Forcing Gravity (11 page)

“I will,” I
promised
, returning his hug
, thankful we’d gotten the awkwardness out of our systems. I was glad to go back to being friends with him
.

***

Thirty minutes later, Ethan was
happily
surrounded by three girls
who were flirting and gushing o
ve
r him
, so I slipped away, eager to explore the
rest of the house and leave him to his own devices. He
had started to take me on a tour but was waylaid by a brunette co-ed and her
two
friend
s who recognized him from one of the
local
surf competitions he’d won that summer in San Diego
.
I knew he could be occupied for a while, so I made myself scarce
and continued
touring the house on my own
.
I knew I’d be spending a good deal of time there, so I figured I’d better acquaint myself with the layout.

Once I got u
pstairs
,
I noticed there were three bedrooms. Garrett had already claimed one, one was a workout room, a
nd I assumed the third was
Ethan’s
. It was already fully furnished, but Ethan hadn’t moved in any of his personal affects yet
. The boys’ bedrooms were both at the back of the house and both had large decks overlooking the beach. I snuck outside onto the one off
Ethan
’s room, eager to breathe in the fresh air and tangy scent of the ocean.

I leaned against the balcony and took a deep breath. I loved how it was cool at night in L.A. At home the humidity was out of control this time of year, but not here.
Even though it was dark, I could see the waves crashing on the beach and the itch to go surfing started to build. I hadn’t gone out that morning since the waves hadn’t been great, and I hoped they’d be better in the morning. Ethan had a surf competition in Laguna that we were going to, and
the
waves needed to be solid or they’d postpone it.

“It’s a nice night, isn’t it,” someone said from the shadows,
startling the shit out of me,
and I jumped a mile. Th
e person laughed and stepped
into the light. “Sorry, I didn’t mean t
o
surprise
you.”

My heart stopped for jus
t a second when
I realized it was Jason Brady
, and all I could do was gape at him
.

Throughout my life, because of who my mother was, I’d met tons of famous people, and
it
usually didn’t freak
me
out, but something in me started to go haywire when Jason stepped out of the shadows.

His chiseled jaw looked even
more angular in the low light, and his pink lips looked even fuller, providing a sexy contrast to his otherwise masculine features. A
nd when he quirked a friendly smile at me, I noticed the dimple i
n his left cheek pop
out as
his dark-lashed green eyes sparkled, making his overall look that much more adorable and heart-pounding and sensual all at once
.
It was like one giant contradiction in looks that could only ever work on him.

It was no wonder women threw themselves at him and drooled over the
GQ
cover he’d graced and dreamed of what it might be like to kiss him. He was like walking sex, and having him standing not five feet from me was unnerving and exhilarating, and it did nothing except heighten my desire for things I
’d never experienced before.

He ran a
hand back through his dark hair and appraised me, a coy look on his face. My heart instantly stared pounding erratically
in my chest, and I knew words would be lost if I tried to speak them
. He was even more gorgeous at close range and taller
than I’d thought – at least 6’2 – and that body. Jesus. I don’t think I’d ever consciously considered ripping someone’s shirt off their body before, but knowing what was hidden just beneath those layers made me think about just that
.

“What are you doing up here?” I asked
when he didn’t say anything
, barely able to choke out the sentence.

He smiled
a
small smile, and it was as if he had a secret
he was dying to share
but couldn’t
, as his hypnotic eyes bore into parts of me no one had ever
seen
before. No wonder people flocked to his movies. Seeing that face and those eyes on the big screen and not being able to look away – the whole package sucked you in. And then he opened his mouth, and
it
was game over. Talk about a sexy voice, but it sounded even better in person.

“I
guess
I
wasn’t really in the mood for a party t
onight,
” he explained. “B
ut I didn’t realize i
t until I got here, so I figured I’d hide out until I could think of a good excuse to leave.”

“Why do you need an excuse
to leave a party?” I asked, realizing
too late that I sounded bitchy.
Why was I being
a
b
itch
to this perfect specimen of a man who had done nothing wrong?

Jason cocked his head
just enough to let me know he’d caught on to my tone. “My
publicist and my agent have
been giving me crap lately because I haven’t b
een going out, so to appease them
, I went out.”

So apparently those rumors were true. Jason had been in a relationship with one of his former co-stars for the past two years. Then pictures were taken of her
openly
cheating on him
,
and they’d broken up. It had been quite the scandal a few months earlier. The tabloids had reported that he’d become a bit of a recluse following their split, but I hadn’t thought that was true after seeing him at
Katsuya
earlier in the evening. He
’d
looked just fine to me, but apparently looks could be deceiving.

“And now you want to go home?
” I ventured.

