A bothersome thought flashes through my head. “Have you ever—”
“Never, Mal. You’d be my first,” he says. “You’ll be my only. And I promise you, you’ll be my last.”
I think he just made my heart flip over in my chest. How can I say no to him? And I might as well get used to this now. We’ll be spending a lot more time apart in the future. I take the stairs two at a time. “I’m beginning to really like your promises,” I say, locking my door behind me.
And then with his words, he makes the most passionate love to me.
~ ~ ~
Chad and I have spent a lot of time on the phone in the six weeks since I left L.A. A lot. He came out to visit every other weekend and for Kyle’s med school graduation. Ana came with him on several of his weekend trips so she and Julian could get to know each other. They hit it off well, and now Julian is here with me at their press junket photo shoot. The four of us are going out to dinner after.
Julian and I are sitting in director’s chairs, tucked away in a corner of the studio as Chad and Ana get dolled up for some Blind Shot promo pics while they are here promoting the upcoming release. Julian is tinkering around on his phone. “I wonder what shit they’ll think up to print after they get pictures of the four of us tonight,” he says.
I laugh. “Maybe that we’re swingers?”
The press has been having a field day printing all kinds of rumors. First, I was stepping out on Thad with our longtime friend, Julian. They showed pictures of me hugging him at my door and pictures of our ‘double date’ with Mel and Steve. And when Julian escorted me to the Blind Shot premiere, we caused quite a stir. But Chad’s manager insisted Chad only show up with Ana on his arm, and since it wasn’t Courtney, I told Chad not to bother arguing the point. Then one night, when I crashed at Julian’s place, the pap even got pictures of me exiting his building early the next morning.
The second big story the press is salivating over is that Courtney Benson has been MIA for weeks. They say she’s in hiding because she was dumped by Thad for ‘the school teacher’ and she’s too heartbroken to make public appearances. We have no idea why she’s gone off the grid, and I could care less. Chad is worried she’s lying in a ditch somewhere after having OD’d on drugs. His only concern is that she be able to fulfill her obligations for the Defcon sequel.
I try not to think about the filming he’ll have to do with her this summer. Eight weeks of filming, four on location in Sedona. Day in and day out they’ll be together. They will have kissing scenes and sex scenes, and even though Chad has tried to tell me how it’s not as bad as I would think, she will still have her lips on his lips and her hands on his body. The thought of it makes me ill.
“Whoa!” Julian says, grabbing onto my arm.
I look up to see Ana coming out of her dressing room. She’s wearing a short red dress that barely covers her ass cheeks, and her legs look a mile long in the six-inch stilettos she’s wearing. Her platinum-blonde hair has been made to look windblown and her flawless makeup screams that her face should be on the cover of every fashion magazine. “You get to have dinner with that tonight, you lucky man,” I whisper to him.
“Holy shit, Mal. She’s gorgeous,” he says. “I mean, she’s always beautiful, but . . . damn, is it wrong of me to want to take off my shirt and cover her with it? She’s barely dressed and everyone will see her like this.”
I stare at him, watching him watch her. “You really like her, don’t you?”
They met the first time Chad brought Ana out last month. And she came out a second time with him a few weeks later. That was when they had their first official date. Julian can’t stop talking about her. Chad says Ana is the same way. Julian doesn’t even bother looking at me when he answers. “I do.”
I smile. Maybe this one will stick. I’ve never seen him so giddy over a woman before. Not even when we were dating. It makes my heart feel good knowing that he’s finally let his heart move on from me.
My own protective senses go into overdrive when I see Chad come out of his dressing room. My eyes bug out and I wipe the proverbial drool from my chin. “What was it you said about wanting to cover them up?” I ask Julian.
Julian laughs at me as my eyes are glued to my super-hot-and-sexy boyfriend. He’s in black jeans. Jeans that are slung so low, I can see the beginning of his happy trail. And he’s wearing a black leather jacket. With no shirt underneath. His perfectly ripped abs are showing. Oh, God.
