STRIPPED LOVE #4
BOOK 4
By Alycia Taylor
Copyright 2015. All rights reserved.
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Chapter One
For the next week my life was a rollercoaster of emotions. One moment I’d be seething with rage, stomping around the apartment as I ranted and raved about how pissed off I was at Dimitri, his slutty costar, life in general, and most of all myself. The next minute I’d be curled up in bed in the fetal position, sobbing with all the bitter pain of my broken heart. Some days I was so depressed I could hardly get out of bed, but by night I was practically manic as I tried to prove that life hadn’t gotten me down and I could party all night.
Throughout all my ups and downs of emotional highs and lows, one thing remained constant; I missed Dimitri and wished more than anything that he would show up at my door and tell me he had come to his senses and realized that I was the only girl for him. If only he would do that, I knew I would take him back in a second; but he never did.
The days went by and before I knew it I had come to the Wednesday of my big commercial shoot.
“What do you mean you’re not going?” Shawnee yelled at me. “Girl, I have been listening to you talk about how much you wanted to make it as an actress for two god-damn years, and now you’ve finally gotten a job with a speaking part in a national commercial. You’re going. You’re going if I have to fucking drag you there myself! Now get your ass off this couch and into the shower. We leave in one hour!”
I gripped the throw pillow I was laying on and hugged it tightly, as if that would anchor would me to the couch, and said, “It doesn’t seem right. He got me the job offer. For all I know I wouldn’t have even been considered for the job if he hadn’t been trying to get me into bed.”
“Yeah, so what? Everybody knows that to get work in Hollywood you need to know somebody and you know Dimitri Morrison.”
“Well I don’t want to know him. I don’t anything to do with him, and that includes the acting job he got me.”
“Oh, this is bullshit!” Shawnee wouldn’t give up and started dragging me off the couch. “So that stupid asshole was fucking another girl; my boyfriend was too and so we were right to dump their asses. Just because you’re not with Dimitri anymore doesn’t mean you should throw away your entire career though. You’ve worked your ass off to make it in Hollywood and you finally got your first real break. Take it! You deserve it. You’ve got the look the director wants, and you’ve sure as hell got the talent. The production company didn’t hire you because you were dating Dimitri. Sure, maybe your connection with him made your name more memorable, but was your talent, dedication, and hard work that got you hired. So go do the fucking job you’ve been trying to get since the day you moved out here!”
I realized Shawnee was right and released my death hold on the throw pillow. Smiling at my best friend, I said, “Thanks Shawnee. I guess I needed someone to give me some perspective.”
“Fuck perspective. I want to meet all the hot guys that are going to be on the set. Didn’t you hear, I’m on the prowl for a new boyfriend,” Shawnee joked and we both laughed.
Less than an hour later I was showered, dressed, and ready to go. I knew the studio would provide the outfit they wanted me to wear and would also do my hair and makeup, so I’d simply put on favorite pair of jeans, a green cotton blouse to highlight my eyes, and matching sandals. I left my damp hair hanging loose to my shoulders and kept my face clear of makeup so they wouldn’t have to take anything off before they started putting it on.
Shawnee was ready to drive me to the production studio, and was dressed up in a sexy sky-blue mini skirt with a matching halter top that hugged her curves and showed off plenty of her beautiful mocha skin. Her long curly hair was pulled back into a high ponytail and her makeup was relatively light for her, although still heavier than what most people tended to wear. Still, she looked gorgeous and I knew she wouldn’t be single for long.
We drove across town in record time in Shawnee’s beat-up Mustang, both feeling happy and excited to be entering a real commercial production studio lot. We rolled up slowly to the gate and I handed my photo ID to the guard. He was a middle-aged man with a mustache and a bit of a beer gut. He checked his list and nodded when he saw my name then turned to Shawnee and asked for her ID too. Her name obviously wasn’t there and we waited nervously while the security guard called someone on the phone.
“Okay, you’re clear. Proceed to building 4A,” the guard nodded and we both sighed with relief and then started giggling uncontrollably. The guard rolled his eyes and shook his head, and I got the feeling he’d seen that same kind of reaction from hundreds of other girls just like us.
“There it is; 4A!” I shouted out and pointed when I saw the building we wanted. Shawnee found a parking space located relatively close by and we both checked our hair and straightened our clothes nervously before walking across the lot and into the studio building.
“I’m Avery Phillips. I’m here for the cologne commercial shoot,” I said to the first person I saw when I walked in the door, a man in a blue security guard uniform. I hated the way my voice trembled, but I just couldn’t help it. Far different than the parts I’d had as a voiceless background extra whose face probably wouldn’t even make it on film, today I was going to be speaking on camera and soon the entire nation would hear my voice and see my face. It was enough to make me nauseous if I thought about it too much, and yet absolutely thrilling too.
“Welcome Miss Phillips. You’re right on time. Did you have any trouble finding the place?” the security guard said with a congenial smile as he checked my ID.
“No, none at all. This is my roommate Shawnee. She drove me here today, is all right if she stays to watch?”
