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  Hayley brushed a loose strand of hair behind Emerson’s ear and her eyes sparkled as she answered. “You’re tender and soft. And sweet. I don’t think I expected you to be so sweet.”

  Emerson warmed at the compliment. “I like to consider myself pretty versatile in the romance department, but I’ll accept that observation,” she teased.

  Hayley gave her a mischievous look. “That was not in any way an attempt to put you in a box, Emerson. If last night was a glimpse of even a fraction of what you are capable of—”

  Emerson reached out and pressed her finger to Hayley’s lips, quieting her. “I have to read over these script changes, but the more you speak and the more those lips move, the more I want to taste them…and you. So I need you to be really sexy and brilliant over there for a few minutes, so I can get some work done.”

  Hayley opened her mouth and licked Emerson’s finger and Emerson about died.

  “Fuck the script, they can give me the lines as needed.” She pushed the papers away and pulled Hayley to her by her shirt.

  Hayley’s hand slipped between the lapels of her robe and grazed her stomach and Emerson wondered if there was a way she could lock her trailer door from up here. Hayley’s hand moved south and soothed the top of her thigh and Emerson needed to be free of the small dining table and bench arrangement.

  “Hayley.” She accepted Hayley’s kiss with enthusiasm.

  Hayley untied her robe and pushed apart the plush fabric, resulting in a rush of cool air that made Emerson’s skin prickle. “Yeah, Em?”

  Emerson pushed Hayley toward the end of the bench and stumbled out after her. “This bench is intimate as fuck and all, but there’s a bed right through that door and I need to be on it and under you, okay?”

  Hayley’s eyes were dark as she nodded in understanding. They only made it two steps toward their destination when Emerson’s phone rang. Tremont was trying to FaceTime.

  Emerson let out an exasperated noise. “The fucking timing around here, seriously.”

  She was careful to ignore his call and not accept it. The last thing she needed was for Tremont to get an eyeful of Hayley’s hands all over her near-naked chest. She closed her eyes at the sensation and forgot what she had been doing.

  “Bed, Emerson.” Hayley palmed her breasts over her bra and licked along the lace of the cup.

  Oh, right. Emerson nodded and moved toward the slightly ajar door to the bedroom again, when Tremont’s face reappeared on her phone screen. The FaceTime ringtone taunted her. “Motherfucker,” she whined and silenced it again.

  Hayley dropped to her knees and kissed across Emerson’s stomach. “He’s going to keep calling, Em. You’d better just answer and get it over with.”

  Emerson’s mouth dropped open as Hayley’s tongue slid along the waistband of her panties. She wouldn’t dare, would she?

  Tremont called for a third time and Hayley pulled Emerson’s panties off with her teeth. Hayley pushed Emerson’s hips back against the kitchenette counter and pressed her hand flat against Emerson’s stomach, holding her in place as she eased her legs apart and lowered her mouth to Emerson’s center.

  “Oh God.” Emerson’s breath caught in her throat when Hayley’s mouth met her lips. Hayley teased and licked along her sex in the most maddeningly delicious way. Emerson felt sure that in that moment she would do just about anything to feel Hayley’s tongue on her clit.

  “You’re so wet.” Hayley’s voice vibrated against her and her knees buckled. Hayley’s hand pressed against her abdomen to stabilize her. “Don’t go anywhere just yet.”

  Emerson looked down and caught Hayley watching her. Her chest tightened at the sight. Hayley had some sort of power over her, and it had nothing to do with the incredible things she was doing with her tongue at the moment. Although, that was awfully powerful, too. Her phone vibrated again, and she tossed it on the counter behind her, preferring to run her hands through Hayley’s hair instead. “I’m all yours, Hay.”

  Hayley closed her eyes and dipped her head. Her tongue slid into Emerson with a practiced ease that Emerson was beyond grateful for. She hooked behind Emerson’s knee and guided Emerson’s leg to her shoulder, and Emerson saw stars.

  Emerson loved the way Hayley was so confident with her, like she knew what she wanted and needed. And right now, she needed to feel Hayley’s tongue deeper inside her. “Please, Hayley.”

