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

by Ali Parker

  He chuckled and gripped my thighs as his eyes widened a little. My panties had slipped to the side, but I hadn't stopped rolling my hips, emulating sex. My wetness covered the tip of his dick, and the tension inside of me was ready to erupt into the orgasm of a lifetime.

  "Riley." He gripped my hips and bit his lip. "Stop."

  "Cut! What's going on? That was incredible. Why did we stop?" Frank called out from the side of the stage.

  I glanced over and smiled. "Wardrobe issues."

  Ethan was panting, his lips swollen and eyes dilated by the time I turned back to focus on him. The real need in his face ripped me open.

  "I'm sorry. What do you guys use during the actual filming?" I kept my voice steady as if it wasn't that big of a deal.

  "You're so wet." He glanced down and took a deep breath. "Fuck."

  "Hey." I tapped his chest. "Stay with me. We're acting here."

  "That's not acting." He lifted his hips, sliding against my center. I stifled a growl and tugged the sheet from his side, covering him as I got up and picked up my robe. I was so close to coming in front of all of the people watching us, but it wasn't happening.

  This wasn't a fucking porn. It was a major motion picture.

  "Are we done?" I walked down the stairs toward Frank with a calm smile on my face. I was holding on by a string. Never in my life had I wanted someone so badly. The afternoon with Jace did nothing now that I was faced with straddling the hottest man in America and getting confirmation that he did have something incredible tucked behind that cup I'd made fun of.

  "We can be. That was-" Frank started, but was cut off.

  "Beautiful." Deza stepped up in front of me, reaching up to touch my face. "You okay?"

  "I'm great." I turned and gave Ethan a smile. "You okay, or you want to do it again?"

  He pulled the sheet from the bed and wrapped it around his waist before walking down off the stage and leaving without another word.

  "Did I do something?" I looked back over at Deza, realizing that Charlotte was gone.

  "No. I told you that he's just in a mood." She shook her head. "That was intensely passionate. I loved it. I'll go check on him."

  "Where is Charlotte?" I glanced around.

  "Charlotte?" She walked with me toward the back of the room as the rest of the staff started to clap for us.

  "Jade?" I responded.

  Deza laughed and pointed to the women's restroom. "She almost fainted during the scene. I take it she's an uber fan?"

  "You take it right." I turned to walk to the bathroom, but paused as she called to me.

  "Riley..."

  "Yeah?" I glanced over my shoulder.

  "Great job today. I'll be in touch, but I think you know that you have my vote."

  "It's Ethan's vote that I'm worried about. He plays a dangerous game."

  "Don't we all?" She chuckled and turned from me.

  I walked past the bathroom back into the dressing room. To my surprise, he was sitting in the seat in the middle of the room. I closed the door and walked in, stopping short of standing in front of him.

  "Fuck you for that today." He narrowed his eyes on me. "You think you're cute coming in there with your perfect body, and your sexy little outfit. I'm a professional."

  "Are you?" I tilted my head to the side, grateful for the upcoming fight. The plan was to lock the door, press my back to it and fuck myself until I couldn't stand. That wasn’t happening.

  "Yes. You're not, and I'll be sure to let them know that." He stood up and let the blanket drop, putting his glorious body back on display. His cock was still rock hard and grabbed my attention again. How in the world did he work around having such a big erection to hide during love scenes? Never once in all the years of watching his movies had I ever seen his goods.

  "Do what you need to do, Ethan. I came out fully dressed and we were dry humping as part of the scene they chose. I can't help that this strip of panties moved." I pulled off my robe, wanting him to suffer as much as I was with him looking so fucking good and within arm’s length of me. "And if I recall it was you that whispered something inappropriate at me in the middle of the fucking scene."

  He shrugged and walked to the door as I let my eyes move down to the perfect swell of his ass. "Then I guess we're even."

  "Fuck you too, Mr. Lewis." I put my back to him and walked toward the mirror, bending over and sliding my pantyhose over one leg and then the other.

