Living Dangerously (26 page)

But Carrie Ann was not going to treat him like his dad had and get away with it. She made him want to do bad things. He hadn’t done bad things since he’d released his father from a world of misery.

He’d have to talk to Julie about her. If Julie had grown tired of her best friend’s complaining, then Allen knew exactly how to deal with her. He’d gotten away with murder once already. One more time wasn’t going to kill him. Laughing at his own joke, he adjusted the number. Actually, two more times since he still had to lose the bodyguard.

“Why are you laughing?” Carrie Ann asked. She ran her hands through her hair. It wasn’t long enough to wrap around her neck. A shame. But even if it had been, he wasn’t stupid enough to think hair was strong enough to choke her.

“I was just thinking about how surprised Julie’s going to be when she sees us.”

“That’s the fucking truth,” Carrie Ann agreed.

Allen parked the car in the empty lot and relieved himself in the men’s room. His phone rang as he washed his hands. It was probably his boss wondering when he planned on coming back to work. How about
never
? In a perfect world his game would sell, he’d be with Julie and he wouldn’t need his fucking IT job. He let the voicemail answer. Once outside, he checked the call log and felt his jaw clench. His mother. She didn’t know how to leave him alone. But as long as he had a minute away from Carrie Ann, he hit Play to listen to the message.

“Allie, it’s me,” her nasal voice droned. “Where are you? What did you do? The police were here looking for you.”

What
? Allen’s skin prickled. His heart slammed against his ribs as he walked slowly back to the car. He missed her next words and had to concentrate.

“—in Oxnard, but they left their card and told me to call them as soon as I heard from you. Are you in trouble? Call me as soon as you get this.”

The voicemail ended and he quickly deleted it. Allen took a deep breath to calm his racing pulse. This had to be about Julie. He hadn’t done anything that might get him into trouble with the cops. Not counting offing his father years ago. They had to be looking for strangers who’d sent her mail or packages and he’d done both. He ran a hand through his hair. Okay...not a problem. Once he found her and explained, she’d be able to tell the police that he wasn’t the one who wanted to hurt her. He planned to protect her. There was no better time to meet Julie in person.

Call
me
as
soon
as
you
get
this
. His mother’s words echoed in his head.

“Not a chance in hell,” he muttered.

When he returned, Carrie Ann sat behind the wheel.

“What’d you do, learn to drive from your grandma? I wanted to have a least another hundred miles behind us at this point.”

Allen clenched his jaw. The lot was empty. No one knew they were there. He could get behind her and snap her neck faster than she could blink.
That
would warrant a police investigation. He might look like a nerd, but that didn’t make him harmless. “I went over the speed limit,” he said, working hard to control his anger.

“Yeah? By what? Two miles an hour?” She rolled her eyes again and Allen felt his restraint slipping away. If she made one more comment. One more eye roll or gesture or if she even looked at him funny, he was going to fuck her up so bad, she’d beg him to kill her.

“Look, sorry I’m hammering you on this. I just don’t want to be late and we’re going to cut it close.”

Allen rolled his neck against his shoulders before getting in the passenger side. He leaned his head against the seat rest then turned and looked at her. “You asked me to do this so I’m doing it. For you, yes, but mainly for Julie.” And now to avoid a police investigation. “I suggest you stay the fuck off my back if you want the rest of this trip to be bearable.”

Her eyes widened, her jaw slacked open, but a smile curved her lips. “Well, look who just grew a pair. It’s about time. Welcome to the real world, baby.” She started the car and peeled out of the spot.

Allen resisted the urge to grab hold of the door handle. The bitch was fucking with him.

Fine. He’d make this trip for Julie’s sake, but when they got to the East Coast, Carrie Ann was going to have a terrible accident that no one would be able to save her from. Now all he had to do was figure out exactly what kind of accident would take her the most quickly...and most painfully.

* * *

Carrie Ann set the cruise control at eighty-five. Probably about twenty miles an hour faster than Geekboy had gone the whole time she’d slept. His little outburst had surprised her. Apparently he had a breaking point. But didn’t everybody? She sure as hell did. Seeing Drew break down had crushed her. Most of all, she wanted the best for her brother and if taking Julie out of the picture meant he would function close to normal, then she had to try. He was her responsibility. She’d promised her mother she’d take care of him.

