Hearts' Desires (9 page)

             
“A lifetime!”
Jake laughed. “I first met him about 30 years ago, at
Stormbird
Studios. He stood there, smoking this
filte
r
less
killer stuff, you know, the one sparing you the extermin
a
tor at home – and w
ith hair
down to his shoulders
. Just the kind of guy you never thought would carry your luggage wit
h
out even being asked.
Yeah… old school gentleman.
- So, you had one of
those
days?”

             
“You can say that.
Uncooperative
extras, faulty equi
p
ment.
The whole story!”

Returning from the late dinner, Vance shut the door of his bung
a
low with a joyous kick, feeling a little like kicking the ass of his agent and some producers as well. Not that he was
much into pla
y
ing
family scenes –
while this idiot
Harker
gets the part of Washin
g
ton! –
but
it was a small personal joy that he was able to master it
well
, to the satisfaction of a director
like Alison Cartwright. He smiled at his reflection in the mirror over the dressing table: Well, perhaps this work
would open
the mind of some Hollywood pals to other possibilities, before he ended up as ‘Grandpa Wilkins’!

             
He took his script to prepare for the next scenes and lay down on his bed. He was about to light a cigarette, when it knocked at his door. With a sigh, he opened.
             
Outside was Lauren Bastian, the script in her hand.
“Hi, Vance!
Hope I’m not
bothering you
?”
             
Who could have answered with a ‘yes’ facing this expre
s
sion of helplessness and girlish innocence?!
Nevertheless, he was about to, for a couple of seconds at least.
             
“Not at all.
What’s up?”
             
“Uh… I thought, you could help me out with this next scene, you know? I really have difficulties to shift my mind into the one of Camilla…” She smiled beguilingly. “I thought you have a lot of e
x
perience and could help me a bit. I don’t want to mess things up again like this morning!”
             
“Okay, let’s see…” He took the script pages she handed him over. “Where’s the problem?”

             
“The scene where Louis and I have to kiss.”

             
Vance started to feel increasingly uncomfortable. He
felt he knew
exactly where this headed. Yet he couldn’t come up with a polite way out of it.

             
“It’s … I don’t know… I just feel embarrassed,” Lauren conti
n
ued. “I know I shouldn’t, because it’s unprofessional. But…” Her lowered eyelids fluttered up again and she shot a glance full of sweet poison at him. “You’ve played similar stuff. Maybe… you can help me out with this… feeling?”

             
“Always remember you’re at work, Lauren.” He tried his best to focus on the straight professional level himself and not to wan
d
er
where
she wanted him to be. “You have a particular task and you intend to do it as perfectly as you can. It’s not
important if you like it or not. It is just a task. You have to sell it, not believe it. Besides, you only have to kiss him…” Vance checked in the script “’lightly’.”

             
She sighed and, with an inconspicuously move, opened a bu
t
ton of her shirt.

             
“Sorry, Vance.
It’s just… it’s so hot in here; I have a hard time concentrating. - Yes, I told myself that, but I’m still not sure I can do it.”

             
Oh I bet you’re quite able to do a lot more…

             
“Would you mind if I take a shower right here?”
Lauren’s voice startled him. “I mean, it would be silly to go back to my room, first, and then return…”
             
“Whatever floats your boat.”
             
He stood up and went to the little refrigerator, first of all to get away from the vision of seduction Lauren was providing when she slowly rose, undulating like a snake. This girl was clearly lusting after him and was pulling out all the stops! Hearing the water from the shower, Vance sighed and hastily drained a glass of mineral water, wishing he had something much stronger at hand.

             
All too soon Lauren stepped back into the room, a towel draped around her body.
             
“Better?” He asked and felt silly.
             
Lauren reduced the distance between them with three gr
a
cious steps.

             
“Yes.
But…
I still feel very… heated
up
…”
And with that she let the towel drop and stretched her arms towards him, smiling through the rivulets of water running from her hair over her face.

             
“We should…” she started to whisper.
             
Vance bent down, took the towel and placed it around her without really looking.

             
“I think
,
YOU should go back to your place now, Lauren.
You are a talented actress; I don’t think you’ll need any help with those scenes.”
             
She stared at him. He was not sure what she was up to. There seemed to be a spark of anger in her – really beautiful, he had to admit – eyes. And her mouth curled for a second. However, then Lauren smiled again. She managed placing a kiss on his cheek, only a faint breath, but he drowned in fire nonetheless.
             
Before he could tore himself back from the seconds of trance, the young woman was out of his door.
Her clothes simply over the arm and holding the towel over her chest.
             
“God help us all…” Vance murmured. Then he stepped to the shower himself.
Her hair pulled back tightly, Alison showed up at Vance’s. She had spotted how this little harlot of Lauren Bastian left his bungalow, only dressed with a towel. Alison felt angry and strangely hurt, an emotional reaction which she found abs
o
lutely inappropriate – and thus she was annoyed even more.
             
He opened and gave exactly the sight she had expected: ‘dressed’ in a bath towel, too.
             
