“Yes?” I ask.

  “Where are you and why aren’t you answering my calls?”

  “Home and because I do like to shower after a night out,” I lie effortlessly.

  “Why are there pictures of you and Paxton looking less than friendly?”

  I groan remembering the pictures that were snapped while we were at the gala. “It’s not my fault. Paxton is pressing taking a trip together and according to his big mouth security, he has a ring that I do not want. I swear to god, Cooper, if he asks me to marry him the answer is no so you need to tell his team not to even try it because he’ll get embarrassed.” He groans and I continue. “There are fake relationships all over Hollywood that are mutually beneficial and require no trips or fake engagements. Why is Paxton so pressed on keeping me under his thumb?”

  He sighs. “My guess is he still has feelings for you.”

  “That’s not my problem, Coop. I’m almost ready to release the truth. You need to put him in check or I will.”

  Another sigh. “I heard tonight went well. I’ve gotten quite a few calls…”

  Excitement courses through me at the thought that I generated some buzz tonight. Lorenzo had a lot of questions regarding how I wanted to transition from a TV star to something bigger. If I felt that I was ready for movies. The kind of roles I’d want to play. The kind of roles he could see me playing. They were the kind of questions that directors asked when they’re interested in casting you or if they have you in mind for a specific role. Producers flocked to me all night with questions about whether I had time for breakfast or dinner or coffee and to chat about my future.

  My back has been to Damian this whole time and when I turn around, I notice him staring at what would have been my ass because he’s staring at my pussy. His eyes shoot to mine at having been caught checking me out and I shake my head. His eyes are hungry and I can see the tension in his sharp jaw as he runs his eyes slowly down my body.

  “Yeah, it was great.” I cut him off as he’s been talking for the past thirty seconds. “Coop, I’m tired. Can we talk about this tomorrow?”

  “That’s fine. I’m going to call Paxton’s manager in the meantime and try and straighten this out. I think those pictures are going to be online by morning.”

  “Okay?” I say, without a care in the world about what happens. I’m hoping at this point they out us, so I can be done with it.

  “Why is Damian between you two anyway?” he questions.

  “I called him over.”

  “Because?”

  I let out a sound of annoyance. “He wouldn’t let go of me.”

  “Are you serious?” he barks and I can already hear Cooper’s slight parental instincts he has regarding me coming out.

  “It didn’t hurt but he wasn’t listening and I just wanted him off me.”

  Damian’s eyes go from sexy to angry when he realizes what I’m talking about. He’s on his feet, holding his hand out for me to hand him the phone when I shake my head. No. I mouth, because what reason would I have for Damian to be hanging out with me at midnight? It could be completely innocent, but I don’t need Cooper on my case about keeping things professional with Damian. My eyes drop down to his dick that’s swaying between his legs as he gets closer to me. I feel my skin heating and my sex tingles with the need to feel him there.

  Not now though!

  I hold my hand out to stop him from coming closer.

  “This fucker is really making it difficult for me to sell you on this ruse,” he says and I take a step back as Damian takes another step closer.

  “I’ll come by tomorrow and we can talk about it.” I want him off the phone before Damian takes it from me. Although, he could if he wanted to. “I’m going to bed,” I say before he has a chance to bring up anything else he wanted to talk about.

  “Alright, you okay, Shay?”

  “Fine, just tired.”

  Damian’s arms wrap around me and he lifts me off the floor. I hold in the moan sitting in the back of my throat as we end the call and I glare at him.

  “Okay, not doing that while I’m on the phone is a part of the ground rules.”

  He carries me into the bathroom and sets me on my feet. He reaches for my makeup remover from my small vanity I have on the counter and pours some onto a cotton pad before rubbing it along my face.

  “You should have let me talk to him.” He rubs the makeup from my skin gently and I’ll admit there’s something sexy about having a man do this for me.

  Something a man has never done.

  “I could do this myself, you know.”

  “There’s a lot of things you can do yourself that I like doing for you.”

  I can’t hide the smile from finding my face as he pours some on a new cotton pad and continues his task. “Letting you talk to Cooper at midnight would just raise a whole bunch of questions about what we’re doing this late. Especially because until recently you never spent much time alone with me.”

  He nods in understanding and it makes me wonder if he wasn’t thinking clearly earlier. Was it a knee-jerk overprotective reaction? “I’m sorry if my being in the picture makes things difficult.”

  “Why are you sorry? I called you over.”

  “I hate that you felt you had to.” I shrug and he nods towards my huge walk-in shower. “You mentioned showering while you were on the phone.”

  I nod, knowing where he’s going with this. We are both still naked and I smile at the look he’s giving me. He opens the glass and reaches in to turn on the water and it shoots down from the rain showerhead. He moves around me and grabs where I usually keep my shower caps and hands them to me.

  “Okay first, how do you know how to find my things so quickly?” He cocks his head to the side, shooting me a look, and I roll my eyes realizing that he probably has every inch of my bedroom and bathroom memorized in case anything is ever out of place. “I’m never going to be able to keep anything from you.” I take the shower caps from him and set them on the counter. “Normally yes, but I have to wash all the product out of my hair that my stylist put in for the gala and I’d like the first time we shower together to not feature the unsexiness of a shower cap. Give me a break.”

