The Princess and the Porn Star

by Lauren Gallagher

  I threw him a look.

  “What?” He batted his eyes.

  I rolled mine. “Anyway. I need to get back out there before Jim sends a search party.”

  “Yes you do. Oh! And by the way, I had to reschedule your flight this evening. You’re leaving at eight instead of ten.”

  “Think we’ll make it?” I asked.

  “As long as this fiasco wraps up on time.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “I ask again, think we’ll make it?”

  “We’ll find a way.” He nudged me toward the door. “Now, shoo. You need to get out there on that set so there’s some chance of finishing up on time. Go, go!”

  I laughed and went, carefully but quickly picking my way down the hall in these god-awful heels. I’d made it through the first few hours of shooting. I could make it through the rest.

  When I entered the soundstage, Lee was already there.

  I’d already seen him today, of course, and had already gotten the oh my God and the Jesus Christ, I want that man out of my system. I was used to being around him enough I could—

  Oh hell.

  Maybe not.

  White leather. Painted-on, skintight white leather. I’d spent all last night thinking about what it might have been like—and where things might have gone—if he’d kissed me next to my car. And now? Now he was on set and dressed for the video, just like he’d been all morning, except now he was in white instead of black, and my dress wasn’t the reason I suddenly stopped breathing.

  I really need to get my head together.

  Or get your bad self laid, I heard Quinn’s voice in the back of my mind.

  That thought made me giggle, but I also couldn’t argue with the imaginary Quinn. Not that I had been particularly desperate for sex over the last few months—I was too focused on my music to even notice my sex drive—but now that I was acquainted with Lee…

  Lee who turned toward me right then. His lips parted as he gave me a quick down-up-down, and my whole body tingled under the weight of his gaze. My God, what if he touched me? Like, really touched me? Not just through my clothes while we were dancing?

  His eyes met mine.

  Please, please, please touch me…

  I shook my head and looked away from him.

  Get it together, Rachel. Quickly.

  I didn’t have much time to get it together either. Ten minutes after I walked into the room, Lee and I were front and center on the stage.

  And he was touching me. Still through my clothes, still in a position to dance and nothing more, but just the heat of his body against my back was enough to raise my pulse. I’d impulsively gotten extra close to him this morning. I’d taken our staged closeness and turned it into bumping and grinding that was a layer of clothes and a condom away from all-out fucking. That was fine in the heat of the moment, but then there was a break, a pause, and now here we were again, and my body ached for that kind of contact all over again.

  Question was, if we danced like that again, was there any way in hell we’d get out of this building without finding out what it was like to give in and fuck?

  Lee’s fingers tightened on my hips, subtly pulling me toward him. His chest pressed against my back, and my ass pressed against… Oh, God, if his cock was really as big as it felt when it was rock hard and grinding against my ass, I had to feel it inside me. Somehow or other, I needed to get him alone and naked.

  “Everyone ready?” Jim’s voice snapped me out of my dirty daydream.

  “Ready,” I said.

  “Ready.” Lee’s voice vibrated against the side of my neck.

  “Action!” Jim called out.

  A second later, the music started. And so did we.

  I swiveled my hips. Let my knees bend more. He moved right along with me, like he was either really good at anticipating what I was going to do or was just passively following with no hesitation whatsoever.

  And he did as he was told too. Almost kissing my neck but not quite. His breath was warm across the side of my neck, ruffling loose strands of hair and making the tiny hairs stand on end. Every once in a while his lip or his lightly stubbled chin brushed my skin, and if I shivered like that one more time, I was going to be on my butt.

  When his erection ground against my ass again, I did shiver like that. My center of gravity shifted a little too far. Cool panic shot through me as my knee buckled, and I was already anticipating the pain and the cracking and the someone better call 911 when everything but the music stopped dead.

  Lee’s fingers dug into my arm, and his other hand was flat against the side of my rib cage, which had kept me from falling farther.

  “You okay?”

