by Alexis Anne
Her eyes went round. “I—I don’t know anything about his past . . . women,” she stammered.
“You’re a terrible liar.”
She winced. “How much has he told you about his past?” She moved away from me and toward the windows, clearly trying to put some distance between us. It was a move Colt was also fond of.
I followed. “I assumed everything. He told me about his arrangements.”
She twisted her hands. “Then you know that it’s exactly how it sounds. They were arrangements and nothing else.”
“Except?” Because clearly there was an exception I didn’t know about.
“His first arrangement. Louisa.”
Ugh. I hated having a name. A name was something I could picture and twist. “What about her?”
Christina swallowed and looked away. I hated that I was making her so uncomfortable but I needed information before I went upstairs and went nuclear.
“She works for one of the suppliers Landry Ranch has partnered with for years. She and Colt only met up on trips since they took so many together.”
“And they still do.”
“It’s not like that. Certainly not since you.”
I didn’t stay to hear anything else. I was too mad. Did I have a right to my anger? I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that Colt was mine and the very idea he saw one of his women on a regular basis was creating a level of jealousy in me I’d never felt before.
Which was why I didn’t go to Colt. Oh no. I went to my room and changed. It wouldn’t be safe for anyone if saw Colt, especially Colt.
I went to the set and I made my last day of filming count. My emotions ran so high I was certain it was my best day yet. The crew even clapped when I finished one scene.
And yet none of that mattered, not when my heart was aching so deeply.
“Great last day, Lily. Truly excellent work. I’m pretty sure we just put your Academy Award in the can.” Ted patted my back. “What’s wrong?”
“Everything.”
His eyebrows shot up. “What’s going on?” He hurried to keep up with me as I stormed to the cart that would bring me back up to the house.
“I just have some shit to work out before I pack.”
“Pack? I thought you were staying?”
“So did I.” I jumped onto the back of the cart just as it took off. “I’ll update you when I know more.”
* * *
I SAT on Colt’s bed waiting for him to finish work. I’d decided I wasn’t going to do anything foolish. I just needed an address so I could go give this woman a warning to stay away from my man.
Fuck. When had I become such a jealous woman? Probably right around the time Colt said he enjoyed poetry. I really was a goner from moment one, wasn’t I? How could I not be? Handsome, smart, incredible in bed . . . Colt was one of a kind.
And he was mine.
Not even possessive mothers could change that.
“Hey!” He grinned as soon as he saw me. “How was the last day of shooting?”
“They say it will win me an Oscar.”
He fist pumped the air and slid out of his blazer, loosening his tie.
“Who is Louisa?”
He froze with his hand on his tie. His eyes slowly rose to meet mine. “I get the feeling I don’t need to answer that.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you still see her?”
He pulled the tie free and set it on top of his blazer, then unbuttoned his top two buttons. “Because I didn’t want to upset you? Because she doesn’t matter?”
“When was the last time you slept with her?”
He took a deep breath and looked down as he shucked off his shoes. “I’m not exactly sure.”
“Give me a ballpark.”
“Probably about ten months ago. Right after I ended my last arrangement but before you.”
Yeah, that jealousy exploded and multiplied. “So she’s the one you always go back to?”
“That’s one way to look at it.” He crossed the room so he was standing directly in front of me. “It was sex and it was business. That’s it. I have zero feelings for her.”
Not that I could comprehend that right then. “How would you feel if my mother suddenly appeared, threatened you away from dating me, and then when you refused, she told you I’d been slightly dishonest about my ex-lover that I still saw at work?”
“What?” he barked. “My mother did this? I’m going to kill her.” He started for the door. “I didn’t even know she was here. Grayson!” He yelled out the open door.
And then as if all my words sank in he turned. “Wait . . . did you say she threatened you?” He slammed the door closed again and was across the room in a flash. “What’s going on?”
I collapsed backward on the bed. “Where do I even start?”
“How about with the threat?” He was growling now.
I normally liked it when he took on that protective caveman vibe, but not today. Today it was a little exhausting considering I’d spent the whole day in that mode.
One caveperson at a time.
“She thinks I’m here to ruin Christina’s election chances.” Colt had a really nice carved wood ceiling. I’d stared up at it so many times over the last few months but hadn’t fully appreciated how easy it was to get lost in the design until now.
Of course I was usually pretty turned on when I was looking up. So there was that.
“Why would she think that?”
So I explained the whole thing. How I was connected to the McKinley’s, why she thought my family problems would give them a reason to use me, why she couldn’t take a chance.
“I mean, I can see where she’s coming from but it’s clearly not true. We’ll just ignore her,” he said from beside me. When I turned my head to look at him he must have seen something in my eyes. “Shit. What else?”
“You remember Ted telling everyone I ‘saved him’ back at that first dinner we had here?” Touching Colt was my favorite thing, so I rolled to my side and cupped his face.
“Yes?”
“Well there’s a story there. A story I thought no one knew.”
“Oh.” His jaw snapped shut, the muscle flexing so hard I worried he’d break a tooth.
