The Princess and the Porn Star (14 page)

But I didn’t have a choice. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, and my heart pounded as the exec spoke again:

“If you’ll direct your attention to the screen”—he gestured toward the massive flatscreen mounted on the wall—“I’d like to present, for the first time ever, the ‘You Ain’t Even Kissed Me Yet’ music video.”

The room dimmed, and the screen lit up.

The video’s intro was fairly slow, and I was alone on the screen for that part. The clips filmed prior to Lee’s arrival, just me in front of what had been a green screen and now showed a dark, starry background. I was dressed all in white leather with not a lot of skin showing, with the camera focused on my face. Then came the backup dancers—all female and dancing alone—who moved slowly, smoothly, gradually picking up speed as the song gained momentum.

I held my breath. Forty seconds into the song, a long note. An increasing tempo. A dramatic crescendo.

And then, an explosion of light in perfect time with the entrance of the drums. The tempo shifted to a rapid techno beat.

All the female dancers were paired now, and so was I.

With Lee.

On the stage.

In leather.

Oh my God.

The song’s rapid tempo couldn’t keep up with the beat of my heart, and I couldn’t look away from the screen. I could feel the leather against my skin and Lee’s body against mine. His hands roaming my body. His hard-on against my ass. He was a few feet away now, but my nerve endings replayed every onscreen touch just like it was happening in real time.

While Lee and I had been dressed in contrasting leather—one of us in black, the other in white—the backup dancers were matched up with their partners, and they danced even closer than we did. Cameras zoomed in on bare hands sliding across black leather. Leather sliding across leather. It created the illusion that the dancers shared one body, one liquid, undulating form, exactly the way I’d felt when dancing with Lee.

Then the video cut to the two of us facing each other on the platform. The platform had spun one way and the camera had circled us in the opposite direction, creating the illusion we’d been moving even faster than we were. I shivered at the memory of that centrifugal force that had drawn us together, pulled us toward a central point until we had no choice but to touch. Until we’d melted together as one form like the uniformly dressed backup dancers. Until we came together in a kiss that was unscripted, unexpected and totally unavoidable. The kiss Jim had used in the video after all. The kiss that made the hotel room spin like the platform I’d been standing on, and I didn’t have Lee to hold on to this time.

Not yet,
I thought, gripping my clutch a little tighter until I found the edge of my phone.
I don’t have him to hold on to
yet
.

I ran my thumb along the edge, as if the coarse texture of my clutch had suddenly become a Braille version of Lee’s message. I couldn’t look at him. If I did, my dress would melt off right here in the middle of this room, or I’d grab his jacket and drag him away in a manner that would scream to everyone else that the kiss they’d witnessed was completely real. And that it was only the beginning. The first spark of a fire that would raze everything in its path if someone didn’t do something about it
quickly
.

Onscreen, as the music wound down, we pulled apart, and the camera caught that stunned, speechless instant when I’d met Lee’s eyes and my expression had all the “what just happened?” that I’d felt just then. As the platform turned, Lee’s face was just like I remembered it: eyes wide, lips apart. A furrow of
did that just happen?
and
did you want it to happen?
between his eyebrows even as he swept his tongue across his lower lip.

Absently, I did the same, searching with the tip of my tongue for a phantom taste of that kiss. Just like they did during filming, my knees almost buckled, so I casually pressed my hip against a chair and hoped it was enough to keep me upright.

How many people got to see their first kiss with someone on film like that? In dizzying motion, with every spark and glance leading up to it recorded for posterity, interspersed with shots of us dancing and touching on the stage to emphasize the languid crash course until that knee-buckling moment when we finally came together?

The video faded to black, and the room was once again filled with applause.

I was out of breath. My heart raced and my skin felt flushed like I’d just gone through all those motions instead of watching them. I was viscerally aware of Lee close by me and the message on my phone, and it was all I could do not to reach for him, but I still didn’t dare even look at him.

Jack shouldered his way through the crowd and extended his hand. “Nicely done, Olivia. That video ought to turn some heads.”

“We can hope,” I said, smiling in spite of my fluttering stomach.

“And good work on your part, um, Buck.” Jack shook hands with Lee, who was suddenly way too close to me when I was in this state. “I wasn’t sure about bringing in someone from your line of work, but”—he nodded toward the dark screen—“well done.”

“Thanks,” Lee said. “I appreciate the opportunity.”

I’ll never know if he looked at me just then or if the tingle running down my spine was just my imagination, but somehow I stayed upright and professional.

Then Lee pulled back his sleeve and looked at his watch. “It’s been a great party, but I think I’d better call it a night.”

“Already?” Jack said. “It’s still early, son.” But then he paused and elbowed Lee. “Except I suppose you need your rest before work, don’t you?”

Lee responded with a tight smile. “Yeah. Something like that.” He turned to me. “Good night, Rachel.” He held my gaze a second longer than he needed to.

“Good night.” I smiled. His eyebrows rose, and I realized I hadn’t given him an answer earlier, so I nodded once, subtly.

Lee grinned. Then he leaned in to plant a chaste kiss on my cheek, bowing to Hollywood elite protocol, but paused for a whispered, “See you soon.”

I sucked in a breath.

And then he was gone.

And I needed to be.

A few people stopped me to shake my hand and congratulate me on the new release. Some of them had greeted me earlier, and I was vaguely aware that their smiles were tighter and their words more clipped, like something was sour on their tongues that hadn’t been there before. But people in this town were pros at putting on smiles that were as fake as their breasts and air kisses, so the flickers of distaste were barely detectable, especially by a mind like mine that was focused on someone and somewhere else.

