Heather’s stomach twisted. Seth was late. Seven minutes late. Maybe he got caught up on the set. Or lost track of time. Or wanted to give her a few extra minutes to finish her meal.

Or maybe he wasn’t coming.

Since she’d barely been able to get food down, anxious as she was for her shower with Seth, she’d thrown away her barely eaten salad ten whole minutes before she expected him to arrive. Then she’d brushed her teeth and removed her eye make-up. And washed under her arms. Yeah, she was taking a shower, but she’d been sweaty after a day under hot set lights and she preferred not to subject Seth to her less than ladylike smell.

Then she waited. And waited. And waited.

At five minutes past the time Seth was supposed to arrive, she considered curling up on the bed to mope. But she had to shower before her next scene, even if it was alone. She’d already stripped from her costume before she’d eaten. Now she untied her robe, letting it fall in a heap on the linoleum floor and leaned into the shower to turn on the water.

The temperature had just begun to warm up when she heard the bathroom door open behind her.

“Now that’s a beautiful sight. Would be even more beautiful if your backside was red from my hand, but beautiful nonetheless.”

She bit back her smile, hiding the relief she felt. He’d come. Thank goodness she’d already removed her tampon. Taking it out now would have been awkward.

“You’re late,” she said, shaking the water off her hand. She meant to scold him further, but when she turned to face him the sight of him took her breath away. He’d already stripped out of his clothing—presumably at lightning speed since she hadn’t been in the bathroom that long—and damn did he look fine. The hard planes of his pecs and trim waist were smattered with a fine mist of hair. His arms were pure muscle. His abs, which she’d always suspected would be well-defined, were absolutely killer. They looked professionally sculpted. As if the reason he’d been late was because he’d stopped in the make-up trailer and had shadows and ripples applied. Generally the men she knew that looked like that only looked that way because of lighting and cosmetics. Or Photoshop. Men didn’t look like that in real life. Yet there was Seth, naked in her bathroom, looking exactly like that in real life.

A hefty shiver ran through her body. “I had no idea,” she whispered. She couldn’t stop staring at him, his arms spread across the doorframe in an open posture that showcased everything. Including his thick, hard shaft. She could barely believe that amazing organ was connected to an even more amazing body. His thighs and hips—all of him—strong and defined.

“No idea about what?” Even with his brows furrowed he was hot as hell.

“How built you were.” She was amazed she even had a voice. “You’re incredible.”

His face broke into a wickedly sexy smile. “I’m glad you approve.” His eyes blackened with desire. “But what’s incredible is what I’m looking at.”

Her body flushed red and not only because the room had heated from the running shower. “I can’t imagine how what you see compares to what I’m seeing.”

“You know, instead of just looking we could be touching.”

Her heart thumped in her chest. “Now that sounds incredible.”

He crossed the small bathroom in one stride. His hands wrapped around her face, tilting her face toward him. Then he was kissing her, kissing her, kissing her. He kissed all down the sides of her face and neck and when he returned to her mouth he tasted of make-up and sweat and roast beef and plain old yummy male goodness. She could kiss him like that, be kissed like that for a very long time.

Before she could get her thoughts together and remember she needed to get clean, Seth was pulling back the shower door for them to step in. He guided her backward until she was pressed up against the stall wall. Then he shut the door behind him and crushed her body with his.

Just as she had reveled in this first time that she’d gotten to see him in his naked glory, she reveled in this first feel of their naked bodies touching, the warm pressure, the tingling sensation everywhere their skin touched.

And their skin touched everywhere.

The trailer’s shower was a small space, which made it easy to maintain contact, but not so tight that they didn’t both fit with ample room to touch and massage and explore. Their hands wandered and caressed as their lips kissed and tasted, their tongues licking water droplets off each other’s skin.

Again it was Seth that had enough sense to think about the necessities. He untangled himself from her, and reached for her body wash on the built-in shower shelf. He poured a dollop on his palm and then applied it generously to her skin, massaging and kneading her muscles as he moved his hands up and down her limbs.

He spent extra time on her breasts, squeezing the mounds as he washed her. He teased her nipples, whispering past the points with his finger, never giving them quite what she desired.

He made up for his teasing when he reached her ass. His strong hands rubbed into her fleshy skin and down past the curve of her buttocks with such deliberation. She found her throat choking back an unexpected sob. The release of tension from her knotted muscles, combined with the care he demonstrated towards her—it was overwhelming, yet welcome. Each second he spent worshipping her skin, her core grew needier, desperate for contact.

When he’d soaped every inch of her body, she expected him to move there, to the place she most ached for his touch. But he surprised her, setting down the body wash and reaching for her shampoo.

A thrill of anticipation ran down her spine. She absolutely loved having her hair washed and even though she had it done frequently, she never grew tired of it. And the idea of Seth washing it? Even better.

On the other hand, he’d skipped washing her pussy and it throbbed from the lack of attention. She was conflicted between trusting him and addressing her need. Her need won out. “Aren’t you missing a spot?”

