”Sounds good, especially that last part,” she grinned back.
”I know,” he agreed. He bent his head and whispered in her ear. ”I’m aching for you, Olivia. I can’t wait until I have you all to myself again.”
She pressed herself against him and felt the physical proof of his confession.
”Nate,” she smiled, ”you can’t do this to me right now, you’re making me so wet,” she whispered in his ear.
He groaned and put his hands on her butt and pressed her into him.
”Olivia, you naughty girl, are you trying to drive me insane or can’t you help it?”
”Maybe a little of both,” she grinned at him, very pleased that she affected him the same way he did her.
They were interrupted by the stage manager.
”Time to go on stage now,” he called through the noise.
Nate nodded. He looked down at Olivia.
”Ready, love?”
Olivia inhaled and snuck her hand into his big, warm one and then she nodded.
As she walked close behind him onto the stage where Julia was already waiting, standing next to the host, she felt her heart beat violently in her chest. This was so not her thing, to stand in the spotlight like this. But she reminded herself to not be so self-conscious. After all, these people weren’t here to see her, she was just a bystander at this event, luckily. She took comfort in that fact and in the utter sense of security and peace she felt so close to Nate. She couldn’t really hear what the host was saying but after a while of answering questions from him, Nate appeared to ask for the microphone. As he was given it, he turned to face the crowd with Olivia securely tucked into his left side, his thumb soothingly rubbing the side of her waist.
”Guten Abend, everyone!” The crowd roared with delight. He waited for the noise to settle down a little before he continued. ”I just want to thank all of you for coming tonight. It makes all of us who have worked so hard on this final installment of the Time-traveler-series so very happy and proud to see. I’m coming down shortly to see you, (another deafening roar erupted from the fans) but I have a favor to ask of you first.” He looked down at Olivia and smiled.
”You see, I’m bringing Olivia here, with me, and she’s not used to all this yet, so I would really appreciate it if you all try and take it down a notch or two when we’re down there with you. I don’t want this experience to be any more unsettling for her than it has to be. Thank you, guys, you’re the best fans in the world,” he smiled and handed the microphone back to the host.
The crowd cheered at his last words, but then they seemed to settle down a little, as if they were heading his plea.
Olivia looked up at him in wonder.
”They truly love and care about you, don’t they?” she asked.
He smiled at her.
”Yes, I’m very lucky and I really care about them too. Come, let’s meet some of them,” he said and grabbed her hand.
She watched him work the crowd in amazement, signing as many autographs as possible and taking pictures with the fans closest to the carpet, all the while smiling and saying a few words to as many as he could. The whole time he kept a tight hold on her hand, never letting go for a second. Just like he’d promised.
Berlin at the end of November can be quite cold and after a while she realized she was freezing. Somehow Nate must have noticed her small shivers, although she tried her best to hide them from him. She didn’t want to distract him when he was so busy with the fans. But he bent his head and asked her if she was cold.
”A little bit, but it’s okay,” she smiled at him. ”Don’t worry about me, Nate, just do your thing.”
But he pulled off his suit jacket and draped it gently across her shoulders.
”Thanks,” she said, stunned at how attuned he was to her needs even in the midst of all the chaos and everyone calling his name. The fans clearly tried to respect his wishes to not scream so much, but of course they still called out his name to try and get his attention as he walked by them.
Olivia pulled her arms through the sleeves and snuck her hand in Nate’s again as he turned back to the fans.
All of a sudden she became aware of a banner some fans were holding against the railing. It was homemade with several cut out pictures of Nate glued to it, and on it they had written:
”Go get your girl back, Nate, we understand. True love conquers all.”
She felt her eyes fill with tears, at once utterly moved by the love his fans had for him. Without thinking she let go of Nate’s hand and walked over there.
”Olivia!” she heard Nate call her name, a little panicked.
She threw him a reassuring glance over her shoulder and pointed to the sign the fans were holding. Two big, burly bodyguards hovered behind her, but she didn’t feel any threat from the girls in front of her, only joy. She smiled broadly at them and raised her voice so they’d hear her.
”That is a beautiful banner. Thank you for loving and supporting Nate, I know he truly appreciates it,” she said.
”I truly do,” she suddenly heard Nate’s voice behind her as he took her hand and squeezed it lovingly.
The girls seemed awestruck by the close proximity of their idol.
”Shall I sign that for you?” Nate asked, pointing to the banner.
The bravest girl answered in a silvery voice.
”If Olivia really likes it, she can have it as a souvenir of tonight,” she said shyly.
”Really?” Olivia beamed at her. ”Are you sure?” she asked. ”I’ll hang it on my wall at home, my little brothers will freak out.”
The girls laughed. Then another one asked timidly:
”Can we get a picture of you two together?”
”Of course,” Nate said and pulled Olivia close to him. They smiled into the girls’ cameras and then, as the fans snapped away, Nate bent down and kissed her tenderly, full on the lips. The fans roared with happiness.
”I’m shouting it from the rooftops tonight,” he murmured in her ear. ”I just can’t seem to help myself,” he said, happiness filling his voice.
