% CHAPTER 9 %

What the heck am I leaning on? I use my hands to feel this comfortable yet hard pillow. There's this weird spark traveling up and down my body. It feels like it's pulsing. Anyway, this pillow is really warm. My hands go up. Wait, is that a...nipple?!

My eyes instantly open and I look at my surroundings. I'm in a limo, sleeping on a shirtless Bret. Oh my god! I'm in a limo sleeping on a shirtless Bret! No! This is not what I ever really wanted!

I turn to him. He's still sleeping soundly. I look at his face. He's happy, content. His expression is a peaceful one. He seems like so much less of a jerk when he's sleeping. If I saw him like this more often, he'd probably had me fooled. And his hands are tangled in my hair. He better not have been pulling any tricks.

"Did he try anything?" I ask one girl to my left.

She shakes her head. "Nah. I have to say though, you two are cute together. I have to ask. Are you two actually dating?"

I roll my eyes. "As if."

"No really! Everyone in the car has been talking about it."

"Then tell them to stop talking about it," I grumble.

Bret moans. Oh god I hope he's not thinking inappropriately. My cheeks redden when I have that thought. Why would I be thinking about him thinking inappropriately? Suddenly, his eyes open. He gives me a genuine smile. Wow. I didn't know he could direct those towards me! Then again, he's half asleep so he has no idea what he's doing.

"You must be an angel," he says out loud.

The girl from before smirks. "See? Adorable."

I sigh and roll my eyes at him. "Bret its me, Taylor Bradwick."

He blinks a couple times before it registers in his mind. "Oh shit. Sorry," he mumbles before tucking his hand around my waist. He then brings me on his lap. "I, um, totally take it back," he mumbles.

"Um Bret?"

"Yeah?"

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Well, don't you want to practice the lines together?" I look in his hand. He has the script. "Just the lines, nothing else."

Nothing else?! Does that mean we have to kiss or something?! In a pond?! Who frickin writes that kind of stuff?! I thought when Derek told me pond scene, it meant we were going to be having a nice picnic at the pond, or maybe take a nice, cute, innocent swim in the pond! Not everything is about kissing!

I snatch the script from Bret's hand and read through it. The more I read, the more nervous I get. Why does this keep happening to us? Before this movie, I was an innocent girl with an innocent life, daydreaming that my first kiss was going to be in a nice park somewhere with butterflies and beautiful flowers. Now I had already had my first kiss, and it was in a cramped trailer, which was not very clean by the way, and smelled like Bret, a guy I despise. Okay, he actually smells really good. I'm in love with his cologne, but he doesn't need to know that.

I bite my lip and look at Bret. "Just the lines then," I say. We practice the lines together, something we never did before, and I find it's really easy. In fact, by the end of the third try, I'm smiling. "We should do this again some time," I beam. "When you're not a jerk, you're actually pretty helpful."

Bret smiles weakly. "Well thanks."

"Anytime." I wink playfully.

His sheepish smile turns into a very confident and mischievous one, making my stomach swirl unexpectedly. "So you're secretly in love with me, huh?"

When those words come out of his mouth, I frown. "You just ruined the moment Bret. I was enjoying this whole getting-along thing we were doing and then you ruined it. You suck. You really do."

"I know I do." He wiggles his eyebrows at me.

I huff. "Not like that you nimwit!"

"Name calling! You're calling me names! Isn't that rude as well?! Besides, I never said I meant it in a dirty way, so get your head out of the gutter. That wouldn't have even made sense if I had meant it in a dirty way!"

I took some time to think about that for a minute before responding with a dumb, "Oh." My defensive attitude immediately kicked in after that though. "Well you deserve the name calling for acting like a butt all the time! Luca said-"

"Forget about what Luca said!" I turn to him and glare. He did not just interrupt me midsentence! "Are you two all buddy-buddy now or something?"

"Well no, but-"

"Then stop. He's my best friend, not yours, so quit acting like you know him."

"Well I technically do know him since he introduced himself," I mumble. I try to say it under my breath, but since we're practically on top of each other because there's no damn space in this car for us to move, he can still hear every word I'm saying.

Bret's glare turns into an intense stare off. I look at him the same way. I don't want him thinking I'm weak or can't handle a little staring competition. His eyebrows are furrowed up and his gorgeous brown eyes are marked with fury. What is so wrong with me knowing Luca?

