Center Stage (Bright Lights Billionaire #2) (7 page)

Chapter 8

Riley

His answer stung me in a way that left me wanting to find a bathroom and let out a few tears. I glanced back toward the water and swallowed the hot ball of anger in my throat. Why had I even asked? It wasn't my business. I'd already made that determination, and to follow through with asking him about the girl only left me looking like a love-sick idiot, which I wasn't.

"That's very true." I shrugged and let out a soft sigh as if I was totally taken by the beauty of the ocean. "Whoever she was, she was beautiful."

He snorted and shook his head. "This life isn't easy. It's not like I can have a real relationship. All I have is a few warm bodies to keep offering me false hope that there is more to love than a quick fuck."

Now he was cracking. Some nefarious part of me wanted to clap and release a maniacal laugh. I wanted down into his heart. Wanted to know who the real Ethan Lewis was. It would take time to find him through the layers of lies and false character roles he'd taken on over his short life, but I had hope that eventually I would stand face to face with a man that no one had seen before. The real him.

"Are you saying that I should find a few bodies to keep me warm too?" I didn't look his way, I couldn't.

"You have Jace, remember?" He pressed his forearms to the railing and turned to stare at me.

"But when we're gone for months at a time." I glanced over at him, which was a complete mistake. The desire in his eyes was palpable. He knew how to get what he wanted, and if I planned to survive for any extended period around him, my best bet would be to deflect or to make sure that I wasn't at all what he thought he wanted. Something told me that neither plan was necessarily good enough to leave me free from yearning for his attention or his affection.

"You're willing to cheat on your boyfriend?" His words had an almost laugh accompanying them. "He wouldn't mind having someone work you into a sweaty mess?"

"We have an open relationship." I shrugged as if it were no big deal. It was a partial truth at least.

"Interesting." He pressed his shoulder to mine. "No sleeping with anyone in a foreign country, and honestly, you need to be careful in general. Have you lived anywhere besides Los Angeles?"

"No. I grew up there and have always lived within a three-mile radius of where I am now." I sounded as naive as I felt all of a sudden.

"Right, well, let me tell you from intimate experience that the world is happy to offer you love, lust and a good fucking time until the morning sun comes up. Then you're on your own to deal with the consequences of your momentary
needs.
" He rolled his eyes and grimaced. "I'm lucky that nothing has happened thus far, but I'm sure my turn is coming."

"Why chance it? Just find someone from your childhood that you know and feel safe with and have a friends with benefits-type set up." I hated to push him in that direction, but the emotion on his face left me with little choice. Offer myself up, which wasn't happening, or help him find something more reasonable for his lonely nights. This was me, of course, assuming that blondie with the big tits wasn't an old friend.

"I don't have friends from childhood, Riley. I've lived this life the whole time, remember?" He pressed his shoulder to mine again. "It's all good. I have a few girls I can call on, but we're not talking about me... we're talking about you, this is assuming that you're the kind of girl who wants or needs sex on a regular basis to keep sane."

We were getting a little too intimate for my liking. There was no way in hell that I was telling him that I was the kind of woman that would prefer sex at least once a day if it was available, and that was a minimum. Half of my depression or fucked up mood swings lately had come from me and Jace becoming less and less regular. To have months between sessions meant that my punch card at the
Love Shack
was getting used more often than not. I'd been through three vibrators in the last six months, and more batteries than I cared to consider.

"So the blond was just one of your girls?" I smiled as he growled softly beside me.

"Yes. Jazz is one of my girls. You're horrible at deflecting, though you try to use that card all the damn time." He shook his head as his eyes moved across my face. "Do you like a lot of sex in your life, or just a little here and there?"

"That's none of your business." I lifted my eyebrow, throwing him back the same sinking life vest that he offered me moments before.

"Sure it is." He stood up and I turned to face him. "I was going to offer myself up in your times of need, but if you're looking for three times a day, I figured I might have to start charging you."

Heat swelled deep inside my belly. Ethan Lewis was offering himself up to be my personal sex slave? Surely not.

"And what exactly would you charge for an all-nighter, Mr. Lewis?" I lifted my fist toward his face as if I had a mic. "Your adoring fans want to know."

"Hmm..." he glanced around and gave me a contemplative look, as if he were deep in thought. "I think it would be based on services rendered. For oral sex, we'll go with a hundred thousand dollars."

My nipples tightened to the point of aching. "And are we talking about giving or receiving?"

"Oh, giving. I love pussy." He licked at his lips, toying with me. How we'd jumped this deep into the pool was beyond me, but I wasn't willing to relent or let him know for a second just how insanely turned on I was.

