After the Internship: A Novella (The Intern #4) (9 page)

“
Let’s hope you don’t have to drag me off the bathroom floor.”

She chuckles lightly as she angles herself and aims for the stick. I try not to laugh
, but the way she’s sitting has me bursting out unintentionally.

“
Stop laughing at me. I’m going to end up peeing on myself.” She laughs with me, unable to control it anymore.

“
Well, at least I got you off the floor and laughing.” I smirk.

She
’s finally successful on aiming for the stick. She covers it and sets it on the counter. I start my phone timer for three minutes, anxiously waiting to see that little plus line.

“
You’ll make a good mom,” I say sincerely. “You know you have me. And Katelynn. And hopefully, Simon.” I laugh. “You’ll have us all.”

Her lips curve into a small smile, her head nodding.
“I know. I’m just scared. Simon and I are just getting our careers off the ground. I don’t want to mess up what we have.”

“
It’s normal to be scared, Cora. But it won’t mess anything up. You guys are going to be the most adorable family,” I gush.

She closes the gap between us and wraps her arms around me.
“Thanks, Celia. I love you.”

I hug her back, telling her I love her, too. The moment feels surreal. We
’ve been through almost everything together. Since we were kids, we’ve experienced so much together and now here we were about to find out whether or not she is expecting. It feels good knowing I have someone solid like her in my life.

My phone beeps, alerting us it
’s time.

“
Ready?” I ask, smiling.

She nods.
“You look for me.”

“
You sure?”

“
Yes. Just tell me.”

“
All right.” I turn around and grab the stick. I can’t stop the smile that spreads wildly across my face. Cora’s about to become a mom.

“
Well?” she asks anxiously from behind me. “Don’t leave me hanging!” I feel her bouncing back and forth between her feet.

I spin around, trying to cover up the stupid grin on my face.
“It’s…” She raises her brows, waiting for me to finally tell her, and then I smile and laugh lightly as I continue, “positive!”

Her expression drops as her eyes widen in fear.
“No…really?” she asks, almost giddy. “Don’t fuck with me, Celia.”

I laugh at her bluntness.
“I’m not. Swear to god. See?” I show her the dark, pink plus sign that proves it all. “Congrats! I’m so happy for you!” I wrap her in a hug as I feel her body convulsing with tears. I know she’s worried, but she has nothing to worry about, because she and Simon are going to make wonderful parents.

Chapter Twelve

Bentley

OUR LIVES WEREN’T
always this confusing. There was a time when Ceci was going to college and I was driving to Omaha twice a week to teach kickboxing classes. Moving to Lincoln to be close to her was the best decision of my life. It gave us the time to just be together without any of the drama or spotlight. We became isolated in our little bubble, only coming up for air when necessary. At times, it was near perfect.

Now our lives are a breathing nightmare. I don
’t feel secure anymore. It feels as if our safe little bubble has been popped, and there’s no way to get back in. Our security blanket has been ripped from underneath us, and the only way to surface is to go through the agony and pain of what’s to come.

Ceci
’s happy at her new job. It’s been two weeks since her interview and she started almost immediately. Every night she comes home with a bright smile on her face, telling me everything she learned. Her boss, Coach Tanner, is the one training her. He’s an older guy in his fifties, so I feel a bit more comfortable with her spending time with him all day. Although she has a degree in sports management, she needs some on-the-job training. College baseball season just started, so it’s fortunate she’s a fast learner.

We talked briefly a couple weeks ago about my decision to step back from modeling, but knowing I have contracts, I can
’t just quit. Now that she’s working, she’s much more understanding of my demanding schedule. So far, I’ve been able to get Angie to postpone some of the stuff she had booked. She always preferred I did face-to-face interviews, but I told her she’s going to have to accept phone-only interviews for a while. I also told her shoots needed to be national from now on. All the overseas traveling is starting to become too much, especially when the wedding is only three months away.

“
Hey, babe!” Ceci calls as she walks in the door. She heads right for me at the breakfast bar and gives me a quick kiss on the cheek. “How was your day?”

“
Fine, how was yours?” I fold the newspaper up that I was reading.

“
Great. I think I’m finally getting the hang of it. They moved me into my own office today and even started giving me a schedule. I start working one-on-one with the players at the end of the week.”

“
Awesome.” I smile and spin around, facing her as she sets her things on the kitchen table. “Any chance you get off early tomorrow night?”

She wrinkles her forehead for a moment before answering.
“I can ask. Why? What’s tomorrow?”

I raise my brows at her.
Clearly, she wouldn’t forget. Girls don’t forget their birthdays.

“
Um…the fourteenth.”

“
Oh, my god. Is it really?” she gasps. “Wow, I didn’t even realize it was the middle of the month already. I’ve been so busy lately. Totally blew past the dates.”

