Open Invitation

by Tiffany White

  “WHERE IS HE?” Noah demanded as he came striding into the studio where Amanda and Toby were waiting to tape the theme show.

  Looking to Toby, he asked, “Did you hear from him?”

  Toby shook his head and looked down to study the schedule in his hand.

  “Amanda?”

  “No, Noah. I haven’t heard from Kyle since we finished blocking out the show last night on the telephone.” She hadn’t seen him since he’d kissed her senseless. It was her opinion that Kyle was being late deliberately to rattle her. He knew she was nervous about doing the show unscripted. It would be just like him to stroll in one second before they were scheduled to begin taping.

  Noah popped an antacid tablet into his mouth. He began chewing, his eyes on the clock. His threat when it came was the idle one of a fond parent. “So help me, if he doesn’t show up on time, I’m going to have you do the show with Toby here.”

  Toby dropped the papers he was shuffling.

  At that auspicious moment, Kyle came rushing in looking as though he’d been hit by a truck. There was no blood, but his usually immaculate appearance was replaced by the look of an unmade bed.

  “Good Lord, boy, what happened to you?” Noah asked, then before giving Kyle a chance to reply, bellowed, “Makeup!”

  Kyle had just finished tucking in his shirttail when the hair and makeup artist appeared with a portable tray. She began flitting around Kyle, getting him ready for the air, while he began an excited, animated recital of his reason for being late and looking a wreck.

  “Man, Noah, I thought for a minute there I was going to have to deliver a baby all by myself,” he said, his color still on the chalky side.

  “A baby,” everyone chorused, forgetting they were angry with him.

  “Yeah. I started into the station a little early since I knew Amanda was a bit nervous about doing the show unscripted. I had just gotten onto the highway when I saw this lady pulled onto the shoulder. I could see she had a flat tire, so I got out to change it for her. I didn’t think anything of it when she didn’t get out of the car—just figured she was leery of strange men. When I got the tire changed, I went to tell her she could drive, and that’s when I found out she was in labor,” he explained.

  Amanda noted that Kyle’s color was returning as he told of the events, even as Toby was growing paler.

  Noah chuckled. “So what’d you do—faint to get out of delivering the baby?”

  “Nope,” Kyle answered, shaking his head. “I got real lucky. A state patrolman stopped and took over. First time in my life I was ever happy to see the law.”

  He flashed Amanda a grin and mopped his brow comically.

  Amanda couldn’t help laughing. She bet he was perfectly precious trying to help the pregnant lady. It was a sight she would have dearly loved to have witnessed. She shook off a pang of guilt for suspecting Kyle of deliberately being late to sabotage her performance. Still, she couldn’t help being pleased that now she wasn’t the only one who was a little bit flustered.

  “Speaking of birthing babies,” Noah said, looking down at his watch, “let’s see if we can’t get this theme show in the can. My stomach will rest a lot easier when I see that this unscripted idea of Kyle’s actually works.”

  The makeup artist finished up with Kyle and dabbed a quick sponge to Amanda’s nose and forehead before leaving.

  Toby and Noah consulted the schedule while Kyle and Amanda took their places in front of the camera. When they were ready, Toby rechecked to make sure the film clips were in order.

  Noah signaled that they were on.

  “Tonight’s special theme show is called ‘Love Scenes,’” Kyle began. “My cohost, Amanda Butterworth, and I are going to explore intimacy—” he paused and gave Amanda a racy look “—in the movies.”

  “That’s right, Kyle.” Amanda said, swallowing dryly. “It should be interesting to see the differences and parallels in male and female opinion on what constitutes intimacy.” Kyle’s racy look had brought his racy kiss swimming to the surface of her mind, and she’d only just managed to get her line out.

  Amanda’s film clip was the first one up. When it was finished, she turned to the camera. “That, of course, was the first illicit kiss between Zhivago and Lara in Doctor Zhivago, a movie famous for showing the obsessiveness of falling in love. How it feels when you can’t eat, sleep or think of anyone but the love object. In the movie, Zhivago is compelled beyond reason by his love for Lara,” Amanda began.

