The Director (Hollywood Nights) Read online

  He cleared his throat. His gut clenched with nervous anticipation. “What would you like? I mean, you know I’ll make you come. You know I’ll worship your body with my mouth, my hands, my…”

  She passed him on the stairs and he followed her eagerly to the bedroom.

  Maybe he did know the right thing to say sometimes. After all, he got to see her slip out of his shirt, pull the pins and then ties out of the bun on her head and watch as the long hair fell past her shoulders and land at the bottom of her shoulder blades. Shay was all kinds of fine, fit, womanly wonder. He was glad she met him today. A year ago he was pretty soft in the midsection. After embedding with the military infantry, he had spent time training and getting into prime physical condition. When they had to run, he had to run.

  Knowing how close to death he had been, what he had witnessed, those that were lost, he considered it a privilege to be this close to a woman when he knew so many of them would never get a chance again.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered against her temple as they stood under the spray of the shower. The warm water flowed smoothly from the oversized shower heads.

  “Me too.” She turned to face him. She stroked his beard and the water droplets that had gathered there. Shay didn’t seem to mind the beard. Some women outright refused to get near him because of it. He knew that was part of the reason he kept it. He had cleaned it up for the wedding, but it was still full. “How long have you had this thing?”

  He laughed. “Longer than I’ve owned cars.”

  “I like it,” she said and it surprised him. “I guess you’ve been committed to it for a while now.”

  He hadn’t really thought of it that way.

  “I mean I cut my hair, let it grow. Color it, change it back.” She let her hand slide down and over his throat and onto his chest. “But all those changes were just ways for me to keep hiding from myself.”

  “You’re not hiding now?”

  “No.” She slid her hands lower and bent over to meet the grip she had on his dick with her lips.

  He really wanted to know more about her. He hadn’t intended to be interested beyond her body, but he was. Unfortunately, with her lips around his dick, there was no way he could think of anything but the feel of her warm mouth and soft tongue as she teased the underside of the head on his penis.

  “Wow, I forgot what that was like.” He pulled her long brown hair with honey highlights in it up and out of her way. “Oh my, oh, that’s it. Your mouth is amazing. Damn!”

  She had her way with him and all too easily he was ready to spend. She must have realized because she let him go, took a step back and said, “What do you want me to do?”

  He blinked several times as his brain tried to register clear thoughts much less form words.

  She smiled. Her green eyes were brilliant and full of mischief. She leaned back over and finished the job. He was coming within moments. She didn’t shy away from the ejaculate. Instead, she made him tremble and then stole his move. She stood, looked at him, and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

  He stood there trying to regain his breath, the strength of his legs, and the ability to form words again.

  “Jed.” She tilted her head and a sincere expression made her look innocent, soft, and vulnerable. The shower was the last place he thought he would be having such a deep conversation, but he expression was sincere and thoughtful as she said, “I just want to say thank you for tonight. I mean, I don’t want to forget to say I had a great time”

  She stepped out of the shower and closed the door. He gathered his wits and finally turned off the water, opened the door, grabbed a towel, and watched her as she was brushing her hair with his hairbrush.

  “I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Not at all.” It was just a hairbrush, but the sight of her using it, standing in the bathroom with him, sharing something this intimate stole his breath. He watched her braid the long locks and secure them with one of the ties that had been holding it up earlier. She tossed the braid over her shoulder and looked at him.

  “You’re tired.” She adjusted the towel she had wrapped around her. “Me too.”

  He cleared his throat and tried to break free of her spell. “Do you want a t-shirt or something?”

  “Yeah. That would be great.” She seemed a bit trepid.

  He nodded. When he asked her to come with him he had hoped for sex. He got it. Now he wanted more of it. He also wanted more of her. How much more, he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He just knew he hadn’t felt like this in forever if he ever felt like this at all.

  “Do you want me to sleep in the guest room?” she asked as she pulled his t-shirt over her head. The question explained her anxiety. She wasn’t sure where this was going or what to do. He wondered if they had more in common in this arena than he thought they might.

  “No,” he admitted. It was a reasonable question. They were just fucking. It was supposed to just happen and then go away. It wasn’t quite working that way. “Unless you want to.”

  She shook her head no.

  It was probably the most awkward bedtime ritual he had ever been through.

  He found an extra toothbrush in the bathroom cabinet with the extra toiletries the maid kept stocked in there. He was lying in bed when she returned to the room. Only the light located on the night stand at her side of the bed was on. He tried not to look too longingly at her as she climbed into the bed next to him.

  He hadn’t fallen asleep with a woman in so long he couldn’t remember who it was or when it happened. Sex was something he had when there was an opportunity and no expectations afterwards. Usually with women he met through work that lived in other states or countries needing to scratch the same itch. In a male dominated field, it wasn’t something that happened often.

  She turned off the light and they lay there in the darkness. The sound of the ocean lapping at the shore beyond the bedroom window and the house settling in that familiar way were the only noises to be heard.

  The silence stretched on until he could hear his heart thumping. He slid his hand over to her hand. She turned towards him. He slid his hand up her arm and then around her back. He pulled her closer until her front was lined up with his. Her head tucked under his chin and her warm arm wrapped around him.

