The Director (Hollywood Nights) (12 page)

           
“Get what?”

           
“Shay.” He enjoyed her blushing
cheeks. “You know what. You’re a woman, living alone, and you have a vibrator.
Where is it? I’ll go get it.”

           
“Upstairs.” She gulped. “I’ll go get
it.”

           
“Bring back some lube,” he said and slapped
her on the ass as she passed him. She turned with wide eyes and a sense of
excitement and fear he knew was turning her on. He was never one to avoid the
darker side of life. The moment she was out of sight, he began preparing the
area to play in.

***

Shay returned with her favorite
vibrator and a bottle of lube. She was trying not to lose the momentum of the
moment. It was easy to let her inhibitions go when he was touching her. When he
said dirty things to her, and when his hands promised he could do anything. He
would never share her. The words settled in bone deep. She would never share
him. Only, if he wanted two women, she had no products to help with that
request. Tossing the thought aside as she stepped into the living room she
asked, “Are you checking e-mail?”

“No,” he said and his eyebrows
went up and down. “I wanted to see what position is best for this.”

“You searched it?” She laughed.
Leave it to Jed to make her laugh at a time like this. “Well?”

“I think we had it right the
first time,” he winked.

She gulped. “I’ve never had more
than a finger there before.”

“Well,” he said as he moved
closer to her. She noticed he had something in his hand even after he put the
phone down. “Who hasn’t had a finger in their ass?”

She laughed again.

“What?” he shrugged. “I
discovered I enjoyed it much less when it was done by an old male doctor than
by a young female intern. Needless to say it was an examination I never
forgot.”

“Jed!” She couldn’t believe he
just said that.

“I had an allergic reaction to my
laundry detergent and broke out in hives. She took one look at me and explained
she needed to do a more thorough examination.” He stuck his tongue out at her
and then laughed.

“Hearing about you having sex
with a perverted doctor is not turning me on,” she said.

“We didn’t have sex,” he
clarified. “She simply examined me…thoroughly. I just wanted you to know that I
knew first hand that I need to be careful. Now let me see that thing.”

“This thing,” she started. It was
her turn to share stories. “Is named Mr. Spectacular.”

He arched a brow. She moved
closer to him and then handed it over. He inspected it and looked for the on
and off switch.

She said, “It’s here. That’s why
he’s spectacular. The remote control allows for hands free vibrations.”

She watched him handle the
vibrator with curiosity. He looked up and said, “I’m bigger than this thing.”

“Yes,” she smiled up at him, “You
are.”

She stroked her fingers down his
chest and then gripped his shaft. He wet his lips and looked at her.

“Do you think I’m spectacular,
Shay?” he asked as his head dropped back on a moan as she gave him a nice long
tug.

“You’re more than spectacular,”
she said and then slipped her lips around him. She let him loose and looked at
the man she loved. “You’re mine.”

His lips came down to meet hers.
The way he touched her made her feel cherished and wild at the same time. They
were back into the grove in a matter of moments. All humor faded. Soon enough
she was turning around, bending over. Her knees on the cushions, her body
braced on the arm of the couch, Jed’s cock filled her pussy and made her call
out for more.

He slipped his cock out of her
and then pushed the vibrator in. He was careful as he explored the uncharted
territory of her ass. She heard the rip of the condom wrapper, felt him apply
even more lubricant, and then he pressed. Once the pain of entry subsided she
was overwhelmed by the sensations.

“Damn,” he groaned. “Do you like
it?”

“Yes,” she said with the energy
she had to speak.

“I’m not going to last long,” he
said. She pushed the button on the remote and hoped he could feel what she
felt. Her body tightened and the climax followed so quickly behind the
activation of the vibrations it was almost instantaneous. She loved that the
pleasure surged through her, and she loved that what he said next, made her
laugh even as she came, “Fuck, he really is spectacular.”

Once they had both subsided into
twitches, she pushed the off button on the vibrator and felt it slipping out of
one orifice and then his cock slipping out of the other. His hands stroked her
back, massaged, caressed.

“Let me take care of this,” he
left the couch.

She watched him walk out of the
room. She liked his ass. He never seemed to work out, but his body was
naturally lean, muscular. Her legs were twitching. She giggled. Sighed. He
returned with a cup in his hand.
 
It was
one of the nice qualities of dating a grown man. He was considerate of her in
ways no one had been before. She wasn’t a spring chicken by any means, but he
made her feel younger, like she had a whole new and long life ahead of her.

He winked and said, “Hot
chocolate.”

Maybe it was the completely
foreign feeling of acceptance and satisfaction that he oozed when he was near
her, but Ivy’s words rang through her mind. Shay had always wanted to be a
movie star. It was everything she knew. It was the only goal she ever had. The
warm cup in her hands, the warm man at her side, she began to think of other
goals she may want to consider.

***

           
“I hope you don’t mind me saying
this, but Ms. Shay, you are going to steal the spotlight tonight,” Rob, the
chauffeur said as he held out his arm to escort her. He was an older man with a
full head of gray hair.
 

           
“Thank you,” she smiled. She hoped
that Jed would feel the same.

           
Rob escorted her to the front door
of the beach house and said, “He asked me to tell you to go inside and follow
the directions on the table.”

           
Shay looked at the man. He shrugged.
“If it was Jonas or Janice I could give you a clue, but that one…you just never
know what he’s up to. I’ll be waiting in the car.”

           
He reached for the door and opened
it.

           
Shay stepped into the room and
noticed that an end table had been relocated to the entrance and on it was a
note and a Calla Lilly. After reading it she followed the directions. “I’m
here. I’m facing away from the hallway and looking towards the kitchen.”

