[paul/nina] the road we walk
Title: the road we walk
Fandom: rpf (real person fic)
Characters/Pairings: paul wesley, nina dobrev, ian somerhalder, mentions of other cast members, paul/nina, mentions of ian/nina
Word Count: 2,909
Rating: nc-17
Spoilers: uhm, none ♥
Summary: “Chemistry,” the studio executive had told him over the phone. “What we’re looking for here is pure chemistry.”
He isn’t nervous walking into the audition.
He’s done this before. Many, many times. Auditions for pilots have come and gone and there’s nothing new about this to him.
He’s read for this show before. It had been a lot of work. Call backs, role changes, hours and hours of lining up with guys from Australia, London, New York, all desperate to be a part of this show.
Now, he’s been called back to audition against the lead actress.
“Chemistry,” the studio executive had told him over the phone. “What we’re looking for here is pure chemistry.”
So in his head, he’s trying to think of things he can do when he reads with this girl to make it all seem real between them. He’s thinking about how he can look at her and the way he’ll stand opposite her and the way he’ll say her name.
When he walks into the room, she’s sitting on the edge of a table on the opposite side. Her hair is falling around her face, and she’s chewing gum really loudly and her legs are kicking through the air with a sort of energy that he’s not used to.
She turns her head, looks in his direction and smiles at him. Smiles big and wide, and her eyes are brown and bright. And now, suddenly it all feels different.
Everything flies out of his head. All his tactics, his training, his methods. All he can think about is the pink of her lips.
“So you might be my Stefan, huh?”
He ducks his head, scratches the back of his neck a little nervously and can’t help the half smile that twitches at the corner of his lips. “I might be.”
She pushes herself off the table and walks towards him. She holds her hand out, strong and confident. “I’m Nina.”
He’s amazed at how easily his hand envelops hers. “Paul.”
She slips her hand slowly away from his and bites on her bottom lip, just a little. Like she’s eager. Like this is something she really wants.
“Well Paul,” she says, and fuck, he loves the way his name sounds coming from her lips. “Should we start our love story?”
&
They’re shooting the pilot and it’s his first scene on set.
Stefan finds Elena in the cemetery. She gets spooked, he watches her fall, they talk and stare and smile and eventually he vamps out and disappears.
It goes well.
Marcos yells cut, filming stops, and everyone claps. “Great job everyone, really great,” Marcos says, nodding his head. Nina smiles at Paul quickly before heading back towards the make up tent to prepare for her next scene.
He’s pretty much done for the day, so he takes his time walking away, letting it sink in that this is actually happening.
He walks past Julie and Kevin, and can’t help but overhear their excited conversation.
“He’s our guy, Kev,” Julie squeaks. “He really is!”
Kevin nods, a cup of coffee in his hand. “I know. I know. It’s just like these two were meant to fall in love.”
They see Paul approaching them and they beam at him. “Well done Paul,” Julie grins. “It was fantastic.”
He smiles. “Thanks. But it was nothing special.”
“No, really,” Kevin adds. “It was extremely special. You guys did a great job.”
Paul thanks them again and continues on his way. He feels uncomfortable with their praise, ill at ease with how happy they were with his performance.
Because he feels like he did very little acting at all.
&
It’s a magazine party. And it’s for them.
He still can’t quite grasp the concept. He was on a magazine cover. The three of them were. Him, Ian and Nina. On the cover of Nylon. Like they were actual stars or something.
It still kind of trips him out.
He’s standing next to the pool table with a drink in his hand. Glampires, they called them at the bar. He’s trying not to think too much about that as he knocks them back one after one.
He probably shouldn’t be this tipsy at an event like this.
It’s loud and crowded and dark in the club. There’s press people and magazine people and studio people and of course, the three of them. He feels a little out of place with all this attention, girls clambering to take a photo with him and drunkenly leaning into him while they wrap their arms around him to tell him how much they love the show.
Nina and Ian, on the other hand, seem to revel in it all. Ian is his usual charming self. He oozes coolness, takes it all in his stride. He wins over every single press member he speaks to with a simple wink and a smile. There’s something special about that man, and Paul knows they are extremely lucky to have him on the show.
