She didn’t.
“Yeah, of course.” If she didn’t give a fuck, why should he? “Send me the details, and I’ll be there.”
“You can’t make it to London before then?” Her husky voice made him hard.
Punishing her would mean punishing himself, and even though it had only been days the need to hold her, taste her, fuck her senseless, was too strong to resist. “I’ll do what I have to do next week and fly out the week after. Clear your fucking calendar.”
“My fucking calendar?” she teased. “A calendar to mark in when I’m fucking?”
“If you organize a limo, and pick me up from the airport, we can start on the drive home.”
Her shaky breath was barely audible. “Tell me.”
Sholto ran a hand over his hard cock. “You’ll be wearing a floaty dress with nothing underneath it. Not sheer, I don’t want the driver looking at your body. We’ll climb into the back seat, and slide up the privacy screen. I’ll be as ready for you as I am now.”
“I’m in my mother’s kitchen, and the door is open,” she whispered.
“Close the door.”
He heard her put down the phone. Moments later she picked it up again. “Okay. Done.”
He closed his eyes. “You’ll unzip my jeans and free me, then climb onto my lap. I’ll slide the straps off your shoulders, and suck your nipple into my mouth. I might bite you a little, but you’ll like it. With nothing between us, your wet heat will slide over my hard cock.”
She made a sound, half-sigh, half-groan, one so familiar he could almost scent her in the room. “Touch yourself. Are you wet thinking about me?”
“Yes.” Her breathing sounded faster. “God, I wish you were here with me right now.”
“I’m holding my cock and imagining you stroking me.”
“Imagine this.”
He held his breath.
“I’m on my knees before you. One of my hands is cupping your balls, and the other is stroking up your big, hard cock.”
The mental picture conjured up by her words was so strong, it was a good thing he was lying down because otherwise he’d sure as fuck need to.
“I’m circling the tip of your cock with my tongue. Now, I’m opening my mouth and taking you in as deep as I can, I’m licking you, I’m sucking you. Your hands are in my hair, holding me steady.”
“This is supposed to be my fantasy, my limo trip fantasy.” He smiled. “But keep going.”
*****
The doorbell rang. Max swiped wet hair back from her face, and reluctantly rotated the shower dial to Off. Their regular pizza delivery was here, and Cam would get the door, so she took her time drying herself and dressing in sweats.
She combed her hair, and draped a towel over her shoulders. Melati had given her an appreciation of things she’d taken for granted her entire life: hot, clean water on demand and the ability to stand beneath a stream of it, washing the day’s grime off with expensive, scented soap no longer felt like an ordinary everyday basic, but instead a miraculous luxury.
As did the ability to have food delivered rather than having to catch it.
She opened the bathroom door, glanced around the sitting room, and stopped, listening. The murmur of conversation was barely audible at the door. Is the caller not the pizza delivery guy?
She padded across the floor, but before she got there, she heard the door close and saw Cam standing there with a pizza box in her hands, and a weird expression on her face.
“You were a while. Was there a problem?”
Cam went pink. “We were just talking.”
“You and the pizza guy?”
“His name’s Drew.” Cam carried the box to the coffee table. “He asked for my phone number.”
Max poured a couple of glasses of wine from the open bottle. “He…”
“I was here last week while you were away, you remember you left one of the client files here, and I needed it?”
Max nodded.
“Well, I ordered pizza, and Drew delivered it.”
“Was that all he delivered?” Max teased. Her eyes widened at the look on Cam’s face. “You didn’t—”
“We just talked. He said he liked my hair and told me delivering pizza to me was the highlight of his day.” She took out a slice and placed it on a plate. “I thought he was joking, so I laughed it off and said it was the highlight of my day too. But it appears he was serious. He wants me to go out with him tomorrow night.”
“Are you going?” Drew was gorgeous, no mistake. But he couldn’t be any more than twenty-five, and the fact he delivered pizza for a living meant the difference in their incomes could ultimately be a problem.
“Yes. I am.” Cam took a bite of her pizza and chewed. “I know he’s younger, but I really like the guy. He’s more than meets the eye. Did you know he’s part-owner of the pizza business?”
“I had no idea.” Max glanced at the box with The Jacobs Brothers Pizza emblazoned on its top. “He’s one of the Jacobs Brothers?”
“There are three of them, and they’re opening two new places next week. At the beginning they all did pizza delivery as market research to know exactly how the business worked, but now they have a team of delivery guys.” Her lips curved into a smile. “Drew confessed that for the last three months he’s only delivered to one customer.”
“Me?”
“Well, here. He said he’s wanted to ask me out for months. The restaurant calls him every time we order a pizza and he dashes in to do the delivery. But with the expansion of the business he’ll be away a lot more, setting up the new restaurants, so he had to take action. Tonight’s the last time he’ll be delivering our pizza.”
Max picked up her glass and drank. “That’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.”
“I know. I can’t really believe it. Tonight I told him I have a daughter, and even that didn’t seem to faze him.” She reached into the box again. “I’m scared shitless at the thought of dating again, but the guy is hot as hell and an awesome hunter-gatherer, so I have to give it a shot.”
