by C. J. Thomas
“Yeah.” She glanced at me for a brief second. “And I want it.” She smirked an evil grin. “And I’ll do anything it takes to get it.” She laughed but it came out more like a witch’s screech.
My brows tightened as I thought about her words. I was positive Professor Fields would have told me about it. He told me everything. “Where did you hear that?” I asked.
“Word gets around.” She turned off the water, shrugged her shoulders, and shook out her hands as she reached for a towel. “I heard your day went straight to the toilet.” She glanced over her shoulder to be sure I heard.
“Literally.” My eyes rolled as I sighed.
“At least it was Ricky Moran’s trailer you got to clean.” She turned to face me and finished wiping her hands dry. “Not everyone gets a glimpse inside that.”
“I guess.” I leaned against the counter and crossed one ankle over the other.
She stepped forward and said, “Nash must really hate you.”
My heart skipped a beat and my breath hitched. I stared straight into her beady reptilian eyes.
“I mean, first he tears you apart on our first day.” She paused and curled one side of her mouth up. Then she turned on a heel, flinging her hair into my face. “And now he makes you the cleaning lady.” She laughed.
I hated how much truth there was behind what she said. But what could I do? “Tomorrow will be another day.” I pushed off the counter and moved outside.
Val followed me and asked if I needed a ride home.
“Nah, I’ve got some errands to run,” I lied, playing it cool. It couldn’t have been further from the truth. In all honesty, I just didn’t want to be around her any more than I already had. Taking the bus was so much better than listening to her babble on about how great she thought she was.
“I have a car.” She stretched her neck forward and jingled her keys.
“Maybe next time.”
“Suit yourself.” She spun around and never looked back.
There was so much on my mind as I moved out to the street and headed down the sidewalk toward the nearest bus stop. Could Val be right? Was Nash purposely making an example out of me?
But what about last night? Was that some kind of example, or lesson, he wanted to teach only me? And what for?
None of it made any sense.
Why didn’t I know about him keeping the Assistant Director position open? That was the one spot everyone wanted. Including me.
When the bus finally approached, I stepped toward the curb, hanging my toes over the edge, and thought how I could end this personal misery I inflicted upon myself every single day—by taking the bus everywhere—if I just had the courage to spend the money I found.
16
Nash
I WATCHED Alex step out from the bathroom with another intern.
“Hey, Mikey.” I squeezed the shoulder of Mike, the costume director. “Come across any boxes out of the ordinary?” Alex stopped to talk to the other woman and I kept her in my line of sight so she couldn’t slip away.
“Shit, Nash. That’s been my life for the last twenty years.” He bent over and picked up a suit left out for tomorrow’s scene.
I chuckled at the truth of his statement.
“What you should be asking is why things don’t get put back in place so I have a fighting chance of finding them when I actually need them.” He gave me a look as he moved across the floor to the wardrobe like it was my fault that nothing ever got put away. “Why you asking anyway? You know this place as well as I do.” He flicked his gaze in my direction as he pulled a hanger from the closet.
“No reason.” I turned my head to find Alex stuffing some papers into a folder before closing it up and filing it away in her bag. “It’s just that you never know when a lost treasure will reemerge and be of real use to our current project.”
Even though I was talking with Mike, I couldn’t keep my eyes off her.
Alex’s tits dangled free as she bent over, giving me the most amazing view of her deep cleavage; the very same gorge I wanted to drive my cock between on its way into her mouth.
“Nash.”
I blinked and turned my attention back to Mike.
He gave me a skeptical look and brushed off the suit before hanging it back up. “We had this place pretty well organized before we began shooting.” He straightened his spine and let his eyes drift casually across all the boxes he had spread out on the floor. “If my guys would have found anything, it would have been then.” He gave me an easy nod.
“You trust your guys?”
He stepped forward and planted his hands on his hips.
I showed him my palms, not wanting to intentionally pick a fight. “All right. I got it. You would have told me if you did,” I conceded.
Mike relaxed and went back to work.
I turned my head and saw Ricky walking on the far side of the room. “Let me know if you do come across anything.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say,” Mike mumbled as I galloped across the floor to catch up with Ricky.
Ricky stopped and laughed when he saw me hurrying toward him. “Please tell me you have another intern ready to do my chores.”
I forced a laugh. “Did she do a good job?”
“Trailer is clean as a whistle.” He rounded his lips and whistled a single note. “Even my toilet.” He nodded.
“Excellent.”
“She’s cute, too.” He lowered his voice and came closer to my ear as if not wanting anybody else to hear him say it.
A flash of jealous anger tightened my muscles.
“Not my usual type.” He broke eye contact and looked over the top of my head. “But under the right circumstances—like during a dry spell—I might find enough interest to explore more of what she has.”
My fists clenched at my sides and I hated how he was talking about the woman who drove me wild. She wasn’t his type. He liked long and lengthy versus short and curvy. Besides, he wouldn’t know how to handle a woman like her.