  “You’ve got to be kidding. You picked a musical?” Kyle interrupted.

  Amanda turned to Kyle with a pained expression. With obvious patience, she explained, “Doctor Zhivago was not a musical.”

  “Of course it was,” he argued. “Every time Zhivago looked at Lara he’d hear that sappy da-da-da-da.” Kyle’s innocent smile was anything but. It telegraphed that he had no intention of behaving himself.

  She decided to challenge him rather than further defend her clip. “Okay, then let’s see what car chase you found so intimate.”

  “Now, now…don’t get tetchy. I picked one I know you’ll love. Y’all prepare to swoon now, y’hear?” he teased broadly.

  Rhett Butler appeared on the screen in all his roguish charm, sweeping Scarlett up the grand staircase to the bedroom.

  The lights came up again. “Didn’t I tell you? Isn’t that every female’s dream—to be swept off her feet by a handsome hero?” Kyle said smugly.

  Amanda’s pained expression returned. No way was she going to give him his due. “In case you haven’t noticed in between watching macho beer commercials,” she said with saccharine sweetness, “two things have gone out of fashion since the Civil War—slavery and male dominance.”

  “What!”

  “You heard me. That scene you find so all-fired romantic has nothing to do with intimacy. What it has to do with is a man using superior physical strength against a woman.”

  “Give me a break.” Kyle sighed.

  “No. What I’ll give you is a true example of intimacy between a man and a woman,” Amanda said, nodding to Toby to put up her next film clip.

  It was the chess scene from The Thomas Crown Affair. They were both lulled into the atmosphere of the film clip, vicariously experiencing the sexual chemistry crackling on-screen between McQueen and Dunaway. Kyle cleared his throat when the film clip was over and muttered, “Talk about not playing fair.”

  Amanda ignored his comment. “If you noticed, Kyle, no one was coerced in that scene. When the kiss came, it was something they both wanted with equal desperation.”

  “Agreed, but the woman in that scene was an honest woman willing to acknowledge she wanted the man, willing to take the risk of being openly seductive, unlike Scarlett O’Hara.”

  “Scarlett lived in a different time,” Amanda said by way of defending her.

  “And so did Rhett,” Kyle retorted, scoring his point, as well. He nodded to Toby to bring up his next film clip.

  The beach scene in the movie From Here to Eternity flashed on the screen. Amanda and Kyle each had a little trouble sitting still as they watched the two lovers on-screen roll in a passionate clinch half-clothed, half in and half out of the water on the sandy beach.

  When the lights came back up, Amanda looked over at Kyle nervously.

  His shrug was elegant as he faced the camera unabashed. “A little sand, a little water, a whole lot of heat… What can I say?”

  Amanda didn’t…couldn’t say anything. Her breath was still caught in her throat.

  “Your turn,” Kyle said, leaning back in his seat and daring her to top his clip.

  Amanda nodded to Toby to bring up her next clip. It was really not one but two clips from the same movie. First up was the grand sweep of the coastline and an old priest warning the young woman married to the older man to be careful what she wished for. It was immediately followed by another clip showing what she wished for getting off the stagecoach as the camer
a panned lovingly up the tall black boots of the young, virile army officer.

  “Sometimes,” Amanda said when the lights came up, “intimacy and the temptation of the forbidden are one and the same.”

  “I’m amazed!” Kyle burst out in surprise.

  “Amazed…?” Amanda asked hesitantly, wary of where Kyle was leading her, as it was usually down the garden path.

  This time he was being serious, though. “Ryan’s Daughter? A movie with one of the most visually beautiful love scenes ever filmed, and you didn’t pick that clip to show. Why?” he asked with real curiosity, intrigue even.

  Amanda’s answer was quiet but filled with conviction. “Yes, I agree the love scene in Ryan’s Daughter was beautiful. But the real intimacy in this movie is in the clips I chose. They dealt with a woman making a choice based on desire. Of course, because of the time period, she was punished. But now, in modern times, we are dealing with women able to financially take care of themselves. Women are now choosing partners for the same reasons men always have… desire and physical beauty. And we’re making some of the same mistakes.”

