CHAPTER 28
Something was wrong with Samara, and she’d talked to Bryce instead of her about it.
Dana only knew that because she had tried to find Samara during the break and had watched her talking to Bryce.
She couldn’t hear much of what they’d been saying, and she had walked away pretty quickly, not wanting to get caught eavesdropping, but what she had heard was her name and sex.
Her eyes had shot wide open at that because either Samara had told Bryce about them or she’d been talking about their love scene and hadn’t used their characters’ names, which she likely would have done.
Dana had gone back inside, and a minute later, Samara and Bryce had walked in.
Samara had returned to her position sans robe, so Dana had done the same and waited for Reed to yell, ‘Action,’ after their intimacy coordinator had checked in and Samara had assured her that she’d been fine.
Samara was still tense under her touch, but a little better than before.
They didn’t have any lines for this part of the scene, so Dana pretended there was slow, sexy but not-too-sexy music playing over their lovemaking, something that had lyrics in it to inspire the audience to believe that these two characters were meant to be, and when Bray was supposed to stare down at Stella, Dana did and smiled warmly at Samara, knowing full well that it was her and not Stella that she was looking down at.
“And cut,” Reed said.
Having gotten the shot, Reed was ready to move on, but to do that, they needed to do a whole reset, which meant they had at least the next few hours off, and some PA would alert them when they were ready to pick back up again.
“Can we talk?” Dana asked when they had their robes on and were heading toward their trailers.
“You don’t want to get some sleep?” Samara asked.
“I’m okay,” she said.
Samara nodded. Her trailer was the closest to the set, so she let Dana inside and followed her in before she closed and locked the door behind them.
“My dinner will be later. Do you want a snack or something?” Samara asked. “Or do you want to go to the tent and get something for yourself right now?”
“If you need a snack, grab one, but I’m not hungry,” she replied, wanting to touch her.
“I’m okay,” Samara said this time.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes! Will you please stop asking me if I’m sure about everything?
It’s annoying. I know you’re trying to be nice, but it’s too much, Dana.
I’m sure about things. When I’m sure, I do them.
When I’m not, I wait until I am, or I just don’t do them.
It’s really not that complicated, okay?” Samara walked through the open door to her bedroom.
“Now, if you’re not hungry or tired, you can get in here and–”
“Fuck you?” Dana finished, following her inside.
“Do you not want to? I thought that was what–”
Dana closed the bedroom door behind her and leaned back against it. Samara was already sitting on the bed and had her sandals off. She was wearing a white cotton robe, a pair of barely-there bikinis, and a strapless bra that they had been able to hide under the blanket. Dana was wearing the same.
“You want me to just take what I want, right? Not ask if you’re sure?”
“Yes. It’s hotter that way,” Samara said. “And… Dana, I trust you. I don’t… think you’d do anything to hurt me. I’m not just talking about in bed, either.”
Dana smiled and kicked off her own flip-flops, leaving them by the door, before she took a few steps toward the bed.
“You were wrong,” she said, kneeling.
“What about?”
“I don’t want to fuck you, Samara,” she said, reaching for the belt holding Samara’s robe together.
“Then, why are you on your knees right now?”
Dana pulled on the belt, and the robe shifted a little but didn’t fall away like it would in a movie.
Dana reached for it and slowly pushed at the sides, revealing skin that she kissed spot by spot as her arms slid inside the robe and around Samara’s back.
Samara spread her legs for her, letting Dana get closer, and it took a few minutes, but finally, Samara’s hands went to Dana’s back, sliding under the robe from the top as Dana continued to kiss her skin.
When Samara pushed her own robe off and down to her sides, Dana stood up.
Samara looked up at her, her eyes questioning what was happening, so Dana looked down at the belt on her own robe.
Samara’s eyes followed. Then, her hands reached for it and pulled until the robe hung off Dana’s body.
Dana didn’t move. She needed Samara to do this next part.
If she just took Dana’s robe off, it would tell her that Samara only wanted sex.
If Samara stood and kissed her skin in the same way Dana had just done for her, it would tell her that Samara understood that they were making love.