           
“I have a surprise for you,” he said
from the hallway behind her. “That dress is…wow.”

           
“Don’t you mean hideous?” Her tummy
tingled with anticipation.

           
She could hear his steps getting
closer. He said, “Okay. On the count of three I want you to turn around. Ready?
One, two, three.”

           
Shay turned around slowly. She faced
him. Her eyes widened, her mouth opened. He was looking at her the same way she
was looking at him. He had shaved. Jed Gunner was absolutely gorgeous with or
without that beard. “You shaved.”

           
“I shaved,” he said. “But only my
face.”

           
They shared a laugh as he took
another step closer. She lifted her hand to feel the bare flesh of his cheek,
his chin. “You didn’t have to do that.”

           
“I have something else for you.” He
winked. “Close your eyes.”

           
She had been asked not to wear any
jewelry. He didn’t know what her dress looked like except that it was black and
sparkly. He didn’t care. He still wanted her to not wear jewelry with it. She
thought he may have been under the Harvey philosophy of less is more. The
weight on her wrist told her otherwise. “Jed?”

“Wait.”

She kept them closed longer. Her
heart was thumping hard in her chest and she found it near impossible to keep
her eyes closed. He shifted her hair and the weight of an earring being pushed
through and secured did crazy things to her insides. He treated the other lobe
to the same attention. He was insanely romantic and erotic to her. The hair was
shifted back and he said, “Okay.”

           
She opened her eyes. She refused to
look at the bracelet first. She looked at him, into him, the cool blue ocean of
emotions that remained unsaid but shown. His hand slid to hers and he lifted
the arm with the bracelet and looked at it. She finally looked. Her knees were
weak. Surely it was borrowed.

           
“Jed.”

           
“I had it made for you,” he said and
her knees really did get wobbly. “See this black diamond.” He started at one
side of the clasp. The bracelet was filled with black diamonds that were
spiking through white ones in a pattern that she had never seen before. It was
grossly expensive. By far the most expensive thing she owned besides her house.
“This was my heartbeat before I met you. He traced the flat row until the first
spike. And this is after.”

           
Tears stung her eyes. The first time
she sniffed he dropped her hand and took a step back. “Fuck. I’m sorry. I
just…wanted you to know that I… And now I’m fucking it up.”

           
She had done this to him, made him
so afraid to do or say anything too nice. He wasn’t a pleasant sort of fellow
to begin with. The fact that he wanted to be so kind and affectionate towards
her left no doubt in her mind that she was special to him. She took a deep
breath, dabbed at the tears with her hand and took a step forward. She
whispered, “Jed.”
 

           
He looked up at her, more vulnerable
and innocent with his bare face. She lifted her hand to her chest and began
turning a lock on a phantom safe to the left, then right, then the left. She
made a great display of how heavy the door was when she pulled it open. She
reached in and pulled her imaginary heart out. She extended her hand to him and
he enclosed it with both of his. He looked as though he might have been holding
back his own surge of tears. He opened his hand slowly, looked at the phantom
gift, stroked over an imaginary heart, and in one swift move, he lifted his
hand to his mouth as though he ate it. She was surprised by the gesture, but
then he said, “May I never be hungry again.”

           
She stepped closer, put her lips to
his. As they kissed, she wrapped her arms around him. He carefully embraced
her. She leaned back and said, “This isn’t my night, but I feel like a
princess.”

           
“Darling.” He nuzzled his nose to
hers and said, “You are my Queen.”

***

           
Jed got out of the limo and held his
hand out for Shay. She took it and the moment she stood to her full height on
those heels, in that black sequined dress that looked almost liquid, as it
draped every curve and angle to perfection, everything stopped around them. She
had her long brown hair in old Hollywood waves. One of the diamond earrings
could be plainly seen. The other was hidden under the long waving hair she had
pulled over her left shoulder. The entire family was at the premiere. This was
one of the agreements his parent’s had made. Since they had both moved on and
both had dates, it was a lot easier for them to support one another publicly.

           
The line was supposed to move
towards the entrance. He watched as his mother broke from her date to walk back
towards them. Then his sister noticed, and then his brother. Everyone was
moving back towards the vehicles rather than towards the doors. His father was
apparently in the limo behind them.
 

           
“Oh,” Shay said suddenly as the
flashes of light from the cameras began. “I can’t really see.”

           
“Just smile.” The attention had
brought other photographers to the scene. He heard his dad call his name as he
approached. He extended a hand to his dad and said, “Congratulations.”

           
Other people continued to get out of
the cars and move through the press line. The Gunner family had come to a
complete halt.

           
“Thank you, son.” His dad pulled him
closer and into a hug. Jed was sure his family was reacting to the fact that he
had shaved his beard. They had seen it as a sign of mourning. It might have
started out that way, a young man not concerned about his looks anymore, a man
in hiding, but it became a part of his identity and he just left it alone. Everyone
around them probably thought they were gathering for his father so he tried to
make it less obvious his family gathered about him, and the cameras were all
about Shay and that dress.
 

He shaved it for Shay, so she
didn’t walk down her first red carpet with him looking scruffy beside her. Alex
had reminded him to do the right thing and he knew what it meant. If he was
going to be involved with her, he had to play the part she needed him to play
in public.

           
His dad looked at Shay and said,
“Congratulations to you. She’s…”

           
“Yes, she is.” Jed smiled. He cut
his dad off before he called her beautiful.

           
His dad smiled wider. He was
obviously glad to see him with someone. He could have brought a bag lady to the
premiere wearing a paper sack and his family would have been pleased. Looking
at Shay, they were fooled by her outward appearance. They were not just
pleased, they were overjoyed. They thought she was normal, but he knew the
truth, she was as messed up as he was. And he loved her for it.