He looks down at my breasts and strokes his index finger down between them. I dip my head and watch him move over the swell of my right breast and chafe my nipple through the fabric of my bikini. A bolt of heat flashes through me and I can’t help it: I grind myself further against his erection. I’m not sure what’s happening to my brain and my body, but I could do something seriously rash here, in this moment, with this man, surrounded by a blanket of sparkling water that hides all indiscretions.
He must be feeling the same, for he removes his fingers from my breast and cups my face with his hand. His eyes are shining with desire and fascination. He exhales slowly and lowers his forehead to mine.
‘Whew. Goddammit, Elle. If we don’t slow down, I won’t have any self-control left.’
‘Me neither,’ I mumble. I rub my nose against his.
‘We should swim this off and get on our way. But first, answer me this. It’s been driving me crazy since I danced with you the other night.’
‘What’s that?’ I lift my head and gaze at him.
His lips turn up into a tortured smile. ‘Tell me, do you fuck like you dance? Because if you do, I may not survive this.’
CHAPTER 6
Josh
‘Ihope I didn’t give you the wrong impression this morning.’
Elle’s smile quivers. Oh, shit. I don’t want her to think I regret the kiss, or that it meant nothing.
‘Not the kiss. That was fucking amazing.’
Her smile widens again, and she sits up straight. God, she’s so freaking adorable in that virginal white dress.
‘Really?’
‘Sure.’ I hesitate. ‘Why? Was it not good for you?’
I mean, she seemed into it, and all, but you never know. Maybe I’ve become one of those entitled douches who’s stopped noticing when the woman’s not as into it as I am.
But she leans over and covers the hand clutching my glass of rosé.
‘Josh. Relax. It was amazing for me too.’
‘Okay, then. Phew.’ I grin at her. ‘No, I was thinking about it in the shower when I got back, and?—’
‘Thinking about me in the shower, were you? Interesting.’
I lower my voice. ‘I jerked off in the shower, thinkingabout you.’
Her reaction is fan-fucking-tastic. Her head jerks around as if she’s terrified we’ll be overheard, before her gaze slides back to me and she bites her lip. She’s blushing. Fucking adorable, as I said.
‘Oh.’
‘Yeah. Oh. I needed to, after spending the morning with you and that little bikini of yours. My point is, I feel like I made out that I was only into you because of your movie—like, I was turned on by your character. Gracie. I should have made it clearer. It’s not Gracie I want to get to know better. It’s Elle Hart.’
I pause to make sure the words sink in. After an awesome walk around the cape in the early morning sunlight, we drove back to the Martinez and went our separate ways: Elle to her interviews, and me to the Nikki Beach pop-up for lunch with the guys.
But now I’ve got her to myself again. We’re in a distinctly low-key restaurant in Le Suquet, which is Cannes’ Old Town. Matthieu dropped us at the bottom of the steep, winding cobbled street and we strolled up in search of some dinner, my arm draped loosely around her. The paps will catch up with us at some point, but I have no problems being snapped with Elle Hart.
In fact, I’ll be fucking thrilled.
This street is super-narrow and lined with the sweetest old-world restaurants. Most of them take walk-ins and have little terraces on the street, but we’ve gone for a dark corner in an old stone building. I want Elle to myself as long as I can get her.
I’m probably being a superior pain in the ass, but I feel protective of her. Despite her insane talent, she’s so clearly not part of my world yet, in the best possible way. She’s refreshing, and youthful, and she seems so innocent and so dazzled by thecraziness of Cannes (and especially by the industry’s reaction to her and her beautiful movie). I wanna keep her like this, stop the inevitable jaded cynicism that will kick in.
I should know. I’m only seven years older than her, but I’ve been in the movie business since I was a kid, and it gets old. So fucking old, you need a constant carousel of liquor and drugs and women just to keep you awake.
