The Movie Star's Sextape

by Brandy Blake

  “I… I can’t, Ricardo. I’m… I have other things that I have to do. You have to stop asking me,” she told him flatly, hoping that her blunt honesty would get the point across.

  He frowned in disappointment and put the flowers into her hand before he let it go. “I understand… but I’m not going to stop asking. Someday, one day, you will be powerless against me, and you will say yes. I will get through to your heart, and you will let me give you the best night of your life. You will see. Ricardo does not give up when he sees what he wants.” He smiled again at her, and she turned away with a frustrated sigh.

  “Have a good night, Ricardo,” she told him as patiently and politely as she could.

  She went into her house and closed the door, looking back out of the window and seeing that he was still standing there watching her, as he always was when he stopped her in her yard, which he always did.

  Valerie went to the kitchen, found a vase for the roses, and set them on her dining room table. They were beautiful roses, she admitted to herself, but the last thing in the world she wanted was a romance with Ricardo, especially after having had the most incredible sexual experience of her life with Tristan.

  ***

  The next morning Valerie went to see her grandmother and didn’t wait at the door for the old woman to answer her knock. She walked in and called out for her grandmother right away.

  Valerie had gone to Evelyn’s appointments with her, and buried the doctor in questions, finding only some of the answers to her satisfaction. She had done a great deal of research and studying online to find out all that she could about procedure and healing, about support groups and ways that she could help. She tried to be as involved as she could to help her grandmother through the battle that the older woman was facing.

  “Grandma!” she called out, and she heard Evelyn answer a minute later from the bedroom down the hall on the main floor.

  Evelyn’s bedroom had been upstairs, but they knew that she was going to be weak from the treatments, so they moved her bedroom down to the main level of the house, and got her set up in the guest room.

  She went into the bedroom and saw her grandma laying on the bed, looking exhausted and sick. Valerie’s heart leaped into her throat.

  “How are you doing? Has the nurse been here today?” she pressed, going to the side of the bed and leaning down to hug her grandmother close and kiss her cheek.

  “Yes, honey. The nurses have been coming. I’ve been doing alright. I’m just really tired, really cold, and really sick.”

  “Oh, Grandma!”

  Valerie’s heart felt as if it was going to break right then. She went to the closet and pulled a blanket out of it, and left to put it into the dryer in the laundry room near the kitchen. She ran it for a few minutes while she made them both hot cinnamon apple tea.

  When the tea was done, she took it in to Evelyn, and then she went back and got the blanket, careful to hold it tightly to her to keep the heat locked in it until she got to her grandmother’s new bedroom, and she spread it out over her grandmother, tucking her in.

  Evelyn smiled widely then, and nestled down into the warmth of it. “This feels so good baby,” she said with a contented sigh. “Thank you for taking such good care of me.”

  “Of course, Grandma. I love you. I am so glad to be able to be here taking care of you.” Valerie smiled back as she sat on the bed beside her grandmother, taking the older woman’s hand in hers. “Now, how are things really going? How are you feeling?”

  “Well, I’ll be honest,” Evelyn said with a sad tone as her smile began to fade, “I’m pretty worried about the house. I just don’t know how I’m ever going to keep up with the payments, the bank said there’s nothing that they can do, and I’m scared. I don’t know where I’ll go or what I’ll do if I lose it. I’ve lived here so long… it’s my home! I don’t want to lose this place.

  “Your grandpa and I moved in when we were just newly married. Our whole lives were here. Your mama growing up, going through all her school and then moving out, and you coming along not long after that. Why, our whole entire lives have been lived out here, and I just can’t bear to lose this home of ours!” She closed her eyes and a tear rolled down her soft wrinkled cheek.

  Valerie felt her heart rise up in her throat, and for the first time, she felt enormously glad that she had done the sex tape, though she tried not to think about it. Holding her grandmother’s hand in hers, she rubbed her thumb over the back of it.

  “Well, first of all, I never want you to worry; if for some crazy reason we did lose this old house, I’d have you come and stay with me. There’s no way you wouldn’t have a home. You’ll always have a home to go to. Second, I think I’m going to get some new modeling work that will help me make up the difference for the house here. I can take care of that for you. It’s all going to work out alright.

  “You’ll see. Don’t you fret at all. Okay? It’s going to be just fine. I’ll take care of it. No matter what, it’ll work out. Okay? You have to keep your chin up, Grandma; no negative thoughts. Only positive. I love you so much. I’m here for you. I’m always going to be here for you,” she said gently, reaching up to touch her grandmother’s face.

  Evelyn looked up at her with a sigh, and nodded. “I know you’re right. I don’t want you to have to take on any extra debt for me, but if it comes down to it, I’d be grateful for the help if it means we can keep this home of ours.”

  “We’re going to keep it. I promise,” Valerie said, leaning forward to hug her grandmother.

