Chapter 15

Riley

"Hey. You okay?" Charlotte reached over and touched my arm. I hadn't realized that I was trembling until she said something.

"What? Yeah. I'm good." I forced a smile and turned the radio on as she dropped her hand from me.

"It's me, dude. No putting on that fake-ass mask and pretending. Are you overwhelmed because it was Ethan Lewis or is it something else? That was a smoking hot scene. Are you just turned on? Because I'm turned on."

I laughed at her. She was talking a million miles a minute, which was nothing new. She always did when she was nervous.

"I'm trying to process everything." I shrugged, forcing myself to calm down. "Ethan is insanely hot, but when I was up there on stage, I wasn't me, Char. I was Stacy Develin, the woman that was completely in love with the sorry bastard beneath me. I slipped into her skin. The passion and heat are all part of it. It had nothing to do with Ethan until he acted like a child about it."

"Was he upset about something he did or something you did?" She turned to face me, tugging on her seatbelt a little. "Him storming off was weird."

"That's the real him." I pulled up to the ice cream shop just down from our apartment. "I'm thinking a sugary treat is in order. You in?"

"Of course. Duh." She got out and met me at the front of the car. "I'm still reeling over how intense the love scene was. I could have sworn that you were madly in love with him, and him with you."

She let out a dreamy sigh as my insides tightened. I wasn't in love with Ethan, but every time I saw him, whether on the big screen or in person, I wanted more. He was like a drug, and Eon Films was his pimp. Everyone was happy with the deal, the viewers especially.

"That means that he and I are perfectly matched for the parts." I opened the door and held it for her. "There was a moment up there where I felt like I could rip his black undies off and eat him alive, but I think that's the buildup of the emotion when you're acting."

"Did you get to see it?" She moved up and ran her fingers down the glass covering the ice cream. "The cup?"

"Yeah. It's a cup. I told you it was." I smirked and glanced up at the wide-eyed teenage boy who was watching us like, 'what the fuck?'. "I want a scoop of chocolate and another of strawberry."

"Cup or cone?" His monotone voice didn't fit the expression on his face at all.

"Cup, please." I walked to the register as Charlotte ordered. She joined me and pulled out her wallet.

"My treat. You just made my dreams come true today. I owe you for a while." She turned and blew a kiss to me.

"I didn't do that so you would owe me. I did it because you're my best friend." I nudged her to the side. "I got the ice cream."

"No. Really." She handed the guy her card as he glanced back and forth between us. "Ring it up."

He nodded and I turned and found a seat, not happy about her paying, but not wanting to stress the guy out. I leaned back as my thoughts returned to Ethan. There hadn't been a cup, even though he should have worn one. Talk about not being professional. He knew he had a huge cock. Was he expecting it not to get hard because he wasn't turned on by me?

Well, truthfully, he wasn't.

It was Trish that had him turned on. Pain ripped through me as I inhaled deeply and shoved a large bite of ice cream in my mouth.

"So, do you think the audition went well? Analyze it for me. I thought it was brilliant." She sat down and took a bite of her chocolate ice cream as she watched me with awe. It was weird to see her so taken with me. We'd been friends since we were little, and yet she'd never really thought too much of my acting ambitions. Now that Ethan Lewis was involved, she was riveted.

"It went good. For both of us to remain locked in the parts enough to have a good fight after the audition, I'd say it was a winner. If you can shake off the part like it never happened, then you didn't dive in deep enough." I licked my spoon. "It's like when you have a really terrifying dream and you wake up. It takes a while to shake it, right?"

"Yeah, I get it. That's cool, and yet a little scary. I heard that chick from The Exorcist had trouble shaking off the part she played as a kid." Charlotte pulled her phone up and squealed. "Oh my God. Did you know that Eon Films was having a press conference tonight?

"No." I grabbed my phone and lifted it to read through the details. "What time is it happening?"

"Now." She smirked. "You should totally be there."

"They haven't decided yet, and it usually takes a while."

"How long is a while?" Charlotte didn't look up from her phone.

"Couple of weeks?" I set my phone down and turned my full attention back to my ice cream, which was far more rewarding than reading more about Ethan.

"Wow... you should see the number of hits that Ethan's name gets when you Google him. There are fan clubs everywhere and a haters club too." She smirked. "Oh fuck. It's here in LA."

"You gotta be pretty special to have a haters club. Do they meet regularly? Throw darts at his perfect face?" I smirked and tugged the phone from her hand, reading through the entries as my stomach soured. "Ugh. These are girls he's slept with."

"Or they say that he did." She pulled the phone back from me. "They're lying. Obviously."

"Why do you say that? Just cause he's some big-name actor doesn't mean he's not fucking every hot girl that walks his way." I rolled my eyes at her being naive. With the way he teased me the two times we were together, I had no doubt that at least a handful of those stories were legit.

She laughed and pressed her fingers to her lips. "Oh my God. Listen to this one."

I sat back and nursed my ice cream as I watched her enjoying herself. She needed a boyfriend or an office fling. Something to give her a real-life man to focus on. Ethan wasn't real at all, nor did he truly seem alive inside. Something sat at the edge of his personality that nagged me. Maybe it was the few times I'd seen him talk down to someone, or the way he moved from happy to pissed to ornery in a matter of minutes. I wasn't sure I wanted to unpeel the onion over the next ten months as his co-star. Who knew what I would find out?

"Listen to this… Ethan Lewis is the biggest jackass in the world. I was working on one of the sets of Down Under as an extra in the bar scene, and I guess he saw something he liked." Charlotte laughed and held the phone toward me. "Look at this tramp. You really think Ethan Lewis would go after her?"

