Forcing Gravity (30 page)

“Hurry up and order,” Nora urged us, as she glanced back at the woman.

“Ham and Swiss on rye with chips,” Jase said, and because I wasn’t thinking clearly, I just ordered the same
thing
and closed my menu.

“So you have two sisters,” I ventured as Nora sauntered back to the front counter to put our order in.

“I have three sisters,” Jase said, and opened his mouth to say more, but he was interrupted by
the woman in the yoga pants who looked like she could use a good meal.

“Hi,” she said to him, completely ignoring me.

Her voice was
breathy as if she’d just run a mile, but I knew it was all for show. She was trying to sound seductive, and quite frankly, it pissed me off.

“Hello,” Jase said politely, but
there was a question in his tone that aske
d, ‘D
o I know you?’

“I just wanted you to know that I’m a
huge
fan,” she gushed
breathlessly, as she rested hand on
Jase’s
shoulder
.

My eyes went wide, and I glanced over at Nora who was watching us. She rolled her eyes.

“Thank you,” Jase said
politely
, as he glanced down at her hand
.

“I’m Marcy,” she said,
as she trailed her fingers down his upper arm and stuck her hand out for him to shake.

“Nice to meet you, Marcy,” he said
, shaking her hand.

She giggled, and I rolled my eyes
. This woman must have been at least thirty-five, and she was shamelessly hitting on a twenty year-old guy just because he was a famous actor.

“
It’s
so
n
ice to meet you, Jason,” she
said, as she bit down on her bottom lip. She was still gripping his hand.

It’s Jase
, I felt like saying, but he didn’t correct her, so neither did
I
.
Now let go of his damn hand, bitch.

“Marcy,” Nora called
out
as she set a drink on the counter.

“Excuse me,” Marcy said, as she turned and flounced back toward Nora.

I gave Jase a look,
and he just shook his head, but then suddenly, Marcy was back. She dropped something in
Jase’s
lap and leaned down to whisper in his ear. I watched him turn red as her lips moved deliberately, millimeters from his skin. Then she rose up,
gave me a pitying look,
turned on her heel and was gone.

Without looking at the piece of paper, Jase dropped
it
in the middle of the table and looked up at me in shame. “I’m sorry about that.”

“She propositioned you, didn’t she?” I asked, picking up the paper and unfolding it.

Sure enough, there was her number and a kiss of
her
lipstick. I crumpled it up and squeezed it in my hand. How could I compete with women like that?

“Give it to me,” Jase said, sticking his hand out, and I was shocked for a minute, thinking he actually wanted her number.

I handed it over to him, and he proceeded to rip it into tiny shreds. “There’s only one girl who’s given me her phone number in the past two months that I care about, and she’s sitting across from me.”

I stared back at him, hoping he was being honest. His gaze was insistent.

“Here you go,” Nora said, setting down our food in front of us.
“Are you guys staying for a while?”

“I have to be back on set in a few hours, so maybe,” Jase answered distractedly. “Why?”

“Mom’s stopping by later, so I figured you’d want to stick around.”

“Maybe.
W
e’ll see,” he answered quickly.

I looked up to watch Nora walk away.

“Logan,” Jase said
after a few seconds
.

I
looked down at my plate,
pl
ucked a chip from the pile
and chewed it thoughtfully. “I’m fine,” I said, keeping my eyes down. “I’m just not used to people hitting on my dates while I’m actually out with them.”

“That won’t be the last time it happens, but I can assure you, when I’m with you, I’m not paying attention to any other girls.”

Yeah, but what about when you’re not with me?
My mind went to the make-out twins once again.
He might not have acted on anything, but he’d definitely flirted with them.

I looked up a
t him. He seemed sincere. “Okay,
”
I finally said, knowing I needed to trust him.

He watched me pensively for a few minutes. “I’m sorry,” he said again.

I shook my head, as if shaking off the experience and simultaneously letting him know I didn’t want to talk about it any longer.

As we were leaving the café an hour later, Jase took my hand and smiled at me
. I smiled back for half a second before we were
ass
aulted by flashbulbs, and
I dropped
Jase’s
hand like it was on fire.

“I thought you two weren’t dating,” Rodney said, walking backward as he snapped pictures of us. Four other photographers were surrounding us, asking questions, but his were the only ones I heard.

“We’re just friends,” Jase said calmly, and I stifled a laugh.

“Yeah, we’re just friends,” I echoed.

“I thought you didn’t know him, Logan,” Rodney taunted after us.
“But here you are at his mother’s café. Funny isn’t it.”

I turned around. “
You know, it was
the funniest thing, Rodney
. I just met him this afternoon
when I randomly stopped in here for lunch
.
Ironic, huh?”

“Yeah, really ironic,” he chuckled, as we ducked into
Jase’s
car.

I needed to head back to school, and he needed to head back to the set, but there I was getting into his Maserati, and he
wasn’t stopping me. Before
Rodney and his friends could snap any more pictures, we tore out of the parking lot, leaving a cloud of dust in our wake. I wasn’t sure where Jase was heading, but he was getting there fast.

Then I realized why. The paparazzi were
following us.

“So your mom owns that café?”
I asked, as Jase expertly maneuvered his car through Brentwood.

