ROBBIE GOT home from school at his usual time and checked the mail. The box was empty. He ran into the house and found his mom sitting at the kitchen table with a pile of bills spread out in front of her. He didn’t even need to ask. She’d figured it out.
“What did you do?” Her eyes were filled with tears, and she clenched one of the envelopes in her hand.
“Ma—”
“No. Robbie, I haven’t seen half of these, but they all show payments being made regularly. I didn’t even think. How could I be so stupid?”
“You aren’t stupid.”
“No, that would be you. Let me guess. You picked up where your father left off, huh? Selling on the side, making some extra cash. Hoping you don’t get busted.”
“They needed to be paid.”
“And that’s my job,” she screamed.
“I’m part of this family too.”
“I know that, Robbie. Don’t you think I know that? I can handle this. I want you to have a life away from this, a better life. You can’t do that in prison.”
“Ma, I’m being careful.”
“Yeah? That’s what your father said, right before he tore out of here like his ass was on fire a day before the cops showed up.”
Like Robbie didn’t remember that clearly. At least his dad had been smart enough to take anything incriminating with him. The cops hadn’t found anything, and wouldn’t. Not if Robbie could help it.
“No more, Robbie. You stop it, right now, you hear me?”
“I hear you.”
She grabbed the bills from the table and stormed into her bedroom. The door slammed behind her.
WHITNEY SNORED. Levi wasn’t sure if he wanted to snuggle closer and listen to the little muffled puffs of air or smother him with a pillow and go back to sleep. He decided to go with the former, but it was a close call. If he didn’t have to get up and get to set in half an hour anyway, it might have been a tougher decision.
Unable to resist temptation, Levi pressed kisses along Whitney’s shoulder. They had a little time to kill, after all. Might as well take advantage of it. Whitney’s breathing quickened, and he shuffled a bit under the covers. Levi grinned before he began to nibble on Whitney’s ear.
Then he saw stars.
“Holy shit. Ow.” Levi rolled away from Whitney and covered his aching nose.
“Oh my God.” Whitney sat up and turned, wide-eyed, to Levi.
“Morning,” Levi groaned.
“Did I just hit you?”
Levi grunted in response.
Whitney snickered. “Sorry?”
“You don’t sound sorry at all.”
Whitney lay back down, half across Levi’s chest, and stared into his eyes. “I’m really sorry,” he said as he bent closer and kissed Levi.
Levi quickly forgot his throbbing nose and focused on other things that had begun to ache more pleasantly. He pushed his hands into Whitney’s hair and deepened the kiss. Their tongues tangled, and Whitney whimpered into Levi’s mouth.
That was more like it.
Whitney pulled away with a grin and glanced at the alarm clock. “Holy shit. Is that the time?”
He leapt out of the bed, trampling Levi in the process, and ran for the bathroom.
Levi thumped his fist against the mattress before pushing himself into a sitting position. Whitney ran out of the bathroom, jerking his underwear on. “Where are my… never mind. There they are.”
He grabbed his shorts and shirt and quickly pulled them on. He ran for the door before stopping and rushing back to where Levi sat stunned on the bed. “Morning. Last night was amazing. I’m late. Gotta go.”
He pressed a quick kiss to Levi’s startled mouth, then ran out of the room.
Levi shook his head and rose more slowly. He completed his morning routine at a leisurely pace before taking one of the hotel’s mopeds over to the Pirate’s Booty for a couple of Seth’s famous breakfast smoothies. The bartender was manning the blender when Levi approached, and he raised his brows when Levi ordered two drinks.
“What?”
Seth grinned. “Well, you’re grinning from ear to ear, and you’ve ordered two smoothies. I take it you finally grew a pair and worked things out with Whitney.”
“Fuck, does everybody know?”
Seth started the blender and shot Levi a smug grin.
“Gimme a break, Seth.”
He laughed and handed over the drinks. “As much hell as you guys gave me and Flynn? Don’t count on it.”
Levi groaned as he paid Seth. “Fine.”
He put the drinks in the moped’s basket, tucked his bag around them to keep the cups steady, and then drove over to the set. He stopped by wardrobe first and found Whitney bouncing around the room with Cutter.
“What’s going on?”
Cutter shrugged. “I was getting dressed, and he started screaming and jumping around. He hasn’t stopped yet.”
Whitney spotted Levi and ran to him. He leapt into Levi’s arms, nearly dislodging their smoothies. Cutter took them out of Levi’s hands with a laugh.
“You aren’t going to believe this, Levi!”
“Tell me.”
“I got an email this morning from Becker.”
Whitney jumped away again and bounced excitedly.
“Uh, the designer?” Levi knew exactly who Becker was, but he wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to tease Whit.
“Well, technically, it was from his assistant, but still.”
“Okay, so that’s cool.”
Whitney huffed and grabbed Levi’s cheeks in his hands. “You don’t get it. He wants to collaborate next season. Design some stuff exclusive to our cast. Exclusive, Levi. Ex-clus-ive.”
“Wow.”
“Oh my God, you don’t get it, but this is fucking fantastic.”
“It’s awesome, Whit.”
“It is. Just think, I can get him to do something amazing for you. Maybe a new leather jacket. In pleather or something less hot. I mean, hell, that guy on that hunter show wears a four-thousand-dollar leather jacket, and he’s supposed to be broke as hell. This is so fucking amazing.”
“Pleather?”
Whitney glared. “Don’t make me hurt you.”
Cutter cleared his throat. “I think I’ll just leave these with you guys and get going.”
