by E V Darcy
He chuckled against her ear, as his thumb played with her clit. She gasped and bucked her hips to meet his hand, loving the sensations he elicited throughout her body.
‘You’re insatiable and I love it, but there’s no way I’m getting it up after last night. I’m heading toward forty, not twenty.’
She mock-pouted. ‘Well, that’s too bad. Women hit their sexual peak in their thirties, I guess I’ll just have to give you up after today and go find a twenty-year-old then.’
She laughed as he growled in her ear. ‘Oh really?’ He withdrew his hand and she mewed in disappointment at the loss of pleasure. ‘Just because my cock isn’t awake doesn’t mean I can’t help you have a happy morning. But if you don’t want that, if you’d rather go and get a younger model…’
He began to push back the covers and climb out of bed. Oh, hell no. That man was going nowhere until he finished what he started!
She grabbed at his shoulder and pulled with all her might to bring him back down to the mattress. He fell with surprising ease and she straddled his stomach and pinned his arms to the bed below. His eyes lingered on her breasts as they hung low above him and she watched as he licked his lips slowly.
‘You certainly have a breast inclination,’ Ellie said with a smirk. He had enjoyed nuzzling and sucking them during their second bout of lovemaking, and she had encouraged him to leave a single, longer-lasting mark than those he’d left on Saturday.
‘I have an Ellie inclination,’ he said as he easily dislodged her and pinned her to the bed. She laughed freely as he kissed his way down her body, over her bosom and down her stomach. The man certainly had a hearty appetite for her. Andrew had never been the most giving when it came to foreplay; it seemed Marc enjoyed it and got off on it almost as much as she did.
He pulled the covers around himself and over his head as he dipped below her navel. She purred as his breath tickled her pussy and spread her legs wider to give him more access. She’d never enjoyed oral so much, but if Marc wanted a permanent diet of her juices, she would be more than happy with the arrangement.
‘You know,’ she said as his tongue gently pressed against her lips, seeking entrance. ‘Considering you’d never done this before this weekend, you’re pretty damn good.’
He pulled away from her—causing her to pout—and flipped back the duvet as he looked up at her. ‘What? I’ve done this before.’
‘You said you’ve never been on your knees for a woman.’
‘Yeah, I meant literally kneeling in front of a woman during sex, giving her power over me. I’ve done this, of course. I mean, seriously?’
She groaned and pulled his pillow over her face to hide her embarrassment as he chuckled. She felt the bed dip as he moved back up beside her and half-heartedly fought him as he removed the pillow.
She glared up and he continued to smirk.
‘I hate you.’ He threw his head back and laughed.
‘Papa, can I have—’
The two of them scrambled for the covers as the door swung open and Tyler came bounding in. He stood at the bottom of the bed, his eyes wide as he took in the two of them sitting huddled next to each other. She nudged Marc with her elbow—she couldn’t sign and keep her chest covered.
Morning, Son. He dropped the covers to his lap as Ellie kept them tight against her. Can you give Ellie and me a moment to get dressed, please? Do you need to use the bathroom?
Tyler’s eyes swung to her at his father’s signs and seemed to grow even wider as he realised she was naked underneath the bedspread.
Then his face turned serious, his brows pulled into a little frown as he asked, Did you kiss my papa?
Ellie licked her lips and looked to Marc; he seemed at a loss. Ellie turned back to Tyler and nodded.
‘Okay,’ he shrugged and turned to leave. It wasn’t what either of them was expecting. They let out a relieved breath as he began to run from the room until he shouted with excitement, ‘Imma get a mommy!’
There was no way he had actually said that, right?
Ellie felt her stomach drop as Marc tensed next to her.
Bollocks.
~ ~ ~ ~
They had dressed in silence after Tyler ran out of the room. They’d barely looked at one another while breakfast was eaten, both of them intent on keeping Tyler entertained and changing the subject whenever he asked about them. Now, as they made their way down to the lobby, the tension in the lift could be cut with a knife; Marc knew it was all his fault.
