Denouement (3 page)

He looked at the description of Agent Grayson at the
top of the script and he shivered. Six foot, sturdy muscles, sandy blond hair
and honey brown eyes. Tobias did a check list, he had brown eyes but he didn’t
think they were honey brown, his hair was jet black but that could be fixed
with some dye, he had the muscles but one thing he wasn’t was six foot tall.
Tobias had given up on getting the part. If it was a different movie he would
have gone back home after the audition and waited for the phone call. And if he
didn’t get it, he would move on to the next script in his agent’s hands. But he
wanted this part. He felt like he identified with the character, but it was the
heart poured into the script that made him want it even more.

Tobias’ heart froze when the older casting director
called him back into the room. He thought they were going to let him down, give
him some privacy to break down and cry. He was established and they didn’t want
to embarrass him in front of the
newbie’s.So
when he
walked back into the audition room, he had his heart on his sleeve ready to beg
for the part if he had to.

He almost fell to his knees when Marietta stood up and
shook his hand. He could see her mouth the words but he didn’t believe he heard
them correctly. “Congratulations, welcome to ‘Guns, Blood and Sex.’” He hung
onto those words until he got to his Los Angeles luxury apartment. He didn’t
celebrate until the script and contract were sent to his agent and he signed
them. When he reported to the set after two months of pre-production training
he was nervous about seeing Marietta again. She was on the set of another one
of her movies while he and the rest of the cast were training for their fight
scenes.

During the table read he sat as far from her as
possible. Tobias thought she hadn’t recognized him yet, and he didn’t plan to
get close to her until he was on film. Two months had flown by with them being
cordial to each other, never exchanging more than two words of courtesy before
getting down to business. Now he was on the set of her movie, shared a kiss
with her and had been left more confused by the mysterious woman than ever
before.

“Tobias!” The director cut through his thoughts. “We
are done for the day.”

“Thanks, McKay!” He turned towards his jeep not sure
if he would go to see Marietta that night. But his first stop had to be
wardrobe.

“Toby!”
Sarah called out.

“Don’t call me that,” Tobias snapped back.

“But you let the writer call you Toby.” Sarah frowned.

Tobias was beginning to grow tired of her. He had
slept with her a couple of times during the three months they were making the
movie. But to his defense he always approached every sexual encounter with a
disclaimer. He was just there for fun and nothing else. That fun had once
gotten him in trouble, sex tapes and fake pregnancies. So he approached each
encounter the same way one would approach a bomb, with extreme caution. He
packed his own condoms and did a sweep of the room before, or changed the
meeting point at the last minute. He had grown wiser, but that didn’t mean he
was about to give up his favorite pastime.

“What do you want, Sarah?” He kicked up the desert
sand wondering how much of it he would need to stuff into her mouth so that she
would finally stop talking.

“I was hoping that we could spend the evening in my
room tonight.” She hugged his arm.

“I have a date tonight.”

“With whom?” she whined.

Tobias looked up and pointed at the first female he
saw.
“With her.”
And just as he said it he wondered if
he indeed had a date for the night and whether or not it was with her. The
woman smiled and winked at him, but he still couldn’t recall who she was or her
name. He stared at her breasts but they didn’t spark a memory. But when she walked
by him, he stared at her ass and immediately a light bulb came on in his head.
I
know that ass. Sandy…Candy or…yes Cindy!
“I have a date with Cindy.”

“I don’t appreciate how you are treating me, Toby.”
She pulled at his arm and whimpered some more.

With an exasperated groan he pulled his arm free and
stalked away. He had other things on his mind and he pleaded with the world
that he didn’t have a date for the night. He needed to figure his mind out—his
heart too. They didn’t seem to be in tune with the most victorious part of his
body.

Chapter Two

Marietta heard her phone ring, but she tuned it out.
Increasing the sound of the bathroom stereo, she bobbed her head and tapped her
foot to Kelly Rowland’s Motivation. She needed to tune every romantic or sexual
thought of Tobias Harden out of her head. Although the choice of music wasn’t
ideal she wasn’t ready to step out of her warm bubble bath.

