Taking the Stage Page 4

  Well, it sure sounded a lot like yelling, she thought. “When I got the notice, I shoved it in my bag so I could deal with it.”

  “What? When I wasn’t around?”

  “You’re making me sound really shady. It wasn’t like that. We had a lot going on that day. I was going to deal with it. But by the time I cleaned out my bag and saw it again, I had already missed the appearance. I called right away, and the clerk said it would get rescheduled. I just assumed it would be in the early morning again. It wasn’t.”

  “So, that’s the conversation I walked in on?”

  “Yes, Joseph.”

  Even though she wasn’t exactly across the room, he still summoned her closer. Taking her hands he pulled her between his knees and crossed his ankles behind her, keeping her encircled in his energy.

  “First of all, nothing is more important that your safety and the safety of others on the road. Don’t ever drive recklessly to get here or anywhere else on time. That’s not the point of this exercise. Got it?”

  “Yes, Joseph. I haven’t been speeding, and I absolutely haven’t gone through any stop signs since then.”

  “I bet you haven’t. Why didn’t you just pay the ticket?”

  “Because I didn’t do anything I and a dozen people a day haven’t done before. No one comes to a full stop there. It’s always dead. I’m not even sure why the sign is there.”

  “Are you kidding me? I hope that’s not the defense you plan to take into court.”

  She did have the grace to at least look away. Maybe that wasn’t exact legal precedence she was citing. Joseph maintained eye contact as his hands let her go. When his thumbs gently ghosted her skin, her body tensed. She put her hands up to push against his chest.

  “No, no, no!”

  “No, what?”

  “This isn’t one of our rules. Joseph, no. I do not want a spanking.”

  “The question is rarely about want. Would you really like to convince me how this doesn’t apply to the rules of safety and honesty?”

  Well, she didn’t have an answer for that particular line of reasoning. He knew it, too. Scooting back on the desk, he had her up and over his strong thighs far quicker than she liked.

  “I don’t even like little lies and half truths between us, and you know it. I especially don’t enjoy thinking about you crushed in your car because you can’t be bothered to come to a complete stop.”

  A flip comment was on the tip of her tongue, but if she’d learned anything over the last few months, it was that he didn’t appreciate her sidebar comments during a lecture. The rubbing and patting he was doing to her hind end wasn’t unpleasant, though. Why couldn’t he just keep that up?

  Smack! Her head shot up.

  “I have your attention again?”

  “You had it. You had it.”

  “For someone always so close to a smacked bottom, I would think you’d pick a panty with more coverage.”

  He was being wickedly humorous. Roby loved and hated how he could do that and still blister her butt.

  “Like it would make a difference. I mean it’s not like you’d let me keep them up.”

  “No, I would not. I do appreciate your current choice, though.”

  Her current choice was his favorite color on her. She might have been stocking up on various new ones. These were hipster boy shorts trimmed in red lace, with a white base and red lips all over.

  Obviously the time for admiring and caressing was over. The first smack caught her right cheek with thunderous clarity. She was very clear on how he felt about her choices. The slap-a-slap-slap rhythm he played on her thankfully full bottom was lacking in nothing, and she let him know with her remorseful cries and pleading words.

  “No more speeding. No more racing through traffic signs. No more lying, and you better not end up before another judge anytime soon, for any reason. You need your license for very practical reasons, Roby, and this was an unnecessary risk, considering you ended up exactly in the position you were avoiding.”

  Having righted her clothing, he picked her up to sit with him in his chair. Roby pressed her head to his shoulder. Her breath hitched as she felt his hands release her ponytail and use his right hand to run up her neck beneath the thick braids to massage the base of her scalp. The motion, combined with his left hand rubbing her outer thigh, had her practically purring. As she drifted off, her only thought was, damn her traitorous body for loving exactly the spot she was in.

  Chapter Six

  He could be an unflinchingly exact taskmaster, but he also had a wicked sense of humor and a gentle caring manner. She was pretty much at his beck and call twenty-four/seven, with his expectation being that she’d be at a hundred percent, no matter the time of day. What shocked her was his constant vigilance where her personal needs were concerned. Sleeping and eating were often on the bottom of Roby’s to-do list, but if she looked even a little tired or slightly wobbly on her feet from lack of nourishment, he’d scold her like an absent minded teenager, making her stop whatever she was doing for a decent meal or a power nap. Keeping her off balance seemed to be his goal, since she never knew which version of him she was going to get. She was lying down on the couch in the green room, trying to turn her thoughts off and catch a quick nap before she needed to set up for rehearsal, all because of the exchange they’d had not twenty minutes earlier.

  ***

  “Robyn, did you even get one of the things I just said?”

  Joseph meant for more of his concern to come out than his frustration. He failed. He knew he should’ve insisted on her staying with him the last two nights. They’d had marathon days, culminating in extended rehearsals as they tried to work in a new lead. Roby simply lived too far from the theatre. When he found out she was forty minutes away, he raised a stink, and then, of course, was none too politely reminded that he didn’t get a say so. He’d done some posturing about her being late, and the imminent loss of her employment if she was, which was bull, but she held her ground and refused further discussion regarding her location. He’d walk her to her car each night instead of allowing her to be the last in the space to lock up, even though it was unequivocally her responsibility. He demanded a text from her saying she was home. She thought it was ridiculous, but a little endearing, considering he was usually out for the night when said text was received. She didn’t know if it was her compact frame or the fact that he was six years her senior that made him feel so overprotective, or what, but she learned not to flaunt his concerns. The one time she had, her ears rang for an hour after his tongue-lashing.

