Star-Struck, Book 1 (2 page)

As soon as Sunny and Alyssa walked up to the open patio area their usual drinking crew cheered their greetings to them. They went around the tables giving hugs and hellos. Their bar friends all worked at the other restaurants in the Village.
Thirty-three
just so happened to be the spot that everyone went to when they got off work. Most times there would only be a few here and there. Though tonight looked like it was going to be one of those rare nights that everyone showed up. This equaled an awesome night and a long exhausting day tomorrow.

Sunny and Alyssa slipped into the bar to grab their usual drinks and Alyssa’s kiss from Brandon. Alyssa got her customary vodka cranberry and Sunny got her usual
Coors Light
in a pint glass.

Alyssa took her first sip and sighed. “Hey did you see that they’re filming something in town today? If they’re still filming tomorrow, you need to go over and harass them until someone reads one of your screenplays.”

“No, I never left the apartment today. And since I have to work tomorrow, I don’t have time to harass anyone.” Alyssa started to follow Sunny as she made her way back out to the patio.

“You’re gonna have to put your big girl panties on eventually and start showing someone your work.”

“I know, I know. I’m just not the badgering kind. I don’t feel comfortable begging people to give me a chance.” If she didn’t find a way to change the subject Alyssa was going to badger her all night. “Hey let’s put some music on the jukebox.”

“I thought you didn’t want to sing tonight?” Alyssa looked at her skeptically.

“Playing music doesn’t mean I have to sing.”

“Well can we at least play our song, cause Renee is here?”

Sunny turned to their friend Renee, “Hey Renee, are you in the mood for a little Joe Cocker?!”

“Hell yeah! Let’s do this shit!”

Alyssa ran into the bar to put some songs in. Sunny had a pretty strong feeling that she was going to need to drink a lot of hot tea with honey tomorrow to soothe her throat. Alyssa managed a restaurant/bar called Speakeasy, where different bands would perform. One night after singing at the bar’s karaoke night, Sunny’s all-time favorite thing to do, Trent a cute guy at the bar asked her if she would want to sing with him in a little duo that goes to different bars to perform. She thought it sounded awesome, so now they practiced about twice a week and performed one, sometimes two nights. Sunny came up with the name Folk You for their little duo. They did covers, he sang and played guitar and Sunny just sang (she had given up on instruments long ago when she realized she wasn’t an instant musical genius). They played everything. A little something for everyone, and because of that they had gained a little fan base in the couple of months they’d been playing together. In the process Sunny had developed a serious crush on Trent. And he seemed completely oblivious.
Story of my life.

Alyssa came running out of the bar. “Our song will be playing next. Get ready bitches!”

Everyone knew what was coming, so they all got a little quieter and moved out of their way. Renee, Alyssa and Sunny moved some of their stuff out of the way to make room for banging on the table without damaging anything or spilling drinks. They heard the first strains of
A Little Help from my Friends
, the song that was the intro to the show
The Wonder Years
, and their group went completely silent, ready for the hilarity.

First up was Sunny. Each girl got their own part. There was a ton of banging on the table and off-key notes. Alyssa screaming at the top of her lungs was always the best part.

The whole bar busted out laughing and cheering at the girl’s antics. Sunny could barely sing anymore, because she was laughing so hard. They finished out the song with a boisterous ending, friends and strangers giving them wild applause. What they lacked in harmony they made up for in enthusiasm.

After the ridiculousness died down the three of them went back into the bar to get another round of drinks.

Renee kept looking back through a section of the glass patio doors in the more secluded part of the patio. “Hey Sunny, I think this super-hot guy keeps eying you up.”

“Huh, me?” Sunny looked back towards where Renee’s eyes were focused. She literally felt eyes on her and come to think of it Sunny had felt like she was being watched since they had entered the patio, but had shrugged it off as nothing. Thinking it was probably just her friends looking at her.

She could barely make out his face. She could see he had beautiful tanned olive skin with a square jaw that was sporting a nice helping of what she liked to call “man scruff”. More than a five-o’clock shadow, but still not a full-on beard (the now popular look that truth be told George Michael started in the early 90’s). She could see some jet black wavy hair, but most of his face and hair was covered by the adorable gray wool newsboy hat he wore low on his head. Though most of his face was in shadows he looked vaguely familiar. But it wasn’t often she saw anyone that looked quite like that, so she doubted she knew him.