“Let me check.” Once again we were forced to wait awkwardly while he called ahead and some anonymous authority mercifully granted her permission to stay. We stifled squeals of delight as he nodded his head and said, “Yep, you’re both cleared. Follow Sabrina, she’ll take you to hair and makeup.”
A woman with gorgeous red hair and a friendly smile approached us wearing a tight black dress and carrying an iPad. She led us to a room lined with salon chairs, brightly lit mirrors, and endless boxes of beauty of products.
“Hello, I’m Sabrina and I’ll be doing your hair and makeup for the shoot today.”
Another young woman shook my hand and guided me to a chair. She was tall and thin with intricate piercings and tattoos all over her body. Despite her edgy appearance she was wearing a very expensive dress by Gucci and treated me with nothing but professionalism and a friendly attitude.
Shawnee sat in an empty salon chair across from me where she could watch and chatted happily with Sabrina while she worked. I was too terrified to move my head for fear that I’d ruin the work she was doing, so I kept as silent and still as possible.
“We’ll begin with hair. I see yours was just washed which is excellent, so we’ll just give it some style. The director wants a very sexy, wild look, but he still wants to be able to see your face clearly. So I’m going to apply some heavy mouse to hold the style and then blow dry it back away from your face and tease it out for a sexy look. Then I’ll give it a few curls to keep it natural and carefree. It will be very sensual but chic; like a tigress coming out of the jungle.”
I nodded my consent and for the next twenty minutes I gritted my teeth while
Sabrina pulled, heated, curled and sprayed my hair in a brutal assault I thought would never end. The results however were breathtaking and my hair had never looked so good. When I looked at my reflection in the mirror, all the pain I had endured was completely forgotten and forgiven.
“What do you think?” I turned to Shawnee, who was beaming at me.
“Damn girl; I’m going to have remember some of those techniques for the club!” Shawnee complimented me until I blushed. I just hoped Sabrina thought Shawnee was talking about partying at night clubs and didn’t guess that we actually worked at a strip club.
Luckily, Sabrina seemed oblivious as she grabbed her makeup kit and smiled at me kindly. “Now for the makeup. We’re going for a very seductive look so I’m going to give you very heavy, smoky eyes and instead of mascara we’ll use false eyelashes. They’ll last all day and won’t melt under the lights. For your lips, I’m going to give you lip gloss with lots of shimmer to make them look moist and sexy. We don’t want lipstick because the script calls for lots of kissing and you don’t want to have to keep reapplying that all day or get it on the actor.”
Lots of kissing? I’d never done that on film and the thought made me feel nervous but excited. Swallowing hard, I said, “I haven’t seen the script yet.”
“Don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of time for that while they set up the lighting and adjust their cameras,” Sabrina comforted me, but what I really wondered was who would I be kissing? Dimitri never told me who I would be working with in the commercial and I never thought to ask. Of course he probably didn’t know. Somehow I doubt he had the same influence with directors over male actors as he did with female ones. Just thinking about what a pig he was infuriated me all over again, and I forced my thoughts to other things. Shawnee was grilling Sabrina for tidbits of gossip over who had the best skin in Hollywood and who had secret scars she had to cover up that no one knew about. Sabrina was purely professional however, and wouldn’t budge. She did delight us with tales of all the traveling she’d done and the exotic locations where’d she had to apply makeup. Before I knew it, Sabrina was done.
“Wow!” I breathed as I looked at the final results in the mirror. The dramatic eye makeup was even heavier than what I wore at the club, but the affects were amazing. I felt sexy, sophisticated, wild, and maybe even a bit dangerous.
“Now for costuming,” Sabrina said and led me the short distance to a room that was basically a giant closet. Racks upon racks of clothes lined the room from one end to the other. A short, heavy-set woman with steel gray hair attacked me at once with a tape measure and started taking my size while Shawnee tried not to laugh at the look of horror on my face. I quickly found out that the seamstress’ name was Maude and she was always in a hurry and very picky about the costumes she fitted.
“We’re going to go with a midnight blue strapless evening gown, heavy sequins, very sparkly. Take off your clothes and put this on.”
Maude thrust a gown into my hands and Shawnee laughed aloud at my gaping expression as the impatient old woman started pulling off my clothes. At the sound of Shawnee’s giggles, Maud turned on her and started pushing her out the door. “You, out! Costuming is no laughing matter. It takes deep concentration and a lot of hard work or the whole commercial could be ruined. Get out and stay out!”
I struggled hard to hold in my own giggles of amusement as Shawnee was physically pushed out of the room by this tiny, gray-haired woman who was easily half her size. Just before the door closed shut, I caught of glimpse of Shawnee giving Maude the finger with a spirited glare, but I knew that somehow she’d be just fine. Shawnee had a way of always landing on her feet, and I knew she hadn’t come here to hold my hand anyway; she’d come looking for hot guys and there was no shortage around here. Handsome men with bulging biceps and rugged faces were everywhere and I couldn’t help but wonder which one would be my partner in the commercial.
