Page 5 of Notorious (Hollywood Heartthrobs #2)

CONNOR

F or hours after dinner, we sat together as a family and talked.

Between Sam’s crazy schedule as an ER doctor, the long hours Emilia put in at her law practice, the demand for Omi to choreograph everything from stage plays to movie musicals, along with my shooting schedule, it was the first time in over a year that we caught up with all of us being in the same room.

Because of this, we all stayed up, even the triplets.

But they had the next day off for Memorial Day, so it was midnight before Mama shooed us all to bed when she noticed Ollie sagging in his chair.

After I helped mama clean and straighten up the kitchen, I offered Ollie his own cottage, the smaller one with two bedrooms behind the main house. I tried to sell it as added privacy to write, with the added benefit of a full kitchen for the duration of his stay, but I was off on my assumptions.

Instead of jumping on the offer, Ollie looked horrified.

“No… um, that’s way too much, Connor. Is there a small bedroom out of the way I can stay in for the time I’m here with you? I mean, not with you, with you, but living… here?”

Flush with the possibilities his innocent words conjured in my mind, I jumped when someone cleared their throat.

“Why don’t you put him in the room next to you, Con? That way, he can come to you if he needs anything?” Landon suggested.

Ollie, not getting the sexual connotation from my little shit of a brother, blinked at him and said, “I would never want to be a bother, so a room out of the way is perfect. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I wake up and write or take notes when I have an idea. I’d hate to wake anyone.”

One triplet hugged him, and based on Ollie’s earlier description of the three, I’d guessed it was Linus. “You’re not in the way, Ollie. Follow me. The room I have in mind will be perfect for you.”

As Lyric took Ollie’s other arm, they walked him down the hallway toward what I called in my mind the ‘tan’ room.” With antique wooden dressers and nightstands, along with an elegant desk facing the corner with two windows that would give him plenty of light for writing. It was perfect.

But when they entered the room, Ollie stopped in his tracks. I snuck around the group with his suitcase and placed it on the loveseat at the base of the bed. When I turned around, his eyes were wide and his mouth open as he took in the room.

“What do you think?”

Rather than answering right away, he nibbled on his bottom lip and looked at me with wide, pleading eyes.

“Um, isn’t it kind of… big?”

His question had my lips tipping up.

Lyric, or hell, it might have been Linus, scoffed and said, “You should see the bedroom Con claimed for himself. No one needs a full-sized sauna in their bathroom.”

Before Ollie talked himself out of the bedroom so close to mine, I said, “This is the smallest one we have. And yes, it’s close to my room, so if you need anything, I’ll be right here.” I pointed down the hall toward the double doors.

His eyes widened, and I noted Ollie scandalized was a sight to behold.

Linus then took the bag from his shoulder and laid it on the desk. When he turned back, he said in a sweet, quiet voice, “I’m glad you’re here, Ollie. We’re gonna be great friends.”

Ollie’s face softened, and he pulled both my brothers into his arms and said, “Thank you, and I’d love to.”

With reluctance, I followed them out of Ollie’s room.

“Good night, Ollie, sleep well.”

“Night, Connor, and thanks again.”

His smile spiked my pulse, making me want things I shouldn’t.

After the exhaustive day; the end of the shoot and the long flight home caught up to me the moment I was out of Ollie’s presence.

I staggered toward my bedroom and closed the door behind me, walking over to my bed as I shucked off all my clothes, before collapsing on the downy softness and closing my eyes.

Blackness surrounded me as soon as I covered myself with a sheet.

It could’ve been hours, or days, later, but I blinked open my eyes in my darkened bedroom.

I’m not a heavy sleeper, so when I noticed my surroundings, I realized a sound had woken me, but for the life of me, I couldn’t identify it.

The unfortunate side effect of consciousness was I was up for the day.

A sigh of happiness escaped when I glanced at the clock and noticed it was closer to noon than early in the morning.

I threw on a tee and a loose pair of sweats, pressing the button to open the blackout curtains, and took a minute to adjust to the bright sunlight streaming through the windows.

The triplets giggled right outside in the hallway and I opened the door to see them disappearing into Ollie’s room. Frowning, I followed them.

“What are you three doing?”

Linus, I was getting better at finding their distinctive qualities thanks to my new friend, glanced up and said, “Ollie sleeps like the dead. You don’t have to whisper. Besides, mama sent us up because she made a full breakfast and is worried about him not eating enough.”