“I can barely see his face. But from what I
can
see, there is
no
freakin’ way that he is the slightest bit interested in me! Guys like that don’t even know girls like me exist.” The blue and white flannel shirt he was wearing did little to hide the massive shoulders and muscle bound arms he had going on.
No freakin’ way!

“I’m telling you, I noticed him when I first got here. And
since the moment you guys walked in here his eyes have been on you.”

  Sunny looked at Renee like she was smoking crack and said as much. “Renee, you’re smokin’ crack. And how can you even tell who he’s looking at with his hat pulled down so low.” Sunny couldn’t help but to sneak another peek. Right when her eyes met the shadowed area where his should be, he lifted his hand to the brim of his hat and nodded at her in acknowledgement.
Holy shit balls Batman!

“Oh. My. God! Did you just see that?! He totally just acknowledged me!” Her eyes were literally going to bug out of her head.

“I told you!” Renee held her glass up to Sunny’s. “Cheers! I think this is about to become a really interesting night.”

“Agreed!” Alyssa grinned at Sunny deviously.

They all clinked their glasses together. Sunny tried to smile normally, but it was too late. Panic had set in. Luckily her skin was brown, because she was all kinds of flushed. Palms sweaty, heart pounding. She started up a mantra in her head.
Please don’t let him talk to me. Please don’t let him talk to me!

They walked back out to the patio and Sunny sat with her back to him. But she could swear that she could feel his eyes boring into the back of her head. Her hands were so shaky she could barely bring her glass up to her mouth.

Alyssa eyed her curiously. “You should go over and talk to him.”

“Ha! You’re fucking bat shit crazy, if you think I’m going over there!”

Alyssa literally spit her vodka cranberry across the table laughing, narrowly missing everyone at the table. She grabbed some napkins to clean up the mess. “Well, with the way he keeps staring at you, it won’t be long before he comes over to talk to you.”

