The Director (Hollywood Nights)

by North, Cara

  He noticed she referred to her father as ‘her son’ not ‘dad’.

  She continued, “I spend time with a few of them, but I try to keep my distance since the lady next door passed. I keep losing people, you know?”

  She sounded so sad. He moved into the bathroom as she turned on the shower. He watched her step in and soon followed. She lathered up her hair and tilted her head back to let the water rinse it clean. This shower was ridiculously small compared to the one at the beach house, and his condo in New York. It was still nice compared to the shower in the military where it came from a portable bag or a make-shift shower in the desert that he didn’t see for a week or more at a time. He was afraid to get completely naked over there because he was more afraid of dying that way than anything else. He kept thinking it would be Karma for trying to exit early in his youth.

  “No.” He waited his turn for the water. He was in no hurry to get out of this shower with her. He loved to look at her naked. She was lush curves and smooth bronzed skin. “I don’t. Tell me.”

  “Well,” she sighed. “I lost my parents my freshman year in college. They uh, ran off on me. They aren’t dead, but they might as well be. I lost my grandma the next year. She left me this place and an inheritance from her and my grandpa. My parents were so pissed she cut them out of the will they haven’t spoken to me since. I uh, lost Frankie last year, but I finally got her back.” She paused, looked at him and said, “Though if I keep this up I don’t know how long that will last either. She won’t like it.”

  “It’s not her business,” he said and squeezed a considerable amount of conditioner into his hand. He wasn’t a complete fan of Frankie. She had made his wild, little brother a happy man so he gave her some credit. She just seemed to be a bit of a control freak. He let thoughts of his brother and Frankie slip his mind and focused on Shay. He liked her long hair and the way it tried to curl unsuccessfully when it got wet leaving it wavy. “Turn around.”

  She looked him in the eye, squinted a second, then turned her back to him. He looked at the soft globes of her ass and tried to focus on the task at hand. She said, “You are Jonas’s brother. She won’t choose me over you because she won’t choose anyone or anything over him. You don’t seem to understand how bad this could end up.”

  “You don’t seem to understand how good this is.” He enjoyed running his fingers through her hair, massaging her scalp, and then watching her rinse it all out. He couldn’t stop the words if he tried, which he didn’t, “You have gorgeous hair.”

  She stilled and he corrected himself by saying, “I mean, grotesque hair. I got the words confused.”

  She giggled and said, “I’ll let that one slide if you tell me the real reason you came by today. Was it just to fuck me? Or did you want your sweatshirt back?”

  He placed his hands on her waist and turned her to face him. He looked down at her and said sincerely, “I had to see you. I can’t exactly explain it, but you make me feel…alive. You see me.”

  “Of course I see you,” she said. He could tell she was feeling unsure, awkward. He understood. He was asking a lot of her in such a short time.

  “No, Shay.” He looked at her and said it again, “You see me.”

  She nodded.

  “I know I’m fucked up. I know this. I have been for most of my life. I’m not a bad guy really. I just don’t like a lot of people.” She grinned up at him and he knew they had that much in common already. “They annoy me.”

  “But not me?”

  “No,” he said and was surprised that it was true. “Not you. Not yet anyways.”

  She opened her mouth with a feigned shock and he laughed.

  “I can’t make any promises. I don’t know how this will turn out,” he said honestly. “I just want a chance to see where the road might lead because it feels…right.”

  She stroked his beard and said, “Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  “Yes, because I think you can see me, too,” she said as she slid her hand to the back of his neck and pulled him towards her. “As long as the first place it leads us is to the bedroom because I am pretty sure after that hallway incident, you owe me one.”

  Chapter 5

  “Can I have the last piece?” he asked and reached for it anyways. She laughed.

  Shay looked at Jed Gunner sitting across from her at the kitchen table. He had eaten most of the pizza. How could she complain? After all, he spent most of the afternoon eating her. She clenched her thighs together at the memory.

  Her face must have given her thoughts away. He smiled and said, “You look terrible.”

  “I feel terrible.” She could barely believe how easy it was to hear the undercurrent of seduction in the non-complimentary compliments. They were two sick and twisted puppies. She loved it.

  “I’m going to make you feel miserable later.” He winked.

  She giggled. He had made her happier than she could remember being in her entire life. “When are you going back to New York?”

  “Trying to get rid of me already?”

  “No,” she said and meant it. “I was just wondering. I’ve only been there once before. I didn’t get to see much of it.”

  “You’d like it there.” He picked up the soda and took a drink. He sat it down and looked at her. “We should go.”

  “I…uh,” Shay could feel the butterflies in her belly. She was nervous. “I can’t right now. I mean I just started working. I don’t think they will use me as much in the second one. I don’t have a contract at all for the third. I doubt anything will come along so I have to see this through. Harvey took a huge risk with me. I can’t let him down.”

  “I understand.” He nodded. “We don’t have to go right away, but if you want to go when this contract is up, we’ll go. I know people, too. I could get you work if…”

  “No!” She pushed up from the table and picked up her plate. She did not want him to think on any level she was using him for her career. A year ago she might have taken him up on the offer. Today, there was no way she could entertain the thought. “Just…no, okay?”

