Chapter Ten
They both woke up in a tangled heap on a chaise lounge, just as the sun peaked on the horizon. Light flooded the large space around them.
Jacob tried to stretch and found a soft thigh wrapped around his mid-section. Blinking his eyes, he stilled. Anna, him, and sex that had been out of this world. He smiled and let out a sigh.
Then he bolted upright. Yes, fool. Anna, you, sex. The film and the paparazzi!
Anna squealed as he’d upended her and she tried to hang on.
Grabbing her up, he pulled her close.
“You scared me,” she whispered to his ear.
His entire body shivered. What the fuck? Her voice made him shiver like a schoolboy? He chuckled to try and push the anxiety away. “I had one of those moments. You know when you wake up naked, in a strange solarium next to an Olympian sized swimming pool with a major movie star wrapped around you like a tasty pretzel?”
Anna stilled at this, then she laughed loudly.
He grinned. Then realized it really wasn’t AT ALL funny. His smile dropped.
Her laughter slowed to a chuckle as her eyes sparkled with mirth. “You are so funny too. I never knew this about you. I just thought you were…” Her voice faded away.
“That I was…?” he urged.
She pursed her full well kissed looking lips and shook her head.
He stared at those lips knowing he’d made them look like that. He did them justice—he knew this for sure. “Come on, tell me. I mean we just shared bodily fluids, spanking, orgasms, and I even gave you tongue.”
She again, burst out into laughter. “No…I wouldn’t want to hurt your feelings. You really aren’t like that.”
He raised a brow. “Go ahead. Lay it on me. I’m a big boy, remember?””
As if she couldn’t help it, Anna again burst into laughter and raised her hand as if to ask him to stop. Then she seemed to gain control as she sighed and lowered her head. “I thought you were the world’s biggest egotistical prick. Arrogant, womanizing and couldn’t get through a room full of mirrors without stopping at every one of them and looking at yourself.” She raised her gaze to peek at him.
With a dramatic hurt expression, he pulled his head back. “Well…just…OUCH!”
She then laughed again.
He shrugged. “Yes. Well. The womanizing part you found out is not true. As to the prick part? Hey, I poke hard. I do not prick.” He used his thick Brit tinged accent again.
Her laughter got out of control as she held her bare sides.
“Then as for the mirrors?” He shrugged. “I do not deny it. Unlike most people, I do love them.” He beamed at her.
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “No, you are a treasure of a man. You are a god in bed. You are powerful. Then I never laughed like this in a long time.”
Jacob looked into her eyes. She was being sincere and he didn’t think he’d ever received such a huge compliment from a woman before. One that wasn’t star struck anyway. “Thank you.”
She pulled back. “So, I guess we’d better discuss it.”
He knew what she meant but he didn’t want to face it just yet. “IT?”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
He sighed. “Yes, I do. I suppose we do not…we can’t…” Shit, get it out Jacob.
“I know. We cannot see each other like this anymore.”
Well, shit. He knew this was so, but to be dumped, instead of getting to dump her? “What if we wait till the film is done?” He caught his breath. Did I just say that?
Staring at his face, she shook her head. Then she scooted off the lounge.
He watched her beautiful form, those sweet breasts that still had little pink marks where had played with them a little too hard.
Standing, she looked down at him. Leaning forward, she grasped his face. “You know we can’t be together. You just do not want to hurt me.” She lowered her body and kissed him sweetly, gently.
Jacob found himself pulling her down and deepening the kiss. He did not want to let this woman go. He knew he needed to. But…
She pulled away and stood up again. “Yes and damn, can you kiss me to oblivion.” She stepped back. “We will have to use our skills to act better than we have in our whole careers. Like we have no personal relationship. We do not want to be Page One.”
He nodded. She said aloud exactly, what Jacob knew already.
She walked over and bent down to grab her red dress from the deck floor.
His eyes took it all in. So hot. Her ass still looked a little pink. All he wanted to do was to kiss and caress it. He shook his head and found her staring at him.
Anna slipped the dress on, then her shoes. She went over and picked up her wig. “Wanna help me get this on right?”
He nodded and stood up.
Her eyes dropped along his body.
Never one to be shy, he was very used to being nude, he kept his expression blank as he helped her tuck her red hair up and under it. He straightened it and took a look at her. “It’s good.” More than good. The woman woke up looking flawless. No touch ups needed.
