The Curvy Voice Coach and the Billionaire Actor (He Wanted Me Pregnant!) (12 page)

“Come for me, Charlotte,” he whispered, and those words were all I needed to send me over the edge. I screamed my release, my body clenching and spasming around him, one hand grabbing him around the shoulder and dragging him down toward me while the other pressed tight to his face. A shudder went through me, from my neck all the way down my spine. When it reached my groin, my world exploded, all the heat that had been building inside released in one scorching wave that rippled through my body. Every muscle went tight, my legs clinging tightly to his, my nails scratching his back as I fought for grip on the hulking body that was suddenly shuddering too.

“I’m coming inside you, Charlotte,” he managed through bared teeth, and then I felt it through my own orgasm—a hot, thick spurt of liquid right up inside me, deeper than I’d known I could feel. And then another and another and my climax lifted to a whole new level.
God he was…I might get—

He buried his head in my shoulder, our bodies pressed tight together as we came. When it ended, he showered gentle kisses all over my lips.

“That was...
wow.”
He shook his head and looked down at me. “Charlotte,” he said in wonder.

I opened my mouth to speak, only to find his finger against my lips. “If you say
Mr. Cole,”
he said, “I’m going to—”

I shook my head and he removed the finger. “Tanner,” I said. And it sounded good.

Chapter 7

There was a banging downstairs. I didn’t know what time it was but, judging by the sun outside, it was later than usual. Tanner was still flat-out asleep, spooning me from behind, so I gently extricated myself and looked for something to put on. My clothes were back in my room.

I found a fluffy white bathrobe in the bathroom and pulled it on—since it was Tanner’s size, it drowned me in a very cuddly way. I padded downstairs, fiddled with the unfamiliar door lock for a while and then swung the door wide, figuring it was the mailman or something.

It wasn’t the mailman.

Maury, Tanner’s agent, stood there looking as unimpressed as usual. When he saw me in the bathrobe, his expression darkened.

“He’s upstairs,” I said, hating how nervous my voice sounded. “You can come in and wait. I can make tea—”

“I don’t drink fucking tea and neither does he. What the hell are you doing?”

I pulled the neck of the robe a little tighter around me. It covered me just fine, but I was suddenly aware of how naked I was beneath it. “That’s…not any of your business.”

“The hell it isn’t. I went along with this whole thing because it was important to him. You were meant to get his fucking accent right and that’s
it.
Jesus, you just couldn’t resist, could you?”

I reddened. “Couldn’t resist what?”

“Shoving your oversized tits in his face until he fucked you. And now, what, you’re going to claim it’s true love and stick around just long enough to get some money out of him?”

My eyes bugged out. “I’m not—It’s not—”

“Just tell him to call me,” Maury snapped, and stormed off.

I stood there feeling as if I was going to throw up. It should have been a perfect morning—waking up in Tanner’s arms, maybe breakfast in bed, more sex...and now it had all been ruined.

***

When Tanner came downstairs a few moments later, I was sitting at the kitchen table nursing a cup of tea. He slid his arms around me from behind and nuzzled my neck. “Hi, gorgeous,” he murmured.

The warmth of him melted through my chill a little, but a deep unease was settling in. It wasn’t just Maury. It was sitting there in the morning light, thinking about what we’d done.

“Is there more of that?” Tanner asked, nodding at the tea. “Did you make a pot? You make it in pots, right?”

“You don’t like it,” I said quietly.

“What? Yes I do. I mean, I’m getting to like it.” He frowned. “What’s gotten into you?”

I couldn’t tell him about Maury. The guy had been his agent and friend for years. If I came between them, it would look as if I was jealous or something. “It’s just…” I couldn’t put it into words.
Too fast? Too scary? Wrong, because he was sort of my boss? Right, because it had been amazing? All of those?
“Weird,” I said at last.

To my surprise, he nodded. “Yep,” he said. “I know. That’s not all on me, though. It could have all moved a lot slower if you hadn’t teased me.”

I blinked. “Teased you?”

“I come to you and pour out my heart, tell you you’re my Annabel, and you say, ‘Right, thank you.’” He clapped a hand to his heart, wounded. “
Ouch!”

I stared at him. He thought I’d been teasing him?! I was the last person in the world to play games like that. “But you said—I didn’t know you were—You said Abigail!”

“Who?”

I sighed. “Doesn’t matter.” I stared at him for a long moment and then kissed the tip of his nose. “Tell me something.”

“Anything.”

“Tell me it wasn’t just a one night stand. Tell me you don’t do that with everyone. Tell me it’s going to be okay.”

“Wow. All in one sentence?”

I gave him a look.

“Okay, okay.” He took a deep breath. “It was
not
a one night stand. And I don’t know how many beautiful voice coaches I have staying over at my place, but if there were any others then no, I wouldn’t do that with them: just you. And yes.” He took my face between his palms again. “It’s going to be okay.”

I took a deep breath. “Okay.”

“Okay.”

He released my head and I nodded determinedly. “Right. Get moving and get one of those big breakfasts down you. We have a lot of work to do.”

He looked amused. “You want to go straight back to work?”

I thought of Maury. It was starting to make sense, now that I’d calmed down. He must be able to see how Tanner was changing, since I’d arrived. The last thing he’d want would be for Tanner to get serious—in his choice of roles or in his private life. Maury wanted the bad boy action hero who could bring in the big bucks, and he wanted a bachelor he could use to generate PR. A settled—let alone married—Tanner would be unthinkable.

Well, I wasn’t going to let him win. “We have one day left and we’re going to get you perfect. By the time I’m finished with you, the Queen is going to think you’re a relative.”

