9
BUG UNDER A MICROSCOPE
JESUS, AND HERE I thought Ace and I could just slip in unnoticed.
I scanned the sea of people standing around high-top tables in small groups laughing and chatting with drinks in their hands, and tilted my head up to take in the exquisite pink and purple fabric that lined the ceiling. It was stunning in the way that it swept out to each corner of the room, and then flowed to the floor, giving the place an intimate and elegant feel. I recognized several actresses from the golden era hanging on the walls, and thought what a perfect location this was for a movie industry wrap party. The lighting was low, the center chandelier giving off a muted glow, and there were booths lining the walls that were U-shaped and looked comfortable enough to sleep in should one want to, though currently they were all claimed and filled to capacity.
Although the space was vast and I could see a cleared area a little ways away from us and through the crowd, it seemed like the walls were closing in on us. I moved a little closer to Ace’s side and didn’t miss the way his fingers tightened around mine. My heart thumped at all the eyes on us, and I could feel my cheeks heating as though we were under a fucking spotlight. I swallowed around the lump in my throat, and just as I was about to try and say something witty to Ace, who was frozen beside me, he took a step forward and began walking through the familiar faces of the cast and crew and the not-so-familiar but curious onlookers in their partners.
It was like being a bug under a microscope. Ace’s warm palm was pressed intimately against mine as he strode ahead of me, and with each group of people we passed, it didn’t escape my notice how they smiled at Ace, but then their eyes would travel down to the hand he had wrapped around mine. Nosy fucks.
There was no way Ace had missed the scrutiny we were under as he continued through the crowd, but he greeted each and every person who managed to say hi instead of merely gawk at us. He was heading toward the shadowed corner I had seen when we’d entered the After Dark, and the direct beeline he was making was an indication he was in need of a moment, or perhaps five, to get himself together.
When we reached the empty space, he maneuvered me so I was standing with my back to the wall and he was caging me in, giving all those in attendance a fantastic view of his broad back, and not a whole lot more.
“Christ,” he said.
“Yeah,” I said. “Intense, huh?”
Ace shook his head. “I figured this would be okay, you know? We worked with these people daily. They saw us and knew we were together, but…”
He didn’t have to say it. I knew exactly how he felt. We’d both thought tonight would be a good time for our first somewhat public outing as a couple because it would be around Ace’s friends and our peers. But we hadn’t counted on the instant gossip and murmurs from their partners and spouses that had begun the second we’d left Ryleigh and her friends.
Yeah, the second we’d left their side and stepped into the party we’d become the “entertainment,” and if it was making me nervous, someone who’d been out and proud most of their life, I had no idea how Ace must be feeling.
Trying to be the calm one here, the one to reassure him, I squeezed my fingers around his and shot him my most winning smile. “Hey, they’re just curious.”
“They’re fucking nosy is what they are,” he said, expressing my exact thought from earlier. “You’d think they’d never seen a gay couple before. And living in L.A., I find that difficult to believe.”
I gave a small shrug, understanding his frustration, but also had to break it to him: “They’ve never seen you as part of a gay couple. Do you really think they’d be looking if I walked in here holding some other guy’s hand?”
A frown furrowed Ace’s brow. “How about we don’t test that theory.”
I chuckled, and Ace took a step closer.
“I wasn’t meaning we should. All I’m saying is, it’s the fact that it’s you that has everyone gawking at us.”
Ace sighed, and I reached out to run a soothing hand down his cheek, but at the last second stopped myself. When his eyes fired and shifted to the hand I’d just lowered, he said, “Don’t for one second feel like you can’t do what you want to me in public. If you want to touch me, you fucking touch me. That’s the reason we came out, remember?”
Ohh, I like that. The pissy attitude because I hadn’t touched him. So I raised my hand and trailed my fingers along his jaw. “I believe you might be right. But I don’t think I should do everything I want to…”
That made Ace’s lips tug into a grin. “No?”
“Unfortunately, no. I don’t think this is the time or the place for that. But if you’re ever interested in performing in public, I know somewhere we could go.” I made sure to add a sexy wink as I thought back to that forbidden night at Syn. Ace’s eyes lowered to my lips and I ran my tongue along them, keeping his mind off being the object of so many, and instead letting him know he was the sole focus of one—me.