I keep my gaze on him. Before long, I start noticing things. He's got a birthmark on the right side of his face, diagonally up from his ear. His brown eyes are burning into mine, filled with so many mixed emotions that I feel like I just want to kiss him and tell him it's okay, and for no reason! Gosh, that is not okay. One moment you hate someone and the next you want to kiss them. This movie has destroyed my innocence!

His nostrils are flaring. He's got a cut along his eyebrow. It's sort of looks like a scar. My curiosity gets the better of me and before I know it words are shooting out of my mouth that are totally inappropriate in this kind of situation.

"Where'd you get that scar?!" I demand angrily.

Bret's intense look is gone, replaced with surprise. He looks a little baffled, actually. He hadn't seen that coming. Neither had I. "Ummm," he replies. He seems a little hesitant to answer.

I sigh and scoot into him, running my fingers along his left eyebrow. Yeah, I didn't ask, but whatever. The scar looks pretty nasty. It's faint, but not too faint. I can't believe I'm about to admit this, but even if I don't like Bret, I still feel bad about this scar.

"I-I-I ummm," Bret stutters. He's bewildered that I'm so close to him. Jerk. Of course I'm going to be close! I'm checking out this damn scar! "Get off of me!" he says, but there's not that much power behind the words.

"Just answer the question dumbass," I say, using that name in hopes it would snap him back to reality.

It works. "Stop calling me names!" Bret growls.

"Well then tell me how this happened!"

He turns his head away from me. "It's just a scar. Geez."

I force his head back so I can look him in the eye. "Stop acting like a damn tough guy and tell me what's up!"

"Could you just get off of me please?!"

"Jesus Christ, I'm not even that close to you."

Bret's gaze flutters down for the slightest second. I follow his eyes. Somehow I had managed to get out of my seatbelt and I'm straddling him. On top of that, my left hand is cupping his chin while the right is laid across his cheek as my fingertips feel around on his scar.

My face heats up instantly. I hadn't realized I was so close. How did it even come to this? I look into Bret's eyes before muttering a sorry. Right when I'm about to get away from him, he snakes his arm around my wrist and keeps me against him.

"I like it better this way," he says, forcing me to snuggle into his chest.

I do too, my subconscious mind thinks before I can stop it. Wow. Just wow. This is what I'm talking about. My mind is fucking destroyed.

I sigh. "Could you please tell me about the cut? I'm a very curious person."

"Why would you be curious about something in my life?"

"Because believe it or not, I like to think the best of people. When other people see a bank robber, I see a guy who's had a rough life and needs some cash for his family. Now I'm not saying that you're like that. Actually, it's been pretty tough trying to think the best of you because you're such an asshole to me all the time, but whatever."

Bret's features soften. "Wow, I didn't know you felt that way."

I roll my eyes at him. "You probably didn't even know I had feelings up until this point. This is why you're such a dick, and why I call you names."

Bret mutters something under his breath before saying, "I got this as a kid."

"How?"

"A metal rope cut into my head while I was playing around. Not many people notice it anymore. It's starting to disappear."

"Wow. That's got to suck."

He nods. "It's doesn't hurt or anything though."

All of a sudden the limousine comes to a stop. I get out of Bret's hold and look out the window. Where are we? I've never seen a place so green in California before.

We get out of the limo. I see spraying water. Sprinklers? No wonder. In the middle of all the greenery is a glistening pond. So this is where we are doing the scene.

After Derek and the crew set up, Bret and I slowly wade into the water.

"It's freezing!" I shriek and get out of the water.

"It's just water," Bret says and pushes me along. I squeal some more and cling onto him. Lord have mercy! Please don't let me catch pneumonia. It's January for Christ's sake!

After we get in the middle, Derek makes us practice without filming.

"Okay. We'll skip the splashing part for now. After she cheats and Hayden says his line- Bret, this is where you come in- you're going to pick her up by her waist."

Bret grips my waist firmly before picking me up. "Like this?" His gaze stays off of me.