Anna grabbed his face and kissed him on the cheek. “Damn it, you were perfect,” she whispered and turned away.
Jacob stood there naked in more ways than one and watched her leave. Exactly what he’d thought to say to her. But he didn’t say a thing.
In some ways, he felt like a million bucks as people often put it, at least in this country. In other ways, there were some strange nudges, emotions he couldn’t quite grasp. He got what he needed right? But the who he’d gotten from? How crazy was that? He asked himself as he dressed before dawn, Monday morning. Shooting started today. All day yesterday, he’d thought about that party, the fact that he and Anna had both went there in disguise to find each other and fulfill what they both needed.
Fate.
Steward had always told him he believed in it. Jacob would argue there was no such thing. Of course, he would think this. He liked being in control. So to think if some concept or ideal like fate floating around out there and directing your life? No. Certainly not. He thought it was just about as believable as the damn tooth fairy.
He opted out of a tie. No sense in it. He would be going straight to the dresser. His lines had been memorized days ago. He grabbed his keys, laptop and phone. He did feel that bit of elation at the prospect of getting into the meat of filming. Big scenes, depth. The feeling. Then his walk slowed as he neared his front door.
Depth in the scenes with Anna, or Eve as the script had her named. Him as Dade. He rolled his eyes, the name was as stupid as…Collan? He smiled. Damn it, he never asked why she’d said she was Lydia Snow. He needed to look into that. He sighed and shook his head. Why? It was personal interest and this he should not have. Crap.
He set his alarm and headed out. Just focus on the shoot. You are Jacob Cooper. You do not lose focus or direction. Not for anyone. Let alone a woman.
When he arrived, it was as he expected. No one else here. He had always been the first on the set. Once the crew worked with him for a few days, they knew he was the first there and the last to…
Standing at the coffee machine was Anna.
Well shit! She beat him here. He shook his head as he smiled. So how should he act? Might as well, start off with ‘you are new to me’ attitude, even if no one else was around. He walked up to the other table that had the tea. Yes, he started his day with it. He was English after all. He could not get past the bitterness of coffee.
He reached out to grab a cup then heard a crash behind him.
He flipped around to see Anna standing there—her mug of coffee puddling on the floor. He looked from the spilled coffee up to her face. “Are you okay?”
She swallowed and nodded her head. “I just never expected anyone to be here. I mean I’m always—”
“—the first to arrive and the last to leave?” he asked as he raised a brow at her.
Mutely, she nodded.
“Well, now there are two of us.” He laughed and grabbed some napkins. He knelt down and swabbed up the coffee.
“Oh, no don’t do that,” she whispered.
He raised his gaze up. “Why not?”
She smiled. “Having Jacob Cooper cleaning up my stupid mess?”
Shaking his head, he picked up the soaked napkins and her mug. “It’s okay.” He stepped forward and moved the napkin to his left hand. “It is nice to meet you Anna Halloway.” He stuck his hand out.
Her eyes widened and she grasped his hand.
Yep. A shock ran up along his arm and by her expression, she was experiencing the same thing.
With a bit if a shaky panic in her eyes, Anna looked around and dropped his hand.
He stepped over and grabbed a mug. “Here, let me get you another. Then we can go sit and discuss our first scene, before the crew arrives.”
She nodded. “Sure.”
Jacob filled her mug. “You like it with cream and sugar, yes?”
Silence came from behind him.
He turned his head to look back at her.
Anna looked a bit stunned. “H-how did you know?”
He motioned his head at the floor. “The puddle was milky and sticky.”
Looking relieved, she smiled. “O-okay. Yes, two sugars please.”
He took a deep breath. Yes, they could do this. Just keep it all to the side. After all, it was what he did normally. Personal over here. Work over there. He swung around with both cups and watched her walk away. Her ass in that skirt looked so sweet as it bounced just enough to give a man ideas. He paused as he remembered the feel of her soft cheeks in his palms. Fuck! He took a deep breath, shook his head and stepped forward. You can do this, Jacob.
They sat in their chairs one marked Cooper, the other with Halloway. They sipped at their morning drinks.
“So, umm this first scene?’ she spoke breaking the quiet.
Nodding, he set his cup down and lifted the script. “We just meet up again after three years.” He looked over at her. “I come back to my home town, where my family are generational coal miners, you own the local bar. We had a relationship in the past before I left. Then this scene here is in a bar.”