  "You're honestly the most beautiful woman I've seen in a long time." His voice deflated, causing the anger to rush from me immediately. "Don't let me near you, Riley."

  "Why?" I glanced over my shoulder, not giving him an inch.

  "Cause I'm not sure if I ever got ahold of you that I'd be willing to let go." He gave me a weak smile and walked out of the room, leaving me with far too many emotions warring deep inside of me.

  Chapter 14

  Ethan

  I shut the door to her dressing room and leaned against the wall, covering myself and trying to catch my breath. I couldn't ever remember feeling so much at once. After pretending to feel half of my life, I wasn't sure how to do it properly anymore.

  Deza rounded the corner and jogged toward me, real concern on her face.

  "What the hell is wrong?" She stopped in front of me and glanced down where I was cupping the top of my dick. "Did something happen?"

  "No. I left my robe in there, and I have a hard-on. No biggie, other than everyone around here has a fucking camera on their phones. I'm not walking out there half-naked." I shrugged and nodded toward another dressing room. "Get me the robe out of there, please?"

  "Sure." She turned and walked across the hall as I closed my eyes and let out a shaky breath. My cock was pulsing violently as I was close to release over the pretty girl in the room behind me. How she drove me so close to the edge was disgusting... disgusting and addictive.

  Deza handed me the robe and lifted her eyebrow. "What's going on with you? I feel like I'm missing out on something here."

  I turned and pulled my robe on, tightening it as the bathroom door down the hall opened and Riley's blond friend stepped out, stopping short as she saw me.

  "It's nothing, D. Let it go." I walked down the hall and extended my hand to the girl. "Jade. It was nice to meet you today. Make sure you celebrate tonight with Riley. I'm pretty sure she's going to get this part. If it were up to me, it would be hers for sure."

  "Charlotte," the girl murmured.

  "Okay, good stuff." I patted her arm and walked back out into the studio before making a beeline to my trailer. I nodded at the guard and closed the door behind me, not waiting another minute to tug my robe open and take myself over the edge. I wasn't a sex fiend and yet Riley did something to me that left me wanting to go into porn as long as she was my partner.

  I groaned her name as my eyes closed. I was back there on the bed, but her little stitch of wet cloth was gone. The sound of her panting drove me over the edge, and I lifted off the chair I was sitting in as my body exploded.

  "Fuck," I growled and drove into my tight grip until I was shaking. "I need to get laid, or get a beer. Or both."

  A knock at the door had me cursing. I grabbed some jeans and pulled them over my legs. My dick was sticking out of the top of the pants too far to play it off. I growled and pulled a t-shirt over the top of my head before jogging down the small steps to the trailer door. I opened it to find Riley standing at the bottom in a pretty dress, her eyes filled with hurt.

  "Do you really think I meant to do that today?" Her lip quivered.

  Damn.

  "No." I reached down and grabbed her hand. "Come here."

  She walked up into the trailer and sat down in the first seat she came to, crossing her hands in her lap and watching me. I felt like a different man around her, one that wanted to give a shit about life, about people, about her.

  "I would never do that to you. I'm not one of those crazy bitches who licks your picture poster outside of the movies. I'm a
starting actress, trying hard to play this game and impress someone." Her eyes filled with tears. "Anyone." She glanced down at her hands as a soft sob left her. "I should go."

  "Hey. You really saw someone lick my poster?" I moved to kneel in front of her and touched her hands. "That's fucking awesome."

  She laughed and wiped at her tears. "Yeah. I got pictures of it."

  "Let me see." I reached up and wiped at a tear as it rolled down her soft cheek.

  Kiss her. Now.

  Damn, I wanted to, but it was what would have happened in the movies, not in real life. I was tired of following a script. She and I would be working together side by side for ten months at the very least. We had a lot of untapped angst and passion that was sure to make a great movie, but I needed to be careful. Really careful.

