Friends With Way Too Many Benefits (20 page)

"No, but it wouldn't be the first time an actress slept her way into a movie. And you don't really know her do you? You don't know what she's capable of, but I do. She's conniving, manipulative... she lies, she's—"

"She was really young when all that happened and I believe there are two sides to every story."

"Wait, back up a second. Exactly how did she replace the original girl?"

"Well Meghan got this amazing opportunity and had to take it."

"Amazing opportunity. What Amazing opportunity?"

"With Playboy, she had to fly to L.A. to shoot a—"

"Playboy." She broke into a chuckle. "Playboy."

"Yeah, so." He shrugged.

"I would think the Playmate of the year might have some really strong connections over at Playboy and could somehow arrange for an..." She made quote marks with her hands. "...amazing opportunity to present itself."

"Oh, come on." He sighed. "You're being paranoid."

"I want her off this movie." She looked him directly in the eye.

"Listen, Jillian I chose to meet with you here as sort of a courtesy. Howard and Liz are in agreement with me that she's working out."

"Really, so my opinion doesn't matter here?"

"It does, but we all want to make the best movie, right?"

"Right." She sighed. "There isn't anything I can say to get her off this movie, is there?"

"I don't think so."

"Okay, fine, I won't say another word. I'll stay away from the set on days she's shooting. Just send me her schedule."

"Okay, maybe that would be best. It's only a couple days."

"You want my advice..." Rising up from the table, she shook her head, looking at him, pointedly. "Start thinking with the brain you have up there a little more and stop listening to the one in your pants." With that nugget dispensed, she turned on her heels and rushed out the door. Once outside, she pulled her phone from her purse, dialed her husband and told him every detail of the entire shocking development.

In the large soaking tub in their hotel suite, Natalie lifted her leg languidly from the bubble bath and placed her foot on Paul's chest. He took hold of her heel and rubbed it sensually.

She sighed. "Oh, that feels incredible."

Guiding it to his lips, he gave the bottom of her foot a kiss then took her pinky toe into his mouth and sucked it for a moment.

She pulled it away. "Stop that tickles."

"I didn't realize you were so ticklish." He smiled.

"Well, I am." She gave him a hesitant look. "So how do you think I'm doing?"

"Oh, you're doing great," he began sincerely then he smiled. "You're a perfect roommate. You don't hog the bathroom or mess it up. You're a lot of fun and, um—"

"No, I mean on the set." She tossed the loofa sponge at him.

"Oh, that..." Catching the sponge, he looked her in the eye. "Seriously, I think you're fantastic. Amazing. You're perfect."

"Really?"

"Yes." He nodded. "In fact, I've got some dailies to show you. Where did I put my iPad?" He scanned the large bathroom and spotted it on a chair near the tub. Leaning out of the tub, he grabbed a towel, dried his hands then stretched a bit further to pick up the tablet. "It's really incredible."

Slipping back into the water, he carefully held it up and navigated to the proper app. Together they watched as the fantasy sequence began with the nude body double raising her leg into the famously sexy position. The camera panned down her exquisite body and when the screen faded to black, he turned to look at her. "See."

"That does look pretty good."

"I think I just got hard watching that and so will every man in America." He flashed her a sexy grin.

"Let's see." Sliding her hand into the bubbles, she took hold of his equipment. He gasped then the iPad slipped from his hands and into the water.

"Oh crap," he said.

"Sorry."

"No, it was my fault."

Both rising to their knees, they blindly searched the bottom of the tub through the bubble-covered water.

"Found it." Pulling it out dripping wet, she gave him a sympathetic smile.

He took hold of it, dried it with a towel and tried to get a response. "Well, I was going to get a new one anyway."

"I'm so sorry."

"Really, don't worry about it." He placed it on the side of the tub. "But there is another problem you could help me with."

"What's that?"

He motioned with two head nods down to his lap.

She spotted his undying erection and smiled. "I think I can help you with that."

She took hold of it with one hand and with the other cupped his soapy balls. After using her hands to wipe away the suds, she bent over and took him in her mouth.

His eyelids drifted closed and he placed his hands behind him on the edge of the tub for support. "Oh, Natalie."

Reaching over with one hand, he gently massaged her breasts before sliding his fingers down between her thighs. She rose up and kissed him hard on the mouth.

He pulled back from her. "You want to take this to the bed?"

Smiling, she gave him nod.

Chance and Lindsey lounged in a single bed on the dorm room set; her fully clothed and him shirtless with his Adonis like body on display. Lindsey looked disinterested and Chance looked to be at the end of his rope. The Camera Assistant stepped in front of them with his clapboard. "The Leg Thing— scene eight take ten."

Paul rolled his eyes and said in a tired voice, "Action."

Natalie watched from the shadows as the two actors kissed. Chance moaned then pulled back from her placing his hands on the waistband of her jeans. Lindsey covered his hands with her own.

"God, you feel amazing," Chance said.

"Oh, so do you," Lindsey said in an
excessively dramatic tone.

Chance seemed to fight the urge to roll his eyes at her delivery. "I’m so hot for you right now."

"I can tell." Breaking character, Lindsey pushed him off of her. "Ewwww… He's totally hard."

Paul yelled, "Cut."

"What?" Chance moved from the bed, first glancing down to this groin then glaring at her. "I am not."

"Well, it
was
hard."

Paul stepped onto the set and sighed. "Lindsey, he doesn't really look hard to me."

