Dad leaned forward and gave Jacob a conspiratorial glance. “She got that from her mother—Anne ‘advises’ me quite frequently too.”
Mom laughed and elbowed Dad. “Hush, you! Anyway, Jacob, please come in.”
“Wait, wait,” Dad said, holding his hands up. “He says he’s not much of a football fan. So I’m going to have to take him out the back and—”
“Shoot me?” Jacob said.
“That too, but I was going to say I could teach you some throws. My daughter might have less work to do on your set, then.”
Dad winked at me, and I could tell what he was doing. He was trying to give me and Mom some time alone to gossip about how I’d met Jacob and ensnared him, and he also wanted some time alone with Jacob to gauge what sort of man was and see if he was good enough for his daughter. A pang of guilt bit at my guts, but I pushed it aside and nodded.
“We’ll go get some drinks and snacks,” I said, linking arms with Mom, who was still sneaking disbelieving glances at Jacob.
When we got inside, she busied herself by setting some cookies out on a big plate, and then she gave me one of those faux-nonchalant looks that mothers are so good at.
“So you’re dating a movie star, are you?”
I gulped. “Yes.”
“Why haven’t you mentioned this before now? You told me your boyfriend was an accountant.”
“No, I said actor,” I lied. “Accountant and actor both start with ‘ac’ so maybe you misheard.”
She gave me a suspicious look. “Mm. I’m sure I did. Why haven’t I seen or read anything about this in my magazines? Last I heard of Jacob Archer, he was involved in some sort of tryst with a bikini model and the host—”
I cut her off. “Mom, those are just rumors. He doesn’t do half the stuff the media says he does.”
“So he does do some of the stuff?”
“Mom…”
“Sorry, sorry,” she said, waving her hand at me. “I just worry.”
“I’m fine, Mom. We’re trying to keep things quiet because it’s still pretty new. That’s why no one knows yet. So please don’t go calling any of your favorite magazines and informing them of my love life.”
“I won’t. But do you really…”
She trailed off and nervously tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear, and I raised my eyebrows. “Do I really what?”
She sighed. “Never mind. I’m already your second favorite parent. We should wait to see what your father says.”
“Mom!” I said, slinging my arm around her. “You aren’t my second favorite! You’re my favorite mother and Dad is my favorite father. That’s how it is and you know it.”
She smiled. “Good.”
“Now tell me what you were going to say.”
“I just…I just wonder if dating a guy like Jacob Archer is the right decision for you. I know you said the media likes to make up stuff, but he still does some of the things they report on, and I’ve seen pictures of this man drunkenly spilling out of nightclubs and posing with women dressed like…well, you know what I mean. Wouldn’t you rather be with someone stable?”
I smiled. “You don’t approve of your daughter dating your favorite TV doctor?”
“It’s not that I don’t approve,” she insisted. “He seemed perfectly nice when you introduced him to us. I just worry because…I’ve never told you this, but I dated a man like him once, before I met your father.”
My eyebrows shot up. “You dated an actor?”
She waved her hand. “No, no. I mean a party kind of guy. Always up for a good time, and so on. He seemed so charming and fun at first, but he turned out to be…not so nice. I just worry about the same thing happening to you.”
“I’ll be okay.”
“Maybe, but a mother can’t just turn off her worries,” she replied.
I sighed. “Mom, I get it. On the surface he seems totally wrong for me. We’re so different in every way, and he has this crazy, larger than life personality and bad boy rep. But he’s actually a really good guy. He’s a good boyfriend.”
I was technically lying because Jacob wasn’t my boyfriend, but I found myself genuinely meaning the words anyway. Jacob was a good guy. He did seem totally wrong for me at first, for obvious reasons, but now…now I didn’t think so. I felt like all his differing traits balanced me out, and being with him today had left me feeling more content than I had in a long time. With James, I’d always felt on edge, wondering when I’d discover his next untruth, but there was none of that when I hung around Jacob. None of that at all.
Just…happiness.