“Alison, sorry, just took a shower.”
             
“I suppose you needed one.” Her voice was a mixture of acid and ice.
             
“Come in, please.”
             
“What I have to say, I can say standing here, Mr. Van S
o
rel.”
             
“Uh, what happened to ‘Vance’?”
             
“I don’t care about your sordid private life. However, HERE you are on MY set. And I don’t want certain things going on, that I can read about a few days later in the tabloids! Did I make myself clear?”
             
He began to understand.
“Things having something to do
with Lauren Bastian, right?
– Well, let me tell you, she was the one who tried to make a pass at me!
And very enthusiastica
l
ly, for that ma
t
ter!”
             
“Of course you resisted courageously,” Alison spit sarca
s
tica
l
ly. Hopefully he would spare her the typical excuses! In fact, she was only his boss, not his poor wife! This stuff did not interest her in the slightest!
             
“Disappointed because I don’t live up to your low opinion of me?”
             
A part of her was, indeed. On her way to the bungalow she had already buried Vance van Sorel alongside other complacent machos she had known so far. She opened her mouth, but not looking in her direction, because reaching for a T-shirt, Vance f
o
restalled her speech.
             
“Well, contrary what you might have heard about me, I’m not that kind of guy.”
He dragged the shirt over his head and turned around again. “I’m on a set to work.”
             
“It is good you see it that way, too.”
             
“So there is no reason why we should stare at each other like two buffalos ready to clash. Alison.” He smiled and she noticed the indistinct feeling inside her, it would probably have been better if he was THAT kind of guy and thus she could mentally dispose of him without further thoughts. “But you should speak to Lauren.”
             
Alison realized that she had been silent for the last m
o
ments, and cleared her throat. “I will.” She turned.
             
“Are we on first-name-terms, again?” Vance asked.
             
“I don’t see a reason to complicate things further. - By the way, your stunt double arrives tomorrow. I hope you’ll get along with him.”
             
“Stunt double? What for?
Not for th
is ridiculous scene on the hunt?
!”
             
“You can break your leg on the set of ’Ten Days’ – as you have, in fact. Not on mine. Vance.” With that, Alison was def
i
nitely gone.
Since she had returned into her bungalow, Lauren relaxed on the bed and took the opportunity to savor her heated dreams about Vance.
             
I know you want me. I know it…

She rolled over to take a look at her watch, and played a
b
sently with the watch band. It was decorated with some cheap artificial stones, but looked expensive.
I bet he would buy me a bracelet with diamonds…

             
In musing about the benefits she could gain from a rel
a
tionship with Vance van Sorel, Lauren realized that all these things only came second.
For now, at least.
First, there was the challenge! Most guys were idiots and could be pleased with little favors and a small effort. Only a few had been a challenge so far. Like Vance.
             
The knocking at her door disturbed Lauren’s increasingly graphic imagination. The young woman wrapped herself in the bathrobe and hurried to the door.
             
“Not to put too fine a point on it,” Alison started, and La
u
ren immediately knew what was going on, “but we have to speak about your behavior, Lauren.”
             
“Yes?” She managed to look innocent. “I’m sorry if I was rude to Thabo, but—“
             
“This isn’t about Thabo,” Alison replied sharply. “It is about Vance.”
             
Lauren’s instinct instantly went on high alert, as if she had just stepped on a snake.
Don’t tell me, YOU are after him! I really don’t think he likes grandmas!
“… o
my gosh
! The affair with the towel! I’m so embarrassed, really!” Lauren interjected in Alison’s repr
i
mand and rolled her eyes. “The damned thing
slipped just through my hand! There was nothing I could do about it! I’m so sorry for this…
uhm
… situation.”
             
“This won’t happen again.” Alison’s words were an order. It was clearly visible she did not believe the ‘accident-version’ of the story in the least.
             
“Yes.
Of course not.”
Next time we‘re going to screw like bu
n
nies, believe me!
             
“We are here to work, Lauren, and so far you have proven yourself a hard worker and a talented one as well. Don‘t di
s
appoint me.”
             
Aw, fuck! This sounds just like one of the nuns in the co
n
vent school of this annoying Camilla-character!
“No, I‘ll try my best.”

             
“Good. I don’t expect anything less.” Alison turned around and left.
             
Lauren closed the door. “What do you know?” she mu
r
mured, what she hadn‘t dared to say into the director‘s face. “I want a life! I don‘t want to sit around and grow old and ugly waiting for an o
p
portunity like my mom! I‘ll GRAB it!”
             
Alison felt uncomfortable, when she left Lauren. She was sure the little bitch lied. There was the climate on the set that worried her. And the rumors, which, she knew, always found a way to travel to the tabloids. On top of it… there was som
e
thing else bothe
r
ing her. She could not name it though. And at the moment, she had no time to worry about it, because she had to give the technical team and the set dressers the n
e
cessary instructions. This part of the crew would head out within the next hour to prepare ever
y
thing for tomorrow at the ‘hunting-set‘, some miles north-east.