Denouement (6 page)

“I’m on a photo safari. I got a call from my mom and
she told me you were here. So I thought I would come and see you.”

Marietta knew Chris well enough to know when he was
hiding something or trying to protect her from some truth. It was the same look
he gave her when they first discovered her mother’s body. Chris was the first
to see her. He closed the bathroom door and wouldn’t let her through. Marietta
had to resort to threats before he agreed to let her see her mother’s lifeless
body. She didn’t have any more family to bury, so she assumed it wasn’t death,
unless?

“Are you dying? Because if you are, you need to tell
me right now?” she said as her voice quivered.

“I’m not dying. I am as healthy as an ox,” he
reassured her.

“Then what’s the problem?”

“There is a developer who wants to buy your old family
home. He already bought all the houses on that block. He plans on tearing them
down and building a complex.” Chris pulled her to the bed and made her sit. “I
think it’s time to let go of all the memories and nightmares.”

“Those nightmares got me to where I am now.”

“I get that, but you need to move on.”

Marietta didn’t sleep that well the rest of the night.
Apart from Chris’s elbow digging into her back, she was disillusioned at the
idea of selling her family home. But she knew she couldn’t hold on to it any
longer. There was nothing left for her back there. She had left that little
town to build a new and happy life for herself, and so far she had been
successful. Keeping that house was like that little dark spot on a white
canvas. But even with the cons outweighing the pros she still couldn’t come up
with a definitive answer.

*
* * *

Marietta woke up midafternoon, hours after she had
sent Chris off and the rest of the cast and crew had reported to the set. She decided
not to take the jeep to the new location that was only blocks away from the
hotel. She walked hoping that the fresh air would help her think. When she got
to the small café, Tobias and Sarah were brainstorming with McKenzie. Marietta
stayed out of it, sure that her jumbled mind couldn’t come up with anything of
substance. But even when she sat aside, it didn’t stop McKenzie from calling
her into the discussion.

She barely heard the ideas being thrown around. And
when they asked for her opinion she would always lean toward what the director
said. He saw the vision and was in a better position to offer an interpretation
than she was.

“What’s wrong?” Tobias pulled Marietta aside.

“What?” Marietta hadn’t realized that it was just the
two of them or that he was talking to her.

“I asked what’s wrong. You seem dazed and out of it.”
He put his palm against her forehead feeling for a fever.

“My body isn’t sick, my mind is.” She pushed his hand
away and ran her fingers through her braids.

“Did he spend the night?”

“Yes, but we didn’t—” She paused for a second,
abandoning what she was saying then asked, “Would you hold on to a past that
has been a part of your life, events that shaped you, no matter how dark they
were, or would you just get rid of them in an effort to forget.”

“You never forget, you learn and move on,” he said his
soft eyes offset by worry. “You never forget what made you but you don’t have
to hold onto the darkness or any symbol of
the it
.”

Marietta nodded and blinked back the tears threatening
to spill out in gallons.

“I’m going to go.”

*
* * *

There was a knock on her hotel door later that night.
Marietta sat on her bed
andsighedinto
the phone,
agreeing with her lawyer. She needed to know just how long it would be possible
to hold on to her childhood home before the developers strong armed her. She
watched as Jessie got up to open the door and she was certain she knew who was
on the other side of it.

As Tobias stepped into the room Jessie stepped out.
Before she left, Jessie made a phone gesture asking Marietta to call her
whenever. Marietta nodded and watched as Tobias sat next to her on the bed. She
moved closer to him and snuggled into his side, letting him hold onto to her
before she fell apart.

“Thanks, tell them I just need a month to consider
this.” She mumbled, “I will be back in the states in the next two weeks, we can
talk then.”

Marietta tossed her phone on the bed, breathing out
and trying to release the tension that had been building up in her. She looked
up at Tobias and a smile passed over her lips. He responded by squeezing her
tight against his body but he never smiled. Instead his face was seamed with
lines of concern.

“You want to talk about it?” he asked as he placed a
kiss on her temple.

Marietta shook her head and snaked out of his grip.
She crawled into bed and invited him along. Tobias lay next to her, curling his
arm around her, he pulled her tiny body against him. She appreciated the
gesture, with Chris gone and Jessie unable to take anything serious for two
seconds, Tobias’ comforting hug was all that was holding her together. She
could slowly feel herself unraveling at the seams. She was a ball of wool and
fate was a kitten stringing her along.

