Chapter 42 Callisto
Chapter forty-two
Callisto
Red’s words ring in my ears as we climb into the car where the chain of scenes starts. Sweat builds on my palms as the film team adjusts the lighting, hiding half my face in shadow. The angles from here on out can’t show a full view of my face since I’m filling in for their arrested actor.
I’m glad the fucker got caught. I already reached out to the OCB legal team to give suggestions on the case to ensure the charges stick, so the slimy bastard can’t weasel out of them.
But I’m also thrilled his arrest means I can sit here next to this beautiful omega.
I couldn’t care less about acting, but answering her shy plea for help?
Well, that’s worth more than all the career acclaim.
This feels like a precious second chance with the woman I should’ve claimed when I first laid eyes on her.
“Remember to call me Ashana from here out,” Red murmurs as the staff call the okay on the lighting check.
“All right, Ashana,” I say.
She grins. Even with a bandage on her forehead and baggy clothes, she’s stunning. The makeup gives her a sweet but tired look that tugs on my heartstrings.
“Nervous?” she asks.
“No,” I answer honestly. “I know I’m in expert hands with you.”
She throws me an exasperated look, but her dark lips twitch with humor. I’ve kissed Red a few times in my life, but this feels like it’s about to be the sweetest. Not because of any external pressure, or even our alpha-omega natures. This time, it’s born of trust, and that makes my heart sing.
“Quiet on set!” the intimacy director calls. “Sound?”
The sound technician flashes a thumbs up. “Okay, roll sound!” Cameras get the same check, and then it’s our turn.
“Actors?”
Red and I both call out that we’re ready.
“Let’s keep it loose and warm. Doesn’t matter if we don’t get it on the first try.” The woman’s advice encourages me, but honestly, I just want to please Red.
“Roll camera!”
An assistant reads out the scene and take number and claps the movie marker, and then the intimacy director’s voice floats into the car. “We’re rolling! And . . . action!”
Nerves jump in my belly now that we’re starting. I lean forward and turn the car off, since according to the scene I just drove Ashana home from the hospital after her fall at the starting gates. She releases her seatbelt, the retraction motor noisy in the silence.
I swivel in the seat, turning to look at my passenger. “You know, you really gave me a fright today.” Not today, but all the days when she went into heat, disappeared, traveled alone, or testified.
Red—Ashana—tosses me a lopsided smile. “Hey, I even scared myself a little. I imagined getting my head crushed among those hooves.”
My heartbeat flutters. I’ve already faced losing my omega too many times, so I know how the character feels.
“I couldn’t bear losing you,” I say, a little breathless.
Reaching out, I cup her smooth cheek, and she stares up at me like I’m the only man in the world, lips parting.
Unable to help myself, I lean over and draw her face to mine.
Our lips touch with the faintest of hesitations, me giving her the chance to pull away.
I won’t ever try to force her choices again.
Red leans in, fragile but certain. She wants me. Subtly, she tilts my head to the correct angle but I barely notice because I’m lost in her kiss. Our lips slant together, hungry but gentle, like this is their most natural position in the world.
Her breathing quivers, dusting my cheeks with her desire. I deepen the kiss, knowing I only have a moment and not wanting to waste it. The omega sighs as she pulls back, deeply satisfied. I stroke her cheek with my thumb and then release her.
The omega nods as if confirming something to herself and rests her hand on the door latch. “Um . . . thanks for the lift home.”
“Any time,” I say, voice straining at the realization she’s leaving. The kiss wasn’t enough.
Her body rocks forward, and her fingers twitch, half-opening the handle. Suddenly she stops and looks back over her shoulder. “Want to come inside?”
My heart leaps. “A-absolutely.” Fuck, I stuttered, but even if I ruined the scene, I can’t look away from her. I swallow hard, the excitement gathering in my throat.
Her face softens with amusement. “Well, you’ll have to get out of the car then.”
Shit. Heat floods up my neck, and I throw my door open. How could I get carried away so much that I forgot my actions?
“Cut!” the director calls, shaking me loose from my daze.
Red smirks at me over the car roof.
The intimacy director runs a hand through her silver hair. “Okay, wow. That—”
I grimace. “Sorry. I stuffed my lines.”
She shakes her head. “Actually, that was super cute, and your chemistry is off the charts.” She hums and leans in to rewatch the scene on the screen. “I’m going to shoot this off to Valencio and see if he likes the ad-libbing.”
“I liked it,” Red says, her grin blazing white in the shadows.
The director clicks her fingers. “Okay, let’s reset for take two.”
I slide back into the car, heat lingering in my cheeks.
Red opens the door and sticks a long leg in, her pants molding around her ass as she sits.
Damn, she’s beautiful. I drag my eyes away, rich emotions splashing through me.
In the shadows surrounded by cameras, everything melts with blazing clarity.
I love this woman.
So much I’d die for her. I’d spend the rest of my life walking the globe to find a pretty rock she wanted or work my ass off to give her the world. I’d stay home and change nappies forever so she could go back to work. Anything she wanted, I’d do.
