Take Me

by Anna Zaires, Pepper Winters, Skye Warren, Lynda Chance, Pam Godwin, Amber Lin

  I wondered if Bridgett felt the same way when guys looked at her.

  We all just stood there for a while, and I felt myself automatically enter the at attention mindset – mostly blank in the head but still listening closely. It was a pose I actually found very relaxing, though training camps used it to drive recruits crazy. I always felt it was a good opportunity to let go and reset, and it usually left me feeling recharged. I could stand still like that for hours, though the others around me began to fidget after only two or three minutes.

  Once Brad Ashton finally hung up the phone, he stood and walked slowly over to the group. He barely looked at anyone else but looked me up and down more than once.

  “This must be the new guy,” he said with a smile.

  “Marshall Miller,” I said as I extended my palm for him to shake.

  He took my hand with his manicured fingers and held it a little longer than he needed to for just a handshake.

  “A pleasure,” he said quietly. “Welcome to the team.”

  His attention went to his PR guy after that, and we discussed the boring details of the main event of the evening. Ashton would be escorted through the lobby downstairs via the service elevator, over to the ballroom where he’d participate in an interview and a panel discussion with a couple other actors and the director of his next flick. The details didn’t interest me. Now that everyone else’s attention was occupied, I could examine the inside of the hotel room.

  It was a good-sized suite with a separate room leading to a king-sized bed and a nice view of the street below. In the main room there were two balconies and a wet bar. There was another door on the other side of the suite, which was closed with the bolt secured.

  With the room’s layout captured in my head, I was now able to watch the dynamics of the group.

  Phillip mooned over Ashton, barely taking his eyes off the man like he was some sort of golden god. Jim nodded a lot, but his expression told me his mind was somewhere else. He glanced at me a couple of times, and it occurred to me that he might have taken a risk bringing me on without any additional credentials.

  When the proper time came, we escorted Ashton down the elevator to his interview, then to a table way in the back of the hotel’s restaurant for his dinner with some producer from Universal Studios. I was stationed between the lobby and the entrance to the restaurant to watch for anything that looked suspicious.

  The next day was pretty much the same, only it was an autograph and photo opportunity thing, and I watched the ticket-takers make sure everyone had the right kind of tickets.

  The whole standing-at-attention, mind-numbing activity came in handy again.

  Damon and Jim were much closer to Brad Ashton physically than I ever was, and Ashton hadn’t said a word to me since that first meeting. Apparently, I wasn’t giving off the right kind of vibe. Normally that would be perfectly fine with me, but I needed Ashton to make a move, and he was only going to be in this city for a total of three days. I racked my mind for various ways of giving him the impression I might be interested and could only come up with things I might do to attract a woman, which didn’t seem quite right.

  What attracted me?

  Tits and ass, that’s what.

  No help there.

  I had about come to the conclusion that I was going to have to get a little more drastic. Every time Ashton went out anywhere, there were at least three of us with him, and usually four. When Brad Ashton retired to his room at night, it was never completely alone. Alex was always outside the door, and Phillip was often inside. I hadn’t caught any additional company outside of the core group, and I didn’t think there had been anyone else sneaking inside, but I wasn’t positive.

  I had to be sure, so I watched carefully.

  Alex was as diligent as they came, and he took no breaks during his shift. No one went in or out of the door to Ashton’s private room without Alex knowing about it. Ashton’s room was connected to a common room as well, which was where we would all meet before heading to the elevator for an event of some kind. Though the room didn’t have its own guard, there were almost always other people in it – usually other actors or people in the business, at least. It was where Jim slept on a roll-away bed when he wasn’t on duty. Still, there was potential with a third adjoining room which wasn’t being used by the group.

  There had to be another way to either get in or out. The two balconies in the common room were just a bit far off the ground to consider climbing up to them. There was no easy way to get up there from the street, and scaling up five stories using other balcony rails would have been beyond stupid.

  I had to get Ashton to come out, but he never left the damn room without a plethora of escorts.

  Jim and I walked a few paces behind Ashton as we moved from one area of the hotel to another, stopping every few feet for pictures and autographs. Alex was in front of him and Phillip just to one side. Every time a young woman approached him, Ashton smiled, flirted, and then usually looked a little nauseated once she was out of view again.

  And he was supposed to be such a great actor.

  We made our way slowly back to his room, where he moved straight to the wet bar in the common area and started rummaging around. Phillip tried to entice him with a large bottle of wine, but Ashton wasn’t interested. Instead, he found one of those small bottles of vodka in the mini bar fridge. Phillip handed him a glass, which Ashton took roughly from the PR guy before pouring the vodka and tonic water carelessly into it. Some of the liquid spilled on the counter, but no one bothered to wipe it up.

  “Looks like you are good for the night,” Alex said to Jim.

  Jim nodded, exchanged some notes with Damon, and then we all started to head out of the room. I glanced back at Brad once more and found his eyes on me.

  “Why don’t you hang around for a little while, Marshall?”

  Jim’s eyes met mine, and the little shine in them gave me a pretty good idea that Jim was well aware of Brad Ashton’s preferences. I wondered if he’d ever been asked to hang around as well.