“And you get to go out with that,” Julian says. He elbows me. “Do you think they will let them keep the clothes?”
They pose Chad on a motorcycle and Ana next to him with her hand smack in the middle of his bare chest. She looks over and flashes an apology at both Julian and me. But somehow, neither of us seem to be bothered by it. This is Ana. You’d have to look far and wide to find anyone as sweet as her. She wouldn’t hurt a fly. And she says she thinks of Chad as a big brother. Of course, it helps that they never dated. I wish she were Chad’s Defcon co-star instead of Courtney. If I have to watch Chad stick his tongue down someone’s throat, I’d rather it be her.
For the next hour, Julian and I stare at our dates as they make fuck-me eyes at each other, laughing and joking between photos. I have to admit, they look stunning together. They could even pass for brother and sister, both having gorgeous blonde hair and blue eyes.
Just before they wrap it up, Chad calls Julian and me over, having the photographer snap pictures of the four of us and then each couple. For our photo, Chad stands behind me, wrapping me inside his jacket as I gaze up at him out of the corner of my eye. His expression is even hotter than when he posed with Ana. There’s so much emotion passing between us. Admiration, desire, love. I know these photos will become some of my most cherished possessions.
I walk Chad back to his dressing room, peering up at him in disbelief.
“What?” he asks.
I shake my head, smiling. “I just can’t believe you’re mine,” I say, raking my gaze over him.
He pulls me into his dressing room and shuts the door. “Believe it, Mallory Kate. It’s true. It’s true now and forever,” he says right before claiming my lips with his.
~ ~ ~
“That was the best meal ever,” Chad says, rubbing his stomach in appreciation. “Thanks, bro.”
I’m grateful Chad doesn’t let his superstar ego get in the way of Julian paying for dinner. It’s important for Julian to be able to do things like this. And although Julian’s paychecks are hardly in the seven figures like Chad’s, he does quite well and I’m proud of him. Plus, I think he wants Ana to know that he’s perfectly capable of providing for her.
“Happy to do it,” Julian says. “So, are you guys excited about going to Paris next?”
“Are you kidding?” Ana says, squirming in her chair. “I can’t wait. It will be my first time out of the U.S.”
Chad frowns. He wanted me to go with him so badly for the Paris Blind Shot premiere. But there are only two weeks of school left. There is no way I could go this close to the end of the year. “I guess,” Chad says, shrugging a shoulder. “But it could have been a whole lot better.”
“I’m sorry,” I say. “If it were only two weeks later, you know I would do it.”
“Are you saying that you’d go anywhere I asked as long as it falls over your summer break?”
“Of course,” I say.
He points to Julian and Ana. “You guys heard that, right? She said she’d go wherever I asked her.”
They both nod, looking at him strangely.
“What?” I ask, confused over where this is going.
“I’ve been wanting to ask you this all week, but didn’t know how.” He puts his arm behind me on the back of my chair, running his thumb in circles on my shoulder. “I would love it if you’d spend the summer with me, Mallory. I want you to come stay with me in L.A. and come with me to Sedona.”
“You want me to go on location with you? While you’re filming?” I look at Julia
n and Ana to see if they heard what I heard. They both smile at me.
“We talked about it once and you said you would,” Chad says.
“I thought you meant a weekend, Chad. What on earth will I do while you’re working?”
“A lot of actors bring their families on location. It’s not that unusual. There will be plenty of things for you to do. You can go sightseeing. You can hang out in my trailer. You can come on set.”
I smile shyly at him. “You think of me as family?”
“Only since you were six, Mal.”
Then my face falls thinking of who I’d be leaving behind. “I can’t go,” I tell him. “Not for the whole summer. I can’t leave my dad for that long.”
Chad’s eyes drop to the table. I know he won’t argue with me. He knows how important it is for me to take care of my dad.
“Uh, Mallory?” Julian says. “I think there’s something you should know about your dad.”
“Oh, God, what?” I ask, scared by his declaration.
He makes some strange faces, as though he’s trying to figure out how to tell me some deep, dark secret.
