< - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Another World
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Limelight
By Karisma
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Darien Eddington raced along the highway away from Mina’s home, thoughts racing
through his head at a speed to match his luxury car. What had possessed him to
kiss her like that? Especially considering the delicate situation that their
relationship was in right now. And what had taken over him at the studio
earlier that day? Any further, and he would have probably been making love to
her right there, in front of the entire working crew.
But something had been different about her, her complete shyness and wide-eyed
innocent look had thrown him. All through the shoots, Mina had a look of awe
etched on the gorgeous face that—if he didn’t know any better—said this was all
new to her. And when he had held her just like he had so many times, her
reaction was completely different. It wasn’t mechanically responsive or any act
showing that she was used to his touch—no, he could swear she actually trembled
at the feel of his lips on her skin.
So what was all this? His first thought was that this was some kind of game,
but that couldn’t be it. Mina was a great actress, but not that great as to
fake such a response. No, something about Mina Kinsley had changed while he had
been gone, and he had every intention of finding out what.
Serena woke up, exhausted once again. Despite being extremely tired last night,
she had finally fallen asleep at a late hour, her thoughts being clouded by a
certain dark-haired leading man and what her next course of action should be.
Now, on top of acting and having her picture taken and going to a movie
premiere, she also had to play loving girlfriend to a man she was reluctantly
growing attracted to.
The best thing to do was play it cool and avoid any intimate situations at all
costs. Simple as that.
Serena realized just how not simple it was when she arrived at work.
“Mina!” A cheery voice called and Serena whirled around to be caught in a tight
hug with a slightly short, brunette.
She patted the stranger’s back awkwardly, her mind searching for who this woman
might be. She came up empty.
“Mina, you’ve met my wife before,” the dry voice of Nigel saved her and she
smiled largely at the vivacious woman.
“Of course, Elaine. It’s wonderful seeing you.” Serena squeezed Elaine’s hands
tightly and immediately liked the slightly older woman with the warm, brown
eyes. She didn’t mind the changes the woman had made in the original script she
had loved so much. To each his own, Serena mused as she sat next to the eager,
excited lady.
“I had the most wonderful idea yesterday!” Elaine gushed, her chocolate brown
eyes sparkling with giddiness that Serena found both contagious and amusing.
“Yes, darling. It was simply wonderful.” Nigel sighed, rubbing his forehead.
Elaine pointedly ignored her husband and continued. “Anyway, it is the most
romantic addition to our love story. I was watching the old commercial we made
for the movie and I decided it just didn’t work.” she paused. “So I have
decided to make a much more romantic commercial, one that depicts the true
passion between Chloe and Jared. One that will make women everywhere want to
see this movie over and over again. Elaine clapped enthusiastically while she
practically bounced off the seat, looking very much like a child. “Why—it’ll be
bigger than TITANIC!”
Serena took one look at Elaine’s dreamy face found herself thinking Elaine
acted out her silly fantasies about love through Chloe and Jared. But if Elaine
could keep her teenage-like, idealistic views this far into her adult life,
then more power to her. Besides, Nigel didn’t exactly seem like the
overly-romantic, knight-in-shining armor type.
As if by cue, Nigel rolled his eyes and muttered, “If I remember correctly,
TITANIC had a tragic ending, much like the original ending of Only You.”
Elaine shook away her husband’s tirade as if the poor woman was used to these
kinds of outbursts daily.
“So we shoot this and then tomorrow we begin to film the other ending to the
movie?” Serena shrugged. “It’s a commercial, it’ll take like what—ten minutes?”
Nigel began to laugh, tipping his head back and letting out the first genuine
chuckle Serena had heard from him yet. “Ten minutes!” He gasped. “You obviously
don’t know Elaine.” With that he walked away, still chortling and leaving
Serena with a very unsettling feeling.
Elaine clapped her hands loudly for everybody’s attention. “Okay, people. We
only have so much daylight left. Let’s get moving!”
Serena groaned inwardly as she was directed to a trailer. Why did she have a
bad feeling about this? Why did everything manage to go wrong for her? And why,
oh why, had she agreed to this ridiculous plan to begin with?
The park they arrived at was indeed a beautiful place, with trees placed
strategically and the manicured grass. Bushes filled with fragrant flowers
trimmed the entire outline. The natural lushness of the park, not hindered by
the hordes of people, seemed much like a fantasy in a different world instead
of a square in New York .
