To Love Jason Thorn

“Lucy, what are you doing?”

Her head peeked out from behind the fridge door. “I’m alley-catting. What does it look like?”

I stared at her unblinkingly from my spot on the couch.

Her smile widened. “You see what I did there? Alley? Jason? Alley-catting?”

Silence.

I heaved a sigh. “It wasn’t as funny as you would think, Lucy.”

It was a Thursday and Jason had left at 5:00 AM for an early shoot. Their schedule was intense and I wanted nothing to do with it—not that I didn’t enjoy spending time in his trailer and focusing on my writing, but I could barely focus when he was around me.

“Oh, come on, it was. Don’t break my heart by saying I’m not funny. I don’t want to spend my entire night telling jokes to everyone around me to assert my funniness.”

Ignoring her, I asked, “So, how is it going with the new roommate? Char’s friend, Lily, right?”

“Yes, Lily.” She scrunched up her nose as if she had smelled something bad. “Not that sure about her. I’m giving her more time.”

Finally closing the fridge door, she plopped down next to me and handed me an apple while she clutched a bowl of blueberries in her hand.

I looked at the apple in my hand and then to Lucy. “What is this for?”

“Now that you are getting it on the reg, you need to eat healthier to keep up with Jason Thorn.” She cocked her head, but stared intently into her bowl. “Because you do need to keep up with him don’t you? He is a machine in bed, isn’t he?”

I raised my brows and took a bite from my apple, but otherwise stayed silent.

Picking up a blueberry, she gave me a side glance. “Well?”

I shook my head. “Sorry, I’m not falling for that. No sex details. Already told you that, I don’t know, a thousand times today?”

She put her bowl down on the couch and pulled her legs up to face me. “You’re no fun at all, Olive. How am I supposed to live vicariously through you if you don’t give me the details? What did I ever do to you to deserve such cruelty?”

I took another bite of my apple and picked up my laptop from the gargantuan ottoman. Before I opened it, I twisted to face Lucy.

Her eyes were expectant, her excitement written all over her face.

“Let’s make a deal,” I said.

“Great. Let’s. I love deals.” She held out her hand to me.

I took her hand and stared straight into her eyes. “You tell me about Jameson and I’ll give you a few small details about Jason.”

She shook my hand enthusiastically. “Done. You already saw Jameson’s penis, so you know that he is hung.”

Squeezing my eyes shut as if that would erase the memory of that image, I held up my hand, palm out. “Not that. God, no. Not bed details. I think I heard more than enough from the next room to have an idea of how he is in bed. Tell me what you’re doing with Jameson.” I winced when I saw the look on her face. “Not in the literal sense. Tell me if you are in love with him.” Then it was her turn to wince. “Tell me what’s going on, Lucy. Ever since this book stuff and Jason stuff happened, all we ever talk about is me. Even though I’m quite aware of how much you love talking about those particular subjects, I’m more interested in your life.”

“Nothing exciting is going on in my life. I like yours much better.” She popped a few blueberries into her mouth and averted her gaze.

“Lucy, please, just tell me why you won’t date the guy. He is crazy for you.”

“How do you even know he is crazy for me?”

“Please,” I said, fighting the urge to roll my eyes. “Have you even seen how the guy looks at you? I’ll admit he is hot as fuck.” She gave me a quick grin. “And still he is like a puppy following you around. You keep kicking him out of your bed, but whenever you turn around he jumps right back in.”

“He really is hot as fuck. We did good, didn’t we?”

I waved my hand dismissively. “I have no idea what I’m doing right now, but you definitely did good. You should hold on to him, Lucy.”

She put down her bowl of blueberries and sighed. “If I talk about the annoying bastard, you’ll give me a few details about how Jason is in bed?”

“Yes.”

“Fine. This is called blackmail by the way, if you didn’t know.”

I quirked my eyebrow and waited for her to go on.

“Fine. I never intended to sleep with him more than once, okay? Then it just got out of control. And you don’t see him at school; it’s not like he is running around after me. He is flirting with everything that moves and has a vagina. I have no idea why he keeps coming back for more.”