“I need another beer. Or maybe something stronger. Too bad I hate hard liquor.”
Time to make an exception.

~~~

The situation was bringing back moments of being a majorly insecure teen. There was one moment in particular when Sunny was at a high school basketball game with some friends. They had all left their coats with a friend’s mom high up in the bleachers before the game had started, while they chose to sit in front, courtside. Sunny had wanted to go home early, but before she left she needed to get her coat from the upper level bleachers, where the crowd had grown to capacity. She had been frozen with fear at the thought of being called names and fat jokes thrown at her as she walked past. Her mom had come to pick her up and Sunny had run to the car crying and begging her mom to go in and get her coat for her. But her mother being in mixed-matched pajamas, never intending to get out of the car, told her she had to go in to get her coat. So once back inside, Sunny had taken a huge breath, put her head down and walked quickly to get her coat. No one had said anything to her, but the fear had made her irrational and nearly paralyzed. That same fear was making a guest appearance tonight, it would seem. Because why else would a guy like that stare at her for any reason, other than to make fun of her.

So a few shots and two more beers later, Sunny was feeling A-Okay. Not drunk, but a slightly happy oblivious barrier had settled over her. He still hadn’t made a move from the corner that he was in with a couple of his buddies. But he hadn’t stopped staring either. At least, that’s what the girls kept telling Sunny. She hadn’t built up the courage to even look at him again. And fortunately she had talked the girls out of going to talk to him a hundred times in the last hour and a half.

The girls went in to play more songs. And Sunny heard the first few beats of
I Wanna Dance With Somebody
by Whitney Houston, one of her favorite songs to sing and dance too. The girls came running out and pulled her out of her chair. Wrapped up in the joy of her jam, she let loose and danced and sang with all that she had, temporarily forgetting about Tall, Dark and Mysterious over in the corner.

Sunny sang the last notes and swayed her hips as she did a last little turn that put her facing his table directly. Her heart stopped at the beautiful smile that spread across his full lips showing off perfectly straight bright pearly whites.
This fool should be a
Colgate
model, if he isn’t already. This is California.
With her heart pounding, all she could think was…run! She was in full chicken mode now.

“Uh girls, I’ll be right back I have to go to the bathroom.” The bar bathroom was just too close to this guy for comfort. So she escaped to the bigger public bathroom around the corner.

Why did the chicken cross the road, to hide from sex on a stick McHottie? That’s why!
That smile woke up something in Sunny that she had thought long ago died. Now the gates were slowly opening and she was afraid there just might be a flood. Because though sex might be like riding a bike, you never forgot. It had been four long years since she’d ridden a “bike” of any kind. And definitely not a “bike” like,
that
.

Sunny had read once that it doesn’t matter what you look like, if you believed in your heart that you’re a sex goddess, you can please any man in bed.
Ha!
She couldn’t quite bring herself to believe she was a sex goddess during normal circumstances, with average guys. But with a guy that looked like
him
…she couldn’t even finish that thought.
He’s not interested, I’m sure. He probably just thinks I’m cute and entertaining, like most of the guys here in SoCal.
Laughing
at
me, not
with
me.

Finishing her business, Sunny walked out of the stall and washed her hands. Good thing there weren’t any mirrors in the bathroom or she was sure she’d freak out over how horrible she looked with this guy around. Looking down as she walked out of the bathroom to make sure she didn’t have the ever dreaded toilet paper suck to her shoes, she ran into something. Something…
hard
.

First Sunny saw a pair of large fairly new blue
Converse
. Then nice and clean relaxed fit jeans on long legs. A narrow waist encased in
the
blue and white flannel. Trying to swallow past her all of a sudden dry throat, her eyes continued their journey upward. Next was a wide chest with crazy cut pectorals. She was already craning her neck and hadn’t even gotten to his face yet
. How tall is this guy?!
Chiseled jaw with the “man scruff”, full and sculpted smiling lips, and a straight nose. Her first look into his eyes quite literally smacked her down, like a pimp slapping his hoe! They were blue. God were they blue. Not just any blue either. They were like an electric cornflower blue with an outer ring of darker blue around it. And the beauty didn’t stop there. He had the most decadently long thick black eyelashes that made the blue that much more striking. Swoon worthy!

Sunny’s heart started to pound frantically and radiated heat throughout her entire body. That’s when her brain caught up with her eyes and started piecing all his features together. And recognition hit. He brought his index finger up to his full lips. His smooth baritone voice caressed her like the finest silk. “Shh, it’s our secret.”

   Fuck my life!
Tall, Dark, and Mysterious was none other than mega-famous movie star Gabriel Wolf!

Chapter 2

Gabe had had a long day of shooting his latest film Redemption. Nothing had gone
quite right all day. He just hadn’t felt like he was on his A-game recently. He kept giving shitty take after shitty take. His co-stars, director, hell the entire film crew were fed up with his less than stellar performance thus far. He had no idea what had him in this funk, but he had to get out of it before they dropped him and brought in someone else to take his place, contract or not.

So just like any Average Joe, after a rough day of work all he had wanted to do was to have a couple of beers and relax. A couple of the guys on the film crew that he’d become friends with after working on previous movies together, had checked with some of the locals in Long Beach to see where there was a reasonably mellow place to have a few drinks. They had been directed to
Shoreline Village
.

After throwing on a hat and pulling it low over his eyes in the hopes that no one would recognize him, Gabe and the guys had set off in that direction. Walking along the harbor; white boats of varying sizes were bobbing in the water on the right and restaurants/bars, shops, and even an arcade on the left. But everything was just a little too busy, till they came across a nice little bar called
Thirty-three Degrees
