“What would?” I asked.
She sighed. “I wish I knew.”
“Let’s analyze it,” Aiden said. “Picture yourself standing there by the bed. I come up and touch your arm. What would stop you, in that moment, from flinching? Or freezing up?”
“I guess… I guess if I knew exactly how, where, and when you were going to touch me, then I’d know to expect it. I think that would make it a little easier on me.”
“That could work,” I said, feeling a glimmer of hope. “Could you tell her how exactly you’re going to touch her?”
“For the start of the scene, and perhaps a few key checkpoints along the way, yes,” Aiden said. “But not for the whole scene. It needs to look natural, not scripted.”
Ford spoke up. “Fight scenes look natural.”
“Yeah, but a sex scene doesn’t have every move planned out like a fight does. The director will tell the actors where to start out, he’ll make sure the camera angles and lighting are right, but then he basically leaves it up to the actors to proceed from there.”
“But why couldn’t that be choreographed?” I asked.
“How?” Aiden asked.
“Just like a fight scene,” Ford said. “You create a sequence of events. Person A puts his hand here. Person B reacts by doing such and such. Then Person A rolls Person B over onto their back and leans over them. Only it presumably ends with a kiss, not someone smashing someone else’s face in.”
“You could practice it again and again until it’s muscle memory—just like a fight scene,” Tanner added.
“It won’t look natural,” Aiden said.
“Ford’s fight scenes do, don’t they?” I asked. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen one, but everyone said he was the best.
“Yes,” Tanner said firmly, and after a moment, Aiden agreed.
I turned back to Sierra. “Do you think you could do the scene if you knew exactly what to expect?”
She seemed almost afraid to grasp at the lifeline being thrown to her. “I don’t know—maybe.”
I was eager for her to see the benefit of this idea. “If you and Aiden practice the scene over and over, it’ll become familiar. No surprises. And you’d have some say over how things are done.” I looked back in Aiden’s direction to make sure he concurred.
“As long as she doesn’t want us to sit in opposite corners of the room, chatting about the weather.”
“Is there time to make this work before Monday?” I asked.
“We’ve blocked out major fight scenes in less than a day,” Ford said. “I think it can be done.”
“When?” Sierra asked.
“This weekend?” Though it was dark, I looked at each man, willing them to agree.
Finally, Aiden spoke up. “Then we’ll do it this weekend.”
17
Ronnie
I ran into Sierra outside of Tina’s office at the end of the day on Friday. “Good, we can go to the bonfire together.”
She gave me a friendly smile but shook her head. “I’m afraid I have to bow out. It’s been a long week.”
“Yeah, but this part of the week is easy. And fun.”
“I know but I’m pretty tired.”
“At least stay for the food. Aiden ordered from his favorite kabob place in LA. It smells amazing. And the bonfire last week was really fun,” I said, before frowning. At least it was if you discounted the props master getting too handsy.
Sierra glanced between the buildings to the clearing where a group of men were positioning the logs. “I’ll grab a kabob to go.”
I sighed in acceptance. “Grab a bunch to go.” It would’ve been fun to hang out with her for the evening.
She looked at her phone. “My driver’s almost here, so I need to get.”
“Hope you have a good evening.”
“You too. See you on Sunday.” That was the day we were going to plot out the sex scene.
She started to walk away when I called her back. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“It’s kind of personal.”
Sierra gave me a brief smile. “Those are usually the most interesting ones.”
I hesitated. It wasn’t my business, but I really wanted to know. “Have you ever met a man you fell for?”
“Yes.” She didn’t seem bothered by the question. “He was my co-star in an indie film a few years ago. We talked all the time between shoots and texted at night.”
I grinned. “All night?”
“Sometimes.” She smiled back, but her gaze seemed miles away. “He asked me out a time or two, but I said I wasn’t ready yet. I just—I need to know a man well before I can move forward. He seemed to understand, but then… I guess I waited too long. His part in the shooting wrapped up, and then he was gone. We still texted a bit, but it wasn’t the same. I missed my chance.”
My heart went out to her. “Did you see him after that? Like at the premiere?”
She smiled gently. “It was a really small film, so there wasn’t much of a premiere. And he didn’t come to a get-together the cast had a few months later.”