Page 29 of Hollywood Crush

After a moment, the hands that held me close went away and I felt Tudor slide out of me. I finally took my hands off the wall and looked down — there was quite a mess, and the stickiness and sweat now felt a lot more exposing than it had in the heat of the moment.

Tudor tied off the condom and threw it in a bin, then took few steps towards me. “You OK?” he asked.

“Yeah, just…” I didn’t quite know what to say. It sounded stupid to say I feltembarrassed,but I did. I felt embarrassed for being so submissive to him, so ready to do as I was told. I was not that kind of person all the time.

Tudor pulled me into a hug and stroked the small of my back with still slightly sticky hands, soothing me. “Hey,” he whispered. “It’s OK. You don’t have to hide it from me.”

I relaxed more into the hug, letting Tudor support me with his big, capable hands.

“Take this.” Tudor stepped back from me and rifled through the shorts he had dropped to the floor, finally presenting me with a key. “Leave the door unlocked, get yourself cleaned up in the shower and I’ll join you once I’ve…cleaned all this up. Not very professional of me to have sex in my own gym.”

I smiled at him and took the key. I quickly pulled on my clothes but shed them as soon as I was out of the gym and into his room with the door safely closed behind me.

I walked to the now familiar shower, turned on the water and waited a second for the water to run hot. I stepped under the shower head and let it wash all my worries away. I would talk to Patrick in the morning, cut the media speculation off with the reasoning we had done enough. I would talk to Sandra. I needed to be more authentic, less stage managed. If this series really would open all the doors she insisted it would, I needed to be able to live a happier and freer life because of it. There was no point achieving success if I was going to just live the same life I had before.

And finally…Tudor. I didn’t know exactly what he wanted but I knew he wanted me. Much as I wanted him. And I didn’t know if he wanted me more permanently, or if he was happy with this just being a fling. But I owed it to him to ask, to be honest with what I could offer him. I was flighty, filming could take me all over the globe at any time. I needed a base to call home, somewhere I could relax, and somehow Hiraeth had come to fit the bill.

I heard the room door creak open, then the bathroom door clicked. Finally I felt a cool blast of air as the glass shower cubicle door slid open and closed behind me. Strong arms wrapped around my body and locked me to him. Though the sexual chemistry was amazing, it felt almost as good to stand naked under the spray with Tudor without the pressure or expectation of sex. It was just his body pressed up against mine and I against his, standing under the warm spray and feeling safe and comfortable with one another. I needed this man, wanted to be close to him. It was time for me to start to work it out.

Naturally, things were never that simple.

Chapter Ten

Tudor

An alarm that wasn’t mine woke me, and I shot up in bed like a rocket. Was a guest in trouble, or Mam standing over me in anger once again, or…Oh.

I was so unused to having a man in my bed that the sight of Daniel —Danny— laying there tangled in the sheets still shocked me. He felt around, bleary-eyed and apparently not quite conscious yet, to stop his phone from blaring.

“Wh-what time is it?” he turned to me, his voice groggy and hair sticking in every direction. He was so gorgeous I wanted to cry. This Danny, the one who the world would never get to see, was all mine. Messy, and tired, and still bloody fucking gorgeous. How could I have lucked out in the way I had? How the hell could I ever give this up? I had no idea.

“No idea on the time, it’s you who set the alarm.”

“Oh, six o’clock then,” he muttered. “Stunt filming all day today, so I just have to look pretty for the close ups.”

“Might want to have a shower, then,” I teased. “You look throughly fucked.”

“Iwasthoroughly fucked and that is entirely your fault,” he replied. I heard his stomach rumble as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed. I remembered then that he’d come over relatively early and then we had gotten way too busy to eat.

“Use my shower then come to the conservatory when you’re ready,” I said. “I’ll make sure you’re well fed. Roland doesn’t strike me as the kind of man who believes in lunch breaks.”

“Doesn’t he? Always seemed wonderful to me,” Danny replied.

I took in the view from behind as he walked to the shower, his smooth tanned skin and gorgeous arse basically tempting me to go and join him. But if he had set an alarm he would have to be on set soon, and I’d rather him fed than fucked. How bloody domestic of me.

I pulled on my work trousers and a shirt from the cupboard. Mam wouldn’t be up yet and Nadia wasn’t due in to work until the evening, so I brought my mobile with me as I walked past the sounds of Daniel humming to himself in the shower — he was a much better actor than singer — out into the hallway, through reception to the kitchen.

Even the catering crew weren’t up and awake yet, which gave me the time and space to do what I needed to do. I wasn’t sure if Daniel was allergic to anything, he’d never said, or complained, so I got to making the simplest things I could. Afterten minutes and a quick wash up I was carrying a plate of food and a foil-wrapped bundle to the conservatory.

I hadn’t set up the little fold out table so when I got there Daniel was looking out of one of the huge windows towards the sea. My plants had started to grow and I’d been harvesting spinach regularly for when I cooked for me and Mam.

“French toast,” I said, holding out the plate to him. I pulled a knife and fork out of my pocket and handed those to him too. “Sorry, I’ll get the table now.”

“No need.” Danny sank to sit cross-legged on the floor and tucked in, making heightened sounds of enjoyment which I was sure were only to reassure me that it was good. I crouched down next to him so that I wasn’t towering over him.

“That’s my own bread,” I bragged. “I used to get it all from the bakery but he’s been so piled high with orders that I’ve started to make my own. Not on any massive scale, of course. Just enough for me and Mam. And you, obviously.”

“It’s very, very good,” said Daniel, thankfully interrupting my ramble. He cleared the plate and set it down beside him. “What’s that?” he pointed to the foil wrapped package in my hand.

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