Page 48 of Full House

Nate’s lips trailed up her stomach and over her chest to land on her mouth. She opened willingly, tasting herself intermingled with his own unique flavor.

“As much as I hate to say this,” Nate said, capturing her lower lip between his own, “we need to get up and get ready.”

Regaining use of her arms, she wrapped them around his waist. “What time is it?”

“A little after eight.”

They didn’t need to be at the studio for their meeting until ten. “We’ve still got time. Besides, there’s something we need to take care of.” She punctuated her words with a bump of her hips, rubbing her stomach against his more than evident erection.

“Come on,” he nipped at her bottom lip before getting to his knees, “you can take care of it in the shower.”

She smiled following him to the bathroom, liking the idea of getting a little dirty before getting clean.

“You missed the turn for the studio.” Victoria’s finger flew up, pointing to the street they just passed.

“I have a stop to make first.”

She eyed the clock on the dash, noting they still had time and figured this was why Nate had woken her so early and rushed her out of the house. “Where are we going?”

“My place. There’s something I need to grab real quick.”

Victoria sat back in her seat and rested her eyes as Nate wound his way through the hills and didn’t open them until they pulled up to his house.

She looked over at him when he opened the car door. “I’ll be right back.”

She nodded then watched him jog to and up the stairs before unlocking and slipping through the front door.

Unfastening her seat belt, she got out of the car to stretch her legs before they headed back down to the studio. Raising her arms above her head, she tipped her face toward the sky, letting the sun’s rays beat on her closed lids. It would be too hot by mid-day—the August temperatures reaching into the high nineties—but right then, with a light breeze blowing, the weather was perfect.

She turned her head when she heard the front door and smiled at Nate as he approached. He stopped in front of her, taking her by the hands and lightly kissing her on the lips before falling to one knee.

“I didn’t get a chance to do this right last night.”

She tugged at his hands. “Get up, you silly man. You don’t need to kneel in front of me.”

He raised a brow and smirked. “I think it only fair, as you kneeled before me this morning.”

Victoria felt her cheeks heat as a vision of her doing just that in the shower not even an hour prior filled her mind. She tugged his hands again. “Get up. You’re getting the knee of your pants dirty.”

“I don’t give a fuck about my jeans. But I do care about slipping this ring on your finger.” He let go of one of her hands to reach into his front pocket, pulling out a ring, its large, square-cut diamond twinkling in the sunlight. “Say you’ll marry me,” he said, slipping the ring halfway up her finger then looking up at her, squinting into the sun.

She dropped to her knees in front of him, and he followed her with his eyes. “Now look who’s getting their knees dirty.”

She smirked. “I don’t care about my knees, and yes, I’ll marry you.”

He grinned, sliding the ring the rest of the way on. Then leaning forward, he halted a breath away from her lips, murmuring, “Sealed with a kiss,” before doing just that.

“There you are!” Matt Gregory, the producer of their film, said as they walked through the door of the meeting room. He looked down at his watch then at their clasped hands. “So nice of you to join us.”

Nate gave him his best Hollywood smile—the one reserved for people he secretly thought were assholes. “If five minutes were considered late, everyone in Hollywood would be booted out on their ass.” Nate tugged at her hand, leading her to an empty seat at the end of the conference table, pulling out her chair and seating her, before taking the seat beside hers. “Now, are we going to waste even more time, or should we get down to business?”

Victoria looked around at the others already sitting at the table. She grimaced when she spied April, looking her usual put-together self. Her blond hair—styled in a sleek, stylish bob—framed her perfectly made-up face that currently had a stern, straight-lipped expression. Whether it was from their lateness, the talking to Victoria had overheard Nate inflict on her that morning, or just her usual bitchiness, Victoria wasn’t sure. What Victoria did know, she was the only one receiving the full brunt of her icy-blue glare.

Byron sat across the table from April, his chair pushed back to make room for his ample stomach. His brown hair—looking greasy from product—was slicked back making his already overly long forehead look even longer. Bangs, the man needed bangs. His concentration was set on the papers in front of him, his pudgy fingers shuffling through the stack.

Victoria only recognized two of the four others sitting at the table—Matt who still look peeved from Nate’s comment and Simon, looking bored.

Matt cleared his throat. “As Mr. Reed so graciously pointed out, we should get started so not to waste everyone’s valuable time.”

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