Changing His Game (23 page)

He's close again, and this time when he starts to show the signs that he's ready to come, I don't stop. I continue to take him as deep as I can until I hear a soft thud on the top of the table and Jared's cum shoots down the back of my throat. I swallow and lick him clean, taking in every last drop.

I release him and smile, satisfied with the job I did. I decide not to refasten his pants and I crawl until I'm out from under the table. I stand up and exit the room, feeling no need to address Jared and what I just did. It's payback.

I make my way up the stairs and to his bedroom. I’m exhausted from the long day, mixed with alcohol and sucking his dick. All I want to do is lay down and pass out. Unfortunately, Jared won't allow this because he follows me up to his room and then shuts the door behind him.

"What the fuck was that?" Jared shouts.

I turn around to face him, pulling my shirt up and over my head at the same time. I need to change into one of his t-shirts before I fall asleep.

"It's called a blowjob. Shouldn't you know this? Aren't you some kind of professional at sex?"

My brain must not be working one hundred percent, otherwise I wouldn’t be stripping in front of him, but that's what I do. I walk across the room and grab one of his t-shirts out of the dresser before moving back to the bed. I reach my hands behind my back and unclasp my bra before pulling it off my shoulders and down my arms, tossing it on the floor.

"Don't be a smartass, you know what I mean. Why did you just do that? And in a room filled with people?" As he speaks I watch his eyes zero in on my breasts. It's like he can't control not looking at them when they're out. It gives me the confidence to say what I do next.

"Oh what? You didn't like it? It was my way of paying you back for making me come in the town car and then leaving me alone, unsure of what happened between us. Then you ignored me, again!"

I pull his shirt over my head and slip it on. Then I slide my jeans off and toss them in the same pile with my shirt and bra.

"Babe, if that's your form of payback, I'll take it anytime."

"Argh," I grunt, climbing into bed and under the covers. I look over at him and he is still standing near the door.

"I don't get you. You ignore me all week, and then Tawny comes home and all of a sudden you're showing me attention again. You stop acting like I'm not even here. Normally, I would be happy about this, but I just don't understand your motives."

"I have no motives."

"Sure you do. If you didn't, then you wouldn’t have done a complete one-eighty the minute Tawny showed up. All I’ve wanted is for us to be like we used to, for us to be friends, and you've made that almost impossible. I’ve felt lonelier these past few weeks than I ever have in my entire life."

I hold back the tears, not wanting him to see how weak he's made me.

"Babe," he whispers. I watch as he moves across the room and lifts the comforter, climbing in bed beside me.

"I'm so sorry you’ve been lonely. I never meant to make you feel this way. I told you this morning that I wanted to spend more time with you, and I meant it. I think you and I need to have an honest conversation, clear the air between us."

He pulls me into his arms and then leans back, laying us both down on the bed. I lift my head and look up into his beautiful eyes.

"I think we should talk, too."

Jared smiles and then kisses me tenderly on the forehead, "But not tonight. You’ve had too much to drink and I want you to remember this conversation."

"Okay," I mumble. I go to pull away from his embrace, but Jared only holds me tighter.

"Don't you have to go back out there?" I can still hear the music and loud noise from all the partygoers.

"I don’t have to be anywhere, and there’s no place I'd rather be than in this bed with you, holding you in my arms."

I snuggle closer to him and smile at his words. Jared wants to be next to me, so that’s exactly where I'll let him be.

Chapter Fourteen

I wake up to a ringing cell phone. The chiming of the bells get progressively louder and I try to block out the sound by pulling my pillow over my head. It doesn’t work. The ringing stops only to start back up again. I open my eyes and groan into the mattress before moving the pillow and turning over on my back. The room is lit from the sun and I can tell it's sometime in the late morning.

I look over and see Jared sleeping peacefully next to me in bed. The noise coming from the phone is doing nothing to wake him up. He’s out cold. I try to pin point where the sound is coming from, but I don’t see a cellphone and the sound feels like it's coming from the bed. I gently lift the covers, hoping to see the small electronic device somewhere, with no luck. That’s when I realize the noise is coming from the pocket of Jared's jeans. I forgot he slept in his clothes last night.

"Jared," I say loudly as I shake his right shoulder. Jared's laying peacefully on his back and even my touch doesn’t wake him.

"Jared," I say even louder, but still nothing.

"Jared!" I yell, and that wakes him up. He blinks his eyes open and stares at me blankly. "Your cell keeps going off."

He looks confused for a moment until the ringing starts back up again. His hand moves down to grab the cellphone out of his front pocket and he looks at the display. I watch him grin slightly before answering the phone.

"What's up you dumb bastard? You don’t show up at my party last night, and now you're calling me like a stalker while I'm trying to get some sleep?"

I giggle at the way he talks to his friend and then get up from the bed, prepared to get ready for the day.

"What... when did you find out?" Jared's tone of voice has completely changed and when I look over at him on the bed, all the color in his face is gone. I move over to the bed to hold him and give him some comfort, but as soon as my hand lands on his shoulder he gets up, putting some distance between us.

"The stupid bitch! Did she just find out?" Jared's becoming more and more agitated on the phone and I watch as he starts to pace back and forth. "Okay, when? When was her last good one... you don't know? Why the hell do we do it then if you don’t know?"

I listen to the tension filled silence as Jared listens intently to the person on the other end of the line. "Yeah, okay, I'll let Kelly know and I'll see you shortly. How long until I know?"

I'm worried for Jared. I have no idea what's going on, but I've never seen him like this. He looks so worried and his voice shows how angry he is.

