Frederick's face changed from polite host to starving beast in less than a second. It startled Lucy enough that she gasped, but the sound was cut short as he tackled her mouth with his. A heartbeat later, Lucy returned the kiss with enthusiasm. She wanted this. He'd been in her thoughts since the moment they met. He was an incredible man, sexy, talented, and seemed like a good human being, too. But just now, all her thoughts were centered around how good this felt, right here, right now.
Frederick's hands were on her hips, tugging her to him until there was no space left between them. Lucy wondered if he had accidentally turned on the heater when he opened the walls of the trailer; she felt like she was on fire. Frederick must have been feeling that way too as he broke the kiss long enough to whip off his shirt and toss it to the floor. Lucy only got a quick glimpse of abs and a bit of chest hair before he closed the distance between them again. Not getting to see him was a small price to pay for getting to feel him, she decided. She ran her hands up the smooth skin of his back and shivered with delight as he worked his hands up the back of her shirt, clearly aiming to pull it over her head.
"Slow down," she murmured.
"Please, Lucy," he whispered into her hair. The huskiness in his voice dropped his usual baritone even lower. His greedy hands were moving everywhere at once.
"Frederick, wait."
"Don't worry, I've got protection this time," he said while rucking her shirt up to her bra-line.
"Stop!" she cried, exasperated.
He inhaled sharply, then stepped back, shoulders drooped in defeat. Lucy's heart clenched when she saw the sadness in his eyes. He was worried she was rejecting him, she realized. It startled her for a moment, the thought that this phenomenon, this world-class man was worried that she wouldn't want him.
"Frederick", she said, putting a hand on his well-toned obliques just above his hip bone. "I want to be here. I want this."
Frederick lifted his head. His eyes searched her face.
"You're sure?"
"Positive. I just want—"
"What? Lucy, what's bothering you?"
"Frederick." She gave him what she hoped was a playful, teasing smile. "The blinds are open."
He lit up like the sun after an eclipse. "Blinds! One sec," he said. He yanked a cord and sent the blinds crashing closed, spun the lock on the door handle and had Lucy's shirt off before the blinds had stopped clattering.
"We good?" he rasped against her mouth, her chest squashed against his.
"So good," Lucy affirmed. She ran her hands down his perfectly toned gluteus maximus as proof.
Frederick took off Lucy's bra and slowed his frenetic pace long enough to grunt approvingly at her bare breasts.
"You should never cover those," he rumbled, shaking her bra at her.
Lucy laughed as Frederick tossed the offending garment across the room. Frederick yanked down the zipper of Lucy's pants, putting his hand between her legs and cupping her most sensitive parts. Lucy sighed with pleasure, wriggled against his hand for a moment, then shimmied out of her pants to give him full access. He reached into a drawer behind her as she stepped out of her jeans. She hurried with the top button of his pants. No, trousers. There were the pants. The soft cotton felt far too tight given the action going on inside them, so she pulled everything down for him.
Lucy wrapped her hand around his erection. "Oh, wow," she murmured.
"It'll do, will it?" he asked huskily, ripping open a small foil wrapper.
She took the wrapper from his hands, removed the white circle and slid it on him. Heat flared between her legs when she noticed how much she had to stretch the latex to get it on him. "Well," she said, as he lifted her onto the kitchen counter, spreading her knees wide with his hands, "That depends on whether it's just ornamental or if..." She gasped in pleasure as his hot firmness slid into her. Definitely not just for show.
Lucy moved slowly at first, trying to prolong this sweet moment. That lasted only seconds before their mutual yearnings demanded more. Their bodies, in unspoken agreement, drove against each other in a near frenzy, taking them both soaring up to the edge of ecstasy. Lucy was the first to cry out when she hit the zenith of her pleasure, and Frederick's low moans joined hers two pounding heartbeats later. Lucy closed her eyes and rested her head on Frederick's shoulder as aftershocks of pleasure flickered through her. His arms wrapped around her, holding her tightly.
"That..." Frederick began.