  He nodded. She held her hand out for his plate and he handed it to her. “This was nice, right? Having dinner together.”

  “Yes,” she admitted. “It was.” She looked at him, he was up to something. She asked, “What?”

  “It might also be nice if we went somewhere for dinner.”

  She thought about it a moment and said, “Okay. If you really want to go out with me in public I just need to know one thing, what should I wear?”

  “It’s just a barbecue, so a t-shirt and jeans will be fine.” He rolled his shoulder and said, “That’s what I’m wearing. Of course, if you want to wear something horrible and torment me all night by forcing me to look at it, well, who am I to complain?”

  “I don’t want to stand out,” she admitted.

  “Impossible.”

  She carried the plates to the sink and washed them. She thought about how nice it was to have him there. She also thought about how awkward it would be for them to sleep in the twin sized bed, and how comfortable his bed was at the house he was staying in.

  He seemed equally comfortable in both locations and she wondered, “What is your place in New York like?”

  “Awesome.” He practically lit up as he thought about it.

  “I assumed as much.” She touched his shoulder as she reentered the small space. He pushed his chair out and pulled her to his lap.

  “It’s nice. Not grand like my dad’s place, not as…” He looked around and cautiously said, “Not as eclectic as yours.” She gave him a fake frown and he continued, “It’s nice. I mean, I do all right in this industry. I have investments outside of the movie business. I mean, I might not make the same as my siblings are now, but I don’t envy the added work that comes along with what you guys do.”

  “I’m not in their league,” Shay corrected.

  “You’re right,” he nodded. “You are more talented than both of them.”


  “You should tell that to my bank account.” She stroked his hair and decided, “Let’s not talk shop. Tell me something you have always wanted to do, but haven’t had a chance to.”

  “It’s shop talk.”

  “Ugh,” she conceded. “Tell me.”

  “I’ve always wanted to be on one of those cooking shows. I know, don’t look at me like that. Not acting, but cooking for real, you know? I just…enjoy cooking. I like to mix it up, see what skills I have, but it’s just me so I don’t get to test my limits very often.”

  “Well.” She kissed his lips briefly then continued. “You can always cook for me. I mean if your culinary skills are anywhere near your-” she cleared her throat, “cunalingus skills…”

  He laughed and then pulled her into a kiss. He let her loose and settled his forehead against hers. “I’m out of condoms, and you are too.”

  “I’m on birth control,” she whispered.

  “So I can…”

  “Yes, if you want to, you can.”

  Within moments Shay found herself face down and ass up leaning on the kitchen table. Jed was holding her shoulder with one hand and her hip with the other. He had thrust hard enough that he pushed the table and her on it about a foot from where it was when they started. She was partly to blame. After all she kept saying, “Harder. That’s it, Jed. Fuck me hard.”

  He didn’t disappoint her. He slammed into her without restraint. She didn’t always like it like this. She was wound up. The feel of his bare skin sliding into her had her on some other level of what she was able to take. The way he looked at her, how he touched her, had her on a new mission to see just how much she could stand. How much of him would be too much. Where would she draw the line? Where would he?

  “You have to come, I can’t last much longer,” he said between thrusts.

  She focused all of her attention and energy to clenching him as tight as she could from the inside. He spent on the next thrust. He whispered, “Wicked little…”

  She was sure he had another word in there but he bit it off as he spilled into her. She smiled. He traced her spine with his hand and then slapped her ass like he meant it. She yelped and he asked, “Why did you do that to me?”

  She breathed deeply. Something wicked indeed had stirred inside of her for sure. She said, “I don’t know. Ask again.”

  He didn’t move. He probably had to figure out what she was asking for. He ran his hand over the warm spot his handprint had left on her ass and said, “Ask again?’

  She gulped, “Yes.”

  Another moment of stillness, of silence, settled between them. She was growing uncomfortable and embarrassed when the next swat landed on her other cheek and he asked, “Why did you do that to me?”

  He must have felt her clench his cock from the inside. He rocked his hips forward. He was losing the hardness but now seemed to be regaining it fast.

  “I don’t know. Ask again.”

  He never slapped her ass painfully hard, just enough to make it tingle, enough to make it warm, enough to make a new sensation build inside of her, enough to make her come. She wasn’t sure how many landed, just that it was enough.

  “Why did you do that to me?” he asked one last time.

  “I…” She could feel the orgasm sweep through her. It made her shiver from the tip of her spine to the tips of her toes. He popped her on the ass once more. His name slipped out in a breathless plea.

  “Wow,” he said as he held her hips and she came in wild abandon.

  She panted. He caressed the globes of her ass and said, “I didn’t know you could do that.”

  “Neither did I,” she admitted.

  He rocked his hips forward and she realized he was still hard.

  “Turn over,” he said as he pulled out of her. She rolled to face him. He lifted her from the table and carried her to the couch. He lowered her and covered her with his body. He leaned in to kiss her. Gently, he kissed, pushed, and held her. Within a few thrusts, he came with a quiet whisper of her name on his lips. Exhausted, he let his full weight rest on her. She stroked his back and cherished the feel of him. He smiled and said, “Next time we’ll test a new recipe.”

