One More Night (Backstage Pass Book 1)

by Ali Parker

  "Oh come on. You're being ridiculous." She walked into the living room. "Where are the lines?"

  "On the couch, and don't think just because I marked them up a little that I'm interested. I'm not." I tried to convince myself for the hundredth time that I wasn't going to do it. The first round was nothing more than a submission, but how many people were going to submit?

  Millions. Too many to really get noticed. When they said open audition, they really meant that you could submit your face and voice and if you were sexy enough Ethan would let you audition for a racy scene in the bedroom.

  "Whatever," I mumbled and pulled the bacon off onto a plate Charlotte had gotten ready for me while I was lost to thought.

  "Is this the line you have to record?" She laughed and moved up beside me. "I'm not sure I could get this out without laughing."

  I glanced over at it and snatched it from her hands. "Do the eggs for us. I jack them up every time, and yes... this is the line."

  "Say it for me."

  "No." I walked back to the breakfast bar and picked up my coffee. "Why do they have to make women look like weak sex-hungry creatures in these movies? Ethan is man enough to keep the attention of the audience without having to dim his co-star. It's dumb."

  "Say the line." She glanced over her shoulder. "Use that sexy voice that got us into the club and got me a handful of limes last night."

  "You clean the bathroom and the kitchen and I'll do it." I looked up.

  "Just the kitchen. The bathroom is all you. That's your fucking mess." She picked up the plate of bacon and set it in front of me, which was never a good move.

  "All right. Kitchen is yours." I lifted the paper to my face and cleared my throat, slipping into character easily. The image of Ethan in an expensive, perfectly pressed suit in front of me popped up, making it much easier.

  "I think maybe you should consider other options, Mr. Bond. There are those of us who would be willing to help you out of your current situation by any means possible." I glanced up at Charlotte and nibbled at my bottom lip as I tilted my head a little. "I'm one of those people, but you knew that already, didn't you?"

  I dropped the paper and picked up a piece of bacon. "See? Ridiculous."

  "Oh my God. That was fucking awesome. Do it again." She moved toward me.

  "What? No. Go do the eggs and stop being silly. I'm not recording my voice and sending it in. And I'm sure as hell not sending in a picture of my face." I glanced down at the sheet, trying to ignore how tight my nipples were over the idea of having Ethan Lewis look at me with interest as I turned my bedroom charm on for him.

  She walked back to the stove without another word.

  I glanced up, a little concerned with her silence. She rarely let any argument between us die until she won, or I'd convinced her why she was ignorant.

  "What are you doing?" I asked before finishing my coffee.

  She glanced over her shoulder and shrugged. "Trying to figure out how to get you to do this. I really think you'll get in. I have no doubt, actually. It's this feeling inside of me. This is it."

  "No." I got up and walked into the kitchen, pulling two plates from the counter and helping her plate up everything.

  "What if I told you I would clean the whole house for a week if you tried out?" She sat down beside me and extended her hand as we'd been doing for years. If you didn't shake on a bet, it wasn't in effect. Plain and simple. We'd be doing the same thing when we were a hundred.

  "A month." I extended my hand.

  "Two weeks. Final offer." She shoved her hand closer to me. "This is it. I'm telling you as your best friend that you have to do this. I'll record it and we'll use that drop dead gorgeous picture you took last year for your portfolio."

  I pursed my lips and thought about the possibilities as well as the sharp pain that usually occurred deep inside of me each and every time Hollywood rejected me. Could I sustain another hit with all the other shit on my plate right now? No future. No home. No prospect for a job that I was going to enjoy.

  "Two weeks and two days." I shoved my hand forward as she clasped it and shook my hand firmly.

  "Good. After breakfast we're recording the audio and getting the packet together." She smiled and pulled her hand back.

  "When this blows up in my face, it's going to be you that has to go out and buy ten gallons of ice cream." I took a big bite of my eggs and groaned. "You need to make sure whoever you marry deserves your cooking by the way."

  "So he has to be a good guy, have a big dick and be funny." She lifted her eyebrow. "I think that's worthy of me and my cooking."

