Role Play (Silhouette Studios)

by Katana Collins

  "Ash," I said, breaking my mouth from his, "we don't have time."

  "There's always time for this, Lucy," he answered, then pressed inside, filled me, inch by tortuous inch. I pulsed my hips against his, moving in circles. I ached for more, itched for it; even with him deep inside my body, it wasn't enough. I needed every piece of Ash he was willing to give.

  Pushing against his shoulders, I rolled him onto his back, not once losing our connection as I climbed on top of him.

  I moved my body up and down taking him deeper than before. I could feel it as he bottomed out inside of me, hitting that deep knot, and sending my nerve endings into overdrive. With every pulsing movement, his shaft hit my clit, rubbing against it with friction and heat.

  I could smell Ash surrounding me. On my flesh from the night before. A mix of his cologne and sweat and arousal and I wanted to lie in that smell forever.

  Ash groaned, his hands falling heavily to my hips, guiding my rhythm faster, harder. Fucking me. This was what it felt like to be fucked. Good and hard and fast. "Oh, God, Ash," I cried out. "Please," I pleaded.

  Grasping one hand at the back of my neck, he trailed a path down my clavicle, circling over my pebbled nipples. Pinching one hard, he rolled it between his thumb and forefinger before cupping my whole breast in his hand, kneading it. I threw my head back. Yes, finally. He’d been so gentle yesterday. But this was what I wanted. Raw. Rough. Hard.

  His eyes never left mine, he watched my reaction in such a close way that I felt uneasy... and yet safe. Cared for. The attention was almost too much. I arched into his palm, craving more.

  "Ash," I meant it to sound threatening, but it came out more of a moan. Those strong, capable hands slid down to my core. He rolled his thumb over my clit, gliding it up and down over the sensitive area.

  “Come, Shorty," he said. With two simple words, waves of pleasure rolled through my body. I was pretty sure I froze except for my shuddering muscles, but Ash continued pumping his cock in and out of me, churning his hips like a tornado gaining speed. I threw my head back as noises I'd never heard before echoed in the space around us. Noises I was certain I'd never made in my life as ripples of ecstasy pulsed through me, heat and pleasure jolting down my arched spine.

  Ash groaned and I felt his hot stream spurt inside of me.

  I instantly froze—an icy feeling tumbling down my once heated spine. Like the first frost overtaking a field, I felt my intense euphoria wither.

  My eyes jolted open. He was still inside of me. Oh, God. Condom. "We forgot a condom," I said, gulping.

  His come dripped out from inside me as I rolled off of him, the soft bed cradling my fall. He was braced on his elbow, leaning over me, running his hand across my flushed skin. How could we be so stupid?

  His touch stalled at my shoulder, and I felt Ash go momentarily frigid beside me. "Oh, shit. We did."

  He didn't sound all that concerned...

  "Do you... do you do that often?" I asked, nervously.

  He relaxed, smiling down at me. "No," he answered gently. "The last time I rode bare-backed was with my wife. And I get tested meticulously."

  Though he didn't return the question, it sat between us, heavy like fog until I couldn't bear it anymore and blurted out, "I haven't had sex in two years and I get regular check ups, too.”

  Ash didn't react immediately, just calmly nodded. "Good. So you're clean?"

  It was my turn to nod silently. "But not on birth control." Seriously. How could I be so stupid? Did I learn nothing growing up with my single mother after Dad left? A baby was absolutely the last thing I needed right now as I was trying to get my start in the industry.

  I gulped and looked at Ash who was watching me carefully with a soft gaze. “You don’t seem all that concerned.”

  He pressed his lips into a line, thinking before he answered. “I’m concerned for you because this obviously isn’t what you want. But, we can figure it out when the time comes.” he said and brushed his thumb over my cheekbone. “There’s a pharmacy around the corner if you would like to get a Plan B pill. And of course, we’ll be more careful in the future.”

  I smiled at that, nuzzling into his hand. “We’ll be more careful in the future,” I repeated. The fact that we have a future. That we are doing this—really doing this—made me so freaking happy. “Does this mean we’re…” my voice faded away. We’re what? Together? Dating? Exclusive?

