Chapter 19

Ethan

She looked like an angel in her dress and dainty brown sandals. It was going to be a long night of keeping myself in check. The fact that she was being sweet was gnawing at the part of me that wanted romance and love over sweaty hot shower sex. That guy was still there too, but he was getting sucker punched by the toga-wearing cupid inside my chest.

"So tell me a little more about your school program. Are you graduating with drama as your major, or did you go a different route?" I wanted to take her hand, but it would be too intimate. I'd ruin the evening later for sure with a dumb-ass move. I'd hold off as long as I could until then.

She glanced over at me, stealing my breath. "I'm a drama major. I thought I might go into international business, but I just couldn't force myself to give up on my dreams of acting one day." She shrugged. "I figured I would graduate in May with my degree and change agents. If I could score the right one, I might have the chance to get in front of the right people and yadda yadda. You know the drill, I'm sure."

"Sure do." I slipped my hands into my pockets as we approached the restaurant. "Are you guys doing a spring production, or is that just something the movies make up about drama departments in college?"

I was ignorant to most things outside of the acting business only because I'd been suffocated by it for all of my adult life, and most of my childhood. I held the door and followed behind her, wishing we were a couple so I could touch her as freely as I wanted to. I was a guy without patience for easing into anything. It was a head-first dive off the tallest diving board available for me, regardless of what lay below.

She waited to answer until we were seated across from each other at an intimate table in the back.

"We are doing a play in a few weeks. I'm the lead for it this time, which is exciting, and yet so overshadowed by what you guys are giving me the opportunity to do." Her smile was contagious. The sarcastic, quick-witted woman that had my cock acting like a fit-throwing child for attention was tucked away somewhere.

Funny enough, it didn't seem to matter which side of her I got to experience, my body demanded the naked side. I smirked at the thought, but covered it up by glancing at the waitress and ordering a bottle of wine.

"Wait. Are you... Oh my God. You're Ethan Lewis."

"Nope," Riley spoke up. "He just looks like him. We get that all the time, don't we, baby?"

My cock twitched at her words. I'd have rolled my eyes at myself if I could have gotten away with it.

"That's right, sweetheart. You're just a lucky girl to have found a body double for that big, sexy hunk." I wagged my eyebrows.

The server laughed, and Riley rolled her eyes dramatically enough for the both of us. I laughed as the server walked off and Riley gave me a look.

There was my girl under the sweet smile and the light covering of make-up.

"Really? You're so full of shit." Her grimace turned into a smile as she laughed and sat back. "Are you going to come see my spring production?"

"Do you want me to?" I pulled my napkin in my lap and let my eyes move down to the sweet swell of her breasts just above the top of her strapless dress. I wanted to brush my lips by her exposed skin and drown in the sound of her begging for more.

"Yeah. That would be pretty cool." She wagged her eyebrows. "I mean... can you imagine it? Me? Little old, nobody of a person, me having the biggest actor of our time come sit in the auditorium at UCLA to support me?"

"You're not a nobody." My smile faded. "Don't say that again. I don't like it."

Her smiled faded too. "Okay. I'm just saying."

"Well, don't. I'm no different than you. You're somebody’s something special, I'm sure. Hell, I'm fighting like a madman to make sure you don't end up mine." I tried to play my words off as being cheeky, but the realization that rushed across her pretty face told me that I was caught.

"Anyways," she whispered and glanced down at her lap. "It's going to be a fun play. The only hard part is having to kiss the male lead. He's not at all someone I would look at twice."

"So shallow." I winked at her and enjoyed the power I had to make her smile again.

"You're telling me that you've never struggled having to kiss someone in a movie that you weren't turned on by?" She moved her forearms up to rest on the table. Her position pressed her breasts together and lifted them even more.

My body throbbed with need as I swallowed hard. If we ever ended up naked, I'd have to see if she’d let me press myself between her pretty tits and-

"Are you still with me?" She lifted her eyebrow and smirked.

I swallowed hard and reached for my water as embarrassment rolled over me. I would normally have just told her what I was thinking, but it seemed almost too crass to speak out loud. What the fuck was wrong with me?

"Yep. Just thinking about all the times I've kissed someone on screen and had to fake the shit out of the passion." I shrugged. "When I was younger it was easier to do and still enjoy. Kissing a woman at seventeen or eighteen when you don't find her attractive is still kissing a woman. I can't remember the last time I got turned on when acting until you showed up."

She leaned back in her chair and dropped her hands to her lap. "And why were you turned on by me?"

"Are you kidding me? You look like a movie star from the early days of film. Back when women still wore enough clothing to tease a man into seduction and forced him to bed to see what was under the nightie. Now it's almost as if the action movie with one sex scene is a porn in disguise." I gave a look of disgust. "It's not at all what I would do if it were up to me."

"I'm honestly a little surprised to hear this." She picked up her wine glass and took a drink as our server poured us each a glass.

"Why's that? Just because I'm vulgar on occasion, want to get you in bed as much as I want my next check from Eon and offered you sex a few times? Psh. That's nothing. I'm still a classy guy under all that drama."

"Are you?" She tilted her head to the side, causing her hair to drape over her shoulder seductively.

"Very much so." I nodded toward the lily. "I brought you a flower tonight, right?"

"That's for Deza, remember?"

I chuckled. Cheeky little bitch. She was going to steal my heart while I was trying to steal her panties to add to my collection.

"What's this guy look like that you're unwilling to kiss?"

"That was a horrible transition."

"Yes, I'm quite aware. Tell me anyway. I don't like him already, so describe him and give me a reason to feel sorry for him." I picked up my menu and pointed to a few sushi rolls that Riley agreed on sharing with me.

"He's okay, but he's terribly thin and honestly he lacks confidence. He'd be a good-looking guy if he just squared his shoulders and lifted his chin." She jerked her shoulders back and lifted her chin.

"Mmmm... do that again for me." I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth as my body started to pulse in all the right places.

"You're corrupt." She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. "And here I thought maybe there was a good-guy side to you."

"Oh, there is." I smiled. "He's just the facade for the real me."

"The you that wants to have a friends with benefits relationship with your new co-star. A relationship that could potentially ruin everything between us."

"Or." I lifted my finger. "Or it could make it even better. Can you imagine if we had a kissing scene tomorrow after you let me spend the night making you wonder how in the fuck you ever survived without me pressed to the front of you?"

"I like it from behind." She shrugged and picked up her glass.

The blood drained from my face, my chest, my legs, my arms, leaving me numb. Every bit of energy I had rushed toward my cock and brought the fucker raging to life. I took a quick breath and nodded.

"Good. I like it any way you're willing to give it." I licked at my lips. "Let's get out of here."

"No. Behave." She smiled and moved back as the soup was delivered. Why we'd decided to have dinner instead of just staying at the house and having me cook for her was beyond me. I sucked like hell at cooking, but for her... for the chance to experience her... I was willing to try.