Extremely Famous (25 page)

“Well, maybe they’re not that bad,” she counters. “Sometimes when they’re really far away, everything is fuzzy.”

Even though there’s nothing even remotely funny about this situation, I burst out laughing at Leah’s observation.

“What?” She asks, giving me an odd look.

“I don’t know what’s worse, having everyone see me naked or having everyone see really bad pictures of me naked,” I tell her.

Drew laughs with me and puts his arm around my shoulders, kissing the top of my head. “I vote for both being equally awful. I mean, how
in the hell am I supposed to punch every single guy who looks at those pictures? It’ll take me a lifetime.”

We all laugh with Drew, but I know that if he could, he really would punch every single one of them.

Every. Single. One.

“This is so much better than being held hostage in your brownstone,” I tell Drew as I look out over the gleaming Caribbean Sea.

“It certainly is
.” He grins at me from the other end of the hammock that we’re sharing.

“God that feels so good,” I say as he gently but firmly rubs my feet. We’re sitting head to toe on my Mom’s giant hammock that hangs in a quiet, secluded area near the water
. The warm ocean breeze is gently rocking us.

“Do you regret meeting me
, Sydney?” Drew asks unexpectedly, turning our relaxing moment into a serious one with just six little words.

“No
. Not for a single minute.” I reply immediately, watching the waves lap gently at the rock wall that surrounds my mother’s island. “You don’t know how miserable I was Drew.” I return my gaze to his brilliant green eyes. “I wasn’t really alive before you. I was just a scared, lonely, anti-social girl with no future and no identity.”

“I feel as if I ruined your life.”

“You
gave
me a life, Drew.”

He gets up from the hammock
carefully, turns, and lies back down, his long hard body resting on top of mine. I inhale deeply, the scent of coconut oil, grapefruit body wash and that unmistakable scent of a sun-kissed Drew mixing together in an intoxicating cocktail that sets my pulse racing.

“I can’t imagine my life without you Sydney,” he whispers as he drags his lips and teeth down my neck. “I need you more than I need air.”

Drew stops kissing me to stare at my face, reading my feelings in the way that only he can.

I run my hands up his broad back, over his shoulders and into his soft, messy hair. Knotting my fingers into the silky strands I pull his mouth down to mine, greedy for the taste of him. His response is instant and heated, unleashing a raw passion that has him branding me with his deep kisses.

A soft moan escapes from the back of my throat when Drew presses his hardening length between my thighs. His hands are everywhere at once, skimming down my hips, tugging on the hard peaks under my bra, cupping my face gently. I’m writhing underneath him from his blazing touch.

“Syd,” he groans into my mouth.
“Let’s go inside. Even though this is a very private spot on an even more private island, I have no desire to repeat our Brentwood performance.”

Breathless, all I can do is nod. Drew untangles himself from the swaying fabric and helps me stand up next to him. Grinning, he grabs my hand and leads me through the lush garden and into our
room, which has its own entrance facing this side of the yard.

Once inside, he
reaches for the sarong tied around my waist and unknots it, letting the bright fabric flutter to the floor. We crash together again, red hot desire unfurling in my core as he claims my mouth with his tongue. Impatient to feel his skin on mine, I grab the hem of his shirt and yank it over his head, breaking our contact. Drew’s eyes burn with an intense fire as I untie his board shorts and shove them down to his ankles.

Before he can protest, I drop to my knees in front of this fine man and wrap my hand around his thick shaft.

“Fuck baby,” he groans. “It’s been too long.”

I lean in and swirl my tongue over the end of him, stroking with my hand at the same time. He mutters a string of curses and twists his fingers in my hair, pulling
just hard enough to pull a gasp from my lips. The burning in my scalp is pain and pleasure combined, letting me know how much my touch is affecting him, driving me to satisfy him.

When I open wide and take all of him in my mouth,
tasting him as his hips buck uncontrollably. I move up and down his length, pressing my tongue along the bottom as I pull back, then pushing forward until he reaches the back of my throat. Over and over I push and pull until he’s panting and gasping for breath, on the verge of collapsing to the floor.

