Forcing Gravity Page 15
I nodded again, giving him access to a place very few guys had been.
He moved back up to kiss me, but his hand very artfully worked to unzip my jeans. To help him, I lifted my butt and slid them down to give him better access. I tensed as his hand slid slowly under the waistband of my panties, glad I’d worn a cute pair that day.
Jase’s mouth never left mine as he slipped a finger between my legs and massaged my most sensitive area. I lifted my knees to give him better access and threaded my hands into his hair, gripping tightly when he hit a point that made me shudder and press against his hand. Then he slipped a finger inside me but moved his thumb to where his fingers had been, and my head fell back. I lost all conscious thought as Jase’s fingers moved expertly, hitting me just right and moving faster when he knew it was what I wanted, as his lips kissed my jawline, my neck and my collarbone.
My fingers slid to his bare back and raked up and down his skin in time with his fingers, as he took me to an apex I’d never been to before. Then suddenly, something inside me exploded, and I let out in involuntary cry. As Jase’s fingers continued to move rapidly, extending the feeling, as I arched into him and my lips sought his out.
He kissed me as I came down from my high, and his fingers slowed before he removed them altogether. Against my leg, I could feel the hardness of his erection pressing against me and wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do. He’d selflessly taken the time to please me. Did I now return the favor? It seemed like the appropriate thing to do, but I’d never gone that far with a guy before. Then again, I’d never really wanted to go that far with a guy. With Jase, it was different.
“You are so beautiful,” he murmured, as he trailed his lips up my hairline.
Steeling myself for what I wanted to do, I rolled our bodies so he was partially beneath me, and I lay next to him, propped myself up on my elbow and draped one leg over his. I looked down at him, and he smiled back up at me. As my hand reached for the button of his jeans, he looked at me in surprise but didn’t say anything. I could feel the hardness beneath the denim of his jeans and moved my hand over it a few times all the while keeping my gaze locked on his. His full lips pressed together, and his green eyes watched me with curiosity.
I pulled down his zipper slowly and peeled back his jeans to allow myself better access. Looking down at the hard mass just beneath his boxer briefs, I lowered my head and kissed it, letting my lips linger there for a few beats. Jase hissed a breath in through his teeth.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” he said, but I knew it was an empty offer. He didn’t want me to stop any more that I wanted to stop.
I looked back up at him. “Oh, but I want to,” I said, as I slipped my hand into the opening of his boxer briefs.
-12-
My phone rang as I was just about to walk outside to meet Jase to go to his movie set. It was him, and I wondered if he was running late.
“Hey,” I greeted him cheerfully.
I hadn’t talked to him since the day before when he’d left my dorm room at the crack of dawn. His call time had been at six, so he’d asked his assistant, Gary, to pick him up. I’d set the alarm, woken up when it went off and watched him slip into the clothes he’d worn the night before. He put Ethan’s hoodie, and my hat and sunglasses back on, although I was pretty sure he wouldn’t run into anyone that early in the day.
I’d offered to walk him down, but he’d just kissed me and told me to go back to sleep. Since he had the premiere for Flip Switch that night, he said he wouldn’t be able to call, but he’d pick me up in front of my dorm at eleven on Friday. And I’d been waiting in anticipation to see him again since the moment he’d walked out of my room.
“There are photographers camped out outside your dorm,” he said, catching me by surprise. I could sense the irritation in his voice.
“What?”
“The paparazzi are outside.”
“Shit,” I cursed, wondering how on earth they’d figured out where I lived. “Any chance they’re not here for me?”
Jase laughed a short, non-humorous laugh. “Not likely. I’d venture to guess that you’re the only person in your dorm dating a celebrity.”
Not exactly true. Henley had spent the night with Garrett, and they might actually be dating, but she wasn’t sure what he wanted. She did like him, though, so that was good, and he’d called her the night before, so I assumed they were headed toward dating. But yeah, Jase was right, the paparazzi weren’t there for Henley.
