Stella was still until “Action,” was called.

She had waited for this part, for the love scene between her and Elijah in the sequel to their last movie.

After Elijah made her come–again–in the Faro Islands, she had plotted her revenge against Dean.

Of course Dean had made it seem like it was entirely about her talent, that it was about making her more of a star. But the truth of the matter was she felt like a commodity to him. She was not even sure that he was with her because he wanted to be with her. Or because he wanted people to know he was with her, to see that he was with her.

When Elijah had made her come–without touching her in the Faro Islands–she felt more real than she had felt for a long time. But he had also deceived her. He knew the whole sequel thing, maybe he was pretending that he did not know that Dean had not told her that night.

She felt frozen all of the time since then.

But now, action she was ready! The premise of the new script was that she and Elijah had been pushed back in time. At the end of the first movie, Adora told Elijah that if she could start over she would be with him and she would choose him every time. It was the best way for things to end. But this time there was a time machine that brought them back to the first time that he had called her, and it was clear that he wanted sex. A booty call, and she was happy to answer it.

It was everything that you did not see in the first movie, but the point was fate was fate that she was going to meet Didier regardless…and possibly still end up cheating on Elijah with him.

And that Elijah was still going to take his revenge regardless. This sequel was even darker than the original film.

Her own internal time machine brought her back to when she met Elijah on the set of the first movie. He was intense and in character, she had admired that. He barely had any interaction with her off the set, she was much closer with the actor who played Didier.

But Elijah was always in her mind for that reason, because he ignored her.

She was doing her makeup in her dressing room, when saw Elijah in the mirror fingering her star. It felt like he was touching her. He was dressed all in black, and looked evil and sexy at the same time.

“Did you need something?”

He walked in, and closed the door behind him.

No words.

She felt the prickle of fear and desire so tantalizing she stopped breathing, then gave a tiny pant when she realized she was not.

He paused in front of her.

“Yeah, I need something.”

“What?” She could not stop herself from a slight shiver.

“To get a rise out of you. Got it!”

“You monster!”

She pounded at him from a sitting position, but he did not shift in position.

He grabbed her hands in the middle of her onslaught.

“Do you really want to assault me when I am in character? You read the script…it could go badly for you.”

“Monster!”

“You do not really think that do you? Why we are engaged to be married…”

“Knock it off okay? We will just interact on set.”

He stared at her and wouldn’t move, and she began to hate him because she wondered if he saw her desire. She was ashamed to feel it, when clearly he just wanted to play his part.

“And I want to just do that too, but you are making me act out of character. I usually stay in character all the time and while Elijah wants you as a character…I want you as a woman…”

Stella trembled. She hated that she could not act like she was not affected.

She never acted with him again after that, he messed up her method because she was not acting like she was torn in the movie. She was torn between him as her lover, and him as an actor tormenting her.

She slipped out of her time machine when she heard,

“Action!”

She was in the edge of telling Elijah–the character–about the time machine, because he did not seem to know. He put his fingers on her lips, and she kissed her fingers.

“Cut,” Dean said.

Stella looked at Dean. The last time he directed a love scene between her and Elijah, they actually had sex. She suspected he remembered that as well.

She walked off the set,

“Did we do something wring?”

Dean stared at her.

“I do not like the lighting. You don’t look good.”

Stella took a deep breath. He looked at her like she had written the script, like she had asked to be reunited with her ex-lover in a sequel.

“Well I don’t want to look bad…”

“No darling, I meant…I cannot have my star altered in any way. We will figure it out love.”

Something about his British accent always soothed her. She smiled, and rethought everything. Maybe she was being too rough on him. Maybe they would figure it all out.

Love.

She saw Elijah all in black out if the corner of her eye, squeezed Dean’s hand tightly and smiled at him reassuringly.

Darker flames can be found here:

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