Kiss This (24 page)

“Eight-thirty.”

“Mmmm,” she replied, sliding a leg over him
as she held onto him tighter.

“You’re clung to me like a baby monkey,” he
said, squeezing her firmly.

“I just want to ride you again.”

“Ooh, there’s that clever mouth again. You
just might make that wish hap—”

“Well now there’s my son at his finest,” a
sarcastic voice cut through the room.

Camryn’s eyes flew open and she
automatically grabbed for the blanket to cover herself up. She was
dressed in just a cami and panties, and the man looming in the
bedroom door didn’t seem to care.

“What the fuck—You can’t just walk into my
bedroom any time you want!” Teague yelled, making sure Camryn was
covered at the same time.

“Spare me the false concern, Teague. Meet me
in the kitchen.
Now
.” He slammed the door behind him, and
Teague was plainly so pissed he couldn’t even respond.

“Um, I guess that’s your dad?” Camryn asked
carefully, sitting up and tucking her legs under her. Teague was
studying her closely, most likely because he was used to people
freaking out over a Craig McCallan sighting.

But with a sigh he replied, “I’m so sorry
about that. He’s obviously an asshole and never fails to provide
proof.”

She smiled, even though her heart was
pounding from someone barging into a room where she was half naked
with her boyfriend. And her nerves were zinging everywhere because
it really had been kind of weird to see
that
face standing
in the same room glaring at her.

Teague climbed out of bed and pulled a pair
of worn jeans over his boxers. “I’m going to take care of this. Um,
I’d rather you not come out. I know that sounds terrible, Camryn,
but it’s for your own good.”

She bit her lip but nodded her agreement.
“Okay.”

She wanted to ask if she could just take the
dog for a walk, but decided not to. Teague was already on his way
out the door, and shut it behind him.

With a heavy sigh, she got up and decided to
take a shower. As she was stripping her clothes off, she heard the
voices in the kitchen rise even louder. She frowned, feeling bad
for Teague and whatever it was he had to deal with when it came to
his dad. She couldn’t believe that Teague came from such a jerk; a
Hollywood god she’d only seen through a television or movie screen
more than a hundred times in her life.

Ten minutes later, Camryn heard doors slam
while she was getting dressed in the bedroom. She even heard the
squealing of tires on the pavement outside. Teague entered the room
a few seconds afterward, looking haggard and worn out.

He set a house key on the dresser and said,
“At least I got that back. He probably has another copy, though.”
He ran his hands through his hair and locked his fingers behind his
neck. “You okay?” he asked, noticing that she’d taken a shower.

Just the sight of him standing like
that—hair messed up, shirtless with jeans hanging low—was an image
she wanted to keep forever. She just wished it were without the
worried frown. “I’m fine,” she smiled, stepping to him so she could
wrap her arms around him.

She could feel Teague relax when he
sighed.

“Can we talk now?” he asked, placing his
hands against her neck. He kissed her forehead and added, “I didn’t
get around to it last night once the movie started. And I think we
were both pretty tired.”

“Okay,” she agreed. “Let me take the dog out
for a little bit—”

“I’ll do that,” he cut in. “I need a
cigarette.”

“All right. Can I make some pancakes, then?
Do you have stuff for that?”

“I don’t know. We can check to see what
Kellie’s got in there.”

She followed him to the kitchen and watched
him open the pantry. He couldn’t find what was needed, so Camryn
settled for eggs and toast. Teague headed for the laundry room to
let Tucker out, and after the brown beast greeted Camryn in the
kitchen first, he trotted to the backyard with Teague.

Camryn watched them from the kitchen window.
Teague was lighting his cigarette while a very soft and clean
Tucker—courtesy of Teague’s request to Kellie—sniffed around a
tree. After his cousin left for the night, Camryn never imagined
being ambushed by Teague’s
father
. She sighed and shook her
head. Not exactly the first impression she would have chosen to
meet a parent, but there was no changing it now.

She smiled at Teague talking to the dog
outside as he puffed smoke in between drags. But he looked majorly
jittery, and Camryn knew it was because he never smoked when he was
around her. His last cigarette was most likely sometime before he
met up with her at dinner the day before. She wasn’t sure how long
he might’ve gone without nicotine had his dad not shown up. The man
really knew how to push all of Teague’s buttons.