Nina sidles up to him, the curls in her hair bouncing as she walks. “And why are you here all by your lonesome?”
He raises his glass, taking a long sip. “Just recomposing myself, I guess.”
“Oh Paul,” she giggles, taking the glass from his hand and downing the rest of the contents in one easy gulp. “You really have to get used to this, you know. You, my friend, are going to be a sex symbol.”
He laughs and shakes his head, the warmth from the alcohol seeping into his belly. “And you are drunk.”
She puts her finger to her lips, “Shhh. It’ll be our little secret.” She laughs and tries to take a step back but loses her balance and falls forward. He puts his arms out, catching her easily. Her hands are against his chest and she’s looking at up at him from underneath her lashes and oh god oh god oh god, he can’t breathe anymore.
“HEY!” A guy with a camera is suddenly beside them, the light from the camera filling the corner of the club. “SAY HI TO NYLON TV, GUYS.”
He lets out a deep breath and looks at Nina. She grins at him, so easily it’s disarming. He can’t help but smile back.
&
He doesn’t understand what’s happening here.
It’s between takes and they’re relaxing behind the cameras as the crew moves a few things in position to film different angles. Nina is sitting with Candice and Steven, and they’ve all got their phones out, laughing about something.
The sound of laughter never seems to leave this set. He loves that.
He doesn’t even notice that he’s staring at her again until she lifts her head and looks up at him. She cocks her head and smiles just a little.
“Hi,” she mouths.
“Hey,” he mouths back.
She tucks a strand of hair behind her ears before turning back to the others. He watches her for a while longer, studying the curve where her neck meets her shoulder.
He can’t, he knows. He can’t be feeling this for her. This - where his eyes seek her out amongst everyone else. This - where the smallest of smiles from her makes his heart beat stronger and louder and faster in his chest. This - where he doesn’t care that it might hurt Torrey, that it might ruin whatever Nina and Ian have going (he ignores it, the fact that it’s pretty obvious that something is happening there even though they try to hide it from everyone), he just wants to taste her. Throw her against a wall, press against her and make her moan his name.
He can’t. He can’t. He can’t.
Maybe if he tells himself enough, he’ll start to believe it.
&
It’s his first time at a convention.
He’s getting better at handling this kind of thing, though. It’s almost becoming natural; dealing with the screaming, the requests to be bitten, the countless posters being handed to him for his signature.
He’s feeling pretty good about this panel. He thinks that’s to do with the fantastic coffee he had this morning, and not the way Nina touched his arm before she walked out on stage.
And it goes well. People scream, people laugh, people ask some ridiculous questions. But through the entire panel, he can’t help but notice that Nina doesn’t stop looking at him and keeps shooting him these adorable smiles. A few times, under the table, her hand brushes his knee and he nearly jumps out of his skin.
He wonders if she realises how much she’s torturing him.
Once the day is over, they all head back to the hotel, ready for a good night’s sleep before they fly out the next morning.
Paul walks through the front doors of the hotel and steps into the lobby. Nina’s standing by the elevator door, chewing gum and tapping her feet.
“Hey,” she says quietly as she notices him moving towards her. “Fun day today.”
“Yeah,” he nods, watching the numbers on top of the elevator door move down floor by floor. “It was.”
They stand in silence for a while, and he wonders why his mouth has gone so dry.
“You’re not joining the others for dinner?” He asks, expecting her to have been with Ian - who had organised for everyone to go to a local restaurant for dinner and a few ‘wind down’ drinks.
She shrugs her shoulders. “Nah. Didn’t really feel like it. I really just want to get underneath a hot shower and soak under there for about an hour.”
Now his mouth goes even drier. He tries to swallow, but it gets stuck in his throat.
The elevator doors open with a bing and they step inside.
She exhales loudly and stretches her arms above her head. “Seriously. Dying for that shower.”
He pushes a small puff of air out of his lips and stares at the floor, staying quiet, not trusting himself enough to say anything. There’s too much running through his head that feels like he’s betraying himself.
