Mr. Hollywood (4 page)

Finally, I couldn’t stand the tension anymore so I leaned over and kissed him. He seemed surprised at first but soon he took possession of my lips and our innocent kiss became heated.

My heart picked up pace as his large arms wrapped around me, pressing me closer. The extra touch sparked a fever between us as our tongues curled around each other in a brain melting kiss.

He pulled me on top of his lap and for some reason, I went willingly. His lips moved to my jaw and neck. My stomach fluttered with each press of his mouth against my sensitive flesh.

I’d never done anything like that before. Okay, sure I’ve kissed guys before but never while in the back of a limousine and never while sitting on their lap. I could feel his erection pressing against me.

A rush of shameful heat pooled between my legs and I felt myself losing control. I broke off from the kiss and as I did, he reached up to cradle my face in his hands. I needed space but at the same time I wanted him to continue kissing me.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered as he helped me back to my seat. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

I didn’t respond. What could I say? I didn’t mean for that to happen either, but it did and now it was all I could think about. I don’t know that I would ever be able to get the taste of his kiss, the way his hands felt on my skin, the way it felt when he crushed my body against his, out of my mind.

When the car pulled up in front of my house and the bodyguard opened the door, Grayson got out first and then held up his hand to help me exit the car. He walked me to the door and when he did, he placed a chaste kiss on my cheek.

“Thank you for going out to dinner with me tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow just after one, okay?”

“Alright. I’ll see you then,” I said as I walked in my door and shut it behind me.

I tried not to think about Jennifer running off with Ethan like she did. What is wrong with that girl? She does this all the time. She meets some guy and rushes into the serious stuff and then wonders why their relationship never works out.

The sad part is, she’s a great girl. She’s pretty, smart and has a bubbly personality. She could be the whole package if she would just stop doing stupid things like she did tonight with Ethan.

The next morning, I got up earlier than normal and decided to go for a run. I needed to clear my head.

An hour later I was good and sweaty when I finished the last lap around the campus track. I saw a large crowd start to form just where I was headed. I looked around, wondering what in the world was going on. Was someone hurt? Were they giving out free bottled water? Sometimes companies did that to promote some random product or service.

By the time I got over there, the crowd had more than doubled in size and several of the girls were all worked up in a tizzy.

I’m short so I’m usually able to squeeze my way in through the crowd, but this time it wasn’t so easy. Whatever or whoever had these girls worked up, had them pushing tightly against each other, all trying to get closer to something or someone.

Finally, I figured it out, when I overheard one of the girls shrieking Grayson’s name. I didn’t want to risk him seeing me look all gross like I was, with no makeup, my hair up in a ponytail and sweat pouring down my body, so I carefully backed out of the crowd and tried walking around them. Of course being the one and only girl not in the crowd would have drawn his attention.

I sighed when I heard him shout my name and reluctantly looked towards him. I wanted to just crawl in a hole somewhere and die. I couldn’t believe I was actually going to let him see me looking like the hot mess that I was.

“Hey,” he said casually as he jogged over to me.

“What are you doing here slacker? Aren’t you supposed to be working?” I teased.

“We are in between takes. I was going to try and get a quick workout in but apparently the word got out that I was working out in the campus gym and the crowd started to form.”

I laughed as he pointed towards the mob of girls currently being held back by a bevy of bodyguards.

“Where did all that muscle come from?” I asked.

“The studio always employs a lot of protection. They’ve got to keep their stars safe from overzealous fans,” he said with a self-deprecating smile.

“We still on for lunch today?” I asked.

“Of course. I’ve been looking forward to it all morning.”

“Good. I was worried that seeing me like this might have freaked you out. Thought you might want to cancel.”

“Are you kidding me? You look hot like that.”

“Yeah, all hot and sweaty,” I retorted.

“Exactly,” he said with a raised eyebrow.

I playfully punched him in the arm. “You perv!”

“Okay, okay. Let me get back to work before the crowds get any worse.”

I laughed and watched him walk away looking incredibly sexy. The mass of bodyguards trailed behind him, back to where they were filming and the girls attempted to follow suit.

When I got back home I took a long, hot bath. I needed time to think and usually baths were relaxing enough to help me process all the crazy thoughts in my head when a good run didn’t work. But this time the bath didn’t work either. This time my brain was even more dazed and confused.