I sighed. “Fine. Where are you?”
It was a good thing I’d skipped my morning class that day. I wondered how long they’d been camped out.
“I’m around the corner. I drove into the parking lot, saw them and turned around. What do you want to do?”
“Do you just want to call it a day and see each other later?”
“No!” he said, a little too quickly, and it made me grin. I was afraid he was ready to cancel on me. “No. Definitely not.”
“Well, do you want do drive around the back and pick me up there?”
He sighed. “They know my car. Any chance your roommate is home?”
“Yeah, she is, actually.”
“Do you think she’d be able pick you up out back and drive you to me? I can meet you at the gas station just outside the main entrance to campus.”
“Sure,” I said, turning around to head back upstairs, my stomach churning just enough at the idea that the photogs were staking me out.
Again, why was I interesting? I knew that answer, and his name was Jason Brady. But at least this time I was legitimately dating him.
“Hang on,” I told him, as I explained the situation to Henley, covering the phone with my hand.
“Excuse me?!” she screamed, shocked because I’d never actually told her who I was dating when she’d helped me get ready for my date.
“Yes, yes, I’m dating Jase Brady, the famous actor who’s super-hot and who every female on the planet lusts after.”
“Jase?” she asked, confused like I had been when he’d first told me his name.
“Yes, he goes by Jase.”
“Holy crap!” she said, shaking her head, her grin a mile wide. “I cannot believe all this time that is who you’ve been seeing. Wow! You were actually watching that interview with him right before your date with him, weren’t you? That is so cool. No wonder you were so freaked out when Ethan hit him the other night.”
“Henley! Focus. Please. I need your help.”
“Fine,” she said, rising to her feet. She pulled her Uggs on over her yoga pants. “I will do this for you, but I want major details when you get home tonight, got it? You will leave nothing out.”
“Yes, fine. Whatever you want.”
She grinned at me. “Jase Brady. Dang, girl. That’s hot.”
“Yes, he’s hot.” I uncovered the mouthpiece of my phone. “We’re leaving now,” I told Jase.
“So, I’m hot, huh?”
“What?”
“You said I was hot,” he said, and I could just tell that he was grinning. “In fact, I believe you said I was super-hot.” He laughed, and my face flamed red. He’d heard our entire conversation.
“Oh, shut up,” I said, but I was grinning. “You know you’re hot.”
“I just like hearing you say it.”
“Well quit laughing at me, or you’ll never hear me say it again.”
“Aww, you’re cute when you’re mad,” he said. “I can’t wait to see you.”
Damn, that boy had me floating on a cloud already.
***
“Hey you,” Jase said, as he turned down the volume on an old Goo Goo Dolls song, when I slid into his car ten minutes later. Henley and I had made it off campus without anyone recognizing us, but my adrenaline was pumping wildly.
“Oh, my God!” I gasped, as I noticed how black and blue his jawline was. Involuntarily, I leaned forward and brushed it lightly with my fingertips.
“It’s not so ba
d,” he said, shifting his car into gear. He shot me a smirky grin. “Lelani’s pissed, but she’ll get over it.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Nah. Not really.”
Stupid Ethan. I’d ripped him a new one the day before, and not because he’d damaged the face I’d come to love looking at, but because he shouldn’t have acted so impulsively. I pushed him to find out what he had against Jase, but he wouldn’t say. He just repeated what he always said, that Jase was an asshole. Well, I wasn’t buying it.
“Well that’s good,” I said, leaning forward to get a look at the cut beneath his left eye. There was some swelling around it, but his eye was thankfully not bruised.
“If you want to kiss it and make it better, I won’t stop you,” he said, openly flirting with me.
I felt my face flush again and wished I didn’t look like a tomato when I got embarrassed. Jase took notice of my change of shade and just chuckled. After what we’d done in my dorm two nights earlier, I shouldn’t be embarrassed by some harmless flirting, but I was. I couldn’t help it.
“So, I’m excited to see you show me your stuff today,” I said, changing the subject. “What scenes are you shooting?”