“That’s good to hear,” Mom said softly. “I’m very glad. Well, I’ll give him a chance. But if I see a photo of him with a stripper anytime soon, you can warn him that I’ll be paying him a visit.”
I laughed. “Thanks, Mom.”
The side door opened, and Dad and Jacob came in a few seconds later.
“This young man has the worst spiral throw I’ve ever seen,” Dad announced as he grabbed a cookie. “You’ll need to train him better, sweetheart.”
I laughed. “I’ll try.”
Jacob winked at me, and in that moment, my heart melted. I tried to remind myself that this wasn’t real and he wasn’t really my boyfriend, but I had great difficulty with that task for a reason which was becoming increasingly apparent by the second.
I still wanted him.
Chapter Fourteen
Jacob
“Nora, would you help me chop some vegetables for the salad? I was about to get started on dinner before you arrived. I assume you two will be staying for that?”
Anne looked at her daughter expectantly, and Nora nodded and headed over to the fridge to get out some salad ingredients.
“Would you like some help?” I asked.
“I’ve seen your coordination. Nora’s right; you’re a baboon,” Roy said with a grunt. “You’ll slice your hand open. Why don’t we go sit down with a beer instead?”
“But thanks for the offer,” Anne added with a smile.
Roy grabbed me a drink from the fridge, and I went and joined him in the living room, where a football game was being televised on a big screen. Roy muted it, then turned to me and held his beer up. “Cheers, Jacob. Thanks for coming. Anne was starting to think Nora was completely making up this boyfriend of hers.”
“Well, I’m definitely real,” I said with a grin.
“That you are,” he replied. “So you’re a big movie star, huh?”
“I guess I will be once Fourth Down is out.”
“Yes, I’ve heard it’s going to be huge when it premieres. How’s Nora doing on it?”
“Very well. Your daughter is great at her job.”
“Yes, we’re very proud of her,” he said, leaning closer. “And we’re very protective of her too.”
The message was clear: Don’t mess with Nora’s heart.
I didn’t intend to. I never wanted to hurt her. Ever.
“That’s good,” I replied. “Nora is very lucky to have so many people watching out for her.”
He nodded, seemingly satisfied with my response. “Want to come help me grill some steaks when the girls are finished making the salad and potatoes?”
“Sure. Don’t think I can injure myself too badly doing that.”
“We’ll see,” he said with a chuckle.
We sat and watched the game on TV while we finished our beers, and then I followed Roy into the kitchen. It was a huge room with a large island counter and one side which seemed entirely devoted to barbecuing, and I helped Roy season and sear some steaks as Nora and Anne set the table in the next room.
“Thanks for staying for dinner,” Nora whispered as she brushed past me with some utensils.
I winked. “No worries. Kinda had to, seeing as we got here so late. What’s happening with Oscar, though?”
“I texted Angie earlier. She’s got a spare key to my place, so she’s stopped by to feed him and let him out for a while.”
“Cool.”
I missed that gorgeous mutt of hers….almost as much as I missed seeing her in lingerie like I had that first night.
When the steaks were done, Roy and I took them into the dining room, where Nora was finishing clearing up the far end of the table to make room for an enormous salad bowl.
“What’s this, Mom?” she asked, holding up a white card with ‘A+’ printed on it. “You going back to school?”
Anne looked over at her, eyebrows raised. “What? Oh, no, we went to donate blood yesterday, and apparently that’s my blood type. Just give me that; I’ll stick it in the drawer.”
There was another card underneath the first one which read ‘AB+’, and Anne quickly filed the cards away in a sideboard on the other side of the room before returning to the table. “Dig in, everyone.”
The evening passed at a leisurely pace, and during our extensive conversation at the dinner table, I realized I was already totally comfortable in Nora’s childhood home despite the fact that we were tricking her parents into thinking we were together. I felt bad for that, but if I ever managed to get Nora to be with me for real, then it wouldn’t be a lie, and her parents would never need to know of the deception.
I could only hope.
“I hear you two got a dog,” Roy said as we dug into dessert later in the evening.