“It’s probably time you heard it. Maybe it will help you understand my friendship with Ted.” God it hurt to dig up memories best left buried in the past where they belonged. “You already know I had a weird childhood but Ted’s was just as lonely.” I spent so many nights with Ted just for the company. In a way we formed our own little family. “Ted’s dad worked constantly and slept with everyone. It was creepy to be around him so we avoided him as much as possible. Ted’s mom was completely absent, usually at a party with my parents if she was in town. At some point Ted started drinking. I don’t really remember when. It all blurs together now.”
“I think I see where this is going.” He brushed a hand through my hair.
“I don’t think you do. I guess it was the typical spiral. That much you probably get. Lonely teenagers with money start drinking, then it’s drugs.”
“Did you?”
In my house? With my parents? “Hell no. I drank sometimes, but that was it. The difference between Ted and me was that his parents kept everything away from him. He didn’t wake up to ten naked adults passed out in his living room.”
“So he didn’t know how bad it could get?” Colt guessed.
“Exactly. If he wasn’t drunk he was high, and about to get expelled from school. He’d already been arrested twice at this point and his parents only cared because of the reputation he was getting. I think that was the straw that broke the camel’s back—the day he realized they were never going to give a shit about him. I got a call in the middle of the night.” I shook my head as if it would shake the memories away. I would never forget the desperation in his voice. “He was losing it. Begging me to come help him. I had no idea what had happened, but my friend needed me, so I went.”
“I think I’m beginning to
understand your friendship.”
Relief swelled inside me. “He’s like a brother. I love him, Colt, but when I say there’s never been anything between us, I mean it.”
He nodded, but didn’t say anything. That was just one of those things that was going to take time, but I finally believed Ted and Colt would find their footing with each other.
“Ted had started hanging out with these assholes. They were the ones that kept his drug habit topped off, and that night, they were the ones who decided it would be a great idea to rob a string of houses in a rich neighborhood. When I got to Ted he was in the backyard of one of those houses, high as a kite, puke everywhere . . . he had so much in his system. So did everyone. There was no doubt in my mind the police would be there any minute so I grabbed Ted and took him back to my house. It was the one time I called my Uncle Oliver and asked for his help. He got Ted checked into a rehabilitation facility. But by then Ted had burned through all his money buying drugs. His parents were useless, so I paid for the facility.”
“You’re a good friend to stand by him through all that. I can see why he adores you.” Colt’s eyes were soft, no hint of jealousy in sight—just admiration.
And that made the next part a little harder to confess. “Everyone was arrested that night. Everyone except Ted. This is why that night is such a secret and why your mother has something to hold over me.”
His whole face hardened into a fiery rage. “I’m going to strangle her.”
“You don’t have to strangle her. She’s just protecting her family—a lot like someone else I know.”
He closed his eyes and pressed into my hand. “But my life isn’t her business. It hasn’t been since she handed her eighteen year old son a massive company and walked away.” He took on so much, so young. I’d never stop admiring him for that. “So what happened to Ted?”
“Security camera footage was released from that night. Almost every house had one and in each case there was one person who was never identified. Someone wearing a hoodie. By some miracle Ted managed to keep his hood down enough and stay far away enough from all the cameras that there isn’t one clear shot of him. And since everyone was so drunk and high, no one could remember who was missing from the group that was arrested.”
“Ted got off but his friends didn’t.”
“And while Hollywood can forgive a lot of shit, it doesn’t like traitors. There’s a blacklist and if you’re on it, you don’t work. The mystery man is on that list.”
“But if no one knew Ted was there that night, why is any of this a problem?”
Because we live in the smallest world. “There have always been five names floating around as possibilities, but there were only four people who knew the truth. Ted, me, his girlfriend, and her father. She’d left earlier in the night so she wasn’t there when they decided to go on a spree. She felt guilty for introducing Ted to that group, and for what happened that night, so she never said anything.”
“Except somehow my mother knows something?”
Stupid small worlds. “Phoenix’s father is the current governor of California and one of your mother’s good friends.”
Somehow Colt got stuck on the wrong information. “Ted dated Phoenix Rammage?” He sat up.
I rolled my eyes. “I know she’s hot and all but could we stick to the story before I lose the will to tell it?” I should have known even Colt would have a crush on the super model.
“No, it’s not like that.” He shot me a look. “I mean, she’s obviously good looking. That’s a given. I was just surprised because I know Phoenix. It’s weird that a friend from my childhood dated your best friend.”
It was about to get weirder. “Well, they did. We’ll call Ted her young mistake, okay? Anyway, she had photos from earlier in the night. In several of them is the whole gang—including Phoenix and Ted. And Ted is wearing a hoodie. When your mother met with the governor last week to discuss her fears of a McKinley spy on Christina’s campaign, he gave her those photos, along with Ted’s credit card transactions from the hour before at the gas station down the street from where the burglaries took place. If that information got out it would end Ted’s career.”
“Fuck.” Colt rolled onto his back, pulling me with him, tucking me into his side. “My mother is something else. She must really be worried.”