  "Me too, but you missed one very important thing." I got up and walked into the kitchen to get more coffee. I had to ignore the excitement bubbling up inside of me. Acting was like playing the lottery, though it wasn't a random number that they drew and hoped like hell fate would be kind to you. It was my resume, my skill and passion that I hope was plucked from the large pool of all the others with the same level of talent as I had.

  "He needs a brother that's a good guy, is funny and has a huge dick too."

  "Impossible. I quit." She laughed, and I joined her, grateful that she was a part of my life. I couldn't do it without her, or maybe I could, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to.

  Chapter 6

  Four Days Later

  Ethan

  "More." The sexy girl riding my cock glanced back at me and whimpered loudly.

  I gripped her ass as she sat reverse cowgirl and lifted my hips, pressing into her a little more. She barely had a third of me inside of her, and I was shaking with the need to impale her.

  "Take more then." I pulled her back as she groaned again and reached back, making me stop. The lack of movement was killing me. Fucking was starting to be the last thing on my mind. It never turned out the way I needed it to.

  The phone buzzed next to me as she panted and pushed back a little more.

  I moaned and let my head hit the pillow. "Just lift up and fuck the tip, baby. I gotta get to the studio."

  "No. I want more. I can do it. You're just really big." She pushed back and stopped again as her arms started to shake.

  I picked up my phone and barked into it. "What?"

  "Stop being a dick and get up here. You're up in an hour with our first audition and yet you're nowhere to be found. I know as well as you do that you didn't go over these lines." Deza sounded about as happy as I felt.

  "All right. Give me fifteen minutes. I'm in my trailer."

  "Out back?" She pulled the door open to the trailer and screamed into the phone, deafening me for a minute.

  The girl hovering above me scrambled for the covers and pulled off my cock, leaving me about as fulfilled as I was before finding her.

  "Was that your girlfriend?" She glared at me.

  "No. That was my agent. Get off of me. I have to go." I waited until she moved to get out of the bed, and pulled on my slacks. There was no concern with sporting a hard-on as my dick was dropping like a scalded puppy.

  "Ethan. I want to try again. I'm just not very-"

  "Experienced. I get it." I turned and offered her a smile, not feeling any bit of the kindness I was faking. "It's all good. I'll call you sometime when I get a break. We'll try again."

  "You promise?" She looked so good in my sheets, and yet this was goodbye. She couldn't match me in the bedroom, which wasn't at all a surprise. I grabbed a shirt and pulled it over my head, combed my hair and looked back at her.

  "I'll call." I grabbed my shoes and walked out of the trailer. The guard beside it glanced over and lifted his eyebrows. "Give her five minutes and kick her out. I don't want someone snooping through my shit."

  "Yes, sir." He opened the door, and I grabbed his shirt.

  "Five minutes. She's naked." I released him and growled before jogging toward the set.

  Deza turned from the snack table and shook her head. "Really? You have a house. What the fuck? Why do I always have to walk in and see that monster you're sporting?"


  "It's the curse of your good fortune?" I shrugged and dropped down in a random chair and pulled my shoes on.

  "You don't need those. The scene has you only in a pair of slacks." She popped some Skittles in her mouth. "You need a cup in case you get excited?"

  "No. I stopped getting excited about this a long time ago."

  "Not the scene, the women." She rolled her shoulders and lifted her hands in the air, stretching.

  "I'm not interested in them either." I finished putting my shoes on just to annoy her.

  She growled softly and tossed me a packet of peanut M&Ms. "Even Riley?"

  "Oh shit. Is she coming?" I stood up as my body tightened automatically. What was it with this girl? Hopefully she was a total sponge personality-wise, or I was in trouble.

  "Yes. She's third on the list. Come on, handsome. Let's get through these first few and then your princess will arrive." Deza laughed at me before reaching over to ruffle my hair.