“Are you sure about the flirting? I mean, do you know if he is sleeping with anyone else? If he is, I have no idea how the heck he is keeping up.”

“Of course I’m sure. I don’t think he is sleeping with anyone else though.”

“I think he is trying get your attention with all the flirting. I’m telling you, that guy is head over heels in love with you. He is just waiting for you to do something about it.”

She rose up from the floor and went back to the kitchen. “I’m going to use this state of the art espresso machine and not talk about freaking Jameson any more.” She pointed her finger at me and wiggled her eyebrows. “And I believe you owe me some details about your beloved husband. Gimme.”

“Pfff,” I snorted. “Husband my ass.”

Playing with the buttons on the espresso machine, she looked at me over her shoulder. “Get your ass over here so I can actually hear you.”

Reluctantly, I lifted myself up from the comfy couch and made my way toward her. No way in hell was I going to try to sit on those bar stools though. I pretty much hated all six of them with a burning passion.

“Okay, you have a limit of two questions. Choose wisely.” I leaned over the counter and rested my chin on my hands.

“Stop grinning, you dork.” She laughed at my expression. “Okay. Just let me think about it for a second. Closing her eyes, she donned her thinking face and started humming. “Okay, I won’t ask if he was any good, because, duh…your lips are about to split from all that grinning you’re doing. I won’t ask if you came, because again…duh… I feel like I wanna ask how long he lasts…nah, I won’t ask that either.”

My grin turned into laughter. “Come on. I said small details. Ask something that’s been eating at you for all these years.”

“Fine. Is he big? I just gotta ask that.” I opened my mouth to answer but she covered my mouth with her hand. “No! Don’t say it; show me how big.”

“Okay.” Grinning, I lifted my hands and slowly started parting them. Her smile got wider and wider.

“Yowza! Damn woman. What is that eight, nine inches? You lucked out. Damn.”

Blushing a little, I laughed. “Okay, do you have a second question?”

“Crap. If I’d known you were actually going to answer them, I’d have made a list. I can’t decide on the best question when you put me on the spot. Okay, does he talk when you’re, you know…doing it? I mean, is he a dirty talker? Because if he is, I might just pass out right here in his kitchen, and then you’ll have to nurse me back to health and I’ll get to stay here.”

“You don’t have to pass out to stay here, Lucy.”

Already fanning herself, she said, “Go ahead, answer. He is a dirty talker, isn’t he? He has to be.”

“Yes.”

Her eyes almost popped out of their sockets. “That wasn’t a yes or no question, woman! You have to give me more than that.”

“Sorry.”

She dropped to her knees and put her arms on the edge of the island I was leaning on. “Pity me, Olive. For the love of our friendship. Please.”

“Yeah. No way.”

She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “I hate you. Okay. Okay, I can live with this. Holy shit, but you are lucky.”

Was I?

He was definitely beyond amazing in bed, best I’d ever had, but was I really lucky?

“I’m not so sure about that. I mean, is he just sleeping with me because he can’t sleep with anyone else right now? Are we dating now? Are we husband and wife? What the hell are we?”

“Easy there.” She got up from the floor and made it to the espresso machine again. “You’ll figure it out.” She glanced at me over her shoulder. “Eventually. I’d say, just keep living in the moment for now. My money is on you staying married, though, just so you know. I saw you guys together. There is no way he’ll let you go.” Turning her back to me, she played with a few buttons on the machine. “Do you have any idea how to work this thing?”

“Not at all, but I would assume you have to plug it in first.”

She huffed and went for the kettle. “Tea it is then.” Her phone pinged with a new text and she abandoned the kettle to get to it.

“Who is it?” I asked when she made an annoyed sound.

“No one.” She dropped the phone back in her bag and came to my side. “The tea will have to wait though. I have to head out.”

“Is everything okay?” I straightened from the island and faced her.

She rubbed her eyes and bounced on her toes. “Look,” she started.

“Uh-oh.” That was not a good start to any conversation.

“No uh-oh. It’s just that I’m not sure if I should tell you this or not. I mean it shouldn’t affect you in any way…but maybe it will… Ah hell.”

