Something Better

by Gail R Delaney

  "For what?" Andi asked, speaking naturally as Anna, his character's wife. Her fingers curling around his wrist and her breath skimmed across his chin, but she didn't pull back or open her eyes.

  "For not coming home when I promised you I would. For not being here when you needed me. For not being here when--"

  "Stop," she said in barely a whisper. Only then did she open her eyes and tip her head back enough to look at him.

  He brought both hands up to touch her face, brushing her lower lip with his thumb. It was slick and smooth, like she may have just applied lip balm, and the idea tugged at something somewhere between his chest and his gut. He bit down for a moment. Jason would love the feel of his wife's lips after so long...

  "I'm sorry that I forgot," he forced out, finishing the line this time. He paused and swallowed, leaning closer to her until their lips almost touched. Her breath was quick and shallow. "How could I forget you?"

  The scene said THEY KISSED SOFTLY, but David hesitated. She wasn't an actress, and he doubted she'd initiate the scene with the intent of carrying it this far. Then Andi leaned into him, her body tilting to press against his chest and he took one hand from her cheek to lace it into her hair, soft curls wrapping around his fingers like ribbons of silk.

  She gasped softly before he pressed their lips together. He couldn't force himself to take a breath as they held that position, and he swore he could hear the pounding of her heart. Andi played the part just as he imagined, her body shaking slightly in his embrace. Her lips parted as he pulled back a degree, and he kissed her again, letting his tongue skim along the edge of her lips.

  Her fingers curled into the front of his shirt, and her head titled slightly to the side to effectively deepen the kiss. David loosened his fingers from her hair, sliding his hand back to her cheek as he broke contact. Despite himself, he returned for one final, brief kiss before withdrawing. Andi's body swayed with his, but she righted herself on her feet and her eyes fluttered open. Bright color stained her cheeks, and she blinked rapidly.

  Andi looked up at him, her face flushed and warm beneath his touch, and she blinked several times. Swallowing, David pulled his attention away from her face to look at Benton.

  "That what you want?"

  At first, he was met by silence. Benton stood at the edge of the light, his hands hanging limp at his side and his mouth open. Taylor stood beside him, mimicking his look of shock as she fanned herself with one hand. Even the PA who now held David's half-empty bottle of water stared wide-eyed.

  Benton nodded. That was the only answer David got. He looked back down at Andi, and realized he had begun stroking her cheek with his thumb.

  She blinked again and licked her lips, turning away. Then with just as much skill as any actor David had ever seen, Andi took in a long, steadying breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, her voice was steady and the flush had lightened in her cheeks.

  "Perfect," she said with a lopsided grin and made a thumbs-up. "You nailed it." She turned to Benton and Taylor, stepping away from him. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

  When she brushed past him, David couldn't fight the urge to turn his hand so their fingertips brushed across each other. Her attention never wavered, but David thought maybe her hand angled back to him before the contact broke and she stepped over the mangle of cables and wires to disappear into the darkness of the soundstage.

  Benton cleared his throat. "Yeah. Let's do that again."

  Taylor stepped to him with a wide smile, looking up at him through her mascara-thickened lashes. She said something, but David's attention had followed Andi in the darkness and he didn't bring himself back to the moment until he no longer heard the soft pad of her sandals on the concrete.

  With a performance like that, she belongs in front of the camera, not behind a computer.

  *****

  Andi tripped taking the two little steps into her trailer. "Ow!" She winced at the sharp pain in her left knee. "That's gonna leave a mark," she mumbled as she opened the door and escaped to the dark interior of the small space she called her own when she visited the set.

  Her heart pounded so hard in her chest, each beat thrummed at her temples. She was hot everywhere. Most people flushed in their cheeks, but she swore the heat beneath her skin spread from her red hair to her red-painted toenails. She thanked God for the small refrigerator in her trailer stocked with cold Diet Coke. As soon as she curled her fingers around the cold can, she pressed the metal to the base of her throat, gasping at the near-burn against her flushed skin. She shifted the can to her cheek and forehead before sitting at the tiny, Formica-covered table nestled into the front of the trailer.

