by April Fire
Table of Contents
Title
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Epilogue
Set Desire
April Fire
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by Author April Fire. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the author, except in the brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions or locales is completely coincidental.
Cover Artwork – © 20XX L.J. Anderson of Mayhem Cover Creations
This is a work of fiction intended for mature audiences only. All sexually active characters depicted in this publication are 18 years of age or older. Please do not buy if strong sexual situations and explicit language offends you.
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Chapter One
Julia
The knock on the metal door of my trailer made me jump in the seat of my dressing table. A second later it was swung open and a familiar voice hit my ears, “Julia, they’re ready for you now.”
There it was, the call I had been waiting for all morning, the call that told me they were ready for me on the set of my biggest role yet. Sure, I’d been working on the film for a week but today was the biggest day by far. Today was the day when everybody came together to watch the very first sex scene being performed. Today was the day my nerves had been hitching up for.
I was about to essentially kiss and make love to one of the biggest film stars of our time, and the mere thought of that left me weak in the knees. It wasn’t the fact that he was a big film star that made me feel weak. It wasn’t even the fact that I found him mildly attractive. It was all the warnings I had been given by other actors and actresses who had worked with him previously. Their warnings rung in my ears like church bells and I felt myself quiver as I sent a silent prayer up to the heavens.
Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way religious, but the way people talk about Dean had really set my teeth on edge. From the first day on set I had begun to realize that people were right about him. He was arrogant and stubborn and loved himself way too much, but then again, I guess he could afford to, being an award-winning, super famous actor who got just about every role he ever went for. Not to mention all the women that fell at his feet like he was a god sent down from the heavens to bless them with eternal beauty. I rolled my eyes at that last thought. God how I hated those types of women.
“Julia?” my agent’s assistant called from the door again and I realized that I had remained planted in my seat. Still everyone’s warnings were swimming around my head as I took a deep breath, cleared my throat and pushed myself up from the dressing table.
I stared at myself in the mirror for a moment and couldn’t help but think that the hair and makeup artists had done a terrific job. I was in no way a plain Jane, but the work they had done on me took me from pretty to downright drop dead gorgeous, or at least I thought so. I could see why Dean got so high and mighty about himself if this was the way that working on a high-end film could make you feel.
After giving myself one more glance-over in the mirror, straightening my pencil skirt, I turned and made my way awkwardly out of the trailer. Having your legs strapped together in a tight skirt did not make it easy to climb down the trailer steps and I was relieved of the hand that was offered to me by Jeanie, my agent’s assistant.
As I was rushed up to the set by Jeanie, Babs, my agent, appeared at my side. She strode easily on her long legs by my side even as I panted to keep up with Jeanie who might as well have been running.
“So, are you ready for this? Your big break is finally here, sweetie!” Babs tapped me on the shoulder and gave me a brief squeeze.
“I’ll admit I’m a little worried,” I shrugged as we drew nearer to the set where everyone else was waiting for us.
“What have you got to be worried about?” Babs looked at me with a raised eyebrow. Damn I wish I had never said anything. How could she ever understand? She didn’t have to get in front of hundreds of people and several cameras and basically have sex with a guy she barely knew. I had no idea how porn stars managed to really go there. I struggled with just the imitation of it. Perhaps really going for it made it that little bit easier. I guess I would never know. At least I never planned on going down that route.
“Everyone has been telling me to be wary with Dean,” I whispered, careful not to let anyone else around us hear, “They say things can turn sideways very quickly.”
“I’d like him to turn me sideways,” Babs gave me a wink and I couldn’t help but feel sick. Although Babs was very pretty, in a Cindy Crawford kind of way, she was old enough to be my mother and the thought of her lip smacking with a man half her age made my skin crawl.
“Babs, you’re awful,” I rolled my eyes at her before I added, in the hopes of taking the pressure off myself, “Jeanie, isn’t she awful?”
“You got that right,” Babs answered for her with a nod, “And I would certainly do awful things to that boy.”
“I’m not sure he could handle you,” I giggled. I imagined that Babs was a very demanding woman in the bedroom. She was bad enough at work. I couldn’t imagine many men being able to handle a woman like her. I, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. Though I didn’t like men telling me what to do in general, I was more than happy to submit in the bedroom. Perhaps that was what scared me about this role. By mixing work and sex, even in this small, false way I was crossing the boundary between control and submission.
“You’d be right there,” Babs nodded. Damn, how I wish I had Babs’ confidence. Maybe then I wouldn’t be feeling the way that I was, worried that I might mess up in front of a room full of people who were all waiting for me to put on a great show.