It had been a long time since I’d had a boyfriend. Dimitri came the closest to fulfilling that role, and we had certainly done a lot of kissing, but before him I hadn’t kissed a guy in nearly a year. I’d taken several acting classes since coming to California, but stage kissing was never anything I felt really comfortable with and I tended to skip class on the days when I knew that’s what we’d be doing. Something about kissing a stranger on the lips for the entertainment of others felt dirty or wrong. And yes, stripping was difficult too but I needed the money bad. Still, if I wanted to be a professional actress (and I really did) then I would have to get over my squeamishness when it came to onscreen kissing. It looked like there would be no better time to do that than today.
A sudden knock on the door broke me from my thoughts and I realized that Maude had pulled the dress over my body and was stitching it with a needle and thread with impressive speed and skill, making sure it fit my body to perfection. It was quite low cut and showed more cleavage than I was used to showing off outside of work. Still, it made me feel sexy and alluring; which I knew was what a cologne commercial was bound to be all about.
“What?” Maude yelled at whoever had knocked on the door with an impatient bark.
“The crew is ready to adjust the lights,” a male voice called politely through the door. “Is Miss Phillips ready?”
“Almost! I will sew while they work!” Maude shouted back. Then she grabbed me by the hand and pulled me down the hall to the main studio stage. I caught a glimpse of Shawnee standing by the Kraft food services cart flirting shamelessly with a handsome looking guy in skin tight jeans and a white T-shirt pulled taut over bulging muscles. I smiled, knowing that she would be distracted for the rest of the shoot, and nearly tripped on some kind of orange cord strewn across the floor.
“Shit!” I cried out and caught my balance just in time. Cameras, lights, extension cords, microphones, monitors, and people were crammed together around a small stage with a large green screen behind it. Pieces of masking tape marked the floor and I was directed to stand with my toes on one and not to move.
Maude continued to stitch and sew on my dress, making sure the bust line wasn’t too tight or too loose, as the lighting crew and camera-men made the appropriate adjustments with their equipment. I knew from watching productions where I was an extra that setting up could take a long time, so I requested a copy of the script and a bottled water from a nearby intern. He was gangly and kind of nerdy, with thick glasses and spiky hair and I knew at once that he was the kind of boy who would focus on doing things right and not just flirt with me.
“There, all done. The dress is perfect,” Maude declared. Then she saw the nerdy intern approaching me with the bottle of water and snatched it away from him almost violently. “No! No spilling water on the dress. Even the smallest drop could leave a water stain and ruin it!”
Maude stormed off angrily with the water like it was a deliberate attempt at sabotage, leaving us both gawking. The young man smiled at me and pulled another bottle of water from out of his pocket and handed it to me along with the script. Smiling widely at me, he said, “Here you are Miss Phillips. Don’t worry about Miss Maude, she’s always like that, but I’ve been instructed to make sure you have everything you need while you’re here. I’m your assistant, Steve.”
“Thank you Steve.”
I took a long, refreshing swallow of the cool water and then asked him, “When they’re done setting up, do you think I could get a chair to sit in while I read this? These shoes Maude put me in aren’t the most comfortable things in the world.”
“Absolutely Miss Phillips. I have a chair ready for you right over here. Go ahead and have a seat. It looks like the lights and cameras have already been calibrated, and I can have an intern stand in for you if they need to make any more adjustments.” Steve shepherded me to a comfortable chair and waved at a girl passing by, saying to her, “Joyce, go get Miss Phillips a different pair of shoes! These hurt her feet!”
“Of course. Right away Miss Phillips.”
The girl hurried away and I felt my
chin lift just a little bit with my newfound status. So this is what it felt like to have a crew of interns and assistants at your beck and call. It was just as wonderful as I imagined. I glanced over at Shawnee and saw that she was running her fingers through the hair of the Kraft Services hunk, and decided to concentrate on memorized the script. It was simple enough dialogue complimenting the man who would be pretending to be wearing the cologne, and telling him how much it made me want him. Then we kissed passionately and I said the name of the cologne, “Star, for men.”
It sounded easy enough, and fun. I knew I could do it and I was excited to begin. I scanned the studio with my eyes, trying to identify who my costar might be so I knew who I would be kissing.
My heart skipped in my chest when I spotted a group of incredibly handsome men clustered together on the far side of the stage talking casually. It would be an easy task to have to kiss any one of them; but what startled me was the poster hanging on the wall behind them. It was a picture of the cologne in a glass bottle with the silhouette of a man on the front, and that silhouette was clearly and distinctly Dimitri Morrison.
Steve arrived to tell me it was almost time to begin and grabbed him by the sleeve a little more roughly than I intended to and asked, “Was Star Cologne created by Dimitri Morrison?”
“Yeah, he’s come out with his own line of men’s care products. Didn’t you know?” Steve said and looked at my fingers clutching his shirt with worried frown. Realizing what I’d done, I released him quickly and smoothed his shirt with my hands, as if I’d just been brushing away a piece of lint or fuzz. Steve nodded his head towards the door of the studio sound stage and said, “Here he comes from the makeup room now.”
I turned around in my chair and saw that Steve was right. Strolling into the studio looking like a million bucks was Dimitri himself. Everyone greeted him with gleaming smiles and the director called out. “The star of Star Cologne is ready. Let’s get rolling!”
Stripped Love #4 (BBW Alpha Male Romance) Page 1