  I’m through the glass door when I feel a hand around my wrist and I’m yanked against a hard chest. “You are sexy in everything.” He takes a step and runs his gaze down my body for the hundredth time tonight and then back up. “And nothing, god damn.”

  I watch as the water hits the muscles of his chest and glides down his body to his dick. “I could say the same thing about you.” My eyes dart to each of his tattoos and I move around him, running my fingers along all of the ink on his back as well before moving to his front again. “I have a thing for guys with tattoos.” I bite my lip. “Will you tell me what they all mean to you?”

  “A lot of them date back to when I was in the military.” He swallows. “They represent people or times. Some of them don’t have much meaning” He grabs my hand and presses it to his chest to the compass. “Mine points North, which means you’re on the right path. North will always guide you home.” He drags my hand to his shoulder where there’s a wolf. “Wolves mean protection and loyalty.” He moves to his forearm to the Latin words.

  “Where there is life, there is hope,” I whisper and he smiles before giving me a nod. “I looked it up when I saw it. I love that.” I run my fingertips over it. “I spent a lot of time thinking about what that means in the context of what I’ve been through…” I trail off. “Someone who has dealt with so much loss.”

  He nods. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  I shake my head. “No.” I look up at him. “And I don’t mean I don’t want to talk to you about it, I just mean not now.”

  He nods again and moves to his other arm to the cross and gives me a sad smile. “The two initials are for men we lost in my last tour overseas.”

  “I’m sorry.” I rub the ink and push my body into his, wrapping my arms around him and giving him a tight hug.

  I feel his chin rest on the top of my head and then he moves my face and presses a soft kiss to my forehead. “I’m sorry that you understand this feeling. That you understand loss on such a visceral level. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.” He pushes me against the tile and I hiss as the cool marble hits my back. The steam in the shower clouds the air. “I was planning to leave you,” He tells me and I frown at his words. “Before you lost them, I was planning to resign as your head of security.”

  Tears spring to my eyes at the thought of not having him for the past five years. “Why?”

  “Because of this.” He points back and forth between us. “There was an attraction between us and I was worried what that meant for being able to protect you efficiently. But then you lost your parents and the way you clung to me the day you found out and the weeks following…you didn’t want anyone within three feet of you except for me, and I just couldn’t leave you. Not like that.” He swallows and hearing what could have been has me shivering despite the warm temperature of the shower.

  “You wanted to…leave?” The water slides down his body and I follow the trails, unable to look him in the eyes while I’m feeling this vulnerable.

  He rubs my upper arms gently before his index finger finds my chin and gently raises my face. “But then things changed between us. I saw you as this person that I wanted to protect for more reasons than it was my job, and I didn’t trust anyone to keep you safe.” He cups my face and rubs his nose against mine. “I put my feelings aside because you needed someone you could depend on.” He swallows.

  “And…now?”

  “You can still depend on me but I don’t think I can put my feelings aside anymore.”

  “Why didn’t you ever tell me how you felt?”

  “Because I still worry about how I’m going to protect you. How this…changes everything.”

  My usual alarm for five-thirty in the morning goes off, and normally, I’m someone that gets up immediately. I rarely need the snooze button, but given that I’d slipped out of Shay probably only an hour ago, the thought of prying my eyes open right now is the last thing I want to do. Shay moans in my arms and I can feel her waking up. “Turn it off,” she groans into my chest while simultaneously pushing herself closer to me. We are in the center of her king-sized bed and I look at my phone that’s not exactly within arm’s reach on her nightstand. I try to move and she whimpers and pulls me closer. “No.”

  “Let me get my phone.”

  One eye opens and she lets me out of her grasp so I can grab it and silence it before moving back to her. “I need to get up.”

  “No, you don’t.” She presses her hand to her mouth to stifle a yawn. “What time is it anyway?”

  “Five-thirty.”

  “What!” She groans and snuggles further into her white duvet that, to be fair, is very comfortable. “What are you doing up this early?”

  “I always get up around this time and check a few things on the property, go over camera footage from the night before, and go for a run.”

  “Okay, but we’ve been asleep an hour; surely you can’t do all those things properly on an hour of sleep.”

  “I’ve done more on less,” I tell her.

  “I have to get up in a few hours to go to the set. We start the press tour in a few days and they want us to come in to prepare for our interviews and take some promotional pictures.” She sighs. “I already know they’re going to be pissed about these bags under my eyes from staying up all night.”

  “You look beautiful as always,” I tell her and she fucking does, even minutes after waking up she’s still the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen.

  “Keep talking like that and looking at me that way and you’re going to have to fuck me before you get up.” She sits up on her elbow and reaches below the blanket to grab my dick when my alarm goes off again. I reach for my phone, turning it off this time before I grab her hand that is wrapped around my dick and bring it to my lips.

  “As much as I would love to, I need to do a few things.” There are things I have to do every morning. Things that put me at ease. She frowns before nodding and then I’m off the bed, pulling on my briefs and my slacks and sliding on my shirt before buttoning the buttons in record time. Shay has her blanket wrapped around her and I can tell she has something on her mind. I kneel on the bed and cup her face, raising it to meet my gaze. “What is it?”

