Locked (PresLocke Series Book 2) (28 page)

When she reached the second level and walked toward the far end of the left side, she stopped at a closed door and knocked twice. I waited beside her, willing my pulse to slow down, because it was threatening to make me pass out, and then I heard a famously familiar voice call out, “Yes. Come in,” and Maria pushed open the door and said, “Good luck.”

Ohhh, yeah. I’m gonna need it
,
I thought, walking into a room that was much darker than the brightly lit entryway. As I glanced around the room, the rich cherry-wood-paneled walls automatically created a warm and inviting feel.
 

On every wall was a painting I had no doubt was worth more than most people made in a year, and littered around the room were antiques that were placed to look worldly and sophisticated, and had probably been painstakingly picked out by an overpaid home decorator.

I stopped and let my eyes adjust to the sunlight streaming through the window, and as my eyes traveled the room, they finally spotted a dark head of hair on a man seated on a couch facing the fireplace.
 

“Ace Locke. Come in and shut the door, son. We have much to talk about.”

And without a moment’s hesitation, I did just that, wondering where this next twist in the road would take me.

* * *
 

UGH,
I WAS a nervous wreck. It’d been three and a half hours since I’d spoken to Ace, and I’d already exhausted the options on TV, showered, changed into the spare shorts and t-shirt, and still had time to bite all the nails on my right hand down to nubs.

Where was he? I was dying to know how things had gone. But so far I’d heard nada. No text, no call, no missed voicemail when I was showering. Hell, maybe these things always took this long; I didn’t know.
 

I glanced at the time—it had just turned seven thirty, and I was hoping we’d be able to order in and have a final picnic of sorts to say goodbye to this place, but if he didn’t get here soon, I was gonna go grab some grub and start without him. I was starving.

I was just getting up to start a new round of pacing when there was a loud knock on my door. With a huge grin on my face, I raced over to it and was sure to check the peephole after the whole Brenda situation, and when I saw the back of Ace’s broad shoulders, my breath caught and I quickly unlatched and unlocked the door.

When I swung it open, he turned to face me with his hands in the pockets of his dress slacks, looking all cool and casual and sexy.
 

“Hey there, handsome,” I said by way of greeting, and as Ace sauntered forward, I noticed the proud set of his shoulders, the cocky swagger to his walk, and when he stopped beside me to brush his lips to mine, the confidence in his eyes had my knees close to buckling.

“Hi yourself, Daydream.”

The husky timbre of his voice did all kinds of shit to my brain and cock, but it was the spark in his eyes that was really wreaking havoc on every nerve in my body.

“Come in,” I managed, and Ace knew exactly the effect he was having on me, because his lips curved on top of mine and he raised his brows.

“Come in…where?”

I brought the hand that was resting by my side to his chest and chuckled. “How about we start with my apartment?”

“And then…”

Well…someone was in a mood. I shoved him back a little, and when he winked at me, I blushed. I actually fucking blushed. “And then you just might get lucky.”

“I am feeling lucky today,” Ace said, and slicked his tongue across his lower lip before he walked inside the apartment. I slowly closed the door and took in a deep breath.
 

Hot damn
, he had my brain scrambled and all off kilter as I tried to remember what exactly I’d been dying to ask him. I relocked the door and rounded back to see him sitting on my couch with his arms spread across the back, his jacket hanging open, and his legs kicked out in front of him.
 

“Why don’t you come sit over here with me?” he said, and I didn’t know what was going on here, but a wave of shyness swept over me. “Dylan…come ’ere,” Ace said, his voice dropping down to that tone that stroked all the right places, and I sank my teeth into my lip.
 

What was going on with me? I felt as though I was tripping all over myself. Clumsy. Totally off my game. And all because Ace was here? And that was when it clicked.
That
was the difference.

Ace was here.
Ace Locke.
The movie star. Mr. Confident. Mr. Blow Them Up, Sex on Legs, Save the Day was sitting on my old couch looking at me like he wanted to strip me naked and eat me for dinner.

And that was when I remembered exactly what I’d been going to ask him. How his meeting had gone. But judging by the man I was looking at, it had gone well.
Very
well.

