the point of blurting out that he wanted every morning to look like this.
He didn't say it. It wasn't the right time yet.
***
"Is everything a competition to you guys?" Tara asked as they were heading towards the field. An hour before, Greg had texted him if they wanted to play a game before lunch, and here they were.
Jeremy wasn't even going to try lying. "Yes."
"At least you admit it," she said, a hint of teasing in her voice.
"It's too obvious." He shrugged and made what his mother called his False Innocence face. "Besides, I'm pretty sure sports were created with competition in mind."
"There's friendly competition and there's 'I'm going to crash you and your ancestors' competition, though."
"It varies with us."
She laughed at that. Yesterday they'd won one game, but lost the other, and they'd taken it in good spirits, but the ribbing continued at the last night's beach party. Whatever happened today was likely to yield the same results, so it was only fair to prepare her.
Outside of dinner, it was rare to see everyone in the same place, since usually at least one couple opted out for more time alone. But now all six pairs gathered at the field, which made it possible to split into two proper teams. Tara and Jeremy were with Sylvia, Greg, Jess, and Sonia, and Jeremy thought their chances were looking pretty good.
As if to teach him humility, at the start the other team scored a few easy points. Thankfully, once Greg moved to serve, they quickly gained the difference and it was an even game from then on, as they moved pretty much point by point.
The ribbing intensified as well and Jeremy's face hurt from laughing.
"Don't look so happy, that pretty face won't save you here," Danny told him from across the net.
"If it was that kind of competition, we wouldn't even need to lift a finger, I'd be declared champion before the game began."
Which was a ridiculous lie, since Danny had the kind of face half the world would go weak in the knees for, but Jeremy didn't care. The more absurd or childish the jab was, the better, in his opinion.
He glanced at Tara, who rolled her eyes at him, but smiled nonetheless. He would take it.
They won the first set a few minutes later, and everyone took a break. Leaving the bench for the women, Jeremy and the rest of the guys spread on the ground. He sat right next to Tara, since she sat on the end of the bench, and he grinned up at her.
"Seems like you're pretty competitive yourself," he told her.
"It's catching." She arched her eyebrow before breaking and smiling as well. "But yes, I can be."
"Do tell."
She shook her head. "Nothing like what you guys do. Most of my friends aren't into sports, and competing is tricky when we may be already each other's competition for the next role. That takes away the fun. What we do is more like silly games inside the theater—who will have the worst audience member story, who will make the best save during a show, stuff like that. It's barely competing, but it gets us going sometimes, especially when we're in a group where people are from different shows."
"I'm afraid to ask about the worst audience member story," he said before taking a big gulp of water.
"I'm pretty sure you have it worse, what's with the being one of the most recognizable guys in the States."
He grimaced, recalling some of the terrible "fan" encounters. "Maybe, but I often have bodyguards with me now. Not always," he added when she raised her eyebrows, "but every official outing, yeah. Crowds can be tricky and…demanding."
That was one of the appeals of the anonymity of the camp. They could be here and act like normal people, without curious eyes following them around or interrupting them while they ate or wanted to take a walk. They couldn't get that in any of the luxury resorts he or his friends had ever tried.
"That sucks, I'm sorry."
"You get used to it or you find a way to make it work." He shrugged, not wanting to scare her off. He hoped she'd get used to it one day, too, since he wanted to take her to every one of his premieres or award shows from now on.
"If you say so. The biggest crowds I encountered were stage door crowds back when I was doing Illuminations, but they were all lovely and respectful."
"Yeah, Greg mentioned it's a different experience." Jeremy nodded. "And it's not lik
e every encounter I've had was bad, most of them aren't, really. They can just get overwhelming."
"What's your best fan story, then?"
He thought for a moment and finally settled on the story from the latest ComicCon when he'd met with a bunch of kids dressed as his character. They both laughed at the children's brutal honesty.
"Kids are the best, hands down," he finished with, and before he could say anything else, Greg got up and announced the end of the break, tyrant that he was.
