by MK Meredith
The self-satisfied look on her face mystified him, but he agreed. “Where are the boys?”
His aunt’s eyes lit up. “You know how those boys are. Always off and about. Martin Jr. is on location for his most recent project.”
Roque nodded. Martin Jr. was a director like their dads. The industry ran in the blood, and he’d grabbed on with both hands. “That’s right, he told me he was taking off last week at the gym.”
Raquel winked and then continued, talking with her hands, abalone shell bangles flashing at her wrists. “Kyle took Liam to Europe for a backpacking trip. You know how that one goes. I swear he’s a nomad. I’m not sure if he will ever settle down.” A look entered her eyes that always made him want to run. She loved a challenge. If Kyle wasn’t careful, his mother would have him married off by the weekend even if he was on a different continent.
“I needed to grab a script from Uncle Martin. He said he’d come across something I might be interested in.”
“It’s right here.” She picked up a package off the counter in the kitchen. “Anything to drink?”
He winced. “Sorry, I gotta go. I’m already running behind today.” Goddamn it. If it wasn’t an issue directly related to the film, it was something else. Always more. Any hold he’d had on balance was slipping away faster and faster each day.
“How’s Addi?” Her act of feigned interest did not slip by him; she was dying to know. He wished he had a better answer. It felt like months since he’d last held her. Time was both endless and instant when it came to Addi.
“She’s great. But I haven’t been able to see her much the past few days. And now, today is getting further and further behind.”
She walked him to the door. “I understand, but honey, there’s always time for those in your life you care about. It’s all about making the time.”
He kissed her cheek and jogged to his car. That was exactly what he was afraid of, trying to make time. Hearing Addi say she cared about him to her family meant a lot, but the nagging feeling that he’d screw it all up tightened down on the muscles in his neck.
In record time, he arrived at the bungalow to find Gage and the crew working out a scene. After watching a few minutes, he joined them. “I like what you’re doing, but have you considered shooting this with the ocean in the background? A simple change in perspective will give a little underlying meaning to the scene. Magnify it.”
Gage and the cameraman made some adjustments and studied the layout of the shot, but they just couldn’t get it right. Roque scrubbed his hands back through his hair. What the fuck were they missing? After making a few adjustments, they tried again. He marked the time on his watch. He’d promised to meet Addi at the Country Mart for a quick bite before the night shot they wanted to get. He had a few hours yet to get a dozen hours of work done. The tension in his neck tightened a bit more.
Gage called action. They filmed the sequence, made changes, tweaked the lighting, and filmed it again. Gage threw ideas at Roque, and he tossed them back. Sometimes they were in sync; other times it was as if they worked on two different films. Kind of like trying to balance work and life. They were two different worlds.
“I think we got it with that last one,” Gage said. “Great suggestion. Come take a look.”
Through the small screen, they watched the layout. Excitement rushed through Roque like a drug. It was a hit he’d take over and over again. His phone rang, startling him.
Glancing at the screen, he winced and answered it. “I’m sorry. We ran over, and I lost track of time.”
Addi spoke from the other end of the line. “Oh. I wish I would have known. We could have just rescheduled.”
Fuck. “I know. I’m so sorry. I’d planned on being there and then just—”
“Forgot.”
“I didn’t forget. I lost track of time.”
Silence came across the line. “A call only takes a few seconds. I know it’s been crazy getting Gage completely spun up on the plan. And with the holidays, the schedule is tight again. I just—”
“I warned you about my hours, Addi.” Of course the night had to turn into this. They finally made headway on the scene, but he’d taken two steps back with Addi. Fucking great.
“Yes, you did. But that doesn’t mean you can simply check out altogether. All I’m asking for is a phone call. A little courtesy. If you remember, I have a lot going on, too. A lot I could have been doing instead of planning for a night that I think you knew wouldn’t happen from the beginning.”
Guilt pushed at him, and he didn’t like it one bit. He shouldn’t have to explain every little thing. He’d been up-front since the beginning. “You could have called, too.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he regretted them.
Silence. Fuck. “Look, Addi—”
She cleared her throat. “I have to go.”
He loved that she was the kind of woman who would stand up for herself, but in this instance, it was both a salve and a burr. No matter how well she understood the business, he was so afraid of hurting her and ruining what they had.
His habit of losing sight of everything but what he saw through the camera lens had already cost him dearly.
And now it seemed it would again.
Chapter 20
It was past midnight and well into the morning before the crew finally left. Addi followed Roque into the kitchen and watched him wash his hands and scrub water over his face.
He stretched from side to side. “It was a good day.”
“It was. The sequence today was brilliant.”
Staring at her, he approached in that lazy stride of his and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I’m really sorry for missing our date. For being an ass.”
She bit her lip, peeking up at him from beneath her lashes. “I know how you can make it up to me.”
“And how’s that?”
She slid her fingers against his nape and gave a gentle tug. “I’ve missed you. I just want to feel you. Wrap around you. Is that too much to ask?”
He grinned, pulling her back to her bedroom. Walking her backward toward the bed, he slid his mouth over hers. As quick as he tasted, he released and pushed away, and she missed his heat.