As we neared the set, Babs grabbed hold of my wrist and twirled me around to face her. I was all too aware of how my hair moved from where it was artfully piled on top of my head by my hair artist. I could almost imagine him swearing up a storm if she destroyed his creation, but from reading the script over and over again I knew that was about to happen anyway.
Babs held me by the shoulders and stared at me right in the eye as she told me, “You got this girl. You’re a fiery female with a wicked attitude and you can do this!”
They were the same words of encouragement she always gave me before I went out on set, but I knew from what I was about to do that I needed them now more than ever. I’d never had such a role before and I was more than a little shocked when Babs told me I’d smashed my audition.
When she’d told me that I even had an audition for such a film I’d found it laughable, I mean, me in an erotic film? I had literally burst into tears of laughter when she’d told me. The words she’d talked me into it with had been, “You will be working with one of the most prestigious men in Hollywood. This will be your big break.”
And so here I was about to make love to Dean who wasn’t only the most famous man in Hollywood but his last name was also Hollywood. I wasn’t sure whether that was the name he’d had from birth or whether he was just that pompous that he’d had it changed when he’d made it big, but it definitely suited him.
“Mr. Hollywood will service you now,” Babs winked, and then she whipped me around to face the set and all the people that were eagerly waiting for us to begin. I stepped up onto the set that was all dressed up like a classroom, and I couldn’t help but look at the desk that I knew I would soon be on top of.
“You ready for this, sweetheart?” Dean’s voice hit my ears and sent a chill down my spine. I whipped around to face him and my heart melted. For a moment I was one of those women I hated, drooling over an attractive man who really didn’t seem to have much going for him underneath.
“I’m ready,” I told him as I squared my shoulders and tried to put the thought of his attractiveness out of my mind. Yes he was six foot tall with a muscular athletic physique and glossy black hair that I wanted to run my fingers through every time I looked at him, but I had a job to do. I couldn’t go getting distracted. Not to mention that he was the most annoying, irritating man I had ever met in my life.
“Places everyone!” Fredrick, the director called as he threw himself down into his director’s chair and gestured that he was ready to begin, “All cameras at the ready.”
I took my position in the chair behind the desk and closed my eyes for a moment as I breathed in a deep breath, trying to remember all my lines and all the moves I needed to make.
“And action!”
The muffled sound of three dozen people collectively holding their breath was oddly distracting, but I had grown used to that. It was Dean’s eyes looking at me from the doorway of the ‘classroom’ that made me feel breathless.
“Miss Vale?” his words were sultry and seductive as he instantly dropped into his character.
“Henry!” I exclaimed as I whipped my head up from the papers my own character had been grading, “What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be in here!”
“I know but I couldn’t stay away,” he replied and he took a step into the room causing my heart to flutter. The moment was growing nearer and nearer. I wasn’t sure whether the fact that I knew it was going to happen made it better or worse but I had to try and push the whole thing out of my mind. I needed to get my lines out of the way before we could get down to the nitty gritty of it all.
I turned my face away from him as the script required, “Henry, you really shouldn’t be here.”
“I’m sorry, Jane, but I just had to see you,” Dean’s voice was hoarse now, as though he was struggling with some inner turmoil, “I needed to be close to you.”
With that he placed his finger under my chin and turned my face up to look at him, “Tell me you needed to see me too.”
When I looked up at him his eyes sparked and our gazes connected just as they should have. It was forced on both our parts, of course it was, this whole thing was. Yet there was something about the whole thing that set my pulse racing.
“Henry, please,” I snatched Dean’s hand away from my face and pushed it away from me, “You have to leave now.”
“I can’t leave!” he exclaimed, “I need to be with you and I know that you need to be with me. Jane, tell me you need me!”
“I can’t. I mustn’t.”
“Then don’t tell me,” Dean whipped me around in my chair and grabbed hold of my hands pulling me up onto my feet. His body was suddenly pressed against mine, forcing me back against the desk. He had one hand on the back of my head, his fingers gripping the roots of my hair. His other hand slid down my lower back and came to rest on the curve of my backside, “Show me.”
With that Dean’s lips were on mine. For a moment I was overwhelmed. My heart skipped a beat as it would have with any kiss. Then I felt it sink as I realized that it wasn’t at all the type of kiss that made your head spin with dizziness. It didn’t make me fall head over heels or make me want to kiss him again when I pulled away. It was a sloppy, wet kiss that made my stomach churn and I struggled with the urge to push him away from me.
Dean suddenly stepped away and glared at me, “What the hell are you playing at?”
