Seduced by the Celebrity

Seduced by the Celebrity

Jemma Jones

Copyright © February 2013 by Jemma Jones

KOBO Edition

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously. The material in this document contains explicit sexual content that is intended for mature audiences only and is inappropriate for readers under 18 years of age.

Adult Material

~~~

Chloe shrieked with laughter as she ducked under the kitchen table. Ben aimed another carrot stick at her and lobbed it. The carrot stick bounced off one of the table legs and Chloe laughed gleefully from her hiding spot. She quickly grabbed the carrot and threw it at Ben, hitting him directly on the cheek.

“
Ow!” he protested, laughing, while rubbing his cheek. Chloe’s cell phone began to ring and she jumped up quickly, banging her head on the table.

“
Shh!!” she said hastily, swatting at Ben to be quiet as she lunged for her phone and picked it up somewhat breathlessly.

“
Hello?”

Chloe paused.

“
Yes, this is she.”

Another long pause before Chloe clasped her hand over her mouth, her eyes shining.

“
Yes! Thank you! Thank you very much! Yes, that’s the correct email. Yes! Looking forward to it! Thank you again so much!”

She put the phone down and turned to Ben. His large brown eyes were eager with anticipation.

“
Well?” he asked, clearly suspecting who had called.

“
I got the part!” she screeched, running the short length of the tiny kitchen and catapulting herself into his arms.

“
Chloe, I’m so proud of you!” he exclaimed, hugging her tightly and kissing her. “You did it!”

“
I can’t even believe it,” she said dazed, as she took a seat at the table. “After so many auditions, so many workshops and crap shows, I can’t believe I’ve been cast.”

She looked over at Ben, her bright green eyes filling with tears. “This is it, Ben,” she whispered, “My first Broadway show.”

“
Baby, I am so proud of you,” he said earnestly, kneeling beside her. “Tell me all the details. I can’t remember what this one was about.”

Usually Chloe became annoyed if Ben couldn’t remember her auditions, but now that she was actually cast, she didn’t care. She quickly launched into a synopsis.

“
It’s a new show called Life 101. It’s about this former professor who got kicked out of the university but misses the classroom. He sets up this kind of life workshop and conducts it out of his home. He gets a handful of students to sign up and he basically teaches them about life, and all the things he’s learned over the years. Of course there’s some drama among the students and a few minor love stories. But it’s meant to be funny and profound and kind of sexy at the same time.”

Her eyes flashed with excitement and she continued. “I only read snippets of the script but I did read the synopsis. I know there are six students and the professor. And I overheard someone at the audition saying that they were trying to get a big name to play the professor because that would help sell the show!”

“
Let’s celebrate!” Ben declared, jumping up.

Chloe shrieked with happiness but then sank back down in her chair. “I don’t know Ben. Maybe we shouldn’t. I’m going to probably have to quit my job now.” Chloe was a nanny to a wealthy family on the Upper East Side.

“
Chlo, it’s okay. We figured that might happen when you got cast in something big. Plus, you’re going to be getting paid for the show, right?”

Chloe nodded and smiled timidly. “Yes. It won’t be much, but I’ll be paid.”

Ben grinned again. “You’re in a bonafide Broadway show. I’m sure you will be paid something decent by acting standards.”

Chloe smiled hopefully. “Maybe they will get Brad Pitt to play the professor,” she said dreamily.

Ben frowned. “I thought it was supposed to be someone older who teaches about life? Someone with life experience.”

“
Brad Pitt has life experience,” she said defensively.

Ben laughed. “Grab your purse. We’re going out for dinner.”

***

Five hours later, Ben and Chloe stumbled back to their apartment after visiting their favorite Mexican restaurant, La Palapa. They had shared an entire pitcher of watermelon margaritas and Chloe was feeling drunk. She could tell that Ben felt the same way. Chloe was suddenly overcome with love for her fiancé.

Chloe and Ben had met at a party the summer after they had graduated from college. Ben had just earned his finance degree from the University of Maryland and Chloe had just finished four years in the drama department at Syracuse. They met at a Fourth of July party in the college beach town of Dewey Delaware. Chloe had been wearing a short white dress with gold, laced-up gladiator sandals. She had a deep tan, and her long auburn hair had been piled on top of her head, and she had a smattering of freckles across her face. Ben had said that she looked like some kind of Greek goddess.

Chloe could perfectly recall every detail about Ben that night. The way he walked into the party like he was already having a great time. He was so comfortable in his own skin, running his hand through his overgrown curly brown hair, and grinning at Chloe from across the room. He had big brown eyes that crinkled and a small dimple. Chloe’s best friend Annie had set her sights on Ben from the minute he walked in, but Chloe felt his gaze on her all night. While Ben talked to plenty of other girls, he never came near Chloe. She had been put off, only to learn that Ben was so taken by her that he was afraid to approach her.

They spent most of the night taking quick peeks at one another, and it wasn’t until Chloe had had one too many beers that she had finally approached Ben. They struck up a small conversation, and found out that they were only renting houses a few blocks apart in Dewey. Ben promised to walk down to Chloe’s part of the beach the next day, but she didn’t really believe he would.

True to his word, the next day Chloe saw Ben’s tall, athletic frame walks down the beach. He asked Chloe if she wanted to walk with him and they started off down the beach together. They had been a couple ever since.

Once their week at the beach was over, Ben had gone back to his new apartment outside of DC and Chloe returned home to her family’s house in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Chloe wanted to move to New York, but she needed a roommate or two and she was trying to convince Annie and another friend to move with her.

