“Someone’s marriage is on the rocks…” she said, her eyes sliding over to the cast and crew nearby.
I stopped weaving my fingers through her hair, Mason’s words from earlier were echoing in my memory. He said that someone was about to get divorced, too. He also said that shit was about to hit the fan, but didn’t give me any other hints.
My knees went weak remembering how he kissed me. The way it made me feel enveloped in the glow of stardom.
“Who is it?” I asked, pushing the thought down as I felt a stirring in my pants. I didn’t know who was married and who wasn’t, so I wasn’t able to draw any connections.
“I’ll… it’s hard to say. I don’t know if I can admit it…” she said, glancing around to see if anyone was listening.
“You can always tell me later,” I offered, though I was chomping at the bit to get this bit of juicy gossip right now.
“No, I’ll just tell you now,” she said, “gets my mind off of my nerves…”
Then she said the name of a fellow actress in the show that I didn’t recognize.
“Huh? I don’t know who that is,” I said.
She rolled her eyes and said, “She plays Princess Valentine, you know, Prince Valentine’s wife?”
“Oh!” I said, thinking of her character in the books. Slowly but surely, the beautiful blonde woman’s face swam to the forefront of my mind. In the previous season of The Black Castle, she probably got three minutes of screen time, tops.
“Yeah, that Princess Valentine,” she said, re-crossing her legs.
I narrowed my eyes. There was something here I was missing. Though, everything in my gut told me that this was the type of situation where I needed to wait.
So I did, finishing up her big white mane with a layer of hairspray.
“All done!” I said triumphantly, admiring my work.
Alina smiled big and bright, said “Thanks! You are so good at what you do…” then her eyes fell to the floor and she suddenly looked sad.
I knew with every fiber of my being that I was about to hear whatever thing she was keeping to herself. Then she finally said it:
“The girl who plays Princess Valentine… she’s been having an affair,” she said, the muscles in her face tightening just a little.
“Oh? And she just told you about it?” I guessed, keeping my voice down.
Alina went pale and shook her head.
“Me and her… we’ve been… we’ve been having an affair.”
Chapter Eight
“What?!” I whisper-shouted.
“Shh! Keep your voice down!” she urged, looking around.
I took a step backward as Alina stood up from the chair. There was some rummaging in the background noise as the crew began to move their equipment into the castle.
We were running out of time before Alina had to shoot her scene.
“What do you mean?” I demanded, looking into her eyes, unable to believe it. I had no idea she’d been bisexual this entire time.
“I mean exactly what I said!” she insisted in a hushed tone. “We met at this launch party, and then we exchanged numbers, and I thought it was just, you know, a friendship thing because we were going to be costars.”
I raised my eyebrow at her, still trying to wrap my mind around it.
“And then we kept talking on the phone every day, since she isn’t on the set yet. And we got closer and closer quickly, and then… it sorta happened.”
“Alina…” I said, my eyebrows coming together. I wanted to be there for her to support her, but there was also a part of me that wanted to lecture her and tell her that cheating was never okay.
“Her husband… he beats her,” Alina said, looking up at me with wide green eyes.
My grip tightened around the hairspray bottle and I was lost for words.
“Alina! It’s time!” called Reese from the entrance to the castle.
She looked back at me, something pleading there behind her eyes.
“We can talk more about this later,” she said. Then she reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “Please don’t tell anyone…”
I put my hand on top of hers. “Your secret is safe with me,” I reassured her.
Then her actress face was back on and it was as if our conversation never happened. She smiled big and bright, then moved her hand down my shoulder to weave her fingers in with mine. “Well, shall we go, then?” she asked.
My mind was spinning and whirring away, trying to make sense of it all. I tucked everything into a drawer in the back of my mind, making peace with her secret and promising myself that I’d untangle everything later.
I’d also tell her about Mason later.
The room was grand and had a wide window that yawned out to the sea. It was a circular room with extremely extravagant decorations and furniture.
The only thing that looked out of place in here was a large, ornate harp in the corner, which Alina was sitting at, waiting for the cameras to start. Her outfit was a modified version of the dress she’d been wearing on the beach last night. Oliver was probably pretty proud of himself, as usual.
I scowled as I looked over at him, but was surprised to see that he was biting his nails.
He was nervous. He looked like he was wondering if his work was good enough.
I felt a satisfying schadenfreude unwrap within me but then felt bad for feeling that way. He was probably just as nervous as I was.
Privately, I wondered if Reese had approached him for the sex scene already. Reese made it sound like I was the first one he was talking to and that I was his first choice, but I couldn’t be sure. There was a way Oliver’s eyes kept sliding over to Mason which made questions bubble up in my mind.
Then again, it was almost impossible not to look at Mason.
A wild thrill unwound within me, knowing that soon, me and Mason would be pretending to have sex in front of the camera. I couldn’t contain my excitement, and felt a stirring in my pants.
Biting my lip, I turned away and forced myself to focus on Alina.
Even I had to admit that I’d outdone myself on her hair and makeup. She looked soft; romantic, vulnerable but strong.
