Hard Glamour

by Maggie Marr

  I doubted spending time with Amanda would keep my mind off Dillon’s absence, but it might help with the lonely feelings that surged through my body since he’d left for location.

  “What does he say about your return to Kansas?” Amanda asked.

  My stomach tightened with Amanda’s question. I turned toward her. “Not much,” I said. “We haven’t really discussed it.”

  Amanda’s lips pulled into a flat line, but the corners curled into a smile. “Not the right time, I’m sure.” The look on her face seemed to say that Amanda felt sorry for me. That she, like me, didn’t believe that there was any future for me with Dillon.

  “Do you want to go to the Mission Ranger premiere with me?” Amanda asked.

  My gaze bounced from watching the bubbles in my champagne to Amanda’s face. I’d thought I would go to the premiere with Dillon. He hadn’t yet asked and we hadn’t discussed the premiere, but it was right after Dillon returned from location. “I’m not sure… I thought—”

  “Amanda!”

  I turned my head toward the semi-familiar voice. A luxurious girl with a half dozen beautiful people tagging along behind her strutted toward us. I forced my jaw not to drop. Kiley Kepner, the former teen queen of TV and the hottest film star in the in world right now, waved at Amanda.

  My heart pattered in my chest. She was even more beautiful in real life. Her long, lean legs that seemed to go on forever were capped by a pair of red heels. She wore a white cover-up that barely covered the jet-black teeny-tiny bikini on her body. Her long, golden locks were piled high on her head. She looked as though she’d just stepped off the cover of Vogue.

  “Kiley!” Amanda jumped up and encapsulated Kiley in a giant hug. “I had no idea you were here.”

  They air-kissed while I remained on my lounge chair, completely shocked and wide-eyed at the lovefest I was witnessing between two of the most beautiful women in the world.

  “I’m not, darling, we’re on our way to Malibu. Are you going to Greece in August?” Kiley asked.

  Amanda nodded. “On Daddy’s boat.”

  By “Daddy’s boat,” I knew from Choo that Amanda meant a fully staffed yacht with a helipad.

  “Oh! Kiley, this is Lane Channing,” Amanda said.

  I stood and reached out my hand to her. Kiley tilted her sunglasses over her nose. Her eyes traveled from my eyes to the tips of my toes and back up.

  “So, this is Dillon’s little reader,” she said. While her face held a smile, her voice was sharp like knives and sliced through me.

  Shame tunneled through my belly. What did she mean by her comment? How would Kiley Kepner know I read for Dillon? Why would she care? Even though heat bloomed in my belly, I kept a smile on my face.

  “It’s so nice to meet you,” I said.

  “You too, darling,” she said. “Amanda, I must go. I’m late.” Kiley turned back to me and leaned in so that her lips were beside my ear. “No worries, darling,” she whispered. “He’s all yours once I’ve finished with him. I don’t keep them long.”

  The air smashed out of my lungs with her words. I managed to keep my smile molded to my face, but my fingertips tingled. A dizzy feeling spun through my head. Her smile held ice. She waved at me and gave Amanda another two kisses. She and her entourage tottered off in their high heels toward the far end of the pool. I stood there, stunned and unable to speak, unable to move, unable to fully process what Kiley had just whispered in my ear about the man I loved. The man I’d given my heart and my body to.

  “You okay?” Choo stood beside me. His face held concern.

  I shook my head no. I wasn’t okay. Nausea clutched my belly. The idea of Dillon with another woman made me feel ill. But yet as I watched her retreat across the pool deck, I knew for certain that Kiley was the type of woman that would be best for Dillon.

  I knew how the industry worked. I knew that magazine articles and photographs of big sexy stars together kept them hot in the public. I’d listened to Dillon talk to the reporter in Malibu—I knew what kind of image they wanted for him—at least now at the start of his career—and that image didn’t include Dillon being in a committed relationship with a college girl from Kansas.

  “Oh honey,” Amanda said. She sat beside me on the lounger and Choo was on the other side. “Drink this.” She held out a glass of champagne, but I couldn’t. The sweet smell now sickened me.

