“I’m sorry. I have to go,” he murmured. She moved her hands down to his shirt, gripping the fabric so hard he thought she might rip it.
“Don’t. Please. Stay.” The words were practically inaudible, her eyes tightly shut. She leaned up to kiss him again, slowly, with an aching tenderness this time. He savored the fullness of her bottom lip. Without thinking, he slid his tongue over it, past her slightly parted lips. She moaned softly and released her grip on his shirt, sliding her hands up his chest and interlacing them around his neck as she pressed her body flush against his.
Fuck. He was hard as a fucking rock. There was no way she couldn’t feel it. He had only a split second to worry about it, however, before she abruptly broke the kiss and slapped him across the face.
Ethan swore he saw literal stars. The whiplash between the pleasure of kissing her and the pain of the slap had him reeling. He almost didn’t hear her next line.
“Don’t do this to me. Don’t you dare.” Her tone sliced through him.
He was breathing heavily, which thankfully worked as a character choice.
“Catalin, I—”
She interrupted him, a tremor of fear breaking through her aloof posturing. “If you leave now, you’ll never make it past the front gate.”
Ethan took a deep breath, willing his racing heart to return to normal. He spoke slowly, measuring each word.
“If I die, I die. But at least I’ll die in pursuit of what’s right.” He turned away from her.
“Wait!” she cried out. He turned back and had to catch his breath again. Grey’s face was flushed from crying, eyes wide and shining with emotion. She was fucking radiant—not to mention nailing every beat of the scene. He’d subconsciously assumed that her inability to book more work was at least partially based on her skill as an actress. He realized now how much he’d underestimated her.
She bit her swollen bottom lip. “If they ask me…I never saw you.”
He closed the space between them in one stride, gripping her face in his hands again. “That’s my girl.”
She looked up at him, her face open and unguarded, but clouded with worry. “Good luck,” she whispered, bringing her hand up to trace the line of his jaw, as if to memorize it. “I—I love you.”
The script called for the scene to end on one last kiss, and Ethan claimed her mouth again without hesitation. She pulled away, eyes glazed, looking as dumbfounded as Ethan felt. They stared at each other for a long, loaded moment. Grey tried to speak first.
“That—”
She barely got the word out before he hooked his arm around her waist and roughly pulled her back into him, covering her mouth with his. If she spoke, the spell would be broken, the scene would be over, and he would have no excuse to kiss her anymore. That prospect was unacceptable. He kissed her hungrily, desperately, and she matched his intensity, twisting her hands in his hair again. He groaned, an involuntary growl deep within his throat, and ran his hands up her back.
He wanted to touch her everywhere, had wanted to for weeks, but now that he finally had the opportunity, he didn’t know where to start. He didn’t want to push his luck, though judging from the eagerness of her tongue tangling with his, he had a lot of leeway. He slid his hands down the lush curve of her backside and gave a tentative squeeze. She responded by moaning into his mouth and grinding her hips against him.
Well, that answered that. In a flash, he lifted her off the ground and carried her the few steps over to the couch. As soon as he laid her down, she wrapped her bare legs around him, grabbed his shirt, and pulled his face back to hers. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been this aroused, driven this crazy with need. In the back of his mind, he knew that he shouldn’t defile her right here on the couch, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember why not.
He was stone sober, but he felt drunk on Grey. Drunk on her scent, her sighs, her soft skin beneath his hands. He pulled away from her mouth and buried his face in her neck, that exasperating neck, nibbling and sucking on the sensitive skin. She gasped, and the sound went straight to his cock, ensuring that the last remaining higher functions of his brain had shut down for good.
She suddenly tensed and shifted under him, and he lifted his head. His mind cleared enough to register the sound of a phone ringing. His phone, in fact. She met his eyes with a questioning look, breathing heavily. He shook his head and returned his mouth to hers, sliding his hands under her shirt and up her torso.
This time, they both heard it: her phone now, buzzing like a cockblocking hornet, on the cushion next to her head. The name on the screen was large enough for both of them to see from their compromised position: Audrey Aoki. They stared at each other, the same unfortunate realization dawning on them both simultaneously. The moment had passed. Back to reality.
“Fuck,” he groaned, pushing himself into a seated position as Grey scrambled to do the same, grabbing her phone and swiping to answer the call. She tucked her legs underneath her, face flushed and hair in a tangled cloud, unable to meet his eyes.
Her voice came out in a high, breathy squeak.
“Hello? Hi? Audrey, h-hi!” she stammered. “What? Yeah, no, yeah, I’m fine. I can talk.” She paused, listening to Audrey’s response. “Um. Yeah. Yeah, he’s right here. Hold on.” She fumbled with the phone, her hands shaking, trying to put Audrey on speaker. At last she hit the correct button, and Audrey’s voice blared out from the phone. Grey shifted a little as if attempting to bring the phone closer to him, though she seemed too nervous to move more than an inch in his direction.
“Grey? Ethan? Are you there?”
“Hey, Aud,” Ethan said, trying to keep his tone light as his blood slowly and painfully abandoned his groin and began to recirculate through the rest of his body.
“I hope you two aren’t getting into any trouble over there,” Audrey cooed. Grey and Ethan exchanged a guilty glance before she quickly looked away.
“We’re trying our best,” Ethan responded.
“Not to,” Grey added quickly. “We’re trying our best…not to.” She winced.
“Good, good. I’m just calling because I have a couple of pieces of very exciting news that I wanted to share with you right away.” She paused, clearly expecting them to take the bait and ask for more details. Neither of them said a word. “I locked down your big interview: a cover story and an eight-page photo spread in Vanity Fair, written by Sugar Clarke.”
“Who?” Ethan grunted.
“Didn’t you read her Merritt Valentine profile? Merritt’s first interview in ten years? It was incredible. Everyone was talking about it.”
Ethan knew Merritt, sort of, but had no idea what profile Audrey was referring to. Grey seemed to, though. She shut her eyes, her face tense.
“Wow, that’s great news, Audrey,” Grey said, her tone carrying the enthusiasm that her expression lacked.
“That means that you’ll have to be on top of your game. She’s very sharp and very observant, that’s her job. You’ll both be spending a lot of time with her, and she’ll sniff out any bullshit right away.”
Grey swallowed so hard that Ethan almost heard a cartoon gulp! sound effect.
“Got it. We’ll be…” He paused, groping for the right word. “Convincing.”
“Perfect. You know I love to hear that. And I have something else on the line that’ll help you log some more quality time. The Blue Oasis resort in Palm Springs finished their renovations and are having their soft opening soon. They offered you two a luxury villa next weekend. Ready to take your first couples vacation?”
They looked at each other for a long time. Grey’s eyes were remote and unreadable. Finally, she responded, “As ready as we’ll ever be.”