  I swatted her away and ruffled hers before jogging toward the set. It was funny how everyone in America thought I was a sex god of some sort. I hadn’t really had a good lay in months. I was just picking the wrong women. Virgins, prudes, girls with class. I needed a slut to take me the right way. She could fit me. I needed to call one of the women from my past. The girls that showed up for the night, did their job and left without a word or whimper.

  There goes the idea of Riley. That girl looks like a virgin librarian.

  My pulse increased as the idea of pressing her against a wall and sucking on the side of her neck rolled through me.

  "Hey... get your head in the game." Deza popped me in the chest, pulling me from my porn-fest with the poor girl who had no clue she'd been wedged into my overfilled life as a fantasy that wouldn't soon come to fruition.

  "Right. Sorry." I ran my fingers through my hair and picked up the lines from one of the guys sitting by the stage. I read through them four times before getting up on the set. The place was set up like the bedroom of a wealthy guy, and I was playing him. It wasn't my usual living room or hotel room scene, but looked more like a penthouse.

  "You got the lines down?" Frank walked up beside me and patted me on the back.

  I handed him the lines and unbuttoned my shirt, leaving the front of it open. "Yeah, you want to practice it with me?"

  He rolled his eyes. "Fuck you too. Get your shoes off."

  "What's with you guys and my shoes today?" I bent over and pulled them off, tossing them over at the guys who worked with props. They laughed and flipped me off as I stood up. I smiled like the dick I was and walked toward the edge of the set, clapping my hands. "Let's get this shit started."

  "Right. Don't scare these girls today, Ethan. We want good publicity from this. Remember that when you're up there with them. It's not a normal audition. Some of them-"

  "Hey... I'm good. I'm a human under here. I remember what it was like to be rejected and have to fight for this job. Wait, no I don't." I smirked as Deza swatted at me.

  "Just behave." She walked off, bitching under her breath at me.

  "This is what you get when you don't let me finish fucking the chick in my trailer. You get me... pissy and full of sperm." I turned to come face to face with a rather tall woman. She was attractive, but scared shitless.

  "H-Hi. I'm T-Terry." She extended her hand and smiled.

  "Hi, Terry. I'm Ethan."

  "I know who you a-are. I'm such a f-f-fan." She pressed her fingers to her lips as her eyes filled with tears.

  A short bald guy walked up beside her and extended his hand. "I'm Barney. Terry's agent. She's just overwhelmed. Give her a minute and she'll be the best match that you've ever worked across from."

  "Great." I bit my tongue on the nasty responses that flew across my thoughts. No reason to scare the girl, but the midget? I wanted to scare him for the fun of it.

  Twenty minutes later T-Terry hadn't pulled herself together, and I walked up to Deza and pulled at her arm, forcing her to turn and look at me.

  "Tell her no. Now, or I will. She's freaking the fuck out. I'm not getting behind today. You know why? Because people don't put up tents in hell. They run through it as fast as they fucking can." I started to jog away and turned around jogging back as I continued, "Because if you stop, you're likely to get your ASS BURNED."

  Everyone turned and looked at us. Deza pointed a finger at me and bit her lip as I lifted my eyebrow and extended my hands to the sides, palms up.

  "What? Please. Please say something to me today," I challenged her.

  "I'll tell her. Go get you a bottle of wine and drink all of it. Now." She turned away from me, and I looked over to see another woman who looked ready to shit bricks too. "Let me guess... you're here for the audition, but you're scared as hell to even stand on the stage with me. I get that right?"

  The girl took a step back, and I hated myself.

  "I'm sorry. Long morning. Come on. I'm Ethan." I extended my hand. I could give Deza absolute hell and let her see every horrible thing racing through me, but this girl didn't deserve it. T-Terry and her midget friend might, but not this poor girl.

  "I'm Sam. Nice to meet you." She shook my hand and nodded to the stage. "We can hurry. I don't want to waste your time."

  "Okay, sounds good." I turned and walked to the stage with her.

  "I usually do pornography, but I thought this might be a fun change of pace."

  "You do what?" I got on the stage and started to offer my hand to help her, but then decided against it. Who the fuck knew where her hands had been.