He cast his gaze back to me. “Anyway, thanks for that. It really needed the polish. I’ll let you know when it needs attention again.”
“Don’t get used to it.” I winked.
He cocked his head to the side and gave me a questioning look.
“Just focus on the script.” My voice was low and straight to the point. “We’ve got ourselves a busy schedule ahead.”
He gave me a look like he wondered what he’d done to piss me off. I was in no mood to explain it to him. Not now. And lucky for me, the woman he was currently dating came up behind him and wrapped her arms around him.
“Don’t you worry about me.” He lifted his arm and she popped her head through. “I’ve got this character ingrained in my head.”
“Good. Keep it that way.”
“Hey Nash,” his flavor of the week greeted me.
I turned my back without saying a word. I didn’t know her name. Didn’t care to know it either. She was a new face for Ricky, and was lucky I let her on set.
My eyes snapped shut and I rubbed my face in the palm of my hands. When I opened them again, Alex was gone. Shit. I’d wasted too much time hearing Ricky talk about nothing important and somehow I let her slip past my hungry gaze.
She can’t be far.
I ran to my director’s chair, grabbed my keys and sunglasses off the table, and booked it to my car. Once the engine roared to life, I zipped out of the parking lot, squealing the wheels as I rounded the corner, hoping that I’d find Alex before it was too late.
The engine purred as I pressed in the clutch and shifted into high gear.
I scanned the horizon, and there she was.
She wasn’t hard for me to spot. Even from this far away, I could see her standing with her arms crossed, her flamingo-pink shirt glowing in the afternoon sunlight.
I dropped a gear and sped faster to catch up—needing to have her in my grasp.
A dirty cloud of exhaust expelled from the back of the city bus as it
pulled into the stop where she was standing.
Alex stepped forward and I knew she was planning to get on.
I pressed the accelerator down to the floor and sped faster to her. There was no way she was going to get on that bus. Not if I had anything to do about it.
Slamming on the brakes, I honked my horn just as she was about to take the first step inside.
Fuck. Look at me, Alex. Look.
She turned to look but I knew she couldn’t see me through the reflection on the windows. There was no way of knowing who was behind the wheel.
The next second, I flung the door open and stepped foot onto the street. “Alex,” I yelled over the traffic.
She lifted her hand and shielded her brow from the sun. Her face showed recognition and her gaze narrowed.
“Come.” I waved her over. “Get inside.”
17
Alex
I HAD no idea what the hell was happening.
First Nash, then Val, and now this.
It was like the drama from the studio had found a way to infiltrate my real life and I couldn’t decide if it was me or L.A. that was losing it.
When the stallion-white Tesla sports car sped up to the bus—like there was some kind of serious emergency unfolding before my very eyes—I didn’t know what to think. And when it started honking, I flinched and hugged myself.
What the—
My hair flung over my shoulder as I looked around to judge other people’s reactions. No one else seemed to see what I was seeing. Not a care in the world.
I turned back to the car and my stomach flipped, instinct telling me that somehow it was here for me. But who was it?
Time paused and my vision tunneled when nothing seemed to happen. I wondered if Val had followed me and wouldn’t take no for an answer. It was possible, but not likely. She didn’t seem like the kind to go out of her way for someone like me.
So who was this and why did it seem like they were trying to get my attention?
I squinted my eyes and shielded the sun with my hand. If only I could see inside, then I’d know who it was and what they wanted.
But I couldn’t see anything.
The windshield had a wicked reflection shining off of it and I might as well have been staring into a mirror.
“C’mon, lady, we don’t have all day.” The bus driver tapped the flat of his palm on his huge steering wheel and gave me the stink eye. “I’m on a schedule.”
“Sorry,” I pointed back at the spotless white sports car. “But I think—”
His eyes widened as if saying, Get on the bus or wait for the next one.
My knee bent and I took my first step up the stairs just as I heard my name called over the loud traffic noises. I stretched my neck back to the car flashing its lights behind the bus.
My heart skipped a beat before a heat flash shocked my system stiff.
Oh. My. Lord.
And when I saw who it was, my whole body tensed.
What was he doing here?
After what he pulled today, I had nothing to say to him. Instinctively, I wanted to turn around and run in the opposite direction. But knew I couldn’t.
Val’s words echoed in my ears. Nash must really hate you.
Maybe she was right. He’d fucked me and then rewarded my submission by making me the cleaning lady.
My nostrils flared at the insult.
“Hey, lady. I really have to get these wheels back on the road,” the bus driver barked.
I turned to Nash. He was waving me over.
My options were simple; get back on the bus or obey Nash and actually have a shot at making a name for myself in the ultra-competitive movie industry.
I hesitated.
The bus driver snarled.
Nash smiled.
My decision was much too easy to make.
Reluctantly, I stepped off the bus, unable to hold it up any longer than I already had. Not a split second later the doors closed and I stood there watching it chug to speed as it coughed a big dark plum of exhaust in my face.
Fucking great.