  Chapter 3

  Shay waited until his breathing signaled sleep. She rolled away from him and faced the bathroom. She was entirely too comfortable lying beside him that way. It unnerved her. She had to protect herself. She should have gone to the guest room. She should have called a cab. Instead, she was fighting sleep and losing the battle.

  How long she had slept, she didn’t know. A loud voice startled her awake.

  “Wilson!” he yelled it again.

  Shay turned on the light and looked over to Jed. With the light on, he woke up. He sat straight up in the bed with a horrified expression on his face. She could feel her heart thumping hard in her chest and fear was a real emotion threatening to take over her reactions. Once she realized he wasn’t looking at someone ready to murder them in the bedroom, she took a deep breath and asked, “Are you okay?”

  He sniffed, groaned, pinched the bridge of his nose with his hand and then let the fingers slide to discreetly wipe what she suspected were tears away. He took a ragged breath and said, “I...uh…guess I had a nightmare.”

  Not knowing exactly what to do or say she placed a hand gently on his sweat soaked back and said, “I sometimes have nightmares about that volleyball, too. That movie has ruined my life.”

  He made a light grunt, then another, until he sighed and looked at her with a smile. “Thank you.”

  “Do you want to…tell me?” she asked as she moved to get behind him. She placed her hands on his shoulders and began massaging.

  “I spent the last two years with the military. I spent these past twelve months embedded with an infantry unit,” he said and then let out a breath. “Wilson…was just a kid. Nineteen years old. He couldn’t buy a bee
r at a bar, but he was old enough to fight for his country, and he died from enemy fire. I was there. I saw it. I filmed it.”

  Shay was pretty sure when it came to the emotions department he was a mess. It made her feel a little better about her own psychiatric issues. Shay moved her hand and pushed her elbow into the muscle at his shoulder. It was immoveable. “You need therapy.”

  He snorted. “Is that your advice?”

  “Yeah,” she said as she pressed the elbow in and it barely moved. “Your muscles are ridiculous. You need to see a masseuse. I can’t get this knot to break and I am using everything I got.”

  He snickered. “I need massage therapy. I tell you I’m having dreams about a dead guy and you think I need a masseuse.”

  “Yes,” she emphasized with her elbow in the other shoulder where the muscles did move. He winced. “See? I think you need a professional to work out your neck and back. I can’t do that. I would think you needed a shrink if you didn’t have nightmares. I had nightmares for a week about a squirrel I hit on the road. I’m sure you’ll need longer than a week to process everything you’ve seen over there.”

  “I just don’t want to think about it anymore,” he said with a heavy sigh.

  Shay slid her arms around him and said, “Well, I could help you not think about it right now.”

  Her fingers slid over his chest and around as they circled his nipples. She liked the feel of him. He leaned his head back on her shoulder and then turned it towards her so his forehead touched her cheek. “Can you?”

  “Yes,” she whispered. She knew this wouldn’t last long. Whatever they were experiencing physically was special. She wanted to enjoy as much of his body as she could before the adventure ended. She wanted to remain on the physical level because she found herself caring about his disturbing dreams and his tense muscles. She didn’t want to concern herself with him at all.

  Shay kissed his forehead and then slid her body around to where she was kneeling at the headboard and leaning towards his cock. She slid her hand under the sheet and found him half-hard and growing. She pushed the sheet back as she leaned over and licked the tip, teased, and then sucked him into her mouth.

  He surprised her by pulling her leg until she lifted it and he arranged himself under her in a sixty-nine position. It was his worst mistake. Jed had a beautiful mouth, a skilled tongue, and if pussy eating was an art, he would have been labeled a master. For all of her intentions, she could barely remain focused on pleasing him since he was distracting her in the most delightful way.

  He tormented her and she did her best to give as good as she was getting, but knew there was no way what she did was comparing to what he was doing. He slid his hand up the shirt and pinched her nipple. She let go of his cock and just breathed for a moment. He must have been satisfied with the reaction because he let go of the nipple and pushed his fingers into her. She cried out, rocked against him, and then latched back onto his cock.

  Eventually, she could not concentrate on him anymore. He was too good, too efficient, and she was coming undone for the second time in that position. He pushed at the cheeks of her ass until she crawled lazily forward towards his feet. He halted her at his waist as she suspected he would. She heard the slide of the drawer next to the bed and then the tear of a wrapper. She didn’t look back at him. She took the time to collect her senses and to catch her breath.

  “Sit up,” he said and guided her onto his cock as she did. She was riding him, backwards, and enjoying the abandon of being able to watch without having to look at him. She could appreciate the sight of his cock as it disappeared into her, the way his balls had grown tighter with need of release, the way his toes spread wide as his groans grew louder and more frequent. “Fuck, that’s it.”

  She slid her hand down to cup his balls and he said, “Gently, gently pull them. I can get another minute if…too late.”

  Apparently the caress was gentler than he needed. He pressed down on her hips as he came in long shuddering bursts. She smiled. She would officially miss Jed Gunner. No man had proven her equal in bed before. He was a master of pussy and she would bow before him if it wasn’t against every fiber of her being to do so.