“Hey, Wesley. What’s up?”
And Nina’s hand is on his shoulder, her fingers tickling his neck.
“Nothing,” he shakes his head, rolling his shoulder away from her touch.
She frowns, her nose wrinkling. “Doesn’t sound like nothing.”
“Just,” he turns to her, his eyebrows furrowed heavily, “just leave it, Nina. It’s my problem, okay? I’ll deal with it.”
The doors open and he is eager to make his escape, to get away from her and her doe eyes and her wide smile and her pink (too pink) lips. He needs to get away.
He strides quickly towards his room, the key card pressed inside his palm. Quickly, he swipes the card and opens the door and moves inside. He turns to shut the door behind him but she’s there, blocking the door and she’s looking at him like he’s broken her heart.
“Paul,” she breathes as she moves into the room, closing the door behind her. “Talk to me. We’re friends, right?”
He clenches his jaw tightly. He can’t answer that. He doesn’t know what they are anymore.
She moves forward, her hands finding his chest easily. “You can talk to me, you know. I’m here for you.”
He tries to turn away, he does. But she’s right there in front of him, pleading with him and he can’t push her away. God only knows he’s tried.
“It’s too hard, Nina. It’s too hard.” His words rush out of him now and he can’t stop. He knows he should, but he just can’t. “I go to work everyday and I play make believe and kiss you and want you and it’s just too hard!”
She looks at him, suddenly small and wounded. She draws her hands back from his chest and takes a step backwards. “Well, if I’d known that it was that much work for you to act like you were in love with me -“
“No,” he cuts her off, shaking his head. “No, Nina. It’s that much work for me to act like I’m not in love with you.”
And he’s standing there, in the middle of his hotel room, his mouth dry and his fists clenched and she’s just standing in front of him, still and silent.
“Nina,” his voice cracks. “Nina, I - I’m sorry…”
“You’re in love with me?”
And he realises now, what he’s done. Stupid, stupid man. He tries to find something to say, anything that could fix this. But he can’t push anything past his lips.
“But Torrey,” she mutters under her breath, so quietly he almost doesn’t hear her. “And Ian…”
And he hears the pain in her voice when she says Ian’s name. It’s like a stab in his gut. He drops his head to the floor. He needs to fix this. “Forget it, okay, just forget it. I’m tired and it’s been a long, long day and -“
“No.”
He whips his head up to look at her. “No?”
She steps forward and he thinks he can see her shaking. “No. I can’t forget it. I won’t.” And she’s still moving forward until she’s just in front of him, so close he can almost feel her. Her breathing is ragged as she looks at him. “Because maybe I’m in love with you too.”
And with that he breaks, he can’t help himself, he breaks. He crashes forward and winds his arms around her and they’re kissing, fuck fuck, they’re kissing. And it’s not as if they haven’t done this before but this is different. This isn’t him pretending to be Stefan and Nina pretending to be Elena and them pretending to be in love with each other. This is them.
&
He’s memorising her skin.
Mentally, he’s marking each valley, each shadow, each curve of her. He plants a kiss against her hip bone and feels her buck beneath him.
“Paul,” she whimpers, and she’s clawing at him. “Please Paul.”
They’re tangled in the sheets of his bed and her skin is glistening with sweat but he can’t, can’t end things yet because he doesn’t know if he’s dreaming and doesn’t want to fall back to reality. Not yet.
His fingers brush against the swell of her breast and she moans, his name at the back of her throat.
He smiles against her skin.
&
When he finally pushes inside of her, she gasps and arches her back off the bed.
He burrows his face into her neck, pressing kisses against the pulse in her throat, inhaling her in. He doesn’t want to look at her, because he’s afraid of what he might see in her eyes. Regret. Betrayal. Disgust.
But he feels her roll her hips against him and he lets out a gutteral moan. “Oh God, Nina,” he whispers.
Her lips are at his ear, her fingers threading through his hair. “Paul, Paul,” she breathes, over and over. “Paul.”