What in the world was I doing with Grayson Chase? He’s got so many women falling at his feet, what does he want with someone like me? It would never work between us.

Even if we could somehow figure out the long distance thing, which I doubt we could, we still can’t overcome the other thing, the big thing … my total and complete lack of experience. He’s probably been with hundreds of women, maybe even a thousand. I’ve been with zero men before. Zero. And I’m still not even sure if I’m ready. He’s not going to wait around any length of time while I decide what I want, when he has scores of women throwing themselves at him daily.

After getting dressed I noticed my phone beeping at me. I picked it up to see a new text message from Jennifer. “Sorry I’m not home yet. Will be there soon enough. We got a late start this morning.”

Then my eyes drifted up to one of her previous text messages.
“Sometimes things in life are scary, but you know what is worse than fear? Regret.”

Damn her and her insight. I sighed. She’s right. If I didn’t at least try with Grayson, I would regret it. So I went into my closet and tried to find something magnificent to wear to our lunch date. Was it possible to look fabulous in casual clothes?

Eventually I heard Jennifer come in through the front door and ran to greet her.

“Tell me everything,” I insisted.

“I hope you aren’t mad at me,” she said with pleading eyes.

“Why would I be mad at you? You are a grown woman. You can do whatever you want to do with your life.”

“Yeah, yeah miss judgy. The words may come out of those cute little pouty lips of yours, but I know you better than that. In your mind you were so thinking what a stupid move I made last night.”

I laughed, but damn it, she was right. I did do just that. So I did the only thing I could, I gave her a huge hug.

“I love you Jennifer, like a sister. I don’t care what or who you do. Seriously. I just want to see you happy. Now tell me everything.”

“We really did just go back to his room to watch a movie. He was telling me about a movie he shot in Canada a few years back and I hadn’t seen it, so we went to his room to watch it.”

I gave her a skeptical look. “So you are going to tell me that you didn’t bang Ethan Clarke all night long? LIAR!”

She laughed. “We didn’t have sex last night. This morning however …” she trailed off.

“Oh my God! I knew it!” I couldn’t help but laugh. I totally knew she was going to sleep with him. I’m not stupid. Plus he’s hot and famous. I can’t blame the poor girl.

“So how was it? Was he like a total dud in bed or mind blowingly incredible?”

“He was great,” Jennifer said but I knew there was something she wasn’t telling me.

“Uh huh. And what are you not saying?”

She drug me into the living room and we flopped down on the couch.

“The whole night was magical. He held me in his arms as we watched the movie. We talked and laughed all night long. We really hit it off and then I go and do something stupid like sleep with him the next morning. What’s wrong with me Alison? Why do I always do stupid stuff like that?”

“Oh Jennifer sweetie, it’s going to be okay.” Even though I said the words, I knew it wasn’t okay and she did too. Men, rich or poor, famous or not, usually didn’t want a relationship with a girl that slept with them on the first date.

“What happened after? Was he a jerk to you?”

“Not at all. He was wonderful. He ordered us room service and he fed me breakfast in bed. Then he got ready and headed to the set while someone from the production company drove me home.”

He didn’t even see her home? What an ass. Of course I couldn’t say that to her. I knew she was hurting and it was my job as her best friend to be supportive, not make her feel worse.

“Want to join Grayson and I for lunch today? We are going to El Gallo.”

“Oh hell no,” Jennifer said emphatically.

“I’ll cancel then. We’ll do something together instead.”

“No you won’t Alison. Grayson is a nice guy. Don’t try and use me as your excuse not to see him.”

I sighed.

“You are right. Will you at least help me with my hair and makeup?”

Jennifer perked up. “Yes! Are you kidding me? Let’s go.”

I knew she would like that. She loves to do my hair and makeup and I almost never let her. After showing Jennifer what I had picked out to wear for our lunch date, she surprisingly approved and then got to work on fixing the rest of me.

Just as she finished the doorbell rang. I looked at my watch, he was a little early. Jennifer ran to the front door to greet him with a big hug. That’s so like her. She’s just so personable. How can anyone not love her to death? Ethan was an idiot if he let her get away.

