by Lana Xavier
For a long moment, we stayed exactly how we were, simply staring into each other’s eyes as we waited for out heartbeats to drop back to normal speed. After a few minutes of basking in the afterglow, Caleb reluctantly pulled out, rolling onto his back and pulling the condom off with a soft groan.
After he disposed of it in the small trash can next to the bed, he rolled towards me and pulled me against his chest. My back was flush against him and I could feel his deep breaths as he still struggled to control his breathing.
The silence was so prominent that I was almost certain he’d already fallen asleep. I allowed my mind to wander in hopes of joining him when I felt the rumble of his chest against my back as he spoke.
“I followed her, you know.”
The words made no sense to me, but I knew I might have been missing something due to the post-orgasm fog that was clouding my mind.
“Followed who?”
“Marlena. The day she lured you to the empty set.”
That was news to me—and important news at that. I rolled over to face him and frowned. “How much of it did you hear?”
“All of it.”
A thought popped into my head and I gave him a sour look. “So you saw that bitch slap me and you just kept hiding in the shadows?”
“I wanted to step in, but I figured it would probably do more harm than good.”
I shrugged a little, the movement jostling his hold on me. “You’re probably right.”
He put his arm around my back and tugged me close to him, a mischievous smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “So is it true? Did you tell your sister you have a crush on me?”
Even after what we’d just done, my face flamed at the thought of him overhearing that. “Not in those exact words, no. Marlena blew what I said way out of proportion.”
There was a pause and I could see the flash of hurt in his eyes as I denied Marlena’s claims.
“So, what did you say?”
“Candace asked if I had feelings for you and I didn’t confirm or deny it. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.”
Caleb nodded thoughtfully and I wondered why he would pick directly after sex as the time to have a heart to heart talk.
Then again, I hadn’t given him many opportunities to speak to me lately.
“So if you heard the whole thing, you heard her basically threaten me. Yet you came any ways?”
“You scared of her?”
I frowned and shook my head. “No, but that doesn’t mean I want my name drug through the dirt for no reason.”
He sat up a little, somehow managing to look both offended and bashful at the same time. “I didn’t think this thing between us would be ‘no reason’ to you.”
“That’s not what I meant,” I told him softly. “But still—I would’ve appreciated it if you had been up front with me.”
“But then I wouldn’t be naked in your bed right now.”
“You’re probably right.”
He leaned forward and in a startlingly sweet move, pressed a light kiss to the tip of my nose. “And that’s exactly why I didn’t say anything. You overthink shit too much. Everything’s going to be fine.”
Caleb spoke with such conviction that I allowed myself to lay back and relax, taking refuge in his certainty. He laid with me and drew my back flush against his chest, nuzzling my neck with his nose for a moment before pressing a line of light kisses up and down the column of my neck.
“Are we cuddling?” I whispered, trying to reign in my stifled laughter.
He froze for a moment before shrugging. “I guess so.”
“I didn’t think you were the type,” I teased even as I adjusted myself closer to him.
“Sabrina?”
“Yeah?”
“Shut up and go to sleep.”
I smiled even as I obeyed him, knowing that I had actually managed to embarrass him by calling him out on his sweet, after-sex cuddling.
I didn’t bask too long in my glory though, instead deciding to do as he said and fall asleep in his arms. By the time his breathing evened out and was coming out from his parted lips in soft puffs against my neck, I felt exhaustion lure me into blissful dreams.
* * *
Even though he had, in a way, assured me that he was going to stay, I was still a little shocked when I opened my eyes in the morning and came face-to-face with Caleb. He was smiling sleepily at me and the sight made my heart pound in my chest.
“Hey,” he greeted quietly.
“Hey.”
We stared at each other for a long minute before we both started softly laughing—at what, I still wasn’t sure. Somewhere in the middle of our morning hysterics, Caleb had decided he’d had enough and gripped the back of my head, tilting me to meet his lips.
“Morning breath,” I mumbled.
“Don’t care.”
I purposely kept my lips sealed but allowed him to press our lips together, just barely moving against one another. We stayed locked in the warm embrace for what felt like hours, until the chime of his cell phone ringing in his jeans broke us apart.
“That’s my alarm. I need to get to make-up.”
I nodded, holding the sheet to my chest as I sat up. He rolled out of bed and into his jeans and I couldn’t stop myself from grinning at the perfect view I got of his ass.
Who knew a man’s ass could be so damn attractive?
“You doing anything today?” he asked as he pulled his t-shirt over his head.
I shrugged a little before attempting to smooth down my wild sex hair. “Just wandering around aimlessly, same as usual.”
“Want to have lunch together?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said with a sigh. “I don’t want someone to see us and get the wrong idea, then next thing you know I’m at the mercy of Marlena’s pitchfork.”
“Sabrina, there’s nothing weird about two co-workers eating together. We’ll be surrounded by other cast and crew, no one’s going to get the impression you think they are.”
He had a point. We couldn’t really be classified as ’sneaking around’ by dining together in a very public location where we both worked.
“Well when you put it like that, I can’t think of a single reason why not.”
