Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Their laughter subsided, and Jory stilled beside Cali as she stared at the ceiling. The sound of tiny, muffled thumps on the sheets told her he was searching for her hand. When he found his mark, he linked his fingers with hers. An alien rush of satisfaction stole over her, and she fought back a sigh. She had to remember the ease she was feeling was the natural oxytocin running through her blood as a result of two incredible orgasms. Oxytocin led to unfounded notions of closeness and connection that would never survive when the sweat cooled. The urge to fuse her body with his so they could continue forward as one entity wasn’t based on truth, no matter how attractive a prospect.
The afterglow winding its way around them would soon morph into plastic wrap determined to suffocate her. She’d watched her mother put herself in the hospital after her breakup with Rick, the most destructive of their mother’s unhealthy relationships. Rick was one of those slick charmers most women could see a mile away for being a leech and a liar. But not their mom. To her, he’d been The One, in all his ponytailed, weed-selling, El Camino’d majesty. And despite Patsy’s quick recoveries after each of her whirlwind romances, Cali had seen the cumulative effect they’d had on her. How every sliver of disappointment had driven deeper into her heart until the light that made her so unique faded. Cali wouldn’t risk that kind of emotional breakdown over something as fickle as a man. If just because she was the only one able to pick up their pieces when her family fell apart.
Ignoring the voice pleading with her to take just a few breaths more in the safe cocoon Jory’s presence had spun, she spoke. “That was pretty good.”
Jory’s head turned to her profile, and he said in dopey disbelief, “Pretty good? That was pretty good ?”
His incredulous tone surprised her. She thought the sex was amazing, playful, exciting—and so, so hot. But she’d just assumed this would be his regular Friday night. Now she wondered if he didn’t let go very often, and what he would be like if she stayed around long enough to blow through all that control.
Too bad she was about to leave. Yep, getting ready to leave. Any minute with the leaving. “Well, um, I’d never done that before.”
“Had sex?”
Cali rolled her eyes. “No.”
“Had a giant cock in your mouth?”
She huffed out a surprised laugh and followed it with exaggerated exasperation. “No.”
Jory turned on his side and propped his head on his hand, with a sudden frown. “You’ve had someone bigger than me?”
Cali widened her eyes in mock innocence and cooed in a breathy, high voice, “Oh no. Yours was the biggest and most beautiful cock I’ve ever had in my life. Thank you for gifting it to me.”
Jory snorted. “That’s better.”
Cali smiled but kept her eyes glued to the ceiling.
He nudged her. “What haven’t you done before?”
“Come twice.” Cali bit her lip, stupidly feeling shy and exposed.
“Oh, that. So you weren’t trying to egg me on, that was real?”
“Well, I was trying to egg you on …”
“And were you pleased with the results?”
Cali turned and saw him fighting what appeared to be smug satisfaction. She narrowed her eyes, and he let the big conceited smile run rampant over his face.
She rolled her eyes again, and he laughed, settling on his back. “You think a lot. Like, a lot, a lot. At a million miles an hour. You need distraction to get off yourself.”
“So you tricked me into coming again?” Cali’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline.
He shrugged.
Cali returned her gaze to the safety of the ceiling, confusion and alarm intertwined. Jory seemed to have figured out something no one else had, not even her. He just instinctively knew, like it was nothing. Like it was obvious.
Maybe she hadn’t had awesome orgasms in the past because they’d been mostly with acquaintances that were easily shuffled aside. She recognized there was more to explore in her own sexuality, but she hadn’t gone there because of her rules. Meaningless flings were good to keep grasping men at bay, but they didn’t lend themselves to a deeper understanding of what her body was capable of. Perhaps it was time to amend her rules in favor of inner growth. God knew she had enough steam to locomote an old-timey train. She couldn’t let that fester inside. It wouldn’t be healthy, for her blood pressure or her chi or whatever.
An idea began to formulate at the edges of her mind that she didn’t want to look at directly. But she could see its hand raised.
Jory cleared his throat and put on a casual tone that sounded out of character. “You have a boyfriend, girlfriend, or theyfriend back home?”
She stole a glance at him. “Who I’m casually cheating on with you?”