  Hayley looked up at her again, and she moved her hands from Hayley’s hair to stroke along her cheek. Hayley turned her head to kiss Emerson’s fingertips and Emerson froze—she wasn’t used to such intimacy. It was giving her all kinds of feelings she wasn’t ready to process. Before her brain could sabotage the moment, Hayley sucked two of her fingers into her mouth and redirected Emerson’s lust to the task at hand—or mouth, as it were.

  The sound of a pinball machine coming from Hayley’s hip broke them apart, making Emerson painfully aware of how close she was to climax.

  Hayley pulled her phone out and held the screen up to Emerson. Tremont was calling.

  “Your ringtone for him is a pinball machine?” Emerson was breathless.

  Hayley silenced her phone and slipped it back into her pocket. She shrugged and gripped Emerson’s leg closer to her shoulder, which brought her mouth inches from Emerson’s sex. “Is that what you’re thinking about right now?”

  “No.” Emerson shook her head so hard she got dizzy. “Not at all.”

  Hayley moved closer, but not close enough. “You sure?”

  “Positive.”

  “What are you thinking about?” Hayley bumped her nose against Emerson’s clit and a tremor shot through her.

  “Nothing innocent or clean, that’s for sure.” She threaded her fingers through Hayley’s hair again and pulled her head back a bit. “Mostly I’m thinking about how badly I want to come on your face, but I don’t know how to politely say that.”

  Hayley raised her eyebrow and licked her lips. “That was plenty polite.”

  “Yeah?” Emerson didn’t have a chance to say anything else because Hayley went to work making sure she was speechless. And she was. Twice.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Hayley felt like she was having an out of body experience. Or that she was in someone else’s body and living a life she could never have dreamed of. Maybe she had died and gone to heaven. That would make more sense. Because these last two days with Emerson had turned out to be heavenly. In every sense of the word.

  Not that they had discussed what this was or anything. Or if it would be anything more than an unchaperoned trip to Boston where evidently nothing was off-limits, including Hayley’s full-frontal access to everything Emerson. Everything. All of her. But still, this had to have an expiration date, right? Emerson hadn’t hinted to that or said anything along those lines, but Hayley knew this bubble had to burst. This couldn’t last, could it? She tried not to think about it.

  After their brief encounter in the trailer, Emerson had gone back to work on set. But not before being thoroughly chastised by Tremont for missing his calls. Hayley had tried not to laugh in the background, but it had been near impossible. Emerson had thrown a pillow at her to quiet her down, but that only made her laugh harder. Her punishment from Emerson was an intense make-out session and a quick and dirty climax up against the interior of Emerson’s trailer door, so she vowed to do that a million times more.

  “Great, Emerson. That was perfect.” Paige Montgomery stood from her director’s chair and clapped.

  “Thanks, Paige.” Emerson accepted the towel from the wardrobe assistant and patted her face. They were shooting the final good-bye scene between Willow and Rhea, but scheduling issues were going to force them to edit some shots in after the fact. Piper couldn’t be here today, so Emerson was acting in front of a stand-in who was wearing a funny outfit with headgear that had tiny little balls all over it. Hayley was informed that these would act as markers for Piper’s face and body to be added in after the fact. This was the only scene left f
or Emerson for the day, but it had been a long one. And an emotional one. And that was just from Hayley’s perspective. She couldn’t imagine where Emerson’s headspace was, but she had successfully pulled off being devastated and heartbroken as was needed for her character. She’d inquire about where she found that emotional inspiration later.

  “I think that’s enough for us, Em.” Paige turned and called out through a loudspeaker, “That’s a wrap on Emerson.”

  The crew applauded, and someone hooted, causing them all to laugh. Emerson went over and thanked each crew member as the set was broken down. Hayley watched in awe of how easily Emerson chatted with these people. Some of them were local hires, but a majority of them had been with the production all along. They’d weathered this storm with Emerson and the rest of the production team.

  Hayley’s pocket buzzed, and she fished out her phone. It was Tremont. “Hey, what’s up?”

  “Someone is taking pictures of her and sneaking video. There are livestreamed images going up online by the minute. What’s going on there?”