  "No, you're not seeing it. It will just make your head bigger." She laughed again and wiped her eyes. "I'm really sorry. I would-"

  "Me too. I was being a dick because I was turned on, but it wasn't you. It was Trish. She came in before you, and I've had a hard-on for that woman since I was ten." I forced a fake laugh, hating myself for lying to her.

  She glanced up and nodded. "Oh. Yeah. Absolutely. She's so incredibly talented."

  She was hurt by me taking back the power she might have thought she had over me. She stood, half knocking me backward.

  "Anyway, I just didn't want you to misunderstand. I'm here to hopefully get a part in this movie, but if not... It just wasn't meant to be." She squared her shoulders, and I realized I'd fucked up. I'd lost her again.

  "You'll get it, and we'll protect each other like I promised you up there. Half the joy of working with someone you connect with is teasing each other and having fun." I slid my hands into my jeans pockets and shrugged. "Just remember it’s all part of the show. It's not real, you know."

  "Of course. Thanks for seeing me." She walked toward the door as indecision tore me in half.

  "Wait."

  "What's up?" She turned from the bottom of the stairs, her expression deadpan as if she were talking to a drive-through attendant.

  "You want to grab some dinner or something?" I pulled my hands from my pockets and crossed them over my chest, hoping to hide how badly my heart was racing. Was I asking a girl out for the first time at twenty-four?

  Yeah, I was.

  "I appreciate it, but I have a date. Thanks again for today. Nice to work with you, Mr. Lewis."

  I rolled my eyes. "This again? Are you not ever going to call me Ethan?"

  "The first time I see a human emerge, I'll be sure to call you by your name." She shrugged as she pulled the door open. "Until then, you're what everyone thinks you are. High and mighty, but me... I'm just one of the little people."

  "Riley." I walked toward her as the door shut. A growl ripped from me. How had things gotten so fucking out of control over nothing?

  I kicked the chair in front of me, breaking my toe and sending the thing to bounce around the front of the trailer.

  "Fuck!" I yelled and walked to the back room, dropping down to the edge of the bed and sliding my hands over my face. The script would tell me to go after her, to catch her in the parking lot and pull her close. To kiss her perfectly soft lips and grip her with my strong arms. To tell her that I want her, that we would work things out...

  "Work out what? She's a fucking stranger." I laid back. "What's wrong with me?"

  The image of her above me, sliding along my shaft as she enjoyed herself rolled over me, and I began to question the scene. Was she enjoying herself or was she just that good? Her moans and the tight press of her fingers into my back as she undulated her hips and pretended to work me said she wanted more of me. All of me.

  I groaned and pressed my hands tighter to my face as anger burned through me. It was a lie. All of it. My whole fucking life was a set of lines that could be erased with the pink end of a pencil.

  "She was wet." I jerked up and took a sharp breath. "She was wet."

  Getting up, I jogged to the front of the trailer and pulled the door open, almost running into Deza. I gripped her arms and let out a short laugh. "She was wet."

  The guard beside us choked on his soda, spitting it out on the ground beside him.

  "What are you going on about?" She popped me in the face softly. "Get it together. We have a press conference tonight at the Marriott. It's over the tryouts and our plans to continue to involve new and upcoming stars. Fix your hair and get that pinstriped suit that makes you look like a god. Now."

  "Deza." I got in her face and pressed my forehead to hers. "Riley was acting like that scene didn't mean shit to her, and yet... she was wet."

  "Are you really telling me this like I want to know how you know that she was wet?" She pushed at my chest a little. "I told you that you're not crossing the lines."

  "I'm not. Her fucking panties slid over during the scene. That's why I stopped it, thank you very much." I moved back and put my hands on my hips. "Thank you very much, Ethan, for being a gentleman."

  She pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "We can't make this shit up, right?"

  The guard chuckled beside us as I smiled. "All I'm saying is that she's not immune to me."

  Deza jerked her head toward me as she narrowed her eyes. "It's irrelevant."

  "Agreed. I'm not doing anything about it, BUT... she was wet."

  "Say it again and I'm casting you as the sex slave in Dani's next Barbarian film."