He glanced over at me. “We’re doing some group scenes of the first day we all get to the house, and there’s a scene where one of the girls wanders off and gets spooked by something evil. Then I have to shoot a chase scene where I run into the basement and get trapped. It should be pretty good.”
“I’m just hoping you can act, or else I might have to reconsider this whole dating thing.”
“Oh, ouch,” he said, looking over at me and feigning hurt. “Really?”
I shrugged. “Hey, I don’t think it’s worth having paparazzi staking out my dorm if you’re not a great actor. I’m just saying.”
Jase’s face suddenly got serious. “I’m really sorry about that,” he said, glancing over at me with concern.
“It’s fine,” I said, waving him off. It wasn’t, but it also wasn’t his fault, so I couldn’t be upset with him.
“No, it’s not,” he said, his hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were white. “I put up with it because it comes with the job, but you didn’t choose this.”
“I choose to spend time with you, and if that’s what it means, then I’m fine with it. Remember, I’ve been around this scene my whole life. I get it.”
He shook his head. “It’s not the same. They’re not as relentless with your mom. I’ve been chased, practically run off the road, I’ve had photographers knock on my door, peek in my windows and drill my friends for dirt on me. It’s not fun. And that’s just the paparazzi. You don’t even know the insane shit I’ve dealt with from fans. If I have to go out in public, I bring security with me. Do you know what that’s like?”
He looked so distraught as he navigated through lunchtime traffic, and I realized that he really had no privacy whatsoever. He was that big of a star. He couldn’t just go to the grocery store or to Starbucks or to a mall without the fear of being spotted. I knew it was easier in L.A. since most people who lived there saw celebrities regularly enough that they didn’t care, but that didn’t mean a tourist or a fan wouldn’t approach him if he was out and about.
“No, Jase, I don’t know what it’s like,” I said, resting my hand on his thigh. “But I like you, and I’m not willing to push you aside on the off-chance that I might have my picture taken or you might have to sign a few autographs when we’re out.”
Jase opened his mouth to say something, but at the last minute changed his mind, and he turned the music back up. We were silent the rest of the way. I had a feeling he was going to convince me how wrong I was, and I knew he was right. Being with him was like being on-stage all the time, and I needed to think long and hard about whether I really wanted that kind of life.
Sure, things were casual between us now, but what happened if we got serious. Could I commit to giving up my privacy and living with my guard up all the time? I couldn’t decide that yet. In fact the only thing I decided was to push that unpleasant thought from my mind. I didn’t need a dark cloud hovering over what sure to be a pretty great day.
When we arrived on set, Jase drove around to the back of the house which was on a decent amount of land. He parked in front of a trailer, and I saw his name on the front, along with Garrett’s and one other guy’s.
“You have to share trailers?”
He shrugged, reacting completely different than how my mom would react if she knew she had to share her personal space on a set. “It’s a lower budget film, so that’s one of the downfalls. It’s not a big deal.”
When I got out of the car, he took my hand and led me up the stairs. I could hear voices from inside and swallowed hard. What would Garrett say when he saw us together? I pulled my hand out of Jase’s as he opened the door, but Garrett wasn’t in there. There was just a dark-haired guy I recognized from a movie I’d seen earlier in the year, but I couldn’t remember his name. His hair and make-up were being attended to by a short black man who had multiple piercings in his ears and face. Neither guy bothered to look up when we arrived.
“Where have you been?!” a very high strung, very gay man wearing a bow tie asked, as he bounced nervously on his patent leather heels. “Sit down now.”
Jase just chuckled as the guy pushed him into the other make-up chair, and the other actor looked over at him.
“Relax, Gary,” Jase said, running his hands back through his hair. “I had something important to do this morning, and Lelani’s fast. She’ll make sure I’m done in time.”
“They need you on-set in twenty minutes,” Gary said, looking down at his clipboard. “Lelani! He’s here!”