“Cough it up, Lucy.”

“I saw Marcus and Char kissing,” she blurted out all at once.

“Marcus and our Charlotte?” I frowned. “No way. Are you sure it was them? I mean…how…when?”

“Since they were doing it in our living room…yeah, I’m pretty sure it was them.”

“Whoaa…” I took a step back and leaned against the edge of the bar stool, making the damn thing scratch the floor. “I did not see that coming. Do you know how it happened? I mean, our Char with my Marcus? Really?”

“Your Marcus?” Lucy asked gently.

“You’re right. Not mine, I guess. Could that be why she’s been shutting me out lately? Did she think I would get mad or something? She barely responds to my calls and texts. I assumed it was because of her workload, but now…”

“To be honest, I had no idea either. I think Marcus still has a thing for you. He always did, even after the break up. You should’ve seen him when Jason came to collect your drunk ass. I thought for sure he was going to clock Marcus with the way he was acting. Then again, from what I saw, it didn’t look like he was kissing Char for the first time either.”

“I don’t feel anything for Marcus. Not any more,” I said carefully. So why does this leave a bad taste in my mouth? “But, it wasn’t like Char didn’t see how sad I was after he dumped me. She was right there with us almost from the beginning. Was she lusting after him all this time?”

“I have no idea, babe. I want to hear more about that myself, so don’t worry, I’ll let you know what I learn. Char is not so chummy with me either ever since Lily moved in, but I’m good with Marcus. I’ll ask him and see what’s going on.”

“What do I do? Do I say anything to her if by some chance we talk? Not that she is dying to get in touch with me.” I met Lucy’s gaze and asked, “Am I overreacting? If they are in love, I’d be happy for them, but isn’t it weird that this happens just a few weeks after I move out? It just feels weird.”

“Don’t think about it, okay? You have other things to focus on right now. If Char chooses not to talk to you because of Marcus, screw it. I’ll talk to Marcus and we’ll know more about what’s going on.”

I nodded. “Sure, but you don’t have to. I mean, it’s not our business, is it?”

“I have to leave, but we’ll talk later, okay?”

I hugged her tightly. If there was one thing I didn’t like about Jason’s house, it was that Lucy wasn’t living it with me. “I miss you,” I murmured into her hair.

“Oh, babe, I miss you, too. Especially your comfy breasts.” She stood next to me and peered outside. “You guys could always adopt me, you know. I wouldn’t mind calling Jason Daddy at all.”

“Ah, please, get out.”

Holding her hands up, she backed away. “Just a suggestion. You guys are in a marriage now; you shouldn’t make a big decision like that without talking to your hunky husband.”

“Sure, I’ll do that.”

She gave me a miserable sigh. “As if you leaving is not bad enough, now I’m forced to sleep on the couch when Jameson stays over. No comfy breasts, no spooning…”

I stalked her toward the door with a big grin on my face. “Poor Lucy. I’m getting all the spoons. And I’m begging you, please, sleep in the same bed with the poor guy. At least give him that much.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re the worst friend on planet earth.”

“Thanks, I try.”

***

It was hours after Lucy had left and I’d stopped wandering around the house trying to decide if I should call Char to see what was going on or not. It wasn’t that I was jealous; I knew Marcus had dated other girls after me—he had even brought a few of them home. It had stung, but I hadn’t been jealous. Hell, I was fake married to my childhood crush, who was I to have an opinion on their lives?

But, being with my friend? Kissing her? Sleeping with her??

I wasn’t feeling very motivated to get back to the story I was working on, but I forced myself to sit down and get some words in since I had planned to write until Jason got home. When the scene turned from emotional to another hot sex scene, I thought it would be a good idea to get on tumblr and do some research, look at some erotic pictures and…you know, get motivated.

Since I knew Jason wouldn’t be home for at least another three hours, I connected my laptop to his ginormous TV via Bluetooth and started scrolling through some tasteful black and whites. After jumping from one tumblr site to another, I found a new site that had all kinds of audio recordings—masturbation, edging, threesomes, fisting (holy shit!), dirty talk, moans, and good ol’ mf having sex.

