Penny Takes the Stage

Chapter 15: Going Home

"I guess I should yell at you two more often," Cynthia noted a couple of days later.

Cam gave her a questioning look.

"It obviously helped," Cynthia explained. "Rehearsals have been so much smoother, and you two are so much better together, I mean it's like night and day."

"Well, good, glad you're happy," Cam answered, grinning. "We've been working hard on, erm, things." He glanced over to where Penny was slipping on her shoes. "Haven't we, Penelope?"

"Yes," she responded with a nod. "Very hard."

"Wonderful." Cynthia heard her name and turned away, missing the look that passed between her two stars.

They left the theatre and headed south down 7th Avenue toward the bus stop. It was a hot and sticky day, and stepping out into it after spending the day in a non air-conditioned rehearsal hall was almost unbearable.

"Oh my god, I wish people could see how we spend our days," Penny laughed. "I mean, we're starring in a major Broadway show, we're well paid, we're the stars, it's a huge production, all that good stuff, you know? And we've just spent the day sweating our balls off in a stifling hall, only to step out into weather that's more humid than the South Pacific so we can stand around and wait for a bus that must be somewhere in Indiana or something, I swear." She leaned against the light pole and took a swig from her nearly empty water bottle.

"You have balls?" Cam asked, eyes wide with surprise.

"I'm too hot to respond," Penny whined, rolling her back along the pole.

The bus finally arrived and they stepped into its mercifully air-conditioned interior.

"I don't think I'm ever getting off," Cameron whispered to Penny, leaning forward to speak directly into her ear.

She nodded back, eyes closed, enjoying the sudden, twenty degree temperature change.

Cam took the opportunity to study Penny at close range, knowing that she would complain if she saw him looking at her up close like this.

Because of the unseasonably hot weather so early in the year, Penny was wearing a sleeveless blouse that scooped fairly low in the front and therefore showed much more skin than usual. She was pale complected, though Cam guessed she would take a tan fairly readily. Her skin was glorious today, moist and glowing, with little beads of perspiration at her temples, on her upper lip, and most delectably for Cam, in the cleft of her cleavage, where her gorgeous breasts disappeared into the front of her blouse.

Her long eyelashes cast shadows along the bottom of her closed eyes, and Cam watched her throat work as she swallowed, rubbed her lush lips together and leaned her head against the arm that was holding the strap above her head. Her blouse, white with butterflies on it, hugged her torso smoothly all the way down to her waist, where it was tucked into her denim shorts.

He could see her stomach pulling the fabric of her shorts taut, and he knew from how she stared at herself in the mirror that she hated it. He wished he could tell her somehow that he loved that little bit of tummy on her, that he found it absolutely adorable. He was hoping that they would arrive at that place in their relationship soon, but he knew they weren't there yet, that if he were to say something about it now, she wouldn't believe him anyway. She would just think he was trying to make her feel better or something, and he didn't want to waste his opportunity, so he would bide his time.

For now, he settled for sliding his free arm around her waist, pulling her against his body, and pressing a kiss against her beautiful lips. He could taste a little salt from the perspiration on her upper lip, and snaked his tongue out to lick it off. He felt her smile at the action, and smiled back.