Celebrity Page 14

  “Oh, God!” I gasped, when the all-consuming pleasure seemed to turn me inside out. A moment before I climaxed again, I felt Blake come as well, with one last deep thrust and a low sound that stirred the side of my neck.

  We stayed wrapped together for a long time, with him still buried inside me, our bodies shuddering together, our breaths melding. I wondered if he sensed the same emotional intimacy I felt connected us. He convinced me of that when he turned his face to lay a gentle kiss on my shoulder, then rested his head tenderly on my breast. It was a heart-melting gesture, which made me hold him tighter, cradling him to my chest and entwining my fingers through his hair.

  I didn’t know what to say, but somehow words seemed unnecessary. All the remarks going through my head—such as Wow!, Holy crap! or Thank you, you amazing god of sex!—seemed either lame or stupid. I decided to remain quiet.

  Only now I realized the storm was still going on strongly outside. Thunder rattled the trio of floor-to-ceiling windows from time to time, and raindrops cascaded down the transparent glass.

  “I dreamed about this, you know,” Blake said, lifting his head and reaching out to stroke my cheek.

  I looked at him surprised. “You did?”

  He nodded, smiling sheepishly. “That first day, when I came to your house and found you straddling that ladder...”

  “I told you I wasn’t straddling it.”

  “With this sexy ass rocking back and forth while you were scraping off the walls.” He flipped me over quickly, so I was sprawled on top of him. Lazily, he moved his hands down to cup the part of my anatomy he was just describing. “I couldn’t stop staring, imagining I would bend you over that ladder, and...”

  “And what?” I asked breathlessly, my senses stirred once more with arousal at the mental image he was evoking.

  “Why don’t I show you? No words are more graphic than reality, right?”

  He slid from under me and began kissing my neck, my shoulders, my back, until I was vibrating with need once more under his strong, hard body. By the time he had me on my knees, holding on to the leather headboard, I was losing my mind in my own cries of pleasure.

  ****

  I was dreaming of butterflies again. Their delicate wings fluttered over my skin, making me smile in ticklish delight. It seemed a more insistent butterfly had settled on my right shoulder, stroking me until I opened my eyes and reached out to stroke it back. Blake’s lips brushed over my fingers, and he continued kissing me randomly until I was half awake. As I lay on my belly on the bed, I felt gloriously sore and more replete than I ever had. Dawn was breaking outside, but I didn’t want to wake up from this fabulous dream.

  “I have to go,” Blake whispered against my ear.

  “What time is it?” I mumbled.

  “It’s five a.m. I have to catch the plane to New York at eleven.”

  He sat up and began dressing. I rolled over, rubbing my eyes in a vain attempt to wake up. When I started to rise, Blake urged me to lie down again.

  “Don’t get up. I’ll see myself out. Get some more sleep, it’s early.”

  I knew it wasn’t exactly the polite thing to do, but I was really exhausted. It had been a fantastic night, and now that it had ended, my body demanded rest.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to make you some coffee or something?” I offered sleepily.

  He shook his head, pulling his shirt on and buttoning it quickly.

  “No, I just want you to go back to sleep.” He bent and kissed my lips gently. His eyes hadn’t lost any of the night’s magic. “I’ll see you next week.”

  “Okay. Take care.”

  “You too.”

  With a last kiss on my temple, he rushed out.

  I don’t remember when I slipped back into sleep, but at one point I was no longer able to ignore the strong light, no matter how hard I tried to hide my head among the pillows. I woke up with a groan, prying my eyes open. The sun was high in the sky, spreading rays of dazzling light everywhere.

  “God, I need shutters!” I whined, rolling around in the huge bed, in the vain hope I could find a shaded corner and hide. Perhaps I could have, but my phone started ringing with Mom’s ringtone. I sat up and gazed around the room, trying to locate it. Finally, I crawled on the floor and found it in my little evening bag, which lay discarded near the door.

  “Hello,” I croaked, brushing the hair off my face. “Hi, Mom.”

  “Good morning. Don’t tell me you were still asleep,” said Mom. I detected a strange tone of reproach in her voice, which brought me fully awake.

