The Talk of Hollywood Read online

  Jaxon groaned again as he saw her tongue appear between those pouting lips before moving over them moistly. If Stazy so much as touched him with those wet and pouting lips then he was going to—

  ‘Oh, dear God …!’ Jaxon’s hips lifted up off the bed as Stazy lowered her head, one of her hands once again firmly grasping his shaft and the other cupping him beneath, and her lips parted widely as she took him completely into the heat of her mouth, licking, sucking, savouring.

  He could smell Stazy’s arousal now—a hot and musky scent that drove his own pleasure higher than ever as her tongue laved him, fingers lightly pumping, before she took him fully into her mouth and sucked him deep into the back of her throat. It was too much—Stazy was too much! ‘You have to stop. Now!’ Jaxon gripped her shoulders as he pulled her up and away from him, allowing the full heaviness of his shaft to fall damply against the hardness of his stomach. ‘It’s my turn,’ he assured her huskily as he saw the questioning disappointment in her eyes, and he laid her gently back against the pillows and moved to roll the last piece of clothing from her body, sitting back on his haunches to look down at the pearly perfection of her naked body: pale ivory skin, the fullness of her breasts tipped with those ruby-red nipples, a red-gold thatch of curls between her thighs.

  His nudge was gentle as he parted her legs to kneel between her thighs and reveal her hidden beauty to him. He enjoyed Stazy’s groan of pleasure as he ran the tips of his fingers over and around her sensitive bud before lowering his head to move his tongue against her, again and again, until she arched into him as he gently suckled her into his mouth.

  Stazy gave a low and torturous moan as Jaxon’s finger caressed and probed her moist and swollen opening before sliding gently inside her, quickly joined by a second. Those muscled walls clasped around him and he began to thrust into her with the same rhythm as his suckling mouth. Stazy arched into those thrusts, needing, wanting—

  Pleasure coursed hotly, fiercely through her as she began to orgasm. There was a loud roaring sound in her ears and a kaleidoscope of coloured lights burst behind her eyelids as ecstatic release ripped through her for long, relentless minutes. Jaxon gave no quarter as he coaxed the last shuddering spasm of pleasure from her boneless and replete body before finally releasing her, to lay his head against her thigh.

  That was when Stazy became aware she still had that loud roaring noise in her ears. Her eyes opened wide as she looked down at Jaxon dazedly. ‘What …?’

  He raised his head lazily, eyes dark, lips moist and full. ‘I’d really like to take credit for being the cause of that phenomena, but I’m afraid I can’t,’ he murmured ruefully.

  Stazy looked about the bedroom dazedly, completely disorientated—both by the satiated weakness she felt following the fierceness of her first ever orgasm, and by that loud, inexplicable roaring in her ears.

  Her gaze returned to Jaxon when she could find no possible reason for that noise in the neatness of her bedroom. ‘What is it?’ she breathed huskily.

  Jaxon had a feeling he knew exactly what it was. Who it was. Just as he knew it was a presence guaranteed to wipe away that look of satiation from the relaxed beauty of Stazy’s face!

  He gave Stazy’s naked and satisfied body one last regretful glance before levering up onto his elbows and knees and crawling off the end of the bed to stroll over to the window. He twitched aside one of the curtains to look down on to the manicured lawn below.

  ‘Yep, I was afraid of that.’ He grimaced, letting the curtain fall back into place as he turned back to where Stazy now sat on the side of the bed, looking across at him with wide, still slightly dazed eyes.

  ‘Afraid of what?’ She gave a puzzled shake of her head.

  Jaxon drew in a heavy breath before answering her. ‘It’s your grandfather. He’s just arrived by helicopter,’ he added, as Stazy still looked completely dazed.