But she couldn’t fault his motive. He rid her of her top and bottoms and yanked off his own as well.
She lowered to the bed and lay waiting for him, legs bent, arms open wide.
He stared. “God, you’re the most beautiful fucking woman I’ve ever seen.”
Flattery would get him everywhere.
He lowered back to her, and she wrapped her legs about his waist, bringing the long, hard length of him to her.
He pressed the broad head of himself into her, and her walls clenched rhythmically, trying to pull him in farther. She’d been ready for days.
Achingly slow, he pulled back out.
Addi had had enough. She wanted him, hard and now. They were too busy to go slow, too busy to take their time.
Pressing her heels into his ass, she lifted her pelvis and took all of him in one fast, long slide. “Oh, shit. Yes.”
“Addi.” Her name was a course groan from low in his throat.
She lowered, only to push back up. Grabbing his face between her hands, she poured every ounce of her being into a kiss meant to ignite.
It worked. Thank God. She didn’t want slow. She didn’t want tender. She wanted raw heat, slick skin—she wanted now.
Bracing himself with his hands on either side of her head, Roque gave her what she needed.
Thrusting into her with long, full, fluid movements, he moved his mouth to one breast and slid a hand between their bodies, working her sensitive flesh with gentle precision.
Her core tightened and spiraled, opened again and again. Sensations flared, built, gained speed and intensity.
She dug her fingers into his back, pushing down to meet his every thrust and grinding down for a split second before he moved again.
Slick skin slid effortlessly, the beautiful, a
lmost frictionless caress adding to her already blazing center. Her heart raced in her chest with every stroke of his large, work-worn hands. He pulled back, and she tried to keep him pressed against her, running her teeth along the edge of his neck, grabbing his lower lip. He pressed a kiss onto her mouth, then pushed back and stood.
His body radiated tension, his muscles bulged, his jaw clenched, hands fisted at his side. In any other situation, the man would illicit fear, but like this, oh, like this, excitement shot down her spine and built pressure between her legs in a ball of heat.
“Where are you going?” She heard the breathless quality of her voice and didn’t care as long as he came back to her.
He turned on a light. “I want to see you.” Kneeling at her feet, he grabbed her ankles and pulled. She shrieked as she slid across her blanket.
Roque dropped between her legs, his weight on his forearms along either side of her body, and dove back in for a kiss. He didn’t ask, he took. He didn’t finesse, he plundered, and he thrilled her body with every bold brush of his hand and determined stroke of his tongue.
The heat of his body sent her afire, his chest against her breasts and his erection rubbing a delicious path between her folds as his tongue did the same to her mouth.
Pressure built to a white heat, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, desperate for him to fill her again and fulfill the promise his body made.
Lifting off her, he grabbed himself and rubbed against her, then dipped inside just enough to make her beg. Again and again, teasing. She writhed under him, demanded, whimpered, begged. “Roque.”
He trailed a hot tongue along her jaw and down to her breast. He sucked and twirled his tongue around her nipple until her body arched.
“Roque.” She yelled this time. Too crazed to care, her body wound so tight she feared she’d break.
Rolling onto his back, he lifted her over him until she straddled his hips. He stared at her through lust-hazed eyes, the blue glowing from between the rows of his midnight ink lashes.
She didn’t want to wait, wouldn’t wait and, wrapping her hand around his hard flesh, lifted her hips until she could sink onto him in one drop. She cried out as his body filled her, stretched her, challenged her to take in more.
Dropping her hands to his well-muscled chest, she lowered her lips to his as she slid forward, then back, again and again, while tasting the dark spice of his mouth. She grabbed his hands and wrapped them around either side of her hips, encouraging him to press lightly with his thumbs just above her groin, into the soft lower area of her belly. Waves of rolling pleasure shot to her core, wrapping it in pulsing contractions, and she shot up, pressing down harder, faster.
He continued to massage the area with his thumbs in a circular motion, creating a sensation so sweet, so intense, so blindingly hot, she repeated his name over and over, begging him not to stop. “Like this?”
“Oh God, yes. Just like that.” He fulfilled her demands, pressing into the soft skin as she pushed her body beyond reason—his thumbs increasing the white hot pulsing of her core until she shattered with a cry.
Roque lifted his hips, thrusting up into her body, so high her knees left the bed. She held on tight, riding out the last waves as he filled his hands with her breasts.
His groan echoed off the walls in the darkening room.
They were one, and Addi couldn’t tell where she ended and he began.
Roque slowly lowered his hips to the bed and her knees to the mattress. She melted onto him, keeping him inside her, a part of her, as she dropped her forehead gently to his, their panting breaths the only sound, and he laughed. She joined him, accommodating his mass as he slid to her side.
Muted by shock, she pulled in a few breaths to regain some composure. Every time he touched her, she learned something new. Her body was capable of feeling things with him she’d never known possible. She was open to him, felt safe with him. It completely changed the experience. It scared her and made her float in a drunken state of euphoria all at the same time. She chose to focus on the euphoria.
She grinned. “That totally makes up for forgetting about me.”
