A Starlit Summer by Kate Frost (best manga ereader txt) 📕

She poked her head around the living room door. Timothy was lying on the sofa, a blanket over him, his hands tucked behind his head.

He looked up at her. ‘See you bright and early in the morning.’

Jenna nodded. ‘Night.’

She took the stairs two at a time. Light spilt from beneath the spare room door. She walked across the landing to her room and a door creaked open behind her. She turned. Milo was just in his pants, a shadowy figure silhouetted by the light behind him. He ran a hand through his thick dark hair and stepped across the landing.

‘Thanks for a great night.’ His warm hands slid down her bare arms. He leant in, his lips gently brushing her cheek before he pulled her into a hug. Conflicting and confusing thoughts flooded her head as their hug continued a bit too long, his firm hot body pressing tight against hers. Was this what he’d been insinuating earlier, his meaning behind ‘playing the game’? Was he expecting her to make the next move? How easy would it be to take his hand and lead him into her room? But the image of him and Timothy together made her falter. What the hell was she thinking? She knew what she’d seen out in the garden, and yet here he was, suggesting he wanted more than friendship. Maybe he liked men and women... But before she could make a decision, he released her.

‘Night, Jenna.’

‘Night, Milo.’

She watched him retreat across the landing and close the door behind him without a backward glance. Jenna sighed and went into her room. This was the second time he’d teased her, and then nothing. What was he playing at? Maybe he was confused. She opened the windows as far as they’d go and breathed in the cool air. It was stuffy in her room so she left the curtains open in the hope of a bit of breeze finding its way through. She changed into her pyjama shorts and a vest and climbed into bed. She closed her eyes but her head immediately filled with thoughts of Milo in his underwear. That hug out on the landing, the blatant flirting on set. She’d be kidding herself if it hadn’t crossed her mind that she’d end up in bed with him tonight.

She flung the sheet off. She’d been single for far too long. The only action she’d got in the last few months was kissing that hot model on a pop video she’d filmed a couple of months ago, and that didn’t count. Even though it was hardly an ordeal snogging a fit bloke all day long, they had been acting. And he of course had a girlfriend – it was the first thing he’d mentioned, setting clear boundaries.

She swung her legs out of bed and sat on the edge. She was tempted to stride across the landing, push open the door and slide into bed with Milo. That would be one way of finding out if his attention towards her meant something or not. But then, the other day in the garden when Finn had kissed her, that lightest of touches had sent shock waves through her... Anyway, she’d sworn herself off relationships with fellow actors; in her experience they always ended in tears. Milo would be no different. In fact, it would be a lot worse to get involved with someone so famous. The pressures of the job mixed with the price of fame – there must be so much expectation on him at all times. Lily had said there were quite often paparazzi outside the hotel. Every part of his life was written and talked about.

Jenna made her decision and got back into bed, pulling the sheet over her bare legs. She’d had too much to drink and wasn’t thinking straight. They’d all had fun tonight, but she had to be up in less than five hours for work, and here she was considering seducing the lead actor on the film. If he’d wanted something to happen, he had every opportunity out there on the landing...

Despite both windows being open and only a sheet covering her, Jenna slept fitfully, unable to get comfortable. Too much drink had made her head woozy.

Footsteps creeping up the stairs pulled her out of an uneasy sleep. She glanced at her watch; 02.27am. She had to be up at six and she desperately needed sleep. A door opened and closed, the flush sounded loud in the quiet of night-time, a tap briefly running. The footsteps paused on the landing, but instead of going back downstairs, another door opened, the now familiar creak of the spare room door closing really slowly like someone didn’t want to make any noise.

Silence.

Jenna rolled on to her side and tucked her hand beneath her pillow. In the middle of the Cornish countryside with no neighbours and no passing cars, it was painfully quiet, making it impossible to ignore the moans from across the hallway. Jenna closed her eyes tight, burying her head in her pillow, willing sleep to erase the sound of Milo and Timothy moving together on the spare room bed.

Chapter Eleven

Beep-beep-beep.

Jenna shoved her hand out, felt for her mobile on the bedside table and swiped it to snooze. Her head thumped with tiredness and she desperately wanted to go back to sleep but she had thirty minutes to get up, dressed and leave the house.

She groaned as she forced herself out of bed. She crept on to the landing and stood there for a moment, listening. She couldn’t hear anything from the spare room. She bit her lip; Timothy had the same call time as her. The last thing she wanted to do was go knocking on the door waking him and Milo up. She was not ready for that kind of awkwardness at such an ungodly time in the morning with a thumping hangover.

Coffee. She needed to get her priorities right. She went downstairs instead, filled the kettle and switched it on.

‘Morning.’

The