“Good,” he said as he crouched down in front of me, now fully dressed.
He cupped my chin in his palm and regarded me with serious eyes. As I was about to ask what he was looking at, or looking for, he shook his head slightly and smiled.
“I’ll see you at noon,” he said before pressing a quick kiss to my lips.
He seemed hesitant as he backed away and made his way for the door, almost like he didn’t want to leave. It made me feel warm inside to think that he might be just as lost on me as I seemed to be on him.
When he was gone, I flopped back in bed with a huge smile and closed my eyes, hoping to get another couple hours of much needed sleep before meeting Caleb for lunch.
* * *
A ridiculously loud knock on my trailer yanked me out of sleep. Alarmed, I sat up and looked around, croaking out, “Just a minute!” in a voice thick with sleep as I searched for my clothes and tugged them back on.
When I was fully dressed, I opened the door to find a frazzled looking Nathan standing on my steps. I frowned and opened my mouth, but he pushed me back into my trailer and breezed past me before any words made it past my lips. I shut the door of the trailer and turned to face him, immediately noticing his cocked eyebrow and slightly scrunched up nose.
“It smells like sex in here,” he said simply and I could feel the bright red blush stain my cheeks. He shook his head a little as if to clear his thoughts before he asked, “Where’s your phone?”
“Uh... I think it’s dead.”
Nathan sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. It was then that I noticed he had something in his other hand—what appeared to be a rolled up magazine.
“What’s going on?”
“Your sister’s been tryi
ng to call you for a few hours.”
“A few hours? What time is it?”
Did I sleep through lunch with Caleb?
“A few minutes past eleven. Sabrina, sit down.”
I did as he said, mainly because watching him pace back and forth while obviously wired with energy was just a reminder of how damn tired I still was. He looked like he was deep in thought so I simply watched him with a frown, waiting for him to say whatever it was he needed to get off his chest.
“I really didn’t want to be the one to do this, but Candace insisted.”
“Do what? Nathan, what the hell is going on?”
He solemnly held up the magazine towards me, but pulled it away before I could grasp it. “Your sister told me to make you call her first.”
With that, he held out his own cell phone for me to take. I was beginning to get irritated, but I dialed the number and waited, shocked when she answered on the first ring.
“Nate? Did you find Sabrina?”
“It’s me. What the hell is going on?”
“Sabrina, thank god! Put me on speaker!” I grit my teeth together and pressed the speaker button, wishing one of them would just come out with whatever was going on. “Okay, Sabrina? You need to take a long, cleansing breath. In and out. In... and out.”
“CANDACE!” I shouted, the sound making Nathan wince. “What the fuck is this about?”
My sister sighed on the other end of the line and quietly said, “Show her.”
He held the magazine back up and I yanked it out of his hand, unrolling it and frowning at the cover. It was one of those shitty daily tabloids—one of the terrible ones that was notorious for making shit up on the spot. For a split second, I wondered what this had to do with me.
Then my gaze landed on my own fucking eyes.
“What the...”
There were three portraits on the cover, one of Caleb and Marlena in a little heart that had been split apart and my photo shoved in between. Beneath that, there was an incredibly grainy image of...
“Oh my god.”
Grainy or not, it was undeniably Caleb Bradshaw in that picture. There was no mistaking the side of his face or the body. Unfortunately, there was also no mistaking the body that was beneath him.
My body. Last night. With my hand reaching between us as I tried to unbutton his pants.
I knew I heard something outside!
My heart sank to my stomach as I read the small tagline around the photo that essentially labeled me as his mistress.
But the worst part of the entire thing was my name in big, blown-up letters at the top of the magazine. Followed by my very own subtitle.
‘Sabrina Murphy: The Homewrecking Whore of Hollywood’
There it was— in glossy print. My name being drug through the dirt next to an image of a broken-hearted, crying Marlena. Beside her was a direct quote—‘I can’t believe he’d do this to me!’
I dropped the magazine to the floor, unable to withstand reading any more.
I heard my sister calling to me and felt Nathan place a comforting hand on my shoulder, but I couldn’t respond. I was too busy trying to keep my stomach from emptying its contents all over the floor of my trailer as the reality of the shitstorm I let myself get sucked into finally hit home.
Marlena hadn’t been lying. She had spies all over set and she made good on her threat to fuck with my career. There was nothing I could do about it. There was no denying the evidence.
Game over.
* * *
Chapter Eleven
“Sabrina, just calm down. It’s going to be alright.”
I laughed incredulously, the sound dry and hollow as I shot Nathan a dirty glare.
“Like hell it is. I’m going to go down in history as Caleb Bradshaw’s fucking mistress! No one is going to want to work with me after this shit show!” I shouted, letting out some of my anger even though I was aware that it was being directed at the wrong person.
“Look, this is a PR nightmare, no doubt about that—but you freaking out over it isn’t going to help your cause.”
“Listen to him, Sabrina. He knows what he’s talking about. This is related to his industry,” my sister attempted to reason with me.
I had forgotten she was still on speakerphone, listening in on this entire conversation. I swallowed the lump in my throat and hastily wiped away the tears forming at the corners of my eyes before I nodded.