“I always knew there was a nasty side to Hollywood.” I kissed his chest. “And now I know there’s a nasty side to politics as well.”
“But this involves me, Lily. She went behind my back and threatened you.” His arms tightened around me. “I am so angry right now and I don’t know what to do with it.”
“Tell me you’ll never see Louisa again.”
I was quickly hauled on top of Colt, my legs straddling his hips. “Louisa who?” And then with his hands holding my hips in place he surged up. “I think I just had a brilliant idea of what to do with all this energy.”
“Sex?” It was an inappropriately perfect idea. “Really?”
He bounced his eyebrows. “I’m angry, you’re angry. You just told me a ton of shit that I’m sure is making your head go crazy. Let’s work it out together.”
And because it was a decent idea, I stood over him and shucked off my jeans. Naked from the bottom down I straddled him again. “Tell me you’ll never see her again.” I wanted to hear the exact words from his mouth as he looked into my eyes.
He slid his hands up my thighs and back up to my hips, catching my gaze. “I have never been in love before you. I have never had sex that I felt inside the way I feel it with you. I’ve never let my feelings be part of my life or my pleasure before you. She is a part of my past and I never want to go back. You’re my future and you’re the only woman who will ever be in my bed. I’ll never see Louisa again. I promise.”
The intensity of the way he stared at me coupled with the gravity of his words was so erotic it set my whole body on fire. I reached between us and unbuttoned his slacks. I drew the zipper down slowly, listening to the catch in his breath as I reached inside and fisted his cock. “Mine,” I whispered.
He rocked into my hand. “Yours.” Then he arched up and pushed his pants down a few inches, freeing his cock. “Ride me, Lily.”
As I rose up on my knees he slid his hands under my shirt, coasting over my skin. And even though we’d done this so many times before, this felt different. As I guided him inside me, felt the bite of his invasion, I knew this wasn’t just sex. This was a promise.
No matter what happened, he was mine and I was his.
I sank down and rose up, taking him deeper and deeper, my hands on his chest so I could feel the shudder of his breath as he tried to hold it together. He slowly unbuttoned my shirt until it hung open, revealing my bra.
He moaned as my core squeezed him tight when he ran his thumb over my bra. I cried out when he pulled my bra down, my breasts propped up high, and he began playing with my nipples. Slow and teasing at first, then firmer as they grew red and hard under his care.
I rode him fast and slow, enjoying the differences of each, until he placed his hands on my hips and drew me to a stop with his cock buried deep. “Let me play for a minute.”
I nodded my consent and watched as he teased my clit with his fingers, the way he opened me and pleasured me. “Rise up for me, babe. Lean down.” I leaned forward until my breasts were in his face and held very, very still as he used this position to touch me in every which way he pleased, all while whispering his desires in my ears.
“Don’t move, babe. Don’t move a muscle. Not until I’m done playing with you.” My core clenched around him. His fingers dipped and explored, kneaded and massaged. His mouth did the same, playing between my breasts and the sensitive spot behind my ear. “You like that, don’t you? You like when I explore your body. I know because of those soft little moans you make when I find a new spot you like. This one?”
I gasped and moaned as he invaded me.
“Yeah. Like that.” His fingers moved faster. My moans
grew into whimpers as my orgasm began to rise. Outside my skin was hot, sweat beaded, but inside? I was the quiet before the storm. Around his cock my orgasm began to flutter and I knew from his gasps that it was turning him on, too. He sucked my nipple, flicking it with his tongue and I rewarded him with another whimper.
“I want you, Colt.”
He surged up inside me as he wrapped his free hand around my waist to hold me captive. I bowed under the sudden change, crying out for more.
He reared back and plunged deep inside me again. I scored his shoulders with my nails. “Yes,” he hissed. “Again.” He thrust one more time and I dug my nails in deeper as my orgasm took over.
“I’m coming!”
Suddenly I was on my back as Colt drove into me faster and harder, his face only inches from mine, his eyes locked in fascination as I fell apart at the same time he lost control.
His jaw fell open and his eyes grew dark as he came, my orgasm driving us both straight into oblivion. He thrust hard one last time and growled. “Mine.”
I gripped his hips and held him fast. “Mine.”
He grinned and bounced his eyebrows. “Well now that we’ve cleared that up . . . ” He rolled to his side and took me with him, tucking me into his shoulder. “What do we do now?”
I had an idea but I didn’t think he was going to like it. “What if—”
“Don’t say it.”
“You don’t know what I was going to say, Colt.”
“You were going to say you were leaving.”
Okay, so maybe he did know. “Not forever. I have an idea.”
He held me closer. “I don’t like it. I forbid it. I’ll tie you to this bed.”
And while the idea was very appealing, it was also very impractical. “As wonderful as that sounds, I have some things I need to take care of. So do you. What if we give your mother some piece of mind? I’ll go.”
“No.”
I took a deep breath. “And then in six weeks, if you’re still interested in spending your life with me, you know where to find me.”
CHAPTER 23