Live Without Regrets Pt. 06

"So, they let us into the after party, even if we didn't go to the actual Oscars?" Brandon asked, sitting next to her in the limo.

Hayden smiled, "There's like twenty after parties. You don't have to be nominated to go. Really you just have to know the right people."

"And you know the right people?" he asked.

"I AM the right people," she grinned. She kissed his cheek. He was so free with his words that she loved playing them against him. It was her own version of bondage. And it always made him smile.

"Any tips so I don't make you look like an idiot?" he said, as the limo pulled up to the curb.

"Just be yourself," she said.

He got the door for her and she took his hand to exit the car. There was a red carpet ahead and he walked beside her, taking her right arm so she could be closer to the cameras. She knew he understood the game, but she didn't want him feeling like an accessory.

Halfway down the carpet, she stopped and tugged his arm gently. He paused. She turned and faced the photographers and made sure he turned with her. She put both hands on his arm and got up on her toes to kiss his cheek. He blushed a bit, but her grin made his come out.

She started looking past the cameras to the people holding them. She patted Brandon and made a point to show him off.

"What do you think of my new fella, boys?" she asked the group collectively. The camera flashes and clicks turned their replies into a mottled haze of murmurs, but it was the gesture, not the result, that mattered.

She led him into the party. It was lively, but not rowdy. There were a few serious players here, no doubt. Her fee to come had been modest, but more than enough to pay for a limo to and from. It also had bought her this dress.

When they got inside, she saw a few people that she knew. She was curious to show off her new beau to some old castmates, but she wanted to browse a bit first.

Brandon, for all his intellect, looked positively starstruck at the surroundings. She saw him mentally scrolling IMDb for the faces in the room, trying to recall who was who, or what he'd seen them in. She liked watching him think.

"Hey, big boy," she said, squeezing his arm. She'd been trying new nicknames lately, but that one didn't feel right. Brandon was too enthralled to notice though. She drew a finger down his jaw and had his attention.

"I'm gonna go say hi to some old friends. Why don't you mingle and have fun? I'll find you in a bit," she said.

"You want me to mingle?" he said, as though she'd just asked him to leap into the air and hover.

"Remember sweetie, they're more scared of you than you are of them," she giggled and kissed his jaw. She could feel him melting. He'd have jumped in the Pacific if she'd wanted him to. For all his dominance he was a teddy bear when she purred for him.

He looked around with wide eyes and she sweetened the pot, "I'll find you in a few minutes. And I'll have a fun way to get your attention."

He smiled, not lascivious, but warm. "Something to look forward to," he said.

She gave him a pat on his ass to get him moving.

Hayden smirked, thinking of ways to be cute and wicked at the same time. One came to mind immediately. She slinked off to the nearest women's room and slipped off her silk panties. The bra would stay on, but she felt so much sexier with her underwear in her purse instead of around her hips.

Considering how much she and Brandon both liked to play rough, it might be the safest place for her underwear tonight.

Before she could plot a course through the detritus of this soiree, her phone buzzed. She saw Brandon heading over to a bar and fished the phone from her purse.

Kristen was texting her, "Just walked in, where are you?"

Hayden turned and spotted her best friend walking in from the front entrance. She waved and Kristen spotted her in turn. Dax was on her arm and the three of them met each other halfway. Kristen gave Hayden a warm hug and held her arm around Hayden's waist.

"Hey you," Kristen said. "I'm glad we picked the same party. I hate having to make small talk with the suits."

Hayden nodded, "Same." She turned to Dax, "You look good. I see she taught you how to use a razor," Hayden teased.

Dax ran a hand over his newly smooth chin and nodded, "Needed a new look," he said.

Kristen spoke up, "Where's your little rocket surgeon?"

Hayden waved a hand towards the party beyond, "I sent him to mingle."

Kristen raised an eyebrow, "Dangerous. There are sharks out there."

Hayden shrugged, "If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends. Or, at least my part-time coworkers who have too much money and time on their hands."

Kristen nodded and laughed. She turned to Dax, "You. Make yourself useful. Go find the nerd and keep him from bumping into things. Don't come back 'til I text you."

Dax gave a thin salute and walked away. Kristen turned to speak furtively to her best friend.

"Okay, I want all the deets. Tell me how the sex is," Kristen said.

Hayden gave her a look, but couldn't hold the face. She broke into giggles and they found a quiet corner to talk. "Why are you so interested?" Hayden asked, knowing the answer already.

