Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-One
Olive
After spending almost the entire day on my
own because Jason had things to do, we were now in a limousine with Megan,
heading toward the theater where the screening for the premiere would take place.
“You remember everything I told you,
Olive?” asked Megan after her talk with Jason was finally done.
It took a lot for me to not roll my eyes.
“Yes, Megan. I’ll let Jason do most of the talking while I just smile and try
to look pretty next to him.” I held up a finger as if I’d just remembered
something. “Oh, sorry, I almost forgot—I’ll also make sure to somehow show off
my ring without appearing like I’m shoving it in everyone’s faces.”
Jason chuckled and extended me his hand,
palm up. “We’re almost there, come on.”
Smiling sheepishly at him, I took his hand.
I still couldn’t meet his damn eyes. I tried not to think about the talk I’d
had with Lucy just that morning.
Me: I SLEPT IN THE SAME FREAKING BED WITH
JASON!
Lucy: Did you see his dangly bits?! Start
describing. Now.
Me: No, Lucy! I didn’t see his…anything. And,
if I do ever get the privilege of seeing it, I’m not calling it “dangly bits”.
Lucy: You’re no fun. Then what the hell were
you doing in his bed? Tell me you didn’t watch him sleep like the creeper you
are.
Me: Sometimes I question our friendship.
Lucy: It’ll pass, don’t worry. Come on,
spill it.
Me: Long story short, there was a crazy fan
waiting in his room, which happened to be my room. After she was removed, he
wanted me to sleep with him so he could keep me safe.
Lucy: Swoon. Did you hear the thud? I just
fainted on the floor. I’m calling you!
Before I could type in that I couldn’t
talk, her face was already lighting up my screen.
“I’m supposed to get ready for hair and
makeup in a few minutes, I can’t talk,” I said as soon as I answered her call.
“Hello to you, too, my best friend. Jeez.
Hair and makeup you say? Will you even remember my name in a few days?”
“I was the one who texted you just a few
seconds ago.”
“Well, I couldn’t show my excitement
through texts, you had to hear my voice. You wanted to hear my voice, didn’t
you?”
I opened the balcony door and stepped
outside to make sure no one could hear me.
“Ok, you did good. I have more to tell, but
you can’t freak out okay? Because if you freak out, I’ll freak out, and I can’t
freak out.”
“Jesus, you’re already freaking me out with
all the don’t freak outs.”
“I really have to go before they come in. I
don’t want to enrage Megan. Anyway, like I told you, we slept in the same freaking
bed,” I said, jumping up and down a little. I was getting excited just talking
about it.
“Yes, yes. Keep going, keep going!”
“In the middle of the night, I woke up
because I felt something on my leg.”
“Whaaaaat?” she screeched on the other end
of the line, and I had to pull the phone away from my ear. “Was it his dangly
bit?”
“No, Lucy. His dick didn’t magically grow
legs and walk over to me. He was still asleep, but his hand was on my leg, and
he was…” I lowered my voice and looked down at the floor. “Massaging my thigh.”
Lucy gasped. “He touched your leg. This is
scandalous. Go on. I love this.”
I bit my lip to keep from grinning. “Then
he pulled my leg over his lap and I—”
“Oh my god!” Lucy screamed before I could
finish my sentence. “He pulled your leg over his cock! You felt his cock! Jameson
does that when he is awake!”
“Thanks for stealing my thunder,” I
muttered, but I was still smiling.
“Olive?” Jason’s voice pulled me out of my
thoughts. “We’re here. You ready to do this?”
I looked out his window and when I saw what
was waiting on the other side of the door, I suddenly didn’t feel so good after
all. I was getting used to the paparazzi—I even had my own favorites among them—but
this? I could understand why Megan was so hell bent on making sure my entire
focus was on Jason and only Jason.
“Hey,” Jason said softly next to me. I
looked at him, my panic barely held at bay.
I was screwed.
“You okay?” he asked.
“We don’t have time for this right now,
Jason,” Megan interjected.
“I have all the time for Olive. If you’re
so determined to get out there, you’re more than welcome.” He gestured to the
door with his hand.
Megan took a huge breath, gave him a death
glare, and said, “Try to be quick.” Then she was out of the car, leaving us
alone.
“You okay?” he repeated.
“There are so many people out there,” I
replied, my eyes still focused on all the people screaming beyond the red
carpet.
Jason’s fingers caught my chin and my
attention shifted to him. “I won’t let you out of my sight. Would that make you
feel better?”
