by Avery Flynn
Desire, hot and demanding, licked at her skin as the sound of the zipper and her own pulse filled her ears. “Carter.”
“I promise to buy you dinner later,” he said, his breath hot on her skin as he slipped his hands inside the opening of her fully unzipped dress that hung loosely by the straps.
“You don’t have to it’s—”
“It should be clear by now,” he nudged her dress down, letting it slip down her body to the floor, “that I want to.” He cupped her breasts, taking her nipples and rolling them until they were hard, stiff peaks. “If you’d don’t, tell me now.”
It wasn’t that. Oh God, it wasn’t that. She opened her mouth, fighting against the want and the need telling her to shut the fuck up, but before she could form a half coherent thought, he slid his fingers under the band of her panties and she was lost to the heat and the ecstasy and the hope that somehow this would all work out.
This wasn’t the first time that someone got nervous around him. They were cool right up until it hit them that he was The Admiral. Then, there was a shyness, a hesitancy that hadn’t been there before. It was just one more weird thing about making his living pretending to be someone else—sometimes people bought into it much harder than he did. Usually it was just a bummer, but with Audrey? He wasn’t willing to just accept it and walk away per standard operating procedure. He wanted—needed—her to see him as Carter the man, not Carter The Admiral. If he took the time, maybe he’d figure out why that was his new reality, but trying to make logical deductions was impossible while his fingers were wet with her desire and she was making that needy sigh each time he slow circled her clit.
“Does that feel good?” he asked, dipping two fingers inside her, fucking her in a soft slow rhythm that only made both of them want more.
Her answer was to press back against him, rubbing her ass against his cock and making him regret more than anything else in the world that he had on so many clothes. Fuck. He wasn’t just hard, he ached and his balls were pulled up tight against him
“Aubrey.” God, he loved saying her name. “You have to say it.” He withdrew his fingers, pulled free of her ridiculously skimpy lace panties, took half a step back, and severed their physical connection though he swore he could still feel every inch of her. “I need to hear that you want this as much as I do.”
Did he mean the sex? Did he mean something more? Did he mean everything and anything? Yes. He couldn’t explain it and now sure as hell wasn’t the time to dive into it.
She stilled and for a moment he thought this was it, she was done. Then, she whirled around—hands on those glorious full, rounded hips of hers—and looked up at him. Her pink panties were damp with her desire, the darker color matching the rose of her hard nipples. Damn. He could look at her all day—another day, today he wanted to sink balls deep in her and fuck her until she came so tight around his dick he saw the universe.
“Do I want you?” she asked, trailing a finger across his chest as she looked up at him, bold as brass and unapologetic.
The woman didn’t have a coy or double-dealing bone in her body. Coming from where he did, where everyone was using everyone else and image was everything, her ballsy attitude was almost as addictive as she was.
“That’s what I need to know.” He shrugged off his shirt. “Do you want me?”
“Let’s get these off so I can show you.” She went straight for his pants, her fingers aiming for the button on his pants, a daring smirk on her pale pink lips as if she couldn’t wait to see just how far she could take this.“Take off your pants so I can show you.”
He took her wrists in one hand, lifting them above her head and backing her up against the wall. “That’s not how this is gonna work.”
She made a tsk-tsk sound. “You’re keeping your pants on?”
“No.” He kissed her hard and brief, barely giving either of them even a taste of what they wanted. “I’m going to show you.”
“Are we having a fight?”
Immediately, he let go of her and took a step back, his gut twisting. Fuck. That was not what he was going for. He didn’t want her to feel pressured. Way to go, Hayes. This is why you need writers.
Aubrey shook her head, letting out a soft giggle, then said in a stage whisper, “If you say yes that means we get to make up.”
Make up? What did they have to make up for— Realization was like a lightbulb in the darkness. Oh yes. He was here for this little game.
“In that case, this is a huge,” he flicked open his top button, “knock down,” he lowered his zipper, “drag out fight.”
She reached out, repeating his move and wrapping her fingers around his wrists before he could shove his pants down. “So angry sex?”
“Fuck yes.”
One side of her mouth curled up and shoved his pants down over his hips so they and his boxers fell to the ground. “Just so you know, I hate these panties.”
“Good because they’re not going to be salvageable after this.” He hooked a finger in them and the thin strap of lace snapped along with the last of his control.
In the next heartbeat, he had her pressed up against the wall, his hand encircling her wrists and holding her arms above her head, as he brought his mouth down on hers. It was like touching a match to the fuse of a firecracker, exhilarating and with enough sizzle of danger to make it more than a little fun.
Using his free hand, he traced a line down her side as slow and soft as their kiss was hard and fast. Damn, it was killing him not to rush this but he knew the payoff would be even better if he lingered, let the need build while he kissed his way down from the sensitive spot below her earlobe to the delicate place where her shoulders met her neck. While she begged for more, he trailed the back of his knuckles over the soft fullness of the side of her tits. Following the dip of her waist, he had to force himself not to speed up as he kissed lower, sucking her peaked nipple into his mouth, grazing the hard nub with his teeth. He was balancing so precariously on the verge of giving in to the urge to take her and make her his that when she let out a lusty moan as he traced the outward curve of her hips, his balls tightened and any idea that there was a world out there beyond them disappeared. By the time he finally circled her clit and slid two fingers inside her, she was so sweet and slick that it took all he had not to drop to his knees and taste his fill until her thighs were quaking on either side of his face as she came.