"I'm a married woman. When we fuck, it's the same. You two are still figuring things out. That's the fun time. It's when you do the all the crazy shit. Now spill," Kristen said.

Hayden grinned, "He's very sweet. Moreso since we stopped using condoms."

Kristen's eyes went wide.

Hayden giggled, "He'd never gone bare. And now that he has, I can't ask him to go back. You should see his face."

Kristen frowned, "You're not trapping him, are you?"

Hayden shook her head, "I'm still keeping up with everything. I'm not trying to get pregnant," Kristen shot her a look, "I'm NOT. I learned my lesson last time."

"Okay," Kristen said, in that tone that indicated she might not believe it.

"We're just having fun," Hayden said.

"Everything's fun 'til the first ultrasound. Then it gets real really fast," Kristen said.

"Brandon isn't Vlad," Hayden said.

"I know. I just want to make sure you know it too," Kristen said.

Hayden sighed, "Do you wanna be my big sister right now, or do you want to hear how he fucked me last night?"

Kristen leaned in, "The fucking, definitely."

Hayden giggled, "He's got this new thing he did. I'm on my back and he's standing. I had my legs around his waist, but he changed it up."

Kristen's eyes focused in as she listened, "What did he do?"

"He brought my feet up, one at a time, and put them on his shoulders. He stayed in me the whole time. Boy's got stamina, by the way," Hayden said.

"Lucky bitch," Kristen said. Hayden gave her a playful swat on the arm. "What did he do then?"

"It's weird. It was almost nothing, but it wound up being really fucking sexy. He just kind of turned his face to the side and kissed me, right on my instep. And that ball on the inside of your foot, you know?"

Kristen nodded, "Does he have a foot thing?"

Hayden shook her head, "He's got a shoe thing."

"Were you in heels?" Kristen asked.

Hayden shook her head, "Nah, this wasn't fetishy. It was more... intimate. He had his eyes shut and I could just tell he was enjoying it on a different level."

"All the while fucking you?" Kristen asked.

Hayden nodded.

"Sexy, but what about the crazy?"

"Um... we may or may not be, but definitely are having very rough sex about half the time," Hayden said, smirking.

"The Viking?"

"In full force. I'm ordering him a helmet off Amazon," Hayden giggled.

"Is he into character stuff?" Kristen asked.

"Whenever we talk about it, we usually start fucking before we can get into specifics. It's a challenge," Hayden said.

"How are you doing?" Kristen said.

Hayden bit her lip, "I've been having some new fantasies. Some are getting kinda weird."

"Weird how?"

"Like... you remember Handmaid's Tale? The breeding scene?"

"Blessed be the fruit," Kristen said.

"I've been thinking about that lately,"

"Since you went bare?" Kristen asked.

Hayden nodded.

Kristen looked at her, "Do you want to be the handmaid, or the one holding her down?"

"Yes?" Hayden said. Kristen laughed.

Before she could go on, Dax made his way through a few people and approached them.

"You're gonna want to see this," he said.

Hayden and Kristen followed him across the party. She was worried Brandon had spilled something on himself. Or maybe someone famous. Of all the things she could think of, in a million years she'd have never guessed the truth.

There was a small crowd gathered around a couple of couches with a table between them. Hayden had to slip through a few people from basic cable to see what was happening.

She found Brandon, sitting on a couch, staring intently at a chess board on the coffee table in front of him. Across the board was Jeremy Irons, holding a highball.

"What the..." she said quietly.

On the far side of this scene, Ving Rhames stood, prominently watching the game playing out in front of him. Because of course it would be this weird.

Some Kardashian wannabe filled her in, "This nerdy guy started chatting up Jeremy Irons. Apparently he knew his drink or something. Craziest thing."

Hayden found her way to the front of the crowd. Brandon turned when she emerged. His smile could have lit up Chicago. Hayden's expression wasn't nearly so single-minded.

"Jeremy!" Brandon said, pulling the august English actor's attention from the chess board, "This is the girl I was telling you about."

Jeremy Irons sat up. The crisp, aged eyes looked at her and the devilish smile came across his face. "My God! What a vision of loveliness," he said, putting out a hand to greet her. She met it with hers and he kissed her fingers, "Absolutely charmed, my dear. Your beau was telling me all about you, in between my Sicilian Defense. I'm afraid the lad has me on the ropes. Be a dear and distract him for me, would you?"

