Page 50 of Bad Reputation

An invitation to be reckless, that look.

Oblivious to Maggie’s racing heart, Tasha said, “Which brings us back to Maggie’s question. What’s his number?”

That broke the spell, and Cole snorted. “A dozen, give or take. Before he left home, when he was still the young rich guy on the prowl, I’d guess he hit a brothel. Maybe had a mistress. Then he rejects that world to become a smuggler, and it’s different women. He’s still not, like, emotionally available with them. Sex has been just a release for him for a long time.”

“But that changes with Effie?”

“Yeah.”

“Butwhy?” Maggie asked. “And don’t say it’s because she’s not like other girls.”

“Yeah,” Cole agreed. “That’s a good point. She could’ve been another Madge to him, if they’d met earlier. Why is he ready now?”

A few seconds ticked by while they all considered this.

“I wonder if the failure of the Jacobite rebellion matters,” Maggie asked. “Like, things aren’t going well resisting the British. The writing’s on the wall, even if the Battle of Culloden hasn’t happened yet. So Geordie’s thinking about what he wants from his life. Is he going to stay with the common people, or is he going to return to his estate? And that’s when he meets Effie.”

“Yeah, so he’sprepped.” Cole picked up Maggie’s thread. “He’s grown up a little, but he’s also had something not work out. This has worn down his pride, made him emotionally vulnerable in a way hewasn’t before. But then Effie blows his heart up, and he wasn’t prepared for that.”

Maggie’s pulse was up, and she felt fizzy all over. This collaboration—it was everything she loved about theatre. “Exactly. So when they end up in this hayloft together, do you think they both arrive here planning to consummate this relationship?”

“For him, yes,” Cole said. “But I don’t think he realizes how intense it’s going to be, or how the sex will crack his heart open.”

Tasha nodded. “Yeah, I know we’ve talked about her, how this is her first time and how into him she is, but I think we have to get the mirror of that for him. He likes this woman, he wants to sleep with her, but then it’s more. That has to stun him.”

“I love that,” Maggie said. “How do we communicate it?” Because at the end of the day, that was the goal: How could they use this love scene to do the character work?

The script simply read,GEORDIE AND EFFIE MAKE PASSIONATE, EMOTIONAL LOVE IN THE HAY LOFT.

Um, thanks, writers!

“Well, they both have to be naked,” Cole said. “It needs to be very different than with Madge. A lot more foreplay, a lot of eye contact, a lot of checking in. And I think he needs to perform oral sex on her, the opposite of with Madge.”

Zoya had mentioned that, edited, she wanted this scene to clock in at least two minutes. Since the show’s previous love scenes had averaged about twenty seconds of thrusting postpenetration—Maggie had checked; she’d made a spreadsheet and everything, an actual fucking spreadsheet—unless they were going to play strip poker, simulated oral would definitely be involved, along with a lot more foreplay than was normal for the show.

This was like the Mount Everest of on-screen sex scenes.

“Yeah, the consent piece is really important,” Tasha agreed. “We don’t have to add lines”—that would mean calling in one of the show’s writers—“but we need all of those little beats of waiting for a reaction.You know when you’re with someone for the first time, and you aren’t sure what they like. You don’t know what they want and don’t want.”

“Um, yeah. Totally.”

When Maggie had been fired and the mess of the last year had begun, the man she’d been dating—a real estate agent—had broken up with her. He hadn’t wanted to deal with the bad press, meaning that he was afraid he’d lose business if he was involved with the most notorious woman in town. Those hadn’t been his precise words, but the implication had been clear. He’d enjoyed dating Maggie, sleeping with her, but he hadn’t really cared about her. He certainly didn’t want to risk anything for their relationship.

After the jolt of disbelief had passed (“I got fired at eight a.m., and you’re dumping me at five p.m.?”), Maggie understood. She enjoyed having dinner with him a few times a week. It had been a relief to have an assumed date for events and holidays. The sex had been fine, but she hadn’t thought they were in it together for the long haul either.

Hell, he’d probably done them a favor. If she hadn’t been fired, they might have gotten married out of inertia, which would’ve been tragic. She could barely remember what his laugh sounded like or how he’d made her feel, other than vaguely content. You shouldn’t marry someone whose best quality was having a pulse.

Since the breakup, she hadn’t had the time to date. What did you put on your Bumble profile—My interests include fighting theatre censorship in high-profile lawsuits? No, her drought was pretty much exactly what vibrators were for.

Suddenly, Maggie wanted a first time with someone. The intensity of someone else’s hands being where only yours had been for so long. The smell of someone’s skin, the press of their weight, amplifying every emotion. The sheer intimacy of letting someone else see you come. The nakedness beyond nakedness when you took off your clothing with someone for the first time.

She missed sex.

Well, she missedgoodsex.

Maggie shook the thought off. She was working. “Totally,” she repeated. “We have to get all of that into the choreography, especially his tenderness with her and then the way this is going to just explode both of their expectations. Let’s walk through what we have.”

Cole rolled his shoulders and got to his feet. He’d changed into another one of those flowing linen shirts, but he’d also put on a pair of breeches this time. It made him look more than a little bit like a pirate.

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