He lifts his head and looks at her. Has to. Needs to have this moment forever in the back of his eyelids. And she looks back at him, her mouth parted, her breathing hitched and heavy.
When she comes, she gasps and pants and his name falls from her lips so easily. He comes undone at the sound and he bites down on her shoulder so hard he’s sure it’s going to leave a mark.
They’ll have to cover that up.
&
It’s months later. They’re doing (another) round of press interviews to help hype the show’s return from hiatus.
Nina is sitting between Paul and Ian - that’s normally how they like to set up interviews, with her in the middle - and the irony isn’t lost on Paul.
They answer the standard questions and give the standard answers. They make each other laugh in between a few of them, and he’s so so grateful that he gets to work with such amazing people.
The thing is, he knows that this is just a façade.
Things shouldn’t be the way they are. He’s tried to stay away from Nina. She’s tried to stay away from him. It just doesn’t work. Sooner or later, they end up failing and it happens like it did yesterday; with them in his trailer together, him bending her over the sofa and her whimpering his name.
The interviewer asks Nina something about whether she identifies with Elena, being torn between two brothers.
Nina pauses and hums a little. She smooths the silk of her skirt and steals a quick glance at Paul. “Yeah,” she gives a tiny shrug. “I can understand how she feels.”
Paul watches as Ian ducks his head, eyes on the floor, his eyebrows twitching ever-so-slightly. There’s something about to happen here, Paul knows. He can feel it in the very depth of his stomach. They’re all treading on terribly thin ice. And he can’t even begin to imagine what it’s going to be like when it cracks.
He’ll stop it, he vows it himself, ignoring the next question. He’ll stop it for good and then things can go back to the way they were and everything will be fine.
But then the interviewer says something that makes Nina giggle. It must have been about him, because she leans over playfully and squeezes his knee. Her fingers linger on his jeans longer than they need to.
And with a slow intake of air, he knows that he’s a fool for thinking that he could actually stop this.
They’ll keep going until the ice begins to break.
END
I kind of knew it would be rpf that would bring me back to fic. ♥
(normal disclaimer on this too. this is just my imagination. not saying i think this is true, by any means.)
Fandom: rpf (real person fic)
Characters/Pairings: paul wesley, nina dobrev, ian somerhalder, mentions of other cast members, paul/nina, mentions of ian/nina
Word Count: 2,909
Rating: nc-17
Spoilers: uhm, none ♥
Summary: “Chemistry,” the studio executive had told him over the phone. “What we’re looking for here is pure chemistry.”
He isn’t nervous walking into the audition.
He’s done this before. Many, many times. Auditions for pilots have come and gone and there’s nothing new about this to him.
He’s read for this show before. It had been a lot of work. Call backs, role changes, hours and hours of lining up with guys from Australia, London, New York, all desperate to be a part of this show.
Now, he’s been called back to audition against the lead actress.
“Chemistry,” the studio executive had told him over the phone. “What we’re looking for here is pure chemistry.”
So in his head, he’s trying to think of things he can do when he reads with this girl to make it all seem real between them. He’s thinking about how he can look at her and the way he’ll stand opposite her and the way he’ll say her name.
When he walks into the room, she’s sitting on the edge of a table on the opposite side. Her hair is falling around her face, and she’s chewing gum really loudly and her legs are kicking through the air with a sort of energy that he’s not used to.
She turns her head, looks in his direction and smiles at him. Smiles big and wide, and her eyes are brown and bright. And now, suddenly it all feels different.
Everything flies out of his head. All his tactics, his training, his methods. All he can think about is the pink of her lips.
“So you might be my Stefan, huh?”
He ducks his head, scratches the back of his neck a little nervously and can’t help the half smile that twitches at the corner of his lips. “I might be.”
She pushes herself off the table and walks towards him. She holds her hand out, strong and confident. “I’m Nina.”
He’s amazed at how easily his hand envelops hers. “Paul.”
She slips her hand slowly away from his and bites on her bottom lip, just a little. Like she’s eager. Like this is something she really wants.
“Well Paul,” she says, and fuck, he loves the way his name sounds coming from her lips. “Should we start our love story?”
