Mason kissed down my neck, leaving footprints of sensation that traced down to my collarbone. I moaned and arched my back, my body hungry for this second helping of Mason.
Don’t look at the camera, don’t look at the camera… I thought to myself. Though, it was surprisingly easy as I got lost in Mason.
Before I knew it, our shirts were both off and we were skin to skin. I could feel his ab muscles graze against my own as he rubbed his chest on mine.
My cock was aching so much, building up so much pressure that I thought it would explode. Thankfully, there was a blanket on top of me so no one could see my hardness.
But I knew Mason could feel it; I could feel his hardness against my leg too, pushing against me.
I let my body take over, longing for him.
Everything else about this scene may have been fake; may have been trying to convince the audience that we were these characters doing these sexual things.
But we couldn't’ fake the chemistry. That was undeniably real.
Right when I thought I couldn’t take any more, Reese cried, “Cut!”
And suddenly, Mason rolled off of me.
He still wouldn’t look me in the eye. No congratulations, no words of encouragement, no acknowledgment that I was anyone at all. He simply turned to the crew and smiled. “We got it all in one take?” he asked.
“Yeah, you did,” Reese said breathlessly.
I could tell from the way the corner of his mouth was burrowing deeper into his face that he couldn’t believe it himself.
Mason got off the bed and high-fived the cameraman in a self-congratulatory way. Even though he was going around the room and chatting with the crew members, telling them that we couldn’t have done it without them, I knew that he was secretly praising himself.
He thought he’d carried the scene.
I sat up from the bed and pulled my clothes back on.
Everyone in the room’s eyes were on Mason, just like he wanted.
Everyone except Reese. He was looking at me with this weird glint in his eye, as if he was seeing me for the first time.
“Charlie,” he said, approaching me on the bed. “Can I speak to you alone for a second?”
The smile that had been creeping onto my face faltered. I’d screwed everything up; I’d ruined it. Reese no longer needed me, now that he’d gotten that scene out of me.
“Sure,” I said, standing up. Then I followed him out of the room to face my doom.
Chapter Seventeen
I followed Reese out of the room and out into the hall, the dread swirling in my gut.
He was being weirdly twitchy; that same kind of nervousness from earlier that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
He swung a right into an empty room. This one was an empty ancient room in the castle, and hadn’t been touched by the set designers.
Once the door shut behind us, I held my breath.
“Charlie, can I be honest with you?” Reese asked, those gray eyes boring into me.
“Y-yes?” I answered meekly. I was steeling myself, preparing to get fired. In my head, I was already making plans to move back to L.A., to try to get an apartment in the same area I used to live, to figure out how to beg for my old job at the salon back…
“I’ve never seen anything like the performance I just saw,” Reese said breathlessly.
I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. “Wait, r-really?” I said, not daring to believe it. “Like, you’ve never seen anything so bad?”
Reese smiled, a little bit of that old magic coming back into his eyes. “No, I’ve never seen anything so good,” he said.
“You’re joking,” I said, searching his face for any sign of pulling my leg.
“I’m quite serious,” he said. “I’ve never seen a natural like you.”
“Mason carried the scene,” I doubted.
“Mason looked like nothing more than a prop next to you,” Reese said. “Please tell me you’ve been acting for a long time,”
“Um… no? I mean, I acted in high school theatre a little…” I trailed off.
Reese shifted, eyeing me like a hawk. “That’s a load of rubbish. You’re an experienced actor.”
All I had done was just feel that same chemistry from last night flow through me and pretended the cameras weren’t there. But I seemed to have tricked Reese into thinking I had some kind of talent.
“You can’t tell me,” he said leaning in closer, one of his dark eyebrows quirking up, “That this entire time, you’ve been doing hair for a living?”
“I have,” I said, still scanning his face for any kind of cruel joke that might be lurking there.
He ran one of his palms over his face, then muttered something that sounded like, “Wasted…”
Then he blinked a few times and met my eyes again. “We need you in more scenes. I don’t care what it takes — we’ll find a way to get you into the script.”
“I… I—”
“No, Charlie. I know talent when I see it. I’ve been in this business for twenty-two years now, and I’ve never seen this kind of magic happen in a scene.”
I felt like he must be joking. There was no way that someone as insignificant and… and ordinary as myself was able to do what Reese was describing. He had to be talking about someone else.
“Are you sure you two haven’t shagged already?” Reese said.
My gut twisted at the truth, but I shook my head. “No…” I said, the lie coming out through my teeth.
“You could have fooled me and everyone in that room,” Reese said with a look of wonder on his face. “The chemistry is nothing short of magnetic, and the camera picks up on that. The audience will too.” His eyes were glimmering as if he’d struck gold.
“Are you open to doing more scenes?” Reese asked.
“Yes,” I said without hesitation. Then I thought about it for a second and asked, “Wait, which character am I going to play? Still that
