There was an audible sigh of relief around the set. Everyone was tired. It was the end of the third week and fatigue was setting in. The prospect of another week here and then two weeks in London stretched like a never-ending horizon line.
As they called that scene complete and started to set up for the next one Lexie was whisked back to the unit base for a costume-change. She relished the time to try and gather her scattered and fragmented thoughts.
Since the previous cataclysmic weekend, and their return to the castillo from Madrid on Sunday, Lexie had been avoiding Cesar at every opportunity. It didn’t help that he was almost constantly on set—hence her fluffed lines and general state of being flustered. But today he hadn’t shown up, and that had nearly been worse.
Lexie was terrified that she’d gone and fallen for the first man who had come along and kissed her whole body awake—much like Sleeping Beauty in the fairy tale.
That was why she’d been avoiding Cesar all week. She felt as if she wasn’t in control of these new and overwhelming desires. It was like having a car and not really knowing how to drive it—being afraid that if she got behind the wheel it would careen off the road and cause mayhem and destruction.
She felt feverish, excited. Exactly like the soft-hearted teenager she’d mocked only days ago.
That weekend he’d only had to pull her onto his lap and kiss her before she’d been reduced to a puddle of lust, letting him take her back to bed and make love to her again and again. Showing her the heights her body could attain with just the barest sweep of his clever fingers against her body’s core.
He had no idea who he was dealing with. The dark secrets Lexie harboured. But every time Cesar touched her she felt more and more exposed—as if sooner or later she wouldn’t be able to stop it all tumbling out. Baring her sou
l to him.
So she’d been avoiding him. Like a coward. Even though all she could think about and dream about and yearn for was him.
It was affecting her work. And it didn’t help that one scene in particular was due to be shot at the beginning of the following week and Lexie was dreading it, but unable to say anything to anyone about it.
After her dresser had left Lexie waited for the call to go back to set, pacing up and down her trailer, repeating her lines, trying to force all other thoughts out of her head.
When a knock came on her trailer door she said distractedly, ‘I’ll be out in a minute,’ assuming that it was the call for set. But then the door opened and Lexie whirled around, copious amounts of silken layers rustling as she did so, only to see Cesar coming up the steps and entering.
Immediately the relatively big space was tiny. He closed the door behind him. He looked dark, gorgeous. Intent.
Lexie was breathless, and it only had a little to do with her costume. ‘You shouldn’t be here—they’ll be calling for me in a minute.’
Cesar crossed his arms. ‘Here seems to be the only place I can find you without you avoiding me or hiding in your room.’
Lexie flushed, her whole body tingling just to be near him. She couldn’t deny the sheer excitement that gripped her, the anticipation at the look in Cesar’s eye. Especially when his gaze dropped to the swells of her breasts, made even more provocative than usual in the dress.
Lord, she wanted him right now. Here. Like some lurid parody of the stories she’d heard of actors and actresses behaving badly while shooting on location.
Cesar came towards her and Lexie had nowhere to escape to. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into him. Her body sang and, bizarrely, something inside her calmed. She felt more centred.
‘Why have you been avoiding me all week?’ he growled.
‘Work...I need to concentrate on my work,’ Lexie blurted out weakly.
His eyes flashed. ‘Well, you’re singularly to blame for me not being able to concentrate on a single thing.’
‘Really?’ Inordinate pleasure snaked through Lexie to hear that. To imagine this stern, unflappable man being distracted because of her. She felt like smiling.
‘I don’t play games, Lexie.’
She blanched. ‘You think...you think I’m playing some game?’
His jaw was set, stern. Her belly swooped.
‘Cesar...I’m not playing a game... I was avoiding you because last weekend... It’s just been a long time for me.’ Try for ever, said a small voice, but she blocked it out. ‘I’m not used to this—I don’t have affairs.’
Flustered, she ducked her head. Cesar put a finger to her chin to tip her face back up.
His gaze dropped to her cleavage and his voice was rough. ‘Dios...do you know what it does to me to see you in these dresses?’ His eyes met hers again and his arm tightened around her. ‘Come to my apartment this evening.’
Resistance was futile. Lexie felt herself dissolving, aching to say yes, let him take control so she didn’t have to think or analyse. Just be.