“Stop, please,” he moans. “I want to be inside you.”

I release him from my mouth and stand in front of him, letting him watch as I untie the strings to my bikini top and toss it aside. Not breaking eye contact, I hook my thumbs in the sides of my bottoms and shimmy out of them until I’m naked.

Drew licks his lips hungrily as I allow him a moment to
appreciate my body, his eyes roving up and down, alight with desire. Without warning he scoops me up and throws me down on the bed, his tan muscles flexing as he climbs on top of me. His mouth finds mine and he flicks his tongue over my parted lips, causing a blistering heat to build between my thighs.

“I need to make sure you’re ready for me, because I’m not going to be gentle,” he rasps in my ear.

I need this, badly. To feel the deep connection with him that I’d been without as I struggled with my demons alone. To let him take charge and free my mind for a while.

His head drops to my breasts and he alternates between gentle licks and rough suckling as my eyelids become heavy with
lust.

“I want you to watch me Sydney,” he demands as he licks his way down my abdomen.

Drew winds his hands beneath my hips and lifts me from the bed, arching my back and thrusting my breasts up toward the ceiling.

“So fucking gorgeous,” he moans as he lowers his head to my drenched sex.

When his mouth makes contact with my slick folds, I scream in ecstasy and my hands twist in the sheets. He swirls his tongue furiously, not allowing me a moment’s reprieve from his skillful touch. His eyes meet with mine as he latches on to the small bundle of nerves and sucks gently, quickly sending me spiraling into a free fall of bliss.

Before I can come down from my high, he’s flipped me over onto my knees and placed my hands together on the top of the
tall headboard. “Don’t let go,” he commands.

I’m all too willing to comply and couldn’t form a coherent thought to protest if I weren’t. One strong hand covers mine on the headboard, holding me in place. The other guides his hard cock to my opening, thrusting in violently until he’s buried to the hilt.

“Jesus Syd, you feel so fucking good.” I can hear his voice waver. He’s already on the edge of losing the control he craves so much.

“Let
yourself go babe,” I say between moans as he slides slowly in and out of my slick passage.

With one hand pinning mine to the headboard and his other gripping my hip hard enough to leave bruises, he begins to move fast and hard.
Drew undone is a carnal experience like no other. Each one of his forceful strokes shoves my body forward, which in turn slams the bed into the wall loudly. He doesn’t let up or slow down. Instead, he viciously bites at my shoulder and neck, sucking and licking after each rough nip, and I love every minute of it. It’s pure, sweaty, hedonistic fucking.

My low moaning ratchets up with the relentless pounding Drew is inflicting on me. Combined with the fact that he has me restrained and unable to do anything but feel and accept what he gives me, I resort to screaming his name over and over until stars burst behind my eyelids and I spasm around
him.

When my body clenches
around him tightly, Drew utters a string of unintelligible profanity and surges deep one final time as he reaches his own release. He lets go of my hands and collapses onto my back, his rapid breaths hot on my neck.

“That was…” he begins.

“Mind-blowing?” I finish for him.

“Yeah.
” He separates from me and flops down on his back.

I stretch out next to him and push
a few sweaty strands of hair off of his forehead. We’re both drenched and panting. A trickle of moisture runs from my collarbone down my shoulder and I wince.

“What?” Drew asks, sitting up quickly to see why I’m flinching.

“Nothing babe.”

His intelligent eyes read my expression and he knows I’m lying. He reaches out with a long finger and gently pushes my hair aside, exposing the flesh between my neck and shoulder.

“Shit,” he hisses.

“I’m fine Drew,” I say sternly. “Don’t be upset.”

“You’ve got, I mean… I can’t believe I… fuck!” He runs his hands through his hair, his eyes filled with regret.

“Stop. I’m. Fine.” I grab his chin and force him to look at me. “I loved every minute of it. And this?” I point to the huge
, red bite mark that he left on my pale skin, “is your mark,” I say wickedly, twisting up the corner of my mouth in a grin.