The more she thought about it, the more she had to concede a selfish reason as well. She was tired of playing second fiddle. She wanted to be on the A-list. Hell,
deserved
to be on the A-list.

For so many years she’d been so close to stardom, a hairbreadth from fame, but she’d never quite reached it. She played sidekicks in movies and in real life as Julie Fraser’s best buddy. She was always the “and along with” and costarring, but rarely the headline. Thirteen fucking years of working for every job while her best friend got it all handed to her on a platinum platter.

Julie wasn’t anything special. Carrie Ann had way more in the looks department, the talent department and the brains department. But Julie was the one with everything. Her house, her car—although why she drove a Prius when she could afford a fleet of Bentleys was still beyond Carrie Ann—her career. She had everything, and Carrie Ann didn’t see the justice in that.

There had been a handful of years when just being seen with Julie put Carrie Ann in the spotlight enough to warrant a spike in her career, but after
Nowhere
to
Hide
, that had changed. She’d gone back to working for every role.

Her knuckles tightened on the wheel.

“Are you still pissed at me?” Al asked. His eyes were at half-mast with his arms folded across his chest. He yawned and Carrie Ann saw all the metal fillings in his teeth.

“I’m pissed at myself,” she said, looking at the long stretch of highway in front of her. She didn’t even know where they were.

“For bringing me along?” he asked. He might’ve been a geek, but he was an observant geek.

“For expecting you to have my urgency,” she said. “I want to get there for her birthday and it’s not a big deal to you. I should’ve made it more clear.”

“Fine. So I know. Can we get past it now?”

Yeah, she wanted to pull over, shove him out of her car, hit the gas and leave him stranded on the side of the road. She could have too. It’d be easy. But then she really wouldn’t make it to the East Coast on time.

“Consider me
past
it
.” It was everything she could do to keep her voice steady and not mock him. How had she ever thought she could be with him on a regular basis? She usually considered herself a better judge of character. Besides, if he had all the money he boasted about, why did he live the way he did? There was something fishy about Al Gates. Something very fishy.

Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time someone lied to get closer to her. Or to Julie. People knew her as Julie’s BFF so Carrie Ann always had to live with people befriending her just to meet Julie. But this guy had said he was her neighbor, so that didn’t fit the usual scenario.

“So, where did you go to college?” A rich computer geek had to have gone someplace fancy. MIT or an Ivy League school. Someplace that made geeks into millionaires.

“CSUN,” he said.

“Cal State Northridge?” She hated asking stupid questions she knew the answer to, but she expected more than CSUN.

He cracked open one tired lid and gave her a stink eye. “Yes. Why? You have an issue with CSUN? Where’d you go to school?”

“No, I don’t have an issue with it. I just expected something else. I went to Cal Arts.”

He huffed out a breath.

“What the fuck was that?” Try as she might, she couldn’t hide the
nasty
in her tone. Not that she tried too hard. She zoomed up behind the semi in front of them and darted to the left lane to pass, flooring the accelerator.

“It was the same reaction you had to my answer, only without words. At least I got my degree at a normal school.”

Carrie Ann clenched her jaw tight. She’d heard that same crap from people for years. She’d auditioned and gotten into Cal Arts, and Julie had auditioned and landed her own fucking show at seventeen. Carrie Ann had been thrilled for her. She’d also been sure it wouldn’t last more than a few episodes. She’d been sure that busting her ass at a school geared for the performing arts would not only set her up to be well-rounded and versatile, it would give her the credentials needed when she went to future auditions.

What a fucking joke that had been.

She never should’ve spent three years of her life there. She’d have been better off trying to land an agent and more auditions.

She took a deep breath to calm the anger raging through her system.

“What’s got you pissed off now?” Geekboy asked.

The fact that he was obviously watching her made her even angrier. “I thought you were sleeping,” she snapped.

“Not with you going a hundred miles an hour. I’m kind of getting ready to die.”