Curious and admittedly excited, I pressed play on one of the ‘dirty talk’ sound clips and immediately flinched when a deep voice echoed in Jason’s house: You like getting your pussy fucked up by this big cock, don’t you?

 I was scared out of my wits. I had no idea that Jason had in-wall speakers in the house. I lowered the volume, but it was still an…experience, to say the least.

Not liking the girl calling the guy ‘daddy’ and mewling unnecessarily, I stopped that one and pressed play on another clip. And then another.

And another.

And another.

I didn’t mind watching porn, but I didn’t like going through a million videos just to find something that would actually excite me. I wasn’t after a storyline or anything like that, but when the girl is screaming all over the place, faking it, or you don’t find a guy attractive, no matter how many inches he has, it is hard to get into what they are doing.

So, having the freedom to imagine whomever I wanted to imagine while I listened to sexy skin slapping, some dirty words, and pretty good moaning, I was a happy girl.

Once I found a ten-minute, homemade sound clip of a guy that was groaning and moaning just as much as the girl was, I closed my eyes and pictured Jason and me having sex.

That right there? Instant arousal.

Opening my document, I started to put down the words and soon enough I was lost in them.

“Boo!”

The moment I felt someone’s breath on my neck and heard the voice, I screamed at the top of my lungs and tossed my laptop right over my head.

By the time I realized it was Jason who had scared me out of my mind, I was already standing in the middle of the ottoman, holding my chest and begging my heart to stay put where it belonged.

“What did you do that for? Are you crazy?!” I screamed, still breathless.

Jason was rubbing his head and looking at me as if I was the one who had lost her mind. “You throw your laptop at my head and you are calling me crazy?”

My laptop.

“Oh no!”

I jumped down from the safety of the ottoman and ran for my laptop. “No, no, no, no.” I couldn’t lose all the stuff I had written.

Before I could get to it, Jason leaned down and lifted it up from the floor. I jerked it out of his hands as soon as I was next to him. While the screen was shattered in the top left corner, the document I was working on was still open. Thank god. I hadn’t lost everything I’d spent hours working on.

“Are we watching porn, little one?” Jason asked with a suggestive voice from behind me, and just like that, the little scare I had experienced seconds before turned into something else.

Something like terror.

I groaned and dove for the TV, which was displaying a gif of a very sexy dude hammering into a pretty brunette on the screen. However, it was a failed attempt because Jason was quicker than me.

“Not so fast my little Olive,” he murmured as he curled his hands on the edge of the couch and successfully caged me in. As if all of that wasn’t enough to cause major mortification, the second Jason pinned me between the couch and his gorgeous body, the couple in the speakers picked up speed in their lovemaking, making all kinds of skin-slapping noises, groaning, and cursing. It sounded like someone was going at it inches away from our faces.

Jason took my laptop from my hands and gently tossed it on the couch.

“Well, my beautiful wife, isn’t this something to come home to.”

“Oh my god,” I groaned and clutched at his shirt with both hands, then proceeded to push my forehead against his shoulder. I could’ve happily hidden there for years.

When Jason’s chest started to shake with quiet laughter under my head, I burrowed closer.

“Please, just kill me,” I grumbled into his shirt.

“Oh, I couldn’t, sweetheart,” he said, nudging my chin up with his fingers.

He had that look on his face, that specific look that perfectly matched the erection I was feeling against my hip.

The woman’s moans reached their crescendo and she finally came.

Hallelujah!

Seconds later, her partner joined her with his own release.

Then blissful silence.

Why couldn’t have they finished just a few minutes earlier so Jason wouldn’t think I was a pervert? Was that too much to ask?

“So…” Jason broke the silence as he looked down at me expectantly.

“Welcome home,” I said, forcing a smile on my red face. “How was shooting today? Did anything interesting happen on set? Which scenes did you—”

He interrupted me, which I thought was quite rude.

“I don’t think those are the right questions to ask today, my dear wife.”

That last word… It melted my heart and my brain.

“Are you horny? I’m not taking care of you?” he asked while I was trying to recover from completely melting into a puddle.

“Huh?”