The worry in Drew’s eyes is gone in an instant and replaced with a dark look I recognize. He cups my face in his hands and kisses me gently, moving down my neck to the wound he inflicted, brushing his lips across it reverently.

“I love you Sydney,” he whispers against my injured flesh.

I let him show me how much he loves me, this time slowly, worshipfully. A joining of two souls as one as our bodies
connect. The mark he leaves on my heart is just as real as the one on my skin.

The next morning Drew and Ryker make breakfast while Leah and I sit outside. I’m on the very same couch where I sat when I fled New York after finding out I was dating a celebrity. The same spot where I curled into a ball and admitted
to my mom that I was in love with Drew. So much has changed since then.

“Are you going to look?” Leah asks.

I twitch at her question. “At the pictures?” She nods. “I don’t know Leah, the whole thing is so surreal.”

“Do you want me to look for you?”

Only your best friend would be willing to check out photos of you and your fiancé frolicking naked in a national tabloid and report back to you so you don’t have to do it.

“You may as well see them, everyone else has by now,” I say sarcastically.

“Probably,” she agrees.

“Leah!” I stare at her in disbelief.

“Well it’s true! You two are mysterious and private, surrounded by scandal, and you’re both hot,” she shrugs. “People are going to want to look.”

“Aren’t we her
e to forget about that shit?”

She just shrugs again.

Right before I’m about to kill Leah, the boys come outside with our food. They place plates filled with tropical fruit and small round Belizean pastries called fry jacks on the dining table. I stomp over and take a seat, leaving Leah to follow behind.

“What’s going on?” Drew asks me quietly.

I sigh and my shoulders sag. “Just thinking about the pictures.”

His body tenses up next to me. “Oh.”

“I forgot to tell you,” Ryker says through a mouthful of food.

“Ugh! Ry, you’re
so gross,” Leah says admonishingly even though she’s smiling. “If your flock of fangirls could see that they’d finally leave you alone.”

Ryker waggles his eyebrows as he chews and swallows. “Anyway, I saw the pictures,” he says casually.

I feel lightheaded and Drew curls his fingers tightly around his fork. I slide my hand under the table and put it on his leg in a pathetic attempt to calm him down.

“Don’t sweat it. I checked them out for you and you can’t really tell what’s what.” Ryker smiles and pops a piece of his fry jack into his mouth.

“Are you serious?” I feel a glimmer of hope taking hold in my nauseated stomach.

“Yep. That dude must have been far away because the pics are blurry as hell.”

Drew lets out a breath that I didn’t realize he had been holding and I see his fist unclench some from around his cutlery.

“Thank Jesus,” Drew says. He whips out his phone and starts furiously typing.

“Are you going to look at them?” I ask disbelievingly.

“Fuck yeah I am. I was going to look at them either way
, Sydney. I couldn’t live with not knowing how much everyone saw. Not knowing how much each perverted fucker that looked at you was seeing in their minds.”

I roll my eyes at his irrational over-protectiveness.

“Sydney, it’s sweet that he feels that way,” Leah coos from across the table.

What?

“Leah, you always thought that stuff like this was macho, over-possessive bullshit! That it was an over the top display of ownership and you would never allow it!” I remind her.

“Oh really?” Drew asks, looking up from his phone with a playful smirk on his face. “Does the way I treat Sydney bother you?” He focuses his intense green eyes on Leah.

Her cheeks redden some as she scoffs, “No. I mean, I used to think it would bother me. Okay yes, mostly I would be bothered by someone bossing me around and going around dictating who I can and can’t hang out with.”

“I don’t do that
.”

I give
Drew a sharp look and he corrects himself.

“Okay, just one exception,” he says darkly.

Ryker is thoroughly entertained by Leah and Drew’s back and forth. He watches them verbally spar with a giant smile on his face.
Bastard!
He’s the one who mentioned that he looked at the pictures.

