Stand-In Star (15 page)

“Smile for me,” he said.

She giggled instead, a rush of consciousness flooding at the reality of the situation. Bringing her desire to life.

He snapped again, kneeling down and focusing solely on her face, getting closer and closer. She should feel shy and embarrassed but with his intent, appreciative gaze raking her, she couldn’t. For the first time in her life she felt truly sexual, truly wanted. This knowledge was a powerful aphrodisiac.

Need built up inside her again. She’d never wanted anything as badly as she wanted him now. Boldly, she reached out and stroked her hand down his thigh. His breath hitched and his muscles contracted beneath her touch. Delicious flutters flooded her tummy. She did not remove her hand.

He seemingly ignored it, snapping another picture and then moving his aim down her body. He took a close up of one breast and then the other. He looked his fill but didn’t say a word.

Her breathing quickened—the room was so still, so quiet, she was certain he could hear the change in rhythm. Her hand slipped as he edged along the plush rug, snapping a photo looking up from between her knees. She trusted the image would be tasteful, not seedy. Her knees were positioned sideways, one over the other.

Finally when she couldn’t take the rising yearning any longer, he lowered the camera and placed it carefully on the floor off to the side of them. When he turned back, he looked on her without the barrier of the camera. Feeling wanton, she leaned back into the couch and placed one arm behind her neck, thrusting her breasts upwards seductively.

He came close again. Smiled and pointed to his impressive erection. “Do you believe me yet?”

“I’m getting there, but I might need a little hands-on confirmation.” At her demand, her heart froze in anticipation of his reaction. Imagining what he might do, what part of her he might touch was almost as pleasurable as him actually doing it.

At least that’s what she thought, until he finally leaned over and took one of her big toes into his mouth. She bucked against the couch—totally shocked by the intensity of her response. Since when had toes been erogenous? Until now, she’d never imagined her feet could be part of the foreplay process, now she wondered what she’d been missing out on all these years.

Shifting up onto the couch, he lifted her legs on top of him and refocused his attention on her toes. He sucked and nibbled and then licked her arch before moving his delicious actions upward. He massaged with his fingers and kissed a daisy chain around each ankle, rubbing his hands up and down her calves like he was some sort of professional masseuse.

“Is there anything you’re not an expert at?” she asked, breathless.

He looked up momentarily. “Lots of things. But I am an expert on beauty and these are a sensational set of legs you have. Gorgeous.”

A shiver of wildfire rushed through her.

Where her boldness came from she had no idea. Perhaps it was the thought that this really was an aberration in her life, a holiday fling, and so what did she have to lose? But suddenly she heard herself asking, “Are there any other parts of me you find beautiful?”

“Oh yes.” He tickled her knees, drew mesmerizing circles at the back of them with his thumbs. “These should be put on display in the national gallery.”

She whacked him playfully on the side of his arm, and breathed in sharply at the spark of connection. Her hand lingered, learning the planes of his muscles she hadn’t given time or attention to in the heat of the moment last night. “You’re beautiful too.”

“I prefer studly,” he said, moving closer and gripping her thighs, dragging her upward close to his face and making her feel like the putty in his hands she was.

She wanted to arch into him, to tell him exactly what she wished he’d do, but she couldn’t let go enough to be that wanton. Could she? She was already certain he could feel the wet heat radiating from her sex. She didn’t want him to think her a total hussy.

He lowered his head. “You’re not so bad at this yourself. Keep that massage up on my back and I’ll be begging in a matter of moments.”

Her chest puffed at his words. She hadn’t even realized her hands were still in exploration mode but she focused more now, relishing the idea of him begging for her. She swirled his back, rubbed lower, loving the feel of his smooth, hot skin beneath her grasp.

She even managed to maintain her head as he planted more kisses up her thighs, but when his lips landed where she desperately wanted them, she was lost. Her hands fell off him back against the couch, which she gripped as his tongue dug deep inside her. She closed her eyes, unable to focus on anything but the shocking sensations caused by his skills. He was good, damn, oh so good. Within seconds she felt her climax building—she wanted to slow it. She clenched her muscles, trying to prolong the absolute bliss…but it was hopeless.

An impossible orgasm that topped the last two crashed right over the top of her. And it was quite some time before her breathing slowed again, the shaking stopped and she arrived back in the land of the living.

“You
are
gorgeous, Holly,” Nate said. He gazed intensely at her and she wondered if he’d spoken earlier. “And if I have to show you over and over again for the next two days, then I’ll do it.”

She placed her hand against her pounding heart and ignored the sense of disappointment at his mention of an expiration date. She had two days of
this
! “That sounds fabulous but you’ll have to give me a moment first.”

He drew her into his arms and pressed a kiss against her forehead. She didn’t know it was possible to feel so sexual and so precious in the same encounter.

