Hot Off the Red Carpet (5 page)

“There you are!” Maribel said to Trevor.  “Sit down and I’ll make you some pancakes.”

When Trevor didn’t answer, Addison looked up at him from beneath her long bangs to find him regarding her with those soulful brown eyes of his.  She held her breath, waiting for him to say something, such as, “You’re fired,” but after a moment he turned his attention to Maribel.

“Thanks, but I want to work out before I head over to the studio,” he said.  “I’ll grab something to eat later.”

Addison waited for Maribel to give Trevor the same lecture she’d gotten about the importance of eating a good breakfast, but he left the kitchen before the woman could even open her mouth.  Addison chewed on her lip as she watched him go.  Was Trevor as uncomfortable about what had happened between them last night as she was? Addison wondered.  If so, didn’t that mean he wouldn’t be as likely to put her over his knee and spank her again?

Relieved that she probably wouldn’t be getting any more spankings, Addison picked up her fork.  Even with all the syrup she had put on them, the pancakes were delicious.  Thanking Maribel for breakfast after she was done, Addison picked up her coffee and went to her office.      

Remembering reading something on the schedule about doing a few pick-up shots for the movie he’d just finished filming, Addison picked up the day-planner from her desk and flipped through it.  Finding the contact number for the studio in the book Murray had given her, Addison called and introduced herself, then checked to make sure she knew exactly where Trevor had to be and when he had to be there.  Hanging up the phone, she thumbed through the book looking for Leo’s number, but then decided it would be easier to simply go see him instead.

The tall, blond driver was in the garage stocking the fridge in the limo with bottled water, and he looked up when she walked in.

“Hey,” he said, giving her a grin as he climbed out of the car.  “Good to see we didn’t chase you off.  What can I do for you?”

She smiled.  “I just wanted to remind you that Trevor has to be at the studio at ten o’clock.”

Leo nodded.  “Got ya.  I’ll have the car out front at nine then.”

“Thanks,” she said and was about to go back inside when Leo stopped her.

“Hang on a minute, Addison.”

She turned back to see him heading over to a small office on the other side of the garage.  Ducking inside, he grabbed something from the desk, then jogged back over to hand her a small walkie-talkie.

“So you can get hold of me easier if you and Trevor come out a different door again,” he told her with a grin.  “Ever use one of these before?”

She shook her head.

“It’s easy.  Just press this button and hold it down to talk, then release it so that I can talk to you,” he said, pointing to a rectangular-shaped button on the side of the radio.  “It’s good within about a mile or so.  Just ignore all these other buttons.  It has a lot of other capabilities, but we don’t need to worry about those right now.”

She smiled.  “Thanks.  I really appreciate this.”

He grinned.  “No problem.”

Radio in hand, Addison went back inside the house.  Rather than go back to her office right away, though, she found herself heading to the gym instead.  While she told herself it was just so she could make sure Trevor knew what time they needed to leave, she had to admit that she wouldn’t mind watching him work out.

When she walked in the gym a few moments later, Trevor was lifting weights.  He had taken off his T-shirt and was sitting on a padded bench, legs spread, one arm on his muscular thigh while he worked out his biceps.  Addison’s pulse quickened at the sight of him.  She watched breathlessly as his muscles flexed and rippled.  Damn, he looked fine all hot and sweaty.  It was all she could do not to walk over to him and run her hands over him.

Stifling a moan, Addison cleared her throat and walked into the room.  “Mr. Braden.”

At the sound of his name, Trevor looked up.  He didn’t stop what he was doing, though, and Addison had to force her gaze away from the muscles flexing in his broad chest.

“I...um...just wanted to remind you that we have to leave for the studio in a little while,” she said.

He nodded.  “Thanks.  I’m almost done here.”

She chewed on her lower lip, watching the muscles in his arm bulge as he lifted the weight.  “I’ll see you out front then.”

Addison made as if to go, but the sound of her name had her turning back around to face Trevor.  He had set the weight done and gotten to his feet.  A bead of sweat slowly ran down his chest, and she stared at it as if mesmerized.