“And he has a crush on you. He’s stayed in every Friday night waiting for the chance to spend a couple of minutes flirting with you at the front door.” Max refilled their glasses and chinked hers against Cam’s. “Here’s to Drew delivering more than pizza.”
Cam rearranged the cushions and got comfortable in the large armchair. “I think the fantasy we made happen today is my favorite so far. I just keep thinking of how those people are going to feel when they find out their mortgages have been paid.”
Max silently agreed. Their most recent client was an amazing guy who’d won the lottery and decided his fantasy was to improve the lives of his best friends and closest family. He wanted his win to remain secret, and didn’t want gratitude so he’d employed F.M.R. to act as fairy godmothers, sprinkling money around like fairy dust. “I’ve never met anyone so selfless. He paid off his debts and kept a hundred grand and gave away what, four million?”
“He told me his fantasy was making people happy,” Cam said. “It’s amazing he doesn’t want anyone to know where the money came from. He’s the only client we’ve had whose fantasy doesn’t involve their own self-gratification, do you realize that? I’d begun to think that everyone was just in it for themselves, but our client today renewed my faith in human nature.”
Max’s cell phone buzzed with a text. She checked it, and tapped a message back.
“Is that Sholto?”
“Yes.” He called her every night, and she texted him throughout the day, avoiding the hours when either of them might be sleeping. “He’s flying over in ten days.”
“His schedule is crazy.” Cam grimaced. “A long distance relationship seems to be hard work.”
“It’s hardly a relationship at this stage. We spend more time apart than together.” Max shrugged. “I don’t know if we can make it work in the long term, but I want to try. I miss him like crazy.”
“I know you do. When you’re not
texting him, you’re thinking of him, I can tell by that faraway look in your eyes.” Cam filled their glasses again. “You’ve got it bad.”
Last night he’d told her the part in Solo was his, and that they’d start filming in three months. Now they were back in their regular lives, it seemed impossible to be together in the same place at the same time. Work was so busy, she couldn’t brush it off and escape to the other side of the world, and his life was sucking him back in too. But she wasn’t ready to let him go. Wasn’t ready to give up. “He’ll be here in ten days. I can’t think further forward than that.”
*****
Sometimes, the time on Melati seemed like a dream. From the moment he woke in the morning, to the time he fell into bed every night, Sholto’s life was full of people. The promotion machine for After Ecstasy rumbled on.
Now he and Caro sat next to each other in matching leather chairs under the hot, television lights, special guests on Kelly & Karl Ask, one of America’s biggest syndicated morning TV shows. The presenters smiled encouragingly, and dove right in with the difficult questions.
“Sholto, when did you read the book?” Kelly asked.
“I didn’t read the book until I was involved, although, of course, I was well aware of it. I’d have had to be living under a rock not to be.”
Kelly shook her head and chewed her bottom lip. “I really can’t get used to your accent—I’m really not expecting Damon Fitz to talk with a Scottish accent, and I’m sure many of our viewers feel the same.”
“Damon doesn’t.” Sholto softened his words with a smile.
“Well you did an excellent job bringing Damon to the screen.” Kelly was slightly breathless. “Do you think you have a lot in common with the character?”
Seeing as Damon was a pretty screwed up individual, with very specific sexual kinks, this was a leading question. “Damon is a complicated guy. He’s a very closed off individual. He feels things deeply, but because of things that happened in his past he’s guarded and enigmatic. He’s a fascinating character to play. When he develops deep feelings for Bette he doesn’t know how to handle them.”
“He’s extremely controlling. It must have been difficult to portray him and yet still keep him relatable. Some of those scenes must have been challenging to act.”
“They were. But I think the scriptwriting was excellent in that it allowed us to see exactly why Damon was that way—he needed to keep tight control of the situation to protect himself. I must admit there were times I wished he’d just talk to Bette about what was bothering him but it makes perfect sense that he wouldn’t.”
Karl cleared his throat. “The sex scenes with some of the most graphic ever seen in cinema. How did you approach those, Caro? You spent a fair amount of the film naked. It must have been difficult to be so exposed.”
Caro smiled. “Of course. I was prepared for the nudity, but it’s never easy for any actor to portray such raw, honest sexuality on screen. Our director was wonderful, and I felt very protected and nurtured every time we were naked on set.”
“I think the fact that we only filmed the hard-core sex scenes at the end of the shoot was great for both of us,” Sholto added.
Caro nodded. “Yes, because by the time we actually filmed those scenes Sholto and I were great friends and trusted each other implicitly. We had a closed set, but even then there are a lot of people involved and Sholto was very protective. The moment we finished filming he was the first one to fetch me a robe.” She reached out and covered his hand with hers. “He’s one hell of a guy.”
Kelly giggled. “There have been a lot of rumors about you two in the media. You’re both single. Have you anything to tell our viewers?” Her eyebrows rose.
Considering the fact they’ve been hamming it up in every single interview they’d done together it was hardly surprising that rumors had spread like wildfire—exactly as the studio had hoped.