  I pretended to zip my lips and turned, jogging back into my trailer to get ready for the press conference. No matter what, Riley was getting the part with me. It was almost exhilarating to think about teasing her to the edge of need and never once touching her.

  Game on.

  *

  "Mr. Lewis. Can you tell us how you got your start in the acting business? I know a lot of us have heard the story, but we would love to hear it again." A dark-haired woman in the front row of the crowd stood and addressed me.

  Deza sat on my right and Frank on my left. The rest of the cast from the last movie was there. Everyone but my last co-star. They hadn't offered her the part in the next film, so she was rather upset and unwilling to play friendly at all. I wasn't sure what the poor girl wanted us to do. She was offed in the last film. No way in hell were we pulling a daytime soap opera move and bringing her back from the grave. My lip lifted at the thought.

  "Sure. I had an audition for a grape juice commercial when I was a kid, and my parents thought I was a funny little guy, so they took me up there, and I got it." I glanced up at the screen to my left. "Guys, can you get the commercial up? Just a bit of comic relief for us."

  They played the commercial, and the whole room made funny sounds over me being so cute. I swallowed my sarcasm and smiled, trapping the real me behind the tight clasp of my teeth.

  "Thank you," Deza whispered.

  "Another question?" Frank called out.

  "Me." A tall gentleman stood. "Gerald Bismalt from People Magazine."

  "Hi Gerald." I pressed my hands to my slacks beneath the table and tried to remind myself that we had another forty minutes and then I could get the fuck out of there. I loved acting, but being the center of a live event was exhausting. It required me to pay attention, act right and address people in a professional manner. No, no and no.

  "Word on the street here in Hollywood is that your newest co-star for Down Low might actually be a first-time actress. Can you confirm or deny that claim?"

  Deza jumped in, standing up to gain everyone's attention, including mine.

  "I'll address that, as Ethan and the rest of the crew are under a confidentiality contract. We are having a great time with some new innovative ideas for this upcoming film. One of those things was to have an open casting call for this new movie. We received over four hundred applicants by the time we stopped taking applications. We narrowed it down to ten, and now we're at three. We'll be making our decision over the next two weeks, but yes, one of the candidates is a fi
rst-time film actress. She's a student at UCLA and we're very proud to have met her if nothing else."

  "Wow. That's great. I'll let someone else have a turn." Gerald sat down as I stood up and smiled.

  "Bathroom break for me." I turned and walked off the stage before worming my way through the horde of reporters standing just outside the room. "Excuse me."

  I kept myself in check the whole way to the restroom, though it was the last thing I wanted to do. I needed a quick break before I faced any more of their probing questions.

  I thought about texting her to alert her to the fact that she should check out the press conference since she was mentioned, but decided against it. She was on a date… or so she said. Why the fuck was I even trying anyway? Her mood swings were almost as bad as mine, and I could barely stand myself.

  Besides, the girl who shed a few tears in my trailer today wasn't Riley Phillips. It was just one of her many faces, and she'd played me, much like I'd done her.

  We would be a smoking hot match made in hell.

  Chapter 15

  Riley

  "Hey. You okay?" Charlotte reached over and touched my arm. I hadn't realized that I was trembling until she said something.

  "What? Yeah. I'm good." I forced a smile and turned the radio on as she dropped her hand from me.

  "It's me, dude. No putting on that fake-ass mask and pretending. Are you overwhelmed because it was Ethan Lewis or is it something else? That was a smoking hot scene. Are you just turned on? Because I'm turned on."

  I laughed at her. She was talking a million miles a minute, which was nothing new. She always did when she was nervous.

  "I'm trying to process everything." I shrugged, forcing myself to calm down. "Ethan is insanely hot, but when I was up there on stage, I wasn't me, Char. I was Stacy Develin, the woman that was completely in love with the sorry bastard beneath me. I slipped into her skin. The passion and heat are all part of it. It had nothing to do with Ethan until he acted like a child about it."