Star-Struck, Book 1 (9 page)

“No, of course not! I know how beautiful you are, but most famous
people stick together. It’s rare you hear of them dating or marrying someone that’s not in the spotlight too. That can be a hard road, sweetie. Are you sure you can deal with all that comes with his fame and fortune?” Sunny could hear the concern in her mom’s voice.

“I don’t know mom. But I do know that I love h-“, Sunny clapped a hand over her mouth.
Love! Only after a few days?
She knew it seemed impossible, but didn’t make it any less true.

“Oh honey, please just don’t get hurt. Don’t get me wrong, I know when love comes it can happen in the blink of an eye. But this isn’t love with just anyone. Just be careful. That’s all I have to say.” She could tell Donna had a lot more to say than that, but she was trying to restrain herself.

“Thanks mom. I love you, you know?”

“Yeah, I know. So tell me is he a good kisser?” Well, the hard part of the conversation was over. Now her mother had moved to the fun part.

Sunny finished up her call with her mother, promising to call her sooner than next Sunday if she needed her or had any juicy stories to tell. They were close, but not
that
close. She drew the line at details of her sex life. So with that, she put her phone down on the coffee table and headed to her tiny bathroom to get ready for work.

~~~

Monday at noon, Gabe was waiting outside of Sunny’s apartment building. He was thinking that he couldn’t wait for the day when she finally invited him in. Someone’s personal space said so much about them. Hell, he couldn’t wait to show her his home in Malibu, but she wasn’t ready for that yet. But he had every hope that by the end of this weekend, that would be different. If he couldn’t have her, taste her, bury himself inside her; he was going to lose his mind.

Sunny stepped outside in a pair of black dress slacks, a bright fuchsia top, a short-sleeved gray jacket and wide black belt that had a big faux leather bow on it. She looked like a gift he very much wanted to unwrap.

“You look adorable.” He greeted her with a bear hug that lifted her off her feet, and a kiss.

She giggled delightfully. “You don’t look so bad yourself, handsome.”

“Are these your work clothes”, he asked straightening the lapels of her jacket when he put her down.

“Yeah, I figured I’d just head straight to work from lunch. So where are we headed?” She asked while he opened the truck door for her to get in.

“Well, since I know how much you love movies, how would you feel about eating lunch from a real-life gourmet movie set food truck?”

“Seriously?!” Sunny shouted and bounced up and down like a kid in a candy store.

Seeing her reaction was well worth eating food he’d had a million times before. “Seriously.”

“Sweet!” She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and gave him a big squeeze and peck on the cheek.

Gabe put the truck in drive and headed back to the set, which luckily wasn’t far from her apartment. Once they were there, he parked the truck, came around to open the door for her and entwined her fingers with his as he led her onto the set.

Today they were filming at a fancy bank. But since it was lunchtime, the cast and crew were milling about eating, talking or resting in various places. Sunny looked around with her mouth opened in awe. She was just too cute.

He walked her over to a group of men, to introduce her. “Hey guys, this is Madison Stone, though she goes by Sunny.” They all said some form of ‘hello’. “Sunny, this is Kyle Higgins, the director. Greg Jensen the assistant director. And Thomas Keats the cinematographer.”

Sunny reached out to shake hands with each man as he introduced them. “Hello gentlemen, it’s so nice to meet you. Mr. Higgins, I saw your mo
vie Burned that won best documentary at the
Sundance Film Festival
. It was phenomenal! I bawled like a baby through most of it.” She smiled brightly.

“Thank you Sunny. Call me Kyle.”

And just like that, she had turned on the ‘Sunny-effect’ and the men were instantly charmed. How she did it, Gabe couldn’t fathom.

They talked to the men for a few more moments then Gabe directed Sunny to the food truck. They picked their items and then headed over to one of the picnic tables that had been set out for everyone.

“We could also eat our lunch in my trailer, if you’d like?” Gabe suggested slyly.

“If I know you that would be a bad idea. As much as I’d like some alone time with you, I don’t think we’d actually get around to eating. And I’d hate for my first time on a real-life movie set to be wasted inside a trailer. Plus, if the trailer got to rockin’ that would make for a pretty bad first impression, don’t you think?” Sunny scolded him.

“Dammit! Why do you have to be so sensible?!” Gabe grumbled, good-naturedly.

Sunny just giggled and started eating. Gabe loved that she wasn’t some ‘salad-eating’ girl. She liked food and wasn’t afraid to show it, a Midwest steak and potatoes kind of girl, all the way. In fact, involving most things, she seemed pretty comfortable in her own skin; dancing around, singing in front of a crowd and being silly. It was her sensuality that she had trouble with. In the moment she blossomed, but before and after she doubted herself. She needed to put that doubt to rest, because as far as he was concerned her body was made for sex. Like
Jessica Rabbit
, but shorter.    

“What?” Sunny looked at him warily.

Gabe hadn’t realized that he was staring at her. He decided that it would only help to tell her exactly why he was staring.

“I was just thinking that you have a body that’s made for sex, like a more compact version of
Jessica Rabbit
. It’s ridiculous that you doubt yourself so much.” He whispered in her ear, so no one else could hear.

She swallowed loudly, “Uh…ahhh…I literally have no response to that.” She stared down at her food as if it was the most interesting thing she’d ever seen. A telltale flush spreading across her plump cheeks.

“You don’t have to say anything, just take it in and start believing it.” He leaned in and kissed her softly on the cheek.

“Alright.” She still sounded doubtful.

This weekend, he was
so
going to enjoy convincing her. His pants were getting tight just thinking about all that he wanted to do to her.

“So are you going to tell me what we’re doing this weekend? Or will it be another surprise?”

“Another surprise.”

“Okay, dress code?”

“All I can tell you is to pack a light overnight bag. The days should be fairly warm and the nights cool, so bring clothes according to that. Pajamas optional.” He winked at her.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

~~~

After they finished eating, they had about forty-five minutes before Sunny needed Gabe to drop her back off at her car to head
to work. So he spent some time showing her around and introducing her to the cast.

