by Maggie Marr
“You already have on your makeup,” he whispered to me, his lips so close to mine they almost touched. “That’s really too bad.”
He pulled me as close as I could be and I felt his hardness press into me. I didn’t care about my makeup I didn’t care about my dress with his hand on the nape of my neck and his fingers circling my nipple. All I wanted was for him to kiss me, to be inside me.
“You look too pretty to mess up,” Dillon whispered in my ear.
His hand drifted down the side of my dress and found the edge of my skirt. His fingertips slipped up my thigh and my breathing grew short. His blue eyes lined with silver were locked onto mine. His tongue traced over his lips. His fingertips brushed from the edge of my thigh to the obscenely expensive lace panties that covered me. I gasped.
“How’d you get so wet already, baby,” he asked His lips had the wickedest smile. His fingertips reached under my panties and he slipped his fingers between my cleft and pressed against the hot spot between my legs.
“Does it feel good, Laney?”
I bit my bottom lip and nodded. A low moan escaped over my lips. His palm grasped the back of my neck and steadied me. With his touch between my legs, my hips began to roll. He had complete possession of me. His touch controlled me.
He leaned forward, his lips beside my ear and whispered, “You want me to fuck you?”
I couldn’t even answer. My want was desperate. I wanted him inside me, to fill me. I couldn’t even form words. He slipped two fingers into me and his thumb continued to press across my nub, which throbbed for him. He spun me around and pressed into my back as his hand reached around and his fingers pumped into me. My head pressed back into his chest. My legs were weak and my knees nearly buckled.
“Come for me, baby,” he whispered into my ear. “Watch yourself come for me.”
I opened my eyes and looked into the three-way mirror that was still in my room—Dillon’s face was shadowed with lust, me with my dress hitched up high around my waist, his hand wrapped around me and in between my legs, his fingers pumping into me as his thumb massaged me. My breath shallowed with his.
“That’s right, baby, come around my fingers, come for me. I want to watch you come for me.”
I pressed my head back and my hips forward. His other hand played with my now-exposed nipples that hung out the top of my dress. The heat built as I watched him play with all the sensitive parts of me.
“Dillon, baby, baby…” I wailed. “I’m going to come, baby…”
“Yes, you are, sweet Lane, you’re going to come. I’m going to make you come.” His lips sucked my neck and his kiss nearly burned. The heat rose and built and rolled through me as I thrust myself against his hand, unable to control my body, my need, my want.
“Dillon!” I screamed his name—it sounded like a plea across my lips. I arched back and his fingers continued to tease my pussy.
The orgasm rolled through me, over and over and over until the last shudder rushed through my body. Dillon slipped his fingers from me. He slipped both into his mouth. “So sweet, Lane, you taste so sweet.”
I bit my lip, knowing that he was tasting me. “I can’t kiss you until after.” He gently repositioned my panties and pulled the skirt of my dress down. He slipped his hand over it, settling it. He touched my breasts and a hot shock rushed through me as he repositioned my breasts back into my bra and back into my dress. “Damn, baby, that face, that half-lidded, freshly fucked face… I don’t even want to let you out of the house.”
I glanced into the mirror. He was right. I looked flushed and deeply satisfied, a satisfaction I hadn’t known until Dillon.
“That’s just the warm-up.” He leaned in close to me. “Just wait until we get home tonight. I can’t wait to peel that dress off you. But the shoes”—his gaze ventured down my legs toward my heels—“the shoes I want you to keep on.”
I bit my bottom lip. Even just after an earth-shaking orgasm, I still wanted to have sex with Dillon right this moment.
“Hey, I got you something,” Dillon said. He slipped his hand into his pocket and came out with a rectangular box. “To celebrate my big night.” He turned the box to me.
My eyes widened and my heart beat so fast in my chest I thought it might explode. I took the velvet box from him and slowly opened it.
“Oh, Dillon,” I gasped. A long line of diamonds glittered inside the box.
“You have the most beautiful neck—this will look amazing on you.”