He nodded.
“More than anything.”

I was surprised to find he was so easy to talk to
, once I pushed past the fact that he was giving me heart palpitations. Aside from his phenomenal good looks, h
e didn’t seem to have any
of the arrogance a celebrity of his stature would normally have
– and I’d met plenty of celebrities who were even less popular than him who were downright assholes
.

“So why don’t you just go home?” I asked, curious as to why an
uber
-celebrity would be forced to hide out.

He
smiled. “Because you came out here, so I figured I now have a reason to stay a little longer.”

I visibly rolled my eyes.
“Seriously?
Is that a line you use on girls when you meet them or something?”

I really hated when guys used pick-up line
s. Did they really work
?

Jason laughed.
“Uh no.
You just seem nice.”

I suddenly felt bad for rolling my eyes at him.

“
I gu
ess you seem nice too
,” I offered
, taking a seat on the outdoor sofa Garrett had
put on the balcony
. Jason stayed put, half-hidden in the dark corner. “Do you want to sit, or are you thinking about jetting?”

“
There’s paparazzi
down on the beach. I don’t want my picture taken.”

I looked over
my shoulder between the slats in
the railing and sure enough, three photographers lingered on the sand, just waiting for a golden shot of whomever they were
hoping might appear
, and it very well could have been Jason
.
Or Garrett.
Or any of the models or socialites or pseudo-celebrities that were
partying
downstairs.

“I can fix that,” I said, getting up and heading back inside. I grabbed a blanket from Ethan’s bed and draped it over the back of the railing behind the couch, successfully blocking the view of anyone who was down on the beach. I patted the end of the couch. “Feel free.”

“Thanks,” Jason said gratefully
,
as he bent down below the railing and covertly made his way over to me. He sat down at the opposite end
of the sofa
, angled himself toward me and appraised me thou
ghtfully. “I’m Jase
, by the way
.
”

“Jase?”
I asked. I’d only ever heard him referred to as Jason.

He smiled that secretive smile again and said. “It’s actually Jason, but my friends call me Jase.”

Apparently
I was his
friend.

“I’m Logan.”

“Ni
ce to meet you, Logan,
”
he said, and the way my name rolled off his tongue made me want to fan myself with my hand.

I resisted the urge to do just that, and w
e appraised each other for a minute, each of us seemingly wondering what to say next.

“How do you know Garrett?” I asked
, wondering if he actually knew Garrett.

I
t
would
n’t
be odd to see a celebrity of his stature at a random party without knowing the host
.
Jason Brady wouldn’t be turned away from any door he tried to enter.

“I just met him last week, actually,” Jase sai
d, leaning back against the arm
of the couch
. “We’re doing a movie together
, so the director wanted to get all the primary actors together for a meeting
before we start filming
. He seems like a cool guy.”

I smiled. “He is. I’ve known him since I was a kid.”

“You’re not dating him are
you
?” Jase asked, and I thought it was so cute how he asked like he was just curious, but I could tell he was really fishing
and had to take a few deep breaths.

Jason Brady was fishing for information on whether or not
I
was single
.
Could I actually get away with standing up and doing a happy dance without him thinking I was insane?
Yeah, probably not.

“No, we’re just friends,” I confirmed.

I had a feeling
Jase
didn’t read the tabloids, so he probably hadn’t seen me in my fifteen minutes of fame
alongside Garrett
.
No sense in dredging up things that weren’t true.

“That’s good to know,” Jase said
, his bottom lip twitching just slightly
. “I mean, in case anyone asks, I’ll know what to tell them.”

Smooth
,
I thought, fighting the urge to grin.
For as hot as Jase
was, he wasn’t very good at flirting.

“
I appreciate that
,” I said
confidently
, enjoying th
e fact that this guy, who was an
A-List celebrity, was
nervous and fumbling around me.

“So tell me about
yourself
,”
he
said
then, lifting his elbow to the back of the couch and leaning his head against his hand
in such a casual way that
it
started to make me feel at ease.
“You’re not from L.A., are you?”

“How did you guess?” I asked, laughing as I thought of how obviously out of place
I
looked.

“You don’t seem
as
pretentious as everyone else around here,” he said, catching me completely off-guard.

That was not what I
expected him to say at all, but with
that
one statement, I completely let down my guard and started to tell him about my life in Florida and my dad and how I’d moved to L.A. for school. I left out my mom, because I just didn’t feel like talking about her and because I didn’t necessarily want him to know who she was anyway. But it was incredibly easy to talk to him, and for some strange reason, I felt completely comfortable around him
even though I knew it shouldn’t
.

He smiled when I stopped talking and eyed me thoughtfully. “You’ll like USC.”

“I hope so.”