Under the Lights

by Rebecca Royce

  He liked the notion of a person knowing someone their entire life. Teirney’s grandmother had taken care of the woman who now helped to care for her. There was something cyclical about it that appealed to his sense of family. He didn’t live in Austin anymore; however, whenever he went home, the people who had always known him were immediately close friends again.

  “Okay, well, would the woman whose name is….” He let his voice trail off until she answered.

  “Julia.”

  “Julia. Right. Would Julia be willing to watch your grandmother all night?” He ran his hand through her dark hair. It felt silky beneath his fingers. He wanted to bury his nose in it, yet, given how she had overthought everything in the hours he’d been sleeping and she hadn’t, he didn’t want to force intimacy on her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Would she stay all night? I’ll pay the extra hours. I’ll go to the bank myself to take out the money.” While he’d normally have his assistant take care of such matters, in this case, he intended to do it himself. The thought made him smile.

  “Why would I need her to?” She scrunched up her nose in confusion.

  He tried to push the frustration building in his stomach out of his stomach. She really didn’t know what he wanted?

  “I’d like you to be able to spend the night with me. All night. In my place. As a kind of break for you. Maybe it’ll be a more romantic setting, some place which will make you feel more in the mood.”

  “Oh.” She rocked on her heels. “I don’t know. I mean, I would like to, so much, actually. I’m not sure I can comfortably do so. She’s my…love. I take care of her. Except for the hours when I absolutely can’t. I’ve never chosen to not be there for my own amusement.”

  “A single night? I’ll bring you here by eight am.”

  “She needs more meds by six. I’ve never asked Julia to give them to her and….”

  “Okay.” He held his hands in front of himself to stop her. “Six. We will set an alarm and have you returned for then.” God help him, he’d never been awake at six except to film, and then it was a rare day. “Would you ask her? Please.”

  She visibly swallowed, and he knew he had pushed. “Sure.”

  “Great.” Ian pulled her to him before planting a kiss on her soft lips. Her little gasp amused him, and for a second he deepened it between them, loving the pull, the sheer physical chemistry, and how right she felt with him.

  When he let her go, she smiled, her cheeks flushed. It was everything he could do to not pick her up and take her to the bedroom right then and there. She was so adorable.

  “You’re already my friend, Teirney. I’d like to think we’re more, too. Wouldn’t you?” He needed to hear her say she was on the same page.

  “I don’t want to presume….”

  He shook his head. “Do you have feelings for me?”

  “I do. Only I don’t think I can handle being hurt. You are you, Ian. You’re the best guy. I can see it. The fact remains, you are Ian Mackenzie and I’m me. When you’re gone, I’ll be here, or maybe I won’t. Maybe by then I’ll have had to leave. I’m rambling. I never do. I….”

  He hated her answer even as he loved her truth.

  “I hear what you’re saying. I can’t really do anything about it. I suppose I could ask my sister to email me pictures from our childhood so you can see where I come from, how I wore braces and had an awkward stage as everyone else did.”

  “It’s not….”

  Ian refused to let her finish. If he did, she would talk herself right out of their ever having a relationship.

  “Come with me tonight. Try to see me, won’t you, Teirney? I watched you for so long. Don’t go by what you think I should be. If you still don’t think there’s any possibility of us, then fine. But try not to lead with no.”

  “I’ll see if I can get her to stay.” She nodded.

  “Thanks.” He turned to leave, a whole day ahead of him to take care of things and maybe fit a workout in so he could push off some of his frustration. Had dating always been so difficult or was it one of those things made harder because he’d been successful and now had the world watching him?

  Were women such as Teirney officially off limits to him?

  “Text me and let me know. And, regardless of whether or not you can stay, I’d like you to wait for me after the show. If you don’t relish standing on the cold street, wait for me inside the stage door. I’ll come in and find you when I’m done with whatever crowd is out there.”

  “Sure.”

  He’d love to receive more than single-word answers from her. The last time she’d been so clammed up had been on the couch, and it hadn’t ended well for him. Well, technically it had finished great for him, only not for her. He wouldn’t be so lazy again.

  “Tell you what? Don’t wait inside.” Did he sound frantic? He was starting to feel a little nuts. “Go to my car. It’ll be on the street. I’ll make sure they know you’re coming. Either you’ll go home with me or I’ll take you to your place. One way or another, in the car. Don’t stand around waiting for me.”

  She breathed out. “You’re uncomfortable.”

  “I am. Yes.” What was the point in lying? “I’m trying to figure out what the right answer here is. Because I’m not entirely convinced you’ll tell me what you desire—how you would like tonight to go—and I don’t have any interest in coming up short when it’s over.”

  She nodded before she twisted her lips in a concerned expression. “As a matter of fact, I have no ideas whatsoever about tonight. Where would it be easier for you to meet me? Probably more efficient for me to wait in the car.”

  “Then in the car it is.” He nodded.

  She was talking, communicating, which hopefully meant she wasn’t thinking about running.

  “And I promise to tell you how I need things. Believe it or not, Ian, I do wish to see you as you are. I can’t think of anything I’d desire more.

