The Director (Hollywood Nights) (15 page)

He tapped on the bathroom door
again and said, “Talk to me, Shay.”

           
Another loud and mournful sob from
the other side of the door and he regretted offering to make her some hot tea
and letting her out of his reach. She had handled the conversation with an
Oscar worthy performance. His heart was breaking every time he caught sound of
the conversation on the other end. They made claims that she owed them and
threats to sue her. She had barely even cashed her first paycheck. It was her
first movie, she was an extra, and they were destroying it for her.

           
“Shay, I don’t want to break this
door, sweetheart, but I will. You have to the count of three to let me in.” He
listened against the door and said, “One.”

           
He heard the lock tumble and the knob
twisted freely in his hand. He opened the door and stepped into the bathroom
with her. She was sitting on the edge of the tub. Her hands over her face, her
elbows on her knees, his bracelet on her arm. He looked back at the bedroom.
She had turned the guest room into her closet and the bedroom back into a
bedroom after the first time they tried sleeping in the twin bed. He moved to
her side, picked her up, and carried her to bed. He crawled in next to her as
he situated her so he could hold her.

           
She sobbed and explained, “You don’t
understand. I was supposed to be somebody. They left Hawaii to come back to
California when I was little. They sold their house, and they put all of their
money into me. I look different. Nobody wanted a racially ambiguous child. They
would ask my mother what my race was and she would ask them what they wanted it
to be. She dyed my hair blonde, kept me out of the sun if I was competing for one
role and then had me in a tanning bed and dyed my hair black when the prospect
was for another. I got a few background parts. They thought it was a sign. Then
it stopped. I couldn’t even get the lead roles in the school plays. I got one
commercial but it never showed my face. I’m too short to be a model. The older
I got the more I developed. You see my body. It’s sex, not sweetness. The more
I tried to look like I belonged…I don’t belong anywhere.”

           
“That’s not true,” he whispered as
he stroked her hair. “You belong right here. You belong with me. Let them sue
you. They were horrible parents. No one would side with them.”

           
“There’s more,” she sniffed. He
waited. “I’m not sure about this movie. They were arguing on set today. Alex
called me in the afternoon to let me know that if it continues Harvey wants me
out of it. He doesn’t want my first film to be a flop.”

           
“Harvey knows what he’s doing.” Jed
didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t help her with the work. He could run
lines, he could be patient during long work days, but he couldn’t go to the set
and make it better for her.

           
“What if I fail?”

           
The question hung in the air. “You
try again.”

           
“You didn’t.”

           
He couldn’t exactly argue with that
but he would try, “I realized that I didn’t love acting. I did it because I
could, not because I loved it. When I started working on documentaries, I
realized I enjoyed telling a story more than being a character in one.
 
This may be the worst time to tell you this,
but…”

           
“What?”

           
“I was offered a job,” he admitted.

           
“You’re leaving me?”

           
“No.” He took a deep breath. “I wasn’t
sure about it, but since it is an opportunity to do something less dangerous
for a change, I thought I could do most of the research while you work on this
production, and then convince you to come with me when I go.”

           
“Go where?”

           
“New York.”

           
“What would I do there?” she
sniffed. “I’ve lived in California since I was two.”

           
“You’ll love New York. You could work
on your designs if you wanted. Come out with me on location. Both. Neither.”
Then came the hard part. It was too soon to ask, but he needed her to think
about it. “I just need to know if you would go. I need to know if I should tell
them no and look for something more permanent around here. My dad asked if I
wanted the beach house. I told him I needed to talk to you. I don’t need
answers tonight, but we will need to start talking about this stuff soon.”

He squeezed her tight and placed
a kiss to the top of her head.

           
The honeymoon was officially over.

Chapter
11

           
“I completely understand.” Shay kept
a brave face as she hung up the cellphone. She took one last look around the
small trailer that would have been her primary space on this movie. However,
the brothers making it were having severe conflict of vision now that Ivy was
not the lead. It was over. Harvey didn’t have to pull her, the brothers closed
it down.

           
An odd sensation came over her as
she exited the trailer. She looked up at the sky, at the clouds, and a sense of
peace came over her like she had never known before. She didn’t have the
answers, but she had an idea.

           
When she asked him if she could stop
by he already knew about the movie. No doubt Alex had called him. The moment
she arrived, he was on the front step, waiting for her. She liked that about
Jed. He cared enough about how she might be feeling to make sure he was already
outside when she got there.

           
He walked down to meet her and after
a good long hug, he laced his fingers in hers and guided her towards the beach.
“Come on, let’s take a walk.”

           
She kicked her shoes off and they
started down the beach. He didn’t say anything. He just held her hand and they
walked. Shay finally said, “So, I guess I’m free to go to New York. Alex said
it will take him a while to get something else lined up.”

           
“You could work with me,” he said it
casually.

           
“I don’t want you to give me
charity, Jed.”

           
“Well,” he stopped them. Turned to
face her and said, “Maybe you could be charitable to me. The idea they have is
for a series titled
That’s Life
. They
want me to go around and film different people, places, show the ordinary and
the extraordinary. They think it would work best if there was someone for these
people to talk to. I don’t want to talk from behind the camera and have to
worry about voice over later. I want you to talk to them on camera. If you
don’t want to work with me because you think it will be weird, I understand.
I’ll have to get someone else to do it.”

