“Am I awake? Did Gage show up to present the award, and was it my name he called?”
She nodded as she helped me stand. Everything seemed to fade away as I hugged Gloria, Dane, Garrett, and Shaelyn before I made my way toward the stage. Lifting the hem of my skirt, I began to climb the stairs, all the while praying that I wasn’t about to pull a Jennifer Lawrence. When I reached the top, I breathed a sigh of relief as I made my way to where Gage was standing with the golden statue in his hand.
Oh, my God. I just won an Oscar, and my boyfriend had somehow managed to surprise me by showing up to present it.
When I safely reached the top of the stairs, I stopped in front of Gage. As was Hollywood custom, when he held his hand out to give me the Oscar, I leaned in to hug him.
It was supposed to be quick, but I held on a second longer than I should have because I wanted to bask in the warmth of his hand against the exposed skin on my back. When he straightened and looked down at me, his hazel eyes were heated, and I knew he was thinking about the hours we’d spent in bed together the previous weekend. We stared at one another as he guided me toward the microphone, but I barely noticed we were moving. When I finally opened my mouth to speak, I bombed.
“Holy shit.”
The sound of hundreds of gasps and nervous laughter brought me out of my trance. My hand flew to my mouth as I stepped back and turned to face the crowd.
Oh.
My.
God.
I’d just cursed in front of all my peers and the tens of millions of people at home watching.
“I’m so sorry,” I blurted as I turned away from Gage and frantically tried to gather my wits. “Obviously this is a huge surprise,” I laughed. “I’d like to thank my parents, my best friend Allie, my amazing director, Gloria Garrison, for giving me the chance . . .”
Other than thanking Dane, Garrett, and Shaelyn, I don’t remember the next ten seconds of my speech at all. After I finished and stepped back from the microphone, Gage put his hand on my back and began guiding me off the stage. That quickly, I was back in the vortex of how it felt for him to touch me. I’d just won an Oscar, and it was barely even registering because all I could think about was him
“You came,” I whispered.
“I’ll always be here when you need me,” he answered.
I figured anyone watching likely assumed the single tear that rolled down my cheek was because I’d won an Oscar. The truth was that I choked up because of how overwhelmed I was by what he’d done for me.EighteenGageIt took everything I had in me to stop my hand from shaking where it touched Morgan’s back, a reaction which only she was able to pull from me. I was so fucking proud that she’d won her first Oscar, but that hadn’t stopped my cock from hardening the instant she’d leaned in to hug me. My cock pressed against the zipper of my custom-tailored tuxedo slacks—something I was going to have to consider the next time I met with my tailor since it had also happened at the Golden Globes. When she’d turned to face the podium, I slid slightly to the right so the scarlet colored material from her dress blocked the camera’s view of my crotch.
As she spoke, her intoxicating scent wrapped around me, pulling me further under her spell as she thanked everyone who needed to be thanked in her husky voice. Then I was ushering her off the stage with my hand at her back, caressing the skin exposed there when what I really wanted was to get my hands all over her body.
I also felt the insane urge to rip her dress to shreds and then light it on fire for good measure. I couldn’t have cared less how much it cost even though it was probably upward of fifty thousand dollars if I had to guess. I’d have been more than happy to pay for the damn thing, and it wouldn’t have made a dent in my account. But I didn’t want anyone to see her naked.
Not that it covered much of her tits with that plunging neckline. During that moment when we’d stared at each other after she’d stepped away from me, they’d bounced seductively with each breath she took, and I thought they were going to pop out of her dress. I’d been so convinced of it that I almost whipped off my tuxedo jacket to keep her covered. While she’d been giving her speech, I’d been obsessing with the possibility of a wardrobe malfunction. If Mario had been up there with us, he’d have been whispering in my ear to figure out a way to make her pop out of her dress, and then I would have been forced to kick his ass.