Denouement (2 page)

“She
picked Tobias beautiful Harden.”

From
a distance she could hear the two women squeal. Everyone was getting on the SS
Tobias Harden dreamboat. Maybe it was time for her to get on board too. She
smiled as she walked outside the studio to her car. The next four months were
bound to be interesting for her.

* * * *

“Marietta Parks!
Has anyone seen Ms. Parks?”

She
heard her name being bellowed out of a bullhorn in the desert. Marietta was
exhausted, they had been working for twelve hours straight and she had extended
those twelve hours to twenty four. The script had to be changed to incorporate
the director, cast and crew’s ideas. Marietta liked to soak in all the ideas
thrown at her while filming. The studio gave her the liberty to make the
adjustments that she wanted, as long as they didn’t distort the budget.

She
could hear a pitch of desperation when the director called out for her. Something
had to be changed or he had to be reassured that the vision worked. She had
wanted McKenzie to direct the action drama, since he was the best in the genre.
But she felt like she was holding his hand through this movie more than she was
used to.

“Marietta Parks!”

“Keep
your knickers on, I’m coming.” Marietta yelled back and the whole cast burst
out laughing. She stuck her tongue out at the scowling man as she walked
towards him. His silver head was covered by a turban, and a flask of water hung
from his neck.

“I
would quit if you weren’t so damn cute,” he teased. “Why did you have to set a
scene of your movie in the desert? Next time try the Caribbean or Iceland.”

“What’s
up?” She expected him to hold out the script and point out where it wasn’t
working but he didn’t. Instead he pointed out towards the two actors. She’d
noticed it, too. There was something about the two leads that wasn’t gelling
together.

“They
don’t look romantic. Guns are my department, romance not so much.” McKenzie
frowned as he stared at the two actors who looked like they had just swallowed
an eel. “At this point picking sand from each other’s eyes would look more
romantic.”

Marietta
flipped through her master script and read out, “’they share a desperate
romantic kiss as a sand storm rises behind them.’ Who wrote this crap?” She
exhaled, lost at what to do. She had already done her part, given them the words
and described the scenario. It was up to Tobias and his co-star to make it look
real, to make it romantic. She stared at the actress—Sarah Foy was the best in
her generation—and she couldn’t help but feel sorry. The girl looked like she
was fishing in Tobias’ mouth and not kissing him. And Tobias looked like he was
about to gag.

“What
do you want me to do?” Marietta exchanged a confused glance with the director.
“You are the director, so direct them.”

“You
are the one who dreams up love scenes in the middle of the desert. Besides, I
have been married six times. If I was romantic I would still have my first
wife, or better yet, my sixth.” He put his hand on Marietta’s back and gently
pushed her forward. “You are the girl, so how would you want him to kiss you?”

“I
thought he was the great Tobias Harden, the best sex on both sides of the pond.
He can’t do a simple kiss?” Marietta pouted as she stomped towards the two
actors, looking back only once to stick her tongue out at the director. She
looked around for Suzy and Jessie they were the ones who had vouched for the
‘dreamboat’.

“This
isn’t working,” Tobias said to her as Marietta walked towards them.

“No
kidding.” Her hands akimbo, she tried to think of someway a hero in one of her
romance novels would make this work. “Sarah, you look like a fish drowning in a
fish bowl and Toby, you look like someone is forcing you to swallow an eel. You
are actors. I don’t care if you don’t find each other desirable. Pretend. We
pay you to pretend. You make your living pretending.”

“I
find him to be very sexy,” Sarah said as she winked in Tobias’ direction.

Marietta
frowned and turned to face Tobias just in time to see the same frustrated
expression on his face. “What about you? Do you find her sexy?”

“Just
run this scene by me again,” Tobias grunted.

“You
two are in love. There are people with huge guns coming to kill you, plus there
is a sand storm behind you. You feel like this is it, so you want this one
kiss. The kiss has to be passionate. Everyone has to shiver at how intensely
passionate it is.”

