85

5
ETHAN
Keep calm and don’t punch him, I told myself over and over as I waited for Callan and Foster to shuttle Adrianne to set.
Foster had sent me a text the night before, but even before I opened it, I knew that Callan had made a move. It was practically written all over him when he skipped out the door with her.
I’d spent the night chewing on this, and I had made the decision to fire him . . . but then there was the ghost of Laura Townsend and all that she was to us.
She’d tied us together in a way that could never be forgotten. He thinks Adrianne could be like Laura. That’s what Foster had said in his text. No one could replace Laura, and I resented that Callan might think otherwise.
The F150 appeared over the crest of the hill, and then it pulled in beside my Jeep. They all climbed out and met me on the sidewalk. Callan couldn’t look at me. Shocker. “Merc,” he greeted.
The words you’re fired were on my tongue, but I just smiled in a way that made him back up a few paces. “You” -I pointed at Foster- “and you are going to the executive office to meet with their security and the head of production. I want you to talk them through Adrianne’s stalker and how they plan to help us keep her safe.”
“What about-” Callan started, but I glared at him until his words faded away.
“I’ll take over as Adrianne’s personal bodyguard,” I said.
Both men were surprised, and I couldn’t blame them. I hadn’t assigned myself as a bodyguard in so long. There was never really a need for me to.
The firm had excellent bodyguards, and I was more of a numbers guy. “Get going,” I told them. “The execs are waiting to speak with you.”
Callan nearly told me to go to hell. I could see it on the tip of his tongue. He whispered something in Adrianne’s ear, kissed her cheek, and then he and Foster dutifully climbed back up into the truck. I offered Adrianne, who was in workout gear and had her face scrubbed free of makeup, the crook of my elbow.
“Shall we?” I flashed her a grin.
She smiled and slid her arm through mine. “We shall, Mr. Mercado.”
“I thought we agreed that you’d be calling me Ethan, Ms. Montoya.” Adrianne looked up at me through her dark eyelashes, and I should not be flirting with her. It would be hypocritical, at best, but it was just so much . . . fun to see her flustered.
“So long as you call me Adrianne,” she countered a touch defiantly. I grinned. “We’ll just see about that.”
We walked onto set, and the hair and makeup people swept Adrianne away. It took two hours to apply what didn’t appear to be a lot of makeup, but her hair was in a complicated twist that would be secured under an explorer’s helmet.
She looked exactly the way I had always imagined Dr. Maria Falconi to look, ever since I read the series when I was young. “You look gorgeous,” I told her as she stood, waiting to be called to begin. They were filming the ending first. Adrianne would be vowing vengeance on those who took her family, and there would be the dramatic reveal of her super suit.
“Thank you,” she said.
Before we could have any sort of conversation, the director-a man by the name of Lee Wynn-called her onto the set. The entire sound stage went silent. He walked her through the scene, and then the camera was pointed her way.
I sat in the corner by some of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood, and I could not have cared less. My eyes were on Adrianne as she worked. The scene was dramatic and tragic all at once, but the reveal of the suit was meant to bring hope . . . and signal that another movie was on the way.
Adrianne delivered her final monologue flawlessly. The crew that moved all around me had stopped to watch her. I couldn’t tear my eyes away, and I realized with a little start that I was at half-mast, trapped by my jeans. Just from watching her work. Shit.
But before the big reveal, Lee sent her back to one, and she did it again . . . and again. Each time he told her to start over, his tone became more and more condescending. But with each attempt, Adrianne had gotten better and better.
He kept saying that he wanted more, wanted bigger, but no one around me could tell what he meant. They started taking bets on who he was “for sure” going to make cry today. Adrianne was at the top of the list.
“Okay, we need to take a break,” Lee snapped, getting in Adrianne’s face. “Go look over your notes and remind yourself that your production company is spending tens of millions of dollars on this film, and then maybe we can get to work.” As he walked away, they all heard him when he said, “I cannot believe they chose tits over substance again.”
Adrianne’s eyes were shiny with tears, but she spun on her heel. The trailers for the stars were all in the back lot behind the studio.
