Feast of Saints (42 page)

Jake moved his hand out of his way and thrust harder, impulsively, unable to stop the driving need to embed himself in her soft, wet flesh. His hand free, Jake grasped her buttocks, compulsively squeezing, parting them, raising her higher.

She felt him everywhere as he plunged his tongue into her mouth, thrust his cock harder, driving into her. His testicles hit her anus with each driving thrust, causing a spike in her pleasure, and adding to his as her inner muscles instinctively tightened even more.

Jake tore his mouth away from hers. “Come again, Lilly,” he commanded fiercely, his face grim with need.

She was overwhelmed and fully invaded, the pleasure from her first orgasm still pulsing through her with every grind of him against her wet flesh. She wasn’t sure she could, it was all too much.

“Again, Lilly!” he demanded, then thrust his tongue into her mouth and at the same time pressed that clever thumb against her anus.

Lilly’s muscles contracted impulsively at the thrilling, sweet, threatening pressure. She had no will, no choice, but to succumb to the wracking spasms that exploded inside of her, around him.

“Ah, God, that’s it!” Jake arched into her as he spasmodically ejaculated, roaring with his pleasure.

Chapter 26

When the final cut and wrap for the Maui shoot was called mid-morning on Friday, no one wanted the enchanted week to end. The usual cheers were muted. Not only were they leaving paradise, they were facing a long flight home and the start of a job search for many. Hawaii was the last full schedule of filming. Back in LA, most of the film crew would be working on an on-call basis only as the editing team kicked into high gear.

Lilly would need to spend a day or two culling through her Lab and stripping down to just the basics needed for any re-shoots. She guessed she’d be consulted on the Spello edits, and she still needed to oversee the final cuts for the BTSV, but for the most part, her work was done.

She was meeting Ravi on Tuesday to talk about her next project. She’d meant to find time to talk with Jake about the
Jonathan Strange
offers, but between the BTSV and the film, Jake had been constantly surrounded by a camera crew. The only moments of privacy that they had were in the middle of the night and early, early in the morning. They hadn’t spent that time talking.

Lilly’s stomach constricted with desire and longing. Jake would be leaving that afternoon. The studio was flying the high-end creative talent back on the private jet as soon as the shoot was finished. Jake, Monty, Alan and Maya, who had people to take care of packing up anything they’d brought, could walk off the set and on to the plane. Lilly had an entire department to dismantle and box up. She would be flying back with the rest of the crew on a commercial flight the next day.

Looking on the bright side, she thought that a day and a half away from Jake would give her some time to think. She wanted to take her time discussing the
Jonathan Strange
offers with him, and she wanted to have that conversation with her clothes on.

One of the offers was for Art Director. She’d have known it was a big deal even if Ravi hadn’t said so a hundred times. On the long flight home, she could read the summaries that Ravi had emailed her and be prepared to discuss the offers with Jake intelligently. Maybe work up a list of talking points.

Near the top of the list of things to discuss with Jake would be Sierra. Being the Art Director would mean overseeing Jonathan Strange’s courtship of Arabella Woodhope. She already felt uneasy at the prospect of working with the two of them together. If she were responsible for breaking them up, it would be impossible. And what if they were not broken up? Her imaginary list evaporated. Well, that was a whole other list of talking points.

Makeup removed, Jake stepped into the Hawaii Lab as Lilly was packing up. He groaned at the sight of her tiny ass up in the air as she bent over an open box. That morning, hot from the shower, he’d bent her over the vanity just like that. Ever since then, his recurrent fantasy of her bent over, wearing nothing but those crazy hiking boots that she had back in LA kept flashing in his head.
Rein it in, Miles
.

“What’s left?” he asked, clearing his throat. “I can help you.”

“Hi!” she said, surprised, straightening and brushing her hands. “I thought you’d be headed to the airstrip.”

Jake frowned, assessing her. He’d already asked her that morning if she would fly back with him, but she’d declined. When he’d suggested that he could skip the private jet and stay the night with her, fly back commercial, she’d resisted that, too.

