Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“Then he tried to make me do what he wanted for a minute, and I kicked him in the balls, probably harder than I needed to, but again, I’d just woken up.”
“He tried to assault you.”
“He tried to manhandle me, which I do very much like. I guess he spied on me in the past and knew that rough isn’t necessarily bad.”
“And then?”
“Then I turned on the lights, asked him if he was drunk or stoned or whatever, and he got mad and tried to blame it all on me, and that wasn’t gonna fly because I know who I flirt with and who I don’t.”
“He thought you’d been flirting with him?”
“I don’t know. I think maybe it was convenient in that moment, but as I predicted, he said sorry like a million times and went back to his room. It was a mess.”
“What’d you do?”
“I woke up Daniella Russo, Dani, at three in the morning, and she came stomping down the hall from her suite to mine in supercute sleep shorts, bunny slippers, an oversize T-shirt of her husband’s, and a bunny sleep mask with ears.”
Daniella Russo had gotten an Academy Award for Best Actress last year for starring alongside Ash in Shadow and Soul. She had thanked him in her speech and hugged and kissed him when she got back to her seat. They were, by all accounts, very good friends. Her husband apparently loved it when she made movies with Ash, and when a reporter had been snide, saying, well, of course, because he was gay, Apollo Guzman said no, it was because he loved and respected his wife. The reporter had not shown his face for a bit after that.
I smiled and put my fingers in his hair, addicted already to touching him. “So she slept with you so you’d feel safe.”
“I mean, I didn’t feel unsafe, and I locked the door,” he said, closing his eyes, savoring my fingers tracing over his brows, his lashes, down his nose. “But I had no idea what was going on in his head, so yeah, I knew if he broke in for some reason, Dani being there would end whatever he had planned before it started. He wasn’t going to do anything in front of her.”
“What happened in the morning?”
“In the morning he was gone,” he said with a sigh, tipping his head up so I could touch the vulnerable skin on his throat. “He emailed me his resignation, and that’s the last I’ve heard from him.”
“Have you reached out?”
“I tried to call, but I’m not going to leave messages or email him. I’ve learned that communication that you think is clear can be misconstrued.”
“I’m sorry that people have taken advantage of you.”
He opened his eyes to look at me. “I haven’t been taken advantage of, but I’ve had to involve lawyers, and that’s always a pain.”
“Do you have any concerns that he took video or pictures of you when you were with other men?”
“I wondered how he knew how I liked to be treated during sex, and of course, since it follows Burke was spying on me, maybe he has something.”
“Would you allow me to check on that for you?” I asked, feeling myself bristle thinking of someone Ash trusted filming him or snapping pics of him in bed.
“Of course, but it’s been—”
“So you had no one watching out for you when you were overseas?”
“Nice subject change, and really, if he has video of me in bed with someone and it ends up on the internet, who cares? I’ve been naked in my movies; it’s not like anyone is seeing something they haven’t before.”
“It’s not the same. That’s you stripped bare with a lover, which is far more intimate.”
“I refuse to worry about this.”
“I’m not saying you should worry. I’m saying you let me check for you.”
“You do as you see fit,” he said, sliding his hands over my shoulders. “You are a very protective and possessive man, Mr. Davis.”
“It’s good you noticed that from the start. I wouldn’t want you to be surprised later,” I said, moving so I was looking down at him.
“What?”
“Nothing. I just like looking at you.”
“Don’t take your eyes off me,” he murmured, and I bent and kissed him.
My lips slid over his so perfectly, like they fit, and he opened for me with a small, needy whimper as my tongue slipped inside his mouth.
His arms wrapped around my neck as I stroked and rubbed his tongue with mine. When I rolled him over so he was lying on top of me, he lifted up so he could take a breath.
“You need protection,” I told him because it was heavy on my mind. “I can’t have you out there with no one to keep you safe.”
His lips were red and a bit puffy from my kisses, and he licked them slowly as he stared down into my eyes. “Normally, I would be upset that a man could keep a thought in his head after kisses from me, but you’re worried, and that makes me feel cared about.”