  “How much sleep did you get last night?”

  “Probably more than you. I heard all the noise when I called you last night about the schedule changes.”

  “I don’t need as much sleep, and we aren’t talking about me.”

  “We could be.” She knew her flip double speak drove him nuts, and often successfully got him sidetracked, at least temporarily.

  “So, how much sleep did you get last night? Sounded like you were going to be in for a least a few more hours of awake time,” she said.

  “Aw, you sound worried. I thought my time outside of the theatre wasn’t a concern of yours.”

  He put the statement in air quotes. They were her own words being tossed back at her, having told him as much her first week of work, when he wanted her to attend to his personal calendar.

  “We finishing this list, or discussing my sleep habits?” Pen was back on paper, and Roby was determined to stay awake and focused.

  “Neither. You’re going to sleep. Shoes off, fully reclined sleep. I’ll wake you up at five-thirty.”

  Her protest at his high-handed dictates never got voiced, as he came from behind his desk, removed the items from her hands, and stood her up.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Taking you to the green room to sleep. I’ll finish sorting the files and calling the actresses we still need to see for the understudy roles. I’ll even update the calendar.” />
  “Um, you realize we have ten new conflicts to juggle, right? You’re going to figure that out on the calendar yourself?’ She paused. “I wish they understood final and no more. Speaking of, how come you don’t put your foot down more with these prima donna actors of yours the way you do with me? Heyther is still ready to chest poke you for making me cancel lunch with her on Monday.”

  “She plan on bringing her own step stool to do it?”

  Her eyes were so heavy with sleep, the scowl she tried to give him just made her look loopy. He loved teasing his small-but-mighty stage manager/assistant. It turned out her sisters weren’t much bigger, and took a fair amount of ribbing, as well. He couldn’t remember feeling the things he did for this woman, and especially not one working for him. Napping in the middle of the day while he tackled the calendar was a new one. He knew folks who would faint from shock if they knew. He had gotten to know her family, and they spent more hours together than any production he’d ever done would’ve required. Being at his disposal for work was his way of keeping her close until the show got up and he could be with her, flat out, without giving her a casting couch reputation. It was getting harder and harder.

  “We were supposed to be dark on Monday. In the real world that translates to a day off, remember?”

  “I remember a discussion where I told you that all time away needed to be approved in advance. You didn’t ask, so you didn’t go. I have to plan for your unavailability.”

  Seeing the protest on her face, he headed off a discussion sure to get her in hot water. His girl, which was exactly the way he saw and treated her, for all the denying he did to himself and others, had a temper that could go from zero to thirty in as few seconds. Sean and Jerry gave him continuous grief where she was concerned. Sean’s was mostly in the form of I told you so, because he’d been telling him about Roby for weeks prior to their initial meeting and had matchmaker in his DNA. The fact that Joseph was, indeed, falling for her kept a smirk on Sean’s face. Jerry simply wanted the girl happy. He hated her ex-husband for the lying and the cheating, but especially for the number his betrayal did on Roby’s self esteem. Jerry wasn’t fooled by anger and hurt that masked itself as bravado. He knew Roby saw a portion of the demise of her marriage as a shortcoming on her part.

  Pointing her toward the door, Joseph gave her bottom a firm, but not too sting-y, pop that moved her out of his office. She didn’t even react to it, anymore. After the first time, it became a part of how they dealt with one another, though, mostly, how he dealt with her. It was weird and intimate, considering they’d never slept together. He’d never even tried anything more forward than smacking her butt when he felt it needed it and a kiss and cuddle after a spanking, but they were definitely doing some sort of relationship dance. Occasionally, it would make her a little crazy, and she’d demand a status update, but she always got the same response.

  “We have a show to get up, Roby, and that’s the focus for now.”

  Well, whatever it was, she felt a calm, settled sense of peace knowing that he had her back, so to speak. She was his assistant, but she couldn’t help but feel he helped her just as much as she helped him. After getting a taste of what it was like to be taken care of by her dominant, bossy director, Roby decided she could really get used to it. It would be hard to explain to most people, but having this strong man in her life didn’t make her feel like she had less control. It gave her the feeling that this was the most in control of her life she’d been in a long time. The thought that kept creeping up was, what am I going to do when he goes back to New York for good? The one weekend he went back, they spoke so much on the phone he said it would’ve been easier to bring her along.

  They hardly talked of his leaving, except when they started working on the calendar. It was painful for her. She knew anything beyond opening weekend, he was supposed to be gone. That was just the way things were in theatre. Directors rarely hung around beyond opening night, because they were usually off to their next project. The show went into the stage manager’s hands, and beyond reports, it would be rare that the two would come together again. Without explicit declarations from him, Roby had zero reason to trust that their connection was beyond what existed right on the surface. After any calendar discussion, she was always a little more sullen and surly. Working in a new actress involved plenty of rescheduling, and she was in a foul mood and exhausted. It did not go unnoticed.