His eyes were so gentle on me. He cared
about me more than he cared about everything that was waiting for him out
there. Someone knocked on the window and I jolted in my place.
I looked out through the back window of the
car and saw that we were holding up the line.
“Don’t mind them.” Jason turned my head to
him again; this time, his thumb gently brushed the underside of my bottom lip.
I took a few deep breaths and nodded to
him. “I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t forget about me out there.”
“Olive,” he murmured, his head slightly
tilted to the side. “I’m afraid it’s too late for me to forget about you at
all.” My eyes dropped to the dimple.
Did he mean that?
While I was busy being stupid about a damn
dimple, someone yanked open his door and leaned into the car.
“Mr. Thorn?”
“Come on,” Jason grumbled as he pulled me
by my hand. “Let’s get this over with so you can see me kill a bunch of guys
with no shirt on.”
I closed my eyes and, with his help,
stepped out.
All the screaming and yelling that erupted
all around us as soon as they spotted their favorite actor forced me to open my
eyes and face the music.
Jason’s hand tightened around mine for a
brief second as he searched for something in my eyes; whatever he saw must have
satisfied him because he walked forward and gently tugged at my hand to follow
him.
With my free hand, I furtively smoothed
down my full skirt as I tried to keep up with him. Oh yeah, I was wearing a
freaking
white Burberry dress that I didn’t even want to know the price of. Jason had had
his own stylist, Jewel, choose something for me as well, and after going over
my options, we had decided to go with the Burberry dress. It was the most
beautiful thing I’d ever put on. The strapless bustier top fit my skin
perfectly and did wonders for my breasts while the full skirt managed to make
it look even more feminine. I never wanted to take it off, especially after I’d
caught Jason sneaking peeks at my breasts more than a few times.
However, since he had such an anguished
expression on his face whenever his eyes dropped lower than my chin, I couldn’t
be sure if he loved the dress as much as I did or hated it.
Next to Jason Thorn, who was wearing a
black suit that made every single woman in his vicinity lose their mind a
little, I’d actually felt adequate before we had left the hotel. But now…as my
eyes landed on his costars and other actors and actresses that were either
giving interviews to the press or posing for pictures, I felt as small as an
ant among them.
When our feet hit the red carpet, Jason
pulled me to his left, toward the screaming fans. I couldn’t even guess the
number of them. The barriers and the strategically placed security guards
seemed to barely hold them back the way they pushed at each other to get closer
to Jason. Some of them were crying.
Jason never let go of my hand as we walked
toward them, but at some point a guy wearing a gray suit approached us to talk
to him in quiet tones and then Megan was pulling me away from Jason, forcing me
to drop his hand. Briefly, he glanced at me over his shoulder with a small
frown on his face, but then had to face his fans and sign anything and
everything they shoved at him.
A movement on Jason’s left caught my eye
and I saw a kid, barely older than eight or nine, running toward Jason. He had managed
to slip away from one of the security guards, but before he could get to Jason,
another one caught him. The commotion must have caught Jason’s attention—as it
did everyone else’s since the kid was yelling and struggling to get out of his
captor’s hold—because he turned and motioned to the guy to let go of the kid.
He kneeled in front of the boy when he ran to him. We couldn’t hear what they
were saying to each other, but the kid was beaming at Jason with barely contained
excitement. He shoved something in his hand and Jason signed it with a smile on
his face. The kid looked my way and said something to Jason that was funny
enough to make him laugh. The kid dropped his eyes from me, but Jason caught my
eye and sent me a wink as he messed up the kid’s hair. The same security guard
came and escorted the boy back to his dad. After that, he chatted some more and
signed a few more arms.
When I thought he was finally done, he
looked at me over his shoulder and motioned for me to come to his side.
I looked at Megan, but she had her back to
me and was busy on her phone, so I shrugged and tentatively walked toward
Jason. It was impossible to hear anything he was saying, but as I got closer, I
saw that he was holding something thick in his hand. A book.
My
freaking
book.
Doing my best not to show my bafflement, I
made it to his side and looked at him, at a loss as to why he wanted me there.
His warm hand touched my neck and he leaned
down to whisper in my ear, “They want you to sign their book.”
“Me?” I mouthed to him when he looked down
at me.
He nodded, smiled, and handed me the book.
Someone came to my side and handed me a pen. In a daze, I signed more than
twenty books.
Twenty freaking books!
