Falling for Her, page 18
Kim chuckled. “How’s the script?”
“Good. I really like Simone. She’s one of the strongest characters I’ve ever played. I really hope the series does well.”
Kim shrugged. “The books are all bestsellers. They’re up to twelve now, I think. You could be doing this job for a decade.”
“I’d welcome it. Save me from a lifetime of being the romantic lead, the batting eyelashes and being saved by big manly men.” She closed her eyes and said, “God, that feels good.”
“Have you ever had sex in your trailer?”
Marisa chuckled. “No.”
Kim slid her hand higher, next to Marisa’s ankle. “Wanna?”
Marisa moaned. “Yes. But no, I can’t.”
“Rain check.”
“Definitely.” Marisa sat up. “Come here.” She slipped her hand to the back of Kim’s neck and pulled her in for a kiss. As soon as their lips touched, something outside the trailer exploded. They both jumped, and looked toward the window. Kim smiled and jerked her head toward the window. “The, uh... stunt.”
“Are you sure?” Marisa asked, curling her fingers so that the nails lightly scratched the nape of Kim’s neck.
Kim said, “No. Not at all.” She pushed Marisa down on the couch and crawled on top of her. “If we can’t have sex...” she kissed Marisa’s bottom lip and slid her hand over Marisa’s breast, the shape blunted by costume and robe, “...maybe we can just make out a little.”
“Or a lot,” Marisa said as she lifted her head for another kiss.
“Research for Simone’s bisexuality.” Kim’s hand slipped under the robe.
Marisa moaned and kissed Kim’s jaw. “Being a completely straight woman, I’ll need all the help I can get, Ms. Stunt Coordinator.”
“Work, work, work,” Kim sighed against Marisa’s mouth.
***
While on the set, they maintained a modicum of professionalism. At night, they usually went back to Marisa’s house and they spent the night in the guest house. One night, lying in bed post-coital and drowsy, Kim said, “Andy doesn’t mind us monopolizing the guest house this way?”
“Mm. No. The guest house is mine.” She sniffled, eyes closed, and rolled over in Kim’s arms. She pressed her face to Kim’s chest and kissed between her collarbones. “When we bought the house, we made a deal. He got the master bedroom, and I got the smaller bedroom with the full use of this place. We share the rest of the house equally. Well, except the upstairs bathroom. That’s all him. You would not believe how much product that man puts in his hair.”
Kim smiled. “So you don’t mind me forcing you to sleep out here?”
“I sleep out here a lot anyway. It’s better with you.”
Kim laced her fingers together in the small of Marisa’s back. “I should probably sleep at home tomorrow night.” Marisa groaned and pressed tighter against Kim. Kim laughed. “Stop it. My aunt is probably ready to call the cops to come find me.”
“Have you spoken to her since...?”
“Yeah. It’s fine. She accepts it as long as I don’t talk about it very much. But she’s starting to change her tune on that, too. It’s progress.” She stroked Marisa’s shoulder and heard her purr. She ran her knuckle down Marisa’s spine and Marisa’s back arched against her. “I want you to meet her sometime.”
“I’d like that.” Her voice was slurred with sleep, and Kim could tell she was trying valiantly to stay awake.
She kissed Marisa’s hair. “Go to sleep, sweetheart. We can talk in the morning.”
“Mm-hmm, ‘kay.”
Kim stroked Marisa’s back as her breathing became even. She looked out the window, where she could see the sparkling water of the pool reflected against the side of the house. The night was still, although she could hear the occasional car on a side street, and she focused on the sound of Marisa’s breath. It was like a white noise machine, soothing her thoughts and slowly pulling her into unconsciousness.
***
Mabel was closing the store when Kim got home the next day. Mabel was inside and watched Kim approach through the glass. Kim smiled, gestured at the doorknob, and waited while Mabel made a show of unlocking the door again. She pulled it open, stepped back as Kim entered, and clicked her tongue.
“Well, well. I guess you do still live here. I was starting to wonder, you know, having not seen you in so long.”
“You saw me... Tuesday.”