He lifted the strand of diamonds and stood behind me. He clasped it and I stood in front of the mirror, my fingertips dancing over the diamonds.
“It’s… oh my God, it’s beautiful, but it’s too much it’s…”
He turned me around to face him. “Nothing is too much for you.” He ran his knuckles gently along my cheekbone. “I need you to know that, to understand. Nothing is too much for you, Lane.” He pressed his forehead to mine and sighed. “You are becoming my everything.”
My heart bounced in my chest. I felt this way about Dillon, but for some reason I still couldn’t trust that he felt the same about me.
He was so close to me. “I want to kiss you so bad.” A frustrated smile slipped over his lips.
“I have lipstick in my bag,” I said and wiggled my eyebrows.
“Thank God.” He pressed his lips to mine.
Chapter 23
Dillon
“The screaming is insane,” I said to Boom Boom.
“Soon, darling, all those screams will be for you.” She stopped in front of the bank of photographers. “Step and repeat.”
Webber stood behind me and off to the side. Ryan was flying high. He had slammed back six drinks and snorted lines of blow in the car. He threw his arm around my neck. The photographers, as well as the fans, went wild. Flashes burst around us.
“Is that your girl up ahead?”
I slid my eyes to the left. Ahead of me on the red carpet was Lane with Amanda. Amanda Legend was a photo magnet. Her father was the biggest action star in the world, and her brother was a producer. She didn’t want anything to do with the industry, but she’d agreed to come for Lane’s sake so that Lane didn’t have to face this evening alone. The photogs flashed pics of Lane and Amanda together. Lane looked amazing.
A flame of want burned through my chest. I took a long deep breath. I wanted to be the person standing beside Lane. Choo and Jackson ambled behind Amanda and Lane. My brother and his date weren’t chum for the photogs… yet. They quickly slid by the bank of photographers and into the theater.
Lane glanced my way and flashed me a smile. A warmth lit through me. I wanted to walk over, grab her around the waist, and slip a huge kiss onto her lips. Boom Boom would freak and Webber might stroke out. I’d agreed to let them keep the bad-boy sexy single guy routine alive until the movie opened and the box office was solid.
“It’s Kiley Kepner!” a shutterbug shouted.
Ryan slipped his arm from around my neck. He rolled his eyes skyward. “What a pain in the ass,” he muttered.
Every photographer turned to their left. The sound of camera clicking increased.
“Kiley!”
“Over here!”
“Kiley! Come take a picture with your boyfriend!”
“They don’t mean me,” Ryan said. He patted my lapel and slipped away from me. Soon Boom Boom had me by the arm. She shoved me beside Kiley, who turned and pressed her breasts into my side.
My heart lurched in my chest.
“Don’t they make a spectacular couple?” Boom Boom called to the salivating photographers.
I looked over my shoulder. Lane stood in the doorway to the theatre. Her mouth was open and her eyes widened. She watched as Kiley’s arm snaked around my neck. Kiley pulled me closer and with her other hand she took my chin and turned my face to hers.
“Smile,” she whispered. “I’m giving you more press than you could ever buy.”
My tight smile locked onto my face. I slid my eyes toward Boom
Boom, who wouldn’t meet my gaze. Kiley looked away from the photographers and back to me. I felt her lips press onto my cheek. They felt like plastic. I pulled back with a surprised look on my face, I did my best to maintain my nonchalance like I got kissed by superstars every day while the girl I loved stared at me slack-jawed from five feet away.
Lane. This was going to hurt Lane.
I slipped my arm from Kiley’s waist and had started for the theater door when Kiley grabbed my wrist.
“Not so fast,” she hissed around her fake smile. “I have on heels.”
“I don’t care if you’re wearing stilts,” I said. “I have to get inside.”
She wouldn’t let go of my arm and there was no way I could jerk free in front of a hundred photographers and not look like the biggest asshole in the world. I let her hold my arm and we walked through the doors into the theater.