“Sure, that sounds good in theory,” she had said, “but when you’re spending your whole Saturday wasted, flying home, you aren’t going to be happy. Then I’ll be stuck with you, drumming your fingers and fiddling with your phone. For hours.”

Jake had been honestly affronted. “I don’t act like that.”

She pursed her lips at him, “You may think that you cover it well, but your irritation exudes off you and makes me jumpy. Besides, there’s probably no way you can get a first class seat unless you bump me or Clara into coach, and I’m not going to let you bump Clara into coach, so we wouldn’t be together anyway.”

She had offered too many excuses. Jake had the uneasy feeling that she was poised to run away from him again. She’d been sending none-too-subtle signals all week that to her, this was a temporary affair. She wouldn’t do anything that might be an open acknowledgement of their relationship. If he teased her or touched her in any more than the most innocent way in front of Alison or Monty or the crew, she’d brush him off or maneuver away from him. In the morning, she slipped out of his suite early, before Park and Cully showed up. The night before, she had checked in quickly at the end of the day, but she left just as quickly to finish work in the Lab and didn’t return until after everyone was gone.

He had wanted to ask her about it, challenge her, but when she returned, she wrapped her arms and legs around him and his worries were overrun by a driving desire to have her any way he could.

Now, here he stood, wanting her, and she was shoving him off when he offered to help her pack.

“Don’t you need to get going?” she asked, as if she could hear his thoughts. She looked at her watch, driving the point home.

“What? Don’t you like my company anymore?” he asked, making a joke of her attempt to brush him off again, holding a hand to his wounded heart.

“I love your company,” she said, making his chest ease a bit. But when he stepped toward her, she waved him away. “But the paparazzi are already swarming the front of the hotel. I don’t want them hunting for you out here. You know how well I photograph.”

He scrubbed the back of his neck. “Are you worried about the spotlight, Lilly?”

“No, I don’t care about that,” she said, resuming her packing. “Not much, anyway,” giving him a shy smile.

“Then what’s the problem?” he pressed.

His persistence seemed to throw her for a loop. Lilly tried to avoid a response, placing bubble-wrapped molds in a cardboard box marked with her name, until he put one long fingered hand on the flaps, pushing the box closed.

“What’s going on here, Lilly?” he asked quietly.

Lilly eyed him for a long moment, and then said, “We’re back to reality this week.”

“This isn’t reality?” he countered.

A hint of exasperation flitted across her face. She gestured around them as if they could see the palm trees that surrounded the trailer, the five star manicured grounds of the Fairmont, the ocean front pavilion.

“It’s just all so romantic, here. And isolated,” she said, as if that explained everything.

She was shutting him out. It was Wyoming all over again. Jake’s instinct was to grab her and shake her, or kiss her. Better yet, fuck her until she screamed for him like she had the night before.

When he continued to study her, she said, “You’d better get going. Maya left thirty minutes ago.”

Jake picked up a sheet of bubble wrap, popping it loudly in his fist, and counted to ten in his head. He would not lose his cool in front of her again.

“I don’t have to leave for another hour. I’ve decided to head over to Oahu for a couple of days. Tyler’s still there, and Jennis is on her way. I’m catching the island-hopper.”

He had come to invite Lilly, but now he thought that might be a bad idea. Sierra was coming with Jennis. Her New York apartment had been broken into two days before, and there would likely be a lot of press.

The previous week, Jennis had scolded him mightily about his behavior toward Lilly when he returned home after seeing her out on her date with Raoul Bova. He’d stormed into the foyer in a black rage and shoved that goddamned grinning monkey over, cracking the alabaster floor.

“Is this any way for a grown man to act!” Jennis had shouted when it appeared he was not done breaking things. She really liked that monkey.

Once they both calmed down, and Jake was able to voice his frustration at Lilly’s repeated rejection of him, Jennis had tried to reason with him.