  "Porn." She smiled as if thrilled with her life choices. "This love scene is going to be a piece of cake."

  "Right. One minute." I walked calmly to the edge of the stage, finding Deza and giving her the look that she knew quite clearly meant I was close to getting in some random car and driving off.

  "What now, Ethan? You're getting to be as bad as most women I work with." She put her hands on her hips and glared at me.

  "Hey, suck-a-dick up there has been in a million porns. I'm not kissing her when she's had her lips on every man in America's cock. Not happening. Nope." I crossed my arms over my chest as Deza leaned around me and snorted.

  "Really? This is turning out to be a nightmare."

  "You should go have a love scene with one of them. The nightmares, that is." I turned and looked over my shoulder, waving at the girl and giving her a sweet smile.

  "All right. I'll make something up. I'm not comfortable with that either." She tugged at the front of my shirt. "If you mess the rest of these up this afternoon, I'm going to pull another fifty for you to make out with over the rest of this week. You got me? Man the fuck up."

  "Whatever. I'm doing these last eight and then I'm going to my trailer to jack off to your picture." I poked at her. "You know you love it."

  "You're disgusting." She rolled her eyes and moved around me.

  "But you love me, right?"

  "Yes, I love you." She glanced over her shoulder and shook her head. "Wine. Get it. Now, Ethan. Anything to chill you out."

  I picked up a bottle of wine from the liquor table and walked out into the parking lot, leaning against the wall and popping the top. The sky was dark and the day a little too dismal for my liking. It pulled at my mood and left me feeling the need for companionship. I knew one person in the world that wasn't intimately invested in my career or all the money it could make them and yet still cared about me.

  My older brother, Liam. I pulled out my phone and called him, smiling as he picked up immediately.

  "Hey buddy. I was going to call you tonight. How are you?" His voice was full of warmth. I closed my eyes and leaned against the building as I took another long drink.

  "I'm good. Well, I'm shit, but whatever." I let my eyes move across the parking lot as a little red clunker drove up. Great. Another charity case.

  "How about you come over for some beer and brats tonight? Just you and me? We can catch up on a few things, mostly women." He chuc
kled.

  "Sounds like a plan. I ain't got much to share, so I'll just get wasted and live vicariously through you. You got a girl on the hook?" My eyes stayed in the vicinity of the car as a dainty girl with short strawberry blond hair got out and looked around. The minute I caught a glimpse of her profile I knew it was her.

  My heart skipped a beat, which left me feeling like an idiot. What was I doing? I'd lived in a romance scene for most of my adult years, and now at twenty-four I felt like love at first sight was a possibility? Fuck no. It was a pipe dream, and one I'd most likely be forced to roll up and smoke until my skin turned green.

  "I don't know." My brother's voice called me back from my fruity-ass daydreams. "I have this new woman that I interviewed last week and she... she's everything I want, Ethan."

  "You fuck her yet?" I moved to my right a little and lifted to my toes.

  She glanced over at me, gave me a quick nod and walked toward the opening. Her picture didn't do her justice, and I openly turned and watched her walk in as she ignored me. It was cute - almost. She was probably scared shitless to come over and talk to me. Or maybe just polite. I was on the phone.

  "Not yet, but it’s part of the game, right? She thinks she’s coming to work for me as my top adviser, but I don't want her advice. I want in her panties. Once I'm done with having my way with her, I'll let her go."

  "Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. I love it." I turned and walked back into the building. My eyes moved down the girl’s narrow waist, the sexy swell of her ass in her tight black skirt, her long legs.

  Every inch of me was hard and throbbing by the time I walked up to Deza.

  "All right dude, I got some shit I gotta do. I'll call you on my way over. Want me to pick anything up?" I pointed to my dick as Deza glanced down and let out a yelp.

  "Nope, I got it all. See you later, brosky."

  I tucked the phone in my back pocket. "Riley is here."

  "So I see." She turned toward the supplies table and knelt down before handing me a large ring of tape and a cup. "Go force yourself not to be so obvious."