  He couldn’t either, unless of course he still fell short. There was nothing he could do about what she saw when she really looked. Teirney might see the giant mess underneath and want nothing to do with him whatsoever.

  Chapter Five

  Teirney waited in the car listening to the whooshing sound of the windshield wipers as they pushed away the wetness from the deluge currently falling upon New York. Ian’s driver didn’t say much. He’d nodded at her when he’d opened the door but otherwise didn’t seem interested in chatting. She wondered if silence was part of the job requirement. Discretion and keeping his mouth shut.

  Or maybe he was annoyed at having her in the car.

  The rain wasn’t keeping Ian from doing his job managing the crowds, nor did it seem the bad weather had kept any of the fans home. Although perhaps it had. On a clear night the adoring crowd might have grown so big it would have blocked the street.

  Ian had pulled up his hoodie, but two people with umbrellas, which were seemingly doing nothing to stop him from getting wetter and wetter, were still following him around. She tapped her foot, not with impatience, instead with worry. What if he got sick? If he stayed out there too much longer in the cold, he’d catch a cold. He’d give and give of himself until he had to suffer for it.

  She looked at her watch. It had been ten minutes already.

  “How long does he usually take on nights when it’s pouring? With crowds such as this one?”

  “Hard to say, miss.” The driver grunted his reply.

  Where did Ian acquire all of the staff he had anyway? They appeared, then disappeared. Who was handling the staffing for him? Did he run all of it himself?

  She stared out at the crowd. The wetter he got, the worse the crowd got soaked as well. To be close to the door they’d have to have been lined up outside before he had gotten to the theater. Anyone inside who watched him in Loopy wouldn’t be close enough for an autograph.

  Teirney simply couldn’t stand it anymore. She opened the c
ar door and stepped out into the street.

  The driver called out to her.

  “I’ll only be a moment. I’m not leaving....”

  She was getting Ian. Tonight’s situation was ridiculous. The people standing in the rain shouldn’t be out in it either. They were getting storm warnings on their cell phones the same as she was. He could yell at her, although she had never seen Ian raise his voice, but she wasn’t letting him get any more soaked.

  “Ian.” She walked toward the noisy crowd. He didn’t hear her over the noise of the people, the cars on the street and the rain, which was pounding on her, too.

  Security blocked him on all sides, and the closer she got the more she had to bump into people to reach him.

  “Ian.”

  She called out again, this time louder and he heard her. He turned his head toward the sound of her voice, his eyebrows raised.

  “Enough. This is ridiculous.”

  “What?” he shouted to her.

  “You’re done. Come on.” She extended her hand and, although a woman in her fifties with a large red bag tried to shove her, managed to grab onto him. “Let’s go.”

  “Hey.” The red-bagged woman hollered at her. “I haven’t gotten to see him yet.”

  Teirney shook her head. She’d had exactly a minute of the rain, and already it was more than enough. “You’re all about to die of pneumonia.”

  With the security officers helping, she tugged Ian through the crowd toward the waiting car. By the time they got to the vehicle, they were both running to move away from the group chasing after them. He pushed her ahead of him and followed her into the backseat.

  He was soaked to the bone. She tugged at his hoodie.

  “Take your shirt off. You’re going to make yourself ill. Are you crazy?”

  “You saw the group. I didn’t feel right leaving them out there.”

  “They chose to be there tonight. You didn’t tell them or ask the lot of them to do so. You aren’t responsible for their decisions. I can see the headlines. Ian Mackenzie dead from a bad cold.”

  He laughed but let her continue to strip him of his wettest garments. With the car moving, she had him stripped to his t-shirt and still soaking jeans.

  “I can’t believe you pushed through those people to reach me.”

  “Try and block me when I’m on a mission.”

  When Ian really smiled, he lit the whole universe. “Tonight. Having you here waiting for me. It felt so…perfect.”

  He tugged her to him and kissed her so hard he might as well have consumed her. She shuddered as pleasure scorched her. Ian’s skin was cool to the touch. Another good reason to have gotten him out of there. They moved uptown but she barely registered the streets passing. His mouth was on hers. Sometimes he kissed her lightly, sometimes stronger. She didn’t care as long as he kept at it.

  Finally, the car stopped and Ian groaned. “I have to fix my pants before I step out of the car.”

  “Why?” She felt hot all over and didn’t think it was because of the heat blasting in the vehicle.

  “All I need is a picture of me with a hard on to make the rounds. My poor mother would never live through the horror.”

  She snorted at the imagery of that picture on the tabloid covers as Ian adjusted himself.

  “Better?” she asked.

  “For a quick run into the building.”

  Teirney didn’t see any photographers around, which she supposed didn’t mean they weren’t there. Plus, people were always running around with their iPhones out. He had to think about these things all the time.

  He extended his hand. “Let’s go.”

  It wasn’t until she got out of the car that she finally realized where she was. They were practically on top of Central Park from his location on 5th. “This is a—wow—location.”

  Ian nodded as he ushered her into the building and toward the doorman. “My assistant found it for me. I have it rented until a month after the show ends.”