  “What’s wrong with choosing a partner based on desire and beauty?” Kyle objected.

  “Nothing. As long as it’s not the only basis. There has to be more for true intimacy, don’t you agree?”

  She could see he hadn’t been ready for her question.

  “Uh…well, yes…of course.”

  “I believe it’s your turn,” she said, tucking a loose tendril behind her ear as he stared at her.

  “My turn. Uh, yeah, right.” He nodded to Toby.

  A New Orleans accent whispered from the screen as one of the hottest young movie actors worked magic beneath the hiked skirt of an equally sexy young actress.

  Amanda moaned inwardly, squirming in her chair.

  She looked up to catch Kyle watching her. He mouthed the words “Hot stuff, huh?” and winked. He couldn’t have caught her more off guard if he’d slid his own hand under her skirt.

  The movie he’d chosen was her favorite of the more recent movie releases. Every time the sexy actor used a Cajun endearment, she melted. The movie oozed sexuality, and the chemistry between the costars burned up the screen. Kyle was right. That love scene was hot stuff, indeed.

  She glanced back at him. He was still watching her, the thoughts behind his blue eyes scorching the air between them. Him and his unscripted, unprincipled ideas!

  Murder, she thought. Yes, murder would be nice. She was going to kill him right after the taping was over.

  “…now can you, Amanda?”

  The clip had ended and he’d been asking her a question.

  “What?” she asked, at a loss to recall what he’d said.

  “I was asking,” Kyle said, his eyes twinkling, “if you could complain about the love scene. The man was gentle and only coaxed the woman into letting herself go with her feelings. You don’t call gentle coaxing ‘male dominance,’ I hope?”

  “No. No. The love scene was…fine.” Somebody turn off the lights and let’s all go home. No, everybody else go home. Everybody except Kyle. She wanted him to stay. She was still going to kill him, but maybe she’d wait till after, like a black widow spider. First she’d play with him awhile. Enjoy herself. After all, he did kiss so very nicely. Well, not nicely, exactly—

  “Amanda. You’re…ah…next,” Kyle said, interrupting her daydream, his grin altogether too smug and satisfied.

  Amanda remembered what her last clip was, and her smile matched Kyle’s for smugness. She had promised Kyle she wouldn’t use an obvious male sex symbol if he wouldn’t. She’d lied. Her last clip came on-screen showing one in all his golden glory augmented needlessly by cowboy regalia.

  “Hey! No fair—you promised,” Kyle whispered from off camera indignantly.

  Amanda showed him she was no stranger to elegant shrugs herself.

  It was her opinion one could tell a lot about a woman by the scene she preferred in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. There were women, she knew, who preferred the bicycle scene with Butch Cassidy. For her there was no contest. A woman would have to be dead not to melt at the visual thought of Sundance holding a gun on her and ordering her to strip.

  The lights came up, and she still had a silly, dreamy smile on her face.

  “Now wait a minute!” Kyle objected. “You don’t call that male dominance!”

  “Uh-uh.”

  “He’s holding a gun on her!”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “What?” Kyle demanded in frustration. “He’s got some special exemption or something?” His hands were measuring her throat again…and then her waist…and… He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The sexy scene between the outlaw and the school-marm hadn’t been without its effect on him. More than anything he wished he had a gun and Amanda alone so he could persuade her into letting down her hair as Sundance had done with the schoolmarm.

  A light dawned as he thought about it. “Oh, I get it. It’s because they’re sharing and acting out a fantasy, right?”

  Amanda nodded.

  “So, you like fantasies, do you?” Kyle taunted, making her blanch. “In that case, you’ll love my final clip,” he said, nodding to Toby to bring it up.

  The lights went low. Kyle’s final example was a series of clips from one movie. They showed a thief breaking into a woman’s apartment and accidentally stealing her journals of private thoughts with the loot. The thief then became obsessed with making her fantasies come true and began using them to seduce her.

  Because the film was relatively contemporary, there were flashes of nudity, soapy water slipping over bare skin, hands gripping metal headboards and deep, eating kisses.

  Toby almost forgot to stop the projector.