Ben and Chloe visited each other every weekend that summer, and they found themselves spending hours in bed together, and then spending the few remaining areas wandering DC and Philly, slipping into cozy bars, where they could continue to make out. They couldn’t keep their hands off one another, and Chloe clearly remembered one occasion where they were dancing in a Philadelphia nightclub. The music had been pounding through their veins and their chemistry had been so hot. Ben had led Chloe to a bathroom and locked the door, before taking her up against the sink. To this day, it was still one of the most erotic things Chloe had ever experienced.

Chloe had watched as Ben’s business career began to take off as he worked for a political organization. Meanwhile, Chloe had finally convinced Annie, and Annie’s flamboyant cousin, Jae-Jae, to move to New York with her at the start of October. Ben and Chloe were realistic about their relationship and they knew that a long distance one between DC and New York was going to be too much; DC and Philadelphia was hard enough. At the end of September, they broke things off and Chloe moved to New York with her friends.

It was a miserable time for each of them.

While Chloe loved her new life in New York, she missed Ben desperately and in her heart she felt that he was more than just a summer fling. Similarly, Ben was missing Chloe, moping about DC without her. On Christmas Day, Ben wrote her an email saying that he missed her and asking if he could come up and visit on New Year’s Eve.

In the midst of throngs of people in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, Ben confessed to Chloe that he loved her and missed her, and he would be willing to try a long distance relationship. Chloe was thrilled, and she eagerly agreed. Over the course of the new few months, they tried to keep up weekend visits, but it proved difficult with Chloe’s erratic audition schedule and her waitressing job.

In the spring, they decided that they needed to be together full time to see if things could really work. Knowing that Chloe wouldn’t leave New York due to her career choice, Ben offered to look for a job in New York. It took a few months, but he ended up landing an amazing job in the city, and it happened to start just as his lease was ending in DC.

Focusing on the present moment, Chloe flopped down on her and Ben’s bed and she saw Ben hungrily eye her exposed skin. Chloe grinned, hiking her skirt up a little higher. Ben made a move for her, but knocked into the dresser, causing them both to crack up.

“
Remember when I moved in here with you?” Chloe slurred.

“
Yep,” Ben hiccupped. “You tricked me by saying you were only staying for the weekend.”

Chloe giggled as she thought about it. When Ben had moved into what was now their shared apartment, she was approaching the time to renew her lease with Annie and Jae-Jae. Annie hated New York and Jae-Jae was spending most of his time with a rich new boyfriend. Chloe and her friends didn’t renew the lease and Chloe pretended to stay with Ben for the weekend because she was too afraid to say she didn’t have an apartment anymore.

After the weekend had passed, Ben asked when she was going back home and Chloe confessed that she didn’t have a place and all of her stuff was now in Jae-Jae’s boyfriend’s condo on the Upper East Side. Ben had burst out laughing and that was how they had come to living together. The following New Year’s Eve, Ben had proposed and the rest was history. Though they had been engaged for a year and a half, they hadn’t set a date. Chloe kept waiting to land a “real” acting job.

“
Do you know what this means?” Chloe asked excitedly, sitting up in bed and then leaning slightly to the left.

Ben shook his head.

“
We can get married! I have a job!”

Chloe jumped off the bed.

“
Woot! Woot!” she squealed, turning in a circle and then stopping abruptly as it made the room spin even more.

Ben was laughing hysterically on the bed. Chloe shrugged and climbed into bed. The rest of the night passed in a drunken but sexy blur.

***

Nine days later, Chloe found herself leaving their apartment in a bundle of nerves. It was the first read thru and she was going to meet the rest of the cast. She had agonized over her closet as to what to wear and Ben had urged her to go buy a new outfit if she was that concerned.

Chloe didn’t want to buy anything new so she finally settled on an outfit from her closet. But then in the morning, at the last minute, she hated her choice and she tore off her clothes before throwing something else on. She had opted for her favorite pair of yellow skinny jeans with a baggy black striped tee and a lightweight red scarf wrapped around her neck. She finished the outfit with black flats, minimal makeup and her hair in a slightly messy pony. She was trying for a laid back, but still pulled together look. She didn’t want to look too stuffy and she was going to be playing a college student.

Her stomach churning with nerves, Chloe made her way to the subway for the short ride to Manhattan. The production was going to open at the Booth Theatre, but they couldn’t get in the space until six weeks before the show went up. They were going to rehearse for eight weeks total. Two weeks in a loft off 44
th
Street and then six weeks in the actual theatre.

Blinking against the bright April sun, Chloe exited the subway station and made her way towards the address. Once in the building, she hopped in an elevator and it felt like she left her stomach in the lobby by the time she walked woodenly through the doors.

“
Here we go,” she breathed to herself, before pushing the door open.

The room was brightly lit and resembled a dance studio with big windows, mirrors and a wooden floor.  There was a rectangular table in the middle of the room and a few extra chairs scattered along one wall. Chloe noticed one other girl and two guys milling around the room. She also recognized, Edward, the director, rifling through a binder at the table.

As Chloe walked towards Edward, he looked up.

“
Chloe!” he exclaimed happily, rising to greet her. “We are so glad you accepted the roll!” He introduced Chloe to her other cast mates Ryan, Luc and Ni. A few minutes later the other two members, Andre and Jenny arrived. Chloe remembered Andre from auditions; he was striking. Tall and lean with dark chocolate skin and piercing hazel eyes. The contrast of his light eyes and dark skin was breathtaking.