“You dare tease me any longer,” she said, her voice husky with want. “And I’m going to tell everyone that you stole Grace’s pants.”
He shrugged, playing along. “Guess I’ll have to live with that.”
“I don’t think so,” she said, curling one of her legs around his as she shoved him and sent him flying.
He landed on his back on the bed with Aubrey straddling his hips. Hands on her hips, he was ready to flip her when she leaned forward so her tits dangled over his face and he forgot how to breath, think, move, do a damn thing beyond want. Somewhere in the background he heard a drawer open and shut before she leaned back, a wicked grin on her face and a condom in her hand.
“I’m done waiting,” she said as she tore opened the condom.
“Yes, ma’am.”
She unrolled the condom over his cock and lowered herself down on him. Watching her as she put her palms against his chest for balance and bit down on her kiss-swollen bottom lip as she took him in, had him doing math in his head to keep from coming before they’d even started. Then she started moving and he knew it was nearly game over. Tits moving as she undulated against him, he gripped her hips, bringing her harder against him on each downward stroke. Lifting his hips, he met her with ever plunge and retreat, letting her take what she needed, loving getting to see her face as she lost herself in the moment. Fuck, she was pretty with hot fudge on the tip of her nose, but like this she was absolutely gorgeous. And when she sped up, tightening around him as her nails dug into his chest, he wasn’t ready for all of it to end but he didn’t have the strength no
t to follow her over the edge as she came. His orgasm slingshotted from the base of his spine to his toes and back up again, leaving him empty of everything except the realization that there was no way he wouldn’t be seeing Aubrey again after the cruise was over.
Draped across his chest, her body loose and limp, she kissed his shoulder. “We should fight more often.”
He chuckled, his eyes already too heavy to keep open, “I’ll try to make that happen.”
And then he feel asleep, sated for the moment, if not forever. Would he ever be when it came to Aubrey Dean?
Eight
Baseball hat on and pulled low, ridiculous swim trunks covered in hot pink pineapples in play, and the hottest woman on the ship sitting next to him getting all the sidelong glances from the other passengers on the boat taking them from the ship to the cruise’s private island, Carter was feeling more than a little cocky about how his disguise was working out. No one gave two shits about him. It had been more than a decade since that had happened, right about the time that the first Admiral movie came out. The worst was when he got called out in mid-chew at dinner. He loved his fans for sure, but sometimes he just wanted to eat a cheeseburger with onions and not read a snarky post later about how he had the worst breath in Hollywood.
“Are you sure you want to take this risk?” Audrey asked as she looked around at the other passengers packed in around them, obviously nervous enough about him being exposed for both of them. “People do stay on the ship during these excursions. It wouldn’t be that weird.”
“True.” He scooted closer to her on the bench seat until they touched from knee to hips to his hand around her shoulders as he toyed with the ends of her hair. Usually he wasn’t much of a PDA guy, but with Aubrey the urge to continually touch her was something he wasn’t about to deny. “But I’d lose the chance to kiss you under a waterfall or save you from a shark or something.”
“There are no waterfalls on the island,” she said as she snuggled closer, her hand landing on his thigh just above his knee. “And if Jaws came to take me out I’d happily shove you into danger so I could swim away.”
“That’s cold.”
She shot him a shit-eating grin as the boat pulled up to the island dock. “It’s good you realize what kind of woman you’ve hooked up with on this trip.”
“A very sexy one.” He gave her a soft, quick kiss before they got up and followed the rest of the crowd to the stairs leading off the boat.
From their spot on the top row, it was easy to get the lay of the land. The island was set up with a beach area covered in lounge chairs placed close together and mostly occupied, an open shopping area with little grass huts filled with tourist tchotchkes, food stands, a guy with a cart selling pina coladas in coconut shells, and—bingo!—a small building where they could rent snorkeling gear.
“You in?” he asked, pointing to the building.
“Most definitely. How else am I going to shove you in the shark’s way so I can sell my story and see it get made into a streaming-only movie?” Her face paled and her grip on his hand tightened as they made their way down to the single set of stairs and out onto the dock. “I didn’t mean that.”
“I didn’t think you did, Aubrey.” He pulled her close, sneaking another kiss as the other passengers swerved around them. “Now, on the other hand, I could definitely enact that plan and only to save you and therefore be a real life hero. The media coverage would be amazing.” His smartwatch buzzed.
Glancing down, he saw his brother’s name cross the caller ID. He hit decline call and walked with Aubrey away from the boat. The buzzing started again almost immediately. Fuck. Byron would not stop calling. It wasn’t in his brother’s DNA to give up when he was on a mission.
“I gotta take this real quick while I can still pick up signal from the ship.”
“No worries.” She squeezed his hand before letting go. “I’ll go get our snorkel gear.”