Silence settled around them like a cloak. Fifteen
minutes into the silence, Marietta heard Tobias’ slow
steadybreathing
and she knew he was asleep. Bringing her head forward she stared at him, the
hard planes of his face, his strong and stubborn jaw but what tugged at her the
most were his pink plump
kiss me
lips. She rose and supported herself on her elbow. With her free hand she
combed her fingers through his hair. She pulled back when he moaned, but once
he went silent she planted a kiss on his lips.

Marietta laid her head on his chest and wondered if
she could have a lifetime of this moment. It seemed so easy, effortless, to lie
next to him like this. He would help her through her tough moments and she
would do the same. They would have sex, or graduate to making love. They would
be at each other’s sides as their careers grew, when tragedy struck and when
they just wanted to be. She had never had something so stable before. Her most
stable relationship had been with the characters in her books, her scripts and
the creative voices in her head. She needed human contact before she finally
lost her mind, although it was her mind putting food on her table.

Human contact, maybe one day she would be brave enough
to have a baby. Someday maybe she could build a family with someone and maybe
that someone could be Tobias Harden.

Marietta erupted in laughter at the thought.
Tobias Harden, monogamous.
She had better luck witnessing a
fish walking on water. Bad boys, players, they never changed. The only place a
bad boy reformed was in her stories and that was because she forced them to
take an unnatural path to life. She couldn’t see Tobias change nappies, or wake
up for two am feedings or even drive a station wagon. It just wasn’t natural.

She closed her eyes chuckling to herself before Tobias’
steady breaths and heartbeat lulled her to sleep.

Chapter Four

The next couple of days she woke up and slept at his
side. Rumors had flown around about their coupling but people always seemed to
shrug them off. They all said, ‘Marietta wasn’t the type to fraternize with the
actors.’ In a way the reputation she had managed to build for herself protected
her from the actual truth.

Marietta read through the penultimate scene of the
movie. It was a sex scene and now that she and Tobias had formed such a strong
bond, she regretted writing it. She read the description of the scene
‘animalistic, ravaging, and teeth shattering romp.’ She whined as she saw her
own words turn against her. Tobias and Jessie had, in equal measure, tried to
discourage her from being present for the filming, but she had always put her
professional face first, this time wasn’t going to be any different.

She bit down on her finger as they took their places
in the suite. Tobias stood over Sandra his pants undone but still hanging from
his waist. His shirt was undone and his hair
tussled.Sarah
was in the bed naked with her perfect leg peeking out of the bed sheet.
Marietta watched as the set seemed to fill more than she had ever seen it in
the past three and a half months. They had all gathered to see him, her guy and
there was nothing she could do. She was especially annoyed by the makeup
artists who were giving Tobias a touch up. She hated the sound of their
giggling as they rubbed whatever it was, on his sturdy torso.

What she hated more was that he encouraged it. She
didn’t expect Tobias to swat their hands off his body. But she didn’t
appreciate the devilish grin he shot at them. However, she should have expected
it. After all the years he had spent carousing such a reaction was ingrained in
him, it wasn’t going to suddenly stop because she was having an untitled
relationship with him.

“What is that on his neck?” Marietta heard McKenzie
ask.

“We tried covering it but—,” A makeup artist shrugged.

Marietta moved closer and leaned in to take a look at
the monitor. Tobias had a bite mark on his neck it was red and visible to a
blind man. She felt herself shrink away and when she looked up she saw Tobias
wink at her and flash
her a
devilish grin. She wanted
to sneak away before the CSI were called in and matched the bite mark to her
teeth.

“Ladies please, it has been brought to my attention
that Tobias Harden is an amazing lover, but please can you not chew on him.
Especially on parts that have to be seen on camera.”
McKenzie announced.

Marietta bit down on her finger.

“I see you like human flesh.” Jessie giggled at her
side.

“Shut up.” Marietta hissed at her.

“Marietta!” She jumped when she heard her name called
out, “Give me a scenario where this bite mark works.”

Immediately she thought about what they had been doing
when the maiming occurred. They were on the bed and she was straddling him.
Tobias’ hands were firmly gripping her buttocks as he rocked her back and forth
against him, his manhood diving into her and his scrotum hitting up against
her. The tightness in her belly and tingling in her toes was a telltale sign
that an orgasm was about to crash into her. It was as if Tobias sensed it too
as he moved faster, deeper harder. Her hands were locked around him, and she
could feel a scream start to rip out of her. But she didn’t want to make any
noise and since the pillows were out of her reach, she bit down on the flesh at
the juncture of his neck and shoulder. A smile lifted on her lips because
Tobias seemed to take pleasure from her sinking her teeth into him. Seconds
later they drove each other to the edge and collapsed in a sex heap on the bed.
Her eye brow hiked as the pleasure she felt from the previous night aroused
her.