  “Yeah, I was... I just woke up a minute ago.”

  “No wonder, with the night you must’ve had.”

  My ears pricked. How could my mom know what I had been doing last night?

  “What are you talking about?” I asked cautiously, lowering myself on the bed again.

  There was a pause that worried me, then Mom said, “I guess you haven’t read the newspapers yet. Pictures of you and that actor, Blake Tyler, are all over the tabloids.”

  “What?”

  I was so shocked I didn’t know how to react. Stupidly, I scrambled out of bed, naked, spinning around in search of a newspaper, as though one would magically appear in front of me.

  “What are you talking about, Mom? What tabloids?”

  “Well, the only one I saw was Flash, but I’m sure there have to be more. You’re lucky they didn’t know your name, Kendra,” she admonished me, sounding truly upset. “What are you doing? A movie star, for Heaven’s sakes! Haven’t you had enough of heartbreak with Richard? Now you’ve got yourself mixed up with an actor?”

  I held my head in one hand, literally feeling a migraine sneak up and clutch my temples.

  “Mom, wait. I haven’t gotten myself mixed up with Blake. We... had a date. And, FYI, he’s a perfect gentleman, who doesn’t sleep around with just any woman.”

  “That’s what the article says, but I’m not buying it. You should be more responsible, Kendra. I can’t believe you’ve changed so much since you moved to Los Angeles. Next thing I’ll read in the tabloids is that you’re doing drugs and going to wild parties.”

  I was shocked by the unfairness of her accusations. A sharp pain in my heart made me pause before I said something I would regret. After a couple of deep breaths, I spoke carefully but coolly.

  “How can you say such a thing to me, mother? You sound like you don’t know me at all. Why are you judging me like this? Because I chose to go out on a date with a man...”

  “An actor.”

  “A man,” I emphasized, raising my voice. “Blake is an amazing man, whom I like and respect, and who likes and respects me, more than any other guy I’ve ever met. Yes, he’s an actor, but it’s not his fault that he has no privacy and that paparazzi hunt him day and night for a scrap of gossip. When they don’t have anything, they invent it. Is that Blake’s fault? Should I give up on this relationship because of that, now when I feel more alive than ever? Should I give up this man who makes me happier than I’ve ever been, because we’ve appeared in some second-rate newspaper?”

  A long silence followed. When she finally spoke, my mother’s voice was soft and full of regret.

  “I’m sorry, sweetie. I... It’s unacceptable, the way I acted and exaggerated. I do know better, and most of all, I don’t have the right to judge you. It wasn’t my place to assume this was a fling, or just your way of getting back at Richard.”

  “I don’t care about Richard anymore.”

  “I can see that now. And I can tell you care a lot about this man, Blake.”

  I didn’t reply. I didn’t know what to say, or maybe I just wasn’t yet ready to admit what I felt for Blake.

  My mother went on, “I only want the best for you, Kendra. It’s your life, and though you don’t need our approval, I want you to know your father and I support you in anything. We only want to see you happy. If we’re over-protective sometimes, it’s because we don’t want you to get hurt.”


  I smiled reluctantly. “I know, Mom. And I can promise you Blake won’t hurt me. I don’t know where this is going, but right now I just want to enjoy his company, get to know him better, and we’ll go from there. We both agreed to take things slowly.”

  “Good. He’s a gorgeous-looking young man, isn’t he?” she added shyly, making me grin again.

  “Yeah... He is that.”

  After another pause, Mom said, “Well, I’ll let you get back to what you were doing. Oh, dear, I just realized... He’s not with you, is he? I mean, he hasn’t heard this conversation?”

  I laughed. “No, he’s gone to New York. They start shooting the movie, and I’ll join them next week, after my furniture arrives.”

  “Oh. Well, I’m sorry again for jumping to silly conclusions,” she said awkwardly. “We’ll talk later, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “I love you, sweetie.”

  “I love you too, Mom.”

