by Brandy Blake
She bit at her lower lip as she smiled. “From a designer in Paris. They want to fly me over there and have me work for a couple of weeks. I’ll be doing a couple of runway shows and some modeling for Vogue magazine. This is my dream, Tristan! This is what I’ve wanted to do since I was a little girl, and it’s finally happening! I’m so excited! I can’t believe it!”
He hugged her and smiled back at her. “That’s fantastic! I’m so happy for you!” He leaned back and lost half of his smile. “Did you say two weeks?”
She nodded. “Yeah, it’s for two weeks.”
Tristan couldn’t quite hide the disappointment on his face. “That feels like a long time right now,” he said quietly. “Will you call me while you’re over there?” he asked, looking at her hopefully.
She grinned. “Yes, of course I’ll call you! I’m going to miss you, too.”
She leaned forward and he pulled her into his arms and kissed her long and sensually, letting his hands move over her curves.
She moaned softly and thought to herself that Lisa was right, and it was probably time to tell him that she was head over heels in love with him. She lifted her mouth from his and looked up at him, and he caught her gaze and the intensity of the expression on her face.
“What is it?” he asked, his hands rubbing her hips slowly.
Valerie took a deep breath. “I want to tell you something. It hasn’t really seemed like the right-”
Just then the door of the trailer was yanked open and a tall slender blonde woman walked in through the door and looked at them both.
Valerie gasped. “Yvette Sheridan!”
Yvette smirked and nodded. “Yes, I am.”
She narrowed her eyes and gave Valerie a cool stare before she turned her attention to Tristan. Her eyes warmed considerably and she reached toward him, running her hand down the length of his arm.
“Ethan wants us in there. You’d better let her go and get in there right now.” Her voice was velvety smooth as she held his eyes with hers.
He sighed and let Valerie go, leaning in to kiss her quickly before he turned to the door. He looked back over his shoulder and gave her a last smile.
“Great job on the Paris gig!”
Then he disappeared and Valerie felt her heart sink. She was going to tell him that she was in love with him, but it seemed that the time still wasn’t quite right.
Yvette started to walk out the door, but turned to face Valerie just before she left.
“You really need to go, and you can’t come back here. This is for cast only.” She leaned in close to Valerie and her voice grew soft and cold. “You know… you’re not the only woman who Tristan wants. He’s been asking me to date him, and of course I told him yes. Leading men always have hot affairs with their leading ladies. You see, that’s the way that it’s always been, and well… I’m his leading lady.”
Valerie furrowed her brow angrily and lowered her tone sharply. “He cares about me!” she snapped at the megastar standing before her.
Yvette raised her eyebrows a little and laughed. “Does he? Does he really? He hasn’t told you that he loves you, has he? Of course he hasn’t. He doesn’t love you. You’re just there for fun sometimes. He’s not serious about you, you know. You’re a play thing to him. A pleasant distraction… nothing more. Someone to draw the public’s attention to him. Now… me, I’m a star. I am his equal, and he and I will make the best couple for the public to admire. You should keep that in mind before you get your heart tangled up in something that will break it.”
She opened the door and took the first step out of the trailer before she looked back over her shoulder. “You need to leave now. Make sure you close the door behind you; we don’t want just anyone thinking that they can walk right in here.”
Valerie watched her go for a few seconds before her eyes welled up with tears and she felt them spilling hot and unbidden down her burning cheeks. She gritted her teeth and looked around the trailer. There was no sign of her in the space. No photograph of her or of them together as a couple. Nothing to say that she was his. She realized that Yvette might very well be right. He hadn’t ever told her that he loved her. Not even when he had stayed the whole night in her bed making love to her, taking her body with his twice; he had never uttered the words, never whispered them in her ear or said them to her face.
She swallowed the lump in her throat and walked out of the trailer, slamming the door behind her.
She went home and packed in silence, drove herself to the airport, and got on the airplane to Paris, leaving Los Angeles behind in a smoggy cloud of confusion. All she was certain of was that she had the job of her dreams ahead of her, and nothing but uncertainty behind her. Lisa’s words of caution, warning her to be careful of heartache, came back to her and she could not shake them from her thoughts.
There was no way for her to know how Tristan really felt about her. He had been a good friend to her, and a hot lover, but there was nothing more that had happened between them, and nothing that she could rely on that indicated he shared the same amount or kind of love for her that she had for him.
She focused with everything in her on Paris, and told herself that her dreams were coming true, and nothing was going to stop them, and they would be enough for her until she could figure out the rest.
***
Tristan climbed into the back seat of the car and Yvette moved into it with him. He stared hard at her and she lifted her chin and opened her red lips in a sultry laugh.
“You think you can have me? Well, take me then, right now, like you want to… like you’ve always wanted to, and forget about her. She doesn’t matter. She’s sitting at home worrying about you, crying about you, but you’re here with me, and I’m everything you ever wanted in a woman and so much more.
