Up All Night Long: From Lust to Love (Romance Anthology)

by Ali Parker

  "Two weeks. Final offer." She shoved her hand closer to me. "This is it. I'm telling you as your best friend that you have to do this. I'll record it and we'll use that drop dead gorgeous picture you took last year for your portfolio."

  I pursed my lips and thought about the possibilities as well as the sharp pain that usually occurred deep inside of me each and every time Hollywood rejected me. Could I sustain another hit with all the other shit on my plate right now? No future. No home. No prospect for a job that I was going to enjoy.

  "Two weeks and two days." I shoved my hand forward as she clasped it and shook my hand firmly.

  "Good. After breakfast we're recording the audio and getting the packet together." She smiled and pulled her hand back.

  "When this blows up in my face, it's going to be you that has to go out and buy ten gallons of ice cream." I took a big bite of my eggs and groaned. "You need to make sure whoever you marry deserves your cooking by the way."

  "So he has to be a good guy, have a big dick and be funny." She lifted her eyebrow. "I think that's worthy of me and my cooking."

  "Me too, but you missed one very important thing." I got up and walked into the kitchen to get more coffee. I had to ignore the excitement bubbling up inside of me. Acting was like playing the lottery, though it wasn't a random number that they drew and hoped like hell fate would be kind to you. It was my resume, my skill and passion that I hope was plucked from the large pool of all the others with the same level of talent as I had.

  "He needs a brother that's a good guy, is funny and has a huge dick too."

  "Impossible. I quit." She laughed, and I joined her, grateful that she was a part of my life. I couldn't do it without her, or maybe I could, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to.

  Chapter 6

  Four Days Later

  Ethan

  "More." The sexy girl riding my cock glanced back at me and whimpered loudly.

  I gripped her ass as she sat reverse cowgirl and lifted my hips, pressing into her a little more. She barely had a third of me inside of her, and I was shaking with the need to impale her.

  "Take more then." I pulled her back as she groaned again and reached back, making me stop. The lack of movement was killing me. Fucking was starting to be the last thing on my mind. It never turned out the way I needed it to.

  The phone buzzed next to me as she panted and pushed back a little more.

  I moaned and let my head hit the pillow. "Just lift up and fuck the tip, baby. I gotta get to the studio."

  "No. I want more. I can do it. You're just really big." She pushed back and stopped again as her arms started to shake.

  I picked up my phone and barked into it. "What?"

  "Stop being a dick and get up here. You're up in an hour with our first audition and yet you're nowhere to be found. I know as well as you do that you didn't go over these lines." Deza sounded about as happy as I felt.

  "All right. Give me fifteen minutes. I'm in my trailer."

  "Out back?" She pulled the door open to the trailer and screamed into the phone, deafening me for a minute.

  The girl hovering above me scrambled for the covers and pulled off my cock, leaving me about as fulfilled as I was before finding her.

  "Was that your girlfriend?" She glared at me.

  "No. That was my agent. Get off of me. I have to go." I waited until she moved to get out of the bed, and pulled on my slacks. There was no concern with sporting a hard-on as my dick was dropping like a scalded puppy.

  "Ethan. I want to try again. I'm just not very-"

  "Experienced. I get it." I turned and offered her a smile, not feeling any bit of the kindness I was faking. "It's all good. I'll call you sometime when I get a break. We'll try again."

  "You promise?" She looked so good in my sheets, and yet this was goodbye. She couldn't match me in the bedroom, which wasn't at all a surprise. I grabbed a shirt and pulled it over my head, combed my hair and looked back at her.

  "I'll call." I grabbed my shoes and walked out of the trailer. The guard beside it glanced over and lifted his eyebrows. "Give her five minutes and kick her out. I don't want someone snooping through my shit."

  "Yes, sir." He opened the door, and I grabbed his shirt.

  "Five minutes. She's naked." I released him and growled before jogging toward the set.

  Deza turned from the snack table and shook her head. "Really? You have a house. What the fuck? Why do I always have to walk in and see that monster you're sporting?"

