Miss Congeniality (33 page)

“C
ome outside.” Brea held the phone away from her ear and stared at it, not believing what she was hearing. She hadn’t heard from Lance in two weeks, and the first thing he does when he talks to her is pull some macho bullshit? Hell, no.

“Listen, asshole, I haven’t talked to you in two weeks. You take your ass to my door and pick me up like a fucking gentleman.” Satisfied she made her point, she hung the phone up. She wanted him back, so hanging up on him probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but she was done being nice. If the media had shredded her personality, there was no use holding her tongue if it was going to be misconstrued anyway.

The last two weeks had been excruciating. She had become a hermit to maintain her own sanity, because when the media should have died down, it seemed to have gotten worse. She had talked to Raquel on the phone the day after her meeting with Lance, and apparently all three decided they weren’t going to act on
Maggie Beach
anymore if they didn’t reinstate Brea’s contract. As Raquel said, ‘We’ve always been a package deal; those bitches can just deal with it.’ She loved them for their loyalty but worried it would backfire when the producers announced none of them would be coming back. The producers called their bluff, and now all four of them were out of a job. The only thing that saved them was the court of public opinion, who vilified the show and its producers when they found out they weren’t coming back. Brea would like to say she felt remorse when people were talking shit about the show’s bigwigs, but she didn’t have it in her. It was interesting to see the tables turned, however. She was no longer in the hot seat, but they still didn’t have their jobs back.

Brea talked to Clare last night, who was in New York shooting a new movie, but Clare said neither she nor Raquel had heard anything. Clare didn’t know about Lance, but if the girls hadn’t received a phone call, neither had he. From what Clare said, they made it very clear in the meeting it was an all-or-nothing situation, and they wanted a raise. Now she had to deal with Lance, who hadn’t called her in weeks, but was blowing up her phone now to get her to come outside. She stared at the offending phone, which kept ringing, and bided her time. She didn’t have to wait too long--five minutes later, there was a pounding on her door. She left him out there for a couple minutes, not wanting to seem too eager, before she answered the door to a scowling Lance.

“Morning, sunshine,” she said cheerfully, wondering if her heart would burst from her chest, it was beating so rapidly. Brea thought the two weeks would have lessened some of her feelings toward him, but she still felt the same rush of breath and eagerness to wrap her arms around him and kiss him. She didn’t know if they could work through all the stuff they said to each other, but she liked to think they’d try. They had become too important to each other just to throw it away over an argument.

He held up his phone. “You’re supposed to answer this when someone calls.” She pursed her lips, considering his question.

“That’s funny; I don’t remember you calling it for the last two weeks. I was so flabbergasted the great Lance Holder decided to call me, I forgot how it works,” she said sarcastically. “Besides, you shouldn’t order people around you haven’t seen in two weeks.” Wow, guess she was still a little pissed.

“Come on, stubborn ass,” he muttered, grabbing her wrist to drag her along.

“Do you know this is kidnapping?” She pointed out the obvious. As much as she missed him, she didn’t just want to leave with him, no explanation, nothing.

“I wish it was a real kidnapping, I could gag you.” She narrowed her eyes, not amused at his attempt at a joke.

She stared at his motorcycle. “I’m not riding with you.” It was too intimate, having to hold onto him with his ass between her thighs. It was too much for her to bear.

“You are.” He took her helmet and stuck it on her head, ignoring her protests, fastening it when she made no move to do so herself.

“Lance….I can’t,” she said, tears springing to her eyes. His green eyes softened, watching her eyes glass over with moisture.

“I get it,” he said quietly. “We have a lot to talk about, but I’m not done with you, regardless of what you said a couple weeks ago. I was just giving you time, letting everything settle down, and making plans before I came and claimed you. It’s time, Brea.” Just like that, she melted, and whatever she was going to argue died on her tongue at the sincerity in his words. She had missed him terribly and she wasn’t able to lie. She nodded, climbing behind him after he got himself situated.

She let him drive them away, not caring where they were going, only caring she was back where she was supposed to be, with her arms around him. There were so many unknowns in her life right now—her job, her brother, her relationship—but she was going to make this man apologize for what he said, and then she was going to love on him until he begged her to stop.

She was vaguely surprised when he stopped at the beach, but then he pulled off into a secluded area and helped her off. They walked hand in hand to the sand, the silence oddly comforting.

“How have you been?” he asked once they started walking along the water’s edge.

She chuckled. “Seriously? I haven’t spoken to you in the two weeks since we had the fight, and that’s all you have to say?”

“Yes, because I really want to know. The silence was killing me.”

“Why did you stay away?”

Hurt flashed in his eyes before he could stop it, but he quickly masked it.

“Honestly, the first week I was so fucking pissed at you I couldn’t see straight. If I had talked to you, I would have probably said something which would have irrevocably ruined our relationship. But I couldn’t stop protecting you because you were mine, and I knew we would eventually talk about what happened and hoped we’d come to some kind of resolution.”

“What did I do to you?” She’d run that argument over in her head several times since then, and Brea failed to see where she had been wrong.

“It’s not what you did to me; it’s what you were doing to yourself. You do it constantly, trying to make up for what your mother has done, trying to pretend to be someone else.”