“Consider her position, Jake. Do you have any idea how hard it is to be a woman in the entertainment business? All the blustering egos and competition. She doesn’t know you like I do. She’s smart to tread carefully.” She said a few more choice things, trying to make him understand what it feels like to be a woman navigating a male-dominated industry, and how truly repugnant it is to have your job defined by your sexuality.

“And your life – my life with Sierra – it’s not for everybody. Even if you weren’t her employer, you of all people know how intimidating it is being in the public eye constantly, having no privacy. I love Sierra very much, but if I could have picked someone to be with who wasn’t in the spotlight everywhere she goes, I would have. Think how different our lives would be,” she said wistfully. “She could move in here. We wouldn’t have to hide.”

“That’s her choice, Jennis. She shouldn’t be hiding.” Jennis rolled her eyes at him. They’d had that discussion before, many times.

“Everything comes so easy for you. It’s not that simple for me, or Sierra. Or Lilly for that matter, from the sound of it. You need to back off, let her come to you.”

“I’m not going to stand by and let Lilly pick someone else,” he said firmly.

“You may not have a choice,” she said, ruffling his hair to take the sting out of her words. “If she wants you, she’ll come to you regardless of the obstacles. She’s going to need that kind of determination to hang around this family.”

Jake put down the now flattened and ruined sheet of bubble wrap and picked up the tape.

“These ready to go?” he asked Lilly, indicating the boxes she’d already filled.

“Yes, thanks,” she said, and he began taping them up. Pack it in for now, he told himself as they worked quietly together. Fall back and re-strategize. He’d follow Jennis’ advice. Let her come to him. And when she did, he’d make sure she did, over and over.

Chapter 27

When Lilly arrived home Saturday evening, she was surprised to find Kyle at her house. He’d practically moved in with Marco before she left for New York.

When he told her somewhat tearfully that they had broken up and that Marco had gone home to Houston, she wrapped her arms around him.

“Oh, Kyle, I’m so sorry. Are you sure it’s over?”

“It’s Houston. What am I supposed to do there?”

“Did he ask you to come with him?”

“I guess. Sort of. I don’t know. It was all so vague. One minute we were eating chicken satay in Thai Town talking about futures and families, and suddenly he was talking about going home. I thought he meant his apartment. But he meant home-home. Texas. He has like twenty brothers and sisters there from four different parents. They all live in the same neighborhood. It’s bizarre.”

Lilly smiled inwardly at Kyle calling anyone bizarre. But she could see how a big, close family like that might intimidate him. Growing up, it had just been Kyle and his mom. Lionel and Lilly had been his only friends. Like her, families didn’t always mean happiness. Like her, he’d fled his.

“Maybe you should go visit?” she ventured.

“Are you needing to get rid of me?” he asked miserably.

“No, of course not. Stay here as long as you want. Forever, if you’d like. I love having you here. But, I want you to be happy. And Marco, well, he seemed to make you happy. Maybe his brothers and sisters are like him. Maybe you’ll like them just as much.”

“I just agreed to teach the spring semester at FIDM,” Kyle said, his voice quavering.

“Well, you don’t have to move there. Just go visit. Meet his family. See what it’s all about.”

“It’s not like I can settle down in Houston. Other than Marco, there’s nothing for me there.” Kyle was starting to sob and it tore at Lilly’s heart.

“That’s a pretty big something, Kyle. What is there elsewhere for you, without him?” she asked gently.

Lifting his chin, she wiped away his tears with her fingers.

“Go call him. Don’t let him think for another minute you don’t care enough to even try. Tell him you’d like to come for a visit, and then just go. You can figure everything else out later.”

“Okay. Okay. You’re right. Maybe I can make Houston my new landing spot.”

She nodded and hugged Kyle tightly; too despondent at the idea that she wouldn’t always be Kyle’s landing spot to say anything aloud.

By Tuesday, Kyle was on cloud nine. Of course, Marco wanted him to come. Of course, Kyle could come and go as he needed, as long as they were committed to being together. And they were. It was settled. Kyle was headed to Houston on Friday afternoon.

