Stage Left (Bright Lights Billionaire #1)

by Ali Parker

  "You do not." I grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the line. I was done waiting.

  "Where are we going? It's fifty cent ladies night." She gripped my hand and moved up beside me.

  "We're getting out of this cold-ass weather and into the club." I tugged the front of my silky shirt down just enough to show the tops of my breasts and put on my sexiest smile.

  The bouncer glanced up as he started to say something, but I tugged Charlotte up beside me and pressed a hand to his chest.

  "Hi. I'm in town for a new movie premier and heard this was the best place to get laid." I licked at my lips and let my eyes move across his face. "That true?"

  "We'll find out for sure." He smiled. "Come on in, girls. Drinks on me.” He turned and lifted his wrist to his mouth, mumbling something as we slipped in.

  I released Charlotte and walked toward the bar. "Much better. I swear I should have brought a light jacket or something."

  She moved in front of me and lifted her hand to stop me. "Oh hell no. How did you do that?"

  "Do what?" I pushed her hand down softly and walked to the bar.

  "Get that guy to bend down and lick your toes." She moved up beside me.

  "Easy... I offered him the possibility of sex. It works every time." I glanced at her sideways. "Acting 101. Make the crowd think that sex is coming, and they'll fall over themselves to make sure they’re present when it happens."

  "I call bullshit."

  "No? Watch and learn." I shrugged and turned to the bartender. "Without sex."

  "Hi girls. How's it going tonight?" The guy was cute, but nothing to gawk at.

  "Good. My friend and I want a beer please, and do you have limes?" I spoke in a clipped tone, not being at all friendly.

  "Nope, but I'll get your beers. Corona good?" He lifted his eyebrow and glanced at Charlotte.

  "Yep. That'll work." I turned away from him and glanced over at her. "You saw that?"

  "That sucked. What was I seeing? You know I can't drink a Corona without a lime." She rolled her eyes. "You're dumb."

  I laughed and turned back to the bar. "I had to set up the experiment. Now, let's introduce the possibility of sex and see if he bends."

  "Bends? How? There aren't any limes." She pressed her arm against mine and shook her head at me.

  "Sure there are. He's working in the biggest bar in L.A. They have limes. Just bite your lip and look innocent when I glance over at you."

  The guy headed back as Charlotte started to ask another question. I nudged her and squeezed my shoulders together, forcing my breasts to rise a little.

  His eyes moved down me like he hadn't been standing in front of me five minutes before. "Here's your beer, pretty girl. Looks like it's on the house tonight."

  "Thank you." I took the beer and pressed it to my lips as I watched him closely. "What time do you get off?"

  His eyes widened a little. "Tonight?"

  "Mmhmm." I took a sip and put the beer down before licking at my lips as if trying to capture every. Last. Drop.

  He swallowed and shrugged. "Around three."

  "Good." I nodded over toward Charlotte. "My friend here can't drink Corona without a lime. Is there any way at all that you'd be willing to check in the back for some?"

  "Yeah, sure. No problem." He wiped his hands and extended one to me. "Billy."

  "Nice to meet you, Billy. I'm Lyndsay and this is Mary."

  He smiled before turning and walking toward the back though the bar was completely full.

  "Holy shit. I knew sex sold, but I didn't realize that us little people could use the power of it too." She shook her head. "All right. I'm impressed."

  "That's why you're so crazy about Ethan Lewis. He sells sex, Char. He's in action films, which draws in guys too, but he's selling the notion that when you close your eyes at night, he's going to meet you in your dreams, and that cup in the front of his slacks isn't going to be a cup at all."

  She smiled brightly. "I'd love to find out what exactly he's hiding down there. I bet it's a fucking monster."

  I laughed and rolled my eyes. "For that... get your own limes."

  She gave me a cursing as I walked toward the dance floor and left my beer on an empty table.

  The crowd was thick, and where I hated to be around too many people at one time, being on the dance floor was completely different. It was a sensual experience that couldn't be found anywhere else.

