“I do,” he replied without hesitation. “As much as it pissed me off when you cut me off all those months ago, I needed this time alone. Without it, I don’t think we would have stood a chance of making this work.”
I still wasn’t sure we could make this work, but I wasn’t about to argue with Trevor—at least, not now. I’d probably argue with him about it plenty later, but for now, he’d opened up to me, and I didn’t want to ruin the moment with a bitchy comment, as I was often known to do. “I’m glad you like your own company, Trevor. You’re a great guy.”
Trevor prowled around the kitchen island, his hot, hungry gaze moving along my body. My eyes traveled down his body, and I sucked in a breath when they landed on the bulge in his pants.
“I keep saying I can’t wait to get you into my bed, and then I get distracted with all the other places I want to fuck you,” he murmured, sliding his arms around me and splaying his fingers across my lower back.
My mouth opened to give a sassy reply, but before I could speak, Trevor’s lips crushed mine. My mouth moved against his. All it took was one touch from this warlock to have me ready to beg for more of him, making me wonder if I’d somehow turned into a nympho for Trevor. It had only been a few hours since I’d had him, and I was already dying to feel him inside of me again.
One of Trevor’s hands slipped under my shirt to stroke my nipple through the lacy fabric of my bra. I arched into his hand, groaning and breaking our kiss. His eyes were locked on my face as he pinched my nipple.
“Seeing you in my home is so fucking arousing it’s a miracle I’ve waited this long to touch you,” he murmured.
I moaned, and Trevor took my mouth again. I was already close to coming just from having Trevor kiss me and play with my nipples through my bra. “I need you in me, now,” I insisted.
The buzzing of my phone was not a welcome interruption, and I decided to ignore it when Trevor pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it across the room. His hands went to my bra clasp, freeing my breasts to his hungry mouth. That’s when the phone started buzzing again.
“I need to answer that,” I said on a moan.
“Ignore it,” Trevor commanded, leaning in to take my nipple between his lips and suck hard.
My lips parted on a whimper, and I was seriously tempted to listen to him, but I knew I couldn’t do that when my phone started buzzing a third time.
“I can’t ignore it,” I told him with genuine regret. “There are rehearsals tonight, and there might be a problem I need to deal with.”
Trevor pulled back and nodded his understanding. While it was obvious he wasn’t happy about the interruption, he didn’t seem annoyed.
I grabbed my annoying phone before the call went to voicemail again.
“This is Mel,” I answered gruffly.
“Mel, it’s Leo,” the producer of Night High shot back before letting out a hacking cough.
“What’s up, Leo?” I asked, knowing it could be anything with him. He’d call me if the restrooms were out of toilet paper because the ass couldn’t call the janitorial service, or Goddess forbid, go to the supply closet and get the damn toilet paper himself. Admittedly, I was surprised he was calling me on a Sunday night since he did his best to avoid the studio on weekends, and he rarely showed up for rehearsals. Leo preferred to be there when he thought the press might stop by to ask him about his show. Leo was a total prick.
“We have a serious situation,” he told me. “I need you here in ten minutes.”
With that, the annoying little troll hung up on me.
“I need to go into the studio,” I explained to Trevor, looking around to see where he’d tossed my bra and shirt.
“What’s going on?” he asked, his voice a little strained, which made sense considering the erection still straining the zipper of his pants. I was seriously going to kill Leo if this wasn’t something that required my skills as head writer.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. I would have called Leo back, but now that he’d spoken to me, he wasn’t going to answer his phone. “It could be some minor bullshit issue. For whatever reason, the asshole producer thinks I’m the only person who can take care of anything.” I put my shirt back on and finger-combed my hair.
“I need you to be honest with me, Melina,” Trevor said from right behind me, and even though he wasn’t touching me, I could feel the heat of his body, tempting me to lean back into him. “Are you using this as an excuse to get away from me? We had a serious talk—one I’m sure you weren’t ready for—so, I can see why you’d want to put some distance between us.”
“No,” I assured him. “I definitely do not want to put distance between us. I may kill Leo if he interrupted what was about to happen without a damn good reason.”
“Okay, then I’ll go with you,” he offered.
“No,” I responded quickly. “Fuck! That makes it sound like I don’t want you around me, and I do. It’s just that I don’t want to deal with all the questions your presence will bring since they will only keep me at work longer tonight. I just want to handle whatever issue came up and get out of there. Would it make you feel better if I offer to let you bring me dinner tomorrow?”
Trevor nodded, and he seemed relieved. While I’d been tempted to try to keep the fact that I was seeing Trevor a secret because I knew it was temporary, I’d quickly dismissed that idea. I was staying at Trevor’s house, and as part of our bet, I’d agreed to give him a chance. That meant he’d be seen with me in public.
“I think I’ll change out of my moving clothes and get Mr. Whiskers ready to go,” I said, knowing he’d probably be annoyed about leaving his new toys.
“Just leave him,” Trevor told me, and he chuckled at my skeptical look. “You already know we get along fine, and he’s going to be living here with you, so he may as well get used to spending time alone with me.”
“We’re staying here for a month,” I reminded him. “Unless you get tired of me earlier, and then it could be even less than a month.”
