The Director (Hollywood Nights) (7 page)

           
“No.” He waited his turn for the
water. He was in no hurry to get out of this shower with her. He loved to look
at her naked. She was lush curves and smooth bronzed skin. “I don’t. Tell me.”

           
“Well,” she sighed. “I lost my
parents my freshman year in college. They uh, ran off on me. They aren’t dead,
but they might as well be. I lost my grandma the next year. She left me this
place and an inheritance from her and my grandpa. My parents were so pissed she
cut them out of the will they haven’t spoken to me since. I uh, lost Frankie
last year, but I finally got her back.” She paused, looked at him and said,
“Though if I keep this up I don’t know how long that will last either. She
won’t like it.”

           
“It’s not her business,” he said and
squeezed a considerable amount of conditioner into his hand. He wasn’t a
complete fan of Frankie. She had made his wild, little brother a happy man so
he gave her some credit. She just seemed to be a bit of a control freak. He let
thoughts of his brother and Frankie slip his mind and focused on Shay. He liked
her long hair and the way it tried to curl unsuccessfully when it got wet
leaving it wavy. “Turn around.”

           
She looked him in the eye, squinted
a second, then turned her back to him. He looked at the soft globes of her ass
and tried to focus on the task at hand. She said, “You are Jonas’s brother. She
won’t choose me over you because she won’t choose anyone or anything over him.
You don’t seem to understand how bad this could end up.”

           
“You don’t seem to understand how
good this is.” He enjoyed running his fingers through her hair, massaging her
scalp, and then watching her rinse it all out. He couldn’t stop the words if he
tried, which he didn’t, “You have gorgeous hair.”

           
She stilled and he corrected himself
by saying, “I mean, grotesque hair. I got the words confused.”

           
She giggled and said, “I’ll let that
one slide if you tell me the real reason you came by today. Was it just to fuck
me? Or did you want your sweatshirt back?”

           
He placed his hands on her waist and
turned her to face him. He looked down at her and said sincerely, “I had to see
you. I can’t exactly explain it, but you make me feel…alive. You see me.”

           
“Of course I see you,” she said. He
could tell she was feeling unsure, awkward. He understood. He was asking a lot
of her in such a short time.

           
“No, Shay.” He looked at her and
said it again, “You see
me
.”

           
She nodded.

           
“I know I’m fucked up. I know this.
I have been for most of my life. I’m not a bad guy really. I just don’t like a
lot of people.” She grinned up at him and he knew they had that much in common
already. “They annoy me.”

           
“But not me?”

           
“No,” he said and was surprised that
it was true. “Not you. Not yet anyways.”

           
She opened her mouth with a feigned
shock and he laughed.

           
“I can’t make any promises. I don’t
know how this will turn out,” he said honestly. “I just want a chance to see where
the road might lead because it feels…right.”

           
She stroked his beard and said,
“Okay.”

           
“Okay?”

           
“Yes, because I think you can see
me, too,” she said as she slid her hand to the back of his neck and pulled him
towards her. “As long as the first place it leads us is to the bedroom because
I am pretty sure after that hallway incident, you owe me one.”

Chapter
5

           
“Can I have the last piece?” he
asked and reached for it anyways. She laughed.

           
Shay looked at Jed Gunner sitting
across from her at the kitchen table. He had eaten most of the pizza. How could
she complain? After all, he spent most of the afternoon eating her. She
clenched her thighs together at the memory.

           
Her face must have given her
thoughts away. He smiled and said, “You look terrible.”

           
“I feel terrible.” She could barely
believe how easy it was to hear the undercurrent of seduction in the
non-complimentary compliments. They were two sick and twisted puppies. She
loved it.

           
“I’m going to make you feel
miserable later.” He winked.

           
She giggled. He had made her happier
than she could remember being in her entire life. “When are you going back to
New York?”

           
“Trying to get rid of me already?”

           
“No,” she said and meant it. “I was
just wondering. I’ve only been there once before. I didn’t get to see much of
it.”

           
“You’d like it there.” He picked up
the soda and took a drink. He sat it down and looked at her. “We should go.”

           
“I…uh,” Shay could feel the
butterflies in her belly. She was nervous. “I can’t right now. I mean I just
started working. I don’t think they will use me as much in the second one. I
don’t have a contract at all for the third. I doubt anything will come along so
I have to see this through. Harvey took a huge risk with me. I can’t let him
down.”

           
“I understand.” He nodded. “We don’t
have to go right away, but if you want to go when this contract is up, we’ll
go. I know people, too. I could get you work if…”

           
“No!” She pushed up from the table
and picked up her plate. She did not want him to think on any level she was
using him for her career. A year ago she might have taken him up on the offer.
Today, there was no way she could entertain the thought.
 
“Just…no, okay?”

           
He nodded. She held her hand out for
his plate and he handed it to her. “This was nice, right? Having dinner
together.”

           
“Yes,” she admitted. “It was.” She
looked at him, he was up to something. She asked, “What?”

           
“It might also be nice if we went
somewhere for dinner.”

           
She thought about it a moment and
said, “Okay. If you really want to go out with me in public I just need to know
one thing, what should I wear?”

           
“It’s just a barbecue, so a t-shirt
and jeans will be fine.” He rolled his shoulder and said, “That’s what I’m
wearing. Of course, if you want to wear something horrible and torment me all
night by forcing me to look at it, well, who am I to complain?”

