Torn (10 page)

Discussion? Chelsea couldn’t remember. What discuss –– Oh, wait. Yes, she did. Oh, God.

No longer hungry, she pushed her sandwich away, and covered her face with her hands. Why had she ever agreed to do this movie? Her breasts, while large enough, were the mature breasts of a mother who had breastfed her children. Her body, while in good shape, was more voluptuous than athletic… It had carried and bore –– via a surgical knife –– two children. There would be scars from both the cesarean section and the natural stretch marks of pregnancy. Sure, Drew would cover them up with makeup, no doubt, but still…

Then there was the fact that the only person who had ever seen her naked was her husband. Jake had been her first lover and she had waited until after they’d married to consummate that love. Technically, it wasn’t considered cheating on one’s spouse to do a love scene with someone else in a movie… Right? But what about when the feelings were there just under the surface?

When she remembered how that first kiss made her feel, that day of her screen test, Chelsea’s face flushed. If she felt that way from just a kiss… What would it be like to have Tyler’s hands touching her bare skin? How would she react? And how many people would be on the set to witness whatever reaction she might have?

She felt Tyler’s fingers curl around her wrists, gently pulling her hands from her face. She could feel her eyes burning with hot tears of panic as she met his gaze. He was smiling at her tenderly, and Chelsea had the distinct impression that he knew everything she was thinking.

“How about I give you a run-through of what a love scene is like with Julie as the director? I’ve worked with her before, so I know what to expect. Maybe it will be easier for you if you had some idea too.”

Tyler took both her blush and her silence for acceptance and started. “The set will be closed,” he said as his fingers slid up her palms to curl loosely with her much colder ones. “Julie will have only the crew necessary for the scene we’re doing tonight. That includes me, you, Drew, Jules, and a minimal camera crew. They’ll start filming us while we’re standing…” he coughed and his face flushed slightly as he awkwardly continued, “and… uh… making out.”

Chelsea laughed. She knew what he was doing –– making it seem as awkward for him as it was for her, adding humor to the situation to make it bearable. And damn him, it was working.

In the same vein, Tyler continued. “Then we’ll be…um… undressing each other. Now I don’t know yet if Julie’ll cut and then frame us already in bed or if she’ll want to film us falling into bed –– so to speak –– so we’ll have to wait and see about that.”

He took a deep breath and went on. “As far as the nudity, I’m not sure exactly what she’ll want shown on camera. I know that for me, she’ll get a back shot or two, a butt shot ––“ he paused and waggled his eyebrows at Chelsea, who laughed again, “or two, the bare chest thing… The usual. Gotta make sure those tickets sell after all. For you, I figure it’ll be the same.”

He stood and held his leg out in an artfully alluring pose, “Picture this horizontal, and naked, with yours,” he said. “She’ll want those oh-so-seductive leg shots from you. But not from me, cause who wants to see some guy’s hairy legs and knobby knees?”

Laughing, Chelsea stood up as well, circled around him, clearly perusing the goods. “Who says you have knobby knees? I don’t believe it. You’re a
Sag
. Centaurs have strong, shapely legs. They’re
famous
for their legs. Take Tina Turner for example. I think Julie
should
do a Tyler naked leg shot. Maybe I should talk to her before we start filming.”

“Don’t you dare!” Tyler exclaimed in mock horror, and Chelsea grinned. He shrugged. “Actually, Julie will no doubt do that
entwined legs in the sheets
angle… Women seem to really love that visual. Go figure.”

Chelsea propped her hands on her hips. “That’s because it implies
cuddling
, you yahoo,” she clarified, “and women like to cuddle.”

“Ooh… Anymore secrets from the women’s locker room? And wait. Did you seriously just call me a
yahoo
? What the hell
is
a yahoo? And is that anything like a Google™? Are you implying that I’m my own search engine?”

She mock-scowled and punched Tyler lightly on the shoulder. “Are you
quite
finished?”

“Okay, okay. Where was I?”

“Naked legs.”

“Oh. Right. See, here’s where it might get… interesting…” The strange tone in Tyler’s voice, and the look in his eyes as he stared at her caused Chelsea lower her brows.

“What?” she asked, fearing the answer was something she already knew.