"Alright, I'll see you soon, but you better fucking keep me in the loop. I need to know everything. We all need to know... we all deserve to know." He removes the phone from his ear and presses on the screen a few times before putting it right back to his ear.

"Get here now!" He shouts into the phone and then hangs up, not letting the person on the other end get a word in.

"Jared..." I say timidly. He looks over at me as if just remembering I'm in the room.

"I'll be downstairs. Kelly's on her way over." That's all he says before leaving me in the room. He gives me no explanation as to what happened, but I know deep down I need to be here for him, whatever it is. He needs to know he has a friend.

I quickly brush my teeth and get dressed, pulling my hair into a messy bun on top of my head. I'll shower later, once I know Jared is okay.

When I go downstairs Jared is in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee and whispering with Tawny. Tawny looks pretty shaken, but nothing close to as much as Jared. When they hear me walk into the kitchen they stop talking.

Yeah, because that doesn’t make it obvious you don’t want me to hear what's going on.

I choose a random coffee flavor and place it in the coffee machine, closing the top and hitting brew. I turn towards Jared and Tawny and eye them curiously. They’re drinking their coffee as if it's a normal morning and it pisses me off.

"Is anyone going to tell me what's going on?"

They both look at me with stunned expressions, but neither of them speak and it makes me even more nervous. Finally, Jared gets up and walks over to me. His hands reach up to cup my face and he looks at me longingly, but I can see the emptiness there, too.

"What's wrong? Whatever it is, I'm here for you." I try to move forward so that I can kiss him lovingly on the lips, but he pulls his face away from mine, leaving his hands on my cheeks.

"I promise, Autumn, if I knew I would have never messed around with you. I would never put you in this situation willingly. I thought I was invincible."

I'm confused by his words. What situation did he put me in? I look to Tawny for help, but her head's down and she's staring at the inside of her coffee cup.

"Alright, I'm here. What's the emergency?" Kelly storms into the kitchen. She looks like hell, probably still hung over from last night. Her hair is in a knotty mess on top of her head, her eyes are covered with sunglasses, and she's still in her pajamas. She really listens to Jared when he's mad because she didn't even take a few minutes to get dressed.

"Have you checked your fucking emails the past twenty-four hours?"

She stops in her tracks, shocked at Jared's tone of voice.

"I was with you all day yesterday and then your party last night. I just woke up, so, no, I haven't checked my emails."

Jared sighs and drags a hand through the hair on top of his head. "My production company's doctor just called me... there's been a... a... fuck, I can't even say it." He takes another deep breath and then looks at me. I try to look at him in a way where he knows I'm here for him, but it's almost as if he's looking through me and not at me.

He looks back at Kelly and spits it out. "Vivica tested positive for HIV yesterday. Production is shut down everywhere. We're all expected to get tested today, and I mean all of us. Even if a contracted porn star hasn't had direct sex with her, chances are they've slept with someone who's slept with her.

"We have to keep quiet about it. It would be damaging if the media got word of this, they already want to make unnecessary demands on the industry."

"Jared, when was the last time Vivica was tested?"

"Twenty-two days ago."

I'm stunned silent by this revelation. Vivica, whoever that is, has HIV. Does Jared have it?

"Thank God," Kelly says, sighing in relief. "You should be okay, Jared. You haven't done a porn scene in at least a month. I guess that's the one silver lining to you throwing your career away."

This snaps me out of my silence, "What?"

Jared looks over at me, his eyes begging me for something that I'm unable to read. "I'm so sorry, Autumn. I swear I would have never fooled around with you if I thought I could have HIV."

What the hell does that have to do with anything? The only time we slept together was when I made him wear a condom.

"You don't need to apologize, you wore a condom. I'm good, I'm just worried about you."

"You fucking moron, you slept with her? Even after I told you not to? Let me guess, you slept with her right before you started making up excuses not to shoot scenes." Kelly is livid. I watch as she hits Jared on the side of the head and mumbles, "Dumbass."

Jared is unaffected by Kelly's assault, his eyes are still trained on me. "I'm so sorry, Autumn. I'm so sorry, so, so sorry."

He keeps repeating this over and over again and my heart breaks for him. He's dealing with so much today and now he has to go and get tested for HIV. At some point I want to ask him about the fact that he hasn't been doing porn. I secretly hope that it has something to do with me like Kelly implies, but my questions can wait.

"Jared," I whisper and walk over to him. I open my arms and pull him into me, hugging him as hard as I can, trying to comfort him. He lowers his mouth to my ear and continues to whisper his apologies. "It's okay, Jared, I'm okay."

"Autumn," I hear Tawny say. I turn my head to look at her, still holding Jared in my arms.

"Yeah?"

"Did you and Jared have oral sex? Did he come in your mouth without a condom?"

"That's kind of personal, Tawny."

"It's a simple yes or no answer, Autumn."

I rub Jared's back, comforting him with my touch. He's so fragile and I’m afraid the wrong movement or words will break him.

"Yes," I hiss.

"Autumn, honey, you need to get tested, too."

My hand stills on Jared's back as my brain digests Tawny's words. I could have HIV. Of course, basic sex ed tells you it can be transferred from semen during intercourse, anal, and oral sex.

Oh. My. God.

My body starts to shake and I loosen my hands around Jared, letting him go and taking a step back from him. I look up into his eyes, finally seeing why he is so worried. He raises a hand to reach out for me, but then quickly lowers it, not knowing what to do.

"I'm getting tested today. My doctor tests all the actors in my production company and he'll be here shortly. There's no need for you to get tested unless my test comes back positive." He says it out loud where everyone can hear, but the words are meant just for me.