The past three nights had been fitful and restless, leaving him dragging all day long and pushing himself just to get through the filming. If he didn't get a decent night's sleep soon, he figured Benton -- or someone else -- would have something to say. It hadn't affected his work yet, but David didn't know how many more nights of no rest he could handle.
When he did sleep, his dreams relived the same thing over and over again. He always woke with his heart pounding and his skin clammy. And his frustration levels at what could very well be an all time high.
All over one kiss.
Okay, so not one kiss. Two kisses. One on the set and one -- no, two -- three, he forgot the last kiss he went back for -- in Andi's trailer.
David stifled his involuntary groan behind the plastic lid of his coffee and entered the darker interior of the expansive set building. He had forty minutes before he had to be in make-up, which gave him enough time to maybe catch a catnap in his trailer. Or refill his coffee for a caffeine push.
"David!" His name echoed through the cavernous space, and he turned toward April, Benton's PA, as she jogged toward him. "I've got rewrites for you."
"For today's stuff?" he asked, shifting his hold on his coffee to take the pages.
"Tomorrow." April pulled her lips back and hissed slightly through her teeth. "Wait 'til you see. Benton has already flipped."
David squinted in the semi-darkness, trying to make out the print. He slid a glance at April. "Why? What'd they do?"
"Just wait until you read it."
She took off again, forever on the run for Benton, and David continued to his trailer, flipping through the pages as he went. It wasn't until he reached for the knob on his door that he read over page four, and his hand stopped mid-air.
"No," he said aloud, and scanned the pages again. "Damn."
He read further, and shook his head. This couldn't be right. Granted, he was 'just the actor', and he was only supposed to interpret the script... but this, this he knew wasn't right. He'd devoured Andi's books when he was given the role, and she never ever would have written something like this. Her books -- and the subsequent movies -- fell under the broad description of science fiction, but her underlying character stories were seeded in romance and life.
This was sensationalism.
David read further and groaned.
Did she know yet?
David set his half-empty paper coffee cup on the steps into his trailer and turned back in the direction he'd come. What he intended to do, he didn't know yet. He didn't have power to do anything at all, but he could at least voice an opinion. Being the talent didn't make him voiceless.
Benton's office was on the partial second level of the set building, accessible by a steel, somewhat wobbly set of stairs leading up from the set ground level. As he neared the wide-open doors leading into the parking lot, a silver Lexus RX Hybrid turned, taking up two parking spots, and jerked sharply to a stop, the sound of a slamming door immediately carrying across the parking lot. Before the passenger door could open, Andi Parker rounded the back of the Lexus, her sundress flipping around her legs as she practically marched toward the door.
The passenger front and back doors opened, and a petite woman with dark hair cut short and angled around her face jumped from the front of the Lexus, taking the hand of a young boy who climbed out of the back.
"Andi, you need to take a breath," the woman called after her. She took hold of the boy's hand and jogged after Andi. "Don't take anyone's head off until you think this through."
Yep...she knew.
And yet, despite her angry stride and the tight line of her lips, she was beautiful.
"Don't worry, Mags," she said back over her shoulder, her stride never slowing. "I won't kill anyone until I see how bad they butchered my--" Her voice faltered when she turned back and made eye contact with him. Her step slowed for half a second, then she marched again. "Is that the rewrite?" she demanded of him, already reaching for the script pages in his hand.
Before he had a chance to answer, she snatched the script from his fingers and flipped through the pages. She stepped further into the building and out of the sun, effectively bringing herself so close to him that her shoulder brushed his chest and when she tipped her head to read the script, the scent of her shampoo drifted up to him. David indulged in a deep breath before tilting his head and angling his body so he could read over her shoulder. Her head turned slightly side-to-side as she scanned the pages, and he knew the exact moment she'd hit the offending scene change. Her entire body tensed and her breath hitched.
The woman who had arrived with Andi reached them. She wasn't quite as tall as Andi, with brown eyes and straight, dark brown hair that didn't clear the bottom of her ears. The boy wasn't more than ten or eleven years old, but stood eye to eye with the woman. His hair was reddish-brown and too long so it waved and hung around his face, almost covering his eyes. He was all elbows and bones, like his height had stretched him out before the rest of him had time to catch up. His face was tense, his eyes squinted, as he stepped closer to Andi.
"Mom?"
Andi shushed him softly, and David shifted his attention between Andi and the boy. Before he could process the information -- the fact that Andi was a mother, and what that could possibly mean -- her hand shot up and pressed against his chest.
"Oh, no..." she whispered. "Nononononono...."
David shifted closer to her and covered her hand with his, holding it in place. He knew the contact was probably reactive, but that didn't mean he wouldn't take full advantage of it. He looked over her shoulder again to see what she'd read. Before he could, her fingers curled into his shirt and she groaned. With the tension emanating from her body, and the focus she held on the pages, he doubted she even realized what she was doing.
"I just got them," he offered.
She sucked in a shuttered breath, and a small whimper caught in her throat. Her fingers curled tighter, pulling tight at his shirt, bringing him closer to her. For just a moment, his gaze shifted over the top of her head and caught the eyes of the woman. He thought that just for a moment, her mouth ticked up in a quick smile, but it quickly disappeared.