“Oscar? He’s Nora’s dog,” I said. “I love that boy, he’s the sweetest little thing. But yeah—he lives with her, not me.”
“Ah. So you’re not shacking up or anything yet,” he said, flashing Anne a conspiratorial glance.
Nora threw a balled-up napkin at him. “You two are so obvious. You could’ve just asked us if we’re living together or not. We’re not, by the way.”
“I have my own house,” I added with a chuckle.
“Well, it’s getting quite late. Jacob, you’re welcome to stay here at our house for the night, so you two don’t have to make the drive back to L.A. at this time of night,” Roy said.
Nora looked horrified. “No, Dad, it’s okay. It’s not that late. It’s only seven-thirty.”
“I don’t like these roads when it’s raining at night, and this weather has been godawful,” Roy said. “Your mother and I didn’t come down in the last shower, so we know you two will want to share a room. That’s fine; your old room is all made up.”
Nora’s eyes were getting wider by the second, and she looked like she was about to go into cardiac arrest. “But…”
“No buts. We don’t want either of you on the road while it’s raining. We’ve got new toothbrushes and the like for any guests. You know where it all is, sweetie. And your brother still has a lot of his old clothes here. Jacob can borrow some to sleep in.”
“Thank you,” I said. ”That’s very nice of you to offer.”
Roy looked satisfied and started talking to Anne about where the guest towels were, and I leaned over to Nora. “Don’t worry, I’ll sleep on the floor.”
“No, I will,” she whispered back. “I’m the one who got us into this mess in the first place.”
“I will. I insist.”
She gave me a tight smile. “We’ll figure it out when we get upstairs.”
We went into the living room and watched a movie with her parents, and by nine-thirty, Roy was yawning. “I think it’s time we called it a night. Been up since six,” he said, slinging an arm around Anne’s shoulder. “We’ll just go clear the kitchen up, and then we’ll see you two in the morning. Nora, show Jacob around upstairs, will you?”
“Sure.”
“All right. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” Nora and I replied in unison.
We trudged upstairs, and Nora pointed out the bathroom before ducking into her brother’s old room to grab some spare clothes for me.
“I’m so sorry about this,” she said a moment later, handing me a small pile of folded clothes. “You must’ve had other plans for tonight, right?”
“It’s cool. Nothing special. Just some premiere thing I was invited to. Probably wasn’t going to go anyway.”
“You didn’t have a date or anything?” Nora asked.
I grinned. She wasn’t exactly being subtle about prying for information on my love life, but I didn’t mind. I liked that she was curious about that aspect of my life; it gave me hope. “No, no date planned,” I replied. “Like I was saying, I probably wasn’t going to go.”
She didn’t respond and simply led me farther down the hall. When she finally opened her bedroom door, I stepped in and grinned as I took it all in—the sports posters and memorabilia, the photos, the old stuffed animals sitting on a shelf.
“So this was your room, huh?”
She gave me an embarrassed smile. “Yeah. Anyway, while you get changed, I’ll just go get some spare blankets from the linen cupboard and lay them out on the floor to sleep on.”
“You really don’t have to sleep on the floor. I’ll do it,” I said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Can’t let a lady sleep on the ground. That’d just be wrong,” I said with a roguish wink.
I expected her to laugh, but she blushed instead and ducked her head down as she slipped out of the room to grab the spare sheets and blankets. I quickly got changed into the clean T-shirt and boxer shorts she’d just given me, and then I left the room too, suddenly thirsty.
I bumped into Nora in the hall. “I’m just going to grab a glass of water,” I said, trying to ignore how damn sexy she looked. At some point in the last couple of minutes, she’d taken off her sweater, and the cool air in the hall was making her nipples stand to attention under her thin shirt.
“Okay,” she said softly. “I’ll see you back up here in a minute.”
I trudged downstairs and quietly padded toward the kitchen, where I could hear Anne and Roy talking in hushed voices. I assumed they were just clearing up like they’d said they were going to, but as I drew closer, I paused. Their conversation sounded quite serious, and it seemed to be about Nora.
