The Director (Hollywood Nights) Read online

  He quirked his brow and then nodded, “Maybe.”

  She slid her hands over his chest and then down where she started on the vest buttons. He watched her fingers as they slid the buttons through one at a time. She slipped the vest off and stacked it on the jacket already on the table. She reached for a button and he stilled her hands.

  Shay couldn’t quite understand the expression, the intensity of the look he was giving her. Then he said, “I can’t get any further than this right now. At some point, I won’t want to stop…”

  “I don’t want you to…”

  He pulled her hand up to his lips and kissed her fingers. She could feel her breath grow heavy, the desire building in her loins.

  “Turn around.” He let her hand go and she turned. He found the top of the zipper and slid it down. The zipper was quiet, smooth. He slid his fingers under the straps at her shoulders and then slid the dress down until she was able to step out of it. He tossed the dress to the table and onto his stack of clothes. He touched the strap of her bra and said, “Now that’s interesting.”

  “I made it.” Shay blushed. She was glad he couldn’t see her face. She had forgotten all about the bra.

  “It’s like pantyhose. You can’t see it’s there. Turn around.” She turned slowly. “Where does it fasten?”

  “Here.” She gasped as his fingers traced the line of the material. “In the front.”

  “This is something else. If I wasn’t so distracted by your spectacular breasts I could think of something better to say.” He seemed serious on both accounts. His expression was intent on the tops of her breasts. He traced the material with a finger, gently, until it met with flesh.

  She found the hidden clasps and unfastened them. She pulled the bra open and he inhaled a sharp breath.

  “Fuck, those are nice.” He slid his hands to cup them. “And real.”

  “Are you growling?” Shay bit into her lower lip and enjoyed the way he looked at her body.

  “Yes.” He leaned down and kissed her. His fingers found her nipples and teased them. Every brush of thumb across turgid bud had her feeling sparks at her clit. His lips moved from her mouth down to her throat, farther to her collarbone, and anxiously to her nipple. He pushed her breast up as his head bent down to capture the nub.

  She pushed her fingers through his soft hair and pulled him closer. His attention shifted to the other. Her knees grew weak. The scrape of the beard added sensations she had never felt before. Down he moved, his hands on her hips, his tongue exploring her navel. He was on his knees and she realized, “Your suit. You’re going to ruin it.”

  He let her watch his tongue as it slipped from her navel and back into his mouth. Never had anyone frenched her bellybutton before. He looked at her then said, “I have three others just like it.”

  “Oh.” She slid the lock of his hair between her fingers enjoying the silky smooth feel of it. “We’re a little exposed out here, don’t you think?”

  “Private property. No one knows about it.”

  Her pulse was racing, her head considering the possibilities of get caught, and her body was reacting to his caresses as he waited for her to respond. Breathless she said, “Okay.”

  He reached over and patted the cushion on the lounge chair. She moved closer to the seat. He guided with his hands until her panties were gone, and she was laying back. Her legs were soon parted to either side. He unfastened his shirt and removed it.

  Jed’s chest was covered with a dusting of masculine chest hair. It swirled around his nipples, lined a trail to his groin. The shirt went to the ground beside them. He moved to sit on the chair, picked up one of her feet, kissed her knee, licked her thigh, and settled in between her legs. He inhaled deeply and Shay couldn’t help but feel a moment of self-consciousness. He parted her slick folds and licked. His skillful tongue penetrated her, sucked on her clit, his fingers pressed into her causing her to arch back and cry out.

  She called his name, it spurred him on. For someone supposedly out of practice, he seemed to have the task down to a science, more like an art. No one had found those buttons so quickly, or paid enough attention to know not to stop or move when there. She was clasping his fingers, panting, moaning, and all too easily, “I’m coming.”

  Her body went rigid from toes to scalp, everything tensed, vibrated, then pulsed violently. A tear escaped her eye. No one had ever rocked her that hard that fast before. She was spent, her breaths heavy, her body sheened in sweat. Maybe she needed to wait every couple of years to do this. Surely that was why she wound up so quickly for him.

  He took his time sitting up. He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth and looked at her with satisfaction that he had turned her into the gasping wet mess she had become.

  “My turn?” He licked his lips and unfastened his pants. He was hard, and Shay gasped again at the sight of his rigid cock. Jed was not a small man in any sense of the word. He stepped out of the clothes and moved towards her.

  She mustered the strength to sit up and lean forward. She reached for his cock and he stepped back.

  “I won’t last a minute that way,” he chuckled. “I may not last a minute inside you either, but I want to fuck you.”

  She noticed the wallet he had slipped from his pocket and the condom he removed from it before letting it fall to the ground. He tore the wrapper. She moved to stand. He looked at her questioningly.

  “Sit.” She licked her lips as she watched him slide the prophylactic over his length.

  He moved to take a seat on the lounge and lay back as she climbed on top of him. Seeing his size, knowing how long it had been since she had fucked anyone, Shay wanted control of the thrust.

  She straddled him and leaned in to kiss his lips as she sat on the head of his cock and pressed against it until he penetrated her opening. She sucked in a breath against his lips. He liked that. He moved his hands to her hips and pushed her down farther. He moaned, his head fell back against the chair and his eyes closed.