“For somebody who wants to pretend to be my boyfriend,” Kiley said, “you sure are in a hurry to get away.”
“I don’t want to pretend,” I said. I scanned the room, looking for any sign of Amanda or Lane. I needed to find Lane, she would be hurt and upset and—
“Dillon, man, come on,” Hunter Fabian called from the door between the lobby and the theater. Beside Hunter stood Steve Legend—the biggest action star in the world and my costar on my next film. Steve flashed me his box-office-winning smile. I hadn’t known he was coming to the Mission Ranger premiere. He nodded toward me and held out his hand to Kiley. She slipped from my side and grasped Steve’s hand.
“Can’t start the film without you, mate,” Hunter called.
I let a smile break out over my lips as I did one more fast check of the theater lobby. Where was Lane? Kiley whispered in Steve’s ear and then released his hand. She disappeared into the darkened theater. I walked toward Hunter and held out my hand to Steve Legend. Right now, they were the two most important men when it came to making my career.
Lane
“I don’t know why I’m crying,” I said and sniffed. I shoved a tissue under my eye. “I knew what they wanted to do, how they wanted to sell Dillon, what he needs to do for his career. It’s not like I didn’t know.”
“Knowing about something doesn’t make it hurt any less,” Amanda said. “Believe me.” She took my crumpled tissue, tossed it in the trash, and handed me another tissue. She leaned against the sink. “Look, the business sucks. It messes with people’s heads. I’ve never met anyone who comes out of the industry normal.”
I blew my nose. I didn’t want to hear this. I looked down at my toenails, painted bright red and peeking out of my pretty shoes. I’d ruined my makeup, not from having sex with Dillon, but by crying my eyes out because the entire world now believed he was sleeping with Kiley Kepner.
“Even if you want to be in the business, it doesn’t mean you have to let the business control your life. Find something that isn’t about the industry,” she said. “A hobby. A friend. A boyfriend—someone who is normal or sane.” She pulled a strand of hair that had fallen into my face away from my tear-soaked cheek. “Like I did you.”
I looked at Amanda.
“But then you had to go and mess that all up by falling in love with the next big action star, didn’t you?” A small smile flickered across her face. “He loves you.” Her voice was soft and her eyes were sincere. “And you may not want to, but you love him too. It’s completely obvious when you two are together. And yes, it’s totally messed up that he has to pretend to be seeing that hellacious bitch, Kiley.”
“I thought you liked her,” I said.
“Like her? You mean the way everyone in the business likes everyone?” Amanda turned and set her clutch on the vanity. “We grew up together. We were best friends until she slept with one of my boyfriends. I do not like her.” Amanda leaned forward and adjusted her false eyelash. “I am polite to her. I do what I’ve been trained to do. I am on friendly terms with her. Who knows when my father or my brother or someone else I care about may need something from her? I keep my personal feelings personal and I am nice to her, but I definitely don’t like her.”
Something shifted in my chest. How hard would that have been for Amanda? Her entire life she had to keep every personal feeling locked deep inside because of her family’s business.
“I don’t know if I can do that,” I said and wrinkled my brow.
“You already have,” Amanda said. Her gaze shifted in the mirror from examining her makeup to me. “Did you like Dillon when you first met him?”
I thought back to that very first day when Dillon had humiliated me in front of the entire crew of Offend and Defend. “No.”
“But you were polite to him and you took a job from him and now what?”
“Now I’m in love with him,” I whispered.
I looked into the mirror. I searched my own eyes. He’d humiliated me that day and then today… today I felt like… even though I understood why… I felt like he’d just denied me, denied our love to the entire world. I wanted to be okay with it. I wanted to love him enough so that the things that Dillon had to do for his public image didn’t bother me. I wanted to love him enough so that I didn’t feel jealous and hurt and abandoned and every other bad feeling that careened through my chest.
