Rex’s eyes skimmed her body from top to toe and she was instantly aware of her attire as if she were seeing it through his eyes. A light camisole with satin trim, draped across her braless bust, clinging to her curves. Despite the warm air, her nipples beaded tightly and a shiver of something similar to adrenalin raced up her spine. His gaze continued down to the super-short shorts she only wore for sleeping.
Why hadn’t she thrown on a sweater or a pair of pants before leaving her room? And why the hell hadn’t Steven clued her in to her wardrobe issue?
She fought the urge to cross her arms. Instead she raked her gaze along his body as he’d done to her, instantly wishing she hadn’t. It was bad enough that she’d already noticed his naked, sculpted chest, but now she had no choice but to take in his tight boxer briefs that hugged his body in a very flattering way.
“I like the new uniform,” he said, grinning. “Casual looks good on you.”
Her mouth went dry as she struggled to inhale a full breath and her heartbeat drummed in her chest. Gathering her composure and doing her best to ignore her desire to continue staring at Rex’s body, she raised her chin with confidence, imagining she was dressed in a parka and sweatpants instead of pajamas.
“I’m sorry to bother you so late,” she said, pretending she hadn’t heard his comment.
“It’s no trouble. You can stop by anytime.” He reclined against the back of the couch, his legs outstretched and his hands pressing into the upholstery on either side of him. The pose should have been on the cover of a magazine, not for her eyes only, late at night, in his bedroom. If anyone ever needed to look up the definition of bedroom eyes, they’d have to go no further than this moment since he was currently sporting the sexiest pair she’d ever seen.
How was it that he looked completely comfortable, relaxing in only a pair of boxers when she wanted to wrap herself in a blanket? Not fair. He must be acting like it didn’t bother him when he was actually as self-conscious as she was. But then why would he be self-conscious? The man was an example of physical perfection.
Fuck me.
Not really.
Lacey cleared her throat and hoped to hide her feelings. “I was reading the reports I got back from the lab.”
“That sounds like one of my lines from Murder and Mobsters. I played a cop in the forensics department.”
“That’s great. I’m sure you were fantastic in the role. But this is real life now, your real life. So, if you don’t mind…”
Rex wrapped an arm across his chest and pressed a fist against his chin, his brow furrowing with his look of concentration. “Yes, of course. Continue.”
“I sent the threatening letters you received to the lab to check for fingerprints or DNA of any kind and everything came back completely clean.”
“And that’s a problem?”
“Yes, if we want to figure out who sent them. I was hoping for a lead. That’s not the only reason why this is concerning.” She paced in front of him while conveying what she’d already concluded. “The person or people who are involved in this aren’t amateurs. This is a clean, calculated action that means whoever is behind it is smart.”
“Why does it concern you enough that you had to tell me tonight? Not that I mind the visit.”
“Because it means our assailant is clever enough to stay under the radar, which means we have to be extra cautious.”
“What good is it for me to know this? How am I supposed to recognize when someone’s a threat?”
“You’re not, I am. I wanted you to know that this situation is more serious than I originally expected. I need you to understand that to do my job effectively, we need to work together. I’ll do everything I can to fade into the background and act like your assistant, but if I tell you something for your safety, I expect you to listen to me like I’m the boss and without hesitation. Can you do that?”
He smirked. “I’m not very good at letting others take the lead. I like to be the one in control.”
“You can still be in charge of every other facet of your life.”
He raised an eyebrow and she felt as if she’d said something dirty. Rex was definitely a take-charge kind of guy in his real life and on-screen, but she’d never really given it much thought as to whether or not he was like that in every other aspect. Now that she was in his bedroom and they were both wearing very little clothing, she couldn’t stop her mind from imagining him in a take-charge role in here too.
Lacey might be an authority in her work life, but when it came to the bedroom, she liked a man who knew what he wanted.
“In this situation, I may have only seconds to react and to get you out of danger. If I command an action, I need you to listen, without question. Deal?” she asked, pushing aside her dirty thoughts.
He nodded. “I can live with that.”
“Good.”
“On one condition,” he added quickly.
She narrowed her eyes. “What condition?”
“You give me a quick lesson in defensive moves that I might need to know tomorrow, just in case the worse happens.”
“I thought you were a big-time action star who already knew everything about taking down the bad guys?”
“And you didn’t seem to think that was good enough. So, teach me a few things. We’ve got time and the room. And none of the staff will see us or question anything.” He motioned around his bedroom, which had a surprising amount of open space.
It was nice he finally took her role seriously, but did she really want to give him hand-to-hand defense lessons now?
“I’m in pajamas.”
“Thought you could take me down with one hand, anytime, anyplace? But not in pajamas, I guess, huh?”
She didn’t care for his mocking tone. Bra or no bra, she’d show him what she was capable of.
“Get ready to go down,” she said, moving toward him.
He grinned at her comment and she heard it over again in her head. Go down. Damn it. Why did that have to come out sounding so dirty?
“I meant you’re about to kiss carpet, Mr. Big Shot Action Star.”