It didn’t take long to find Quinn. He was at the bar, chin resting on his upturned palm as he swapped grins with the bartender.

I sidled up next to him. “Any luck?”

“Pfft.” A Quinn look. “You knew the minute you made that bet, you’d lose.”

I patted his arm. “Nicely done. Let me know when you want the time off.”

He raised his glass in a mock salute. “I so will.”

“Figured you would.”

Quinn lowered his voice. “And by the way, hon? Spectacular video. That kiss?” He fanned himself and winked.

“Thanks, Quinn.” I leaned in a little closer. “I’m going to call it a night.”

“Already?” He threw me a please-don’t-make-me-go-home-now look. “But I—”

“You can stay as long as you want. I’ll get a lift home, don’t worry.” Then I winked, and Quinn smirked.

Keeping his voice extra low, he said, “To
whose
home, love?”

“None of your damned business.”

“Not like I can’t guess.” He shrugged, then sipped his drink. “Have fun, darling.”

I glanced at the bartender, whose back was turned. “You too, Quinn.”

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“Oh, Quinn.” I grinned. “I plan on doing
everything
you wouldn’t do.”

Chapter Eight

Lee

A light tap on the door had me off the bed and on my feet in a split second. I clicked off the movie I hadn’t actually been watching and scrambled for the door. Of course I paused for a moment, taking a deep breath and collecting myself as much as I could.

Then I opened the door.

Our eyes met across the threshold, and we both froze. My heart pounded.

My God, she’s really here.

Rachel lowered her chin as a smile spread across her lips. “This must be the right room.”

I laughed. “Yeah. It’s the right room.” I stood aside, and she glanced up and down the hall, probably checking to make sure no one was around, before she slipped past me.

I’d barely nudged the door shut with my foot before Rachel grabbed the front of my shirt and kissed me. Hungrily, violently, she took me right back to that quickie in my dressing room.

I slammed her up against the wall. She hooked her leg around mine, grinding her hips against my cock, and I returned her kiss just as violently as she gave it. She was even more aggressive than I remembered, demanding access to my mouth and digging her nails into my skin, and
fuck
, she turned me on.

I broke the kiss, and we both struggled to catch our breath.

“I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind,” I said. “Since…since the last time.”

“Ditto.” She pulled me against her with her leg. “You have condoms?”

“Plenty,” I growled.

“Good.”

It was impossible to say who was leading and who was following, only that we were moving—stumbling, tripping, half dragging each other—toward the bed. As soon as we reached it, she pulled me down on top of her. Her back had barely hit the bed before I rolled over, taking her with me. Rachel didn’t miss a beat. She straddled me, pressing against my cock through our clothes as I dragged her down into another deep, desperate kiss.

Abruptly, she broke the kiss and sat up. Her hands were unsteady, but she still had no trouble undoing the buttons on my shirt. While she worked at my shirt, I felt around blindly for the condoms I’d carefully left within reach.

“Damn it, where are—”

“Here.” She let go of my shirt and reached for the condoms. Instead of handing one to me, though, she tore the wrapper with her teeth.

“You don’t want to wait, do you?” Even as I asked, I unbuckled my belt.

“I’ve waited long enough.” She held the condom in one hand and helped me undo my zipper with the other. My belt buckle jingled, and we both swore as we shoved my clothes out of the way.

I took the condom from her. She started to get off me, but I put a hand on her thigh.

“No,” I breathed. “Don’t move.”

“But my panties—”

“Don’t worry about them. Just stay…stay right there.”

She didn’t move, and with trembling hands, I rolled the condom on.

Our eyes met. She swept her tongue across her lips, and we both shivered as she lifted her hips off me again.

I shoved her panties aside. Guided my cock to her pussy. Had barely gotten my hand out of the way when she came down. Came down and took me all at once, and she didn’t even let me catch my breath before she rose up off me and did it again, and she didn’t stop.

“Oh God…” I closed my eyes as my back arched off the bed. Her pussy was so tight, hot, slick,
amazing
, and the way she rocked her hips was just unreal.

Rachel whimpered something I didn’t understand. She let her head fall forward, bit her lip, closed her eyes. Her skin was flushed, the faint pink spreading up her neck and down her chest, under her dress and out of my sight.

“Fuck, we’re…” I slid my hands up her back. “This is the…the second time I’ve fucked you, and I still…” I bit my lip and searched blindly for her dress’s zipper. “And I still haven’t seen you naked.”

“We should do something about that.” She sat up, pulled the dress over her head and threw it aside. As she reached back to unclasp her bra, I stared up at her.

“Holy…” I ran my hands up her waist, tracing every inch of her with my eyes. “You are so fucking sexy.”

Rachel just smiled and kept riding me, and I couldn’t take my hands or eyes off her. Jesus. Smooth, flawless curves. Beautiful breasts that bounced in time with her movements and were soft and natural to the touch. Unruly dark hair falling into her face and over her shoulders. If she was hot when she was dressed to impress, she was unbelievable when she was naked and disheveled.

And my first time ever seeing her like this, I was buried all the way inside her, taking in the sight of her while she rode me, while I fucked her.

I lifted my gaze to meet hers. The hunger in her eyes matched my own, from the blown pupils to the heavy lids, and as I reached up for her, she came down to me. I tangled my fingers in her hair as we kissed, and though my lungs screamed for more air than I was getting, I didn’t stop kissing her. I couldn’t. Fuck, I couldn’t. We kissed, and we held on to each other, and she rolled her hips and rode me, and I tried to complement her every move, thrusting up whenever she came down. The only way she could have possibly been any hotter was in the throes of an orgasm, and as soon as the thought crossed my mind, I
had
to see her like that.