Sweetest Sin: Bad Boy Bundle (85 page)

“How can we undo all of this,” asked Dane, refusing to meet my eye. Craig gave a sigh of relief. “Thank god, you're finally seeing sense. I was afraid I'd lost you there. First off, I think we need to nix the ring,” he looked at me, “Sienna, you're gonna have to stop wearing that out in public.”

I did my best not to audibly growl at him. I didn't even correct him when he got my name wrong. “I also think it would be good for you to be seen out with other women. They can be famous or not famous, the choice is yours. Just make sure you're hands on, if you know what I mean,” said Craig. He winked and nudged Dane, but Dane didn't respond to it, “Don't be afraid to be affectionate like you are with her. It'll make people think that you're like that will all the girls.”

Craig gave me a nervous glance.

“No offense honey, it's just business,” he turned back to Dane, “Do you think you can do that?” “Sure,” Dane said, “Shouldn't be too hard.”

“And maybe...maybe you two should spend some time apart? It's a good way of figuring out what you really want. You might figure out that you don't want a relationship at all,” said Craig.

“Maybe,” said Dane.

Craig hung around for a while longer though it annoyed the shit out of both of us. We had to talk and we both knew it. The longer he stayed longer it would be before we got things straight. Somehow I knew that wouldn't be easy.

Eventually, he left the two of us alone. Dane closed the door behind him and refused to turn around to face me.

“You're making your face, aren't you?” he said.

“What face?” I asked, my voice shaking. Dane turned around and groaned.

“See. That face. You're upset,” he said. I bit my lip. Was I really that obvious? I knew that I was terrible at hiding my emotions at the best of times, but I was really trying to maintain a poker face for this. It just didn't work. Suddenly, the waterworks started.

“Oh god, don't cry!” said Dane.

“I can't help it!” I said. Dane sighed but pulled me into a tight hug. “I thought you liked me.” For a moment he just held me and I thought he wasn't going to respond. Then he pushed my hair aside and whispered into my ear.

“I do like you.”

I pushed him away from me.

“Then why didn't you defend me against all that horrible shit he was saying? Why did you just stand there and let him disrespect me?” I exclaimed. Dane put out his hands for me but I backed away, “No, don't touch me!”

“All right, all right,” Dane put his arms by his side, “He wasn't disrespecting you. He was just laying out the facts for both of us. My career will be ruined if people think I'm in a relationship.” “You're not in a relationship. You made that very clear,” I folded my arms.

“Yes, well that's true. I'm not in a relationship and neither are you. But we have been spending a lot of time together...” he started. Jesus, he was seriously siding with his idiot of a manager. This was unreal.

“You didn't complain when I was sucking your dick. I think you enjoyed that a lot, actually,” I said.

“Savannah, I liked all of it. Not just the sex. But relationships are bad for my image and...” he paused and took a deep breath, “They're bad for me. I just don't do well in them.”

“Right. All right. OK. That's fine. It's about time that I left anyway!” I spat. Dane asked me to stay for one more night but I told him where he could get off.

“It's dark and you don't know the city. You don't have anywhere to go!” he said, as I shoved my things into a plastic bag. Little did he know.

Mark picked me up just after midnight as Dane looked on. I didn't even say goodbye. That would teach me to get sentimental.

Dane

Like I said before, I had a relationship once. Her name was Rose and she was nice. I liked the way she looked and she liked the way I looked. I liked her personality and she liked my personality. We even had a lot of the same interests. I wanted to be an actor and she was a musical theater nerd. On paper, we should have been perfect for each other. It still didn't work out.

That was the thing about relationships. You could have two people who were perfectly suited to one another and who loved being around each other. Put them in a relationship and within a week or two they'll be screaming at each other and tearing their hair out. Relationships ruined everything. That was what I had learned.

Rose and I split up because she moved to Canada, but that wasn't the only reason. If she'd really been happy with me she wouldn't have moved. She didn't even ask me to go with her, for Christ's sake. One day she appeared on my doorstep and told me she was leaving for Vancouver in the morning.

“Why didn't you tell me?” I'd asked.

“Because I know you wouldn't have tried to stop me,” she'd said. She was right. I was a shitty boyfriend. The things that seemed to come naturally to other guys just weren't there with me. When Rose said she didn't want a birthday present, I took her at her word and got her nothing. She spent
the whole day sobbing her bedroom and refused to come downstairs to see her family. When it came to meeting her folks I made a huge effort, wearing a tie and bringing dessert. It was all for nothing as they took one look at my tattoos and hated me instantly. The fact that I had chosen such an unstable career path didn't help my case. I sometimes wondered if they ever regretted not encouraging Rose to stay with me. Probably not. They must have seen how unhappy that I made her.

Sex was easy. I knew what a clitoris was and that most women don't like guys to fuck them like jackhammers, so I was already ahead of most guys my age. I could please a woman in the bedroom no problem. It was outside the bedroom that was the problem.

I had been an idiot to let Savannah get so attached to me. I'd been equally stupid to allow myself to get so attached to her. Even without me being famous it wouldn't have worked out. I would have ended up disappointing her and breaking her heart.

I watched her drive off in that bastard Mark's car and wondered would she become his girlfriend. He seemed to have a real thing for her, so I wouldn't be surprised. Mark was the kind of guy with the 'nice guys finish last' attitude (though I don't know how he thought of himself as a nice guy.

That was a mystery to me). He was wrong about that. Women like bad boys, sure, but not a much as they think they do. They like to look at us, to get fucked by us and to tell their girlfriends about how big our cocks are. They like the idea of taming us, but only in the abstract. Girls, at least smart girls like Savannah, didn't date guys like me. They knew we couldn't make them happy.

