Noah (24 page)

It didn’t take him long to get me hard again.

Given that he was already losing himself in me, I put all my focus on him. I tasted him on my tongue, grabbed at him, stroked every inch I could reach, met his thrusts, and didn't give a flying fuck about chasing my own orgasm. It was secondary.

He gasped and started fucking me harder. "I want to make you—"

"No." I grunted and took away his hand from my cock. "You can give me your sweet mouth later."
After I'm off your shit list
. "Let me watch you."

He let out a moan, pressing his forehead gently to mine. And I watched. My hands wandered his lithe body, feeling his tight muscles flexing beneath his smooth skin. I memorized his reactions. Almost as if he were in pain, every time he slammed into me, his face contorted with restraint and concentration.

The lust and love swam in his eyes. It was fucking electric.

"You're there, baby," I murmured. "Give me everything."

He hissed a curse, rammed in a last time, and scrunched his face as he came.

"I love you." I kissed his cheeks, his nose, and his eyelids. He shuddered, riding out his orgasm. "Sometimes I can't fucking believe how beautiful you are."

"Oh God, Noah…" He collapsed on top of me, panting and shivering.

I hummed and pressed my lips to his damp skin. Wherever I drew my fingers, goose bumps rose. His weight on me always felt good. A perfect fit. And I was fucked for life. Getting this sappy was another new experience, though it only made me grin now.

Eventually, Julian regained his breath and pulled out of me, only to roll over next to me instead. I winced at the soreness, but it felt oddly hot, too. Add an orgasm and I'd grow to want him to fuck me plenty.

"Are you all right?" he asked softly.

I nodded and turned my head to him. "More than." I gazed at him, wondering if we were both waiting for the moment to pass so we could discuss the point he sure as hell made. "For the record, I'm on board with you taking my ass." I cracked half a smirk to test his mood.

He narrowed his eyes, irritated but not doing very well to hide his amusement, small as it may be.

I sobered. "I'm really sorry, Julian. I wanted to help." He hadn't been totally emo or anything since his grandparents spoke their piece, but there had definitely been moments of sadness. "I hated seeing you upset, so I reached out in an attempt to fix things."

"I know." He was clearly still bugged, but I took comfort in him shifting closer and using my shoulder as a pillow. "I know
you
. But you should have told me."

"I won't make this mistake again, I promise." I was such a shit. I couldn’t help but smile.

He saw it and scowled. "Do you think this is funny?"

"No!" But that made me grin wider. "Fuck, I'm sorry. I'm so goddamn sorry, but I love this. Our first fight?" I shrugged, feeling like an idiot. "Maybe it's stupid, but it means something to me."

He stared at me for the longest time, and then he sighed and scooted even closer, close enough to kiss me. "You jerk," he murmured. "You romantic, goddamn jerk." The corner of his eyes crinkled, and there was tenderness in his gaze. "As long as you will do your best not to pull a stunt like this again… It hurt getting that text this morning."

"You have my word." I held him to me and drew the duvet over us. "I'm sorry, sweetheart."

"Water under the bridge," he replied. "You had my happiness in mind. That matters."

I breathed a sigh of relief and shifted a bit, though that made me wince again. He'd really gone to town on my ass. "Next time you fuck me, I need wining and dining first."

Of course, Julian being Julian, he didn’t see the humor and went straight to worry. "Are you hurt?"

"
No
." I chuckled and gave him a hard smooch. "You and I both know I could've stopped you. I wanted this, and I'll want it again. With a side of whiskey and a blow job."

That finally earned me a smile. "I can help you with one of those right now."

Chapter 22

A few days later, I got a weird phone call right before my lunch break was over, and I was having one of those days. My second unit was off shooting, a few crewmembers were down with food poisoning, I had to have another budget meeting with Tennyson later, and adding another distraction was too much.

I told Lucia to take over until I returned, and then I jogged over to Sophie's trailer. She didn’t have a scene today; we were shooting with Joel and the others, but she liked being on set. Said it helped her stay focused.

She opened the door after I'd knocked twice, and I wasn’t surprised to find her with a script in hand.

"Hey, you. What's up?" She smiled, and Kayden popped his head in the doorway and waved.

"Hey, kid." I smirked and jerked my chin at him, then faced Sophie again. "I just got a call from your publicist."

"Oh?" Sophie frowned.

"Yeah, she said the interviewer was on her way with a photographer." I cocked a brow. "From back home, Wright. They're flying them out."

That only happened to the A-listers, and that was aside from the whole question of…what the fuck was a reporter coming for? Obviously to interview me and Julian, but we weren't supposed to do that until later—
if
the film was accepted at Cannes.

"That’s so strange," Sophie said and gestured for me to come in. "Maybe there was a misunderstanding? I'll give her a call."

"Okay, thanks." I climbed the two steps and entered her trailer, only to have a little hurricane called Ivy crash into me. "Hey there, sunshine."

