Chapter Ten
Things were going well, which made Kate nervous.
She clutched her Solo cup, which was half-full of watery beer, and looked around the barn-like room her cast and crew had taken over for the night. It was one of those mysterious pockets of silence and solitude that sometimes happened, when no one was tugging at her sleeve either mentally or physically and she had five minutes alone with her thoughts.
After a week of being on set, she had already forgotten how good being alone was.
The barn was called The Ranch and was one of Los Imperalis’ two bars along the main – and only – street. There was a single set of traffic lights in the town and this was the only town for thirty miles. The set, currently, was ten miles away in the desert, while they were shooting the battle scenes and easing Sauvage into the role with some good old fashioned blood, guts and sword wielding. It gave him time to get his lines down for the rest of the script.
Los Imperalis was base camp for the shoot, which would last another four weeks here before heading back to her studio for indoor scenes. The indoor sets were being built at the studio while they were away, and part of her evenings was spent pouring over high resolution photos of progress to date.
But not tonight. They had logged one week of filming and tonight was celebrating the milestone, along with a party to thank the sponsors.
It galled her that Garrett got to be one of the good guys standing on the stage being hailed for his generosity. It riled her even more that his applause was discernably louder than anyone else’s as they were announced. Garrett was a celebrity in his own right. And after a week of being on set with everyone, he had made friends and influenced people enough that the applause actually seemed genuine.
“Asshole,” she whispered into her cup, as he waved off the applause and gave a little bow.
He was wearing jeans, just like everyone else on the set who wasn’t in costume. That had shocked her, right there, the first time she had spotted him moving amongst the organized hysteria of first day set up. If she had stopped to think about it beforehand, she would have assumed even Garrett would give up his thousand dollar suits for the California desert and the inelegant camping conditions everyone put up with.
But she hadn’t spared Garrett a thought that didn’t involve four letter words and body parts under extreme pressure. Even those had been rare, because the last eight days before driving down here had been frantic with preparations.
It didn’t help that Garrett had delivered on his side of the contract and more. Patrick Sauvage had turned up in her studio the very next day, along with Garrett and a tall man with black hair turning prematurely grey...or perhaps it was highlighted. It was sometimes hard to tell, these days. But the man had been wearing a variation of the universal uniform of security guards in the entertainment world: Black jeans, and a black tee-shirt with a V-neck. Black sneakers. The shirt was snug around his biceps, proving they were well developed, but not steroid-induced large. And he had heavy shoulders, too.
His eyes were arresting. Blue so blue it looked like it had been touched up by the best digital remix artist in the world. Except that Kate was looking right at him, and they were real enough. They made her think of Roman`s eyes, except the blue of this man`s eyes was even more pure than Roman`s. They were astonishing.
“This is...what was your name, sorry?” Garrett asked the man.
“David.” The man nodded at Kate. “Just pretend I’m not here.”
Sauvage scowled.
She put it together. This, then, was Sauvage’s nursemaid. The man stepped back, deliberately removing himself from the conversation.
Sauvage took a deep breath. “Right,” he said, giving her a smile that showed some effort. “What’s first?”
She had picked up the clipboard with the list of things they had to take care of as quickly as possible – costume fittings, hair and make-up, prosthetics, weaponry and more – and had slid into business, able to dismiss Garrett from her mind because matters had been so pressing.
But at the end of the meeting, Garrett had pushed the sleeve of his jacket aside to check his watch, then glanced at her. “Los Imperalis and the locations around it aren’t likely to have much in the way of Wi-Fi out there.” He pointed to her laptop sitting on the desk. “How will that hamstring you?”
“I haven’t looked into it yet,” she said. “My computer specialist who takes care of that stuff was one of the ones you had run out of the country.”
Garrett lifted a brow. “I’d apologize, but you used illegal labour in the first place. It gave me leverage. You might remember that in future.” He held up his hand as she opened her mouth to reply. “I have a man – he’s very good. He could make sure that, wherever you are, there’s a Wi-Fi hotspot working. One big enough and strong enough to support the entire cast and crew’s on-line needs.”
