Hitman's Hookup: A Bad Boy Romance (43 page)

I laughed. ""Harrison and his many worldwide connections."

She reached into the drawer and pulled out a delicate white sundress, holding it up by the thin straps.

"It's my size," she said incredulously. Then recognition covered her face. "Lydia," she said simply.

"Probably," I replied, laying back on the bed and sighing, my legs dangling over the side. I rested the back of my head on my crossed arms and saw Olivia was looking at me.

"So you're sleeping on the floor, then?"

I read her face, trying to determine if she was messing with me. She wasn't. "Nothing less for her highness," I said.

Olivia went into the bathroom and shut the door most of the way, leaving it open a crack. I heard her pulling her shirt off of her head. "So Gina obviously thinks that I’m Hailey, right?

"Gina needs new reading glasses,” I yelled back.

Olivia ducked her head out of the bathroom. “I’m trying my best to not read any further into that comment that is necessary.”

I laughed. “If I enjoyed fucking Hailey, I wouldn’t be here with you, would I?”

Olivia raised her eyebrows. “That is actually true literally
and
metaphorically. Because if you
did
enjoy being with her, she’d probably still be in your movie. And we definitely wouldn’t be here right now.”

She smiled at me and ducked back into the bathroom, emerging a few moments later wearing the white sundress. Her skin seemed to glow underneath the white fabric.

I felt my dick getting hard and had to sit up. Her breasts were half-showing, the tops of them sticking out of the triangles of the dress. The hem skirted the middle of her thigh. I had a sudden image of her bending over the bed in it, me pounding myself into her.

"Fuck," I said out loud.

Olivia blushed slightly and raised her eyebrows. "So, Wilder. What do we do now?"

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

OLIVIA

If you had told me a month earlier that within four weeks’ time I would be walking in brand-new clothes through an Italian vineyard with the guy I'd been fantasizing about for seven years (who also happened to be the most desired movie star in the entire world) I would have told you to put down the hallucinogens and soap operas.

And yet, there I was, nearing twilight in the heart of the Tuscan countryside, my left elbow bumping into the muscular, tanned, tattooed arm of Roman Wilder. It felt like we were the last people left on earth as we wandered amongst the grapevines, Wilder telling me stories about his time in Hollywood.

"And I swear to you, out of nowhere, Josh just turns around to this photographer and gets in his face screaming 'PENIS!' Over and over and over again. Right in the middle of Rodeo Drive. You should have seen the look on the guy’s face."

I was doubled over laughing. "But Josh is used to the press, right? Since his wife -"

"Amy."

I nodded. "Yeah, Amy, is basically on every red carpet ever. Her dress at the Oscars last year was incredible.” I’d actually made a photo of her in that dress the wallpaper on my phone for week. It had been a goldenrod color with a train that was hand-beaded in the image of a dragon.

"Between her and me, yeah, he's mostly used to it. But just the day-in, day-out grind of being followed by the press - you saw that guy at the pharmacy. They don't really have any boundaries that they don't gleefully cross. It gets pretty bad."

I reached out and picked a grape off the vine, popping it into my mouth and enjoying the burst of water as I bit into it. It was slightly sour but also tasted like earth and sun. A question that I’d been pondering for years popped out of my mouth before I could change my mind.

"What was the deal the night that you ran out naked in front of the Chateau Marmont?" I asked, trying to sound casual.

Wilder stopped walking and looked at me. "So you're familiar, then?" He seemed pleased about this.

“Isn’t everybody familiar with the incident that spawned
Wilde child
?” I asked.

Wilder laughed. “I was more wondering how intimate you were with the story. Did you hear about it or did you see the evidence for yourself?”

I shrugged my shoulders, picking off another grape. My casual act was failing miserably. "I might have seen a few photos on magazine covers at the grocery store."

Wilder took a step closer, still grinning. "Did you see the unedited images?"

I felt blush rising up to the tops of my ears. I looked at him, challengingly. "Answer my question first and then I'll answer yours."

He beamed. "Alright, your highness. That night I was drunk. Really, really drunk. And I was with Josh and Amy and..." He trailed off and looked behind my shoulder.

"Hailey. You were also with Hailey."