“Good meeting today?” I asked.

Ace nodded and crooked his finger at me again. “Come over here and I’ll tell you about it.”

As I walked over to him, I took in a breath and marveled again that he was here with me. That he was mine, and when I finally sat down beside him and he pulled me as close to his side as he could get me, I laughed at myself.

“Why are you acting like you just met me all of a sudden?” he asked.

I angled my face up to him and gave a wry grin. “You’re throwing off that whole larger-than-life vibe, and it’s—”

Ace leaned in and swept my mouth up in a delicious kiss that had me turning into his body and bringing a hand up to touch his cheek while he wrapped his arm around me. When he was finally done destroying any capacity to think, he pulled back and I blinked a couple of times to get him into focus.
 

“Fuck,” I said, touching the base of his throat with my fingertip. “Just give me a minute to remember how to think.”

That made Ace laugh. “You’re seriously adorable right now, Daydream.”

“Yeah? Well, when you come in all
Ace Locke
movie star
,” I said adopting my best movie announcer voice, “I tend to forget that I get to sleep with you each night. It makes me stupid.”

“Not stupid…cute, sexy, and a little shy, apparently.”

I rolled my eyes at him, and when that only made him laugh harder, I huffed. “Oh, cut it out.”

“But it’s so funny. The first time I met you, you weren’t shy at all.”

“Well, no. I was pissed off at you.”

When Ace’s fingers moved to the back of my neck to flirt with my hair, he asked, “Would you like me to piss you off then?”

“No…I want you to tell me how the meeting went.”

Ace acted as though he was thinking about it, and then he flashed a smile so wide it almost stretched his entire face.

“It went great. Beyond great.” Twisting his big body on the couch, he brought his arms down between us so he could clasp my hands in his. “Ronaldo told me about this new film he’s producing. It’s an adaptation of a book he fell in love with. A drama about a couple struggling to save their marriage after years together and only having been with each other. It’s about love, betrayal, passion, and finding yourself before committing to someone else. It’s got a low budget but an A+ cast, A+ producer, and, well, he wants me to be in it.”

“Oh my God, Ace, that’s—”

“I know,” he said. “I can’t believe it. That he wants me to be in it, and not just a secondary character—he wants me as the lead.”

“What?” I shouted, and then I jumped to my feet, unable to contain my excitement. “That’s amazing. Oh my God,” I said again, as tears welled up in my eyes. I was so happy for him. So proud, and I could tell by the look on his face and the moisture gathering in his own eyes that he was just as overcome with emotion. Ace reached for my wrist and tugged me back down, and this time when I fell it was into his lap, and I kissed him hard. When I pulled back, he was shaking his head and tracing my jaw as he said, “You should’ve seen me sitting there in his huge study, in his Tuscan villa with its very own vineyard. I felt like it was the first time I’d ever gone to a meeting.”

“Aww…” I said. “So you
were
nervous.”

“Of course.”

“Liar.”

“Well, I try not to voice the nerves; that way they can’t overwhelm me. But you know what, he was really nice. Before we even started talking about why I was there, he told me right up front he had no problem with my sexuality or who I was dating, and I was there in his office because he’d seen my body of work and wanted me to be there.”

“Wow.”

“I know,” Ace said with a sigh. “After that I could breathe a little easier, and then everything just kind of came together. He gave me the script to read, and to see if I’m interested, but I…”

“Yeah?” I said as I stared into Ace’s amazing blue eyes.

“I’ve wanted something like this for years.”

“A drama? Really?”

“Mhmm…and with such a great cast and Ronaldo producing it, I can hardly believe this is serious.”

I massaged my hand over his chest. “Well, believe it. You deserve it, and I’m glad he’s smart enough to see what a fantastic actor you are no matter who you’re—”

“In love with?”

I grinned. “Yes. That. But I have to say, now the idea of takeout and having a picnic here to say goodbye to the place feels a little underwhelming.”