She strutted off and it took Carter two tries to get his Bluetooth headphones in because he was distracted by her hips swaying from side to side as she followed the wood plank path to the snorkel shop.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“Your cover’s been blown and Allyson is very not happy about it,” Byron said, ignoring any socially-acceptable pleasantries per usual.
The Allyson was Allyson Hernandez as in the director of the movie he was desperately trying to get cast in. Fuck. This was not good.
“Give me all of it,” he said, moving closer to the end of the dock in order to be as close to the ship as possible.
“It was that stupid fan account again,” Bryon said, his frustration obvious. “Somehow they heard you were on board. The post was deleted but not before it was splashed all over everywhere. I swear to God, I’m going to track down whoever is behind the account and follow them around for a week to see how they like it.”
Part bulldog, part agent, and part overprotective brother, Byron had always been like this. Him picking on Carter was fine. Someone else? Not even a little bit.
“That’s called stalking, Byron, the law frowns upon it.”
“Not if you’re the press,” his brother groused.
“Which you’re not, so settle back a little. How bad is it?” This was the part that made Carter’s gut clench.
The window for being able to make a brand change in Hollywood was infinitesimal. If he missed this window and took another big budget action flick, he’d be doing only those movies for the rest of his career. They were fun, he enjoyed them, and he was grateful as hell for having the opportunities he did because of The Admiral movies, but he wanted career growth too. For that to happen he had to make a change.
“Well,” Byron said, drawing out the four-letter word. “They deleted the post, which thank God didn’t have an actual photo of you on the ship, but it had already gone viral by the time it was removed for whatever reason. I told you going off the grid would just make people hungrier for more details about your life.”
“I had to have time to change my hair, get the fake tan, and do the rest.” He watched blue water that seemed to go on forever knowing it all looked the same on the surface, but underneath it was a totally different story. “It’s a process.”
“Actors.” Byron let out a huff. “You’re all a pain in the ass.”
“You’ve been telling me I’m a pain in the ass since I was twelve.”
“And I’ve never been wrong.”
“So what’s the bottom line? Were you able to alleviate Allyson’s concerns?”
Nervous? Him? Fuck yes.
“You don’t pay me fifteen percent because I’m shitty at my job,” Byron shot back. “I’m cautiously optimistic this hasn’t thrown your audition in the garbage disposal but if anything else pops up, your cover gets blown, she’s going to pull back. She does not want the movie to be a media circus. She’s not looking for a movie star for this part, she wants an actor. If you can’t pull this off, she’ll never believe you can’t pull off carrying this movie.” His brother paused, then continued, a thick ribbon of worry winding through his words, “Just don’t get distracted and lose sight of what’s at stake here. You want to make this career pivot that will change everything? You’ve got to commit. Eye on the prize.”
“Any other clichés you want to throw my way?” Carter asked, desperate to change the mood from edge-of-the-world-disaster to the usual things-are-fucked-but-we’ll-be-okay.
“Yeah.” Byron chuckled. “You owe me, brother.”
“Always.”
Per usual, Byron ended the call without a goodbye. Chewing over the situation, Carter pocketed his headphones and made his way over to where Aubrey stood with two sets of flippers and snorkels.
“Everything okay?” she asked, cocking her head to one side.
“Yeah, just some work stuff.” He reached over and snuck in another a quick kiss. “You ready to go see some fish?”
She grinned up at him. “I’m always up for fun.”
And she
had been since he first spotted her stealing her best friend’s pants. It was something he’d forgotten about in the always-on world of Hollywood. Even a day off wasn’t a day off because it was always about being seen in order to position himself in the best light for the next role. Shit, even this trip was just a fake. It wasn’t a vacation, it was work. But with Aubrey, it didn’t feel that way, everything felt right, and that wasn’t something he was ready to give up when they finally docked back in New York.
Standing in the ocean nearly elbow to elbow with the thirty members of a singles support group while wearing a snorkel mask did not seem like the best place to tell Carter about her thirst account. Still, not telling him while they were out having fun and he kept smiling at her was like walking around with pebbles in her shoes.
Straightening her shoulders, she tried to stand solid even as the current was tugging her this way and that on the sandy bottom. “Carter, I have to tell you something.”
He looked past her shoulder and grimaced. “Is it about that guy peeing off the rocks?”
“What?” She whipped around to look in the direction he’d motioned toward because he had to be joking.
Nope.
He was not.
A man in a T-shirt that said “Ride Me All The Way Home” had a coconut shell with a polka dotted tropical drink umbrella in one hand and his dick in the other. The spray was as strong as one of those Cupid fountains if the water had been turned on full blast. It was both appalling and impressive at the same time.
“He must have been holding that for a while,” Carter said.
“I’m not feeling the snorkel thing anymore.” Yeah, there was no getting past the fact that she was standing in that same ocean the dude was peeing into. “You wanna grab some food instead?”
“Sure.”
They held hands as they wound their way through the tightly packed maze of chaise lounges toward the buffet under a pavilion. There were about a million different kinds of food all brought from the ship’s kitchens. They each grabbed a plate and started down the line.