“Keep telling yourself that, honey, and I’ll keep proving you wrong.”
Chapter Seventeen
Trevor
I watched Melina hurry out of my kitchen like she had hell hounds chasing her, and it took everything in me not to chase her down and drag her to my bed, or any other surface for that matter. I hated the idea of her leaving when things were going so well between us, mostly because I was insecure when it came to what we had. I knew Melina was attracted to me. I also knew she liked me. I even knew we were right for each other after testing our magic. What concerned me was whether Melina would decide this was a huge mistake while she was away from me. Bet or not, she didn’t have to stay here, and we both knew it. She was here because she was also curious about our feelings, or at least the attraction between us.
I found Mr. Whiskers in the bedroom at the far end of the hall. It had already been nearly empty, only a sofa and a television in there, so it hadn’t taken much to set up this room for him. I’d managed to get a sizable cat tree delivered from a pet supply company. They’d also sent an assortment of cat toys. While it had cost me quite a bit more than I would normally spend, it had been worth it. This was much easier than trying to transport all of Mr. Whiskers’ things today. I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I’d also hoped to impress Melina with my thoughtfulness.
“Hey!” I called out when I found him sitting on the sofa, pressing buttons on the TV remote with his talons. “I had no idea you knew how to work the television.”
“He gets into everything,” Melina said from behind me, and I turned to find her dressed in yoga pants and a very well-worn Misfits t-shirt which had skeleton hands groping her impressive breasts. At my raised eyebrow, she looked down at her clothes and grinned. “I don’t want anyone to forget I’m not working tonight. If you think my familiar is needy, you should see how some of those actors behave when I’m around.”
I had seen that, and it still surprised me that Melina was the go-to-witch for ever
ything. Aside from the fact that she wasn’t known for being sweet-tempered with any of the actors, she was the head writer. Her job didn’t involve keeping the actors happy. In fact, I’d always thought they should be kissing her incredibly fine ass so she’d give them the best parts.
She laughed at my perplexed expression. “I see you are wondering why they’d all go to someone as bitchy as me. It’s the same reason I’m rushing off to the studio now.”
I nodded my understanding. “This show is your baby. I’d probably be rushing off to the office if one of my clients had an emergency.”
She gave me an almost shy smile and walked over to her familiar.
“I need you to stay with Trevor while I go to work for a little while,” she began, and the condor stopped playing with the remote to look at her. “I shouldn’t be gone long.”
There was a pause, and I knew he was talking to her.
“No, Trevor is not going to order anchovy pizza for you. Don’t even think about trying to get him to spoil you like that. I’ll fix your dinner when I get home.”
She paused again and one hand went to her hip.
“You do not need pizza,” she insisted.
Her stance relaxed, and she stroked his head. “I’ll miss you, baby. Be good for Trevor.”
She walked toward me, looking like she wasn’t sure what to do. “Thank you again for watching him. It will save me a lot of time since I don’t need to get him ready to go.”
“No problem,” I replied with a one shoulder shrug. Reaching out, I slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her close. “I’ll see you in a couple of hours.” I brushed my lips against hers and reluctantly released her.
“Right, a couple of hours,” Melina replied. “I really wish I didn’t have to leave.”
Her comment made me grin. “Hearing you say that made my day.”
She rolled her eyes before hurrying toward the front of the house. I’d already given her keys and the security code, so I knew she could get back in no matter what time she got home. I was sure she’d get distracted with other issues as soon as she got to the studio.
Looking over at Mr. Whiskers, I found him watching me expectantly. While I couldn’t understand what he said, I got vague ideas of what he was thinking when we were together. Right now, it seemed he was wondering if I’d buy him pizza.
“How about a small anchovy pizza?” I asked him. Sure, my house would stink while he ate it, but it all seemed worthwhile when he bounded off the sofa and bent forward to rub his head against my legs. “It’ll be our little secret, right buddy?”
His head bobbed up and down in agreement, and I decided pizza sounded good. “Maybe I’ll get pepperoni for me.”
If I wasn’t mistaken, he was doing his version of wrinkling his nose in disgust, which made me laugh. “I feel the same about anchovies, so we’ll have to agree to disagree when it comes to pizza toppings.”
Pulling out my phone, I placed the pizza order and prepared to settle in for the first night with Melina in my house. While technically she wasn’t here, it was nice knowing she was coming home to me at the end of the night. It was also nice spending time with Mr. Whiskers.
“I missed you,” I told him and settled onto the sofa with him at my side. “Let me show you how to use the television in here.”
Chapter Eighteen
Melina
Leo was nowhere to be seen as I made my way into the studio and headed straight to my office. While I knew it might be faster to hunt him down, this was my day off. If he wanted me, he could find me. Besides, it was less likely anyone else would notice I was here and bother me with problems this way.
My office was its usual cluttered mess, with papers stacked high on my desk. If it were up to me, my office would never look cluttered. I fucking hate clutter. I’d been worried about seeing Trevor’s place for the first time, knowing I’d have had to back out on our bet if his house was messy.