“He could do that in the middle of the desert?” Kate asked, trying not to be impressed.
“He could,” Garrett confirmed.
“That would be...useful,” she replied, struggling to avoid sounding too pathetically grateful. In fact, until Garrett had pointed it out, she had forgotten this essential but minor detail. It was administrative trivia on her radar, but one that could give her giant morale headaches on the set a few weeks in when everyone had been isolated for too long. Jose Avelar had simply taken care of that stuff for her.
Garrett had filled in quite a few holes in her preparations, she realized. True, they were holes he had helped create. But she wouldn’t have been location-ready in time if he hadn’t offered the people and resources he had ended up providing. Every time she had accepted his help or taken on another one of the people he “just happened to know,” her jaw had clenched tighter and her gut had twisted harder.
Her thoughts about Garrett, therefore, had not been at all kindly, when she spared him thought at all.
Adrian had seemed to be able to pluck the thoughts from her mind. Adrian...she had many spare moment thoughts about Adrian. If it hadn’t been for him, she suspected she would have gone into total nuclear meltdown by day three on the set.
He had seemed to know exactly when Garrett himself, or Garrett’s latest activity had pushed one too many of her buttons. He would pluck her pen, her computer or her cellphone – sometimes two or all of them at once – from her hands, and drag her somewhere moderately private, and drive her crazy with lust as he did things with her body she hadn’t been aware were possible. Sixty seconds in his arms or with his mouth on her flesh, and all thoughts about Garrett and the movie disappeared, drowned and washed away in the rising tide of need.
She hadn’t realized that Adrian would take his role as sex toy quite so seriously, but she had found out right after Garrett and Sauvage had left the first day after she had signed the deal.
Adrian had kneaded her shoulders as they watched Garrett leave the trailer. “Relax,” he murmured. “Deep breath. You’re way too wound up.”
“I used to admire Garrett, Adrian. Why did I ever think he was brilliant?”
“He is,” Adrian replied. “But you’re the object of his brilliant scheming this time around and it’s not fun being the target. Remember the goal in all this.”
She took a deep breath. And another one, imagining what it would be like when that day came. “Yeah. You might have to keep reminding me for a while. I see Garrett, I just want to castrate him. Now.”
“That’s not good. He’s still got a useful half-life, yet.” Adrian stood her up and turned her to face him. “Let’s get you unwound.”
He had stripped her, one item of clothing per step, as he led her to her bedroom. They didn’t reach the bed that time, either. He had pushed her up against the wall, picked up her hips and driven into her, hard and deep just as she had wanted it.
She had come within forty-five seconds, but still he had kept thrusting, his cock sliding out of her for almost its full length before surging back into her. And damned if she didn’t find herself responding again, her body gathering around his cock as the pleasure escalated. She squirmed and bucked in his hands, panting, as the orgasm built.
Adrian’s eyes were narrowed, his jaw clenched as he orchestrated her pleasure, holding back his own. “Scream, Kate,” he whispered.
It reminded her of how he had fucked her on her desk and the powerful orgasms she had experienced.
The reminder was just what she needed to reach her climax now. She peaked and could feel herself clenching around him as she came. Adrian groaned, his thrusts shortening, as he came with her.
When her heartbeat was steady once more, he picked her up and put her on her feet. “Back to work,” he told her, pushing her toward the door. “Although you may want to get dressed, first.”
That was the first of almost daily quick interludes, where Adrian would suddenly appear, just as her temper was starting to spill over, and distract her in the sweetest way possible. He was a master of the quickie and in the eight days before the trailers and main crew had headed for the south of California, he had taken her in some of the oddest and most outrageously daring places possible.