  I blew out a breath as my heart pounded away the residual panic. “Yeah. Thanks.”

  He helped me all the way back onto my feet. Even after I was upright, he kept his hand on my side and the other on my arm for an extra second or two before he let me go.

  “You two all right?” Jim called up to us.

  I looked in the direction of his voice, though the lights kept me from seeing him. “We’re fine. Sorry.”

  Get it together. Seriously. You’re going to break your damned neck.

  I put Lee out of my mind as much as I could and tried to tell myself he was just another backup dancer. I’d done this before, and I focused on moving to the music, lip-synching to the lyrics and keeping my eyes locked on the camera in front of me.

  Except Lee’s hands wouldn’t let me forget.

  I’d gotten close before to dancers who were aroused, so I could ignore it when Lee and I moved just right and he’d get hard. I could mostly ignore that.

  But not his hands. They weren’t just there, not like any other dancer’s hands would have been. His touch wasn’t strictly business and choreography. When they slid down my waist and almost onto my ass, it wasn’t a mechanical motion for the benefit of the cameras, not when his fingers twitched like that and drew me even closer to his body. He didn’t just hold on.

  He wasn’t groping me or being creepy—and I’d had dancers who did—but I couldn’t shake the certainty he was feeling me. Memorizing my body with his hands. As aware of my body heat through my dress as I was of the warmth radiating from his palms. His body. His breath on my neck.

  His hands drifted up my sides again, and when they stopped, his index fingers almost grazing the leather-clad undersides of my breasts. I had to fight the nearly irresistible urge to put my hands over his and make him feel my nipples through my dress. I had to fight the desire to find out what it was like to be wrapped up in his arms.

  He breathed on my neck, and a second later, the air beside my skin cooled with the rush of a deep inhalation, and I shivered at the thought of him tasting my scent the way I desperately wanted to taste his.

  The leather we both wore squeaked and protested with every move we made. Bending a limb. Undulating in time with the music. Brushing against each other. The sound would be edited out of the final video, but it was impossible to ignore now. Impossible not to liken it to a bedframe squeaking or a car’s shocks creaking.

  Maybe it was my imagination, but he didn’t seem interested in the tempo or the song. He moved with me, not with the music. And somehow I kept moving to the music, but all my senses and focus were tied up in touching him, feeling him breathe on me. My ankle was killing me, but there was another ache that was even more intense.

  The song ended for the hundredth time, and Jim yelled, “Cut!”

  Lee and I both exhaled. He let go of me, and we separated a little, but his body heat was still unavoidably there.

  “That was a great run,” Jim’s voice came from beyond the wall of bright light. “I want to get through the song two more times, and then we’ll move over to the green screen.”

  I gave him a thumbs-up.

  “Cue up the music,” Jim ordered.

  Right then, Lee whispered in my ear, “He did say he wants us to improvise a little. You game for following my lead?”

  “Depen
ds.” I swallowed. “What do you have in mind?”

  “Just keep singing and trust me when I say I won’t let you fall.”

  My heart skipped. “Let me—”

  “Quiet on the set!” Jim barked. “Music! Action!”

  Oh, fuck…

  “Trust me,” Lee murmured. “I promise, I won’t let you fall.”

  I believed him, and I trusted him. It was my own legs I wasn’t so sure about.

  But then the music was playing, and my mouth and body were moving, and his body moved with me.

  I still couldn’t get my mind off his hands. Off the very deliberate path they seemed to follow down my waist to just above my hips. And the way they stopped. And the way he tightened his grasp.

  All at once, he spun me around.

  My balance teetered precariously, but his arm stayed behind my back. My hand went to his chest, and I locked eyes with him.

  Somehow, I kept lip-synching, and thank God I wasn’t really singing, because this heart-pounding adrenaline rush would have cost me any ability I had to carry a tune. Especially when he ran the tip of his tongue across his lips, and I couldn’t help watching his mouth, his mouth that fascinated me, and oh God, I could barely breathe.