  “I’m not fucking anyone else,” Ash said, his voice suddenly dark and possessive. “I expect the same from you.” His blue eyes stared hard into mine and all I could do was nod. Was he crazy? Did he seriously think I could or would want to be with anyone else?

  “So, you’ll sign the Silhouette consent forms finally?” Ash pressed.

  My muscles tightened. Fuck. The stupid consent forms. “Yes, but…” I answered cautiously. I needed to have a talk with Uncle Richard myself. I couldn’t let him find out with some contracts. It had to come from me.

  Ash’s jaw clenched. “Yes… but what?”

  I swallowed nervously. “Let me be the one to file them with HR. I want to make sure Kelly doesn’t find out.”

  At this point, I should just tell Ash about Uncle Richard. He probably wouldn’t even care. But I didn’t want him there when I talked to Uncle Rich. And something told he would insist on it. Maybe even talk to Rich without me. No… I would talk to Uncle Rich myself. Today after work. And then, I’d sign the papers and file them with HR myself and tell Ash the truth about my uncle.

  I licked my lips and pushed my glasses higher on my nose before my other hand swept across my belly.

  Ash gave me a smile and threaded his fingers through mine. “Don’t stress about this too much if you can help it. It's actually pretty damn hard to make a baby sometimes," he added. "Do you know where you are in your cycle?”

  Most of the time our age difference didn’t come up. But a man my age would never ask me about my ovulation cycle. I did some quick math in my head. “I think we’re okay.”

  “Good,” he smiled, and handed me a glass of water from the nightstand.

  “Ovulation cycles…” I repeated. “Did you... Did you and your wife try to have a baby?”

  For the second time in a small period, his hand froze where he was stroking up and down my body. It was only a brief pause before he resumed. “Yes,” he said simply. “Years ago.”

  That was all he offered. All he gave me. And it felt wrong to pressure him for more.

  I thought I saw him exhale a tad deeper than before. I swallowed, watching the tight lines of his face. He wouldn't look me in the eye. “Will you tell me more about Brie when you're ready?”

  His gaze jerked to my face, tight lines framing his mouth before they softened. He opened his mouth to speak. My heart lurched to my throat. He was doing it. He was going to open up to me.

  Then, his phone alarm went off, interrupting whatever he’d been about to share. I watched as his face tightened, drawing the curtains closed once more. He leaned away from me—actually pulling back both physically and emotionally. “We should get ready. We’re going to be late if we don’t go soon.” He pushed off the bed and stood, walking to the bathroom and turning on the shower.

  I squeezed my eyes shut. It’s okay, I told myself. This is still so new. It might take him a while to open up. He has been…slowly. Telling me more and more about Brie. Yet, I couldn’t help the feeling that he was holding back. Holding back something major. Give him time, a little voice in my head whispered. Whatever happened with Brie’s suicide was intense and trauma was difficult to reveal. It always was for me, too. Exposing that vulnerability was like letting someone watch as you sliced open a scar and bled yourself all over them.

  Give him time. Give him grace. He has his secret still and I have mine. We keep them for good reason and they’ll be revealed when it’s time.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Lucy

  We managed to arrive at work on time Monday. All day long, Ash was like a diff
erent man from last week, when he was barking orders and snapping at anyone who dared to look at him wrong. Today, however, he was smiling. Saying thank you. I even heard him whistling as they set the light changeover. And thank God for me and my magical vagina, because I don’t know that the crew and myself could have taken another week like last. At one point last Friday, even Kelly looked at me and said she was grateful for the fact that he no longer ran our department.

  Strangely, once Ash was no longer heading our department, she and I started getting along much better. Maybe the timing was just better. Or the fact that she had accepted our new budget. But whatever the reason, we were working well together for once.

  That afternoon, I’d barely had time to make it to craft services between all the work I had. Once I finished organizing the invoices, I pulled the consent contract out of my bag and sat there rereading, pen in hand, tapping it nervously on the edge of the table. Ash’s neatly scribbled name stared back at me from the bottom of the page and, taking a deep breath, I signed my name too, feeling immediately better. Grabbing my cell phone, I texted Uncle Rich, asking him to meet me in his office after we wrapped for the day.