“You heard me.” He tucked a hair behind my ear, his fingers lingering on my skin.

“I was just doing research,” I mumbled, unable to look into his eyes.

“Research, huh?”

“Yep. There was a sex scene and I needed a little inspiration…and I…well, I thought it would be more authentic if I was in the mood.”

“Hmmm.” He finally broke our eye contact and bent down to nuzzle his nose against my neck as he breathed me in.

Hot guy sniffing me alert!

Every single hair on my body stood up and my body—acting completely on its own—arched toward him.

“Let’s see if you are properly in the mood then.”

In my next breath, his big hands were at the back of my thighs and a loud squeal left my lips. I quickly wrapped my arms around his neck as he lifted me up.

“I’m getting used to this whole carrying me away thing,” I murmured, still avoiding his eyes.

“I just want you to get the whole experience right, you know, feel it in your bones kinda thing, so you can write a good sex scene.”

“All for the greater good, you say?”

“Exactly.”

When he dipped me down and my back met the couch pillows, I thought he would dump me there, but instead he kept one of his hands firmly around my waist, reached for my laptop, and opened the site that had the sound clips.

“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice tinged with a bit of panic.

“Just want to see if I can make you scream louder than her. How long is this thing?” he asked after pressing play on the same one that had been playing when he’d busted me.

Still hugging him with my arms and legs, I answered his question. “Around fifteen, twenty minutes, I think.”

“We will definitely beat them,” he murmured as soft licking sounds filled the house.

“Are we in a race that I’m not aware of?” He straightened us up and started to head toward his bedroom.

I’m telling you, hearing sounds—especially licking and slurping—coming from the walls was the weirdest thing ever.

“Don’t you want to play with me? Scream my name while I’m pounding away at you?”

I groaned. Even if the audio-porn hadn’t done the trick, Jason was definitely getting me there with his words. “That does sound good, but…”

“No buts, sweetheart. Let me help you with your research.”

Then my back hit his bed with a thump and his lips took my mouth in a scorching kiss.

With frantic hands, I reached for his shirt at the same time he reached for mine. I took his off in a hurry as soon as he gave me an opening and he took care of mine even quicker. Seeing the outline of his cock straining against the thick material of his jeans did nothing to help me calm down and take it easy as I struggled to open the damn button.

In seconds, he had me completely naked under him. When I was breathless from his kiss, he stepped off the bed and took off his jeans and briefs all on his own. His dark eyes never once strayed away from mine.

His erection—or whatever you called that monster—was standing up proudly as my attention focused on the thick vein I was dying to trace with my tongue.

Putting his hands under my knees, he slowly pulled me to himself, toward the edge of the bed. In seconds, my legs were being spread open and his head was right between my legs, licking me clean.

When he was done—or more accurately, when I was done for—he crawled on top of me, his erection incredibly hard and warm against my leg.

“Point one for us,” I murmured, my voice a little hoarse from all the begging and moaning. The girl was still begging for her release.

“You were soaking wet, Olive. Was that all for me, or was it the audio that got you this hot?”

“Both, I think,” I said, looking away from his persistent gaze.

“You are full of surprises,” he murmured and licked my lips, parting them open so he could slide his tongue inside.

In the background, when the girl came in a rush, Jason was still lazily kissing the fuck out of me.

“Now that they caught up, what now?” he asked as he pressed small kisses on my jawline. His fingers were doing something wicked to my nipples as he made his way down toward them.

The sounds of skin slapping and other wet sounds filled the room and before I could order my brain to answer his question, Jason said, “I think I know what that sound is.”

The next second, I was flipped onto my stomach and Jason was kneeling over me, my legs closed up between his thighs.

“Push your ass up for me, beautiful.”

I did what I was told. Then his chest was plastered to my back. He was burning up, or maybe it was me?

“Thank you,” he murmured against my neck and pulled all of my hair to one side.

The guy in the audio let out a long groan as he kept fucking the girl.

Jason licked my earlobe into his mouth and gently bit into it. “Is this making you hot, baby?”

“Yes…” I moaned, lifting my ass up to invite him in.

“You are burning for it, aren’t you, sweetheart? You want to be fucked like her?”