The usual reason for my office mess had to do with the age of some of the actors and staff working on the show. While I did everything electronically, some of the much older members of the preternatural community weren’t comfortable with computers. We had more than a few who had lived long before electricity, and they were still reluctant to embrace most modern technology. That meant paper memos and scripts still went out. Those could be an annoyance, but this stack didn’t even fall into that category. With an annoyed sigh, I lifted the stack of papers from my desk and walked them to the blue bin in the hallway. These were all memos from Leo regarding the complaints from the Council of Witches about our portrayal of witches on the show. Leo thought we should give in and make some changes to appease the council. I thought most of the council members needed to pull the sticks out of their asses and stop worrying about a television show whose target audience was humans. I’d written the witches as ditsy cheerleaders. After being berated in front of the council about six months ago, I’d agreed to make some changes and add more depth to the witches on the show. Now, they were slutty, ditsy cheerleaders. I’m not good at taking orders.
Overall, I loved my job, even if I worked more hours than I’d ever expected to when I’d filmed the pilot episode of Night High five years ago. It had taken me a year to get that pilot picked up, and I still had trouble believing I was getting paid to write. Since I was already here, I decided to log into my computer and check my emails. I figured Leo was probably pouting because it had taken me longer than ten minutes to get here. He always forgot I couldn’t teleport to Los Angeles. I had to drive to the closest transport tube, which was in Oakland. The transport tubes were one of the best contributions demons had made to the preternatural community. I had no idea how they worked, but they made it possible for me to get from Oakland to Los Angeles in an hour with good traffic.
“I will not work with her!” Malik St. James waved his hands in an overly dramatic manner as he glided into my office. He was graceful, with a delicate build that most would call pretty. That was common with vampires and why we used so many of them on the show. He had a boyish face, stunning blue eyes, and bronze skin, thanks to the modern miracle of spray tans. His naturally blonde hair was dyed black with purple streaks, and he sported several facial piercings—lip, eyebrow, and nose. Most would think he was dressed for the show, but Malik always dressed this way. He even dressed this way when attending the opera, of all things. Apparently, when you’re a big shot actor who’s also starred in several movies, you can get away with wearing whatever you want in your private opera box.
Close on his heels was the hottest new actress on television, Cat Devereaux. Cat was dramatic in a different and scarier way than Malik. I liked her. She was just over five feet tall with the lean muscular build of a runner, and she could kick just about anyone’s ass. Her reddish brown hair was a long mass of curls that hung past her waist. She had no piercings, no tattoos, and preferred jeans and a t-shirt. Her clean-cut, girl next door look was a startling contrast to Malik’s bad boy good looks.
“I will stake his skinny ass if he doesn’t stop calling me a bitch,” Cat growled—literally growled—meaning she was close to changing. Cat was a werewolf, and even though I’d never met her parents, I loved them for naming their werewolf daughter Cat.
Now, I knew why Leo had called me. Malik and Cat needed to learn to play nice, and they listened to me more than anyone else. They probably figured it was stupid to piss off the woman responsible for writing their rolls.
Taking a deep, calming breath, I did my best to resist the temptation to send one of them crashing through a wall. They might be scary preternatural creatures, but my father was a high-level demon. I was scarier. Still, I didn’t want to deal with a hole in my wall. That would make it easier for people to barge into my office, and there were still a few people who knocked before entering. “We have talked about this already,” I reminded them through clenched teeth.
“I don’t work with dogs,” Malik muttered.
“I don’t work with mosquitoes,” Cat snappe
d.
That was a good comeback, and I might have laughed if I weren’t ready to lose it with both of them.
“Well, apparently, I work with children!” I snapped back at them. “Sit down.” They must have finally figured out I wasn’t in the mood to deal with them because both sat in chairs at opposite ends of my office. “We’ve gotten countless letters and even done focus groups. There is no denying that the fans want to see Dante and Maxi as the next super couple on the show. Either I can write that story or I can kill off both characters. Which should I do?”
I couldn’t really kill off either of their characters, but I was hoping they didn’t know that.
“Sorry, Mel,” they both mumbled in unison.
“It’s hard working with her,” Malik grumbled. “She is such a drama queen.”
“I’m a drama queen?” Cat gasped.
“Deal with it,” I snapped. “I’m not here to help smooth things over. You don’t like each other, and I don’t give a flying fuck. You’re actors, so act like you’re best friends while you’re here and then bitch about each other when you leave.”
“Isn’t this your day off?” Cat asked.
“Yes, it is,” I told her with a strained smile.
“Then why are you here?” Malik asked.
“I assume Leo called me in to deal with your spat,” I explained.
Cat shook her head. “We didn’t talk to Leo about any of this.”
“You’re the first person we’ve complained to,” Malik added. “Everyone’s been running around stressed out about something.”
“They canceled rehearsal for two scenes, but I’m not sure why,” Cat explained. “None of the actors have been told what’s going on. Leo must have called you about that stuff. We haven’t even seen him tonight.”
“There was a human hanging around the set, and we were told to pretend to be human until he leaves,” Malik added thoughtfully.
Shamelessly Spellbound (Spells That Bind Book 2) Page 7