“The moment’s up,” he said seconds later, and then he cupped her face with his hands and kissed her.

Her lips melded against his as if this was their sole purpose and they’d been waiting their whole life to discover it. She’d never had more than a quick kiss with the few men that had been before him. A quick kiss before a quick fumble. If she were honest, she’d never really understood the allure of kissing—of mating tongues and combining saliva. But there was no ugh factor with Nate.

She kissed him back. Ran her hands up into his hair, pulled him close, desperate to deepen the connection. He ran his hands all over her, leaving gooseflesh in the wake of his fingers all the while continuing this one magical kiss. A luscious hardness pressed against her leg and she recognized it to be his fabulous erection, but despite his obvious desire, he never wavered in his devotion to her.

Until the phone rang.

A tribute to his high tech house, he had extensions scattered throughout. He could be contacted in almost every room.

She braced herself for his withdrawal, but it didn’t come. Instead, his lips left hers and snuck along her jaw line. Her whole body fizzed at the sensation but still the phone buzzed on relentlessly.

“Don’t you need to get that?” she asked.

“Maybe, but I don’t want to,” came his reply from somewhere beneath her ear. She leaned against his lips, moaning her appreciation.

The phone went silent.

She twisted her face to find his mouth again, wanting more of his skilled lips on hers. He pulled her on top of him, his erection brushing teasingly against her core. It would be so easy to slide down on top of him but they didn’t have a condom. She was about to suggest that they migrate back to his room when the blasted phone began its shrieking again.

“Are you sure you don’t want to get that?”

“Damn sure, but maybe I need to.”

She bit her lip so as not to pout as he slid out from under her. The view as he strode across the room to pick up the extension was more than enough distraction from her woe.

“Hello?” He all but barked down the phone line. Holly couldn’t help feeling pleased that he’d rather be with her than talking to whoever had interrupted them.

His demeanor changed and he swore. “Tell her I’ve been held up in traffic. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

He slammed the phone into the receiver.

She sat up slightly. “Is there a problem?”

He cursed again and tugged his fingers through his hair. “I forgot I had a client this morning.”

“Oh.” She braced herself for anger and his withdrawal because she’d distracted him from his work. But it didn’t come. Instead, he crossed briefly to her and enveloped her in a gentle but firm hug. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. And I promise you, we’ll continue where we left off.”

Chapter Fourteen

Nate jogged back up the stairs to his bedroom to locate some clothes. It was hell leaving Holly and it was hell leaving his mission half completed. His body cramped at the thought of what it was missing out on at the same time he cursed himself for being so distracted that he’d forgotten a client.

This had
never
happened before. His work had saved him and his family from the poverty line and he took it seriously.

Arriving at his bedroom, he crossed quickly to the walk-in closet, located trousers and a suitable shirt. In the en-suite, he had a record-setting shower, then ran his fingers through his hair and tossed on a bit of after shave. He grabbed his keys and ran back through the house, ignoring the urge to seek Holly out for another kiss goodbye.

He drove through the traffic like a maniac, already imagining the kind of sucking up he’d have to do when he greeted the client. Two minutes before he reached the studio, he called Louise.

“Can you get someone to meet me outside and deal with the car?” Even though his building had a secure underground garage, he didn’t want to waste time going through the motions to get into it.

“Dale is outside waiting for you already.”

“Thanks Louise and—”

She cut him off. “Don’t worry, I’m sweet talking Carlene. I made up some story about your grandmother being sick and she’s practically sobbing with grief for you. Prepare yourself.”

“Thanks.” Not that he’d ever known either of his grandmothers.

Less than two minutes later, Nate strode into the studio and offered Carlene and her publicist the best from his arsenal of playboy smiles. Like most of his celebrity clients, the upcoming singer flirted with him. At his apology, she practically threw herself on him, wrapping her arms around his body and pressing hers up tight and close.

Carlene was hot by anyone’s standards. And his were high. Still, when she rubbed her hand up and down his back in a most unprofessional manner and made sympathetic comments about his non-existent granny, all he could think about was tearing away and getting on with her shoot. So he could get back to Holly and continue what they’d only just begun.

Resting his hands on Carlene’s hips, he gently pushed her back. “Thanks,” he said for her sympathies. “But I’ve wasted enough of your time already.”

He turned and Louise was already beside him with Carlene’s file. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his equipment already set up and ready to go. Man, his team was good. He took the file, glanced down the first page and then addressed Carlene’s publicist.

“So, we’re looking for sexy but classy. Is that right?”

They both nodded and smiled eagerly. This was just a quick shoot, a precursor to bigger ones if they liked the shots, so he really had to focus. She’d already had her hair and make-up done and was wearing the first outfit she wanted to be photographed in.