Everyone scrambled up, though, ready for another set, and Jeremy raised his eyebrows at Tara.
"Kiss for good luck?"
She laughed but leaned in obligingly. The kiss was soft and short, and earned them a catcall or two, but he didn't care. He had a woman he had fallen for and good friends at his side, and the outcome of the game was looking good. In that moment, life was great.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The game ended with a tie after the second set, since the group split to go back to their cabins to shower before lunch. Tara was tired but happy and her good mood only improved when Jeremy got into the shower with her and proceeded to work off any residual game high.
Once they actually got to the cleaning part of the shower, she was mellow and pliant, and went through her after-shower routine on auto-pilot, opting to do the bare minimum with her hair and just braiding it quickly. Her speed got rewarded when she left the bathroom to see Jeremy spread out on their bed in nothing but his boxers.
He was a sight that could still take her breath away. His muscles weren't as defined as they had been in the middle of shooting the latest Collectibles but all the better for it, since it made him look softer now despite his all-around imposing physique. His hands lay flat on his stomach and she bit her lower lip at the thought of what those long fingers could do. She loved them something fierce.
Her heart sped up when the L-word appeared in her head, but she pushed it aside. She didn't want to deal with it now, and she definitely didn't want to ruin her own good mood.
Jeremy turned his head and looked at her and all thought left her brain anyway.
"Come here," he said, lifting a hand towards her, and she was moving before he even finished. When she was close enough, he caught her hand and pulled her until she was lying pressed to his side, with her head on his shoulder.
She closed her eyes to focus on how good it felt, to have him so close, to feel his naked skin against her. She didn't even realize she was moving her fingers, until he inhaled sharply at the way she was dragging her nails over his chest where his hair was narrowing into a thin line that ended below his pecs.
She tried to hide her smile and ended up with her mouth against his skin, so of course she kissed him.
"Mmm," he let out a happy hum and tugged lightly at her braid. "If you don't stop, we're not going to make it to lunch."
They had half an hour before lunch time, so they could do a lot in that time, but she was perfectly content just lying with him like this. She'd already had more sex this week than she'd had in six months previous, since they'd only met twice in that time and she didn't count phone sex, no matter how good it could be. And she'd missed this, too, having him close just to touch and be together, without orgasms in sight.
She put her hand flat over his chest and turned so she could look at his face. Her gaze slid to his ridiculous jawline. Damn. No man had the right to be this beautiful.
"What do you want to do after lunch?" she asked.
Jeremy ran a hand up and down her back slowly, considering. "We could spend the afternoon at the beach, go swimming, lie around, stuff like that. I thought we could spend the evening here, though."
Tara smiled, warmed by the idea of the entire evening of this, right here—being close and having him all to herself.
"Sounds good," she told him. I could get used to this, she thought and closed her eyes as if that could hold back the melancholy in the pit of her stomach.
No. You know better than that, she told herself, but snuggled closer to him anyway.
***
Sylvia flopped onto the chair next to Tara with a sigh.
"Wow, those massages are wonderful."
"I know, right?" Tara looked up from her book. "We booked another one for tomorrow, because they're marvelous."
"Greg told me they had a magician for a masseuse on set and insisted on bringing her with them here," Sylvia said, settling on the chair on her stomach, just like Tara. "I thought he was exaggerating, but now I'm in love."
"Not the kind of thing a man wants to hear only a few days shy of the first wedding anniversary, honey," Greg spoke from behind them and they both turned to see him, dripping water on the sand and looking at them with raised eyebrows. Tara could see that he was a very handsome guy—anyone with working eyes would—but he did nothing to either her heart or her libido. Unlike a particular co-star of his.
Which was lucky for her, obviously, since Greg was happily married to her friend, but still.
"It's a special kind of platonic love when she makes me feel very good." Sylvia grinned slyly at her husband and Tara took her cue to look away from the flirting couple. She turned and sat up, glancing towards the water to check on Jeremy, apparently just in time to see him coming out of the water.
And yeah, this time her heart and libido both went into overdrive.