  Brad held up his cocktail.

  “I hate drinking alone,” he said. He flashed me a toothy, actor-practiced smile. It was probably known to drop panties or something, but I wore boxers.

  This was really, really hard to fake.

  “Of course, sir,” I replied.

  Jim and the others were waved out of the room, and I couldn’t believe how lucky I had gotten to be left alone with him. Of course, the main problem now was the number of people here in his organization who knew my face if not my name. I just needed to work on getting him away from his room now so I wasn’t a completely obvious suspect.

  “Please, have a seat.”

  I hesitated, and he pointed to the chair next to him.

  “Please, I insist.”

  “I’m…ah…I’m still on the clock, Mister Ashton,” I said.

  “Hmm,” he hummed. “You should call me Brad.”

  “Brad,” I replied softly.

  He stood and walked towards me, still sipping from his glass of vodka tonic. He came up very close, though not quite touching me. I went back to at attention, which seemed to make his grin wider.

  “Am I making you nervous?” he asked as he took another step closer.

  “Ah…um…a little,” I admitted. At least I didn’t have to fake that one.

  Brad wasn’t one to be dissuaded that easily, though. He tilted his head to one side as he looked me up and down again. His hand moved out as if he was going to touch me, but his fingers didn’t quite make it. Instead, his hand hovered in the air right in front of me.

  “You are a…a very well-built young man, Marshall,” Brad said softly.

  I smiled slightly and looked down, feigning embarrassment. I tried to will myself to blush, but I wasn’t sure if I was pulling it off or not. This whole plan was actually ending up a lot harder than I thought it would be.

  “You aren’t used to men saying that to you, are you?”

 
“Um…no, sir.” Again, at least I didn’t have to make it up.

  “Sir,” he repeated, letting the sound draw out a bit. “You keep calling me that.”

  “Sorry, sir…um…sorry.” I took an exaggerated breath and glanced back up at him. “I used to be in the military. Hard habit to break.”

  “Yes, Phillip mentioned that,” he murmured as he took one more sip out of his glass before setting it down on the table.

  Once his hands were free, he came right back up to me again.

  “You are very attractive, too,” he told me. “I bet you have heard that from someone before.”

  I swallowed and refused to make eye contact. When I felt his hand on my arm, I followed the motion with my eyes as his fingers traced my flesh down to the end of my sleeve where they met with the back of my bare hand.

  “You are at least curious, right?” he said. “I’m not completely off base here, am I? I mean, if I am, say something.”

  I let my tongue dart over my lips.

  “I…I’m not sure.”

  “Have you been with a man before?”

  He was a straightforward little fucker at least. I had to give him credit for that.

  “Not…um…not really,” I said quietly. “I mean, there was one guy who…well, nothing really happened, you know?”

  “I do know.”

  Glancing away, I shuffled my feet a bit.

  “Thought about it since then?” he pressed.

  I swallowed again as I nodded once. I had actually thought about sex with a man – thought about it, sure. Actually, really, truly considered it? That was a completely different question.

  Brad Ashton wasn’t really interested in any kind of reality, though, so my answer was exactly what he thought he wanted. His mouth curved into a smile as he focused on my lips. One of his hands moved up to my shoulder and then over my jaw while the other one latched onto a belt loop to pull me closer to him.

  My heart began to beat faster, and I forced my face to only show my feigned nervousness over this whole situation and not my actual nervousness. What Brad Ashton wanted was blindingly obvious, but I’d never given anything up for a guy and didn’t particularly care to now. I hadn’t actually planned to let it get as far as that.

  Ultimately, I had a job to do though, and this was going to be the best way to get it done.

  His lips touched mine, and his hand moved to the back of my neck to pull me a little closer to him. I responded reluctantly, both because it wasn’t something I was interested in, but also in hopes of showing Marshall’s hesitance.

  “Not so sure,” he whispered against my lips.

  “Everyone…everyone keeps telling me I shouldn’t,” I said. “In the military…”

  I let my voice trail off, figuring the rest of that sentence pretty much spoke for itself. Brad gave me an understanding smile and ran his index finger over the edge of my jaw, down my neck, and to my chest. He rested his palm there, presumably feeling the beat of my heart under his skin.

  His lips brushed against mine again, softy and unhurriedly. My response was a little more encouraging, but only just. His hand gripped my shoulder a little more before running up the back of my neck and into my hair.

  “Are you nervous, Marshall?” Brad pulled back and looked into my eyes.

  I swallowed hard and nodded slightly.

  “I don’t want you to feel pressured,” he told me. “You are in my employ, after all, but this has nothing to do with that. I’m afraid I chased off your predecessor when he believed it was all part of his job. It’s not, I promise you. This is only if you are interested.”

  I let my tongue draw over my lips as I looked at his. My gaze flickered back and forth from his mouth to his eyes as the remainder of my plan began to form in my mind.

  “I…I don’t know,” I stammered.

  “Maybe just hang out for a little while?” he suggested. “Get to know each other?”

  The finger in my belt loop pulled again, and the pressure I felt on my leg was pretty damn obvious. I mean, the guy was just huge.

  No pressure. Right.

