Dirty (6 page)

That's my cue to apologize, Marielle thought,
but all she could bring herself to say was, "I need some time to
learn the part."

Raven's biceps bulged as he folded his arms.
"I have no complaints."

"Well, I do. She can't act, she doesn't know
the part and you certainly can't gag her for every scene you need
to rehearse." Before he could reply the director reached out and
placed her hand on his chest. "Let me bring in an actress who can
provide a professional-level performance for you." Her fingers made
a caressing motion. "It's what you need, Raven."

"You have no idea what I need." He brushed
Vanessa's hand away and turned to Marielle. "But you do. I want you
to spend the weekend here with me so we can rehearse
privately."

As the director sputtered, Marielle ducked
her head. "No one is scheduled to work on the set this
weekend."

"We'll have the place to ourselves." He eyed
Vanessa. "You'll see to it, won't you?"

"You always get what you want." The director
gave Marielle an ugly look. "But it never lasts."

"Do I still have eyebrows and eyelashes?"
Marielle asked Raven as she watched the director stalk away. "Or
did she melt them off?"

"Let me look." He tipped up her chin and
smiled down at her. "All your beauty is intact. Will you give me
the weekend?"

Spending two days with Raven might cost her
the reputation she'd carefully guarded, the career she'd steadily
built and the heart she'd never given to any man. It would also
mean being alone with him under the most arousing circumstances,
with no one to stop either of them if things went too far. She knew
the only sane answer was no. "Yes."

* * *

Once Marielle finished the afternoon table
read with Raven, she walked with him to the parking lot. "So I'll
meet you back here first thing in the morning. Should I wear any
particular type of clothing?"

"If you want to make me happy" -- he gave her
one of Maestro's brooding glares -- "come naked."

"I'd be arrested on the way over." She
glanced over at the set, where the crew was packing away everything
that needed to be secured and saw Vanessa talking angrily to
someone on her mobile. "What happens when your co-star arrives next
week, Raven?"

"I lock you in my trailer and keep you as my
muse." He touched her cheek. "And take very long lunch hours and
breaks."

He didn't sound as if he was joking but she
pretended he was. "I'll need to see the pay scale for that."

"Inspiration is priceless." He looked as if
he wanted to kiss her but merely brushed his thumb across her lips
before he smiled. "See you tomorrow."

When Marielle arrived at her apartment
building, she saw Jilly Sanders hovering outside the front entrance
and smiled as she walked up. "Well this is a nice surprise. What
are you doing here?"

The smile her friend gave her seemed
strained. "I was in the neighborhood. Got a cup of coffee and a few
minutes to talk?"

"Sure." She unlocked the entry door. "Come on
up."

She started a fresh pot of coffee and put
some shortbread on a plate before she joined Jilly in the living
room. "I thought you were out job-hunting today."

Her friend made a face. "I got a job."

"Hey, that's great. Have a cookie."

"No, thanks. My stomach's kind of in knots
right now." Jilly wandered around the room, inspecting Marielle's
framed watercolors and shelf of scripts from the films she'd worked
on. "How did things go with Vanessa Newell today?"

"Not great. She really brought me back to
placate James Raven, which is really…" Her voice trailed off as she
saw guilt flicker across Jilly's face. "Not news to you at all.
Jilly?"

"She hired me to replace you. She told me
about everything and then made me watch you with Raven on her
monitor." She hunched her shoulders and stared at the floor. "She
called you a starfucker."

"Really." Marielle heard her coffee maker
beep and retreated to the kitchen to compose herself. When she
returned to the living room with her coffee tray she smiled at
Jilly. "I'd add some brandy to it but I have to get up early. Six
a.m. star slut set call."

Her friend looked miserable. "Is it true? Are
you sleeping with him?"

"I've never slept with Raven." She filled
their mugs. "We were too busy having sex. Cream and two sugars,
right?"

"Marielle!" Jilly threw up her hands. "How
could you be so stupid?"

"That sounds like Vanessa coming out of your
mouth." She sat down and helped herself to a cookie. "Maybe you
should gargle."