“Marietta!”

“Huh?” She stepped out of Tobias’ line of sight when
she realized the bedroom eyes he was giving her. He needed a clear mind and
having his statuesque body in front of her, those luscious lips and his sexy
bedroom eyes staring at her wasn’t giving her much room to think.

But once she was able to get some oxygen to her brain
a thought occurred to her. At first it ripped her apart, but there was no other
way. “What if she bites him?” She winced in pain when she realized someone was
about to take her mark of possession away from her.

“No!” Marietta was startled by how stern Tobias’ voice
was.

“It could be fun.” Sarah chirped, and all Marietta
wanted to do was to stuff the bed sheets and the mattress in her foul mouth.

“Why won’t you let her bite you Tobias? It’s not like
it would be the first one you experienced in the past twenty four hours,”
McKenzie said frustrated.

“Six hours and plus it’s very tender and having Sarah
bite me again is not sexy at all.” Tobias shot Marietta a look. Immediately she
knew the spot wasn’t tender. It had been the trigger for his release. She
smiled in appreciation when she realized he wanted to keep something as simple
as a bite mark special between the both of them.

“Sarah could move her lips along that region, and make
it look like she bit him. It would go with the description.” Marietta
suggested.

“How would that work? You are the queen of
demonstrations, go demonstrate.” McKenzie instructed.

At first Marietta was stunned, she didn’t dare move.
It wasn’t because she was embarrassed about having to demonstrate a sex injury,
but because she didn’t trust herself to pull away. She grabbed Jessie’s hand
then whispered, “If I linger for more than two seconds pull me back. Grab my hair
if you have to.”

Jessie made a sign of salute then relieved Marietta of
her script. Cautiously she approached Tobias her inside lurching and dancing
excitedly. She moved around him, pretending to be figuring out the perfect way
to do it. She knew the perfect way to do it she had just done it six hours ago.

“Hey Mattie, ready for round two or is it three, no
maybe six.” Tobias whispered to her.

She could hear the humor in the tone of his voice. He
seemed to be taking pleasure from her discomfort. “I’m sorry by the way, I got
carried away.”

“I know I was there. Plus I don’t mind. It’s a battle
scar,” he teased.

“Do you want me to help?” Sarah rose from the bed
clutching her bed sheet just above her breast.

“No!” Tobias and Marietta responded in unison.

Marietta thought back to the night before. She had her
arms around him, but that angle wouldn’t work for the camera. So she placed her
hands on his shoulders but under his shirt. She slowly eased the shirt off as
she caressed his shoulders down to his arms, the whole time avoiding Tobias’
eyes and concentrating on the camera and the operators. They were following
her, getting all the angles. Once she pushed the shirt off his body her fingers
kneaded into his back muscles. She looked up at McKenzie and he seemed to be
with her so far. She knew what happened next, she gave Tobias a look, urging
him to follow her lead.

“Are you sure?” he asked and she nodded. “I can’t
promise that I will be able to put you down after.” He growled at her,
responding to the sexual tension she was building between them.

Marietta flashed a smile at his promise, but she was
worried that he would keep to his word. Leaning into his ear, she whispered,
“Work with me and I will make it worth your while.”

With that promise he grunted, planting his hands at
her rear he lifted Marietta off the ground and guided her legs to wrap around
his waist. She began to move against him, like she would when they were having
sex. Planting feathery kisses along his neck, she smoothed her lips to where the
bite mark was. She put her lips over it then gently licked it.

Marietta pulled back and looked at Tobias. The desire
burned bright in his eyes. She needed to get down and away as soon as possible,
but the harder she tried to move the tighter he held her against him.

“Toby!”
She barked into his
ear and he seemed to snap back.

He eased her to the ground, and that was when they
noticed how everyone was staring at them. Even McKenzie seemed to be left
speechless. Marietta felt like she should take a bow or give a speech.
Apparently due to the past couple of weeks with Tobias she had managed to
master the art of seduction.

“McKay!” Marietta barked once more and she seemed to
have arrested the attention of everyone on set, “Is that okay?”

“It’s…” He cleared his throat then said, “It was
perfect. I need five minutes to myself.”