Mabel said, “And today being Friday means that you have been out doing God knows what. With God knows who!”
“You know who.” Kim pointed at the TV. “Marisa Larkin. You saw her. Are you getting senile?”
“If I was, who would know? No one ever sees me day to day, how would anyone notice?”
Kim cleared her throat and dropped the joking tone. “Marisa wants to meet you.”
Mabel shifted and fiddled with her keys. “Oh, does she. Well. Well, I don’t know.”
“She knows how important you are to me, and everything you’ve done for me in the past. She just wants to see where I came from.”
“Well, you didn’t come from me.”
“I know,” Kim said softly. “But...”
Mabel waved at her. “Let me finish. Everything you are came from you, Kim. You did it. You made yourself.” She patted Kim’s shoulder. “Didn’t do a bad job of it, either.”
Kim smiled. “Thank you, Mabel. So, will you have dinner with Marisa?”
“No kissy-face.”
“Do you mean I can’t kiss her, or she can’t kiss you?”
“Oh, feh.” Mabel waved her hands frantically and shook her head as she stepped outside the store. “Either, neither, go away, you mean girl.”
Kim chuckled and waited until Mabel locked the door and was safely in her car before she went through the office to the stairs.
***
Episode four was a continuation of the plot from episode three. A handful of suicide bombers had already headed out on missions before Lethe and Temple destroyed the base. Unaware their families were safe from retribution, they were going to carry out the bombings unless Lethe and Temple could find them. Downtown was doubling as New York, and production chose a street that could reasonably be mistaken as Manhattan. The street was blocked off and completely redressed with new cars and new trees, going by a photograph someone had gotten off the internet. A barber shop sign was covered by that of a deli, and an extra in a turban stood in front of one restaurant with a broom and waited for his cue to begin sweeping.
Kim was on set because the climax of the scene involved Agent Lethe grappling with a suicide bomber before he could set off the charge. Marisa was going to do it herself, but she wanted to go through the moves before they committed anything to film.
They found an alley between two buildings where they could rehearse. A few people hung around the barricades to watch, and others stood in the windows and peered down, but mostly they were left alone. So many projects, TV and movie, had been filmed in town that most people were jaded to the spectacle.
Kim took the place of the bomber, and Marisa stood a few feet in front of her. Kyle, who was playing the bomber in the episode, stood to one side and watched. “You lunge at me. I bring up my hand to stop you, and you grab my hand.” Marisa stepped forward, wrapped her fingers around Kim’s fist, and Kim put a hand on her shoulder. They twisted and Marisa’s arm went across Kim’s chest. “I try to escape, but you hold on.” Kim bent forward, and Marisa pulled her back. She clasped her hands together and pinned Kim against her. “He struggles, steps on your foot--”
“He steps on my foot?”
“You’ll have steel toed boots.”
“Okay.” She cleared her throat and Kim smirked. If only the other actor wasn’t there, this position would definitely merit a comment.
Kim slipped out of the embrace and said, “Ready to try it with Kyle?”
“Why not. Hi, Kyle.”
He stepped into position and they went through the scene slowly. With each repetition, they got faster and faster until it looked like Marisa was actually fighting with Kyle. “Excellent. Very good.” She clapped her hands and the two broke apart. “That should do it for stunts right now. Thanks, Kyle.”
“I’ll see you on set,” Marisa said as Kyle walked off. She walked up to Kim and said, “That was kind of nice, rehearsing the fight with you. Up close and personal.”
“Careful,” Kim said, moving her lips as little as possible. “We have an audience.”
“Just an actress going over a stunt with her double,” Marisa said as she fussed with the cuff of her shirt. “Could you help me with this button?”
Kim stepped closer and took the highest button. There were three buttons on the sleeve, and all of them were undone. She carefully worked it into the hole and tugged on the material to make sure it was tight before moving on to the next. “Stunt people don’t usually deal with costuming.”
“They do when the buttons come loose in the process of doing a stunt. And you would hate for an unbuttoned sleeve to ruin a take. Continuity is everything.”
