by Louise Bay
I’d always enjoyed sex but I’d never yearned for it. Never physically craved a man as I did Matt. And it was exactly because there was no pressure on me. He took what he wanted and knew what I needed.
He slammed deeper and deeper and I tried to keep my orgasm at bay. I wanted to be stronger than I was, for him to have to fight for my orgasm, but as soon as he touched me, I was always seconds away from my climax. I screwed up my fists and tried to block out the drag of his dick, his hot breath on my neck as he told me how many times he was going to make me come.
My climax rumbled like distant thunder. “You wanna come again, Lana?”
I nodded.
“You always want to come as soon as you get my dick.”
I’d hate him for being so arrogant if it wasn’t entirely true.
I spread my fingers wide and let my orgasm ripple across my body as Matt continued to thrust into me. He liked to fuck me through my climax. In the rare event that I didn’t have another one soon after, he’d double down until he had me coming for a second or third time.
Tonight, the third one was beginning to build even though the second was still a series of aftershocks. He pulled us to our sides and wrapped his arms around me, never losing his rhythm. He reached for my nipple, pinching and rolling it between his finger and thumb, injecting a fresh shot of pleasure directly between my legs.
His other hand went to my lower belly and brought me closer, thrusting deeper. I called out, desperate for some respite. But I needed it harder and deeper.
“Feel this, Lana? I knew the first moment I saw you, soaked to your skin, screaming at me, that this was what you needed. My cock, driving deeper into you, my fingers pinching your nipples. You screamed out how bad you needed to be fucked this hard.”
The rest of his words blurred into my climax as it ripped through me and I could tell by his sharp thrusts that he was coming with me. “Lana,” was the only sound I heard through the pounding of the blood in my ears.
“You smell like the ocean,” he whispered on an exhale as our bodies continued to pulse and quiver.
I reached back to cup his jaw. “You smell of determination. Something got into you tonight.” We’d had sex every day since our trip up the coast, but something had shifted in the way he’d touched me tonight.
I turned to face him and he grinned, and I shook my head. “I can see that joke forming in your brain. You know what I mean. You got something on your mind?”
“I got my schedule for my first week back in LA.”
My stomach flipped. Next week was his last on set and then he was going back to California. He’d never pretended that he might stay, but I would miss him. I’d gotten used to having him in my bed every night.
“You have a schedule sent to you? You don’t just, I don’t know, wake up and get on with your day?”
He rearranged us on the bed so we were facing each other and pulled up a sheet. “No, because the press tour for the movie Audrey and I did starts almost immediately. I also have a couple of interviews and meetings with directors and stuff. There’s a lot more to the job than just filming.”
I nodded and placed my hands between my face and the pillow.
“Will you come out and visit me?” he asked, taking a strand of my hair and pushing it behind my ear.
“In LA?” We’d never talked about what happened after he left Worthington. Things had started off so casually between us, and it was always so clear that we only had limited time together. I didn’t have any answers, but I wasn’t sorry that he’d brought it up. I wanted to see inside his brain.
“Yeah, in LA.” His fingers smoothed over my waist.
Where did he see this going? There’d been plenty of times over the last few weeks that I’d wanted to stretch out time so he’d be in Worthington longer, but it had never occurred to me that once he’d left we could see each other again. Not until tonight.
“I’m not a city girl—you know that. I have the shop here. My life is here. What would I even do in LA? You can’t risk being discovered with another woman, and I don’t want any attention—”
“I’m not sure if you’re really concerned about any of these things, or if you just don’t want to see me.”
“I’m really concerned about all those things.” Mostly, I was worried about being seen with him. I didn’t want that sort of attention for either one of us. “You know I don’t want people taking my picture, or knowing my business.”
He pulled me toward him, so we were touching. “You’ve never thought how you’ll miss how I can make you feel?”
“You’re trying to distract me.” I smacked him on the chest.
He chuckled, pulling my hand to his mouth and kissing it. “Just reminding you what you’ll be missing. And I can sneak you in. No one will ever know you’re staying with me. We can stay in bed the whole time.”
I trailed my fingers from his collarbone over his chest. Was that possible? To go unseen to the house of a Hollywood heartthrob? “Surely there are plenty of women very happy to spend all day in bed with you in LA?”
He drew in a breath. “Look, I’m just kidding about staying in bed all day.” He paused. “I think. I like hanging out with you, but I’m leaving soon. And I don’t want to stop hanging out. I’m just suggesting we have some more time together. No pressure.”
“And you think we could do it without the press finding out?” I focused on his eyes, trying to determine if there was reticence behind them.
None.
He brought my leg across his hip, snaking his hand up the back of my thigh. “Yeah. I have high fences.”
“We won’t be able to go out, though. Not for lunch or anything.” Surely he wouldn’t want to be cooped up at home for a weekend.