  Noah wasn’t exactly sure it would get past the censors, but he was certainly going to give it a try.

  Kyle hadn’t done himself any favors. Thank heaven he’d worn pleated pants. He was in pain.

  Amanda could only think of the fantasies she’d written Kyle to taunt him and wonder if he was baiting her now. Had he guessed that she was the one behind the letters? She was thankful it was the final clip and she could escape soon. With all her might, she willed Kyle to wrap the show without any comments about the film clips from the movie.

  She must have forgotten to click her heels, she thought sardonically when her wish wasn’t granted.

  “I think this movie about sums it up as the ideal for both sexes,” Kyle began. “I’m sure my cohost will agree that women wish men could read their minds.” His voice was pure velvet over fine sandpaper as he added, “And men wish they could read women’s minds, as well, especially ones with thoughts as seductive as the heroine’s private journals reveal in this movie.”

  Amanda couldn’t leave well enough alone. “You’ve got to be kidding!”

  “Now what?”

  “How can you condone the hero using the heroine’s own private journals to seduce her, as though they were some sort of…of …engraved invitation?”

  The unusual phrase might have escaped Kyle’s notice. But the sudden look of guilt on Amanda’s face triggered his recall of the same phrase in the most recent fantasy from his phantom correspondent.

  A hotshot grin leaped to his lips. “‘Engraved invitation’?” he repeated, pouncing on her slip of the tongue.

  “I meant—”

  “You meant it would have been an invitation to seduction only if she had purposely given him the fantasies to read?” Kyle challenged.

  “Ah…” Amanda stalled, floundering.

  “I’ve got you anyway, my pretty,” Kyle said with villainous relish, enjoying watching her squirm. Now he was certain she was the one sending the fantasies. Turning to the camera, he explained, “The hero falls in love with the heroine, and as well we all know, all’s fair in love and war.”

  “That’s a wrap,” Noah called, cutting off the taping.

  Amanda avoided Kyle�
�s eyes as Noah joined them.

  “Your unscripted idea shows promise. If this goes over well, we’ll try the next one unscripted, also,” Noah said.

  While Noah had Kyle buttonholed, Amanda inched her way over to the door, planning on slipping out before Kyle noticed she was gone.

  She reached the door safely only to be brought up short.

  “I want to talk to you,” Kyle said, his grip firm on her elbow.

  It was apparent talk wasn’t all he wanted to do as he steered her into a deserted hallway and backed her up against the wall. He anchored her in place by planting his hands on either side of her head.

  “I thought you wanted to—”

  He cut off her words, lowering his lips to hers as he had that first day outside Noah’s office.

  Only this time he brought his body with him, flat up and hard against hers. Slowly and with great expertise, he began kissing her senseless. The kiss exposed all sorts of truths they’d been hiding from each other, and yet it was a kiss neither of them could quite bear to end.

  When he pulled back, his eyes were steely blue and hot.

  “You owe me,” he whispered hoarsely.

  “Owe you!” The remark snapped her out of the sensual fog he’d wrapped her in. “I don’t owe you anything,” she vowed through her anger and embarrassment.

  “Oh yes you do,” he differed, running a trembling forefinger down her jaw. “You owe me, all right. You owe me for all the nights you and your provocative fantasy letters kept me tossing and turning and…frustrated.”

  “You frustrate me just as much,” she threw back, meaning working with him and his attitude.

  He turned her accusation to his advantage. “Does that mean you fantasize about me, too?” he asked, twisting his hips for emphasis while his eyes did wicked things to her jangling nerve endings.

  “No!” she answered a little too quickly for it to be the truth.

  She saw he wasn’t buying the lie she was trying so hard to sell. “I meant…” she began, trying to explain about working with him.

  But Kyle lowered his head again and hushed her explanation with the barest brush of his lips on hers. “There’s nothing wrong with fantasies,” he whispered, his lips trailing to the tender spot on her neck just under her ear. His breath was warm and his tongue moist as he nibbled at her ear. “They are even more exciting—” his tongue flicked inside her ear and she moaned “—if you share them…act them out.”