“Coming,” called out a light, musical voice from the kitchen area of the trailer. She sounded nowhere near as harried as Gary.
Gary turned on me then. “I’m assuming you’re the important thing he had to do?”
The other actor laughed under his breath, and Jase glared at him. The guy’s smile quickly disappeared.
I cocked my head at Gary and raised my eyebrows. “Um, I wouldn’t say he had to ‘do’ me. He just picked me up,” I said haughtily. “Trust me, I’m not that easy.”
I knew he probably had good reasons for assuming Jase had not-so-ethical motives with me, but did he have to be so vocal about them? I’d seen the kinds of girls Jase usually dated, and I didn’t want to be reminded of them.
Gary’s face suddenly brightened in delight. “I like her, Jase,” he said, perching his hands on his hips.
“Fantastic. I’m so glad you approve,” Jase answered, his tone full of snark. “Gary, this is Logan. She’s a friend of mine. Logan, this is my uptight, but loveable assistant, Gary, and no, I wasn’t doing her. The paparazzi were camped out outside of her dorm, so we had to reconfigure how she could get to me.”
“Hi Gary,” I said, smiling and offering my hand for him to shake. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Gary looked at me in sympathy, and his hand moved over his heart. “Nice to meet you, sweetheart,” he said, shaking his head before he embraced me in a crushing hug. “Can’t those assholes leave well-enough alone? How did they find out you were seeing each other?”
I noticed he didn’t believe for a second that Jase and I were just friends. He knew better.
“I have no clue,” I answered him, not sure how the paparazzi had found out about Jase and me.
Maybe someone saw us talking outside Ethan’s house and saw us leave together? Maybe Tracy and Whitney had said something? Or maybe the girls outside the dorm had recognized Jase? Who knew? Just as I thought that, Jase looked over at me, but he didn’t say anything. I knew he was thinking the same things, and if I found out anyone I knew had said anything, they’d be hearing from me.
“Well, you are just gorgeous,” Gary said, pulling back and appraising me. “Look at those curls, that flawless skin, those pink lips! Simply fabulous. Jase, you picked a good one this time.”
“How did you two meet?” Gary asked, as he pulled me over the couch and sat me down. “I want the full story. Are you an actress?”
“He met her at a party. They’ve been talking on the phone for a few weeks and had a date last weekend,” said Lelani, as she emerged from the kitchen and walked over to Jase, shaking her head.
She looked like she was either Hawaiian or Filipino. She was wearing killer green eye shadow that matched the green streaks in her dark hair, black leather pants and black motorcycle boots that I was sort of coveting.
“Oh, right, this is Party Girl,” Gary said, and I wondered when I’d been given that nickname. Then he cupped his hand around his mouth and lowered his voice. “You are the same girl from two nights ago, right?”
“Gary!” Jase snapped, causing Gary to sit up straighter, as he watch Jase glare at him through the mirror.
“Sorry, I was just making sure,” Gary defended, and Jase just shook his head, clearly not amused.
The other actor and his make-up guy smirked at each other, and I knew what they were thinking. The make-out twins came to mind.
“Still marred,” Lelani tsked, as she appraised Jase’s chiseled, but bruised jaw, turning his head to the side and back again. “Don’t worry, I’ll fix it.”
“I know you will,” Jase said endearingly.
Lelani pinched his cheek in response and got to work spreading a thick layer of foundation over his face. I wasn’t sure how he could stand the stuff, but I guessed after wearing it for so long, he was probably used to it.
“Hey Logan, I’m Dustin Craig,” the guy in the other chair said. He reached his hand back to shake mine.
“Oh, sorry,” Jase said, realizing that he forgot to introduce us. “That’s Dustin. He’s going to die today.”
My eyebrows rose. “How unfortunate for you,” I said, hoping Jase was talking about the movie.
Dustin laughed. “Nah, it’s gonna be so cool. I get pushed out of an upstairs window.”
“Oh, um, well, congratulations,” I said, because he seemed so excited.