"Andi, let me see," the woman asked and reached for the paper.
Andi twisted away from her -- and into him -- keeping the script between him and her like a kid protecting their candy. Forget the rewrites, did this woman have any clue what she was doing to him? She shook her head and flipped the page.
"They can't... they can't be serious..."
"Andrea Parker, I'm serious. Let. Me. See," the woman demanded.
"Where is Benton?" Andi asked, finally raising her head to look at him. Her eyes glistened bright, and he knew she had been close to weeping just moments before. But her expression was set and determined, her lips tight when she spoke.
"In his office."
Then she was gone, brushing past him as she reached back to pass off the script to the other woman. She followed Andi, scanning the pages quickly, and David took up the rear with the boy.
"Before you ask," the woman said, never looking up from the pages as she started up the stairs. "Yes, she's always like this when someone's gotten her Irish up. So, I wouldn't recommend getting on her bad side."
"Good to know," David mumbled as they followed in Andi's wake. The stairs, which were never meant to be a permanent structure in any of the set buildings, clattered and shook as the four of them ascended.
Andi reached the top before them and used the railing as a pivot point to propel herself down the catwalk to Benton's door. David never would have though that a woman so graceful and lithe as Andi could walk with such heavy-footed determination that her footsteps would echo off the metal grating. As he took the stairs two at a time, David watched her legs as she marched toward Benton's door.
The three of them hit the landing together, the woman one step ahead, and she twisted enough to extend her hand to him.
"We haven't met. I'm Maggie Connelly, Andi's agen
t."
"David--"
"I know who you are, David," she said with a smirk and a wink, giving his hand a firm shake. She tipped her head toward the boy. "This is Jake, Andi's son."
David held out his hand to the boy, but he didn't take it, staring wide-eyed past both of them to where his mother stopped. Andi pounded on the door twice before opening it and barging inside. David, Maggie and Jake reached the door in time to hear Benton countering whatever Andi had declared upon entry.
"I just got them this morning myself!" he shouted back. "Why do you think I called you, Andi? And let's remember that... I called you."
"I accepted a long time ago that this movie wasn't going to exactly be the novel I wrote, but you can't expect me to just let something like this go without fighting it," she shouted. "This is supposed to be a torture scene. Jason is fighting to keep secrets that he knows could be the life of everyone he cares about if he lets anything slip." To emphasize her point, she motioned back toward David. "How does him having sex with his captor show is loyalty to his wife and his cause?"
"Sex sells," Benton said with an apologetic shrug.
"No!" Andi pounded her small fist on the desk. "No! I will not allow this!"
"Andi honey," Maggie Connelly said, moving around David to enter the battlefield. "You need to take a deep breath and step back. Let me make a few phone calls. We'll get this straightened out."
"Damn straight we will," Andi snapped, swinging back to them. She pointed a finger at Maggie, then seemed to think twice about it and dropped her hands to tight fists at her side. "I have a say in this. You made sure of it in the contract. They can't just do this without me."
"I'll fix it," Maggie reiterated, keeping her voice calm and level in comparison to Andi. "Leave it to me."
Andi closed her eyes and turned her face away from all of them, her hands clenched tight at her side as she drew in several deep breaths that shook her small frame. David fought the urge to touch her cheek or lay his hand on her arm. He wanted to, but he had to silently admit to himself that he didn't know her well enough to know if she would accept the contact or if it would just make her angrier.
And not knowing her well enough was a problem he fully intended to fix.
She opened her eyes and moved away from them, further down the catwalk to the corner of the two-story temporary structure tucked in the corner of the massive sound stage. A single railing ran the length of the walkway, tall enough for an adult to rest their hands, but also tall enough that a toddler could probably run right under it without ducking. This time her steps were silent as she reached the corner and curled her hands around the metal, her head dropping forward.
The boy took a step toward her, but Maggie Connelly stopped him, her hand on his shoulder. "Let's give your mom some breathing room, Jake." She looked straight at David, that tiny smile tipping her mouth again. "We'll go down to her trailer and get you a soda while I unleash the Dogs of Hell."
The boy let out a sigh tinged with frustration and frowned, turning away to head back to the stairs. Maggie followed, but David shifted his attention back to Andi. With the gracefulness of a dancer, Andi crouched down, the hem of her sundress pooling on the grating for a moment before she swung her legs over the edge and sat down.
David rested his hand on the cool steel piping and walked to her, looking over the railing to the people below as they moved around preparing for the day's shots. A blue screen hung along a section of back wall. He was only a couple feet away when she curled her fingers around the edge of the catwalk and leaned forward, her sandaled feet swinging.
"Hey," he said, touching her shoulder with his fingertips.
She looked up, and her eyes still shined just a little too bright. It tugged at his chest and made him swallow. David moved behind her, and using the single railing to keep him from shifting too far, he sat behind her and draped his legs on either side of her slim hips. A tiny, soft sound caught in her throat and she looked at him with wide, blue eyes.