  Andi set her elbow on the tabletop and leaned her burning forehead into her hand, expelling a shaky breath. "Get a grip, Andrea," she scolded herself in the silent trailer.

  But the only thought that would register in her brain was Wow! Right along side Holy Canoli! It had been a long time, longer than Andi would admit to anyone except maybe Maggie, since something as simple as a kiss had melted her insides into a bucket of girly-goo. Years probably... how pathetic is that?

  "He's an actor," she mumbled, finally popping open the Diet Coke. "It's his job to sell the kiss, right? Right. So... that's why he got the job. He's good." Andi rolled her eyes. "Good doesn't even begin to cover it."

  Her cell phone rang and she picked it up from the table where she'd left it that morning -- always afraid it would go off during filming -- and smiled when she saw the name on the screen.

  Andi was quite proud that her voice didn't quiver when she answered. "Hey, Mags."

  "Hey..." Maggie, Andi's literary agent and dearest friend on the planet, paused on the other end. "What's wrong?"

  Typical of Maggie, all she had to hear was Andi's voice to know something was wrong... okay, so not wrong... just... No, definitely wrong! "What makes you think anything is wrong?"

  "Oh, please. Spill."

  "Nothing is wrong... really."

  "Do I have to come hurt you?"

  Andi laughed, feeling some of the tension David's kiss had created releasing enough that she could drop her shoulders and take a sip of her soda. The cold, crispness eased her throat and spread out in her chest, relieving some of the flush. She drew in a long, metered breath through her nose in an attempt to calm herself further, but realized quickly that was a mistake.

  The scent of David Bishop clung to her clothes and filled her senses. Just like that -- BAM -- the flush was back. You're insane, Andrea Parker! Certifiable!

  "I swear, Andi... I'm catching the next plane..."

  "Okay, okay. Relax." Andi took a deep breath. "Something just happened on set that has me... um... frazzled." And hot... and bothered... and apparently insane.

  Maggie huffed on the other end of the line. "I told you, Andi... you can't agonize over every little nuance of every scene. Let Benton direct. The two of you usually see things the same, and--"

  "No, it's nothing like that," Andi said, gently cutting Mags off before she went on a rant. Andi quickly explained which scene they had been filming, and the ongoing trouble with Taylor wanting to attach herself to David like some freaky succubus. She took another long drink before finishing the story with "So, I showed her what I wanted".

  There was a silent pause on the other end of the line, and Andi could almost hear Maggie's wheels churning. "You..."

  "Yep," Andi answered before Maggie finished the question, popping the 'p' loudly through her recently-David-kissed lips. Oh, Mama...

  "Aaaand..."

  "And I'm hiding in my trailer, sucking down a cold Diet Coke, and wondering just how small that upright coffin they call a shower is in my tiny bathroom -- because I could use a cold dousing right about now."

  Andi sat and drank her soda in silence for the next two minutes while Maggie first laughed herself breathless, then tried to speak again. When it sounded like Maggie might have herself under control, Andi sighed. "Are you done now?"

  The
re was another loud snort. "Nope, don't think so."

  A soft knock at the trailer door stopped Andi from saying something back. "Someone is here, hang on."

  "Maybe it's David. He wants to rehearse."

  "Not funny. Come on in," she called toward the door. Then anything else she might have said to Maggie froze in her throat when the door opened and David stuck his head inside. Her hand holding the phone slid away from her face, and Maggie's voice grew distant.

  "If the trailer's rockin..." she heard faintly.

  David smiled as he took the steps -- much more gracefully that she had managed just minutes before -- into her trailer. "Hi," he said simply.

  "Hi..." Andi managed, already feeling the heat blooming in her cheeks like a California wildfire. Then she heard Maggie calling out her name, and she put the phone back to her ear. "I'll call you later, 'kay?"

  "Who is it?"

  "I'll call you."

  "It's him."

