Chapter 6 - Sunshine
Chapter six
Okay. Okay. This is fine. My eyes leave the script that Blanche gave me yesterday to flick for the hundredth time up to my Henry, who’s currently sitting shirtless on the couch.
I was already asleep whenever he came back last night, and I woke up well before him this morning.
Sasha rises to stretch and then heads toward the bathroom, and I’m unable to keep myself from ogling his tattooed back as he passes my barstool perch.
He hasn’t said much to me today, and I cringe thinking about how hard I tried to interact with him this morning.
Feeling more human after my first cup of tea, I smash my avocado onto my toast and bravely join my silent roommate on the couch. Which, unfortunately, awkwardly doubles as his bed, since there’s only one bedroom in the cottage.
“I’m sorry that you had to sleep out here last night,” I say as he scrolls on his phone. “We can swap rooms every night? Or every week…whatever works for you.”
I pause to eat a few bites of toast, but other than a glance, I don’t get anything from him. Okay. I get it. He probably didn’t sleep well on the couch.
“Did you already know the Sinclairs before you auditioned? Are you from around here?”
I refuse to say anything else until he does. Just sit with the silence, Lucy. Make him talk. I finish my toast before the quiet is too much.
“Well, we have our first scene in a few hours, right?” I ask, and this finally seems to get his attention. Slowly raising his head from his phone, he sighs and looks at me for the first time this morning.
“Yeah,” he says, reaching forward for his script packet on the living room table and starting at the beginning.
I left him alone after that since he had so much reading to do before our scene, but he apparently sped through it, and by the time I got out of the shower, he was doing shirtless push-ups in the living room.
After he finished those and a set of crunches, he turned the TV on to a sports talk show that he watched until he got up to shower.
Finally finishing my packet, I try to ignore the niggling doubts I’m having about portraying a young, vivacious Blanche.
I’m sure once we start, all my acting lessons will come back like riding a bike, even if I stopped well before anything as salacious as Blanche is trying to portray.
Worst-case scenario, she hates me, and I’m no worse off than when I arrived here.
Best-case scenario, I have a free, safe place to live and a chance to hopefully learn more about my dad.
Blanche is paying me well, and even if Sasha doesn’t want to talk to me, he’s still nice enough to give me the bed.
Plus, I can still watch him walk around shirtless.
Like right now.
He exits the bathroom, his usual short brown curls dark and wet.
The towel slung over his hips is low enough to see the cut lines framing a smattering of hair in a trail that thickens the lower I look.
He’s lean but muscular. Defined but not bulky in the way that the blond surfer dudes I knew from home always were.
It’s as if he’s strong and stays fit but doesn’t do anything unnatural to enhance himself.
He shaved the light stubble that I noticed this morning to be a clean-shaven Henry for our scene today, and I’m still looking at his scattered tattoos when I realize I’m being a total creep.
That’ll definitely make him talk to you, Lucy. Stare long enough, and you’ll get to have a great conversation with him as he has you served with a restraining order.
As he gathers his clothes and goes back into the bathroom to change, I give myself a little slap and remind myself I’m here as a professional. It’s time to get ready to meet Blanche for hair and makeup, and to get this show on the road. I’m sure today will go smoothly.
“Cut! Everyone take fifteen and come back ready for the bathroom scene!” Blanche says, clapping her hands together and briefly eyeing me before moving to speak to the lighting crew.
Thank God for this break. If I thought my acting skills were just going to pop back up, long hidden but Oscar-worthy, I was sorely mistaken.
Things aren’t going bad, per se. But being here in this pencil skirt and silk blouse, under all the lights…
I’m sweating in a way I know Blanche never did.
I think I’m holding my own, but it’s hard to tell because Sasha is intense in a way I wasn’t expecting.
When he speed-read his script earlier today, I thought it meant he wasn’t really serious about this.
Or maybe he assumed he knew Blanche well enough that his performance wouldn’t really matter.
In reality, it seems he just reads freakishly quickly, and he is, in fact, a talented actor.
His ability to give me heated looks despite having zero interest is commendable, and he’s able to portray Henry’s desire in a way that’s palpable.
The boardroom scene was tense, with every line building to the confrontation about to take place in the bathroom.
I brace myself as Blanche approaches to debrief, happy that I have an excuse to close my eyes while the makeup crew tries to powder away some of my sheen.
“Darling, you are simply marvelous,” she begins. Okay, that’s nice. I hope she means it. “You are embodying the overwhelming lust I felt for my Henry while being confused about what exactly he had planned for me.”
Okay. So, I’m not acting so much as just reacting to my actual feelings about my situation and my super-hot costar. Great.
“Thank you,” I say quietly, unsure of how much of my nervousness I should divulge to my boss. “Any advice for the bathroom scene?”
She laughs and pats my knee. “Just go with the flow! You and Sasha have chemistry for days, and I think it’ll sizzle all on its own without forcing it.
I’ve already told him this, but if you’re on a roll, don’t stop the scene.
Missed lines, improvisation, whatever it is.
If you’re feeling the power of the moment, just let it happen.
We can always re-shoot or do another take, but we can’t capture lightning in a bottle once it’s gone! ”
Well, then. Go with the flow, it is.
“Get out of here! You cannot just behave like a possessive Neanderthal in front of the entire board, then follow me into the bathroom like this!” I hiss, backing into the bathroom of the boardroom until I feel my ass stopped by the sink.
Sasha looks at me like I’m about to be his dessert, cocking his head to one side and appraising me from head to toe before smirking. Reaching behind him with one hand, he deftly locks the door. I gulp at the lock clicking into place, knowing there’s nowhere to run now.
“Can I not? Is it not my company? Is it not my board? Is that not my delectable ass that you chose to flaunt today by wearing that slutty pencil skirt?”
