by Sarah Curtis
Victoria’s eyes lingered over each part of his body as it was uncovered, shamelessly taking her time and looking her fill. He didn’t rush because as he stood before her, he did the same. And she was definitely a sight that deserved a leisurely linger.
Their eyes caught and held, and her cheeks turned red. He wondered whether the blush was from getting caught staring or from being the recipient of his stare. In either case, he loved the rosy glow and made a mental note to find other ways of putting it there.
He dipped his chin indicating the top of the bed. “Slide up, sweetheart.”
He waited for her to get positioned before putting a knee to the bed and joining her. He lay on his side, elbow to the bed, head resting in his palm, facing her while his other hand made a trail up the long line of her leg, his fingertips skimming her silky skin. His cock ached as he stared down at her, but he forced himself to stay as he was, wanting to draw out the anticipation. There would only be this one, first time with her, and he wanted to savor every moment of it.
But then Victoria changed the game. Rolling to her side to face him, she threw a leg over his hip, opening herself to him as her hand encircled his dick.
He drew in a sharp breath at the contact and groaned when she started working him with her fist. “Fuck, sweetheart, you’re killing me.” His hand found her ass and squeezed.
A sultry chuckle filled his ears. “I hope you don’t mean that literally.” She squeezed his dick at the base before sliding back up to the tip. “It would be a shame if this went to waste.”
Fuck she was a smartass, and literally had him by the balls. No more Mr. Nice Guy. With a growl, he knocked her hand away, rolling her onto her back. Nestled between her legs, he captured her wrists, forcing them above her head as he hovered over her. “Now it’s my turn to play. And, sweetheart, I don’t like to lose.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Victoria stared at the man above her. The light coming through the open door only revealed half his face. The rest was in shadow. But the half she could see had her heart pounding. He looked determined. No that wasn’t the right word. He looked impatient. Hungry. It was surreal that Nathan Reed, the movie star, stared at her so intently with that expression.
She wasn’t one to act so brazenly. She honestly didn’t know what had come over her tonight. First, at the studio and again just then. The only thing she could blame it on was him. Nathan Reed. He had her libido all amped up, making her do crazy things that were totally out of character.
And what was even crazier, she wasn’t embarrassed or sorry she’d done them. Yes, in the light of day, she may look back on her actions and cringe a little for being so bold, but if sex with Nate was even half as great as the sneak peek he’d given her when they’d first entered the bedroom, well then, it would definitely be worth a little unease the next day.
“What are you thinking?” Nate asked, his thumbs tracing a pattern on the insides of her wrists.
Victoria had been brave all night. She wasn’t going to stop now so told him the truth. “This might be the best mistake I’ve ever made.”
A deep line formed between Nate’s eyebrows. “Mistake?”
She kept truth-spewing. “Even though I’ve never done something like this before, I’m not naïve. We both know how on-set romances end. They fall apart when the director yells cut. I’m not expecting more than this,” she bumped up her hips, emphasizing her point, “from you. So, in the long run, yes, this will be a mistake.”
His jaw hardened, and she realized, too late, she’d managed to piss him off. He released her wrists, rolling off her to sit at the side of the bed, feet planted on the floor, his back to her.
She sat up, her eyes zeroed in on the expanse of his back—the broadness of his shoulders with traps and lats clearly defined under smooth, tanned skin—not sure how to fix her mistake. She should have kept her thoughts to herself. “Now, I’ve really ruined the mood, haven’t I?”
His shoulders stiffened, and she realized her joke had fallen flat. His muscles rippled as he stood from the bed, taking a few steps before bending over to nab his jeans off the floor. “Get dressed, Victoria. I’ll take you home.”
He still hadn’t looked at her, and the use of her full name caused a strange lump to form in the back of her throat. She swallowed it down, refusing to examine why she was suddenly so upset. It was better this way, and he’d finally come to his senses and realized that. She should do the same.
She scooted to the edge of the bed and looked around the floor, spying her clothes way too close to his proximity. But that wasn’t a problem for long because after sliding on his last boot, he strode from the room without a backward glance.
She gathered her clothing from the floor, throwing them on, while a strange heaviness filled her chest. “Stupid,” she muttered as she stepped into her jeans. Why did she have to open her mouth? Why did she pick this night of all nights to be brave for the first time in her life? She pulled her shirt over her head and glanced at the bed one last time before slipping from the room. Worry over whether she’d screwed up her budding friendship with Nate followed her like a dark shadow as she descended the stairs.
To say the ride to her house was uncomfortable would be an understatement. Nate hadn’t said one word after asking her to punch her address into the sat nav, and so far, she’d sat through fifteen excruciatingly long minutes of silence. Not even the radio had been turned on for relief.
She hadn’t been able to suppress the urge to glance Nate's direction when she knew his eyes were on the road, quickly averting her head when they’d stopped at red lights. And every time she’d looked, he still wore an angry mask, making her wish he’d put his acting skills to the test.
