Hollywood Rebel by Misti Murphy

Chapter Thirty

 

Summer

Marty Kendall: Tell me you have good news. Alec Hawthorne is pushing for a huge exposé.

Marty Kendall: If we don’t get ahead of this it’s going to destroy him.

Marty Kendall: You know how this works. Someone will take that exclusive. Either way this story is going to be plastered everywhere.

 

My stomach flips at the messages in my inbox as the limousine makes its way through the hills toward the Bilson estate. It’s like someone has taken a cheese grater to my nerves.

“One of your brothers?” Rebel slips his fingers between mine and squeezes.

“Uh, no. Just work stuff.” I black out the screen and put my phone on the leather seat of the limo beside me while I fight the urge to be physically ill. Marty is right. We need to deal with this before it blows up in our face.

And it has to be Marty. She’s the biggest, most popular entertainment reporter on the circuit right now. People listen to her because she puts everything out there even when it means making personal sacrifices. As much as I hate that she hurt and betrayed Rebel for her career, it’s her dedication and her following we need now.

Someone will tell Alec Hawthorne’s story, but we can get ahead of it with Marty’s help. It’s time to do my job and push Rebel to meet with her. It’s the only way to save the headway we’ve made.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Totally.” I chew my lip. If only Rochelle Kitt wasn’t keeping her cards so close to her chest. The world would be on the Hollywood princess’s side if she spoke up about what happened that night.

Maybe I should try to convince her. She obviously still has feelings for Rebel. Surely Rochelle can see that Rebel is finally getting his life back. Is she really willing to let Alec Hawthorne destroy it all again, just to keep her secrets?

God, I know that’s selfish. Wanting Rochelle to be vulnerable for the whole world to see when I struggle to be vulnerable with one person.

I glance up at him through my eyelashes. He is insanely gorgeous in his charcoal suit. His dark hair flops across his forehead a little.

I want to brush it back with my fingers. They have a heartbeat all of their own. It echoes the boom in my chest.

His fingers tighten on mine as his baby blues catch me staring. “Are you sure everything is okay? Anything I should know about?”

“No, it’s fine. It’s Bernadette. It’s nothing, really.” It can wait. Alec. Marty. The story. It can all wait until tomorrow. I’ll find a way to convince him that an interview with Hollywood Juice is in his best interest in the morning. Tonight I want to pretend that everything is perfect.

That nothing can touch us.

That we’ll always be this content.

He smiles as he slips his fingers along my jaw to tip my face up so he can kiss me. “You sure?”

“Mmhmm. Yes.” My heart skips a beat when he looks at me like that. I can’t help but touch him back. I want to spend every day touching him. Kissing him. Being with him.

“Good.” He hums under his breath. A soft, affectionate noise that makes my heart scream that she loves him.

And oh how I want to tell him that I do, but the words get stuck in my throat. They have for weeks now. Love. I love him. I love him. Do you hear me, Rebel Maddox, I freaking love you. Those three little words are the most terrifying of all.

When I say them he’ll know…

He has the power to break my heart. He knocked through all my carefully constructed walls. He made me fall in love with him. He gave me reason to want to take a chance.

But to tell him that is to bare my soul. I let him in like that and there’s nothing I can do to protect myself anymore.

“What are you thinking?” he asks.

I exhale. I am a scaredy-cat chicken after all. I need more time to become brave. Moving to straddle him, I kiss his neck where his Adam’s apple bounces when he swallows. “I’m thinking it might be fun to be a little bad.”

“Damn, kitten.” He hisses through his teeth as I grind down on his lap. His cock stiffens underneath me.

The partition between us and the driver slides into place at the press of a button. My lips curve against Rebel’s. My arms go around his neck.

“This dress is sexy.” His hands catch my hips as he crushes me to him. They slide up my ribs to the top of my dress. Try to push the bodice down, but the boned material of the top refuses to budge.

He growls with frustration against my throat. “Damn it.”