“I...um...” Trevor began, then stopped and ran a hand through his hair.

Her heart lurched.  Oh God, he was going to mention the spanking he’d given her.

But to her relief, he didn’t.  “Do you think you could pick out something for me to wear while I take a shower?” he asked.  “Anything is fine.  I’ll be changing when I get to the studio anyway.”

“Oh,” she said.  “Yeah.  Of course.”

“Thanks,” he said, flashing her a grin as he grabbed his shirt from the weight bench.

Though she was relieved that Trevor hadn’t brought up the spanking, Addison had to admit that she wouldn’t have minded if he had apologized for putting her over his knee.  It was the least he could do, she thought as she made her way upstairs.

* * *

Trevor stole a glance at Addison as they drove to the studio later that morning.  She hadn’t said a word to him since they’d left the house thirty minutes earlier, but had instead spent the time reading through her day-planner and making notes in the margins.  He didn’t know what to make of her silence.  He had been stunned to walk into the kitchen and find her sitting there.  He had immediately steeled himself for a confrontation regarding his inappropriate behavior the night before, but she hadn’t given any indication that anything had happened at all.  She had just calmly poured syrup on her pancakes.  Realizing that she wouldn’t want to discuss what had happened in front of Maribel, he had made a point of saying he was going to the gym, thinking she would follow.  But she hadn’t come in until nearly an hour later, and then it was only to remind him about going to the studio.  He had almost brought up the spanking himself, but then decided against it, asking her to pick out something for him to wear instead.  He figured that since she hadn’t brought it up, then maybe he shouldn’t, either.

Looking at her now, he wondered again if he should apologize for spanking her, but then thought better of it.  Maybe Addison had simply decided to forget about the whole thing.  God, he hoped so.  Putting her over his knee had been the dumbest thing he had ever done, and he promised himself right then and there that he wasn’t going to do it again.

Relieved that he wouldn’t have to worry about last night’s spanking showing up in the tabloids, Trevor leaned back in his seat and went over his lines.  He was just doing a few pick-up shots for the movie he’d recently finished filming.  They had to do that sometimes, when the sound on the original set was horrible or when something didn’t look as good on film as they thought it would.  When that happened, they would build a lookalike for the original set back on a sound stage, and redo the scene there.  The scene was an easy one, so it should only take an hour, two at the most.  That was good.  He looked forward to getting home and relaxing.  The staff only worked half a day on Wednesdays, which meant that he would have the place to himself.  It had been a while since he’d just spent the day hanging out and doing nothing.  Maybe he would do some laps in the pool.

When they arrived at the studio, Trevor let Addison step out of the limo first.  As she did so, he found his gaze automatically going to her bottom.  Damn, damn, and double damn.  She had an amazing ass!  Thoughts of her wiggling around on his lap while he spanked her came to mind unbidden, and he let out a groan as he felt his cock go hard inside his jeans.  Down boy, he told himself.  Under no circumstances was he ever going to put his personal assistant over his knee and spank her again.

Two hours later, however, he was beginning to think that maybe he shouldn’t have made such a silly promise.  If there were ever a girl who needed her bottom warmed again, it was Addison.

Everything had gone fine at first.  He had introduced Addison to everyone, and then the director’s assistant had shown her around while he and the director went over the details of the shoot with the stunt coordinator and the other actors.  In today’s pick-up shots, Trevor was doing a scene in which he was tied to a chair in a dirty basement while some hired thugs worked him over to extract some secret info.  He had worked with the stunt guys a dozen times before and they knew their business.  They would lay into him with some great looking fake punches.  All he had to do was react to their near misses, spit out the fake blood on cue, and of course, spout the usual manly one-liners.  It was a piece of cake.  Or it would have been if it hadn’t been for Addison.

She was sitting with the rest of the film crew, off to one side, which would have been okay if she hadn’t forgotten about the whole quiet-on-the-set rule.  When Trevor refused to answer one of the thug’s questions and the stunt guy playing the part drew back his fist and faked a nice blow right across his jaw, Addison must have thought it was real because she gasped and let out a loud, “Oh!”