"Yeah..." Lucy agreed.
* * * * *
Frederick reclined on the couch with Lucy settled between his legs, her hair tickling his bare chest. A plate of cheese, crackers and strawberries was balanced on her lap. Lucy had put her panties and shirt back on, but beneath her, Frederick was still completely nude, and completely content.
"You should come to work with me more often," he said. "All the time. Every single day."
"You had a good day, did you?" she teased.
"The best. You're just..." he searched for the right word, but nothing seemed so come even close to what he meant. "The best," he repeated.
"Well, I had a pretty good day, too," she said, popping another strawberry in her mouth.
Frederick reached around her, grazing Lucy's breast with his arm as he plucked a strawberry off the plate, then pulled it back with exaggerated slowness as he brought the strawberry to his mouth.
The berry must have been grown locally. It was small and tart, as Northern fruit tended to be, but the flavor was more intense than any he'd had from warmer climates. This one seemed especially good. Everything smelled good, tasted good, felt good to him right now.
"I heard about your good day," said Frederick.
Lucy was silent for a moment. "Oh, right, the accident on set. I wouldn't call that good, exactly, but it was certainly more excitement than I expected. What did you hear?"
"That you were invaluable when those two actors needed help. Everyone was talking about it today. They all said you leaped in and took charge as much as the paid medic did, if not more. Even the director told me how impressed he was."
"All these people knew that you invited me here?"
Frederick could feel the rising tension in her back. "Only a couple. The casting director, of course, because she was the one I talked to about you coming here in the first place. And I was talking to Chase Flannery, the one who plays Mr. Bingley, and it came out in conversation with him, too. It's not a secret that we know each other, is it?" he asked. Lucy's back relaxed against his chest again.
"No, of course not. I just didn't want to cause any trouble for you. And, well, I don't want people saying nice things about me just because we're... because we know each other."
"They said nice things about you because you did a nice job. Great, in fact. The director stopped me as I was leaving and asked if you were free next weekend. Apparently, even though we meet industry safety standards, some of the crew have been grumbling that they don't feel safe because we're so isolated out here."
"Really?" asked Lucy, twisting to look at Frederick, a smear of strawberry across the corner of her mouth.
"Really. He was going to call you tonight, but I suggested that tomorrow would be better." He kissed the strawberry away.
"Were you thinking that I might not be home this evening?" she teased, setting the plate on the floor and turning completely so that she could straddle his legs.
He drew his hand up her thigh in a lazy caress. "I thought it was a decent possibility."
"I gotta ask," Lucy grinned, "Did you go to the drug store in town?"
"That was my 'plan b'," he admitted, pressing his hips up towards hers a little, "But I didn't have to. There's so many of us here with the movie, we brought a lot of provisions with us. I asked my assistant if there was a pharmacy section among our supplies. I found what I needed there."
"I managed to find some provisions, too," said Lucy, nodding to her purse.
Frederick smiled inwardly. She really did want to be here. "It would be a capital shame for you to go to all that bother and not use them."
"A terrible shame", she said solemnly. She reached for her bag.
* * * * *
After her Saturday as an extra, Lucy ended up staying the night with Frederick in the bedroom of his trailer, though she only managed to sleep for a few of the hours they spent in his bed. After saying goodbye the next morning with a kiss so scorching that it nearly wasn't goodbye after all, Lucy drove home.
Despite getting very little sleep, she felt fantastic. Her buzz was similar to a runner's high, but with a deep undercurrent of satisfaction. She drifted about her apartment in a daze of contentment and remembered very little about how she spent her day. She did, however, remember rather a lot about the night before.
The sex had been spectacular. It was as if everything she'd done with other men was just fumbling in the dark; last night was the first time that she'd had proper grown-up sex. And it was mind-blowing. Despite deciding that it would be a short fling, she desperately hoped that there would be more. They'd already done it more than once. What was another night or two, she figured?