           
“I don’t want to stand out,” she
admitted.

           
“Impossible.”

           
She carried the plates to the sink
and washed them. She thought about how nice it was to have him there. She also
thought about how awkward it would be for them to sleep in the twin sized bed,
and how comfortable his bed was at the house he was staying in.

           
He seemed equally comfortable in
both locations and she wondered, “What is your place in New York like?”

           
“Awesome.” He practically lit up as
he thought about it.

           
“I assumed as much.” She touched his
shoulder as she reentered the small space. He pushed his chair out and pulled
her to his lap.

           
“It’s nice. Not grand like my dad’s
place, not as…” He looked around and cautiously said, “Not as eclectic as
yours.” She gave him a fake frown and he continued, “It’s nice. I mean, I do
all right in this industry. I have investments outside of the movie business. I
mean, I might not make the same as my siblings are now, but I don’t envy the
added work that comes along with what you guys do.”

           
“I’m not in their league,” Shay
corrected.

           
“You’re right,” he nodded. “You are more
talented than both of them.”

           
“You should tell that to my bank
account.” She stroked his hair and decided, “Let’s not talk shop. Tell me
something you have always wanted to do, but haven’t had a chance to.”

           
“It’s shop talk.”

           
“Ugh,” she conceded. “Tell me.”

           
“I’ve always wanted to be on one of
those cooking shows. I know, don’t look at me like that. Not acting, but
cooking for real, you know? I just…enjoy cooking. I like to mix it up, see what
skills I have, but it’s just me so I don’t get to test my limits very often.”

           
“Well.” She kissed his lips briefly
then continued. “You can always cook for me. I mean if your culinary skills are
anywhere near your-” she cleared her throat, “cunalingus skills…”

           
He laughed and then pulled her into
a kiss. He let her loose and settled his forehead against hers. “I’m out of
condoms, and you are too.”

           
“I’m on birth control,” she
whispered.

           
“So I can…”

           
“Yes, if you want to, you can.”

           
Within moments Shay found herself
face down and ass up leaning on the kitchen table. Jed was holding her shoulder
with one hand and her hip with the other. He had thrust hard enough that he
pushed the table and her on it about a foot from where it was when they
started. She was partly to blame. After all she kept saying, “Harder. That’s
it, Jed. Fuck me hard.”

           
He didn’t disappoint her. He slammed
into her without restraint. She didn’t always like it like this. She was wound
up. The feel of his bare skin sliding into her had her on some other level of
what she was able to take. The way he looked at her, how he touched her, had
her on a new mission to see just how much she could stand. How much of him
would be too much. Where would she draw the line? Where would he?

           
“You have to come, I can’t last much
longer,” he said between thrusts.

           
She focused all of her attention and
energy to clenching him as tight as she could from the inside. He spent on the
next thrust. He whispered, “Wicked little…”

           
She was sure he had another word in
there but he bit it off as he spilled into her. She smiled. He traced her spine
with his hand and then slapped her ass like he meant it. She yelped and he
asked, “Why did you do that to me?”

           
She breathed deeply. Something
wicked indeed had stirred inside of her for sure. She said, “I don’t know. Ask
again.”

           
He didn’t move. He probably had to
figure out what she was asking for. He ran his hand over the warm spot his
handprint had left on her ass and said, “Ask again?’

           
She gulped, “Yes.”

           
Another moment of stillness, of
silence, settled between them. She was growing uncomfortable and embarrassed
when the next swat landed on her other cheek and he asked, “Why did you do that
to me?”

           
He must have felt her clench his
cock from the inside. He rocked his hips forward. He was losing the hardness
but now seemed to be regaining it fast.

           
“I don’t know. Ask again.”

           
He never slapped her ass painfully
hard, just enough to make it tingle, enough to make it warm, enough to make a
new sensation build inside of her, enough to make her come. She wasn’t sure how
many landed, just that it was enough.

           
“Why did you do that to me?” he
asked one last time.

           
“I…” She could feel the orgasm sweep
through her. It made her shiver from the tip of her spine to the tips of her
toes. He popped her on the ass once more. His name slipped out in a breathless
plea.

           
“Wow,” he said as he held her hips
and she came in wild abandon.

           
 
She panted. He caressed the globes of her ass and said, “I didn’t know
you could do that.”

           
“Neither did I,” she admitted.

           
He rocked his hips forward and she
realized he was still hard.

           
“Turn over,” he said as he pulled
out of her. She rolled to face him. He lifted her from the table and carried
her to the couch. He lowered her and covered her with his body. He leaned in to
kiss her. Gently, he kissed, pushed, and held her. Within a few thrusts, he
came with a quiet whisper of her name on his lips. Exhausted, he let his full
weight rest on her. She stroked his back and cherished the feel of him. He
smiled and said, “Next time we’ll test a new recipe.”

Chapter
6

           
It took a lot of effort for him to
finally leave her house in the morning. The twin bed they slept in was
uncomfortable, but it forced them to sleep close together. At some point she
had settled on his chest and he enjoyed the strokes of her fingers as she played
with his chest hair. He wasn’t sure which one of them fell asleep first. He
woke up before her and realized that for the first night in a while, he didn’t
have nightmares. He didn’t dream of Dana, and he didn’t dream of the various
places he had been or the things he had seen. He didn’t want a cigarette.