Forcing Gravity (45 page)

“Is she?”

“No, she’s devastated, but she has to hold her head up and not show it in public or she’ll be seen as an emotional girl, and she doesn’t want that since she’s trying to reinvent her image.”

“Why do you care if people see you with a date?” I asked, wonde
ring why he was giving into
Hollywood
’s
expectations. He was a mega-celebrity. He didn’t need to do that.

“I’m doing Ellie a favor. She’s a nice girl, and I feel bad for her, so I offered to help her out.”
His tone was so cold and detached.

“That was nice of you.”

“I’m a nice guy,” he said flatly.

“You are
,” I said genuinely, squeezing him tighter
.
“
So you’re not seeing anyone?”

He cleared his throat. “I thought I was seeing you, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Really?”
I asked, my eyebrows knitting together.

“Um, yeah, after you spent the weekend with me, I figured we were okay.”

I was still confused. “But we only talked once this week.”

He sighed. “I was really busy. I’m sorry. My schedule was insane, and with the time change,
it was hard
, but trust me, Logan, I wanted to talk to you.”

“You did?”

“I did,” he said
, thawing just a bit
.

“But nothing happened last weekend. You didn’t even try to kiss me.”

He shook his head at me, concern shadowing his face. “After what happened on Friday night, I didn’t want to freak you out.
Are you planning on letting go of me?
”
he asked, looking down at
my arms still around his waist.

“No,” I said
quickly
, and his small secret smile
finally
quirked his lips. “Jase, I’m a big girl, okay. What happened last Friday freaked me out, but that’s
all.
You stopped Carter from doing anything
that could cause permanent damage
.
And when I’m with you, I don’t feel anything but safe, okay?
”

I watched
Jase’s
hands ball into fists as they rested on top of t
he balcony, and his knuckles turned
white. “He hurt you, Logan. I can’t get past that.”

“Yeah, he did, but he didn’t hurt
us
. I don’t want him to come between what we have, because if you’ll remember, he’s also the one who validated that you weren’t involved in what happened to Amanda. It some sick and twisted way, he brought us back together.”

Jase’s
fists relaxed
the tiniest bit
. “Yeah, I guess he did, but still.”

“No,” I said, placing two fing
ers over his mouth. “Don’t over
think this. I’m stronger than you think. I’m not going to let
anything he did to
keep me from living my life. He’s an asshole, and I hope he gets what he deserves. That’s it. I don’t
want
to talk about him again.”

“But,” he said, against my fingers.

“No buts. Now please, just kiss me already.”

Jase smiled
, so
I removed my fingers. He ducked his head and slowly brought his lips toward mine, pressing them gently at first, but
when my tongue pressed against his lips, his gentleness turned to hunger
,
and he kissed me like a starving man.

His arms encircled my waist, as he pulled me against him, his lips moving in tandem with mine. I let a tiny groan escape my lips and pressed against him, loving the feel of being safe and warm in his arms.

“Don’t
do that, Logan,” he cautioned
around my lips, but he kept kissing me.

“Do what?” I asked innocently. Then I groaned again and moved my hand around his waist, snaking it along his washboard abs and down the front of his pants, over
the semi-hard bulge I found there
.

“Logan,” he groaned, his breath coming quicker as I massaged him gently. “Don’t.”

“Why not?”
I asked, applying more pressure when I felt him responding to my touch.

He didn’t answer, but he moved me so his body was shielding me from the door. His breath was coming quicker as I moved my hand up to the waistband of his pants. I pulled
out
the front of his button-down shirt in one quick movement and moved my hand between his smooth skin and the wool fabric of his black pants. He jerked back as my fingers grazed the top of his boxer briefs, and I smiled against his lips that were still kissing me with fervor and need.

Sliding my hand further down his body, I raked my other hand up his back, mixing the smooth touch against his skin with a rougher touch outside his shirt. He shivered and stopped kissing me.

His forehead fell against mine, and he breathlessly
asked
, “What are you doing?”

“Forgetting last Friday night,” I said simply, as my hand slid against my
goal
,
and he gasped in delight, sucking a breath through his teeth.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked, the concern in his voice a direct contradiction to the hardness between my fingers as I stroked him evenly.

“Yes,” I said firmly.

“I’ve missed you,” he sighed.

“Have you?” I asked, maintaining control.

“Yes,” he said breathlessly
,
as I got more creative with my movements. His eyes closed, and he made a little murmur sound.

“I’ve missed you too, Jase. Or should I call you Jason? That’s how you introduced yourself at dinner.”

“Your hand is on my dick. It’s Jase.”

I laughed. “Don’t you want to touch me?”

“I’m afraid. I don’t want to do anything you don’t want me to do.”

All I could think about was removing the memories of Carter from my brain, and
I knew
Jase was the only person who could do that for me.

“I want you to erase his touch, Jase. Please. Put your hands on me.”

“Okay,” he said tentatively, his hand moving to cup my breast. “Is this okay?”