  Just as I hit send on the text, Kelly popped into the wardrobe section, her heels clicking against the marble floor. My phone slipped from my hands, smacking the floor hard. Not that it mattered. The damn screen was already shattered, and I hadn’t had time to go to the cell store to repair it. She seemed almost as startled as I was, and I used the moment to shuffle the invoices over my consent contract, breathing a little easier once it was covered.

  She walked over to the table I was sitting at and dropped a tray of mac and cheese and salad next to my stack of papers.

  I jolted at the sound of the tray hitting the table and looked up at her blinking. “Since when do you eat mac and cheese?” I asked.

  “It’s not for me. It’s for you.” She rolled her eyes, but balanced it with a small smile.

  “Oh… thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” she said, sliding the paperwork out from under my nose. I gasped and brought my palm down hard on the invoices. “No, don’t!”

  “Relax. The invoices will still be there after you eat.” As she had moved the paperwork, the top of the consent contract had peeked out. She looked down, tilted her head, and glanced up at me knowingly. I swallowed hard. “Lucy Rodriguez,” she said. “Have you been holding out on me?”

  “No. I just, um… someone asked me out and I was considering it. But… um…” I gulped and snatched the consent contract out of her hands, folding it and putting it back into my bag before she could see it.

  “Lucy,” she said, her voice softer and more gentle than I’d ever heard it. “Relax. You’re talking to the queen of sleeping with people she works with,” she rolled her eyes, but I got the impression it was directed at herself, not me. “You don’t have to tell me. Or be embarrassed around me. Especially not about that.”

  I swallowed, my throat dry. She was being so… nice. What the hell had changed?

  “Would you stop looking at me like that? I know I’m a hardass, but I’m not totally unreasonable, Lucy. Jesus. Now eat. We have the meeting with your friend tonight to see her wardrobe after wrap so if you don’t eat now, you’ll regret it.”

  She sounded oddly like Ash. Did he put her up to this? Was this his weird, convoluted way of making sure I was eating?

  Also… did it really matter? This wasn’t triggering me in the same way that it did when Ash brought up the subject. Kelly making sure I ate wasn’t angering me. Andrea doing the same thing wouldn’t make me think twice, or Uncle Rich sending me home with a casserole. So, even if this was Ash’s doing, maybe it didn’t matter. I hadn’t eaten yet. And I was freaking hungry. I looked down at the plate, grabbed the fork and dug into the creamy, cheesy carbs.

  “You might want to think about having the salad as well. Get some greens in your system.”

  “I’ll take a bite of greens if you take a bite of mac and cheese,” I offered, holding the fork up to her face.

  She pushed my hand away, her mouth twisting…but she was fighting a smile. “I haven’t had a complex carbohydrate since I was twenty,” she said, as though that was something to be proud of.

  I put the fork up to my ear. “What’s that? Awww, they miss their Auntie Kelly. Come on, one bite.”

  She laughed as I made airplane noises, flying the fork toward her face. “Okay, fine!” she said. “Give me the damn fork. It smells ridiculously good.” She grabbed my fork, wrapping her ruby red lips around it and moaned the second it hit her tongue. “Holy shit,” she said, mouth full. “Oh my God, it’s better than sex.”

  I lifted my eyebrow. A couple weeks ago, I would have thought the same thing. She moved the fork back to take another bite and I slid it away. “Oh, hell nah. You get your own mac and cheese.”

  She poked me playfully with the fork before hopping to her feet. “Fine. Maybe I will.”

  I called after her as she danced down the hallway, “Women would pay good money to see you eat a whole plate of mac and cheese, girl!”

  The rest of the day went smoothly and we wrapped around six p.m. I rolled a rack of dirty costumes down the hall toward the laundry room. I should have just enough time to drop these off, run to Uncle Rich’s office to rip off that Band-Aid, then get to Ash’s office for Andrea’s meeting.