“I think we’ll start on the stool. Let’s go through to the studio.” Nate led the ladies out of his plush waiting room into the studio where he had various backdrops and props set up for shoots.

He told Carlene to use the stool and try out some poses, while he got the camera rolling and adapted to her style. He smiled as she twirled around the stool and blew kisses at the camera. She was the type of easy subject who didn’t need much instruction and was a pleasure to photograph, yet as she straddled the stool and leaned forward, crossed her arms over the backrest and smiled seductively, all he could think about was the red-hot photos he’d taken of Holly.

Focus
, he told himself silently. He prided himself on giving his all to his clients and even though Carlene wasn’t an A-list celebrity yet, she deserved the best.

“Okay, I think we’re ready to do some posed shots.”

Carlene nodded eagerly, and for the next few hours he tried to focus on her instead of the images of Holly that were haunting him. He wondered what she was up to at that moment, what her appointments were for the day. Even how long they would last. They’d been too busy last night to discuss the day’s itinerary, but now it seemed very important he know where she’d be.

He’d never had such an intense urge to be with someone. Had to be the time constraints due to the fact she was leaving Monday morning. Normally, he was the one who set the time limit on his liaisons. This time it was out of his control. His pulse quickened at the thought.

“Are you getting some good snaps?” piped up Carlene from where she’d been kneeling on a shag rug.

He blinked and looked at her, almost surprised to see her. He’d been taking photos on auto-pilot. “Terrific shots,” he said with a grin, hoping like damn he was right.

She beamed back at him.

“If fact, I think we’re done. And I bet you’ve got lots of better ways to spend your Saturday.”

“No, not really.” She batted her eyelids at him in a manner that would be impossible to misread. “Do you?”

He bit his tongue on the instinctive answer. Hell yeah, with any luck he had a gorgeous woman waiting in his house. His mouth went dry at the thought and he sounded hoarse when he spoke. “Got to get back to my grandmother.”

If there was a God, he might strike him with lightning for such a blatant untruth, but Nate would happily take the risk.

Carlene offered more sympathies and then waved goodbye. He breathed a sigh of relief as the door to the studio shut behind him. Immediately Chrissy and Louise were at his side.

He turned to them. “Let’s leave these shots till next week. You guys deserve a weekend.”

They blinked as if he’d said they deserved a dose of castor oil.

He grinned, feeling generous, wanting everyone to enjoy the kind of weekend he was planning to. “Well, surely you ladies have a better way to spend your Saturday afternoon. Isn’t there someone special waiting at home for you?”

Louise scoffed. “The way you work us, how the hell do you think we’d have time to meet someone
special
?”

“Yeah.” Chrissy nodded. “Are you sick?” Then, she clamped her hand against her mouth. “Oh my, have
you
got someone special waiting at home for you?”

It was his turn to scoff. “Don’t be ridiculous. You know I don’t do special.” But something squeezed inside of him at the words and he almost reached up to feel his nose to check if it was growing. Holly
was
special, only not in the way they were thinking.

“Suit yourself.” Louise backed toward the door, still looking as if he’d lost his mind.

While driving, he calculated there were less than forty-eight hours till Holly’s flight home. Quite a lot of those hours would be wasted with necessary socializing at the Oscars, but he had plenty of plans for the remaining ones.

He parked his car on the driveway—not wanting to waste a second putting it in the garage—and jogged toward the house. Almost at the door, he turned back and frowned at the sight of two cars parked ahead of his. One he recognized as Linc’s and the other was a bright pink van with banners that read “Beauty on the Move” on the sides.
Holly’s appointments
.

His pace slowed as his plans for the afternoon took a nose dive. He let himself into the house and listened for signs of life. Once again, the living room reverberated with noise. Against his better judgment, he followed the sound. Linc intercepted him half way there. He held an ice-cold beer in his hand.

“I wouldn’t go in there if I were you.”

Nate nodded an acknowledgement at his soon-to-be brother-in-law but kept on his path.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Linc said.

Arriving at the doorway to the living room, Nate raised his brow. The room had been over-taken by women and scary looking paraphernalia. He scanned the group, looking for Holly.

His sister, with some kind of green gunk smeared across her face, met him at the doorway and went to kiss him.

He held his hands up. Right now there was only one women he’d let anywhere near him with a mask like that.

Reading his mind, Bec said, “Holly’s in the spray booth getting tanned.”

He followed her gaze toward a small tent-like structure in the middle of the room.
Is she naked?
Luckily he managed to curb this question. There were certain things you should never ask your sister. The state-of-dress, or lack thereof, of a lover was one of them. “How long will that take?”

“About another ten minutes. But we’re only just getting started. She’s got a manicure, a pedicure and hair treatments still to go. Why don’t you go and watch the game with Linc?”

Because watching the game wasn’t going to alleviate the tension gathering momentum in his body.