It had taken her a long time before she could enjoy a
long satisfying bubble bath. The bubbles, the water, the tub and the scented
shampoo always seemed to pull her back to the moment she felt her mother’s
lifeless body in the bathtub. Everyone around her begged her to see a
psychologist. They claimed that sharing her inner darkest, deepest thoughts
with a complete stranger would make her feel better. But Marietta didn’t buy
that. Ever since her father had left, her brother had died, and her mother had
turned into a heap of emotional chaos, Marietta had handled all her problems
alone, the psychological ones included.

She soldiered on through life and used all her demons
to create masterpieces. Her books and scripts had benefited from the emotional
turmoil and the money in the bank was her proof. That was all she needed now,
her laptop, or even better, a pen and paper. There was nothing as intimate as
transferring your thoughts from your mind, through a pen to a piece of paper.
And although sharing those thoughts terrified her, they gratified her even
more.

Marietta got out of the bath and wrapped herself in a
towel before going in search of a pen and paper. Once she got them she sat at her
makeshift desk, she wrote down a sentence and stared at the
words.
He
kissed me.
After that nothing she thought or felt could be justly described
by any words that she knew. Her stomach grumbling saved her from any feeling of
failure she was bound to feel for not being able to come up with the right
words.

She threw on a pair of sweat pants and a tank top.
Then she realized that she wouldn’t be able to go down to the restaurant
dressed like that. She opted to call for room service and returned to her desk.
She stared at the piece of paper with only three words on it, disillusioned.
Marietta hoped she would get better results on her laptop. The clicking sounds
of her typing and the feeling of the tip of her fingers numbing from punching
down on the soft keys often offered her comfort. But once she had her Word open
all she could write were those three words,
He kissed me.

Pushing her usual emotional thoughts out of the way,
she decided to think the way Tobias would have. The lust that followed after
the kiss was a good place to start. She had to change the
scene,
the desert wasn’t the best place. Sand entering places it shouldn’t wasn’t
romantic or ideal. She thought of a different type of sand, white grainy sand
and a palm tree with coconuts littered everywhere, a tropical beach without
crabs. The sound of the crushing waves echoing around them as the water pushed
towards them, just to the point of wetting their legs and nothing else.

She would be in a beautiful two piece bikini, nothing
too revealing, sexy but leaving enough to the imagination. He would be in his
swimming trucks, not the tight European type Speedos, but something that
covered enough so that she would be surprised at what was underneath. They
would be lying down on the sand sharing a passionate kiss. She could feel the
heat inside her rise as her body lurched onto his. He would respond greedily to
her ardent hunger for more.

Then what?

Marietta was terrified to submit herself to the
possibilities of what followed the passionate kiss. She shrugged and threw her
reservation out of her mind. This was just her imagination at
work,
her mind wasn’t going to break her heart. No harm, no
foul, and no reason to dive into the deep end.

“All right, just think palm trees, grainy sand and
coconuts. The cool breeze is blowing from the ocean, the warm water snaking
around you. The sounds of the crushing waves and his heavy breathing pulling
you into this magical world of romance…”

Marietta found herself there, just as she’d described
it. Her hands were kneading into a well-muscled back as her lips molded against
his in a kiss. Her heart beat heavily in her chest as his hands roamed freely on
her body. She could feel a primitive wildness within him, calling her, and in
response she bucked her hips against him. Her heart began to beat faster as his
lips trailed down her lips to her neck, and then lower, finding and suckling on
her nipples. She whimpered and grasped at his head, pulling him closer. Vaguely
she was aware of his hands smoothing down to her hips, kneading and caressing.
His fingers stroked everywhere except her hot center, She felt like she would die
if he didn’t touch her properly. Pleasure shot through her when he finally
invaded the folds of her nether lips, stroking and delving inside her. Her body
arched off the ground as her hips bucked, pleading for him to put her out of
her misery. He stroked her sensitive flesh until she was writhing and losing
any control she had over her body. And just as he rose above her, parting her thighs
and positioned himself at her entrance—

“What are you doing?”

