by Ella Brooke
“Babe,” she muttered.
He met her eye, and suddenly, he needed her more than anything in his life. He lifted her onto the piano, and the two of them began to kiss energetically. She panted beneath him, so easily aroused these days, as the fatigue and nausea faded away and her body started to come to life, blooming beautifully with the fruits of their love. She even smelled different, although he’d refrained from telling her so. He didn’t want to do anything that might upset her in any way.
Moving his hands up her hips and then over her abdomen, Louis looked into her gorgeous, large, brown eyes. He prayed their child would have those. He wanted him or her to be as much like May as possible. After squeezing her sides gently, earning himself a delighted squeak from her, he slipped her panties off and began to tease between her legs. She was already wet down there, her folds moistening just from the promise of sex.
May’s thighs trembled as he stroked and teased, causing her to open easily like a ready and waiting flower. Even just a well-placed finger caused a small quake among her soft flesh, and he chuckled at the little whimper she made as he pulled his hand away to unbuckle his pants. May looked up at him with soft, unfocused eyes. His erection sprang free, and he grabbed her hips. Her skin flushed and her body rolled up to meet him. He pushed his thick erection into her, feeling the warmth and wetness there, the readiness to take him in. Her walls contracted around him, causing him to let out a deep groan.
Rolling his hips back and forth, he delighted in every helpless noise, every sigh that he extracted from her. They were slowly christening the house with their lovemaking, and he suspected the music room would be one of their favorite places. When she began to cum, so quickly, it was unexpected, but he bent over her and lifted her up slightly as he began to go harder and faster. She came again, moaning loudly and reaching up for him with one hand.
Several more thrusts, and he came as well, jerking forward and feeling the pleasure shoot through him. Beneath him, she lay spent. He couldn’t climb up on the piano with her, so he scooped her up and took her over to a loveseat in the corner, where the two of them rested, panting and looking into one another’s eyes contentedly.
Chapter Fourteen
May
To May’s surprise, having been exposed to L.A. as a trashy Texan home-wrecker was proving less and less detrimental to her career. As she inched into her fifth month of pregnancy and production plans started to gear up, people weren’t refusing phone calls anymore. On a whim, May had called a few of the people she’d met at the party that night with Sugar, and while not everyone remembered her or bothered to return the message, she’d been able to set up a few meetings.
It was entirely not what she’d expected. And it didn’t make sense at all, if Sugar was really badmouthing her all over town.
On a hunch, May had James call to confirm Sugar’s audition. It was still on her schedule. While May could have canceled it, she decided to show up herself. She needed to find out what was going on. If Sugar was really a snake, May could vent her anger, finally. If she wasn’t, well . . .
Astra had given May the upstairs lounge for the auditions during the day, so the three of them set up there on the sofa with good lighting streaming in, and took notes as various actresses came and went. When Sugar arrived, in her trademark crimson, there was a bit less polish and bravado to the woman. May narrowed her eyes as she stepped in front of everyone else.
“Well, I know you can act. The question is, can I trust someone like you on my production?” May said flatly.
“I’m really sorry about what happened.” Sugar’s eyes went to May’s middle, and she blinked. “I-I don’t know how Shane guessed about your pregnancy, but I never should have told him how Louis and I really knew each other. I should have suspected he would find the story too juicy to pass up.”
“Seriously?” Alice crossed her arms. “Are you saying your manager was the one who had that awful story about May put out there?”
“He’s just my agent, and yeah, he did. I’ve tried to correct people when they bring it up, but it’s one nasty rumor that won’t seem to die,” Sugar said. She toed the ground anxiously. “You let me keep this audition just so you could question me. Respect.”
“And you came because you wanted to tell me the truth,” May said. “You didn’t really think you were getting the part, did you?”
“I didn’t think so. Shane wants the public to have sympathy for me, because I come off too harsh sometimes, and he really doesn’t want me diversifying my filmography with indie films. He wants me to do a comedy next. This move probably got him both of these things.”
“Why don’t you just leave him? Get a better agent.” It was half a question and half a command. If all of this were true, then Sugar was letting that sweaty asshole walk all over her.
“I don’t because he has incriminating pictures of me and Karre, and I never met a problem I couldn’t avoid,” Sugar admitted.
May sighed. She stroked her hand over her belly a few times, trying to think of what to do. Their lives would all be easier if Sugar’s plan to head off bad PR hadn’t backfired so spectacularly. But none of it would have been an issue if they had been open about things from the beginning.
“I want you to do the reading.” May looked to James. “Can you turn on the camera?”
Sugar raised her brows. “Oh? Okay.”
She pulled the script out of her messenger bag and set the bag on the floor, waiting for her cue to begin.