  ***

  The rehearsal process had been going along without incident until their lead actress came to them in tears one night after rehearsal. Roby had been cleaning up the studio space where they worked each night and trying to prep it for the following day, with all of the notes she’d gotten from Joseph that night.

  Preparing the night before was one of the steps she’d begun taking to lessen the chance of her being grossly late. Her last appearance before her own artistic judge and jury came after a series of terribly unfortunate events.

  When she barreled into the building, it was only five minutes prior to start, but according to the rules, she was close to thirty minutes late. Listening to ear stabbing pitches of ohms, ahs, and mees made her heart stop a little. They were warming up, and she would have to dart around them to get the room ready. One or two would offer to help or just pitch in, but the rest would likely be wearing the exasperated looks of the putout actor. She silently chanted, I love my job, I love my job. When she jokingly said to people that her job as stage manager wasn’t much different than teaching kindergarten, it wasn’t an exaggeration. Five-year-olds and actors shared the same need for immediate gratification and attention.

  “Robyn, Robyn! I’m so glad you’re finally here. Can you please speak to Joseph about that kiss at the bottom of scene three? It just feels like it’s too—”

  “Chase, I’ll see what I can do, but these decisions are ultimately Joseph’s. Now I really need to set up.”

  “All right, let’s get started. Robyn we’re picking up— This is not the right set up. Did you not get my notes?”

  He sounded nothing but professional, but Robyn’s cheeks still felt like they were blazing bright red in embarrassment. She didn’t know if he was being deliberate because he was pissed she was late, or if he wanted to catch her in a lie about getting his notes. She’d had plans with Merry and Hey the night before and promised that she’d go over his emailed notes if she could just get out of rehearsal as soon as it ended. He had been surprisingly agreeable, which made her happy and sad all at once. It was probably because he had a date. She assumed.

  “I’ll be done in two minutes. Picking up from the middle of scene two. Got it.”

  At least he’d know that she’d read the bloody notes. Sliding tables against the wall and moving the loveseat to the correct angle, Robyn hustled props back and forth so everything was, indeed, ready within three, maybe four minutes. Taking her seat beside him, Robyn called places and opened her prompt book to the correct page. She gave him side-glances most of the night, but nothing in his eyes gave away what he planned to do about this particular little screw up. The rehearsal went smoothly, and even when they got to the kiss that had Chase so worked up at the start of the evening, he stepped outside during the break and listened as Robyn conveyed the young girl’s concern without making much eye contact. He was nothing if not professional. It only served to make her feel worse. Robyn sent the other actors on a break, clearing out the room so Joseph could work with Chase and her scene partner.

  His ability to put them both at ease and elicit what he needed from them was truly watching a master at work. Stories of his first stage kiss, which almost resulted in his killing his leading lady with a runaway breath mint, had them all howling at one point, and by the time the others were called back in, they were able to work the scene twice without stopping. The show was going to be brilliant, if this rehearsal was even a small indication.

  Once everyone was gone and the place was locked up tight, Robyn made straight for the back door where she parked her car,
against repeated requests not to do so. Slamming into his chest first, she screamed, then she dropped her cell phone.

  “Going someplace?”

  “Joseph, you just took a year off my life. Why are you lurking around back here?”

  “I’m not lurking. I’m standing, and you’re sneaking. Let’s go talk.”

  “I need to go.”

  As he moved to take her arm, she ducked and went to push open the door.

  “Don’t you do it! If you go out that door, I call accounting first thing.”

  “Joey, please.” His look told, not suggested, that she try that again. “Joseph, there was a lot of traffic. I left just a little later than usual, and should’ve had enough time. Don’t look at me like that. I’m telling the truth.”

  “Office. Now.”

  “Fine. You’re being completely unreasonable. We started a few minutes late. It’s so not a big deal. I would think the speeding ticket—”

  His look stopped her mouth instantly. Nothing else she said would lend any favor to her situation. She certainly hadn’t meant to mention another ticket. Damn!

  That night she drove home with a sore ass and two ringing ears. The lecture was as bad as the spanking, and her promise to stay later to set up for the next day seemed to be the only thing that got him to stop applying his large hand to her tender tail. She surprised herself at being able to come up with a working solution while sobbing over his granite lap.

  ***

  “Robyn, is Joseph still around?”

  Michelle Davenport was a local diva. Her credits included leads all around town, and she’d been courted to work on this production. If you looked up triple threat, her picture would be next to it. Actually, she was a quadruple threat. Not only could she sing, dance, and act, but it turned out she was brilliant at physical comedy, as well. The best thing about her was that she was a homegrown star whose name would fill seats throughout the run of the production. She was also unbelievably gracious and kind. Leading ladies like her were rare. Designers and other actors adored her equally, and everyone looked forward to her Saturday rehearsal treats. She made amazing oatmeal cookies with coconut and cranberries that were to die for. It was why Robyn stopped everything she was doing and went to her when she heard the tremble in her voice.