  David's mouth tipped into a quick, sexy grin and with an all new flash of heat that spread from her throat to her cheeks, Andi realized her penchant for keeping her phone volume high had let him hear at least the tail end of her conversation.

  "I'll call you later, Mags."

  "Don't you hang up on me, Andrea Parker," Maggie shouted just before Andi snapped the phone shut and set it down on the table beside her now painfully empty Diet Coke.

  "Problem?" David asked with a slight lilt to his voice.

  Andi shook her head. "Nope. What's up?"

  "Benton called lunch," David said, closing the door behind him as he took the last step into the trailer. Suddenly, the trailer seemed not just small, but microscopic.

  The idea of food made Andi's stomach flip. She yanked her hands back from the tabletop and stuck them underneath, clenching them together in her lap. "Okay." One thing Andi had always managed to do, no matter how intimidated or nervous she was, was to meet someone's eyes when she spoke to them. Her father had taught her that no matter what was going on in her head, if she could look someone in the eye, they'd respect her.

  Right now, she could barely manage to glance up from the speckled tabletop to make polite conversation. Any second now, she knew she was going to burst into flame and leave behind nothing more than a pile of ash and a pair of glasses.

  "We finished the scene. Benton said you should see it before he calls it."

  Andi shook her head. "I'm sure it's fine this time."

  "I think it's what you want..." His voice trailed off.

  She cleared her throat and nodded, flipping a bit of hair behind her ear so it didn't touch her cheek. "I'll check it after lunch."

  "You'll like it."

  Andi snapped her gaze to him, and her heart jumped straight into her throat. Where had the weeks of comfortable camaraderie gone? Of sitting at the picnic tables outside during lunch and talking? Him laughing politely at her lame attempts at humor? It wasn't like she didn't know he was sex-on-legs, she wasn't blind or stupid. And although her social life in the last few years resembled the life of a nun, she wasn't actually celibate. Not by choice, anyway. David Bishop was six-plus feet of hotness with thick brown hair with just enough natural wave for running her fingers through, and eyes that crinkled just right at the corners to show he laughed a lot.

  Why was it that 30-year-old men could have laugh lines and it was sexy, but 30-ahem-something women couldn't have a single line without looking haggard? The cosmos wasn't fair.

  Andi blinked away the random thought and nervously took one hand from under the table to pick up her empty can, tapping it with a hollow thud against the table. "Good," she managed to say.

  David shifted his stance, pushing his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. In an attempt to calm her nerves, Andi drew in a slow breath -- which usually worked -- except now it wasn't just her clothes that smelled of him, but the entire space. It wasn't an overpowering smell like someone bathed in aftershave, but a subtle mingling of sandalwood and fresh air.

  There you go, Andi... waxing poetic again. How exactly does one 'smell' like fresh air?

  "Did you ever consider acting?" David asked, his voice in the silence making her jump.

  Andi chuckled and shook her head. "No. I can't act."

  "Really..." he said slowly, pulling the word out with a slight quirk at the corner of his mouth. His voice was rough and heavy, practically sitting in the air between them. Andi managed to force herself to meet his gaze. He swallowed and she watched the slow bob of his Adam's Apple.

  Her heart pounded so hard in her chest, she felt each pulse thunder in her ears and each breath she took echoed like she had her head in a barrel. That little quirk of his mouth turned into a slow grin.

  Stop it!

  "No," she reiterated. She turned her attention again to the speckled Formica, digging her nail into a nick. "No acting, just..." Despite her resolve to memorize the pattern, she looked up again and found him staring at her. Her throat was suddenly as dry as the Mojave, and she wished more than anything that there was one final swallow of Diet Coke left. "I just... I know how it's supposed to be."

  He took a step toward her, and suddenly Andi couldn't sit at the tiny table anymore -- or share the tiny space -- or apparently use her feet properly. She stumbled sideways, attempting to grip the table edge to keep herself from falling, but it was David's hands that caught her. His long fingers curled around her bare arm, and Andi stared down at the contact, unable to look away as his other hand settled at her waist. The shift of her cotton dress over her skin almost made her shiver. As she watched, his fingers relaxed and slid over her skin up her arm to her shoulder. She had to close her eyes, and chant silently in her head.