She couldn't look away from him and the pleasure ran down her spine like a caress when he caught her gaze. He held it all the way as he walked towards her purposefully, then leaned over her and put his hands on the handles of her chair. He kissed her, deepening it straight away and ignoring everyone else around them. She let herself get swept into it as well, and by the time they pulled back to catch their breaths, her heart was hammering in her chest and she had forgotten where she was.
"Nice swim?" she asked quietly.
"That was nicer," he told her and dropped a kiss on her nose before sitting on his own chair next to hers and stretching on his back.
"Sweet talker." She shook her head and stretched on her stomach again, pretending there was no warmth spreading through her that had nothing to do with the sun.
"Nothing but the truth," Jeremy said and before he put on his sunglasses, she caught him looking at her in a way that usually ended very pleasurably for both of them.
Suddenly, she couldn't wait for tonight.
***
She'd been tempted to suggest they asked for the dinner to be delivered, just like breakfast, but in the end she'd figured a little teasing never hurt. She put on a nice dress and let her hair down, and then spent the entire meal touching Jeremy's hand, holding his gaze every time she closed her mouth around the fork or licked her lower lip, and rubbing her foot against his shin.
So it came as no surprise when Jeremy asked the waiter to pack up their dessert to go and then led them to their cabin, speeding up once they disappeared from the sight of others. As they moved away from the lights of the dining area into the darkness of the camp at night, Tara couldn't stop smiling, even if all the buildup was affecting her as well.
Back in the cabin, he pressed her against the closed door and put his thigh between her legs, pressing up.
"You've been driving me crazy," he whispered into her ear, making her breath caught. "On purpose."
"Who, me?" She tugged his shirt from his pants to get to the naked skin. His leg pressing against her ignited a heat inside her that demanded to be satisfied. "Come on," she added, pushing him towards the bed.
"How about I tease you instead, until you beg me to let you come," he told her, and, fuck, yes, she wanted that, but there was something else she needed more. Something she'd been thinking about back on the beach.
"Or maybe you'll lie back on the bed and I'll ride you long and slow, until we both come?"
Instead of an answer, he pulled her into a hard kiss, tangling his hand in her hair and tugging, making her moan into his mouth.
Then he pulled away and quickly undressed without taking his gaze off of he
r. "Come on, then," he told her, walking back until he hit the bed and did what she wanted.
She unzipped her dress and let it drop to the floor. Her skin was already flushed, the blush visible under freshly-acquired tan and spreading as his gaze moved up and down her body. She took off her sandals and underwear, and walked towards the bed without looking away. His hardening cock made her lick her lips and she figured she might alter her plans just a bit.
She paused at the end of the bed and Jeremy spread his legs invitingly, perhaps reading where this was going from her face. She put one knee on the bed, then another. She moved slowly until she paused between his legs, put her hands on his thighs, which tightened and relaxed under her touch, and leaned forward to run her tongue over his erection. She held his gaze the entire time, so she could see his eyes darkening and dropping half-closed at her touch.
"Fuck," he whispered, brushing his fingers over her face as she took his cock into her mouth. "Yeah, just like that."
She swirled her tongue over the head and sucked hard for a while, relishing his taste, the grip he had on her hair and the string of filth coming out his mouth. Then, he pulled her back.
"Come on, you promised to ride me. I want to see that." He let go of her hair and rubbed his thumb over her lower lip. "Did you picture that back on the beach?" he asked and smiled at the answer he had to have read in her eyes. "Good. Perfect. Show me."
She moved up his body and straddled his hips before taking his cock in hand and slowly lowering herself onto it.
Fuck, he felt good.
"Did you picture us in the bed, like this?" His voice dropped lower and he spread his fingers over her thighs. "Or maybe you wanted it back on that beach?"
Tara's breath caught and it was only partially because of the stretch of having him fully inside her.
"You would, would you?" he continued, lazy grin spreading on his face. "You would ride me on that beach chair, out in the open like that." He pushed his hips up as she tightened around him. "We would be alone, or…maybe not? Tell me."