When Megan appeared at our side to tell
Jason that we needed to keep moving, Jason grabbed my hand in his—which made everyone
scream even louder—and we made our way across the carpet so the photographers
could take Jason’s photos.
There were so many flashes going off, so
many people yelling Jason’s name—
and
my name.
I felt like I was in a dream, or maybe it
was a nightmare; I couldn’t decide.
When we were standing right in front of the
cameras, Jason’s hand landed on my back and he pulled me closer to his front.
Per Megan’s instructions, I lifted my hand to show off the ring and put it on
Jason’s stomach—a hard stomach that contracted at my touch, a stomach I had
eyed for a good amount of time, and maybe even touched once or twice while he
was sleeping the night before.
Just when all the flashes were about to
blind me for eternity, one of them yelled, “Jason! A kiss! One with a kiss!
I tried so, so hard to not react, to not
grin like the Cheshire cat, but when Jason gazed down at me and I tilted my
head up to meet his eyes, I had the biggest smile on my face.
While everyone around us was still yelling,
Jason’s hand touched my cheek and every single person around us disappeared for
me. It was dead quiet in my mind. It was happening. I was seconds away from
kissing my dream guy.
I watched his lips descend as my heart
tried to force its way out of my chest. My little butterflies were getting
ready for the takeoff of their life.
But…
But it didn’t happen like it had happened
in the dreams I’d had about Jason ever since I could remember. Not even close.
While I was waiting for the very best first
kiss in the history of first kisses, Jason only gave me a peck. A freaking
peck!
His lips pressed against mine for only two seconds, three tops.
I felt cheated.
And, well, since I’d dreamed about kissing
him for such a long time—
such
a long, long time—I had a hard time not
showing the disappointment I felt on my face. For a second there—a very quick
second—I might have scrunched up my nose in distaste right after he pulled away
from me. Just as quickly, I put a smile on my lips and let him pull me away to
another station where he would be giving short interviews to numerous media
outlets.
Following Megan’s instructions, I stood back
a little and did my best to keep a genuine smile on my face.
I couldn’t even fool myself into thinking he
just didn’t like PDA; the guy had been pictured in way worse situations. I
couldn’t even count how many photos I’d seen throughout the years where his
tongue was down the throat of some actress or model.
Evidently, he really did see me as nothing
more than a friend. Hell, even I could’ve done a much better job at kissing my
friend.
“You’re not smiling. Smile,” Megan warned
me from her spot next to me.
I showed her my teeth and she sighed,
shaking her head.
When Jason was done with all the
interviews, the time came for him to join his costars for the group shots.
Close to the finish line, right? After the
most disappointing kiss in history, what else could happen that would ruin a
beautiful night even more than it already had been?
Jennifer Widner could happen, folks. And
she actually did happen. She appeared out of nowhere and took her place next to
Jason and their other costars. She could’ve stood next to any of the others,
but, nope, she chose Jason, and she put her hand on his chest just like I had
done minutes before.
Imagine my surprise when she caught my eye
and winked at me.
I was standing way off to the side so I
couldn’t see Jason’s face to tell if he had seen her wink. They posed for a ton
of pictures and when Jason came back to my side, he still had his dimpled smile
on his face.
Me? Not so much.
***
At the end of the night, after all the
craziness had ended, we made it to our hotel room in one piece. I bid Megan a
good night and thanked her for all her help. Without her firm instructions, I
would’ve looked like a fish out of water, at least more than I already had.
After Jason and I entered our suite and he
made sure to lock the door, I put a few paces between us and looked at him with
a tired smile on my face. “It was a beautiful night, Jason. Thank you for
everything.” Not exactly sure what I should do, I put my hand on his arm,
hesitated for a moment, and then leaned up to give him a soft kiss on his
cheek.
When I backed away, his dimple was out to
play, but I was done for the night. I didn’t even have enough strength to appreciate
the way he was looking at me, his eyes traveling my body from head to toe, or
how good he looked with his shirtsleeves all rolled up, or how…the list went on.
Reaching down, I pulled my heels off my feet and winced in pain.
My feet were gone. Dead.
“You never said what you thought about the
movie.”
“Oh, I didn’t? Sorry. It was amazing. You
were great. Thank you for bringing me here.”
His smile brightened his face.
Lifting the shoes up in a wave as I backed
up, I said, “I’m heading to bed, so goodnight. And again, thank you Jason.” He’d
had the security check every inch of the suite so I knew we were fan-free that
night, which meant I had no reason not to sleep in my very own room.
