Off Script

by Anna Paige

  He looked down at me with an expression I couldn’t quite gauge. Anger? Awe? Both? I wasn’t sure…until he leaned down and kissed me breathless. Afterward, he pulled me into an almost overwhelming embrace. His arms wrapped tightly around me, his lips brushed the top of my head over and over, and his heart thundered loudly in my ear as I rested against him. I couldn’t breathe for the emotion that was welling in my chest.

  He pulled back and pressed his lips to mine one last, soft time. “You’re incredible, Kaiti-fucking-Oliver. Absolutely incredible.”

  I leaned back and gave him my best smile. “And you’re seriously sexy when you’re punching guys out defending my honor.”

  “Why thank you.” He quirked a brow and gave me a sideways smile. “Because I want to take you home and do some distinctly less than honorable things with you on your kitchen table.”

  I grabbed his hand and dragged him into the elevator. “Just when I thought you couldn’t get hotter…”

  “Is that a yes?”

  The doors began to close as I reached out to cup him through the suit he had stolen from wardrobe. “What do you think, Hollywood?”

  Ten

  Kaiti

  I was in a food and orgasm induced coma when my cell started ringing in my bag. Lying across Gavin’s chest, exhausted, I looked at my purse—way across the room—wishing I could find a way to get to it without moving. I grudgingly started to get up and Gavin’s arms locked around me.

  “Nuh uh. You’re keeping me warm. Let it ring.”

  I chuckled at how pitiful he sounded and shook my head. “You won’t freeze. It’s seventy degrees in here. I know, I set the thermostat myself.”

  He grumbled under his breath but let me get up, though I could tell he wasn’t happy about it.

  I reached my phone on the fourth ring, barely catching the call before voicemail would have kicked in.

  Evie!

  “Oh my Google! It’s about time you got off that stupid boat!” I said by way of greeting.

  She laughed, such a familiar sound after all these years—one I’d missed the last few weeks. “That’s right, baby, the bitch is back!” she announced, still giggling.

  I glanced at Gavin, who had tugged the throw blanket from the back of the couch and covered himself with it. He was fake shivering and crooking a finger in my direction. Sneaky shit. I saw the tent he was creating under that blanket. Cold my ass, he was horny. Again.

  “Hello? Did I lose you?”

  I was lost, all right. “Sorry, what did you say?”

  “I said the last few weeks have been eventful as hell. I need to catch you up on the current…situation.”

  “What situation?” I was instantly worried by the sound of her voice.

  She blew out a breath. “Oh, you know…the state of my life. A lot can change in a month, I’ll tell you that much now.”

  “Amen to that.” I looked over at Gavin and tried to fathom how so much had happened—and how I’d gotten through any of it without my Evie.

  “It’s a lot to discuss. I’ll grab us a bottle of wine and be there in twenty.”

  My eyes widened and Gavin quirked a brow at my expression.

  Before I could get another word in, Evie hung up.

  Shit. How was I supposed to explain the naked celebrity on my couch?

  Fifteen minutes later, I stood in my bedroom with Gavin, who found all this way too funny for my liking. He’d offered to leave if I wasn’t ready for him to meet Evie, but I’d refused to let him scurry away like we were doing something wrong. I wanted him to stay, I just needed a little time with her before I sprung him on her. It seemed perfectly logical to me.

  He thought it was hilarious.

  “The last time I hid in a girl’s bedroom was when I was fourteen and her father—the producer of the show she and I worked on together—barged in and caught us anyway. Apparently, my feet weren’t all the way under the bed like I thought.” He shook his head, reminiscing like I wasn’t in full-on panic mode.

  “I’m not asking you to hide under the bed. Just give me fifteen minutes to explain everything.”

  “I wouldn’t have fit under there anyway.” He eyed the sliver of space under my queen size bed warily before turning back to me. “And what do you plan to tell her I was doing in here while you two had your little powwow twenty feet away? Knitting?”

