Behind The Curtain (The Velvet Series Book 1)

by Jodi Jolan

  Which I supposed was a good thing, given that they were meant to be our leading couple. There was no doubt about the fact that they shared some seriously hot chemistry; Michelle was married, had been for years, but she didn’t seem to mind featuring as the lead in the attentions of a hot young thing like Luke. And everyone had been talking about how hard the two of them had been going at it, right in front of the entire cast and crew, flirting so outrageously you’d half-expect them to throw down on the stage right in front of us. Michelle’s husband, Andrew, another director, visited the set for a day to hang out with her at work before he left town for a few weeks, and he sat there and watched as his wife tossed back her head and howled with laughter at something Luke had come out with.

  “Doesn’t it…bother you?” I asked, leaning over to Andrew and speaking quietly. He was observing the proceedings with a half-smile on his face. He glanced over at me, and he looked genuinely surprised at what I was implying.

  “Why would it?” He asked. “It’s just how she is with everyone. If I got stressed every time she flirted with a co-star we wouldn’t have much of a marriage to speak of.”

  “I guess so,” I replied, and went back to reading over the notes I’d made in the script about the scene that we were working on. Maybe I was just paranoid after everything that had happened with Johnathan – and it was all so fresh in my head, after I ran into the two of them at a coffee shop a few days before.

  My heart had sank as soon as I’d seen that it was him. And her, of course. The girl he had cheated on me with. I wasn’t sure how many times I’d gone over that in my head, the revelation, the finding out that all those paranoid little thoughts that I was sure had only existed at the back of my addled brain were real. Some girl he’d met online, who he’d started having sex with almost immediately. How long had we been together, again? Four years? Since I finished college – we’d met right out of my degree, when I’d been young and excitable and certain that my life was going to unfold in all kinds of interesting directions. But instead I had stumbled straight into him and the two of us had gotten together and it felt like everything had come to this grinding halt as a result of it.

  I mean, he seemed like a better prospect when I met him, that was for sure. He had a job then, which he swiftly lost six months into our relationship; maybe he sensed that I was a total pushover and decided that spending any more time trying to thresh out a career of his own would have been a silly idea, when he could just propose to me and make sure that I stuck around as long as he needed me to in order to keep him in video games and beer. Even now, thinking about it, it was enough to get my hackles all the way up. I couldn’t believe I’d been dumb enough to fall for him, to let him into my life, to spend my days working my ass off as I moved up the ladder of a career in finance that seemed to suck a little more of my soul out with every passing day just to support him, because he’d put a ring on my finger and my parents approved of him.

  Of course, that was the exact reason he’d come up with for cheating on me. Well, not my parents – he wasn’t quite that crazy about it – but that I spent all this time at work and none of it with him. So he needed to find love and attention elsewhere. Specifically, between the legs of some girl named Nina that he met on the internet. Honestly, seeing them together - I recognised her from the pictures I’d stumbled across on his phone, of her dating profile – just made me want to go up to her and warn her that this wasn’t going to unfold the way she likely thought it did. That this guy was a loser who was going to suck every last little drop of energy and patience out of her. She seemed to know who I was and her jaw clenched a little bit, and I wanted nothing more than to tell her that I wasn’t mad at her, just disappointed, like a grade-school teacher annoyed that you made the wrong decision.

  I was glad, in some ways, because Johnathan leaving me had been the kick in the ass I needed to get myself together and go out into the real world and actually pursue the career that I had always dreamed of doing. Every time I had faltered or wondered if I was making some huge mistake, I would remember how much time I wasted on him and this rush of certainty would run through me and I would know for sure that this was worth it. But it still stung, knowing that someone had valued me so little that they could chuck me in for something better as soon as they got the chance. So maybe that’s why I was still sensitive, watching Michelle flirt with Luke right in front of her husband. Or maybe I was jealous because Luke wasn’t paying that attention to me.

