Page 35 of Love At First Fright
“Dearest, please.”
The other ghost shook her head vehemently. “Don’t call me that. I told you not to come to this side of the manor anymore. Cecilia, please leave.”
“Why won’t you let me explain, Juliet?” Her voice came out as a whine, and Rosemary felt the frustration and sadness seeping into her from the ghosts. Across the room, two of the ADs began to bicker, and Vincent snapped at them. That was unlike him.
The ghosts continued to argue, and when Juliet stampedher foot, a vase sitting on the mantelpiece fell and smashed. A couple of the crew jumped back, looking suspiciously at each other to see who damaged the set.
“There’s nothing else for you to say!” Juliet shouted, and Rosemary, breaking the rule she had laid out for herself to never interact with ghosts in a public place, shushed the ghost.
Two pairs of ghostly eyes met hers in the shadows of the room.
“Did you just shush me?” Juliet said.
“I did.”
“You can see us.”
“Yes,” Rosemary hissed under her breath. “And hear you. Now go and argue somewhere else, you’re causing havoc in here.”
The pair looked around and saw the crew cleaning up the broken vase, and the two ADs apologising to each other.
“I’ll go,” Cecilia said. “She doesn’t want me here, anyway.” She wiped a ghostly tear from her eye and fled through the window.
Juliet offered Rosemary a sharp, knowing look, before vanishing back through the wall she’d come in from. Rosemary sighed to herself, realising she had just complicated her stay at Hallowvale significantly. On top of whatever was going on between her and Ellis, and being a producer, she had now involved herself in these ghosts’ messy business. What could go wrong?
At least now that they were gone, Rosemary had an unblocked view of Ellis by the fire.
She wondered why he had topless scenes written into his contracts. It didn’t seem like the sort of thing he would do, but then again, how well could you know someone you’d only met days ago?
“Action,” Vincent said, and Rosemary looked on transfixed as Ellis unbuttoned his waistcoat, folding it onto a chair by the fire. Then he was in that flowing white linen shirt, dark brown chest hair visible, an image that would now be forever imprinted onto Rosemary’s mind.
Then the shirt came off, and heat shot straight through Rosemary’s core. Lit by the glow of the fire, Ellis was all heavy, packed muscle. Dark wisps of hair on his muscled forearms, dark hair that trailed down his stomach to the V of his hips. An image sprang to Rosemary’s mind, of her on her knees before him, running her fingers down that perfect V as she took his cock deep into her throat, letting him use her. Being submissive to him would make her feel powerful, as contrary as that sounded in her head. Rosemary tried to slam the breaks on the little fantasy but it got away from her, and visions of Ellis ordering her to ride him until her legs gave out took over Rosemary’s brain. Even the thought of it had her nipples pebbling under her top, a heat slicking her, making her ache.
Rosemary couldn’t imagine a world in which a relationship with Ellis could work. He had Jenna, and she had a deadline. Even if sometimes Ellis did things that made her wonder…Nope, now was not the time for her brain to begin exhibiting an impossible crush.
Just because he’d made her a cup of tea and picked some leaves out of her hair—she really was pathetic.
Ellis, as Alfred, then began to pull off his trousers, and she saw he was wearing some kind of short swimming trunks in a nude colour. She glanced over at the screens, and saw that the cameras were only filming his torso up. So her film wasn’t going to have full frontal nudity, that was something at least.
But those shorts did absolutely nothing to hide the ratherpronounced package Ellis appeared to be sporting. Rosemary’s mouth went dry as he stepped into the bath, moaning slightly in the steaming water.
“Cut!” Vincent shouted, and Rosemary blinked, coming back to herself. A few more crew members left the room, as they were going to have a five-minute break before the next scene. She spied Vincent already leaving, cigarette dangling between his lips. Should she leave now or stay to watch another take? Too late, Ellis was partly dressed, toweling himself dry and walking towards her.
“Hello,” Ellis said, “I didn’t spot you in here.” So he’d caught her, knew she’d stayed to watch him. He was back in his costume trousers, but was still topless, a towel draped around his neck. Honestly, did he have to parade his ludicrously attractive body so much?
“I assumed I was necessary crew,” she replied.
“Of course you are. What did you think of the scene?”
“I think it’s interesting that you have a topless scene written into all your contracts for your ‘fans.’ ”
Guilt streaked across Ellis’s face. “For what it’s worth, I did ask them to remove it, I told them it wasn’t in the book, and it wouldn’t be adding anything to the movie.”
“You did?”
“Yeah.”
“But your contract?”