  She wasn’t sure what would happen with the tape, but she knew without a doubt that there was no way she was going to let her grandmother’s house be taken. No matter what she had to do to keep it.

  ***

  Tristan was cruising along in his truck on the highway by the sea when his phone rang. He pressed the hands free button on his steering wheel and answered the call.

  “Hey, Gavin, what’s up?” he asked, grateful for anything that could take his mind off Valerie and what had happened with her.

  He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it, and besides the inconvenience of getting hard every single time thoughts of her crossed his mind, he wasn’t at all sure that he wanted her on his mind.

  “I thought I’d call and see how it went at the hotel,” Gavin answered coolly.

  Tristan sighed. So much for keeping the hottest woman he had ever been with off his mind, he thought.

  “Well…” he said a little shyly, running his hand over the back of his neck, “it was a little awkward at first, but we got to talking and sort of figured things out. We both agreed that it was just business, and a job that was going to help both of our careers… and we… we did it. It was pretty nice, actually. She’s a great girl.”

  “Well, that’s good to hear. I know you didn’t want to do it, but I’m telling you, I think it was a really smart move to make. Even if you weren’t sure about it. You were pretty nervous about it the last time we talked about it,” Gavin said earnestly.

  Tristan knew that his brother wasn’t giving him a hard time at all.

  “Well, I was nervous. I was really nervous, but it all worked out in the end. For the most part,” he added with some chagrin.

  “What do you mean for the most part?” Gavin asked. “Did something go wrong?”

  Tristan sighed. “Not really… wrong, but it turned out differently than I thought. See, we did the tape, and everything was pretty good… well, to be honest, it was pretty great, but then afterward, she and I thought that we were done and then Al says that we have to date each other a few times out in public, so that the tape is believable.

  “He wants people to think that we are a couple, so that we become some secret hot commodity. He never said a word to either of us about doing that before. He sprung it on us when we were done and ready to walk out of the door, and I feel like he had been planning it the whole time. I just wish he’d told us up front. I wasn’t expecting that, and neither was she.
”

  “Dating? He wants everyone to think you’re dating? Why? What’s the difference if you’re dating or if you just had sex?” Gavin asked, his confusion evident.

  “I guess it has to do with being a hot Hollywood couple. He wants us to be ‘caught in public’ together, like we’re trying to hide it from the world and it’s some big secret. It makes it more exciting for everyone, especially following the tape when it gets leaked.” Tristan furrowed his brow slightly.

  “How do you feel about dating her? Are you okay with that? Is she okay with that?” Gavin asked interestedly.

  Tristan bit at his lower lip. He wasn’t sure if he was ready for anything, let alone admitting anything, even to his own brother.

  “I don’t know, Gav. I guess I’m going to have to though, because Al didn’t really give us a choice. He’s kind of forcing it on us. He said we have to date or the tape wouldn’t be any good. It would all have been for nothing. I didn’t make that tape for nothing, and I know Valerie didn’t either, so we’re going to have to do what we’re told on this one, I guess, and date a few times.”

  Gavin chuckled a little. “So go out on a few dates! So you get to be seen with a super-hot model. Go have some laughs and some fun. How hard can that be?”

  Tristan adjusted himself as he sat in his truck, his body aching for Valerie as thoughts of her beneath him, moaning his name, clinging to him as he buried himself deep inside of her, making him grip the steering wheel tight.

  “It might be harder than you think,” he answered honestly. “I just don’t want it to be awkward between us.”

  “Oh, I get it. Because you did it all backward. You had sex with the girl, so dating her afterward is going to make you both feel awkward. Well, don’t worry about that, little brother. You’ll both be alright. Just give it a little time and you’ll figure it out. She’s probably going to feel a little weird, too. Don’t let it get to you. Just go have fun. The hard part is already over.” Gavin sounded so sure of himself.

  Tristan glanced down at his crotch. The hard part was definitely not already over. He had no idea what he was going to do if he was out on a date with her and she was wearing something fetching, something sexy that made him want to look and want to keep from looking. He had no idea what he was going to do having to hold her hand and smell just how sweet she was, or feel her skin against his and think back to the intimacy they shared in bed. He had no idea how he was going to get himself calmed back down if even the thought of her turned him on as much as it did, and seeing her was probably guaranteed to be ten times worse.

  “I don’t know,” he finally breathed in frustration, “I just think we did the thing and I hope that we don’t have to do much more. I’d rather just focus on my career, which is what I’m doing right now, by the way. I’m headed to an audition that I’m really hoping to get.”

  “Yeah? Well, let me know how it goes, and good luck little brother. Break a leg,” he said encouragingly, and Tristan could hear the smile in his voice.

  “Thanks, Gavin. I’ll talk to you soon.” Tristan smiled, too, as he hung up the phone.