&
They’re shooting the pilot and it’s his first scene on set.
Stefan finds Elena in the cemetery. She gets spooked, he watches her fall, they talk and stare and smile and eventually he vamps out and disappears.
It goes well.
Marcos yells cut, filming stops, and everyone claps. “Great job everyone, really great,” Marcos says, nodding his head. Nina smiles at Paul quickly before heading back towards the make up tent to prepare for her next scene.
He’s pretty much done for the day, so he takes his time walking away, letting it sink in that this is actually happening.
He walks past Julie and Kevin, and can’t help but overhear their excited conversation.
“He’s our guy, Kev,” Julie squeaks. “He really is!”
Kevin nods, a cup of coffee in his hand. “I know. I know. It’s just like these two were meant to fall in love.”
They see Paul approaching them and they beam at him. “Well done Paul,” Julie grins. “It was fantastic.”
He smiles. “Thanks. But it was nothing special.”
“No, really,” Kevin adds. “It was extremely special. You guys did a great job.”
Paul thanks them again and continues on his way. He feels uncomfortable with their praise, ill at ease with how happy they were with his performance.
Because he feels like he did very little acting at all.
&
It’s a magazine party. And it’s for them.
He still can’t quite grasp the concept. He was on a magazine cover. The three of them were. Him, Ian and Nina. On the cover of Nylon. Like they were actual stars or something.
It still kind of trips him out.
He’s standing next to the pool table with a drink in his hand. Glampires, they called them at the bar. He’s trying not to think too much about that as he knocks them back one after one.
He probably shouldn’t be this tipsy at an event like this.
It’s loud and crowded and dark in the club. There’s press people and magazine people and studio people and of course, the three of them. He feels a little out of place with all this attention, girls clambering to take a photo with him and drunkenly leaning into him while they wrap their arms around him to tell him how much they love the show.
Nina and Ian, on the other hand, seem to revel in it all. Ian is his usual charming self. He oozes coolness, takes it all in his stride. He wins over every single press member he speaks to with a simple wink and a smile. There’s something special about that man, and Paul knows they are extremely lucky to have him on the show.
Nina sidles up to him, the curls in her hair bouncing as she walks. “And why are you here all by your lonesome?”
He raises his glass, taking a long sip. “Just recomposing myself, I guess.”
“Oh Paul,” she giggles, taking the glass from his hand and downing the rest of the contents in one easy gulp. “You really have to get used to this, you know. You, my friend, are going to be a sex symbol.”
He laughs and shakes his head, the warmth from the alcohol seeping into his belly. “And you are drunk.”
She puts her finger to her lips, “Shhh. It’ll be our little secret.” She laughs and tries to take a step back but loses her balance and falls forward. He puts his arms out, catching her easily. Her hands are against his chest and she’s looking at up at him from underneath her lashes and oh god oh god oh god, he can’t breathe anymore.
“HEY!” A guy with a camera is suddenly beside them, the light from the camera filling the corner of the club. “SAY HI TO NYLON TV, GUYS.”
He lets out a deep breath and looks at Nina. She grins at him, so easily it’s disarming. He can’t help but smile back.
&
He doesn’t understand what’s happening here.
It’s between takes and they’re relaxing behind the cameras as the crew moves a few things in position to film different angles. Nina is sitting with Candice and Steven, and they’ve all got their phones out, laughing about something.
The sound of laughter never seems to leave this set. He loves that.
He doesn’t even notice that he’s staring at her again until she lifts her head and looks up at him. She cocks her head and smiles just a little.
“Hi,” she mouths.
“Hey,” he mouths back.
She tucks a strand of hair behind her ears before turning back to the others. He watches her for a while longer, studying the curve where her neck meets her shoulder.
He can’t, he knows. He can’t be feeling this for her. This - where his eyes seek her out amongst everyone else. This - where the smallest of smiles from her makes his heart beat stronger and louder and faster in his chest. This - where he doesn’t care that it might hurt Torrey, that it might ruin whatever Nina and Ian have going (he ignores it, the fact that it’s pretty obvious that something is happening there even though they try to hide it from everyone), he just wants to taste her. Throw her against a wall, press against her and make her moan his name.
