She was sick of either appearing to Seth as a teenage boy or a frump in a robe with wild hair and not a smudge of makeup. The fact that she was going to go out with him tomorrow as Jessie Bauer only solidified her determination. Tonight, she was going to remind him—and herself—that she was one hundred percent female.
When she finally heard the door to the lower level close behind him, she sprang up from bed and extracted the skeleton key from a pocket in her purse. She hurried over to her small antique steamer trunk and opened it.
Seth’s secret had been exposed when she confronted him about the vibrator he’d brought on their trip. Part of him had wished something would happen between them, even if most of him had warned him it was unwise to hope. Gia hadn’t blamed him for that because she was similarly guilty.
She unlocked the secret compartment, withdrew the delicate, feminine items inside and smiled.
* * *
When Seth came upstairs after his workout, he heard the sound of pans rattling in the kitchen. He thought about going and stealing a kiss from Gia before he cleaned up, but he was really sweaty from his workout. Best just to get his shower out of the way before he joined her.
Or maybe it was the memory of what she said as she’d drifted off to sleep that kept him away. He remembered it, although Gia didn’t seem to after they’d awakened.
He probably shouldn’t dwell on it. Hadn’t he told her they should just focus on the moment instead of worry about the future?
But he had thought about it this afternoon and all during his workout.
A lot.
The bathroom smelled good, like Gia’s tangerine-scented shampoo and something else that appealed. He picked up a bottle of perfume that sat on the counter. He’d never seen it th
ere before. After taking an appreciative sniff, he set it down, smiling to himself. Seeing and smelling the uncustomary bottle of perfume had reminded him that Gia had teased him about dressing for her dinner. He noticed an unplugged flatiron on the counter that he’d never seen before either. She’d clearly made an effort with herself. It would be impolite of him not to reciprocate.
Several minutes later, he realized he was still grinning slightly as he showered. Gia had that effect on him. Thinking about her made him horny as hell and just plain hungry for the sight of her, for her taste, for the sound of her sighs and whimpers as she succumbed to pleasure. He was growing addicted to her honest, uninhibited reaction to his touch.
The thought of her also just made him smile though. Sex aside.
Despite his earlier misgivings about Gia’s dreamy statement about them working together in Hollywood, a pleasant sense of anticipation started to build in him, making his skin feel prickly and his cock to partially harden. Instead of ignoring his arousal at the idea of spending the evening with Gia and losing themselves once again in erotic pastimes, he encouraged the taut expectation, teasing himself, letting the suspense build. He soaped up his cock and balls and stroked himself idly, vividly picturing the way Gia had looked earlier this afternoon as he’d lapped and licked at her smooth, sweet pussy, bringing her to climax twice before he’d finally given in to his need and sunk his cock into the heaven of her. He imagined doing it all over again, except this time, her arms would be restrained to the bed. Yes, he thought as his fist moved faster on his now-stiff cock. That’s what he would do to her tonight. He’d already admitted he was addicted to that helpless expression that overcame her lovely face when he made love to her and her climax loomed.
He wanted to see her helplessness in the face of desire even more closely. He wanted to wrap himself in her total surrender.
The fact of the matter was, he wanted Gia to become as hopelessly addicted to him as he was becoming to her.
That jarring thought pierced his intense autoerotic fantasies about restraining Gia. He dropped the hand that had been cupping his balls as the other jacked his shaft.
He frowned at his reflection a moment later when he stood in front of the mirror, naked. His erection hadn’t dissipated, despite the unsettling thought he’d had about needing Gia so much. His cock sprang between his thighs, heavy and ready. Hungry.
He was letting his cock rule him in this. He’d known that from the moment he ordered Gia to go out to the SUV and wait for him while they’d stood together in that gas station restroom, both of them strung tight as piano wire by lust. His cock jumped in the air when he recalled that tense, delicious moment when he’d finally given in and exploded with Gia’s small hand pumping him so eagerly.
It was heaven to indulge himself, to drown in Gia for these stolen moments. But it wouldn’t last forever, Seth thought grimly as he drew on a pair of boxer briefs, wincing in aroused discomfort as he forced his erection into the clinging cotton. They would return to Hollywood, that world of illusion, and Gia would resume her place as its charmed, adored princess. There was no place for him at her side. Seth despised the limelight.
Why the hell did Gia have to adore it so much? He knew she wasn’t like some of the fame-starved waifs he ran into daily with his work, but she certainly didn’t avoid the blinding spotlight. She accepted it as one of the hallmarks of success. And there was no doubt Gia did seek success. Accolades, fame and public adoration were the equivalent of a raise and a good review from a boss in the everyday work world. Of course she would seek out those measures of her success.
Sometimes it was easy to forget when Gia was in his arms that he existed in a temporary heaven. The sweeter it got with her, the harder it was going to be to exist without her.
By the time he turned the corner into the kitchen several minutes later, his arousal and his anticipation and his doubts had created a taut tension in him.
He stopped dead in his tracks the second he saw her. She stood next to the counter and was in the process of adding some cherry tomatoes to a salad bowl. She looked around when his boots scraped on the tile floor as he halted.
“Where’d you get that?” he asked, gaping at the short, champagne-colored silk robe she wore. The robe outlined her feminine curves, flirting with his senses. His brows drew together in stunned disbelief when he realized she was also wearing pale stockings and a pair of taupe-colored pumps. Her shapely, long legs looked mouthwatering. His erection, which hadn’t really dissipated much in the past few minutes, now tightened again with alacrity. The caveman in him urged him to rip off that silk robe to see what she was hiding from him.
She was his, after all. For now.
Her golden brown hair looked drop-dead sexy, falling in a gleaming, straight curtain to the middle of her back, strands of it whisking against her high, firm, silk-covered breasts. He could see her nipples pressing against the silk, which definitely piqued his curiosity about what was under the robe. She wore a tasteful amount of makeup, mascara and subtle shadow accentuating her large, light green eyes. A tinted lip gloss transformed her always sexy mouth into a decadent sexual confection.
She looked extremely pretty, feminine and . . . downright edible.
“It was a little secret I brought along,” she said, turning toward him, her gaze lowering over him with warm appreciation. Her eyes widened slightly when her stare landed in the vicinity of his fly. She blinked. “Now you know why I wasn’t mad at you for presuming to bring that vibrator.”