A STELLAR AFFAIR (A Hollywood Bad Boy Romance) (26 page)

“I don’t know what’s going on between us, Reen. It went too fast. It’s going too fast.”

“Have you been having sex daily?”

“No.”

“Then it wasn’t too fast.”

“Reen, be serious!”

“I am. So, what’s the problem?”

“He asked me to marry him.”

“And?”

“And…I don’t know! I said yes. Kinda. But…but Reen, I’ve known him for only a month or so! It’s crazy!”

“Yeah. Crazy stuff happens to crazy people. What are you afraid of?”

She pulled a deep breath again. “You know, when Tyrone cheated on me, I thought my heart will never mend. I thought I’ll never trust again, least of all love again. Wesley is the last man I’d wanna fall in love with.”

“But you fell in love with him anyway.”

“Yes.” She groaned. “Oh Reen, what shall I do?”

“Marry him.”

“I’m afraid.”

“Of what?”

“Tyrone hurt me. I recovered. But Wesley…if I let him into my life completely and then he leaves me, he’ll break me, Reen. I don’t think I’ll ever recover.”

“Twitter is full of you and Tyrone going lovey-dovey. Wes might see it. He might just leave you now if you don’t get your shit together. What makes you think you won’t break then?”

“What?!”

“So you haven’t been checking your social media.”

“What do you mean lovey-dovey?! What are you talking about?!”

Reena showed her what she meant on her phone.

She gasped in shock. “That bastard! I can’t believe this! He set me up again!”

“What the hell were you doing with him, Av?”

“He called me, said he wanted to talk. I figured it was high time we had that closure since we haven’t really talked after he cheated on me. I just wanted to put an end to it all.”

Reena shook her head. “Looks like he doesn’t want it to end anytime soon.”

“Oh my god…!”

“Evil. This person is diabolical, Av. Wes is a saint compared to this low-life.”

“You think Wes saw this already? You think that’s the reason he’s been dropping all my calls?”

“It’s been circulating since yesterday. He’s in France. Maybe France isn’t into Hollywood shit that much.”

That was a long shot. She crawled toward her bedside table and grabbed her phone. She dialed Wes’ number again, frantically this time. It rang but he didn’t pick up. She dialed again. Her call went to voice mail. She looked at Reena in dismay. “He knows.”

“What are you gonna do?”

It didn’t take her three seconds to decide.
 

“We’re going to France.”

“We?”

“You’re my buffer in case he’s too pissed off to talk to me.”

Reena grinned. “Okay. I’ll call Tim. He might wanna tag along with us to the City of Lights.”

“Cut!!!”

Jaq jumped down from the hydraulic director’s chair and approached him.

“What the fuck, Wes?! This is your fifth take!”

Wes sighed heavily. “I’m sorry, man. I…I need a bit of a break.”

Jaq sighed, too. “Okay. I’ll shoot Rob’s scenes for now. Be back in three hours. I want your scenes done when you get back. I can’t afford more delays, man.
My ass is on the fucking wringer already.
Take-one when you get back, deal?”

“I promise. Thanks, Jaq. I owe ya.”

Jaq clapped him in the back. “Go.”

He was shooting a complicated combat scene using the glass pyramid of Louvre as the background. Jaq wanted authenticity instead of
CGI
so here they were. The producers obtained a legal permit to film in the middle of the busiest tourist destination in the city. It wasn’t easy. The place had been cordoned because the French Ryders and Stoners flocked to the shoot. Add the Stoneryder fans to the fray and it was a three-ring circus for days now. Social media was rife with speculations that Stoneryder was finished after pictures of Ava and Glass emerged on the internet the other day. The Ryders were all looking for Ava, asking him why she wasn’t with him here in France. As if Ava could tag along anywhere he went and leave her own business in L.A. She’d made that emphatic enough too, and it still stung like hell.

He walked toward the make-up tent. After having his costume removed, he walked to his custom RV parked nearby.
 

Ava…

She’d been calling him since yesterday. He knew she’d sent messages, but he all ignored her calls and didn’t read a single line of her messages.

He was still too furious with her. She went to meet Glass behind his back knowing how he felt about her and that scumbag ex of hers.

His temper simmered to boiling point again. It was all he could do not to hop on a plane and fly back to L.A. and…he didn’t know what he would do. He was so messed up in the head with Ava’s betrayal he couldn’t think straight. Plus Jaq will kill him if he went MIA in the middle of this shoot.

“Hey, handsome,” a voice called out to him.

“Masha,” he greeted her without interest.

She touched his arm. “Done with your scenes?”

“Not yet. I’m taking a little break.”

“Does it include a stiff…drink?” she said suggestively.

He was too pissed off that he said, “Maybe.”

He opened the door to his RV and went in. Masha stepped inside, too. He hoped nobody caught her getting in, but right now he didn’t care about her fucking love team with Ava. Stoneryder was a lie. He didn’t want to lie anymore. He was so fucking done with it.

He wanted real.

“So…” Masha said tentatively.

He went to get a can of
pilsen
from the ref at the mini-kitchen. “Beer?” he offered her.

“Yes, please.”

She opened a can for her.

They both drank in silence.

