He grinned at that. “You’re not really going to change your name, are you?”
“I don’t think you have any idea how old-fashioned I really am. I believe that women take their husbands’ names when they marry. I believe in children being raised by their parents, not by nannies. Yes, I’m changing my name. I want your last name on the credits beside my first name.”
He smiled. “I want that too.”
She looked at him curiously. With all the years they’d known one another, he’d never mentioned his family to her. “Tell me about your last name. What was your father like?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. My parents were killed in a car wreck when I was an infant. I was raised by an elderly aunt, who didn’t much care about me, to be honest.”
“I had no idea.” She was shocked that she hadn’t bothered to get to know her friend well enough to know that about him. “Why didn’t I ever ask you that before?”
“You know everything important about me.”
“I do?” Valerie had no idea what he was talking about. What did she know about him that was important?
“What’s my favorite color?”
“Green.”
“My favorite movie?”
“Star Wars.”
“See? You know important stuff. The past means nothing. You know who I am today.”
“What’s your favorite song?” she asked, wanting to know as much about him as possible. They were friends, but she was discovering there was a great deal more to know about him.
“You won’t laugh?”
She shook her head, surprised at the question. “Why would I laugh at your favorite song?”
“Well, it’s kind of sappy.”
“I’m a sappy kind of girl.”
“Don’t Take the Girl by Tim McGraw.”
She grinned. “I love that song. It is kind of sappy, though.”
“But you don’t think I’m sappy, do you? I mean, you know I’m a manly man, who only likes the song for its strong beat, and it has nothing to do with the sappy lyrics.” He winked at her, and she nodded.
“Oh, of course. You would never be sappy. You’re too manly for that.”
He sighed, nodding. “You know me well.”
Valerie nodded. “I’m your wife. How could I not?”
“As it should be.”
CHAPTER 4
After they got back to the set the following evening, Jesse carried Valerie’s suitcase into her trailer for her. They lived in trailers on the lot for three weeks, took a week off and went where they wanted, and then came back for more.
Once he’d set the suitcase down, she looked around. “We haven’t talked about living arrangements.”
He shrugged. “Your trailer or mine? I’m not living apart.”
She smiled at his words and nodded. “That’s my thought. I’ve gotten used to you snoring in my ear.”
He caught her hand and pulled her close, leaning down to kiss her. “I don’t snore. I breathe loudly.”
She snickered at that, clinging to him. “Uh huh. And you don’t sweat either. You glisten, right?”
“Like a pig.”
There was a loud knock on the door to her trailer, and she jumped away from him guiltily. He grabbed her hand and pulled her right back into his arms. “Come in!”
The director of the episode they were working on, Steven, opened the door and walked into the trailer. “Well, it looks like you two haven’t lost the sexual tension.”
Jesse grinned. “I don’t think that’ll ever happen. Do you?”
Steven shook his head, laughing. “I just had to see for myself. You both moving in here?”
“I think so,” Valerie answered. “We might end up using mine to live in and his for storage. Who knows?”
“Whatever you two decide.”
“I want my name changed in the credits. It’s Savoy now.”
Steven grinned at that. “Really? You’re taking his name? You know actresses never take their husbands’ names when they marry, right?”
“I’m not anyone but me. And my name is now Valerie Savoy, and I’m kind of proud of the name.”
“I’ll talk to the powers that be. Maybe for the first episode with the new name we can put a heart around it or something cutesy like that. The fans’ll eat it up with a spoon.”
Jesse smiled at that. “Get us some extra publicity for the marriage, would you? We need to do the talk show circuit and do everything we can to show we’re not ashamed.”
Steven frowned at that. “Curtis causing trouble?”
Jesse shrugged. He had talked to Steven while they were still in Vegas, warning him to be on the lookout for the other man. “Not yet. News just really leaked last night though.”
“I saw the Vegas news segment. It’s had thousands of views on Youtube, and your marriage was trending on Twitter this morning. Have either of you made an official announcement to your fans?”
Valerie shook her head. “I haven’t. I didn’t even think of that.” She reached for her phone. “Doing it now.”
She thought for a moment about how to say it before quickly tapping the keys with her thumbs. @JesseSavoy Love your last name so much that I made it mine. Thanks for sharing it and your life with me. #gotmarried. She set her phone back down and ignored the constant beeps coming from it. “I think I may need to shut Twitter notifications off for a while.”
“The fans are going to go insane.” Jesse reached for his phone to see how she’d said it and read her words with a grin. He pushed reply and tapped in a response. @ValerieDobson There’s no one else who I would welcome into my life and my arms so willingly. Glad you’re mine. #gotmarriedtoo. He set his phone down as it started pinging at him. “Mine too, I guess.” He grinned at her. “Great tweet, by the way.”
Steven looked back and forth between them before clearing his throat. “I’ll leave you newlyweds alone, and go tell the publicity people to get talking this up. They’re going to be so excited to have some real news for the fans.”
Valerie watched him go with a grin before moving closer to Jesse, her hand on his chest. “How did you respond?”