  His eyes locked on mine. I heard myself singing “…you ain’t even kissed me…” and wanted him to. Now.

  Then he spun me around again, and I was on my own two feet, facing the cameras. The only reason I didn’t fall was his body pressed against mine. Moving against mine. He wasn’t following me anymore. He was leading now, and his hands held my hips so there was nowhere for my ass to be but pressed right up against his erection.

  Leather still creaked, but not the leather between our bodies. There was no friction, no motion; it was like we were sharing the same piece of leather. The same skin.

  “Cut!”

  The music stopped. So did we, but the trembling in my knees didn’t.

  “That was brilliant!” Jim shouted from behind the lights and cameras. “Fucking brilliant! Exactly the kind of spontaneity and energy I want to see up there.” He appeared through the wall of bright lights, smiling broadly. “Whatever it is the two of you are doing differently today, keep it up, because the chemistry is spectacular.”

  I just nodded, because I was afraid my pounding heart would make it into my voice.

  After two or three more run-throughs, Jim announced it was time to move to the green screen.

  To the green screen, and, in front of that, the tiny, revolving platform. Where Lee and I could be eye to eye. Face-to-face.

  “We’re going to shoot in close this time,” Jim said once Lee and I were on the platform. “Zoom in on just your faces. Rachel, you’ll be lip-synching, just like always. Buck, you’re going to be facing her, and you’ll get in as close as you can get, almost kissing her but not quite.”

  My mouth went dry. I fought the urge to look at Lee.

  “So we’re just going to be standing on the platform?” I asked. “While it goes around and you’re zoomed in on our faces?”

  Jim nodded.

  “In that case”—I gestured at my feet—“I don’t suppose I can take these off, can I?”

  He shook his head. “Buck’s taller than you. I want you two eye to eye for this one.” Before I could open my mouth to suggest, I don’t know, maybe standing on a stack of phone books or something, Jim smacked a hand against his clipboard and shouted, “Places!”

  I didn’t argue. I could grin and bear it a little while longer, especially if that meant staying off the director’s shit list.

  Lee and I faced each other. With any other co-star, this might have been all serious business. With others, we might have been giggling because no matter how this looked on camera, it felt a little ridiculous in person.

  Not Lee and me.

  We held each other’s gazes, and all I could think was, is your heart beating as fast as mine?

  “Closer,” Jim said.

  I gulped. So did Lee.

  We inched toward each other.

  “Closer.”

  Jesus Christ, we were almost touching now.

  “Little closer.”

  There was no almost about it: we were touching. His chest grazed mine, and my nipples hardened. I didn’t dare look down to see if they were visible through the thin, tight leather.

  “Hmm,” Jim said. “I want a little more difference in height. So she’s looking up at him.”

  I gestured at my feet again. “So the shoes—”

  “No,” he said with a dismissive wave. “That’d be too dramatic of a difference. Just need a couple of inches.” He snapped a finger at someone. “Get me a two-by-four over here.”

  Lee and I exchanged glances. He rolled his eyes, and I stifled a snicker.

  A crew member appeared with a board in his hands. Lee stood up on his toes, and the crewman put the board under his heels. When Lee came down, he was definitely taller than me, if only by an inch or so. That inch or so was enough, though, that I had to look up, which meant lifting my chin.

  Which brought my mouth a fraction of an inch closer to his.

  Oh God.

  And my brain picked that moment to wonder if perhaps Lee’s obvious blessing below the belt wasn’t the only reason he’d done so well in his line of work.

  Bet he’s a great kisser. Bet he’s even better at—

  “Rachel,” Jim broke in, “while you’re singing, you just watch his eyes. The whole time.”

  I swallowed and nodded. That…that wouldn’t be too difficult. Other than Lee’s mouth, there was no other place I could look right then. The platform wasn’t even turning yet, and already the rest of the world spun around me, blurring, and he was the only thing I could bring into focus.