Olivia asked the girls to sign the poster with their names for her, before she took it, thanking them sincerely. She rolled it up and kept it carefully in her hand the rest of the walk. One of the bodyguards offered to carry it for her, but she politely refused. It gave her strength to know that that kind of support from strangers, for the man she loved, existed.
Nate insisted on walking the entire line, even though the screening was set to begin and the others had already taken their seats.
”I can’t let them down,” he insisted, of the fans so eagerly waiting for just a glimpse of him, ”they’ve waited for days in the cold.”
Finally, an hour late, the screening could start. Olivia sat in the front row next to Andy, watching as Nate and Julia and the director each took turns with the microphone, introducing the film and thanking the fans for their support and loyalty to the series.
The theatre erupted in cheers and applause as the trio left the stage. And then the lights dimmed, the silver screen coming to life with the final chapter of the love-story between the Time traveler and his woman.
And that’s when they snuck out and were led swiftly to the waiting limo.
When she was tucked in snugly with Nate in the car, she let out a sigh of relief and kicked off her Jimmy Choo’s. They were beautiful and incredibly sexy, but her feet weren’t used to walk in high heels and they throbbed painfully.
Nate laughed and loosened his tie.
”I know the feeling,” he joked. ”Well, maybe not the exact feeling of having your feet tortured for hours, but still…” He bent to kiss her, this time thoroughly. She grabbed hold of the back of his head, knotting her fingers in his hair, and hungrily kissed him back. When they came up for air a little while later, Nate asked her,
”How are you, love?”
”Never been better,” she answered happily.
”You were amazing back there,” he said, a
we in his eyes. ”They adored you.”
She blushed.
”That’s only because they love you so much. It spills over to the woman in your life, I think.”
”Perhaps,” he said, lifting her feet into his lap to rub them gently, ”but still, you were so amazing tonight. Having you with me made it the best première experience I’ve ever had.”
”Good,” she smiled. ”Then it was worth it. You have lovely fans,” she added, trying not to moan out loud with pleasure as his talented fingers rubbed life back into her tortured feet.
”Yes, I do, and I have an even lovelier fiancé,” he said, sounding extremely pleased with himself.
She laughed and leaned her head against his chest. She was exhausted but the aftermath of the adrenaline surge from the première kept her wide awake.
As they drove up at the hotel entrance, Nate said,
”Stay put and I’ll come around and get you.”
A few seconds later he opened her door and bent in and lifted her into his arms.
”Nate,” she protested, a little embarrassed in front of the bodyguard and driver, ”what are you doing?”
”I think you’ve done enough walking for one night so I’m carrying you to our room. More specifically to the bed in our room,” he grinned down at her, unapologetic.
She sighed with happiness.
He kissed her forehead tenderly and started walking to the entrance.
She felt him tense suddenly and looked around to see why.
”Don’t be afraid, love,” he murmured. ”There are some paparazzi waiting outside the door. It’ll be over in a second,” he assured her.
As he said that, camera flashes started going off and the paparazzi called out to them.
”Congrats Nathan! When’s the wedding? Can we see a kiss? What does Julia think about all this? Aren’t you worried about the fan reactions?”
He didn’t answer them, just kept walking behind the bodyguard in front of him. Olivia had had enough of cameras for one night and buried her face against the side of his neck. He smelled good enough to eat - she couldn’t resist nibbling his warm skin a little. She felt his soft laughter rumble in his throat. And then they must have stepped inside because the noise from the paparazzi disappeared.
Chapter 21
They didn’t waste any time getting naked once they were back in the suite. Nate helped Olivia get out of the dress, marveling at the sight of her in the sexy midnight blue underwear Myra had also brought.
”God, you’re the sexiest creature to ever walk the face of the earth,” he murmured, kissing her neck hungrily and at the same time pulling her hair loose from the soft up-do the hairdresser had created for her.
”My God, Olivia,” he said as her curls tumbled free around her face and down her back, ”what did I ever do to deserve you?”
She had already handed back the sapphire earrings to Andy, glad to be rid of the responsibility, although they had looked incredibly beautiful with the dress.
”Nate,” she breathed, ”I need you inside me right now. I’m all out of patience.” She pulled greedily at his clothes.
He laughed huskily and helped her strip him. She watched in trembling awe as his erection sprung free, liberated from the restraints of his clothes. His naked masculinity was the most beautiful and erotic thing she had ever seen.
Suddenly all she wanted was to taste him, to know what he would feel like in her mouth. She knelt in front of him, feeling as if she was worshipping her own private deity. She caught his penis in her hand and gently cupped his soft, heavy balls in her other hand.
Nate gasped and tensed his hands into fists at his side.
”Olivia…” he groaned, his eyes dark with desire as he looked down at her.
She smiled up at him and then she caught the tip of him between her lips, slowly tasting him with her tongue, licking the slit at the top, as Nate moaned her name again, his fingers knotting in her hair as if he needed something to hold onto.
