15. Laura
laura
. . .
I had never been on a movie set before. In all truth, it was a bit lackluster.
It was mostly people just standing around, watching the actors on set. Cameras and lights were hung all over, illuminating the dark warehouse we were in.
I got a seat behind the crowd, but it was close enough to see and hear Harley. I recognized her co-star. She was famous, maybe even more so than Harley.
“Harley wanted me to warn you this will be a pretty heavy makeout scene,” Penelope said from my side, her sudden appearance making me jump.
She was holding a hot coffee and a tea, and she gave me the option to pick.
I grabbed the coffee with a forced smile.
“And I’m supposed to care, why?” I asked.
She chuckled and shook her head.
“Cause Harley really… gets into it,” she said. “Believe it or not, she’s actually good at her job. She’s getting popular because of the chemistry she has with the other actors. Doesn’t matter who it is or what the script says, she always seems to knock it out of the park.”
My eyes trailed back to the couple. The director was talking to them, and while her co-star looked attentive, Harley seemed far away. If I didn’t notice the slight bob of her head, I would have thought she wasn’t listening at all.
The director asked a question I couldn’t hear, and then there were nods from around the group.
“Quiet on set!”
The lights around us were dimmed, and all focus was on the actors. The warehouse had been transformed to look like a bedroom, fake lights shining through the fake window making it look like we were high up in a downtown apartment of some kind.
As soon as the director yelled “Action!”, Harley was all over the other actor.
It was raw, unfiltered. As soon as their lips met, she had her hands in Harley’s hair, tugging at it. Harley grabbed her legs and hoisted them around her waist before slamming the girl into the set wall.
I was surprised it stayed up given the sheer aggression of it.
They were pressed together, saying lines between kisses, but I couldn’t hear them. I mean, I could, but my brain wasn’t computing. It all washed away as I watched the crazy murderer make the scene feel so… real .
It was uncomfortable to watch, but not because of the intimacy of it.
Because of the way it heated my body up, top to bottom.
I’m going insane.
There was no other reason for me to get turned on watching a murderer in a fake makeout session with a fucking actor.
Or jealous, damn it.
I had felt that same heat when she pushed me up against the alley wall. And maybe a small part of me had fantasized about her doing the exact same thing to me when her lips had trailed my neck. Lifting me up. Rubbing against me.
Insane. Messed up in the head.
My brain was working overtime to try to push down the excitement. The rush. How turned on she made me. The anger I was feeling should have been enough to drown out everything else, but instead it just intensified it.
I had to focus.
I’m angry at her.
Angry at the situation.
Angry at how it’s making me feel.
Fuck.
When Harley’s hands started to wander up the girl’s shirt as she writhed, the director called, “Cut!” and I could finally catch my breath.
Both actors pulled away, looking at the director.
“Start from the top,” he commanded without any other explanation.
Penelope leaned close. “This may take a while.”
And take a while it did.
I had to watch, over and over again, as they made out against the wall. Had to listen as the director gave instructions to make it hotter, heavier. More panting. More moaning.
No one was fazed by this.
Except me.
It wasn’t until what felt like the millionth time that he finally had whatever it was he wanted and called for a set change.
Harley’s eyes sought mine immediately, and the smile she gave me with her swollen lips and tousled hair… It had me flushing in a way I’d never experienced before.
I gripped the papers in my hand, looking down at them. Without a word, Penelope handed me a pen, and without hesitation, I signed my name on the last page.
When I looked up, the bright smile on Harley’s face was gone.
In its place was a dark, deeply sensual curl of her lips that told me I was right where she wanted me.
And for a second, I wasn’t sure I minded it.
Now that that was done, I quickly got up and started for the exit. After all, I had nothing else to do here, and I was needed back in New York .
I was busy searching for the earliest flight out of here when a warm hand pulled at my arm. Spinning around with an insult on my tongue, all thoughts left my mind when I came face-to-face with the post-makeout Harley that had my heart hammering against my rib cage.
She looked even better up close.
“You’re leaving so soon, my love?” She sounded breathless, and she was so close this felt… intimate. It almost had me believing we’d been the ones making out for the cameras.
“Work,” I replied, my eyes glancing at the crew, but they were catching up amongst themselves. The only person outright staring—or I should say glaring— was the director. “Like you should be doing.”
“I needed a break,” she said, totally unfazed. “Dinner. Tonight. I’ll even set you up in a hotel and you can catch the first flight out in the morning.”
If I were being honest, I wasn’t looking forward to the six-hour flight back. I was tired from the back and forth and the stress of this clinically insane but dangerously sexy actor fucking with my life.
“You already got the wrong id?—”
She held up her hands. “It’s for the whole crew. No pressure. Truly. I care about you, and I want you to be comfortable.”
I eyed her wearily, but the last thing I wanted was the crew’s attention on us, so I needed to end this quickly.
“Fine,” I conceded. “But I won’t stay more than twenty minutes and then I am going back to my hotel—a five-star one— alone. ”
She gave me a smile that looked even more sensual thanks to her puffy lips.
“See you then, my love.”
I sighed as I pulled off my shoes and sat down on the bed.
As Harley had promised, the whole crew had been there and she had barely even talked to me. It served the purpose of getting me fed, but besides that, it was just an ordinary dinner and nothing more.
I was almost… disappointed.
But it also gave me a chance to see exactly how she pulled in everyone else around her. They had no idea just how insane she was. How she had literally killed people with the same hands that clapped their shoulders and backs when they were joking together.
I looked around the bedroom. Sure enough, she got me a five-star hotel room that was decked out with a view of the city, my very own chandelier, and a nicely wrapped present right in the middle of the bed.
Turning to fully look at it, I realized the all-black box was likely a present from Harley and not the hotel.
I shouldn’t open it.
But that thought didn’t stop my hand from reaching across the space and flipping it open.
Right inside was a sleek, red vibrator. Expensive-looking, seemingly made from the silkiest silicone that I had to fight myself not to touch, and with several gold buttons.
Heat swirled low in my belly as I caught sight of the note on top.
I wish I was there with you. In the meantime, use this as you think of me. No need to hide, my love. I saw how you looked at me when I was filming today.
P.S. I will be doing the same tonight and thinking of you.
With a scoff, I slammed the box shut and pushed it off the bed.
There was a dark urge inside me telling me to use it. Images of Harley and her co-star replayed in my mind, but her face had been replaced .
With mine.
Stupid.
It was stupid how fucking hot she looked and even more stupid how much it affected me.
I threw myself back on the bed, a scream of frustration bubbling in my throat.
Fuck Harley.