Once, he had fucked her into a sense-stealing orgasm, while he sat naked upon the big throne that was sitting on the dais in the set that was being built for Murad’s throne room in Constantinople. She had straddled him, just as naked, facing the camera that was already set up for the crew to check framing possibilities. Her heart had run faster and her climax had been all the more powerful because the green operational light was glowing on the top of the camera. If anyone happened to be sitting in the mixing booth, they would have been privy to the entire carnal act.
And at night...at night... When Kate had been finally ready to drive home that first day after signing Garrett’s poisonous contract, it had been close to midnight. As she stepped out of the trailer and locked it, Adrian straightened up from where he had been leaning against the back of the new sets going up. “Ready for home?” he asked.
“You’re not...you didn’t wait for me, did you?”
“There’s no way I’m letting you drive yourself home after a day like you’ve had. You’re too tired.” He took her keys from her hands. “When did you last eat?”
She tried to recollect what she had eaten for dinner. Then to recall if she had eaten dinner at all. Or had the pizza slice been lunch?
“Too long,” Adrian said.
“What?”
“You’re taking too long to remember, which means it’s been too long since you ate.” He picked up her hand. “Come on. I’ll take you home.”
“My home, Adrian. I have calls, and paperwork and god knows—”
He touched her lips with his finger, silencing her. “Of course, your place.”
She let him drive her home... in his Maserati. He drove fast but well, taking advantage of openings in the traffic that a slower car simply couldn’t have stolen. After five minutes of watching him drive and manipulate the gears with non-flashy efficiency, Kate found herself relaxing.
“I suppose you know where I live, too,” she said.
“I don’t need directions, if that’s what you’re asking.” He picked up her hand from her lap and held it for a moment. “You said you wanted me to substitute for all the men you bed when you’re on a shooting schedule. And you fuck men to relax and unwind...and because it makes you happy. So let me do my job, Kate.”
“Your job?” she repeated carefully, trying not to sound either shocked or amused. “Isn’t that perilously close to being bought?”
He glanced at her, and his glance was full of amusement and a heat she had learned, finally, to recognize as lust. “I volunteered for this assignment. All the difference in the world.”
She was forced to let his hand go as he reached for the gear stick to change down for a corner. “I think you’re as much of a control freak as me, Adrian. You just hide it better.”
His answer was a long time coming. “Maybe,” he said at last. “But control the way you mean it doesn’t exist. That’s one thing I’ve learned to give up on.” He nosed the car onto Ventura Highway, and settled back for the fast drive north towards the hills. “Did you hear about the deal Greg Evershot made for himself today? He obviously isn’t hurting too much over missing out on your movie.”
And for the rest of the drive Adrian had filled her in on industry gossip and news, his voice soft.
By the time he stopped the Maserati with its nose against the iron grille gate protecting the drive of her house, Kate had been drifting off to sleep. Adrian had been right to insist on driving her home. She was dead like last summer’s releases.
She gave him the code for the gate. “You may as well know it, too,” she told him. He’d pulled up in front of the house and retrieved two bags of food from the back seat, with Spano’s written on them. He had bought dinner.
Kate opened the front door, and led him through to the kitchen, and was relieved to see the cleaning service had been around that day. Everything was spotless.
She perched on the barstool in front of the kitchen counter. “I’m suddenly ravenous,” she confessed as he pulled out boxes and bags.
He laughed. “You need a nanny, Kate. We should find you someone like that Annette assistant that Garrett tows around with him. Only, she can make sure you eat regularly, as well.”
Kate shuddered. “I don’t need a caretaker, thanks. This will be my twelfth movie. My routine is locked in now. Clearly, it’s not a fatal one.”
Adrian pushed the Cobb salad he had arranged on the plate toward her and handed her the fork he fished out of the drawer next to his hip. “With Garrett in the mix, it might be. Eat.”
She scooped up egg and bacon bits and studied him. “It’s that what you’re doing? Trying to compensate for Garrett?”