“I’m sorry. I’m practically glued in.” I laugh as he drops his head lower until it’s almost in my cleavage.

“We’ll work around it.” He licks the swell of my breast.

“Oh my God.” My breath turns into a moan as he puts his hand between my thighs and runs it along the lace covering my sex while he continues to kiss and lick at my breasts. “I’m going to need a wet wipe.”

“They have those in the limo,” he murmurs as he tugs at my panties so that he can slip that devilish finger along my bare skin and inside me to caress those sensitive spots that love the way he touches them so much.

He keeps doing that. Building a steady rhythm. Until I’m rocking on his hand. His lips work their way up my throat. His teeth nip at my ear.

I shudder as I almost lose my mind. He adds another digit.

My face flushes and my toes curl. A shiver flashes up my spine. If I don’t have him now I think I might die.

Breathless, I kiss him while I fight with his belt and the zipper that’s between us. He clasps the back of my head and kisses me harder. When I scoot back to free his rigid erection he chases my lips.

My panties to one side, he pulls me down and fills me in one smooth move.

The world slows down.

Our gazes lock. His, dark and unfathomably deep. Serious and hot and sexy all at once. Mine, no doubt full of hearts I hope he doesn’t see.

His voice is a rasp of barely controlled emotion, “Summer, I—”

I love you. The words I want to say turn to water in my mouth so I kiss him again. Kiss him with all I have while we move together. Over and over. Building this beautiful connection between us with every touch and stroke.

It all builds up inside me. The pleasure and the emotion. It fills every cell in my body until I can’t contain it. My toes curl and my inner walls clench as I fall into an orgasm that shatters my world.

He follows me over. His body turns rigid for a moment as he finds his release then relaxes. His face is just as flush as mine as he smiles at me.

He wraps his arms around me and pulls me tighter to his chest.

The limo stops for a second before rolling on.

“We’re almost there,” he murmurs in my ear, running a hand over my hair.

“I just need a minute.” A moment to compose myself before I have to look him in the eye and pretend that I still have a chance of surviving Rebel Maddox when I’ve come to believe there was never any chance at all. I fall more and more into him with every breath I take. How much longer can I protect myself from him?

Someone clears their throat.

It takes a second for it to register that the interruption is the driver speaking through the limo intercom. “We’ll be arriving in two minutes.”

“Thanks,” Rebel responds.

He’s softened inside me and he slips out when I rise to get off his lap. I snap my panties back into place and my attitude along with them. How I feel about Rebel… it can wait… until tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the next. Tonight I am his brilliant publicist… and happy as a clam girlfriend. The only worries I have are keeping him away from the alcohol and the Bilsons’ hounds.

He tucks himself into his pants and zips them up before fixing the buckle on his belt. I straighten my top and tuck the ladies back into place properly.

“Here. Hold up your dress,” he orders gently.

I do and he uses a hand on my butt to hold me steady while he wipes my thighs with a moist towelette to remove any traces of him from my skin. I fluff out my skirt as he disposes of the wipe. He straightens his tie.

Oh yes, he’s wearing a tie. It’s a thin, solid black number. And every time I look at it, I want to wrap it around my fist and pull him in for another kiss. Feel the rasp of his darkened jaw abrade my skin. I don’t do that because we’ve only just neatened up. I don’t know how long I’ll be able hold off though.

The vehicle rolls to a stop in the cobblestone driveway of the Bilson estate. The house is a modern-day castle. It’s two stories of Mediterranean architecture and columns spreads across the manicured grounds.

Rebel offers me his hand as I climb from the back seat.

The sound of trickling water comes from a huge fountain that’s lit with colored lights as the car pulls away. All the men wear suits and the women sparkling and glittering dresses. The glitz and glamour takes my breath away.

I run a hand over my hair to smooth any strays. It doesn’t matter how many parties I go to, an event like this one always leaves me feeling overly country. And especially after what we did in the limo.