“I wasn’t trying to be someone else.” He looked like he didn’t believe her, but she shook her head. “I really wasn’t. You don’t understand what it was like when we started at
Maggie Beach
. All three of us were new actresses trying to make our way on this fledging show, and we didn’t know if we would make it beyond one season, or make any money. It was one issue after another until we found our groove the second season. When they dubbed us The Misses, and they started talking about how we were all different, we just ran with it because it was what we needed to do. It was about survival at first, and it was easier for me because I was never the one they noticed.”

“Until me,” he finished, figuring out where she was going with this.

“Yes, until you. Now, I’m not saying I’ve regretted anything about you. If anything you were the one bright spot in my life for a long time, but that doesn’t mean I was prepared to handle what happened when everything started falling apart for me.” He put his arm around her neck, pulling her close so he could kiss her forehead.

“I’m sorry I caused so many problems for you,” he said. “Here I am trying to protect you, but the one person you really needed protection from was me.”

“I never thought that.” She rubbed his back, wanting to comfort him. “Even when Henry was shouting about you, I never believed you had anything other than my best interest at heart. I lost sight of that the other night when I started screaming at you. My world had just started caving in, and I needed someone to lash out at.”

“You can lash out at me anytime you need. And I probably shouldn’t have said stuff about your family,” he acknowledged. “It was a low blow, but I wanted to hurt you like I felt you hurt me, especially when you accused me of being bad for your image.”

“You are bad for my image,” she chuckled, “but I kinda like it.”

“Forgive me?”

“There’s nothing to forgive, not anymore. Think you can handle being with an out-of-work actress?”

He kissed her deeply, pushing his erection into her stomach. “I think I can manage.”

“I can’t believe you did that,” Brea muttered between kisses on the way to the bedroom.

“What?” Lance asked innocently, helping pull her shirt up. He bit down on her breast covered by her bra. “Why do you think they consider me so bad?” They had been out earlier, and he had been incredibly rude to the waitress in his impatience to get home. She leaped into his arms, confident he would catch her. He cupped her ass, squeezing tightly while he kissed her. He wasn’t paying attention and lost his footing, falling against the wall and taking Brea with him.

“What the hell?” She shrieked. He simply lay in the hallway with her straddling him. “Let’s go.” She grabbed the belt of his pants and jerked up before she ran down the hallway toward the bedroom. She ripped her bra off as she went, tossing it over her shoulder.

“That’s my job,” Lance said when he caught up with her, panting in her ear. He grabbed her around the waist and glided his hands up to cup her breasts. “I love you,” he breathed, kneading her breast. She ground her ass into his crotch, wanting to feel him against her skin.

“I love you, too,” she told him after he turned her around, slowly unbuckling her jeans and helping her step out of them.

He ran his finger down her red lace panties. “I like this.” The telltale sound of her underwear ripping was the next thing she heard.

She stood with her hands on her hips, pretending to be irritated with him. Brea could only imagine what she looked like standing there naked, but she couldn’t care less. “I would have taken them off, you animal.” Lance said nothing; he simply walked her back until her knees hit the bed before he pushed her down. He licked his way up her body until he made his got to her lips, kissing her while he parted her legs with his knee. He rubbed his jean-clad leg against her slit, and she lifted her hips in order to feel the friction

He ground his knee into her. “Come, baby,” he whispered in her ear, biting it lightly. She fucked his knee against her, wanting the sensation to last, but it had been too long, and the glorious pressure was forcing her to come apart. Brea fell back, slinging her arm over her eyes, not believing his knee gave her an orgasm.

“Stay with me.” She moved her arm to see him taking off his pants, his cock springing to attention when freed.

“Stick a fork in me, I’m done,” Brea groaned; she truly didn’t think she could take anymore.

“I got your fork right here.” He gripped his cock, pumping lightly a couple times.

She snorted. “Did you just call your dick a fork?”

He kissed her hard and fast. “Why not? You put both of them in your mouth.”

“Well, bring your fork over here, and see if you can put it in something other than my mouth.” She rolled over him, causing him to lie back on the bed.

“My turn.” She smiled wickedly, running her finger down his chest, stopping at the end of his penis. He grabbed her hands, bringing her attention back to him. “I was busy.” She pouted.

“Not today.” He shook his head. “It’s been too damn long since I’ve had you. I couldn’t take it if you wanted to suck my dick right now. I promise I will let you give me as many blowjobs as you want later on, but right now all I want is for you to ride me.”

“Well, since you asked so nicely….” She balanced her hands on his chest, lifting right above the tip of his cock and rubbing to tease him. When Lance tried to push his hips up, she lifted out of reach, laughing when he scowled at her. After she did it a second time, he grabbed her ass, growling, “Enough,” before he guided her down his length. She threw her head back and moaned, loving what this man did to her.

She started to move, rocking herself slowly, enjoying torturing him. Lance took over, setting a feverish pace. The only sound was the slapping of bodies and the occasional moan, both too overcome to speak. She leaned her head back while he sucked on her breasts, secure because he held her firmly by the back of her neck. He thrust rapidly, reaching between them to rub her clit with his finger, sending her over the edge. Lance followed soon after her, collapsing on the bed with Brea on top.