Page 34 of The Publicist
“Gross! Get off me, Caleb.” She tries to push me back with her hips, and I grab them, holding her in place.
“Oh, no, we aren’t playing that game. If you’re shoving it against me, I’m going to fuck it.” I slap her hip gently, and she jumps in surprise. “I’ve got to take a shower. Care to join me?” I nibble at her ear and her breathing hitches.
“Okay,” she says breathily.That’s my girl!
We shower much longer than needed, each making sure the other is entirely clean. After another amazing round of orgasms, we get out and get ready for the day. It’s only then that I realize I don’t have any clean clothes in her room. I put on my clothes from last night and run upstairs to grab something clean and race back down to her. I don’t want to spend more time apart from her than I have to.
I’m not paying attention to where I’m going when I leave, and I walk right into Tait.Oh, what the fuck?He has a sly smile on his face. “Morning, Caleb.”
“Morning, Tait.” I try to brush past him, and he stops me.
“Hey, can we talk for a minute?”
I growl in frustration, needing to get back down to Quinn. “What, Tait? What do you want?”
His features harden and he looks pissed. “Quinn is a good girl. I don’t want to see her get hurt. If you do, I have no problem kicking your arse.”
“Let me get one thing through to you. She’s my girl, and I’m going to look out for her. I don’t need your help; I need to you stay the hell away from her.” I don’t know what it is about this guy that gets me so riled up, but I’m restraining myself the best I can. As we are in a heated death stare, Quinn picks the perfect time to come upstairs and sees us.
“What the hell is going on?” She looks back and forth between us like a ping pong match.
“Nothing, we’re fine.” Tait breaks the stare and moves toward the stairs. He looks at Quinn. “You look radiant this morning.” He places a small kiss on her cheek and continues moving.
“When are you going to trust me?” she asks, arms crossed over her chest. I swear, I can piss her off by just looking at her the wrong way.
“It’s not you I don’t trust.”
“You need to work through your differences with him. People expect the two of you to be best buddies because you work together. I’ve told you many times over the past month, I’m a big girl and I can handle myself. Trust me, just like I’m trusting you.”
“I’m trying, Quinn.”
“I don’t think you are, Caleb. Try harder. It’s not easy for Tait to come to you either, you know. You treat him like shit and yet he’s still trying to be civil. Has he said anything derogatory about me or any other woman lately?”
“No, but—”
“But nothing. Talk to him today. Put this bad blood behind you, and you’ll enjoy working on this movie more. Now, we’re going to be late if we don’t get downstairs, and I’ve got a lot of your social media to run. Smile.” She holds up her phone and takes a picture of the two of us. It’s a nice one, and I’m sure the fans will enjoy seeing it. “Great, let’s go.” She takes my hand and all but drags me down to the elevator and into the lobby.
For the next week, until I have to leave to go back to Hollywood for the premiere ofThe Take Down,the two of us trade off rooms, refusing to sleep alone. It’s become a nightly ritual now. If I’m staying in her room, I bring down a pair of clean clothes so we can leave for the set the next morning, and she does the same if she’s staying with me.
I’m having some of the best sex of my life, but every time I ask her about making things official and putting a label on it, she dodges the question.
“Quinn, if I fire you, will you agree to put a label on things and allow me to call you my girlfriend?”
“No, because if you fire me, there goes all my credibility. I’ll never get another job in this damn industry.”
I want to yell at her, shake her, anything that will get through to her. “What do I have to do to make it official?”
“Caleb, what we are doing is something I shouldn’t be doing anyway. It’s not professional to be sleeping with a client. This isn’t the casting couch.” She picks a piece of invisible lint off the sheet that’s covering her perfect body. Then it dawns on me. Quinn is scared to do this. She is afraid to put her heart out there.
I soften and touch her cheek. “Hey, Quinn, I’m scared, too. This is huge for me after everything with Cassandra. You’re who I’m meant to be with though; it feels right. Everything about us just fits, and the sex is amazing.” I wiggle my eyebrows, and she blushes. “I am prepared to beg you every day if I have to until I get my way. You wantthis,wantmejust as much as I want you. Why can’t you see that?”
“I never said I couldn’t see it. I said it’s something we shouldn’t be doing. I’ve crossed so many lines by sleeping with you as it is. I’m not one to be in the spotlight, and dating you would put me in that situation. Why are you so adamant about making this real?”
“Why wouldn’t I want it to be real? Enough of my life is fake or made up for the masses, so it’s nice knowing I have something real, something that is mine that no one can touch.” I watch her face fall. She almost looks sad. Maybe if I can play the sympathy card well enough, she’ll come to her senses.
“I’ve gotta go.” She gets up and grabs her clothes, pulling them on quickly.
I get out of bed, fully committed to stopping her from leaving, and stand in front of her. “Quinn, please don’t leave. I don’t want you mad. I’m just trying to get you to see it my way, too.”