Samara chose to stand up, and Dana let out a breath.
Samara reached for the robe at her collarbones and lowered it, letting it drop to the floor as she took in Dana’s body, her eyes raking up and down before a hand went to Dana’s breast over the bra, and her other hand moved around Dana’s neck.
Samara pressed herself almost fully against Dana then and kissed her neck.
Her kisses weren’t fast, hard, or heated.
They were soft, sometimes barely there, and her lips skated over Dana’s skin, causing goosebumps to develop in their wake.
Dana’s hands rested on Samara’s hips. She wasn’t making any moves to touch or have anything that would get either of them to take this faster.
She just caressed and massaged and carefully placed kisses on Samara’s shoulder, silently telling her that this was what she wanted; this was what they needed right now: to understand that yes, they could have sex, and Dana could fuck her against any and every surface that Samara wanted, loving every second of it, but they could also have this.
When Samara walked behind her and continued kissing Dana’s back, she knew that Samara was in this just as much as she was now.
Her fingers worked at the clasp of the strapless bra, and it fell away.
Dana only realized that Samara’s bra was gone, too, when Samara’s front pressed to her back, and she felt her breasts and hard nipples against her shoulder blades.
Dana gasped. Samara’s hands moved around until they were massaging both of Dana’s breasts.
Dana had a hand around the back of Samara’s neck, encouraging her to continue kissing her neck while she played with Dana’s nipples, bringing them to peaks and then softly stroking them to relax them once more.
“God, I love your body,” Samara said on a gasp of her own, speaking the first words either of them had said in several minutes. “I never want to stop touching it.”
Dana smiled. This was the real Samara now. She knew it. They hadn’t talked like this before, but this was Samara being honest with her, being vulnerable again, and taking what she wanted, which was, apparently and thankfully, Dana.
“Your breasts are perfect,” Samara added. “I just want to keep touching them like this.”
“You can, you know?”
“But I want to touch you everywhere else, too,” Samara replied. “Everywhere, Dana.”
“We have time. Hours of it. And there’s always after that, too.”
“Is that what you want?” Samara asked, lowering a hand to Dana’s stomach before she sucked on Dana’s earlobe for a second. “Time?”
“I want you,” Dana said. “Slowly.”
“And I want you,” Samara said. Then, her hands stilled on Dana’s body, and the spell that had held them in place was broken. “But first, what are we doing, exactly?”
“We’re about to make love. Well, we were about to make love, at least.”
“No, we still are,” Samara said and moved back around to face her. “But I mean, what are we doing?”
“Go on a real date with me, Sam,” she replied.
“We can pretend it’s just two really good friends hanging out to everyone else, but to you and me, it’s a date.
” She moved into Samara and reached for the hem of her flesh-colored panties.
“I want to date you, Samara. And to be clear, I don’t want to date anyone else. ”
“Not even Kathy?”
Samara lifted an eyebrow at her.
Dana laughed and tugged at the fabric until she was on her knees in front of Samara, pulling the panties off her and tossing them onto the floor. She kissed Samara’s thighs and stomach on the way back up and gave Samara’s thigh a light tap when she stood fully.
“Not even Kathy, baby. Just you,” she said.
Samara took the hint and moved to lie back on the bed.
“I’m a lot, Dana. And I don’t know what I can actually give you. I’m not out, and I hadn’t planned on coming out right away. I still have to go shoot in Vancouver and talk to my publicist about the plan and if it’s even worth it to tell people right now. I–”
“It’s worth it,” Dana interrupted as she slid on top of her after removing her own panties.
“It’s worth it for you, babe. It’s not about them.
It’s not about the rest of the world knowing.
It’s worth it because you want to be yourself.
You want to be able to go outside and hold someone’s hand, and if that hand happens to belong to a woman, you don’t want to have to worry about some idiot taking and posting a picture online because it’s not news.
It’s just you being you, and you’ve already told people who you are. ”
“Who am I, though?” Samara asked, wrapping her arms around Dana.