“I’m
not a magician,” Sarah whined.

“You’re
telling me.” Marietta huffed in frustration and stepped in between them. “I
think you are both trying to lead the kiss. Kiss me like you would a girl you
are desperately in love with.”

“I’ve
never been in love.” His eyebrow rose in a dismissive glare.

“Join
the club.” She looked him over once then decided to use his reputation to get
the scene. “Kiss me like you are trying to convince me that I am your moon and
stars. That is before you ditch me the next morning. You lead, I’ll follow.”

Marietta
stood staring at his
kiss me
lips.
They were beautiful, well molded. But she knew that they had been in traffic
for a while. Her mind was running, thinking about how many women he had kissed
and how many of those women he had taken to bed, and how many of those he had
called the next day, and how many of them were on this very set. She was so distracted
that she didn’t notice him coming in for the kill.

Startled,
she felt his arm circle her waist. He gently jerked her closer so that her body
crashed against his rock solid form of muscles. Marietta forced herself to get
into character she wasn’t going to be one of those ladies left numb and
swooning from a Tobias Harden kiss. She put her hand on his biceps while the
other arm rested on his shoulder, as her fingers played with the little hairs
at the back of his neck. Her eyes instinctively closed as he brushed his lips
against hers. Marietta felt something inside her leap from the bottom of her
womb into her throat, as his tongue snaked into her mouth searching. And once
it had found what it had been looking for, it claimed it. Their lips moved in
the rhythm set by the beating of their hearts. Her body shivered as his hands
caressed her back. Then he shivered and that startled her so much she had to
break the kiss.

Marietta
stepped back and stared at him dazzled. There was a look in his eyes that she
had never seen before. Tobias looked into her eyes as if searching for an
answer to a question. Marietta knew the question and the answer made her
shiver. Their gaze broke when a sound of applause erupted around them. She had
to go back to work mode and quick. Marietta heard a loud whistle pierce the air
she didn’t need to look at where it came from to know who made the sound.

“So
do it like that.” She took Sarah’s hand and urged her closer to Tobias. “Let
him lead.”

Marietta
felt like she would melt under Tobias’ intense gaze. His eyes were dreamy and
filled with a lustful need and something else she couldn’t pinpoint. Her
fingers touched her lips that had just been assaulted with pleasure she never
knew existed. Chris was a good kisser but he never left her feeling like every
single bone in her body had melted. Marietta spun around and half ran, half
walked back behind the cameras.

“I thought you said you knew nothing about romance.”
McKenzie chuckled.
                    

“That was you.”

“So I guess that’s how you would want to be kissed,” he
teased. “It’s a good thing I have it all on tape. It will serve as a practice
manual, just in case I want to make you wife number seven.”

McKenzie’s teasing was making Marietta nervous, and it
didn’t help that Jessie was now beside her, giggling in her ear.

“What do you want, Jessie?” Marietta felt like she was
shrinking under Tobias’ intense stare, McKenzie’s teasing, Jessie’s giggles and
everyone else staring with slack-jaws. She had to get out of there. She spun
around and marched towards her jeep. Marietta was looking forward to the long
ride to civilization. It was a good thing she decided to leave Jessie
behind
,with
her gone they would
need someone to reach her if they had any other questions or problems.

As soon as Marietta was in her hotel room she
strippedoff
her sandy clothes and tossed them in the
laundry basket. When she turned towards the bathroom she caught a reflection of
herself in the mirror. Her braids were a strange brown color. She was slender,
but curvier than slim. Her fingers lifted to her lips and immediately she could
taste Tobias kiss and that made her shiver. She didn’t understand how they
could have had such a connection. In the three months they had been working on
the movie they had stayed out of each other’s way. They only talked when it
came to the script and nothing else. Marietta wasn’t interested in being a
notch on his bedpost and Tobias sensed that. He seduced every other female on
the crew except her.