"You make me nervous sitting on the edge," he offered in what was probably the weakest explanation ever given for wanting to sit so close to a woman. "This okay?"
He didn't wait for her answer before he shifted forward enough that her back brushed his chest and his legs hung over the edge on either side of hers. He wanted to rest his hands on her hips, settle her back against him, and press his face into the curve of her throat. He wanted to... but he didn't.
As much as he'd thought about the kisses they'd shared in her trailer, he also thought about how sudden the whole thing had been. Yes, he'd certainly taken notice of how sexy she was... how she captured his attention. How her smile made him smile, and how he enjoyed being the one to make her laugh. He thought about how much he wanted to be this close to her... but wondered if she thought the same thing.
Andi folded her hands in her lap and drew in a long breath, looking out across the open warehouse soundstage. When she finally spoke, her voice was soft and restrained and he had to sit forward to hear her, letting his cheek brush her hair as he leaned over her shoulder.
"Ten years ago, I was a new mom spending my days at home alone with an infant..." She trailed off, then laughed softly. A humorless, wry sound. She shook her head. "And a bunch of people in my head screaming for attention. They wouldn't leave me alone. Whenever I sat still, for even a minute, I heard dialogue running through my head. I saw scenes play out like on a movie screen. I couldn't take it anymore." She looked down at her hands, worrying the tips of her fingers together. "Two in the morning, I turned on my computer and started writing. And for the next five years, I was reminded what a waste of time the whole thing was."
Whoever he was... husband, or otherwise... he was an idiot. David didn't need to know another fact about him.
"They're amazing books," he said, and she actually jumped, tipping sideways slightly to look into his face. This time he did set his hands on her hips, but only to keep her from losing her balance on the edge of the catwalk. Wouldn't want her to lose her balance... "When they offered me the role, I picked up the first in the series." He grinned when her eyebrows arched and her lips fell open... she was surprised. "I read the whole series in six days."
Color bloomed in her cheeks, and made him remember the way she'd flushed in her trailer. The way her breath had hitched. The way her ankles had curled behind his thighs. His attention shifted to her lips, and she ran the tip of her tongue over them before abruptly turning away. David tamped down the need to curl his fingers into the soft cotton of her dress, and swallowed the groan in his throat. She tensed for a moment, straightening her spine to put more distance between them, then to his sweet surprise, she released a long breath and relaxed, easing back into him until her shoulders rested against his chest and her head tipped back to his shoulder.
"I should be ecstatic that someone thought my midnight drabbles were worth putting in print, let alone making a movie from them," she said after a few moments of quiet. "If I were smart I'd just--"
"Let your agent do her job and fix the script," he cut her off gently.
Andi turned her face toward him, but didn't lift it from his shoulder. Her breath brushed his cheek, and it would take nothing at all to lean in and kiss her. He conceded by sliding his hands from her hips to press gently against her stomach, letting the cotton shift beneath his palms. The sensation was familiar, and his gut tightened with the memory. "It deserves to be done right."
Her small hand moved over his, pressing his palm just a little firmer against her. "Thank you," she said so softly, he might not have known what she said if he hadn't been watching her lips.
Before he could say, "You're welcome", or finally give in to temptation, two voices echoed through the soundstage. From below, the set costume director called to David that he needed to change. From behind, Benton stepped out of his office snapping Andi's name. Holding her gaze, David planted a foot on the edge of the catwalk and pushed himself up. He offered his hand, and she took it, letting him pull her to
her feet.
Her fingertips skimmed over his palm as her hand dropped away, and she finally shifted her gaze from him to Benton, stepping away to meet him at his office door. The costumer called David's name again, and as he walked past Benton's door he heard the man tell Andi the script doctor had backed down, and that she could call off Mags. The scene would be filmed as originally scripted... and originally approved by her.
David smiled and pushed his hands into his pockets as he went down the stairs, knowing the stance was a lame attempt at hiding the effect one Andi Parker had on him.
Chapter Three
"See? I told you I'd fix it."
Andi jumped at Maggie's sudden appearance behind her and twisted in her chair to look at her friend. "I'm sorry I ever doubted you," she said with a grin.
"Damn straight. And don't do it again," Maggie scolded, wagging a less than threatening finger at Andi.
Maggie smiled and came around the chairs, which were positioned at the edge of the sound stage, and boosted herself up into the empty wood-and-canvas chair beside Andi. She hefted herself into the tall seat and mumbled something under her breath about Amazons, and Andi chuckled.
"What's happening here?" Maggie asked with a motion of her hand toward the set.
"Just setting up for the next shot."
They were between takes on a scene and the swing gang was working on resetting some of the props that had been moved during the last take. After taking a few deep breaths and apologizing to Benton for biting his head off, Andi had come down to the set to watch the filming.
"Jake is in your trailer," Maggie provided, shifting again in the tall chair. If she pointed her toes, she could rest them on the crossbar, but she gave up and drew her legs into the wide seat of the chair, sitting Indian style. "So, is this a one, two, or three? I figure it couldn't be a dreaded four, since I know you had thought about coming in today for the filming."
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