He chuckled. “I like kissing carpet. Though I do enjoy kissing a good bare skin rug on occasion as well.” His grin said exactly how dirty his mind was. Sadly, or dangerously, hers was right there in the gutter too.
She pushed all other thoughts from her mind and focused. “What will you do if some innocent-looking super fan casually wanders up to you?” She walked her fingers up his naked chest.
“If this is the scariest situation I face, maybe I’ll play along and see where it goes.”
“You’re not taking this seriously.”
“I don’t expect a fan would saunter up and grope me.”
Without taking her gaze from his, she reached her other hand to the side table and grabbed the spoon from the tray of leftover dinner dishes, not making a single noise. Then in an instant she had the spoon jammed under his chin, aimed directly for his jugular.
“Never let your defenses down. You don’t know who’s carrying a weapon.”
“Is that my spoon? I ate ice cream with that earlier. Silly me, I didn’t know I could die by spoon attack.”
Rex grabbed her wrist and spun her around so her back pressed against his chest and her arms were pinned as he bear-hugged her from behind. He squeezed her tightly and she sighed, annoyed that she wasn’t thinking as clearly as usual.
Though she could definitely think of worse positions to be in with Rex. His body pressed into hers in pretty delightful ways. She fought the urge to sag into his warm embrace.
“Nicely done. Next time, it might be a knife or a gun someone’s hiding. I didn’t have anywhere to hide anything in my pajamas.”
“Oh, I’m well aware of that.” His breath was warm on her earlobe and a rush of heat pooled low in her belly.
Oh my…
Before she could fully acknowledge the feelings he’d stirred inside of her, she grabbed his forearms and simultaneously stomped on his foot. A s
econd kick backward hit him right in the knee, hard enough to make him take notice, but not hard enough to actually hurt. She only wanted to prove a point, not cause any damage. As soon as his grip on her loosened, she spun in his arms, hooked a foot behind his right knee and pulled his arm to the left, successfully throwing him off balance.
Rex let out a yelp as he tried to regain his footing by grabbing onto her again. Together they both tumbled to the ground with a crash of dishes as they knocked over the side table.
By some fluke, he’d managed to land on top, pinning her to the ground with her arms above her head. Her breasts strained against the thin material of the camisole, her nipples beading under his gaze. He’d ended up between her legs with his groin pressed into the tender flesh at the apex of her thighs.
“Seems I’m the one who neutralized you, Ms. Big Shot Bodyguard,” he said, practically panting. “Guess you’re not so tough without your weapons, are you? Let’s see if you can get out of this one.”
He hovered over her, his bare chest dangerously close to her aching nipples as his hands squeezed around her wrists. The air around her swirled with the aroma of cologne, testosterone, and desire. It was intoxicating to the point she wanted to close the distance between their lips.
“You think I lied about my skills?” she asked, straining against his hands to determine exactly how strong his hold on her was.
He shrugged. “We all talk a better game than we can play sometimes.”
“Oh really?” she asked, an idea forming in her mind. Distract and attack. “Exactly what have you exaggerated about your game?” With accentuated purpose, her gaze raked down his body to settle on the area currently nestled between her legs. When she met his gaze again, there was fire in his eyes. “It’s okay. I’m sure all guys tell the biggest fish story once in a while.”
He rolled his hips, pressing into her. She bit her lip to stifle a moan. No way she’d give him the satisfaction of knowing how good he felt.
“Some things don’t need to be exaggerated.”
She saw the look of desire pass across his face and knew it was the opportunity she’d been waiting for. In one quick motion, she brought her leg up and forward, hooking him under the chin. She bucked her hips against his hard length, and rolled, forcing him to flip onto his back. Scrambling to regain the upper hand, she wiggled free and pounced on his chest, pinning his upper arms under her knees. One hand gripped his throat, while the other rested on his groin, ready to mash a couple of potatoes if needed.
His eyes widened as he peered up at her. “Impressive. I especially like your hand placement.” He couldn’t move much, yet he still managed to find a way to caress her legs. “I might need more practice.”
Heat radiated from the hard shaft beneath her palm and she quickly removed her hand. Straddling him felt better than she’d imagined—and she’d been imagining that since watching him get busy in every one of his movies—but she couldn’t linger in her current position. She already felt intoxicated by the moment, by him. They were both far too close to naked to be alone and tangled up together any longer. Training was over for tonight.
“I think you have more than enough training. You won’t even need to use it if I do my job properly.” She removed her hand from his neck, then popped up and stepped away from him.
He climbed to his feet, standing a few inches from her, but it felt like miles after rolling around with him on the floor. A streak of red trickled down his cheek.
“Shit. You’re bleeding.” She reached for him, cursing herself for damaging a million-dollar face, literally.
He grabbed a shirt from the end of the bed and touched it to his cheek. “It’s fine.”
“I’m sorry. That’s not going to look good on camera tomorrow. I should’ve been more careful.”
“I never asked you to be careful. I asked you to show me some of your training and you did. No worries. I’m sure the makeup person will be able to cover a scratch tomorrow.”