  “It’s part of the business,” Amanda said. “I thought you knew. I assumed Dillon would have told you.”

  “He knows?” I looked at Choo, who took a long breath. “He already knows that they want to set them up together? For the premiere?”

  “Lane,” Choo said. He grasped my hand. “You have to talk to him. Okay? I know my brother and he loves you. He’s never been this way with anyone else. Ask around, he is—”

  “Oh, Dillon’s a complete whore,” Amanda said. “Or at least that’s what I hear.” Amanda pressed her hand to her cleavage. “I’ve never experienced—please, don’t think that for a moment. But I know from friends he is completely wham, bam, thank you, ma’am. The boy has never been with a woman more than one night.” Her gaze locked onto me. “Except for you.”

  My heartbeat steadied. I closed my eyes. What did this mean? What did it mean that Dillon hadn’t told me about the premiere or Kiley Kepner? The ache inside me hardened into a deep knot. I had picked this. Staring into the ocean after hearing Dillon’s words to the reporter, I had picked this moment, this pain. I had decided no matter what his feelings were for me that Dillon would be my first and we would have this summer together and then I would leave. I would leave with the memories. I would come back to L.A. next spring with a job and a future and Dillon MacAvoy in my past. I took a long, deep breath. No matter the pain, I knew where I stood. Dillon wasn’t ever going to be my future, he was simply going to be my present, and I would have to accept whatever the present meant.

  Chapter 21

  Dillon

  Jets didn’t fly fast enough. I hit the door to the house and the dogs all clamored to meet me.

  “Hi guys,” I whispered and gave them each a quick pat. My breathing jerked in my chest as though I’d run all the way from Moab. I had twelve hours before I shot my next scene, but I had a lifetime of fear hammering my heart.

  “Lane!” I yelled.

  I bolted to the stairs and took them two at a time. I rounded the corner and sped down the hall toward my room. One text from my brother and I’d commandeered a private plane and gotten the hell out of Moab. Why hadn’t I told Lane first? Why hadn’t I called her immediately after I got off the phone with Boom Boom and Webber? I was such an idiot. How could I keep forgetting L.A. was a small town? Everyone heard everything and especially with Laney running around with Amanda Legend, of course Lane would find out about Kiley Kepner and the Mission Ranger premiere. I’d wanted the whole damn mess to go away. I wanted to tell her in person. I had expected more time before Boom Boom leaked the story, and I definitely hadn’t anticipated Lane running into Kiley at the W pool.

  “Lane!” I yelled again. I needed to get to her body, peel off her clothes, taste her lips, see her eyes… Please let me see the love in her eyes and know that she was mine.

  “In here,” she called.

  I walked past my empty bedroom and farther down the hall to Lane’s old room. My heart beat hard in my chest. She was finished with me. She wouldn’t be here… She stood next to the open suitcase that lay on her bed. She folded a shirt and placed it inside. My heart hurt watching her.

  “What are you doing?” I asked. I knew that I had hurt her; I knew that I hadn’t told her about the premiere or why I had to do it. “Are you… are you leaving me?”

  She turned her face to me and smiled a smile that didn’t reach her eyes and walked toward her dresser.

  “You know I have to go home someday,” Lane said. “Classes begin in two weeks. I’m planning on leaving after the premiere.”

  We hadn’t discussed the end of summer. I didn’t
want to discuss that she would have to leave me soon. My mind acted like a crazy amusement-park ride, twisting and turning facts when it came to Lane. If I could just ignore reality and pretend her leaving wasn’t happening—wouldn’t happen—then maybe she would stay.

  “Lane.” I pushed my body into her back.

  Her thick, round ass pressed against me. She stood pinned against the dresser. I took a long, deep breath. The smell of her filled me, the scents of lavender, and soap, and a softer, underlying scent that was simply pure Lane. I ran my hands up her sides and over the top of her clothes. I was so hard from just standing behind her, simply smelling her, simply being this close to her. There was no other girl I’d met who made me this hard simply by standing in front of me. My hands grasped her hips and ran up her sides. I pressed under her shirt and felt her hot skin. She leaned her head to the side and I kissed her bare neck.