  The anxious tone in his voice hit Hayley square in the gut. “Shit.”

  “Get her out of there.” That wasn’t a request.

  She noticed Francis off to the side. She’d completely forgotten about him. He seemed to be alerted to this information, too. His brow with pinched in focus and his hand was at his hip.

  Hayley looked left and right to find the culprit. Emerson was posing for selfies with a bunch of the crew and people were moving around everywhere—she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Not that she’d trust herself to notice. This was all out of the ordinary for her.

  “I’ll get her.”

  “Be quick about it.” Tremont ended the call.

  Her phone buzzed again, and she checked it—Tremont had sent her a link. She clicked it and the headline read: Starlet Unfazed by Brokenhearted Ex: Sterling flirts and canoodles with crew and director while Blanche falls apart.

  An image of Emerson embracing Paige filled the screen. Hayley had been there when it happened, a few moments ago. The photo was juxtaposed with one of Rachel in frozen hysterics from her interview the other night. A second image of Emerson leaning to accept a towel followed the first, and Emerson’s hand resting on the assistant’s shoulder in gratitude looked like something more. It was completely out of context. This one was paired with one of the grainy photos Rachel’s camp had released of Emerson and Rachel between takes during filming. It was the most intimate-looking exchange between them to date. Hayley had been annoyed when it showed up before their flight together. But knowing what she did now, it did more than annoy her. She was straight up mad about it because she knew Emerson would be upset, and that was the last thing she wanted to happen.

  Her phone buzzed again, and this time Tremont sent her a link to another media outlet, this one featured Emerson kissing one of the female crew members on the cheek during a selfie. From the vantage of the picture, the person taking these pictures must have been just a few feet away. Hayley scanned the crowd again and thought she saw someone holding a phone against their chest. He was moving away from the group. She waved to Francis and pointed. Francis took off after him and she made a beeline to Emerson.

  She dashed forward, nearly knocking down Paige in the process. “Sorry.”

  “No worries.” Paige put her hand on Hayley’s shoulder to steady herself. “You all right?”

  Hayley looked back at Emerson. “Someone is livestreaming the set and filming Emerson. LA called. I need to get her out of here.”

  “Not on my set.” Paige looked pissed. She reached for the walkie-talkie on her hip and called for security. She called out to the crowd that had gathered, “This is a closed set. No more photos. If I catch you with a camera, you’re fired.”

  Everyone froze, including Emerson. She looked at Hayley and Hayley pointed to her phone mouthing, “We need to go.”

  Emerson didn’t hesitate. She said a quick good-bye and blocked her face with the towel as she raced toward Hayley and off in the direction of her trailer.

  “What happened?” Emerson’s pace was frantic.

  “Someone is taking pictures.” Hayley had to hustle to keep up.

  “Someone is always taking pictures, Hayley. I’m a zoo animal. Roar.” Emerson held open the door and ushered Hayley inside before joining her.

  Hayley would have laughed but her heart was beating too fast. She felt like they were under attack. Emerson’s phone chimed, and she answered it on speaker.

  “Emerson? Are you in your trailer?” Tremont sounded worried.

  “I am.” She walked to the kitchenette and grabbed a bottle of water. She sipped it casually before offering it to Hayley.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” Emerson hopped up onto the counter and looked at Hayley. “Why is everyone freaking out?” Her phone buzzed on the counter and she opened the photo Tremont sent over.

  Hayley put the bottle down and gaped. The photo was of Hayley and Emerson inside Emerson’s trailer, and from the looks of it, this was taken about a minute before things got X-rated.

  “Someone is staking out your trailer, Emerson.” Tremont voice was flat.

  Emerson’s face dropped, the gravity of the situation becoming apparent. “Are there any more like this?”

  There was a shuffling from Tremont’s end of the line. “A few of you and Hayley leaving the hotel this morning, getting into the car. One of you on set working with makeup. One of Hayley watching you run through your lines.”

  Emerson let out a slow breath. “That’s it?”

  “Isn’t that enough?” Tremont raised his voice. “I don’t like this, Emerson. That picture of you and Hayley looks like it was taken from inside the trailer. What were you doing in that picture, anyway?”