I stalked after her, a few steps behind, and when we got outside, she stopped by her trailer door. I climbed up the steps, opened the door, and did a quick scan of the small trailer. No crazed fans waiting to jump her today.
“It’s clear,” I told her.
Adrianne stomped passed me and threw herself onto the couch. Tears were on her cheeks now. I sat at the banquet table across from her and did my best not to reach out and swipe her cheeks with my thumb. “I knew he was going to be difficult,” she said through her tears. “Everyone warned me that Lee was a ballbuster, but he seemed to hate me, right? I’m not imagining that?”
I shook my head. “You’re not imagining that,” I all but growled. It took everything in me not to storm back out to set and break the guy’s face.
More tears, but then she wiped them away with an impatient hand. “Screw him,” she spat. “I’m going to kill this role and become the most beloved character in the whole damn franchise, just to spite him.”
A laugh, large and surprising, spilled from my throat. “That is probably the best response I have ever heard.” I reached across the small space between us and wiped at her tears. “You’re scrappy. I like that.”
Her cheeks flushed, and her eyes went a little wide. “Uhm, I . . .”
I let my hand drop so that I wasn’t touching her anymore. “Sorry,” I said. “I know that you and Callan are . . . something, and I shouldn’t touch you.”
Her flush darkened, and her tongue came out to swipe her bottom lip. I groaned, and my thoughts jumped out of my mouth. “The truth is, I’m jealous of Callan for making a move when I wanted to ask you out while you stood in my office.”
“You did?” Her voice was breathy, and when I nodded, her breath hitched in her throat. “Where would we have gone?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “We would’ve ended up in my bed.”
Her eyebrow quirked upward, and she scoffed as if to call me a typical man. It wouldn’t do. “You think pretty highly of yourself.”
I shook my head. “I just know what I want,” I said, “and I think I know what you want as well.”
Her eyes lowered to her lap for a moment. She fidgeted with the ring on her finger, twirling it around and around. “What I want isn’t . . . right,” she murmured.
My pulse sped up. “What is it that you want, Adrianne?” She shook her head, still not looking at me, and that wouldn’t do at all. I reached across the aisle of the trailer, and with a single finger beneath her chin, I brought her eyes back to mine. “Tell me.” I made it a demand, not a request.
Adrianne’s breath came out in a soft whoosh that I could feel. “I want you, but I want Callan too.” Her cheeks flushed again, obviously ashamed. “And Foster.”
Well, call me a hypocrite, I thought, even as I reached across the aisle, cupped the back of her head, and pulled her in for a kiss.
Our lips touched, and she gasped, and I took the opportunity to open her mouth with my tongue. I fed at her mouth, relentless, until I had to pull away. “Honey girl,” I crooned at the dazed expression on her face. “When it comes to Callan, Foster, and me, all you have to do is ask.”
She blinked at me and shook her head as if she were trying to clear the fog from her mind. “You can’t tell me that you’d all . . . share me.”
Her scandalized tone was cute. Especially when her lips were swollen and looked thoroughly kissed. “Why not?”
“It just doesn’t work that way,” she insisted, stubborn to a fault. “If I’m with one person, then I’m with that person, and that’s it.”
I kissed her again, tongue plunging into her mouth without waiting for an invitation. Adrianne moaned softly.
“You don’t have to choose,” I told her. “Not if you don’t want to.” “That’s not fair to you.”
“How do you know what’s fair to us?” I asked it against her mouth. Her lips were beckoning me on for another kiss, but I didn’t relent. I wanted her to hear me. “Maybe being able to fully worship a woman is exactly what the three of us want.” I tipped her head so that she was looking into my eyes. “Maybe you’re the type of woman who needs more men in her life to fully satisfy her.”
“I was satisfied last night,” she breathed out, eyes flashing defiantly. “I’ve never come that hard in my life.”
I grinned. She meant to make me jealous to get me to back down, but it warmed me to know that Callan had taken such good care of her . . . even if he did so at the risk of damn near everything. The man could be insufferably right sometimes. I would probably never hear the end of this.