  Behind me, I heard footsteps. The distinct sound of Kelly's clicking heels. “Lucy,” she barked my name and even when she wasn’t mad or annoyed, it sometimes still sounded like she was. I took a deep breath before turning to face her.

  Kelly stopped in front of me, crossing her arms. “Richard Blair just asked me to find you and send you to his office.” Her brow arched so high, it was practically comical. “He said you’re late for your meeting.”

  Shit. I didn’t think he would take it literally to mean the moment we wrapped. “Oh… um, okay.”

  Kelly eyed me carefully. “Any reason that the president of Silhouette Studios would want to see a costume assistant within the first month of shooting?”

  I caught my bottom lip between my teeth. I couldn’t exactly say: Because he’s my uncle and I need to go tell him I’m banging the director. Instead, I shook my head. “I have no idea.” My voice caught. Shit, even I wouldn’t have believed that. Clearing my throat, I tried again. "Well, Mr. Blair walked in while I was doing the stand-in thing last week and he, uh, he seemed worried about a sexual harassment suit. You know, having an assistant act as a stand-in for a sex scene. He's probably wanting to make sure I don't sue the studios or something."

  A heavy exhale threatened to escape my lips as I finished the lie. It was almost believable.

  “I thought maybe it had something to do with your consent contract.”

  I gave a nervous giggle. “Why would the president of the studios care about that?” I asked, my voice unnaturally high-pitched.

  Kelly nodded, seeming to buy that and held her arms out. “Well. Go on, girl. I’ll take the laundry down. Richard Blair waits for no one.”

  I swallowed, handing Kelly the basket of dirty clothes and moved beyond her shoulder, tentatively. “His office is the last one on the left of the main hall,” Kelly said.

  Once more, I froze. Of course. I wasn’t supposed to know that. “Right. Thank you.”

  Minutes later, I was in front of Uncle Richard’s door. I’d been in this office a million times when I was a kid. Granted, it had been six years since my last visit, but even still. I could be blindfolded and know my way around. Uncle Rich was a man of habit and I had no doubt he still had his scotch cart in the left corner and a French press on his side table.

  The door swung open and Uncle Rich towered over me. What was it about men like him—Uncle Rich, Ash, Jude… just about any Hollywood type? They were large. Tall, hulking, muscular men that were intimidating just to be around.

  Well, intimidating for most. Rich wasn’t so intimidating after you’d seen him catch your stomach bug at age
ten and hurl into your cabbage patch garbage can.

  “Lucy,” he said, startled. “I thought you maybe forgot. I was coming to see what the hold up was.” He stepped back, holding the door for me as I entered.

  “The hold up was that I was busy doing my job.” Whoa. Down girl. I didn’t need to go rage queen on his ass. Not just yet.

  He cocked an eyebrow at me. His brown eyes sparked, widening in such a slight way that if I hadn’t known my uncle so damn well, I would have missed it. He wasn’t used to people talking back to him. Not at his job. And even though he knew me from the day I was born, my back talk always seemed to surprise him. “Care to try that one again?” he asked.

  I sighed. “I still have work to do after we wrap. I didn’t think you’d take me so literally as to send my boss for me the second we finished filming.”

  “Ah,” he said. “I’m sorry for sending Kelly to get you.” His expression softened and he gestured to the leather chair across from his desk. “Sit, Lucy,” he demanded.

  I did as he asked, sinking into the leather armchair and feeling a bit like I was eight again and being grounded for drawing boobs on the chalkboard. “Mr. Blair,” I said.

  “It’s Rich, and you know it.”

  “Not here, it’s not. And you know it.”

  A smirk tugged on his lips as he nodded. “Very well.” He held out a hand. “You called this meeting. What’s going on?’

  I cleared my throat. How in the hell was I going to tell him this? Where would I even begin. I closed my eyes, breathing out a long, hissing breath. “I have a confession to make,” I started.

  “Ah,” he said quietly. “Here we go.”

  My eyes shot open, burning into him. He knows?

  He sat back in his chair, folding his hands casually, even though I knew it was anything but. “Here we go?” I repeated.

  “It’s about Friday night, isn’t it?”

  Ice shot into my veins. He did know. But he was acting so calm.