“Yeah. I love the midnight black, and thered leather accents. Oh, and his eyes are so cute when you look at him from thefront.”
“Him? My Spyder isn’t a he, woman, andnothing about her is cute. Sexy? That’s a hell yes. Cute eyes? No.”
I shrugged.
I’d had Char distract Lucy for me as Iescaped from the house before she could corner me and discuss her newly madeplans. She’d even made a list with the title How to Get Jason to Fall Crazyin Love with Green Olive. Her reasoning behind the importance of the list?She needed him to fuck my brains out. In her pretty little mind she thought Iwas her best bet for getting some answers to her questions. All in all, havingeffectively escaped that line of thinking, I felt pretty good about theevening. There was nothing worse than having Lucy making you her pet project. Iwas already struggling with being near Jason as it was; I didn’t need to thinkabout how certain parts of him looked when he was naked.
His home was on a hillside overlooking abreathless view of Beverly Hills. Strangely, up until I saw the beautiful, ornatesteel gates, I hadn’t felt out of place with him. After he did something on hisphone I couldn’t quite see, the gates opened and he drove up the driveway,stopping the engine when we reached the enormous white doors of his home—orsmall mansion was more like it.
“Wow.” I breathed out as I stepped out ofthe car. “This is amazing, Jason.” Looking around in awe at the well-kept gardenthat surrounded the place, I had the sudden urge to take off my shoes andsimply walk around on the grass.
“You like it?” he asked with an odd, innocentsmile on his handsome face. “You don’t think it’s over the top?”
“You’re a full-blown Hollywood star,Jason,” I said, unable to take my eyes off of every little detail around thehouse. “It would be disappointing if you had a run-down house. Your girlfriendsmust go even more crazy over you after seeing this place.” As if a sinceresmile from him wasn’t enough to make you hand over your soul to the devil.
“You’re the first girl I’ve brought here.”
I glanced around one last time and walkedto his side. “What do you mean?”
He scratched the back of his head thengestured for me to follow him to the front door.
“I guess you could say I’m a little weirdabout that. This is my home, my escape from a demanding industry, in a way. I’mconstantly surrounded by thousands of people when I’m off somewhere filming. Forgetabout filming, everyone knows every detail of my life whether I want them to ornot. When I come home, I want this place to be untainted by all that. I don’teven have a staff that’s around 24/7. I like my privacy a little too much,” hesaid as he opened the door and invited me in.
A little too excited about seeing his homefor the first time, I stepped inside. “So…you’re saying there are no outrageousHollywood parties in my future? Damn, I was hoping to snag an invite.”
He laughed. The throaty sound was entrancing.
As we walked through a narrow hallway, ourarms almost touching, I couldn’t take my eyes off of him and his smiling eyes.
“How about I’ll promise to take you with meif I’m ever invited to an outrageous Hollywood party?”
“Yes please.”
When the hallway came to an end and I sawthe open plan of the living room and the kitchen, I gasped and walked ahead ofhim straight to the floor-to-ceiling glass walls that revealed not only akiller view, but an expansive backyard with an infinity pool and a hot tub.
My face an inch away from the glass window,I felt Jason come up behind me. “Can they bury me here? Will you let them?Please? I just want my ghost to sit over there and look down at the city, andmaybe walk around the grass every now and then. I won’t bother to haunt you atall.”
He chuckled again. “I didn’t think you’denjoy it this much.”
“Are you kidding me? I would give prettymuch anything to come to this place at the end of every day.” Giving the pool alonging look, I faced Jason.
“Seriously, this is amazing, what you’veaccomplished, what you’ve built for yourself. It will probably mean nothing toyou, but I’m proud of you. So proud to have known you when you weren’t such ahotshot.” Giving him a small smile, I shrugged. “I’m also glad that you livedwith us for as long as you did back then. Otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten theopportunity to annoy you as much as I probably did when I was a kid.”
I felt a familiar tug on my hair as hehooked his arm around my neck and drew me to his side. I let my shaky hand reston his chest, near his heart. When his lips touched my forehead and he didn’tloosen his hold on me, I closed my eyes and let my heart enjoy the peace.
When he drew back, my heart was going amile a minute. Looking into my eyes, he smiled. “You have never in your lifeannoyed me, little one. If I didn’t have you looking after me, who would’ve alwaysgiven me the first and biggest slices of those pies you made with your mom?”
I chuckled. “Do you remember the first timeyou came to our house? I promised you the biggest slice of the apple pie andended up giving you half of the damn thing. I can still see the shock on yourface when I brought it over.”
His eyes twinkled with laughter. “How couldI forget? You looked so pleased with yourself, just waiting in front of me tohear what I thought of your baking skills.”
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t so happy when my momswooped in and took the thing right out of my hands before I could give it toyou.”
“You brought me five slices worth of pie,little one. After your mom’s dinner, I barely had enough room to eat onepiece.” His voice had gone quiet when his eyes met mine.
“Well, I was heartbroken,” I said, equallysoftly.
His dimple beckoning me to take a very,very small taste, Jason’s eyes looked down at me with such a warmness to themthat I didn’t know what to do or what to say for several seconds.