by Lana Xavier
But even though I had joked off the reference of his work, I could already see the mask being put back in place. It astounded me that he hated talking about it so much.
I had seen a few interviews with Caleb before where he spoke animatedly about his passion for acting and for the projects he felt lucky to be a part of. So this sullen teenager reaction came as a total surprise to me. I once again wondered which of the two masks was an act and which was real.
Or maybe they’re both real and there’s something else going on that you don’t know about.
I was inclined to agree with the thought. I didn’t know much about how things worked in Hollywood, but I’d heard enough horror stories about the unspoken politics and casting couches to know that it wasn’t all glitter and gold like it appeared to be on the surface.
Looking at Caleb now, I’d say it was more like a volcano spewing charred ash that rained down on you until you couldn’t even recognize yourself under the all the debris.
The writer part of my brain raised an eyebrow at the metaphor but I shook it away when there was a knock on the door to his suite. He wordlessly rose from the couch and grabbed his wallet, his soft voice carrying down the hallway as he thanked the person who brought up the food then closed the door behind him.
“Pepperoni pizza and cheesecake. Oh, and beer. What a combination.”
“Sounds like a perfect date to me,” I said with a chuckle.
There were no words spoken, but I saw him freeze mid-step at my slip of the ‘D’ word. It was never really established but with the food and the flowers and not knowing what the hell I was supposed to call it… The word just kind of slipped out.
And judging from his stony expression, it certainly was a poor decision on my part. So whatever it was we were doing here, it definitely wasn’t a date.
Good to know.
He forced a smile as he sat the food on the table and I dug in, desperate to start eating lest I put my foot in my mouth yet again. He sat down beside me like nothing happened and began to eat, but I could see the tension in his eyes and jaw.
I was almost certain he was searching for a way to gently dissolve the notion that this was a date without outright rejecting me.
I finished my bite and wiped the corners of my mouth with a napkin before I said, “I didn’t mean to say that. I didn’t really think this was actually a date, I just didn’t know what else to call it.”
Caleb turned to me and tilted his head thoughtfully. “I’d call it dinner.”
“What about the flowers?”
A grin pulled at the corners of his mouth. “I’d call myself a gentleman.”
I couldn’t help it— I snorted. “You? Hardly.”
The tension deflated like a balloon as we both laughed, the silence as we ate together once again comfortable. I devoured the cheesecake—it was probably the best I ever had—then reached for another beer.
“You done with the pizza?”
“Yeah, I’m good. Thank you.”
He nodded as he lifted the pizza box and carried it into the kitchen area of the hotel room. I snuck a peak down at my cell phone, noticing it was already close to eleven o’clock. Even though my meeting tomorrow wasn’t until noon, I wanted to make sure I was well rested and totally prepared to knock it out of the park.
I was rising from the couch when Caleb made his way back in and asked, “Leaving already?”
“It’s getting late,” I said regretfully.
“Oh yeah, sorry. Forgot it’s way past your bedtime,” he said sarcastically, one eyebrow raising challengingly.
I scoffed as the asshole Caleb reared his ugly head yet again. “You’re such a dick.”
Both of his eyebrows raised this time. “Excuse me?”
I folded my arms over my chest and glared at him. “You heard me. You act all nice for five fucking minutes but it’s just that—an act. You don’t have a genuine nice bone if your entire body yet you think you’re a gentleman. You’re so full of shit it’s unreal.”
He slowly made his way forward, his expression one of irritated confusion. When he stopped right in front of me, I stood strong, refusing to let him think he was intimidating me by intruding in my personal space.
“And you’re any better? You act all high and mighty like you’re too good for a piece of shit actor like me, yet here you are. Coming to my hotel room late at night.”
“I thought we were having an actual dinner! If I wanted to hang out in a hotel room, I could’ve just stayed in mine. The company would’ve been better,” I added snidely.
“I may be a dick, but you’re a bitch,” he snarled. “Don’t even act like you’re not.”
“Fine!” I shouted, throwing my hands into the air as I accepted his label. “I’m a total bitch! If your definition of one is someone who is sick and tired of being used and walked all over, then I’m the biggest goddamn bitch you’ve ever met. You think that just because you’re famous I’d fall all over myself for you? Not even in your-”
My angry rant was abruptly cut off as Caleb crashed his lips against mine.
My initial reaction was disgust and I tried to push him away, but my efforts were half-hearted at best. Even with my denial and even though I had meant every word I’d just shouted at him, I couldn’t control how my body reacted.
I immediately craved more—more kissing, more skin, more of him—and I nearly sobbed at the realization that I couldn’t fight my desire and attraction, no matter how much I wanted to.
When he pulled away and looked down at me, his eyes were a mixture of sheer lust and lingering anger.
“No one’s ever talked to me like that before. God, I want you.”
My mouth dropped open in shock but the response died in my throat as he recaptured my lips and slid his tongue into my mouth. I struggled to keep up with the pace of his bruising kiss and when he pulled back again, I was completely breathless.
“Come to bed with me,” he commanded, his voice thick with lust.