He considered the question, leaning on the counter with his forearms in a way that made the muscles in his arms and shoulders flex and bulge. He was wearing a sleeveless black tee-shirt and the effect would have been distracting if Kate had been any less hungry than she was right now. “I suppose I am, in a way,” he replied. His gaze met hers. “Do you mind?”
Kate ate her forkful and swallowed, shaking her head. “It’s probably a good thing,” she replied, loading her fork again. “I get tunnel visioned while on location. With him around it’s nice to know you’re watching my back.”
“Among other things,” Adrian growled.
But when she had finished eating, exhaustion had slammed her with a hammer-blow. She could barely stay on the stool.
Adrian circled the counter and picked her up. “Time for sleep,” he told her and carried her upstairs. He hesitated at the top of the stairs, and she knew he was guessing which way to go.
“First door on the right,” she murmured and yawned.
He carried her all the way into the bedroom and placed her on the bed. Then, with surprisingly gentle hands, he took off her clothes and tucked her under the covers.
“You’re not staying?” she asked, rousing herself from the sleep that was trying to take her away.
“Do you want me to?”
“I don’t want you to have to drive across the city this time of night.”
“I live ten minutes away, Kate.” She heard laughter in his tone.
“I don’t want to wake up to an empty bed,” she confessed.
“Ah.” He sat on the bed. “Yet another reason to drag men home every night, hmm?”
She grimaced. “It’s a weakness. So now you know.”
He had stayed, wrapped around her body as she drifted off to sleep. And the next morning she had woken to his mouth nibbling on her neck and his hand over her breast, his fingers stroking the nipple erect. His cock had been stiff against the back of her hip. Kate had transitioned from sleepy consciousness to arousal as his fingers played with her. When he pushed her knee forward and slid into her from behind, her vagina was slick and ready for him. He pushed his hand between her thighs and his fingers found her clit and began to tease and stroke as he thrust up into her.
She had climaxed as he did, clutching the pillow and squeezing it hard. It had been a great way to wake up.
All her mornings since then, she had been woken by Adrian’s hands and mouth on her, his hard big body waking and rousing her in a way that cold showers and even some of the best sex she’d had pre-Adrian had ever managed to do.
Adrian had not let her down all week. He had been there when she least expected it, with food, to drive her where she needed to go, with unexpectedly good suggestions about sets, props and more. She began to understand why he was doing so well in Hollywood when every man and his dog was trying to buy up props from famous movie sets and make a buck from them. Adrian’s attitude was different. He served a different customer base. He wasn’t selling celebrity knickknacks to fans. He was recycling sets, props, costumes and paraphernalia within the industry and he dealt almost exclusively with directors and production companies.
The best part about Adrian was one she found hard to admit enjoying, even to herself.
Garrett didn’t like him.
It had taken a day or two for Kate to realize Garrett resented Adrian’s presence whenever he tried to talk to her and miraculously, whenever he did need to speak to her, Adrian just happened to be there. Then she started watching Garrett’s reactions more closely and realized it wasn’t just that Adrian was a third wheel in their discussions. Garrett didn’t like Adrian personally.
It was subtle, almost hidden, but as a director, Kate had learned to spot emotions in expressions and gestures and enhance them as necessary. So Garrett’s distaste had been as clear as a text message for her, once she spotted the signs.
Adrian’s hand touched the small of her back – about the maximum physical contact he indulged in when they were in public. Their relationship wasn’t a declared thing and Kate wasn’t sure she could define what they were even if someone asked. But she was the director and producer and next to God as far as this movie was concerned, so no one questioned her about the man that seemed to hang around the set with nothing to do but watch her work. Hollywood thrived on gossip, though, so she knew with utter certainty that it would have been noted that Adrian was living in her trailer. Everything else would remain idle speculation unless either of them said anything in public.
She glanced up at him as he stood next to her and let his gaze travel around the room. He had a Solo cup in his hand, too. “Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.”