“True,” Kim said.
“You smell nice.”
Kim smirked.
“I missed you last night.”
Kim did up the last button and said, “There you go.” She licked her lips and said, “I could probably swing by your place after we’re done shooting. If you wanted to hang out.”
Marisa pretended to consider it. “Sure. I don’t have anything planned for tonight.”
Kim let Marisa drop her wrist and said, “There you are. Ready for your close-up, Miss Larkin.”
“Thank you, Miss Greer.”
Kim stepped back and stuck her hands in the back pockets of her jeans. Marisa walked toward the mass of cameras and lighting guys. A few seconds later, with a self-conscious glance at the people watching from the sidelines, Kim followed.
***
George Bradshaw was a drab little man with thick glasses, his shirt collar standing up so that the corners brushed his chin whenever he turned his head. He had a small tape recorder sitting on the table between him and Marisa’s position on the couch, one leg draped over the other at the knee, reclining comfortably in the armchair as he checked his notes. “Okay, so it’ll just be a quick little piece for Rebecca Kenny’s website. Nothing too groundbreaking. She has a lot of fans who just want to make sure the series is true to the books.”
“I totally understand,” Marisa said. “We want to make them happy. We’re lucky enough to be going into the series with a built-in fan base; we don’t want to tick any of them off.”
“Okay, so we’ll start with similarities to the book series. Have you read any of the novels?”
“I’m a big, big fan. It’s why I wanted to play this part. I’ve been avoiding the later books so I won’t be tainted by anything that happens in them. No spoilers in your fan mail, folks.” She grinned and Bradshaw chuckled and marked something down on his notepad. “There are some changes, of course, that had to be made for the purposes of, you know, a thirteen-episode television series. But for the most part, things are pretty similar. The pilot and second episode follow the first book pretty closely.”
The trailer door opened and Kim stepped inside, saw the reporter, and motioned that she would come back. Marisa leaned forward and said, “No, it’s okay,” waving Kim in. Kim hesitantly complied, closing the door behind her.
Marisa continued as Kim took a seat next to her on the couch. “The fans don’t have to worry. We’re playing the same characters they’ve read about for all these years. I’m very focused on keeping true to what Ms. Kenny has written.”
“And who is this?” Bradshaw asked, looking between Kim and Marisa. They were both dressed alike for the upcoming stunt and he was marveling at the similarities.
Marisa put a hand on Kim’s knee. “Kim Greer, stuntwoman extraordinaire. She’s going to do all the amazing, kick ass stuff that makes Simone Lethe look good while I’m kicking back in my trailer drinking margaritas.”
“Wonderful! So, Kim, what stunt do you have today?”
Kim shifted uncomfortably. “Uh... we have an explosive expert blowing up the front door of a hotel. I’m going to be thrown into a mailbox. Well, technically I’m being yanked up against a mailbox.”
“Sounds dangerous,” Bradshaw said.
Marisa said, “That’s why they pay her the big bucks.” She winked at Bradshaw, rubbed Kim’s thigh, and winked at her. Kim pursed her lips and tried to relax as the interview moved back onto the topic of Simone and the book series. Marisa kept her hand on Kim’s leg as long as she could get away with.
Finally, Bradshaw packed up his recorder, tucked his notepad into a jacket pocket, and stood up. He shook hands with Marisa and Kim both, then made his way out of the trailer to find William Easter. Kim sagged against the back of the couch, exhausted from keeping herself under control during the interview.
“God, that was an ordeal.”
Marisa turned and put her hand on Kim’s hip. “It wasn’t so bad.”
“He could write about... you know... the touching. Or the fact I just happened to wander in to your trailer in the middle of the day.”
Marisa moved her hand under Kim’s shirt. “One of my little non-relationships, about four years ago. I was doing an interview at home, and the woman I had spent the night with came downstairs wearing nothing but a half-buttoned blouse and a sleepy smile. She kissed me good morning before she realized there were strangers in the house. Remember seeing that on the tabloid shows?”
“Um... not really.”