"Of course, and what about them giving oral sex? Would that be a charge too, or-"

"Heavens yes." He gave me a cute look. "However, I would be willing to give a deep discount if the girl could properly give a blow job."

"Properly... hmm, that's interesting. Do you have a handbook that I could pass out, by chance?" I fanned myself and let my eyelashes flutter as if he were getting to me.

He laughed deep in his chest, stealing my heart with the sound. He might not know anything about me, and I might only know the surface of who he really was, but after watching him grow up on screen for the last ten years, I loved various parts of who I thought him to be. We all did. It was impossible not to.

"A handbook. Now
that
is a great idea."

I pulled down my hand as Liam joined us. The warmth that spread up my chest and coated my cheeks was all too real this time. Where I could be playful and have a bit of fun with Ethan, it felt trite to do it with anyone else, at least to the extreme we were taking it.

"A handbook for what?" Liam moved to my side and leaned against the railing behind me.

"For cock sucking. Riley thinks that my fans might like to have an instructional manual on how to please me. She might be on to something here." Ethan wagged his eyebrows, obviously very comfortable in front of his brother.

"Oh, I like that. Would we have pictures and how-tos?" Liam winked at me. "You know it might be hard to get that monster to fit on the page. We could shrink it down and just have a caption off to the side that says, 'not actual size'."

I laughed and snorted before pressing my hand to my face. "You guys are horrible."

"Yes, we love depravity as much as the next guy." Liam shrugged.

"Or girl." Ethan pointed to me. "She might be able to give us a run for our money."

"We have lots of it between the two of us." Liam chuckled softly.

Deza walked up and put her hands on her hips. "What are you three plotting over here?"

"World domination," Liam offered up. "You want in?"

"Actually, the best way to suck a dick." Ethan gave an innocent look and shrugged.

"World domination through cock sucking." I couldn't help it, and the look I got from all three of them was well worth the comment leaving my lips.

"Oh, hell no." Deza grabbed my hand and pulled me away from them. "The last thing we need is for these two to influence you. No more talking to them together."

"It was Ethan." I glanced over my shoulder as he flipped me off with a sexy smile on his lips. "Make the manual. We can sell it next to the popcorn at our next movie."

"I like the sound of that," he called after me.

"What? The manual?" I pulled from Deza and turned to face him. I almost lamented over him having put his shirt back on, but no matter what he was wearing or wasn't, he was still a heart-throb through and through.

"Well, that, yes, but the thought of the next movie being ours." He winked at me and turned as Liam started to give him hell over being sentimental.

I let out a soft sigh and dropped down beside Frank as Ethan's offer raced through my mind. Had he offered to be my fuck-buddy while we were traveling? Surely not.

Yes, the hell he did.

"Uh oh." Frank reached out and patted my knee. "You got that look in your eyes that scares most men with any sense in their heads."

I laughed. "And what look would that be?"

"It's manipulation 101. You're trying to figure out how to get what you want and make the other guy or gal involved think it was their idea. I know how you smart girls work." He lifted his eyebrow, giving me a knowing look.

"Wow. You're good." I glanced up at Deza. "What're the rules on dating or sleeping with your co-workers on the set?"

"You and Ethan are
not
getting together. Hands off. Completely."

I lifted my hands. "I'm not interested in Ethan, but I didn't see anything about me dating the cameraman or one of the extras. People find themselves in precarious situations all the time. I want to be prepared. What're the rules, or are there any?"

"Just be smart about your decisions." Frank leaned back and closed his eyes as he clasped his hands over his belly. "Our jobs are hard enough as it were. You being pissy at someone on set during filming because of a break up or some other drama would just make it worse. And Deza is right. As much as you and Ethan seem to be hitting it off, it needs to be a solid working friendship and nothing more. No love or lust. It would fuck up everything, and you just got started."

"Good to know." I glanced down toward him to find him watching me closely.

Conflicting emotions tore up my insides, but I knew myself well enough to know that if nothing else happened, Ethan and I would most certainly be sharing a long sweaty night together, and it would be soon if I had any say in it.

Chapter 9

Ethan

"I should be rich enough at this point to have someone else pack for me. You do it. You dress me better than I dress myself anyway." I tossed a t-shirt at Deza and dropped down on my bed in nothing but a pair of boxer briefs.

"Cover that up. God." She walked into the room after bitching at me for ten minutes from the living room to hurry up. As if we had any-fucking-where to be that night. We didn't, and I was pretty sure the plane wasn't leaving without me.

"Don't be jealous. Get over it and I'll let you pet it too." I laughed deep in my chest as she tossed the t-shirt back at me and pretended to gag. "Keep it up. I know I'm close to breaking you down."

"Breaking me down." She turned and put her fist on her hip. "And what pray-tell does that mean?"

