She uncrossed her arms and braced them against the table, his gaze bearing down on her, a force stronger than gravity. He continued, his thin veneer of control slipping. “Do you want me to tell you that I’ve been avoiding you because every time I’m around you, all I can think about is how badly I want to touch you? That it drove me half-crazy that you came back and I still couldn’t?”
He stopped short in front of her, both of them breathing heavily. His hands hovered, then dropped to his sides.
“You can now,” she murmured, her gaze flicking from his lips to his eyes. “Why won’t you?”
Fatima’s voice broke in, sounding like it was coming from another planet. “Okay, let’s hold here.”
Lilah blinked a few times, jolting back into herself. Shaneexhaled heavily as he stepped away, running his hands through his hair, not looking at her.
“Really good stuff, you guys. I appreciate you bringing it like this, even in a rehearsal.” She flipped through her script thoughtfully. “Now, I know there’s some description about how it goes from here, but I think we can do a little exploring to find what feels the most organic. You two know these characters as well as anybody. And it’s not only about the kiss. That first contact has to feel just as explosive.”
Under Fatima’s guidance, they worked through the next few beats. Shane brought both his hands to Lilah’s shoulders, then slid them slowly down her arms, drawing her closer. He caught hold of her hand and brought it up to cup his own cheek. She held it there for a moment before sliding it to the nape of his neck and nudging him forward until their foreheads were touching. He gripped her waist with both hands, the warmth of his palms radiating through her whole body.
“Okay, good, let’s break again.”
They dutifully separated, Lilah wrapping her arms around her midriff, suddenly cold despite her sweater.
“So, you have your last couple of lines here, and then…bam. The moment everyone’s spent the past nine years waiting for. Is it tentative at first, or do they go all in?”
“I think they’re all in,” Shane answered immediately, without bothering to look at Lilah. “They’ve been waiting for this forever. Thinking about it forever. I don’t think they’re going to hold back once they decide it’s going to happen.”
Fatima turned to Lilah, who just nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Fatima clasped her hands together. “Let’s give it a shot, then. Take it from your last line, Lilah.”
They squared off again. Lilah wasn’t sure if she saw nerves inhis expression or if she was just projecting her own. She fought to stay focused, her hands trembling against the desk.
“You can now. Why won’t you?”
They moved through their choreography carefully, fluidly: his hands trailing down her arms. Her palm on his cheek. Their foreheads pressing together.
Shane’s mouth hovered millimeters from hers, drawing out the moment as long as possible.
“What if—what if this ruins everything?” he asked quietly. After the hard edge he’d brought to the rest of the scene, she was shocked by his softness now: the tremor in his voice, the genuine uncertainty in his eyes.
“What if it fixes it?” she murmured, and his mouth was on hers before she knew it, every muscle in her body immediately going rigid in response, as if she could somehow form a protective shell that would prevent her from feeling anything.
His tongue nudged the seam of her lips, but she kept them firmly closed, and he didn’t try to force it. They continued that way, alternating smaller closed-mouth kisses with longer ones, hands planted in their starting positions like they’d been superglued in place, their bodies otherwise resolutely separate.
After a moment, they broke apart, looking at Fatima expectantly. Fatima had her hands on her hips, her brow creased, looking at them with dissatisfaction.
“Okay. That was…that’s a start.” She walked toward them slowly. “How do we feel about getting a little more…passionatewith it? Tastefully, I mean. Not sloppy. And only if you’re comfortable. I’m just not sure if the closed-mouth peck approach is really giving us everything the moment needs, you know?”
Both Shane and Fatima were looking at Lilah, who dropped her gaze to the ground, chagrined. She thought back to theirphoto shoot several months earlier, where they’d also been chastised for holding back.
But that had been different. Back then, her discomfort had stemmed from her physical attraction to him, but at least it had been safely swaddled in animosity. And though there was attraction now, too, there was nothing safe about the genuine fondness trying to hitch a ride on its back.
She forced herself to look at it objectively. At this point, there were very few places on her body his tongue hadn’t been—and vice versa. There was no reason to get prudish about it now, especially since she wouldn’t have given it a second thought if it were anyone else.
Lilah shook her head, trying to get herself back in the game. “Okay. Sorry. Yeah. That’s fine. I just needed a practice run.”
“Great. Not a problem, that’s why we’re here. Let’s go again from that same spot.”
This time, she pounced first, diving in with an almost animal ferocity. After a stunned, frozen beat, he followed her lead, digging his fingers into her waist and plunging his tongue down her throat.
Like the last time in his trailer, it felt more like an extension of one of their fights than anything else. Even though it was heated, it was clearly more about aggression than affection, as if they were waiting for Fatima to ring a bell, raise one of their hands above their heads, and declare a winner.
When it felt like they’d grappled long enough, Lilah broke away, wiping her arm against her mouth. Shane seemed slightly more affected by it than she was, rumpled and red around the ears and throat, verging on wild-eyed.
But when she looked at Fatima, she knew they hadn’t fooled her.