“Or you could be polyamorous.”
Cali had to laugh at that, rising up on her own elbow to imitate his earlier pose. “I don’t have the time to have one relationship let alone many . You?”
“No. No one at the moment.” He spoke with an airiness that ran counter to the tension creeping into his body. “So yeah, no girlfriend or boyfriend or theyfriend. Hardly have time for friends really, just colleagues.”
They nodded together as if this was just the way of things and they wouldn’t have it any different. A heavy silence fell, and Cali felt the inklings of loneliness. His loneliness. Just his, for sure. Not hers, since she wasn’t lonely.
Cali smiled impishly to chase away the feeling. “Have you had other colleagues with benefits? Although, I think there are HR rules about that.”
“Yes.” Jory sucked a breath through his teeth. “Many rules. Many, many rules.”
“I won’t tell anyone if you won’t.” Her smile deepened.
Cali thought she caught a glimpse of hurt in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced with faux deliberation. “Oh, I don’t know. I thought I’d tell Howard and Melanie the only way I can control your flaky behavior is through my aforementioned giant cock.”
“Flaky!”
“That’s what you took from that?” His astonishment propelled him back up on his elbow.
“They think I’m flaky?” Cali heard the outrage in her voice and tried to dial herself back.
“No one thinks you’re flaky.”
“Howard thinks I’m flaky.”
“Howard can be an asshole.”
“And here I thought you two were such good friends.”
Jory tensed. Cali knew the shot was childish. He’d apologized for discussing scenes behind her back, and there was that heartfelt vow to “do better,” but she was feeling inexplicably vulnerable. The sense of powerlessness pushed her up, and she swung her legs over the edge of the bed to face away from him.
After a moment, she felt his hand on her back. Just resting at the base. Not rubbing or stroking, just still and strong and warm.
“Howard and I aren’t friends,” he assured her. “And I shouldn’t have let him treat you like that. Those guys are from a different generation, have different values about what’s right. But that doesn’t mean any of it is okay.”
“It’s not your responsibility to stick up for me,” Cali said defensively.
“No, but I should have stuck up for my own values.”
She peered over her shoulder at him, searching for duplicity but only finding pained, self-recrimination.
Cali could see Jory trying to navigate his way through a world still steeped in toxic masculinity. And that was heartening. Still, she was on her own. As usual. “I need to make this work with Howard. It’s like he’s around whenever something bad happens.”
“That’s his special gift. It’s too bad he wasn’t around today.” Cali shot him an incredulous look, and he backpedaled. “Not for your sister’s big number, for the scenes before. That setup with Thalia in the church? I thought I was going to cry.”
“That’s because you were half out of your mind with a hard-on,” Cali needled.
“Which you supplied,” he shot back.
Cali smiled teasingly at him. His eyes were warm and playful. Her body wanted to lean into him, follow its own agenda to rekindle that hard-on for another round. She reeled it in and stayed on the topic of the set. “That scene was beautiful. She looked like her heart was breaking, even as her skin sizzled from the holy water.”
“The camera caught one of the water droplets sparkling in the light.”
“Then I grabbed your ass.”
Jory blew out a breath. “And almost knocked me into the camera.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t,” Cali pointed out.
“No, you didn’t.”
Now that she thought about it, they had worked together almost as one being that afternoon. There were times when they hadn’t even spoken, just pointed and nodded when either had an idea or an adjustment. Their attention had been on something else—tormenting each other in a different way.
“Maybe that’s the second orgasm,” Cali said to herself.
“Sorry?” Jory frowned.
She didn’t answer right away, finally turning her attention to that idea with the raised hand. It was an idea that had great risks but potentially great rewards. A possibility that firmly went against her one-and-done rules. Those rules were in place to keep things simple, but this situation called for a bit more nuance. It held some definite emotional dangers. He could catch feelings for her. She wouldn’t for him, of course. But from everything she’d observed of Jory Blair, he didn’t seem the head-over-heels type. And there was the obvious threat to their jobs.
Still, she approached with caution. “Every scene was good. Every scene after lunch, anyway. Remember the boardroom? It had an air of coldness that bordered on creepy.”