“You’re right. Go ahead, Nathan.”
“The best thing for you to do is to stick to your guns, but do not attempt to argue your side. Don’t go on the internet leading a crusade about your side of the story. It’s just going to sink you deeper in the hole. As it is, one story in a shitty gossip rag isn’t going to hurt your reputation as much as you think it will.”
“Are you sure?” I hesitantly asked, wanting nothing more than to believe what he was saying, but I couldn’t shake the dreaded feeling that he was wrong.
“I’m positive. Just keep your head up and ignore it for now.”
I let go out a long, harsh breath. “Alright, fine. I’ll leave it alone.”
“And don’t let this bullshit keep you from going after Caleb!” Candace scolded me, already aware that I was thinking of ways to break off our entanglement. “That’s what she wants. Don’t let her ruin something special.”
“I don’t know if it’s something special, Candace,” I said hopelessly, not even caring that Nathan was in the room to hear this.
“There’s only one way you’re going to find out and pushing him away isn’t it. You need to stick together.”
I was suddenly grateful that Nathan and Candace had cornered me before anyone else could deliver the news, because their advice was invaluable. Candace was right—my first instinct was to shove Caleb away in hopes that the story would die down if we weren’t seen together. Even though that was really the last thing I wanted to do.
“Thanks, you two. I really appreciate you talking me through this.”
As Nathan smiled and laid a comforting hand on my shoulder, the door to my trailer burst open. Caleb stormed in, his eyes cloudy with barely concealed rage.
“I take it you heard,” he commented, his eyes darting between Nathan and I.
“Yeah. I heard.”
“Can we have some privacy?” Caleb asked, his eyes not leaving me as he took in my frazzled state.
Nathan stood up and grunted. “It certainly doesn’t seem that way.”
The joke was in poor taste, but it still pulled a chuckle out of both of us. He patted Caleb on the back as he left and I heard my sister shout a good-bye to me as he closed the door behind him.
Caleb let out a sigh and rubbed his palm over the back of his neck. “So what now? You planning on pushing me away or do you want to handle this like adults?”
“Why would you think I would push you away?” I asked with a frown.
He gave me a dry look. “Sabrina, come the fuck on. We both know you want to run. I’m surprised you haven’t started packing yet.”
I didn’t feel the need to confirm that the thought of running had crossed my mind. It was apparently pretty obvious to everyone who knew me.
It was just surprising to find out that Caleb knew it too.
I folded my arms across my chest and shrugged. “Well, I haven’t packed and I’m not going to. I’m not going anywhere.”
A huge smile lit up his entire face as he came over to sit next to me. “Glad to hear it, darling. As for what to do right now, I’m pretty much just hanging tight until Annabelle flies in. If it’s all the same to you, I say we skip lunch and just have dinner here tonight.”
I wasn’t able to focus on the suggestive way he said ‘dinner’ since I was stuck on the mention of a name that sounded familiar for some unknown reason.
“Annabelle?”
“My publicist. You met her in California, remember?”
I did remember now. Older woman, incredibly fashionable, very British. Completely ignored me afte
r we were introduced.
“Doesn’t she work for Marlena though?”
Caleb frowned. “Well, yeah. She handles multiple clients.”
“And she’s coming here?” I questioned incredulously, standing up and pacing around my limited space as I began to worry. “Look, I may not understand how things work in your world, but there was a direct quote from Marlena in that stupid magazine. Do you think it’s a good idea to take advice from a woman who might’ve been involved in this scandal?”
Caleb looked at me thoughtfully, his frown deepening as he considered my words. “I see your point, but she wouldn’t have purposely harmed my reputation. Sure, it’d help out Marlena’s career, but a story like this isn’t going to do me any favors. And Annabelle’s loyalty goes where the money is. Marlena doesn’t bring in half as much as I do.”
I wanted to trust his judgement, but I couldn’t shake the paranoia that was working its way through my stomach and twisting it into knots.
“I think this is a really bad idea.”
Caleb shook his head and placed his hands on my shoulders. “It’ll be fine. You’ll see.”
He wrapped his arms around me in a hug, muffling my words against him as I mumbled, “Who’s naive now?”
* * *
Later that night, I was still moping in my trailer when Caleb finally wrapped up his work day and came over for dinner. I opened the door and smiled when I saw the six-pack of beer in one hand while he balanced a pizza with the other.
“Delivery.”
I chuckled and popped my hip out as I crossed my arms over my chest “This old cliché? Really? I’m thoroughly disappointed. I thought you were more inventive than this.”
“What’s the matter? You don’t want to fuck the pizza boy?” Caleb asked with an exaggerated pout.
“Only the ones as cute as you,” I said with a dreamy sigh.
Caleb grinned and hopped up my stairs, handing me the beer so he could get a better grip on the pizza box. I held the door open for him then pushed it shut, double checking to make sure it was locked and that my curtains were closed before moving to put four of the beers into the mini fridge.
“Good day?” I asked as Caleb arranged a makeshift eating area for us on the couch.
