“I wouldn’t do that,” Emma said. “Of course I wouldn’t.”
“Good.” I wasn’t sure why it was so important to me that he not know, besides the fact that I didn’t want him to know anything about my sex life. He could be overprotective sometimes—as well as downright nosy. “I just… after nearly twenty years of not wanting to know anything about my father’s life, it seems kind of like… I’m betraying my principles now by getting to know my stepbrothers.” And by no longer hating them.
“Don’t think like that,” Emma said, sounding alarmed. “I know you never wanted to meet the twins, but they weren’t responsible for your father leaving. They were just kids, too. I don’t think you’re betraying yourself by giving them a chance now.”
“A chance to get in your pants,” Maddie said.
“Ignore her,” Emma said. “She hasn’t been laid in a while.” Ah, that explained it.
“I miss my guys,” Maddie said in a plaintive voice. “But I’ll see them soon. Speaking of that, the weekend after next, I’m going to be in Vegas with Kincaid. Why don’t you join us? Moab’s not that far away, and Kincade can send his plane. I’d love for you to meet him, and the others are going to come if they can.”
Pleasure filled me at the thought of seeing Maddie and meeting the men who were so important to her. But there were still things I needed to do here. My business here—whatever the hell that was—felt unfinished. “I’d love to, but that’s the week shooting wraps up, or it might even go over. There’s been some talk of that.”
“I thought your job didn’t require you to do much there?” Emma inquired.
“Well, it doesn’t, but I kind of feel the need to see things through here.”
“What happens after that? Do they all go back to LA?” Maddie asked.
“Yeah.”
“What will you do then?” she continued.
“I don’t know.” If I wanted to tag along, I’d probably be able to. Ford, Tanner, or maybe even Mac would probably give me a place to stay, though I couldn’t imagine staying with my father for any length of time. Talk about awkward. And I didn’t even know where Ford or Tanner lived. Was it near each other?
Once again, it struck me that I really needed to look these guys up online to find out some basic info, but it was like what I told Emma before, it felt like a betrayal of myself—because of all those years I’d been too hurt to want to know anything about them.
“You’ll figure something out,” Emma said. “And you know we’d love it if you came back here.”
“Thanks. I’ll be back when I have Ronnie 2.0 figured out. My next chapter, so to speak. Trust me, I’m not going to stay out west forever.” Which was exactly what Mac had done.
After we hung up, I stretched. The sheets felt soft and cool on my bare skin. Maybe I should sleep naked more often. I checked the time on my phone. I needed to get up soon, but right now, it felt good to stay in bed for longer. And to remember how it felt to have Ford and Tanner’s hands on me last night.
A bit belatedly, I wondered how my phone had appeared on my bedside table. Tanner had carried me up the stairs and I sure as hell hadn’t had it with me then. I hadn’t been wearing a stitch, in fact. One of them must’ve delivered it later without waking me. I couldn’t quite imagine that. Had whoever it was looked at me in my sleep with tenderness? Or lust? I couldn’t help but wonder how much of the sheet had been covering me then.
But… it probably was time to stop thinking about last night and start thinking about tomorrow. If we couldn’t help Sierra find a way to get through this sex scene, her acting career could be over.
Therefore, her man troubles took precedence over mine.
“Basically, there are four to five specific shots the director wants to see,” Aiden said. He was sitting on a double bed in what looked to be a typical hotel room. There was a nightstand with a lamp and a clock radio next to him. Semi-ugly paintings on the wall. And a door that led off to the bathroom.
Except it didn’t. It led to an empty part of the soundstage. And the hotel room only had two walls and carpet. Everything else was open. Two large cameras were set up just beyond the brown shag carpet that marked the edges of the room. Lights hung from rafters far overhead. All in all, it looked like a soundstage in Hollywood, not in the middle of the desert.
“It starts with you standing by the bed, Sierra,” Aiden continued. “You’ve just told me that I can sleep on the floor. That went over about as well as you’d expect in a Chase Cooper film.” He gave a brief grin, and the others chuckled.