Breaking Free (9 page)

"They talk about you in
Variety
," she sang.

"I still don’t care," he mocked, amused. "Bed, young lady. Get some sleep. I can catch up on some real news instead." He leaned back against the headboard and brought out his phone. "Would you like me to read out loud about the latest in the Middle East?"

Sophie ignored his joke and snuggled as close as she dared. Tennyson smelled delicious, and if she weren’t careful, she'd freak him out and send him running.

It was a sobering thought; she really liked him, and it would be stupid to set herself up for…heartbreak? Shit, could it come to that?
Ugh
. Anyway, it'd be dumb to screw herself over by trying to get closer, but at the same time, she only had a few more weeks. A few more weeks and then she'd be returning to LA. She wouldn’t see Tennyson again until the premiere, unless they ended up doing press junkets together.

She had time to get over her little crush, right?

Letting out a breath, Sophie relaxed on her pillow, the duvet drawn up to her chin. Her forehead brushed against the leather of Tennyson's belt, and when she glanced up quickly, she saw he had his arm resting along the headboard. He yawned into his other fist but kept his eyes trained on whatever he was reading on his phone that rested on his thigh.

Sophie loved the sight. He looked comfortable and, to her, like he belonged there.

"You're not sleeping." Tennyson never looked her way, but his mouth twisted up slightly. "You need to rest, Sophie."

Wanting to keep the conversation going, she blurted out the first thing she could come up with. "Isn't the screen bothering your eyes?"

He hummed and sent her a soft smile. "Not yet. Now sleep."

Next question. "What're your thoughts on mac and cheese? Personally, I love it, which is totally weird because I usually don’t like cheese, but I miss it. I haven't had it since I was ten—"

"
Sleep
."

"Favorite holiday? Fourth of July's coming up, you know—"

"Hey." He shut her up by reaching down and placing a hand over her mouth. "Obey me."

Those two words shot straight to her core. Liquid heat pooled lower and lower, and Sophie couldn’t believe how fast he turned her on. It hit her like a wrecking ball, only she melted into a shivery mess instead of shattering.

He'd sucked the air out of her lungs, too.

"I-I…I…um." Her voice was muffled behind his hand, but it didn’t matter. She couldn’t form anything coherent, anyway.
Obey me
. Holy shit.

Tennyson's gaze darkened, and he slowly moved his hand to cup her cheek. "Don’t speak." He brushed the pad of his thumb over her mouth. Sophie was trapped. And fucking horny. She had to clench her thighs together.

My God.

When she stupidly thought he was about to kiss her, her eyes fluttered closed. Then disappointment washed over her as she felt his lips along her hairline.

"Rest, Sophie."

She didn’t dare to open her eyes. He'd see too much if she did. How much she wanted him, how disappointed she was he didn’t kiss her.

It took a while before sleep found her.

Chapter 11

Tennyson was losing his goddamn mind, but he was too weak to stop it. When he wasn’t working, he was in Sophie's trailer. She'd rested for three days, and come tomorrow, he didn’t know what kind of excuse he'd use to spend more time with her.

She was mending. She was on a strict diet to slowly gain weight, and she didn’t need him to get her more magazines or help her fight boredom by talking about the most trivial things any longer.

"Oh my God, this is so good," Sophie moaned. "You've got to try this." Sitting up in her bed, she extended a spoonful of mac and cheese to him.

He'd brought it to her tonight, certain it wasn’t part of her diet, but screw that. For tonight, screw it.

"I have my own, you know." He grinned at her and opened his container of mac and cheese. "Which scene were you and Claire rehearsing?"

He'd arrived just in time to see Claire leave Sophie's trailer earlier, a script in hand.

"The one where I freak out on my parents," Sophie mumbled and stuck the spoon into her mouth. "Claire's amazing. Seriously, she's such an inspiration."

Tennyson nodded and absently pushed his fork around the mac. "She's a great actress." He furrowed his brows, wondering… To hell with it, it didn’t hurt to ask. "How would you describe me as a director?" He added the same thing he'd said to Noah, "I was told I'm not approachable anymore."

Sophie peered down at her food, a small smile playing on her lips. "Noah mentioned this to me yesterday. He brought me lunch and told me you were being different on set."

"Ah. Yeah. I've been trying to give more feedback."

"Well, I don’t have a whole lot to compare it to." Sophie shrugged slightly. "I mean, some of the directors I've worked with in the past have been nice and all, but…"

Tennyson smirked internally. She was trying not to be rude to those other directors.

"You do your thing during rehearsals," Sophie went on. "The first week we were up here, I was
dizzy
with all the instructions and expectations. Then you get more introspective or whatever during production, and actors who know what they're doing just follow what you said at rehearsals."