  Her eyes widened in alarm. ‘He—I—You—We—’ She threw back the bedclothes to stand up abruptly, completely unconcerned by her nakedness—and Jaxon’s, regrettably!—as she hurried across the room to pull one of the curtains aside for herself. ‘Oh, dear Lord …!’ she groaned, obviously in a complete panic as she quickly dropped the curtain back over the window and turned to grasp Jaxon’s arm. ‘We have to get dressed! No—first you need to go back to your own bedroom!’ She released his arm to commence frantically gathering his discarded clothes up off the carpet, before screwing them up into a bundle and shoving them at his chest. ‘You need to take these with you—’

  ‘Will you just calm down, Stazy?’ Jaxon took the clothes from her and placed them on the bedside chair, before reaching out to grasp both her arms and shake her gently. ‘You’re twenty-nine years old, for goodness’ sake—’

  ‘And that’s my grandfather out there!’ Her eyes had taken on a hunted look.

  ‘We haven’t done anything wrong,’ he said soothingly.

  ‘If this were my apartment, or a hotel, then I would be inclined to agree with you—but this is Gramps’ home!’ She was breathing hard in her agitation, her face white against the deep green of her eyes as she hurried through to the adjoining bathroom to return with her robe seconds later.

  ‘Stazy, I very much doubt that the first thing Geoffrey is going to do when he enters the house is come up to your bedroom to see if by some chance we might have spent the night together in his absence—’

  ‘Please don’t argue any more—just go, Jaxon!’ She looked up at him pleadingly after tying the belt to her robe.

  ‘I have every intention of going back to my own bedroom, Stazy,’ he assured gruffly. ‘But I think I should dress first, don’t you? Rather than risk bumping into your grandfather or one of the household staff in the hallway when I’m completely naked …?’

  He had a point, Stazy accepted with a pained wince. She hadn’t expected—It hadn’t even occurred to her—She hadn’t been thinking clearly at all last night when she had agreed to Jaxon’s coming to her bedroom and spending the night with her!

  And her explanation—her excuse for what had happened with Jaxon this morning …?

  She didn’t have one. At least not one that she wanted to think about right now. She couldn’t think at all now—not with her grandfather about to enter Bromley House!

  ‘Nor,’ Jaxon continued grimly, ‘do I find it in the least acceptable to sneak out of your bedroom like a naughty schoolboy caught in the act!’

  Stazy winced at the obvious displeasure in his tone. ‘I wasn’t implying that—’

  ‘No?’ He turned away to sort impatiently through the pile of clothes on the bedroom chair, giving Stazy a breathtaking view of the bare length of his back and the tautness of his buttocks as he pulled on those fitted black underpants. ‘It seems to me that’s exactly what you’re implying.’ His expression was bleak as he unhurriedly pulled on the rest of his clothes before sitting down on the side of the bed to lace his shoes. ‘Look, we can talk about this later, Jaxon—?’ ‘What is there to talk about?’ He stood up, towering over Stazy as she stood barefoot in front of him. ‘In my profession I’ve learnt that actions invariably speak louder than words, Stazy,’ he bit out harshly. ‘And your actions, your haste to get rid of me, tell me that you regret what just happened—’

  ‘And you’re behaving like that ridiculous schoolboy—’ She broke off as she saw the thunderous darkness of Jaxon’s frown. His eyes were a pale and glittering grey as he looked down the length of his nose at her, a nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw.

  ‘Just forget it, Stazy,’ he bit out bleakly.

  Forget it? Forget that amazing, wonderful lovemaking? Forget that she had wanted Jaxon enough, trusted him enough, to share her first ever orgasm with him …?

  That alone was enough to tell Stazy how inconsequential her two sexual experiences had been. Just how much of herself she had held back from those other men.

  Just now, with Jaxon, she had been completely open. The barriers that she had kept erected about her emotions
for so many years had come crashing down around her ears as she gave herself up completely to the pleasure of Jaxon’s lips and hands on her body.

  Meaning what, exactly?

  She couldn’t actually have come to care for Jaxon over these past few days alone with him, could she?

  And by care, did she mean—?

  No!

  She wasn’t going there!

  Not now.

  Not ever!

  Jaxon was an accomplished and experienced lover—a man used to making a conquest of any woman he went to bed with. Those were the reasons—the only reasons!—for her own loss of control just now.

  Her chin rose proudly. ‘Fine, then I guess we won’t talk later,’ she said dismissively.