I sit awkwardly, wondering if she
would’ve even realized it had I not mentioned it.

“
So…” I step off the stool and walk toward her. “Any chance I can have my fiancée for one night?” I wrap my arms around her. “You use to go nuts over your birthday.”

“
I only went nuts because it meant I’d for sure have you all to myself.”

“
Well, I can do one better. You can have me to yourself as long as you want.”

She smiles widely.
“Then I will definitely get done early.” I lean in and kiss her. The past two weeks have been a bit rocky with her starting the job, the emails from Ava, and the press still pushing for comments.

I have something romantic planned, as usual. The past couple of years we were traveling during her birthday. Since I never knew the area well, we
’d stay locally around the hotel and find cool things to do. But this year, I wanted it to be extra special.

“
We could always start the activities early,” I suggest, cupping her face and leaning in to kiss her. “You know, just in case we don’t have time to fit everything in.” I smirk seductively against her mouth.

“
Since when have you not been able to fit everything in?” she teases.

“
Touché.” I crush my lips to hers, desperate to feel her against me. I know she’s been holding a lot in lately, not wanting to express how upset she is about everything. I know she’s overwhelmed, so I want to help her relieve some of that stress. “Let’s get these clothes off,” I offer, pulling her jacket down her shoulders. She continues stroking her tongue with mine as we fight to get her shirt off next.

“
Strip,” she says, taking me off guard. She begins taking her shoes and jeans off. She points a finger up and down my body. “Strip, mister. I’m not going to be the only one naked.”

A smile spreads widely across my
face, as I happily oblige. “Someone’s in a hurry.”

I watch as she pulls her panties down to the floor and unhooks her bra.
“My body’s missed you. It’s not in a very patient mood right now.” Her voice is laced with seduction, grabbing my cock’s attention instantly.

As soon as I
’m finished tearing everything off, I grab her around the waist and immediately guide her body to mine.

“
I like the way you think,” I growl, setting her up on the kitchen table. “Patience was never a good quality of mine anyway.”

She laughs, tilting her head back.
“That’s an understatement.” My lips find her neck, immediately drawn to her blistering skin. Her body is on fire, her nails clawing at me to get inside her.

“
So anxious…”

She begins stroking my cock as my lips surrender to the skin just below her collarbone. I moan against her flesh, loving the way her hands work me. She
’s aggressive in her touch, but not to the point where it’s too much—it’s fucking perfect.

“
Mm…” I hear a throaty moan release from her lips.

“
Lean back,” I order, standing up. With her ass on the table and legs around my waist, I release one of her legs and push it back toward her face. “Let’s see how stretched out for me you are.” I grin widely, knowing she’s
always
stretched out for me.

“
Like you need to doubt me,” she mocks, stretching her leg higher. I grip my cock in one hand as I hold her thigh up with the other. I rub against her slit torturously, making sure she’s wet and ready.

“
Fuck, you’re wet.” I push in slightly, just enough to make her back arch in anticipation. The tight sensation is almost too much, but god, it’s amazing.

“
Ah, god…” Her head falls back as she tries to reach anything to grip.

I push all the way in, letting her body get
used to it before thrusting against her. She relaxes, taking everything in easily.

“
Jesus Christ,” I growl, clenching my eyes closed. My body heats—overwhelming love and anticipation taking over. I pull out before driving back in harder and deeper, nearly taking her over the edge. Her fingers claw at my arms, grasping for any kind of support. I lean down, allowing her to hold me as her body clenches around me. “Yes, baby…let go,” I demand.

Her eyes pop open on command, but rather than overwhelming euphoria as expected, I see
fear
.

“
Stop!” she shouts. “Please, stop.” Her body goes rigid, pushing me away and finding her footing.

“
W-What’s wrong? Did I hurt you? Are you all right?” I spit out frantically. I have no idea what I did, but she’s completely panicking. She climbs off the table and begins grabbing her clothes off the floor, covering herself up. “Ceci, talk to me.” I grab my briefs and slip them on quick.

“
I-I can’t…I just need a moment, please.” She begins sobbing, something I haven’t seen her do in years.

“
Ceci, you’re killing me…” I try to grab her, but she races down the hallway, closing the bedroom door behind her.

Shit.

Chapter Thirteen

Cecilia

Time to take action

I DON’T EVEN know what happened, or how. Bentley and I have been together several times in the past two weeks, but suddenly, tonight something changed.

I love when Bentley is spontaneous and just picks me up and sets me anywhere when he has that wanton need and desire to have me. I live for moments like that with him, so when flashes started spiraling into my mind of him and Hannah, I couldn
’t take it anymore. I felt physical pain as my mind replayed the dream, making me feel ill at the image.

I don
’t know why my mind is trying to kill me, but it feels like I’m at war. I love Bentley and want nothing more than to share my life with him, but it’s starting to haunt me in a way I can’t control anymore. I don’t know how to move on from something I can’t change.