“Good,” I said, chuckling at her squeak of surprise. “I want you to be taken care of, Adrianne. In whatever capacity that means. Understand?”
She nodded, although her eyes were guarded and unsure. “Now, what can I do for you right now? What would make you walk back on set and show that director exactly why they chose you to be Dr. Falconi?”
She bit her lip, and I knew what her answer would be, but I wanted to hear her say it. “Would you show me?” she asked. “What it means to be worshiped by you?”
My half-hard cock was now fully hard and pressing into the seam of my jeans. Down, boy, I thought. This ain’t about you right now.
At my beckoning, she stood. Deftly, I unbuttoned her white blouse, and she shrugged out of it, folded it, and put it on the banquet table. Same went for her khaki pants that had been artfully ripped and stained with blood from the battle that they hadn’t shot yet. “You’re not wearing the super suit.”
Instead, she had on a lime green T-shirt. “They’ll CGI the suit later,” she explained. “I won’t get a real suit until I’m a proven box-office success.” I tugged the shirt over her head, groaning when I saw her breasts encased in lacy white fabric. It matched the tiny string thong that was snugged against her ass.
“Turn around,” I told her, trying not to swallow my own tongue. “Hold onto the back of the couch.”
Adrianne’s brow wrinkled in confusion, but she did as she was told. The noise that came from my throat would be funny if she weren’t so goddamned beautiful. The creamy, curvy globes of her ass were bare before
me, and I could see a hint of the white lace of her panties through the window of her thighs.
I reached out and pulled at that tiny scrap of lace and pulled it down her thighs. It stayed puddled around her knees. I knelt on the ground and grabbed two handfuls of her ass cheeks and spread her apart. Fuck, she’s gorgeous.
A pretty pink pussy, already wet for me. I moaned and leaned in to taste her.
Her body jerked, and she let out a low moan, deep in her gut, when I lapped at where she was the wettest. “You taste so good,” I muttered against her, tongue dipping into her now, seeking the taste of her.
Adrianne tossed her head, clutching the couch for dear life, and her hips shifted backward, bumping her ass against my face. “That’s it,” I told her. “Ride my face.”
With my hands on her ass, I pulled her back against me so that she was riding my tongue and my nose, whining every time my tongue dipped inside her or flicked her clit.
Adriane was rocking backward steadily now, and I let my thumb slide between her ass cheeks. I found the tight furl of her ass and pressed at it gently, not pushing inside, just putting a little pressure there. Adrianne’s hips snapped backward, and her moans became all the louder.
I suckled at her clit, and that sent her flying over the edge. I felt her pussy spasming against my face, and she keened out my name as she came. When her body relaxed, I moved away. She turned around, and a giggle lodged itself in her throat.
“Your face is all wet,” she said, reaching back to brush my cheek with her fingers.
I grinned and winked at her. “I’ll dip into the bathroom,” I said, “and make sure that I’m presentable when we head back to set.”
The trailer had a miniscule bathroom. I could sit down on the toilet and shower at the same time if I wanted to. Luckily, I was able to quickly wash my face with the available towels and soaps that a PA had stocked for her.
By the time I came out of the bathroom, Adrianne had redressed herself. She was fussing with her hair in the sole mirror in the whole place. She glanced at me, and her eyes traveled down the length of me. “Need some help?” she asked when her gaze inevitably landed on my cock, which was now straining to be released from its denim prison.
I shook my head. “That was about you.”
Adrianne turned. “But what about you? You posited the whole . . . sharing thing about getting my needs met. But what about your needs?”
She leaned against the counter and stared at me, a smile playing at her lips. When she took a step toward me, however, someone banged on the trailer door.
“Lee wants you back on set!” It was one of the PAs. She sighed. “I guess we have to go back.”
“Shoulders back,” I suggested as we left the trailer. “Don’t let him see you flustered, and don’t let him speak to you the way he did before . . . or I’ll break his nose.”
Adrianne hiccupped out a laugh. “My knights in shining armor at last,” she said in an exaggerated Scarlet O’Hara kind of way. She was kidding, but in that moment, I would have fought any and every person to keep her safe.