by Pamela Ann
E
I decided to stay in the cottage because I didn’t want to make more gossip about my relationship with Bass. I just had to endure this since it was my own fault for getting involved with him in the first place.
I was surprised to find Bass had stayed in the past two nights. He was mostly on the patio reading, watching movies or on his laptop. We barely spoke to each other, but at least we were civilized. It made it bearable. I could feel that all the anger was subsiding. Even his hate, it ebbed away as if never there. We co-existed in a pleasant manner. I was somehow okay with that. Anything was better than hostility.
On the fourth day, I was disconcerted when Dimitris entered the cottage with Bass hanging on his arm as he gently lowered him down on his bed.
“Bass!” I shrieked, rushing to his side. “What happened to him, Dimitris?”
“He had an accident on the set. I don’t get it,” he said with profound confusion. “We practiced the fight scenes for almost three weeks now, each one went great, but today, he seemed like he didn’t care and I accidentally hit him straight in the head.” Sighing, he glanced at me with worried eyes. “He’s already been examined, but he declined medication. He just needs sleep. Give him a day or two and he’ll be okay. I’m sorry that I can’t stay longer, Emma, but I need to attend a benefit in Athens tonight,” Dimitris said as he started to take Bass’s shoes off. I interrupted his chore and did it myself.
I gave him a hug, releasing him after a minute. “Thank you and have fun at the benefit.” Dimitris let himself out since I didn’t want to leave the room.
Hovering over his resting form, I slowly took care of his jeans, easing them off his body. I trained my eyes not to check on his bulge since it was clearly inappropriate, but hell, I almost gave in. Bass had a fat, sizable one that went hand in hand with his appetite.
Sitting right next to his arm, I touched his face, trying to wake him gently. “Bass, what happened? Are you hurting? Is there anything I can get you to make you feel better? How about an icepack?”
“I need a kiss,” he made an audible whisper, eyes still shut.
Blinking a few times, I was perturbed, thinking I misheard him. He did, after all, just have a big blow to the head. “Sorry, what?”
“Kiss me.”
Was he trying to make a joke out of this? Well, I wasn’t amused. “I’m being serious, Bass.”
“Me, too. A kiss will make me feel better.”
“Are you really serious? An icepack would do wonders compared to my kiss.” He was being incredulous.
“You asked, Emma. If you don’t want to kiss me, it’s okay.”
Heck, if a kiss was going to help, then I’ll give him one. “One kiss, then I’m going to get you an icepack.”
Bass gave me a small nod as I lowered my lips to meet his, brushing them softly. I was too caught up in the moment when Bass opened his lips and responded to it in a measured, yet sweet, slow but passionate kiss. Then, after a minute, the tempo changed. I was taken aback when he rolled me onto my back, his large frame atop my heated body as he continued devouring my lips with his voracious appetite. “Bass! What the hell are you—”
I smacked his chest when I saw him grinning, eyes dancing with mischief. “Do you really think a little punch would knock me out? Come on, babe; give me a little credit here. I did it on purpose so I could come home to you. I also knew that you wouldn’t be able to refuse when I demanded a kiss to make me feel better. I’ve missed you. I missed us.”
“Wow. You are a crazy, plotting man.”
“This man, my love, is the product of your making,” he declared as he ardently took my lips, consuming me in one go. Casting me under his love spell. Heck, it was scary how he knew his way back into my heart, but at the same time, my body rejoiced in his kiss. It reveled for him, blossoming under his touch. My heart may have two men in it, but there was no doubt who the champion was when it came to my body.
Bass solely owned it.
Admittedly, though, Bass was cruel after he found out about London, I could also understand and empathize with him because, if it were the other way around, I would have acted out, too. As he pointed out before, this could’ve been prevented if I had spoken about it in the first place. My first instincts when I got back were to tell him, but fear kept me from confessing the surprise I had in London. Oh, how that fear had backfired.