  She allowed him to press and pull her up and down his length until her legs were trembling. The feel of him was powerful, intense. She was shaking like a leaf and anxious to come again.

  “Oh fuck,” he gasped. “You feel so fucking good.”

  The words added extra sparks to an already overstimulated system. Shay pushed harder, faster, determined to get all of him. One of his hands left her hip to cup her breast. The fingers found and pinched her nipple. The reaction immediately spilled through her, clamping her body around his and pulsating in wave after wave of pleasure.

  She had let her head fall back, her body arched, her mouth open as she called his name.

  She could feel his hand between her breasts, the fingers slid lower, she looked at him, and he licked his lips and slid the fingers lower still. His blue eyes blazed with lust. He was being greedy. He wanted more from her spent body. She wouldn’t be able to walk tomorrow at this rate. Her thighs, used to the burn of running, were already tired from the different angle and use of the muscles.

  His thumb pressed her clit, her body jerked as a response. His eyes widened a bit, he was watching her, watching her reactions while he touched her. He tested and moved until he found the right rhythm, the right pressure, and she came undone.

  “Jed,” she gasped.

  “I just want you to come once more,” he whispered. “You’re amazing, and I have to see it one more time.”

  He rubbed with one hand and pushed at her hips with the other. This time, he didn’t close his eyes. The blue heat burned into her. The ripples began, her body wound tight, the man creating such pleasure looked about undone himself. He pushed a fraction deeper and she came. She looked at him. She breathed. They did not say a word. They just breathed through it. She knew he had come, she could see it in his eyes. Could feel his hips jerk quickly beneath her, pushing into her. It was too intense, too personal, and yet she could not look away from him.

  It was over. It was done. As evidence her body was permanently ma
rked by the event, it pulsed an errant beat through her. He felt it. She knew because he inhaled a sharp breath. She slid up his length removing him from her body and then sat on the edge of the seat, legs shaking, breaths slowing, and heart still thumping away like they just finished a race. Her back facing him, she could feel rather than see him move. He stood, disposed of the condom, and then moved to stand in front of her.

  She wasn’t sure what was supposed to happen next. This was a one night thing. She cleared her throat and said, “If you tell me where I am I can call a cab.”

  His big feet padded away from her. He returned with his tuxedo shirt held out towards her. “I thought you didn’t have to be home tonight.”

  She slowly looked up at him. He tilted his head and seemed genuinely confused.

  “I thought…”

  “Ah,” he nodded. “You hungry?”

  She reached for the shirt. As she stood, she slid her arms through the sleeves and was surprised that he helped straighten it out and buttoned the buttons for her. “A little.”

  Chapter 2

  Jed let them into the house and led her to the kitchen. It wasn’t his house. It was his father’s. A house the man didn’t live in, but loaned out to friends and family as they requested it. Once upon a time his family would come here to get away from it all. When they were kids, their mom loved this place and their dad loved the desert. It was a compromise in their marriage for her to have a beach front and for him to have a house in the hot sand. He had sold the house he loved right before the divorce, maybe as a last ditch effort to keep them together. In the divorce, this house was the only thing his father insisted on keeping. He thought he knew why, but didn’t want to think his dad would be that spiteful.

  Jed didn’t want to think about it. His affection for this house was not due to his mother or father. This was his favorite place to come as a child. No one knew about it except family and select friends. He learned to swim and surf in that ocean right outside. It was where he had his first kiss, lost his virginity, and learned that he had lost his first love. It was where he had come to mourn the loss of his girlfriend, Dana. It was the place that both made things frightening and safe all at once. Major life decisions were made here. His major life decisions anyways, like inviting Shay inside for a sandwich. He had planned to fuck her and take her home. He wasn’t even going to take her inside the house. He wasn’t actually going to bring her there, but the roads wound into one another and soon enough, there he was, bringing her to this place.

  He had noticed her on the set of Jonas’s movie. He had an urge, and he hadn’t felt one in a long while. He lucked out and she was actually at the wedding. He wasn’t expecting her to be friends with the bride, but he was glad that was his opening line. He needed a cigarette, but he was trying to quit. He didn’t want to smoke. He wanted her, again. He planned to gather his wits, have her once more to prove he was mistaking the surge of emotions that rolled through him, and then take her home.

  He placed the clothes on the counter and went to the refrigerator. As he was searching through for something for them to eat, the finest piece of ass he had ever had asked him, “Don’t you want to put your pants on?”

  “Does it bother you?” He grabbed an assortment of items and handed them to her as he pulled them out.

  “No,” she lied. He could tell because she said it too quickly. “I just…well you handed me this shirt…”

  “That was for my benefit, not yours.” He grabbed two bottled waters and closed the door. He looked at her shocked face and clarified, “If you’re naked I won’t be able to do anything else but touch you.”

  “Oh.” She still pouted. Those gorgeous green eyes looked at him as though she could see into his soul. He was already off guard. He told her that stupid story about the sand and the water. It was something he did so long ago on a night he was grieving the loss of his high school sweetheart. A night he was almost certain he would rather be with her in the afterlife than here with anyone on this earth.