  Jim continued, “Buck, you can look in her eyes or at her lips. Wherever feels natural. While she’s singing, you want to kiss her, and you’re thinking about kissing her, and you might even be trying to kiss her, but you won’t. Not quite. Got it?”

  Lee nodded. He didn’t say anything. He also didn’t look away from me.

  My heart beat faster and faster.

  “Here we go,” Jim said.

  Then the platform jerked into motion, and I remembered the spinning sensation had been all in my head.

  I was vaguely aware of an order for the music to start and distantly heard the familiar intro. I looked straight into Lee’s eyes, just like Jim had ordered. Seemed easy enough. Lip-synch, look in Lee’s pale green eyes, then get out of here so I could take off these—

  You have really pretty eyes.

  Jesus. Like really pretty eyes.

  Those incredibly pretty eyes flicked toward my lips.

  Then back up to meet mine.

  The song played once. Twice. Three times. I thought I’d be dizzy and sick to my stomach by now, but the only feeling in my stomach was the fluttery nervousness of a woman standing on the precipice, ready to jump into something that was terrifying and amazing and so fucking hot.

  We were just inches apart. Closer than we’d gotten last night when I’d secretly hoped for a good-night kiss. Once that was almost inevitable even when we weren’t nearly as close as we were now, and now we were so close I could have kissed him if I wanted to. So close he had no trouble obeying Jim and moving in like he was just about to kiss me, but pulling back a second before we made contact.

  The lyrics started again, and my own lips moved of their own accord. Muscle memory. Habit. Something. I didn’t even know what song was playing anymore. Hopefully my mouth formed the right lyrics in time with the right music, but I barely noticed there was music playing at all. Even the squeaking leather was muted now, almost unnoticeable over the whisper of Lee’s breathing.

  Lee’s eyes flicked toward my lips again.

  “Why you throwin’ love around already, baby?” My own recorded voice cut through the delirium.

  A warm, ragged breath fluttered across my skin.

  “Too soon for that, boy, ’cause you ain’t even…
you ain’t even kissed me yet!”

  God, his mouth was so close, so close…

  One hand left my waist. A moment later, it materialized on the side of my face and sent shivers all the way down to my numb, crushed toes. Jim didn’t yell at us to stop, and Lee didn’t lift his hand away, and I couldn’t help closing my eyes and pressing against his warm palm.

  With my eyes closed, my equilibrium almost fell apart, so I opened them again. And found myself looking right into Lee’s. And realized there was less space between us than before. And that space was narrowing by the second. Slowly but noticeably, as if centrifugal force was drawing us toward the center of the spinning platform. The laws of physics and chemistry were at work here, and there was no point in resisting even if I wanted to, and I didn’t want to.

  The lyrics ended, and as the music began its slow fade, Lee tilted his head, and if Jim yelled “Cut!” I didn’t hear it because my heart was beating too hard.

  And then Lee pressed his lips to mine.

  We were both still, as still as the platform allowed us to be, but then he tilted his head a little more and gently coaxed my lips apart. His tongue met mine, and I slid the tip of mine under his. Everything around us disappeared. Everything except the faint flavor of coffee and the heat of his body and his thick, hard erection between us. I inhaled through my nose, and the air was made of leather and coffee and sweat.

  The music was gone. Had it cut off suddenly? Faded away? I had no idea. But it was definitely gone.

  I drew back a little, and as my lips broke contact with his, the rest of the world came back into existence.

  My hand was on his arm. I didn’t remember putting it there. The camera was still revolving around us. There were lights. People who I couldn’t see or hear.

  I stared up at Lee. He looked down at me, his expression a mix of arousal and fear and what the hell was that?

  “That wasn’t what I had in mind,” Jim said, oblivious to the moment he was jerking me out of. “But I’ll take it. I’ll definitely take it.” He clapped a few times. “That’s a wrap, folks. Well done, everyone. Well done.”

  I had to admit, uncomfortable shoes or not, I was a little disappointed that we were finished. Though if we kept going like this much longer, Jim was going to get some improvisation he probably hadn’t bargained for.