Why hadn’t he considered Tyler in all this? His whole life for the past five years had been based around his son, so why hadn’t he realised this thing with Ellie would affect him too? He’d understood how a long distance relationship would be difficult on himself, but hadn’t even begun to comprehend that his son would also be involved in any relationship he participated in.
Long distance would be even more difficult on Tyler.
Fuck.
He’d been selfish, had only been thinking of his own pleasure, his own feelings and how much he wanted to be with Ellie, to connect with her, to… love her? No. He shook his head minutely as he told himself that was stupid, and people didn’t just fall in love like that in real life. He found her attractive, desirable, warm, open, honest, generous, affectionate, sexy, funny…
Shit.
He looked down at her and saw her watching the numbers of the elevator descend. Something swelled in him, a warmth that coursed through his veins as he took her in. A smile wanted to bloom across his face…
Holy fuck! He loved her!
His head snapped back to focus on the lift doors. He wasn’t supposed to fall in love! Not with someone who lived half way around the world and certainly not so soon. What did he even know about her? Who was she really?
No. It wasn’t love. It was… It was infatuation. Yes, he nodded at that thought. Attraction, for certain. It was purely sexual, nothing more.
Nope, no love here. Just sexual desire. The urge to shove her up against the lift wall and take what they both desired, which was just sex.
His shoulders sagged. If that was true, then why was there this hollow feeling at the idea of there being nothing more, and at the idea of Ellie leaving and never seeing her again?
The lift smoothly came to a stop and the doors opened. Tyler ran out with a happy cry as he barrelled into Frank’s waiting arms. Jake and Adam took the lead ahead of Frank and Marc, and the entourage headed towards the Green Room. Tyler chattered away happily to Frank who nodded his head along with whatever the boy was saying.
Tyler had never been so animated and talkative as he had since Ellie came into their lives. Had she—
Marc refused to dwell on that. Now that he’d decided to quit acting he was going to be able to spend more time with Tyler, and his son would continue to develop and bloom. It had nothing to do with the woman walking quietly at his side, her head bowed as if walking to her own execution.
‘Marc!’ Sonya called out as she threw open the Green Room door. ‘Oh, hello,’ she added as her eyes landed on Ellie, then swung back up to Marc’s briefly, the question of what is she doing here? clear within.
He shrugged—it was a good question. Why had she followed them down here? Why hadn’t she headed off to the convention? Also didn’t she need to go and change her clothes? Everyone was going to know she’d spent the night somewhere, fuelling more gossip for the media. He purposefully ignored the voice that told him he damn well knew why she’d tagged along.
‘We have a serious leak,’ Sonya told them as they stepped inside the room. The rest of the cast, bar Luc, was already inside, sipping coffee and nibbling pastries. A couple of heads turned, but most were too busy on their phones or speaking to their own people to really pay attention. Sonya grabbed her tablet from the table and held it up for them to see.
It was Marc and Ellie, clear as day, coming out of the cupboard the day before. Sonya slid her finger across the screen and the image changed to them walking down the corridor, holdin
g hands for all the world to see.
‘I like that one,’ Tyler declared as he saw the final picture. It was taken just a moment after the other, the two of them trying to glance at the other without either one knowing. They looked like a couple falling in love.
Marc swore.
‘Do we know who took them?’ Ellie asked softly as she turned away from the screen, something wistful filled her eyes. ‘I didn’t see anyone down the corridor at the time.’
‘Don’t you have to go and find your seat? Or change your clothes or… something?’ he snapped. Her entire face fell at his dismissal, but there was an air of acceptance as if she’d been waiting for it to happen.
‘Of course,’ she whispered as she turned away. ‘Please let me know if you find out anything more,’ she added to Sonya, who merely nodded as her eyes darted back and forth between Marc and Ellie.
Ellie didn’t say goodbye as she left.
