Page 36 of Not the Bodyguard's Princess
“Princess Sam, you stay there. Big guy, sit on this end of the couch. I know you aren’t an actor, so Princess Sam will do all the work.”
Jordan set her dog on the floor and signaled for her to go lie down on her pillow under the table.
Storm sat in one of the chairs and leaned forward. “Now, Princess Sam, this is how this kiss is going to go. You will crawl along the couch to the big man here. Keep your eyes on his. He needs to know what’s coming. The kiss of a lifetime. You are sexy, like a sleek cat. When you reach him, you will straddle his lap, frame his face with your hands, then kiss him long and sensual. I want to feel you wanting him.”
“But this is a first kiss!” She had zero experience with the type of kiss Storm demanded.
“No, Princess, this acting. Prove to me you can act, or I tell Paul I’m done.”
Jordan closed her eyes and took a breath. She didn’t want to kiss Andrew like this. If she ever kissed him, she wanted it to be real.
Storm cleared his throat. Jordan opened her eyes and sought Andrew’s.I’m sorry, I’m sorry.She leaned forward and crawled toward Andrew as directed. Climbing onto his lap wasn’t as easily accomplished, but she did it. Slipping one hand behind his head. Her lips met his. He didn’t move. Jordan pressed her lips to his and slowly mouthed “I’m sorry” against his lips before pulling back.
“Adequate. I’ll stay—and look forward to our first kiss.” Storm patted her behind, removing his phone from her back pocket, and left the trailer to Princess’s growling.
Jordan slid off Andrew’s lap and blinked back tears. “I’m so sorry.” Then she escaped into the bedroom, closed the thin door between them, slid to the floor, and let the tears flow.
* * *
Andrew wiped the kiss from his mouth. So that was acting? It was the least enjoyable kiss of his life.
He should have done something other than give Jordan the go-ahead. Forcing her to kiss him was wrong. Even if he wasn’t the one doing the forcing. He moved to the bedroom door and tapped.
“Jordan? I’m sure you can hear me. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let you go through with it. I let him bully you. I’m sorry. I really am.” Andrew leaned his head against the door. There was no way to fix this. He couldn’t erase the last ten minutes.
The door vibrated against his forehead and opened an inch. Jordan wrapped her fingers around it, holding it mostly closed. “I should have let him walk. If I told HR what he threatened me with, they would have sided with me.”
Andrew covered her hand with his. “I’m sorry. I should have told him to take a hike.”
One watery amber eye met his for a second before here eyelid shuttered it. “It’s not your fault. I feel like I betrayed our friendship. I don’t have many friends. It is hard to have friends when they’re in the same cutthroat business.” Jordan lowered her voice to a whisper. “I thought last night, if I ever kissed you it would be my first kiss with a real person. I mean not an actor, and I ruined that. You can never get a second first kiss.”
“You’ve never kissed for real?”
“I don’t know. They’ve all been actors.” The thin door shook as Jordan gave a strangled laugh. “Every kiss has been for the camera or director. Even my first boyfriend only kissed me when the paparazzi snapped photos. I don’t know why Storm didn’t find those. Anyway, kissing for the camera made me question what was real. Since then, I’ve limited public kissing to the cheek. And private to when I’m fairly sure he isn’t using me as a wrung on his ladder to stardom. And that never happens. I won’t date a leading man until three months after shooting is complete. They all move on by then, so I don’t kiss much. I’ve hoped that someday I will find someone I can be real with. Last night when we were laughing over that cat video, I thought—” Her voice dissolved in tears.
Andrew wished the door away so he could comfort her. It wouldn’t help for him to point out how he’d wondered what it would be like to hold her hand during the movie they’d watched together from their respective rooms. Andrew waited for the sobs to quiet. “It may not matter, but I didn’t kiss you. I’m fairly sure a good kiss takes two. If we were to kiss, it would be my first time kissing you, and that would be real.”
Jordan pulled the door open enough that half of her face appeared. The tears had smeared her eye makeup. “You’re sure? Don’t answer that. I don’t want to ruin our friendship.” She closed her eyes. “Pretend I didn’t ask.”
“Ask what?”
Her eyes opened, the tears receding. “I understand if you need to quit. After what you explained about Adam and September.”
“I’m not quitting over a directed kiss. Although, I can see how you might want to fire me. I didn’t do a very good job of protecting you.”
“You did. You didn’t leave me, and as difficult as it was to act with you, it would have been worse if he had forced me to kiss him. He would have taken advantage and made it—”
Someone pounded on the trailer door. “Ten minutes to call, Miss Lee!”
“Thank you!” shouted Jordan.
“You should probably fix your makeup.”
Jordan’s hands flew to her face. “Oh!” She turned from the door and stopped. “Will you stay and walk me to the set? I need Storm to see we are normal. He can never know that I—that I lost it.”
“I’ll wait.”
Andrew checked the mirror next to the door and cleaned the smeared red lip-gloss from around his mouth. Jordan emerged from the bedroom with only the faintest pink around her eyes.