“Well, sometimes when doing a love scene, the actors involved wear flesh-colored underwear, like a g-string or thong or something. But since Julie’s gonna want her butt-shots, chest shots, and the like, that’s not how it’s gonna be for us in our scene. We’ll be in the buff, and I might… There’s a good chance… Oh, hell…” The tips of Tyler’s ears turned pink, but he met her inquiring gaze directly and held it. “You turn me on.”

Chelsea’s mouth opened in a silent O. He couldn’t possibly have said what she thought she heard him say.

“You turn me on,” Tyler repeated, blowing the possibility that he
didn’t
say that the first time completely off the table, “You make me hot. So I can just about guarantee that I’ll get hard.”

“Hard?” She echoed him not because she didn’t know what he was referring to but because she couldn’t believe her ears.
She
made
Ty Benson
hard?

The pink spread from his ears to his jaw line, and a muscle ticked in his temple. His colbalt gaze turned clinical as he forced himself not to turn away from her astounded stare. “An
erection
, okay? My dick will get hard and you
will
feel my erection. Does that clarify things for you?”

Chelsea clapped a hand over her mouth. She was going to laugh –– she could feel it bubbling inside her.

Tyler scowled at her dancing eyes. “It’s not funny,” he growled. “You at least have the excuse of the air being cold or whatever for why your nipples will poke me in the eyes, but I won’t have that excuse.”

She gaped at him, her hand falling from her mouth even as her own face flushed pink. “What makes you think––“

“I can
feel
it, okay? I have since that first kiss during your screen test. We get each other hot. Very hot. Inferno hot. Molten
lava
hot. Nothing wrong with that. It’s a natural thing ––“

“Except for the fact that you and I are
married
,” she interrupted, “and not to each other.”

“Yeah, I know that, okay? I
know
.” He ran his hands through his hair, clasped them behind his neck. “Regardless, the fact remains that
physically
we get each other all hot and bothered. That will work in our favor on screen, but I just wanted to forewarn you so that you won’t get shocked when it happens. If your face becomes suddenly stunned during filming, not only will everyone on the set know
why
, but Julie will have to re-shoot––“

“Okay, okay,” Chelsea muttered. “But what makes you so sure that’s gonna happen? I mean ––“

“Oh, for chrissakes! Would you
work
with me for a
second
?” Tyler exclaimed, heels of his hands against his forehead, he was the picture of exasperation. “Here! I’ll show you!”

“
What
are you ––“ The rest of what Chelsea had to say was cut off as Tyler’s mouth suddenly claimed her own, and her words, as well has her body, melted into a pleasured moan.

His hands clasped her face, pulling her closer as he flicked his tongue along her lips, dipping inside her mouth to taste her. When her lips parted, he sought more, and he stroked her tongue with his own.

Chelsea trembled, her hands grabbing onto his arms, and she held on to him as though her life depended on it. And sure enough, from the moment his tongue touched hers… Ty Benson, People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive, was hard.

Chelsea’s eyes flew open and she found herself staring into Tyler’s endless blue orbs. Heat flooded through her veins and she felt her womb tingle, clench, as though recognizing him for what he was –– a man who could fill her, consume her. Instinctively her hips lifted to rub her pelvis along the hard length and she moaned against his mouth. Her hands slipped from his arms to slide over his chest, fingers gripping his shoulders; she pulled him closer, tucking over the curve of his neck, under his hair to press her body closer still.

~ * ~

This was nirvana, Tyler decided. Feeling Chelsea’s body liquefy against his own was nothing short of heaven. And when she opened her eyes, he fell into them. She made him burn, lust searing through him like lightning… and he wanted more.

He left her mouth with a muffled groan, lowered his head, trailing the tip of his tongue against the fragile, tender lobe of her ear. Her quivering response made him do it again, and again… to her other ear.

Hands slipping from his neck, Chelsea slid them down his chest, pressed them against the rigid planes, her fingertips lightly brushing his nipples through the linen of his shirt, under the thick cotton apron. He was kissing the swells of her breasts as they strained with each breath, against the neckline of her costume, his hands cupping first one, then the other, squeezing gently. He freed one; swept his tongue over the hard, brown nipple before nipping it; a cruel pluck that made her pussy clench. Her hands fell from his chest to his ass, and kneaded the muscled flesh, pushed it –– and the rigid swell of his cock –– against her. “Tyler…”

The word was a whisper of sound, filled with need and desire, and it made his chest constrict. He lifted his face and slanted his mouth on hers once more. He was throbbing with wanting her… He couldn’t get nearly enough of her…

The sound of someone rapping against the thin, aluminum door of his trailer penetrated his senses.