  “I’ll tell her you were taking a shower or on the phone or something.”

  “You might want to decide on one of those now, in case I need to actually walk out of here with wet hair.”

  I raised a brow as he started slowly removing the T-shirt and jeans he’d put back on a few minutes before. His abs were well-defined and tanned and delicious looking. Every time I saw them, I had the insane urge to lick them—among other things.

  So. Hot.

  Must. Focus.

  I shook my head. “Keep your clothes on, Hollywood. I have a spray bottle with water in it on the bathroom counter that you can use to wet your hair. No nudity necessary.”

  He pulled his shirt back down, deflated. “Dammit. I kind of liked the idea of you out there trying to explain all this while you knew I was in here naked… and wet…and thinking of you.”

  “Stop it, Gavin.” My body had an immediate and intense reaction to the way he looked at me, the way his voice deepened.

  He came closer, closing the distance between us in the blink of an eye. “What’s the matter, Kaiti-girl? You’re looking kind of flushed.”

  “Hey, chickadee! I’ve got the wine!” Evie suddenly called over the sound of the door closing behind her. She had her own key; always had.

  Shit. “I’m changing clothes, be right out!” I called back

  “Don’t dress up for me. I’ve seen you wake up from a nap with one titty hanging out of your tank top,” she laughed.

  Gavin laughed too. A little too loud. I immediately clamped a hand over his mouth. “Shh!” I hissed. “And not one word about the escaped titty. It happens to everyone, like a law of nature.”

  He licked my palm, still laughing as I jerked my hand away. “Real mature,” I scolded, wiping my hand on my shorts.

  Evie was in the kitchen from the sound of it and feeling chatty. “Hey, since I’m officially without manly companionship for the foreseeable future—more on that in a minute—I need to know where you bought that magic wand thing you were raving about.”

  Jesus, shut up, Evie!

  My eyes darted to my nightstand, where the aforementioned wand was kept. Gavin followed my gaze with a devious smile and started slowly inching his way in that direction.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck! I’ll kill her!

  “Unless you’ve found something better while I was gone, in which case, I’ll order that instead.”

  Gavin quirked a brow, still inching away from me.

  “I’ll be out in a minute!” I called as pleasantly as I could since I was picturing my hands around her snitching throat.

  I even turned and glared through the door, for no reason other than it was hard to look at Gavin just then.

  Big mistake.

  I heard the nightstand drawer begin to slide open, and before I could give it much thought, I launched myself across the room and tackled him, throwing us both onto the bed as I used one foot to kick the drawer shut.

  He was wide-eyed and biting his lip to keep from laughing as I dragged him to his feet, a finger in his face. “You stay out of there or I’ll go back to using that thing instead of getting my orgasms from you. Understand?”

  He put his hands up and started backing away from the bed.

  Just as the door opened and Evie walked in.

  Son of a bitch.

  Evie stopped dead in her tracks, looking at Gavin’s back with an expression between surprise and fear. His hands were still up in surrender, so it looked like I’d just been wrestling a burglar.

  He winced when he heard her sharp inhalation behind him and mouthed ‘sorry,’ not turning to face her yet.

 
; “Um, Kaiti?” I could tell she was at a loss for words—too bad that hadn’t happened five minutes earlier.

  “Yeah, hi. Sorry. I was trying not to spring this on you.”

  “I think it’s officially sprung now.” She looked up and down Gavin’s back, her attention lingering briefly on his ass as she raised one brow at me and kind of nodded, eyes taking another long pass over his outline.

  I could tell Gavin was doing his best not to laugh at the sprung remark. Dirty-minded turd.

  “Yeah, I guess so. But I still think you and I should talk first.” I walked past Gavin and gave the barest of head shakes, letting him know to stay where he was.

  “Oh, I’d say there’s a lot we need to talk about, you little minx. But why exclude your friend here. He may want some wine too.” She stepped further into the room, intent on introducing herself. “Who knows, maybe he has a single friend he can send my way.”