“Tell her,” Ana says, nodding at Julian while she puts her hand on top of his.
What? How is it that Julian and Ana both know something about my dad that I don’t?
“What is it, Julian?” I beg.
“Your dad should probably be the one to tell you this, Mallory. But he thought maybe it would upset you.”
I look between him and Ana. “Is he selling the house or something?”
“Not that I know of. But um . . . he has been dating someone for a while now.”
My jaw drops. Then for a few seconds, pictures of my mom flash through my mind. How is it possible to be so sad and happy over the same news? “Really? Define a while.”
Julian motions between Chad and me. “Longer than you’ve been together. Six months, maybe.”
I replay some of the moments with my dad in my head. I guess it makes sense. He’s been able to talk about my mom without getting upset. He’s been going out more than he ever used to. Oh, my God. My dad has a girlfriend!
“Who is she?”
Julian winces. “That’s the part he thought you might have the most trouble with. She’s a nurse.”
I sigh. My mom was a nurse. Of course that’s why he didn’t want to tell me. I close my eyes and absorb the information. “No, it’s fine. It makes sense that he’d date someone from the hospital. He’s pretty much there all the time. How serious is it?” I ask.
He shrugs. “You’ll have to ask him that. But I think pretty serious.”
Julian and my dad have a great relationship. I never told my dad that he cheated on me, and they remained friends even when Julian and I weren’t. What surprises me is that Julian has discussed this with Ana. I smile thinking maybe their relationship is more serious than I thought.
“So you don’t have to stick around and take care of him, Mal,” Julian says. “I have a feeling he’ll be just fine if you leave for the summer.”
“Maybe Julian could come out for a week and we can all hang out,” Ana says, looking hopeful.
“I think that could be arranged,” he says, putting his arm around her.
I smile, looking over at Chad. I don’t need words to tell him I agree. He leans in to kiss me and then whispers in my ear. “Ten weeks with you will be like living in heaven.”
My heart thunders. My body melts. My head spins. I’m not sure, but if I looked it up in the dictionary, that might be the definition of swooning.
Chapter Twenty-three
Chad
I wasn’t kidding when I told Mal it would be heaven having her live with me for the summer. Two weeks in and I already know this is what I want for the rest of our lives. But I know it’s not always going to work out this well. Mallory works ten months out of the year. She won’t be able to come with me when I film most times. What will happen then; when getting away for the weekend isn’t an option? Filming is done on a very tight schedule. To stay within budget we sometimes work fourteen to sixteen hour days, six or seven days a week.
With Mallory’s help, I picked two films to do next year. Out of the Deep, that sci-fi number Paul really wanted me to do; and another romantic comedy like Blind Shot called Four Night Stand. I told Paul no way in hell would I sign on for the Malibu movie. He wasn’t too sore at me, though, because Thomas didn’t want to do it either—and it was all or nothing. I’m hoping that will get Heather out of my life once and for all.
I’m showing Mal around my trailer in the studio lot where we’ll be filming for the next few weeks before we head to Sedona. Kendra has made sure they provided all the comforts of home, especially since Mallory will be spending so much time here. Kendra even blew up a picture of the two of us and had it framed and mounted over the couch.
Mal opens the small refrigerator that has already been completely stocked. She pulls out a bottle of her favorite beer and examines it. “How did they know? Did you tell them?”
“It’s Kendra’s job to find out what we like,” I say. “She submits a list of requests for our favorite things like food, drink or personal items. They’re called riders.”
She goes to the back, checking out the small bedroom. She opens the closet to see it’s been filled with duplicates of my favorite shirts and jeans. She opens the drawers. She looks at me, red in the face. “Did you tell her to get these?” She holds up a box of condoms.
I laugh. “No. That’s pretty much standard.”
Mal’s face falls into a frown and she puts the box back where she found it and sits on the bed. “So they will put them there even when I’m not with you? Do they expect you to use them?”
I step over to the bed and sit beside her. “Babe, they could put a naked Victoria’s Secret model on my bed and I still wouldn’t use them.”