  “I don’t know,” I replied again quietly. I took a hesitant step backwards, and he released me. “I…I just hadn’t thought about it. I mean, you’re Brad Ashton for Christ’s sake. I’ve seen every one of your movies.”

  “All of them?” He raised an eyebrow, and I thought I managed to actually blush that time.

  “Yeah,” I replied quietly. “Even the…ah…the early stuff.”

  “You mean the porn?” he laughed.

  “Yeah, that.”

  “Meaningless,” he informed me with a wave of his hand. “If there is nothing else fame has taught me, it’s taught me to go after what you want, when you want it. I want you – tonight. Who knows what will happen to us tomorrow?”

  Who knows what might happen to you tonight?

  I let my tongue lick at my lips, glanced from the floor up to Brad’s eyes, and then over to the door. I wondered what Alex could hear from there and if Phillip would be returning any time soon.

  “Stay here, Marshall,” Brad said. His head tilted to one side, and he gave me one of those half smiles that seemed to make his female fans start dropping articles of clothing around his feet. “I mean…if you aren’t busy or anything. I was going to order dinner in.”

  I glanced at the door as it opened and Phillip entered, answering my earlier question. His eyes widened just enough to show his annoyance and possibly a little jealousy. He didn’t look at me or at Ashton as he moved around the room, and I figured this was probably a pretty common occurrence.

  Staying right now wasn’t a good idea. I couldn’t kill Ashton in his own room – not with Phillip and Alex hanging about. Besides, the plan was forming, and I wasn’t ready for this particular job just yet.

  Need to get some condoms.

  No, I wasn’t going to let it get that far…was I? I just needed to do a little recon around the area and pick up some other supplies.

  “I, ah…” I stammered a bit. “We were gonna go watch some football. Um…Jim and I. He’s probably already wondering where I am. Do you…um…you want to join us?”

  “Me in a public bar?” Brad snorted. “No, that’s all right.”

  He took in a long breath and blew it slowly out his nose.

  “Go on,” he said, “but think about it, okay?”

  I nodded and headed out the door and down the hallway. Playing hard to get would make him a lot more likely to agree to go somewhere else with me later, and I needed him to be willing to leave. If he wasn’t, well, I could always drag him out, but he looked like a screamer, and that would definitely cause some commotion.

  Jim was hanging out around the corner as I left the suite, and he pushed the down button for the elevator as I appeared.

  “You’re dodging the bullet there,” Jim snickered as we headed down the elevator.

  I just shrugged at him.

  After a couple light beers, I claimed to be tired and headed back up the elevator. Reaching into my back pocket, I quickly stepped into the skywalk heading to the other hotels in the area as I called Jonathan with the pre-paid phone.

  “Hyatt Regency in Atlanta,” I said when he answered. “I need room 555 in the International tower. Can you check it?”

  “Sure thing, bro.” I could hear clacking of the keyboard as Jonathan’s magic fingers poked around until he announced he was inside the hotel’s firewall or whatever. “It’s open. What name you need it in?”

  “Marshall Miller.”

  “Got it.” More clacking. “Give me a few and I’ll call ya back.”

  After shoving the phone back in my pocket, I headed down the stairs of the Marriott and out onto the street. It was getting late, and it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with what I needed, even if my connections weren’t very strong in this area. Even if they were, I wouldn’t use them. It would just place Evan Arden in this area, and I wasn’t going to chance that.

  I found a juvenile
delinquent near the Hard Rock Café and scored exactly what I needed.

  “You don’t look like the type that would need these,” the teen said as he handed me a few pills and I handed him some cash.

  “Depends on what you want,” I answered quietly.

  My phone vibrated in my pocket. I walked away from the kid and headed up the long stairway to the Hyatt entrance again as I answered.

  “All set?”

  “You should be good.”

  “You rock,” I said. “Thanks a bunch.”

  I hung up and walked over to the hotel’s front desk.

  “Hey,” I told the lady at the counter. “I lost my key – can you get me a new one?”

  I handed her my ID with Marshall Miller’s name on it, and she handed me a new key for room 555. I took the steps – it wasn’t too far – and quickly opened the room. I checked around, and was pleased to find Jonathan had been right – there wasn’t anyone already staying in the room. I didn’t have any luggage to leave around, but hopefully Ashton wasn’t going to notice that. I did mess up the bed and put a couple of the hotel glasses and the ice bucket on the desk to give the place a bit of a lived-in look.

  I slipped out again, then walked down the hall to the elevators, turned, and headed back in the other direction. When I got to the end of the hall, Alex was there. He raised his eyebrows a bit when I asked if Mr. Ashton was still awake.

  “I just need to…um…speak to him a minute,” I explained.

  Alex gave me what I supposed was a look of both disdain and annoyance before knocking lightly. Brad opened up and smiled as he turned to one side and let me in. As soon as the door closed, he was giving me a coy look and smile which were as sarcastic as looks could be.

  I stared intently at him for about seven seconds, took a deep breath, and then rushed forward, grabbed him by the back of the head, and crashed my lips to his. His fingers gripped my biceps as he tilted his head backwards, giving me control as he opened his mouth to me.