Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
ALEC
She… snored.
Not anything too crazy—just enough that it was an amusing tidbit to add to the fast-growing mental bank of things I knew about her.
Neither of us had particularly planned on ending up spending the night together, but after that first round, a quick recovery, and a nap, we’d ended up going at it again.
Then ordered room service.
Then passed out again.
Now, our night together was turning into morning.
This was the point where my “corny” allegations might become something I couldn’t deny—I’d been awake for a bit already, but instead of getting up to brush my teeth, ordering breakfast, looking at script notes, anything that might be considered productive…
I was watching Vanessa.
She was beautiful.
The pinned-up style her hair had been in was long destroyed—she’d found stuff in the bathroom though, packaged in what the brand was calling a “rescue kit.” A good brush, ponytail holders, various products, and the item she’d been most excited about—the puffy silk bonnet that was still neatly secured on her head.
My dick got hard all over again reminiscing about the little escapade on her knees that had ruined her makeup. There hadn’t been a single shred of shyness about her, no inhibitions, just full confidence that her usage of her hands, lips, tongue, and teeth were going to take me from semi-hard to moaning like a bitch while I released deep in the back of her throat.
She…was not wrong.
It was wet and messy, and very, very good—her tear-streaked mascara, lipstick everywhere but her mouth by the time she was done proved every shred of that.
Once I’d recovered from that, I took her from behind in the shower like I had a damn point to prove.
Payback.
Which was what we were sleeping off now.
Or, had been sleeping off.
I watched, unreasonably enthralled, as her eyes slowly peeled open, initially confused by her surroundings. But then her half-awake gaze landed on me, and a little smile spread across her lips before she was able to tamp in down in favor of playing it cool.
I laughed. “Don’t try to front on me now .”
“What are you talking about?” she murmured, face buried in the pillow as she turned to the other side, facing away from me.
“Trying to act like this dick didn’t have you waking up with a smile,” I teased, slipping closer to her under the sheets. Neither of us had anything on—a fact momentarily forgotten, but quickly remembered as her bare skin came into contact with mine.
Shit.
I hadn’t been trying to start anything.
She pushed her ass backward, right into my groin, smirking as she half-turned toward me. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I groaned as she pushed into me again, and reluctantly put a hand at her hip to stop the grinding motion she was starting up. “Please, Vee—we used my last condom, remember?”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “Damn. If only we were at a hotel that magically stocked everything a criminally horny couple might need for an unplanned overnight stay—oh, wait… ”
Oh.
She was right.
I turned over, reaching for the drawer on the nightstand on my side.
Sure enough—single packs of condoms.
When I looked back at Van, she’d already fully shifted in my direction, quietly laughing.
“What?” I asked, confused.
“Eager-ass motherfucker.” She giggled, and I couldn’t do a damn thing but laugh too as I pulled her onto my lap.
“This is all your damn fault,” I told her, giving up the condom to her willing hands before gesturing at my dick, now painfully hard. “This is all you.”
“Is this part of the Belongs to Alec Everett package too?” she teased as she sank on to me. “Dick on demand?”
I shook my head as I adjusted my hips, tucking my hands behind my head to let her go to work. “Now why would you bring that up again? That’s the type of shit that only sounds good when you’re waaaay way deep in it.”
“What?”
“It’s kind of wack.”
She laughed. “No, it’s not. I liked it. You really meant that shit, which was key to making it work.”
“I definitely meant that shit,” I chuckled.
She leaned in, her hips still moving in a slow grind as she brushed her lips against mine.
“Prove it.”
* * *
“I hate to be weird, but…what are we doing?”
I looked up from lacing my shoes to find Vanessa standing at the door, fidgeting with the hem of the cropped hoodie from the outfit she’d found in the hotel’s online gift shop and had sent up to the room, along with everything else to make our “walk of shame” a little less… shameful.
Her hands moved from her hem to her ponytail, wrapping a coil of natural hair around her finger.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was a bit nervous.
Which was wild.
“What do you mean?” I asked, pushing myself to a standing position to amble over to her. “I thought it was pretty well established.”
She shook her head. “I don’t really do well with assumptions. Or…relationships, or whatever we’re calling this. Whatever it is. Are we just…fucking?”
“Does it seem like it?” I asked, prompting her to roll her eyes, but my question was serious. “I’m really asking—do you get the impression that sex is all I’m interested in with you?”
She cut her eyes away from me, unable to look me in the face as she shook her head. “No, but…wouldn’t that be a lot easier?”
“For who?”
“For me , duh.” She laughed, finally bringing her gaze back to mine. “And for real…maybe for you too. I don’t like how people are saying I’m this terrible influence on you.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because it makes me think that…I don’t know. Maybe I am .”
I pushed out a sigh as I hooked my arms around her waist, pulling her into me. “I’m a grown-ass man, Vee. I’m not that easily influenced, I promise you,” I told her. “And besides that…did you miss all those parts where I was definitely the one putting on all the pressure?”
