A Starlet in Venice by Tara Crescent Read Free Book Online Page A

point that out. But I was trying to understand why. I mean, I would have liked to have thought that I had a magic dick, that would make any woman come, but since I lived in the real world, I assumed there was a different reason for her orgasm.
    ***
    Tatiana:
    And, he’d stopped the big, gigantic loophole in my story. Of course, it didn’t help that I kept reminding him I’d had good sex last night. I couldn’t stop myself from that. All day, when I hadn’t been kicking myself for crossing a line and sleeping with Liam, I’d been hugging and pinching myself, because the sex had been amazing. Never-happened-to-me-before amazing.
    He was waiting for me to explain why I had an orgasm last night. I had a couple of theories, and I went with the one that I thought was less likely. Because the real answer was probably that I was able to come because I trusted Liam with all my heart, and I was crazily in love with him. But I couldn’t tell him that, not if I wanted our friendship to survive.
    “It probably has to do with the spanking,” I lied shamelessly. “It was weird the way I felt after. I was both relaxed and yet turned-on and wound-up.”
    “Interesting theory,” he said. He didn’t look convinced, but he also let it slide, changing the topic. “You are still coming to my parents for Christmas, right?”
    Shit . I couldn’t believe that I’d forgotten that. Every year, Antonio, Enzo and I hung out together for Christmas, but this year, Enzo and Alice were going to Houston for a couple of weeks, and I had wanted to give Antonio and Lucia their privacy. I had mentioned that to Liam in passing, and he’d promptly invited me to his parents for Christmas, and I’d accepted.
    I was hoping I’d have more time to gather myself before I saw him again, but it seemed that the five days of filming this week was all the time I was going to get.
    “Of course,” I said. I tried to keep my emotions off my face. Even at the best of times, seeing a happy, loving family was going to be difficult for me. But to see them when I was still rocked by the memory of the amazing night I’d spent with Liam? I was going to have do the best acting job of my life to survive.
    “Good,” he said. “When are you guys done filming, do you know? I’ll fly into Shannon and pick you up from Dingle, and we’ll drive together, okay?”
    “Liam, that makes no sense,” I protested. “You could just fly into Cork.”
    “Rabbit,” he rolled his eyes, “do you want to drive on the other side of the road through the Irish countryside?”
    He had me there; I had no desire to drive in Ireland. I’d avoided driving so far because one of the film crew had been arriving in Shannon at the same time, and she had given me a ride. As we’d gotten closer and closer to Dingle, the roads had narrowed almost alarmingly. Add in the complication of driving on the wrong side of the road, and I was quite happy to avoid it.
    “No,” I admitted. “I owe you one.”
    His eyes gleamed. “Really?” he said smoothly. “I’ll have to figure out a way for you to repay your debt.”
    I shivered visibly at his tone, my body reacting to the promise in his words. He noticed, and he smirked. “I’ll see you soon, Tatiana.”

Chapter 9
     
    Tatiana:
    For the next five days, I pushed everything out of my head and focused on the shoot. As a result, I still hadn’t figured anything out when Liam arrived in Dingle to pick me up.
    We’d left off our last conversation without any firm conclusions. Though it would have broken my heart, I had wanted him to agree with me that our night together was a mistake, one that we wouldn’t repeat. But he hadn’t said that, and he hadn’t agreed to anything. He’d just deflected the conversation, and now, I was going to be sitting in a car with him for almost four hours.
    “I got shit-faced at that bar once,” he said, pointing to a building on the main shopping drag. “Sang ditties all night.”
    “Do you miss living