I wanted to say no. I wanted to go back to my hotel and forget this ever happened. But my body demanded more and before I even realized what I was doing, I nodded.
He didn’t say a word in response, he didn’t even shoot me a cocky smirk like I expected from him. He just wrapped his fingers around my wrist and led me deeper into the hotel room until we reached the bedroom.
“Take off your dress.”
I was about to protest when I realized that he was stripping himself at the same time. I tugged the sundress over my head and dropped it on the floor, self-consciously wrapping my arms around my waist as he looked down at my body.
I didn’t think I was unattractive or anything, but I knew I wasn’t as thin or flawless as the women Caleb got on a regular basis.
Hell, I still didn’t have any idea why he even invited me here.
“Don’t do that,” he growled after he threw his shirt to the floor and stepped forward. He forced my arms back to my sides and I nearly gulped as I looked at his bare chest.
Don’t get me wrong, I had seen a number of Caleb’s movies. Including a couple filled with sex scenes that included some wonderful semi-nude shots of his perfectly cut body.
But seeing it on a screen versus seeing it in person were two entirely different things.
I might have whimpered at the sight of him. I was afraid to look up to see the smugness that was surely on his face.
Surprisingly, when he tilted my face up to his by hooking a finger beneath my chin, there was no trace of the emotion. He just looked… hungry. For me.
I stood up on my tip-toes and kissed him, throwing all my doubts and cares away in favor of the pleasure I was almost certain he would grant me. After three years of a disappointing sex life with Tim, I needed this. I needed a man to look at me the way Caleb did, even if there was something in the back of my mind constantly reminding me that he was an actor and there was a chance he was just faking it.
I shoved the nagging suspicion to the side and ran my hands o
ver his chest, smiling when I felt his body slightly shudder beneath my touch. His hands made quick work of his belt and jeans before reaching behind me and popping off my bra with one skilled hand.
Then he lifted me into the air, surprising a squeal out of me as he carried me to the bed and laid me down, crawling over me immediately.
My eyes travelled down to his briefs, widening at the sight of the very prominent bulge tenting the cotton. I absentmindedly licked my lips and it sent him into a frenzy. Caleb reached down and ripped—literally ripped—my panties from my body before tugging down his own underwear, his hard cock bobbing as it was freed.
“You and your smartass mouth make me hard as a fucking rock,” he groaned as he reached into the nightstand and pulled out a condom, making quick work of sheathing his cock before positioning himself back between my legs. “I’ve been wanting to fuck the snark out of you since the moment we met.”
I was slightly enraged by his words, but I didn’t get a chance to lay into him before he thrust his hips forward and drove his huge cock deep into me with one swift movement.
My mouth fell open in a silent scream as he stretched me wide open and Caleb let out a guttural groan of pure satisfaction before pulling back out and driving in again.
He was sitting up on his knees so I reached above my head and wrapped my fingers around the metal bars of the bedframe in a vain attempt to get purchase.
Caleb wasted no time with foreplay or tender thrusts. He immediately started fucking me hard, as if he somehow knew my body was aching for it.
Which, turns out, it was.
“Caleb, Caleb,” I panted as every thrust pushed me further up the bed. “Fuck! Harder!”
He growled and complied, slamming into me so hard that my eyes rolled back. The pleasure was starting to become almost overwhelming and I barely had time to register the feeling of my orgasm approaching before it slammed into me like a truck.
My toes curled and I let out a long moan as I came, my body writhing on the bed as much as I could with Caleb holding me in place. He stilled his hips and groaned as my walls tightly clenched around his cock, his jaw going slack as he shivered from the sensation.
“Christ,” he breathed out after the last aftershock of my orgasm left my body. I whimpered when he pulled out then struggled to obey his command after he said, “Hands and knees.”
My legs felt like jelly, but I managed to get into position with his assistance. He didn’t waste any time, he thrust back into me and kept a firm hold on my hips as he pounded me from behind.
Every push of his hips drove his cock against my g-spot and I felt blissful tears gathering at the corners of my eyes as the heat began to rebuild in my thighs and abdomen. I called out his name over and over again, unable to do much else other than push my hips back and silently beg him for more.
“So… fucking… tight… wet… fuck,” he grunted between thrusts.
“Please, please! I’m gonna… oh my god!”
He leaned over me, his washboard abs brushing against my lower back as he wrapped an arm around my waist and snaked down to where were we joined. He found my clitoris within seconds and rubbed frantic circles over the sensitive bundles of nerves, pressing down harder and harder until I was clamping down around his cock for the second time as another orgasm violently rocked my body.
“Yessss,” he hissed into my ear, jerking his hips forward a few final times before grinding to a halt as he finally allowed himself to release.
As I felt his cock pulsing inside of me, he braced himself up with one hand on the headboard, covering my entire back with his upper body as he let out a long, tortured groan.
I fell forward the second he pulled out of me and rolled onto my back, staring up at the ceiling in a blissed out daze. He landed beside me on the bed a moment later, not pulling me to him but not shying away from my side either.