Okay, that wasn’t exactly like the script, but we’re rolling with the vibes, I guess. It is a slutty skirt, probably because my ass is bigger than Blanche’s. At least he noticed.
He places his hands on my hips, squeezing hard and pressing into me so that I feel every inch of his body on mine. I’m forced to lean back over the sink as he crowds me until we’re nose to nose. I take a shaky breath as I feel his hardening length pressing into me before he whispers darkly.
“Take. It. Off. If you wanted me to see you so badly. Show me.”
Finally, he moves back, giving me space for only a second before spinning me so that we’re both facing the mirror over the sink. He looms over me, hair having grown more disheveled in the boardroom earlier and eyes hungrily roaming over my chest to my waist.
“Strip. Or I’ll do it for you, and you’ll have to walk out of here in tatters.”
I meet his gaze in the mirror and find no hint of a tease. He means it.
With a thick swallow, I realize my mouth is dry. I hope he doesn’t try to kiss me. It’s not written into the scene, but there’s no way my breath smells good right now.
A tug at the base of my hair brings me back to the present. He’s managed to twist my hair around his hand and hold it tightly at the back of my neck. Bending his head down just a bit, he whispers, too low for the mics to hear.
“Strip, Sunshine.”
I move as he straightens back up, slowly and robotically undoing the first three buttons of my shirt and enjoying the sharpness of his gaze as he sees the first bit of black lace under my clothes. His fully hard length brushes my ass, and I feel empowered. I can do this. I’m sexy. I am Blanche.
I lick my bottom lip and catch it with my teeth, drawing his attention briefly as I pull my shirt free of my skirt and shimmy it off my shoulders.
I pause, wondering if he wants to peruse my upper half before seeing all of me, but a curt nod of his head has me pulling the zipper of my skirt down too.
As it pools around my heels, I hear his sharp intake of breath.
Maybe he didn’t realize exactly what was under the skirt.
He lets go of my hair, and his warm hands find their way around my waist. I watch as my breasts rise and fall in the mirror.
He steps flush behind me, and I feel his hard dick nestled in the seam of my ass.
One hand splays across my lower belly, and I resist the urge to suck in.
His dick tells me he doesn’t have a problem with what he sees or feels.
His other hand roams up between my breasts, dancing across my collarbone before settling around my neck.
His eyes flit around me like he can’t see enough at once.
“Look at you,” he coos in my ear. “You came to work today in a bustier and garter belt? Now I know you’re up to no good. Don’t even try to deny it. Nobody but a whore would come in here dressed like this.”
His fingertips dance, one hand still roaming across the swells of my breasts, down my ticklish sides, across my outer thigh, and back across my ass cheek. The other holds me tightly against him, still across my lower stomach, and his pinky finger begins to dip underneath the band of my thong.
“I think,” he whispers hotly into my ear, “that you wanted to wear this to work today so your boss would fuck you. Like I fuck all my secretaries. Isn’t that what you accused me of earlier, Blanche?
You love to run your mouth…I prefer when it’s too full to talk.
That’s certainly when you’re the most useful. ”
Fuck. I had no idea I would react to degradation like this.
Blanche had individually spoken to us about her dynamic with her husband, and while I respect everyone’s own tastes, I didn’t think I could relate.
Clearly, I was wrong. I can feel the tiny scrap of fabric covering my modesty dampen, and between that and the sweat from earlier, there’s no way I don’t smell like a hot, horny ho right now.
He jerks me from my thoughts with a swift kick to the inside of each of my feet, spreading my legs and forcing me to lean over the sink for balance.
“Eyes up. Look at yourself.”
I focus on my blown pupils, parted lips, flushed chest…I look debauched. I look sexy.
His hands are both exploring now, teasing brushes mixed in with handfuls of flesh he can’t seem to stop grabbing.
My legs shake as he makes his way up the inside of one thigh, so close to where I need him before detouring away from anywhere I’ll find relief.
A whine escapes before I can swallow it, and he chuckles.
“Do you want something, slut? I haven’t done anything but touch you, and you’re whining for me? Just a little something across your clit? Or are you whining for something to fill up that dripping pussy?”
I’m still leaning over the sink when he presses back into me, his dick so close to rubbing where I need relief. If his stupid pants weren’t in the way…
“What a gorgeous thing you are. Coming to work for me, getting in my way, making my days nothing but you. This soft skin, those beautiful eyes. I could spend every day of my life re-counting the freckles across your nose.”
His breathing is faster now too, lips so close to being on my skin as he breathes into my neck.
“You make it impossible to get any work done, and for what? So you can drag me into the water like the siren that you are?” I arch back into him, unable to help the way his words affect me.
“You’re nowhere near desperate enough for me to touch you again. The next time I take you, you’ll be crying and begging before I give you this cock,” he says, before lowering his voice below the threshold for the mics again.
“You’re going to beg for it, Sunshine. Just wait.”
Then he’s gone like a flash. Blanche has yelled cut, and I’m being handed a robe and a bottle of water. Before I can say anything, he’s out the door, and Blanche watches him leave before clapping and addressing the entire crew.
“Absolutely wonderful, dears! I have a quick call to make, and then we all need to discuss our plans for tomorrow. But I’m so impressed, truly. What a first day. Thank you all!”
While everyone disperses to get to work flipping the set, Blanche makes her way to me. I wait to be chastised, told to keep my emotions in check and stay professional. Instead, she pulls me with her to walk toward her office, stopping just outside the door and putting a hand on my shoulder.
“You’re doing great, darling. That’s exactly how my Henry made me feel. These men, phew! They are something, aren’t they?”
I blink at her as she squeezes my shoulder and turns to enter her office before calling out as she walks away,
“Wait until you see his dick!”