Feast of Saints (40 page)

“Come for me, Lilly,” he commanded, thrusting into her first with his fingers, and then trading his hand for his mouth. As he thrust into her with his tongue, he rubbed her clitoris with his slick fingers. Lilly arched her back and braced her head and shoulders against the mirror so that she could touch her own breasts. She heard her crooning echo off the tiled walls as Jake kissed her with his lips and tongue, the sensations building inside her. When he swapped mouth for hand again, thrusting his fingers inside her, sucking in her clit and flicking it with his tongue, she came with a keening outrush of breath. She would have slipped off the counter with the force of her contracting muscles if Jake hadn’t grabbed her knees and pressed them to his shoulders, still sucking, still licking her, not letting up until her tremors subsided. Stroking her legs, he grinned up at her. She felt the start of an answering grin on her own face but then suddenly clamped her hand over her mouth in horror as she heard a loud rap on Jake’s blessedly locked bedroom door.

“Mr. Durant? Mr. Durant? Everything okay?”

Still grinning, Jake shouted over her thigh, “Yes, Kwanga, I’ll be right out.”
His housekeeper traveled with him
, Lilly’s foggy mind registered.

Lilly grabbed a hard-boiled egg off of the breakfast buffet laid out for Jake and kissed him lightly on the cheek. “I’ll see you down there,” she said, leaping out of the way of his hand when he raised it to swat her backside on the way out of the room. Stopping at the door she called back, “I may need to call in Clara, today, okay? I’ve got to make sure I’m ready for Park. He gets in early this afternoon.”

“Yes, that’s fine. I like Clara.”

“I do too,” she said smiling and left.

Lilly popped in and out on Jake all day, making sure things were fine for the shoot, but Clara didn’t need her. Honestly, she was a little glad for the reprieve from Jake’s constant company. She loved the new connection she felt with him, but it was overwhelming. Every time he came within fifteen feet of her, she felt all of her straining toward him. Even the hair on her arms electrified and bent in his direction, as if he were a balloon rubbed on the carpet.

She thought sex with Jake would dissolve some of the mysterious pull she felt, but it had only intensified it. Now that she knew how good it was. She had expected him to be a powerful lover, and he was, but there was more to it. She couldn’t put words to it, but it was how he made her
feel
, emboldened… and adored.
Ack!
She mentally smacked herself to keep her mind from wandering down that path.

When she wasn’t with Jake or one of the other performers, she was scouting locations for Park. She wanted some footage of Jake running at dawn but, although the grounds of the Fairmont were immaculate, they were so lush and full of native foliage that it was hard to find a spot open enough for all of the equipment filming entailed.

At four, she received a text from Park. He’d arrived and was grabbing a shuttle to the hotel; however, he was not able to get a reservation at the Fairmont because it was full. She made a beeline for the front desk and quickly found there was nothing for it. The hotel was overflowing with crew, talent and other guests. Alison’s words from last night echoed in her head – secure Park.

Lilly headed to her own room and called housekeeping, packing up quickly while she waited. She had the maid completely clean the room so that she could give it up for Park. She’d just deposited her suitcase with the concierge when Park texted her that he was in the hotel lobby. Hurrying back up to the open air space, she recognized Park from his bio picture on his resume available on Ruminate’s website.
He’s even prettier than his picture
, she thought, as she jogged up to him, flushed and out of breath from speeding around. Lilly smiled widely at Park.

“Mr. Kim? I’m Lilly Rose. Thank you for coming.”

Park, who had been looking around admiring the beautiful setting, smiled at her and gave her a slight bow. Originally from Seoul, Korea, Park had golden brown skin and expressive dark eyes that crinkled when he smiled.
Oh my, and those full lips and deep dimples in his cheeks
. Lilly tried not to gawk.

“I’m pleased to meet you, Ms. Rose.”

“Please, call me Lilly. I’m so glad you made it.” Digging into her back pocket, she pulled out the little cardboard envelope with her room number on it and keycard inside. “Here you go. You’re all set. The room number is written inside. If you decide to stay, you’re booked through Friday night.”

“Thank you for taking care of that. The firm’s travel agent couldn’t get a reservation,” said Park.

“No problem at all.” She felt pretty sure Jake would invite her to stay with him the rest of the week.