As she reached out one delicate, angelic hand to begin strumming the harp, I made eye contact with her.
A flash of nervousness shone in her eyes, and I stretched my fingers and pressed my thumbs together in a heart shape.
She blushed and smiled — she was radiant.
“Action!” Reese cried, and the camera started to roll.
With all the finesse and smoothness of a world-class actress, Alina shed everything that made her Alina. It was fascinating to watch how she simply willed herself to become Lady Bryn, and then all of a sudden this stranger was sitting in front of us.
The limited cast and crew in the room fell silent as she strummed on the harp, the dazzling morning light falling across her face and glowing pristine skin.
There was a knock on her door and she looked up, fear and hope forming in equal parts on her face. It was obvious what she was thinking: “Is it him?”
She stopped playing, and the absence of the harmonious notes in the air immediately set the scene to a more serious tone.
As Alina got up from her seat and went over to the door, my eyes fell to Reese.
He was watching with his eyes alight; like he was fully coming to life as this scene came together. He was still as a statue, watching the magic happen.
I felt… it was a feeling that was foreign to me. I was in awe of him, I think. The room was full of these big, over-the-top personalities that commanded your attention just by their simple way of being. They were more than human; they were gods. And all of them demanded worship.
However, if all of these beautiful celebrities were gods, then it was clear who was Zeus.
It was Reese, standing tall, with command over the art of this scene; command over the way this show was turning out to be.
And by having command of that, it was almost too easy to believe that he had comma
nd over shaping the entire world. Blush rose into my cheeks as I felt the waves of power coming off of this man in front of me.
Alina opened the door and Leo was standing there in all of his golden glory, Prince Valentine in the flesh.
There was no dialogue. Only the look of slight surprise on Alina’s face when she saw him there and took in a slight, sharp breath.
An understanding went from her eyes to his, and it was almost as if real life had subtitles of its own. If I squinted, I was sure that I would be able to see the words on the screen:
I want you.
And just like that, he had his strong arms around her and they were tumbling towards the bed.
Even though I was gay, the way they were kissing sucked me in. Gender didn’t matter here, seeing this in person. They were two souls tangling against each other, lost in the throes of passion.
For some reason, I felt embarrassed for a moment so I willed myself to look at something — anything other than the sex scene that was unfolding in front of me.
The camera loomed nearby, peering in on this private moment between Lady Bryn and Prince Valentine.
I felt embarrassed for them, but also insatiably curious. Everything about them tempted my eyes to take in what was happening in front of me, begged me to move my eyes over their bodies.
But I averted them. Instead, I was watching Reese. He was standing tall and stiff, watching them. I don’t know why, but I expected there to be some kind of salacious gleam in his eye, some kind of hint that he was giving in to his voyeuristic human temptations.
But his eyes stayed focused ahead, not looking at the bodies writing in front of him, but instead, he was shifting his gaze to various points in the room. He kept looking at the window, watching as the morning light filtered in ribbons. Then his gaze went to the camera.
I understood; he was thinking about the lighting and camera angles. He was a man completely engrossed in the art of the scene, how it would look to the audience, how it would convey the story we were trying to depict.
And that understanding of him, that small glimpse into who he really was, made some kind of mad desire take root within me.
I wanted Reese. I wanted a fraction of that thing that set his soul on fire, that thing that he understood on some kind of intuitive level. He could capture this kind of unique magic and then show it to other people in this way.
I bit my lip, watching the way his suit jacket pulled across his broad shoulders. And I couldn’t help but let my eyes travel down to his slim waist.
My attention was pulled back to the bed as Prince Valentine tore open Lady Bryn’s top, and a flutter of motion to my right caught my eye.
Oliver flinched as if the tearing of that fabric was tearing out a piece of his soul.
I empathized with that — it was causing me some degree of creative pain to watch Lady Bryn’s hair tangle and mat as Prince Valentine ran his fingers through it. I knew what it felt like to have to watch your work get destroyed before your very eyes.
Reese shifted his weight onto his right foot. Something was wrong.
I tried to follow his line of sight, wondering what could be so wrong as to upset the Zeus of this scene.
Then I saw it.
Prince Valentine was shirtless on top of Lady Bryn, his muscles bulging as he dipped his head to kiss her neck passionately. I could see the lines in his back flex as his muscles knitted together, working hard to let him move so fluidly.
Though his body was gyrating on top of Alina’s, there was something… off in the air.
Then Prince Valentine’s eyes flickered up to me.
My breath caught in my throat. It was no longer Prince Valentine there, but Leo. And his hazel-gold eyes were piercing right through me.
Just like the first time I saw him, I felt rooted to the spot. It was like there was no one else in the room around us; no one but me and him.
I swallowed, and it was all too easy to picture myself underneath him writhing like that.
Just like it should be, I thought.
I jumped as the foreign thought entered my mind and I looked away, trying to conceal the hardness in my pants.
Though, no one was looking at me except Leo.
“Cut,” Reese said cooly.