He can’t. He can’t. He can’t.
Maybe if he tells himself enough, he’ll start to believe it.
&
It’s his first time at a convention.
He’s getting better at handling this kind of thing, though. It’s almost becoming natural; dealing with the screaming, the requests to be bitten, the countless posters being handed to him for his signature.
He’s feeling pretty good about this panel. He thinks that’s to do with the fantastic coffee he had this morning, and not the way Nina touched his arm before she walked out on stage.
And it goes well. People scream, people laugh, people ask some ridiculous questions. But through the entire panel, he can’t help but notice that Nina doesn’t stop looking at him and keeps shooting him these adorable smiles. A few times, under the table, her hand brushes his knee and he nearly jumps out of his skin.
He wonders if she realises how much she’s torturing him.
Once the day is over, they all head back to the hotel, ready for a good night’s sleep before they fly out the next morning.
Paul walks through the front doors of the hotel and steps into the lobby. Nina’s standing by the elevator door, chewing gum and tapping her feet.
“Hey,” she says quietly as she notices him moving towards her. “Fun day today.”
“Yeah,” he nods, watching the numbers on top of the elevator door move down floor by floor. “It was.”
They stand in silence for a while, and he wonders why his mouth has gone so dry.
“You’re not joining the others for dinner?” He asks, expecting her to have been with Ian - who had organised for everyone to go to a local restaurant for dinner and a few ‘wind down’ drinks.
She shrugs her shoulders. “Nah. Didn’t really feel like it. I really just want to get underneath a hot shower and soak under there for about an hour.”
Now his mouth goes even drier. He tries to swallow, but it gets stuck in his throat.
The elevator doors open with a bing and they step inside.
She exhales loudly and stretches her arms above her head. “Seriously. Dying for that shower.”
He pushes a small puff of air out of his lips and stares at the floor, staying quiet, not trusting himself enough to say anything. There’s too much running through his head that feels like he’s betraying himself.
“Hey, Wesley. What’s up?”
And Nina’s hand is on his shoulder, her fingers tickling his neck.
“Nothing,” he shakes his head, rolling his shoulder away from her touch.
She frowns, her nose wrinkling. “Doesn’t sound like nothing.”
“Just,” he turns to her, his eyebrows furrowed heavily, “just leave it, Nina. It’s my problem, okay? I’ll deal with it.”
The doors open and he is eager to make his escape, to get away from her and her doe eyes and her wide smile and her pink (too pink) lips. He needs to get away.
He strides quickly towards his room, the key card pressed inside his palm. Quickly, he swipes the card and opens the door and moves inside. He turns to shut the door behind him but she’s there, blocking the door and she’s looking at him like he’s broken her heart.
“Paul,” she breathes as she moves into the room, closing the door behind her. “Talk to me. We’re friends, right?”
He clenches his jaw tightly. He can’t answer that. He doesn’t know what they are anymore.
She moves forward, her hands finding his chest easily. “You can talk to me, you know. I’m here for you.”
He tries to turn away, he does. But she’s right there in front of him, pleading with him and he can’t push her away. God only knows he’s tried.
“It’s too hard, Nina. It’s too hard.” His words rush out of him now and he can’t stop. He knows he should, but he just can’t. “I go to work everyday and I play make believe and kiss you and want you and it’s just too hard!”
She looks at him, suddenly small and wounded. She draws her hands back from his chest and takes a step backwards. “Well, if I’d known that it was that much work for you to act like you were in love with me -“
“No,” he cuts her off, shaking his head. “No, Nina. It’s that much work for me to act like I’m not in love with you.”
And he’s standing there, in the middle of his hotel room, his mouth dry and his fists clenched and she’s just standing in front of him, still and silent.
“Nina,” his voice cracks. “Nina, I - I’m sorry…”
“You’re in love with me?”
And he realises now, what he’s done. Stupid, stupid man. He tries to find something to say, anything that could fix this. But he can’t push anything past his lips.