“If you’d like to catch the last bit of filming today, you can leave your bag with the concierge, and we can walk down to the set. They’ll be wrapping up shortly.”

“Let’s do that,” said Park.

Leading the way down to the beach, she filled in Park on
Feast’s
plot, endeavoring to spark his interest.

“I hope you don’t mind that you’ll have to sign a confidentiality agreement,” she said. Alison had blown up her phone all day with texts and emails covering the technicalities of creating the BTSV. Lilly suspected that Jake must have chastised her about throwing her into the project without assistance.

“No, I expected that,” said Park.

Lilly continued, “It’s a tragic love story, but with a supernatural twist and, well, a lot of violence. Jake Durant plays the villain, a vampire named Allegrezza Cavender. He’s got a century’s old grudge against the ancestors of Maya Trent’s character, Sofia Gabrielli, who killed his sire. When he discovers the Gabrielli line still exists, he intends to finish the job of wiping them out but when he sees her, she’s so attractive he hesitates, and stalks her for a while. He learns that Alan Hume’s character, Blaylock, is looking out for her. Allegrezza hates Blaylock – an angel who has the power to redeem him – even more than he hates the Gabriellis, so he starts messing with Sofia. Some of it is funny, some of it sexy, and then of course there are a lot of horrific fights, too.”

She explained the dream sequence they were filming in Maui. “In the film’s story, Allegrezza has so persistently charmed Sofia that she has softened toward him. She thinks he desires redemption but that’s just a ploy on his part. He’s well beyond redemption.

“Before she lies down to sleep, she begs Blaylock to save him. In the dream, her subconscious creates a role reversal, where she’s the vampire and Allegrezza the human. It’s the penultimate scene. On waking, the real Allegrezza is there beside her. He stabs her, effectively eliminating any chance that Blaylock will grant Sofia’s wish to redeem him. Then he changes her into a vampire and leaves her sleeping in a place vulnerable to the rising sun. The movie ends with the suggestion that she will die a vampire, forbidden from entering heaven, denied eternity with Blaylock.”

As they approached the set, she put her finger to her lips to signal to Park not to speak. The warning was unnecessary, though, as Park clearly knew his way around filming.

Jake was standing in the surf goofing off with Tyler. Lilly had been so distracted the last couple of days that she’d forgotten that Tyler was going to be on the set today. Tyler and his dad, Jeremy, had hopped over from Oahu, where the rest of Tyler’s family was vacationing near Honolulu. Jake had arranged the extremely well paying one-day gig for Tyler along with a free trip to Hawaii for his family. The studio overlooked the nepotism because Tyler was so talented, and he was the spitting image of a young Jake, which was just what the script called for.

Watching Jake and Tyler, Lilly sucked in her breath. Jake looked glorious as he laughed and spun Tyler around then set him down on the sun-strewn beach.

The camera crew was shooting from behind Maya. It was a complicated scene for her. As human Allegrezza cavorts with his dream son, dream-vampire Sofia watches from the shadow of the tree line, simultaneously distressed and beguiled. Unable to step into the sunlight without burning, Maya has to visibly struggle with her inability to protect the child or join in the loving scene. Lilly could see how it would be easy to overact, ruining the scene.

“Cut!” yelled Monty from his boom, before walking over to speak to Maya.

Park, who was watching the cameramen, said, “It looks like they’ve got at least one cameraman filming some candid shots.”

Lilly followed his gaze and saw, indeed, that Cully was still peering into his eyepiece, filming Jake on the beach with Tyler, then turning and backing away from Monty and Maya to get a wider angle shot of their conversation.

“Has he been doing that all along?” Park asked

“I don’t know,” she admitted. Park raised his brows at that, and she remembered she hadn’t told him what her real job was. He must have thought she was a producer.

As Cully lowered the camera, she said, “Let’s go find out.”

Leading Park over to where Cully stood, they crossed paths with Tyler, headed toward the trailers. Lilly paused to give Ty a quick hug. Tyler hugged her back enthusiastically. “I’ve been looking for you. I wish we were staying here but mom’s got a whole itinerary planned. We’re not even staying tonight.”

No doubt Tyler’s parents had filled his non-filming schedule with trips to Pearl Harbor and other educational experiences, creating some normalcy amidst the craziness of Hollywood.