I shrugged as she continued. "He asked me out for drinks, which was really just an invitation to come back to his trailer. He is sweet as pie and so complimentary as he's stripping you, but the minute you can't please him... he's a jerk."

"Can't please him?" I lifted my eyebrow.

"Let me see." Charlotte ran her finger down the screen and yelped. "Oh man. It says here that he has a monster dick, and the girl... fuck, all of these girls couldn't fit it inside of them. Gross."

"Whatever. That's stupid." I licked at my ice cream as my stomach turned. He did have a monster cock. How did they know that? I hadn't until a couple of hours before. There was very little doubt in my mind that he had slept with some if not all of them.

"They're totally making fun of him." She glanced up with disgust on her face. "This is so stupid. Monster cock? Get real."

"Can you imagine if he did?" I couldn't help but push it under the false pretense of wanting to be silly. "The poor guy would be fighting off women left and right." I laughed, but she didn't. I reached across the table and touched her arm. "You're being ridiculous. He doesn't have a monster cock."

"I know, but if he did..." She glanced up and shrugged. "It would be miserable for him too, you know? Remember that kid in high school, Barry? He was so damn nerdy, but his dick was huge. He couldn't get laid to save his life, and he was so depressed about it."

"That's just gross, and if I remember correctly… he was too." I got up and dropped the rest of my ice cream in the trash.

"Even though it's gross, it still sucks." She stood up and put her phone in her back pocket. "Imagine not being able to have sex because your body was deformed."

"Deformed?" I opened the door and moved back, feeling a hundred times worse after getting into a different, although disturbing discussion over Ethan's penis.

"Yes. Too big, too little, too long, too short." She shrugged and got in the car. "Either way, you don't get to enjoy regular sex."

"Right... you have monster sex instead." I laughed and reached over to tickle her. I got a smile, but that was about it. "Are you really upset about this?"

She glanced over at me. "Why are you not? He's a good guy, Ri. Don't you think he's lonely? He has no one but his older brother, Liam."

"Wait. His brother? How do you know all of this?" I buckled and turned my attention to her, waiting for the chance to tease the fuck out of her. If she admitted to being in a support group for an Ethan Lewis addiction or being a fan club president it was so on.

"I've read his bio. It's actually depressing." She shrugged and pulled onto the freeway.

"His bio?" I pulled out my phone to read his text again. I'd only gotten one, but that was most likely my fault for shutting him down. Now who was being weird and obsessive?

"Yes. He wrote a book a couple of years back that gives lots of good insight on him. Well, he didn't write it, but a ghost writer did." She shrugged. "It was really good, but like I said, depressing. His parents aren't involved in his life other than to collect a check."

"And he put that in a book about himself?" I snorted, not ready to relent just yet. Knowing that him and his monster cock had created a group of women who were sharing all was enough to make me sick to my stomach.

And here I was wanting him to the point of physically aching.

"Yeah. What's up with you? You're being so crass." She pulled into the parking lot for the apartment.

"And you're being overly sensitive. This guy is a douche. I've seen it firsthand. Fuck, I saw it today." I undid my seatbelt and let out a tight sigh. "Why are you taking up for him? You don't know him."

"I know him better than you do. You're looking at the surface. I've been digging to find the real guy for years. You didn't see him panting outside of your dressing room today. He looked like he was going to vomit. What did you say to him?" Her tone turned accusatory.

My phone buzzed. Deza.

"I'll be inside in a minute. I need to take this, but we're not done with this ridiculous conversation." I got out as she yelled 'agreed' and walked toward the large building behind us.

I moved to the front of her car and sat down on the hood, letting out a string of curses at how much I hated high school bullshit drama.

"This is Riley." I pinched the bridge of my nose and forced myself to calm down.

"Good news. You got the part." Deza let out a whoop, shocking me.

"What?" The blood drained from my face and I had to reach back and press my hand to the car to make sure I wasn't going to fall over.

"You got it!"

"It's only been a few hours. How in the hell-"

"Ethan made it happen. He's totally sold that the part is yours and anyone else would diminish his ability to bring home the win." She laughed. "I don't know what magic you have, but the boy sold you to the producers. They're one hundred percent behind him, and for some reason, he's behind you."

"Wow." I didn't know what to say. Shame raced across me, but I forced myself to stay realistic about all of it. Ethan wanted a good movie, not me. The passion between us was palpable, delicious. He was a businessman, and that didn't make him a good guy all of a sudden. The guy I'd come to know over two visits was far from it.

"So... what do you think? You want some time to think it over?" She let out an excited chuckle, which caused my lips to turn up in a smile.

"Yeah, I need some time, but either way, let's switch things over to have you be my agent. I'll work on breaking my contract with Darren and you get one drawn up for us. Sound good?" I stood up on wobbly legs.

"Yes, ma'am. I'll get right on it, oh, and Riley, Ethan said that he would be happy to have a sit down conversation with you any time you want to talk about his career and what to expect."

"Awesome. I'll set that up soon. Thank you so much, Deza."

"Don't thank me, love. Thank Ethan."

"I will." I hung up and put the phone in my back pocket as tears filled my eyes.

All of my dreams and hopes just came true, and yet the one man I didn't want to owe a fucking thing to was the one person I owed everything.

"Why?" I whispered into the sky, and tried to fight back the fact that I wasn't going to come out of the next year unscathed. How could I?

He was The Great Ethan Lewis.