She glanced at the speedometer and took her foot off the gas. She’d passed that truck a long time ago, but hadn’t let up on the accelerator. “You’re not going to die. We’ve got a surprise party to get to. God isn’t going to punish you when you’re doing a good deed.” Like she really believed that load of crap. God had left her to the mercy of Hollywood years ago and Hollywood was not a kind master. It bled a person dry. Drew was the perfect example. He’d had hope and the chance at his dreams, but inevitably he’d been stripped of everything including self-respect and dignity. He’d seen what had happened with her staying in school and Julie getting her television show. He’d opted to jump right into auditioning and forgo his education. And what had that done for him? Hollywood had made a joke of his life. It had ruined her brother, made Julie a star, and it was the one place where Carrie Ann wanted to succeed more than anywhere else.

If getting rid of Julie gave Drew back some of his mental health and set her on the right track, she had to try.

Fuck
this
. She stepped on the gas.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Julie stretched in the big bed and opened her eyes as the afternoon sun threw brilliant rays through the window. Troy’s arm tightened around her waist and pulled her more snugly against his chest. She molded to the curve of his body, enjoying the feel of his growing erection against her ass. The man had stamina.

He fascinated her with his contrasting character. His behavior said
I’m
cool
, but his body said
I’m
ready
to
get
down
and
dirty
whenever
you
are
. He didn’t act like a rutting stud, didn’t constantly handle her or seem to need to touch her. She didn’t get any type of possessive vibe from him, but as soon as they locked lips or touched each other, he was all about making the sparks fly. He was unlike anyone she’d ever dated.

Dated. A word she absolutely could not use when thinking about this man simply because they’d never been on one date. Not the traditional kind anyway. Sure, they’d spent time together, and recently all their meals together, but could she classify any of their time together as a “date”?

Had he picked her up and taken her to dinner or a movie or all the things couples were supposed to do when they begin a relationship? Had they shared a first kiss at her doorstep? None of the old-fashioned ways she used to date applied to this man.

So what? It didn’t change the fact that, yes, dammit! They were in a relationship.

So what if their beginning hadn’t been traditional. So what if they hadn’t
talked
about it. He’d been there for her through the toughest parts of her life and nothing had scared him off. He didn’t react to her in any way she was used to and now, as he rolled her over and nibbled her earlobe, as his big, warm hand eased down her stomach and ended between her thighs, she couldn’t think about anything but the way he made her feel. Maybe that was it. Because he treated her differently, she felt different around him. He made her feel special by letting her just be herself. She didn’t have to be the movie star, didn’t always have to be “on” or looking great every minute of the day. He’d seen her at her worst—multiple times—and liked her anyway.

The pressure of his warm palm on her mound made her moan and push into his hand.

“Like that, do you?” His question rumbled into her ear and a shiver raced through her. He slid two fingers deep inside her and another sound of need purred in her throat. His lips skated across her skin, down to her chest where he swirled his tongue around her hard nipple over and over until by the time he sucked it into his mouth, she was arching off the bed. His fingers still penetrated her, pushed inside her over and over, driving her closer to sweet release.

She could’ve come just from his mouth at her breast and his fingers pumping inside her, but Troy slid his lips farther down until his mouth replaced his fingers, and Julie lost complete thought. Blood rushed through her veins and the pounding in her head built to an all-time high. Troy alternately sucked, licked and lashed. He drove her crazy with intense need, overwhelming desire. She rode that sweet edge, the cusp of absolute heaven. Every new touch brought her an increment closer. She loved that wondrous spot, the point of no return. The seconds of bliss before the bliss. She pushed up against him, ready to take the final fall, ready to drown in repletion. Soaking wet, she whimpered when he spread all that moisture along the crease of her ass. Nerve endings popped and sizzled as he ventured to intimate territory, circling, pressing and going where no man had gone before. When he shoved two fingers inside her, one in each hole, she came with a force so intense, she cried out, her muscles clenching tightly, her spasms rocking her from the inside out. It was the most shockingly, surprisingly intense fall of her life.

Shudders still wracked her as Troy slipped on a condom and pushed into her. The sudden thick invasion had her gasping for breath. His arms wrapped beneath her as he held her tight and pushed in over and over. It was so good. Just feeling his power, the way he wanted her, listening to his ragged breathing and touching his muscled back and sculpted ass. In four more hard thrusts, his orgasm tore through him as he stiffened on top of her, his hips tightly against hers, their bodies joined intimately.