“Well, pick something outlandish for your next film, and you know I’ll be there to help you make it work,” she said.

Tyler smiled slyly. “I already have, but it won’t start production until next year. I can’t tell you or… you know.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’d have to kill me. You look great out there, by the way,” indicating the now empty surf.

When Tyler made a mock gagging noise, she asked, “Everything okay?”

“Yes, just feeling sick from all the spinning,” he said.

“I’ve got G2 in the cooler over there.” She pointed to the oasis.

“Great, thanks! Don’t leave without saying hello to my dad,” Tyler said and jogged over to the shady structure.

After introducing Park to Cully, Lilly was encouraged when Park said to Cully, “I heard you guys were filming in Italy. Did you get much usable behind the scenes there?”

Park had obviously made some inquiries about the film, a sure sign he was interested. Cully assured Park that there were hours and hours of extra material at all locations. Their conversation quickly turned to the craft of shots, cuts and camera angles, and they began conversing in a language Lilly only vaguely understood. But she could read body language and it was obvious these two had hit it off.

She surreptitiously texted Alison, “Can we have Cully?”

She spotted Alison not thirty feet away, on the periphery of an intense discussion between Monty, Maya, and Jake. Alison checked her text and looked toward them. Seeing Park and Cully deep in conversation, Alison put her phone to her ear and turned to find a quiet spot to arrange the overtime. Two minutes later Alison texted back confirmation on Cully, including the budget for his overtime pay.

At a slow point in the conversation, she jumped in. “Cully, do you think you might want to do us a huge favor and work some overtime this week shooting some extra pieces for a behind the scenes video?”

For a moment, she thought Cully was going to say no and was wishing she hadn’t asked him right in front of Park. She knew he was overworked, as they all were. Eyeing her and Park, Cully said, “Are you two doing it?”

“Yes, I am. Park’s here to see our set up,” she said noncommittally.

“Would I be editing, too? Or just filming?” Lilly could see that Cully, who’d been retired before she and Jake had roped him into this project, was about tapped out and due for a break.

Blessedly, Park jumped in, “No editing, just camera work, a few hours in the mornings and evenings, and then keep doing what you’ve been doing on the set, catching the candid shots. I’ve got editing covered.”

She could have jumped for joy. She did bob up and down a bit on the balls of her feet when Cully acquiesced.

“You got me on the budget?” he asked judiciously. Lilly opened the text from Alison and showed him the overtime pay that had been authorized. “Alright, when do we start?”

“Tomorrow,” she said hopefully, looking to Park to respond.

“Tomorrow,” Park agreed, giving her the dimpled smile. Park and Cully exchanged contact information and agreed to text later to arrange the meeting time for the start of the BTSV job.

“Looks like marks,” said Cully, referring to the fact that filming was resuming. Park and Lilly stepped back into the sidelines and watched as Monty directed a few takes with just Jake and Tyler.

A short while later, Duncan, Alison’s assistant, walked over to Lilly and informed her that the decision had been made to shoot Maya separately tomorrow. They’d decided to try a segment in which Maya’s dream Sofia would step into the sun and, since in the dream she was a vampire, begin to burn. It would give Maya something to work with to convey the inner turmoil the character is supposed to be experiencing. It had the added benefit of foreshadowing Sofia’s tragic end.

“Okay,” said Lilly, thinking it was not okay at all. Back at the studio in LA, it wouldn’t be a problem. Here, with the limited resources…. She quickly calculated the work required to make this happen. She was going to be up all night. She had all the raw materials to make the skin effects, but she’d have to start mixing and molding from scratch, which took hours.

As Duncan thanked her and walked away, she caught Park studying her with interest. “You do special effects?”

“Yeah, well, I’m kind of a jack-of-all-trades,” she fudged.

Just then, “Cut” was called and she was grateful to see Jake immediately make his way toward her and Park. Jake smiled at her. Playing a mostly human today, the smile had none of the creepy/scary Allegrezza overtones. His expression was open, friendly and totally charming when he introduced himself to Park.

“You must be Park Kim. Thank you for coming out on such short notice. I’m pleased Ms. Rose was able to interest you in the project. I hope you’ll agree to take us on.”