“Cut!” the director yelled, then looked around, an annoyed look on his face.  “What the hell was that?”

Trevor turned his head to look at Addison, as did everyone else.

She blushed and gave them a sheepish look.  “Sorry,” she said.  “It just looked so real.  It won’t happen again.”

But it did.  Over and over and over again.  Every time the stunt guys hit him, she either gasped, groaned, squealed, or jumped so high that her chair rattled.  When he finally undid the ropes and broke loose to land a roundhouse kick in the stunt guy’s stomach, she actually cheered like it was the real thing.  Which meant that they had to redo the whole scene over again.

By the time they had finally finished – five hours later - Trevor was exhausted and his jaw hurt.  A couple of times the stunt guys’ “fake” punches had landed for real.  Not that he supposed he could really blame the men.  Addison’s had them so frustrated, he was surprised that they hadn’t beaten the crap out of him.  She did work for him, after all.

Addison didn’t say much in the limo on the way back to the house, other than to apologize again for being such a distraction at the shoot.  “It just all looked so real,” she said.

Trevor ground his jaw.  If she’d only done it once or twice, then he might be more understanding, but after five hours and twenty-five takes, he wasn’t feeling all that gracious.  If it weren’t for Bob and Leo sitting in the front seat, he would have put Addison over his knee and tanned her bottom right there in the limo.  But then he reminded himself about his promise.  No, he would not spank her.    

When they got back to the house, Bob asked Trevor if he needed anything before he took off, but Trevor shook his head.

Once inside, Addison walked into living room.  “I’m starving.  I’m going to see if Maribel has anything to snack on before dinner.”

“Maribel isn’t here,” he said.

Addison’s brow furrowed.  “She isn’t?”

“The staff only works half a day on Wednesday.  That includes Leo and Bob,” he told her.  “But thanks to you, they had to spend the day hanging around the studio waiting for me to finish those pick-up shots.”

Her face colored.  “I said I was sorry.”

He lifted a brow.  “Just like you were sorry for spilling coffee on the director last night, right?”

She lifted her chin, her blue eyes flashing.  “It wasn’t like I messed up your stupid pick-up shots deliberately, you know.”

Stupid pick-up shots?  Trevor’s mouth tightened.  “Those stupid pick-up shots are what pays your salary,” he said, then shook his head.  “I promised myself I wouldn’t do this again, but it’s obvious that the only way I’m going to get through to you is with another spanking.”

Addison’s eyes went wide at the mention of a spanking, but before she could say anything, Trevor took her arm and led her over to the couch.  She tried to hang back, but one tug had her over his knee the moment he sat down.

She tried to push herself off his lap, but a hand on the small of her back held her firmly in place.  “Let me up right now!” she demanded.

“I don’t think so,” Trevor said.  “I’m thinking that I didn’t spank you enough last night, so this time, I’m not letting you up until I’m sure I’m getting through to you.”

She lifted her head to look over her shoulder at him.  “You can’t do this to me!  It’s wrong!”

Trevor didn’t answer right away, but instead brought his hand down on her upturned bottom.  Two quick smacks, one on each cheek.  “What’s wrong is you making a complete mess of what should have been a very simple film shoot.”

She started to reply, but then gasped when he delivered several more smacks to each cheek.

“Owwww!” she squealed.  “That’s too hard!”

He snorted.  “Oh please,” he said.  “I’m not spanking you any harder than you deserve.  And not nearly as hard as I’m going to be spanking you before I’m done.”

Even he was surprised by the tone of his voice.  When the hell had he become this authoritative? he wondered.  Maybe it was Addison.  She seemed to have a way of bringing it out in him.  He’d never met any woman who could get under his skin like she could.  As he lifted his hand and brought it down sharply on her upturned bottom again, he knew he probably shouldn’t be doing this.  But he couldn’t seem to stop himself.