Take Two

“‘Damn it, Iz.’” He pulled away from her but didn’t turn. He paused, not sure if he could say the next line without choking on it. It was too close to the truth—too close to how he felt about her in real life. “‘I don’t want to love you.’”

“‘Then don’t.’” She tossed the script on the ground and reached for him again, wrapping her arms around his neck. “‘Let me love you.’”

She kissed him. Slowly, tentatively. She had directed him not to pull away, but also not give in to her. She told him to let her seduce him, rather let the character she was playing seduce the character he was playing.

Fuck. That was hard. Because Micah was already seduced, long before Billy Winter was supposed to be.

She licked around his mouth, teasing him, inviting him to respond. With great difficulty he didn’t react. His resistance began to weaken, though, when she sucked on his top lip, gently at first, then with increasing fervor. Soon he couldn’t take it any longer, opening ever so slightly. She took advantage of his weakness and slipped her tongue in, tasting him with long licks. Her hands ran through his hair, her body pressed to him, breasts heavy against his chest, as she sought deeper access.

She mewled against his mouth and that was when he couldn’t hold out another moment. With a heavy sigh, he put a hand around the small of her back and pulled her even closer, if that were possible. He fell into her kiss, surrendering to the tango of her tongue, filling her with such soul-wrenching passion that he only dared show her under the guise of his character.

He was so lost in her embrace that he startled when she pushed him to the ground, as she had said she would. She straddled him, hitching her short cotton skirt up to expose the beige skin of her thighs. Then, pulling at the bottom of his T-shirt, she coaxed him to sit up so she could remove it.

“Yummy,” she hissed, ru

He eased his own hands under her cotton tee, wondering for a moment if he should take it off. His desire to see her breasts as he caressed them won over his need to shelter her from spying eyes. “Lift,” he commanded, and she raised her arms for him as he undressed her. He flung her shirt to the ground beside him and lay back down, reaching to fondle and rub her tits through her thin bra. He paused to gaze at her above him, hair mussed, nipples sticking up under white lace. She was an angel, gorgeous and heaven-sent. He could look at her like that forever.

Except that Maddie seemed set on more than looking. She rocked her hips urgently against the ridge in his pants. “Help me,” she pleaded.

He reached beneath her skirt and found her clit, found her legs already soaked, wet for him. His breath hitched. “Jesus, Maddie.”

“I’m ready for you. Help me with your pants.”

He hesitated, wanting to enjoy her, wanting to feel her clench around his fingers before she clenched around his cock. But her look was insistent, so he complied, undoing his jeans and freeing his penis.

She grabbed him eagerly and positioned him at the mouth of her desire. She slid onto him and he let out a sound that seemed foreign to his ears—half groan, half guttural cry. Fuck, she felt incredible. So tight, and so wet around his naked cock. Fucking amazing.

She put her palms flat on his chest for support and began to move. Up and down, quickly. Too quickly. Without a condom, he’d come in no time at all. “Slow down, baby,” he urged.

She curbed her speed for about half a second.

“Maddie.” He grasped her hips, attempting to control her rhythm. She wriggled against his grip, maintaining her pace. It was too much, too fast. In one swift motion, he maneuvered her beneath him, pi

She moaned and he took over, moving in and out of her in long, leisurely strokes. Each pass of his penis against her vaginal walls feeling more exquisite than the last.

“Is this how you like it?” she murmured as he kissed along her jaw. “Real slow?”

He licked at her neck. “I like it slow and sweet.” He nipped her earlobe. “And I like it fast and frantic.” He gri

She moaned again as he pulled himself out to the very tip before plunging in again. “That was very sweet to say,” she said. “And this is very slow.”

“Relax, baby. I’ll get you where you want to go. But I’m not wearing a condom and this is the first time I’m getting to feel you. Let me enjoy you.” He crushed his mouth to hers, resuming their passionate kiss from earlier. Soon their tongues moved frenetically around each other and he could no longer hold back the passion in his thrusts. She quivered as he let his need take over, lunging into her relentlessly. Her hips met each drive and then she was clamped around him, shuddering through her orgasm, milking him while he pummeled toward his own release.

And when he came, it was a long, violent eruption that he filled with her name. “Maddie, ah God, Maddie.”

He collapsed on top of her, still inside her, sweaty and out of breath. The words from their scene echoed in his head. “I don’t want to love you.” He almost said them to her again, as Micah Preston this time.

But he didn’t.

He closed his eyes, as if he could squeeze out the L word like he could the light. “You can’t know what you do to me,” he whispered into her hair. “You can’t possibly have any idea at all.”

Chapter Nineteen

Maddie pulled a button-down black shirt out of the closet to drape over her tank top, and glanced at Micah, still half-asleep in the bed behind her.

As if feeling her gaze, he stirred. “What are you doing?” he mumbled.

“Getting dressed.”

“Stop it. Take your clothes off and get back in here with me.”

She gri

But since she couldn’t be sure he felt the same, she desperately wanted to hold on to each moment, including this one.

Unfortunately, she had to leave for location in twenty minutes. “You know I can’t.” She relished in his pout, then leaned over the bed to give him a swift kiss. “So, lover boy, what are you going to do with your day off?”

“Actually…” He paused, stretching his beautiful naked body.

Maddie’s eyes widened as they wandered to the delicious V of his lower torso that peeked above the sheets. She was so distracted she almost missed his answer.

“…with Lulu.”

Lulu? Did he say he was spending the day with his mother? “Excuse me, what did you say?”

“My mother. She’s coming in this morning. Fudge is picking her up from the airport after he drops you off on the set.”

“Oh.” Micah’s mother was flying in. And this was the first she was hearing about it. “Oh,” she said again, straightening.

She turned to the mirror and redid her hair’s ponytail, even though it looked fine already. “How long is she going to be here?” Maddie hoped her voice didn’t sound as choked as it felt.

In the mirror, she saw him sit up and lean back against the headboard. “Today. Then I’m sending her off to a spa in Estes Park first thing tomorrow morning.”

She watched her reflection’s brows furrow. “That’s not very long. You won’t get to spend any time with her.” But what she meant was that she wouldn’t get to spend any time with Lulu. And as her interest in Micah was growing exponentially every day, she had a strong desire to meet his mother. She didn’t even know much about Micah’s mother except that she’d been a former actress and that she’d helped push his career. There was so much more to glean from knowing her.