She gives me a sad smile. “What are we going to do when I can’t come with you?” she asks.
“We’re going to burn up cyber-space with our phone love.” I push her back onto the bed and climb on top of her. “Don’t worry, Mallory. We’ll work it out. I promise.”
There’s a knock on the trailer door. “Ten minutes, Mr. Stone.”
“Thanks!” I yell, still hovering over Mallory. Then I lean down to kiss her. I kiss her hard. I kiss her with everything I have. I’ve seen today’s call sheet and I know it may be tough for Mallory to watch, so I need her to know without a doubt that she’s the one I love.
After I’ve kissed her senseless, I lie next to her and pull her against me, cherishing these last quiet minutes.
I have no idea what will happen when I see Courtney. I haven’t seen her in months, since the pre-production meetings back in April. I’ve purposely avoided her at all costs. Other than being concerned she might not be able to perform up to expectations, I don’t give a rat’s ass what she’s been up to. But I’m not going to put up with any more of her shit. I made it perfectly clear to Paul and Kendra and the whole damn studio that I’m not going to pretend I’m with her. I’m not hiding my relationship with Mallory to sell a few more tickets to a movie. I told them in no uncertain terms if they try to make it look like Courtney and I are still together, I will issue a statement myself. It’s pure bullshit what Paul and the studio wanted me to do. Maybe I was willing to go along with it before, when it seemed my career was riding on it. But now—when I can pretty much pick and choose what I want to do, and producers and directors are fighting over me—I’m going to be the one calling the shots, not them.
“We’d better get going,” I say. We walk out to the front and I pick up the call sheets, handing her one. “This is the call sheet. I’ve told the AD to give me two of them so you can have one with you at all times.”
“What’s a call sheet?” she asks, looking over it. “And what’s an AD?”
I laugh. Mallory has become such a big part of my life that I sometimes forget she’s not in the business. “AD stands for Assistant Director,” I tell her. “He p
repares the call sheet from the director’s shot list. The cast and crew get one to tell them when and where to report each day. It lists the order in which the scenes will be shot. This one is pretty basic, but when we’re on location in Sedona, it will have additional information about transportation, safety, weather, and what meals are provided each day.”
“So it’s a daily schedule,” she says. “Why not just call it a daily schedule?”
I kiss her on the nose, chuckling. But before I open the door, I tell her what I’ve been dreading. “Mallory, I’m going to have to kiss Courtney in a scene today. And I’ll have to do it several times until they get the shot they want. If you don’t want to watch, I’ll understand. But it would be nice to have you there so you see how it’s all very technical and not nearly as intimate as it looks on screen.”
She nods sadly, looking at the floor. Then she smiles up at me. “I know you have to do this as part of your job, Chad. It’s okay. You just go do what you need to do and then later” —she motions back to the bedroom— “we’ll open that box.”
Shit. She’s going to send me out of the trailer with a hard-on. “You know,” I say. “We’ve been together for a while now, and I’ve been tested more than once. And since you’re on the pill, I was thinking maybe we could go without the box.”
She smiles, looking all sultry and come-hither as she gazes at me through her lashes. “I would love to feel you with nothing between us.”
Definite boner.
There’s another knock on the door and I open it to see one of the ADs. “Mr. Stone, Ms. Benson would like to see you in her trailer before hair and makeup.”
I give Mallory a look of annoyance. Then I turn back to the AD. “Can you please show Mallory the way to makeup, John. I’ll be there in five.” I kiss her on the top of the head. “Wish me luck, babe, I’m goin’ in.”
I walk over to Courtney’s trailer and knock on her door. “Come in!” she yells.
I half expect her to be naked with bells on, but she’s not. In fact, she doesn’t look anything like what I expected. She’s got on jeans and a t-shirt and her hair is in a ponytail. She resembles the Courtney I knew when we first met, the Courtney who hadn’t yet been introduced to the black-hole world of drugs. “Uh . . . hi.”
The Stone Brothers: A Complete Romance Series (3-Book Box Set) Page 52