A man in a tuxedo struts past with a woman I recognize from somewhere. Her green eyes and platinum locks tug at my memory. I can’t recall. Oh wait… that’s Hayley Waters. The actress who accidentally flashed the world. I thought she’d quit Hollywood to marry some bar owner. This must be him. One hand in his pocket, the other holds his phone to his ear. “You want to have a Spice Girls drag competition in my bar?”

“My phone.” I turn and smack into Rebel’s chest. “I put it down in the limo and never picked it up.”

“I’ll get it,” he says as he takes off at a quick clip in the direction the traffic is exiting at a snail’s pace. He finds our car and plucks open the back door to retrieve the device. Then holds it up in the air to show me he’s got it.

Oh, thank God. I clasp my chest as he hurries back to me. My whole life is on that piece of tech. And a good chunk of his too. I’d hate for it to fall into the wrong hands.

“Oh my what?” I scream as something cold and wet presses high on the back of my thigh under my dress. My fingers catch on the diamond penguin at my throat as I spin around to see one of the most beautiful dogs I have ever seen staring up at me.

And did he just waggle his eyebrows at me?

A second one trots in our direction as I stroke the first one’s silky head.

“Made a friend?” Rebel asks.

“Apparently.”

The second dog stops mid-trot. His muzzles stretches in our direction while he sniffs the air and starts to growl. The hound in front of me moves to join the other.

“Well, I guess that answers the question of whether they would remember me.” Rebel scratches at his jaw. “Rogue will be happy. He won the bet.”

“You bet on whether the dogs would remember you?” I stare him down.

“Your brother was in on that action too,” he tells me as we make our way along with the rest of the invitees.  

“Of course he was.”

The wide front doors stand open. Two beefy men in black suits check invitations as each guest enters.

Bilson and his wife are nowhere to be seen.

That isn’t particularly surprising. I’ve heard they have a tradition of showing up much later in the evening when their guests have drunk all the champagne and forgotten they came here to network.

Bianca Del Ray waves from where she is drinking Cristal with Ethan Stone and Dutch Daniels. I almost laugh when I remember the rumors about how Dutch and his wife got together. I tug on Rebel’s arm to draw his attention. “Is that why you thought I’d want to fake date you? Because of the rumors about Dutch Daniels?”

He shrugs as he grasps my elbow. “I didn’t know you, remember.”

“Okay.” I frown at the tightness with which he holds me as we make our way to the floor to join his friends. The relaxed Rebel that I started the night with is gone. “Is everything alright?”

“Perfect,” he says smoothly.

That’s weird too.

I glance up at him and that confuses me more. “What’s going on? Did something happen?”

“Nothing to worry about right now,” he says.

“Rebel Maddox.” A middle-aged man strides toward us. He reaches us and sticks out his hand. “I never thought I’d see you at one of these parties.”

“At least not invited.” Rebel smirks. “Do you need to see my invitation?”

“Good to see you haven’t changed. Thought they’d sucked all the fun out of you.” The guy guffaws and claps him on the back while he side eyes me like a goldfish.

“Yeah, I think they’d like to.” Rebel glances at me and is it just me… or are his blues as steely as they were the night we met when he told me to get out of his life.

“Who is this beauty?” The man turns his attention to me.

“My girlfriend.” Rebel claps the guy on the shoulder. “And my publicist. It’s thanks to her that I’m here tonight. Chadwick Roman, this is Summer Heart.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” I say.

“You should give Chad your card,” Rebel says. “Put your services out there. She is really good, man.”

“Actually, I could use a publicist,” Chadwick says.

Opening my clutch, I take out a rectangle card with my information on it and hand it to him. “Call any time.”

“I’ll take you up on that,” he says.

What the hell is going on? The first time Rebel introduces me to someone as his girlfriend and he makes it sound dirty. And not in a good way. I swallow as I stare into his hard eyes as Chadwick moves onto someone else he recognizes. “Can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Later,” he says. “Right now I need a drink.”