  “Evie, wait…” I reached out to tug on her shoulder but she was a slippery little shit and I lost my grip on her.

  She walked a step past Gavin and spun to face him, already offering her hand. “I’m…holy shit!” I helplessly watched as all the color drained from her face and her breath whooshed out of her body.

  He took the hand she’d offered and enveloped it between both of his. “Nice to meet you, Evie. I’m Gavin Lane, Kaiti’s boyfriend.”

  If possible, the boyfriend comment made her pale even further. “Holy shit,” she muttered, looking over at me with eyes the size of saucers.

  I walked up next to Gavin and put a hand on her shoulder. “You okay?”

  She glanced from him to me and back again, stupefied but thankfully recovering quickly. “Oh sure.” Her voice was a touch too high. “I’m great.” She looked from my face to his hands, which still held one of hers. “Who wants wine?”

  Gavin let go of her and smiled as I put an arm around her and steered her out of the room. She stopped us every few feet so she could look back over her shoulder at Gavin. I followed her gaze and watched as he gave her a friendly smile each time, which I was eternally grateful for.

  I was pretty sure if he talked to her again, she’d faint.

  Evie sat at the dining room table, watching Gavin and me as we opened and poured the wine. I took Evie’s glass and mine, heading back to her. He reached into the fridge and grabbed the fruit and cheese plate we’d picked up after work and brought it to the table.

  I handed over her glass and she started gulping it down.

  “Evie, you might want to pace yourself.”

  Gavin scooted the food closer to her and smiled, offering her something to eat so she’d stop drinking so fast.

  She plucked a grape from the plate and popped it in her mouth, giving a weak smile of thanks as she chewed.

  I gulped my wine and took a deep breath. “So, I was planning to find a more tactful way to tell you, but I guess this will work too.” I was attempting humor because I had no idea what else to do. “Clearly, it’s been an eventful few weeks while you were away.”

  Evie looked over at me and there were tears in her eyes. “I never should have gone on that cruise, Kaiti. Whatever happened to get you here,” She glanced quickly at Gavin before looking back at me. “I missed that—and I’m betting you needed me. But what was I doing? I was on a stupid boat with a slimy sack of shit who thought it would be funny to book us on a swinger’s cruise without even discussing it with me.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah. I guess he thought the best time to discuss an open relationship was two seconds after I walked into our room to find some bitch deep throating him while her husband watched them from the desk chair and beat his pathetic middle-aged meat.” She didn’t even look at Gavin, probably because, like me, she had no filter once she got going, and she knew he’d just heard more than he’d ever wanted to about her sex life. Or—more accurately—her ex-boyfriend’s sex life.

  “Oh God…”

  “That’s what he was moaning when I walked in.” Her face started to crumple but she clamped her jaw tight and fought for composure.

  “Why didn’t you contact me? Email me or something?” I reached for her hand—the one that wasn’t holding the wine glass. Gavin got up without a word and retrieved the bottle to refill her glass.

  She gave him a grateful smile and shrugged at my question. “And tell you what, exactly? That I made him bunk with the happy couple for the last two weeks of the cruise while I locked myself away and watched movies between moments of clarity where I reassessed my life?” The corner of her mouth turned up in a spiteful grin, despite the devastation on her face. “I did venture out to the casino late at night, gambling away a shit-load of money that was charged to his room. I cashed out every night so I could keep my winnings while letting him eat the losses. I also drank a ton—deliberately getting the drinks from the restaurants rather than the free ones in the casino and charged that to him, too. By the time we got back to port and the final invoice was dropped off to the room, he was down over ten grand.” She took another long swallow of her wine and chuckled a little, finding a smile I knew she didn’t really feel. “I was nice enough to slip the bill under his new bunkmates’ door before I left.”

  Gavin snorted. “Impressive.”

  She looked up at him, really seeing him for the first time. “You’re really dating my best friend, huh?”

  Oh shit. Here we go.

  “Yes, ma’am.” He looked at me with a fond smile.