  “Lane,” I whispered around a kiss that I pressed to the warm skin where her neck met her shoulder. “Don’t leave me. Please, baby, don’t leave.”

  My hands cupped her breasts. She closed her eyes and my fingertips plucked at her nipples under the lace fabric of her bra. She gasped and I grew thicker, harder, and pressed against her.

  “Dillon,” she moaned. Her back arched and her ass pressed into my throbbing cock.

  “Baby, you can’t leave me,” I said. I had to convince her not to go, that I was worth the pain, that I would try for the rest of my life to make her happy. I lifted her shirt over her head with her back still to me and unsnapped her bra. Her breasts sprang free and I ran my hand across them. I fought the urge to spin her around and suckle those pretty little pink nipples. Instead, I reached one hand down the front of her shorts to the hot wet spot on her panties.

  “Baby, you’re wet for me.”

  With my words she pressed her ass back into me. I let my fingers skim over and press against the fabric of her panties right at her nub, her pleasure button. A low moan erupted over her lips and her head rolled, loose on her neck.

  I watched her in the mirror above the dresser. I watched her body respond to my touch. I watched her soak up the pleasures of us together. I loved making Lane feel good, having this control over her body. My fingers skirted upward to the edge of her panties. I slipped my hand along her flat belly, underneath her panties, and paused just at the edge of her cleft. I listened to her breath, which was shortened by desire. My other hand still massaged her nipples while I kissed her bare shoulders and neck. She held her breath as she waited for my touch. She waited for me to slide my fingertips into her cleft; she waited to feel the release of pleasure.

  “Dillon, please, please,” she whimpered.

  I slid my fingers into her and pressed on her hot, swollen clit.

  A cry like a moan but softer and more sensuous burst from her lips. I circled her clit with my finger. Her hips went wild. She bucked her ass backward into me. She wanted my hardness. Needed the satisfaction of my cock. She raised her arms up and circled them around my neck and I watched as her tongue came out of her perfect pink pout of a mouth and she licked her lips. Her gaze locked with mine and her eyes were heavy-lidded and filled with pleasure. I was going to explode.

  I ripped my hand out of her pants and spun her around. In an instant I ripped her shorts off her. She reached for my jeans and scrambled her fingers over the button and zipper. She shucked them off my body. Her hands clasped my cock and stroked downward. I had to have her. I had to be inside her. I needed to know she was mine. I lifted her and she wrapped her legs around me and I walked backward to the bed. I sat with her still clasped to me.

  I reached my fingers down between her legs and stroked her hot, wet place and her head fell back. My mouth clamped onto hers and her lips parted to me. God, her taste, I would never get tired of her taste, those plush lips on my lips, her hot tongue inside my mouth, searching and probing. I slid a finger into her tight pussy.

  “Baby, fuck me like this,” I said.

  She’d never been on top. She pulled her head back and looked at me. Suddenly the girl who was becoming so wild, so uninhibited, looked shy. A tiny blush bloomed on her face. She bit her bottom lip. I pressed my finger to her clit and sucked on her nipple. I rolled her nipple in my mouth, my tongue caressing and sucking until her head fell back.

  I pulled my lips from her breast. “Baby, I want you to feel it like this. I want you in control.”

  She was ready; her body was slick and wet. I cupped her ass and lifted her. She put her knees on the bed on either side of me, then looked down at me. There was excitement and curiosity and the tiniest glimmer of fear as she looked at my cock. So hard. So ready for her. Like a giant spear for her to sit on.

  She lowered herself slowly and I held her hips.

  “Like this?” she whispered as my tip nudged into the edge of her tight entrance.

  “Yeah, baby, just like that.”

  I used all my restraint not to ram upward into her or slam her down upon my lap. I wanted inside her, inside that white-hot heat that made me feel alive and whole and pure and clean. It was the place, the only place, where I felt real.

  She bit her bottom lip and the muscles at her entrance tightened around me. She slipped slowly down over my shaft. My fingers circled her clit, and she tightened and tightened again, and I took her breast and sucked her nipple. She sat on me, not moving just squeezing my throbbing cock with her tight pussy.