“I can get any restaurant in town to do takeout for us.” He seemed certain that this was what he wanted, and I wouldn’t turn down an extra few days with a man who knew my body so well. And had also gotten to know my mind pretty well too. A man who I enjoyed sharing my day with, who could make me laugh, who not only didn’t mind my yoga pants but found them sexy. I liked Matt. And I wasn’t so sure I wanted him to disappear from my life all of a sudden.
I bit back my grin. “Only if you promise me a lot of sex.”
“Now that’s the easiest promise I’ve made in the last month.” He pressed his lips against mine. I tightened my leg, pulling him toward me.
Would it be as easy as he made it sound, sneaking into his house and not being seen? A famous guy was the last person I’d want to date if that was even what he was suggesting, which I wasn’t sure about. But I wanted to let him go even less.
Fifteen
Matt
Sitting out on Lana’s deck while she worked was one of my new favorite things to do. She was curled up next to me on a long bench, sketching jewelry designs while I made notes on a book I was reading. The sound of the ocean was incredibly soothing, and I’d grown so used to it that I’d decided to look at real estate in Malibu when I got back to LA. The only problem was Lana wouldn’t be there sharing the view with me. I’d never been interested in just hanging out with a woman, which wasn’t to say I wouldn’t take naked-Lana over dressed-Lana any day of the week, but just being with her was better than I’d ever thought possible.
“It’s going to rain again,” she said without looking up.
“How can you tell?”
“You can’t feel that shift in the air? Must be those ions or something.” She glanced across at me and grinned. Christ, she was beautiful.
We hadn’t mentioned her coming to visit me in LA again since we’d talked about it a few days ago, but I could tell she was thinking it was a possibility.
As if on cue, the sky rumbled. She raised her eyebrows. “Told you so.”
“You right about everything?”
“I wish. I’d love to be able to tell the future.” She looked away and blushed, but I couldn’t figure out why.
“What are you thinking about?” I swiped her hair off
her shoulders and cupped the back of her neck.
“Nothing. How’s the book?” She lifted her chin toward my current read, The Brothers, about kids growing up in the Midwest who discover a body.
“It’s not a kids’ book though?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No more than Stranger Things is a show for kids.”
“I love that show,” she said. “It’s unadulterated entertainment but you can see respect for the audience.”
I grinned. “Exactly. So much stuff now is dumbed down. But you can tell the things that are made for ratings compared to other things that are clearly made by people who want to be real fans of the end product. This,” I said, jiggling the book, “would make an awesome movie.”
“You keep saying that,” Lana said, concentrating on her drawing again.
“Because it’s true.” It was the second book I’d read since coming to Maine that I could see on the screen. If not a movie, then maybe as a Netflix series. “You’d have to get a director who wasn’t afraid to be a little dark and you couldn’t aim it at kids. As soon as you do that, you lose what this book is about. Kids are sophisticated.” I pulled her legs onto my lap. “This book could be about me and my brothers, growing up and on our bikes in Gary, getting up to God knows what. But we weren’t naïve. We knew exactly what was going on. We knew the auto mechanic at the corner of Virginia Street and Fifteenth sold drugs and stolen phones. We knew my dad’s best friend fooled around on his wife. Adults underestimate kids. And the scriptwriter would have to understand how worldly the characters are in this text despite their age.”
Her smile grew wider.
“What?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I like to hear you talking like this. With passion. It suits you.”
“It’s this book. It would make such a great movie.”
“Has the author sold the rights?” She tilted her head and continued to sketch.
“I doubt it. It’s a book about four kids who stumble across a murder. Not the sort of thing that gets snapped up by studios and production houses.”
“Maybe you should think about seeing if the rights are available.”
I placed a bookmark between the pages and lay it down next to me on the bench, tugging her feet toward me. “You think?”
She nodded. “Yeah. You could be the one to get it made. It’s often the oddball choices, the movies that take a risk, that do really well.”
I chuckled. “Hardly. I’m a pretty face. I don’t get books turned into movies.” Brian was forever telling me how lucky I was that I’d made it when so many models tried to break into acting all the time.
“Don’t a lot of actors produce?” She glanced up at the roof of the porch as if impatient for the rain.
“When they’ve been in the business a long time. Earned their stripes.”
“You don’t think you’re there yet?”
I’d never really thought about going behind the scenes. “Well, I’m all about the franchise at the moment. Everything’s aiming for that.”
“Because that will make you a lot of money?” she asked. I’d talked a little about my future career plans and Lana understood my goals.
“I guess that’s part of it. I like to be able to give my family what they’ve never had, so none of them have to worry. But for me it’s more than that. It’s about being the best. About getting to the top.”
She nodded. “And after you have that?”
My plan was always to make as much money as I could while I was hot, then make a graceful exit. “I’m not sure I’ll ever be producer material. I was a model, remember?”
“I’m looking at you. I don’t need to remember. That doesn’t mean you can’t be a producer.” She pulled out the blanket from underneath the bench and began to unfold it. “But you like this book. Can’t you option it or something? Is that the right word?”
“Yeah, it’s the right word.” How could I explain that it wasn’t as easy as she was making it seem? “The author is unlikely to sell their rights to me. I don’t have a production company or studio backing or anything.”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t get all those things. Surely you have contacts?”
