Heartthrob

by Katie McCoy

  He pressed me against the wall, our kisses frantic, his hands tight against my ass, thrusting against me. It wasn’t enough.

  I ripped my mouth from his.

  “Condom,” I said breathlessly.

  He held up a hand, the foil packet tucked between two fingers.

  “Are you ready, baby?” he asked, putting it between his teeth, leaving his hand free to dip downward and touch me where I was wet and eager for him. He stroked me, his eyes growing darker with desire. “Oh yeah,” he groaned. “I can feel how ready you are.”

  “Yes,” I gasped, his fingers teasing me. “I’m so ready.”

  Quickly, he tore the condom open and sheathed himself. Then, not even bothering to remove my thong, he simply pushed the lace aside and positioned himself at my entrance. I was trapped between his body and the wall, my head falling back against the wallpaper with a thud. I wanted him inside of me, but he was not going to be rushed.

  He teased me with the head of his cock, dipping inside me just barely and then withdrawing. Each time he went a little deeper, but it wasn’t enough. So I slid my hands downward to his ass and pulled him against me. He slid home.

  “Fuck,” he groaned, completely sheathed inside of me.

  “Fuck,” I echoed. “Fuck me now.”

  He gave me a wicked grin and obliged. With his hands cupping my ass and my body pinned between his and the wall, Jax began to move. At first his thrusts were steady, but as I wrapped my legs around him, hooking my ankles around his back, he began to lose control.

  I loved it. I loved how I could make him go wild, arching my hips towards him, meeting each of his thrusts with one of my own. Each time he went deeper, touching me just right, pleasure shooting up my spine.

  Sweat was forming at his temple, and I kissed him, tasting sweat and salt and Jax. I could feel my orgasm building inside of me, and my entire body began to shake as he thrust deeply inside of me, practically riding me up the wall.

  “Yes,” I moaned, my nails digging into his back.

  If I was hurting him, he didn’t seem to mind—or care. His brow furrowed as he dipped his hand between us, expertly finding my clit. He pressed his thumb down on it and that was enough to make me explode.

  I came, shuddering in his arms, and he followed soon after, shouting his ecstasy, pressing his body deeply into mine. I felt the tension leave his body, though he still managed to keep us both upright, his hands pressed against the wall. Then, without a word, he pulled me into his arms and carried me to the bed.

  20

  Jax

  I woke feeling as if I had run the world’s sexiest and most satisfying marathon. Penny was curled up against me, that perfect ass of hers pressed up against my cock, which was hardening at the memory of our hot fuck against the wall. Whatever had changed between us in the past few days, I was damn grateful for it, because I was having the best sex of my life with someone I actually cared about.

  I was about to wake her with an encore of said hot sex when my phone buzzed from the nightstand. At first I ignored it, but then it buzzed again, and again, and again. Whoever was calling, they were pretty eager to talk.

  Squinting at the screen, I groaned when I saw who was waiting for me on the other end. It was either good news with her or bad news. I had a feeling it was bad.

  “Stella,” I greeted my agent. “Why are you calling?”

  “Don’t play coy with me,” she shot back. “You know why I’m calling.”

  “Trust me,” I sighed. “I don’t.”

  My attention had focused back on Penny, who had rolled away from me, giving me a great view of her naked back and ass. The blanket slipped low around her waist while she hugged a pillow to her chest and continued to sleep.

  “Go look at TMZ,” Stella ordered. “And get back to set. Now.”

  I winced at her urgent tone. Hanging up, I pulled up the website and found pictures from the night before dominating the front page. Pictures of me punching a guy in the face. I looked fucking furious—almost like an animal—my eyes blazing and my jaw clenched. Of course, they didn’t have any pictures of the guy I had decked from before that moment—when he had been grabbing at Penny and her friend like a goddamn barbarian. Nope, it just looked like I had gone after some random dude like a raging asshole.

  The lede for the article? “Bad boy movie star Jax Hawthorne spends his evening off in London drinking hard and punching harder.”

  The quotes didn’t help. Mostly because they were from the random dude who claimed that I came out of nowhere and sucker-punched him, looking for a fight, and had gotten him kicked out of the club.

  No mention of what a dick he had been.

  My heart sank. This was bad. This made me look exactly like the guy I was trying not to be, and undid everything that Penny’s presence had been intended to fix. Now we were back at square one—that is if I was still in the running for the Captain Atom role after this.

  “Shit,” I swore out loud.

  “What’s wrong?” Penny rolled over, sleepily blinking at me.

  I showed her the pictures, and she immediately woke up.

  “But that’s not how it happened!” she protested. “This isn’t the truth at all!”

  “It doesn’t matter.” I got out of bed and pulled on my clothes. “Come on,” I told her. “We need to get back to work.”

  It was a quiet and somber ride back to the hotel, and when we arrived, both Stella and Tyler were up in our suite. Neither of them looked happy.

  “Do I still have a chance?” I asked immediately.

  “You’re not off the list,” Tyler told me with a sigh. “At least, not officially. But you just went from ‘long shot’ to ‘hasn’t a hope in hell.’ ”

  “Fuck.” I ran a hand through my hair.