“Oh, you know. I said all the right mushy lovey dovey stuff that the fans will love. All of it true, by the way, but if you tell anyone that, I’ll deny it to my last breath.”
“Oh, of course. Because you’re a manly man and not a sap. I won’t forget that!”
“I’m glad. It’s important people understand the manliness that drives me.”
“It is.”
He backed her up against the wall, his hands going to her waist as he leaned down to allow his mouth to plunder hers. “We need to open the windows and you need to moan a lot. The whole cast and crew need to know what a good lover I am.”
She laughed at that. “So you want me to fake it, huh?”
“If Meg Ryan can fake it, why can’t you? You’re a better actor than she is.”
“You only say that because you’re trying to get in my pants.”
Jesse nodded. “Of course. I don’t even deny it!”
“Soon.”
He took a deep breath. “When you’re ready.”
“Why are you being so patient with me? I don’t deserve it!”
“Yes, you do. You’re the most incredible woman I’ve ever met in my life. You need to open your eyes and see what everyone else in the world sees when they look at you?”
“Which is?”
“Now you’re just fishing for compliments.” Jesse shook his head, taking her hand and leading her to the full length mirror on her wall. “Look at yourself. You have beautiful hair. I want to spend all my time running my fingers through it. Your body is perfect. I wouldn’t complain even a bit if you stripped for me right now.” He stopped and watched her for a moment. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Aren’t you going to strip for me, so I can prove my point?”
Valerie laughed. “Good try.”
“I thought so.” He mo
ved behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Look at us together. Millions of people in this country daydream about the two of us getting married, because we have so much chemistry between us.”
She sighed, leaning back against him. She was getting used to feeling his erections pressing against her, but they never failed to make her heart beat faster. “You make me feel like I’m someone special.”
“You are. I’ve never—cared for anyone the way I care about you, Val. I hope you know how fabulous you really are.” He’d almost told her he loved her, but he’d caught himself just in time. She wasn’t ready for the words yet. She wasn’t ready to know that he’d fallen in love with her at their first kiss, that he’d been celibate for four years, dreaming of her every night. No, Valerie wasn’t nearly ready for that knowledge. So he would do what he’d done for the entire time he’d known her, and bide his time. He could wait forever, now that he knew she was his.
She sighed. “You’re too good for me.”
He spun her in his arms, taking her lips with his. “I believe the opposite is true. Men all over the world are going to envy me.”
She laughed. “I expect to get hate mail from women who were convinced you were saving yourself for them.”
He chuckled. “Nope. Just saving myself for you.”
“Yeah, right.” She rolled her eyes at that. She may have never seen him with a woman, but she was certain he’d had them in his life. “No more, though, okay?”
“No more what?” He’d lost her somewhere along the way.
Valerie frowned. “No more women. I’ll do my best to get over my insecurities, but promise you won’t cheat on me before then.”
“I’ve waited four years for you. What’s a little more?”
“Like you haven’t had a woman in your life for four years. You’re crazy if you expect me to believe that.”
He said nothing else about it. He hadn’t even kissed another woman since he’d first met her at the audition. He’d been dating someone at the time, but he’d let her know that it was over between them. They hadn’t been serious anyway.
She yawned. “We need to get some sleep. We have to be up early tomorrow.”
“It’s going to be a long day of filming. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to watch that scene between you and Bob.”
“I married you, not him.” She stood on tiptoe and kissed him. “I’m going to go get ready for bed.” She went into her small bathroom, closing the door firmly behind her.
He walked to the bedroom at the end of the trailer, looking at the queen sized bed. It was smaller than the king they’d used in Vegas, but he didn’t see that it made any difference. They’d spent every night completely entwined in each other’s limbs anyway. A smaller bed would just make it easier to stay that close.
He stripped down to his boxer briefs as he waited for his turn in the bathroom. He’d be happy once they could get back to Los Angeles, and she could move into his big house. There would be no waiting for bathrooms there. They had another two weeks of filming on their schedule before they would be able to go back though.
He set it as his goal to wait to make love with her until he could do so in his own bed, in the home they’d share with one another. He wasn’t sure he could hold out that long. If she indicated she was ready in any way, he knew he would be all over her. He liked to think he had more discipline than that, but when it came down to it, he knew that she was his entire world.
When she came out of the bathroom in her shorts and T-shirt, he was sitting on the edge of the bed. She walked to him and stood between his spread legs. “I sure do like seeing you in my bed at night.”
“I’d rather feel you in your bed at night,” he said, waiting for her blush. It came just as he’d expected. “Do you think we’ll ever get to the point that you’ll stop blushing at everything I say?”
She shook her head. “Of course not. I’m going to be an old lady sitting with four grandkids on my lap, and you’re going to wink at me from across the room, and I’m going to blush.”
“Grandkids? That means you plan to have kids someday, which means we’ll eventually have sex. Right?”
She made a face at him. “You know we will. I just need a little more time.”
He nodded. “Think you’ll be ready by the time we get back to LA?”