  The music slowed into something sexy, and I lifted my hands, rolling my hips and moving with the crowd as someone gripped me and moved up behind me.

  "I've missed you," someone whispered against the side of my neck. It was a voice I knew all too well. Jace.

  "Have you?" I turned to face him and slid my hands up his thick chest. I could visualize every inch of him, but it was better that I didn't. He was a long night of fucking packed into a tight body and a great smile. Too bad he wasn't interested in being with one woman at a time.

  "I have." He rolled against me as his large hands slid over my hips and gripped the top of my ass. "I can't remember the last time you let me take you home with me. It's a sad existence without you in my life. I try not to think about it too much."

  "The captain of the rugby team at UCLA has a sad existence? No..." I rocked against him, enjoying too much the heat that blossomed between my thighs. It wouldn’t take much, and I'd be stripped down and laying across his bed like an offering to the gods.

  "Such a tart. You know that don't you?" He slid his hands up my sides, this thumb brushing over my nipple as I sucked in a quick inhale.

  "Don't. I'm not going home with you tonight." I pressed my hands into his chest and pushed back just a little, but not as much as I should have. He and I had a sordid past, and had tried to make something out of our long friends with benefits relationship since high school.

  "Why not? I could take my time and lick every inch of you." He leaned over and brushed his lips by my ear. "Suck on the spots that make you scream. I know where every one of them are."

  I shivered and turned my head to line our faces up. "Do you? It's been a while. Maybe I like different things now."

  He nipped at my lips, his blue eyes drawing me in deep. "Let me explore you all over again then, Riley. Come home with me."

  "And smell the woman you fucked last night on your sheets?" I smiled and let out a laugh. "No thank you, playboy, but do feel free to tease yourself by dancing with me tonight."

  I turned away from him, and stifled a groan as he gripped my hips tightly and pressed his thick erection against my rear.

  "Why do you deny yourself?" He licked at the long column of my throat, and I couldn't find enough air to answer him.

  Charlotte lifted her beer up and caught my attention as she stood by the edge of the dance floor.

  "Because, I'm a masochist." I bumped him with my ass before walking off the floor. "What's up?"

  "Jeff is here. I'm going to go home with him if you're okay with that." She handed me the keys.

  "You sure? You said the last time you guys were together he lasted three minutes, squirted and passed out. That's not what you want." I lifted my eyebrow as I pocketed the keys in the back of my tight jeans.

  "It was more like four minutes." She laughed. "It's all good. He's safe, and he's generous before he squirts."

  I shook my head. "Too much info, but then again, I opened that door, didn't I?"

  "Yeah, ya did. I'll text you later. Love you." She reached out and pulled me into a quick hug.

  "Love you too. Be careful." I watched her go and resigned myself to letting Jace take me home. Where it wasn't the best decision in the world, it would end in bliss beyond anything I'd experienced in the last few months.

  I spun around and studied the faces on the dance floor until I found him wrapped around some tiny Asian chick, giving her what looked like a pre-fucking on the dance floor.

  "Or maybe not." I chuckled and walked to the bar for another beer. A few more dances and I'd be headed home to watch a
good movie and curl up on the couch. Maybe something with Ethan in it. That way I could bask in my obsession without anyone knowing just how fucked up he left me feeling.

  An open audition was a horrible idea, but one I was going to go for - maybe. Besides... there was no way in hell I was going to get the part. Not even if I sold sex to do it.

  Chapter 4

  Ethan

  I woke up early the next morning, hoping to find time to get to the gym before having breakfast with Deza and Frank. Guess the old goat wanted to tell me about the open auditions himself. Funny that he was doing it the day after it was released in the papers.

  The warmth beneath my covers left me not wanting to move. I groaned at the thought of the chick from the night before. She'd been overly eager to follow me around during the party, making herself look like my girlfriend to everyone with a camera. It was no matter. Deza would set them all straight with a statement about us being good to our fans.