Tennyson mulled that over and then raised a brow. "Actors who know what they're doing?"

Sophie smiled guiltily. "I sorta forgot. That’s partly why I've been so nervous about that scene. I don’t know if you want a total breakdown with wailing and lots of gestures or something quieter. And Claire told me to just speak to you, but you're kind of intimidating." Tennyson opened his mouth to speak, but Sophie rushed to elaborate. "Not because of that unapproachable shit, but because you're the first big-time director I've worked with. I have so much depending on my performance, and I felt dumb to go ask you to repeat yourself."

Tennyson let her words sink in, and he had to admit he understood her. Up until recently, he'd questioned Sophie's being here, and now that he had an inkling of what she was planning, he could imagine what a brush-off would do to her. Not that Tennyson would've been outwardly hostile, but he probably wouldn’t have been understanding, either.

Sophie had unknowingly dropped enough hints for Tennyson to realize that she'd been undergoing a change in her life, and he was fairly certain that involved breaking free of her father. Which appeared to be leaving her with very little family. Yet, she kept fighting, even when it was clear so many didn’t have any faith in her.

"Noah and the script supervisor both have my notes from the rehearsals." He gave her knee a gentle squeeze. "I'll make sure one of them gives you a copy tomorrow morning."

Sophie breathed a sigh of relief and offered him a blinding smile. "Thank you so much."

"Don’t mention it." He sat back, feeling a little better now, and shoveled some food into his mouth.

The scene in question had been postponed too, so Sophie would have plenty of time to rehearse.

"Are those notes secret otherwise?" she asked curiously.

Tennyson tilted his head. "No, why?"

Sophie shrugged. "You could always make them available in the office. You have your directing style, and if that means you don’t talk much during production, so be it. It's not like you don’t give actors anything to go on
ever
. So if you have your notes with your vision printed before shooting begins, the actors can go back and study them whenever they want."

That was…that made sense. In fact, it was a brilliant idea, and he told Sophie as much.

The faint blush that spread across her cheeks was fucking lovely. Tennyson swallowed dryly, not sure how long he could take it before he crossed a line.

"Okay, I'm full." Sophie blew out a breath and placed a palm on her stomach. "I feel kinda guilty eating so much. Not like it's wrong, just…gluttonous."

"Didn’t the dietician tell you that was common?" Tennyson had made Daniel repeat every word so Tennyson knew what to expect.

"Yeah." Sophie set her container on the nightstand and then fell back against the mattress with a groan. "I'm so over this bed rest, Tennyson."

"It'll be over tomorrow," he comforted. "But speaking of work, I should go watch the dailies." He'd only done a small scene with Chris today, but he had to go through the footage from the second unit's pick-up shots and coverage from yesterday and the day before.

"Always leaving me." Sophie dramatically threw an arm over her face. "Just go. I can't even look at you. God have mercy on my fragile soul."

Tennyson laughed at her silliness, trying and failing at keeping his gaze averted from her exposed body. Her small sleeping shorts didn’t hide much, nor did the top that was twisted around her ribcage.

God should have mercy on
his
damn soul instead.

*

It was past midnight when Tennyson and a handful of others called it a day and left the trailer they used as their office.

It had started to rain pretty heavily, so everyone was itching to seek shelter.

"Steph, when do we start tomorrow?" Noah asked around a yawn.

She checked the call sheet. "Ten thirty. Chris and Claire have interviews in town first."

"Don’t forget to leave my notes with Sophie tomorrow morning," Tennyson said.

She nodded in understanding. "I'll make copies for the office, too."

"I'm gonna sleep for a month once we're done," Noah said before heading for his trailer. "Night, guys."

A few more goodnights were exchanged, and then the set around them was empty of activity. The rain came down harder as Tennyson reached his own trailer, and something made him pause.

It was dark, only a single streetlamp illuminating the nearest area, and Tennyson wondered if Sophie was still up. He could see the light was on in her trailer, but he remembered her telling him she couldn’t sleep in complete darkness.

Squinting up at the summer rain pouring down, Tennyson made a quick decision and pulled out his cell phone. He sent Sophie a short message.

It's raining.

He stood there and waited. His eyes never left the trailer three spots over. And when he caught movement in the shadows reflected on the pavement outside Sophie's trailer, an electric current buzzed within Tennyson.

Her door squeaked open, followed by Sophie's head poking out.

There was a cautious smile on her face. It widened as she stepped out fully, the door closing behind her, and she simply stood there with her eyes closed, smile widening, and face tilted up.

She still loved the rain.

She wasn’t going to lie and say it was "gross" and ruined her shoes. Or hair or makeup or goddamn manicure.