I had to admire his superbly crafted plan, making sure that I wasn’t able to decline him. He aimed directly towards the vulnerable part of me, bypassing the barriers I had erected. There’s a teeny part of my brain that told me that Bass was plain old wonky, but the majority thought it downright romantic. Bass took a knock in the head—though he referred to it as little, a punch was a punch—to try and get me back. The swooning-girly-me surfaced.
We were on our sides, hands holding each other’s faces, kissing like there was no tomorrow, when my hand gravitated south. Bass instantly caught me and placed my hand over his heart. After a minute, I attempted my hand on seduction, but Bass broke off the kiss before I reached the intended destination. “This isn’t about sex, Emma. I don’t want you to think otherwise.” His heart steadily beat against my palm, letting me feel his love without voicing it out. “I never touched another woman after you, in case you were wondering. The past weeks made me miss you so much. That’s why I just want to enjoy this time with you, kissing and talking without any sex.”
Now my lies were hindering my sex life. “I know it isn’t, Bass. I was lying when I said that, but just this once, can we just skip it?”
“Emma—” he warned, frowning at me.
Using both thumbs, I reached across his forehead and made his stop wrinkling. “Fine, but as long as you can compromise and let me touch your chest?” Smiling, I placed my head before his, our noses touching.
I could tell he loved it when I was all over him. “Alright,” he whispered before capturing my lips again.
With featherlike gentleness, I reached under his shirt, hands splayed wide, running over his solid, chiseled abdomen. Yummy, I thought, noticing the stirrings in my nether region whilst moaning against his lips as I hooked my leg above his thigh, drawing my hips closer to him. My hands explored the expanse of his torso as our kiss deepened. All the while, his hands rotated anywhere and everywhere from the neck up, sadly. He gave a sexy, turned on hiss when I scratched his nipple.
The naughty me was ready to come out and play.
Bass surprisingly froze when I cupped his manhood and started to stroke it through his boxers. “I’m so ready for you to take me, Bass.” Purring as I took hold of his hand from my cheek and guided it inside my skirt. “Feel how wet I am for you.” I tucked his hand in between my thighs, directly to my lace covered mound. “Touch me,” I whispered seductively into his ear.
“Emma—I love you.” He kissed the tip of my nose before he gave me a straight-faced let down. “But we need to go with abstinence. We have so much to work on with each other and I don’t want anything to confuse us. I want the both of us to experience our love even without sex involved.”
Man, he was really set on going through this. I’m not going to lie and say that I was happy about his decision because, in truth, I wanted ALL of him.
“So, how long do you plan to keep us in frustration?” I asked, petulantly.
“We’ll resume with our sex life when we land in LA. Deal? Also, we can’t relieve ourselves either. Does this sound good to you?”
As if. “Baby… why don’t you sleep on it. Maybe you took a bigger blow than you think, ‘cause there’s just no way I can see this happening.”
He laughed, pulling me close as he wrapped his arms and legs around me. “I love that you and I are on the same wave length when it comes to sex, but trust me on this, my love, we’ll come out with a stronger bond. It’ll be worth it in the end. I promise you.”
I understood his plan, truly and deeply, I did, but my body’s been going on a hunger strike for quite sometime now—that one time
where he woke me up didn’t count—and let me just say that I was past ravenous. That vocabulary expired days ago.
This was the new me.
Emma, always ready to slip and slide with Bass Cole. Damn it to hell, but I was proud of it!
I just wished that there were something about him that repelled me a little. If he had some funky body odor, smelly, rot-infested feet, crooked teeth, major earwax problem, farted consistently, bitched about everything in his life, oily faced with a bad case of white and blackheads, or a narcissistic egotistical maniac, THEN it would’ve been an easy task to endure. Alas, he didn’t have a check on any of those. It’s odd that I found him perfect just as he was.
To make him happy, I was going to at least try and see how long I could last, but I already knew that I wasn’t going to survive the entire duration of his allotted timeframe.