“Yeah, well
, after meeting you I decided to judge each overbearing man individually,” Leah says proudly to Drew.

“Huh?” I exclaim. “You? You changed your mind? Miss feminism?”

Leah flushes a deep crimson, not a common sight. “Yes. I told you that it’s kind of hot to have someone love you so much that they’ll do extreme things to keep you safe.” She squirms under Drew’s scrutiny, and Ryker’s, who has now turned to look at her in disbelief.

“So a little bit of old school
, stereotypical, macho behavior would turn you on?” Ryker asks Leah in a teasing tone. “Because I could definitely be down for that.”

“Case by case basis Ry,” she responds dryly, winking at him.

I turn to Drew and see him scrutinizing his phone. “Damn screen is too small to see anything,” he mutters as he shoves back his chair and stomps into the house.

Stunned, I watch him go, taking a moment to decide what to do.
“I’ll catch you guys later,” I tell Ryker and Leah as I jump up and follow Drew.

I find him in our room, sitting on the bed with his laptop, staring holes into the screen. His body language tells me that he’s not happy and my heart plummets into my feet.

“Is it bad?” I ask in a soft voice.

His eyes flick to mine for an instant, then back to the screen. He exhales deeply and runs his hand down his face. “It’s not great.”

“Oh.”

Do I want to know?
No, not really, but I’m inexplicably drawn towards the bed.

Drew sees me coming over and makes a face, but says nothing. He opens his arms and lets me settle in between his legs so I can see.

I scan the title of the article,
Andrew and Sydney’s Naked Romp
, and want to throw up. Forcing myself to read the stupid commentary instead of just going directly to the photos, I’m speechless at the nerve of these people.

In town to promote his upcoming film, Mind of the Enemy, actor Andrew Forrester and girlfriend (and rumored fiancée) Sydney Tannen, spent the afternoon of September 10
th
relaxing at the Brentwood mansion of Forrester’s director and close friend Thomas C. Sullivan.

The couple emerged from the home onto the sprawling back terrace for lunch, then wasted no time shedding their inhibitions (along with their clothes) to cozy up in the pool. After their ‘swim’, Forrester and Tannen disappeared beneath one of Sullivan’s covered cabanas. Perhaps for an afternoon delight?

They spent the rest of the gorgeous Southern California day lounging poolside without a stitch of fabric in sight. When it was time to return to the hotel for an intimate dinner with the rest of the cast, including Thomas C. Sullivan and co-star Zane McNamara, Forrester drove Miss Tannen away in a rented McLaren 12c Spider convertible.

I must admit, it’s nice to be Andrew Forrester; hot car, hot girlfriend, skinny-dipping in the middle of the day. Save some of the fun for the regular guys
, Andrew!

“What the hell? Someone was watching everything we did!” I
am completely floored.

“Obviously,” Drew
hisses. “We’re lucky this isn’t a video, Sydney.”

At the thought of an actual naked, sex-filled video of us being on the internet, I feel the familiar wave of panic starting in my stomach.

“Breathe Syd,” Drew whispers as he pulls my back against his chest and hooks an arm around my shoulders. “It’s okay, they didn’t film anything.”

I let him hold me for a few minutes, so my heart can stop racing before I look at the pictures. Steeling myself, I sit up straight and click on the icon.

You must be 18 to enter

Well isn’t that just fan-fucking-tastic.

I huff in annoyance and click the box that indicates I’m over 18 years-old.

The screen fills with thumbnails, dozens of them. They’re small, but I recognize Chad’s back patio and the large pool. I move the arrow over and hit the icon to start slide show.

The first picture fills the screen. It’s the two of us eating lunch. I can’t tell what’s on our plates, but I can definitely see our faces enough to know who we are.

Fuck.

I swallow loudly when the second photo pops up. Drew is undressing me, and it’s obvious. The third is of him scooping me up before he jumps into the pool. Okay, you can’t see very much in that shot, my body is blocking his and I’m too balled up in his arms to see anything of mine.