They went through the motions of breakfast
together, but Camryn could tell Teague’s mind was a million miles
away. She didn’t like how his dad affected him that way, but she
didn’t know what she could do about it, or if she
should
do
anything about it.

“Can we talk now?” he finally asked as he
set their plates in the sink.

Camryn nodded and followed him into the TV
room. He sat down on the couch and motioned for her to sit with
him. The dog plopped on the floor in front of them.

“Do you not follow celebrity gossip and
stuff?” he asked. “Entertainment media, Hollywood news and
shit?”

She knew what he was getting at and she
tucked a leg underneath her before she answered. “Teague, I know
who your family is, if that’s what you mean.”

He stared at her for a long time without
saying anything. In fact, he was quiet for so long, she had to say
his name again.

“So you just played along that you didn’t?”
he finally asked.

“What?” she scoffed. “You lied to me and
told me your last name was
Chandler
. Obviously you didn’t
want me to know the truth. Were you afraid I would gush ‘Oh my God,
you’re Teague McCallan of the famous Hollywood McCallans!?’” She
rolled her eyes. “I don’t give a shit about that kind of
stuff.”

He studied her again, his eyes narrowing.
“Well this was unexpected. I had no idea you already knew who my
family was. Not once did you exhibit any kind of behavior that
clued me in. When did you figure it out? Obviously I’m not as
famous as my brother and my dad—well, famous probably isn’t the
right word. I’m the rebellious fuckup, but don’t tell me it was
that obvious.”

“Give me a break, Teague. I didn’t have a
clue until two days ago, when Mel dropped a gossip magazine on my
bed. Your picture was on it with your brother.”

He eyed her carefully again. “Two days ago?
So…before you and I slept together.”

She popped up from the couch and pointed a
finger at him. “Don’t you dare accuse me of sleeping with you to
get in with your family! Screw you, Teague! I don’t give a shit
that your brother is Max McCallan! From everything I’ve heard, he
sounds like a major dickhead. And I definitely don’t give a fuck
that your dad is one of the most famous actors/producers of his
time!
That
was not a man I care to rub shoulders with!” she
shouted, pointing out the window.

Teague stood and held his hands out. “Calm
down, Camryn. I’m not accusing you of anything. I’m just…trying to
sort through my own fucked up head. You don’t even know what my
life has been like if you don’t understand why I get worried about
stuff like that. Unless, of course, you read all of that
garbage—”

“I don’t read tabloids,” she growled at him.
“I barely even watch TV, I’m too busy. The magazine Mel had was
from over a year ago. It was an article about your brother,
actually. But you were mentioned in it and your obvious lack of
interest in following your father’s footsteps.”

He studied her for a few seconds and then
sighed. “I’m not the actor in the family and I never will be. My
dad will never let that go, and why that is, I have no fucking
idea. I mean I did some stuff when I was younger, but when I
started to grow a brain, I realized none of it was for me. I
surfed. That’s all I wanted to do. My dad couldn’t stomach the fact
that I didn’t have a ‘real’ job in the family business. I did other
odd things to earn a living because he kicked me out of the house
when I was sixteen.”

Teague returned to the couch and sat back
down. He patted the space next to him for Camryn, so she joined
him. She could tell that talking about his family was difficult for
him, but whatever it was he had to say, she wasn’t easily fazed.
She hardly knew anything about the McCallan family but she had a
feeling she was going to soon enough.

“My brother was the one that convinced me to
double for him in
Catching Waves
,” he went on. “Same hair
color and we were built the same, and since Max wasn’t even half
the surfer that I was at eighteen, they wanted a stunt double.
So…that’s how I ended up in Hollywood anyways, despite my efforts
to stay out of it. But, you know, it was actually okay. I loved
doing all the stunt work because it was fun—it was just like being
my usual, adrenaline-junkie self—and I got paid for it. And the
bigger Max got in the industry, the more I was needed too, and I
spent a ton of time learning new stuff so I could be considered for
more movies.”