“Garrett’s endless supply of beer might have something to do with that.” She glanced at the amber liquid in her own cup. Beer was simply not her drink, but while she was shooting, she didn’t drink anything harder. She put the cup on the shelf running around the four sides of the big square pillar she was standing next to. Hers was not the first cup placed there.
“So...first week of filming in the can. How do you feel?” Adrian asked.
“Tense,” she admitted. She spotted Garrett again. She had lost track of him in the swirl and mix of people amongst the tables and on the dance floor. But now she saw he was standing next to a table where his assistant sat next to the computer nerd Garrett had bought out. The nerd was another big guy, but not quite as tall as Garrett. He wore glasses with thick lenses and had long, lanky brown hair that tonight was pulled back into a semi-neat ponytail at the back of his neck. Kate realized he had a well-defined jaw and a classically shaped-nose.
She hadn’t noticed him much at all this week, because he spent most of his time in the trailer with the computer equipment that generated their Wi-Fi hotspot, babying it along as it was running on the power of its own generator. There was something about generator power that computers apparently didn’t like. At least, that was what Kate had overheard him muttering as he had helped Sauvage get his laptop hooked into the network.
“Why are you tense?” Adrian asked. “There hasn’t been anything major go wrong that I’ve noticed.”
“That’s just it. Nothing has gone wrong.” She wiped moisture from her palm that had condensed there from the chill of the beer. “There have been a few minor things, but they’re hiccups. That’s part of being on location. But to have absolutely nothing go wrong at all? For a whole week?” She shook her head. “It’s not natural. There’s too many individuals trying to pretend they’re working as a team, when their egos would prefer this all be about them. Hollywood was built on the star system and it has been perpetuated by the people in it ever since. Then there’s the fact that we’re on location, and our supply line is five hours away in San Francisco — it’s a small miracle that we’re still able to eat and bathe, let alone make a movie. But it’s all just...happening.”
“You’re waiting for the shoe to drop,” Adrian guessed.
She nodded. “What’s going to be my Vesuvius, this picture? There’s always at least one. Last movie, I was filming in Morocco and despite having all the right permits and visas and having negotiated to film there over a year before...they still kicked us out of the country after four weeks and without notice. We had to do a lot of scenes over again at a new location, and it took ten days to find somewhere to shoot. Ten very expensive days.”
“Why were you kicked out?” Adrian asked curiously.
“They said we were perverting the purity of their citizens with our Western dress and habits. But the city must have a dozen film units at least twice a month, so it wasn’t that. I’ve never found out the real reason.”
She saw a big knot of people around one of the tables sitting on the edge of the dance floo, and wondered what was happening. Then she spotted David, Patrick Sauvage’s keeper, sitting alone at the next small table and realized the knot was around Sauvage. He’d attended after all. Her stomach clenched tighter. Sauvage and drink were an explosive combination. She hoped David was worth whatever money Garret was paying him, because right now was prime danger time. Sauvage was just hitting the gritty scenes and needed to come to grips with his role. The pressure was on.
And she was about to tighten the thumbscrews, too.
“Brace yourself,” Adrian murmured. “Garrett is coming your way.”
“Great,” she muttered. “Perhaps I can convince him to get the hell off my set.”
“Don’t like your chances. He’s the good guy, tonight. He’s entrenched.”
She sighed and sent Garrett a sour smile as he worked his way through the tables toward them. “Tell me something I don’t know,” she said to Adrian.
“It was Garrett and his assistant who brought down the kitchen trailer from L.A. There wasn’t another truck and driver to spare. So Garrett hitched it himself, to save you hiring yet another driver.”
Kate glanced at him. “I meant, tell me something good.”
Adrian grinned and leaned in close to her ear, bending to do so. She felt his breath brush her face. “They talked about Warrior King on the Late Show last night. You’re already getting airtime.”
Kate looked at him properly, delight filling her. “Why didn’t you tell me? I mean, sooner? God, that’s great! It’s wonderful!” Deliberately, because she knew Garrett was watching, she leaned in closer to Adrian and kissed his cheek. It was a way of displaying warmth and comradeship that she would never extend to the man approaching her.