  “This whole thing is crazy,” Penny spoke up. “Jax was protecting me, not starting a fight.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” My agent shrugged. “They got the fight on film, and that’s what people are going to see.”

  “What about Emmy and Charlie?” Penny asked. “They can back Jax up!”’

  But Stella shook her head. “They’ve had their own rash of bad press in the past—Charlie’s bad-boy reputation still lingers. Even if he tells the press what happened, his association with Jax might not help the narrative either.”

  I wanted to punch someone. Again. It seemed so unfair that my career was being determined by things that didn’t have anything to do with my acting ability.

  “We have to do damage control if we want to salvage this,” Tyler told us firmly. “We need a new story to redirect everyone. Something that makes you look like you know you messed up but you’re working to get back on track.”

  “What about us?” Penny suggested. “The relationship. We could do some more staged photos, something romantic maybe?”

  I was surprised to hear her offering to parade in front of the press—and touched, too.

  Stella shook her head at the suggestion. “You two are old news. People already saw that the two of you are dating and it gave you some goodwill, but unfortunately this incident has probably undone most of it. You need something bigger.”

  “He could convert to Buddhism?” Stella suggested.

  “Or, there’s always rehab,” Tyler countered. “Anger management.”

  I shook my head. This was ridiculous. I wasn’t going to go around lying like that. Sure, the fake relationship with Penny was pushing the limits on truth, but even that felt like something real now, not a total show for the press.

  “What if we got engaged?”

  My head whipped around. Penny was looking nervous, but determined.

  “An engagement?” Stella asked.

  “You and Jax?” Tyler echoed.

  The two of them exchanged a look, and I could already see the wheels turning in their heads.

  “That could work,” Tyler said slowly. “That could work great.”

  “Bad Boy reformed,” Stella agreed. “True love sets him
on the straight and narrow.”

  “Come on, guys,” I protested, but they didn’t listen.

  “Great idea, Penny,” Stella told her, beaming. “Jax has to make an appearance at an awards show this weekend, and you can walk the red carpet with him. Answer questions. Be adorable and in love. Flash the shiny ring. Wait, we need a ring.”

  Immediately, she whipped out her phone and began making lists.

  “Something big,” Tyler added. “Something that says that Jax knows he messed up, but he is dedicating his attention to his fiancée from now on. No more partying at bars or staying out late or getting into fights.”

  The two of them got up, talking a mile a minute over each other.

  “This is going to be great,” Stella said. “We’ll make it happen.”

  They left the room, both of them focused on their phones and the new task at hand. Penny and I were alone. I turned to her. She looked a little pale.

  “Penny,” I said quietly, and she jumped as if she had forgotten I was there. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  She looked at me for a moment, and I held my breath. I knew that it would be great to combat the rumors, but I also couldn’t deny that I wanted her to stick around. Whatever was happening between us was just getting started, and for her to offer something like this, it had to mean she felt the same way.

  Right?

  Penny swallowed and gave me a smile.

  “We made a pact, didn’t we?” she asked, and it took me a moment to remember that she was talking about our original pact, the one we had made fifteen years ago. “Technically, if we’re following that, then we’ve always been engaged,” she added.

  I laughed. “I guess so,” I said, feeling relieved. “So you’re OK with this? I mean, I have to warn you, things are only going to get crazier.”

  “I know,” she said, and took a deep breath. “But if it helps you get the role, then sure. It’s worth it.”

  I had to swallow back the emotion that suddenly surged through me.

  She cared. About me, and my career. She wouldn’t be signing up for this otherwise.

  “Thank you,” I told her, pulling her into a hug. I held her tightly, vowing she wouldn’t regret this for a second. “I promise I’m going to be the best fiancé you’ve ever had.”

  21

  Penny

  “I’m going to be the best fiancé you’ve ever had.”

  Jax’s words were bouncing around my head, and I was still trying to figure out what had just happened. How I had not only agreed to become engaged to Jax, but been the one to suggest it in the first place. Was I insane? What had I agreed to?

  Jax headed back to set to get ready to film a scene, and I called Paige in a panic, the entire situation spilling out of my mouth in one long breath.

  “Hold on, hold on.” Paige sounded as if I had just woken her up, and a look at the clock confirmed that with the time difference, I had. “Tell me again what happened.”

  “Jax and I are engaged,” I gulped.

  “What?” I heard Paige wake up completely. “For real?”

  That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it? What was for real, and what was just pretend and good publicity?

  “It’s for the press,” I told Paige, and explained everything that had happened at the bar and with the tabloids and the suggestion I had made. “He really wants this role,” I said. “And he deserves it, too.”

  “So you’re going to pretend to be engaged until he gets it?” Paige sounded dubious.

  “I guess so,” I answered.

  Paige was silent for a long time.

  “What?” I braced myself.

  “This is so out of character for you,” Paige finally said. “You’ve always been so careful with things like this.”

  I knew that Paige was trying to tell me that she was worried, but her words hurt me for a different reason.