“Do you go to school for something like
that?”

“You don’t get a degree or anything, but you
can go to stunt schools or work with the right people to learn
special skills. Some guys are so good, they’re professionals in six
different categories for stunt work. There are some really
amazingly talented and fearless people in my profession. All I had
was surfing and motorcycles, but I wanted to learn more, and when I
did, it seemed like I was working on every single movie with Max.
My dad was proud as hell, too. Of Max, I mean. He was the highlight
of his life, front and center. But I was okay with it. I still am.
I don’t like the limelight. I’ll take the action scenes, though.
Motorcycles, fights, explosions, surfing…whatever.”

Camryn nodded with interest, truly hanging
on every word he’d share with her. For the past two days she’d been
trying to digest the fact that Teague was a major Hollywood
stuntman. He was the real deal, not just a pretty face that got all
the credit for it. In hindsight, she could piece the clues
together. She could see the excitement in his eyes when he talked
about certain things, and she even knew he had a few motorcycles
parked in his garage. She had even asked about a couple of scars on
his body. He’d tied them to some sort of surfing incident or dirt
biking accident, but now she wondered how many of those had been
from his
job
.

“Well since you don’t read tabloids, I’ll
give you the abbreviated version,” Teague continued. “The more
popular Max got a few years ago, the more the media would dig into
his life. It became interesting to people that his younger brother
was his stunt double, and that our dad had kicked me out of the
house as a teenager. Everyone read into that ‘favorite son’ idea,
and I was pretty much labeled as the rebellious one. It’s only
gotten worse over the years. There’s a lot of stuff that gets
written about my family and sometimes it gets to be too much. I
moved north to…take a break from it.”

Camryn nodded her head. She felt like she
could understand that. “Well…family issues can be pretty intense.
Any
kind of drama, family or not, is just a part of life.
But yeah, I imagine having it gossiped about constantly could be a
little much. And I knew you would tell me, Teague. I just wanted to
give you the space to share when you felt like it.”

Teague released a heavy sigh and rubbed his
hands over his face. “I’m sorry for making you feel like shit,
Camryn. It’s just…certain issues with my family are…sensitive, I
guess. I didn’t mean to be a dick.” He scooted closer to her and
ran a hand through her hair. “I guess I get pretty selfish when it
comes to you. I just…I feel like I finally have my own life now, my
own choices, and I don’t like anyone or anything threatening
that.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she told him
softly, placing her hand on his thigh. He scooped it up and gave it
a squeeze. “I’m sorry for the struggles you’ve gone through,
Teague.”

“You know what?” he asked, shrugging his
shoulders. “It’s in the past, and I want to keep it there. I felt
like I needed to do something to change my life, so that’s why I
moved north. I wanted to be close to the beach still, but I had to
get away from my family. And because his dad was making an attempt
at rehab, Jay came with me to Lincoln City. I really didn’t want
anything to do with my dad’s brother, but in a way, I sometimes
feel sorry for him. He’s a drunk and an abusive piece of shit, but
I wouldn’t doubt that half of it’s because of my dad. Clint was
pretty much exiled from my dad’s existence—he paid him a lot of
money to get him the fuck away from him. Bad publicity. He did the
same to me, but without a dime.”

“He kicked you out at the age of sixteen
with nothing?” Camryn frowned.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I moved down to
Oceanside where my grandma lived and I worked in a pretty good surf
shop right on the beach. Besides my dad still constantly berating
me for being a worthless piece of shit, it was all right. Better
than living
with
him.”

Camryn bobbed her head slightly as she
considered her next question. “And what about your mom?”

“You mean where is she? Dead. She died when
I was four. I was technically a bastard child to begin with,” he
smirked. “My dad was married to Max’s mom—we’re only half
brothers—when he had an affair with
my
mom. Besides
financial obligations, he stayed out of my life until she died from
an overdose of sleeping pills and alcohol. I would have gone
straight to my maternal grandma, but my dad—God only knows
why—decided he wanted custody of me. He took my grandma to court
and won. But I guess after a dozen years of disappointing him, he
basically handed me back over.”