“Are you trying to distract me?” he asked.
I cocked my head to the side. “Why? Is it working?”
When Ace closed the remaining gap between us and lowered his head by my cheek, I almost hyperventilated. It wasn’t that he was so close, but the fact he was so close out in public. It was doing serious things to my heart and my dick.
“The reminder of you naked with my cock inside you? Yep, pretty much one hundred percent distracted over here,” he said.
I was about to turn my head and tell Ace that not only was I distracted, I was now really fucking hard, but before I could, a couple moved into my line of sight. I recognized the woman in an instant—Mallory Jacobs. She’d played Ace’s wife in Insurrection 2 and was one of Hollywood’s sweethearts. Her long blonde hair had been swept to the side and cascaded over her left shoulder in beautiful, soft waves. However, the siren-red dress she wore with a plunging neckline made it quite clear that while she may have been dubbed a “sweetheart,” Mallory was more than capable of pulling off seductive bombshell too, and standing by her side…oh my God, was that really Alejandro Mendez? Shit, it really is. If Mallory was America’s sweetheart then her longtime boyfriend had been dubbed her prince. True Hollywood royalty, that is, with his parents both being bigwigs in the industry. He had an arm wrapped around her waist and was nuzzling into her neck as she giggled, and when her eyes met mine she grinned as if we were both sharing the same predicament. Ace’s lips then pressed to the side of my neck and I chuckled at the accuracy of the assessment, and gave him a gentle shove.
“Problem?” Ace asked, his eyes twinkling, and I shook my head because God he was gorgeous when he was aroused, and the flush on his cheeks hinted he was becoming more so the longer we stood there in our dark corner.
“No, but we have company. So behave yourself, hotshot.”
He straightened, his shoulders tensing, but when he turned and spotted Mallory, I noted the way his entire frame seemed to relax.
“Ace.” She beamed and disengaged her arm from Alejandro and stepped forward. She took Ace’s arms between her hands and leaned up on tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek. Ace returned the affectionate gesture, and I knew from the conversations I’d had with him over the past few weeks that the friendship these two shared was genuine. He’d expressed many times how he’d wished Mallory had had a more integral part, because then at least there would’ve been a friendly face on set. As it was, she had fewer lines than I did, so really she’d only been there a handful of days.
“Mallory, man am I glad to see you here tonight,” Ace said.
“Needing some moral support?” she asked as her eyes found mine again and she smiled.
“You could say that. Or maybe I just want someone else here to take the spotlight off us.”
She flashed her famous smile and ran her hand down Ace’s arm to give his fingers a squeeze. “Hate to break it to you, but I could walk in here naked and no one would look away from the two of you.”
“I find that difficult to believe, Mallory,” Alejandro said as he moved up by her side, and she slipped her arm through the crook of his.
“Oh please, these two are the talk of the town…hell, the world right now.”
“Thanks for the reminder,” Ace said, and when I moved up to stand by his side, he automatically reached for my hand, and that small gesture had my heart thudding.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Alejandro said as he held his hand out to Ace. “I’ve been wanting to work with you for some time, and when Mallory said she was going to be in one of your movies I knew this would be the perfect place to make a shameless pitch. I’m a huge fan.”
Wow, I thought as I watched the two extraordinarily handsome men shake hands. Now that’s one hell of a compliment. I barely stopped my mouth from falling open, but if Alejandro had just told me he was a fan of mine, I might’ve passed out. As it was, I was finding it increasingly difficult not to act like a total fanboy in front of this couple. But Ace, as always, was cool under pressure. Calm in the face of the unbelievable. Because these were his peers, Mallory was his friend, something I always seemed to forget until moments like this where I felt star-struck and he was…well, Ace was himself. This was all part of his world.
“Are you kidding?” Ace chuckled. “I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have to twist my arm. If we can find the right project, that would be fantastic.”
Mallory snuggled into her man’s side and aimed her megawatt smile at him. “See, what’d I tell you? No need to be nervous.”
I glanced at Ace’s strong profile as he smiled at the two of them, and in that instant I was in complete and utter awe. These two had three Academy Awards between the two of them, and here they were practically giddy over the prospect of working with my man. And damn if that doesn’t make me proud to be the one on his arm.