Hayden found her smile somewhere after the kiss to her hand. The elderly actor patted the empty seat next to him and she sat, looking uncomprehendingly at the board and her boyfriend. Brandon gave her a wink and she realized that he could be sexy in several ways she'd never thought of before.

A few moves and a few minutes later something was changing in the game. She didn't know enough about chess to understand it, but she could tell that Brandon was taking Jeremy's black pieces more often than not.

Jeremy knocked over his largest piece, which apparently signaled the end of the game. He put a hand across the table and Brandon shook it, with alacrity.

"Spirited game, my boy. Do find me again if we're ever at the same party."

The two rose from their couches and Hayden rose with them. Jeremy put a hand on her shoulder and kissed her cheek, taking her in with a long look.

Brandon spoke again, "Thank you so much for making Kingdom of Heaven."

"Thank you for being the only one who saw it," Jeremy said.

They shared a laugh and Jeremy picked up his glass of orange liqueur and disappeared into the crowd. It seemed to part for him like the Red Sea.

Hayden turned to her boyfriend, "You wanna catch me up?"

Brandon smiled, still watching where Jeremy had walked away. "I told him I loved the movie. I knew he liked Cointreau. It kinda went on its own from there."

"And I was worried about you," she said, faux-mockingly.

"Sorry, I, uh..." he started. She put a hand up to stop him. He thought she was mad.

She smiled, "Sweetie, where did you two find a chess board?" she asked.

"Um... Paul Rudd," he said.

"Of course," she said, submitting to the disbelief.

"Are these things always like this?" he asked.

"These things are NEVER like this," she said.

"That was extraordinary," he said, still enraptured by the British icon.

"In many, many ways," Hayden agreed.

"Do we go now?" he asked.

"Not if you don't want to," she said.

"I'm having fun," he said, watching the crowd disperse now.

She got on tip toes to kiss him and took her panties out of her purse in a balled up fist. Her lips found his ear, "Just so you know, those are my panties in your pocket right now," she said.

He grinned big and put an arm around her.

She snuggled into his side, "Turns out you CAN mingle. Who knew?"

He nodded, "The oddsmakers take a beating."

She took his arm again and they made themselves seen. A few randos came up to Brandon to ask him about the chess game. More people said hello to Hayden. She made polite conversation while Brandon waited patiently. He didn't seem disinterested, more observant. She knew the faces he made when he was trying to work something out. She let him work.

After a half hour or so, Hayden was starting to get bored. Most of the A-listers were starting to check their watches. This party would be dead in thirty minutes. She didn't want to be left behind. Brandon had gone to grab her a bottle of water. She went to retrieve him.

She found him standing by a table, staring off at something that truly had him mesmerized. She turned to follow his gaze.

Across the hall, as though in a ray of golden light, Florence Pugh stood in a stunning silver dress. Her figure was flawless. Her nipples very prominent. The air seemed to move around her. The light seemed to be honored to bounce off her skin.

Hayden saw that her boyfriend had been hit by the lightning bolt. She blamed him not the slightest. When she put her hand on his arm, he flinched, as though he'd just been brought back to life by CPR. She smirked at his full body jolt.

"See something you like?" she asked, nodding to the blonde goddess walking across the room.

"I'm sorry," he said, almost instinctually. He was so cute with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Don't be," she said, folding her arms to look at Ms. Pugh, "She's gorgeous."

They stood shoulder to shoulder watching together, in mutual entrancement.

"Am I the only one seeing her in slow motion?" he asked.

"You're not," she said.

"Nice to have a girlfriend who's bi," he said.

"Heard that before," she said.

They enjoyed the moment in silent reverence. Hayden broke it first.

"Do you want to go say hi?" she asked.

"I think I'd faint," he said.

"You didn't faint with Jeremy Irons," she said.

"I didn't want to fuck Jeremy Irons," he said.

"Why not? He's gorgeous," she said, then raised an eyebrow at Brandon.

That got him to laugh.

"I loved her in Oppenheimer," he said.

"You should tell her," she said.

"You don't mind?" he asked, turning to her.

She smirked, "Baby, don't take this the wrong way, but I kinda want to see you try."

He looked at her, "You want to see me look like an idiot?"

She nodded and sipped the water he'd handed her, "A little, yeah."

He gave her a wry look.

"You're cute. She's some sort of demi-goddess. Go shoot your shot," Hayden said.

"Just so you know, I'm never gonna tell you to 'shoot your shot' if you see a hot guy at a party," he said.

"You're not the one in this relationship who's bi," she said.

He gave a tiny nervous laugh, "Um... what are you gonna do if she actually likes me?"