  That had been a few days ago, and now I was coming in to direct the first major love scene the play had to offer. I hadn’t even done a love scene as explicit as this one before – hell, it basically required the two of them to be straight-up humping on stage in front of me – but I knew I could do it. I was certain I could do anything I set my mind to. It was just…yeah, there was something nagging away at the back of my mind about this that I was having trouble putting my finger on.

  “So, you ready to see me naked?”

  I heard his voice before I saw him, and I knew at once who I was dealing with. I fought the urge to roll my eyes as I heard Michelle’s playful peels of laughter in response to what he had just said.

  “No-one’s going to be naked,” I turned as he entered the room. “This is mostly for blocking. So if you can keep it in your pants for now, cowboy, I think we’d all appreciate it.

  Michelle grinned broadly at me, clearly amused, and Luke shook his head, playing at disappointed.

  “Killjoy,” he remarked, shooting a smile at me to let me know that he was just kidding around. I got to my feet.

  “Are you guys happy with the set-up we have here?” I asked, doing my best not to look too closely at Luke; he’d shaved for the first time since we’d started the production, and it brought out the sharpness of his jaw and the glitter in his eyes even more deftly than before. Michelle cast her eye over the set we had put together – I had made sure to get it as close to what I had in mind for the finished product as possible, and I liked the way it looked now. It was hard to do a bedroom set, given that the bed was flat and it made it hard for the audience to see what was going on on top of it, so I had angled it in such a way that they weren’t going to slide out of it but so that everyone would be able to see what was going on inside and on top of it. Michelle shrugged and nodded, pacing around the bits and pieces we’d laid out to make sure it looked as close to what it would be like in the real production as possible. The short notice of this piece (the theatre had decided that it would be the perfect thing to open their summer season) meant that not all the sets had been completed and sourced yet, so we were forced to function off what we could find kicking around the theatre already.

  Luke flopped down in a seat next to me, placing his hands on top of his head and scanning the space in front of him. I was distinctly aware of how close he was to me; I could smell his aftershave, something expensive and musky and dense. I wanted to lean in to his neck and catch a better whiff of it, but I figured that would likely have been pushing professional boundaries a little too far. He glanced over at me and I quickly returned my gaze to the notes I had taken last night, furrowing my brow as though what was written there was deeply fascinating to me.

  “Have you ever done a scene like this before?” He asked, and I glanced up at him.

  “What, as a director?” I burbled, because of course that was what he was asking about. He nodded, seemingly sincere for once. He was wearing a light blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and his forearms were well-muscled and extremely distracting.

  “Uh, nothing this intense,” I admitted. “It’s for sure the most explicit scene I’ve ever done. What about you?”

  He furrowed his brow at me, but he was smiling, like he was simply confused and needed me to clarify for him.

  “Did you watch any of my movies before we started working together?”

  “A few,” I replied, flushing a little bit, and I wasn’t sure if i
t was because I was being called out or just because he was focusing his attention on me.

  “But none of that godawful action franchise, right?” He remarked bluntly. I couldn’t help spluttering with surprised laughter.

  “Uh, no,” I admitted, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear and immediately wondering if that came off as flirting and cursing myself for overthinking so much of this. I was just talking to him, plain and simple, and I wasn’t going to let my stupid brain crawl up and in the way of that when what I needed more than anything was to be professional. He grinned.

  “Well, that’s a relief,” he remarked. “That’s hardly my most impressive work.”

  “But you did love scenes in them?” I prompted him, and he shrugged.

  “I guess you could call them that,” he agreed. “After the first one they became kind of a…tradition, I suppose. I don’t really care for them but the studio is certain that they sell tickets, so I didn’t complain.”

  “Plus getting to make out with those actresses,” I raised my eyebrows at him expectantly. A smile spread across his face, slowly, like he was remembering.

