Star Pupil
Rochelle Paige
Copyright
© 2016 Rochelle Paige
All rights reserved.
Edited by PREMA Editing
Cover designed by Elle Christensen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing. For permission requests, please send your email request to [email protected].
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used factiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons or living or dead, events or locales are entirely coincidental.
The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/ Use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owner.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Star Pupil
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Epilogue
Bare Your Soul
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Books By This Author
About the Author
Star Pupil
Griffin Stone isn’t known for his patience, but he manages to endure the three months until Avery Rose’s eighteenth birthday to pursue her. The hot teacher has a plan...
Step 1: Get close to Avery by replacing her set teacher.
Step 2: Make the gorgeous young actress fall for him—just like he’d done with her at first sight from across the studio lot.
Step 3: Teach her the most important lesson of all—that she belongs with him.
Warning: The sweet story might be short, but it has plenty of sexiness and an alpha male who will do whatever it takes to get his woman.
Prologue
Griffin
Growing up in Hollywood, I’d seen plenty of beautiful women throughout my life. I’d even dated my fair share of them. But nothing could have prepared me for the effect Avery Rose had on me. She’d been discovered in a Midwestern shopping mall of all places, plucked out of obscurity to be cast in one of the leading roles of a teen action movie with a blockbuster budget.
Along with everyone else connected to the movie business, I’d heard about the young beauty who was being called the next up-and-coming starlet. I knew I’d bump into her at one point or another, Hollywood was like a small town in many ways, but I hadn’t bothered to listen to the gossip surrounding her since I knew most of it tended to be exaggerated bullshit. I also didn’t want it to color my impression of her since my company was going to be in charge of the education and welfare of all the minors in the movie while they were on set during filming.
Maybe if I’d paid more attention to the talk about Avery, I wouldn’t have reacted the way I had. The moment I spotted her across the studio’s lot, I froze in my tracks and stopped mid-sentence in the middle of a conversation. With her wavy dark hair, pale skin, wide blue eyes, and curvy figure, she was an intriguing combination of sensual innocence. I felt the punch of attraction from more than thirty feet away.
The timing was impossible. She was three months away from her eighteenth birthday—too fucking young for my twenty-seven years—but it didn’t stop my obsession from starting. I wanted her as my own, and I was damn well going to figure out a way to make it happen.
“Mr. Stone.” The production assistant tugged on my arm to regain my attention.
“What?” I snapped, tearing my gaze away from Avery.
“I’m supposed to get your approval on the classroom space before the set teacher you assigned us brings the actors back here as part of their tour.”
“She’s one of the teachers. There will be another teacher working with her who starts tomorrow,” I corrected distractedly, following him through the lot and into a room which was set-up with computers and desks. It was nicer than most spaces we were given, but it was about what I’d been expecting considering my connection to the studio and the number of minors on set. A quick scan of the room confirmed it would be sufficient.
“The classroom is fine,” I told the assistant. He hurried away, presumably to tackle another item on his long list of things that needed to be accomplished immediately.
I sauntered down the hall until I was far enough away from the classroom that I could keep my eye on it without being too obvious about it. My phone vibrated in my pocket, but I ignored it as a small group neared the doorway. Avery hung towards the back, holding the hand of the seven-year-old who was slated to play her little sister. The two teenage actresses who had been hired to play her best friends were busy flirting with the boy who was going to play opposite Avery. Even with his hands full, he still managed to sneak glances back towards Avery.
“Little shit,” I grumbled, making a mental note to get my hands on a copy of the script to make sure the fucker didn’t have the chance to get his lips on my girl.
My girl. Damn. The world as I knew it really had shifted beneath my feet if I was this territorial over a woman I’d not even officially met. Hell, over any female, since I’d never been possessive with anyone else in the past. But as I stared at her ass, mesmerized by the sway of her hips, I wasn’t bothered in the least by the change in my perspective. In fact, it seemed I was ready to embrace my inner caveman.
Yanking my phone from my pocket, I headed out of the building to my car. After I slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine, I punched in the number to my office.
“Stone Studio Teachers,” my assistant answered.
“I’m headed back into the office earlier than planned, Olivia. I’ll need the files for all of our available teachers on my desk. I need to find someone new to take the second spot on the Nipped contract.”
“But the students will be on set starting tomorrow!” she complained. “What happened to Mark? He didn’t say anything to me about not being able to take the job when he was here yesterday.”
“I’ll make it up to Mark, but this particular contract won’t do for him. They need all female instructors for this project.”
“Since when?” she asked. “There was no mention of it in any of the paperwork the studio sent over.”