The man got up and exited the set and so did most of
the men.

“I think they all went to jerk off.” Jessie chuckled.
“Boss you are going to be the subject of all the wet dreams tonight.”

Marietta smiled before an odd reaction from Tobias
startled her. “Did you just growl?”

“Dear God woman, you are going to be the death of me.”
He moved closer to her, rubbing his body against her.

Marietta laughed then said, “I learned from the best.”

“They can dream of you tonight, but I’m going to have
you,” he whispered to her once more.

“Will he be lifting me like that?” Sandra managed to
pierce through their moment.

“No!” Tobias barked.

“Yes!” Marietta contradicted.

“Yes!” McKenzie affirmed as he walked back on set.
“Exactly how they did it. I doubt that you, Sandra, could manage to steam up
the room in the same way, but try your best.”

“I think you should go,” Tobias urged.

“Why?” Marietta asked confused.

“It’s not going to be easy for you to watch this. You
described this scene so I will have to go all out,” he cautioned.

“I’m a professional,” she said as she moved behind the
monitors with McKenzie.

“Ready on the
set.Action
!”
As soon as McKenzie gave the okay for Tobias to ‘screw’ another woman Marietta was
overcome by the overwhelming feeling to hurl. But she stood her ground, her
teeth grinding as she bared through six hours of shooting the sex scene.

****

Marietta didn’t know what to expect to happen after
the last take. But what she didn’t plan on happening was Tobias hanging back to
flirt with the make-up and wardrobe assistants. Her jaw clenched shut as she
watched Tobias guide one of the women onto his lap. She had a mind to burst into
his private party but her pride wouldn’t let her. Instead she headed back to
her room and waited for him.

It was almost midnight when he finally showed up.
Marietta sat on a chair in the corner of the room and watched him as he plopped
down on the bed.

“Where were you?”
      

“You aren’t my mother or my wife. I don’t owe you any
explanation.”

Marietta noticed how Tobias dragged his words. It was
obvious that he had had more than his share of alcohol.

“I think you should leave.”

“Fine.”
He pushed himself off
the bed, but before he left he moved toward her.

Tobias knelt on the floor and put his chin on her
knee. She thought he was about to apologize, but his next words battered her
heart
.“
I
don’t think we should
keep seeing each other. After tomorrow, I’ll be going my way and you will be
going to conquer the movie world somewhere else. It was fun, really it was. But
I am not a relationship type of guy.”

Marietta swallowed the huge lump of emotion that had
formed in her throat. She fought back the tears threatening to spill out of her
eyes. She didn’t look at
him,
instead she concentrated
on the wall directly in front of her. She gently brushed him off of her then
said, “That’s fine with me.”

“I’m glad. I had a great time, Mattie.” Tobias got to his
feet and pressed a kiss on her forehead. He gave her a wink and a grin before
leaving.

Marietta realized that her fingers were digging into
the arm of the chair. When she released it, she felt it shake and the emotional
quake going on in her heart seemed to radiate to each of her limbs. She tried
standing up but ended up back in the seat. She wasn’t going to cry. From the
beginning she knew their relationship was only physical. It was her fault that
she ended up falling in love with him. But then she would get over him. Although
it was unbearable to think that she had felt the last of his kisses, the last
of his arms around her, his gentle caresses and sweet words, she was glad that
they would be going their separate ways.

She reached for her phone and dialed her lawyer’s
number. It was time to start letting go of the past and she had to start with
the dreaded house, then Tobias Harden. “Sell it. Let them tear down the bloody
place I don’t care.” After barking her orders she tossed the phone on the bed.
She thought about crawling into bed and just letting the tears run out of her.
But she couldn’t. She was sure that the pillows still smelt like Tobias. Plus
she had become so accustomed to crushing into his hard muscular body when she
turned in her sleep that the bed seemed too big. Marietta eased into a
comfortable position in her chair and prayed that sleep would wash over her
soon.

*
* * *

Marietta groaned as she tried to turn her head. Her
neck was stiff, no doubt from the very uncomfortable position she had slept in.
The chair didn’t have much room and didn’t offer much head support. She hated
herself for letting herself
beso
affectedby
Tobias Harden that she couldn’t sleep in her own bed.

“What’s wrong Mattie?” Jessie asked as she watched
Marietta’s face morph into different forms of distress.

“Don’t call me that.” Tobias had called her that, and
it never sounded right when anyone else said it.