  Jaxon looked down at Stazy from between narrowed lids, wishing he knew what thoughts had been going through her head during those few minutes of silence, but as usual her closed expression revealed none of her inner emotions to him.

  He probably shouldn’t have been so annoyed with her just now. No—he definitely shouldn’t have been annoyed with her just now! His only excuse was that it had been irritating, galling, to be made to feel like a guilty indiscretion as far as Stazy was concerned—especially when he could still feel the silkiness of her skin against his hands and taste her on his lips and tongue. When he was aware that he was starting to care for her in a way he had never imagined when they had met six weeks ago …

  ‘I really think you should go now, Jaxon.’ Stazy backed away from the hand he had raised with the intention of reaching out and caressing her cheek.

  Jaxon’s hand dropped back to his side and he looked down at her searchingly for several long seconds before nodding abruptly. ‘But we will talk about this again before I leave here,’ he promised softly, his gaze intent, before he turned on his heel and crossed to the door, letting himself quietly out of the room.

  Stazy felt awash with regret as she watched Jaxon close the bedroom door behind him as he left, having to bite down painfully on her bottom lip to stop herself from calling out to prevent him from going.

  What would be the point of stopping him? Their lovemaking, her pleasure, might have been life-altering for her, but as far as Jaxon was concerned she had merely been another sexual interlude in his life.

  CHAPTER TEN

  ‘AND that, I’m afraid, is my reason for not telling you both yesterday evening that I was actually in hospital, having stitches put in my arm, when I spoke to you on the telephone.’ Geoffrey concluded his explanation ruefully as he turned from where Jaxon stood in front of one of the bay windows in the drawing room to look concernedly at his still and silent granddaughter as she sat in the armchair opposite near the unlit fireplace.

  It was an explanation Jaxon thought worthy of one of the dozens of film scripts presented to him every year!

  Death threats from an unknown assassin. Gunshots in the night. The apprehension and arrest of a gunman by the security men who had been guarding Geoffrey in London. A gunman, it transpired, who held an old and personal grudge against Geoffrey, but had been unaware of exactly how and where to find him until he had seen and read that appalling biography on Anastasia published the previous year.

  ‘You were shot at …?’ Stazy was the one to break the silence, deathly white as she sat unmoving in the armchair.

  Her grandfather looked down at the sling on his right arm. ‘It’s only a flesh wound.’

  Stazy stood up abruptly. ‘Someone actually shot you and you chose not to tell me about it?’ She still found it unbelievable her grandfather could have done such a thing. Or, in this case, not done such a thing!

  Absolutely unbelievable!

  ‘Well … yes.’ Geoffrey gave a regretful wince. ‘I didn’t want to alarm you—’

  ‘You didn’t want to alarm me …!’ Stazy breathed hard as she looked down at her grandfather incredulously. ‘I don’t believe you, Gramps!’ she finally snapped exasperatedly. ‘Some unknown man has been stalking you—only you!—for days now, he finally succeeded in managing to shoot you, and you decided not to tell me about it because you didn’t want to alarm me!’

  The same night she had spent in Jaxon’s arms …

  ‘I did tell you of a threat—’

  ‘But not to you personally.’

  ‘No, but—’

  ‘Admit it, Gramps, you lied to me!’ she accused emotionally, her cheeks burning.

  ‘Stazy—’

  ‘Don’t even attempt to offer excuses for his behaviour, Jaxon,’ she warned hotly when he would have interceded. ‘There are no excuses. I was worried to death about you, Gramps.’ She rounded back on her grandfather.

  ‘Telling you I had been shot would only have worried you even more—’

  ‘I’m not sure that was even possible!’ She gave an exasperated shake of her head. ‘I’m sorry, but if I stay here any longer then I’m going to say something I’ll really regret. If you will both excuse me?’ She didn’t wait for either man to answer before rushing from the room.

  ‘Well, that didn’t go too well, did it?’ Geoffrey murmured ruefully as the door slammed behind Stazy with barely controlled violence.

