Laurelin Paige - Take Two

Not much later, Micah tipped the bellhop and closed the door behind him in his room. He threw his jacket over a chair and crossed to the large windows. The small town didn’t have the luxury hotels Micah usually stayed in, but the view from his room—a breathtaking landscape of mountains and wildflowers—couldn’t be topped. He took a moment to memorize the scene, wondering if Fudge had a similar view across the hall.

Maybe he would invite Lulu. She’d go gaga over this place.

And maybe being with her would make them both feel less lonely.

With a sigh, he drew the fire curtains. Heavy window coverings were one of his best friends. They shut out zoom lenses and the prying eyes of fans.

He rummaged through his carry-on for his iPad and stretched out on his king-size bed. Checking his email, he found his schedule for the next day. Seven a.m. call time. That left almost thirteen hours before he would see Maddie again.

Had he really just calculated that? Yes, yes he had.

He ran his hand over his stubbly chin, debating how to handle his Maddie thoughts. The night was still young. He could try to find a pretty young fan in the hotel bar, someone willing to suck off a star just so she could brag to her friends.

Or he could try to find her.

No, bad idea. Instead, he used the newly discovered information of her last name to look for her on Facebook. He didn’t have an account himself—just a fan page his publicist maintained, but he knew his way around the site.

He found Maddie’s profile easily. Her privacy settings didn’t allow him to see her wall, but her photos were set for public view. There were only two, but they were enough. The first was a simple headshot, her long gorgeous brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, her smile slight and professional. This was the one she currently had set as her profile picture.

The other, though, was the one that Micah zoomed in on. It was a candid shot taken with the ocean as a backdrop. Maddie held her loose hair out of her face with one hand the other hung at her side. The modest tankini showed off her body and verified what Micah had suspected, that her legs were gorgeous and never-ending.

His dick throbbed as he ran his finger over the screen, tracing the curve of her breast. He pretended he could remember the feel of it under his hands, her nipple taut against the thin fabric of her top. How she’d moaned and responded to his touch.

God, it was too much. He propped the iPad on the pillow next to him and undid his jeans, releasing his straining erection. With long strokes from root to crown, he fisted his pulsing shaft, fantasizing it was her mouth sucking and taking him in. Slowly she would tease him, licking along the thick nerve that ran the length of his penis. Then she’d curve her lips tightly around his tip and draw him in, inch by inch, her hands massaging his balls as she bobbed her head up and down.

He closed his eyes, imagining his busy hand was tangled in her hair. With a low grunt, hot fluid spurted over his fist, and still he pumped, not wanting the fantasy to end, while he came and came and came.

After, he basked in the pleasure of release, knowing from experience it would soon fade to a lonely ache. He looked at Maddie’s picture one more time, then turned his tablet off and made his way to clean up.

In the bathroom, as the dullness crept in, he stared at his reflection and groaned.

Fuck.

He‘d spent the last seven years on top of his game, focused on his career. He’d been tempted into love by the hottest women, offered the best drugs and the sweetest of sins and he’d always resisted. No hesitation or doubt.

But now he faced six weeks on set with a woman who once upon a time didn’t care about what or who he was.

Maddie Bauers just might be his undoing.

Micah sat in his director’s chair, script in hand, trying his damndest to get his lines down for the day’s scene. He usually was great at memorization, but in the three days since he’d arrived on set in Colorado, all his concentration had gone to shit. He blamed it on the mountains, told Beaumont he hadn’t adjusted to the altitude yet.

But it was her. Maddie was there, everywhere, every day. Her job as camera assistant kept her on set at all times. Focus puller was the term for her crew position. Focus puller was right—she pulled his focus anytime she was within a hundred feet of him. Most the time she was closer than that. Her job kept her near the camera. And since the camera was always in his face, so was she.

Maddie barely acknowledged Micah while she worked. She stayed out of the way during blocking and took all her camera measurements with the stand-ins. If she noticed he had missed a mark, she informed Adam instead of Micah directly. Which was what she should do. And it was what he had wanted. But it drove him crazy—having her so close yet so ambivalent about him.

Not that he was going out of his way to talk to her either. It took all his willpower not to find an excuse to touch her or strike up a casual conversation, but he’d managed so far. Just at the detriment of his concentration.

He looked at his watch for the fourth time in ten minutes. His costar, Heather, was exactly forty minutes late for call. She had a reputation for being unreliable, but this was the first time in several weeks that she’d blown call time. It was unprofessional, and a lesser star would have been blacklisted a long time ago. But this was Heather Wainwright, the top female actress in Hollywood. She could do whatever she wanted.

He sighed as he turned back to his script. He really wasn’t that pissed at the blonde diva—he didn’t mind the delay. He needed to work on his lines. No, his irritation came from the brunette camera assistant.

Without lifting his head, he glanced sideways at her. She was in video village, the area set up with monitors from all the cameras. Beaumont, Adam, and Joe—the show’s assistant director—stood talking with her, probably planning what to do about the scenes they were supposed to be filming. He smiled at her outfit, black jeans and a tank top, a black button-down shirt over it. The black absorbed light, rather than reflected it onto the actors. It was supposed to help her fade into the darkness, but Micah didn’t think Maddie could fade into anything. She shone, vibrant and gorgeous at all times, no matter what she wore. It surprised him that every guy wasn’t falling all over her. She was hands-down the most beautiful woman on the set. Probably the most beautiful woman in the state and no one, except that yuppie assistant Sam, seemed to notice.