“And tonight,” Amanda said and turned back to me. She crossed her arms over her chest and settled her gaze on to mine. “You’ll do it again. You’ll walk out there to the premiere, you’ll go to the party, and you’ll pretend. You’ll pretend none of this bothers you. You’ll pretend you’re having a great time. You’ll follow Dillon and his team’s lead and you’ll even pretend you aren’t sleeping with him and you aren’t in love. And you’ll do it for his career. For the business.” Amanda picked up her clutch. She took the final tissue from my hand.
A cold bitterness wove through her words. I wondered how many times in her life as the child of the world’s biggest action star she’d had to pretend—pretend to be happy, pretend to have the perfect life, pretend to have the perfect family. Maybe Amanda was finished pretending and that was why she wanted to get as far away from entertainment and the industry as she could.
Amanda dusted her fingertips under my cheek and wiped away a tiny piece of white fuzz. “You’ll do all this for Dillon. You’ll do it for love.” She turned toward the door and pulled it open. “Welcome to Hollywood.”
Dillon
“Dude, I would totally tap either one of those,” Ryan said. His breath was hot with whiskey and he hung his arm around my neck.
He pointed his drink first toward Kiley, who stood a few feet to my right, and then he swung his arm back to his left where Lane stood chatting with Amanda and Amanda’s dad, Steve Legend. I hadn’t gotten to Lane yet. We’d texted after the film when Webber, Ryan, and I took the limo to the premiere party. Then there’d been mobs of people. I hadn’t been able to fight the crowd to get to her. This moment was the closest I’d been to Lane since the red carpet and now my drunk costar was hanging off my neck like he was ready to pass out on the floor.
“Pull it together, buddy,” I said. I looked around the room. Top-level executives and producers milled around. This wasn’t the place you wanted to collect a reputation for not holding your liquor. “Ryan, you’re wasted.”
“Man, I’m fine,” he slurred and then jammed his glass of whiskey to his lips.
“Oh yeah,” I said and steered him away from the president of production of Worldwide Pictures. “You’re A-okay.” I walked toward Webber with Ryan hanging off my side.
“Webber, man, we’ve got to get him home,” I said.
Webber took a deep breath and nodded. “This is becoming too regular of an occurrence. Come on, guy, let’s get you home.”
Ryan liked to party and drank a ton of booze, but I didn’t think I realized just how massive a habit his drinking had become.
“Dude, I am not going home yet,” Ryan slurred. H pulled himself up and shook his head. “This is my premiere too and I’m staying. Got me?”
Webber and I looked at each other. I wasn’t going to knock Ryan’s ass down and drag him to the car.
“Got you,’ I said and patted him on the shoulder. “Then you better slow down with that stuff.” I nodded toward his drink.
“Dude, I’m all good as I long as I have this stuff”—he patted his pocket and I knew he had coke in there—“to go with that stuff.” He lifted his glass and upended his drink. He was balancing the downer effects of the liquor with the upper effects of the coke—it was a good ride as long as you kept the ratio right.
I looked across the room to where Lane stood between Choo and Amanda. That was where I wanted to be, with her. Not with some horribly atrocious, entitled bitch. I’d wanted the press and the prestige that came with being linked to the biggest star in the world. I’d thought my reasons were legitimate… to protect my brother… but right now… Shit, I definitely didn’t want any of it bad enough.
Kiley walked up to me. “It’s time to go.” Her gaze followed mine. She was beautiful, but she was mean and shallow and broken to her core. “Look,” she whispered, “I get that you think you’re in love with her, and I am completely A-okay with that. As soon as tonight is over, our deal is finished. But let’s get through tonight.” She reached up and grabbed each lapel of my jacket.
“I want to call this deal off,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.
A smile lit up Kiley’s face. “Oh, Dillon.” She sighed and patted one of my lapels. “You are so cute. You have to be a much bigger star to control a situation such as this.” Her gaze locked on mine. “You don’t decide when this faux relationship is finished, we do.” She leaned close and whispered, “And by ‘we,’ I mean me and my very powerful boyfriend.” She nodded her head toward where Lane stood beside Amanda and Steve Legend. Steve lifted his drink in a salute to us and nodded.