  "Almost too good." I arched my hips as I took myself in my hand and tugged at my hardened flesh. I couldn't get my fingers wrapped around the thickness of my cock, but it was what it was. Most women couldn't get anything wrapped around it. After spending most of my teenage years frustrated over the number of times I'd worked a girl up to being ready to take me only to have her unable to do it, I was ready to give up.

  Amber barely got a few inches in her mouth before gagging, turning and throwing up all over the floor of the hotel room. A quick text to Deza, and she showed up with an emergency. I promised to call the hysterical girl, who just knew we were meant to be, and left with one more strike against me.

  "Fucked up. So fucked up," I mumbled and thrusted against my tightened fingers, loving the pressure.

  The image of the pretty girl rolled through my mind, and I rolled over and grabbed my phone, texting D to send me her name and picture.

  I got a 'why' back and laughed.

  "So I can fuck myself while looking at her?" I rolled my eyes and texted back for her to stop asking questions she didn't want the answer to and send the picture.

  A smile lifted my lips as the picture came through, and I stroked myself one more time as a groan left me.

  "Riley. Nice." I closed my eyes and imagined her above me, those sexy lips running along my neck, her breasts pressed to my chest.

  It didn't take more than a few minutes to feel like I was going to explode into a million pieces.

  I rolled onto my stomach, her beautiful face in my mind as I rocked myself in and out of my hand, pressing my face to the bed as I came long and hard.

  "That's it, Riley. Work it pretty girl." I groaned loudly, not at all worried about my depravity. It was a lonely life, and finding pleasure in fucking myself when no one else was capable of doing it was enough. For now.

  I rolled back over a sticky mess, breathing like a freight train as I enjoyed the high the orgasm provided. I licked my lips and reached down to start all over again. Two or three more times and I'd feel like I could make it through another day of the life everyone dreamt of having.

  Everyone but me.

  *

  "Do I even want to know about why you wanted that girl's picture?" Deza glanced up from the table she was sitting at in my favorite breakfast cafe. She stirred her coffee slowly as her eyes moved across me.

  "No and stop checking me out. I told you that fucking each other would mess up this brother-sister thing we got going on. It's not happening." I smiled as she shook her head.

  "Not in a million years, Ethan Lewis. The places that dick has been." She grimaced, and I chuckled loudly.

  "I love you too." I picked up the menu. "Where's the old man?"

  "Right here, kiddo." Frank dropped down in the seat beside Deza. "Great job on that last film. The world is buzzing about you this morning."

  "I think that's more to do with you guys doing open auditions and less to do with my acting skills." I gave him a knowing look.

  "You told him?" Frank glanced over at Deza.

  "He's like one of my kids, Frank. The one I care about most." She shrugged. "I told him."

  "Parents don't pick favorites." Frank picked up his menu. "I'll explain it all to you."

  "I don't need you to." I shrugged, much more calm than I had been in weeks. My release that morning was exactly what the doctor ordered. I didn't need a woman in my life, not even the sexy little librarian-looking one that had my balls tightening. "I figure you guys know what you're doing."

  "Good. Finally." Frank looked up at the waitress and ordered. She glanced at me next, but I nodded to Deza.

  "Ladies first." I winked at her as she gave me a smile.

  After ordering, Frank cleared his throat. "Deza told you that we were only bringing in ten women?"

  "Yes, she did. Again, I'm fine with it." I picked up the cup of coffee the waitress put in front of me and blew on it carefully.

  "Did you tell him the rest of the story?" Frank's lip lifted in a smirk behind his furry white mustache.

  "Nope. I decided if someone was telling him that part, it was you. I'm around him too much. I'll end up with a knife in my back." She glanced down at her juice, and wouldn't look at me.

  Great. I finally agree to go with one of their stupid-ass ideas, and it's going to blow up in my face.

  "What?" I turned my attention to Frank, letting my mood sour a little.

  "So we were trying to bring loads of interest to this new film, and we have. We've already pre-sold all sorts of tickets to this thing."

  "How? It comes out in ten months, Frank." I took a sip of my coffee.