His harsh breathing tickled her ear and she smiled, loving the connection they shared. She hoped he felt what she did. Wanted him to know what they had was something special. Something she personally had no experience with.

She really needed to tell him how she felt. The sooner she got that off her chest, the sooner she could move on. His lips hovered near her ear. His warm breath sent tingles across her nape. “Good afternoon,” he rumbled.

She smiled and stretched beneath him, loved feeling his weight on top of her, his body still semi-hard inside of her. But even as the thought entered her mind, he pulled out gently and she sighed at the loss of his heat, his substance filling her.

“It’s a good afternoon, now. That’s for sure.” She purposely kept it upbeat. Held onto her smile for all she was worth, which by Hollywood standards was a good amount. She would not be a clingy wimp.

Screw it. If she didn’t say something, she was going to burst. She took a breath, opened her mouth. “I—”

The phone rang.

Gah
. She couldn’t catch a break.

She glanced at the clock as he reached for the receiver on the nightstand table. Almost two p.m. Who would be calling? His uncle, probably. The poor guy had probably been on pins and needles waiting for Troy,
his
son
, to read the diary. The weight of that knowledge seemed far more important than her issue of telling Troy how she felt about him.

“Mills,” Troy said, answering the phone. He sat up and adjusted the sheet around his waist.

Julie took the time to admire his six-pack abs and the muscles that defined his chest and accentuated his narrow waist. Despite the crazy mondo orgasm she’d just had, she felt her insides go all melty just looking at the man. She’d done things with him—and let him do things to her—that she hadn’t with anyone else. She trusted him on a level she almost didn’t understand. It went deep down where she felt it in her heart.

“No, it’s okay,” Troy said on the phone. He put his arm around her and pulled her close. She rested her head against his chest and listened to the comforting thump of his heartbeat. Yeah, she could get used to this very easily. “You didn’t,” he said into the receiver. “We weren’t busy.” He squeezed her shoulder and she smiled. They’d been busy all right. Troy most especially had been busy. “A half hour?” he said, glancing at the clock. “Sure. That’s fine. We’ll be here.” He paused. “I understand. Yeah. Me too.” Troy hung up and turned on his side to face her.

“Uncle Zach’s coming over, eh?” she asked, despite knowing the answer.

Troy nodded. “Sorry.” He wrinkled his forehead in that way that made him look so adorable. “I couldn’t really tell him no.”

She stroked his cheek. “I don’t expect you to. I’m sure he’s dying to talk to you. How long has he had this information and how long has he been wishing to see you? Years,” she said answering her own question. “It’s only natural that he wants a private conversation.”

He took her hand and kissed her palm. “You’re a very understanding...”

She waited for the word. Girlfriend? Chick? Actor? What the hell did he want to say?

“...person,” he finally said.

He’d opened the door wide to have the conversation she wanted to have, but it didn’t seem fair to heap relationship matter at his feet when he had a different relationship to work on in about twenty-seven minutes.

“I should get in the shower,” she said. But she didn’t budge because she loved looking into his dark intense eyes.

“We could conserve water, but we have to be careful with your stitches,” he murmured, his eyes growing darker.

“That’s very eco-friendly of you, Mr. Mills.” She threw the sheets off, lunged for the bathroom and ignored the pressure in her thigh. “Last one in the shower is a rotten egg!”

* * *

Troy finished shaving as Julie ran a hand through her wet hair. She looked like a model for a soap commercial. Fresh, clean and absolutely flawless. Except for the scars from two bullets and the shrapnel wound on her leg, barely covered at the moment by a thick beige towel. He hated those reminders. He glanced at a similar scar on his own arm and fought an involuntary shudder. That had been one hell of day.