I’ve drowned in the depths of her soul, and I couldn’t be happier. No legacy, bank account, or public accolade could ever measure up to her smile.
Red purses her lips, studying me. “What’s that look for?”
“I was just thinking I hope we have to do this scene a thousand times over.”
Her laugh echoes through the set; a beautiful sound I want to hear forever.
Despite my wishes, we only do five more takes, three of them with my ‘mistake’ repeated. They seem to like the stunned, vulnerable side of an alpha. The intimacy coordinator asks if we want to take a break, but since my lips are swollen and my breathing fast, I want to keep going.
Red feels so good in my arms that everything else fades away as we kiss again inside Ashana’s front door. I lift her sweater over her head, revealing sticky bandages covering her ribs. Wounded, like the day the OCB rescued her from the traffickers or when she protected Rickon from his ex-boyfriend.
I graze my fingers lightly over the white bandages and then onto her brown body. Her skin flutters under my touch, and her breath catches. I hook her around the waist and tug her into me, bodies crushed together as I kiss her soundly. Her sweet macadamia scent floods the room.
Everything between us comes to the boil.
All the waiting and longing, all the faltering trust and disappointment.
I pick up my omega, and she wraps her legs around me as I carry her up squeaking wooden stairs to her loft bedroom.
Vaguely, I’m aware of boxy cameras moving with us on dollys and cranes, but nothing matters other than the perfuming omega in my arms.
I breathe her in and drown in her luminous blue-gray eyes.
Gently I lay her down on the bed, and she keeps her arms latched around my neck.
I helped her through her heat before, but this is far different.
Now we watch each other with drunk gazes, noticing every sensitive spot as we explore the smooth valleys in our bodies.
She unbuttons my shirt with quivery hands, and I tear it off my shoulders, tossing the material roughly aside.
Shoes and pants come off next, followed by her bra.
With slow, reverent moves, I slide my fingers under her briefs and draw them along her tan thighs.
“I’ve wanted you for so long, Ashana,” I breathe out, pressing kisses to her collarbone. The scars are gone, covered with makeup, but I feel the roughness beneath my lips. She digs her fingers into my hair, and we say our lines as I strip my jocks, but our eyes whisper the truths.
We’re not acting.
My cock hardens inside its sock covering as I lower myself on top of her and wind our fingers together.
She reaches up with her free hand to catch my cheek. “Mine,” she says, voice full of primal need, just like someone else we know.
I thrust, and she gasps, head tilting back. Her body reacts to mine so honestly. My omega wants me. My sock soaks in the hot slick pouring around her tiny stick-on panties as I thrust my cock through her thighs. She quivers, leg lifting, fingers curling tighter around mine.
I might lose my mind. Might combust from the heat pouring off her and the answering fire burning in my soul. I thrust again and feel her liner slip.
“Ashana!” I cry, voice breaking with a partial alpha growl.
Gasping, she locks her hands around my neck. “More, alpha.”
Someone calls cut, but Rickon’s voice silences them, and his words float through the set just for me. “Go on.” He’s got the link to her bond. He knows what Red wants.
I thrust harder, my covered dick sliding through her swollen pussy lips.
Every touch feels like heaven. With one hand, I hold her thigh up, locking it to my hip as I grind into her.
She moans, writhing, our hands joined so tightly we might break our knuckles.
I rise on my toes, hundreds of push-ups paying out for this very moment, and drag my cock over her entrance over and over until she’s mewling with need.
She liked my fist once, so I don’t hold back with the force of our bodies slamming together.
It doesn’t matter if “James” falls from her lips because I know she means me. Me, Callisto Wren, her alpha. Her hand tightens around my neck, and her scent shatters as I bring her pleasure; my cock not quite lodged inside her, but close enough to be a promise of more to come.
And I break open, burning up from the inside as my orgasm explodes, full of honeyed macadamias and forests, and hope.
Cum slides down her thighs as I lean over my omega, gasping for breath.
She’s amazing. She lies in a sexy sprawl, damp with sweat and chest heaving for breath. Not once did she break character, but neither did she feel like anyone but herself.
I arch, pressing our foreheads together and mingling our breaths for a moment before collapsing beside her and pulling her into my arms. Our breathing syncs and slows.
James, her alpha, will leave to go overseas. Their relationship isn’t quite ready to blossom into more. Yet. Just like the one missing step that exists in our life.
Gently I press a kiss into her hair. “I got invited to go to the Macgerie Stables.” I don’t have Zack’s approval. “Overseas.”
She strokes my arm wrapped around my waist. “I know.” He’s changing.
My jaw works as I process. “I could be gone a long time.” We don’t know if he’ll accept me.
“I know that too, but I’ll still be here.” I believe in you. We have all the time in the world. Her old reservations are gone.
Fighting tears, I duck my head and kiss her shoulder. This is not the end; it’s the beginning of trust. Tomorrow I’ll win Zack’s appeal and get her pack alpha home. And after that, well, the rest is up to Zack.
Despite my best efforts, a single tear leaks from under my lashes.
“Cut.”