"Cheer you on," Hayden said, flatly.

He looked at her sideways, disbelieving.

She waved her hand at him, "Go get her, tiger."

He started to walk towards Florence. Hayden let him get three steps ahead, then trailed him. She wanted to be close in case he actually got to talk to her. She wouldn't bet on him, but she was rooting for him.

Likely as not, every red-blooded man in this place was just as intimidated by Florence's sleek, hyper-feminine form. That may have been why she was alone when Brandon walked up to her. She turned and looked him up and down. Her face was a Sphinx, but she didn't dismiss him out of hand.

"Miss Pugh," he said. A safe enough opening. He held out a hand, "An honor."

She didn't put her own hand out, but seemed intrigued by his approach. The way you might look incredulously at a bird that landed on your shoulder.

He went on. Hayden loved how fearless he could be sometimes.

"Oppenheimer was a deeply personal film to me. Your work was simply astonishing," he said.

That got a smile from her. She masked it quickly though and graced him with a question.

"Deeply personal?" she challenged.

"As an engineer," he said, by way of explanation. "It's my favorite story. Engineers and scientists coming together to kill fascists. I'm an engineer who hates fascists, so it resonated with me."

Her smile went from bemused to charmed. She put out a hand and Brandon caught it delicately.

He said his name, then followed it with, "Truly, an honor."

"An engineer?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am," he said, in his classic Southern-boy manner. Hayden winced, but Florence seemed to take it in stride. Brandon went on before the word could hang in the air. "Oppenheimer was a hero of mine since I was young. I thought your Jean Tatlock was hideously underused. You deserved at least a half hour more of screentime."

It was a rare compliment that could impress a starlet, but Brandon had found one, somehow. Hayden wondered if his charm was some form of three-dimensional chess, or if he simply blundered his way into it. Like some sort of suave Mr. Magoo. In either case, the end result had worked on her.

"Underused?" Florence said.

"Yes, ma'am," Brandon said. Hayden wanted to scream at him not to use the word ma'am with a twenty-something goddess like this.

"Don't use that term again," Florence said, her tone was instructive, not venomous.

Brandon was caught in her gaze. Hayden mildly wondered if he might turn to stone.

"I'm sorry?" he said.

"Ren," she said, "To my friends." That smile was devastating. Hayden was almost grateful it wasn't aimed at her own petite form.

"Ren," Brandon said, trying out the nickname tentatively. He was smart enough to look for the trap. "My apologies. It's how I was raised."

"Not at all," Ren said. "Perhaps you could tell me more about Jean Tatlock."

"What an honor that would be," Brandon said.

Ren smirked, she was toying with him, but, as Hayden could attest, he was an amusing toy.

"Brandon?" she asked, by way of confirmation, "Would you care to buy me a drink?" she purred.

Brandon hemmed a bit and Hayden could see he was about to make a mistake.

"Oh, I..." he started.

Hayden intervened, "He'd love to buy you a drink, Miss Pugh. Anything you'd like," Hayden said, stepping next to her boyfriend.

Ren looked at her with interest. A variable always made for a more exciting game.

"And you are?" she asked, the tone bordered on an edge.

Hayden had been playing this game for far longer, but she wasn't looking for a fight, just an opportunity.

"Hayden Panettiere," she said, simply. Then added, "He's with me. But he would love to buy you a drink."

Ren's eye got a twinkle and she looked down an elegant nose at Hayden's petite frame. Hayden felt herself melting.

Ren looked her up and down as she had Brandon, surveying her with a finely honed eye, "Would you be kind enough to get me a bottle of red? Anything from '08 and French would do nicely. I believe they can accommodate," Ren said, glancing vaguely to the bar.

Hayden almost curtseyed, but caught herself, "I'd be happy too, Miss Pugh."

Possessively, Ren reached out for Brandon's tie. The boy was unprepared, but he handled the sudden jolt well. God knows what that must have done to him internally, Hayden thought. She made a note to try it herself sometime.

"Come and tell me more about Jean," Ren said, casually leading her boyfriend away as if she held his leash. In many ways, that was no metaphor.

Hayden turned on her stilletto and went to the bar. She got the wine and two bottles of water. She declined the offered wine glass, somehow knowing Ren would prefer to drink it straight from the bottle. When she found her boyfriend, he was sitting in a chair, Ren catacorned to him in her own seat. Their feet pointed right at each other. Hayden could sense the mutual interest from twenty paces away.