Wilder smiled again. "So you
did
do more than just look at the cover."

I shrugged. "Still your turn."

He started walking again, and I followed him. My dress was blowing slightly in the wind, and the Tuscan sunshine was kissing my shoulders.

"Yeah. Hailey was there. We were playing truth or dare. And I will always, always choose dare. You need to know that about me. It's highly important information."

I chuckled. "Like I couldn't have guessed that."

"So it's my turn and Hailey is giving the instructions. And she dared me to go down the elevator, completely naked, and walk into the lobby and pretend like I was wearing clothes. Like, act like it was no big deal or anything. So I did. I stripped off my clothes, took the elevator downstairs, and walked up to people and had conversations with them."

"Seriously?"

Wilder nodded. "Seriously. I asked one guy for a newspaper. Even though it was almost midnight. I think he was some billionaire developer or something. Anyway, after a few minutes, security came to escort me quietly back upstairs. But I wasn't really feeling like doing
that
, so instead, I took off at a run and fled through the front doors."

"Why?"

Wilder flung his hand out like he was trying to get out a light burst of frustration, rubbing it along the grapevine leaves. "I was really, really drunk. Like when I say that I was having conversations with people, odds are better than good that I was probably just uttering gibberish to them. So I run outside, and I forgot, you know-“

"That you were staying at the most celeb-centric hotel on planet earth?" I finished for him.

He nodded darkly. "Yep. And then the flashbulbs went off and I just decided to pose. Why the hell not? Most of the paparazzi are scum, but a lot of them are just trying to feed their families. It was my way of giving back, you could say."

We stopped at the edge of the vineyard. The sun was sinking behind the hills, and the entire world looked like it was on fire.

Wilder turned and looked at me. "Your turn now. How much of the photo did you see?"

I bit my lip, my cheeks feeling like they were on fire. "All of them. Unedited.”

Wilder looked beyond pleased as he shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at me. "Oh,
really
." He tilted his head and looked so sexy in that moment I was certain that I was incapable of restraining myself.

"Really-really," I replied, staring at him challengingly.

"Thoughts?"

I paused and shrugged, realizing that this was the perfect opportunity for me to take him down a few notches.

"The camera must add a few inches. It definitely didn’t seem that big in real life.” I kept my expression light and neutral on purpose.

The look of shock on his face was worth the joke. I walked away from him just to see what he would do.

I heard his footsteps pounding behind me. "Are you serious?" he asked.

"I guess you'll never know for sure," I replied coyly. "But for now I'm enjoying your massive discomfort at having someone not grovel for your attention. We're going to be late for dinner, Wilder. We should probably get moving."
 

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

WILDER

Two things of note: one, I’d managed to keep my hands off of Olivia all day. That was incredible. Two: Richard was very much alive. And apparently he loved to cook.

We were shoved into rickety wooden chairs in the corner of the most cluttered kitchen I’d ever been in. I felt like the walls were closing in on me. Olivia didn’t seem too uncomfortable.

Spending the afternoon outside had done wonders for her mental state. She’d pulled on a sweater for dinner and it covered her tits. It didn’t stop me from wanting to fuck her on the tabletop, though. She kept smiling at me while Gina gave us appraising looks.

Even though it was cluttered, this space was absent of the dust and disrepair that haunted the rest of the building. I’d checked surreptitiously for any mice droppings and had found none.

“Richard, are those your grapes out there?” I asked.

Richard lifted the boiling pasta pot up with potholder-covered hands and drained it into an old-fashioned metal colander in the sink. A column of steam rose up, coating his glasses in a fog.

“Actually, we just lease the land to a few different farmers around here.” He set the pot back down and pulled off the mitts on his hands. “Some of them we just trade acres for crates of their wine.”

I held up my glass of red wine and nodded with pleasure. “This is some of the best I’ve ever had in my life.”

Gina beamed. “Right off the land outside these walls,” she said proudly. Richard set back to work readying dinner, and Gina leaned forward conspiratorially. “Bet you’ll sell the wedding photos for a pretty penny, eh?”

I saw Olivia’s face nearly collapse at the inadvertent reference to Hailey. I wanted to scream at Gina for ruining what I’d worked all day to do: get Olivia to calm the fuck down.