, with a wraparound patio that had a relatively secluded section. There were only a handful of patrons.
Perfect.

The quiet didn’t last long though. One after another, it looked as though
every bartender, server and busboy in the area stopped in for their own little happy hour. But they kept to themselves across the patio and didn’t give Gabe and his friends a second glance. It seemed as if it was going to be a fairly uneventful night.

Then
she
walked in. Gabe sat up straighter, his eyes zeroed in and the conversation at the table faded out. A mass of wild caramel colored curls framed her face. A plump, voluptuous milk chocolate coated body made his mouth water in anticipation to taste her. And his groin tightened with the need to slide between those beautiful lavish lips or her luscious thighs.

But what made his heart simultaneously stop and drop into his stomach was the most radiant smile he had ever seen. She just simply glowed with a beauty that couldn’t be found searching in a mirror, countless hours in the gym or “under the knife”. All were common in La-La Land. This woman exuded internal beauty that he had rarely seen since starting his career in Hollywood eighteen years ago. Hell he hadn’t even seen it growing up in Michigan. There was very little beauty to be found bouncing from foster home to foster home.

He could tell she was well loved by the reactions of everyone who knew her. Squeals and hugs abound. He thought the crowd was lively before. Apparently her and her friend she came with brought the party.
This should be good.

“Hey Gabe, have you heard anything we’ve been talking about?” Dave waved his hand in front of Gabe’s face to get his attention.

“Sorry guys.” Gabe dipped his head sheepishly.

Tim elbowed Gabe in the side, giving him a sly look. “Where you checking out that hot blonde that just walked in?”

“Actually, no. I was checking out her friend.”

“Really? The chubby black girl?!” Tim looked perplexed.

Gabe gave him a warning look that couldn’t be mistaken. He already felt protective of her. “Curvaceous, voluptuous and thick would better describe her. Not chubby. She isn’t a toddler.”

“If you say so”, that was from Dave.

“You guys wouldn’t know real beauty if she came up to you and tickled your nutsack.” Gabe shook his head, turning towards the glass patio doors to look in the bar where the girls were ordering their drinks.

“DAMN!” Tim and Dave shouted at the same time. Though, Gabe had already tuned them out having found more interesting pursuits. The guys just shrugged and continued their ea
rlier conversation about a recent baseball game.

Gabe didn’t know what those two were talking about. Couldn’t they see what he saw? Hell, it was probably better that they didn’t. Less competition.

Gabe watched as the girls came back out to the patio with their drinks. That’s when things started to get interesting. The girls cleared the table and all of their friends got quiet. Then the jukebox started playing Joe Cocker’s,
A Little Help from My Friends
.

What ensued after that, had to be the cutest and most entertaining thing he’d seen in a long time. It was obvious that these girls had perfected this little performance. Gabe could tell that the other two girls weren’t much on singing, but he thought his girl had a beautiful voice.
His girl!
They hadn’t even met yet and already he was staking his claim. Well as far as he was concerned, she was already his. It was just a matter of when. 

After their song
was over, the girls went to grab more drinks. As Gabe watched her, he noticed that one of her friends, a Hispanic looking girl had caught him staring. Her friend started whispering something in her ear and that was when she tried to sneak a peek without making it obvious. Gabe just gave a little smirk, lifted his hand to his hat and tipped his head to her. He chuckled to himself over her reaction. Her eyes widened, mouth dropped open and he could’ve sworn he saw a flush spread across her cheeks before she quickly whipped her head back around. Modesty. Not something he was accustomed to in his line of work.

Now she started pounding more drinks. Gabe liked to believe that it was because he had affected her, and she was trying to loosen up. He watched her slowly relax. Then as a familiar 80’s song started and he watched as her friends pulled her out of her seat to dance. Her body moved and undulated with a smooth grace. Gabe wondered if she would move like that when she was underneath him. The image gave him an instant hard on the likes of which he’d never felt.

As she did her final spin at the end of the song, her body faced his. Gabe couldn’t help the predatory grin that spread across his face. Her mouth dropped open; she said a quick word to her friends and then fled out the patio and around the corner. It was time to make his move.

“I’ll be back. This may take a minute. So if you guys wanna head back, I’m fine with that”, he said to his buddies as an afterthought.

As Gabe walked past the girls’ table one shouted, “Go get her cutie” and the other responded with, “Wooohooo!” He just smiled and strode around the corner.

He saw that there was a bathroom, which he
assumed was where she had escaped to.
Not for long.
He leaned against the wall that divided the Men’s and Women’s restrooms on the Women’s side. And waited.

He heard water running and a little shuffling. Then she appeared in the doorway, looking down at her feet as she walked. Gabe’s heart clenched a little as he realized that she was making sure no toilet paper was stuck to her shoes.
God she’s adorable.

Gabe realized that she wasn’t going to look up before she ran into him. So he straightened up at the last second to brace himself. Her incredibly soft large breasts and round face slammed into his stomach and chest. She was so small. Standing at six-foot-four, he had to be over a foot taller than her.

Gabe’s hands reached out to help steady her. Feeling her soft curves pressed against him and grasping her soft rounded shoulders to steady her sent every single ounce of blood in his body straight to his cock. Thank the heavens for the jeans he was wearing, because any other material would clearly show the biggest hardest erection he’d ever had.

Slowly she raised her face to his. He was finally able to get a good look at the most stunning honey brown eyes he’d ever seen. And they saw straight into his soul. His heart started pounding so hard he felt it would beat through his chest.

Gabe was so focused on her eyes that he was able to see the moment she realized who he was. Her eyes flared wide, her breath quickened and her delectable little mouth started opening and closing but no sound escaped. He brought his index finger to his lips, “Shh, it’s our secret.”