  ‘Not too well, no,’ Jaxon confirmed dryly as he turned back from admiring how beautiful Stazy had looked as she left the room. That red-gold hair had seemed to crackle with electricity, her eyes had glittered like emeralds, her creamy cheeks had been flushed. The cream silk blouse and close-fitting denims she was wearing today weren’t too hard on the eye either!

  ‘Why doesn’t she understand that I was only trying to protect her by not telling her the truth until the whole thing was over and done with?’ the older man asked in obvious frustration.

  Jaxon grimaced as he stepped further into the room, having deemed it safer to stand a little removed while granddaughter and grandfather confronted each other. ‘I may be wrong, but I believe Stazy considers herself to be a little old to still be in need of that sort of protection from you or anyone else.’

  ‘And what do you think I could have done differently in the circumstances?’ Geoffrey frowned up at him.

  Jaxon gave a rueful smile. ‘I’m the last person you should be asking about how best to deal with Stazy.’

  ‘Indeed?’ Geoffrey’s gaze sharpened speculatively.

  ‘Oh, yes!’ he said with feeling.

  ‘Does that mean the two of you are still at loggerheads?’ the older man frowned again.

  Jaxon wasn’t sure how his relationship with Stazy stood at this precise moment. Last night she had allowed him to comfort her. This morning they had almost made love to each other. Before having the most god-awful row when Geoffrey had arrived so unexpectedly!

  No, Jaxon had no idea how Stazy felt towards him now.

  Any more than he knew what to make of his feelings for her.

  It had been both heaven and hell to hold Stazy in his arms all night long, and sheer unadulterated pleasure to be with her this morning.

  Knowing how Stazy liked to keep her life compartmentalised and Jaxon didn’t, the argument that had followed had perhaps been predictable—but that didn’t stop it from being frustrating as hell as far as Jaxon was concerned.

  Where the two of them went from here—if they went anywhere—Jaxon had absolutely no idea.

  ‘More or less, yes,’ he answered the older man abruptly.

  ‘Do I want to know how much more or how much less …?’ Geoffrey prompted softly.

  Jaxon gave the question some thought. ‘Probably not,’ he finally answered carefully.

  The other man looked at him searchingly for several long seconds before giving a slow nod of his head. ‘Okay. So, do you think Stazy will ever forgive me …?’

  Probably a lot more quickly than she was going to forgive Jaxon—if she ever did forgive him! ‘I think it might be a good idea if you give her some time to—well, to calm down before attempting to talk to her again,’ he advised ruefully.

  ‘And in the meantime …?’

  ‘I have absolutel
y no idea what you do in the meantime.’ Jaxon grimaced. ‘But now that security here has been lifted I intend to change into my leathers and go out for a ride on the Harley,’ he said decisively.

  ‘I’d ask to join you, but I think that might push Stazy into disowning me completely!’ Geoffrey chuckled wryly.

  ‘There’s no “might” about it!’ Jaxon assured him.

  The older man nodded slowly. ‘Let’s hope she decides to forgive me very soon.’

  It was a hope Jaxon echoed.

  Stazy stood with her forehead pressed against the coolness of her bedroom window, looking outside as the Harley roared off down the gravel driveway with a leather-clad Jaxon seated on the back of it, the black helmet once again covering his almost shoulder-length hair and the smoky visor lowered over his face. Although it wasn’t too difficult for her to imagine the grimness of his expression!

  Was Jaxon leaving for good? Or had he just gone out for a drive now that there was no longer a reason for them to be confined to Bromley House?

  Not that Stazy could altogether blame Jaxon if he had decided to leave. A part of her knew she would have to leave too. And soon. She longed for the peace and solitude of her apartment in London, desperately needed to be alone for a while—if only so that she could lick her wounds in private. At the same time she knew she couldn’t leave here until things were less strained between herself and her grandfather.

  How could he have lied to her in that way? Oh, she could appreciate the reason her grandfather had thought he should skirt around the truth, but that didn’t mean Stazy had to be in the least understanding about his having so blatantly lied to her at the end.

  Especially when those lies had resulted in her spending the night with Jaxon.