“I’m going to do for you what no other woman will, and when you finally let go of all your inhibitions and you take what I know you want, you’re never going to look back.” She pulled her white satin dress up, showing him her panties, spreading her thighs as she slowly straddled his legs, reaching her hand down to stroke her fingers over the lace that barely covered her body.
“Do it… baby… you know you want it. You’ve never wanted anything as much as you want me. Here I am. Take it. Take what you want.”
She leaned forward and closed her mouth over Tristan’s, biting and kissing his lips hard as she began to grind herself against his groin.
“CUT!” yelled Ethan. He marched over to the open door of the car and the camera pulled back a little.
Yvette stopped moving on Tristan’s groin and gave him wink and smile as she stopped kissing him. They both looked over at Ethan.
Ethan glowered at them. “This is terrible! Tristan, you’re supposed to be hot for her! You’re supposed to be so hot for her that you’re willing to cheat on your girlfriend and screw her right here in the back seat of the car! You look like you’re thinking about your taxes from last year! What the hell is going through your head? You’re not into this at all! Get out. Get out and go home. You need to get your head in the game.”
He turned and walked away in disgust and Tristan pushed himself out of the car, abruptly dumping Yvette on the seat as he left and hurried after Ethan.
“Wait! I can do it again. I’ll get it right. I will!” he promised, but Ethan turned on his heel and glared in irritation at Tristan.
“No, you won’t. Your head is somewhere else right now, and I can’t have that. I need you here. I need you ready to screw her brains out. You are supposed to be blazing hot for her in this scene. I’ve seen more heat in the refrigerator in the break room for god’s sake! You know, when I hired you, part of it had to do with that sex tape you made with Valerie Martin.
“I want that same kind of heat and desire for this scene. I know you have it in you; I’ve seen it. Yvette is one of the most beautiful women in the world. Get your hard on hard, Tristan!” He turned on his heel and took five steps and then stopped and turned around to face Tri
stan again.
“Wait, you know what? I want you to go out on a date with her. Take Yvette out, just the two of you, tonight. Go see if you can find some kind of spark, and if you can’t find one, you sure as hell better make one, because this crap isn’t happening tomorrow. Tomorrow you’re going to get your ass in here and take that woman like you’re on fire for her!” Ethan’s face was ruddy with emotion.
Tristan sighed. He hadn’t made any kind of real commitment to Valerie, but he knew how he felt. “I… I just don’t feel right about it. I’m seeing someone, and she-”
Ethan stopped him. “No. That’s personal. This is business. That’s all this is. This is business, Tristan. You’re not really having sex with her; I just need you to act like it. Make it look real. Make it look hot. Make it melt the camera here the way you melted the camera with Valerie Martin on your sex tape. That’s what I want. That’s what I’m paying you to do!
“If you want to keep this role, instead of losing it to John Phillips, then you better figure out a way to make it look real. You better make everyone on my side of the camera think you’re screwing her brains out and there’s nothing in the world that you want more than her!”
With that, he turned and stomped away and Tristan watched him go with a knot in his stomach.
He didn’t want to lose the role to John Phillips. With a sigh he raked his fingers through his bronze hair, and just as he dropped his hand to his side, he felt someone rubbing his back. He turned around and saw Yvette standing behind him, smiling at him.
She rubbed her hand slowly up his chest and touched his cheek with the tip of her finger. She gave him a sultry smile and lowered her thick lashes some.
“Don’t you worry baby; I’ll help you. Just give me a minute to take care of a few things, and I’ll be right back. Wait right here for me.”
He nodded silently, not sure what to do to fix whatever it was that was wrong with him. She pressed her finger to her lips and then touched his lips with it, transferring a sort of kiss to him. Yvette turned and walked away and he pushed his hands down into his pockets, looking at the ground, trying to think through whatever it was that was holding him back from getting the scene right with her.
Ethan had a solid point. It was business, not personal. Yvette was one of the most beautiful women in the world. She was definitely into him. It wasn’t her that was lacking in the heat department during the scene. He knew that it was him.
He bit at his lower lip as he rolled it over and over in his mind. He kept coming back to one thing, and one thing only. Valerie. He was struggling with the way that he felt about her. He couldn’t keep his mind off of her. He thought about her all through the day, he fantasized about her at night, aching for her in his bed; he got hard just thinking about her.
Her scent made him wish he could inhale all of her and hold her within him for the rest of his life. Her eyes made the rest of the world disappear when he lost himself in them. Her skin felt like mocha satin to him. Her lips made him dizzy with pleasure, and her body… her body made him feel like no one had ever made him feel, and he knew that he was falling for her. He also knew that he had no business falling for her.