Seth turned her back toward his front, but she could hear the smile in his voice. “I don’t see the point of washing down south. You’re just going to get dirty again.”

“I am?” She looked over her shoulder, blinking her eyelashes in feigned innocence.

The smell of her strawberry shampoo filled the air as he began working it through her tresses. “You are and you know it. Now hush. We don’t have enough time together to waste any.”

She melted at his words and the feel of his hands massaging her scalp. Her head was alight, tingling with the electricity that passed through Seth’s fingers to the nerve endings buried at the roots of her hair. The sensation was so intense that she barely had any thought function left. Yet curiosity, or rather, a need for an explanation tugged at her. “We’d have had more time if you hadn’t been late.”

He pulled the suds through her hair in long strokes. Was it her imagination or had his movements grown tense? She didn’t mind. If felt wonderful. So much so that she lost herself in the pleasure of it, barely caring that he’d yet to respond to her comment on his tardiness.

Seth positioned her under the shower head and tangled his fingers through her hair as he rinsed the suds in the steaming hot water with the same attention he’d given to washing it. After several pleasurable minutes of this, he put his arm around her and tugged her toward him, out of the stream of water. Keeping one hand at her back, he dabbed her eyes with a washcloth from the towel rack.

When her eyes were clear of soap and water, she opened them and met his intense gaze.

Washcloth still in hand, he moved to cup her cheek. “I would have been here early if I could have been, princess.”

Her breath caught. This thing with Seth was just sex, wasn’t it? An examination of her sexual desires. A chance to try something new.

But the way he was looking at her, the way he was touching her—it made her chest tighten and her tummy feel all fluttery. She leaned up and brushed her lips against his. “What kept you, then?”

He closed his lids then opened them. “Stupidity,” he said softly. He broke her gaze, and nodded toward the shampoo shelf. “Conditioner?”

“No. My hair is too fine. It makes styling more difficult.” The moment from before lingered and she knew she could forget words all together and concentrate only on Seth. Except, his answer had left her intrigued. “Stupidity, huh? Are you going to explain?”

He pulled her to him firmly and she felt his erection pressed against her belly. “Is that really what you want me to be doing with my lips right now?”

That was all he had to say and the time for talking was over. She lifted her mouth toward his and ran her tongue along the bottom of his lip. With lightning speed, he captured her tongue with his mouth, sucking at it fiercely as his teeth raked along the bottom. It was the moment of his unleashing—the moment she realized the extent of the self-control he’d demonstrated as he’d scrubbed her clean.

While one hand held her at the nape, the other hand found her clit without detour. Splaying his fingers across her lower belly, his thumb circled and stroked her into a frenzy. She was wet and more than ready when a few short minutes later he urged her thighs apart with his knee and rammed his stiff cock inside her.

Heather gasped at the initial shock of his entry. He was rough and didn’t wait for her to adjust to fit him before pulling out and ramming in again. It was brutal and delicious and unlike any sex she’d had before. It fulfilled so much of what she craved that she felt near orgasm before he’d plowed into her a third time.

The hand that had held her neck moved to lift her thigh around him, his fingers digging into her skin.

“Are you ever gentle when you fuck?” she asked as he plunged in again, deeper this time with the new angle.

“No, I’m not.” He picked up his rhythm as if emphasizing his point. “Is that a problem?”

“No. It’s not.” It wasn’t a lie. His savagery, the way he pulled at her hair, manhandled her body…it was a huge turn on mentally. And physically, he did the job in a way that no one ever had. Seth’s blunt jabs hit a spot at the very end of her—a spot that rippled with pure electricity every time his tip slammed against it.

It was short minutes before she was clamping down around him, her orgasm moving through her in a brutal burst. She fell limply against Seth’s chest. When he had completely rubbed out her climax, he pressed her tighter against the wall. “Grab the towel rack,” he commanded. His hands gripped her hips and angled her upward.

Fuck. She was spent, completely spent. But in this position he reached even deeper, rubbing against the upper wall of her vagina in such a way that she knew another orgasm would soon follow. And it did, building through her with an aching slowness, like an impending sneeze or a gathering storm. Then it released in a similar fashion—rolling over her with such intense longevity. Even her hands lost feeling, her hold on the rack slipping. If it weren’t for being trapped between Seth and the wall, she would have fallen to the floor of the shower in a heap.

Just as her second climax began to cease, Seth’s rhythm picked up and three strokes later he joined her release, groaning as he did.

It felt like decades passed before their breathing returned to a somewhat normal pace, before Heather had feeling in her lower limbs.

“Seth?” she said when she could speak. But not because she had anything to say or ask. She just needed to say his name, needed to know he’d been as affected as she’d been.

And somehow he understood. “I know,” he said. “Me, too.”

When she could stand by herself, he pulled away enough to reach for the body wash. She laughed as he soaped her inner thighs and private parts. “There. Now you’re clean.”