“Hey, Ty! Chelsea! You in there? You’re on in fifteen!”

Chelsea sprung away from him as though scalded. Her hands fumbled with the apron as she twisted it, trying to yank it off. After a moment, Tyler found his voice.

“Here, here… Let me…” He spoke to Chelsea as though she was a spooked horse. He was a marvelous actor –– she couldn’t seem to tell at all from his tone that he was trembling inside, feeling branded and spooked himself.

Together, they managed to remove the suddenly confining apron, and Chelsea grabbed her petticoats from the sofa, her entire body shaking as she choked back a sob.

“Chelsea ––“

“No…” she whispered, backing away from him. “This –– this didn't…” She stopped, closed her eyes.

When she opened them, Tyler winced from the turmoil they emoted. “Don’t you see? Don’t you
get
it? That was
real
! That was real –– it wasn’t
Paul
and
Tina
,” she spat their character names as though they were nails, “It was real and I have no excuse ––“ Chelsea flung open the door of the trailer and nearly fell out as she tripped over the petticoats in her arms.

“Chelsea… Chels, here… Let me ––“

“No,” she said again, her chest heaving as she gulped in the brisk, fresh, March air. Closing her eyes, Chelsea forced herself to relax and took a couple of deep, steadying breaths.

She straightened her back and looked at Tyler, who didn’t move from the doorway. She looked as lost and as helpless and as lusty as he felt. Somehow that made him worse, until she managed a small smile. “I’ll see you on set.”

Turning, she marched away and Tyler kept his gaze on her until she ducked into the makeup trailer. Not once did she look back.

Chapter Seven

“
P
laces, everyone!” Julie Bishop called out. Her eyes narrowed with speculation as she focused on the two actors standing at the ready on her set. It was common knowledge that Chelsea and Ty frequently shared meals in the Oscar winner’s trailer. But this time, one of her sound guys reported seeing Chelsea burst out of it like a bat out of hell. In his opinion, Chelsea had come on to Ty and had been turned down and that explained the stricken expression he’d glimpsed on her face before she’d composed herself. Julie ruthlessly chewed the man out for spreading rumors, but the damage was done. And now, as she eyed the two players in question, she wondered how much of it was true.

Ty, she noticed, was wearing that meticulously applied neutral mask that he donned only when he wanted to keep his feelings strictly to himself. Chelsea, on the other hand, had yet to master that technique. Even from her distant perch on her director’s chair, Julie could read the confusion on the woman’s face. Damn it, something
had
happened. Crap. She looked at Ty and raised herself from her chair. She was going to have to talk with him.
Now
.

As she strode across the wide plank flooring, Julie’s gaze flickered again from Chelsea to Ty. She could understand where the woman was coming from –– Ty was a man whose looks were so exquisite that they were hard to get through –– to know the man beneath. His capacity for charm and friendship was endless.
But
he had a reputation for falling for his leading ladies. It wasn’t true, of course. Ty rarely, if ever, mixed business with pleasure. But he had met his wife, Jennifer, on the set of
Apollo
while filming, and that was enough for the tabloids to link him to romances with every actress before and after that. Julie shook her head. And she’d seen Ty naked. Yep. No straight woman in her right mind
wouldn’t
want a piece of Ty Benson. Good thing she was gay.

Chelsea, however, was certainly
not
gay, and at the moment, not even cheerful. Sure, having to do a love scene with the Internet’s winner for “World’s Best Ass” was bound to put the pressure on but Julie sensed there was more to it. Something was setting the novice actress off. She didn’t throw herself at Ty like Julie had seen other women do. The times when Jake had visited the set, Chelsea behaved like a woman in love with her man. Upon meeting the husband, Julie could see why. The man was an absolute sweetheart. He was very good-looking –– in fact, he looked as though he could be Ty’s cousin, if not his younger brother. Simply put, Jake Morgan was a catch.