“Totally. I promise.” She sounded sincere. “Tell Serena I said hi, and to give Avery another happy birthday from me.”
“Will do.”
I ended the call feeling relieved that I had the chance to keep my promise to Serena before I saw her.
Twenty minutes later, I was pulling onto the studio lot. Flashing my visitor pass to the guard at the gate was more of a formality, and I was quickly winding through the maze of sound stages until I found the one where Serena was shooting her current chick flick. The guard there recognized me and waved me through with a grin.
I spotted her trailer tucked behind a row of production trucks. She was sitting on the steps in a light robe over her costume, scrolling her phone, looking beautiful and tired all at once. Her black hair was pulled back in a complicated updo, her blue eyes were focused on the screen, and her stage makeup had worn off just enough for me to tell her skin was paler than usual.
The second she saw me, her shoulders straightened.
“Surprise.” I held up the bag as a peace offering. “Two of your favorite tacos.”
Her eyes widened. “Carnitas?”
“Would I bring you anything else?”
Serena’s eyes lit up, but then her lips puffed out in an adorable pout. “Only two? You’re cruel, Holt.”
“I know how you are about eating on filming days.” I leaned in closer, my voice dropping as I admitted, “I may have also grabbed a couple of pounds of the meat and all the fixings. You can have as many as you want when you get home tonight. No judgment. I’ll even make them for you.”
Her pout melted into an appreciative smile. She took the bag, opened it, and breathed in the smell with a happy sigh. “You’re dangerous.”
I stepped between her knees, my hands settling on her waist as I bent to kiss her. I took my sweet time, exploring her mouth with my tongue when her lips parted. Even though I didn’t care who saw us kissing, I appreciated that the studio lots were relatively safe from prying eyes. The crew members, cast, production staff, and vendors were all bound by NDAs, and thelast thing they wanted was to be blackballed in the industry for selling a photo.
When I ended the kiss, she straightened and tugged on my hand. “Come on, let’s eat before these get cold.”
I followed her into the trailer, grabbing a couple of bottles of water from the fridge before joining her, where she’d already pulled the tacos from the bag and spread them out on the table.
We just ate in comfortable silence, the carnitas as perfect as always. Serena closed her eyes on the first bite and let out a soft, happy hum that hardened my dick. It was too damn close to the sounds she made when she came.
“Remind me to buy you these more often.”
She flashed me a sheepish smile, her tongue darting out to swipe a drop of salsa from her bottom lip. “My mouth won’t argue, but my hips probably will.”
I reached over to squeeze her hand, my thumb brushing over her knuckles. “You’re sexy as fuck, no matter what you eat, baby.”
“You know how it is.” She shrugged. “As my agent loves to remind me, the camera puts on ten pounds.”
It sucked how much she needed to pay attention to her diet and exercise, especially while filming. Hollywood was a fuck of a lot harder for women than men.
“Next time he says shit like that, tell him to go to hell.”
She laughed as she unwrapped her other taco. “I’ll definitely do that.”
I loved these stolen moments when the two of us were tucked away from prying eyes, pretending for a little while that the rest of the world didn’t exist.
But the quiet didn’t last.
When Serena was done eating, she wiped her fingers on a napkin and met my gaze. “So…about last night.”
“Yeah, I figured you’d want to talk.”
She looked away, gathering the wrappers and stuffing them into the empty bag. Her voice was low as she explained, “Maddie showing up at Avery’s party was not okay.”
I set my half-eaten taco down, reaching across the small table to take her hand. “I get that she crossed a boundary. And I talked to her on the drive over so that she knows parties are different here than back home. She won't just show up to your place like that again.”
Serena’s fingers tightened around mine, and her eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”