Out of words that would make any sense, I nodded.

“Can you hear how hard and fast he is fucking her?” A gentle bite on my neck and my eyes fluttered closed. The guy really was going at it at full force, making the girl cry out with pleasure. “Shit, baby. I bet she is on fucking cloud nine right now. Can I fuck you harder than he is fucking her?” he whispered, his soft voice causing all sorts of shivers to run through my body. His fingertips were tracing my spine when he asked, “Do you want me to?”

“Yes, Jason. Please,” I mumbled.

Then he was off my back, and I heard him tear open a condom and roll it on. Next his hands were massaging my ass cheeks. “One day, your ass is going to be the cause of my death,” he mumbled almost to himself, guiding his erection into me, stretching me wide open. I groaned as loud as humanly possible. I tried to push up on my knees to force him to slide it in faster or maybe to get away from him; I had no idea what I was doing, only that my body had come alive and I could feel every soft touch, every little pressure against my skin.

And boy was there pressure.

He pulled slightly back, but then pressed his entire length into me.

My legs were shaking when he pressed his knees against my hips, caging me under him. I lifted my arms up and hugged my pillow, burying my face into it.

When his abs were pressing against my back and his elbows were propped on either side of my shoulders, I took my face out of my pillow.

“It must feel good having all of me inside you like that. Being inside you…” He took a deep breath. “Fuck, but it feels amazing, Olive.”

“Too good,” I managed to say in a whisper.

“I think I owe you an orgasm. They are ahead of us, sweetheart.”

“What?” I had completely forgotten about the audio couple. Every inch of my skin was prickling with awareness under Jason. I was too far gone to hear anything other than his breath and my own heavy breathing.

He pulled back, almost to his tip, and pushed back in—hard.

My breath hitched. “Yes!”

“You liked that, huh?”

Another hard thrust and I was clawing at my pillow. He picked up speed.

As he kept fucking me into pure bliss, he lowered his head next to my ear and said, “I think I would love to come home to this every single fucking day for the rest of my life.”

My heart stopped.

Then it started back up again as my orgasm caught me off guard when Jason pushed all the way in and started grinding into me.

My screams were definitely louder than the girl’s, I can tell you that much.

There will never be enough words to describe sharing the perfect moment with the person you love, with the person you’ve been in love with for most of your life…but…as sweat dripped down from Jason’s forehead onto my shoulder and his hips kept slamming into me through my spectacular orgasm, I decided that I didn’t need any words.

Hearing his deep moan, knowing that he was enjoying it just as much as me was enough on its own.

He slowed his movements and I managed to stop trembling underneath him. His teeth grazed my shoulder and another shiver went through my body. I was a mess.

“Ah, sweetheart… The sounds you make when you come for me? So fucking dirty.”

A deep thrust from him and a shameless mewling from me.

“I love it. I can feel it my bones. And the way you clench on my cock, the way you pull me in? It kills me every single fucking time.” He kissed my neck and gently slapped my ass, pulling a gasp out of me. “I think we are caught up on the orgasms. Do you want me to lick you all clean again, as I’m guessing from the sounds they are making they are doing too, or do you want to ride me?”

He pulled out of me, but his heat didn’t leave my body.

“Have to say, my vote is on you riding me, baby. I want to watch your face when you come all over my cock. I can always lick you clean at the end.”

I didn’t make him ask twice. While we could still hear the guy licking his girl, I pushed Jason onto his back and sunk down on his cock.

“Yes, sweetheart. Oh, fuck! Yes. Just like that, Olive. Take it all in, baby.” My hands found the headboard and without playing around, I started riding him. I was all shaky and definitely was muttering some obscenities at some point, but it was all perfect. Being with him felt perfect. Our kind of perfect.

Beautiful.

Just like I’d always dreamed.

When I came all over him, I let him watch what he did to me, what he gave to me.

Everything.

***

“If I’m not helping you with your research in one way or another the next time you’re writing a sex scene, I think we’re gonna have problems sweetheart.”

At the end, we had held on longer than the audio couple, I had come more times than I could count or remember, and each time I’d been louder than her.

