Chapter 24 - Tori
Tori
Hailey’s mouth dropped open.
“You can’t quit acting,” she said. “You love it.”
“No, I love movies. I love making movies and telling stories. I don’t care about actually acting in them. Frankly, that’s the least interesting part.”
“I don’t understand.” She looked adorably confused.
“I’m planning to produce and direct.”
When I could see that did nothing to clear it up, I continued, “I’m starting my own production company. I’m going to make movies from behind the camera, not in front of it.”
“Don’t you have to go to school for that or something?”
“I have a degree in business, plus years of practical experience seeing how movies are made. Actors do it all the time. It will be a relatively easy transition for me.”
I felt a stab of hurt as I remembered how hard my mother had tried to convince me that I didn’t need to get a degree. That I just needed to “stay pretty” and then I could have a long, long career.
“But why?”
“I lost my love for acting a long time ago,” I explained.
“I can’t remember the last time I was even remotely excited about a new role.
And this last incident with the paparazzi just reminded me how much I’ve grown to hate being in the public eye.
I’d love to be able to have a life, to move freely without security, without being mobbed everywhere. ”
“Won’t that still happen?”
“Interest in me will drop quickly once I’m not acting. The vultures will move onto the next star.”
She seemed skeptical. “Hmm.”
I studied her carefully. “I thought you’d be excited that I’m going to have a more normal life now. It’ll make it easier for us to be together.”
“Oh, I am excited, especially if that’s what you really want. I just hope you’re not making too hasty a decision. A lot of big things have happened the last month.”
“I can always pick up some roles in movies later if I decide to. But I want you to know, I was thinking about leaving acting long before I met you. Being with you just solidified the decision.” I thought for a second, then added, “Well that and realizing how horrible it is to have people take their glee photographing me puking in a parking lot.”
Hailey pushed back her chair and came over to mine, scooting between me and the table and straddling my lap. Without a word, she leaned in and gave me a long, deep kiss that made my heartrate pick up and my core throb.
“I missed you,” she whispered against my lips.
“I missed you too. Come home with me to L.A. Just for a few days while we figure things out.”
She pulled back to study me. “You don’t want me to stay?”
“If it were up to me, you’d be packing your stuff in a U-Haul and heading down south,” I said, echoing her language from a previous conversation. “But I don’t want to rush you.”
“Maybe I want to be rushed.”
“Well in that case, I have one question for you: have you ever had sex on an airplane?”
***
Sadly we didn’t have sex on the airplane because Rick insisted on flying with us despite the fact I could have gotten him a ride on another private jet right after we left.
Stupid safety precautions. I was looking forward to the day when I could travel without worrying about getting mobbed or kidnapped by crazy fans.
We were all quiet on the way down to L.A. Rick worked on his computer and Hailey and I alternated between reading and napping. A car was waiting for us at the airport, and the instant it pulled up to my house I was hopping out and extending my hand to Hailey.
“No one should interrupt us until tomorrow unless it’s an emergency,” I called to Rick.
“Yes ma’am, I’ll tell the staff.” He sounded amused.
Without a word I dragged Hailey up to my bedroom. It was my favorite room in the house. The floor to ceiling windows gave a bird’s eye view of the beach a mile away. I loved sitting on the balcony and watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. Hopefully, I’d be doing that with Hailey from now on.
“Get naked,” I ordered.
“Oh sure, we trade I love yous and suddenly the romance is gone,” she teased.
“I’ll give you romance,” I said, kicking off my pants and underwear and sending them flying across the room. “All night long.”
I stretched out on the bed and patted the mattress next to me. Hailey finished undressing and hopped up next to me, lowering her head to give me a kiss. She slipped one leg between mine, the other over my hip, trying to get as close as possible.
We kissed like that for a long time until the need between us was urgent, then Hailey broke away with a gasp.
“I need to taste you,” she said, kissing her way down my body.
When her tongue slid between my labia, my hips popped up.
“Oh!” I gasped.
Even though we’d been separated for less than a week, it felt like a lifetime since I’d had her head between my legs. I pulled her hair, trying to get her to focus a little higher.
“Don’t make me wait.”
The emotion of the last week had strung me tight, and now that I had Hailey in my bed again, I needed to come more than I needed my next breath.
She lifted her head, landing a light smack on my mound. “Be patient.”
I pulled her hair tighter and she gasped.
“I’ll be patient tomorrow.”
She laughed. “Okay.”
Hailey resumed her licking, teasing the swollen bud with her tongue while she stroked my folds with her fingers.
When she slipped one inside me, my hips popped up again.
She used her other hand to hold me in place, picking up the pace as she moved her finger in and out of my body.
She added a second finger, and then a third, stuffing me full.
“I’m close,” I wailed.
Hailey bit down lightly on my clit then, sucking it between her lips while somehow never losing pace with her fingers.
I detonated. There was no other way to describe it.
It was like my entire body was suddenly electrified, and I made an embarrassingly loud sound as my orgasm rolled through my body in waves of pleasure.
When I finally came down, I tapped on her head and gestured for Hailey to come up to join me. She slid her body along mine, landing on top of me like the cutest little blanket.
“Did you want something?” she teased, her chin resting between my collarbones.
I lifted my head so I could meet her eyes. “Yeah, I want you to marry me. The U-Haul is optional.”
“Shouldn’t we date for a while longer first?” she asked.
It wasn’t the resounding yes I’d hoped for, but I knew she was way more cautious than I was.
After all, we both knew it was her life that would be changing more than mine.
It wasn’t like I could produce movies in Seattle.
At least not that many of them. Although maybe now that I had my own production company, I could make that work.
“How about we have a long engagement?” I suggested.
“At least a year,” she countered.
“Done.”
“And I don’t want some big flashy ring. Nothing too expensive.”
She narrowed her eyes and gave me a stern frown to let me know she was serious. It made me even wetter than I already was.
“Of course not,” I said, already imagining having something custom designed for her, something simple but elegant.
“I know your work is here, but we have to spend time in Washington with my mother. There’s no way she’d come to L.A., not unless I held a gun to her head.”
“Done,” I said again. “In fact, I think we should get a place in Seattle, so we have somewhere to land when we’re in town. I’m hoping to do some filming there when things get rolling.”
She looked down at me, studying me carefully. “So we’re really doing this? We’re moving in together, merging our lives after knowing each other for less than six months?”
I didn’t even need to think about my answer.
“Yes we are. I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.”
Her smile was so bright it made my breath catch in my throat.
“Great, that makes me happy.”
Thank God, because it made me happy too.
“I know how to make you even happier,” I said teasingly.
“How?”
“Come up here and sit on my face and I’ll show you.”
“You’re so romantic,” she laughed, even though we both knew she didn’t care about all that stuff.
“Real love isn’t just romance, it’s showing up for each other every day.”
Hailey looked at me suspiciously. “Did you just make that up? Or is that a line from one of your movies?”
I gave her a wink. “I’ll never tell.”