  She lifted off of him and moved back to her spot in the bed. He removed the condom and tossed it in a waste basket on the other side of his nightstand. He rolled to face her. He looked at her for a long time. Not a word between them. She yawned.

  A moment later, he slicked the back of two of his fingers down the front of her mons and asked, “Does it hurt when they wax it?”

  “Not anymore,” Shay admitted. A hairy guy like Jed had probably never had a tweezer taken to an eyebrow, much less hot wax poured on to strip hair off. “I’m starting to wonder if it will even grow back. I just tweeze it because so little grows in now. I mean I have been getting waxed since before I was a teenager. Hair on my arms, legs, my cha-cha, you name it, if it was not hair on my head, it came off. They have lasers now that are supposed to make it less painful, but like I said, I don’t really need to have it professionally done anymore.”

  The fingers had moved from the light touch of her pussy to her hip where the front of his fingers traced patterns of his own creation on her flesh. “Didn’t your mother notice?”

  “Who do you think took me?” Shay scoffed. She didn’t want to think about it. She was trying to help him avoid his nightmares not delve into hers.

  He frowned. He looked at her and asked, “Do you think I should shave?”

  “Why?”

  “Look at what I’m doing to you.” He touched a few red patches that had formed on her thigh from his ministrations earlier.

  “I don’t mind. It’s different. Yeah, it can be a bit prickly when you move one way, but it’s kinda nice when you move another.” She winked at him. To set them both on solid ground she reminded him, “Besides, this is just tonight, right? So who am I to tell you what to do with your facial hair?”

  “Hmmmm,” he hummed. “Just tonight. What if I want more than just tonight?”

  “You said you were not interested in having coffee with me, remember? No bridesmaids to hit on so you found me, and here we are.” Shay put her hand on his and lifted it until it was back on the bed between them and not on her body. “I don’t think I can give more than this. I’ve just gotten back into Frankie’s good graces and I…”

  “Who gives a shit about Frankie?” he frowned. “This is about you.”

  “Well,” she said and then gulped. “I give a shit about Frankie. I am pretty sure your little brother gives a shit about Frankie. I don’t want to cause problems for you. I shouldn’t have come here to begin with, but I couldn’t resist the way you were looking at me. Now that I’m here, I’m trying to remember this was a fling, a one night stand, and that I can’t tell anyone about it no matter how fucking amazing you are.”

  “What if I changed my mind?” he asked innocently enough.

  “About what?”

  “About what I want.”

  “What do you want?” She tried not to let her pulse run wild throughout her body. She tried not to get her hopes up. She desperately needed to get out of there and away from him. This was all bad and getting worse. Nevertheless, it felt so good, and right, it scared her.

  “More than just tonight.” He slid his hand across the bed again and tugged at the end of her braid. She closed her eyes instead of telling him no. She was thinking, but not fast enough. He took the lack of rejection as a sign of acceptance. When her eyes opened he was already moving his face in to kiss her, his body over her to push her back and under him. He wasn’t even hard. He wasn’t tying to fuck her. He just wanted her trapped there beneath him. “Stay with me. Tell me why you’re worried about Frankie. Tell me why it would cause problems. I need to know, because I don’t want you to go.”

  “You don’t want to know all of this, Jed. I’m really not worth…” She looked away from him.

  “Were you going to say worth it?” he whispered in her ear. He was clo
se, not looking her in the eye anymore. She nodded. She could feel the slight movement against the side of his face. “What if I said you were? Would you believe me?”

  “No.”

  He pushed up to his elbows and looked at her again. He studied her for a long uncomfortable moment. She wasn’t looking at him. She was looking at the lamp on the nightstand on his side of the bed. It didn’t make her awareness of his scrutiny any less.

  “Who did this to you?” he asked.

  She let out a breathy laugh. She looked at him and said, “Did what?”

  “Made you feel so…I don’t know. I don’t know how you feel. I just know that you are the most beautiful…”

  “Don’t,” she said as she moved her hands to his chest and pushed. He didn’t budge.

  “Don’t tell you you’re beautiful?” He looked her square in the eye.

  “No. Don’t tell me I am beautiful.” She frowned at him. Her brows drew tight and she let him have it. He wanted to know, so she told him. “I don’t need you to tell me what I look like. It’s all anyone ever says to me. I know what I look like. I know that on the outside I am beautiful. Does that mean you should risk conflict with your family and I should risk losing the only real friend I ever had, again, because you think I’m pretty?”

  She pushed at his chest again and this time he moved. He rolled to his back and looked at the ceiling.

  She stood up and started for the door.

  “Where are you going?” He sat up suddenly.

  “Home,” she said. “I’ll call a cab.”

  “But…”

  She held a hand up and he stopped. He looked wounded, confused.

  “It was great meeting you, Jed. I just…gotta go.” Shay made her feet move. She made her body leave him in that room alone as she started for the stairs and her clothes in the kitchen.

  She had just pulled the dress on and pulled her phone out when he appeared in the doorway, fully dressed.

  “Here,” he said and offered her a hoodie with the words InkBlot on it. “I’ll take you home.”