Christ, he was absolutely pathetic. Pining over a woman? Maybe he should be making romantic comedies. Or movies for Lifetime, since he’d totally seemed to have lost his balls.

He glanced at Fudge, who sat who sat nearby reading a magazine. At least he didn’t know the reason for Micah’s pining. Fudge would never let Micah hear the end of it.

“Chin up!” Darla, his makeup artist fluttered over him, applying powder to his face. “Sugar, you keep sweating off all your makeup. Why don’t you sit under the tent where it’s cooler until they’re ready to shoot your scene?”

He shook his head. That was where video village was—where Maddie was. “No, I’m fine here.”

“But you’re getting too much sun, sweetie.” Darla mothered Micah, which was why he liked working with her.

Today it irritated him. “I said I’m fine.”

“He can’t stand to be too near the hottie that’s assisting Adam,” Fudge said. “He’s gotta bit of a crush.”

“What the… That’s not true.”

“Then I guess the hard-on you’ve been sportin’ since the airport is from that cheerleader assistant, Sam.” Fudge flipped a page casually in the magazine.

“You’ve been checking out my dick, man? That’s just weird.” Of course Fudge would have noticed Micah’s behavior regarding Maddie. But he didn’t have to bring it up in front of his makeup artist. Better yet, he didn’t have to bring it up at all.

Darla laughed. “Oh honey, you don’t need to be embarrassed. I’ve been working with you for five years now and this is the first time I’ve ever seen you so unfocused. It’s a nice change. You should go talk to her.”

“It’s not—” Micah cut himself off, then started again at a more reasonable volume. “It’s not the girl. It’s the altitude.”

“Whatever you need to tell yourself, sweetie.” Amusement sparkled in Darla’s eyes.

Fudge tossed his magazine on the grass. “What I don’t understand is why you don’t just hit it and get it over with.”

Now that was a good question.

Micah thought about it as Darla patted more powder over his face. Why the hell not? They had the chemistry. So she reminded him of the past. That didn’t have to interfere with his present. And he was already distracted by her. Wasn’t that what his no-strings rule was meant to avoid?

But he’d already been an ass to her. Who knew if she’d even be receptive? All right. If she showed some interest, then he’d consider pursuing it.

“By the way, that girl jogs by the hotel every morning,” Fudge said. “Her hotel’s about two miles away. It’s funny she chooses that same route.”

Hmm. That sure sounded like she was interested.

“I need more coffee.” Micah stood, rolling his script under his arm and grabbing his still half-full coffee mug from his cup holder. It was a lame excuse, but he couldn’t bring himself to say outright that he planned to corner Maddie.

“I can get it for you,” Darla offered.

“No, I’m getting it.” Micah heard Darla and Fudge chuckling at him as he made his way toward the main tent. Yeah, who was he kidding? They knew where he was headed.

He didn’t have far to walk before reaching the tent. Generally only a few members of the cast and crew hung out in the video village, but since the show was at a standstill without Heather, more people were around than usual.

Seeing that Maddie was still conversing with Beaumont, Adam, and Joe, Micah slipped behind her to the coffee center. A whiff of apples caught on the breeze, a scent he’d learned to recognize as Maddie’s. Was it her shampoo, her lotion? It drove him mad. He glanced at her, his cock stirring at the view of her curvy hips and round behind. God, she was beautiful. He could strip her naked and fuck her right then and there. Maybe that would help his concentration.

The sound of his name pulled him from his lustful thoughts.

“We could shoot Micah’s closeups,” Joe said. “That could keep us rolling at least.”

“Maybe that’s the way to go,” Beaumont said. Then, noticing Micah, he said, “Hey, Preston. We’re going to shoot your C.U.s now.”

His stomach clenched, hoping his lines were ready. On the bright side, he’d be on set with Maddie.

“That’s fine,” Maddie said, “but I need to get new focus calculations first from the blocking change you just made.”

Micah could let a stand-in do the setup like he usually did and continue working on his lines, but he’d decided he wanted to be near Maddie and be near Maddie he would be. “Sounds good. I’m ready.”

For the first time since he’d joined them, Maddie acknowledged him. Her dark eyes glimmered as they connected with his gaze. “Oh, you don’t need to…”

He winked. “It’s no problem. Let’s go.”

He’d winked at her.

One wink and her knees were jelly as they walked to the set. Thank God the A.D. had his ear while they walked so Maddie could give all her attention to putting one foot in front of the other.

Though she’d been disappointed that he’d forgotten her and disgusted by his superiority complex, the days that had followed had shown Micah to be less of a dick than she’d thought from the car ride. He actually seemed charming and an all-around good guy. Not to her. He hadn’t even spoken to her, but she’d watched him interact with the other actors and crew.

A couple of times she’d caught him eyeing her. Was that burning, hungry stare her imagination? She hadn’t noticed him ogling any other female crew members. But maybe that was because she didn’t want to notice.

What she wanted was to hate him, but working with him had only brought about a crush. A silly, stupid, fangirl type of crush. Her insides got all twisty and her palms sweaty every time she was within ten feet of him. She’d found the only way to deal with her unwanted emotions was to avoid him as much as possible. She got her focus calculations from the stand-ins and stayed in the shadows like a good camera assistant was supposed to.