She caught a drop of him on her tongue and the taste reminded her of warm haystacks in the summer. She pushed down on his shaft and marveled at the silky hardness that filled her mouth. It was such an intensely erotic experience, caressing his manhood with her mouth, that the throbbing heat between her legs became almost unbearable. She loved the feeling of his steely sateen tip and she circled it with the tip of her tongue, exploring it thoroughly.
”Olivia, oh God, please,” Nate gasped between jagged breaths. ”I need you, now!”
She pulled back and let go of him. He bent down and picked her up feverishly and threw her on the bed, ripping her panties off of her as he mounted her. He lifted her legs and draped them over his shoulders as he drove into her in one smooth thrust.
She gasped at the exquisite pleasure of him stretching her and filling her up completely. He held still for a second to let her adjust to him. She reached up and caught his beautiful face in her hands.
”Welcome home, Nate,” she smiled.
He held her eyes in wonderment and murmured gruffly,
”And what a sweet home it is.”
He started moving inside her and she pushed her legs against his shoulders to take him even deeper. The sensation of his hard length stroking her silky walls was almost more than she could take. It truly was paradise, mating with him.
”Baby, I’m sorry,” he grunted, ”I’m not going to last very long.”
”That’s okay,” she gasped, ”I’m close.”
He increased his tempo then and drove into her again and again and soon she felt herself splintering into a million pieces of exquisite pleasure that pulsed inside her as she fell into the vast expanse of stars greeting her behind her eyelids.
* * *
When she surfaced again, he was holding her in his arms, stroking her skin with his loving fingers.
She tilted her head and looked into his glorious eyes.
”If this is just a dream I don’t ever want to wake up,” she stated.
He laughed.
”Me neither,” he said and nuzzled her hair. ”I must have been a very good boy in all my previous lifetimes to end up with you.” He smiled down at her and squeezed her even tighter to him. ”Thank you, love, for being mine,” he whispered into her hair. She reached up and kissed him tenderly.
”My pleasure,” she said emphatically and winked at him.
He chuckled and kissed her forehead.
”Nate,” she asked after a while, ”is Julia really gay?”
”I think she can go either way, depending on who she falls for,” he said after thinking about it. ”But yes, for the past four years she’s been very happily in love with a woman,” he said. ”They actually met during the filming of the second Time-traveler film. She plays Julia’s sister in the films. Very few people know about their relationship and we’re all sworn to secrecy. So I’ll have to kill you if you ever let it slip,” he joked and winked at her.
She laughed.
”I like Julia, her secret’s safe with me. But why is it such a secret? Is it just because she values her privacy so much?”
”Hollywood is still a very conservative place in many ways. Being in a same-sex relationship isn’t exactly good for business when you’re an actor. And the competition is so fierce, with new up and coming faces vying for the roles, that, especially if you’re a woman in Hollywood with a limited shelf-life, you can’t afford to come out with something like that. Julia also has this image of being America’s Sweetheart and her people are probably worried America couldn’t accept her as gay or bisexual. If she’d had more of a bad girl image it might have worked. It’s deeply unfair.”
That reminded her of something.
”Nate, what did Dan mean in the car, when he said you’ve bearded for Julia for free?”
He chuckled.
”Bearding for somebody means covering for them, like when someone is gay but isn’t ready to go public with it. By not refuting the stories about me and Julia over the last four years, I�
�ve essentially bearded for her and helped protect her secret.”
”That was very kind of you,” she said and kissed his chest.
”I didn’t mind. There was no one in my life who could get hurt by my silence until I met you. I’m only sorry I didn’t tell you about it much sooner, baby.” His eyes filled with pain at the memory.
”Don’t be sad, please,” she said, ”you’ve more than made up for it by loving me the way you do. You make me so incredibly happy, Nate. I feel like the luckiest woman on earth.”
He kissed her then, so tenderly.
”I love you more than life itself, Olivia.”
They lay there, perfectly content. She let her fingers get reacquainted with his gorgeous torso.
”Nate,” she asked after a while, ”what happens after next week?”
”I hope I’m still invited to spend the rest of the year with you in Stockholm?” he asked, suddenly tense.
”Of course you are, silly,” she giggled. ”I meant, when you go back to work in January, what happens then?”
”Well,” he said, pulling back to look at her, ”I can’t stand to be away from you for even one night, so either I drop out of the movies I have lined up next year or you promise you’ll travel with me on location for every single one of them.”
”Is that even possible?” she asked, astounded. ”Won’t I disturb you when you work?”
”No, silly girl. I need you there, or I won’t be able to concentrate if I have to miss you all the time.”
He looked down at her, all of a sudden tender concern on his face.
”But I know it’s selfish of me to ask. I know you have your life in Stockholm and I shouldn’t ask you to give that up for me.”
”My life is with you now, Nate,” she said. ”The only thing I’m a little worried about is leaving the boys, but they’ll be eighteen in February so I guess they’re grown up enough to fend for themselves. I have to let go eventually anyway.”
Destined for the Star (Starstruck) Page 22