They began shooting immediately. As soon as Serena had put on one of her
character’s sundresses and her hair had been styled accordingly, she had been
shipped off into the “capable” hands of Elaine along with Darien. There, she
had told them her plan for the commercial.
“Okay I talked this out with the camera men and they say it’ll be a splendid
shot. All you two have to do is lie down on the grass.”
Serena’s head snapped toward the casual women. Lie down on the grass? What was
this woman on?
Darien apparently had the same thoughts as he raised a dark brow sardonically.
Elaine saw their expressions and coaxed them. “Oh, it’ll be fun. Come on.” She
led them to a spot that was on perfectly green grass with a background of
colorful flowers. “Now Serena lie down on your back.”
“Excuse me?” Serena blurted out, her blonde eyebrows rose to practically their
hairline.
“Like this,” Elaine let herself fall to the lush grass and laid down, looking
up at Serena and Darien earnestly. “Now come,” she patted the spot next to her.
Serena slowly did so and felt Elaine get up. She saw both their faces peering
down at her and felt utterly ridiculous. Elaine’s looking delighted and
Darien’s perfectly amused. “Now, Darien.” She took his arm so he was facing
her. “You will be right here.”
They walked away from Serena and with a slightly painful roll of her eyes she
saw Darien’s black shoes a few feet away from her head. This was a romantic
commercial? Not that she was complaining—the further he kept his distance, the
better. Of course, they would have to be close tonight at dinner. She squeezed
her eyes shut at the thought. Serena felt a foreign fluttering in her stomach,
and after convincing herself it was due to nervousness of playing Mina with so
intimate a man, she settled down. She opened her eyes and nearly fainted.
Darien’s face was directly above hers, his dark eyes locked with her lighter
ones.
He was propped up on his elbows, which were crossed way down by his stomach.
The awkward position looked slightly uncomfortable, but Darien’s face remained
cool, not one emotion flickering across.
“Okay!” Elaine called, her voice high and excited. “Okay, Darien take the rose,
yes!”
Serena’s eyes closed reflexively as the soft petals of a red flower were traced
across the features of her face. Darien’s strong fingers lightly held the
fragile flower, moving it along the counters of her eyelashes, cheekbones,
nose, and finally lips.
She shivered, forgetting everything but her—and of course Darien.
“Turn toward me, Mina!” Elaine commanded.
Slightly dazed, she followed the order too late.
“Okay, once again from the top. This time, Serena smile softly and slowly turn
toward the camera. The next take was better, and the next even more so—and so
on and so on. Finally, Elaine was satisfied enough that they could use film. It
took three tries, but finally, viewing the entire scene from a small screen,
Elaine was happy.
“That’s a wrap, folks!” Nigel said loudly, joy evident in his tone.
Serena happily got up from her position and stretched. She turned slightly to
see Darien do so also. She quickly walked back to her trailer, hoping that
Darien would either forget about their date or be too tired to go through with
it. No such luck.
She opened the door after changing, pulling her light jacket tighter across her
chest against the cool breeze to find Darien waiting outside for her. With his
back turned to her, Serena had a moment to stare at him. His appearance was
perfect as usual in presses slacks and a teal dress shirt.
She shyly walked up to him. “Hi,” she said softly and smiled as he spun around.
“Ready?” he asked tautly.
Serena frowned at his demeanor and nodded. He led her to his luxury car. She
slid into the passenger seat, nervously tugging on her flowered ankle-length
skirt. She shrugged off her jacket in the warm car and lay it folded on her
lap. When Darien started the car, she anxiously fidgeted with her ice blue tank
top, picking invisible lint off sporadically. This was going to be a long
night.
Darien watched her squirm with increasing annoyance. Why was she acting like he
was the big, bad wolf? Why was she so incredibly jumpy—did she know about
tonight? Why wasn’t he angrier at her? And why did she have to look so damn
sexy and sweet all at the same time with her hair all loose around her shoulders?
He pushed the thoughts out of his mind while clutching the steering wheel
tighter. He turned into a free parking space of the Chinese restaurant, and as
he shifted to undo the buckle on his seatbelt, he collided with a blonde,
surprisingly hard, head.
“Oh,” he heard her gasp in surprise and pain.