"Hi, Uncle Director!"

I laughed and picked her up. "Uncle Director, huh? I kinda dig that."

She shrugged, her grin not totally unlike Tennyson's wry one. "Daddy says you're a—um, he used a bad word and great director and Julian is Uncle Piano Man 'cuz Daddy says he is great at that and—"

"And you need to
breathe
, Ivy," I chuckled.

"Oh." She giggled.

Sophie's assistant came over to us at that point and lured Ivy and Kayden away for snacks and a movie back at the hotel.

It wasn’t long after that Sophie reemerged from her bedroom with her phone in hand and an apologetic look on her face.

I folded my arms over my chest. "Mix-up?"

"Yeah…" She smiled sheepishly. "Sage's going all out. National magazine, huge spread, seven couples. You and Julian are one of them. The good news is it's for the December issue, so there's time if you want to back out." She paused. "If not, a journalist and a crew will be here the day after tomorrow."

It didn’t seem like a smart idea to back out if we'd eventually need some kind of publicity anyway, but I had to talk shit over with Julian first.

"It's a casual interview, Noah." She appeared to believe I was worried about being interviewed. Or maybe exposing Julian…? "This is a highlight, with a focus on your relationship. There won't be any interest in digging for sensitive information, and if there's any question you're not comfortable answering, you simply decline."

She was cute when she was being all reassuring and motherly. I grinned and kissed the top of her head. "I've been interviewed before, babe. Lemme talk to Julian and then I'll get back to you." I took a step back, and she nodded. "You know anything about the other couples?"

"Some from the music business, some from our industry." She shrugged. "I think one couple is polyamorous. One producer is into BDSM, and she's being interviewed with her submissive husband or something."

Unconventional love, eh?

"All right." I ran a hand over my head and scratched my neck. "For now, I gotta get back to work."

*

Julian was nervous, but he agreed to the interview without much hesitation, so two days after my talk to Sophie, he and I found ourselves at another hotel in Paris. The hotel's own bar, to be exact, and it had been cleared out for the interview.

The stylist wanted me in a suit, but that wasn’t me. I compromised and agreed to some designer slacks and a fitted pullover. Julian, on the other hand, looked like sex in dress pants, a snug shirt, and a skinny tie. The photographer tested the lighting as I stuck my feet into polished shoes and a makeup artist finished with the powder.

"I'd expected an interview over email or Skype," Julian admitted.

I smirked, and the stylist returned to me with a fancy watch. There was nothing wrong with my own, but product placement was a thing.

"If there hadn't been a photo shoot, it probably would've been," I said.

We were shown to the booth where we were supposed to sit, and the rustic feel of the place was hardly a coincidence. It looked almost like a British pub, and I supposed it set a more masculine tone.

I sat down, placing an arm along the back of the booth, and Julian got comfortable next to me. We'd talked about this all morning. I was somewhat familiar with this part of the job, but it had taken some coaching from Sophie—who was a pro—for Julian to know a bit more of what to expect.

Felicity, the journalist, knew what she was doing. As she took her seat across from us, an assistant brought us beers and snacks, and Felicity eased into a casual chat about Paris and the filming. It was evident her goal was to relax Julian, and it was working.

She hit the jackpot by mentioning museums. It got Julian going, and the interview as well the photo shoot began without him even knowing it. If the recorder on the table hadn't been on, I barely would've known, either.

"You're in the city of love," Felicity said with a smile. "Have you had any spare time in between filming for romance?"

I smiled and took a sip of my beer while Julian launched into the story of when we visited Sacré Coeur.

*

Our time together in Paris was easy to cover without many questions. It was memory after memory. Once we were past that, though, Julian took the back seat when Felicity asked about our family.

She cleared her throat and glanced briefly at her little notepad. "Noah, what was your first impression of Julian? He and his father came into your sister's life, and they quickly became a family. Were you ever the overprotective brother?" She winked.

Subtle way to put it out there that Julian and I weren't related. It made me smirk.

"Mia would've checked my privilege pretty fucking fast if I'd tried," I chuckled. "Besides, she was always a responsible girl. The few guys she brought home before she met James and Julian were good to her." I sent Julian a sideways grin. "First time I met Julian, he didn't say much. Shy and sweet, I'd say."

Julian's mouth quirked up a little. "You were loud and way too cheerful."

That made me laugh, a bit wistful. They were hardly days I missed, but…being surrounded by family and Ma's cooking… "I was a starving bastard who didn’t know how to cook. Not that I could afford much more than ramen at that time. Visiting home meant a mountain of food."

"Did you get to see each other often back then?" Felicity asked next.

I shook my head. "Unlike piano wonderboy here, I didn’t have any superior talent to show off when I moved to LA. I studied and worked my ass off, and I was lucky if I saw my family once or twice a year." I smiled faintly at one memory in particular. "Right before my sister moved to Germany, I had to skip a reunion because I'd just gotten the job on my first film set. I was stoked. Then it turned out my only job was to clean up after the crew had lunch."