I lifted my arms as she placed the blanket over both our legs. Despite the fresh breeze, I wasn’t cold, but I liked that she was trying to make me comfortable. “Yeah, maybe.” I could mention it to my agent, I supposed. The book was phenomenal, but I knew the lack of adult male leading roles meant it wasn’t likely to ever get to the big screen. But if Lana believed in me, then maybe it was worth a try. “You think it’s possible?”
“I never hear what you’re shooting for when this franchise thing is in the bag. Won’t turning a book you love into a movie be something to aim for?”
When I went for my first audition as an actor, I’d come out of the meeting knowing that if I got the part, I’d do every job it took to be a success. I was determined not to squander the opportunity.
“I think passion for success has gotten you a long way. Have you ever thought that you could have passion in a different way, for the actual work? Maybe you need something more.”
My heart began to beat through my chest. Something more. Looking back, it was probably what I’d been wanting for a long time. I’d pushed the feeling down by partying and then by focusing on getting back what I almost lost. But being here in Maine, with Lana, the feeling had grown. But it wasn’t so scary anymore. “Maybe I’ll call Brian and talk it over with him.”
Taps on the roof gave away that it was raining before it was possible to see for sure. “You see? Rain.”
“So what about you?” I asked, nodding at her drawing pad.
“What about me?”
“What are your big dreams or future plans? What’s your more?”
She looked out over the ocean. “I have everything I ever wanted here. My shop. A beautiful cottage. A million-dollar view.”
“The view is spectacular. But what about these?” I asked, pulling her notebook over to see what she’d been working on. “You don’t want to market these to high-end retailers? Sell them in New York and London and Paris? They’re incredible.”
“They’re just sketches, and I like Maine. I don’t have to be selling jewelry all over the world to be happy.”
She fished a necklace out of her blouse and held out the pink stone that hung around her neck. “My less expensive designs are just as cute, don’t you think?”
“You know I think you’re super talented. I’d just like to see you make one of these things.” I ran my fingers over the folio of work she kept. “Rather than just draw them.”
She sighed. “I will. One day.”
“How about I promise to call Brian if you make me something? I want to see one of these incredible designs come to life.”
“It’s not that easy. It’s a huge investment. I’d have to buy the gold and these pieces here”—she drew her finger along the left side of the jeweled collar—“are sapphires. It’s not like I can stop off at Jerry’s Foodstore and fill up my shopping cart.”
“Whereas Jerry’s got a two-for-one sale on turning a book into a movie.”
She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. She hated to lose, and usually I was happy to concede outside the bedroom. But I wanted her to think about this.
“Okay. I’ll make you something if you promise to call your agent.”
She was so damn cute that it took everything I had not to grab her, pull her onto my lap and kiss her into next week. But then, I was always fighting that feeling.
“One of your designs. In your studio. Not more lemon curd.”
“Something wrong with my lemon curd?”
I’d spent the day trailing smears of sticky yellow across her nipples, over her pussy and in her belly button. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her lemon curd. “I think we both know how much I enjoyed it, but I want you to make me jewelry.”
“And you’ll make some calls about the book?”
I nodde
d.
“You got yourself a deal.”
“Good,” I replied.
“Making deals with you gets me hot,” she said. “Wanna get naked?”
“Always,” I said, discarded my book, stood and pulled her to her feet.
Sixteen
Lana
“What are you thinking about?” Matt asked from the bathroom door, his chest speckled with water droplets.
He’d come back early from the wrap party last night. When his car pulled up at just before eleven I’d assumed it was someone else. I’d been a little too pleased to see him, which worried me. Tomorrow he’d be gone. He was just supposed to be a summer lover. But every day I spent with him, I yearned for a week more. And it was getting worse not better. This house would feel empty without him. I’d feel empty without him.
I was trying to untangle the damp knots in my hair and not think about how after tomorrow, there’d be no one around to ask me questions like that. “Everything. Nothing. Why? What are you thinking about?”
“I’m thinking that—” He paused and looked at his watch. “I’ve known you for nearly six weeks.”
“It’s been that long since I saved your life? Death in the bandstand? I really should have let you get struck by lightning. It would have made a good headline.”
He grinned and strode toward the bed. “Six weeks since you verbally abused and harassed me.”
I tilted my head back to look up at him. “I think you got off easy.”
“I wouldn’t change a thing.” He stroked his thumb over my cheekbone.
“I wonder if your fans know how sappy you can be. I heard you were a player, a ladies’ man. A heartthrob.” I shook my head. “What happened?”
He chuckled. “I have no idea. You have a magic body and soul. And Jesus, you give the best blow job in the whole of the US of A.”
“Okay, maybe you’re not so sappy.” I rolled my eyes.
He dipped and placed a kiss on my lips. How was I going to get used to him not being here?
“I have something to show you,” I said.
“Seeing you in my shirt, knowing you’re not wearing anything underneath is enough,” he said.