May nodded and picked up the script on the table. “What just happened in there, Dana? What’s wrong with you?”
Sugar’s stance changed. Her legs stood wider apart, her shoulders squared, even her fingers held the script a little more aggressively as she began to read for Dana Darian in a voice half a step lower than her own.
May pressed her lips together as she watched her. She prompted Sugar a few times, then nodded and signaled for James to turn the camera off. He looked at her anxiously. Because that had been good. Sugar knew how to become a part. But could she be genuine, too?
May glanced to Alice, who still looked annoyed. May tilted her head to the in question, and Alice shrugged. Sugar was the best they’d seen that day, and no doubt the most well-known. Not to mention, she could bring other things besides a great performance to this role.
“If you need me to read something else, I’ve also got the narration down for the opening, and I could do it in a different way. My natural accent in English sounds a bit more like Louis’s, actually. We learned the language in the same place,” Sugar offered.
“That sounds really entertaining, but it’s not what’s holding me up right now,” May said.
Sugar nodded. She picked up her bag. “You can call me to let me know, then.”
“I would, but I want something else from you. Our biggest problem on this production stopped being our newness to the industry and started being all about this fake feud between the two of us over a guy you never wanted.” May stood, tugged the blouse that clung over her belly down, and walked over to Sugar. “If you’re interested, I think we can find a way to erase that problem, as well as have the best casting for our movie.”
“I’m down for pretty much anything. Your plan couldn’t turn out much worse than mine did.”
May thought for a moment as she pressed her hands together. “Okay. Let’s do a take. James, turn on the camera.”
“With you there?” he asked.
“With the two of us.” May looked up at Sugar with a smile.
May smirked as she watched Louis’s face. She had encouraged him to load the promotions channel that she and Alice had created for their scripts, KeepMoviesWeird, and the first video that had popped up was not a reaction video or a movie review. It had an image on the front of May and Sugar with their fists up, making scowling faces at each other, and the title read: Actor Heiress vs. The Pregnant Princess!
Louis let out a laugh. “What are you up to? Why would you even be in the same room wit
h her? After what she did?”
“We jumped the gun on that one. I think she could’ve been more proactive in keeping her agent at bay, but it wasn’t really her fault.” May shrugged. “We’re going to have to get her new representation. He’s mismanaging her, and she can’t be doing her own management right now. Shane Jackass is practically blackmailing the woman to do what he wants. Probably because she’s his most successful client, no thanks to him, and he doesn’t want her to go elsewhere.”
She took the remote to un-pause. “But this is what we can do to thwart him for now.”
“Hello!” May on the screen said, smiling brightly and waving at the camera.
“I know you guys expect a lot of action from me these days,” Sugar said, “but I won’t be punching a pregnant woman today. Sorry about that.”
May gestured toward the camera. “I know all of you may have heard about the supposed feud between the two of us, but we’re here to set the record straight and give you some good news.”
“First off, I hope some people are fans of mine and not just people hoping I’m going to get my nose broken,” Sugar said. “And if that’s the case, you should all know that I am not getting married to anyone any time soon, nor did I ever plan to marry Louis Bremen—” She gestured to May. “—May Grace’s boyfriend and baby-daddy.”
“But you did know him,” May volleyed back.
“I did.” Sugar switched into her British accent. “We went to boarding school together. It was not a magical time.”
“And their parents wanted them to marry because . . .” May looked to Sugar and frowned.
“It was a land deal. My folks had vast tracks of land, and the royal family wanted to secure it to put in some new industry. Very boring.” Sugar sighed, then switched back to her regular accent. “But that all went down when we were twelve. I saw him again for the first time a few months ago. I don’t even like him . . .” She paused to glance at May. “Well, I’m trying, for May’s sake.”
May laughed. “And she has to, because with this announcement, Sugar is going to be starring in KMW’s first major film, Los Fantasmas.”
Sugar’s eyes practically turned into saucers, and she pumped a fist.
“You’d think that was our first take, but it wasn’t,” May told Louis, pausing the video.
He frowned. “Are you sure it’s good for you to have so much contact with her?”
“It’s good for my movie. You didn’t see her performance. Though, I can show you. We recorded them all.” May snuggled back into the bed and rested a hand over her belly. She was starting to feel gentle, fluttery kicks now, and it always sent a surge of joy through her. “We’ll release some of them later as promo material for the actors who came close to getting it, and in the rest of the video, Sugar and I talk about how she’ll be part of the channel sometimes. We might as well make this over-saturated media culture work for us. No one can say we’re not friends if she and I are hanging out all the time. We only released this today, and I’ve gotten calls back from three people who refused to talk to us before.”
“I’m a bit glad you handled it this way, because I was ready to find this Shane and break his collarbone.”
May laughed. “Why his collarbone?!”