“Since now,” I growled, leaving out the fact that I was the one who wasn’t okay with a male teacher being that close to Avery. Especially not one who was a few years younger than me and looked like Mark did. Maybe if he was forty years older—no, even then I wouldn’t have been okay with it. While I was at it, I planned to pick someone motherly who was willing to keep an eye on Avery for me. And once that was done, there were a few other things I needed to do to make sure the path to my girl remained clear when she turned eighteen.
Chapter 1
Avery
I’d never worked as hard as I had over the last three months. Ten hour days, with six on set, three in class with Mrs. Stanton and one for rest and relaxation, didn’t sound like too much when I’d signed on to take this role—but I hadn’t factored my mom into the equation. She barely left my side, staying within sight and sound of me at all times, including my time spent in hair, wardrobe and make up. I’d never spent this much time with her back home, and it was exhausting.
The only time I was free from her was during my state-mandated education hours because she had no interest in sitting in a classroom with me. There wasn’t anyone for her to schmooze in
there except for Mrs. Stanton, and my mom had made it clear she didn’t think the set teacher who’d been assigned to me was worth the effort. My mom really could be a bitch sometimes, so it shouldn’t have been a huge surprise to me that she was taking full advantage of her role as my “momager” to get whatever she could out of it for herself.
“Avery!” Mrs. Stanton jumped up from her seat and wrapped her arms around me for a hug. “Happy birthday.”
When she pulled away to grab a gift bag from her desk, I had to fight the tears filling my eyes. It was my first present of the day, and she was the only person who seemed to even remember today was my birthday. My mom had never been one to go overboard for it, but at least she’d always given me a card. I’d spent years excusing it away by telling myself money was tight so she couldn’t afford to do much. But I couldn’t use the same justification any longer since she had more than enough money to spend with the ridiculous amount I was being paid to be in this movie.
“You really didn’t have to get me a present.” My voice was soft, but it didn’t hide the affection I felt for my teacher. The time I spent with her in the classroom tended to be my favorite of the day because she was just so genuinely nice.
“Of course I did,” she chided. “You only turn eighteen once, and you deserve the very best.”
It went unsaid that she knew my own mother couldn’t be bothered to make sure I got it.
“Thank you,” I whispered, peeling back the brightly colored tissue paper to find an e-reader. “Oh, wow! You really shouldn’t have.”
“I wish I could take all the credit for it, but the gift card inside is the only part that’s actually from me. My boss ordered a bunch of these for us to use in the classroom, but then he decided he wanted to use a different brand. When he offered them to us, I managed to snag two. One for you and one for me.”
“I don’t care how you got it. I love it!”
She beamed a smile my way. “I thought you would.”
I reluctantly shoved the e-reader back into the bag. “I wish we didn’t have that pre-calculus test to get ready for, or else I’d ask if we could skip straight to my literature lesson today.”
“I’m sorry, Avery, but you don’t have class with me any longer.”
“But I’m so close,” I sighed. My shoulders drooped in disappointment. I knew the studio was only required to provide a teacher for us until we turned eighteen, but I’d been hoping they’d let me continue with my education for the last month of filming. “I guess I’ll have to see what it will take for me to finish up my work once we wrap up filming.”
“No, Avery,” she interrupted my rambling. “You misunderstood me. I’m not going to be instructing you any longer because it’s been decided you’ll have a new set teacher to make sure you’re ready to graduate soon.”
“I don’t understand,” I whispered. “You’re doing a great job already. Why do I need someone else?”
“This is a good thing,” she assured me. “Griffin, I mean Mr. Stone, rarely teaches in the field any longer, but he’s the best we have.”
“I find that hard to believe since you’re amazing.”
“You and I both know all my amazingness is spread thin on this set,” she laughed. “And I’m hoping with some one-on-one instruction, you’ll reconsider taking the SAT.”
“Why bother?” I asked. “We both know my mom is already weeding through scripts, trying to decide which movie I should do next. There’s no way she’s going to agree to let me go away to school.”
“That doesn’t mean you can’t take college classes online, just like you’ve been doing with high school.”
“It’s too late,” I argued, fighting the hope she’d fostered inside me. I already knew my mom wouldn’t go for that option either since it would require me taking time out of my day to study. “I’ve already missed the application deadline for most schools.”
“Most, but not all.” She opened a drawer and pulled out a stack of brochures. “There’s still time to apply to any of these schools, and they all offer online classes.”
She tucked them into the gift bag with my present. “Promise me you’ll at least look at these.”
“Yeah, I can do that.” It was the least I could do since she’d gone to all that effort for me. Just because I was going to look at them didn’t mean I was actually going to apply.
“Perfect!” She paused to give me another hug before glancing up at the clock on the wall. “You’d better run along to meet your new teacher.”
“Where do I go?”
