Forcing Gravity (28 page)

You couldn’t even tell his face was cut and bruised
, although he did lo
ok a little strange wearing eye
liner
and mascara
.
It wouldn’t show on screen, but up close and in person, h
e sort of resembled a punk rocker
.

I fingered the place where I knew his cut was, running my thumb under his eye
,
as his gaze stayed l
ocked on mine
.

“How come you don’t let anyone see you film?”
I asked, remembering the PA’s harsh words when I’d tried to follow Jase up
the
stairs. “It’s kind of pretentious.”

I realized
too late how harsh that sounded. I really had to work on my people skills.

“Because I get self-
conscious,” he murmured, as his hand moved to my shoulder. His fingers swept as light as a feather
down
across my collarbone.

“Really?
But you’ve been doing this for years.”

He shrugged. “I don’t like acting in front of a crowd. It’s why I could never do live theater.”

“But when the cameras are rolling, y
ou completely lose yourself in the
scene.”

I’d seen it. He was one hundred percent in character and in the moment when the director said ‘action’, so much so that it was easy to forget that it was him. His character was a real jer
k, and I wasn’t a big fan of him
. When he’d been making fun of Garrett’s character and acting like a prick, I’d sort of been rooting for his imminent death.

“It’s harder when I know someone’s watching me
,” Jase said, brushing back the curls that had fallen over my shoulder
.
“
I’ve had reporters interview me for magazines and then want to stick around and watch me in action, but I can’t do it.”

His hand danced
along my
bare
skin, making small traces o
n my shoulder and leaving white-hot heat trails it its wake
.

“Then why did you invite me to come today?” I asked
pensively
.

“Because even though it made me nauseous, I wan
ted you to see me
work,
”
he said, so genuinely that it made my stomach flip and flutter.

I wondered if he’d ever invited anyone else to see him work. Something told me the answer was no, and as much as that thought made me smile, it also freaked me out. What was different about me? Why was I special?

“I
made you nauseous?” I asked, leaning down to press a kiss to
the side of
his neck.

His head dropped back against the back of the couch
,
and he closed his eyes. “I was a wreck,” he said, as I moved my lips to the hollow between his neck and his collarbone
, kissing him slowly and deliberately
.

“I’m sorry,” I said,
flicking my tongue out to taste his skin
. I h
eard him inhale deeply and shift
ed my eyes to see the muscles in his neck twitch when he swallowed
hard
. “I didn’t intend to make you nervous.”

“
Don’t worry about it
,” he
said,
his breath quickening. “
Okay,
this is driving me a little nuts.”

“It is?” I asked,
lifting my head to look at him.

He raised his head back up, and the intensity of his gaze was almost too much. It was like you could cut the sexual tension in the trailer with a knife
as he sat there
drinking
me in
, his eyes burning with need
.

“Come here,” he said,
his hands going to my waist as he pulled
me toward him
, so I was straddling his lap
. “I’ve wanted to kiss you from the moment you hopped into my car in that sexy little
dress
, and I really don’t plan on stopping
.”

Hi
s hand
s slid to my knees and
ran halfway up my thigh
s
as his mouth connected with mine.
And t
he
tingly feeling was back in
my abdomen in
full force
,
just like that, as he p
lunged his tongue into my mouth.
I let out a small groan of pleasure. I half expected him to laugh at me, but instead he just kissed me harder, his l
ips rough and determined
, as if reacting to my vocal slip
.

He pulled me closer, eliminating any distance between us as his hands slid around to my backside and squeezed, holding me in place. Melded together, I could have kissed him for days.

“I like having you here,” Jase
said, when he
pulled back
after a few minutes
.

My head was fuzzy and warm, and I wanted to dive back in for more, but the intensity of his gaze stopped me.
His
bright green
eyes linge
red
hungrily
on my lips for a beat before moving up to my eyes. Then he
reached up and
brushed an errant curl from my face
and leaned forward to kiss my temple, cupping the back of my head with his hand
.

This was the sweet guy I remembered. In fact, I hadn’t seen any traces of the idiot who
’d
made
an
appea
rance
a
Garrett’s party all day.
That guy
seemed to have
vanished
the minute Jase walked out of Garrett’s house the night of the party.

“Jase, why are y
ou so different around me?”
I finally asked him
, searching his face for answers
.

“What do you mean?” he asked, appraising me thoughtfully
, his fingers playing with one of my curls
.

“
I saw you at Garrett’s party, and you were completely in your element, flirty and
sweet-talking the girls who were hanging
all over
you and throwing back drinks and with your friends
.
You were a social butterfly, but y
ou’re not like that around me. It’s like you transformed into ‘Hollywood Guy’, and it was a little strange to witness.”