And just like that, the tingling magic that had been present in the scene ebbed away as everything shifted back to normal. We were back in the real world.
Alina sat up on the bed, her hair a huge tangled white nest. From the look on her face, I could tell that she wasn’t happy with her performance.
All the pairs of eyes in the room slowly settled on Reese, waiting for further direction.
He crossed his arms, looking from Alina’s torn bodice to her mess of hair. “We got enough of it. I’m calling this one.”
There was some clapping and cheers in the room, but it seemed half-hearted.
Something went wrong there, but no one could put their finger on what.
As Leo climbed off the bed, Reese went right over to him and put his hand on his shoulder, just as I saw him do on the beach yesterday. Then, as if I was watching it all over again, Reese slid his hand down to Leo’s bicep.
There was too much rustling in the room as the crew began to pack up, so I couldn’t hear what Reese was saying to Leo. All I could make out was that he was speaking to him, the words lost in the cacophony of noise.
Leo nodded, and then he followed Reese out of the room.
I narrowed my eyes; something was going on there.
“How did I do?” Alina asked. I could tell she was riddled with stress, though she was trying to put on a brave face. Blush was just beginning to vanish from her cheeks.
“You did spectacularly,” I encouraged, wrapping her in a big hug. “Captivating. I can’t wait for you to re-watch it! Do you even see yourself?” I said, gesturing to her reflection in the mirror.
She blinked and blushed. “It looks like I just got fucked,” she admitted.
“Exactly. And you did, love. At least that’s what the audience is going to think,” I encouraged.
She smiled and squeezed my hand. “You always know just what to say,” she said.
As I reassured Alina over and over again about how she’d crushed it, I couldn’t help but start to wonder what it would be like when the roles were reversed. Would she give me the same support I was giving her? Or would I be stuck orbiting her, taking care of her feelings as if I was a moon orbiting a celestial body?
“Alina, I have something to tell you…” I said as we left the room.
The rest of the cast and crew were lagging behind, and we were finally alone in a curling staircase that descended into the castle.
“What is it?” She asked, still coming down from the performers’ high.
“I… uh, well, Reese asked me if I’d shoot a sex scene with Mason,” I said.
Instead of looking surprised, Alina smirked knowingly.
“Wait… did you know about this?!” I asked incredulously.
“I had a feeling,” she admitted. “It’s clear that Reese likes you. Every time you’re not looking at him, he’s stealing glances at you.”
Heat rose into my cheeks once again. “You’re just saying that to flatter me.”
But everything in me longed for it to be true; I longed to have some kind of piece of that magic that Reese seemed to be able to bend. I longed to be a part of his art, and the fact that I was enough to hold his gaze was the highest flattery I’d ever gotten.
“No, he stares at you. But it’s in a way like… like he’s got a shiny new toy. You know what I mean? You must have seen the way he was looking at the scene just now. He doesn’t enjoy it, he doesn’t let his eyes linger too long on what he expects the audience to watch. He’s watching for composition, for angles. And that’s the way he looks at you.”
I felt a foreign fluttering in my gut when I imagined Reese looking at me the same way he was watching the scene.
“Well, how do you feel about it?” Alina aske
d as we descended the steps deeper into the castle. “About shooting a scene with Mason, I mean.”
“Terrified,” I admitted sheepishly. “I have like, no acting experience.”
Alina rested her hand on my shoulder reassuringly. “Reese saw something in you… you have to have faith in him. And really, the secret is to pretend that the camera isn’t there.”
I let that sink in for a moment, trying to get my nervousness to calm down. But it was like my anxiety about the whole thing was completely shielded, impervious to even the most logical argument.
“Look,” Alina said, “Mason is an amazing actor, though I’d never admit that to his face. Just let him carry the scene and you’ll be fine. He’s always been great at sex scenes, too.”
I tensed up.
Alina smiled as if that was something completely normal to say.
“I just… I dunno, I don’t really like Mason at all…”
“Pretend to. Pretend he’s just another hookup,” she shrugged. “This is the opportunity of a lifetime, Charlie. Let the world see you shine!”
It was too much. I needed to find a place to sit down, alone.
“Um… Alina, do you mind if I get some air?”
“Sure,” she said, fixing me with an understanding look. “Take your time— but remember, we all have to be at dinner at four. That one fancy place downtown, remember? And then the afterparty.”
I nodded, trying to seem upbeat about it. But if I was honest, the thought of having to see all those people — looking Leo in the eye for the first time since our eyes locked during the sex scene. Having to look at Mason face-to-face, knowing that tomorrow we’d have to shoot our very own sex scene… looking at Reese and trying to not be overwhelmed by his aura of command. Not to mention trying to avoid Oliver and his pompous attitude for the entire night…
I exhaled, bid Alina goodbye, and then opened a door to my right. I had no idea where it went; all I knew was that I had to get away from everyone. I had to have alone time to think, to re-establish myself here.
The door opened up into a long hallway with suits of armor and torches blazing at intervals along the walls. The set designers must have gotten to this area as well — it was all set up for the last scene of the day.
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