  “Can I move,” she whispered out as her pussy clenched and tightened and clenched again.

  “Whatever you want to do, baby,” I said and pressed harder on her clit.

  She gasped. She pulled upward and her tight muscles slid along my shaft, the heat gliding over me.

  I’d never felt anything like this. She was the best. I looked up at her as she hovered above my cock. She smiled at me as though she liked this, this being in control. My hands were on her waist and I waited, God I waited, and just when I could barely stand the waiting, she plunged down onto me and speared her body onto my cock.

  “Fuck, baby, fuck,” I yelled.

  “Oh, Dillon,” she said. She grasped my neck and her lips were on mine.

  Her body pressed hard upon me. Heat shot up my spine and my cock throbbed. My body tensed as the rupture started to tear through me. Lane was so beautiful and so caught up in pleasure. She was swept away with the feeling of our bodies.

  “Dillon, I’m going to come,” she wailed.

  “Come for me, Lane, come for me now,” I said and pressed my palm to her back. I felt her movements grow wild. I pressed my finger to her clit to give her one gentle push into the wave of pleasure. She shattered. I watched her with her head thrown back and her tit in my mouth. I pumped hard and deep into her and I pulsed with a hard heat that threw me over the edge.

  Lane

  I loved sex. I smiled as I curled into the nook of Dillon’s arm. I absolutely loved it. I didn’t think I could love sex this much with anyone other than Dillon. The idea of letting anyone but him touch me or be inside me made me feel sick. I could never be this exposed, this vulnerable, with anyone but Dillon. I would never trust anyone like this other than Dillon. His eyes were closed and I looked at his face. His perfect face that soon every woman in America would know and want. His eyes fluttered open. The brilliant blue of his eyes grabbed me. That blue with flecks of silver was spectacular. I fought for my breath. He was so close and I was in his arms and right now I was the only girl for him. Or so I had let myself believe, if only for a while.

  “I’m sorry,” Dillon said. He pushed a lock of my hair back behind my ear. He took a long breath. “Kiley Kepner’s people asked me to take her to the premiere, before… before this, before us. I… I should have told you. I tried to cancel it, but Webber and Boom Boom… I told them about us.”

  My heart beat faster in my chest. I knew Dillon was private, and I knew from Choo that Webber and Boom Boom were all about selling him to the world as a sexy single young star. “I’m not going with Kiley to the premiere,
” Dillon said. His gaze found mine. “But they want me to wait on going public with us until two weeks after Mission Ranger opens.”

  I felt better knowing that Dillon wasn’t going to the premiere with Kiley, but he wasn’t going with me either and two weeks after the opening of Mission Ranger I would be back in school.

  “In two weeks I’m going to tell the world about us.” He pulled me tighter. His arm wrapped around me. “The box office will be so big by then that who I’m seeing won’t matter. It won’t matter that I’m not a single guy. It won’t matter to the studios that I’ve found my girl.”

  I forced a smile to my face. It might not matter to him, but somehow it mattered to me. He hadn’t heard me, didn’t want to hear me. I was going home. Webber and Boom Boom were right—I wasn’t the right girl for Dillon. I would never be the right girl for Dillon. He did need someone like Kiley Kepner, someone who would help his career, not someone who could do nothing for him.

  Hours later, the room was dark when Dillon pressed a kiss to my lips. We’d slept curled around each other. “Baby, I have to go,” he said. “I have to be on set in three hours.”

  I nodded as he slipped from my side and left me alone in bed. This would always be his life. He needed someone who could be good with that.

  Chapter 22

  Dillon

  “The deal for the Steve Legend film is closed,” Webber said. He jumped from behind his desk and reached out to slap my hand.

  “Awesome,” I said and smacked his palm. “Nice job.” I grabbed for my water bottle that sat on the table in front of the couch in Webber’s office at the agency. “How much?” I took a large gulp. I’d watched Webber negotiate all the details of my latest deal for the last half hour and I was parched just sitting and listening.