“Are you scheduled to shoot this afternoon?” he asked her. She wasn’t dressed in her costume but was rather looking like she was going out on the town to party in her little sorry excuse for a dress. She looked smashing as always, but that was the extent of his interest in her now. His bored dick told him so. The Empress had ruined him for any woman, and that was the tragic part, because she couldn’t decide if she wanted to keep him or get back with her scumbag ex.

He wanted to force her to choose him, but he knew he couldn’t do that now. He wanted her to choose him on her own volition. He wanted her to love him not only with her body but with her heart and soul.

Shit, he couldn’t believe what he had come down to— just a regular sappy son of a bitch, needy, insecure, afraid of losing the one woman who meant the entire universe to him.

She felt Masha’s hand touch his back.

“I know you’re not feeling well. I can make you feel better.”

A booty call right here. Right now. So easy. So accessible.

He faced her. “Masha—“

She put her fingertips on his lips. “Shhh. I don’t wanna hear it. I just want us to enjoy this moment. No strings, as usual.”

A month ago, he would been game to anything no-strings with this hot woman but he felt strange now as she touched him. He felt like cringing away, as if she was violating his body. His body that belonged to Ava. Every inch of him was only hers to touch now.

Shit. Empress fucked me up real good.

“Masha, I don’t—”

She framed his face with her palms, her own face moving toward his. He turned his head to the side. Her lips landed on his cheek.

“Please, take your hands off
 
me, Masha.”

 
She was a tall woman and they were almost on eye-level. “Seriously, Wes?”
 

“Seriously,” he told her softly but firmly.

She stared at him, then her lips pulled up in mockery. “Stoneryder? Give me a break.”

“I’m sorry but you need to leave.”

Her eyes widened in disbelief. He didn’t want to reject her like this but he had to draw his boundaries so there will be no future incidents like this with her again.

The door opened.

Ava stepped into the RV,
shutting the door.

“Well, well, well…did I interrupt something?”

Masha didn’t even move away from him and Wes was just standing there, albeit with a shocked look on his face.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” the supermodel said with a malicious smirk. “We were just about to get really busy.”

Ava drew straighter and stepped closer toward them. She looked the other woman square in the eye. Masha was almost a foot taller than her and quite aware of her beauty and fame but she was Ava Ryder, the Pop Empress who owned that man she was trying seduce. No freakin’ supermodel was going to make her forget that.

“I don’t believe for one moment that MY boyfriend intends to fuck you tonight or any time in the near or distant future, so quit giving me that smug look, girl. And take your slutty hands off of him. I don’t want you touching MY property.”

Masha looked taken aback by her verbal attack. She dropped her arms to her sides. “How can you be so sure he won’t in the future?” she challenged.

Ava raised her hand where she was wearing a 6-carat, heart-shaped diamond engagement ring. “Isn’t it beautiful?” she asked Masha. “Wes has a great eye for jewelry. He knows diamonds are a girl’s bestfriends.”

She almost took pity on the look of envy in the Masha’s eyes but she was too selfish at that moment, plus she was flirting with Wes knowing they were already together, so…the hell with her! “Shoo-shoo,” she gestured for Masha to leave with two flicks of her hand.

After giving her a murderous look, the supermodel left the RV in a huff, slamming the door behind her.

Ava went to lock the door.

She faced Wes again. He remained standing where he was, unmoving, his eyes, hooded as he watched her.

She wanted to jump him and hug him so tight. God, she’d missed him.

“Wes…”

He turned away. “What are you doing here?” he asked her coldly.

“You don’t actually believe I went to see him for the reasons you’re thinking, do you?”

“You went to see him, knowing how I feel.”

She sighed. “I know.”
 

“I’m angry, Ava. Very angry.”

“I know…I’m so sorry. Will you at least let me explain?”

“Trust is very important to me.”

“It is very important to me, too.”

He didn’t speak. He faced her again, his eyes, intense. She took it as her cue to start explaining. “I have to admit, I was very angry and confused and hurt after you….after we…when you left. Everything happened so fast and I was afraid. But I did some soul-searching…and I realized what were truly important to me at this point in my life.”

She stepped closer to him, until barely a foot separated them. She could smell him and she wanted to put her lips on his skin so badly. “So I decided to finally set the record straight with Tyrone. I agreed to see him again, to tell him it was truly over between us and he must stop hoping for any reconciliation between us whether on a personal or business level. I wanted closure, Wes.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

“Everything. He was the past. You’re my present and my future. I want to start a family. I want to start it with you.”

He still didn’t say anything. She felt so vulnerable, so open and he was just looking at her, his face, expressionless. “Aren’t you going to say something?”

“I’ve said everything I wanted to say to you last time. It’s your turn.”

“You’re really going to make me beg?”

He shrugged. “On you knees would probably help.”

She caught a little smile and she knew she got him

She slowly knelt in front of him. She lifted her eyes at him seductively. “Will you marry me, Wesley Stoner?”

He looked down at her, his eyes going darker. Still, he made no move.

“If you don’t like… then I’ll ask your cock to marry me. I think it’s more decisive than you.”

His lips twitched and he started to shake his head.

She hooked her fingers on the pockets of his jeans, swallowing hard at the huge bulge on his fly. “Hey, rolling stone, will you marry me? I promise to make your rock ’n roll everyday.”

A groan rumbled in his throat.
 

She unzipped his fly, pulled his pants down his thighs along with his briefs.
 

His cock sprung out like a catapult inches from her face.