Frederick called late on Sunday afternoon. Despite their intimacy of the night before, his conversation was as stiff as Lucy's was shy. Lucy was a bit embarrassed by how brazen she had been yesterday. And last night. And early this morning. She'd had relationships before, but with Frederick, everything was larger than life, more vibrant, more intense. She couldn't believe her luck at how easy everything had been between them. Fully dressed in the light of day, last night seemed almost like it hadn't been her at all.
After a minute or two, they fell back into the easy connection they'd shared as they rehashed some of the more innocent happenings of the day before: Lucy's experience in full costume, the moveable walls on the trailer, Frederick missing dinner. Their conversation wandered through what book Lucy had started reading while she was waiting, whether blueberry season had started, and how happily tired they both were that day.
Their conversation was cut short when Lucy heard a someone speaking to Frederick in the background. He told her he was needed back on set and wouldn't be finished until late, but asked Lucy if she wanted to meet for a late dinner on Monday. She accepted without hesitation.
On Sunday, Lucy also got a call from the director's assistant. He asked if she would be willing to help out on the set during her free time. She agreed to work the weekend, and possibly a few more week days if she could rearrange her work schedule.
After wriggling with anticipation all through work on Monday, Lucy met Frederick at his hotel room on Monday night. She worried that the last time the were together, the stars had aligned and the sex had been spectacular by some rare chance that she could in no way duplicate.
When she arrived, she found that he'd ordered room service for them, and the food he'd chosen for their meal smelled wonderful. Lucy made it exactly two bites into the salad course before a casual touch under the table had led to Frederick tumbling her into his bed. It was even better than the first time.
They followed the same pattern again at Lucy's house two nights later, but didn't even make it to the table before crashing into each other like supercharged magnets, their clothes flying in all directions from the force of impact.
* * * * *
Lucy sat on a folding chair in a makeshift cafeteria wearing a red golf shirt with the word 'MEDIC' written across the back in white block letters. The radio she wore on her hip made her feel even more official than the screaming red shirt as she sat and made small talk with her fellow medic, Stanley. He had seemed like a sensible, competent man the day they met treating their double casualties, but once the emergency passed, she remembered Frederick telling her that the medic who treated him believed that 'the cure for pain was more pain.' Lucy was trying to ascertain his skills with both medicine and people without coming right out an accusing him of incompetency. She suspected that he was doing the same with her. Word was creeping around the set that she and Frederick might be involved, which meant some people might suspect that she may not have gotten this gig on her own merits.
"So, Stanley, have you been here since filming started?" Lucy asked.
"Oh, yeah, since before they shot the first second of film, actually. There were dress rehearsals for a while before that. The have to block out each scene on location before they shoot."
"Block?"
"Yeah, figure out where everyone's going to stand, where they're going to go. Figure out the camera angles or something. We don't want to have to do too many re-shoots out here in the middle of nowhere. No offense," he said, clearly meaning to offend.
"None taken. I only got here a month or two before you did." Lucy stirred her already well-stirred latte. "So you were here when Fr-... when Mr. Asherton fell?"
"I was. It looked bad at first. I wrapped it good and tight with a tensor bandage. He didn't like that too much, or all the ice I made him put on it."
"But I'm glad you did. It made my job that much easier when he came to me."
"How did a trained physio end up here in the sticks, anyways?"
"I'm covering for a maternity leave for my friend. She took over the clinic when the last physio left. The last guy wanted to set up shop here where his family grew up. I know it looks like a really small town, but I serve a much larger surrounding area. People are used to driving a long way to get to things up here, so I have clients who stay the night because they've come so far."
"So how long are you here for?
"I signed on to stay at the physiotherapy clinic for a year, then the original physio will be back."
"Why a whole year?"
"That's how long maternity leave is here."
"What? Someone's gotta pay for a whole year so some chick can stay home and watch TV while the baby sleeps? Crazy Canadians," he muttered.
Lucy gritted her teeth. Stanley had undoubtedly already made up his mind about this and she needed to stop herself from ranting about how more maternity leave saved money in the long run rather than costing it."I think I'll just go and see how they're getting on with everything." Lucy stormed away. Ignorant ass-hat. Only her sense of propriety kept her from tearing him a new one on her first day.