“Because it’s a bitch to heal, and it’s very difficult to live with. It’s not like you can put a cast and a sling on it to go about your day.”
“That’s . . . both violent and very specific.”
Louis kissed her head. “You two are fiendishly crafty, and I adore that. I suppose I can get used to her being around, as long as she doesn’t cause you any more stress.”
“This movie will be good for the both of us. I don’t think she’d be willing to mess that up.” May rubbed her hand over his leg. “I’m glad you aren’t angry that I did this without telling you. It’s working, though. The video is more popular than most we’ve had, so it’s good publicity for who we are.”
“If you can’t stop them from playing stupid games, beat them at it?” Louis rested his hand over hers on her belly. “I have faith that you will. Your twisty little mind breaks everything down to its parts and puts things back together in ways that make better sense.”
“Movies, industry drama,” May said. She traced her fingers along his jawline. “You.”
“You definitely did that. Without even trying.”
“I love you,” May murmured.
Louis’s brows raised, and he pulled her close. “I love you, too.”
Epilogue
Louis
Ultimately, the Bremen family had to wait until February to meet May and she and Louis’s daughter, June. Although he hadn’t expected them to be so understanding, sitting in front of the large monitor, his mother had unleashed a torrent of stories about how much trouble he and his brother had been and offered several times to come help vet some nannies for them. It was nice that his mother was so predisposed to like May, because the women could not have been more different. No one in his family, aside from his brother’s wife, thought naming their baby June was at all funny.
And yet here she was. June Grace Bremen. Little princess of the indie darling power-couple.
Los Fantasmas had been an incredible success in the 18-25 demographic, earning them a limited release around the country and backers willing to support a sequel. It wasn’t the kind of blockbuster money that Sugar had earned with the Ryde or Die series, but their success had amazing repercussions for all of them. For her, namely that she’d been able to announce her relationship with Karre on May’s YouTube channel, right before switching her management team.
Louis honestly hoped Shane would lose the rest of his clients and starve to death.
Returning to the palace after all this time, with May and their child in her arms, made Louis feel strange. He’d never been certain that he belonged here, but now he had a life rooted in Los Angeles, and so this visit could only ever be a visit. Over the next few weeks, his family would meet May and June face to face, and they would be officially married with all the glitz and elegance of a traditional Bremen wedding. He fully expected May to pull something they’d be talking about for years to come, but overall, his family seemed pleased at this turn of events.
He took May out to the field of heather where he’d spent a lot of time in his teenage years. May placed June in his arms, and Louis petted a hand over her dark, curly hair. All the struggle and pain had been worth it, having this perfect creation in his arms, and a shining angel of a woman by his side. He was ready for everything that came next, because with them, he truly knew who he was and where he was supposed to be.
The End
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Copyright © 2019 by Ella Brooke & Jessica Brooke
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Chapter One
Mateo
Mateo leaned against the doorway of the hotel room, watching Hanna. She sat on the bed with one leg underneath her, lovely ash-blonde hair spilling over her shoulders. She had slipped out of her skirt and sat there in nothing but a pink baby-doll and her underwear. Her bust swelled, nearly spilling out of her cups, and Mateo itched to free her of her bra.
Hanna looked up from her laptop and tucked her hair behind her ear as she smiled at him. “Is everything ready to go?”
“Everything is perfect.” He swept over to the bed and shut her laptop.
Their eyes met, then their lips. He brushed his fingers over her left breast, oh so carefully, wanting more, but wanting her comfort above all. He lowered his han
d and instead cupped either side of her rounded belly, knowing that his child was safely growing there, inside this woman who held so much strength and passion within her. If she passed on just a fraction of that, his son would be a force of nature.
As their kisses grew more heated, sloppier, Hanna began to make soft, needy noises. Her hands moved up his sides and felt his pecs. She sighed, and Mateo pulled her closer. His hands hungrily slid under her baby-doll and feasted on her warm flesh. First the swollen sides of her belly, then up the arch of her back. He grinned as a new moan came from her. He would draw from her every sound of pleasure he could.
Slipping his fingers beneath the band of her panties, Mateo met her lips again then rested his forehead against hers.
“You’re a gift,” he said.
“Don’t get too mushy on me,” Hanna teased.
But she was smiling. Glowing. She sat back and pulled her baby-doll over her head. Mateo licked his lips as she unfastened her bra.
“There you are.”
Hanna’s head dipped bashfully, and she moved a hand over her middle. Mateo shook his head and took her hands.
“C’mere, beautiful.”
Brassy jazz music wafted up to their window from the street. Mateo laid her back and began to ravage her neck. Her breasts, so full and tender, tempted him until he moved down to swirl his tongue around her pert, rosy nipple.