I sat up and licked my lips. "You tell me what the hell pray-tell means and I'll give in to your harassments. You can have an hour with me, okay?"

"I live my life with you, and you're too young to know what pray-tell means." She turned back to the closet and grumbled softly under her breath.

I moved to my stomach and wiggled my way to the edge of the bed, putting my chin in my hands and waiting for the opportunity to strike again. She worked through my clothes, pulling out various things and draping them over her arm.

"I don't get paid enough for this shit." She glanced back and lifted her eyebrow at me. "Are you checking me out?"

"Duh. Your ass looks good in those jeans. You're way too little for a big boy like me, but I can appreciate the ass for sure."

"I hate you sometimes." She turned back around as I rolled onto my back and scooted up a little more, letting my head hang off the bed.

"No you don't. You say it too much. People that really hate each other
show
it, and you only show me love." I smiled as she walked up beside me and dropped the clothes on the bed next to me. "No one else would put up with me... but you do, and it's because you love me."

"This is true." She sat down beside me and brushed my hair back, digging into my scalp with her fingers. Chill bumps covered my skin as I moved over and rested my head on her thigh. "I think I'm still in love with Darren. It's been ten years, and all I've thought about was him."

"Really?" I lifted my eyes to check her expression. I couldn't really tell if she were kidding or serious. She'd never mentioned Darren to me. To think that we had a close relationship and I didn't know that her ex-hubby had stolen her heart was pathetic. Maybe the relationship was one-sided, as in her taking care of me and me doing nothing in return.

"Really." She popped my forehead softly and got up. "Come on. We're going to be late. I know your King-I-Shit, but it's rude to waste other people's time."

"Agreed." I got up and pulled a pair of jeans over my legs as she stopped by the doorway and turned to watch me.

"Do you think I should give him another try?"

"If you think what you're feeling is love, then yes. I don't think it comes around very often. Seeing that you've not been with anyone since we've been together as a team, I'd say that you need to figure out if it's because of him or not." I pulled a shirt over my head and tucked it in. "What? Why the funny look?"

"Because you never cease to amaze me. You're so unbelievably dickish most days of the week, and yet there is a side to you that I don't believe anyone gets to see."

"It's the side where the sun don't shine." I turned and twerked.

The sound of her laughing as she walked down the hall warmed me. For the first time in my life, I wanted to protect her, to find out who Darren was and make sure he was on the up and up before D gave her heart to the bastard again only to have him give it back.

"Weird." I walked to the bathroom to brush my teeth. My eyes moved across my face, and for the first time in a long time, I didn't look like a zombie. I wasn't sleeping too well at night, but the rest of the time was spent thinking about Riley or making love to myself. Something about it was working for me.

I moved back and reached down into my jeans to readjust myself, hoping to make my shit look less obvious. I turned to the side and shook my head and tried again. Nope.

"What are you doing?" She glanced into the bathroom and lifted her eyebrow at me.

"Trying to make my dick lay down. You wanna help?"

"Why are we always on this subject?" She walked in and glanced down. "It looks fine. What are you worried about?"

"It's taking center stage. Look how badly it pokes out."

"No one would believe this crazy shit, not even if I videoed it." She walked out of the bathroom. "Get your stuff put in your suitcase and let’s go. I'm leaving in three minutes. With or without you."

"Lies," I muttered and pressed my hand to the front of my pants as I walked back in the room, as if I had the ability to force the fucker to lay down. What was a blessing to most was a huge curse to me. Somehow being around Riley and having the bastard grow to its full potential should have horrified me, and yet it felt comfortable, right. Maybe it was because she promised to protect me, and had done a pretty damn good job of it so far. And we were only getting started.

I grabbed my stuff and walked to the front door as Deza opened it and walked out.

"You were serious? You were going to leave me?" I closed the door, locked it and muscled my bag out to the curb where the limo waited.

"Yep. I told you I was." She greeted the driver as I got into the back of the car and sunk down into the plush leather.

"Did you guys rent out a villa in Rio? You know I hate the thought of staying in a hotel where people can paw at me every time I leave my damn room." I tried to stifle the concern that Deza wouldn't have taken care of all of it. I'd never known her not to be at the top of her game where I was concerned.

"Of course we took care of it. We're in a seven-bedroom condo on the water. The scenes we're shooting over the next week and a half are all within a three-mile radius. We got a chef, a few maids and some other miscellaneous help. No one should bother you unless the bar you choose to go to has other tourists there. That's all on you."

"Not happening." I ran my fingers through my hair and contemplated talking to Deza about Riley. I knew how strict she'd been thus far about me and my pretty co-star not getting too cozy, but my proposition to Riley for us to be fuck-buddies was different. It was a safe way to live a little and yet not have to hide the evidence of simply being young, dumb and human.