They came to a stop, and she looked out her side window, seeing they’d pulled to the curb in front of her place. She reached for the door handle but stopped short of pulling on it when she felt Nate’s hand on her arm. She turned her head his direction.
He was still upset, she could tell from the stiffness of his posture, but his voice held a hint of tenderness when he said, “I’ll drive you closer, but I need directions.”
Her complex was large, holding more than fifty units. Of course, no matter how angry with her he was, he wouldn’t just drop her off on its outskirts for her to forge her own way to her condominium. She pointed a finger vaguely through the window. “I’m in the third cluster of units on the left.”
The car started rolling again, and he made the turn in to the drive.
“Right here is fine,” she said as he pulled alongside her building.
He hit the brakes then looked out his side window. “Which one is you?”
“My unit faces the greenbelt. It’s just down that sidewalk and to the right.” He opened his door, and she quickly added, “You don’t need to walk me. It’s just around the corner and perfectly safe. I do it alone all the time. Even later than it is now.” Plus, she just wanted this awkwardness to end. Tomorrow she’d pretend like nothing had ever happened. She didn’t take four years of acting in college for nothing. She could fake it with the best of them.
If possible, his already tense jaw grew tenser, and she was pretty sure she saw his eye twitch. “I’ll walk you.”
He didn’t say anything else as he got out of his car, slamming the door. Technically, he wasn’t in a real parking spot, but she figured he probably knew that, and quite honestly, didn’t want to confront Mr. Grumpy with anything else tonight.
He started walking down the sidewalk, and she followed behind until he paused at the turn and let her precede him. She passed two units, stopping in front of the gated entry that led to her enclosed patio. She’d already fished the keys from her purse, hoping for a clean getaway.
“This is me,” she said, sliding her key into the knob on the gate. “Thanks for the ride. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
But he didn’t leave. Instead, he followed her in.
She stopped mid step. “This really isn’t necessary.” She didn’t
think she needed to explain the this but maybe she did because instead of wishing her a goodnight and leaving, he plucked her keys from her fingers and headed for her front door.
It took him only two tries to find the right key. Victoria heard her alarm start beeping, and she pushed past Nate to get to the box on the wall by her front door. Her biggest fear was setting off her alarm and pissing off her neighbors. And though she knew she had a good thirty seconds to deactivate it, she always rushed to the panel as if it were the last piece of pizza in a room full of teenagers.
She quickly typed in her code and hit the disarm button, breathing a sigh of relief when the beeping stopped and the red light changed to green.
“Zero-zero-zero-zero?” Darkness shrouded her entry, but enough moonlight shone through the open front door for her to see his raised brow. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
“It’s easy to remember.” She didn’t sound defensive. Not. At. All.
His other brow rose to meet the first. “You memorize full scripts.”
She hoped he didn’t see her blush through the darkness. “So, sue me, I’m bad with numbers.” Of course, that wasn’t the truth. The truth was, usually in her panic to deactivate her alarm, she’d forget the code. Three times she’d set it off before changing it to a code even a kindergartener would remember. She’d spent a whole weekend making cookies as a peace offering to her neighbors. All ten units.
She saw him almost crack a smile and unwisely asked, “So, are we back to being friends now?”
And just like that, the scowl was back on his face. “I’ll be here tomorrow morning to pick you up.”
She almost told him that wasn’t necessary but stopped herself at the last minute. It kind of was, seeing as she’d left her car back at the studio. Damn. She’d been so flustered when they’d left his house, she hadn’t thought of that small fact when he’d asked for her address, or she would have had him drop her at her car instead.
He tipped his head toward the box. “Be sure to set that and lock up.”
Then he stepped out, closing the door behind him with a final click.
She stared at her closed front door, pondering his behavior and wondering how things had gone so wrong so fast, before doing what he’d told her to do, turning the dead bolt and arming the security system.
≈≈≈
“Cut! Cut!” Simon shouted as he stood from his director’s chair.
Nate’s shoulders stiffened as he watched Simon approach. Fuck. He’d been on edge all afternoon, and in turn, Victoria had been tense, feeding off his bad mood.
He couldn’t get that one word out of his head, playing on a loop and fucking with his ability to concentrate.
Mistake.
While he agreed with everything she’d said last night, he just didn’t agree it applied to them. He wanted to be more than just a really good, bad mistake. And that pissed him off because he knew, deep down, relationships founded on heat-of-the-moment lust didn’t have staying power. Not in this business where a couple’s willpower at fidelity was tested time after time. Most failed.
And even deeper down, he wanted to be more than just a mistake for Victoria because, however things played out, she would never be a mistake for him. That’s why he stopped things last night. He knew if they’d fucked, that’s exactly how she would have forever seen him, and that’s not how he wanted to be seen. So, with a restraint he hadn’t even known he possessed, he’d gotten dressed and taken her home, leaving him now frustrated and pissed off.
“I don’t know what the fucking problem is, but you’ve got,” Simon glared at his watch, “ten minutes to fix it.” He gave Nate a hard stare before turning on his heel and disappearing into the shadows.
Nate took Victoria by the arm. “Come with me.”