They both lifted their heads up simultaneously, causing their faces to be
centimeters apart. He sucked his breath in at her proximity and immediately the
light smell of citrus and wildflowers assaulted his senses.
“You changed your shampoo,” he said quietly, making no effort to move in the
slightest.
“Oh,” was her soft reply, she stared right back into his eyes, as if frozen.
“It’s nice,” Darien didn’t blink, afraid to miss one moment of her liquid eyes wide
with something indefinable. He leaned in slightly, fully prepared to kiss her
when he heard her clear her throat and say:
“I’m starved. Should we go in?” Like a shot, she was out of the car and Darien
had a second to berate himself of what he had almost done. He had been
perfectly willing to kiss her a few seconds ago--heck, he was still willing!
But those impulses were completely out of the question considering the
conversation topic he had planned for tonight.
He watched as Mina smoothed her skirt before sitting, thanking the waiter for
the menu and opening it, biting her lip as she looked among the choices. He
followed the small, straight teeth sinking into her red lower lip with
fascination before shaking his head.
Moments later, they both ordered and were once again left alone in the quiet
atmosphere of the authentic restaurant. He saw Mina glance down at her napkin
and then anxiously pull and tug at it. Her gaze lifted to look around the room,
the other diners, the waiters, anywhere but at him.
“I don’t see any reason in pretending anymore—I suppose we both know.” He
began, his voice cold.
Mina’s eyes flew to his, panic written all over her lovely face. Well, that
settled it—she knew.
“W-What?” she asked shakily.
“I think it’s gone on long enough. You’ve done what you’ve been asked to
do…there’s no use going on.”
Absolute terror struck her eyes and she continued to stutter. “W-What do you
mean?”
He sighed, exasperated. Why on earth was she playing dumb? Had Nigel put her up
to this—keep him interested with a game? “Mina, you know exactly what I’m
talking about.”
“Oh,” she responded tentatively. “It’s about…”
He stared at her for a moment, wondering what exactly had caused her sudden
amnesia. There was nothing left to do. “Our relationship, Mina—or lack
thereof.”
“Okay, um—before we go any further let me just get this one thing straight:
you’re breaking up with me, right?” She didn’t seem the least bit angry,
confusion was the only emotion written on her features.
Well, breaking up wasn’t exactly the right word for the delicate—not to mention
unusual—situation they had been put in, but if that was the only way she could
face it, so be it.
“Yes,” he said slowly.
“And how long have you been planning to break up with Min—me,” she fumbled and caught
herself quickly. Darien frowned, who talked about themselves in the third
person? But back to the subject at hand…
“I’ve been thinking about it for some time—we both know it was going
nowhere—and since the project is almost over, I figured now was the time.”
Mina’s face suddenly grew very relieved and Darien grew as confused as she had
been earlier. What was with this woman’s mood swings. She now looked glad about
how he had answered rather than being angry that he had felt this way so long
and had done nothing about it. Her expression changed yet again, her brow
furrowing in puzzlement and Darien sighed inwardly. He felt another round of
twenty questions coming on since Mina was obviously playing dumb tonight for
some reason unknown to him.
“What project?”
“The movie,” Darien said incredulously, struck by how ignorant she seemed to
be.
“But what does our relationship have to do with the movie?” She looked down at
the cold food in front of her that they both hadn’t even realized arrived and
pushed it forward slightly, indicating her lack of appetite.
But Darien was too busy choking down the water he had taken a sip of before his
dinner date had finished speaking, trying not to spit the mouthful out. Of all
the obtuse questions she had asked on this “date”, this had to take the cake.
He couldn’t take any more, what the hell did she think was going on here? He
wasn’t going to be playing with, especially not by Mina.
“Mina,” he started, his voice sounding taut and stretched to even his own ears.
“I don’t know what you think you’re pulling, but don’t you think for one moment
I’m going to fall for it. The famous “Kinsley charm” isn’t going to work this
time. “ He sneered, enjoying the struck look on her face. And it was Serena’s
turn to spit out her water as he finished his speech. “We both know that this
entire “relationship” isn’t real and I don’t care how much you or Nigel want it
to continue until after we premiere the movie. It ends now. The great publicity
and box office charts can go to hell, I want out. Make up a story; I don’t
really care who dumped who as long as it’s officially, completely, absolutely
over.”