Page 41 of Beyond the Fame

I have a feeling she said that to distract me, so we'd stop talking and start fucking, so I continue the conversation.

“The bullying... is that why you never watched Star Wars? Were you afraid kids would make fun of you?”

She sighs, so I wrap my arms around her, just under her breasts. She rests her arms on mine.

“Yes, and no. I didn’t watch a lot of movies to begin with. I read books though. When the bullying started, I realized people might think I was a nerd if they found out which types of books I liked and especially if they found out I watched fantasy or science fiction movies. So, I decided to never watch them again.

“My senior year of high school, one of the theaters in Jonesboro—where Lana and Tyler went to college—was having a marathon of all the Star Wars movies. Tyler begged me to come up for the weekend and go with him and Lana. They were his favorite movies, or maybe it was Star Trek he loved so much—”

“How dare you confuse the two?” I say, and thankfully, it makes her laugh.

“I’m pretty sure he liked both.”

“So, what happened?”

She twists around and places her palms on my chest.

“He collapsed on the football field the Friday before we were supposed to go.”

Shit. I just made a joke during her heartbreaking story. I'm such a dick. I take her hands and bring them up to my lips, kissing her knuckles, then her palms.

“I’m sorry, Rebecca.”

“You know what?” She smiles, and I wait for that smile to falter into the grief I've seen cross her face far too many times. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”

“You are?”

“Yes.”

She straddles my lap and folds her hands behind my neck.

“I never told anyone about that. It wasn’t in my book either. I mean, Lana knew, of course, because she was going to go to the movies with us. But...” she chews on her lip before continuing. “It was nice sharing it with you. Talking about my grief and sharing Tyler stories outside of what I wrote in the book usually hurts too much.”

She leans in and kisses me. It's a soft kiss, gentle. She's thanking me.

When she tilts back, her eyes are glossy with tears. Except, I don’t think these are sorrowful tears this time.

“Can I sleep with you tonight?”

I pause before answering. Two nights in a row of cuddling until we fall asleep? I want nothing more than to have this woman in my arms tonight. Though, it’ll be hard to resist her. Leaving the bed after I tasted her was already difficult enough. I desperately want to be inside her, but we have to be up early tomorrow for the wedding.

Rebecca must see the battle on my face.

“I’ll be a good girl, I promise.”

I laugh at her words, mirroring my own from the other night.

“I’m not worried about you.”

Chapter 10 - Jensen

4 Years Ago

I’m nervous.

Today is the first day of filming. I'm going to see her again. I haven’t seen Rebecca in-person since the day we met for script negotiations. Any time we needed to discuss the movie, we did it through email, text message, or a quick—and very professional—phone call.

At least I already ran into Mylan and don’t have to deal with the anticipation of that reunion. My former best friend shouldn’t be here filming this movie. He's still recovering. It's too soon.

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