Page 14 of Beach Reads
“I don’t think you did get the message, actually.” Darla’s annoyed, her shoulders tense and her lips pressing together between sentences. Hazel eyes scowl up at me. “Because I don’t want you to leave me alone, Jesse. I want you to stop hovering on the sidelines, acting like you don’t trust yourself with me.”
Hovering on the sidelines? I haven’t been holding back to be weird. I’ve been giving her space; respecting her boundaries.
She’s over a decade younger than me, and just starting out in her career. I’d be the worst kind of asshole if I misjudged this.
I snort. “Maybe Idon’ttrust myself with you.”
Because I want to be a better man than this. More controlled. I want to stop looking at her fucking cleavage like it’s the promised land, and I want my mouth to stop going dry every time I catch a glimpse of her.
I want to focus on my work, and I want to stop the vivid slideshow playing on a loop in my head: the one where I push her up against the side of my trailer, or lay her down in the sand, or coax her into my private shower.
But: “Good,” Darla snaps, “I don’t want you to be noble about this.” And beneath the haze of her anger, there’s something else. Something flushed and breathless about her.
Her throat works as she swallows, tearing her eyes away from mine, and they roam over my chest instead. My arms. My abs. Watching the way goosebumps prickle over my bare skin in the breeze; the way my nipples harden under her gaze.
Heat coils low in my gut, vicious and sudden. With a huff, I tug the towel from around my neck and hold it in front of the hardening length pressing against my swim shorts.
Darla’s mouth twitches. Spreads into a wide smile.
And I grin too, my irritation melting away like a dropped ice cream cone. This is ridiculous.
“If you everdowant me to leave you alone…”
“I’ll say so. I promise.” She’s waiting, so sweet and expectant for something else, and even though I need every spare minute over the next few days to prep for this audition, even though there’s a serious risk I’m about to quit on her beloved uncle… I can’t disappoint her again. Can’t let this chance slip through my fingers.
“I, uh.” This might sound like a horrible line, but here goes. “I prefer to stay out of the public eye when I can help it. But would you like to come over to my place tonight? I’ll cook you dinner.”
The pleased flush that creeps over her cheeks—that’s it. My new favorite color.
“Are you sure?” Darla whispers, throwing a nervous glance at the other actors.
I nod. “I’m sure.”
She plucks at her polo shirt, eyeing my bare chest again. “And you won’t be too tired from the week’s heroics?”
My grin widens. “Why, Darla? You gonna put me through my paces?”
And it’s worth the crossed wires and awkward silences we’ve had; the stilted conversations and tense shoulders. All of it is worth it, because when Darla throws her head back and laughs…
I feel like one of the kites the locals fly along the beach, soaring in giddy circles high above the sand.
Darla
Ihave a date with Jesse Hendry.TheJesse Hendry: famous heartthrob and man of a thousand abs. When I spin and walk away from him, our date arranged, I feel like the sea breeze could snatch me right up and toss me around beneath the white puffs of cloud.
We still have a full day’s work to go first.
And damn, it takes forever.
First, one of the sound booms breaks in the middle of a take. It ruins the footage, and makes the sound department grumpy as all hell. Next, the radios go on the fritz, making Franklin’s instructions extra crackly and confusing.
There’s a mid-morning rain shower that delays filming for an hour; then the sun comes back out and one of the actors gets mild heat exhaustion.
We run out of cookies at the snack table.
It’s a whole-ass day.
By the time we’re packing up the set in the early evening, everyone is crabby and short-tempered. The actors flee to their trailers or to the extras tent, leaving the crew to their manual labor, and there are a lot of sunburned faces and tired eyes all around.