Christ, she was fucking beautiful.

Her skimpy pajamas were soaked in a minute, and she must've heard Tennyson's approach.

"Hey." She grinned and blinked past the rain drops. "Are you done for the day?"

Oh, Tennyson was done all right, but if he had a say, the day wasn’t over yet.

He'd lost his battle. Two weeks had passed since their first PR date, and he was gone.

"Is something wrong?" She looked at him in concern.

Tennyson shook his head and finally reached her. There was a moment of hesitation and panic—
does she even want this?—
but his body had taken over. He gently cupped her neck, his thumbs brushing away rain from her flushed cheeks. A hundred different emotions flitted across her features, and he searched her beautiful, widening eyes as he closed the distance and kissed her.

Sophie let out a small noise and then clutched Tennyson's sides tightly, yanking him closer and deepening the kiss. Desire hit Tennyson from every angle. The force nearly floored him, and something inside him snapped. At the first taste of Sophie, he groaned and slid his hands down her body.

Damn her. Damn her for breaking his resolve.

"Oh my God." Sophie whimpered and knotted her fingers in his hair. "
Yes
."

Driven by his need, Tennyson reached underneath the fabric of her shorts and cupped her ass. He kissed her aggressively, his tongue delving into her mouth, and Sophie returned the passion. Jesus Christ, he couldn’t get enough. Backing her up against the trailer, he picked her up and wrapped her legs around his hips.

"
Fuck
." His voice was gritty, almost unrecognizable.

He grabbed at her ass roughly and pushed his cock against her pussy, eliciting the sweetest fucking moan from her. At the same time, one of Sophie's hands left his hair, and it took him a while to understand she was blindly reaching for the door handle.

"Please, Tennyson." She let out a cute, hungry noise and swiveled her hips over his rigid cock.

He panted and broke their kiss, resting his forehead against hers. He blinked, trying to clear the haze, but he was too far gone. He let it all go and carried her into the trailer.

On the way to her bedroom in the back of the trailer, they were at each other like they were possessed. They kissed, nipped, and tasted as they ripped their wet clothes off.

Part of Tennyson wanted to intimidate her, have her put a stop to things. He wanted to go all out, reveal his obscene thoughts and scare her away. Because this romance couldn’t end well.

All Tennyson could think when they hit the mattress was
finally
. He'd been in this bed before, and it had taken all his mental strength to hold back. But his self-restraint had dissolved now, and he was going to take as much as he could.

"Condom…" Sophie writhed beneath him, arching her back as he kissed his way down her naked body. "My nightstand."

Good to know
. But Tennyson wasn’t about to rush it. He ignored her words and closed his lips around her left nipple, sucking it into his mouth as he cupped her smooth pussy.

"Oh, fuck," she breathed out.

Tennyson couldn’t help but groan. She was so wet and deliciously warm. "Goddamn, Sophie." He sat back between her legs and stared down at her, making sure this was real—that this was actually happening. "Touch yourself like you do when you're alone."

The
"Really?"
sat at the tip of Sophie's tongue—he could tell—but she never said it out loud.

"Show me." Tennyson let his gaze roam as he slowly, mindlessly stroked his cock. "Fuck, the things I wanna do to you."

Sophie breathed out a curse and did as told, two trembling fingers slipping between the glistening lips of her pussy. She closed her eyes at first, maybe finding her comfort zone, but Sophie Pierce wasn’t a shy girl. When she opened them again, her eyes were filled with lust and they were trained on Tennyson's erection.

There was only so much Tennyson could take, though. Watching Sophie finger herself made his mouth water, and he needed to taste. Settling down on the mattress, he kissed the top of her hand first, then closed his eyes and licked the length of her slit.

"Holy fuck," Sophie gasped. "Tell me. Tell me what you wanna do."

He hummed and sucked gently on her clit, curious on a possessive level about her noises. Was there always surprise mixed with her pleasure, or was he having his way with her differently from others?

"I want to fuck you so hard you can't breathe."

"Oh my God…" She groaned and threw her head back, shaking and breathing shallowly. One of her hands went to the back of his head, and the other eased over her perky tits.

Fucking beautiful
. He watched it all. How she kneaded the soft flesh roughly, how she pinched her nipple, how she bit her lip and whimpered and moaned and trembled and drew her fingernails slowly up and down her chest. Faint lines from her nails blossomed and faded across her skin.

She didn’t want it gentle, did she?

The thought caused a growl-like moan to rumble in his chest, and he worked her pussy harder. He finger-fucked her with the sole purpose of getting her off, and he licked her because the taste of her was turning him into an addict already.

Sophie came shortly after with a low, desperate cry.