His brows drew together. “You’re going to
bed, now?”
“Megan said our flight changed and we’re
leaving early tomorrow.” I shrugged. “Also my feet are killing me, so yes, I’m
ending the night.” I gave him another small wave and turned around, but his
voice stopped me before I could escape.
“You’re sleeping in there?” His voice
wasn’t exactly harsh, but it wasn’t as soft as it had been seconds before
either.
I looked over my shoulder. “Yeah. Goodnight
Jason.”
Striding directly to the bathroom, I filled
the magnificent clawfoot tub with hot water, took off my equally magnificent
dress, and sighed with relief as soon as my toes sunk into the water.
***
In the middle of the night, I woke up when
I felt something moving in my bed. For a second, I was confused, but then I
realized it wasn’t a dream. I screamed and tossed the covers at whoever was in
my bed—as if that would be enough to scare away the intruder—and rolled away to
jump down and somehow get to Jason.
When a strong hand landed on my stomach and
dragged me back against a hard chest, I lost my breath.
“Stop yelling,” Jason grumbled behind me.
“Jason?” I whispered. “Jason!”
My heart still beating against my throat, I
slapped at his hand where it still laid on my stomach and yelled a bit more
just for good measure.
“Are you crazy? I almost had a heart
attack.”
“How would I know you would wake up?”
“What do you mean
how would I know you
would wake up?
” I tried to roll over to face him, but his arm tightened around
my waist and drew me closer against him.
This time I lost my breath for an entirely
different reason.
“Don’t move. I’m trying to sleep.”
“Oh, and what did it look like I was doing?
Cartwheels?”
When he just grumbled under his breath and
otherwise kept silent, I asked, “What are you doing here, Jason? Couldn’t you have
knocked and woken me up before you crawled into my bed? I thought one of your
crazy fans was in bed with me, thinking I was you!”
“Well, it wasn’t. It’s just me. What the
hell is that noise?”
“What? Oh, crackling fire and wind in the
trees.”
“Crackling fire and…wind…in the trees,” he
repeated.
“Yes.” I turned my head to look at him over
my shoulder. He was giving me a ‘you’re out of your goddamned mind’ look. “What?
It relaxes me before I fall asleep,” I said, taking offense.
“Can you sleep without it?”
“Of course. I just like listening to it.”
My body was all stiff, but his hand
caressing my arm slowly helped me relax and settle back into him.
He put his chin on my shoulder and eyed my
phone where it sat next to my pillow. His hot breath was tickling my neck, but for
the most part I managed to stay still.
“The wind is kinda creepy, Olive.”
“I can change it to rain.”
Pressing his face deeper into my neck, he
chuckled.
“Let’s hear that one.”
Quickly, I stopped the wind and changed it
to ‘rain on roof’.
He hummed to himself for a few seconds then
approved. “I like this combo much better.”
“There is waterfall or ocean, too.”
“No, keep the rain and your crackling fire.
Do you remember how you used to sit by your window and listen to the rain with
your eyes closed?”
“Of course I do.” But how did he?
“You always had a smile on your face when
you did that, your mind miles away. Your mom used to get so frustrated with you
when you walked out in the rain without an umbrella. You got sick every single
time, but nothing could stop you.”
“Yeah,” I agreed in a thick voice. “And I
remember you trying to stall her whenever you saw me trying to sneak out
without her noticing.”
“Well, it’s hard to trick your mom. It’s a
two-man job.”
We were silent for a while after that.
“I think the AC in my room is broken. I
didn’t see the need to call someone up just to check out what’s wrong when we
have another perfectly warm room.”
“So…?”
“So, we have to share the bed for another
night. You can go back to sleep now.”
“I can still hear my heartbeat, Jason. I’m
pretty sure I won’t be going back to sleep any time soon.”
“Let me see,” he whispered, and suddenly
his hand was moving upward from my stomach toward my heart.
Carefully skipping my boobs—
darn it!
—his
hand rested over my heart.
“Hmm, you’re right; I can feel your
heartbeat.”
I couldn’t speak. No words whatsoever.
He took a deep breath against my neck,
causing my entire body to shiver, and said, “Go to sleep, Olive.” Then,
finally, his hand moved away from my heart and went back to my stomach. Maybe a
minute after that, his breathing evened out and he fell asleep.
Just like that.
I stayed awake for hours.