“No, I think it sounds perfect,” Ace said as he glanced around my little rattrap. “This place needs a proper send-off. Why don’t we order Chinese, and I’ll help you load the U-Haul, and then we can—”

“Go out with a bang?” I whispered against his mouth.

When Ace groaned and ran a hand down to cup my ass, he said, “My thoughts exactly.”

24

LEAVING WITH A BANG

AFTER WE’D EATEN dinner, I lounged back on my “in the wall” bed and watched Ace move around the tiny kitchen throwing out the empty Chinese containers. I’d tucked two pillows under my head and was eyeing him with what I knew had to be a totally depraved smirk, because the entire time he’d been cleaning, I’d been devising the perfect way to say “congratulations on your new job,” while also giving a proper,
or not so proper
, farewell to this place.
 

“What?” Ace asked, when he finally glanced up to see me eyeing him. He tied the end of the garbage bag, washed his hands, and then came around the counter to lean a knee on the end of the mattress. He’d taken his jacket off and unbuttoned his cuffs to roll them up his forearms, and as he stood there, all of my shyness from earlier flew out the window.

I gave an innocent enough shrug, trying to play off the fact I wasn’t eye-fucking him—hard. “I didn’t say anything.”

His eyes cruised the length of my torso, down to my shorts, and I knew there was no way he would miss the distinctive bulge now on prominent display there. “No, your mouth didn’t. But your body sure did.”

I brought a hand down to press it over the zipper of my pants, and then bent my left leg to push up against it. “Is it?” I asked, grazing my teeth over my lower lip. “Hmm, and what’s it saying?”

Ace’s eyes had fallen to where I was curling my fingers around the erection now throbbing between my legs, and then they slowly crept their way back up to collide with mine.
 

God,
the lust that was swirling in his aroused expression had my entire body close to overheating, and just when I thought he’d climb up the bed and connect that spectacular body of his with mine, he moved back and straightened to his full height.

When my mouth parted, and I was about to ask where he was going, Ace held a finger up and then gave me a smirk to match mine from seconds ago.
 

Oh hell,
I knew that look. That look meant I was in for it. That look meant that the wicked flame of arousal had consumed all vestiges of politeness in the enormous man walking around the end of my bed. And the flush that now warmed the skin of Ace’s cheeks meant that I’d successfully tempted the savage to the surface.

“It’s saying that it wants me to look at it…”

I chuckled, as I stretched my leg back down the bed and tracked him to the mostly empty tallboy in the corner of my apartment, knowing what he was going for.
 

Condoms. Lube. Yes, I haven’t packed that drawer yet. Get them—hurry.

“I think you might be right. I want to make an exit with a bang,” I said, undoing the button of my shorts and lowering the zipper. Ace stopped to watch me, and then boldly adjusted the erection I could see straining against his own zipper.

“Take them off,” he said, when I went to slip my hand inside. “I want it all off, Dylan. Now.”

Fuck.
When Ace got like this my brain just about melted out my ears. Controlling, sexy, and totally zeroed in on getting the both of us off. I knew whatever was about to go down in the next few minutes would most certainly leave me relaxed—and maybe, if I was lucky, passed out from pleasure excess.
 

With my eyes on him, I slipped my thumbs into my shorts and briefs and had them over my ass and hips and down my legs quicker than ever before. After I kicked them to the floor, Ace licked his lower lip and unbuttoned and unzipped his dress pants.
 

“The shirt too,” he ordered.

Jesus.

“Now. Dylan.”

I whipped it over my head, tossed it somewhere out of my way, and then lay back down and gripped the base of my cock. A groan rumbled through my chest at the pleasure of touching myself, and when Ace cursed, I turned my head on the pillow to see he’d shoved his hand into his pants to stroke his own length.

There was something to be said for being completely naked and under the hungry gaze of your lover. I’d always been a fairly sexual person, someone who enjoyed their past encounters, and I’d always thought myself to be a versatile partner, happy to be taken or be the one taking. But hell, if I wasn’t always quick to hit my knees or back for this magnificent man. I had this insatiable craving when it came to Ace. There was no explaining it. But when he was around, I needed contact no matter which way he wanted to give it to me.