  She opens her mouth but no words come out and then she lets out a breath. “At the risk of sounding needy or clingy, I just…you’re leaving and I wasn’t sure if the high of last night wore off? Or if maybe you’re regretting what we did and you don’t know how to tell me?” She fidgets with her fingers in her lap. I’ve rarely seen her nervous. Shay is confident and quite frankly a ball buster so it does something to me that she’s allowing herself to be vulnerable and soft with me.

  “No.” I shake my head. “I don’t know if the high of you will ever wear off.” I hate the words as soon as I hear them out loud but the small smile that finds her lips makes it worth me sounding like a pussy. I lean down and press my lips to hers gently and maybe that’s what she needed, a kiss or the promise of more before I left her bed. That there would be more kisses and more us later.

  A few minutes later, I’m jogging down her stairs and moving towards the exit. I am confused when I notice that the alarm has been disabled and instantly, I’m aware that I’m not alone on the floor. There is no way I forgot to set the alarm and Annette, her house manager, is off this weekend. Who the fuck is in the house?

  A familiar face appears in the hall with a Starbucks cup in her hand and her eyes widen when she sees me.

  “OH MY GOD, SHAY CELESTE EASTWOOD!” she screams, yes screams, and I watch as Veronica goes through a hundred different emotions as it dawns on her why I would be upstairs at five in the morning, not to mention with half of my shirt unbuttoned. Even when I do stay in the main house, I stay in the guest rooms downstairs.

  “Veronica? What are you doing here? How did you get in?” I press a hand over my eyes regretfully as I remember I never changed the code the other night. It also doesn’t escape me that the other night was when things started to change between Shay and me.

  Fuck, what else have I missed while my mind has been preoccupied?

  “This is precisely why she doesn’t need the code to the house,” I tell Shay who makes it halfway down the stairs clad only in a robe, her eyes wide as she looks at Veronica who glares at me for my comment.

  “What are you doing here!?” Shay asks her best friend.

  “Catching you in the act evidently. How long has this been going on? Oh my God! I knew you were into her!” She giggles and turns to Shay. “I want to know all the details.”

  “Okay, I was going to tell you anyway, you didn’t need to break into my house.” She rolls her eyes as she moves down the rest of the stairs. “But what are you doing here at five-thirty in the morning?”

  “Hello, we have to be on set at eight, and since when is there a time I can’t show up at your house?”

  Shay looks up at me and I’m annoyed that all it’s taken is one night with Shay to miss something like the front door opening. Even if she did have a code, I usually get an alert to my phone when the front door opens and somehow, I missed it or slept through it.

  “How long have you been here?” I ask her.

  “My question first!” she shrieks and I glare angrily at her, hoping she realizes now is not the time but she smacks Shay in the shoulder. “Call off your guard dog.”

  “Okay both of you, no.” She shakes her head as she points between the two of us. “You two are not going to put me in the middle. Be nice to each other.”

  I let out a huff and run a hand through my hair annoyed that I still haven’t gotten any of the answers I’ve asked for.

  “V, I’ll tell you everything. Don’t antagonize him.” She purses her lips. “He wants to know when you got here because it’s freaking him out that he didn’t know the front door opened.”

  “Yeah, I’ll bet he didn’t.” She raises her eyes up and down and scrunches her nose and I feel like I’m on the verge of exploding.

  “Damian,” she says, turning her back to the current pain in my ass and looks up at me. Her hand reaches up and strokes my face. “I’ll figure out what you need to know. Okay? Don’t be grumpy.” She smiles at me and just seeing her stare at me like that has the tension leaving me slowly. She stands on her tiptoes and puckers her lips and I look over her head to see Veronica beaming at us with excitement. It makes me slightly less irritated that she seems to be happy with this new development between us. I lean down and press a kiss to Shay’s lips that lasts no more than a second knowing that if I let it go on for too long, I’ll drag her back to bed.

  After I made my morning rounds, went on a quick run, and took a shower, I do my usual security footage scans, and I notice that her bedroom light was on until three in the morning. Even after we turned the lights out, we made out for at least another hour, our bodies rubbing against each other like they didn’t ever want to part. I explored every inch of her with my lips, and my god, she sucked my dick better than anyone ever has, getting accustomed to my size quickly and deep-throating me with every thrust. I couldn’t even come in her mouth, I was too desperate to feel her cunt again, so I pulled out and finished inside of her much to her disappointment.

  I don’t think I’d ever been with a woman that was annoyed that I hadn’t come in her mouth.

  It has been some time since I’ve been with a woman; not since Simone, but one-night stands were few and far between. Shay has been my focus. I’ve spent my nights off sleeping or reading or sometimes at the gun range. I don’t frequent bars or the nightlife scene and the few times I had friends in the area whose visit happened to coincide with some time off, I spent it catching up with them, not looking for someone to fuck. I’m not a stranger to meaningless sex. I spent the majority of my early twenties before Simone doing just that and now, I’m over it.