Her friend flushed and sat. "I'm sorry. It's
just not like you. Having an affair on a set with someone like him?
You have to know he's only using you. You would not believe how
much that director despises you now. She's going to burn you for
this if the last thing she does."

Marielle gave her a sad smile. "Why do you
think she hired you?"

Jilly's blue eyes widened. "What?"

"You're a great P.A.. Any production would be
lucky to have you on," she said. "But when was the last time a
director made you watch a scene rehearsal?"

"Never." Her friend's color went from pink to
bright red. "That vicious harpy. She's trying to bust up our BFF.
Well, she's messed with the wrong people." She jerked her cell
phone out of her purse and began dialing a number.

"Wait." Marielle grabbed her hand. "If you
quit she'll just hire someone else and manipulate them. I need you
to keep an eye on Vanessa -- without letting her know that we've
talked."

"I'd be like a double agent." Jilly's anger
morphed into an evil grin. "While she's giving me the dirt on you,
we'll be getting the jump on her." She reached over and gave her a
one-armed hug. "What was I thinking? You're so smart."

If I was, Marielle thought, no one would have
a reason to call me a star slut. Out loud she asked, "What does one
wear for a weekend with the sexiest man alive?"

Her friend drew back. "Why would you wear
anything?"

* * *

Marielle arrived at the set at six the next
morning but rather than go into the house she walked to Raven's
trailer to stow her overnight bag, unpack her supplies and start
his coffee maker. While it brewed she sat down at the table to take
another look at the script, which she had studied for hours after
Jilly left.

Raven arrived a half hour later and grinned
when he saw the hot coffee and Danish she'd laid out on the table.
"You brought me breakfast."

"I brought me breakfast," she corrected him.
"If you're nice I might let you have some."

"Then I will be very nice." He bent over to
kiss the top of her head. "Wardrobe left some outfits for you to
wear. I put them back in the bedroom."

"Good." She sat back and rubbed her eyes.
"Please tell me we're really going to rehearse this scene. I stayed
up until after midnight learning the lines. If I'm just here for
sex I'm going to punch you in the head."

"We've really got to rehearse this scene." He
sat down on the other side of the table and grabbed a pastry. "If
it doesn't go smoothly it'll ruin the whole film. No matter how
many times I run the lines, it doesn't feel natural yet."

"I thought the same thing last night." She
frowned down at the script. "I get that Melanie is submissive, but
she's not a dish rag. She tries to avoid Maestro at first and then
she argues with him and she even runs away from him when things get
too real. But in this scene…" She stopped and gave him an uneasy
look.

"She's a dish rag," he said. "So what can we
do about that?"

Marielle took a deep breath. "I have some
ideas that I'd like to try. But you have to be willing."

His smile faded. "Willing to do what?"

"Everything in the dark beauty scene," she
said. "For real."

"Mari, I can't." He leaned forward and took
her hands in his. "It's the movies. It's never real."

"For you to get this to work, you have to be
Maestro. You have to feel what he feels. Want what he wants." She
squeezed his hands. "And do what he does to Melanie… to me."

He shook his head. "You don't have the
experience for that."

"Neither does Melanie," she said. "I think
you've known that all along. It's why you're attracted to me. You
see in me the same thing he does in Melanie. So use me, Raven. It's
the only way you're going to get inside his head." She saw the
doubt lingering in his eyes and added, "If it proves too much for
me, I'll use our safe word -- cut, remember?"

"You're sure about this?" When she nodded, he
stood up slowly. "Get changed. I'll be waiting for you in the
house."

Marielle finished her coffee and walked back
to the bedroom. She found several clear garment bags on the bed.
She opened the one containing the soft pink gown meant for the dark
beauty scene and unzipped it.

A half hour later she left the trailer and
walked over to the set, where she found the front door standing
open. Closing her eyes for a moment, Marielle mentally recalled her
first lines and stepped inside.

"Maestro?" she called out and heard her voice
echoing through the empty halls. "Are you here? Please, answer
me."