“Paolo looked like he was going to murder the assistant.”
“Did you see that?” She smacked his arm. “Your angle made him look like an assassin.”
Deep satisfaction crossed his features. “Yeah, that was good.”
“I think it was good because we were focused on each other.”
Jory scrutinized her like she’d just arrived from the solar system Xarthon.
She playfully poked his chest. “You have to admit your shooting got markedly better.”
“There’s that left-handed compliment again.” He grabbed her hand and yanked. She yelped as he pulled her on top of his chest.
“Listen! The crew is a mess when we’re fighting, the work is bland when we’re not, but it sings when we’re … doing something else.”
“Something else?” He raised a teasing eyebrow.
“Yeah,” she hedged.
“You’re a big girl. You can say it. The work sings after I finger-fuck you into oblivion.”
Cali’s skin heated and she buried her face in his chest.
Jory laughed. “Oh my God, you’re blushing. You’re so easy. Who knew the sex scene guru is actually embarrassed to talk about sex herself.”
“I’m not embarrassed to talk about it!” she squeaked. “I’m just remembering what happened and having a physical response to the intensity of the situation. Perfectly normal.”
“Perfectly normal,” Jory mocked.
“Don’t forget your hard-on.”
Jory grimaced. “That wasn’t great. I think Alison has our number. Michael definitely does.”
“He does?” Cali’s excitement began to deflate. No one could know if this was going to work.
“Yeah, he was ready to clock me when he thought I had ill intentions.”
Cali guffawed. “Really? That’s sweet.” She quieted, the plan gaining definition in her mind. Cali searched out the baby monitor and listened for her sister’s gentle snoring. The reminder of Patsy was a warning of how things could go so wrong. She spoke quietly, as if to herself. “We’d have to be careful.”
“Careful about what?”
She scrunched her nose. “Are you still confused about what I’m suggesting?”
He took a moment to answer. “You’re saying we should keep hooking up?”
“For the work,” she clarified.
“For the work.”
She felt his breathing grow shallow in his chest, and his body still. She’d watched him cycle through an idea from afar a dozen times on set when regarding a frame or an angle. Being this close, feeling his body coil, seeing his gaze intensify, embracing the power coursing through him was a singular sensation. One she would never forget.
His voice was husky when he asked, “What about your rules?”
It took her a moment to understand what he was talking about, wanting instead to lower her mouth and drink him down. “This would be one-and-done adjacent. I’ve never indulged in crazy monkey sex with a hot guy—“
“You think I’m hot?” His lip quirked.
“—in aid of the show.”
“A sacrifice for art.”
“Yes.” She was giddy with the idea, yet she told herself to slow down. One thing had to be made clear so they both knew what to expect. “Just until the end of the shoot. That’s the done part.”
She felt a small shock go through his body as he tensed again. Or was that her? She held her breath, waiting for his decision, suddenly so invested in the answer.
He kept quiet for a long time. Long enough she began to suspect he wanted to back out, and to suspect she’d been foolish for making the suggestion. Mortification seeped in, along with something like disappointment.
“Okay.”
She reared back, disbelieving. “Okay?”
He nodded slowly, his decision made, firm and unbreakable. “Okay.”
“Okay.” A rush of relief shot through her, as though she’d just avoided a terrible accident. A near miss with something she didn’t want to define. She imagined instead how exciting it would be to work with Jory the way she’d always wanted to, in tandem toward the greater goal of making an unforgettable show. While getting the fringe benefit of many large and intense orgasms that would be healthy for her blood pressure or her chi or whatever.
She could totally keep a wrap on this and figured Jory could too. He was so controlled, letting loose would be good for him. And she couldn’t wait to find ways to break through all that discipline just to see what would happen.
Jory raised a finger between them. “But once the shoot is over, so are we.”
“Absolutely.”
“And we keep it out of work. I don’t want a PA stumbling in and ratting us out. I can’t risk my reputation.”
“Definitely, we’ll keep it just at work.” Cali stopped herself and shook her head. “I mean, after work. After work.”
Jory nodded.
Cali nodded.
Then Jory stopped nodding. “And maybe at lunch.”