“I can’t believe you haven’t heard already! Don’t let it go to your head, but you must be doing an amazing job because they’re treating you like you’re a big deal now that you’re an adult.” She did air quotes around the last word. “You’re being moved out of the dressing room you’ve been sharing with Stella, Brooke and Grace, and into a trailer of your own. Mr. Stone should be there to meet you in about ten minutes.”
“A trailer?” I squealed. This was better than any birthday gift my mom could have gotten me because Stella and Brooke were enough to drive anyone insane. Although they played my best friends in the movie, we could barely stand each other in real life. Both girls were obsessed with their looks, clothes and boys. They’d made it more than clear that they didn’t understand how I’d been cast as the lead since I wasn’t up to their standards.
I didn’t really care about their opinion of me, but I was forced to spend practically every waking hour with them. What made it even worse was that my mom thought I should be more like them, and she had no problem letting me know it. The petty side of me was looking forward to their reactions to the news.
“Where is it?”
Mrs. Stanton gave me directions, and I was quickly on my way across the lot. It didn’t take me long to find it since I’d been given a prime spot amongst the other trailers. I stood staring at the sign with my name on the door in awe when it opened and my appreciation shifted from the trailer to the man standing in the door.
I’d met lots of cute guys since moving to California, but none of them made my heart race the way this one did. It wasn’t his good looks that sent butterflies swarming in my belly—although his thick, dark hair, deep-brown eyes, toothpaste-commercial-worthy smile, tan skin and tall, athletic build all added up to an insanely hot package—it was the look in those sexy eyes as they swept up my body. I practically felt the heat of his stare against my skin.
“Mr. Stone?” I asked shakily. I didn’t really think he was my new teacher, there was no way a guy like him spent his days teaching Hollywood actors on set. Not when he should be in front of the camera.
“Finally.”
Or, at least, that’s what it sounded like he’d rasped, nodding in confirmation as he came down the steps to stretch his right hand out to me.
“Avery?” he asked. Well, it should have come across like a question, except it sounded as though he knew darn well who I was.
“Hello,” I breathed out. “Yes, I’m Avery.”
“I hope you don’t mind that I made myself comfortable while I waited for you.”
“Mind?” I repeated blankly. My eyes dropped to the buttons on his navy blue shirt, and I couldn’t help but think that he should have gotten more comfortable by loosening a few of them. Then I would have been able to see if his chest was smooth or had a sprinkling of hair. My fingers twitched at the thought, so I gripped the gift bag I was holding tighter against my own chest to stop myself from doing something stupid—like rip off my new teacher’s clothes.
Chapter 2
Griffin
“I don’t mind,” she finally answered, jerking her head up to look me in the eye again.
With the way she was clutching that gift bag, I’d been worried she was going to take off running. I was relieved to note there wasn’t any fear in her gaze, only curiosity mixed with feminine interest. I tried to tone it down a little so I didn’t scare her off, but I was keyed up enough that it was hard to not come off at
stalker-level intense—which wasn’t too far from the truth with how I’d kept track of her over the last ninety-three days.
Considering I’d run out of patience at about day two, it was impressive that I’d managed to hold out this long. But the day had finally come—Avery’s eighteenth birthday. She was officially legal, and my wait was over. The day had come for me to put my plan into motion to make her mine, or maybe it was more accurate to say it was time to let her know she was mine.
I pried her right hand away from the bag and took it in mine. Lifting it up, I pressed a light kiss to her knuckles. Her bright blue eyes widened in surprise, her cheeks pinkened and her lips parted on a gasp. I wanted to slip my tongue between them and get a taste of her mouth, but certain concessions needed to be made for her innocence. Moving slowly was going to be hard as fuck, but it was necessary until she got used to having me around. As much as my cock disagreed, there wasn’t any rush since she was going to be mine forever. I’d have plenty of time to enjoy the taste and feel of her over the years.
Lowering her hand, I reluctantly released it. “Please, call me Griffin.”
“I couldn’t possibly,” she murmured. Her gaze darted around to see if anyone was watching us, but nobody was around. The lot was empty since I’d timed our first meeting to ensure we had some privacy.
“How about Griff or Fin?” I didn’t give a damn which she chose, I just wanted to hear her say my name. It would have to tide me over until I had her screaming it while she was underneath me.
“Griffin it is, I guess,” she giggled. “If you insist.”
“I do insist, Avery.”
“Well, okay then.” Her blushed deepened, turning the pink tinge to red. It looked like the reports I’d received about her shyness hadn’t been wrong. “Umm, I guess we should get started? On my studies, I mean. I’m not sure how the trailer is setup since I haven’t been inside it yet. It’s brand new. Or, at least, new to me since they just assigned it to me this morning.”
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