Page 8 of Dangerous Kiss
“I don’t. It’s just the impression I get.”
Stella shrugged. She stood and pulled open her robe. “He’ll stop being so shy when he sees this.” Stella wasn’t shy about showing off her stunning figure: her full breasts, trim stomach, and long, long legs. Biba had seen it all before.
“Whatever you say. Listen, you got everything you need? I’m going to take off.”
“Yes, fine. Four a.m. call tomorrow. Be here at three-thirty, please.”
Biba groaned. “God. That’s not even a real time. You made it up.” But she was amazed by the ‘please’. Stella grinned at her joke.
“Believe me, I’d rather sleep in until noon, too, but we have to film some scenes with the early morning light.” She finally stopped and looked at Biba. “Get some rest. You look exhausted.”
Jesus, what was going on with Stella? She was never this nice unless…ah, yes. Biba remembered now. Stella was always in a better mood when she was about to seduce someone. Biba didn’t usually care…and she questioned herself why she did now.
“Fine. See you in the morning.”
Biba debated whether to go borrow the caretaker’s dog again and go down to the lake—to walk the dog, she told herself, not to see if Cosimo would be there—but she was tired. Instead she went to find Reggie.
Weaving in between the trailers, she noticed it had gotten really dark just moments before she stumbled over some loose ground. She crashed down onto her knees, then gasped in pain as her right knee crunched against a stone. “Oww, oww, fucking ouch, ouch…” She cursed some more as she clambered to her feet and tested her knee. It wasn’t broken, but it still hurt like hell.
Biba limped towards the manor house, but as she reached the end of the line of trailers, someone stepped out in front of her and blocked her way—and the light. Biba stepped back sharply in surprise, and then her pulse began to beat painfully as the figure reached for her. Seizing her by the shoulders, her assailant slammed her back hard against the last trailer.
Cosimo chatted with Channing and Lars for a while, and then debated whether to go get some food. Deciding he wasn’t hungry, instead he texted Nicco to tell him he had arranged a car to collect him and bring him to the set the weekend after next.
He waited for a reply, not expecting one so soon, but when his phone beeped, he hated the pathetic excitement he felt. It was only a text message, for Chrissakes. His pleasure soon dissipated when he saw Nicco’s reply.
Cool.
That was it.Better than nothing,Cosimo thought, his heart sinking. What the hell would that weekend be like with a monosyllabic teen in tow? Shit. Maybe he should have thought it through a little more. He wondered if he could persuade some of the younger members of the crew to help him out, help him find common ground. Rich and Gunter certainly would help—Nicco would find their antics fun and cool. …And what about Biba? She couldn’t be more than twenty-two or -three at the most.
God. So young. Cosimo was feeling every one of his forty years lately. Today, although he couldn’t really sanction the loss of his supporting actor for even one day, he’d finally been shaken out of the listlessness he’d been feeling by laughter. God, he missed just hanging loose and laughing at silly stuff, anything, a dumb TV show, or just friends being goofy. He had seen the friendship, the kinship between Biba, Rich, and Gunter—also Biba’s deep friendship with Reggie Quinn, the geeky, sweet—and Cosimo presumed, gay—cowriter of the film. He envied them the trust they had between each other, the connection.
When Grace had died, he had let the friendships they’d shared slip away, unable to spend time with the people who had known them as a couple. It was just too damn painful. But now, he wished he’d tried more. Maybe he should call one or two of them and test the water.
You sound like such a sad sack.Cosimo sighed and grabbed his pack of cigarettes. He swore to Olivia he would quit smoking before he was forty, but he would have one at night, just to relax and decompress.
He walked out into the night air, turned towards the lake…and heard her scream.
A hand clamped over her mouth and the man’s body pressed hard against hers. Biba’s panic made it hard for her to identify her attacker until he spoke.
“You little cunt.” Damon. Oh God. “I know it was you with the Krazy Glue. What the fuck did you think you were doing?”
“It wasn’t me! Now get your filthy hands off me!” She tried to push him away, but he was twice the size of her and the product of steroids. He shoved her harder into the trailer wall.
“No, I don’t think I will. Not until you’ve made it up to me, and since Stella seems to have shut me out, you can take her place.”
Biba was terrified as Damon tugged her jeans down to mid-thigh. “No, no, no…” She wriggled and panicked, but he covered her mouth as he stuck his hand between her legs.
“Come on, beauty, give it up. I know you’re not fucking that little cocksucker Quinn, so what’s the difference?”
He was tearing at her panties now. Biba bit down hard on his hand, and as he released her with a pained shout, she screamed at the top of her lungs. Damon, raging now, cuffed her viciously on the face, and Biba slumped to the ground. In an instant he was on her, and she felt the warm flesh of his penis against her bare thigh.No! No way, this wasn’t happening!
“Please! Stop! No, I don’t want this…”
“I don’t give a fuck if you don’t want it, you little cunt. Who the hell are you to decide? Open your damn legs.”
Biba clamped her thighs tighter together, and Damon, growling, punched her hard in the stomach. All the air was pushed from her lungs as she gasped in pain, and then Damon pushed her legs apart and started to push inside her.
Then, from out of nowhere a whirlwind of rage and fury yanked Damon up and threw him bodily across the ground away from Biba, and then gentle arms were wrapping a coat around her.