As if Ace had read my mind, he turned to face me and then frowned a little. “I’m sorry. I’m being so rude,” he said, and then looked back to the two of them. “I’ve been so hellbent on keeping things to myself I forgot to introduce—”
“Dylan Prescott,” Alejandro said just as Mallory said, “Oh please, Ace. As if everyone in this room doesn’t know your lovely young man’s name.”
See. I knew I liked her. “Lovely…” I said, holding out my hand in her direction. “I’ll take that.”
As she shook my hand, she laughed, and it was so charming I couldn’t help but reply in kind. “Well, you should, you’re gorgeous. Ace here’s lucky to have caught you before anyone else did.”
I was about to respond when she released my hand and I took her boyfriend’s to shake. But when I glanced up at him and met his gaze head-on for the first time, I tripped over my words. “I uh…um…”
Ace chuckled beside me, and I wanted to turn around and whack him in the arm. So sue me, Alejandro was a very attractive man. A very famous, attractive man, and it was odd to be the sole focus of someone that felt so familiar because you’d seen him on the big screen. There was no way any normal person, a.k.a. myself, wouldn’t get tongue-tied.
“It’s nice to meet you, Dylan,” Alejandro said.
Locating my tongue, I managed to somehow agree that it was nice to meet him too, and then the moment passed and Ace was talking again. The three of them discussed their upcoming movies and how they thought they would do, and then they both inquired after what I did until Mallory declared she was ready for another Gilligan’s Bitch boozy shake and Alejandro excused the two of them and they headed off toward the bar.
As I watched them go, I kept my eyes on them as they wove their way through the crowd.
“So, what do you think of Hollywood’s golden couple?” Ace asked, his lips by my ear.
My eyes followed the two of them until they reached the counter, and once they were there and Mallory had leaned over to talk to the bartender, Alejandro glanced over his shoulder, and this time when his eyes met mine and his lips curved in an immoral smile, my breath caught and I coughed.
No way.
There’s no fucking way…
But as Alejandro ran his eyes down over me and then they flicked between Ace and myself, I knew I was spot-on.
It appeared that Hollywood’s golden couple had a secret even bigger than ours, because I was one hundred percent positive in that moment that I was staring at…Zorro.
* * *
AS MALLORY AND Alejandro left to head over to the bar, I was trying to come up with an excuse Dylan would agree to so we could leave as his fingers tightened around mine. I turned to step in front of him and looked into his wide eyes, and then noticed the way his mouth had fallen open and he seemed to be searching for words.
Star-struck. I knew how intimidating it could be to meet people as famous as those two. I’d been a wreck at my first wrap party too, but that just made Dylan more endearing. That innocence and… Hang on a second. Dylan’s cheeks had turned bright pink and he kept darting his eyes over my shoulder, which in turn had me looking back. But all I saw was Mallory and—
Oh. My. Fucking. God. My eyes locked with Alejandro’s dark ones, and as he swiped his lower lip with his tongue, I had a very immediate reaction to him watching us, just as I had that night at Syn.
No… I had to be imagining this, right? But one look at Dylan’s flushed face told me I wasn’t. He had recognized him too. Recognized the stranger who had stood across from us, much like Alejandro was now, in the shadows and light as I’d fucked Dylan like I never had before.
“Ace,” Dylan whispered, and shook my wrist gently. But it was no use; it was like I was in some kind of trance. Hypnotized by the man still watching us.
How had I missed that? How was it that up close and smiling at us I hadn’t put it together, but from a distance one glimpse of that arrogant smirk full of sex and I was right back at the club deep inside Dylan, coming in time with the man I’d just shaken hands with?
I tore my eyes away from the one who’d just rocked my entire world in a matter of seconds and looked at Dylan. I wasn’t sure what I expected to find there, but the fevered arousal was not it. His expression was tense, on edge, but not because he was worried or annoyed. Oh no, Dylan had a look he’d once told me meant one thing in particular. He had the look of a man who wanted to be fucked. And I was just the man for that job.
I aimed a look to the exit of the After Dark and said in a tone that was so raspy I was surprised he could hear me, “Let’s get out of here.”
And Dylan’s answering nod was all the permission I required.