He scowled at me and his words were more than a little snappy. For a moment I had no idea what he was talking about. His words weren’t in the script. At least I was pretty sure that they weren’t. They didn’t remind me of my next lines as every other had done, as I had taught my brain to do whenever a co-star said their line.
“Dean, what are you doing?” I whispered under my breath but it was too late. The cameras and all the crew had caught the moment when everything flipped.
“What the hell was that kiss?” he demanded.
In that moment when I saw the anger in his eyes I couldn’t help myself, “Me? You’re blaming that awful fish lipped kiss on me?” I couldn’t believe it. I’d seen the way he’d been treating people on set, seen the way he’d ordered people around and acted as though he was the king of the world but up to now he had been fairly kind to me. His anger and tantrums had never been aimed at me before.
“Well it wasn’t me! I’m not the one new to this roadshow sweetheart,” he scowled deeper at me and the way he called me sweetheart now made my blood boil.
“Are you forgetting that you’re the one in control in this scene?” I snapped at him.
“Cut!” Fred suddenly yelled at the top of his voice and the whirring of the camera suddenly stopped. I could feel everyone staring at us but I couldn’t bring myself to look away from Dean and how he glared at me.
“So are you saying that it’s my fault?” he demanded. He did not sound pleased with that fact but it was true. I was in fact laying the blame at his feet.
“Of course it was your fault! You kissed me remember!” I suddenly felt as though I was falling into a real argument with a real lover who had more than messed up on the romance scale. And believe me, I’d had more than my fair share of dead end, awful relationships. It was amazing how many things could go wrong when people only wanted to be with you for your rise to stardom.
“Fred, find me a new co-star. I can’t work with this newbie anymore!” Dean yelled at the director as he turned and began to storm off the set.
Chapter Two
Dean
“I am not a newbie and I am not going anywhere you arrogant prick!” Julia shrieked after me. Damn how her voice grated on me when she raised it. I stopped in my tracks with a flinch and gritted my teeth as I turned on her.
“Yes you are! You’re done!” I retorted, “I won’t work with a spoiled little brat!”
“Me? Spoiled?” she gaped at me in a look of amazement, “You’re the one who cries if you get plain instead of sparkling water!”
I barely managed to stop myself from laughing. She’d clearly taken an interest in me if she’d noticed how picky I was about my water. Yet, I found it laughable that was the best insult she could come up with.
“Like I said, Fred, find me a new co-star,” I told him simply, keeping the angry edge to my voice. He needed to know that I was one hundred percent serious. Of course I always was on matters like these. My films were works of art. I couldn’t very well have a newbie going and spoiling my career because she didn’t even know how to act out a kiss.
With that I turned on my heels again and began to wade my way through the crowd of shocked onlookers who had just witnessed the entire argument. They skittered out of the way like frightened rats and that was just how I liked it. I loved that everybody seemed to be scared of me. It kept them at arm’s distance, just how I l
iked it.
I made my way back to the refuge that was my trailer and slammed the door loudly behind me. Yes, I was a brat but showbiz required me to be so. It was the only way to get things done around here when you were a big name like myself. Nobody wanted to work with a pushover.
I had just thrown myself down onto the sofa, draped my arm over my eyes and closed them when the door clicked open. I knew what was coming before I even heard her voice.
“Hollywood, what the hell are you playing at?” Sally, my agent slammed the door shut behind her, just as I had, and I knew she meant business.
“Go away, Sally,” I told her without removing my arm from my eyes. My head was already pounding. I didn’t need her to add to the headache that Julia had already caused with her awful acting.
“Don’t you talk to me like that, young man,” she chided me as though I was a child and I felt her slap me hard across the legs.
“God damn it, Sally!” I yelled as I pulled my knees up instinctively and sat bolt upright, “I can’t work with that bimbo!”
“Yes you can and you will!” Sally replied. When I looked at her I could see that she was gripping her clipboard with white knuckles, “You’re killing us, Dean. Keep this shit up and you’ll completely ruin your career, and mine in the process! I’m finding it harder and harder to find you roles with the way you’re acting.”
“I’ve had plenty of work recently,” Dean shrugged his shoulders, “I think we’ll be alright without this one.”
“I’ve been working my fingers to the bone to get you those jobs, Hollywood!”
Damn, how I hated it when she used my last name. She only ever used it when she was angry with me. I couldn’t stand it when women were angry. It didn’t suit them, especially the pretty ones. It made them seem so unattractive. Yet I knew I would get nowhere if I told Sally that. She’d clout me round the ear for sure. My knees were already smarting. I didn’t need to add my ears into the mix.