He’d be back the week after, in time to start teaching his runway fashion class, but he was already making noises about finding a suitable replacement to finish out the spring semester so that he wouldn’t have to make the grinding, expensive commute.

“I’m going to grab tandoori takeout and a bottle of wine. My treat,” said Kyle, poking his head in her studio where Lilly was finishing the
Feast
collage. She’d been working on it for the last few nights, unable to sleep.

Jangling the keys to the Vespa, Kyle said, “Be right back.”

As soon as the door shut, she dropped her plastic smile. She couldn’t stop herself from checking her phone again, which she’d done every hour since leaving Mjicon’s offices that morning. She’d met with Ravi who was advocating that she take the Art Director job on
Strange
. She needed to talk to Jake. She was sure that Jake had said he was coming home today, but he hadn’t called or texted.

She wondered briefly if something was wrong with her phone. Trying it out, she texted Kyle, “Get raita pls.” She loved that yogurty-cucumbery stuff.

She had to muzzle her disappointment when Kyle texted right back, “like id frget.” Her phone seemed to be working just fine. She thought of her sage advice to Kyle only a few days before, when she’d encouraged him to take the initiative and call Marco. At the time, she’d still been feeling warm and fuzzy about Jake. But as his phone silence drew out, she could feel her insecurities resurfacing. Tamping them down, she resolved to call him later, after dinner, when she could retreat to her bedroom for a stretch of privacy.

When Kyle returned, he was carrying a sack of spicy goodness and an expensive bottle of Pinot Noir.

“Looky who I saw on the mag rack at Mel & Rose,” Kyle said, referring to the specialty wine and food shop on Melrose. He slapped a glossy gossip rag on the kitchen table.

There on the cover was Jake. And Sierra Nighly. “Jonathan and Mrs. Strange, On the Town,” read the caption. The photo looked like it had been taken in New York, probably a couple of weeks ago when Jake and Sierra had been there for Ty’s first dress rehearsal. “More inside,” was promised.

Reluctant, but unable to stop herself, she picked up the magazine and flipped to the inside story. News about their upcoming movie, details of their careers and rumors of their on-again, off-again romance filled half a page. Most of it was old news. Lilly had read similar stories when she’d researched Jake months ago, after their first lunch meeting.

But there was news she hadn’t known, like the fact that Sierra’s New York apartment had recently been burglarized. NYPD believed it wasn’t just some random heist. The story didn’t explain fully, but apparently the burglar’s sloppiness – there was a grainy photo of a man in a hooded jacket standing in the elevator of Sierra’s apartment building – and the personal nature of the items taken, caused NYPD to suspect it was a fan.

The story went on to say that Sierra had fled New York to an undisclosed location until the avid fan could be located. Someone, most likely her agent, had submitted a photo of Sierra at said undisclosed location. Sierra was captured laughing and lounging on a chaise, sunbathing in a red bikini, disabusing any notion that she might be cowed by the burglary.

Lilly would have known the photo was taken in Oahu because of the distinctive black sand even if the tall woman next to Sierra had not been so easily recognizable. Lounging next to Sierra was Jake’s sister, Jennis.

She closed the magazine and looked at the date on the cover. It had just come out today.

“Jennis is coming,” Jake had said when he told her about his change of plans on Friday, the side-trip to Oahu. He hadn’t mentioned Sierra would be there, too.

Lilly felt all of the blood leave her face. Although she had intended to talk to him about it, she really hadn’t thought that Jake and Sierra were an item anymore. He had just been so attentive to her, so passionate, so seemingly smitten. Now, staring at Sierra’s perfect pose and flawless nearly naked figure, she had no idea why she’d made such a foolish assumption. He never told her that he wasn’t seeing anyone else. They’d never talked about what their relationship meant to him.

In fact, the closest she and Jake had ever come to actually talking about what was between them was in the car in New York.

“There is no us,” Jake had said.