* * * * *
After taking a moment to orient herself, Lucy headed towards the field where she thought they would be filming right now, passing through the small village of trucks and trailers that housed all the things and people that were necessary for making a movie. She saw a strip of yellow tape suspended between a series of posts sticking out of heavy plastic bases. Lucy knew that she was invited as far as the yellow tape, but no farther, during filming. She also knew that everyone was required to be dead silent when the camera was rolling.
Ahead of her was a grassy field ringed by a forest of metal. Countless lights and microphones and other important looking equipment loomed over the field like a spider with infinite legs preparing to pounce.
"Action!" shouted a crisp voice in the distance. It took Lucy a moment to find the actors amongst the hubbub, but she soon spotted a swarm of zombies clawing at the doors and windows of a building that consisted of only one wall. The door burst open and one of the zombies went flying, limbs akimbo, and landed hard on the ground.
Lucy froze. Was he hurt? Was the fall scripted, or an accident? And even if the fall was scripted, it still looked like the man had hit the ground hard enough to really hurt himself. Should she run and offer aid and risk ruining the shot, or should she stay where she was and risk the man aggravating a back or neck injury by moving too soon?
"He's fine," a voice breathed in her ear, barely audible.
Lucy jumped, then turned to see Frederick right behind her. He was wearing his old-fashioned gentleman's clothes, but they were looking a bit the worse for wear. Lucy suspected that the rips and dirt were intentional.
She smiled broadly at him and opened her mouth to speak, but he put a finger over his upturned lips. He gestured for her to follow him. They walked a short distance away from the set along a well-worn grass path, then slipped between two closely parked trucks.
"Frederick! I've been keeping an eye out for you all morning," Lucy said.
"Fortunately for me, you're easier to spot than I am in that uniform," Frederick said, placing an arm on either side of her and backing her against the truck. He dipped his mouth towards hers, but she dodged him at the last second.
"Hey, I thought we agreed—"
"Two minutes," he interrupted. "I need you all to myself for two minutes. Then I'll give you back."
Her eyes darted to the entrance to their hiding place. "But what if—"
"No one can see us here," he said, answering her question before she finished asking. "Two minutes," he repeated, his eyes burning.
"Two minutes," she agreed.
She kissed him hungrily, trying to get a whole day's fill of him in only a few moments. She kept her hands locked modestly around the trapezius muscles in his upper back, determined not to cross any lines she would have a hard time uncrossing. But even with that safeguard, she knew she was going to have a hard time walking away from this kiss. The sensitivity of her lips seemed to have tripled in the seconds since since the kiss began, and though Frederick also kept his hands from wandering, just the feel, even just the thought of his body so close to hers was intoxicating.
A sound in the distance brought Lucy back to herself and, fearful of discovery, she wriggled out of Frederick's embrace. Frederick growled in frustration, the sound so low that it made Lucy's ears hum, but he stayed where he was.
"I don't know how much longer we will be able to keep our relationship strictly professional on set," Frederick said.
Lucy agreed. It was torture to be so close to him and pretend that he was just another actor. But not being near him at all was a worse form of torture.
"I know, Frederick. It's just that with you being who you are, thing can get complicated for both of us really quick if it gets out. Rumors are one thing. Confirming them, publicly, is completely different."
And, Lucy worried, something that burned this hot wasn't likely to burn for long. Frederick would be leaving town in a matter of weeks. Knowing where she was going to be living for the rest of the year felt downright stable compared to what Frederick's life must be like. Besides, she'd had enough public humiliation to last a lifetime. She knew that ending a relationship had consequences far beyond the breakup itself.
"Then we should get out of here before I do something that might get us both fired," he said. The heat in his eyes made Lucy hesitate and wonder if it would be worth it.
"Let's go get a cup of coffee," suggested Lucy. "Surely we can behave ourselves if we're surrounded by other people."
"Speak for yourself," Frederick said.