But he was getting pretty sick of the pretense. Every interviewer seemed to be full of innuendo, wanting to know what he did, who he did in bed. He’d been acting his whole life, projecting the image that people wanted to see. Now it felt false. It felt wrong. He and Max weren’t exactly in a long-term relationship, but he wasn’t interested in screwing anyone else, and wasn’t about to outright lie about being in a relationship with Caro.
He quirked an eyebrow at her.
To his surprise, she went completely off script. “Sholto is a wonderful guy, but we’re not in a romantic relationship.”
Kelly’s mouth gaped. She looked as though she wanted to ask if they were fuck buddies, but considered that a bit too racy for breakfast TV.
“We’re friends and colleagues,” Sholto added. “And very good actors. Because you can’t believe everything you see on screen—fiction is fiction.”
The segment wrapped and they unclipped their mics and retreated to the greenroom.
Sholto dismissed the makeup artist and turned to Caro. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
“I wasn’t really expecting it either.” She sank onto the sofa. “I’m just sick of living a lie. I’ve met someone, and I don’t know how much longer I can keep pretending to be straight.”
“There’s no reason to hide your sexuality. I’ve told you that before. I’m a hundred percent behind you, you know that.”
She scrunched her eyes and ran a hand through her hair. “Coming out now could wreck my career. The studio was adamant that we pretend to be a couple.”
“After Ecstasy had a fantastic opening weekend. The movie’s a hit. We did what we set out to do.”
“But can the audience get behind a gay actress playing the part of a woman madly in love with a member of the opposite sex? I don’t think they can. Coming out now would be a disaster.” She twisted her fingers in her lap. “Jesus, I wish you just answered that question instead of looking at me to answer it.”
He sat next to her, swung an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.
“Why didn’t you just answer it?” She muttered into his chest.
“Because I’d had enough of the charade too, and I didn’t trust myself not to deny it.”
She glanced up at him with a trace of dampness on her eyelashes. A tiny frown creased between her perfect eyebrows. “What changed?”
Max. “I’ve found someone too.”
Chapter Fifteen
The wedding in the Italian cable car went off without a hitch, but at a cost. Max and Cam had contracted a team to make their clients’ dreams come true, but it had been a struggle. Now, they were back on a flight to London.
“We’re just too small.” Cam poured a miniature bottle of vodka into her orange juice and sipped it. “We’re doing a good job, but we need more people. I had a call from a guy who wants to rappel down the Sydney Opera House and another who wants her kids to have lunch with Daniel Radcliffe, with him dressed as Harry Potter, no less. I hate to say it, but I think we’ve bitten off more than we can chew.”
Max had to reluctantly agree. “I always envisioned the company as small and exclusive, but you’re right. We either have to expand or disband. The operating capital of the business is crazy—we have to pay for everything up front and invoice it on to the customer.” She’d thought of holding off revealing recent developments with Cam, but now they were talking about the future of the business, they really had to discuss it. She glanced over. “I got a call yesterday I need to talk to you about. From Shelly Green, the head of Do It.”
The biggest and best concierge service on the planet. With a network of branches spanning the globe. They were the sort of company Max dreamed of building Fantasies Made Real into one day. With unlimited resources, A-list clients, and a solid-gold reputation.
“She called you? How did she get your number?” Cam grimaced. “Stupid question, it’s her job to be able to get hold of anyone anytime.”
“Yes.” She’d been too surprised to hear from her multi-millionaire heroine to question her, but Cam was right, she could get anything anyti
me. “She told me she’s hearing good things about Fantasies Made Real, and she wanted to know if I would go and work for them.”
Cam’s hand gripped her plastic glass tight. “She was headhunting you?”
Max shook her head. “Not just me. I told her I have people I’m responsible for.” She stared at Cam. “I wouldn’t just close the business, and put you out of a job. Her response was that she would be able to offer all of us positions within Do It.”
Cam blew out a breath. “Jesus, that’s out of the blue. What do you think?”
Max had been up all night considering Shelly Green’s offer. Running her own business had been a terrific experience, but she was handicapped by not having resources in every country, as Do It had. And by the curtailed spending power available to her. And the stress of the business was something she sure wouldn’t miss. “I think we should consider it. She says there’s a role for you in the London office, and the remuneration package is a lot more than I pay you right now.”
“And for you?”
“She offered me a middle management position in my choice of location, worldwide. I’d be giving up running my own company, but I’d be well rewarded financially.” It was the dream job, one she would have bitten off her right arm for a few months ago, before she started Fantasies Made Real.
“What about our current clients?”
“Shelly would give them free membership of Do It for a year. I don’t know if we’d be able to continue fulfilling some of their more extreme requests, but I’m sure I’d find that out when we sit down to talk through it. I asked for a few days to think about it, but I wanted to get your take on it before I decide.”
Cam finished her drink. “I love working for you. Fantasies Made Real is my fantasy made real, you know that. You gave me a chance when no-one else would.” She tapped her bottom lip with a perfectly painted fingernail. “But you’re right. We need to pump a lot more money in to take the company to the next level.”
“Go big or go home. Giving up and closing the company feels like failure.”
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