We had definitely won, on all counts.

“I think I’m having a stroke or something. I can’t feel certain body parts.”

Jason chuckled and his finger trailed down from my shoulder toward my hip. I was already half passed out and lying on my face. When his finger hit the curve of my ass, he pushed the covers off my back and his hand started massaging. I tried to wiggle away from his hand, but before I could…

“Hey,” he admonished me with a serious voice. “You’re staying right there.”

I groaned. “If you start doing that, I will start feeling things, and I’m not sure I’m functioning enough for that.”

Continuing to massage my ass firmly, he kissed my neck and shushed me. “Thank god the audio doesn’t replay itself; it’s dangerous to listen something like that with you around.”

“Mmmm,” I mumbled, acting like I was half-asleep.

“Come on,” he said in an amused tone. “Don’t get shy with me. I love that you like playing. You were burning for me the entire time. I bet hearing them be so vocal didn’t hurt either.”

He gathered me up in his arms and I nestled against his chest. It wasn’t even seven o’clock, but I snuggled in closer.

When I didn’t make any comments, he chuckled again and brushed a kiss on my temple. “Okay, have it your way. For now. What did you do today? I missed you on set.”

“Lucy came over for an hour or so.” Then I remembered that I hadn’t asked his permission for that. “Is that okay? Her coming over?”

“Of course it’s okay for your friends to come over, Olive. You don’t need my permission for that.”

“But I know you said you don’t like having people in your personal space.”

“I meant industry people. Unfortunately, I don’t have that many friends. It’s hard to trust people when you are out in the open as much as I am, and since I prefer a relatively quieter life , I don’t have that many people close to me. Speaking of  friends, there is someone I met very early in my career, Devlin. He lives in New York so I don’t get to see him that often, but he is opening up a club/lounge here and he invited us. Would you like to go? We can invite your friends, too. I feel bad that you’re having trouble meeting with them without a sea of cameras following you around.”

I extricated myself from his arms, pulled the cover over myself to make sure nothing was showing, and stared at the ceiling.

“If you’re okay with it, that could be fun. Lucy would love to come, and maybe I can convince her to invite Jameson, her on-again, off-again one-night stand. But Charlotte…I’m not sure about that right now.”

Jason propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at me.

God… What was it about this guy that affected me so much? Even when he wasn’t showing off that damn dimple of his, you kept staring at him just for the sheer pleasure of it, and of course the promise of that dimple wasn’t something to turn your nose up at.

“Is everything all right with you two?”

Forcing myself to look away so I wouldn’t tackle him and climb on for one last ride, I said, “Apparently, Lucy saw Char and Marcus kissing in the apartment.”

“And…”

“And she is my friend. Isn’t there supposed to be a girl code of some sort that says you shouldn’t date your friend’s ex?”

His tone was different, both softer and tighter at the same time when he asked, “Do you still have feelings for Marcus? Are you jealous of her, Olive?”

I glanced at him. “The answer to the first question is a definite no. Being jealous? Not sure, but I don’t think so. Marcus and I… We’ve been over for a long time, and…heck. No, I’m not jealous of him. It’s just sort of a weird thing for Charlotte to do behind my back. If she had at any time told me that she had feelings for Marcus, I would’ve gotten over it, and if they love each other…I would be happy for them. I mean, she hasn’t even talked to me about it so I have no idea what’s actually going on. Just a few short months ago, the day I was meeting with the production people, Marcus came to my room to tell me he thought we would get back together once I’d finished my book. And now he is with Char? I don’t know. It’s not anger or jealousy I’m feeling. It’s something else, but I’m not sure I can name it.”

“I understand. The way Marcus acted when I came to get your little drunk ass from their apartment, I wouldn’t have guessed he had his eyes on anyone but you.”

“Yeah, I heard about that from Lucy, too.”

“Well,” he started as he got up from the bed, completely naked.

Don’t look, Olive. Don’t do it.

But of course, I looked.

At least don’t look down.

Oh, but I did.

“The invitation is open; you can invite whomever you want to invite. Devlin will have a VIP room reserved for us so we’ll have privacy.”