"Precisely. Now Taylor, you're going to put your hands on his shoulders." I do as he instructs. "Then after that, you're going to gaze into each other's eyes and and all that lovey dovey crap. Then, slowly, Bret, you're going to bring Taylor back down and you two are going to slowly inch towards each other and bam! Your lips meet, magic happens, end of story!" I gulp at Derek's insanity. "The act starts out with the camera looking at the scenery so you will just be laughing in the distance. Then the focus will be turned to you and you start." I gulp. Bret brings me down while focusing elsewhere. "So let's give it a go. No cameras this first time. Ready? Action."

Bret and I start laughing as we splash each other with water. It's so cold! I squeal every time I get hit.

"Stop stop!" I screech all the while giggling uncontrollably.

Bret immediately stops splashing me. I smile mischievously before splashing him really hard. He glares at me. I'm pretty sure that's a glare in reality too. This water is freezing. I wouldn't be surprised if it was around fifty degrees.

Bret returns to laughing. "No fair! Em, you cheated!"

I double over in laughter. He's soaking wet, probably freezing his ass off!

Bret takes his freezing hands and places a firm grip around my waist before hoisting me up. "I got you now pumpkin," he says with a huge grin on his face.

We keep laughing for a little until it dies down and all we can hear are the birds chirping. I look into Bret's gorgeous brown eyes. This is the part where we kiss. It all feels so real. Bret slowly brings me down as he holds my gaze. Gosh, he's so strong. I bite my lower lip. He leans in a little. I force my head to do the same. It's just a kiss, I repeat over and over in my mind.

"Okay cut! Good good. Everything looks great. You two are really getting into character." Bret smiles sheepishly. "We'll work on kissing when the camera's rolling." I almost breathe a sigh of relief. Thank god. "Which starts now. Lights...camera...action!"

Wow Derek. Just wow. We repeat everything over the same way. When its time for the kissing scene, I bite my bottom lip again. Bret's eyes stay trained on that for some reason, which makes me even more nervous. Who knew kissing could be so stressful?

As soon as his lips touch mine, I know it's not just a kiss, even though I've repeated that a multiple amount of times in my head. My eyes shut closed.

Bret balances me on his waist while I take one arm and bring it around his neck. My fingers rub the back of his neck, causing his breath to hitch and him to deepen the kiss. My hand of the other arm carresses his jaw line. I feel like I've done this a million times before, yet it also just feels like the first time. I can feel a spark all over my arms and legs, especially my lips.

My mouth opens before I realize what I'm doing. Bret takes that chance to stick his tongue inside of my mouth. I moan unintentionally. I can feel him smile against my teeth. What a bastard. He knows the cameras are rolling, right? I take a small gasp for air right before getting deeper into the kiss. Bret tightens his grip around me. My lips are on fire. If I don't stop soon, I probably won't stop for a while. Bret's hand travels down to my butt. Oh I get it. He's taking advantage while we're rolling because he knows I can't do anything. I have to think of something back. My hand slowly travels down to where his arm is and I tug him towards my thigh. He is not getting away with touching me. I smile against the kiss and force his hand to stay there. I can feel him sigh disappointedly and I know I've won.

"Cut!"

The words take a little to register in my brain. Bret isn't stopping. I slow down the kiss a bit before forcing it to a stop.

Bret glances at me before giving his attention to the director. "Did we do something wrong?" he asks while cupping the back of his neck. His fingers rub against the same part that mine were rubbing on and I can't help but feel satisfied. He liked that.

"Yes. Well first I'd like to say that was quite a make-out session," Derek comments with raised eyebrows. "But you can't have a fight over dominance in the middle of a scene!"

My face starts heating up. He thinks we were fighting for dominance?! The dude had his hand on my ass! What was I supposed to do? Let it slide because we're fucking filming?! A girl has her rights too!

I grumble in annoyance at Bret. He sends a teasing smile my way. "Sorry director," he responds calmly. "I guess it did get a little heated. Maybe we need to get Taylor on some control pills."

"What?!" I shriek. "I was not the main problem here! You started it you jerk!"

Bret lets a cool smile remain. What an asshole. I can't believe I let him reveal that whole scar story to me, making me believe that there actually was a better side to him. I'm such a dumbass.

Everything is quiet for a moment and I look over at Derek. He's thinking over something.

"I did like how you put her on your waist though," he finally says after that uncomfortable silence. "Good job Bret."

I yell in fury. "What is wrong with the male species these days?! Even Hayden, a fictional character, behaves better than you guys!"

Men!