She thought about it for a moment. She didn’t want to make a promise that she couldn’t keep, but with the passion between them, she knew it would be all she could do to hold out that long. Maybe by then she wouldn’t feel like she was doing something wrong by making love with him.
“I think I will.”
He drew her close. “Let’s plan for that then. I’ll take you out on a nice romantic date, and we’ll let things happen.”
She nodded. “I like that idea.”
“Have you thought at all about moving to my place? Do you have someone you could call to get things moved over now?’
“My agent would take care of it. I’ll call her in the morning.”
“I like the idea of your clothes living in the closet with mine.”
“You really are a manly sap, aren’t you?”
“I never once denied it. Just remember to keep the word manly in there, and we’re all good.”
She leaned down just the slightest bit to kiss him. “I like being the only one who knows what a sap you really are.”
He chuckled. “I think every fan of the show knows. They see how I look at you.”
“They think you’re just acting. No manly man like you could be that sappy in real life.”
He tugged her down to the bed, and pushed her to her back, looming over her. “What exactly are you trying to say?”
She giggled. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”
His hands went under the edges of her T-shirt to her bare abdomen, fingers poised to tickle her. “I think you’d better tell me or suffer the consequences.”
A gasp escaped her lips at the feel of his fingers against her bare skin. Her hands had been under his shirt many times, but him touching her that way was something else entirely. Her heart started racing. “You don’t scare me, you know.”
The fingers that were ready to tickle caressed instead. “I’m so glad to hear that.” He lowered his lips to hers, kissing her softly. “I don’t ever want to scare you.”
“I think maybe that’s why you don’t. I know you wouldn’t hurt me for anything.”
“I’d take a bullet for you.”
“Oh, Jess.” Her hands wound through his hair and she pulled him down for another kiss, one in which she was the aggressor. They’d filmed a few scenes where she’d all but attacked him physically, grabbing him and kissing him, but this was the first time she’d been the aggressor for real.
Her hands roamed over his back, and down, touching the bottom she’d admired so much through his underwear. “What is it about you that makes me feel so much?”
His hands moved up further under her shirt, one of them cupping her breast for the first time. He’d always been careful to keep his hands in places that wouldn’t upset her. But he wanted more.
She moaned softly under his hands. “That feels so good.”
Then his mouth was back on hers, and he was kissing her again, his lips more insistent against her. He caught her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, gently squeezing it.
She gasped under his touch, her mouth frantically moving with his. She felt an aching tenseness in her abdomen that she’d never felt before. One of her legs wrapped around his, stroking up and down him frantically.
He lifted his head for a moment, looking into her eyes. When he saw nothing but passion there, he pulled her shirt up and tossed it to the floor, lowering his head back to hers. He’d said they’d wait, but he didn’t want to wait. He wanted to make love to her.
Valerie arched her body underneath his, silently begging for his touch on her breasts again. She wanted him to touch her everywhere.
He leaned down, catching her nipp
le between his lips, stroking it with his tongue, while one hand skimmed down her side. He didn’t want to scare her, but he’d take this just as far as she let him. He brought his knee up to stroke her core through the sleep shorts she wore.
At her gasp, he grinned. “You like that?”
She nodded, her face flushed. “I like everything with you.”
He moved back up so his lips were against hers, keeping one hand toying with her breasts, one of which was still moist from his mouth. “Do you need me to stop?” he whispered.
She shook her head. “Not yet.”
He swallowed hard. The “yet” bothered him. Hopefully she wouldn’t ask him to stop at all, but if she did, he would comply, even if it killed him. He wouldn’t ever force something on her she didn’t want.
Her hands moved over his back, and before she thought about it, they’d slid inside his underwear to cup his bottom in her hands. He lifted his head in surprise, never having expected her to willingly touch him there. “Feeling bold?”
“I guess I am. Do you mind?” Her eyes searched his face, trying to make sure she wasn’t doing something he’d consider out of line.
“Mind? You can touch me anywhere you want, anytime you want.”
She grinned. “Sounds like fun.”
“Oh, it will be.” He lowered his head again, capturing her lips, his hands more insistent on her breasts. Slowly he ran one hand down her bare stomach, inside her shorts, to the juncture of her thighs, stroking her lightly, waiting for her hands against his shoulders to push him away. When it didn’t happen, he moved his thumb to the nub of pleasure there.
She gasped when he touched her, but didn’t stop him. It felt too good. She writhed beneath him on the bed, wanting so much more. She dug her hands into his bottom which she was still clutching, pulling him closer to her, and feeling his erection pressing against her hip. It excited her to know he felt so much for her.
She moved one hand around from the back of his underwear to the front, gripping him in her fist. He felt odd to her inexperienced touch. “Your skin is so soft,” she whispered.
Jesse took deep gulping breaths of air, trying to maintain his resolve to take things slowly with her. His thumb picked up speed as it rubbed against her pleasure button. When he felt her thumb stroke over the tip of him, spreading the moisture that was already there, he groaned. “You should probably stop that.”
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