I remembered being bitter about that one for a while. Not anymore, though. A bunch of those shitty gigs had contributed to the man I was today.

*

Felicity derailed us with more casual conversation while the photographer got his moment to take shots when we were relaxed and just chatting. I had to admit I preferred this to posing.

"How long until you return home?" she asked.

"Ten days or so?" Julian looked to me for confirmation.

I nodded and threw back a handful of peanuts. "Yup, then we're wrapping up the last scenes in LA."

Julian's eyes lit up. "After that, we finally get to post-production."

I knew he was itching to show me what he'd written, as well as the few songs they'd recorded already. I smiled and pressed a kiss to his temple, enjoying his excitement. The photographer enjoyed it for other reasons.

"You look happy, Noah," Felicity noted with a soft grin.

"Hell, yeah." I leaned back again, comfortable. Maybe this interview wasn’t that bad. "My work's always been my passion, and I've never been able to really share it with someone."

My not-so-subtle
fuck off
to Emma. She hadn't been on my radar in ages, but the social-media war with Sophie had irritated me.

"It's equally refreshing and amazing to see someone so dedicated," I went on. "I learned that fast about Julian. I admire hard work, and he gives everything. I've lost count of the nights he stayed up to tinker with the piano in the living room."

"That’s right, you've lived together a while…?" Felicity looked to both of us, and I let Julian take that one.

"Yes." He nodded. "After we lost our family, I didn’t know where to go. Germany wasn’t home anymore, and staying in Pittsburgh held no appeal. So I bought a plane ticket and flew out to Noah."

"He dragged me out of purgatory." I stroked his neck absently, thinking back on those awful fucking days. "I wasn’t dealing with the grief very well. Having him around made me wanna move forward again."

Julian sent me a shy smirk. "That was mutual."

Felicity evidently found that sweet, and her eyes shone as she drained the last of her wine. "Well. You guys are clearly on a mission to give me cavities." She shook her head and released a breath, then glanced at her notepad. "Never mind, my question isn't on there." She grinned and faced us again. "You obviously found support in each other. You knew what the other was going through." We agreed with that. "That must've had an impact on how you felt, right? I can't even imagine the loss, and to have one person who knew exactly what it was like…"

"It definitely made things easier," I replied. Then I went on to explain the bond we kinda created and how it confused me for a long goddamn time. Attraction came later. It was that connection to Julian I'd never been able to shake. The one I fought for so long because of our…
other
ties.

Julian spoke of my struggles, too. The withdrawing, the avoiding, the denial. I could tell he wanted to clear my name, so I took over after a while. Aside from the grief and worrying we'd been relying on each other for the wrong reasons, today I mostly chalked it up to social norms. Our relationship wasn't
normal
in that sense, and despite how open-minded I considered myself, I supposed it was impossible to remain completely unaffected by what society dictated.

Being accepted mattered.

Felicity's personal opinions shone through here and there. She shook her head at people who couldn’t mind their own business and felt the need to spread hate. From a young age, we were encouraged to follow our own paths and be ourselves. But it was pretty fucking difficult when one kept being knocked down for doing just that.

"I'm not sure most people see it," Julian said pensively. "We aren't mindful enough."

"Agreed." I inclined my head and reached for my beer. "We forget how powerful words are and how long they'll follow us."

Childhood bullying was a great example. In Julian's case, it had made him feel like there was something wrong with him. That shit was hard to shake.

"Exactly," Felicity agreed. "Plus, we tend to dismiss or even fear the unknown."

I smirked and tipped my glass at her. "The unconventional."

"There it is," she chuckled. "And here you two are now. You both gave in at some point. That must've been a relief."

"Indescribable." Julian squeezed my leg under the table.

Perhaps Sage or Sophie had given Felicity a heads-up about not asking further, ignoring the topic of what our remaining family felt toward us, because she left the present and the future alone.

"Last question." Felicity smiled. "Does love conquer all?"

I laughed under my breath and exchanged a sideways glance with Julian. I nodded to him, 'cause he may call me romantic, but he was better with words than I was.

"No," he answered, facing Felicity, "but I believe it gives us what we need in order to fight."

Perfect.

*

A lot of things were perfect lately. With the publicity and gossip out of sight and out of mind, we dove back into work. We wrapped Little Paul's last scene, and a few days after, it was time for Sophie's character's family to finish. It was hectic, and Julian and I had little time together. But having him on set made all the difference.

I craved those brief moments. Whether I turned to see him waiting with my coffee or he was sitting on a crate nibbling on a pen and working on his songs, it reenergized me to see him. We were on the same page; I wasn’t losing myself in work while he was merely waiting for me to get off. He was just as devoted.

I may have asked the guy who was documenting the project to take shots of Julian so I could have them developed.