“If this is what I get, I may forget about you even more often.”
Pinching his side, she squealed when he retaliated in kind.
With a groan, she pushed up from the bed. “Come on, let’s go. I have to get back to the hotel and shower. You have meetings in the morning.”
“That is why you are perfect for me. You get how crazy it all is.” He groaned, too, as he stood. They quickly dressed and kissed at the front door.
Before taking off in their separate cars, Roque stopped her. “Thank you for spending some time with me. I know the hours are crazy, but you’re helping me make this dream happen. I can’t believe how close I was to losing it all.”
She took in the sincerity in his eyes and passion in his voice. The knowledge of the part she’d played in his financial situation at the start of the film chased away the warmth of his gratitude, turning it cold. She hated having this secret from him, she hated hearing his praise, knowing the whole time she’d deceived him from the beginning.
After everything they’d been through, she was falling for him hard. As an adult, she had to face her mistakes, face the consequences. She couldn’t keep up the facade of perfection. It ate at her.
Saying good-bye, she drove to The Huntington to find Chase.
“I’m happy to see you, but why do I get the feeling something’s up?” Chase said as she let her in.
Addi moved to the couch and grabbed a pillow, clutching it to her chest. “I need to tell Roque the truth. I feel terrible. Chase, I’m scared.”
Chase pressed her lips together with a brow raised. “Love, I know you’re scared, but this is what I was worried about. I think you were so focused, in the beginning, about your own end that how anyone else felt in this whole scheme was nothing more than collateral damage.”
Pain and shamed dropped in Addi’s stomach. “Ouch. I guess I deserved that. But you know me, Chase. I love people. This scheme was about taking back what was mine.” She bit her lip and sighed. “That was before I found out about Roque’s investment. And now it keeps eating at me.”
Chase smiled, then brushed past Addi and dropped to the sofa.
Addi hung her head and slowly lowered to the couch herself. She hated lying to Roque. Had it only affected Hollywood, she’d be fine, but feeling the way she did about Roque turned her harmless plan ugly and sour.
“I love him, Chase. He’s going to hate me. He’s broken it off with other women for less. But I have to tell him. I hope what we have is different, that he cares for me enough to listen. There’s no way I can move forward with this shadow over me.”
Saying the words out loud released a wash of fear and excitement through her chest. She loved him, and what bad timing that was. She was in no place to love someone, to have expectations, make plans. But there it was, settling on her like the warmth from the sun.
A gentle hand brushed back her hair. “I thought you did. I was just wondering how long it would take for you to admit it,” Chase said with a soft laugh.
Addi rolled onto her back and peered at her friend through strands of hair that had fallen across her forehead. Her emotions had her on a roller coaster. She sighed. “I can’t do anything about it. My little farce will not sit well with him, besides…” She pointed at herself. “Look at me. I’m a mess. I’ve got too much to work on before I bring somebody else into my crazy.”
Chase grabbed her hand. “Oh, love, you’re wrong. You’re not a mess; you’re courageous. Fearless. Which was part of my problem with this. I’m scared for you. You know I don’t do well breaking the rules.” Her self-deprecating laugh carried around the otherwise silent apartment.
Chase pushed Addi’s bangs off her face and tucked them behind her ear. Chase nurtured, worried. Her comfort zone was in rules, structure, regulations—control.
And Addi’s was chaos.
Cha
se smiled. “Don’t push away your chance at love, but don’t sabotage the chance before it starts, either. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but are you sure you want to tell him? It’s done and over, and really nothing came of it.”
Addi yawned, gratitude for such understanding warming her. “You’re a good friend, Chase. Too good. But it’s about time I grew up, and facing what I did is part of that. And about the love thing?” Her heart squeezed. “There’s nothing to sabotage beyond my own heart’s silly interest. Roque is a Gallagher, a producer too busy for commitment. He’s Hollywood, and I’m a wannabe writer whose home was in foreclosure.”
Chase opened her mouth to argue, but Addi put up a hand.
“It’s true. I’m fine with it. I’ll make my way someday, but first I’ve got to finish this film and keep my home on stable ground. As for Roque and I, we get along really well together.” Thinking of him warmed her. She pictured his face, and a smile kicked up the corners of her mouth. “I will eke out every second I can, but I have to tell him. If he goes his way, I’ll take every wonderful sensation and emotion and feeling and memory that is Roque Gallagher and write an epic love story to remember him by.” She laughed at her own melodrama.
Chase crossed her arms over her chest. “Why does that sound so sad?”
Addi stared at her friend with determination. “Because it is. But it must be done. I’m going to give him back the money from when I was still in the house and tell him what I did. Then I’m going to hope like hell he’ll focus on the fact I didn’t want there to be any secrets instead of the secret itself.”
“If you’re sure.”
She nodded. “I am. Now go. You have an early flight. I’m going to crash on your couch.”
Chase disappeared into her room, and Addi watched until the door closed. Dropping her head onto the back of the couch, she thought of Roque’s laugh, his crooked smile when he found something amusing, and how the scent of him always seemed to envelop her like an embrace.