  Twenty minutes later, he was pulling into the parking lot at the studio, hoping that everything would go well. He grabbed his head shot and resume and went into the office. The secretary sent him through to another room where there were three other men who looked similar to him, sitting and waiting, each of them with a head shot and resume as well.

  He sighed and sat down, trying not to compare himself to any of them, promising himself that the role was his. One of the other men was called into the studio and only a few minutes later, he left. Then Tristan was called in, and he rose up and walked past the other hopefuls, and out of the room.

  The studio was a good size, but not enormous. He suspected that it was for smaller scenes in the film. Knowing that the film was something that could really go big, he knew that it wasn’t all going to be filmed where he was auditioning.

  The director and two other people, a man and a woman, sat in canvas and wood director’s chairs and watched him. An assistant came to him, took his paperwork from him and handed him a script which he looked at quickly, and memorized almost right at first glance.

  The director called out to him. “When you’re ready.”

  Tristan closed his eyes and put himself in the role of the hero. He saw the action scene in his mind and felt it all through him. He opened his eyes and kept the scene in his mind. All of it, from the action to the music, to the other people around him. He put everything that he had into the role, and into acting the scene for the people who were watching him, though he never once thought about any of them. He focused with laser beam intensity on being in the scene and delivering it just that way.

  Seconds turned into moments, which turned into minutes, and he just kept going until the director stood up and walked over to him, waving his hand.

  “Hey! Tristan! That was great. That really was wonderful. Thank you so much for coming in. Listen, I love what you did, but I’m not going to make you any promises. I have a few more people coming in, and I need to look at them, too. I’ll call you and let you know what we decide. Thanks again.” He reached out and shook Tristan’s hand, and Tristan tried not to look surprised.

  “Thanks, I appreciate your time. I hope to hear from you soon,” he replied, giving the director a nod before he turned to walk out.

  He realized as he passed through the waiting room and the two other actors in there looked at him, that he had been in the studio for a long while. It felt hopeful to him that he had lasted as long as he had in there.

  As he was walking outside, with a little bounce in his step and some lightness in his heart, he went around the corner of the building to get to the parking lot and nearly collided with a brunette haired personification of a Greek god.

  “Oh, excuse me!” he said with a smile before he realized who it was that he had nearly crashed into.

  The man looked at him and a sneer formed over his nearly perfect face.

  “Well, well. Tristan Dane. Out trying to get one of my roles again? You know, I really don’t know why you even bother to show up to these auditions. This is my role; the production assistant for the film is a cousin of mine. It’s all in the bag. They just wanted to see me show up for the audition. They said if I came for it, then it would be mine.”

  “John Phillips,” Tristan said with a slight taste of bile at the back of his throat. “Not every role I try out for is yours, John, and not every good role in Tinseltown is yours either. I’m coming for what’s mine, John, and I’m going to get it. You’ll see. You’re not the hottest ticket in this town. Not anymore. That role is mine.”

  Tristan spoke with a little more confidence than he felt, but it made him feel great to be able to say it to John’s face.

  John had snatched several roles out from under him, the latest one less than two weeks before, and it had made him sick about all that he had lost. It had made Tristan willing to do the sex tape in the first place. He was determined that he was going to beat John out for the role, and he wanted that almost as much as he wanted the role just because he was the right person for it.

  “I have things to do. Goodbye, John, and good luck in there. You’re going to need it.”

  Tristan gave him a half smile and then turned and walked toward the parking lot, feeling good about having finally gotten to say something back to John Phillips about all of the roles he’d swiped from him. He didn’t know if he was going to get the role that he had just auditioned for, but he told himself that as long as anyone but John got it, he’d be happy. Happier if it was his, but still satisfied if John didn’t get it. His overbearing smugness was more than Tristan could stand.

  He left the studio parking lot with hope in his pocket, and a smile on his face.

  ***

  Valerie walked into the café and saw that Lisa had their usual table in the back. Lisa lifted her petite hand and waved at Valerie, and after Valerie got her order of a chai latte, sh
e walked to the back of the room to sit with her best friend.

  They hugged and kissed each other’s cheeks. Valerie had one sip of her chai when Lisa began their conversation. “How’s your grandma doing?” she asked, her eyes wide with concern.

  “She’s sick. She’s tired all the time. The chemo is really taking it out of her. I’m doing all that I can to help her when I’m not working, and there’s a rotation of nurses that come around the house to help her and take care of her, give her medicine, but it’s just really taking its toll. I wish it was over. This is the worst thing I’ve ever gone through. I’ve never seen her so sick and so tired, and she’s sad.

  “She is going through a depression because she’s always been so strong and independent and now she’s having to lean on others. She doesn’t want me to help her with the things that she can’t take care of anymore, and I’m doing my best to try to make up the difference, but she’s just feeling really low that she even needs the help at all.” Valerie sighed and set her warm mug down carefully.