At first Marietta thought it was a good thing, but
after that kiss she felt insulted. What was wrong with her? Why hadn’t Tobias
tried to approach her? She shrugged her shoulders and headed for the bathroom.
Marietta let the warm water wrap around her as she tried to push any and every
thought of Tobias Harden and their unfortunate kiss out of her mind.

****

What the
hell
?
was
all Tobias could think the rest of the day on set. He had kissed a lot of
women, plenty of them, but he had never felt such a connection. At the risk of
sounding cliché, it was like a lightning bolt that hit him right in the heart
and his nether region. The gentle brush of his lips against hers was
enthralling, lighting nerves everywhere in his body. He could feel her light up
too, and the exchange of electric desire between them had been too incredible
for him to pull away from.

He wanted her, he wasn’t sure in which capacity, but he
knew he needed to be around
her,
to soak in her energy
and whatever else there was between them. During the break he looked around for
Marietta but he couldn’t find her. Tobias never fraternized with his bosses. On
this movie, Marietta was his boss. He gave her the respect her position
demanded. But now he wondered if he had given her too much distance.

“Hey, you are Marietta’s assistant?” he asked the
young Latina girl he often saw hanging around Marietta.

“Yes I am.” The young lady beamed a cheeky smile at
him that told him she was trouble.

He wondered why he hadn’t approached her yet. Tobias
had managed to bed every single woman involved in the movie, Sarah Foy
included. This assistant didn’t seem to have landed on his radar—or bed—and he
promised himself to correct that. But now all he wanted to know was where her
boss was.

“Where is Ms. Parks?” Referring to her formally, he
tried to sound distant and respectful. He didn’t need anyone knowing what that
kiss had done to him, “I needed to ask her about something in the script.”

“She went back to the hotel. I can call her if you
want.” Jessie speed dialed Marietta and put her phone to her ear, “What scene
is it?”

“Um... It’s a... the part just before I detonate the
bomb. I feel like the words are not natural.” He winced as he spoke. Judging a
writer’s choice of words wasn’t the best thing to do, especially if that writer
was the executive producer of the movie.

“I will let her know.” Jessie flipped through her
script and the schedule, “But we don’t shoot that scene until the day after
tomorrow. She’s not picking up. Maybe you could ask her when you see her next.”

“Okay.” Tobias thought about asking for her hotel room
number, but he didn’t want to sound too eager. He decided he would ask the
coordinator instead. Marietta’s room number was bound to be written down
somewhere. “Thanks.”

Tobias walked towards the director hoping that they
were done for the day. There was a chance that there would be some reshoots
needed and he was praying the kissing scene wasn’t one of them.

Tobias Harden had grown up under his father’s
limelight and he needed desperately to be liberated from it. It didn’t happen
until he changed his last name to his mother’s maiden name. His father
understood and his mother just wanted him to be happy. When the movie roles
rolled in he tried to keep away from anything that identified him with his
father. But he soon noticed that to make it in this business he had to take
whatever was thrown at him, but with great scrutiny. Action movies were his
father’s pride and glory, so when the script to ‘Guns, Blood and Sex’ was put
before him, he didn’t want it.

But once he read it, he found himself falling in love
with the words, the scenarios and the creative imagination behind the whole
story. Movies about rogue CIA agents saving the world were a dime a dozen, but
there was something different about how this movie was written. He felt like he
could almost feel the writer’s heart on the pages as he read it. He wanted to
play the lead role more than he had wanted anything in his life. But once he
saw the writer’s name he was sure he wouldn’t get it.

He had met Marietta before and was rude and callous
towards her. He was still behaving like a Hollywood brat, but that was five
years ago. He never thought she would give him the part. So the day he
auditioned, he was nervous especially when she shooed him out of the room. He
stared at all the actors waiting in the waiting room. He wasn’t a famous actor
there, he was just one of them part of the crowd nibbling at their fingernails
to be Agent Grayson. While he waited he could hear the name of Hollywood heavy weights
been thrown around, Marietta’s dream list of the known and her favorite group
of the unknowns.