Chapter 19
Nineteen
Sterling
Hayden is looking everywhere but me on purpose.
Then when his eyes go to her as I’m finishing up my scene, I nearly lose it.
I keep my breathing steady, channeling the negative energy to use for the character I’m portraying.
He’s trying to get to me and doesn’t realize he’s actually helping.
He’s doing it without trying. Lisa claps her hands together, screaming, “And that’s a wrap.
” Her eyes are beaming in my direction. “You did it, Maxwell. We can all go home now.”
“Thank fuck,” someone says, and Justin is quick to jump to my side, asking what my lunch plans are. There’s only one man I want to leave here today with, though, because if I don’t, Rachel will, and I won’t fucking let that happen.
He wants to know my reason why, and as he’s about to walk out the door after her, I push past everyone else, grabbing his arm so I can tell him. “Can I see you for a minute?”
“I don’t know. Can it wait? Rachel’s waiting for me at my car.”
“Let her wait.” My eyes pierce his and his expression is hard to read. How is he so good at that? I thought I was the actor here.
People squeeze past us and Justin gives me a wave on his way out. “Let me know if you change your mind. I’ll be at my hotel not wanting to eat another burnt burger from the lobby restaurant.” His laughter trails behind him as he walks backward to where the curb is.
I force a laugh, faking a blush, and that’s all it takes for Hayden to pull me back through the doors. When we’re the only ones left in the building, he pins me to the nearest wall. “What did you need to tell me, huh?”
His lips are so close, his hot breath causing my lips to tremble. “I don’t . . .” I rub my lips together. “I don’t want you to go with her because . . . because I want you to leave with me instead.”
“Why?” His fingers dig into my hip.
“Because I . . . because I don’t want a fling with you.”
“What do you want?” His voice is heady.
“I want . . . I want . . .”
“Tell me, baby.”
The terms of endearment are back. No more Mr. Maxwell. It was like nails on a fucking chalkboard to my ears. I don’t ever want to go back to that, and I know what I need to do so I don’t. “I want everything.”
“Then let’s take it together,” he says lowly, hauling me off to my fitting room.
He rips my clothes from my body and then he scatters his over the floor next.
“Hayden,” I choke out.
“Yes, my little star?”
“I’m on the verge of rupturing on the inside every minute that goes by that you don’t touch me.”
“Let me help you with that, then.”
He does too, lifting me by my hips and holding me against the wall with my legs wrapped around his waist. He smiles against my lips when he touches my hole and I’m already worked open.
“Someone’s been playing with himself a lot today.”
“I tried to make it feel the same. I tried to replace what you gave me, but I couldn’t.”
“And you don’t have to, baby. Not now or ever.
” His mouth claims mine and our tongues go to war, our bodies creating heat together as he lines his cock up with my hole.
My body is floating with that first plunge.
He’s rough and fast like I need him to be, sucking each of my nipples before bringing his mouth back to mine.
He rolls his hips, pressing me tighter to the wall as he fucks up inside me.
He pounds harder and harder, his tip brushing my sweet spot before striking against it like a match.
We don’t only create a flame that promises to burn forever, we cause the flowers outside to bloom through the walls and the stars to break through the ceiling.
We both cry into each other’s mouths as we come at the same time. And for a while everything’s perfect. I think it’ll stay that way, but nothing good lasts forever, does it?
Everyone’s staring at us in disgust and confusion when we enter the building together for a last meeting.
Lisa is holding something in her hands. It’s a magazine.
She’s one of the very few people I know who still buys them.
She said it’s how you always knew you made it, when you read your name in the headlines.
And that’s when it dawns on me. They aren’t looking at us or our connecting hands. They’re looking at me.
“I guess it’s true,” Rachel sputters. “He’s been in the closet all this time”
My face flushes. “What’s going on?”
Lisa waves at everyone to clear the room and hands me the magazine. The headline is about me. It’s not the kind you want to read about either. My stomach folds in on itself.
“What is this?”
“It was printed a day early. And I think this is why.” Her hands land on her hips. “This kind of stuff happens to everyone. If I were you, I’d walk with your head held high and act like it doesn’t affect you.”
“But it does. This could ruin me.” My voice shakes.
“Only if you let it,” she says and lets out a sigh.
“Look, I’m going to go talk to the others.
It’s going to be okay, Sterling. I don’t know who put that camera in your dressing room, but we will get to the bottom of it.
They’re the ones who should feel ashamed, not you.
” She looks like she wants to reach out to me but instead rushes outside to search out the others.
I look at the magazine again. The image on the front is me fucking my dildo with a large hand stroking my cock.
You don’t see the other person, only me.
Of course, since this is out publicly, what I’m doing is mostly blocked out, but it doesn’t take an idiot to figure out what’s going on based on what’s depicted.
“Sterling.” Hayden takes the magazine from me. “Talk to me, baby.”
My eyes lift and my closed fists slam into his chest, forcing him to rock back a little. “How fucking could you? Is this how you think you’ll get more filming jobs? I hope the couple of thousand the magazine gave you was worth it.”
His brows bunch together. “What?”
“Oh, come on, Hayden. Who else would it be?”
“It wasn’t me, sweetheart. Why the hell would I send a video of not only you but me as well to some tabloids.”
“Maybe because your face isn’t showing and you were only using me all this time.” I swat him with the magazine and he grabs my wrist.
“Listen to me. It wasn’t me. I would never stoop to this level, and I’d never hurt you like that. I know you find it hard to believe right now, but I have far more to lose than I have to gain.”
“I don’t believe you. Only you had that video. How could it have been someone else?”
He narrows in on me. “I could find out who it is and prove it to you.”
“Don’t waste your time.” My shoulder hits his as I move past him. He grabs my arm, twisting me around.
“I didn’t do it, Sterling.”
My blood runs hot and I yank myself free from his hold. “That’s Mr. Maxwell to you.”
I’m the one who leaves him standing there alone this time, rushing to my dressing room and throwing everything into a bag.
I don’t care where I go right now as long as it’s far the fuck away from here.
I trusted him. I wanted more with him. I sink into my chair, watching as my tears wet my cheeks in the mirror.
How fucking could he? After all I was willing to give up? He went from making me feel like I could do anything and that I could be anyone I wanted to be, only to leave me here feeling like absolutely nothing.