  The lobby entrance was bigger than her first apartment in Manhattan. Her grandmother’s brownstone was old and spacious, but as soon as Granny passed, she would need to find a new living space.

  “He went and found your place for you? Did you give him specifications?

  “She.” He pressed the button for the tenth floor.

  Oh, he had a female assistant.

  “I’ve never met her. Don’t you guys usually bring your assistants everywhere?”

  His head shot up, and a small smile crossed his lips. “Us guys?”

  “Movie stars.”

  She pinched him because he deserved it, and he yelped before tugging her tight against him.

  “I don’t need an army of people around me all the time. Or at least I’ve decided recently I don’t. I want them there when I need them and elsewhere when I don’t. She manages things for me from a distance, which she prefers, too, because she gets to stay home with her family in Los Angeles no matter where I am.”

  “How does she know what nights you need extra security versus when you don’t?”

  He shrugged. “She just does. If she didn’t, I’d have to find someone who could be on site, and then since she needs to stay home with her kids, I’d let her go. I’d hate doing it. But there you go.”

  Ian didn’t know how his assistant functioned. She had no idea how he could stand it. Teirney needed to understand how every person who worked under her performed his or her job. If for no other reason than, if a worker called in sick, she had to be able to do that person’s tasks.

  He opened the door. “I’m not easily stunned by things. I will, however, admit to loving the view here.”

  She could see why. When they entered his living room, she found herself surrounded by windows, with a one hundred-eight degree view. The lights of city sprawled out before her. At midnight, the city was awake, lit as a beacon of color and power against the dark sky.

  “It’s so beautiful.” She walked toward the windows as though an invisible string pulled her forward.

  “Seeing you looking out reminds me of viewing it for the first time.”

  Money had never interested her very much. She had had a ton of it growing up. Well, her parents had. But it hadn’t made them happy. Although she was glad to have a place to stay at her Granny’s, she’d return to sharing almost no space with three roommates before she took a cent from her folks.

  Using them to pay for her grandmother—who was her father’s mother—was one thing. She would never take a penny from them in order to rewind her life toward a wealthy lifestyle. Still, she couldn’t help imagining the dollar figure for what Ian paid out to live here for six months.

  Hollywood fame had its perks.

  “How do you ever leave?”

  Ian stood next to her. “I appreciate the beauty, don’t misunderstand me. I’d have to be dead not to. I prefer people to things. Wherever the person—or group—I wish to be with is hanging out, that’s where I go.”

  “Well.” She took her hand in his. “You’ve got me here. I am taking the night off. What will you do with me?”

  He picked her up in his arms. “Thinking I might do wicked things with you.”

  “What does wicked entail, Mr. Mackenzie?”

  Ian carried her as if she weighed nothing. She knew she was tiny, had always been short in height, although she wasn’t exactly petite. Her curves were thick, her breasts huge. She wasn’t a featherweight.

  “You’ll hurt yourself.”

  He kissed her forehead. “First, you pull me off the street to keep me from getting sick. Now, you’re worried about me injuring myself. I’m not old. Thirty-two is still young enough to cross my apartment with you in my arms.”

  “I worry.” About the people I care about.

  She chose not to share her final thought. Although she lived in the world, Teirney didn’t have an enormous amount of experience with men. Using the word “care,” only three or four dat
es, if their get-togethers so far could be called dates, could scare him right to the moon.

  She got a few seconds to check out his bedroom before he set her on the bed. The whole room was decorated in dark colors. The walls were a dark hunter green. The sheets and comforter were black.

  As she watched, he set two alarms. “Four-thirty. We’ll get you out in more than enough time to arrive home to your Granny.”

  Her mouth fell open. It wouldn’t have occurred to her to ask about time. Yet somehow it was exactly what she needed. Hands down, the best thing he could have done. She had nothing to worry about. Her phone was on. If she was needed, it would ring. He had set the alarm so they would wake early.

  She jumped at him. One second she was on the bed, and the next she had to be on Ian. Teirney didn’t really give it too much thought. He caught her, and they somehow fell or maybe rolled together toward the headboard.

  This beautiful man with a face, which sold out shows and periodicals, had wanted to know what she needed, then he made it happen. Their mouths fused together. His tongue was in her mouth, hers in his. She pulled at his shirt. If she could have torn it from his body she would have. He took it off and threw it to his left. It hit the window with a clunk.

  He had beautiful nipples, and one of them was pierced. Why hadn’t she noticed before? Oh, they’d never gotten their shirts off last time. Feeling daring, she bit on the non-pierced nipple and he cried out.

  “Do that again.”

  Thankful he liked it and didn’t throw her from the bed, she bit again. He shuddered beneath her touch. Ian yanked at her shirt, and they were soon both completely undressed.

  “You get to come tonight.” He whispered in her ear, a savage growl deep in his throat accompanying the words.

  Yes, she was really sure she would. It wouldn’t take very long at all.

  ****

  Teirney had turned into the most passionate lover he’d ever been with. What a difference two days made. A few erotic novels and his tuning into what she needed made all the difference. If he’d known it would make her so happy, he would have set a million alarms.