“Yeah, but I’m the one with the sex tape and the hoe reputation.”
“And I’m the one who doesn’t give a fuck about any of that,” I countered. “I didn’t realize you were sweating it so much.”
She shrugged. “It’s a lot easier to ignore when it’s only about you. Once other people are brought into it, and they’re getting picked apart for simply being connected to you…yeah, it bothers me.”
“I can handle it.”
“You shouldn’t have to handle it though, is the thing.” She sighed, then laid her head on my chest. “It’s not even that I can’t deal with people saying stupid shit, I just really don’t understand when they get so ugly about it. As if it’s personal, you know?”
I kissed the top of her head. “You’ve been doing this long enough to know what comes with it, gorgeous.”
She nodded. “I have. But the other guys…it was just… flings. Neither of us cared that much what people were saying because we didn’t really care about each other either—not romantically, at least. It was easy to brush off. But this…this is different,” she explained, tipping her head up to face me. “I don’t want it getting…poisoned.”
“We don’t have to let that happen.”
“That’s easy to say, but…way harder to execute.”
I sighed. “I get it. I hope you know though, that I’m not letting any of this extra shit get in the way of what I think this could be. And I hope you share my curiosity.”
“I do,” she agreed. “I just…let’s protect it for now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…let’s not give the world any more of us than they’ve already gotten. At least for now, while we’re getting our bearings. Is that okay?”
I smiled, dropping my lips for a quick brush against hers. “Yeah. That’s perfectly fine with me.”
* * *
“Okay—we have to talk about this thing with you and Vanessa Kirkland.”
Even though I knew my PR agent was correct— more than correct—I groaned. Honestly, a conversation about it was overdue.
We’d both been thrust so much attention surrounding our potential relationship over the last few weeks that we were coming to a point that it was going to have to be addressed.
One way or the other.
Especially now that I’d threatened to smack the shit out of a man on live TV about her.
“How do you want to handle it?” Chloe asked. “We can work with anything. Are you guys together, and willing to tell the world yet? ’Cause that’s honestly the easiest to handle. If you’re not together, I can spin that too, just fine. Now…if you are together, but don’t want the world to actually think so…that’s unfortunately a bit harder.”
I grinned at her from across the countertop where dinner was spread out.
Our meetings went like this often, casual, over dinner, because Chloe was cool. She’d been on my team for a long time, and I’d watched her grow her business to the point that she’d hired on more people. But because I was one of her early clients, she worked directly with me.
Her husband was here too, absorbing everything as he trained to become part of her agency. He was only about five years out of a federal prison sentence, and nobody ever talked about that shit. I knew because I knew, but in the public eye, that information was buried deep.
If she could rehab that image, I knew my shit was in more than capable hands.
“Every once in a while, I’ve got to get my money out of you—you know that, right?” I asked and she let out a deep sigh as she caught on to what I was saying.
I was rarely ever in the spotlight for anything nefarious or provably scandalous. The most she’d ever really had to tackle for me was weird rumors, and her philosophy with many of those was just to let it ride. Undoubtedly, some other celebrity would do something much more worthy of the headline news cycle, and whatever was being said about me would fade to the background.
It worked, damn near every time.
Chloe nodded. “Okay. It’s not really a problem, just…like I said, a little more difficult. This is what her people are advising?”
I shrugged. I didn’t know what her people were advising, or if she’d even had a conversation yet about it. But it was definitely what Vanessa wanted and had expressed to me explicitly. Which was good enough for me not to push back on the idea.
“That’s fine—I’ll reach out to her team and see what their preferred method of handling is, so that everything is cohesive. Are we at least clear on why we’re keeping it under wraps?”
“To keep the public from tearing it apart before we’ve even gotten to enjoy it,” I answered, simply. “We know what they’re going to do to her, and I would rather put that off as long as we can. I’m less concerned about what they’ll do to me.”
Chloe nodded. “I’m sure she’s concerned what they’ll do to you though. I’ve already seen some of the stuff they’re saying. It’s ugly.”
“Which is exactly why I’m not trying to welcome it.” I sighed. “Imagine what happens once it’s confirmed.”
“I already have, because I have to,” she said. “But, you don’t imagine it—you’re exactly right, it’s not pleasant. It’s more than any young relationship should have to face. I’m happy for you though—chatter aside, based on what I’ve seen and heard, Vanessa seems to be a good match for you. You light up when you talk about her.”
“Yeah, your ass is sprung,” Reggie—Chloe’s husband—chuckled. “But that’s how it should be.”
From there, the conversation moved into strategy—not just about handling the publicity around my love life, but the show, and other career things. By the time they left, I was mentally exhausted, and honestly still physically exhausted from all my activity from the previous night into this morning with Vee.
All I wanted to do was sleep.
Well…not all .
Neither of us had worked on set today, but both had other things to handle which had kept us away from each other all day.
Now though, after my shower when I climbed into bed, instead of reaching for sleep…I reached for my phone.
It only rang a few times before her face was on my screen.
“Hey, baby.”