“Can we really just do this?” she asked as they giggled all the way out the back exit of the theatre. “You’re sure we won’t get in trouble?”
“In trouble?” Carter laughed as he squeezed her around her shoulders in the alleyway. “What are we, 15?” Then she felt him stop walking and turned around, just to be pulled up against his chest. “I’m really glad you’re here,” he said softly as he hugged her.
“I am too,” she replied, loving the feel of his warm, strong chest. “Someone’s gotta hold you back from eating an entire large pizza by yourself.” Carter snorted as he laughed and led her toward a side alleyway.
“We can’t go in and order, ourselves, or else everyone will know I played hooky from my own film. So I paid the driver to pick up a veggie delight for us.” They spotted the car after a couple of twists and turns, with Juno laughing at the total absurdity of the moment.
“Didn’t Bruce Wayne’s parents also run through a seedy alley while dressed to the nines?” she joked while slipping into the limo with Carter right behind her. He opened the pizza box, passed her a paper plate with a slice on it, and then opened a compartment in front of them full of juice and pop.
“God, this is heaven,” he said, sinking his teeth into his own slice. “I’m not allowed to eat like this most of the year.”
“Do you ever think of hanging up your barbells?” Juno asked with her mouth half-full. “It’s ironic you have the means to enjoy life however you want but you don’t have the simple pleasure of a pizza when you’re training for a movie or filming one.”
“I want to transition into roles that don’t necessarily need me to be ripped,” Carter replied. “It’s not lost on me that I’m 35 now and it’s going to be a lot harder to maintain this physique after 40.” He opened up a bottle of water for Juno and placed it in the cupholder beside her.
“You know, it’s funny you just mentioned Bruce Wayne because I turned down the part of Batman a couple of months ago.”
“You what?” Some of the toppings on Juno’s slice fell to her plate when she shifted forward in shock.
“Think about it. Who wants to be the 800th guy to play Batman in the 900th movie with an uninspiring, unoriginal storyline? What more can be said about that character?”
“Oh,” Juno nodded, starting to get it. “So say you were offered a script about Emiliano Zapata in the Mexican Revolution, or Bartolomé de Las Casas–”
“In a heartbeat,” Carter jumped to answer. “The friar who went against Christopher Columbus to fight for Indigenous people’s freedom in the Caribbean? I wouldn’t even need to see a script; I’d say yes on the premise alone.
“And there have been a couple of films on Zapata but the last one came out of Mexico in 1970. With the way CGI and stunts are today, it would be an amazing remake.” He put another slice on Juno’s plate before helping himself to seconds.
“I’m gonna bust out of my shapewear,” she protested. Carter looked at her skeptically.
“One slice is not going to tide you over,” he told her.
“The size of my butt says otherwise.”
“Really? Looks pretty great from here.” Now Juno’s eyes darted from her paper plate to meet his.
“Even before you married Chelsea…”
“I know, I know, I dated other gorgeous actresses with killer bodies,” Carter waved away her criticism. “They were co-stars and I met them on set. But you can’t relax and get close to someone when it’s a permanent part of their life to count every calorie.
“I mean, I know there’s unfair pressure on women to look perfect in this industry,” he said between bites, “but the women I dated wouldn’t even allow themselves a cookie now and then.
“You’re not going to believe this,” he motioned to Juno to take a bite of her second slice before he continued his story, “but one of my girlfriends–I won’t say who–would go into a diner now and then, order a giant piece of chocolate cake, and just stare at it for a half-hour. Then she’d walk out and leave it untouched on the table with a massive tip.” Juno stared at him in disbelief.
“I tried to tell her she was being a masochist, but she said she ate it with her eyes,” Carter said after ripping off a bite of his crust. “Even for men, it’s unrealistic to have a six-pack year-round, never mind be so jacked their veins are showing.” He shook his head and met Juno’s eyes again.
“But that’s beside the point. You look like a real woman; not some airbrushed version of one. You’re captivating and every curve just adds to that.”
Juno suddenly felt an apprehension she wasn’t used to feeling. They both ate in silence with her throwing glances at him now and then, not sure what her body was telling her to do. When Carter finally set down his plate on the ledge and sat back with his eyes closed in bliss, apparently in something of a pizza coma, Juno dusted off her hands.
He wasn’t aware of her gingerly scooching over until he felt her hand on his chest, and her soft lips on his cheek. Carter’s hand covered hers as his eyes flew open in surprise and he sat up with a start.
Juno’s heartbeat raced as she tipped her head upward. Carter tilted his down, then cupped the side of her face and gently kissed her mouth.
Without thinking about it, Juno grasped his shirt collar between the fingers of one hand while her other hand found its way over Carter’s shoulder and into his hair. She kissed him deeper as she felt his hands grip her waist, then deeper still when one hand traveled gently up her back.
Felipe/Carter
“I’m sorry, I should have asked first,” Felipe said as they broke apart.
“Why? I didn’t,” Juno countered, pulling him back into a chain of deep, probing kisses. Then she remembered the driver. “Can he hear anything from the front?” she asked, pointing her finger.
The partition between them and the driver was still up, as it had been on their ride in, and all the other windows around them were tinted dark.
“No. But he’ll probably feel it if the car starts rocking,” Felipe smiled. Juno giggled, then kissed his face again before swinging her platform wedge-clad feet over his lap. Felipe swallowed hard as he felt himself rise to full mast, but tried to keep his wits about him.
The sentence he was composing in his brain, however, was shot to hell when he felt her unbutton his shirt, then shift herself to straddle him. Her skirt rode up to her upper thighs, and Felipe could feel the heat of her crotch right through his suit trousers.
“Wait, wait, Juno,” he held her wrists. “First, I need to make sure you’re sure about this.” She seemed taken aback.
“I wouldn’t be on your lap if I wasn’t,” she traced her finger along his jaw. “But do you not want me to…”
No, honey, I never dreamed this big in 12 years, he thought, desperate to slip his fingers into her panties to find out if she was as wet as she was hot. Felipe found himself calculating whether it was a spacious enough cabin for him to flip her onto her back and eat her out for dessert.
“No, it’s just… what changed?” he asked instead. “I mean, all this time I thought you could barely tolerate me.” Juno sighed.
“I… I really tried not to like you,” she admitted, shrinking back a bit despite still straddling him. “I wanted to believe you were just a shallow, hulking, gorilla-like movie star with no brain and no heart, who would ultimately say something that would disappoint me.” Felipe tried to bite back a smile.