“She could’ve easily found out. You saw how close it was earlier,” Anne said.
“It wasn’t close. Don’t be silly, darling, we’ve been doing this for almost been twenty-five years. She’s never going to know, and she never needs to. I thought that’s what we agreed.”
Anne sighed. “I know, but now that he’s actually…well, you know what I mean. I just feel like we should come clean.”
“We decided it was best not to for a very good reason. What she doesn’t know can’t hurt her. Do you really want to risk hurting her?” Roy said.
“I suppose not,” Anne said with another sigh.
“I’m just trying to protect her. And you too, honey. I know this bothers you sometimes, but I do think it’s for the best.”
“I know.”
I coughed to announce my presence, and then I stepped into the kitchen. “Sorry, just need to grab a drink.”
“Oh, of course, Jacob,” Anne said, scurrying over to get me a glass. “We weren’t being too loud, were we?”
She looked anxious, and I knew what she was really asking in polite code. She and Roy wanted to see how much I’d overheard.
I smiled. “No, I didn’t even know you two were still in here until I walked in,” I said, watching as their faces fell with relief.
Yep, they’d definitely been talking about Nora. If it was anyone else, they wouldn’t have cared so much if I overheard, but seeing as they thought I was her boyfriend, they didn’t want me knowing anything about their subject of discussion in case I passed it onto her, as boyfriends tended to do.
“Thanks for the drink,” I said once I’d downed the water. “I’ll just put this in the dishwasher.”
“Thanks, Jacob. Hope you sleep well,” Roy said, patting me on the shoulder.
I smiled, bade the two of them goodnight and then headed back upstairs, intent on telling Nora about the odd exchange I’d inadvertently overheard. I never got the chance to do so, however, due to the sight which greeted me as I swung her bedroom door open.<
br />
She was standing in the middle of the room…and she was buck naked.
Chapter Fifteen
Nora
It was now or never.
I stood in the center of my old bedroom, my skin tingling and prickling with goosebumps as Jacob stared at me from the doorway with wide eyes. He was probably used to being the one who made all the first moves with women, but I’d decided to shake things up. I wanted him, and part of me suspected he still wanted me too.
So what better way to find out?
“Shit. Sorry, I didn’t realize you were getting changed,” Jacob said.
“I wasn’t. I was waiting for you,” I said, taking a step toward him.
His eyebrows shot up, and I smiled, enjoying seeing him in shock for once. This wasn’t like me at all, and he knew it, but being around him made me feel like I could be someone else. I could be brave and larger than life, just like him. After all, he pulled it off, so why couldn’t I?
I began to second-guess myself exactly two seconds later.
Shit, what if I couldn’t pull this off? Jacob was a smoking hot guy with a stellar acting career, so of course he could make risky moves and stand around naked without fear of rejection. I was just an average person. He probably thought I was a total idiot for doing this, and he was probably trying to think of a nice way to turn me down.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. “I shouldn’t…”
Before I could say any more, Jacob’s lips were on mine. Hard. His kiss was ravenous, holding a promise of more to come, and I melted against him. His palms cradled my cheeks and our mouths parted, and then his tongue was entwining with mine, exploring my mouth, sending a rush of excitement through my system as I waited for more, craving it and begging for it with every moan that escaped my mouth between kisses.
He paused to rip his T-shirt off, and then he ran his hands over my breasts and up along my collarbone, before holding my face again and pressing his lips back to mine. God, if his kisses felt like this, I could only imagine what his cock felt like deep inside of me.
I panted for breath as he left a trail of kisses from my mouth to my chest. He filled his mouth with my left nipple, rolling his tongue around the stiff nub. In mere seconds, I was wet and tingling, full of desire. My hands wrapped around his waist, squeezing his ass and fumbling at the boxers he’d put on. I pulled them down, and they fell to the ground. My eyes closed as my hands wrapped around his hard cock. I squeezed him ever so slightly, and he groaned against me, his mouth crashing back against mine as I stroked him.
Wrong (Hollywood Bad Boys) Page 9