“No,” Whitney huffed. “You get back behind the screen. That shirt is making you look green or something. You sick?”
“Uh, no?” Cutter said hesitantly.
“Well, you look awful. Drink one of those smoothies. Levi and I will share.”
Levi opened his mouth to protest, but one look from Whitney had him snapping his mouth shut again.
“Sure, Cutter. We’ll share. No problem.”
“It’s not like you can’t get something from craft services later. I swear.”
Whitney stormed over to the racks and pulled out Levi’s wardrobe, as well as a new shirt for Cutter.
The other actor whipped off his shirt and put the replacement on. “Better?”
“Yes. Now go. And have Lorelei check your makeup again.”
“Aye, aye, captain.”
Cutter scooped up one of the smoothies and hurried out of the wardrobe room.
“So, Becker. Isn’t he the one who does the preppy stuff you like?”
“The preppy stuff I like for the show, yes. And quit pretending you don’t know exactly who I’m talking about. Stupid is not a good look on you. This is so amazing. I didn’t think I’d get an exclusive for us so soon.”
“I’m proud of you.”
Whitney preened. “Thanks. And now….” Whitney sidled over to Levi and wrapped his arms around Levi’s waist. “Let’s celebrate.”
He pulled Levi closer and kissed him. His tongue parted Levi’s lips, and Levi tugged him even tighter so their bodies were completely tucked together.
“Ahem.”
They broke away with a grin to find Jenna standing at the door.
“Finally someone who will appreciate my brilliance!”
The actress blinked and walked farther into the room. “I’m afraid to ask.”
“Becker wants to design some stuff exclusively for us.”
“Holy shit. Are you serious?”
“So serious.”
She squealed and jumped at Whitney. Levi scooped up his wardrobe and went behind the screen with a laugh.
By the time he’d changed into his Robbie outfit of the day, they’d calmed a little.
Whitney handed over Jenna’s clothes and gave Levi a hungry look. “I’m not done with you yet.”
“On that note, I’m changing.” Jenna went behind the screen as Whitney plastered himself against Levi again.
“Wish you didn’t have to be on set. I’d take you behind that screen and—”
“I can hear you, Whit,” Jenna griped.
“I don’t care, Jen.”
She laughed as Whitney tried to lick Levi’s tonsils again. Levi finally pulled away and squirmed in his now too-tight jeans. “Fuck, Whit. What are you doing to me?”
“Nothing compared to what I’m going to do to you later.”
Levi groaned and pulled him closer. “You’re going to kill me. I have to work with blue balls now.”
“Awww, poor baby. Want me to help you out with that?”
Jenna squeaked and came out from behind the screen.
“Whit, behave. Levi, come on. We’re going to be late.”
Levi stole another quick kiss and walked backward away from Whitney. “Later,” he promised.
“You better believe it.”
Levi made it to the set with only minutes to spare. He couldn’t wipe the silly grin from his face, but he wasn’t the only one having trouble with the scene. Cutter stumbled over several of his lines, and they had to do multiple takes to get it right.
“Ugh,” Levi groaned when they finally finished. “That sucked.”
“Sorry I kept fucking up.”
“No big, man. I wasn’t exactly in character for a while there either.”
“Robbie isn’t exactly the stupid-grin type. It looks good on you, though.”
“Thanks. Haven’t been this happy in a while.”
“Uh-oh, LC is headed this way. She doesn’t look happy.”
Their executive producer approached and smiled warmly at Cutter. “Good job on the scene. Would you mind excusing us?”
Cutter’s eyes widened, but he shook his head. “No. Sure. See you later, Levi.”
“Levi, let’s walk.”
“You’re freaking me out, LC. What’s going on?”
“We received a request this afternoon to comment on a story that is going to hit the news tonight.”
“Yeah?”
“Apparently records have surfaced about a drug charge from several years ago involving you. After the scandal with Chase at the beginning of the season, you understand why this news concerns me.”
Levi’s stomach flipped. “I get it. I swear, LC, I’m clean. I’ll take a test, whatever you want. We can go right now.”
She smiled kindly and stopped at the end of the hall. “If I had any doubts, I would insist that you do just that. However, I’ve discussed the matter with Xara, and she agrees that you’ve shown no signs of drug or alcohol abuse. That said, this looks bad for our show.”
“What can I do? I was a stupid teenager.”
“We’re still working on that. But Levi, you need to keep your head down.”
“I understand.”
Even though it went completely against protocol, Levi wore his Robbie clothes back to the hotel. He couldn’t face Whitney right then. They’d just gotten started, and Whitney had been so happy earlier. He plopped down in one of the armchairs in his room and tried to think of a way to explain to Whitney that they would have to take a break for a while. He couldn’t expose Whit to all this bullshit. If the press went nuts over this like they had over Flynn’s stuff, they’d be all over him.
Someone pounded on his door, so Levi pushed out a long breath and rose to answer it. He wasn’t surprised to find Whitney glaring at him from the other side.
“What the hell are you doing?” Whitney stomped into the room and grabbed Robbie’s jacket from where Levi had put it on the other chair.
“Sorry.”
Whitney spun around and then stopped. “What’s wrong?”
Levi shrugged and shook his head. He didn’t want to think about it.
Whitney dropped the clothes on the floor and hurried over to him. “Levi, talk to me. What’s wrong?”
He sighed and rested his forehead against Whitney’s. “You know how much I care about you, right?”
“Of course. What’s going on?”
“I think we’re going to have to take a break for a while.”