I was caught on what she’d said about him thinking he was entitled to be the exception. I never wanted to make her feel that way. How could I ask her for more without pushing it on her?

There was something I needed to know.

I took a deep breath. “I’m ready to use that question you owe me. I want to ask you something, and I don’t want a bullshit answer.”

Her eyes were wary. “Okay. Shoot.”

“When we were talking about the chemistry between us, you said our kinks align perfectly, that we’re equals in and out of the bedroom. Is that common? My real question being, have you ever been this well matched with someone before?”

The word soulmate came to me unbidden.

“No,” she said quietly, with almost no hesitation. “Not by a long shot.”

I nodded, my suspicions confirmed. “It’s our last night together, and—”

She put a finger to my lips and kissed me too gently, barely brushing her lips against mine. “We shouldn’t talk about this right now. I can think of better uses for your mouth.”

I was so close to telling her how I felt and asking for a shot at a future together, but I wanted this moment, this last night with her before we had to face the impossible reality of the outside world.

I stopped talking and kissed her.

Talk could wait until tomorrow.

42

Elena

I went looking for Alex the next morning on set. He’d had a way earlier call time than me, so I’d gotten to sleep later. I felt out of place amid lots of people trying to do their jobs when there wasn’t really anything for me to do when I arrived.

I very quickly learned that filming was almost entirely comprised of standing around while various people did the hard work to set up a shot with brief spells of actual action happening. I now understood why the actors had trailers to hang out in while they were waiting.

Alex was dealing with something in wardrobe, so I went in search of Melody to see if she needed any help with her early scenes. Any excuse to feel useful instead of awkwardly trying to stay out of the way. Awkward was going to be the name of the game if we went ahead with the plan and I had to interact with Alex on set, acting as an intimacy coordinator for scenes I'd done all too intimately with him in real life.

I knocked on Melody’s trailer door, double-checking it was the right one when no one answered. I’d almost given up and left by the time she opened the door, but as soon as she opened it, I could tell something was wrong. She’d been crying and wouldn’t meet my eyes, although she was trying to pretend everything was fine.

She waved me inside, so I followed her in and closed the door. It wasn’t my place to pry, but now I could see she was visibly shaking as she cleared a spot for me to sit.