“A woman who has OCD and is autistic? A woman who has a bad reputation on set for being difficult because she doesn’t want people to know those things?
A woman who has figured out that she likes women, too, a little later than some and is scared that it could impact the career she’s had since she was eight years old?
A woman whose mother’s death was front-page tabloid fodder that she still hasn’t dealt with properly?
A woman who–” Samara stopped and cupped Dana’s cheek.
“Came to New Orleans because she hoped she might win an award and get some credit for playing gay, as you put it, and ended up meeting a woman who makes her feel so… safe and… that it’s okay to be herself? ”
“Yes,” Dana said. “To all of those things.” She kissed her sweetly.
“And all of those things are okay, Samara. All of those things are part of who you are. They help make up the whole, but you’re more than all of them, too.
No matter what happens between us, you need to know that the only thing that matters is that you are happy with who you are. Screw everyone else.”
“This is going to get more complicated before it gets easier, Dana. I can’t promise you anything, really.”
“Do you like me? And I’m not asking if you like sleeping with me. Do you like me? Do you want this to be more than just sex? When I touch you, can it just be softly and slowly because I can’t not be touching you?”
Samara nodded.
“Then, we’ll be okay. Just agree to go on a date with me already.”
Samara laughed and said, “Yes, let’s go out on a date.”
“And you should know that I won’t hold your hand or try to kiss you because we’ll be in public, but I’ll want to.
” Dana smiled down at her. “I’ll want to wrap my arms around you and pull you in close.
” She lowered her hips until she was settled between Samara’s thighs.
“I’ll want to lean over and kiss your temple.
” She rolled into Samara. “Your cheek.” She rolled again. “Your lips.”
“God,” Samara let out. “This is hot.”
“I’ll want to hold your hand and put mine on your thigh when we sit down.” Dana rolled again. “And I’ll really want to slide it up and cup you over your clothes, hinting at what I’d want later.”
“What would you want?” Samara asked.
Dana lowered her lips to hover above Samara’s and replied, “Everything.”
◆◆◆
“Okay. Are we ready?” Reed asked.
“Yes, we’re ready,” Samara said.
Dana was on top of her again, and they had their flesh-toned garments covering all the spots they had spent hours caressing, licking, and sucking before.
Dana smiled down at her and knew that Samara was ready this time.
In fact, Dana was supposed to start with the kiss, but Samara leaned up and captured Dana’s lips first.
“Um… Ladies, I haven’t said action yet,” Reed noted.
“Oh, sorry,” Samara replied, laughing a little.
“And we need the continuity there, Stella, so let Bray take the lead, okay?”
“Yeah, let Bray take the lead,” Dana teased her.
“Shut up,” Samara said and laughed. “I’m ready. Sorry.”
“Here we go.” Reed yelled her usual cadence and then said, “Action.”
Dana rubbed her nose against Samara’s to get her to lift her head a bit so that their lips could meet.
They kissed, and Samara’s hands roamed her back freely now.
Samara’s hips even lifted slightly, which made Dana want to smirk, but she held it in, not wanting to ruin the shot.
When it was time for Dana to move her lips to Samara’s neck, she was surprised to feel Samara’s hand on her ass, cupping it and pressing it down a little.
“Babe?” she whispered softly into Samara’s ear as she kissed her neck.
“Can you move your head a little, Dana?” Reed asked. “Samara, push her hair out of the way while she kisses you so that we can get more of her face.”
That took them both out of the moment, and Samara’s hand moved back to Dana’s hip and stayed there.
Every so often, though, she would give Dana a little squeeze, and Dana knew that was Samara, not Stella.
She knew Samara was telling her that she was okay now, not just pretending to get the job done.
“And cut,” Reed said.
After hours of making out, which wasn’t a problem for Dana in the slightest, they had gotten this part of the scene and had been released to get some sleep.
“Hey, when do you want to… do that thing we talked about?” Samara asked while on their way to their trailers.
“Yeah?” Dana checked, excited. “Right now,” she added with a wink.
“Now? It’s three in the morning.”
“So? It’s New Orleans,” Dana replied with a smile.