They had promised one another that they would be friends; he had promised her, and he had already broken that promise the night that he had stayed over at her house with her, making love to her twice, and wanting much more than that from her. He had left without saying anything. He had just kissed her and walked out. No promises or vows or commitments. He knew that he never should have gone that far with her.
They’d had sex the first time because it was part of the contract, and that was one thing, but making love with her in her bed all night was another thing altogether. It was personal, it was the two of them together; completely intimate. He had felt love for her that night, and every moment since, but he hadn’t wanted to believe it because he knew that it couldn’t happen, and that he couldn’t be so selfish as to want it to happen.
“I’m ready, baby,” came the soft purr of a velvet voice behind him.
He turned with a start and found himself looking at Yvette. She was wearing the same white satin dress from the scene. It was similar to the dress that Marilyn Monroe wore, a sharp V-neck that tied as a halter at the neck, but the torso of it was tight on her sculpted body, and the hem was much higher, just above the middle of her thigh.
He cleared his throat. “You’re ready? What are we doing?” he asked in a fog of thought, emotion, and confusion.
She gave him her signature sultry smile and took his hand in hers, walking outside of the studio with him. It was growing dark outside. She led him to a limousine that was waiting for them; the driver was holding the back door open. They both slid in and the driver closed the door.
“Where are we going?” Tristan asked, wondering what she was planning on doing to help him with their scene.
She poured him a glass of champagne from the minibar and handed it to him. “Here, drink this.”
He took it and emptied the glass and she refilled it, and he emptied it again. Laughing at him, she refilled it once more and he took his time sipping on it as the limousine rolled through the streets of Los Angeles.
The champagne made his head begin to swim and he finished what was left in his glass and stopped Yvette from pouring more for him. She watched him and moved over to sit beside him, taking his hand and resting it on her bare thigh.
“Tell me what’s wrong… why you’re having a hard time with the scene.” She began, reaching her hand over to his knee as she began to gently rub the inside of his thigh. “Don’t you think I’m beautiful? Don’t I turn you on?” she spoke softly into his ear.
He sighed and turned to look at her. “Of course you’re beautiful. I just… it isn’t about whether I’m turned on or not, it’s-”
He looked around and blinked. “Are we stopped? Where are we? Is that a dance club? Is that Cobalt? Do we have reservations to get into Cobalt or something?”
She lifted her fingertip to his chin, turning it toward her. “Don’t you worry about where we are. Just let me help you figure out the scene. Here… why don’t I do this…”
Yvette turned and slipped her dress up to her hips, and he saw that she wasn’t wearing panties. She slid her thighs over his legs and moved down directly over his crotch. He looked up at her and started to shake his head, just as she leaned in and pressed her lips against his, holding his face in her hands as she began to sway her hips back and forth over his groin.
“No!” he said sharply, turning his head from hers and planting his hands on her waist, trying to push her back off of him. She grabbed his face firmly in her hands and looked into his eyes. “This is practice, baby. We’re rehearsing. You’re having a problem getting hot with me, so we need to work on it, and you need to figure out how to get turned on by me, and how to make it look like you really want me, or you’re going to lose the part to John Phillips. Is that what you want?”
Tristan grimaced. “No,” he said shortly.
She slid herself back down over his crotch and kissed his mouth long and slow before lifting her lips from his.
“Then you follow my lead, and we work on this together.”
She smiled slyly at him as she reached her hands up to the back of her neck and unhooked the halter on her dress. The white satin loosened and slowly she peeled it down the front of her body, revealing her breasts to him as she grinned triumphantly.
“Touch me…” she purred, taking his hands in hers and cupping them around her breasts. She let her head fall back as his fingers closed around the fullness of them. With a soft moan, she began to rock her body against him, as she leaned forward and closed her right arm around the back of his neck.
Yvette moaned again as she closed her lips over his, kissing him softly, tracing her tongue over his mouth and parting his lips open, moving harder against him as she deepened her kiss. He tried to pull his hands from her breasts, but her free hand moved his hand back to where it had been,
and she closed his fingers tighter around her flesh.
Tristan wasn’t at all sure that he wanted to be where he was, and he was just about to stop Yvette when the back door of the limousine opened and lights flashed everywhere inside the limousine, blinding them both as they turned and looked in shock toward a sea of cameras and people.
Tristan yanked his hands from Yvette’s bare breasts, and pushed her off of his lap as he turned his head away from the door, and the driver waited another moment before he closed the door sharply and went back to his seat in the front, driving the car away from the curb and the hot dance club.
Tristan sat back against the seat aghast. He shook his head, covering his face with his hands for a moment before he turned to look at Yvette.
“Oh my god… I can’t believe that just happened. Are you alright? Are you-”
He stopped and stared at her. She was laughing, sitting beside him, bare breasted, leaning against the seat, watching him.