"What are you thinking about? I can see your mind spinning over there." She crossed her arms across her chest. "It looks like you're plotting out something that I'd not be too thrilled to hear."

"Really? You can't give me the benefit of the doubt? I was thinking about what kind of flowers to buy you for your birthday next week."

"Bullshit. Spill. What's up?"

"Nothing." I pulled out my phone and ran through a few apps like I had anyone I wanted to talk to. I rarely showed up on social media because it was overwhelming. Besides, Deza had some poor schmuck who got paid to be me online. That was a fucked up job.

"I'm going to put you in the back of the plane by yourself if you don't tell me what's up." She reached over and squeezed my knee tightly.

I yelped and swatted her hand away. "I'm going to put you over my knee and pop that sexy ass of yours a few times if you don't watch it. I'm not ten anymore, and you're not in charge."

"Yes, I am." Her expression tightened as her bottom lip protruded.

"Don't do that." I rolled my eyes as she sunk down into her seat, pouting. "Come on, D. You know I can't deny you when you get all pouty. It's so cute it hurts."

"Tell me then." She turned in her seat and stared at me, still looking pouty.

"I can see why Darren likes you so much. He's missing out. That bottom lip would feel so good gliding over-"

"Never mind!" She pushed at my shoulder as I laughed. "I don't want to know that bad. Shit."

"You're not going to like what I have to say, and you're going to shut it down before I can get it out of my mouth, so no. I'm not telling you a damn thing about my thoughts this morning. My life is the same old shit all the time. I figured out a way to liven it up a little," I paused as she groaned loudly and pressed her palms to her eyes, "and keep myself safe doing it."

"You don't know the meaning of safe." She sat up. "Remember last summer when we were filming in the Bahamas and you went on that hang-gliding tour without checking into the company at all?"

"That was a fucking blast. You're just salty that you didn't come with me."

"No. I'm still pissed that you almost died, Ethan. This isn't just about your career. It's about your life."

"Which, by the way... sucks." I straightened my shoulders, not willing to back down. "Money and fame buy you one thing. You wanna know what it is?"

"Happiness?" She gave me a sheepish grin.

"Right. Try again. Loneliness."

"You're choosing that life because you refuse to trust anyone's intentions, Ethan. Not every woman is after your money or your man-beast." She glanced down at my lap. "Some of them might actually love you."

I snorted. "That's rich. They can't love me, Deza. They don't know me. They've watched me wear a million masks. Why am I the only one that gets this? Right, because it's my life."

"Tell me what you're thinking about doing, and I'll support it if I can."

"You don't. I promise." I moved toward the door as we pulled up to the hangar bay where the plane sat ready for us to take off.

"I will try. Just tell me. Trust me." She gripped my arm and softened me with the look on her face. She cared about me without a doubt, but part of that care was her overprotective side that drove me batty. I was a grown-ass man. I didn't need someone taping bubble-wrap around me every goddamn morning. It was getting old, and so was I - alone.

I got out of the car and walked to the back to pull out my luggage. The driver looked a little surprised when I refused his help and lugged the large suitcase out on my own.

"Ethan. Please?" She took her bag from me and walked on my left as we approached the plane. "Please."

"Fine." I turned to face her as we stood at the bottom of the stairs. The plane opened the door for us, and I lowered my voice just in case. "Riley and I were talking about how hard it is to travel and not have companionship. It's one thing to sleep with someone you know and take your chances, but to do it with a stranger in another country or some crazed-ass fan... it's just getting old, D. Okay?"

"What did you guys decide would work best?" Her face visibly paled.

I laughed. "Nope. See that right there. That look says that you're going to shut me down."

"Did you decide to be fuck buddies?" She gripped my arm and jerked me toward her. "That's not happening."

"We didn't decide anything. I offered and she failed to respond."

"Good for her. You know as well as I do that lust is a precursor to love."

"No, I don't know that story at all. Lust has been nothing but lust for me. Just another warm body to try and fuck only to end up miserable and alone." I pulled from her angrily. I shouldn't have said anything.

"I'm sorry you're going through some shit, Ethan, but this is a no go. It's not happening. Period."

I glanced up to find Riley standing in the doorway in a pair of short white shorts and a pink tank top. She looked good enough to eat.

"Morning. You guys okay?" She leaned over to look down at Deza. "What's a no go?"

"Nothing. Morning, beautiful." I moved past her into the plane and left her to talk with D. She could let the pretty bombshell know that my offer was void, not that she'd taken me up on it in the first place.

I wasn't that lucky...