  "It's the curse of your good fortune?" I shrugged and dropped down in a random chair and pulled my shoes on.

  "You don't need those. The scene has you only in a pair of slacks." She popped some Skittles in her mouth. "You need a cup in case you get excited?"

  "No. I stopped getting excited about this a long time ago."

  "Not the scene, the women." She rolled her shoulders and lifted her hands in the air, stretching.

  "I'm not interested in them either." I finished putting my shoes on just to annoy her.

  She growled softly and tossed me a packet of peanut M&Ms. "Even Riley?"

  "Oh shit. Is she coming?" I stood up as my body tightened automatically. What was it with this girl? Hopefully she was a total sponge personality-wise, or I was in trouble.

  "Yes. She's third on the list. Come on, handsome. Let's get through these first few and then your princess will arrive." Deza laughed at me before reaching over to ruffle my hair.

  I swatted her away and ruffled hers before jogging toward the set. It was funny how everyone in America thought I was a sex god of some sort. I hadn’t really had a good lay in months. I was just picking the wrong women. Virgins, prudes, girls with class. I needed a slut to take me the right way. She could fit me. I needed to call one of the women from my past. The girls that showed up for the night, did their job and left without a word or whimper.

  There goes the idea of Riley. That girl looks like a virgin librarian.

  My pulse increased as the idea of pressing her against a wall and sucking on the side of her neck rolled through me.

  "Hey... get your head in the game." Deza popped me in the chest, pulling me from my porn-fest with the poor girl who had no clue she'd been wedged into my overfilled life as a fantasy that wouldn't soon come to fruition.

  "Right. Sorry." I ran my fingers through my hair and picked up the lines from one of the guys sitting by the stage. I read through them four times before getting up on the set. The place was set up like the bedroom of a wealthy guy, and I was playing him. It wasn't my usual living room or hotel room scene, but looked more like a penthouse.

  "You got the lines down?" Frank walked up beside me and patted me on the back.

  I handed him the lines and unbuttoned my shirt, leaving the front of it open. "Yeah, you want to practice it with me?"

  He rolled his eyes. "Fuck you too. Get your shoes off."

  "What's with you guys and my shoes today?" I bent over and pulled them off, tossing them over at the guys who worked with props. They laughed and flipped me off as I stood up. I smiled like the dick I was and walked toward the edge of the set, clapping my hands. "Let's get this shit started."

  "Right. Don't scare these girls today, Ethan. We want good publicity from this. Remember that when you're up there with them. It's not a normal audition. Some of them-"

  "Hey... I'm good. I'm a human under here. I remember what it was like to be rejected and have to fight for this job. Wait, no I don't." I smirked as Deza swatted at me.

  "Just behave." She walked off, bitching under her breath at me.

  "This is what you get when you don't let me finish fucking the chick in my trailer. You get me... pissy and full of sperm." I turned to come face to face with a rather tall woman. She was attractive, but scared shitless.

  "H-Hi. I'm T-Terry." She extended her hand and smiled.

  "Hi, Terry. I'm Ethan."

  "I know who you a-are. I'm such a f-f-fan." She pressed her fingers to her lips as her eyes filled with tea
rs.

  A short bald guy walked up beside her and extended his hand. "I'm Barney. Terry's agent. She's just overwhelmed. Give her a minute and she'll be the best match that you've ever worked across from."

  "Great." I bit my tongue on the nasty responses that flew across my thoughts. No reason to scare the girl, but the midget? I wanted to scar him for the fun of it.

  Twenty minutes later T-Terry hadn't pulled herself together, and I walked up to Deza and pulled at her arm, forcing her to turn and look at me.

  "Tell her no. Now, or I will. She's freaking the fuck out. I'm not getting behind today. You know why? Because people don't put up tents in hell. They run through it as fast as they fucking can." I started to jog away and turned around jogging back as I continued, "Because if you stop, you're likely to get your ASS BURNED."

  Everyone turned and looked at us. Deza pointed a finger at me and bit her lip as I lifted my eyebrow and extended my hands to the sides, palms up.

  "What? Please. Please say something to me today," I challenged her.