  “You mean I’ve always played it safe,” I said, hearing the bitterness in my words.

  “No,” Paige tried to argue. “You’ve just always been cautious.”

  “Boring,” I responded. “I’ve always been boring. Predictable. And look where it got me. Dumped for an Instagram model and fired from a job I worked my ass off for.”

  “Penny . . .” Paige tried to calm me down, but I wasn’t interested in being calmed down.

  “I played by the rules for so long,” I told her. “And it got me nothing. Now I’m getting pampered and spoiled and I’m having amazing sex, and it’s all because I took a risk.”

  “You’re having amazing sex?” Paige asked, but I ignored her.

  “I’m tired of being careful,” I said. “For once, I just want to do what feels right. And this does. I know it sounds crazy, but Jax is a good guy.”

  “OK,” Paige said slowly. “Just, you know, don’t do anything too crazy. Like marry him.”

  I laughed, but the sound had a slightly manic sound to it.

  This engagement was just like the rest of our arrangement. We were all on the same page. We all knew what we were doing.

  I spent all day arguing to myself that everything was exactly the same. And by the afternoon, I had begun to convince myself that it was true.

  My phone buzzed with a text from Jax.

  Where are you?

  Just hanging out at the hotel.

  Come to set. I have a surprise for you.

  I read his text and smiled.

  What kind of surprise? I typed back. And is clothing optional?

  There was a long silence, and I loved the thought of him reacting to my naughty message. Then the reply came.

  Clothing required now, but DEFINITELY not later.

  I grinned and went downstairs to take the shuttle over. They had wrapped all the Netherfield scenes and were shooting at a new location: a smaller, ramshackle country house about thirty minutes away that was serving as the Bennet household, Longbourn.

  And by “smaller,” I meant it was only a seven-bedroom house with stables, a sprawling garden, and a duck pond.

  “Hi.” I stopped a PA who was scurrying past with a tray of coffees. “Do you know where I can find Jax?”

  “He’s out back, I think. The rose garden.”

  “Thanks!”

  I made my way through the house, which was crammed with camera equipment, cables, and crew. I was used to the madness now—I knew what looked like chaos was actually a carefully scheduled operation, with a million different moving parts. I smiled and greeted familiar faces and exited through the back door. To one side, there was a walled garden filled with roses, and I stepped through the gate and looked around. “Jax?” I called.

  My voice died on my lips.

  The whole garden was strung with tiny lanterns, with candles flickering on every surface. The sun was setting on the horizon, and then Jax stepped out from behind a partition, dressed in his Mr. Darcy costume.

  My heart skipped and my palms went damp. He was so handsome.

  “Penny . . .” He came towards me, a rose in his hands and a boyish smile on his face.

  I paused. The whole thing was romantic, but almost too romantic.

  This didn’t feel like Jax.

  He reached me and took my hands in his, still smiling soulfully. “When we met fifteen years ago, you were my salvation. You made each day better, each hour better, each moment better. It took me a while to realize it, but I’ve always loved you.”

  Wait, what?

  For one split second, my heart leapt, hearing those few little words.

  Then, I heard a clicking sound. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a photographer crouched down just beyond the gates . . . and another one peeping over the wall . . . and, yup, a glint of reflection from up in the trees.

  We were surrounded.

  This romantic moment wasn’t for me. This was all for the press.

  Disappointment flooded through me, immediately followed by self-recrimination. Of course it wasn’t real. That was my idea, wasn’t it?

 
Fake engagement, fake proposal.

  None of this was real.

  Jax got down on one knee and pulled out a ring box. He opened it to reveal the biggest diamond I’d ever seen in my entire life. It was the size of a small planet and it sparkled like a star.

  “Penny Pollack,” he said, smiling up at me. “Will you marry me?”

  I knew what I was supposed to say. I knew what I was supposed to do. But for a moment, just a brief moment, I hesitated. Because for the first time, I realized that maybe I didn’t want this moment to be fake.

  But there wasn’t anything that could be done about that.

  So I said yes.

  “Of course I’ll marry you,” I told him.

  Immediately, I was swept into Jax’s arms. He kissed me passionately, dramatically, and I heard the cameras going off in the distance. This would definitely make the front page tomorrow. It wouldn’t be long until everyone forgot about that stupid fight in the bar.

  “Was that OK?” Jax whispered, his mouth close to my ear. “Declan wrote the script. Was it too much?”

  I shook my head. “It was great,” I murmured back. “Great proposal.” I felt like I was complimenting him on his acting in a scene, which I guess technically was what this was.

  “Everything is going to be OK now,” Jax reassured me.

  “I know,” I said, desperately hoping that it was true.

  22

  Penny

  The next day, the whole world knew about our engagement. Every hour, I would get a call from the front desk to come pick up a congratulatory flower arrangement or gift that was being sent over. Apparently, some fashion designers and energy drinks were very interested in our “brand” as a couple. Where I come from, getting engaged meant you got Facebook posts from your high-school friends and second cousin. In Hollywood, apparently you got a crate of diet soda and a gift bag from a skin-care line. The whole thing was more than a little weird.