“I’ll see.” He left the room feeling like a sulky child. Those women looked settled in for the afternoon and as much as he liked his brother-in-law, watching football wasn’t really his thing.

He was headed for the pool when he thought of the photos on his camera waiting to be downloaded. Grinning, he changed directions and headed for the studio where he’d left Holly and the camera earlier that day.

* * *

When Holly stepped out of the mobile spray tan booth, Bec was waiting with a devilish smile on her face. “My brother was just in here looking for you.”

Holly shrugged, schooling her facial features so as not to give away the rush she experienced at simply knowing Nate was home. She feared she blushed and gave everything away. “It is his house.”

Bec narrowed her eyes a little suspiciously but Holly refused to enter into any discussion about Nate. Instead, she focused her attentions on putting on the loose-fitting robe recommended by the owner of the mobile beauty business.

Bec sighed and turned to talk to one of the beauticians. They began to talk about the next step in The Reincarnation of Holly McCartney as she’d silently nick-named Bec’s mission to bring her up to Oscar standard. But while Bec may have moved on, Holly couldn’t give up thoughts of Nate so easily.

Her gaze shot to the coffee table where they’d begun their shenanigans last night, thankfully all cleared up this morning when Holly remembered Bec was bringing the beauty tribe round for stage one of the reincarnation. Heat blasted her at the thought. Although their clothes were no longer scattered at random, the memories could never be erased.

The way he’d made her feel, that would be impossible. She shivered again at the recollection, biting her lip to stifle a groan of pleasure.

“Come and sit down,” ordered Bec, pointing to a chair the nail artist had set up in front of her tiny, mobile work station.

Holly looked wistfully at the door. Was Nate still out there somewhere? What was he doing?

Yes, the manicures, the pedicures, the hair treatments sounded special. Despite feeling like a doll in the hands of an elusive team of girls, she’d enjoyed every second of the pampering so far and she wanted to be as glossy as possible by tomorrow night, but her patience was wavering.

Reluctantly, she flopped onto the chair and thrust her hands at the manicurist.

The woman immediately picked them up and began running her fingers over as if she were performing an assessment. “Hmm… Do you work with your hands?”

Holly shook her head. Unless she counted typing up her research as working with her hands.

“It’s just they seem like they’ve been through a lot. They’re not very smooth, are they? And your nails…” Seemingly her nails were so bad the woman couldn’t finish the sentence.

Nate hadn’t had any complaints
. Holly’s heart stilled at the thought. She silently scolded herself for being unable to think about anything but
him
.

She should be petrified about tomorrow and having to get up in front of practically the whole world, wearing a dress more alluring than any she’d ever donned before and smile and schmooze amongst a zillion celebrities.

But try as she may to focus, to try and summon some sort of anticipation for the Awards ceremony, all she could think about was seeing Nate again. The quicker she sat back and let these women make her over, the quicker they’d all leave.

She smiled sweetly at the woman fingering her hands. “Have you got any advice for improving them?”

The woman’s pupils sparkled through her obviously fashion contact lenses. “Oh honey, have I got advice!” She leaned forward to begin both nails and lecture.

For the next few hours, Holly channeled her sister’s acting skills and made out like she enjoyed the beauty stuff and the attention.

By the time Bec left, she was perceptibly happy at Holly’s transformation. “You are going to look outstanding tomorrow night,” she said, kissing Holly flamboyantly on both cheeks. “We’ll be here at midday to get started.”

Was it wrong to be calculating exactly how many hours that meant she had alone with Nate? His promise of that morning still rang in her ears like a harmony of angels, making her lips curl and her body hum.

She shut the door behind Bec and Linc and leaned against it, listening for any clues to Nate’s whereabouts. Her heart sped up in anticipation, willing her legs to go seek him out.

She hesitated only a second—wondering if she could really cope with all this no-strings attached sex. While her conscience warned her against partaking in any more, her hormones rode straight over the top of it. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

She wasn’t in risk of falling in love with Nate. How could she be when he and his whole word were so far removed from hers? Granted, she’d never indulged in such a reckless fling before but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a good idea. Last night and this morning had proved it a very wonderful idea indeed.

She glanced down at her jeans and loose fitting top. Not exactly high fashion stuff. Should she change into something more seductive? She hadn’t exactly packed for an intimate weekend for two.

Oh to hell with it, he could take her as she was or not at all. But dammit, she hoped he did. She pattered through the house, listening for sounds, sniffing for the scent of his alluring after shave. She was about to take the stairs to his room when she heard a buzz and what sounded like water running on the deck.

Moments later, she stepped out onto the pool deck—the glass doors were already open letting the chilly evening air into the house. She shivered a little but it wasn’t the outside air ruffling her feathers, it was the divine, brown curly head poking out of the hot tub. Broad tanned shoulders, a smooth back…