Thirst Trap

By Jessica Ellis

Sexy fanfic writer Jaz has an accident involving the movie star subject of her romances, Fin. She pretends she's never heard of him, but as their attraction takes off privately, their public personas take actions with unfortunate consequences for both of them. Jaz's lie gets more and more precarious, but after everything comes tumbling down, they get another chance to make things right, this time in public.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bryant Street Shorts
• Release date: Nov 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781094414119

Jessica Ellis

N/A

Book preview

Thirst Trap

The sounds of the chamber orchestra trickled through the doors, a madcap Volta matching the beating of her heart as Lady Elizabetta’s back hit the wall of the antechamber. She gasped as rough hands grabbed at her breasts, trapped inside her tight bodice. She wished he would rip her dress to shreds, leave her bare to the world, right here, where anyone could see her nakedness. But her last wisp of propriety caught in her throat.

No, my lord Fin, we mustn’t. We must resist.

The beautiful Scot looked up at her from where he knelt, her skirt in his hands, his red hair the color of a phoenix flame, the gleam in his eyes melting her last reserves.

Perhaps you can resist, as you are a goddess, but I cannae, he drawled in his thick Scottish brogue. She felt the rushing of brooks and the tearing of mountain winds in his voice. After all, I’m only human.

"Are you?" she breathed as he tossed up her skirts, and she felt the coarse brush of his tongue—

An alarm chirped.

—As she felt the searing brush of his tongue against her—

The alarm chirped again, frantic. Jaz tried to ignored it.

—The searing brush of his tongue on her inner thighs, igniting a volcanic—

The alarm screeched frantically this time, like a rabbit being shot.

Goddamn it, Jazmin Kendrick grumbled, hit the save key on the blog post above the title line The Masque of Pleasure, and smacked her phone alarm to shut it up. She hated it when life interrupted right in the middle of the good parts.

By instinct, she opened Instagram and checked her notifications. There it was: A new Finlay Ross photo, right on schedule. He always dropped them on Thursdays at ten a.m. sharp, or his social media team did. Today’s post was Fin at the gym, and it didn’t disappoint. The movie star was shirtless, his taut abs pointing in a cut V that disappeared seductively into very low-waisted running shorts. He was clearly heavily into training for his next movie, and sweat plastered his red hair to his neck. His head was thrown back, Adam’s apple pronounced, as he drank a sponsored juice of some kind.

Perfect. The fans would go crazy. Jaz quickly reposted to her @Fintastic Instagram account and hashtagged #Dayummmn #OurHero #ThirstTrap #HydrateHoney. Within minutes, the post would have over 1,000 likes and 100 comments, and the thirstiest would drop the ninety-nine cents on her newest Fin fanfic on her linked Patreon. All in a day’s work.

Three more alarms around the room went off. Shit! It’s ten already? Jaz had been up since six writing, but she still couldn’t get close to done with the latest story. When she’d started writing sexy stories about celebrities and movie characters, it had just been a way to stay creative after taking a couple of writing classes. After the first ten or twelve, people had started telling her to get a Patreon and try to make some money off of it. Sex sells — why shouldn’t she be a seller? She could certainly use the money. Jaz had hesitated over it for a while — this was certainly not how she’d seen herself making any kind of career out of writing. But then Finlay Ross had burst onto the acting scene in Colonies, a TV show about the first Scottish settlement in America. One glance at his fiery hair, stocky build, and witty, flashing eyes, and Jaz had finally found the one celebrity she could write about all day long and never run out of steam. She’d started the Fintastic blog a week later.

Just as importantly, he seemed to attract a particularly wealthy brand of fan who happily threw money at Jaz for any kind of story about Fin, from steamy Wild West affairs to heady late-night encounters on a train through Europe. She could finally pay rent without sweating too much and, honestly, she had to admit he never stopped being fun to fantasize about.

Jaz hopped into yoga pants from the clean laundry pile on her kitchen stool and threw on a tank top and some sunscreen. As she dashed out the door of her messy studio, she grabbed her headphones off the doorknob and plugged them into her phone, opening Instagram back to Fin’s official page. He was doing a live interview that morning to promote Hard Metal, his new action movie, and she couldn’t miss it; Fintastic fans would need the highlights, even if she had to run for the bus. She was going to be late to walk the devil dogs. Again.

By the time Jaz got off the bus in Los Feliz, made it to the Arberys’ house, and leashed the devil dogs for their half-hour walk, the interviewer had gotten through all the stuff about Fin’s latest movie, which he sounded kind of bored about. The interview was live in a fancy, French-looking restaurant. Fin sat at a table that looked a little small for him, backed by dark wood and wine bottles.

The restaurant looked familiar for some reason, Jaz thought, mentally filing the idea of a restaurant story away. She untangled the devil dogs — they were a pack of four rat terriers mixed with dachshund and something else, possibly pure evil — and continued down Vermont across from the little shopping district. It was a cute neighborhood, almost European, and way out of Jaz’s price range, but she liked to pretend she lived there instead of in her studio in perpetually smoggy Van Nuys.

The interviewer hadn’t been able to resist talking about Colonies, which had just finally ended with an appropriately romantic wedding series finale.

"I think for a while, you and your Colonies costar, Caroline Thayer, were drawn together… I don’t mean to pry," the interviewer demurred.

Oh, go on, you like prying. Fin grinned at her.

Any chance of sparks flying again for you two?

Fin laughed. I don’t believe so. Making the show was an intense experience, and we’re just better suited as friends.

So that means you’re single, the interviewer purred. How’s the dating life in Los Angeles for you?

Fin hesitated; he appeared faintly surprised by the question. Jaz untangled the devils again — Hermione kept jumping on Da Vinci’s back for some reason. As Fin finally started to answer, she turned her eyes back to the screen.

It’s hard, he said. It’s hard to find someone who likes you for you and doesn’t want you to just be some version of your characters.

Well, the interviewer chirped, You can hardly blame them. That’s all the time we have, so for Hollywoodlandia, I’m Maria Mayhew, coming to you from the Figaro Café.

Jaz looked up in shock. That was why the café had looked familiar: It was right across the street! She peered over the busy road, packed with cars — the striped awnings of the café were almost directly across the street. The quaint restaurant was surrounded by outdoor tables where people sat with their dogs — which, unfortunately, the devil dogs noticed as Jaz craned to get a better look. At the sight of an elderly collie sleeping in the sun, the four little monsters reared up like a single hydra, barking for blood, and lunged forward simultaneously, ripping the leash out of Jaz’s hands as they plunged into the road.

Oh, my God, no! You assholes! Jaz shrieked as she chased them into the street, heedless of traffic. Stop it! Come back!

She bolted after them as they approached their intended prey, the snoozing collie, who lifted up a shaggy snout and

Reviews for Thirst Trap

[judy griffin · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

No

[Kristy Beutler · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Super cute. Just steamy enough without being a smut fest. Romantic, exciting, topped off with a HEA. Just right.