The sound of a cello playing Bach drifted
toward her. Marielle followed it back to the music room. Raven sat
with the instrument in front of a window. The sunlight poured over
him like a fawning lover, gilding his hair and skin. Marielle
paused on the threshold to admire him for a moment before she
entered the room.

"Maestro." Her voice stopped the music. She
felt the first bloom of fear as she approached him. "Why did you
leave me behind at the concert hall?"

"I don't want you here, little girl," Raven
said. "Go back to begging for coins on street corners."

Marielle lifted her hand and let it hover an
inch away from him. "But there is no other place for me now. I am
your instrument and you are my master." She let her hand rest on
his shoulder. "I am here for you to play. Show me the dark beauty,
Maestro."

A tremor went through his body. He bowed his
head. "Leave while you still can."

Marielle slowly walked around him, taking the
cello from his hands and leaning it against the window before she
returned and knelt before him, her hands folded and her head
bowed.

"So be it." He bent down and scooped her up
under his arm, carrying her out and down the hall to a door he
kicked open.

Marielle gasped at her first view of
Maestro's discipline room, which had been painted snow white to
show off the floor-to-ceiling racks of cuffs, straps, whips and
floggers. Several padded tables and benches lined the walls, with a
large, x-shaped cross fitted with manacles at all four ends taking
up the center of the room. Before she could struggle, Raven placed
her on her feet and jerked her close.

He seized the front of her dress and tore it
open to the waist before he reached inside to fondle one heaving
breast. "Such lovely tits. They're aching for me, aren't they?" He
caught her nipple between his thumb and finger and tugged it
sharply. "They want my mouth and my tongue."

Marielle didn't have to act when she answered
with a breathless, "Yes."

He took his hand away. "You have not earned
the pleasure." He dragged her over to the cross, flinging her
face-first against it and snapping the manacles over her wrists and
ankles, which left her spread-eagled against the soft padded
leather rack. "You must be punished."

As he reached beneath her skirt, Marielle
took in a shuddering breath and tried to look back over her
shoulder at him. "But I've done nothing wrong."

"You defied me by coming here tonight."
Raven's hand cupped her sex. "I've barely touched you and you're
already wet for my cock," he said, stroking his fingers over the
damp crotch of her panties. "You came to be fucked."

"No, I didn't," Marielle whispered. She felt
Raven reach into her panties to caress her slick folds with his
fingertips. Like this she couldn't escape his touch, or anything he
did to her. The helplessness almost overwhelmed her. She whimpered
as he penetrated her with two of his fingers and began working them
in and out of her sheath. The friction spread heat up through her
belly and into her breasts. She could even feel it creeping up her
neck and flooding her cheeks.

"Your body says you're a liar." Raven moved
closer, still pumping his fingers into her as he pushed his thumb
back and forth over her clit. "You're burning up with it, my little
cock slut."

As she writhed against the manacles, Marielle
could hear the wet sounds of her body's response. What he was
saying now wasn't part of the script but it didn't matter. The dark
thrill that sizzled through her made her tremble violently. Raven's
merciless fingering pushed her so close to a climax that when he
withdrew his fingers from her pussy she nearly screamed.

"You must atone for what you've done to me,"
Raven said, shifting back into Maestro's character. He ripped apart
the back of her dress, exposing her back as he stripped the
shredded garment from her body.

Marielle cringed as she watched him move to
the wall, where he took down a thick-handled flogger and flicked it
experimentally. The long strips of suede attached to the handle
made a whispery sound that chilled her -- and made something else
inside her yearn.

Raven came back to her and with one swipe of
his hand ripped her panties from her body, leaving her completely
naked. As the cool air touched her bare buttocks and back she
panicked for a moment and nearly called out her safe word. She felt
his big hand stroke her from her nape to the small of her back and
knew she wouldn't, even when his hand delivered a stinging slap to
her buttocks.

"You came to me willingly," Raven told her
sternly as he stepped back. "You have been begging for this since
the first moment I saw you. Haven't you?"