To Love Jason Thorn (9 page)

Thursday morning, I slowly woke up from my
dreamless sleep and became aware of a heavy arm lying across my stomach.

“What the hell?” I said groggily as I
forced my eyes open and found Lucy sprawled all over me.

At the sound of my voice, she snuggled
closer and threw one of her legs over mine.

“Lucy,” I groaned, trying unsuccessfully to
push her away. “Go back to your own bed, dammit. For once let me sleep in
peace.”

“I can’t,” she muttered, not even bothering
to open her eyes. “Jameson fell asleep after our sexathon. I might have
accidentally fried his brain. No matter what I do he won’t budge.” Her face
snuggled closer to my breasts. “Mmmm. How do you make your boobs feel so soft
yet so firm? I love sleeping on them. Best. Damn. Pillows. Ever.”

“I’m thinking I should sleep with my door
locked from now on.”

“I can pick locks, remember?”

“Right. Well, I can’t go back to sleep with
you pawing all over me so go back to your own damn bed.”

“I can’t sleep in the same bed with him.”
Blindly, she patted my face. “This is comfy. You go back to sleep too, you are
breathing too much.”

“Sorry to inconvenience you, you crazy
octopus. Why the hell can’t you sleep in the same bed with him?”

“Because.” She stretched out the word as if
she was talking to a child. “It was a one-night stand and he is breaking the
rules. If I fall asleep when he is in the same bed with me, it will turn into a
relationship.”

“And what is wrong with that again? You
salivate every time you see the guy, not to mention this is probably the 20
^th
time you’ve had a
one
-night stand with him, which isn’t the way one-night
stands work at all. Have a relationship with the guy for god’s sake and save us
all the trouble, please.”

“Aurmm yu sleepmy,” she mumbled, already
falling asleep on me.

“Lucy!” I yelled, loud enough to wake her
up.

She jolted awake, her sleepy eyes meeting
mine. “What? Where are we going? Who’s dead?”

“You are about to be if you don’t get off
me.”

“Tonight, you need to fuck Jason Thorn’s
brains out or we’re gonna have to find someone to get you laid. Like pronto.”
Huffing, she turned her back to me and comfortably settled down, hogging my
pillows and muttering, “Always so selfish about her boobs.”

“I’m starting to feel sorry for Jameson.”

“Don’t. Unlike you, he got it good and hard
last night.”

“Please stop talking. I don’t need the
details.”

“Not giving away any details, you prude.
Just saying, it was pretty satisfying, and you could use some of that
satisfaction, too. I’m still sore in all the right places.”

“Got it. Thanks. Now, go back to sleep. I’m
begging you.”

When there was no answer from her—which was
a big surprise—I closed my eyes and hoped I would get a few more hours of
sleep.

A few minutes later, Lucy spoke up. Again.

“Olive? Are you awake?”

“No,” I groaned.

“Good. Are you going to fuck Jason Thorn’s
brains out tonight? Because I do want details of that. Like every little dirty
detail. Is he fat and curvy? Short and fat? Veiny? Thick and long? Can you
imagine how lucky you’d be if that was the case. Be honest, you never sneaked
into the bathroom when he was taking a shower? I bet even at eighteen his junk
was impressive.”

“Are you done? What time is it anyway?” I
mumbled.

“6 AM.”

“I’m going to kill you.”

“Sure you will. And no, I’m not done. I
want more details. I
need
more details. Like how does he kiss? Does he
kiss the way he kissed in
Fast Money
or does he kiss the way he kissed
in
What’s Left of Me?
” I could feel her turning in bed to face me,
getting more into it. “I mean it’s important to know these details, you know?
What’s the reality? Will he gently cup your face when he kisses you? Or will he
thread his fingers through your hair and roughly hold you against his body?

“You’ve spent a lot of time thinking about
this, haven’t you?” I asked finally.

“Who the hell doesn’t?”

“If I ever find out any of it, I’ll make sure
to let you know so you can die in peace. Can we please go to sleep now?”

“Can I spoon you?”

“Will it get you to sleep faster?”

“Promise.”

“Just the arm.”

“Just the arm,” she repeated.

She snuggled closer and slowly put her arm
around my waist. “Thank you.”

Trying to be as gentle as possible with my
words, I said, “I think Jameson is a keeper, Lucy.” Under the tough exterior
she showed to the world was the sweetest and most romantic girl I’d ever known.
She was even mushier than I was, and that was saying something. The only
problem was that she never trusted a man enough to show her weaknesses. Despite
that, the guy sleeping in the room right next to us was proving to be a
stubborn one. I always liked a guy who knew what he wanted and wasn’t afraid to
tough it out until he got it. In this case, my money was on Jameson.

“And
I
think we need to come up with
a plan on what you should do with Jason Thorn.” I started to protest, but she
talked over me. “No, hear me out. You are a knockout who has brains, and you
already have a connection there.”

“Can we talk about this some other time?”

“Before you leave for your date tonight?”

“It’s not a date, we’re just going over my
contract with his agent. It’s a…work thing.”

“You say tomato, I say tomato.”

“God, you talk too much in the mornings.”

After that I completely tuned her out and
finally, after several minutes of trying to engage me in a conversation about
Jason, she gave up and let us get some sleep in peace.

***

“I think I’m a little in love with your
car,” I said a few minutes after I got in Jason’s car that night.

“Yeah?” he asked, smirking.

“Yeah. I love the midnight black, and the
red leather accents. Oh, and his eyes are so cute when you look at him from the
front.”

“Him? My Spyder isn’t a he, woman, and
nothing about her is cute. Sexy? That’s a hell yes. Cute eyes? No.”