She nodded and gazed down at her laptop reading the cue out loud, “Loud music, people jostling.”
He raised a brow. “You have the script on your laptop?”
She smiled. “Yes. I mean I lose paper. Most do it this way. It’s not that I don’t prefer the old tradition.” She looked back down at the screen.
“Hmmm.”
She glanced back up.” What?’
“Nothing. I mean I only use the sides for day to day.” He raised up the few sheets that were less than half script and not the full pages. “But each to their own. Now, as to this scene.”
“I think it is like this… Eve is angry, but hides it underneath one liners and flirtation, she’s leery of him. Dade is too good looking, too charming and expects that to allow him back in.”
Jacob stared at her. “Yes, and she is too pretty, too uptight and should let that shit go.”
She gazed at him. “Yes, exactly the feeling I had.”
Exactly! “So as they say, we are on the same page.”
Smiling back at him, she said, “Yes. So I looked at the rushes yesterday.”
He raised his head. “You did?”
Nodding, she smiled.
“But that means you were here, yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“So do you often work the weekends too?” He couldn’t believe this. It meant she worked even harder or at least longer than he did.
“Yes.” She shrugged and tapped some keys on her laptop. “People say I consume the work instead of—”
“—it consuming you.” Yes, this had been said about Jacob too. Wow. He never expected this. Damn, this movie could go fast and smooth.
Anna smiled. “So, anyway. I was about to say. Have you spoken to the director about this buddy of Dade’s?”
He kept staring at her. Then he caught himself. “You mean Hammer?”
“Yes, well. His lines. I mean they were…”
He beamed at her. She’d seen it too!
She sat up straighter in her chair. “What?”
“If you were going to say stiff, unrealistic and no depth. I so agree.”
Looking stunned, she smiled back at him. “Yes! Exactly.”
“Well, we did a pick up and he did a little better.” Damn, she was good. No one else seemed to notice that actor’s delivery except him.
“A little better?” She set her laptop down.
He’d never seen this expression on her face before. It looked like disgust? Well, hell all he’d ever seen was ecstasy and laughter. Back to it, Jacob. No memory lane shit, even if it will be in the sexiest memory archives hall of fame, perhaps surpassing the twins completely. “Yeah, I agree. Good is not good enough. Better is—”
“—even worse,” she finished for him.
Jacob allowed himself to look surprised and unlike normally, he didn’t even hide it. “Philman?”
Beaming, she nodded. “I got two months.”
He stared at her. They were speaking about the best acting coach in the industry. He himself had only gotten 30 days. “Really?”
“Yes, the hardest, most grueling, most awesome sixty days I ever spent.”
He agreed. “The man could have taught Shakespeare a thing or two.”
“…about a thing or two,” she added with a chuckle.
Well, shit. This woman was all shades of surprise for him.
She took a deep breath and looked away.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing.” She bit at her lip.
Damn, he loved it when she did that, bit at her lip like he wanted to do. It was so sexy…
“Hey!”
They both looked up to see the boom crew come in.
Then they both nodded and gave all of them a warm smile and friendly waves. Then they looked at each other and said, “Treat them like stars!” at the same time. Another thing Philman taught, never show ego to the crews, they made you look good, always treat them like stars Staring at each other, they both sat still.
“Shit…” Jacob muttered.
“Yes, shit,” she replied.
“Okay, wow!”
They both looked up to see the director grinning at them. “My two stars sitting and collaborating.”
Yes, Jacob thought. Collaboration of minds, hearts and work ethic. He winced at the unbidden thought. Shut the fuck up!
“So, I will have the AD call out the call sheet. Of course, you are both on it. Ready for the meet scene?”
The couple nodded.
He looked between them. “Everything good?”
Oh, shit. Jacob thought. He picked up on something. “Yes, we talked this morning, going over the Shot list and discussing the meet scene.” Whoa up, Jacob TMI overkill.
Nodding her head, Anna smiled at the director. “We will work together just fine.”
The man stared at them for a moment. “Well, great! I hate it when the two leadings don’t get along. Makes my job harder. That shit transfers to the screen sometimes.” He paused. “But with you two, I suppose it won’t.” He walked on.
They both sat quietly. Jacob didn’t know what Anna was thinking but he was panicked. Transfer to the big screen. Would their spark transfer? He tried to reason with Mr. Panic. Only for good chemistry, so calm the fuck down.
Without any more conversation, they both went to makeup and hair.