Thank God for small miracles.

The next few are of us clinging to each other in the pool, kissing and touching. The water hides anything scandalous, but I’m furious that this private moment is available on the internet to anyone who wants it.

The shots of us getting out of the pool are humiliating. I’m wrapped around Drew like a vine, legs around his waist and arms around his neck. His hands are beneath my ass, carrying me across the patio to the covered cabana nearby. We’re kissing intimately the entire time.

The only good part is that our melded bodies hide everything from view. Well, except my ass, which Drew’s hands do a fairly good job of covering.

It’s the last ones that are the worst. We’re lying on our individual chairs, and you can pretty much tell what’s what. Ryker was partially rig
ht. The pictures aren’t clear, but you can see my body, the shading of my bare breasts and the junction of my thighs. Drew’s nakedness is more difficult to distinguish because of the grainy quality, but he clearly has something between his legs, pixelated or not.

I close the browser and shut the laptop.

“Syd?” Drew whispers in my ear as he snakes his arms back around my shoulders, pressing his front to my back.

“Yeah.”

“Say something,” he pleads with me. He’s afraid that I’m slipping into another catatonic panic attack.

“I don’t give a fuck,” I say, surprising myself.

Drew lifts me up and turns me until I’m straddling his lap.

“What?”
He tilts his head and frowns.

“I. Don’t. Give. A. Fuck.” I repeat.

Drew stares at me, his jaw hanging open in shock at my words. “How, how can you not care?”

“Okay, let me clarify
. I
can’t
give a fuck. Is that better? It’s too much. This…” I wave vaguely toward the computer on the bed, “this is the worst that it can get. Our privacy, my body, your body; violated completely. There’s nothing else that they can do that could possibly be any more cruel or damaging. The only way I can cope is to say fuck it, and move on.”

Blowing out a breath,
I take in my gorgeous fiancé. I see his lightly stubbled face, the tiny crinkles in the corners of his concerned eyes, his slightly pursed lips that are on the edge of responding to my tirade but are unsure of what to say. I reach up and gently stroke his rough cheek.

“I’m done
, Drew. Done with their shit. Done caring what they say and do.”

He starts to speak but I hold up a finger, urging him to let me finish.

“I know I’ve said this before, but now, after this? I mean it. They can follow us, they can photograph us, they can write whatever they want; I’m done with giving them anymore of my energy, of my life. Of
our
life. To me? They. Don’t. Exist.”

Drew doesn’t say anything and I wonder if he thinks that I’m crazy. Maybe I am, but I seriously can’t allow these ridiculous outside forces to control me any longer. They will destroy us if we let them.

I’m about to say something when the corner of Drew’s mouth quirks up in that way that I love. That way I haven’t seen in so long. It’s then that I know, my Drew is back and we’ll be okay.

“I have to tell you Syd, just like always, your reactions completely surprise me.” He wraps his strong arms around me and pulls me tight against his chest. I relax, listening to the vitality of his heartbeat. It’s rhythm grounding me to my reality, to him. “I still have to beat Ryker up for looking at you naked though,” he jokes.

At least, I hope he’s joking.

I let out a hoarse laugh. “Let’s call Rhys to give them our statement and put this shit to bed,” I murmur into his thin T-shirt. “I want to go explore the reef.”

I can feel his grin as he buries his face in my hair. “I’ll dial,” he whispers.

After releasing our joint statement, we get my mom’s caretaker to arrange a snorkeling tour of the massive barrier reef that spans the length of Belize and surrounds the islands that dot the coast.

We spend the day swimming and snorkeling and just hanging out on the large catamaran that takes us to each spot. We’re just four friends having beers, diving with sharks at Shark Ray Alley, watching the magnificent Green Turtles at Hol Chan, and sunning ourselves on the deck of the boat.

“I’ve never done this before,” I say to Leah as we lay on our towels, the boys still in the water
nearby.

She leans up on her elbow an
d shades her eyes to look at me. “Done what?”