  He had never told a soul about it. It was after a real attempt he made a few months after Dana died. He had burned everything they shared together except one photo. The photo in the card she had left for him explaining things. Seventeen was too young to deal with heartbreak of that magnitude. He didn’t know why he told Shay that story. It just felt like he could. She didn’t freak out like his family would have. Of course, she was just there to have sex with him, not provide therapy. Though as therapy goes, her body did great things for redirecting his thoughts.

  He looked at her from head to toe and decided to ask, “What are you made of?”

  She looked at him with her delicate eyebrow arched in question. She was a high maintenance actress. Everything about the way she was groomed told him that. He could barely believe he was standing in this room with her. She was nothing like anything he had ever wanted before. She licked those smooth lips and said, “Sugar and spice and everything nice.”

  He chuckled. “That’s one hell of a genetic code.”

  She smiled and began assembling a sandwich. “I’m a mutt. My mother is white and Hawaiian, my father is black. They met when he went there for college.”

  “That explains it then.” He propped his hip against the counter.

  She had taken her first bite of the sandwich. She chewed it over and then said, “Explains what?”

  “Why they are using you in so many roles. With a tweak to your makeup and the right wig and clothes you could pretend to be anyone. Your skin coloring is ambiguous, you could be any race, your green eyes at once disarming and sexy, and…” He took a bite of his sandwich and looked her over again. She was younger than him. She was closer to his brother’s age, but she was friends with Frankie who was five years Jonas’s senior. It was hard to pinpoint it. “You’re young.”

  “You know I’m an actress?” She seemed surprised. “I recently finished my first job. It’s not public knowledge. How do you know that?’

  “I saw you on the set when I visited Jonas.” He shrugged. “I asked the director. He likes you. You’re committed to the work, and that’s why he just keeps having them suit you up in different outfits to play different roles. That and you’re a Harvey girl.”

  She moved to the table and took a seat. He grabbed his drink and followed. He realized she was probably a bit stunned. “I’m sorry. I guess you’re not used to people knowing a certain amount of your background yet.”

  “Why did you bring me here?” she asked quietly.

  “Because they didn’t have a traditional wedding with bridesmaids for the older, single brother’s picking,” he said and laughed. She didn’t crack a smile. He frowned. His social graces were lacking. He was scaring her he could tell. “Ah, shit.”

  She looked up at him then.

  “Honestly, I brought you here because I looked across the room and saw you standing alone, leaning against the wall, looking sexy as hell in that dress, and I thought…maybe you were like me.” He admitted more than he had planned to.

  “Like you?”

  “Yeah,” he shrugged. “Lonely. I mean why did you come here with me? You knew who I was, didn’t you?”

  She looked up at him and said, “Yeah. I knew you were Jed Gunner. You were a teen heartthrob who stopped acting and years later started directing. You went from being a poster on everyone’s wall to being…reclusive. Once your little brother hit the scene you became…obsolete.”

  He sucked in a hissing breath. “Ouch. That stings.”

  Her expression softened and she said, “I didn’t mean that. I get defensive…”

  “Understandable in this situation,” he admitted.

  “The truth is I came here because when you looked at me, I just felt warm, and wanted, and it has been a long time…if ever… someone looked at me genuinely that way.”

  He understood all too well what she was saying. It seemed impossible such a beautiful creature could be lonely. When he went to talk to her he half expected her date to interru
pt, but she was in fact alone. When she looked at him, he lost all good sense and asked her to leave with him.

  He licked his lower lip and thought about how sweet she tasted. “Shay.”

  She stared into his eyes, into his soul. It unnerved him in a way he was not familiar with and in a way he was not going to admit. He stated, “I want you again.”

  “And what if I say you can’t have me?” She looked from his face to the half-eaten sandwich. He knew she did it to hide her true feelings on the subject.

  He sighed. This was part of the reason he had banned any attempts at real relationships. He rarely said the right things and women rarely appreciated that about him. He didn’t have his little brother’s gift of charm. He didn’t have his sister’s gift of kindness. He had allowed himself to love one soul and he had lost her. Since then, he refused to make an effort. He could count on two hands the amount of women he had slept with. He could count on one finger how many he had slept with more than once. He refused to compromise his principles for anyone.

  “I’ll be in the shower,” he said as he moved from the table to put the leftover food back into the refrigerator. He closed the door and said, “It’s up the stairs, third door on the right. If you don’t want to join me, there is a guest room on this floor just down the hall.”

  He was on the second step when he found it impossible to move any farther. He groaned, turned around and found her standing in the room behind him. He looked at the hall leading to the guest room. He looked at her. He looked at the stairs. He took a deep breath and said, “Can I convince you to come up stairs with me?”

  She looked down the dark hallway leading to the guest room and then back at him. He knew that hallway could be scary. The entire house could be. It was large, open, and the wood creaked and moaned as it settled. His siblings would not travel down the hall without the lights on. After the incident, they wouldn’t come to this house. He didn’t mean to do that to them. Before his thoughts could delve deeper into the past she asked, “How?”