Marc hated himself as the door closed behind her; he knew that would be the last he’d see of the woman who had found a way to make his heart beat again.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
‘You’re an asshole,’ BB spat from somewhere behind him. He sighed, before turning to the rest of the room. Great, not only had he dumped Ellie after sleeping with her, but he’d done it in front of all of his colleagues and his son. He looked over at Tyler who frowned at him.
Where’d Ellie go? She didn’t say goodbye, Tyler asked, his brow crinkled with confusion.
Marc groaned and rubbed his hands over his face. He really was the fucking devil, but at least she’d leave with a better reason to hate him than she’d had when she’d arrived at this damned convention.
She had to go and get her seat, he lied, hating himself, even more, when his son accepted it at face value.
‘Anyone seen Luc?’ he asked the room with a sigh.
‘He’s gone to his personal one-to-one,’ Nick said before stuffing a breakfast pastry in his mouth. The younger star had been watching them very closely. ‘Did you know he’s getting over a hundred grand for it? Half hour’s work for fuck’s sake. Must be nice to be the big star!’
‘Listen,’ Sonya finally broke her silence. Her voice was professional, although the glare she aimed at Marc made him squirm. ‘Frank will have to watch the kid; I’ve finally got a conference call in five with the network—they’re willing to discuss your contract.’
‘Really? You okay with that, Frank?’
‘Sure thing, Boss,’ the bodyguard replied, his own tone cool.
‘You lot should be in the autograph room!’ Crystal shouted as she entered. ‘Come on, move it.’ The group groaned but started to move towards the doorway. Marc gave Tyler a hug and kiss goodbye before making the long, winding way from their little slice of peace and quiet to the hustle and bustle of the hall. Marc ground his teeth, reminding himself that at the end of the day he’d be back on the road to LA. And, best of all, he would never have to do another one of these events, ever again.
He was so lost in thoughts that it wasn’t until Jake grabbed him, pushed him low to the ground and then hauled him—backwards—down a corridor away from the autograph hall, that Marc realised something was wrong. Adam had drawn his firearm and was following, using words Marc had only heard in war films, but that Jake seemed to understand as they turned this way and that, until a pair of fire doors were before them.
‘Guys, what the hell is going on?’ he demanded as they stepped into the light of the hot desert sun.
‘There was gun fire,’ Jake said as he looked around the car park in which they suddenly found themselves. It was clearly a staff lot, small and holding a number of older or cheaper cars than the covered multi-storey where the valets took guests’ cars.
‘Gunfire? As in someone shooting in the hotel?’ Marc asked, his voice high as he thought of Tyler in the Green Room and Ellie wherever she’d dashed off to. ‘I have to go back for—’
‘Sorry, Mr Matthews,’ Jake interrupted him, his grip firm on the star’s arm. ‘No can do. Your safety is our number one priority.’
‘Listen you work for me—’
‘Actually, we work for Ms Adams,’ Jake said before pointing to the hotel’s line of stretched limousines in the middle of the car park. Adam nodded his agreement and was about to move them forward when a set of double doors on the left-hand side of the hotel burst open. Luc came tumbling out, followed quickly by a woman toting a pistol.
Marc made to call out to his friend when one of his guards shoved him, fast and rough, down to the floor. ‘Don’t say anything,’ Adam hissed. ‘He could be being kidnapped and there may be more of them. They won’t hesitate to up their payload.’
They watched as the woman shoved Luc toward an unassuming Volvo, not far from the door they had come through. ‘Can you save him?’ Marc whispered as he watched the woman open the trunk of the car and pull two bags from it.
‘I have a shot on her,’ Jake said, ‘But I can’t fire without knowing for sure he’s in trouble.’
‘He’s clearly—’ Marc’s words died in his throat as the woman pulled a shotgun from the trunk and handed it to his friend before pointing across the small lot.
Jake shook his head. ‘Can’t take it. Can’t take the shot.’
They watched, helpless to act as it now appeared Luc was working with this woman—whoever she was. The man made his way towards a black Hyundai, carrying the two bags and the shotgun. The woman pulled another couple of smaller firearms from the car and strapped them to herself in various places before fiddling with something deep in the trunk.