He gave me a slow smile and then kissed the top of my head. “You’re amazing,” he told me. “Okay, fine. Back to work. But tonight, when it’s all over, I’m taking you out on a date.”

***

The work went well. It was faster because the stress was gone. In the back of my mind, there were still doubts. Did I seriously think this could possibly work? His life was so far removed from mine, so completely on another level, that I couldn’t even imagine what our relationship might look like.

But his smile and the way he looked at me were enough to let me push the fear down inside, and relegate what Maury had said to a deep, dark place in my mind. We worked well together, and we were disciplined. Despite the temptation, we didn’t run off to the bedroom.

Well, only once. The time in the gym, with me on the weights bench, doesn’t count because we were downstairs.

***

By evening, there was nothing more I could do. Tanner sounded every inch the English gentleman and it was hard to work out which was sexier: his gravelly Californian drawl or his commanding English tones. I decided I’d need to do
thorough
research before making the decision, and that it should be done in the bedroom.

I was getting excited about the date and, even though part of me was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, I was starting to dare to believe that maybe this thing could work. Tanner didn’t give any sign that it had happened on a whim. In fact, he scarcely let go of me the entire day, grabbing my hand when we walked from one room to another. He’d squeeze. I’d squeeze back. I felt like a teenager again.

Just as we finished, there was a knock on the door. My stomach tightened, but this time it
was
a mailman. He handed Tanner a large box tied with a ribbon, and Tanner handed it to me. “Go try that on,” he told me. “It’s for tonight.”

***

The box held a dress. A long scarlet dress with a scoop neckline that left no doubt that Tanner himself had chosen it. At first, I thought it couldn’t possibly fit, but the fabric was just the right blend of clingy and stretchy.

I took a critical look at myself in the mirror. The dress was pretty much the polar opposite of what I would have bought myself. It didn’t hide my curves like my shapeless blouses had—it accentuated them. It showed my true shape in a way I wouldn’t have dreamed of allowing only a week ago. But now, knowing that Tanner had chosen it...it was different.

He crept into the room behind me—well, he tried. It’s difficult to creep when you’re as big as Tanner, but I played along and pretended to jump when he wrapped his arms around my waist.

Then I really did jump, because I saw what he was holding in his hands. A silver necklace, like a flat band of liquid metal coated in—

“Please say those aren’t real diamonds,” I croaked.

“Would that make you feel better?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Okay,” he said. “They’re zirconia. Cheap copies. The whole thing’s worth, like, ten dollars.” He paused. “But...you know. Don’t lose it or anything.”

I gave him a look.

He kissed my ear. “You look fantastic,” he said, running his hands up and down my waist. “You’ll be the most beautiful woman there.”

“Where is there?” I asked, worried. But he just kissed me again.

***

“There” turned out to be Fellidicio’s, a restaurant right in the heart of downtown LA. People booked a table six months in advance.

Unless they were Tanner Cole.

The entire place was like a giant glass box, with a glass wall separating the dining area from the kitchen. In fact, looking around, I couldn’t see a solid wall anywhere, which made me wonder where the restrooms were.

I looked down. “There are fish,” I said.

Tanner squeezed me from behind. “I know,” he said. “The whole restaurant’s built on a giant aquarium tank. The water’s about eight feet deep. Cool, isn’t it?”

I looked down into the depths, feeling suddenly dizzy. As I watched, an angel fish come up to the surface and tried to nibble at my toes, stopped only by what felt like a thin piece of glass. “It’s...different,” I said carefully. I was wearing the highest, spikiest heels I possessed, since the dress sort of demanded it. I made a mental note not to stamp my foot.

“Oh, relax,” said Tanner. “It’s an illusion. The glass is a foot thick.”

“Really?”

“Almost certainly. Oh look, our table’s ready.”

I was actually quite glad of the fish as a distraction because, as we walked to our table right in the center of the restaurant, I could feel everyone in the room turn to look at us. They were looking at Tanner, of course, not me. Then, once they’d nodded to each other and agreed that yes, it really
was
Tanner Cole over there, they all murmured the same question: who the hell is
she?

We sat down. Okay. Table. Plates. This was familiar. I could handle this.
Breathe, Charlotte.

I was okay until I spotted the table of women behind Tanner, all giving me the eye.

“
Ev-e-on is uck-in at ee”
I said without moving my mouth.

“What?”

I leaned closer. “
Everyone is looking at me!
” I whispered. I could feel my face reddening.

He smiled. “Of course they are. You’re the most beautiful woman here.”

I glanced around. I was surrounded by women who looked like supermodels. My stomach lurched—some of them probably
were
supermodels. When I looked back to Tanner, he was looking right into my eyes.

“I know how scary this is for you,” he said. “You think I don’t, but I do. I know how brave you’re being.” He leaned closer. “I won’t let anything happen to you. Not ever.”

Some of the fear receded, as if pushed back by a warm fire.

Tanner ordered champagne and then said, “Do you know how I wound up calling you in the first place?”

I shook my head.

“I saw your profile online and I knew I had to meet you, even though you were in England. I made Maury email you.”

I stared at him. “There wasn’t a shortlist? You picked me because—”

“I picked you because you were good,” he said, putting his hand on mine. “And because you seemed like you’d be fun to work with. And because I was totally, totally smitten with you.”

I thought about it for a while. I wasn’t sure whether to be horrified or flattered. I decided it was both. Then my eyes narrowed. “When you first called, and I was naked…”

“...did I avert my eyes? Of course I did. I’m a gentleman.”