  You're insane, Andrea! Insane and aroused! But mostly insane! Stop it! Just stop it already!

  "Andi--"

  "I sh-should go check the shot," she rambled, trying to move past him before she made a total and complete fool of herself. Yeah, like you haven't already. "I don't want to hold up Benton."

  "Andi..." he said again. His hand left her waist to block her escape. Just like he had with the first, he let his fingers brush her skin at the elbow then slide slowly up her bare arms.

  A shiver danced up her spine, and she bit back a groan. His hand continued along her shoulder to her throat, his fingertip pausing at her pulse point. Now there was no doubt that he knew how hard her heart pounded with him this close. David nudged her chin with his thumb, urging her to tip her head slightly away from him, elongating the side of her neck. He stepped closer and leaned in until the rough bristle of his whiskers brushed her cheek and his breath warmed her skin.

  "When you said those lines, and you shook when I touched you, you made me believe you were Anna and I was Jason." His voice was so low she wouldn't have been able to hear him if he hadn't been so close. The timbre vibrated against the side of her throat, and she had to force her eyes from fluttering closed. "And when I kissed you, I felt it. I really felt it."

  Andi had to close her eyes to keep herself from getting dizzy. This is one of those vivid dreams of yours, Andrea. That's all. Just a vivid dream. Any second now, your alarm is going to go off and you're going to have to drag yourself out of bed.

  Yep... any second now.

  David slid his cheek along hers, tilting his head so their lips hovered against each other. Andi tried not to breathe, but it only made her head swim more. She sucked in oxygen, and her senses filled with David Bishop. His thumb stroked along her jaw and down her throat to the hollow of her collarbone, and even with her eyes closed, she knew he watched her for every reaction. Andi tried to take a step back, but the table was too close and she bumped her bottom against it, her fingers instinctively curling around the edge.

  "I want to know something..." David said, his words trailing off unfinished.

  "Wh-what?" she managed to ask, and when she spoke, her lips brushed against his and her breath hitched. She wanted to lick her lips, but she was afraid -- no, more like terrified -- that her tongue
would wet more than her own lips. He was so close.

  "I wonder..." His pause finally piqued her curiosity so much that she opened her eyes, and gasped. David's face wasn't an inch from hers and his gray-blue eyes watched her intently. "I wonder if I kissed you now -- not as Jason and Anna, but David and Andi -- would it feel the same?"

  Andi shook her head slightly, the first action to come to her muddled brain. His thumbs rubbed across her throat and she swallowed hard.

  "Or would it be better?"

  "No," she managed to say.

  He tipped his chin so it nudged hers. "You don't think so. Are you sure?"

  "No," she parroted.

  David smiled, and took his hands from her throat to lay his palms against her cheeks. His mouth hovered over hers, his breath warm. When the tip of his tongue touched her lower lip, Andi gasped as a bolt of awareness struck her, shooting down her spine to her stomach like an electrified lightning rod. Before she could finish drawing the breath, his mouth covered hers.

  And then he was kissing her without restraint or temperance, and everything inside her liquefied. Andi had to grab hold of his shirt, curling her fingers into the soft cotton behind his shoulders just to hold her feet, and his hands shifted to her back, pulling her closer to him. She whimpered, and mentally groaned because it had to be the unsexiest sound ever heard. But his hold tightened on her, pressing her so close to him that it was hard to draw breath into her lungs.

  Not that she could because breathing required some level of brain function.

  Even though his lips never left hers, Andi groaned low in her throat when he moved his body away from hers. In a fluid motion, David's hand slid over her hips to the back of her thighs and he lifted her the few inches needed to set her bottom on the table, his hands branding her bare skin when the hem of her dress shifted beneath his touch. With a gentle, but insistent, jerk he brought her body flush against him so she balanced near the edge and his denim-clad hips pushed between her thighs. Andi gasped, her head tipping back as reality flashed like a neon sign in her head.