Page 11 of Salacious Star

Xander glanced between the two of us, that pink flush deepening and spreading down his neck. "Oh, okay," he mumbled.

I patted him on the shoulder, grinning at him when he flinched, and then pressed into my touch in the same moment.

He was going to be fun when we finally got him in front of Dorian's camera.

My cock jerked at the idea, which made me take pause. I was an adult film star, so I rarely got excited about having sex anymore. An unfortunate hazard of the industry.

The idea of sleeping withXander, though…

"Do you...need anything else, then?" Xander said, pulling me out of my thoughts. I watched him run his hand through his hair nervously, making it stick up even more than it already was. My fingers itched to do the same thing, to feel the soft strands between my fingers as I cranked his head back with a tight grip. Preferably while I was buried all the way in that tight little ass of his...

"Nah, you're good," Emmett assured him. He smiled, reaching out and shaking Xander's hand. "You did great today. I can't wait to edit these. Cole and Tanner will be in touch about setting up a meeting to review the photos, and we'll decide our future direction from there."

Xander nodded, swallowing. "That's great, then. Thank you." He offered a small smile, and for a moment, I was struck by the way the tiny gesture lit his entire face up. His smile made him even more beautiful, and I didn't want him to walk away.

"Do you want to get changed and grab a drink with me?" I blurted out, startling both myself and the other two men in the room.

Emmett looked at me oddly, but Xander flushed, and took a tiny step back. "It's only eleven," he said. He looked at me, a little shy, and offered another smile. "Maybe rain check?"

The rejection settled in my stomach, ugly and sticky, but I smiled at him anyway. "Sure, no problem," I agreed.

Xander nodded, running his hand through his hair one more time before he turned on his heel and hurried off the set. I watched him go, my cock twitching in my pants at the sight of his ass in those jeans, and Emmett cleared his throat, drawing my attention as Xander disappeared from the room.

"Don't you go scaring him off, Tristan," he said sternly, bopping me on the nose when I drew near. "You have no idea how difficult it was to find someone who would film well with you visually, let alone emotionally. The chemistry that the two of you have is off the fucking charts, so don't. Ruin. It." He poked me in the chest several times with a mock aggressive expression on his face, and I snorted, batting his hand away.

"I hear you, Em. I won't scare away the baby star." I shrugged one shoulder, tucking my hands into the pockets of my jeans.

Even if I want him more badly than I've wanted anything...ever.

5

Xander

I didn't hear anything from any of the members of the Studio Black team over the weekend, a fact that I had to keep reminding myself wasprobablyperfectly normal.

It didn't mean that I had failed, and it didn't mean that they were going to suddenly cancel my contract. I mean...the tension between myself and Tristan had been fuckingintense, right? That had to count for something.

Especially because I got the impression - both from the secret glances that he and Emmett had shared, as well as my own intuition - that Tristan tended to be a bit more of a difficult star to work with, and the fact that he and I had worked togethersowell together had to be a good thing, right?

By the time Sunday night rolled around and Ethan texted me to ask me out for a drink, I was a nervous wreck and responded with a thumbs up emoji before I could think better of it.

Gunner's was relatively quiet, considering it wasSunday, and I sighed as I took my seat at the bar to wait for Ethan to show up. Mark, the usual bartender, smiled at me as he grabbed a glass, his long blonde hair pulled into a topknot at the top of his head, a few strands falling down around his cheekbones.

"Hey, Xan. You're looking a bit rough." He poured me a beer before I could even ask for it, and I let out a low chuckle as he slid it across the bar top towards me, and then wiped down the counter as he cocked an eyebrow over those pretty blue eyes of his.

"Thanks man, you too."

He chuckled, winking at me. "I'm too pretty to look rough, and you know it," he bantered back, wiggling his eyebrows a little.

"I'm convinced that you stepped off a surfer movie set and this is just your in between gig before you get back to your real life," I deadpanned, looking Mark up and down. He was averybeautiful man, it was true, classically handsome with high cheekbones, a sculpted jaw, and the sunshine drenched looks of a surf god. He looked like everyone's stereotypical idea of what a Californian should look like, and it never ceased to amaze me that he was here in this little town, rather than LA or San Francisco or literally anywhere else in the state where he could make a much better living.

Mark chuckled, and he tucked his rag into the waist of his jeans as he looked at me. "You caught me. I'm a surfer movie star in hiding." He leaned forward confidentially. "Drugs, you know."

He wiggled his eyebrows at me again, and I snorted out a laugh even as I shook my head. "Yeah, okay," I said easily, picking up my beer and taking a sip. The carbonated drink settled my stomach some, and I glanced around, checking my phone as Mark wandered off to chat with the patrons at the other end of the bar.

Ethan burst in through the front doors of the bar a few minutes later, and he offered me an apologetic smile as he drew level with me, offering Mark a wave when he glanced down the bar towards us. "Sorry, I'm late."

I chuckled, picking up my beer and standing up. "I don't think you can be late for a casual drink with your brother at the local bar," I teased, leading him over to one of the empty booths in the corner of the room. I smiled at Mark as we passed him, and Ethan sighed as we sat down, the corner slightly more private that the bar was.

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