“But Torrey,” she mutters under her breath, so quietly he almost doesn’t hear her. “And Ian…”
And he hears the pain in her voice when she says Ian’s name. It’s like a stab in his gut. He drops his head to the floor. He needs to fix this. “Forget it, okay, just forget it. I’m tired and it’s been a long, long day and -“
“No.”
He whips his head up to look at her. “No?”
She steps forward and he thinks he can see her shaking. “No. I can’t forget it. I won’t.” And she’s still moving forward until she’s just in front of him, so close he can almost feel her. Her breathing is ragged as she looks at him. “Because maybe I’m in love with you too.”
And with that he breaks, he can’t help himself, he breaks. He crashes forward and winds his arms around her and they’re kissing, fuck fuck, they’re kissing. And it’s not as if they haven’t done this before but this is different. This isn’t him pretending to be Stefan and Nina pretending to be Elena and them pretending to be in love with each other. This is them.
&
He’s memorising her skin.
Mentally, he’s marking each valley, each shadow, each curve of her. He plants a kiss against her hip bone and feels her buck beneath him.
“Paul,” she whimpers, and she’s clawing at him. “Please Paul.”
They’re tangled in the sheets of his bed and her skin is glistening with sweat but he can’t, can’t end things yet because he doesn’t know if he’s dreaming and doesn’t want to fall back to reality. Not yet.
His fingers brush against the swell of her breast and she moans, his name at the back of her throat.
He smiles against her skin.
&
When he finally pushes inside of her, she gasps and arches her back off the bed.
He burrows his face into her neck, pressing kisses against the pulse in her throat, inhaling her in. He doesn’t want to look at her, because he’s afraid of what he might see in her eyes. Regret. Betrayal. Disgust.
But he feels her roll her hips against him and he lets out a gutteral moan. “Oh God, Nina,” he whispers.
Her lips are at his ear, her fingers threading through his hair. “Paul, Paul,” she breathes, over and over. “Paul.”
He lifts his head and looks at her. Has to. Needs to have this moment forever in the back of his eyelids. And she looks back at him, her mouth parted, her breathing hitched and heavy.
When she comes, she gasps and pants and his name falls from her lips so easily. He comes undone at the sound and he bites down on her shoulder so hard he’s sure it’s going to leave a mark.
They’ll have to cover that up.
&
It’s months later. They’re doing (another) round of press interviews to help hype the show’s return from hiatus.
Nina is sitting between Paul and Ian - that’s normally how they like to set up interviews, with her in the middle - and the irony isn’t lost on Paul.
They answer the standard questions and give the standard answers. They make each other laugh in between a few of them, and he’s so so grateful that he gets to work with such amazing people.
The thing is, he knows that this is just a façade.
Things shouldn’t be the way they are. He’s tried to stay away from Nina. She’s tried to stay away from him. It just doesn’t work. Sooner or later, they end up failing and it happens like it did yesterday; with them in his trailer together, him bending her over the sofa and her whimpering his name.
The interviewer asks Nina something about whether she identifies with Elena, being torn between two brothers.
Nina pauses and hums a little. She smooths the silk of her skirt and steals a quick glance at Paul. “Yeah,” she gives a tiny shrug. “I can understand how she feels.”
Paul watches as Ian ducks his head, eyes on the floor, his eyebrows twitching ever-so-slightly. There’s something about to happen here, Paul knows. He can feel it in the very depth of his stomach. They’re all treading on terribly thin ice. And he can’t even begin to imagine what it’s going to be like when it cracks.
He’ll stop it, he vows it himself, ignoring the next question. He’ll stop it for good and then things can go back to the way they were and everything will be fine.
But then the interviewer says something that makes Nina giggle. It must have been about him, because she leans over playfully and squeezes his knee. Her fingers linger on his jeans longer than they need to.
And with a slow intake of air, he knows that he’s a fool for thinking that he could actually stop this.
They’ll keep going until the ice begins to break.
END
I kind of knew it would be rpf that would bring me back to fic. ♥
(normal disclaimer on this too. this is just my imagination. not saying i think this is true, by any means.)