Marietta almost fell off the chair when the boom of
Jessie’s voice invading her thoughts startled her. Knocked out of her fantasy
and back into her reality, Marietta tried to act normal. But what had just
happened in her mind was far from normal, and the proof of it was the needy
ache in between her legs and the wetness in her pants. She swallowed hard and
shot to her feet, grabbing the bottle of cold water in Jessie’s hand.

“What were you doing?” an evil knowing chuckle
radiated from Jessie’s throat.

“What do you mean? I was writing. I was in the zone
and you interrupted me.” She wiped the beads of sweat from her brow.

“You were in the zone, but you were definitely not
writing. Your hands were not on your keyboard, they were somewhere else.” She
chuckled, “Who were you thinking about?”

“No one.”
Marietta stared at
her laptop and the piece of paper on her desk. She shot a look at Jessie hoping
that she wasn’t going to look, but instead ended up tipping her off. Marietta
reached for the desk, but was only able to close her laptop as Jessie grabbed
the piece of paper.

“He kissed me. You were thinking about him. I bet you
were fantasizing about how good it would feel if he touched you, caressed you
and had mind numbing sex with you.”

“You are delusional. You shouldn’t spend so much time
out in the desert.” Marietta grabbed her towel and headed back for the shower.
She needed to walk into a cold box, to freeze all the hormones that seemed to
be taking over her body. “He asked for you, by the way.” Jessie put in as
Marietta disappeared into the bathroom.

When Marietta heard what Jessie said, she froze in
place. She was eager to hear what he wanted to do with, or to her. She stepped
into the shower under the cold spray, cleared her throat before she asked,
“What did he want?”

“He wanted to discuss a scene with you. Something
about words not sounding natural,” Jessie yelled back.

“He what?”
Any desire to be
placated by him flew out the window. No one had ever questioned her about the
order of words.

They had suggested how different scenarios could be
changed, but never her words. She stepped out of the shower, barely dried
herself off and pulled her clothes on. It was the last stray she thought.
Marietta grabbed the master script from her desk and handed it to Jessie.
“Point it out.”

“I think he said just before he sets the bomb off.
It’s scheduled for the day after tomorrow.” She thumbed through the script then
pointed the scene out. “Here it is.”

Marietta grabbed the script from her and read out
loud, “‘and to the dust they shall return.’ What’s wrong with that?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s very catchy.” Jessie had a
look of amusement on her face.

“Do you know the jack ass’ room number?” she asked as
she slid her slippers on.

“Do I know it? Every single girl in the crew knows it.
The waitresses in restaurants ten blocks down know it.” Jessie stopped her
ranting when her eyes met with Marietta’s fuming expression.
“Twenty
second floor, room two thousand and two.”

Marietta burst out of her room, leaving a cloud of
smoke behind her. She always stayed in the more modest rooms, that way she had
Jessie next door. Plus she tried to be modest in everything
she
did.It
kept her grounded and humble. Tobias Harden’s
room was on the floor of luxury suites, usually you needed a key card to get
there but she would find a way.

She went down to the lobby but didn’t get off the
elevator when she saw Sarah heading her way. Marietta knew Sarah was on the
same floor and she had a key card. She rode up without saying a word to the
actress but puzzled at the eye-daggers Sarah seemed to be shooting her way. As
soon as the doors opened she saw Tobias’ room. It was located in a
strategically favorable place, right next to the elevators. This way when he got
to his floor with whatever unsuspecting Jane Doe, he didn’t need to do much
convincing before they were in his room.