I could never make a girl like that happy. I just had to accept it.

Savannah

I thought that Mark would be surprised to hear from me but it turned out that he wasn't at all. “I knew you'd get over that bastard,” he said, “Everyone does, eventually.”

I just nodded and smiled. Mark's teeth were fixed so I could only see a glimmer of gold when he smiled and most of the swelling had gone down, but his face was still quite bruised. The streetlights
shone on his face as he drove and I could see how severe the beating must have been. Dane had really laid into him.

“I hope you don't mind me calling you. I just don't know anyone else in LA,” I said. Mark grinned at me.

“No problem sweetie, I'm at your service. I love a good damsel in distress when I can find one,” he said, “But I've gotta say, I'm surprised you don't know more people here yet. You're a star in the making if I ever saw one.”

“You're too sweet. You haven't even seen any of my designs,” I said. Mark clicked his fingers. “Designs! Right! I knew you did something cool and artistic like that. You're just that kind of chick, huh? That's awesome,” he glanced at me, “Seems a shame to waste such a pretty face though. I wish you'd give acting a try.”

“I can't act,” I said, “I was in a commercial when I was a kid and I had one line. I couldn't even remember that. They kept having to prompt me. I had to say 'I love chicken nuggets' and I just couldn't remember it. When I eventually got it right I didn't say it properly so they got some other kid to do it and I was just in the background. I cried for a week when the ad came out.”

Mark laughed.

“That's hilarious, but I bet you're not that bad. Besides, it doesn't matter much. Film is a very visual medium. More visual than theater. You can be ugly as fuck in theater and no one cares as long as your performance is top notch. Film is kind of the opposite,” he said, before bitterly adding, “After all, Dane's this huge movie star brand name and he can't act for shit.”

I felt personally insulted on behalf of Dane. You could say a lot of things about him but the guy could act. Yes, so he did the cheesy action flicks and the occasional slasher but his dramatic work was really special. I didn't respond to what Mark had said but he picked up on it anyway.

“Oh come on Savannah, you don't think he's talented do you?” he asked. I shrugged.

“I guess you understand film better than I do,” I said. This made Mark smile again.

“Yeah, I guess so. We're almost here.”

Mark's house was no more impressive than Dane's. I'd kind of gotten over the Beverly Hills mansion thing at this point. Even so, I made sure to squeal and show the appropriate amount of enthusiasm. Something told me that Mark would appreciate that and I was right.

“Bet you've never stayed at a place like this before,” he said, though it was practically a clone of Dane's place. The only difference I noticed was the massive swimming pool out front.

“No, I haven't. You're so nice to have me over. I feel so bad not being able to pay you rent or anything,” I said. This was a heavy hint. I hoped that he'd tell me not to worry about it until I got back on my feet. Maybe he had his own private jet too, and he'd offer to fly me home in it. Not that I was certain I wanted to go home. I wasn't an LA girl by any means but small town life seemed so stifling in comparison to life in the big city.

Mark parked the car and turned to me.

“Don't worry honey, you'll make it up to me in other ways,” he patted my thigh. I grinned and pulled away, hoping he wouldn't make a move on me. Thankfully, my prayers were answered, “Come on, let's go inside.”

Mark insisted on giving me a house tour despite my obvious exhaustion. I was shown the main hall where he kept all of his film awards in a big glass case. He made me hold every one of them and explained to me why they were better than Oscars or Golden Globes. Then I had a guided tour of the framed film posters. Most of them were odd, art house films that I'd never seen. Mark was shocked at my ignorance and insisted that we would marathon them all together very soon.

Then he showed me the kitchen. It was an equally impressive affair, filled with black marble surfaces and stainless steel appliances that looked brand new.

“I don't really cook,” he said, showing me the inside of the fridge. It's contents were limited to soda and a bottle of vodka, “I forget to eat when I'm editing, usually.”

It only occurred to me how lucky I had been to be treated to Dane's wonderful cooking for so many nights in a row. I would miss it terribly. Especially if Mark expected me to survive on soda and
vodka.

Mark had chosen to do without a traditional living room and instead installed a fully functioning movie theater in its place, complete with a lobby. It was decorated to look like a vaudeville theater from years ago. I couldn't help but be impressed.

“Yeah, chicks usually dig the theater. If we make a movie together I can show it to you on the big screen,” he said. I just smiled, hoping that he didn't mean a dirty movie. He got me a gumball from the machine in the lobby and we moved upstairs. This was where I started to get nervous.

I was no fool and I figured that Mark would want some kind of sexual compensation for allowing me to stay over. In the heat of the moment when I called him, I thought that I would be all right with that. Now I wasn't so sure. I wasn't attracted to him, first of all. He was cute in a geeky kind of way but it wasn't my thing. Even so I might have been able to go through with it. Maybe. But I just couldn't get Dane out of my mind. Even though he had made it clear that we weren't in a relationship, it would feel like a betrayal.

Mark showed me the main bathroom and told me that it was one of eight.

“I always hate waiting in line to piss at parties so I decided to get rid of that problem by getting eight bathrooms installed,” he said, opening the door for me, “But this is the best one, for sure. Take a look.”

It was impressive. It was bigger than most bedrooms with delicate blue tiling on the floor. There was an aquarium filled with exotic fish mounted on one wall and a huge walk in shower on the other. It could have fit at least twenty people. In the middle of the room was a large hot tub slash bath contraption that looked absolutely divine. I remembered my romp with Dane in his Jacuzzi and my heart twinged just a bit.