11. Lex
11
LEX
“T hank you very much, gentlemen.” I couldn’t wait to end the call with the promotions team, who always had an excuse for why shit couldn’t get done as quickly as we needed it. There were still participants muttering the usual end-of-meeting crap about circling back and all that, but I couldn’t have cared less.
It was better for everyone involved that I disconnected when I did. The posters for the movie were flat, generic, anduninspiring. There was time for revision, but the window was getting smaller every day.
What was it going to take to get everybody on the same page?
I needed a distraction—something to release the tension. Of course, my thoughts went where they’d been going for weeks. I lost track of how many times I lapsed into daydreams about Summer. Taking her here on my desk in my office. In my pool at home. Bent over the hood of the classic Chevy we were using for the movie—that was one of my favorites, imagining her spread eagle across the hood of that car.
In other words, my right hand was getting a lot of action lately. Even now, I stirred until I had to think of something else, anything to keep from lapsing into another fantasy behind my studio desk.
All it took was thinking about the fact that some unnamed executive had requested something ‘slightly provocative’ for the movie poster. Who the hell did these people think they were protecting? Like I didn’t know exactly who had made that request. They even said the word ‘cleavage’ had been thrown around. Part of me wondered if Dad wasn’t fucking with me, seeing how far I would let him go before I lost my shit.
It might have been better to indulge in the Summer fantasies for a whilesince I was only gettingmore pissed off every second. The man had always been a pain in the ass, the micromanaging prick he was. Always the smartest guy in the room. Never wrong about anything. There was a reason Mom left when I turned sixteen once she was sure I could handle myself without her. I couldn’t understand how she stayed as long as she did with a man who would’ve rather cut out his tongue than admit he made a mistake.
I couldn’t decide if this was all because of that tendency or because he had no faith in me. Why bother giving me a movie if he didn’t think I could pull it off? It made no goddamn sense, but then nothing about him ever had.
After ten weeks of filming, we had another four to go in principal photography. Then came everything else—reshoots, looping, editing. Sound effects, the addition of a score, and countless other tasksneed to be completed in record time if it means having a finished product to advance screen for reviewers. There was also the necessary press junket, something I had a feeling Summer would rather avoid.
The thought of her made me check the time. I hadn’t heard anything about delays on the set today, where the climactic final race was in its last day of filming. The sun was already on the descent, telling me they were losing light and should’ve been finished by now. Did she decide not to stop at her office before going home?
It was pathetic, but I could’ve taken that promotions call at home. I didn’t have to sit around past seven o’clock on a Friday night. I wanted to because I needed the excuse to see her one more time today.
“Dammit! Would you let me help you?” I didn’t recognize the female voice outside my office, but I heard the frustration in it.
“I told you, it’s not that bad. The medic said so.”
That voice, I knew. Suspicion got me out of my chair in a hurry, and I marched across the room, flinging the door open in time to see Claudia helping Summer limp into her office. “What the hell happened?” I demanded, following them, watching Summer settle painfully into the chair behind her desk.
“It was nothing,” she grumbled as she propped her bandaged ankle on the desk. “The damn DP wouldn’t position the camera where I wanted it. It wasn’t picking up the shot. So I went out to fix it, and I turned my ankle.”
“She fell,” Claudia almost shouted. There was still an edge of hysteria in her voice, which told me this was more serious than Summer wanted to admit. “She fell onto the damn track and barely rolled out of the way in time to keep from getting run over!”
My heart stopped for one endless, breathless second. “Say that again,” I managed to grunt out. “Because I know you did not run out there while the cars were in motion.”
She had the nerve to act like she was in the right, puffing out her chest and everything. The wounded party. “We were in a hurry, dammit!”
“We’re not in that much of a hurry! I hope like hell you’re not putting anybody else in danger with reckless stunts like that.”
Her cheeks went red. “Of course not!”
I looked down at her bandaged ankle, shaking my head. It could’ve been so much worse. Bad enough that the thought turned my blood cold. “What do you think you’re doing, taking a risk like that?”
“It’s not a big deal. I lost my footing. It happens.”
Only Claudia kept me from saying everything that came to mind. Still, I needed a slow, deep breath while they examined scrapes on Summer’s palms. “It didn’t just happen to anyone,” I reminded her. “It happened to you, and it’s important you stay alive. Is that too much to ask?”
That wasn’t half of what I wanted to say. Blood rushed in my ears. I was seconds from tearing the room apart. It could’ve so easily gone the other way. And I’d still be here, sitting at my desk, unaware, thinking about her and wishing she’d come back while there was a chance she ever would.
She lifted her eyes and met mine, but not for long, going back to her scraped hands. “I’ll be more careful from now on. Okay? Is that enough?”
“I don’t even see why you wanted to come back here.” Claudia glared down at Summer and tapped her foot. “I should’ve taken you back to the apartment no matter what you said.”
“I told you I want to check in with the editors. I hurt my ankle. It’s not a big deal.” I saw another truth in her eyes and had no doubt someone who knew her as well as Claudia did could see the same thing. She was in pain.
“Fine, have it your way.” Claudia checked her phone and scowled. “I still wanted to get out to the supermarket to stock the kitchen before I leave.”
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“I’m visiting my parents in San Francisco,” she explained. “I’ll be back Monday afternoon.”
“I can send her home in a car,” I decided, ignoring the way Summer grunted and huffed in her chair. “And if groceries are a problem, we’ll have some sent up. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure she stays in one piece.”