“Makeup? The tough action star wears makeup?”
“It’s Hollywood. Everyone wears makeup on camera.”
She knew that having grown up in the area, but it was too easy to tease him and too fun to see the look of annoyance cross his face.
“Don’t worry about anything tomorrow. I’ve got your back. I just wanted you to be aware and up to date about everything. I didn’t want to spring any of this on you right before we left in case you had concerns you needed to work through. Wouldn’t want to throw you off your game in front of the cameras.”
“No problem. As soon as the cameras turn on, I act like everything’s fine regardless of if it is or not. It’s what I’m paid to do.”
Lacey pulled open the door, stepping into the hallway. As soon as the cooler air hit her, the intoxication of Rex’s bedroom ambiance subsided, and she finally felt clear-headed again. “See you tomorrow.”
She strode down the hallway with confidence, trying not to wonder if he was watching her walk away or not. There hadn’t been the click of a closing door, so she assumed he was. The idea of him watching her walk away in her tiny shorts that barely covered the curves of her ass made her stumble.
Damn it. The last thing she needed was to think about Rex in this way. That would only complicate her judgment while on the job.
Lesson learned—the next time she needed to tell him something late at night, she’d call him. Or at the very least, she’d put on a bra.
Rex scanned the crowd of people milling around the filming area, feeling on edge despite telling Lacey he was fine. He wasn’t. Nerves ate at him. Not because of the cameras or the barrage of questions that were about to come his way, but because someone in this audience, or interviewing him, or filming him, could actually want to hurt him.
The thought terrified Rex. He knew how quickly something innocent could turn deadly, like his brother’s accident. One minute Rowan was enjoying his night, the next he was driving for his life and ultimately lost it.
He plastered on his token grin and smiled as the first reporter took her seat next to him, the red light on the camera glowing. Whatever was or wasn’t going on in the audience couldn’t be his concern. It was Lacey’s.
Just thinking of her made him seek her out on the sidelines.
She stood with her clipboard in hand, looking professional and put together as his pretend assistant. She’d dutifully brought him bottled water, so he wouldn’t go thirsty, even though they both knew that wasn’t part of her real job. But it was part of her role as assistant and he quickly realized that once she was in character, she didn’t break it. It was too bad she wasn’t interested in acting. She’d be an amazing co-star.
She might be playing the role of assistant, but he could see her looking up and scanning the audience, then glancing back down to her clipboard and scribbling notes, similar to what she’d done at the restaurant the other night. He’d have to ask her why she did that. Was it to appear busy, or was she actually doing something constructive?
Right now, he had to focus on his job not hers. Unfortunately, that meant doing press for a movie that made people angry and scared.
He’d made a movie. He’d played a part. And yes, it wasn’t everyone’s idea of a good time, but that was the whole point. It was an action film on the surface, but beneath that, it was a film that was meant to make people think. It was the first film he’d done that wasn’t simply an action flick. He needed it to do well, because if it did, it might mean he had a shot of doing the movie he really wanted to make—a story inspired by his twin’s death. This was the first time he’d been given a moderately serious role and he had to prove to everyone he could do it well if he wanted a chance to make another, even more serious film. This could be his only chance for studios and producers to look at him as more than an action star.
“Today I have the always charismatic Rex Randall with me to talk about his new movie Even Blue Bleeds Red,” said the redheaded interviewer. He’d seen her numerous times before, on TV and had intervie
wed with her a couple of times as well. “Thank you so much for sitting down with me.”
“Thank you for having me.” He grinned and saw the spark in her eyes light up, knowing that he’d succeeded in charming her already.
“I’m sure everyone’s heard you have a new movie releasing July long weekend. Can you tell us more about it?”
“Someone has taken out the leaders of every political party right before election day, leaving the polls in utter chaos. The goal is to spark an uprising with voters on opposing sides finally coming together for a common goal. I play the guy who’s hired to find the culprits, unite a nation, and restore order to our great country.”
“Sounds exciting!” she said, leaning in toward him. He shifted toward her as well, giving off the air of being deeply involved in the conversation. Truth was, it gave him a better view of Lacey. Now, he could see if she became spooked by anything in the immediate area. So far, she looked as calm and cool as always.
“It is exciting,” he said, focusing again. “It’s a wild ride that I think people on all sides of the political debate will find entertaining.”
“Controversial too, right?”
He shrugged, “That’s what I’m told.”
“Don’t you think it’s a controversial film?”
“I suppose some people might see it that way. Some might watch it and take the film as a personal attack against their political party.”
She nodded. “And would that be fair of them?”
“I believe people are entitled to feel what they feel. The context of this film might make them upset. But at the end of the day, it’s still an action movie that’s meant to entertain you for a couple of hours, only this one tends to make people think about what they would do if they found themselves in a world where they had to start fresh in a new normal.”
“And what would you do if there was suddenly this kind of chaos in the political system? How would you respond?”
Sweetest Obsessions - Anthology Page 110