“
Ceci, please…talk to me.” I hear his pleas from outside the door. God, I’m so embarrassed. I feel sick. I don’t know how to explain to him what I feel—or rather see. This is such a disaster.

“
I just need a moment,” I say, hoping he can understand that I need to figure out my own feelings before I can even try to explain them to him.

“
All right…” I hear the worry in his voice. “I’ll be right here. I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart.” He voice is sweet, tender. He’s not demanding or impatient, but rather, I hear the heartbreak in his tone.

I take a few moments to compose myself, putting my clothes back on before facing him. I hardly know what to say, but I know I owe him something. I
’ve never run out on him before like that.

I inhale
. Then I take a deep breath before I exhale slowly. I grip the door handle and slowly open it. Bentley’s standing against the wall, looking defeated and worried. As soon as he sees me, he pushes himself off and closes the gap between us.

“
Are you okay? God, I…I’m sorry. Just tell me what happened, and I can fix it.” His words are rushed, eager to do whatever it takes to make me feel better.

“
Bentley, stop,” I tell him before he starts freaking out. “It’s nothing you did. And it’s nothing you can fix.”

“
I don’t understand.” His face drops worried I’m about to give him bad news.

I turn around and walk to the bed, motioning for him to follow me. I sit down and wait for him to sit next to me, knowing I need to just spill it.

“I had a dream a couple of weeks ago…” I pause, needing to take a deep breath before continuing. “At first, it was you and me, and the next it was you and Hannah. I woke up, gasping for air and sweating. I ended up throwing up twice at the images alone, and then they kind of started haunting me randomly.” I feel his body tense as I talk about Hannah. “Tonight, they came back. It was out of nowhere. One minute it was just you and I on the table, and the next I was above watching you with Hannah…” I bow my head, feeling embarrassed. “I started to feel sick the second the images came to mind and that’s when I freaked out. It was the only way to stop them,” I explain.

“
Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

I shrug.
“Because it was only a dream. I felt better when you arrived home and things were fine. I mean, we’ve been intimate since then, so there was really no reason to say anything. I knew you were already stressing over her, and I didn’t want to add to it.”

He cups my face, tilting my chin up toward him.
“You should always tell me these kinds of things, even if you think I’m too stressed. I want to be able to help.”

“
But that’s just it—” My voice gets louder. “You
can’t
help me. You can’t do anything about it. I know she means nothing to you, yet my mind keeps torturing me. I just…I just need to wait it out. It’ll go away, eventually.”

“
This is all my fault. Fuck…I shouldn’t have freaked out over the interview. Had I just let it go, you wouldn’t be stressing over it as much.”

“
If you weren’t bothered by it, I’d probably be upset about that, too. It would’ve made me think you missed her or something, although deep inside I know that’s not true.”

“
That’s how I felt with the Jason pictures,” he confesses. “You didn’t seem bothered by it.”

I shrug again. I hadn
’t even thought of it like that. I was upset over the pictures, because they upset Bentley, but in reality, they meant nothing. Those pictures captured two friends having coffee and an innocent conversation. However, now that he brings it up, I can see his side of it.

“
I’m sorry,” I apologize genuinely. “I hadn’t thought of it like that before now. I guess I’m just insecure at times.” I lower my head, ashamed I was feeling this way when he’s given me no reason.

“
Don’t be sorry,” he growls, taking me off guard. “I never want you to be sorry for something that we don’t control. The media, tabloids, photographers—all of them are only after one thing. Money. They don’t care how they get it, who they hurt, or what they ruin. But we can’t let them anymore. I don’t want that for us.”

I nod, agreeing with everything he
’s saying. And now I know I have to tell him the truth.

“
I read her interview,” I say softly, unable to keep eye contact with him. “That’s what triggered the dream, I think. You were gone still and I was beyond curious. Once I started it though, I wish I hadn’t, but I couldn’t stop. It was like some kind of self-torture.” My face is expressionless as I recall the night I read her words about the length of Bentley’s cock.

I see him brush both hands over his face in frustration. I swallow hard, waiting for the outburst he
’s about to lay on me.

“I saw Hannah,” he states softly
, looking down. “In L.A.,” he clarifies.

“What do you mean? I thought Angie was handling all that.”
I turn and look at him.

“She was but it wasn’t good enough. At first, I wanted to find her and chew her ass out. And then once I saw her—”

“What?” I urge him on.

“She’s an addict, Ceci.” He turns and faces me. “
She’s skin and bones. Her hair is falling out and she looked like absolute shit. Her apartment—”

“Oh, my god! You went to her apartment?” I know I shouldn’t get off task, but I can’t help feeling uncomfortable with the fact that he was there.