I shrugged.

I’d had Char distract Lucy for me as I
escaped from the house before she could corner me and discuss her newly made
plans. She’d even made a list with the title
How to Get Jason to Fall Crazy
in Love with Green Olive
. Her reasoning behind the importance of the list?
She needed him to fuck my brains out. In her pretty little mind she thought I
was her best bet for getting some answers to her questions. All in all, having
effectively escaped that line of thinking, I felt pretty good about the
evening. There was nothing worse than having Lucy making you her pet project. I
was already struggling with being near Jason as it was; I didn’t need to think
about how certain parts of him looked when he was naked.

His home was on a hillside overlooking a
breathless view of Beverly Hills. Strangely, up until I saw the beautiful, ornate
steel gates, I hadn’t felt out of place with him. After he did something on his
phone I couldn’t quite see, the gates opened and he drove up the driveway,
stopping the engine when we reached the enormous white doors of his home—or
small mansion was more like it.

“Wow.” I breathed out as I stepped out of
the car. “This is amazing, Jason.” Looking around in awe at the well-kept garden
that surrounded the place, I had the sudden urge to take off my shoes and
simply walk around on the grass.

“You like it?” he asked with an odd, innocent
smile on his handsome face. “You don’t think it’s over the top?”

“You’re a full-blown Hollywood star,
Jason,” I said, unable to take my eyes off of every little detail around the
house. “It would be disappointing if you had a run-down house. Your girlfriends
must go even more crazy over you after seeing this place.” As if a sincere
smile from him wasn’t enough to make you hand over your soul to the devil.

“You’re the first girl I’ve brought here.”

I glanced around one last time and walked
to his side. “What do you mean?”

He scratched the back of his head then
gestured for me to follow him to the front door.

“I guess you could say I’m a little weird
about that. This is my home, my escape from a demanding industry, in a way. I’m
constantly surrounded by thousands of people when I’m off somewhere filming. Forget
about filming, everyone knows every detail of my life whether I want them to or
not. When I come home, I want this place to be untainted by all that. I don’t
even have a staff that’s around 24/7. I like my privacy a little too much,” he
said as he opened the door and invited me in.

A little too excited about seeing his home
for the first time, I stepped inside. “So…you’re saying there are no outrageous
Hollywood parties in my future? Damn, I was hoping to snag an invite.”

He laughed. The throaty sound was entrancing.

As we walked through a narrow hallway, our
arms almost touching, I couldn’t take my eyes off of him and his smiling eyes.

“How about I’ll promise to take you with me
if I’m ever invited to an outrageous Hollywood party?”

“Yes please.”

When the hallway came to an end and I saw
the open plan of the living room and the kitchen, I gasped and walked ahead of
him straight to the floor-to-ceiling glass walls that revealed not only a
killer view, but an expansive backyard with an infinity pool and a hot tub.

My face an inch away from the glass window,
I felt Jason come up behind me. “Can they bury me here? Will you let them?
Please? I just want my ghost to sit over there and look down at the city, and
maybe walk around the grass every now and then. I won’t bother to haunt you at
all.”

He chuckled again. “I didn’t think you’d
enjoy it this much.”

“Are you kidding me? I would give pretty
much anything to come to this place at the end of every day.” Giving the pool a
longing look, I faced Jason.

“Seriously, this is amazing, what you’ve
accomplished, what you’ve built for yourself. It will probably mean nothing to
you, but I’m proud of you. So proud to have known you when you weren’t such a
hotshot.” Giving him a small smile, I shrugged. “I’m also glad that you lived
with us for as long as you did back then. Otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten the
opportunity to annoy you as much as I probably did when I was a kid.”

I felt a familiar tug on my hair as he
hooked his arm around my neck and drew me to his side. I let my shaky hand rest
on his chest, near his heart. When his lips touched my forehead and he didn’t
loosen his hold on me, I closed my eyes and let my heart enjoy the peace.

When he drew back, my heart was going a
mile a minute. Looking into my eyes, he smiled. “You have never in your life
annoyed me, little one. If I didn’t have you looking after me, who would’ve always
given me the first and biggest slices of those pies you made with your mom?”

I chuckled. “Do you remember the first time
you came to our house? I promised you the biggest slice of the apple pie and
ended up giving you half of the damn thing. I can still see the shock on your
face when I brought it over.”

His eyes twinkled with laughter. “How could
I forget? You looked so pleased with yourself, just waiting in front of me to
hear what I thought of your baking skills.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t so happy when my mom
swooped in and took the thing right out of my hands before I could give it to
you.”

“You brought me five slices worth of pie,
little one. After your mom’s dinner, I barely had enough room to eat one
piece.” His voice had gone quiet when his eyes met mine.

“Well, I was heartbroken,” I said, equally
softly.

His dimple beckoning me to take a very,
very small taste, Jason’s eyes looked down at me with such a warmness to them
that I didn’t know what to do or what to say for several seconds.

Could I handle being his friend?

Could I ignore my heart begging and
screaming against my chest?

Did he even want to be my friend, or was
this just a one-time-only favor kinda thing?

The loud ringtone of his phone burst our
little bubble, and he took his arms away from me to answer the call.

“Tom? Yes. Take your time, we’ll be okay.
Fine, call her and come up with a new strategy then.” Ending his call, he
turned to me. “He’ll be here in an hour or so. I had Alvin bring in Chinese
takeout, you hungry?”

“Alvin?”

“My assistant. You’ll meet him soon
enough.” As he padded toward his beautiful kitchen, I followed a few steps
behind him, admiring the way his shoulders moved with every relaxed step.

Don’t look at his ass, Olive. Just
don’t.