Free Love Play by Rosemary Rogers by Unknown

herself
a cup of steaming hot tea, creamed and massaged her face, brushed her teeth,
brushed her hair. She had even tried reading a
    couple of scripts that had arrived for Delight with Lew Weisman's office
address on them. The trouble was that whenever she tried to visualise herself
as the female lead, the leading man in her mind movie seemed to look too much
like the Duca di Cavalieri.
    How dare he invade even the privacy of her imagination? Squeezing her
eyes shut Sara began to think of all the things she should have said, should
have done to put him in his place. Once and for all...
    When did she slide into sleep and when did dreaming take the place of
conscious thought? He had kissed her - she had slappped his face with all the
scorn and hate she could muster; was running away from him with the sound of
her heels echoing hollowly on the stairs. Why on earth hadn't she thought to
take the elevator? She was getting tired, slowing down to almost a crawl when
she heard him behind her. No - no! There was something relentless about the way
he was pursuing her like a wolf loping after a wounded deer.
    Sara wanted to scream, but there was no breath left in her body.
Helplessly, numbly, she lay sprawled across the steps with her fingers clinging
to the railing.
    'Did you think you would escape from me so easily?' She managed a last,
despairing cry as he swooped down on her, lifting her easily in his arms as he
bounded up the stairs, kicking open her door far too easily - striding in to
fling her down across the bed.
    'No! Oh, please! What do you want with me anyway?' 'Little fool! What do
you think?' His meaning was unmistakable - and when she would have tried to
evade him, to beat at him, she was trapped by the covers that held her like
ropes; by the weight of his body and the force of his kisses that drained
everything from her . . .
    'NO!'
    Drenched with sweat Sara bolted upright in bed — the sound of her own
voice and the malevolent buzzing of the electric alarm in her ears. Her heart
was pounding, her head ached. And she had kicked the bedcovers off so that they
were all tangled about her legs, imprisoning her.
    Had she really been dreaming? Had she? There was no one else in the
room. She was alone and the small night lamp was still on, the script she had
been reading had fallen open on the rug beside the bed, along with one of her
pillows.
    'Oh, damn!' Sara said aloud, rubbing childishly at her eyes. How many
hours of sleep had she had - two, three? And then to have a nightmare like the
one she'd had ... her body still felt strangely weak from it.
    Face flushing, Sara forced herself to briskness. Enough of that! She
wasn't going to waste any more thought on either her ugly nightmare or its
cause!And she had -glancing at her clock — barely an hour and a half in which
to put herself together for the studio.
    Lew wasn't there this time, but Sara found her way to Make-up, her
sister's identity firmly donned to mask her own weakness.
    'You probably won't be needed today - Garon's doing some of his scenes
with Lockwood.' Mike, the slim young make-up man clucked disapprovingly at the
dark smudges under Sara's eyes. 'You certainly do look like hell this morning,
darling! Late morning? I hope it was worth it!'
    He started patting white stuff under her eyes, and Sara managed what she
hoped was an insouciant shrug.
    'Just a dream!'
    'Lucky guy! Hi, everyone - Mike, how about some hot coffee before we get
started?'
    Too late, Sara saw Garon Hunt himself come up behind her in the mirror.
His eyes grinned into her startled clown-face, grin widening when her cheeks
began to burn with spots of colour.
    Sara longed to cover her face like an embarrassed child as he lowered
himself on to the stool beside her.
    'Hi!'
    'Hello.' Her response was diffident.
    Garon Hunt! And he had to see her looking like this - a mess! If she had
dared, Sara would have grimaced nastily at her own reflection.
    'Heyyy . . .! Can't you think of anything more to