The idea that goofy, messy, bedheaded Josh made those kinds of videos didn’t make sense to her. How could the same guy who’d brought her coffee tell some girl to “take it all, bitch”? Her stomach turned over and she pushed away the basket of breadsticks.
“It doesn’t surprise me that you’re not into porn, but word around town is Josh Darling is quite the talent,” Jill said.
Clara curled her hands around her middle and wished for an antacid. “If this is a joke, it’s not funny.”
No one could find out about this. The guys from high school would love the idea that Clara “The Prude” Wheaton was sharing a shower with a man who had a penis more famous than his face. Not to mention the reaction from her mother. She strangled her linen napkin.
Jill smiled helplessly. “Looks like you might get that taste of adventure after all.”
chapter four
MOST PEOPLE WOULD have a problem with their ex-girlfriend going through their phone, but when Josh stepped off set to find Naomi holding his cell between her thumb and forefinger, he simply grabbed the device without bothering to call out the blatant violation of his privacy. They’d always shared a blurry definition of boundaries.
“Clara says she can pick up toilet paper on the way home.” Naomi’s eyes ran down his naked body with thinly veiled possession.
Josh let her look. For the sake of his career, he needed to get back together with her eventually, so who cared if she never truly butted out of his business? Their relationship was as inevitable as aging.
“What are you doing here? You’re not shooting today.” He’d checked the schedule. Ever since word got out about their breakup, producers had tiptoed around casting them together.
“I was in the neighborhood. Thought I’d drop off your fan mail.” She shook a hefty garbage bag in front of him.
“Oh. Right. Thanks. I’ll go online and start getting it forwarded.”
Cool air chilled the sweat drying on his skin, reminding him of his nakedness. Grabbing two towels from a production assistant, he wrapped one around his waist and the other across his shoulders and headed for the showers.
Naomi kept pace with him. The slinky dress she wore accentuated her natural strut. “I didn’t realize you’d be shacking up again so soon.”
Ignoring her, Josh turned the shower on extra hot and waited for the water to heat. These old warehouses always came with shitty plumbing.
“Your little text message chain sounded positively domestic.” Naomi perched on the room’s tiny vanity, swinging her long legs.
If their on-screen chemistry didn’t sell so well, he would have seriously considered telling his agent, Bennie, to put a Naomi Grant exclusion clause in his next contract. Her tenacity made her an excellent businesswoman, but it also made her a colossal pain in the ass.
“Don’t tell me you’re jealous.” He didn’t buy that for a second. Their relationship, both romantic and professional, rested on two key pillars: always wear a condom, and stay in your own lane. They weren’t the type of people who fell for love’s long con.
He and Naomi understood each other. Had extended a successful business relationship into a partnership for almost two years based on mutual respect and the exchange of countless orgasms. Usually, that evened out to enough. On the rare occasion when loneliness lapped at his heels, well, he could always turn on the TV and watch Meg Ryan, falling in love by proxy.
“I’m pretty sure I could get you back if the mood ever struck.” She fussed with her dyed red hair.
Josh rolled his eyes. “Thanks, Stu.” He used the nickname she claimed to hate, a riff on her real name, Hannah Sturm. She forbade the use of anything but her stage name on set, but he often forgot when they found themselves alone. Like so much else about her, she’d never told him the reason she hated her given name. Even though they had first met as co-stars almost two years ago, he could count on one hand the number of things he knew about her childhood.
“I can assure you, sharing household goods with Clara is platonic. I had to find somewhere to live when you kicked me to the curb.” Josh stuck his hand under the stream of water in the shower to check the temperature again and jerked it back when the icy stream pelted his palm.
“Oh please. You practically ran out of my house.” She tapped a finger against her lips. “Platonic Clara.” Naomi lingered over the syllables, tasting the name on her tongue. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She’s some loaded East Coast princess.”
Naomi grinned like a cat ready to devour a hapless mouse.
He tried and failed to make his frown disapproving. They shared the same sense of humor, after all.
“Don’t even think about it.” Josh pointed a finger in warning as he told Naomi the same thing he’d told himself ever since Clara had shown up in his living room two days before. His ex was bisexual and loved novelty in the bedroom almost as much as he did. “I’ve never met someone wound this tight. You should see this girl. I doubt she’s ever kissed a guy without knowing his full name.” He didn’t mention that the challenge Clara presented raced straight to his dick.
“Sounds like the opening of a porno.” Naomi plucked an imaginary pen out of thin air and mimed writing. “Sweet, unsullied small-town girl moves to the big bad city and discovers big bad cock.”
Josh shook his head and grinned despite her bluntness. The idea of defiling his new roommate was definitely tempting, but even he knew how that story ended.
The room at Everett’s place already felt more like his than Naomi’s ever had. All of the seventies wallpaper reminded him of his grandparents’ condo. Besides, something about Clara reminded him of a baby deer stumbling around on new legs.
“She’s a good person. I can tell.” He’d already made a pact with himself to keep his distance.
“So are you,” Naomi said, her voice sharp enough that he knew he’d managed to raise her hackles. “And you just met her. She could wind up more wicked than both of us.”
“Impossible.” Josh pulled his comic book out from under her butt and gently swatted her with it. “Besides, I don’t have to mount every beautiful woman I meet.”
Naomi scoffed.
“Well, there’s an exception to every rule.”
“So, she’s beautiful, huh?” Naomi uncrossed her legs and recrossed them in the opposite direction.
“Would you stop pretending to be concerned? I’m telling you, she blushed, actually blushed, at the mention of sharing a bathroom with me. Can you imagine the color she’d turn if she knew all the places my dick’s been?”