  I put the phone down with a sigh. For a few moments, I just sat staring into space, trying to get my bearings. When I looked down at myself, I saw I was still naked. I dragged myself up and to the bathroom to get a robe. As I started to wrap it around me, I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the large mirror adorning the bathroom door and spotted a hicky on my right buttock. The blood rushed to my cheeks as fast as the memories of last night invaded my mind. No need to pinch myself to be convinced it had all been real. God, Blake was the most incredible lover! I never dreamed one could experience such sensations, so different, so many, so intense...

  Back to the bedroom, I plunked down on the bed, burying my face into the sheets to inhale the scent of him, of us. It had been the most divine night in my life. And what I’d told Mom was right: for the first time I felt truly alive, so happy I thought my heart would burst. I had no idea where this was going, but now I was happy. It was all that mattered.

  However, there was a little cloud in my Heaven. With a deep breath I sat, switched on my laptop and prepared to face the music. I typed ‘Blake Tyler news’ into Google, and clicked on Images. There we were: Blake and I at the restaurant, me in my white dress, him in his dark, elegant attire. There were several photos of us, laughing, drinking, talking with our heads close together, dancing and kissing. Several headlines screamed in big, thick letters:

  A GAP IN BLAKE TYLER’S LEGENDARY DISCRETION! WHO IS THE MYSTERIOUS GIRL WITH THE BUTTERFLY TATTOO?

  Chapter Sixteen

  As in most tabloid articles, there were many photos and only a few sentences here and there, mostly speculations of journalists desperate to attract attention. There was a mention of the time and place where Blake was seen accompanied by ‘a mysterious woman with a butterfly tattoo on her right ankle’. The journalists were wondering whether I was ‘a fresh face in Hollywood’, ‘Blake Tyler’s most recent acquisition’, or even ‘his fiancée’, since he was always very careful with whom he went out in public. One writer wondered if I was his wife, since he was perfectly capable of marrying in secret, to protect the privacy of his family.

  “Oh, God!” I groaned, grabbing my face in both hands.

  I had no idea what to feel about this. I was more worried about how Blake would react. Would he be offended, upset, furious? How would he feel about the more serious speculations? I wanted to call him, but I remembered he was on a plane to New York, probably getting some much needed sleep. Hopefully he hadn’t seen the tabloids yet, but he would find out soon enough. Maybe it was cowardly, but I preferred he didn’t learn about this from me.

  In the meantime, I had to get busy. I couldn’t just sit around for a week, as I waited for my furniture to arrive, so I could join the team in New York. It was the perfect time to start working on a new project. Not only did I want to work, but I was going to need money soon. Besides, writing would take my mind off this thing. And, to be perfectly honest, I already missed Blake, so I had to distract myself from fantasizing about him all day long. I didn’t want to get too attached to him. I wasn’t going to allow myself to fall in love, not unless I was sure it would last forever.

  I was so distracted I nearly swallowed my earrings instead of my vitamins. I made a cup of coffee, but I was too jittery to drink it all. Since I couldn’t spend the day pacing the house, I pulled on a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and sneakers, and went out into the garden.

  The storm last night had been a blessing for my plants. It had been a heavy rain, but one with little wind, so it hadn’t broken or damaged the flowers. Their colors were more vibrant and vivid than usual. The air was fresh, smelling of damp nature. Puddles had formed here and there on the ground, but the sun would soon dry them up. It was already getting hot.

  I was walking along the edge of the lawn, when I spotted a tiny snail crawling determinedly toward the house. Smiling, I lowered myself to the ground and took him gently between two fingers. He was just a baby, slightly larger than my thumb nail. When I lifted him, he quickly withdrew into his shell, but after a few seconds, the long, fragile eyes peeked out cautiously.

  “Aren’t you a flirt?” I said, laughing lightly, as I walked a few steps into the grass, careful not to step on any of his relatives. “Stay here where it’s safe, little guy.”

  I put him down gingerly onto the moist grass, watching for a few minutes as he adjusted to his new surroundings and started moving away in the ocean of green. When I got to my feet, the knees of my worn jeans were damp. I brushed the dirt off them and continued my walk around the property, to check if all was well. Other than streaky windows, there was no damage. A few wisteria blossoms had fallen down in front of the house. I picked them up, marveling at the beauty of their deep purple color. I didn’t want to throw them away, so I went into the kitchen, put a little water in a plastic bowl and placed the blooms in it.