  "I'll tell her. Go get you a bottle of wine and drink all of it. Now." She turned away from me, and I looked over to see another woman who looked ready to shit bricks too. "Let me guess... you're here for the audition, but you're scared as hell to even stand on the stage with me. I get that right?"

  The girl took a step back, and I hated myself.

  "I'm sorry. Long morning. Come on. I'm Ethan." I extended my hand. I could give Deza absolute hell and let her see every horrible thing racing through me, but this girl didn't deserve it. T-Terry and her midget friend might, but not this poor girl.

  "I'm Sam. Nice to meet you." She shook my hand and nodded to the stage. "We can hurry. I don't want to waste your time."

  "Okay, sounds good." I turned and walked to the stage with her.

  "I usually do pornography, but I thought this might be a fun change of pace."

  "You do what?" I got on the stage and started to offer my hand to help her, but then decided against it. Who the fuck knew where her hands had been.

  "Porn." She smiled as if thrilled with her life choices. "This love scene is going to be a piece of cake."

  "Right. One minute." I walked calmly to the edge of the stage, finding Deza and giving her the look that she knew quite clearly meant I was close to getting in some random car and driving off.

  "What now, Ethan? You're getting to be as bad as most women I work with." She put her hands on her hips and glared at me.

  "Hey, suck-a-dick up there has been in a million porns. I'm not kissing her when she's had her lips on every man in America's cock. Not happening. Nope." I crossed my arms over my chest as Deza leaned around me and snorted.

  "Really? This is turning out to be a nightmare."

  "You should go have a love scene with one of them. The nightmares, that is." I turned and looked over my shoulder, waving at the girl and giving her a sweet smile.

  "All right. I'll make something up. I'm not comfortable with that either." She tugged at the front of my shirt. "If you mess the rest of these up this afternoon, I'm going to pull another fifty for you to make out with over the rest of this week. You got me? Man the fuck up."

  "Whatever. I'm doing these last eight and then I'm going to my trailer to jack off to your picture." I poked at her. "You know you love it."

  "You're disgusting." She rolled her eyes and moved around me.

  "But you love me, right?"

  "Yes, I love you." She glanced over her shoulder and shook her head. "Wine. Get it. Now, Ethan. Anything to chill you out."

  I picked up a bottle of wine from the liquor table and walked out into the parking lot, leaning against the wall and popping the top. The sky was dark and the day a little too dismal for my liking. It pulled at my mood and left me feeling the need for companionship. I knew one person in the world that wasn't intimately invested in my career or all the money it could make them and yet still cared about me.

  My older brother, Liam. I pulled out my phone and called him, smiling as he picked up immediately.

  "Hey buddy. I was going to call you tonight. How are you?" His voice was full of warmth. I closed my eyes and leaned against the building as I took another long drink.

  "I'm good. Well, I'm shit, but whatever." I let my eyes move across the parking lot as a little red clunker drove up. Great. Another charity case.

  "How about you come over for some beer and brats tonight? Just you and me? We can catch up on a few things, mostly women." He chuckled.

  "Sounds like a plan. I ain't got much to share, so I'll just get wasted and live vicariously through you. You got a girl on the hook?" My eyes stayed in the vicinity of the car as a dainty girl with short strawberry blond hair got out and looked around. The minute I caught a glimpse of her profile I knew it was her.

  My heart skipped a beat, which left me feeling like an idiot. What was I doing? I'd lived in a romance scene for most of my adult years, and now at twenty-four I felt like love at first sight was a possibility? Fuck no. It was a pipe dream, and one I'd most likely be forced to roll up and smoke until my skin turned green.

  "I don't know." My brother's voice called me back from my fruity-ass daydreams. "I have this new woman that I interviewed last week and she... she's everything I want, Ethan."

  "You fuck her yet?" I moved to my right a little and lifted to my toes.

  She glanced over at me, gave me a quick nod and walked toward the opening. Her picture didn't do her justice, and I openly turned and watched her walk in as she ignored me. It was cute - almost. She was probably scared shitless to come over and talk to me. Or maybe just polite. I was on the phone.