Marietta took a deep
breath.She
decided to handle the situation as calmly as she could. But when she heard the
sound of his laughter she ended up banging on the door instead of knocking. The
door opened and it was his assistant Peter that she saw first.

“Where is he?” she barked.

“He just stepped out of the shower, could you come
back in a half an hour?” he asked.

“I don’t have half an hour. Besides, who are we
kidding, in half an hour he will have his latest prey inside here. I need to
talk to him now.”

“But—,”

“Move or I swear I’m going to steamroll over you.” She
placed her fisted hand against the door.

Peter looked back into the room and then back at her,
confused and terrified. He didn’t know what to do.

“Let her in.” Marietta heard a voice call from inside.

When she walked in she wished she had come half an
hour later as Peter had suggested. He stood in the living room area of his room.
His hard-muscled
frame made something inside her shudder and
relax
at the same time. His beautiful sturdy body glistened from the
wetness of his shower. She sucked in a long deep breath as her gaze slid down
his magnificent frame. His shoulders were wide, strong and packed with muscles.
His
eyes
 
loaded
with dangerous desire. His stomach was tight with a neat arrangement of muscled
cubes. His towel balanced around his waist, threatened to collapse around his
ankles.

“Oh dear God.”
She heard her
breath escape her lips. Then she saw the muscles at the edge of his lips
stiffen in a smile.

When he closed the distance between them, she inhaled
deeply and caught the scent of him. He smelled male, seductive and good. Her
heart skipped as panic ripped through her. He was so close to her that she was
forced to look into his eyes and not anywhere else.

****

Tobias could hear the commotion from his room. Who was
it—a jilted lover perhaps? At first he thought he should hide. He was on his
knees ready to squeeze his massive body under the small crawl space between the
mattress and the floor when he identified the voice. It was Marietta, his
nerves lit up with desire. He wanted her in his room, in his bed, his arms, her
body pinned underneath him, and him inside her as he took pleasure from her
moaning out his name. But then he realized that she didn’t sound like a woman
ready to be made to recite the alphabet backwards. Instead, she sounded like a
woman out for blood. He rushed into the living room, disregarding the fact that
he was in nothing but a towel.

He smiled and chuckled in amusement and he became
aroused when he heard her threaten his assistant, “Move or I swear I’m going to
steam roll over you.” Peter wasn’t that large, although he was much taller than
him. But he would be too intimidated by Marietta to stand up for himself much
longer. Tobias decided to save his fretful assistant.

“Let her in.” Tobias watched as she walked into the
room. She was dressed casually but he suspected that she had just stepped out
of the shower. Her braids were wet and the water from them was causing her
white tank top to become wet. He stared at her, trying to estimate how many
more drops of water would make her nipples completely visible to him. He could
feel himself getting excited and aroused just thinking about it.

But then when the angry woman that had stomped into
his room froze before him, he decided to move closer to her. When her eyes
skimmed over his body settling on his waist he realized how bare he really was.
Closing the gap between them he gave her no option but to look into his eyes.

“Oh my God.”

He smiled. That was the usual reaction he got from
every woman who had seen him naked. But then she seemed to have reclaimed her
senses. And what she said next shook him to the core, “Could you put on some
clothes?”

“What?” He was stunned, puzzled and still in a state
of shock when Marietta grabbed a robe from a chair and threw it at him. “I
don’t understand what’s going on here.”

“It seems so,” Marietta roared at him, “What do you
mean by my words aren’t right. If you don’t like my words write your own. These
words have earned me an Oscar and many acclamations from the critics and my
peers. What the hell do you mean by the words aren’t right?”

Tobias took a step back as he tried to steady himself against
the battery of words thrown at him. Plus he needed room to breathe and clear
his mind. He could hear her shout at him but then all he felt was desire. He
wanted to throw her over his shoulder, take her to the other room and do things
to her that they would never recover from. His eyes were glued to her top as it
became lighter and more transparent from all the water. But then that was
stolen from him when Peter emerged with a sweat shirt and handed it to her.