Chapter 9
“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
- Dr. Seuss
Bass
“Sweet dreams, babe.” Emma kissed me quickly, before turning her back against my chest, spooning each other.
It was our second night together. I was beyond relieved that we got past that hurdle. BUT, there were still a lot of things left unsaid and I was contemplating if I should bring it up or not.
I was holding her tight, nuzzling that favorite nook on her neck, smelling my favorite scent—her.
“Emma?”
She yawned before responding. “Hmm?”
“You were telling the truth about Jacques, that nothing really happened between you two?”
Emma reached for my hand that was on her hips before she kissed the inside of my palm. “I swear on my parents’ life, babe. Nothing happened with Jacques. We just chatted, that’s all.”
I let out a long breath. “Thank God! I was worried, but if anything happened, I’d rather know now instead of later.”
“Don’t worry, okay? I’m telling you the truth.”
If she only knew how worried I was, she’d probably tease me about it. “Thank you for staying true to me, mentally and physically. You looked gorgeous in that picture, by the way. I barely recognized you.”
“It was all Lander.” She giggled, making me smile. “God, you should meet Dimitris’s mother’s beautician. Imagine a Staff Sergeant meets The Devil Wears Prada. He was scary.”
I owed Dimitris an apology and a big fat thank you for taking care of my woman. For that, I’m in his debt.
Kissing the back of her earlobe, I held her tighter. “I’m glad that Dimitris took care of you. I owe him one.”
“Me, too. I hope he cheers up soon, though.”
I doubt it. If Dimitris felt the way I did for Emma, I doubt there was anything that could be done except make the best of things.
“No more secrets?” I paused, waiting for her to reply.
“None.”
“You know what we really need to work on?” I said out loud, referring to our lack of communication.
“Getting back our sex life?” Emma saucily suggested.
Hell, she was getting difficult by the hour. I bit her earlobe while she grinded her ass against my groin. I groaned with frustration. “Get your head out of the gutter woman.”
“Alright, geez. I was just teasing—a little.” Emma let out a sound of surrender, moving as she did so. She kissed my chest before curling up like a puppy in my arms. “Dream sweet, babe.”
I didn’t need to because she was already in my arms.
B
We only had a few more days left until we wrapped up and left the island. It was bittersweet since I’d come to love this place, but at the same time, I knew it was time to get back to our lives. I didn’t want to lose Emma, but if she runs back to Carter, then there wasn’t a thing I could do about that.
I loved her. She knew that and that’s all that matters.
We were at the villa having dinner with everyone when she excused herself to get a call. Watching her from afar, I could tell whoever called her got her upset. The urge to go and soothe her was strong, but I remained seated, waiting for her to get back and tell me herself.
We had so much to work on still.
Trust was a big issue and one I had yet to build it again.
Funny how a man’s beliefs and virtues get shifted when it comes to the person we care about. I never thought I would be a man who would be so smitten to a woman who I didn’t trust, but here I was, willing and trying.
“Everything okay?” I asked Emma, noticing the big frown on her face.
“No,” she whispered, shaking her head as she slowly lifted her eyes to mine. “Lindsey thinks I hooked up with Dimitris in Paris. I didn’t know she had him on Google alerts. She’s acting crazy! Like as if I would do that to her, but she wouldn’t hear any of it.”
Lindsey was jealous? “I thought she ditched him because he was a momma’s boy?”
“Hell, this is Lindsey, babe. I don’t get how she does things sometimes.”
“She’ll eventually hear you out when you see her.” I reached out and brushed her cheek. “You guys are best friends. Lindsey just needs to cool off.” I tried to reassure her, but Emma was too worried to hear me.
“How about I give you a massage when we get home, hmm? That should help you relax. I don’t like seeing you so worked up.” I suggested and noticed how her eyes lit up after I mentioned the word massage.