~~~

“Sweet Mary, mother of God! I, uh um ah…,” Sunny stammered. Shit!
Think Sunny think.
“Gabriel, uh Mr. Wolf. I um…”

His lips turned up in an adorable smirk…if you can call a smirk adorable. In his case she was sure everything he did was adorable. “You can call me Gabriel. Or just Gabe. No need to be so formal.” Sunny just stared at him dumbstruck.

Dammit, I thought I’d be WAY smoother if I did ever meet a celebrity. I guess that theory just flew out the window.

“And your name is?”

Shit, he was still there. And wanted her to speak?  “Uh Sunny.”

“Sunny?” He looked at her skeptically, like she was pulling a classic girl at a bar move and lying about her name to get rid of an unwelcome guy.

“Um, yes. Madison Stone, actually. My parents didn’t think the nickname Maddie suited me. So they called me Sunny, because they said I’ve always had a sunny disposition. You know Madi-son. Son. Sunny. But instead of an “o” they used a “u”.”
Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP! Dammit, first I can’t talk at all, now I sound like a rambling idiot!
She internally smacked herself.

He was actually still smiling and not running in the opposite direction. “Sunny. I like it. It suits you perfectly, I think.” Her name on his lips felt like silk wrapping around her naked body. She shivered.

“Uh thanks.” She knew her vocabulary was way better than this.
I have got to stop with the ahs, uhs, and ums!
“Sooo is it your movie that they’re filming in town? My friend Alyssa mentioned seeing camera crews today.” Sweet, two full sentences with no stumbling!

“Yeah. Some of the guys on set wanted to go out and have some drinks after having a rough few days of shooting. We asked around and someone told us about
Shoreline Village
. We liked the way this place looked so we stayed.” His voice softened, “I’m glad we did.”

Avoiding his last statement she commented on the former. “This is a great place! We come here all the time. It helps that my friend Alyssa is dating the bartender.” She couldn’t believe he was still here hanging outside of the ladies’ room. “Why are you hanging around outside of the ladies’ room?” Inner cringe, did she really just ask that?

“Well I saw you run off around the corner and I wanted to make sure your virtue was protected. And besides I wanted to get a chance to talk to you without your friends eavesdropping.”

“But why? Are you interested in one of them and need my help?”

“No. I think I’m brave enough to talk to a girl on my own.”

“Oh. Okay.” She looked down unable to look in his eyes any longer. She knew how this worked. Guys like that weren’t interested in her. Add to the fact that he was a celebrity and she knew she didn’t have a chance. She wasn’t even sure she wanted one. Too scary.

He brought his hand up to Sunny’s chin to gently lift her face back up, her eyes met his. His touch and the words to follow delivered a one-two punch to her gut. “I’m interested in you, Sunny. And I didn’t want your friends eavesdropping, because I don’t need their help to talk to you.”

She could’ve sworn her heart dropped down to her vagina, and started a steady throbbing down there that had her thighs clenching together.

“So ah…you um…”
God bless America!
At that point she just squeezed her eyes shut to block out his face so she could think. Fat bit of good that did her! His face was now burned into her retinas.

“You’re adorable.” She heard the smile in his voice.

“Yeah well you’re stupid fucking sexy.” Her eyes popped open as she clapped both hands over her mouth.
You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding! Did I really just utter those words?
She must have because his head was thrown back and his shoulders were shaking with laughter.

He wiped the tears from his eyes and his laughter settled into a soft chuckle. “You’re a breath of fresh air Sunny!”

“I would think you’d be running away screaming at this point. I either can’t talk at all, or babbling, or saying completely inappropriate things. You should walk away now, before I embarrass myself any further.” She tried looking everywhere but at him.

He stepped closer to her. “Run? No I don’t think so. And I like the inappropriate things you say. In fact I can’t wait to hear the next crazy thing that comes out of that delectable mouth.” Again he grabbed her chin and forced her face up to his and her insides liquefied when she looked into those ridiculous blue eyes and saw...lust.
Lust? At me?!
“You have the most amazing lips I think I’ve ever seen.”

Finally, a man that appreciated her lips. His face started to inch towards hers, but at the last minute she turned and gave him her cheek.
Damn! Now why did I go and do that? Why, I know why. Because once his lips touch mine I’m a goner and would probably be in and then out of his bed in two seconds flat. And I’d just be another notch on his bedpost. And I’m pretty sure that is one gnarled bedpost. So no matter how famous and drop-dead gorgeous he is I deserve better than that. Must. Stay. Strong.