When the smoke cleared, Nash was still leaning against his car with the most gorgeous smile planted on his face. I hated him for being so damn sexy. But it was true. I couldn’t get enough no matter how badly he treated me when others were around.
“C’mon. Get inside.” He pushed off his car and walked around to the curb side.
I held my chin high as I walked in long strides to meet him. “What now? You need your house cleaned?”
He licked his lips and laughed. “Not exactly.”
My tongue smoothed over the front of my top teeth. “Then what?”
He quirked a playful grin as he looked up at me from beneath his brow.
I looked around at the chaos—both cars and people—surrounding us. “Can’t fuck me here.”
He took his hand out of his pants pocket, leaned over and opened the door to the backseat. “Wanna bet?”
18
Nash
I WASN’T GOING to do it. It hadn’t even crossed my mind.
But when those words escaped her beautiful lips, how could I resist?
She bent over and stepped into the backseat. All I wanted to do was bury my face in her ass. God damn, she had the roundest globes of any woman I’d ever known and I wanted them so fucking badly slapping against my thighs as I fucked her hard and deep. Just the sight of them made me painfully hard.
I licked my chops and followed her inside, pushing her to the opposite side of the car where she stared at me, blinking rapidly.
My gaze dropped to her plump, full lips, as her tongue slid across the bottom one, wetting it. I wanted it pressed against my mouth as I curled my tongue over hers, tasting the sweetness that created the ache between my legs.
She twirled her long hair over her shoulder and looked down at her feet.
My gaze roamed freely, traveling down her V-neck exposing her bronzed skin, and over her round chest before landing directly between the thighs she had pressed tightly together.
“Are you going to just stay parked here?” There was a warm glimmer in her eye.
“Is that a problem?”
She looked to the empty front seat. “At some point another bus will need the space.”
“And they’ll just have to figure it out.” My cock twitched when I saw her nipples poking through her blouse.
“So you don’t care?” Her fingers fidgeted inside the palms of her opposite hands.
I shook my head once before my eyes lifted up off her chest and met her gaze. “You’re mad.”
She turned her head and looked out toward the vehicles racing by on the road.
I reached out and grabbed her hand. “It’s because I had you clean Ricky’s trailer, isn’t it?”
She flipped her head around and squinted her eyes when she met my gaze. “I’m better than that. You know it, too.”
My fingers circled over her bony wrist and I yanked her across the car, laying her belly flat across the tops of my thighs.
“Nash!” She protested at the suddenness of my reaction, squirming beneath the weight of my strong hands.
My jaw clenched as I worked to pull her jeans down past her waist and over her ass.
“What the fuck!” Her legs and arms flapped.
I flattened my hand and slapped her bare ass, hard.
She yelped.
I grinned and slapped her again. “You don’t know what you are.”
She twisted her spine in an attempt to look at me, but her eyes were covered by her hair.
My hand came down hard on her ass in a series of quick paddles. “You’ll know what you are when you’ve had every position on set.” My hand raised high over my head. “Including cleaning,” I growled, laying down the strongest spanking yet.
Her back arched and she growled in frustration before I lifted her up off my lap, tossing her back to the opposite corner where she belonged.
She fought to straighten her hair before sh
ooting daggers at me with her eyes.
“I can’t have you on set.” My eyes narrowed as I watched her chest rise and fall, and I knew by the look she was giving me now, she was sopping wet—completely turned on by the punishment I just inflicted.
Her gaze cast down to my swollen bulge. “Why?”
I waited a long moment before responding. And as she looked to me for an answer, her eyes pooled with tears that threatened to spill over her cheeks.
I sighed, broke eye contact, and ran my fingers through my hair. “You’re too much of a temptation.”
Next thing I knew, her hand hovered over my arm. She gently began stroking light brushes over the hair on my arm with her fingernails.
My crotch ached like nothing I’d ever experienced before. And when I found the courage to look into those amazing tropical green eyes of hers, there was no stopping my hand from reaching out and cupping her face inside my palm.
She bit her bottom lip and closed her eyes as she leaned her face deeper into my hand.
“Open your eyes.” My thumb stroked her flush cheek, loving the way her soft skin felt on the pads of my rough hands. She was so fucking beautiful and I knew that she was the one I wanted to make mine.
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” she said, opening her oval shaped eyes.
She was right.
It wouldn’t be easy. “If you want to stay on set, there are some rules—specific only to you—that you’re going to have abide by.”
She took my hand and moved it to her mouth. “Anything.” She kissed the pad of my index finger.
And no matter how gorgeous she was, there was work that needed to be done to make her perfect—to make her into the woman I needed her to be.
My fingers trailed across her jaw, over her collarbone, and in a splash, I pulled her blouse down, freeing her round breasts.
Her breath hitched as her eyes darted between mine.
I leaned over and studied her soft flesh closely. “If you want to make it in this industry, you’re going to have to do something about these clothes.” I pulled the pink fabric off her body so she could see what I was referring to.
“What’s wrong with my clothes?” She leaned back with disgust tainting her voice.