The doors the unlikely duo had come through burst open again and men, armed with semi-automatic weapons, came through.
‘Fuck,’ Adam hissed. ‘UP! IN!’
Marc felt himself being lifted by his jacket, head pressed low again, body low, as he was frog-marched, as fast as he could move, towards the safety of the hotel once more. Adam’s arm was still clutching his neck, and Jake faced out, arm raised ready to fire. Marc had only caught a glimpse of the action playing out in front of his eyes, and he’d recoiled in fascinated, incredulous horror. The mysterious woman fired at the men following her before she made a dash towards Luc.
As his two guards pulled him back through the double doors, Marc saw the men firing at the running woman and Luc shot his own back. After a couple of shots, the girl reached for something on her hip. It looked like an old-style computer joystick. She pressed a button on its top and, a second later, as the doors swung shut, the glass within them shattered. An explosion ripped across the car park and a giant ball of fire erupted from where the Volvo had been.
The two guards covered Marc with their own bodies as the glass fell over them, and a second later the blare of a fire alarm screamed. Keeping Marc’s head pressed low, the guards righted themselves to take in the destruction of the car bomb. Marc sneaked a glance and was horrified to see, through the flames that licked up into the sky above the burning car, a cavernous hole in the hotel’s side. Rooms were decimated, bricks tumbling from floors above and Marc worried if the whole side of the hotel could fall down.
‘Tyler…’ he breathed as he realised the Green Room was over on that side of the building. ‘We’ve got to get to Tyler,’ he snapped at the two men. They shared a look that conveyed a silent conversation between them before Jake shook his head.
‘Sorry, Mr Matthews,’ the taller man said, ‘but we’ve got to get you out of here.’
‘I’m not leaving without my son!’ He started to head back towards the Green Room, point-blank refusing to contemplate where Ellie might be. He couldn’t think about her being caught up in it too, and that he’d sent her away into God knew what, just minutes before. Fuck, his mind was cruel as it decided that was all he was allowed to think about. His son was with Frank, he would have got him out, but what if Ellie had been caught in the gunfire before the explosion?
His stomach lurched at the idea of her lying somewhere, dead or dying, but he didn’t have too long to
dwell on either Ellie or his son as the two men grabbed him and pulled him down the corridor in the opposite direction of the Green Room, the fire and the teetering wall of the hotel.
‘No!’ he cried out, as he tried to fight the men off. ‘Tyler! Ellie!’
‘Sorry, but we’re paid to ensure you’re safe.’
Marc kicked and shouted. He tried to fight them off, but the two men held him securely until they were through the hotel lobby and out of the building to where the guests were gathering a safe distance away.
The sound of fire engines sounded in the far distance and Marc, restrained by the two large men, could only pray firefighters made it in time to save his son and the woman he loved.
~ ~ ~ ~
That bastard!
She slammed the door of the cubicle behind her, pulled down her jeans and sat—
heavily—on the toilet. She let out a growl of frustration as she pulled too hard on the toilet roll and the paper ran away with itself, right down the wall and pooling on the floor. She glared at the swirling folds of white before she huffed and buried her face in her hands.
After the night they had spent together, after the words he had whispered… It had seemed so real, so genuine.
She laughed at herself in derision. Of course, it seemed so real, he was a fucking actor! He was a professional liar extraordinaire, paid by people a lot of money because he was so damn good at making people believe their stories. Why the hell had she trusted him?
Because she had wanted to believe it, that’s why. She had wanted his words of admiration and touches that spoke of a blossoming warmth between them, to be the truth. She had said she’d be happy with them just spending the weekend together, and she would have been, but she’d believed him when he said he wanted more, that he wanted to see her again.
That was all until Tyler, in his innocence, reminded him of where it could lead and it had freaked him out. She’d sensed it had all changed the moment he scrambled out of the bed after his son. He’d thrown on his clothes so quickly, that he’d left the room before she’d even found her underwear.