  “Do you treat her like the kickass princess she is?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He nodded emphatically.

  “And you’d never expect her to share you or—even worse—let you watch while she hooked up with some forty-something accountant with a bald spot and three-inch pecker, right?”

  Gavin barked out a laugh and shook his head. “No, ma’am. I’m too protective and territorial for that.”

  “Fact,” I agreed, laughing along with them both.

  “Do you love her?”

  I cringed, my laughter dying as I was hit with instant embarrassment. “Evie, we’ve only known each other for—”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said softly, watching me.

  I could feel Evie staring at me but I couldn’t look away from Gavin, the flecks of gold in his deep green eyes, the sharp lines of his jaw, the perfect shape of his mouth… The way he looked at me like I was some kind of treasure he’d been searching for his entire life. The way he smiled at me for no reason, as if my mere existence made him insanely happy.

  Evie broke the silence. “You know your celebrity status won’t be enough to protect you from my wrath if you fuck up and hurt her, right?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He grinned wider. He was an actor, after all, so he was naturally gifted in the dramatic declarations department.

  I saw Evie nod from the corner of my eye. “Good. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, how about one of you telling me how the fuck this happened? And don’t leave out anything, because I plan to live vicariously through the two of you, now that I’m officially without a man.”

  “I hear there’s a certain wand that’s the next best thing.” Gavin grinned as Evie and I blushed all the way to our toes.

  He was such a shit, but my God, how I loved him.

  “You seriously cussed out Bryce Harrison in the middle of the downtown mall?” Evie was on her third glass of wine, I was on my second, and Gavin had left to pick up dinner and a couple of backup bottles of red.

  I hadn’t wanted him to leave, but he’d said Evie and I needed some time to catch up without him. Much as I hated to agree, there were some things I preferred not to discuss in front of him—not yet, anyway.

  I nodded. “Basically. Though there was less actual swearing and more threatening.”

  “I can’t believe you finally quit your crappy job.” She watched me with concern in her eyes. “And you’re doing okay where you are now? I mean, as far as the acting part? Like in front of the camera and all those people?” She nodd
ed toward the kitchen. “If I check that freezer for your anxiety-soother of choice, how much of it will I find? Pints or gallon tubs?”

  “Somewhere in between, but it’s stuff I’ve been nursing for a while. Nothing major. I really am okay, Ev. I never thought I’d be able to do this, but here I am, not only getting through it—I’m actually enjoying it.”

  “No anxiety attacks?”

  “Only one major issue on-set and that was situational. It had nothing to do with the camera itself.”

  Her brows crinkled. “Then what was it?”

  “A long story is what it was. Not even worth the time it would take to explain. It’s not going to happen again.”

  “Does Gavin know about before? About why all this is so scary for you? Or does he think you’re shy or something?”

  I chuckled and waggled my brows. “He knows I’m not shy.”

  “Don’t deflect, you lucky bitch. Does he know or not?”

  I shrugged and plucked up a grape, taking my time chewing it.

  “Speak, sparky!”

  I huffed out a breath and flipped her off. “Impatient.”

  “Kaiti…” She was getting annoyed.

  “He knows I have anxiety but not why. And he knows I was in foster care but not why. That what you wanted to know?”

  I reached for another grape and she snagged my hand and squeezed it reassuringly. “But you love him, right? I mean, I could see it on your face from the second I walked in.”

  “I haven’t told him yet, but yeah, I do.”

  “Do you think he won’t love you if you tell him about before?”

  “No. That’s not it. None of it was my fault, I know that and so would he.”

  “Then why aren’t you being honest with him, Kaiti-bear?”

  It was my turn to fight for composure. “Because I’m embarrassed and I don’t want him to be ashamed to be with me.”

  She swatted my shoulder with her free hand. “Stop that shit. You’re not giving him enough credit and you know it.”

  “No, I’m being realistic. And not telling him is my choice to make, which means I need you to respect it, even if you don’t agree.”