“They didn’t use it. There are trashy tabloids, and there are paparazzi bastards, but for the most part, reporters are respectful of privacy. Trust me. Nothing bad will happen.”
Kim slid down on the couch, pulling Marisa down with her. “I’m still not sold.”
“What will I have to do to convince you?” Marisa asked, her lips moving against Kim’s as she spoke.
“Lots,” Kim said. She kissed Marisa, moaned, and said, “I can be very stubborn.”
Marisa grinned and settled down to make her case.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Kim worked with Sulfur on her first job as a stuntwoman. He stumbled from a garage engulfed in flames, and it was Kim’s job to tackle him with a blanket and pat out the fire. She was terrified of working with fire, but he calmed her and explained the entire process to her beginning to end. He walked her through the safety procedures and assured her they would both make it out unscathed or “at least with less than first degree burns.”
At the moment, he was rigging the front door of a hotel with explosive charges. She didn’t understand the machinations required for a hotel to agree to something like this, but that wasn’t her job. She stood to one side with her harness on, draped with her blazer. A bungee cord snaked under the back of the jacket, making her appear to have a long thin tail that disappeared in the den of snakes surrounding the cameras. The explosives would go off in front of her - they would be magnified in post-production - and she would be pulled back into the tall blue USPS box that props had placed on the street.
Solomon Thomas was directing again, and he made his way over as Sulfur finished with the charges. “Everything ready? Kim?”
“Ready to go, boss.” She looked back at the mailbox. She was supposed to hit it, crumple, and fall over. No problem.
“Charges?”
“Primed and ready.”
“Let’s light this candle.” Solomon winked at Kim and went back to his position behind the monitor. He hopped into his seat and said, “Ready. Action.”
The charge popped and sent up a wave of heat and smoke. Kim barely registered it as Break and another stuntman pulled on the bungee cord and she was yanked off her feet. She knew something was wrong the minute she moved; she was angled wrong, and her right foot was only about an inch off the ground. If she wanted to hit the mailbox correctly--
Her shoulder glanced off the metal box, sending a shudder of pain through her bones. She dropped to the ground, skidded, and slammed into the side of a car. She slumped to the sidewalk, her hands folded in her lap, and took an instant inventory to make sure nothing had been broken. Her shoulder was still numb, but she could tell the pain was coming.
“What the hell was that?” she heard Solomon shout.
“New guy didn’t pull hard enough,” Break groused as he vaulted over the car’s hood. He dropped to a crouch next to Kim and tenderly touched her shoulder. “How’s it? Anything broken?”
“Don’t think so. Just winged me.” She looked past Break and raised an eyebrow. “New guy?”
“New guy,” he confirmed, teeth clenched. “Solomon’s chewing him out now. Think you can stand?”
Kim held out her uninjured arm and Break helped her stand. She leaned on him, her injured arm cradled against her side as she let him walk her off the curb. “Let’s give the medics something to do. Make their lives worthwhile.”
“You just wanted to talk to that hot nurse,” Kim said. “You set me up, Break.”
“If I really wanted to talk to her, I would’ve broken my leg again. Chicks dig broken bones.”
Kim rolled her eyes. She was about to speak again when she heard her name called from the direction of the trailers. She and Break both turned to see Marisa jogging over to them.
“Oh, my God,” Marisa said, eyes wide with horror. “What happened?”
“New guy misjudged my weight, didn’t pull hard enough. I hit the mailbox wrong. It happens. I’m fine.”
Break said, “I’m just taking her to the medic now. She’ll get an ice pack and a stern warning not to do anything strenuous for a while. Which she’ll ignore. But that just means she’s a stuntwoman.”
“I feel so guilty.” Marisa touched Kim’s shoulder and flinched as if she was the one who had been hurt. There were tears in her eyes. “Does it hurt very badly?”
“It’s fine. I’ve been hurt worse.”
Marisa shook her head. “Still.”
Break looked between them. One eyebrow slowly drifted up. “Ah... Miss Larkin, would you mind taking her the rest of the way for me? I have to go rip off the head of my former protégé.”