She got to meet the child actors that played his kids in the movie, who were super sweet and could hold conversation like adults. Then she met Jessica Hall, the actress that played his wife. Sunny couldn’t put her finger on it, but the woman just
seemed a little too full of herself. And last, Gabe introduced her to the guys that played the bank robbers. They seemed like anything but ‘bad guys’, well personality-wise. They had the rough look to them for the role, but were really nice. The actor that played the leader of the bank robbers was someone that Sunny recognized from several previous movies, Josiah Caldwell. He seemed well on his way to
Gabriel Wolf
status.

But where Gabe was dark, he was all light. He had blond hair, green eyes and long lankiness. He wasn’t as tall as Gabe, but close. He definitely wasn’t as massive as Gabe. And there was the fact that he was a big flirt. Sunny chuckled to herself, as Gabe quickly extricated her from the situation, claiming that he wanted to show her his movie trailer.

“Welcome to my home away from home.” Gabe swept his arm the length of the big trailer.

“This is way bigger than I thought it would be.” Sunny looked around in shock.

“Trust me. I’ve had my fair share of tiny digs in the past. And I’m a big guy, so I would spend as little time in those as I could.”

“Yeah I bet. You’re kinda making even this one feel crowded.” Sunny craned her neck to look around him.

“Oh am I crowding you?” Gabe stepped closer, making her take a step back, which she found wasn’t far.

The back of her knees hit the bed. She lost her balance and her butt plopped down on the mattress.

“Hmm…now I’ve got you, right where I want you. In bed.” Gabe started to crawl over her, making her fall all the way back onto the bed.

He covered her with his upper body and settled his lower half between her legs. Their bodies lined up perfectly for her to feel his perpetual hardness against her arousal. Her hips begged her to move, wanting that friction that she craved. But knowing they couldn’t finish, she remained still, not wanting to get him worked up again.

Luckily he somewhat distracted her, by cupping her face with both hands and looking at her intently. He caressed her face from temple to chin and then across her cheeks. The whole time just studying her, his vivid blue eyes blazing a trail over her every feature. She felt so naked. Never had she felt anything as intense as the connection she had with him.

“Sunny…I-“, Gabe had started in a voice thick with emotion, but then a quick knock and the door opening, completely killed the moment.

“Hey Gabe, it’s…oh, nice! Hey, we could make it a threesome”, Josiah interrupted, coming into the trailer. Gabe didn’t move, continuing to cover Sunny as if shielding her nakedness. And she did feel utterly exposed. Gabe had stripped her bare in that moment, and Josiah coming in a second later, had her feeling severely vulnerable.

Oh, this guy wasn’t just a flirt he was a bit of an inconsiderate douche too, Sunny thought reevaluating her first impression of him. Gabe’s voice went from gentle warmth to cold steel, “I’d watch your fucking mouth, if I were you Josiah.”

“Aw man! I was just messing around. I just came to tell you that cameras roll in fifteen.” Josiah raised his hands up defensively.

“Thanks. Now get out.” Gabe’s voice was deceptively soft. Like the louder someone is the more they’re trying to overcompensate for false bravado, but the deadly calm and quiet voice said ‘ass-whooping’ for anyone who crosses me. And Josiah recognized it for what it was, and slowly backed out of the trailer like he was afraid to turn his back on Gabe. Sunny hoped that he never used that voice on her.
Yikes!

“I’m so sorry Sunny.” Gabe finally lifted his weight
and warmth off of her. Leaving her feeling chilled.

“Don’t apologize for that asshole.” Sunny grumbled, still needing to know what Gabe had been about to say.

“Well I better hurry up and get you back to your car, so you can get to work.” He held out his hand to her, to pull her up from the bed.

“Thank you for bringing me here. It was so exciting and lunch was great!” Sunny stood on her tiptoes and kissed him softly on the lips.

“No problem. I liked having you here.” He smiled down at her. “Now scoot and skedaddle, little lady!” He playfully swatted her on the butt, making her jump and run to the door, giggling.

~~~

When Gabe got back to the set from dropping Sunny off, he walked straight towards Josiah. Josiah saw him coming and again raised his hands defensively.

“Hey man, no harm no foul! I’d probably be pissed off too if someone came barging into my trailer when I had a hot plump little chocolate number like that under me.” Josiah laughed.

The laugh quickly died, when Gabe grabbed him by the scruff of his collar and nearly lifted him off of his feet. Gabe wanted to smash his face in so badly, but knew that Kyle and the producers would have his ass if he messed up Josiah’s face.

“I don’t ever want to see you fucking near her again. Don’t talk to her, don’t even fucking look at her. Do you hear me, you little shit?!” Gabe felt hands wrap around his arms and shoulders, and vaguely registered calming voices in his ear. Finally he let Josiah go.

“Fuck dude! You’re gonna act like a pussy-whipped little bitch over
that
girl?!” Josiah straightened his shirt indignantly.

It took nearly every male crew member they had to stop Gabe from killing him.

“Josiah, go back to your trailer. Gabe, go walk it off. Now!” Kyle yelled at them both.

Gabe stormed off, not even sure of what direction he was headed in. He walked a few blocks, and then started back. Once on set, he went straight to his trailer, not quite ready to see Josiah yet.

He sat on the couch and put his head in his hands. He hadn’t been that violently angry since he was a kid. Then, it had been over his hurt from being abandoned and unwanted. Now, it was because he was fiercely protective over the only person he had ever let into his heart, the only person who seemed to want
him
…the real him.