I left out the part where I thought he was a complete and
total douchebag for most of the
night
, but I think my tone might have given me away.

Jase sucked in a deep breath
, and I could tell I’d hit a sore spot
.
“So you thought I was a jackass,” he deduced.

I hesitated
for moment, knowing I needed to be tactful. “Jase, you are a great guy,” I said, leaning my forehead against his. “I just, sort of, didn’t recognize you that night.”

He sighed and shook his head, as if in disbelief, and I realized I might have just blown it with him. I pulled back and appraised him, waiting for him to lower the boom.

“
I
was
a jackass,” he concluded. “
Logan, the way you
saw me acting that night
is what’s comfortable to me.
I’ve done it my whole life,
so it feels natural, but I’m not really that guy. When I’m around people who expect me to act a certain way, I just slip into that role.
I don’t have to think about it or even care,
because I don’t really
care
. But around you,
I’m actually nervous
, and I don’t always know how to act. I’ve never dated anyone like you before, and it’s completely
disconcerting
. I’ve never had any
issues in social situations, especially with women, but you do something to me that
makes
me feel like I’m heading into a
free fall
, and I’m not sure what do to about it.”

I
reached out, swept his hair back and kissed his forehead
.
“I make you nervous?”
I asked quietly.

“Yeah, you do,” he said,
his hands moving
back
to my waist
. “Here, feel my hands.”

He laced his fingers with mine, and I definitely felt some dampness. He
was
nervous.

“You’re very unsettling
to me
, Logan Kessler, and I’ve never met anyone like you.
But
I like it, and I like you
.” Then
he pressed his lips to mine
once again
.

It was then that time and space got lost as I made out with Jase on the couch in his trailer. It could have been five minutes or five hours. I had no clue.
He
pulled me against him,
and the skirt of my dress rose up, exposing the tops of my thighs. Jase ran his hands up, stopping when his fingertips hit the lace of the panties
I’d bought specifically for this
reason.

I ran my hands up his chest, feeling
the hard planes beneath them,
t
hen
slowly worked to unbutton his shirt, starting at the top.
I was glad he wasn’t wearing a t-
shirt underneath, and as soon as his skin was exposed, I lowered my mouth to his chest, kissing and sucking and
licking
.
I ran my hand over his abs, and lower to the bulge i
n
his jeans, letting my hand glide over
it slowly
, while my lips continued to their sile
nt assault on his chest
.

I looked up and saw
him
watching
me, mesmerized by my slow act of pleasure and torture
, his breathing growing shallower with every passing second
. Then he moved his hand to the spaghetti strap of my dress and slipped it down over my shoulder before his lips moved fo
rward and landed on the bare skin of my partially exposed breast
. He let his
h
and trail down to my
other
b
r
east and cupped it, as I pressed my body down onto the hardness I felt between my thighs.
It was a bold movement, but Jase made me feel empowered to do things I hadn’t done with other guys.

He
nipped at my s
kin
with his teeth, and I inhaled deeply and threw my head back in pleasure. And that’s the moment that Gary decided to interrupt us to let Jase know they needed him on set.

Fan
-
tastic
.

When Gary burst into the trailer without knocking and didn’t seem the least bit fazed that Jase was feeling up a girl, I assumed it wasn’t the first time it had happened. And that made me feel just a little cheap.
But t
hen Jase looked at me like I was the most beautiful girl in the world, and I felt exactly like that girl.

“I’ll be out in a minute, Gary,” he said, never taking his eyes off of me.

“You have five min
utes to get your ass on set,” Gary
said bitchily.
“And go see
Lelani
, so she can
touch up your make-up.” With that, he let the trailer door slam shut behind him.

“Why do you let him talk to you like that?” I asked Jase.

He shrugged, as he leaned f
orward to kiss my shoulder
.
“Because it makes him feel important.”

“It’s kind of rude.”

“He doesn’t mean anything by it,” Jase assured me, as his lips kissed a trail from my shoulder, up my neck
,
to the sensitive spot just below my ear.

“D
on’t you have to get to the set?” I asked
, well-aware that my breath was getting more and
more shallow
with every flick of his tongue against my skin.

“I have five minutes,” he murmured.
“Can we do more of this
later?”

He looked up at me as he waited for my response.
I felt my cheeks heat, and Jase leaned forward and kissed them.

“You are s
o cute when you blush,” he said
with
his lips
against
my skin. “We’re doing more of this later.”

He hadn’t even waited for my response. He just made the decision for both of us, and I wasn’t about to argue with him.