“You don’t have to worry about me,” she insisted. I ignored her, went to the window, and stared out over the parking lot while Claudia said her goodbyes and left. Once her footsteps faded, I released a long breath.
“Do you think this is a game?” I asked. My voice was trembling, anger bubbling just below the surface. “Or is it that you think you’re invincible? Maybe that’s the problem.”
“I don’t need this.”
“Maybe you do.” I looked down at her in time to see the eye roll and headshake. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed today. Doesn’t that mean anything?”
“I didn’t get myself killed, though, did I?” With a grunt, she pushed herself up and out of the chair, then started limping away from the desk. “I have work to do now. If you want to scold me, write up a memo and send it over.”
It was the casual sarcasm that did it. A match touched to a powder keg. One that exploded and propelled me across the room. I closed the door before she reached it, then slid an arm around her waist to hold her upright. “Would you stop, already? Look at you. You can barely walk.”
“I’m…” She winced, sucking in a pained breath as she tried to shift her weight onto her sore angle.
“Jesus,” I growled out. She didn’t put up a fight when I picked her up and carried her back to the desk, setting her ass on it. “Now, you listen to me. If you’re not going to take care of yourself, I’m going to make sure you do.”
“How do you plan to do that?” she asked, jutting her chin out like the defiant brat she was.
The closed door made me bold enough to lean in until her head fell back, eyes wide. My hungry gaze traveled over her face and mouth. The frustration she put me through translated to an even deeper, more primal need. Undeniable, impossible to ignore. “I would chain you to my fucking bed if I had to,” I growled out. “I’d follow your every move and never let you out of my sight.” I realized I was starting to get hard as the idea took shape in my mind.
Her throat worked as she choked out, “I guess it’s a good thing I know how to take care of myself, isn’t it?” Her flushed skin told a different story. Those clear, blue eyes drifted down to my mouth before she sighed. “Because that would get very complicated.”
It was already complicated, and we both knew it. With my hands on her bare knees, I eased her legs apart, drawing closer until I was between her thighs. “You’re going to have to promise me,” I whispered, my pulse picking up speed when her tongue darted over her lips and brought to mind so many ideas for what I would do if I had her all the time, whenever I wanted.
“Promise what?” She gasped when I touched her knees again, inching up the hem of her shorts.
“That I can trust you to take care of yourself.” Fuck, this was going too far, somewhere we both knew it shouldn’t, but I couldn’t stop. Not with my blood humming and my dick straining, and the very real thought that I could have lost this today. I didn’t know what it was about her that made me so crazy. I only knew I wasn’t ready to lose it.
I took her by the hips and pulled her close, making her gasp when I ground myself against her. “Say it,” I whispered, leaning in until her head fell back again. I teased her throat with my lips. She tasted like sweat, sunscreen, and whatever unique flavor that belonged only to her. I could have feasted on her for days, especially when she whimpered so sweetly. “Say I can trust you.”
When she didn’t answer, I wedged a hand between us, cupping her mound through her shorts and pressing hard. She arched suddenly, almost violently, and started jerking her hips. “Oh my God…” she whispered. “What are you doing to me?”
“I’m reminding you who’s in charge around here,” I said, rubbing her, ignoring the ache behind my zipper in favor of taking her to the edge. It was my fault for going so long without setting boundaries. Tiptoeing around for the sake of her career when she was careless enough to jeopardize her life. “Say it. Say I can trust you.”
Her eyes squeezed shut. “This is… ludicrous…”
“You think so?” My hand went still, and it was no surprise when she groaned.
“No fair,” she breathed out, grinding against my hand, desperate for relief.
“I never said I was fair. What’s the problem?” I moved my fingertips in slow circles and watched her teeth sink into her lip. “You don’t like it? You don’t want to come?”
Arching against me, she groaned, “You’re a dick.”
“I know.” I added a little pressure, and her eyes closed again. It was almost too easy. “Give me what I want, and you’ll get what you want. Tell me you’re not taking any risks, not ever again.”
“Fuck…”
“No, that’s not it.” I pulled back again, chuckling at her frustration. “You’re going to learn. For the rest of this project, you’re going to remember your ass belongs to me. You’re going to behave yourself. You’ll take care of yourself because you owe me a brilliant movie. Got it?”
I pressed harder, taking her to the place where she frantically jerked her hips and chewed her lip to hold back the sounds being pulled out of her. “Tell me,” I whispered, my breath coming in gasps as sharp as hers.
“Yes! Yes, yes, I will!” Her legs closed around me, squeezing tight. “Please, let me come!”
“Do it. Come for me.” She buried her face in my neck to stifle the sound while her hips jerked. I held her there, one hand on the back of her head, the one between her legs slowing to a stop as she trembled against me. She was totally mine, if only for now.
This wasn’t near enough. Not only because I was almost ready to come in my pants. My cock had made me do stupid things before, but I wasn’t stupid enough to sink balls deep into my director when there were still people working in the building.
“Claudia is gone for the weekend?” I asked once her breathing slowed. “Then you’re staying with me.” Her head popped up, but I held it in place, my hand in her hair. “I’m not leaving you home alone to take care of yourself.”
“But—”
“But nothing. You said you’d take care of yourself, and this is how you’re going to do it. By not being a stubborn brat. If you want to work, you can work from there.”
I didn’t bother mentioning what else she could do there. I didn’t think it needed to be said.
“What are you doing to me?” she asked in a voice full of defeat, eyes darting over my face in a search for answers.
Funny. I wanted to ask her the same thing.