  “You think I wasn’t doing that off-screen as well?” He remarked playfully, and I felt myself flush once more. Jesus. I needed to get a grip on myself, because I was acting like a damn teenager around this guy. What, would I be slapping pictures of him up on my bedroom wall next?

  “Okay, let’s get rolling on this,” I nodded, stepping away from him and feeling the redness that had begun to work it’s way up my neck begin to abate. I’d hoped that by now, a couple of weeks into the production, I might have started to act a little more like an adult, but there was something about being around him that made me feel as though my feet weren’t totally touching the ground. I wasn’t sure if I liked it yet or not.

  “Can we clear this place out?” I asked, glancing around the handfuls of people who were still here. “Break for lunch. I’ll call you guys back in later, when we’re happy with what we’ve got.”

  The few crew members hanging around trailed for the door painfully slowly, eventually leaving just me, Michelle, and Luke in the room together. Luke was still watching me, his gaze still firmly latched in my direction, and I hoped he didn’t notice how intently I was noticing his noticing.

  “So, Michelle,” I pointed to my leading lady and she glanced up at me, a smile on her face. She always seemed so calm and in-control, an attitude that I seriously envied. She could stand there and flirt her butt off with Luke all day long and still come out of it looking like some pulled-together slice of brilliance, whereas he so much as implied sex to me in a conversation and I went bright red and clammed up. Yeah, that was a great start.

  “If you could just head over to the set and sit on the edge of the bed, where the scene starts,” I ordered, getting to my feet to pace around the set; when it came to blocking a scene like this for the first time, I preferred to get in and amongst the set and the actors. If the movements didn’t look natural close-up then there was no way they were going to look like it to a big audience. I frowned as I stood in front of her, hands on my hips, and she looked up at me expectantly.

  “Actually, could you make it this edge?” I asked, taking her arm and tugging her so that she wasn’t facing the audience head-on. “I think it looks a little more normal that way.”

  “Sure thing,” she shrugged, and she crossed her legs and glanced over at Luke. “What about him?”

  I shot a look over my shoulder, where Luke was standing watching to two of us interact. He had an expression on his face that I couldn’t quite figure out – probably excitement, since he was finally getting to virtually consummate his flirtation with Michelle. I sighed, and waved him over. I wasn’t sure why, but the thought of the two of them together, under my command, was doing things to me that were far from decent.

  “Okay, Luke,” I clapped my hands together, trying to play like I was completely at ease and knew precisely what I was doing. I went to grab my notes as he joined Michelle on our makeshift set, and glanced around to make sure the place was as empty as it could be. Michelle had been the one to suggest that they block the sex scenes without the whole cast and crew there, not least because we wouldn’t have a use for most of them hanging around, but also because it made her feel a little more comfortable knowing there weren’t two dozens sets of eyes peering at her from backstage. Down here on the floor, it was really just me, him, and her. And something about that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up in the most pleasing way.

  “So, you’ll walk in from stage right,” I pointed to where I wanted him, and he nodded, snapping into actorly mode at once. For all his big talk off-stage, he could take orders well when he was on it, and I appreciated that he seemed to respect me as a director enough to listen to my suggestions but not so much that he would keep his mouth shut when he thought I was making a mistake.

  “And come towards her slowly,” I looked up, crouching down a few inches away from the bed, giving them space to perform. “Michelle, don’t look up at him as he comes in. Wait till he’s right in front of you before you notice he’s there.”

  They did as they were told, Luke looking down at the woman before him with a gaze that made my heart flip. How real was this?

  “And, uh, Luke, grab her by the arms and pull her to her feet,” I went on. “Don’t be afraid to be a little rough. This is meant to be a cathartic scene for you both, so-”

  Before I could continue, he’d taken the note, reaching down to pull Michelle to her feet and then holding her tight against him. His hands was on the small of her back, the other on the side of her face, careful not to block her from an imagined audience.

  “Good,” I swallowed heavily, returning my gaze to the notes. “And now kiss her.”