"Are you calling me a liar? I think I know an erection when I feel one."

"You've got to give her that." Chance smiled. "From what I heard she does know erections."

Most of the crew burst into laughter.

"Screw you pretty boy." Lindsey scowled. "I don't need to put up with this shit."

"Hey, maybe if you could actually remember your lines we could have wrapped this up eight takes ago."

Lindsey shot him an evil look. "You know... I saw that Nicholas Sparks movie you were in and it sucked."

Chance looked to Paul utterly dumbfounded. "Okay. Yeah. Look, either control
miss headcase
or, uh, we're going to have a real problem here."

"I'm the headcase. You're the—"

"Shut up both of you!" Paul shook his hands violently then covered his face.

The two stars exchanged dirty looks.

After taking a deep breath, Paul sighed. "Why don't we break for lunch?"

"Fine!" Lindsey stormed off toward her dressing room.

"Great," Chance muttered.

The director and the young star shared a look and held back a laugh. "I swear dude I didn't have a boner… Not even close. She doesn’t do it for me."

"I believe you."

"Hey, you got a minute? Can we talk in private?"

"Sure."

Chance followed Paul to a small room used to review film and they took a seat. Chance cleared his throat. "Look, is it just me or does it seem like Lindsey doesn’t want to be here? Did she lose a bet or something?"

Paul chuckled. "Yeah, she's, at the very least, off her game."

"I heard she has a development deal with the studio and she needed one more project to wrap it up. I think she's just phoning it in."

"Huh... Really?"

"You know she's done nudity before and what... she refused to do any of it for the movie, right?"

"Yeah." Paul frowned.

"She just went full frontal in that Tarantino movie."

"I didn't know that." Paul scoffed. "I couldn't even get a nipple out of her."

Chance moved to the edge of his seat. "Look, I think we should replace her."

Paul nodded in agreement. "I'd love to get another actress for the part, but the studio wants her and she's got a contract and we're on a tight shooting schedule."

"I think if you gave Lindsey a way out, she'd jump at it."

"But that leaves us with a big problem. I mean, maybe I can shoot around her until we found someone, but—"

"What about Natalie?"

"Natalie?" Paul narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah, I've been running lines with her and she's… there's something about her. She's got some talent… I mean, it’s a little raw but it's there."

Looking past Chance, Paul took a moment to think. "I can't say I haven't thought about her in the role, but I just never thought it would fly with you or the studio."

"As you can tell, I'm one hundred percent on board. I think we can make it work. I can definitely put in a good word for her with the studio."

Paul shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Just one thing… and I mean no offense, but this isn’t about getting Natalie into bed is it?" Suddenly his eyes shot wide open. "Shit, you guys haven't um already?"

"No, no we haven't, but God she's um, wow…" Looking down to the floor, Chance narrowed his eyes and sighed looking as if he was really, really far away.

"Yeah, uh… Natalie and I are sorta dating right now."

"No fucking way?" Chance broke into a laugh. "Oh my God, I had no idea. Dude, I've not made any kind of move on her. I swear and this isn't at all about trying to, you know. I just want to make a great movie."

Nodding, Paul slowly exhaled, relieved. "That's great… you had me going there for a minute."

"Why don't we do this?" Chance nodded. "Let's film a scene with her, then send it… along with some of that amazing work she's already done, you know, the ballet move thing and all that… Yeah, let's send that to the studio and see what they say?"

"We could do that." Paul folded his arms behind his head, contemplating.

"Totally." Smiling, Chance slapped Paul's knee with the palm of his hand. "You dog you, so Natalie… shit, tell me is she doing all that acrobatic crap in bed. I mean, geez, is she?"

"Um, well… I, uh, really shouldn't…" Curling his lip, the director gave him a hesitant look.

"Just fucking blink once if she's using you as a balance beam." Chance looked at him, bright eyed and waiting.

After pausing a moment, Paul blinked once and lifted his palms in the air, shrugging.

"Fuck, you've got it bad for this chick. Dude don't tell me you're in love with her?"

"I don't know man, but honestly I've never felt like this… ever." He looked to the ceiling. "Oh, man, and don't get me wrong it's not just the, you know, she's smart and… fun and… God, she's just like no one I've ever met before."

"Dude, that's great." Lifting his hands up, Chance put on a serious expression. "And now that I know this I promise I'll behave myself. I'll even try to keep from popping a boner like I just did with Lindsey out there."

Paul laughed. "I thought you said you didn't."

"Between you and me, I may have just, um…" Chance raised his hand up holding his thumb and forefinger a few inches apart. "…a little quick one."

Shaking his head, Paul grinned. "And you can't stand her."

"He's got a mind of his own." Chance pointed down to his groin and shrugged. "Whataya gonna do?"

A few days later Paul, Jillian, the other producers and a few other key crew members sat in a room waiting. The door opened and in walked Chance Hart.

"Sorry guys." He slipped into a seat next to Jillian and gave her smile. She flashed her eyes at him, embarrassed. She could never get used to this whole Hollywood thing. Only a few inches from a major celebrity and one who was as drop dead gorgeous as Chance, she had to play it cool. How would it look for an Executive Producer to ask him for an autograph or a hug or both?

Paul nodded to a man sitting at a computer behind them. "Okay."

The large screen lit up with a raw scene from the movie. It began with Chance and Natalie sitting on a bench.