He dragged her to the same storage room he’d taken her to the week before. Bad idea. Visions of their first kiss filled his heads. Yes, both of them. Just the thought of getting her alone had the semi he’d been sporting all day raging into a full-on hard-on.
He closed the door with more force than intended right before Victoria ripped her arm from his grasp.
She spun around and faced him, arms folded across her chest, heat blazing from her eyes. “What the hell is your problem?”
The room wasn’t small but was packed with so much miscellaneous crap that it appeared so. He took one step toward her, and that’s all it took to put her back within touching distance. And he did just that. Gripping her by the upper arms, he pulled her forward, plastering her front to his before taking her mouth in a fierce kiss.
She opened for him willingly, and her heat mingling with his created a blaze. He felt her weaken, her tense muscles slowly going slack. Her folded arms fell from between them, and her hands landed on his hips.
The two sides of his brain were dueling. The good side telling him he was going about this all wrong. That this wasn’t why he’d brought her there. That they needed to talk. The evil side was laughing, gloating, and carefree, telling him Victoria was theirs and nothing and no one would get in their way.
He tore his lips from hers, both of them breathing heavily, their exhaled breaths intermingling. Their faces were so close, all he could see was her, all he could smell was her, and he said the first thing—the only thing—that had been in his head all day. “We’re not a mistake.”
She licked her lips, her dazed eyes coming into sharper focus. “Okay.”
“I’m taking you out for dinner tonight. To a nice restaurant.”
He watched her throat work as she swallowed. “Okay.”
“I won’t be fucking you after.”
A blush coated her cheeks, and he got a secret thrill at putting it there. What he didn’t get was an answer. “Okay?”
Her lips quirked, and she said begrudgingly, “Okay.”
He shook his head, smiling, feeling better now that he had a game plan—he would show Victoria they were worth fighting for. “We’ve got about five more minutes. Let’s put them to good use.”
She gave him a full smile. “Okay.”
CHAPTER SIX
Her lip gloss fell on the floor, and Victoria banged her forehead on the cabinet when she bent to retrieve it. The bathroom in her trailer was that small. Rubbing the spot on her head to take away the sting, she looked at her flushed cheeks in the mirror, took a deep breath, and forced herself to calm down.
Why was she so nervous? It was only dinner, and she didn’t even have to worry about putting out afterward. But the small voice in the back of her head reminded her, because it’s dinner with Nathan Reed and for once you’re actually disappointed the evening won’t conclude with a “happy ending.”
Sighing, she tossed her lip gloss on the counter and picked up the mascara. Noticing her shaky hand, she didn’t even bother opening it before tossing it back down without applying any. In the shape she was in, she’d likely take out an eye.
She heard a fist pound against her trailer door. Shit, Nate was early. Or was she running late? It didn’t matter, he was here, and she wasn’t ready.
They’d parted ways about thirty minutes prior, after filming their last scene for the day. Nate had asked her how long she needed to get ready, and not one to primp, told him a half hour would be enough time for her to shower and change. But, of course, in the state she was in, everything seemed to take twice as long. She looked down at herself covered in a thin, silk robe with nothing on underneath. She wasn’t even dressed yet!
The fist pounded again, louder this time. Victoria opened the bathroom door, squeezing out, and made her way to the front of the trailer.
“I need another five minutes,” she said to Nate with just her head sticking out the door, hiding the rest of her body behind it.
Nate stood on a middle step, dressed in slacks and a lightweight sweater. His hair was slightly damp with a thick lock falling across his forehead. A big grin stretched his face. “You naked behind there?”
“What? No!” Well, mostly.
&
nbsp; He tilted his head to the side, stretching his neck as if trying to get a peek. “Then why are you hiding behind the door?”
“I’m in my robe.”
“So, does that mean you’re going to make me wait outside for the next five minutes?”
She realized how silly that would be, especially as he’d already seen her naked. She pulled the door open in invitation, staying behind it. She may have agreed it was okay for Nate to see her in a robe but that didn’t mean she wanted anyone else to see her in one. The studio lot had good security, which made it a pretty safe environment for celebrities, but there was no guarantee it was entirely safe. The last thing she wanted was a photo leaked of Nathan Reed entering her trailer while she was half naked.
Nate entered, and her once mid-sized trailer suddenly felt incredibly small, not only his body but his presence seeming to fill all available space. She closed the door, and his eyes raked her slowly. Appreciatively.
She tightened the tie of her belt.
He raised a brow.
She cleared her throat nervously.
Then their eyes caught, and they smiled before bursting into laughter.
Awkwardness passed.
Victoria waved toward the small loveseat. “Make yourself comfortable, I’ll just be a few minutes. Can I get you something to drink?” The fridge was a few steps away, and she opened it. “I don’t have much,” she moved an old takeout container out of the way, “just some water and,” she looked over her shoulder and smiled apologetically, “half a can of soda.”
Nate came up behind her, a frown on his face as he peered into the fridge. “This thing should be stocked.” He pulled out his phone and started a text.
“Who are you texting?”