  "Not yet, but it’s part of the game, right? She thinks she’s coming to work for me as my top adviser, but I don't want her advice. I want in her panties. Once I'm done with having my way with her, I'll let her go."

  "Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. I love it." I turned and walked back into the building. My eyes moved down the girl’s narrow waist, the sexy swell of her ass in her tight black skirt, her long legs.

  Every inch of me was hard and throbbing by the time I walked up to Deza.

  "All right dude, I got some shit I gotta do. I'll call you on my way over. Want me to pick anything up?" I pointed to my dick as Deza glanced down and let out a yelp.

  "Nope, I got it all. See you later, brosky."

  I tucked the phone in my back pocket. "Riley is here."

  "So I see." She turned toward the supplies table and knelt down before handing me a large ring of tape and a cup. "Go force yourself not to be so obvious."

  "I'll try, but damn..." I moved back a little, finding the girl as she stood with a tall black guy that looked like he should be her man or be on stage beside her. "Who's the dude? Her guy?"

  "Nope." Deza let out a soft sigh as her face filled with sadness. "That's my Darren."

  Chapter 7

  Riley

  I was grateful to see Darren on the stage waiting on me. Getting the text from him that I was in without submitting my audition material was the sign I needed. I hated to lie to Charlotte, but there was no way I was sending in a voice clip with me reading some sexy line. No way.

  "Hey. There's my girl." Darren turned and reached for me, pulling me into a quick hug. "You nervous?"

  My heart was beating a million miles a minute from seeing Ethan standing out in the parking lot. I'd done my best to ignore him, which might not have been the smartest move on my part, but I didn't care. I was there for the audition as a favor to Darren and to right the wrong of lying to Charlotte.

  Where Ethan Lewis was the hottest thing I'd ever laid eyes on, I wasn't going to hang on his every word, or treat him like the god he most likely thought himself to be. If nothing else, he would meet the one girl in LA that wouldn't hit her knees for him, no matter the size of his crotch cup.

  "Not at all." I stepped back and glanced around. "Any idea why they would let us in as one of the ten to make it through the door? We've been trying for this fo
r the last four years and coming up short."

  "I'm honestly not sure. Ethan's agent is my ex-wife, so I'm pretty sure she had no part in it. She's still pissed about us breaking it off." He glanced over my shoulder and let out a long sigh. "I miss her like a mother fucker, but she's a different woman now. Important and high on the horse. Watch yourself around her. She's not interested in anything but money. Got it?"

  "She sounds like you." I smirked and turned as a pretty Hispanic woman stepped up on the stage and extended her hand to me.

  "You must be Riley. I'm Deza, Ethan's agent." She glanced over at Darren. "Hi, Darren. Nice to see you again. Thanks for coming on such short notice."

  "Yep." He moved past her and hopped off the stage.

  "I appreciate the opportunity." I shook her hand and kept my eyes on her as Ethan jogged up the stage to stand beside her.

  "You look so familiar to me." He extended his hand as I turned my attention toward him. "Your picture didn't at all do you justice by the way."

  "No?" I shook his hand. "I'm Riley Phillips. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Lewis."

  He smirked. "It's Ethan. Please."

  "Sure." I turned back to Deza. "I'm supposed to be at work in a couple of hours. How long is the audition, and what does the timetable look like?"

  "A woman who can respect time, I like it." Ethan moved toward me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

  The smell of his cologne wrapped around me and dragged me farther in the need to whisper naughty things in his ear as we put on a show in front of everyone. I'd giggled half the night before, playing the scene over and over in my head.

  I wasn't getting the part, but it would be fun to fuck with the great Ethan Lewis. Even if to tell Charlotte all about it and nothing else.

  I pulled out from under his arm slowly, not being dramatic with my movements. "So?"

  "We're going to do the audition right now. It shouldn't take five minutes, and then you can go." Deza smiled, turned and walked off the stage.

  "I think she likes you." Ethan winked at me. His playfulness was cute, but I'd been around actors all my life. He was as fake as a mannequin in a department store.