Julie wrapped her arms around him from behind and the fresh clean scent of her shampoo went straight to his head. He’d never been so...so...domesticated in his life. Had never shared a bathroom with a woman, ever. The tips of her fingers slid beneath the waistband of his unbuttoned jeans and Troy held his breath. She glanced in the mirror and caught his eye. One eyebrow waggled suggestively and Troy laughed. It didn’t matter that they’d made love before they got in the shower, or that they’d made love again in the shower, she still wanted him. Damn if he didn’t feel the same way about her. Apparently her leg wasn’t bothering her as much as it had a couple of days ago.

But the clock ticked on.

“You know my uncle is going to be here in—”

“About twelve minutes.” She took her hands out of his jeans and reached for a comb on the counter. “Bummer. Maybe after he leaves we can pick up where we left off.”

“You wouldn’t be getting any complaints from me.”

This time she waggled both eyebrows. “I better not. I’d hate to have to do something against your will.”

“You know, that sounds kind of kinky. I like it.”

She faced him, her smile soft and as beautiful as the woman herself. “Well, I like...” She paused, her eyes serious despite her grin. “I like
you
,” she said quietly. Then she turned toward the mirror and combed out her hair.

Yeah, okay. He was in serious trouble here because he more than just liked this woman. He had serious feelings growing for her, which in the long run would probably only destroy him. She was a movie star for God’s sake. Known worldwide. It wasn’t so much that he felt unworthy of her; he just had a hard time picturing them together in the real world.

Troy went back to shaving and covertly watched as Julie got ready. It helped take his mind off the coming conversation with his uncle. He’d been doing his damnedest to avoid thinking about his father and uncle and how the roles had been reversed. Part of him understood why his mother had done what she’d done. She’d wanted a name for her baby, wanted a roof over her head. Hell, she’d all but sacrificed herself for him, but her sacrifice had also
been
him
.

He’d loved his mother. He couldn’t be angry with her for making a choice she clearly hadn’t wanted to make, in hopes of a better life. She’d just made a mistake. But maybe she felt as if she’d done the only thing possible.

“Thinking about your uncle?” Julie asked. She’d lost the towel and had slipped into some chic, loose-fitting sweats. Even dressed down, she looked like a Victoria’s Secret model.

“Thinking about a lot of things.” He rinsed the razor and stuck it in his toilet kit.

She stroked her thumb across his cheek, her eyes clear blue and intense. “Clean shaven. Very sexy. I like it.” The emotion in her eyes spoke more than her simple words. A blush crept up her cheeks and she faced the mirror. “Now go away before you distract me more. I need to put on some makeup.”

Troy dropped a quick kiss on her lips and left the bathroom so she could finish getting ready.

He checked his watch. Eight minutes. Eight minutes until he’d see his uncle. Father. Zach. Troy sat on the sofa, ran his hand through his hair. He’d managed to dodge thinking about it because he’d lost himself in Julie, but now, with only a few minutes until Zach arrived, he had to face it. His stomach actually felt a little queasy.

On one level it made perfect sense. He’d always gotten along with Zach so much better than his father. He sure as hell looked more like Zach than he did his father, Jim. Who was really his Uncle Jim.

God, so many things made sense now. His fath—Jim—must have known. Why else would he have treated Troy and his mother so cruelly for so long? What other reason could there have been for him to move them so far away after his mom died? Unless her accident really hadn’t been an accident...

He couldn’t do anything about it this exact moment. Right now, he had to get used to the idea that the next time he saw Zach, he was really seeing the man as his father for the first time.

Troy wiped his palms against his jeans. Why the hell was he so nervous?

The bathroom door opened and Julie came out looking like a million bucks. In about five minutes, she’d managed to make herself perfect. It wasn’t that she had a ton of makeup on or expensive clothes. Her damp hair dried in soft waves around her face. Her porcelain skin made her a work of art all by itself, but with a little bit of makeup, she was beyond breathtaking. He marveled again at how easily she could switch from comedienne to beauty queen.

She took one look at him and somehow she knew. “It’s going to be fine.” She pulled him off the sofa and ran her hand through his hair, smoothing down a spot he must’ve wrecked in his nervousness. “He loves you. And you love him. You’re both still the same people. Now you have another connection, that’s all.”

Her simply stated words cut right to the heart of it. She was so damn good at seeing the meat and bones, and she absolutely had burrowed under his skin.

Yeah. Okay. That about sealed it. He loved her.