  Emerson looked up at Hayley and raised her eyebrow. “Running lines.”

  Tremont was quiet for a moment. “Must have been some dialogue you were working on.”

  Hayley felt her eyes bug and Emerson rolled hers in response but said nothing.

  “Check the windows in there,” he said, though it was more of a command.

  Hayley walked through the trailer and noticed nothing. Emerson nodded toward the bedroom and Hayley peeked behind the nearly closed door. Right above the bed, the blinds were pulled back. “Son of a bitch.”

  She turned and saw Emerson in the doorway. She had positioned herself so the door obstructed her from the opening in the blinds. “Well, then. There you have it.”

  “Have what?” Tremont asked across the line.

  “The blinds were open in the bedroom.” Emerson turned and walked back toward the dining area.

  Hayley closed the door and followed her. That feeling of being violated was heavy in the pit of her stomach.

  “How much filming do you have left?” Hayley could hear Tremont’s fingers on a keyboard.

  “We’re done. I’m a wrap.” Emerson’s face was unreadable. She picked up the bottle Hayley had discarded and drank from it.

  “Great. You can fly out tonight. Commercial or private?” Tremont’s question sounded more like a statement.

  Hayley’s alert sounded on her phone and Emerson motioned for her to show her. It was a tweet from Rachel tagging Hayley and Emerson. The picture of Hayley and Emerson from the trailer was split screen next to the one with Emerson’s hand on the assistant’s shoulder. Rachel’s tweet read, Emerson’s favorite four letter word: next.

  Emerson scowled and pushed the phone away. “LAX is going to be crawling with paps, but at least I know what to expect there. Evidently Boston is littered with amateur ninja photogs.”

  “Logan might be too open for you.” Tremont hummed in agreement. “You’ll need to come back private.”

  Emerson looked panicked. Hayley remembered what she’d said before, that the smaller planes made her more nervous than the large commercial airliners. Hayley reached for her. She lowered her voice to afford them some privacy. “I’ll help you
take your mind off the flight.”

  Emerson gave her a tight smile and accepted her hand, but only briefly. “Okay.”

  “I can’t hear you. Are we in agreement?” Tremont asked.

  “Private. Fine.” Emerson sounded as weary as she looked. “But not tonight. I need to rest.”

  “Tomorrow?” he asked.

  “Maybe. I’ll get back to you.” Emerson gave Hayley a curious expression. “I have an idea of a way to get out of the public eye for a bit. Maybe let things simmer down.”

  “What does that mean?” Tremont asked. Hayley was wondering the same thing.

  “I’ll call you later.” Emerson disconnected the call and turned to her. “How far from here is it to your grandma’s place in Maine?”

  “A couple of hours, why?”

  Emerson gave her a shaky smile. “I’ve never been to Maine. I hear it’s beautiful. Care to show me?”

  Hayley wanted nothing more than to kiss Emerson in that moment, to try to soothe the palpable nerves and stress vibrating off her. But she thought better of it. Maybe getting out of town was the perfect idea. And her grandmother’s remote cabin would certainly offer them some privacy and give Emerson a place to rest without someone spying through a window.

  She nodded. “I’d love to.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Emerson looked out the window of Hayley’s rental car and let herself zone out. They went back to the hotel to gather their stuff but didn’t formally check out. Emerson hoped they could sneak out before someone caught wind. Against Tremont’s advice, she brushed off Francis and told him she’d see him when they flew out. No one was thrilled by this idea, but she needed a break from everyone who wasn’t Hayley.

  Hayley offered to rent a car in her name and drive, since she knew the way. Emerson was grateful not to have to think about any of the details. She hadn’t been a front seat passenger in so long, she’d forgotten how enjoyable it could be. She was letting herself soak it up.

  Hayley glanced over at her from time to time but otherwise kept her eyes on the road. She had been beyond patient, not asking too much of Emerson since Tremont’s call in the trailer. Emerson would be lying if she said she wasn’t a little unnerved by the whole thing. That picture of her with Hayley could have been much worse. Part of her wondered if there were more scandalous pictures waiting to come out. She worried about Hayley. She worried about her sister. She worried about Rory.