Ever.
* * * * *
Garrett saw Kate lean in to kiss Roman’s cheek and added that to the pile of rumours he had collected over the week. Put together with what he knew of Roman’s character made it as good as certain that Roman and the woman were intimate.
Roman had always had a weakness for humans.
He was championing her now. He was standing at her shoulder because he didn’t want Garrett messing with her life.
Garrett mentally sighed. Roman wouldn’t hear the truth even if Garrett could tell him. He was determined to make Garrett the bad guy in this and he was probably spoon-feeding the same toxins to Kate. It made Garrett’s job harder.
But not impossible.
Kate glanced at Garrett as he approached. So the little by-play, the kiss, had been for his benefit then.
Garrett halted in front of her. Not too close. Not too far away. “This was a good idea, the party. The other sponsors seem to appreciate it.”
“Why wouldn’t they? They’re mixing with movie folk.” Her mouth turned down.
She was wearing well-washed, faded jeans that clung everywhere, flat shoes and a tee-shirt that seemed to be nearly transparent with age. Her hair was pulled back into a simple ponytail and if she was wearing make-up it was bare minimum. She made the set uniform look glamorous and sexy in a low key way. Garrett normally preferred well-tailored women, but the au naturel look worked well for Kate.
Garrett gave her a dry smile. “I thought you should know we may run out of beer in the next hour, if everyone keeps drinking at the rate they’re drinking.”
Roman chuckled. “Only in Hollywood. Give ‘em free booze and they can drink you under the table.”
Kate shrugged. “If it runs out, it runs out.”
Garrett kept his tone pleasant and nuetral. “Are you sure you want to do that? This party is only really starting to get going. People need to let off steam and get to know each other better and they can’t do that on the set when tension is so high. Another barrel of beer would help.”
She almost rolled her eyes. Garrett knew she wanted to brush this off as trivial, but she was too good a manager of people to dismiss it. She put her hand on her hip and looked at him. “So where the fuck would you like me to find another barrel, boy genius? Got one stuffed up your ass?”
Roman grinned, openly enjoying Kate’s scathing attack.
“Normally I’d get one from the same place I got the first one,” Garrett replied placidly. “But that’s five hundred miles away in San Francisco. I checked with the club manager, though. He’s willing to sell me a barrel at not too much above market price, and it’s cold.”
Kate’s hand never moved from her hip. Her expression didn’t change from the tight, angry lines. “If you’ve solved the problem, Garrett, why are you bothering me with it?”
“It’s your set. You should get to say yeah or nay.”
Her expression turned sweet and her eyes opened up big, wide and innocent, so the grey was intensely focused upon him. “Like I got a say in having you here in the first place?”
Garrett held up his hand. “You’re just determined to be pissed at me, no matter what, aren’t you?”
“You’re saying I should be happy about what amounts to extortion by legal brief?”
Garrett just barely prevented his smile from showing. She wouldn’t appreciate his laughter, no matter how funny she was. “I’m here. Why don’t you enjoy the benefits I can bring to the set instead of winding yourself up to spit venom every time I get within ten feet of you? You’re already burning up way too much juice running the show. Hating me as well just drain your batteries.”
“Go away, Garrett. I might have to put up with you on my set, but I don’t have to talk to you. That wasn’t in the contract. I checked.”
He let himself smile. “I’ll get the other barrel. Have a nice evening.” He nodded at Roman. Roman was grinning, his arms crossed, thoroughly enjoying watching Kate shower her anger over him.
Garrett made himself walk away. He wasn’t going to achieve anything while Roman was there, fanning Kate’s anger.
He had to bring Kate down, cool her temper so she could start to see reason. Did that mean he had to separate the pair? Finally, after all these centuries, was he going to have to go up against Roman himself?
He shuddered at the idea.