“It was the only way to find her. She has no job to go to. Besides, it was barely an apartment. It was awful.” I hear the pain in his voice and decide I need to stop overreacting. She’s obviously in trouble.

“What did she say?”

He looks down, ashamed. “She blames my mother that her career tanked. Her job was everything to her. Once it was gone, she fell into drugs and just…wilted to nothing.”

“Wow,” I breathe out. “I wouldn’t have expected that from her.”

“Me, either.”

“So what happened?”

“I asked her to retract her interview.”

“Is she?” I ask hopeful.

“She’s too sick to do anything, Ceci.” He looks up at me again. “I put her in a rehab center. She needed help.”

My eyes raise as my shoulders push back in surprise. “You what? You sent her to a rehab clinic?”

“She needed the help,” he says simply. “She would’ve died had I just left her there.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” I remark, my face expressionless as I debate with myself on being upset with him or not.

“I know. I’m sorry. I should’ve, but I just wasn’t sure how much more you could take.”

“So does that mean you’re keeping in contact with her now?”

“Not her directly. I’ve been emailing and speaking to her counselors. Since I checked her in, and am paying to cover her time there, I told them I needed to stay updated.”

“You’re paying for it, too?” I squeal. “Bentley…do you know how messed up that sounds? The woman who’s trying to sabotage your career and ruin our lives is the same woman you’re now trying to save?” I stand up, needing to distance myself. The words come out harsher than I meant
for them to, but I was pretty certain I had to still be dreaming.

“Ceci,” he growls, his voice firm and his tone low. “It was the right thing to do.”

I sit back down, needing a moment to think. If I’m upset, then I’m the bitch that wishes Hannah would’ve eventually overdosed, and she would’ve gotten what she deserved. Otherwise, I can be that girl that understands Bentley felt he had a responsibility to uphold. I’m still not sure which way I should feel.

Before I can apologize for the way I acted,
I feel the bed shift as Bentley stands up and walks out of our room without a word.

*   *   *

I end up falling asleep on the bed by myself. I cried myself to sleep, harder than I have in a long time. I kept waiting for Bentley to walk in, but he never did.

I wake up to my panties being pulled down. My eyes blink open, but it
’s pitch black and I can’t see a thing. I hear Bentley’s pants as he towers over me.

“
What are you—”

“
Shh.” He puts his mouth over me, slowly pushing his tongue inside, and massaging it with mine. “I want to make love to you,” he says effortlessly. It’s hard to argue with that, but I can’t get past the fact that he just left me in here.

“
No…” I say softly, pressed up against his lips. “You walked out on me,” I pout. “You left me.”

He rubs the pad of his thumb under my eye as a tear sneaks out.
“I’d never leave you, Ceci.” His tone is gentle, tender. “I always fear losing you. My lifestyle being too much and one day you deciding you can’t handle it. I lost you once and it scares the shit out of me that I’ll lose you again. So I called Angie and fired her. Then I called my agency and told them I was done and to shove their contracts up their asses. And then I called my travel agency and got us plane tickets to get the fuck out of here. So, no, I didn’t leave you.” I feel him grin against my mouth. “Now, can I make love to my future wife?”

I would
’ve gasped and said a crap load of
oh my gods
had Bentley let me. He covers my mouth again with his, giving me no room to speak or ask questions. He grazes my shirt up, slowly lifting it over my head before dropping it to the floor. I moan in his mouth—giving him my silent apology that he never gives me the chance to say—as my hands claw at his biceps while he enters me slowly.

*   *   *

“Good morning, sweetheart.” He cups my face and kisses me tenderly on the lips. It’s barely after three in the morning. “Happy birthday.” He smiles down at me as we stand in the bedroom. “It’s going to be a long day. We’ve got to get going soon.”

I smile back.
“You mind telling me where we’re going?” I ask giddily, packing my suitcase. “I need to know what to pack,” I whine.

He cocks a smile and shakes his head.
“It really doesn’t matter—you won’t be wearing clothes.”

I scowl, pretending to not be impressed with his answer.
“You always say that and then I end up wearing the wrong thing,” I pout. “At least give me a hint.”

“
Bikini weather,” is all he says, backing out of our room, smirking at me. I pull my lower lip into my teeth, hiding the stupid grin that’s formed on my face. I’m in complete awe that Bentley’s planned something—something that gets us away from all the drama. “Oh…” He pops his head back in, only standing halfway into the doorway. “Pack your passport.”

My jaw drops before I can get a word in. He backs out into the hallway before I can interrogate him. I have no idea what he
’s up to, but I know I can’t wait.

Bentley gives me absolutely no hints on our way to the airport. The only thing he
’s told me is that we’ll be spending seven days and six nights in ‘paradise.’ I was reluctant at first, because I just started working my new job. However, Bentley told me he spoke with my boss this morning and handled it all for me, which meant I could truly enjoy every minute of whatever Bentley was up to.