“No,” I replied simply. “It’s nobody’s business when you really think about it.” I gave her a pointed look. Gina seemed to take the hint.

“Coming through with a hot pot!” Richard called, leaning over Olivia to set a big vat of fresh marinara on the center of the rough-hewn wooden table. A moment later he brought over the freshly made pasta.

“Looks amazing,” Olivia said. “I’m starving. We missed lunch today.”

Richard put tongs into the colander and took off his flour-dusted apron, finally taking a seat. He exhaled and rubbed his hands together. “Ladies and guests first,” Richard said, nodding at Olivia.

She smiled and lifted out a huge portion of noodles. I loved being around a woman who loved eating. Hailey was constantly skipping meals and nibbling off of my plate when we went anywhere. It drove me up a wall.

Gina looked at her with a strange face. “I thought the camera was supposed to
add
ten pounds, not take away forty.”

Richard looked at her, confused. “What the hell does that mean?”

Olivia gave Gina a cold smile. “Are you normally this nice to your guests or do you save the
real
kindness for the non-famous ones?”

I couldn’t help myself. I laughed. “Richard, I’m Roman Wilder. I’m an actor. This is…” I paused.

Olivia spoke up. “I’m Hailey Holliday, famous musician and singer-songwriter. Your wife loves tabloid magazines and thought it appropriate to comment that I’m fatter in person than in manipulated images.”

Richard guffawed as Gina looked chastened. “Oh, Gina. Dear, really. I thought you stopped reading that garbage.” He shook his head. “Sorry, I truly have never heard of either one of you.”

Olivia passed the colander to me and dug into her own noodles and sauce with vigor. It seemed shutting Gina up had lightened her mood once again.

“We don’t make it out to the movies much anymore. All the same tripe, honestly,” Richard explained. I passed the noodles to him and he put some on Gina’s plate. She had buried herself in her wine glass, hiccupping as she sat it down on the table.

I laughed. “Tell me about it. It’s how I make my living.”

“If you ever make a movie that doesn’t involve Earth nearly exploding in the last thirty minutes, I’ll promise to see it,” Richard said, laughing.

I nodded. “I do that, you ship me a case of this wine and we have a deal.”

He smiled and nodded. “Deal.” He turned to Olivia. “So, how did you two meet?”

Gina perked her ears up at that question and suddenly I knew that
Gina knew
the answer to that question. I panicked. Olivia couldn’t possibly know how Hailey and I had met. She didn’t read any celebrity news sites. I opened my mouth to answer in her place but she beat me to it.

“Jay-Z had a house party about five years ago. I was there and so was Wilde,” she said, reaching out her hand on the tabletop and squeezing mine.

I noted how she used my nickname, just the way Hailey did.

“He’d just premiered his second blockbuster movie. Chris Martin introduced us.” Olivia smiled at me pointedly.

“Babe, I didn’t realize you had such a wonderful memory,” I responded with a genuine smile.
So she did read tabloids
.

“How could I forget!” Olivia said excitedly. She was enjoying this. “I seem to remember one of my own songs was playing when I saw you.”

I nearly fell off my chair. That was the story Hailey had told Ellen Degeneres in an interview another lifetime ago. The crowd had eaten it up like they were dying of hunger.

Gina looked like she was going to burst. “Oh, yes! That’s what you told Ellen!”

Richard grumbled. “Who in the hell is Ellen?”

Gina waved him away. “I saw that interview when it aired! What a lovely dress you wore.”

Olivia smiled. “How nice of you to remember,” she said, wiping her mouth and giving me a significant look.

“New topic!” I announced. “Our room is really nice. Great view of the vineyard.”

Richard smiled. “Well, your man sent someone here to clean it up earlier. I took a peek in. I think we might have to hire the woman who did it.”

“The sunflowers are lovely,” Olivia said. I noticed she’d eaten so quickly her plate was nearly clean. She gave me a look that said:
Get me out of here as quickly as possible.

I downed the rest of my wine and focused on eating while Richard launched into the list of improvements they had yet to make on the villa. Once there was a natural lull in the conversation, I forced a dramatic yawn and a stretch, nearly knocking over a stack of empty mason jars.