I nodded. “It’s perfect. Just, please don’t tell me I taste good, okay?” I said, fighting the urge to shudder.

“I won’t,” Jase said sincerely, as he dipped his head
,
and his lips moved to my shoulder.

“Thank you,” I said, slightly breathless.

“What are you doing?” a small voice asked, and I yanked my hand out of
Jase’s
pants. He groa
ned under his breath in protest
but got to work tucking his shirt in.

“Hey Sky,” I said, sticking my head around Jase to see my little sister standing in the doorway.

“Oh,” she
said, grinning at me.
“Hi Jase
.”

He glanced over his shoulder at her and cleared his throat. “Um, hey
Skyar
,” he said hoarsely.

“Were you guys making out?”
she asked, her eyes narrowing.

“No,” I said quickly and very unconvincingly. “Jase was fixing the strap of my dress. That’s all.”

Thank God she couldn’t see where my hand had been.

“With his teeth?”

“Yes,” I said, and Jase chuckled under his breath.

“Okay,” she said, but
she
didn’t probe further. “Mom says you need to come inside for dessert.”

“Okay, we’ll be there in a second.”

After she close
d
the door, I looked up at Jase. “I’m sorry about that. Are you okay to go inside?”

He adjusted himself once and then nodded. “Yeah, I’m good. Just don’t do anything to get me all worked up again, okay?”

I leaned up and kissed him, not able to help it. “I’ll save that for later, when we get back to your place.”

He reached out and squeezed my hand.
“Is that a promise?”

I nodded
.
There was no way I wasn’t going home with him.

“There you guys are,” Ellie said when we walked back inside. She immediately took
Jase’s
hand, and my eyes went wide. She leaned over to whisper in my ear. “Appearances only, Logan. I know
Jase’s
into you. He told me all about you, and I’m not interested in him, okay?”

She was eying me earnestly, so I nodded and said, “Okay.”

“Hey, there’s my girl,” Bryan said, coming up to the three of us.

“Bryan, I’m so sorry,” I said quickly
,
as he tried to take my hand, “but I actually have a boyfriend.”

Bryan looked stunned, and I didn’t look over at Jase to gauge his reaction. I didn’t want to know if he wasn’t okay with me labeling him in that way
, but he’d done the same thing to me
. We could talk about it later if it freaked him out.

The four of us walked back to the table and sat down as dessert was being served. From the other end of the table, my mom gave me a satisfied nod. I wasn’t sure if it was because I’d returned to the table or because Bryan was with me, but either way, she was happy.

I dug into my crème
brule
, looked up
at Jase and smiled. He smiled his
secret smile back at me, and I was glad to know that I was the secret he was carrying around.

***

“Oh shit!” Jase said, covering his eyes from the dozens of flashbulbs that were going off in our faces as soon as we stepped outside.

I rai
sed my own hand, suddenly
very aware of the
fact that
Jase’s
hand was resting on my lower back
.
I stepped
away
from him
, remembering our promise to keep our relationship out of the media.

“Jase, is Logan Kessler your girlfriend?”

“Does Garrett Lewis know you’re dating his ex-girlfriend?”

“Will this affect your relationship with Garrett?”

“I thought you were seeing Ellie Carlisle?”

“Logan, how long have you and Jase been together?”

“Are your parents happy that you’re dating a celebrity?”

I was in
such
shock and awe that all I could do was stand there. The questions never stopped coming, and I had no idea how they’d gathered this much information in such a short period of time.

“Don’t answer them,” Jase murmured
out of the side of his mouth.

Yeah, I wasn’t planning on it.

Before I knew what was happening, Jase
took my hand and
was tugging me down the driveway to his car,
the vintage Mustang he usually kept in the garage,
which the valet had pulled around for him. He threw me unceremoniously into passenger seat
and dove into the driver
s
’
seat as the
photogs
surrounded the car, snapping picture after picture. And all I could wonder was how in the hell had they gotten on
L
uiz’s
property.

“Shit,” Jase hissed, gunning the engine.
“Move!”

He gestured to the photographers in front of his car.

“I will run your asses over if you don’t get out of the way,” he shouted, but they didn’t move.

Without thinking, I picked up my cell phone and dialed
Luiz
.

“Logan, is everything okay? Didn’t you just leave?”

“
Luiz
,” I said and heard the panic in my
own
voice. “The paparazzi are on your driveway. We can’t leave.”

Luiz
cursed in Portuguese before assuring me in English that he’d take care of it. Then before I knew what was happening, his security guys were outside pulling the photographers away from
Jase’s
car enough that we could leave. Then they were chasing his car down the driveway to their own vehicles parked outside the gates. I knew someone must have given them the
gate
code, but were they there to see us, or had it just been lucky
for them
that
we’d come outside when we did?

“Shit,” Jase hissed, running his hand back through his hair as the gate slowly opened.

As soon as he could, he slid his car through the opening in the gate and hit the gas. The engine growled to life, reverberating through the seats as only a classic muscle car could.

“This car is insane,” I said, running my hand along the restored dashboard.