Ollie shuffled on the bed and turned to face away from us, but he didn’t wake. As he hugged a pillow to his chest, he kicked the blanket, which exposed his bare back and the swell of his bare ass, and I fought to swallow against my dry throat.

“Okay, out!” I said as I pushed my brothers toward the exit, ignoring their loud complaints.

Once the door shut behind me, I turned toward Ollie and noticed he turned back toward me during all the commotion. His face was relaxed in sleep and he looked even younger without his glasses perched on his nose.

“Ollie, honey,” I reached out and shook his shoulder.

No movement or sound came from the younger man, and the heat coming off his skin seared my hand.

I hesitated, but knowing he needed to eat, I caressed his arm, hoping a gentler touch would work.

While Ollie didn’t move, I became hyper focused on the way his soft skin made me itch to explore more of him and craved to learn his reactions to my touch.

My eyes examined the soft freckles dotting his pecs as my palms itched to open against his skin to see if everywhere was as delectable to touch.

But when my gaze halted on the tuft of hair sprinkled on his lower abs leading down past the sheet, I stared, making out the cut of his hips and my dick swelled in my sweats.

My mouth watered as every nerve in my body stood up and took notice.

That was when I realized how lecherous I was being and bit back a curse.

Fuck! Fuck! Fucking fuck! He’s an only just a legal adult.

Well, that absurd notion flew out the fucking window when Ollie moaned what sounded like my name in his deep-as-sin voice and rolled onto his back.

I held my breath as his eyelids fluttered open. His azure gaze found mine and instead of freaking out to find me hovering over him as he slept, he smiled, stealing the last of my breath.

“Hi,” he breathed.

I was out of sorts and still breathing hard from the shock of my snowballing desire, making my body aware it had been a few weeks since I had anyone under me.

But despite the flare of need, there was also a swell of affection; no other word for it, for this man.

Yes, I acknowledged, albeit in my mind, that Ollie was all man.

“Hi, yourself?—”

I choked on the last word when his hand, his warm, soft hand, reached up and cupped my cheek before he slid his thumb along my bottom lip.

Despite my varied and vast encounters over the years, I’d never experienced the sudden swirl of both passionate desire and intense gratitude from a simple touch.

“You’re so detailed,” he whispered in awe as he continued with his slow, thorough exploration of my face with the pad of his thumb. Down my jaw line, over the pulse in my throat, and when my brows furrowed at his cryptic words, his fingers brushed against them, smoothing them out.

“Please don’t frown,” he murmured, “you’re so beautiful. Good job, brain, for conjuring you.”

Unable to keep my surprise inside, I cursed as I watched his eyes widen as they skimmed over my face.

“What?”

“Ah, honey, I hate to burst your bubble, but I’m real. Remember, we met on a plane yesterday and my family adopted you soon after?”

The adorableness of this man when he blinked, reaching out, and pressing a hand to my regrettable covered chest, had me clenching my fists at my sides, preventing me from reaching for him.

Although I wanted to touch him more than my next breath, my fantasy disappeared in a puff of smoke when he jerked his hand back as though he’d touched flames.

He scrambled backwards out of bed, hovered in the air for an absurd second, before hitting the floor with a thud, which made those protective instincts of mine surge again.

“Oh, shit! Are you okay, Ollie?”

His head popped up on the other side of the bed and his mouth twisted in a frown before he stood, feet away, all his glorious naked beauty on indisputable display. I gasped and started coughing as I coveted the miracle that was before me.

“Yeah…”

Seeming more awake, his eyebrow quirked up, and when my eyes dropped to his naked and perfect form, his gaze followed.

It appeared salacious, unable to direct my gaze to the wall, or, if I had any decency in me, toward the floor.

Instead, I roamed over his wide shoulders, the muscular definition of his pecs and abs, and those fucking v-shaped cuts making my mouth water as I dreamed about licking him, tasting him.

The man was the epitome of a hot-as-fuck nerd, and I wanted to take him apart with my hands and lips.

Without even breaking the spell, he glanced down, blinking, before reaching for his glasses, taking another look.

He then screeched and yanked the sheet, which was tucked underneath the mattress, and the action jerked him forward, sending him sprawling on the bed and giving me the perfect view of his shapely ass.