  Chapter 6

  It took a lot of effort for him to finally leave her house in the morning. The twin bed they slept in was uncomfortable, but it forced them to sleep close together. At some point she had settled on his chest and he enjoyed the strokes of her fingers as she played with his chest hair. He wasn’t sure which one of them fell asleep first. He woke up before her and realized that for the first night in a while, he didn’t have nightmares. He didn’t dream of Dana, and he didn’t dream of the various places he had been or the things he had seen. He didn’t want a cigarette.

  He was counting down the minutes to get back to her place. He was too anxious and eventually he did break down and smoke. The electronic version used water vapor and didn’t leave the smell of smoke behind. He ate cinnamon mints compulsively, just in case, to erase any trace of his dirty little secret. He had driven around the block three times already. When he was actually standing with her, he could be calm, cool, and in control. Away from her, he stressed over her thoughts of him. He wanted her approval. He wanted her.

  He rang the doorbell and reminded himself that no matter what she was wearing, they absolutely had to go to this thing. He could not walk her back into the house and spend another day indulging in her flesh. He was well beyond his physical limits, yet they seemed to find more to extract every time they got together. His body ached in places he forgot he had muscles.

  She must have felt the same because she didn’t open the door all the way before she was stepping out of it. She was gorgeous, but he couldn’t tell her that. Instead he said, “If it wasn’t for that sweatshirt in your hand, I don’t know if I could be seen with you.”

  “This old thing?” She looked at the hoodie he had given her that first night and then at him. He had picked out his favorite because he knew he would have to retrieve it at some point. He’d had that hoodie longer than he’d had most of his friends. “Some guy gave this to me.”

  “Some guy?” he whispered as he leaned in and gave her a welcome hug and kiss.

  She winked at him. Her green eyes still captured his soul each time she looked at him. He slid his hand down her arm and clasped her fingers. “I hope you like barbecue.”

  “Of course I do,” she said with a smile. “Frankie took her car back?”

  “Yeah, she doesn’t like driving Jonas’s cars either. I figured I might be around long enough, I picked this one up.” He walked the short distance to the SUV and opened the door for her. He watched as her sleek legs moved into the vehicle. She was wearing a denim skirt, not long, but not short, a pair of designer label, white flip flops, and a pretty blue and white shirt. She pulled his sweatshirt into her lap and settled her name brand wristlet on top of it. She had a pair of sunglasses pushed up on her head and her dark hair was down. She had left it wavy and he resisted the urge to run his hands through it. He liked it best natural.

  “New car smell,” she said and inhaled. He was ever so grateful for technology at that moment. Real cigarettes would have erased that smell. He got into the car and reached in the back seat. He handed her the small bouquet of daisies. She accepted them with a surprised smile and a, “Thank you.”

  He didn’t want to tell her he also hoped when he left for New York he would be driving it and most of her stuff would be coming with them. It was too early for that.

  “They are a particularly ugly flower, so I thought you might like them,” he teased.

  “I do,” she blushed. “Daisies and Lilly’s are my favorites. I don’t like roses so much. They remind me of my grandmother’s funeral. Everyone sent roses. I only like them on rose bushes because that’s where she loved them the most.”

  He was really glad he didn’t pick up the roses. He considered it, but then thought about beauty and tradition, and knew that wasn’t going to work well with S
hay. He started the car and began the drive to his mother’s house. He hadn’t told her where they were going, just what they were going to do. It was a big deal. Everyone would be there. Even his parents had moved on and started dating. He didn’t want to go alone. He was tired of being the odd man out.

  Well, he was always a little odd. As he watched his younger siblings move on with life he couldn’t help wonder when he too could move on. Janice was married with one son and another child on the way. Jonas was married to Frankie and they were expecting a baby too. Jed never really fit in with his younger siblings.

  He always looked out for them, he loved them, he was happy for them, but they never really understood why he couldn’t get back in front of a camera and pretend everything was okay after his girlfriend committed suicide. They never understood how much he had loved her. How a part of him had died with her. A part of him that was being resurrected the more time he spent with Shay.

  “Hey,” he said and reached across the seat to hold her hand. “Tell me something new about you.”

  “I’ve taken a considerable interest in researching a certain person,” she said and gave his hand a squeeze.

  “You can ask me anything. I don’t mind telling you,” he said. “I mean it. I won’t lie to you.”

  “What has been your favorite project to work on so far?” she asked.

  That was easy and a relief. He could talk to her about the various films he had been a part of all night.

  ***

  Shay was learning a lot about the reason Jed chose to work on particular projects. She listened to him talk all the way to the house they were going to. It was easy to do. His voice was seductive even when he wasn’t trying to seduce. He said, “I just want to do things that matter.”

  She was listening, but became anxious as they pulled down a considerable driveway. She noticed how the cars were lined up. It became obvious that there was a valet service. Jed pulled into the row of vehicles and put the car in park. He stepped out and came around to her side. She realized he left the keys in the car.