  The impromptu arrangement looked great on my nightstand. As I stared at the pale purple flowers, an idea began to take root in my mind. My next heroine could have eyes like this. Lavender-colored eyes...

  I sat cross-legged on the bed, grabbed my laptop, created a new document and started making notes. I decided to try my hand at Romantic Comedy for the first time. I felt like writing comedy, and if I managed to insert only a fraction of all the funny stuff I’d seen and lived, it would be a hoot.

  For instance, I could describe the time when I was at the police station back home, doing research for a book. I knew a guy who lived next to my parents’ house, and I was working on a thriller for which I needed some documentation. While I was talking to Gus, a teenage dude stumbled inside and, barely keeping his balance, informed Gus he was there to make an official complaint against his regular dealer, because he’d sold him low quality pot.

  As I typed the notes, I was laughing to myself at the memory. Living in a big city had its moments of fun. I also wrote down the episode with the exhibitionist. My parents had just purchased their house a couple of weeks earlier, and when I came to visit them one day, I saw Mrs. Crenshaw, their neighbor, watering her plants. As I parked my car, I noticed a guy approaching Mrs. Crenshaw, unzipping his pants and waving his wanger at her. Outraged, I grabbed my bag and burst out of the car to rescue her. But she bent down to take a closer look at the guy’s half-a-hard-on.

  “I remember them things being bigger than this,” she’d said, shaking her head thoughtfully. “But today’s young people aren’t what real men in my time were like. Next thing you’ll be getting your period, young man.”

  By the time I filled a few pages with these kinds of recollections, my face hurt from so much grinning. I thought I could write one hell of a funny story. I was about to write down one more thing, but my stomach gave a loud growl, at the same time my phone happened to ring. My heart skipped a beat when I saw it was Blake. As I reached for the phone, I wondered if he’d seen the newspaper.

  “Hello,” I answered breathlessly.

  “Hey, beautiful. How are you doing?”

  His voice had a low, sexy quality that caressed my senses.

  “I’m
okay, writing. Have you arrived in New York?”

  “Just landed. We’re on our way to the hotel now.”

  “How was the flight?”

  “Full of hot dreams.”

  Oh, boy! He didn’t know. I had to tear myself away from the temptation of sliding back into the same hot dreams, and face the reality.

  “Blake, there’s something I have to tell you,” I said tentatively. “Um, have you seen any of today’s newspapers?”

  “No, I almost never read the newspapers. Why?”

  I took a deep breath.

  “Well... My mom called me this morning to tell me that pictures of you and I are all over the tabloids, and I’ve seen for myself the Internet is full of them. Someone photographed us last night at the restaurant.”

  I bit my lower lip in the short silence that followed. I expected him to be furious that his privacy had been violated, but he only said, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have exposed you to those sharks. Do they know who you are?”

  “No. They called me ‘the mysterious girl with the butterfly tattoo’,” I replied dryly.

  He uttered a short laugh. “That fits somehow. Listen, Kendra, I should have warned you. Going out with me can have downsides like this. I... never reveal my private life. I thought I was protecting you last night, because that restaurant has always been a paparazzi-free zone. But I guess it’s no longer safe. I could sue them, but that would only create a bigger scandal.” He paused for a bit. “Does this bother you? Of course it bothers you,” he said on a self-reproaching note before I could answer. “I can imagine what they wrote about us, about you. I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to drag your name...”

  “Blake, you don’t have to apologize,” I said, stunned by his reaction and deeply touched by his thoughtfulness. “It’s not your fault. You have the right to a personal life, for God’s sake! And yes, it infuriates me both our privacies were violated, but I understand you’ll never be rid of the press and their speculations. I... I can live with that if you can,” I said shyly. “I mean, for the time we will be seeing each other,” I added quickly, not wanting him to think I was planning to tie him up forever.