Except now she sort of felt dirty. But for once, it didn’t bother her. It was an amazing kind of dirty. Freeing and naughty and exactly okay.

Seth turned off the shower and stepped out of the stall. He grabbed a towel from the linen shelf and held it open for her. “Your towel, my princess.”

She swatted at him. “Stop it.” Her protest was half-hearted. She liked his nickname for her. It made her feel special—singled out in his universe. Assuming she was the only one he called that, anyway.

“Never.” He wrapped the white fluffy towel around her and pulled her in for another kiss. This one was slow and languid—their tongues dancing to an unheard adagio. In its warmth, any last fragment of doubt she had about Seth melted away. He wasn’t her past. What he could be, though, was her future.

When the kiss ended, he spoke first. “About that date—”

“Yes. I want to go out on a date with you.” A fresh wave of heat filled her cheeks. She’d cut him off, maybe he’d changed his mind. “That is, if you’re still offering.”

He laughed. “I just fucked you mindlessly. In your shower. In the middle of a working day. You think I’m not going to offer? Hell yeah, I want to take you out. Repeatedly, if you’ll let me. Even if only half of our dates end in sex.”

It was a mystery how her skin could spot with goose bumps when she felt so warm. “Why would only half of our dates end in sex?”

He laughed again as he secured a towel around his waist. Heather frowned to see his beautiful body covered up. “I’m not suggesting that only half would.”

He bent to pick up Heather’s discarded robe from the floor and held it open for her. She turned her back to him to slide her arms in.

He leaned in, his breath caressing her neck. “I was only pointing out that I want to be with you, Heather. Even when your clothes are on and you’re lashing at me with words instead of with that sweet tongue of yours.”

God, he had a hold on her. She didn’t even know him. And he didn’t know her. He might not want another date once he experienced what it meant to be part of her world. “Let’s start with one date,” she said, dropping her towel and tying her robe in its place. She turned to face him, rubbing her hands against the sinewy muscles along his shoulders. “But I must warn you, I’m not an easy person to date.”

“I’ve already figured that out.” He reached for another towel and bunched it around her hair, squeezing the excess water into the material.

“Not because of my personality, you ass. Because it’s hard to get privacy.” She took the towel from him and gathered it like a turban on her head.

Seth grabbed the towel she’d discarded on the floor and used it to dry his hair before tossing it in the laundry basket. “And privacy is important to you.”

“It is important to me.” Heather opened the bathroom door and stepped into the trailer’s bedroom. She smiled at Seth’s clothes piled on the bed then turned back to see him still standing in the bathroom, watching her with a furrowed brow. “Not because I’m embarrassed to be seen with you, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

He followed her into the bedroom. “Thank you for clarifying. I get it. It’s the fans.”

“Yes.” Stupid fans. She hated to be the type of person that complained about them. She recognized they were the ones who kept her in a job. But couldn’t they love and admire her without encroaching on her personal space? Sometimes she couldn’t even pee without being bothered.

Seth picked up his jeans and dropped his towel. Heather’s heart picked up at the semi he still sported. What she wouldn’t give to spend the rest of the day naked with him in her trailer instead of filming.

Pulling his jeans on sans underwear, Seth said, “Well, personally, I’d prefer my dates to be with you. Not your entourage. So trust me when I say I will plan accordingly.”

“Seth?” A man into wild monkey sex and conscientious of her groupies? What more could she ask for? “You’re awesome.”

“You can’t possibly mean that.” He paused while he put his T-shirt on. “I mean, I am awesome, but you don’t know that. Yet.”

God, if he didn’t stop grinning at her like that, she’d never be on time for makeup. “I think I— ” The sound of a door opening stopped her. She put her finger up to her mouth to gesture to Seth to be quiet. “Did you hear that?” she whispered.

“Yeah,” he whispered back. “You expecting anybody?”

A chill ran through her. People didn’t just walk into the actors’ trailers. It was cause for termination and everyone on set knew it. And the lot was secured. No one that shouldn’t be there could have gotten access. She shrugged off her anxiety. “It’s probably my assistant. She’s the only person I know who would walk in without knocking.” But what if it wasn’t? It would be obvious to anyone that she and Seth had just showered together, both of their hair still wet. “Shit. I should have had you lock the door. I’ll, um, do you mind staying put while I check it out?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Seth sat on the bed to put on his socks. “Tell me when the coast is clear or give me some sort of sign.” He winked at her.

“Thanks.”

Heather took a deep breath and pulled back the partition enough to step through then shut it behind her. She saw him immediately, sitting on her sofa, his feet propped up on the table while he played absentmindedly with his lighter.

At the sight of her, one side of his mouth curled up in greeting. “Well, hello babydoll.”

Heather closed her eyes, hoping the sight in front of her was a figment of her imagination—some cruel waking nightmare. Why here? Why now?

But when she opened her eyes, he was still there, lounging in her trailer as if he belonged there.

Her heart sank at the reality. “Hi Daddy.”