“I told you,” he murmured sleepily.
“Huh?”
“I told you that you weren’t bad in bed. It was obviously him.”
Like clockwork, Caleb had gone back to rapidly moving between hot and cold, leaving me more unsure than ever about how to feel about him.
And even though my body was more satisfied than it had ever been, there was a nagging voice in the back of my head whispering, ‘This was a huge mistake’ as I drifted into an orgasm-induced sleep.
* * *
Chapter Five
The harsh light of day was a bitch.
When I woke up the next morning and reached out for Caleb, I frowned when I only felt the chilly sheets touch my skin. I sat up and sleepily rubbed my eyes, sighing heavily after I opened them and looked around the room and saw no sign of Caleb.
I looked down at the pillows then over to the end table. No note.
Regret and mortification were already beginning to swirl around in my stomach, at war for dominance. I pulled myself out of bed and searched for my dress and shoes, getting dressed as quickly as possible and cursing under my breath when I realized it was already past ten.
There was no way I’d have time for a shower before my meeting at noon. I’d be stuck smelling like sex and Caleb for the entire meeting when all I wanted to do now was scrub away the feeling of his skin pressed against mine.
This day was going to be hell.
I made it through the hotel room, my eyes frantically searching for a note or for Caleb but coming up empty. I knew this was a mistake and I was deeply ashamed for allowing myself to give in to my body’s desires only to be walked all over and used, just like always.
Even as I berated myself for the decision to sleep with him, one question kept replaying over and over again in my head—
What did I do wrong?
I growled and exited the hotel room, trying to force myself to stop obsessing over my actions.
I had done nothing wrong.
Caleb was just a complete asshole.
“Ma’am?”
I jolted back, realizing I had been so caught up in my thoughts that I nearly plowed right into Caleb’s driver in my haste to get to the elevator.
“Yes?”
“I’ll take you back to your hotel.”
I nodded dumbly, not wanting to argue with the man about not needing a damn thing from Caleb or his employees when the truth was that I desperately needed to get back as quickly as possible. I followed him to the service elevator again and we were down in the employee parking lot quickly enough.
I opened the door for myself and slid in, ignoring the surprised raise of the man’s eyebrows. He didn’t make a comment though, he just got into the driver’s seat and started on the trek back to my hotel.
When we arrived, I gave him my sincere thanks before I rushed inside and up to my room. It was getting close to eleven and I knew the driver from the studio would be arriving in half an hour to take me to the meeting.
I didn’t have time to wash and dry my hair, but I used a washcloth to scrub some of Caleb’s scent off my body. I forcefully pushed my anger to the back of my mind, knowing it wouldn’t do me any favors to show up to my first face to face meeting with Nathan and the other producers in a foul mood.
I made a mistake, it happens. Let it go. Focus on impressing the studio.
After repeating the mantra over and over in my head while I got ready, by the time my phone rang to let me know the driver was downstairs, my mood had considerably improved.
There was something to be said about the power of positive thinking. I grabbed my messenger bag and made my way downstairs to meet my ride to the studio.
On the ride to the meeting, I double-checked my edited screenplay, making sure I hadn’t missed anything they asked me to change. I was smiling to myself for doing a good job when I felt the car roll to a stop and I glanced out of window to look at the gate of the studio.
The driver pulled through after providing the guard with his clearance and pulled into a parking lot before he turned back in his seat to look at me.
“Miss?”
“That man over there is Nathan Whitby,” he said as he pointed out the windshield to a man waiting on a golf cart. “He’ll take you the rest of the way.”
“Thank you very much,” I said sincerely before I stepped out of the car and tried to subtly straighten my outfit.
After the car pulled away, I made my way over to the waiting golf cart. The man—Nathan—was a lot younger than I expected him to be. He appeared to be right around thirty and he had sandy blonde hair slicked meticulously back. He was dressed nicely in khakis and a button down shirt and his eyes were hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses.
“Sabrina Murphy?”
“Nathan Whitby?”
He nodded and grinned as he stood up and shook my hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“Same to you. I’m so sorry about delaying the meeting.”
Nathan shook his head and scoffed. “No worries. It’s not like you can control the weather.”
“True. If I could, it’d be seventy-five degrees and sunny all year round,” I said with a light laugh as I sat down on the golf cart beside Nathan.
“Sounds like southern California to me,” he said with a grin. “Only it gets a little warmer than seventy-five in the summer.”
“Close enough,” I joked back with a shrug.
Nathan pointed out a few different building and sets along the path to the office we were having the meeting in. I took in everything with wide-eyes, still disbelieving that I was really in Hollywood and about to become a part of this world.
The thought was soured as I recalled my first brush with the world of Hollywood.
Stop thinking about him!
Even though I could force myself not to think about him if I really tried, at least to an extent, I couldn’t help but to question if this world was really something I wanted to be a part of. I was sick to death of people using me and walking all over me like a doormat and I had the sinking feeling that I’d be asking for more of it if I agreed to get involved with this.
Sell the script and go home. Let them do whatever they want to it. Just take the money and run. Fast.