When we got to the restaurant we were seated at a table in the small room in the back of the restaurant. I only hoped that was far enough out of the way that even if he was recognized, we wouldn’t cause a scene.

I don’t know what I was thinking inviting a movie star to eat out in public. We barely got seated before the restaurant was abuzz and by the time we got to place our order, large crowds started to form outside.

Before long Grayson’s bodyguard appeared. He didn’t say a word, but then again he didn’t have to. I knew what it meant. Grayson grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

“I’m sorry Grayson. I didn’t think about …”

“It’s okay, I knew better. I shouldn’t have tried.”

Even though we didn’t get to eat anything more than chips and salsa, Grayson pulled out his wallet and put a handful of bills on the table as we were ushered out the door by his bodyguard. We barely made it to the car that was pulled up front, just feet away from the door.

The crowd was thick, girls were screaming and trying to pull at him as we walked by. It was a nightmare. I was scared, even with a big bodyguard in tow. It was horrible and something Grayson had to put up with every single day.

“Well that was an unmitigated disaster,” I said solemnly.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

“Yeah. Are you?”

“Of course. I’m used to this. I just hope it didn’t freak you out to much.”

I gave him a weak smile. “So now what do we do?”

“How about we go back to my hotel and order some room service?”

I gave him a weary look.

He put his hands up, feigning innocence. “Hey, nothing like that. Just lunch. I promise.”

“Alright, that’s probably for the best,” I conceded.

He texted furiously for a few moments and then we enjoyed the ride back to his hotel making small talk. When we got there I was relieved there weren’t any crowds waiting for us. We walked in like any other couple staying there and made our way up to his suite.

Inside we found our food was waiting for us. He must have texted his assistant to order a huge spread of all sorts of different Mexican food, including my favorite, chicken fajitas.

After lunch he gave me a tour of his hotel suite which had floor to ceiling windows that offered a sweeping view of downtown Houston. The suite had antique furnishings, with beautiful chandeliers that looked like they might have once belonged in a castle. There was only one bedroom but the suite as a whole was huge.

“I have to ask. How big is this place? I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“I think someone said just over nineteen hundred square feet,” Grayson said casually, as if staying in a hotel room bigger than my entire house was no big deal.

He walked over to the wet bar. “Would you like a drink?”

“No thank you. Don’t you have to get back to work soon?”

“Sure, but just because I can’t drink doesn’t mean you can’t have one.”

“Thanks but I think I’ll pass. It’s too early in the day to start hitting the bottle,” I said playfully.

“Does this suite take up the whole twentieth floor?”

“No. This is the Presidential Suite South, Ethan is next door in the Presidential Suite North.”

“Does the entire cast of
Same as it Never
Was
stay here at the Four Seasons?”

“Some of the cast and crew are here, and some stay at various other hotels around town. I don’t know how they work that out to be honest. All I know is that they tend to keep the female cast away from the male cast.”

“Less drama that way I suppose?”

“They sure hope so.”

“They put the entire cast and crew up in hotels for months? That has to be expensive.”

“No. The production company comes out ahead of time and tries to hire a lot of the crew locally, if they can. So those who live in Houston don’t need hotel rooms or apartments.”

“Some of the crew stay in apartments, like regular old apartments?”

“Yes. The lower you are on the totem pole the less luxurious your accommodations get. Some of the entry level staff that travel with the production company will often share an apartment, which is a lot cheaper than renting each of them a hotel room for an extended period of time.”

“I guess that makes sense. The whole process of making movies is just fascinating to me.”

“If you are fascinated by apartments, you’ll love my stories of the catering crew and key grips.”

I giggled and followed him over to the couch where we sat down next to each other.

“What I want to know, Miss Alison, is about you.”

“Oh please. My life is so boring compared to yours. I’m sure there isn’t much that you would want to know.”

He looked at me like I had grown a second head. “Are you serious Alison? Everything about you interests me from what you eat for breakfast to what time you go to bed at night and everything in between.”

“I’m absolutely sure nothing like that would be of real interest to you,” I said shyly.

“Please Alison. Tell me about your day. I really want to know. Like today, what did you do?”

“I woke up, went for a run and ran into a movie star who was being mobbed by a bunch of screaming girls. You know, just your typical day for a typical college girl on the U of H campus.”