  It was a simple note but one the two of them seemed to take to heart at once. Luke leaned down and pressed his mouth to hers, and before I knew it the two of them were locked in this heated embrace. I knew it was just a performance, knew there was nothing real about it, but it was hard to believe when the two of them seemed so lost to each other. I felt something kindle to life inside of me, something that I had been doing my best to ignore this whole time.

  “Back her towards the bed,” I continued, my voice lower than it had been before. “Lay her down on the bed and climb on top of her.”

  Not breaking the embrace, Luke did the very same as I’d just laid out, and Michelle let out this mild little moan that I wasn’t sure was entirely performance. My head flashed with jealousy. In that moment, lost in this scene, I would have given anything to be where she was right now.

  “Michelle, put your hand under his shirt,” I ordered, placing my notes down on the floor next to me and just watching them. She slid her hand slowly beneath the pale blue fabric of his shirt, letting it rest against his stomach for a moment. Her other hand was in his hair, raking through it. She was certainly selling this. The heat between them was palpable – no, the heat between all three of us was palpable, intense. The palms of my hands prickled with excitement, and I moved a little closer to them, so I could see the movements of their bodies, could imagine that it was me beneath him and not Michelle.

  “Kiss her neck,” I went on. “Move down…”

  Luke pushed her head back, against the sheets, to expose her neck, like he was something starving and this was the only way he could think of to feast at last. He kissed her like he wanted to remember the taste for the rest of his life, his teeth tugging across her skin. Her eyes were close, one hand trailing over his back softly, the fingertips tugging at the fabric. I loved the way the two of them looked together, but not as much as I would have loved to be the one beneath him, the one as lost to this embrace as she clearly was. I got to my feet. My head was pounding. I couldn’t concentrate; my notes were strewn around me on the floor, forgotten, and I realized that I hadn’t been directing a scene as much as I’d been directing Luke
to touch her the way I truly wanted him to touch me.

  “Can we break for a minute?” I spoke, voice cracking slightly. I wondered how obvious it was to the two of them what had just happened. “This isn’t working for me. I need to get a little air…”

  The two of them came unstuck, just like that both in the real world, and I headed for the door without once looking back at them. I knew I had pushed too far. I marched out of the room and ignored the handful of crew members hanging around outside, eating their lunch, and the odd looks they shot me. I supposed we had only been in there a few minutes, and they were probably worried that I was going to call their lunch break to an end early. Well, they didn’t have to worry about that. I just needed to get my head out of my ass and stop acting like some horny kid who hadn’t seen people kiss before in her life.

  I stepped out the back of the building, into the alley that ran up the side of the theatre, and heaved in a long, deep breath. I wasn’t sure what it was, but there was something thrumming in the back of my brain, a deep, low, needy desire that hadn’t been awake in a long time. Not even Johnathan had drawn this out of me. I couldn’t remember any man who had, before this. But why did it have to be him? Why did it have to be Luke? I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes, inhaling deeply, the scent of the Chinese food place around the corner familiar and pulling me back down to Earth.

  “Holly?”

  I opened my eyes once more and, to my shock, found myself faced with Luke. My jaw dropped, my lips parted, and I remembered the way his mouth had looked on Michelle, how tempting it had seemed, how-

  And before I knew it, he was on me and we were making out furiously against the back wall of the theatre. I could hear the blood pounding in my ears and I couldn’t remember who it who had made the first move, but I didn’t think it mattered now. All that I could focus on was the feeling of his hands snaking up the small of my back, pulling me against him, his tongue slipping into my mouth as he backed me up against the wall. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back, harder, harder, more – whatever had kindled inside of me when I’d seen the two of them making out like that was now raging in a full-blown fire, and I wasn’t sure that I could handle myself any longer. My head was spinning and every inch of my skin was prickling as his hand slid down, to cup my ass, tugging me hard against his body so I could feel his cock-