           
“You don’t even know if they want me
to do this,” she was both touched that he was trying to rescue her and sad that
he felt like he had to.

           
“We can do a few tests, maybe a
couple spots, and then see. It’s not acting. It’s journalism. It would give you
something new for your resume at the very least. I want to convince you this is
a good idea. I think it is, for both of us.” He looked at her with his big blue
eyes and she couldn’t refuse him. She nodded. “Yes?”

           
She nodded again.

           
“You’re not going to regret this.”
He lifted her in a hug and spun her in a circle. “Even if you don’t like it, at
least you’ll be in New York.”

           
“You know visiting you isn’t the
same as being there full-time.” She was sure the reaction he should have given
wasn’t the one she got. He should have at least had a second of reservation
about her moving to New York and into his place. Everything about the situation
was happening so fast and it was so scary, she feared at any moment the other
shoe would drop, he would turn back into a frog, or some other terrible thing
would come steal him and all of this out of her life.

           
“I know,” he said and then kissed
her full on the lips. “I know that I hate waking up next to you every morning.
I despise the way your body feels next to mine every night. I just can’t
imagine a greater hell to be in than living with you Shay.”

           
She couldn’t help but smile. He had
a way of saying things that put her soul at ease. “Well, as long as you know.”

           
“You know what else I know?” he
asked against her neck before placing a kiss there.

           
“What?” she whispered as his hands
slid to her ass and he pulled her in tight against him.

           
“I know that this part of the beach
is private property, that no one is around, and that I could take all of your
clothes off and do great and terrible things to your body if you want me to.”
He pulled at the top buttons of the blouse she was wearing. His lips followed
to touch any and all exposed flesh.

           
“I always want you to.” Shay slid
her hands to his face and pulled until he looked at her. “But I can’t get
caught naked on the beach. Harvey would kill us both. Alex would come back to
kill me twice.”

           
He laughed. “Well, what if we were
closer to the house? Like the first time? You were outside then and naked.”

           
True,
but it was dark then
. She looked around and realized that in all the times
they had been there she had never heard another car much less people. Part of
what she liked about him was his impulsive need for her. She decided to trust
him, “Okay.”

           
He walked them quickly back towards
the house. He started undressing the moment they were in front of it. Shay
followed his lead, letting the blouse and the skirt fall to the sand. Jed had
taken to only wearing underwear on occasion. This was not one of them. She had
her bra and panties on, but he apparently didn’t have time to wait for her to
take them off. He grabbed her up and charged into the water.

           
Shay squealed all of the girly
noises expected when being tossed into a freezing cold body of water. When she
came up for air she decided to be grateful that the ocean was calm and graceful
at this hour rather than trying to swallow them up.

           
Jed reached for her and pulled her
easily towards him and into his arms. His kiss tasted like the cinnamon mints
he frequently ate and a hint of salt water. She melted against him and her body
temperature began to easily warm despite the cool water. She wrapped her legs
and arms around him and held on.

           
He pulled the fabric at the crotch
of her panties to one side and pressed the head of his erection into her
welcoming heat. She broke the kiss and groaned out, “God you feel good.”

           
“Yeah?” He smiled and guided her to
lean back enough he could suckle her nipples in turn through the thin fabric of
the bra.

           
“Yeah.”

           
Shay wasn’t sure what the risks were
of having sex in the ocean. She had seen it on television plenty of times, but
had never actually done it. She would have to look it up later. Right now, she
was immersed in the moment. The sun was kissing her exposed flesh, the water
lapping at her like another set of gentle fingers and tongues. Jed was kissing,
sucking, and thrusting in a desperate quest to reach his pleasure and give it
to her.

She reached between them and
stroked her own clit. Her fingertips touched him as they touched her.
 
He liked that. He looked at her with that
soul searing expression and she moved her hand faster, climbing to the peak
easier as he created a new rhythm to allow her better access between
thrusts.
 

           
“Are you going to come?” he asked.
He bit into his lower lip as she nodded. She tried to keep her eyes open as she
breached the orgasm and slid through the other side of heaven’s door. Jed
groaned and said, “I… God you’re beau…”

           
He caught himself and pulled her in
for a kiss instead of finishing the word as he finished his orgasm. For the
first time in her life she wanted to hear it. She wanted to hear his thick
voice of satisfaction drip words of praise over her in his moment of bliss. She
decided then to rethink her compliment policy when it came to Jed Gunner.

***

He was holding her close, kissing
her, milking the last twitches of their bodies joined together. He heard the
car door shut in the distance. He knew two things for sure. First, his shorts
were floating a good distance away along with her shirt and skirt. He was glad
he didn’t have anything other than his cigarettes in his pocket.

           
Second, he knew whoever was heading
towards them was related to him. He smiled sheepishly and said, “I uh…guess I
lied earlier.”

           
“About what?” Shay asked.

           
“Isn’t that water cold? I have a
heated pool you could swim in,” Jonas called out.

Shay’s eyes opened so wide he
could see the whites above and below the brilliant green gems. “Oh my God!”

“He hasn’t put it together, yet.”
Jed laughed.

“Yet?” She looked from Jed to
Jonas who stood on the beach with what Jed assumed was flowers of apology for
Shay and two boxes of pizza for all three of them.