  "Just some marketing tools we're using, but by the time we're done, it's going to double the revenue you made on this last film. If you can just hang in there with us on some of the shit the marketing guys are cooking up, then in the end, you're going to be a very happy, rich, young man."

  "I'm already most of those things." I took another sip. "Spill the shit. Stop dancing around and tell me what's going on."

  "We're bringing in ten women to try out for the part across from you as female lead in Down Low."

  "I know that part. What else?" I lifted my eyebrow, not liking how long it was taking everyone to give me full disclosure. "Get to it."

  "Right, so the scene that you'll be running with them in the live audition is going to be a love scene." He cringed, and he should have. As much as I like fucking women, the love scenes in my movies were my least favorite part.

  It felt cheap and gross to show fake passion on the big screen. All the women watching thought I actually felt the way I portrayed toward my co-star, hell, most of the women playing across from me thought I was in love with them.

  It was acting. It's what I did.

  "No." I shrugged and glanced up at the waitress as she gave me a shy smile.

  "I'm sorry to ask this, but can you please autograph something for me? My friends are never going to believe I got to wait on you." She bit her lip and gave me a hopeful look. I usually ate in the back room and they had one older woman that waited on me. We were taking a chance today, but it didn't seem like it was going to turn out too terribly bad. An autograph I could handle. Being pawed at? No.

  "Sure." I took the paper and glanced back up at her. "Who do I make the note out to?"

  "Tammy. Thank you so much, Mr. Lewis. I think it's just so incredibly cool that you wanted to have open auditions. My cousin is trying out for the part in the new movie. It really speaks to just how good of a guy you are. Giving the actresses in LA a chance to show who they are? Just very cool."

  I signed the note and smiled up at her. "Awesome. Good luck to your cousin."

  I turned back to what I expected to see across the table. Both Frank and Deza had smug looks on their faces.

  "All right. I get the point of it, but why a fucking love scene? That means I have to kiss ten different women? Come on, guys... I'm a good actor, but having to fake passion is the hardest part of my job. How would you like it if I grabbed some random woman off the street and to
ld you to make out with her?" I tried to keep my voice down, but all the years in drama left me, well, dramatic.

  "I get it, Ethan, but we're not picking the ten women. We're narrowing down their abilities and which of them fit the part. After that, you choose the ten." Deza shrugged. "It had to be a love scene, Ethan. Half of America is masturbating to your picture. It's a marketing scheme that works for a reason."

  I stifled the need to laugh. Deza was hitting a little too close to home, but then again, she usually did.

  "I don't like it, but whatever." I picked up my fork and started to cut my eggs up. "Can we do five? Narrow them down another way."

  "No. It's ten." Frank rolled up a piece of bacon and ate it in one bite. "Besides, it's a five-second tryout. She's got ten lines and you have five."

  "And the rest is fake humping and kissing her, right?" I took a bite of my breakfast, more than happy to rake them across the proverbial coals.

  "It's part of the job, and again, when you see what this has the potential to do for boosting the next movie... you're going to love us again." Frank leaned back. "Deza said that there was one girl you were interested in bringing into the mix?"

  "Yes. I don't care if she submits. I want to meet her. I've been around movies and actors my whole life. Her eyes tell a million stories. I want to hear them." I licked at my fork. "That and I want to do a love scene with her."

  "Really?" Deza laughed and picked up her biscuit. "That's a first."

  "Tell me about it." I let out a quick sigh. "She does something to me. It's exhilarating."

  "Let me see this woman. She must have superhuman powers to affect the great Ethan Lewis." Frank winked at me and reached for D's phone. "Oh yeah. She's beautiful, but not in a way that I would expect you to appreciate."

  "Why is that?" I licked at my lips and grabbed the phone before he could pass it back to Deza. I glanced down as my body reacted again. She was beautiful, impossibly sexy with her pouty bottom lip and the neediness in her eyes. She needed to be rescued and then made love to.

  "She's classically beautiful. Like Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn Monroe." He took the phone back and studied it, leaving me a little unraveled. I didn't like the idea of him eyeing the pretty girl at all. He was old enough to be her grandfather.