“That’s nice… but you don’t have to. I know you’re tired, Bass.”
“I know I don’t, but I want to.” I’d do anything to keep a smile on her face—apart from the very obvious thing that she wanted from me that is. “There’s also another thing I want to discuss with you when we get home.”
That got her attention. “Is it bad news?”
“No, not really. Well, I don’t know.”
“I don’t like the sound of that, Bass. Why can’t you just tell me now?”
“Do I need to drag us back to the cottage straight away?”
“Sorry, it’s just Lindsey and now… this…”
Getting up, I gave her hand another squeeze before releasing it. “Let me speak to Martin for a moment and then we can leave.”
Emma gave a small nod before I left the table.
“Papà,” I greeted Martin as I approached his table. He usually dined alone since he liked to catch up with news and emails as he did so.
He looked up, smiling as he gestured for me to a seat across him. “You’re looking happy tonight, son. You guys finally fixed things?”
He was referring to my relationship with Emma. Let’s just say that I was rather difficult to work with during those weeks after we broke up—that’s just putting it mildly.
“Am I that obvious, huh?”
“You are. I’m glad you two worked it out,” he murmured as he placed his phone down next to his iPad. “We’re wrapping up a day early. Do you want to fly back with me or do you want to make arrangements on your own? You’re more than welcome to bring Emma with you.”
“It’s fine. I’ll make arrangements to have a jet waiting for us in Athens. Paparazzi and LAX would be too much for us right now.”
“I can imagine. Hollywood playboy finally in love, I can just see you guys being hounded. As long as you protect her from all that madness, that’s all that counts.” Martin cleared his throat and took a gulp of his cognac. “Can you save me a dinner date with you and Emma a few days after we get back in town? Miranda wants to get to know Emma more.”
I’m sure she did. Miranda was more of a mother to me than my biological one. She liked Emma, but now that we’re dating, Miranda wouldn’t hold back welcoming Emma into the family. “Of course we could. I’ll call you a day after we land. Emma heads back to school the following Monday.”
“Splendid! I’ll go ahead and let Miranda know when I call her later.”
“Alright. Sounds good. I have to get back to Emma before she leaves without me. Goodnight, Papà,” I
said, getting up from the table.
“Son, one more thing.”
I halted absentmindedly, looking back at Martin. “Yeah?”
Without much preamble, he spoke without hesitation. “Your parents called earlier. They want to speak to you.”
Ahhh, my parents. They were still alive, how unfortunate. “What for?”
“They’re your parents. They miss you is all.”
I snorted in disgust. “Right. I’m sure they do.”
My parents were the most selfish people I know. Why would they miss me now? They never did before. So I was calling bullshit on this gesture. Shaking my head in disbelief, I strode to where Emma was sitting, on the far side of the glass hall.
B
“Ready my love?” I bent down against her ear, whispering.
Looking at her flushed cheeks and the two empty shot glasses on the table, it was no wonder she was all red. I gave a questioning glance at Mo and Vincent and noticed that they too looked red. “What the heck did you guys drink?”
“Absinthe.”
“You took two?” I shrilled at Emma, who was beaming mad at me.
I leave her for ten minutes and I find myself with a tipsy Emma. She barely ate dinner. No wonder the alcohol went straight to her system.
“Yes, Bass.” She pulled my arm until her lips were against my ear. “Take me home. I want to ride you, babe.”
Okay, she really was out of it—well, I hoped she was. “Let’s get you home. Can you walk at all?”
Why did she have to look so adorable staring at me like I walked on water? I just wanted to kiss her until she passed out. It may not look it to others, but I was desperate for this lady. Loving her was a point of no return.
“I’m cool, BC.”
Always. “Right, of course you are.”
Helping her up, I was relieved that she didn’t have a hard time walking and, after a quick ride, ten minutes later, we were back home. “Do you still want a massage or do you want to go straight to bed?” I checked with her.