He
nodded as he watched the road. “My
parents
actually own five of them in L.A., but this is the original.
My mom
opened it about ten years ago, and then she and my dad franchised the rest over the years.”

His mom sounded cool, and I thought I might want to meet her, but apparently that would be happening another time.

“Where are we going?” I asked, as
Jase twisted and
turned his way through Brentwood
.
I knew he’d grown up there, so he knew the area well,
but we
still
hadn’t lost the black vehicles that were trailing us
, and I r
ealized we were heading toward t
he
Pacific
Palisades.

“Shit,” he hissed, glancing in the rearview mirror
and not answering my question
.

I looked behind us to see we were still being pursued.

“Take a left here,” I commanded, and Jase didn’t hesitate. He just turned.

I continued to give him directions until we were at the entrance to my mother’s estate. I quickly gave him the gate code, as the paparazzi stopped their SUVs and raced toward us on foot. We were inside the gates just as they reached us, and by the time they got their cameras out, we were already halfway up the long drive
way
.

“Where are we?” Jase asked, looking up at
the monstrous
house looming before us.

“My mother’s house,” I explained.

“Whoa,” Jase said, slowing the car down as we approached the front of the house.
“Your mother’s house?”

I could
hear the panic in his voice. He thought
wa
s too early to meet the parents, and he was right. Thankfully, my mom was out of the country, and she’s given Julio and Mrs. Grable paid time off, so the house was empty.

“She’s in Ireland,” I told him, and his whole body relaxed. “And she doesn’t bite – much.”

Jase gave me a weird look.

“Oh, come on,” I said, elbowing him. “You looked about ready to shit yourself just thinking about meeting my mom.”

He threw his hands up in defense. “Um, yeah, she’s Alana Davis! Of course I’m freaked out to meet her. I’m not sure I would have shit my pants, but it would have been a close call.”

“
Eww
, Jase. That’s gross.”

“You’re the one who said it first,” he defended.

I realized that
I probably wasn’t being as lady
like as I was supposed to be, but that was how I was around guys. I couldn’t help it. Maybe I needed to work on not being so brash. I could save that for guys like Ethan
and Garrett
.

“Come on, let’s go inside. We can hide out until the photographers leave.”

“They’re not leaving,” Jase said, as he got out of the car.

“What do you mean?”

“They’re going to stay out there and wait for me to come out, because pretty soon they’re going to figure out whose house this is if they don’t know already. They
’ll
want to see if they can catch us doing something photograph worthy.”

I shrugged and attempted to look nonplussed as I walked up the front stairs.
“So what.
We’re friends. We told them that. We just won’t let them see anything el
se, and we’ll stick to our story
.”

“No touching in public,” Jase said, as if I already didn’t realize that.

I cringed
as I let us into the house. It was the first time I really thought about how dating a celebrity would
negatively
affect my life, but I figured I could deal with being platonic when eyes were on us. It was better than ending th
ings with him. T
hat was for sure.

As soon as we were inside, his arms encircled my waist from behind
,
and he pulled me against his chest.

“You okay?” he whispered, his lips against my ear.

I nodded as the realization that I’d just been a part of my first paparazzi chase hit me. The adrenaline I’d felt as Jase has twisted and turned the car was still coursing through my veins. I turned and faced him, my hands going to either side of his face. I took a few seconds to look into his bright green eyes fringed by dark lashes before I crushed my lips to his.

My hands slid into his hair, fingering the thick strands as his lips worked against mine in tandem, his tongue pressing against
mine, his firm body flush to mine
.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, but it came out muffled.

“Stop talking,” I said, as I pushed him back toward the elevator, not wanting to bother with the stairs.

When I pushed him inside, he broke the kiss and looked around in awe. “You have an elevator in your house?”

I shrugged. “My mom likes extravagant things. She has money, so she spends it.”

I hit the button for the third floor before I turned my attention back to Jase, suddenly embarrassed that I’d been so aggressive, but I couldn’t help it. Adrenaline and that boy were a dangerous combination.

“Where are we going?” he asked, as the elevator stopped on the top floor.

“What time do you have to be back on set?

He looked at his watch. “Two hours.”

“Plenty of time,” I said, as I pulled him down the hallway toward my bedroom, knowing I had every intention of
pushing my studying back to that evening. I just wouldn’t go out with Ethan like I’d planned. I wasn’t really in the mood to go clubbing anyway
.

“What’s gotten into you, Logan?” Jase asked, a
smirky
smile on his face
,
as he realized what I was doing.

I pulled off my tank top and flung it on the floor. My jeans followed and landed in a heap at my feet. I stepped out of them and toward quite possibly the sexiest guy I’d ever known in just my bra and panties.

“You.”
I stopped in front of him and ran my hands up the hard planes of his chest. “To many clothes,” I murmured.

“What are you going to do about that?”

I grinned as I pulled his t-shirt off over his head and shook my head in awe of the shear magnificence of his chest before my lips descended on his bare skin, kissing and sucking and teasing. Jase groaned involuntarily as my lips surrounded his round, flat nipple and my tongue darted out. Ever so softly, I closed my teeth around the tip as my hand moved to the growing bulge in his pants.
I ran my
hand
up the length
before I cupped him
and
squeezed
gently
.