It's almost time to get up when I finish reading the riding crop scene. The one in the book is totally different from the way it reads in the script.

"Soph, do you think-," I stop when I see that the book is sprawled across her chest and chin and she's fast asleep.

I smile gently, because she'll be pissed when she realizes she fell asleep, but she still achieved her goal. I wasn't alone.

I know exactly what I've been missing about Christian and Ana's story.

I take Sophie's book, set it on the nightstand and brush a kiss across her forehead. I program her phone to wake her up in time for work and grab my car keys.

I don't bother with coffee. Suddenly, I have all the energy I need.

When I arrive on set at 3:45, there are a lot of people already there. Including Nicole, who's on the long to-do list that has been assembling itself in my mind the whole drive over.

"Do you have a second?"

She looks surprised. "Uh, yeah. Of course. What do you need?"

"Look, we've been really lax about this so far, but I'm not happy with that. I need somebody to show up with a robe or some kind of cover-up for Julia in between scenes, and in between takes when Lucy looks like she's going to talk for a while. And I mean right there. She shouldn't have to walk stark naked past all the lighting people to get to her chair where she left her robe. That's absurd."

Nicole is nodding vigorously, but I keep going.

"I know you already take care of about 300 different things," I say apologetically. "But would you mind if it was you? Delegation is all fine and good, but I know you'll show up on time. Every time."

Nicole looks like she might swoon. Poor girl's probably barely scored a single thanks since she started on this project. People treat production assistants like hell.

I smile. "You're the best."

Next stop, Lucy.

By the time Julia comes on set at 4:30, I've overhauled half the movie- in my mind at least. Lucy's agreed to reshoot a few specific scenes, and we have a date to screen some of the raw footage for other scenes that I'm concerned about.

I catch Julia outside her dressing room.

"I'm sorry," I tell her.

"David, I told you, you have nothing to be sorry about," she says, and then she sees my face. "Wow. You look…better."

I wink. "You're not looking so bad yourself."

She opens the dressing room door and waves me inside. "How are you feeling? What happened?"

"Sophie happened. My girlfriend," I explain, trying to suppress a smile that isn't quite dignified. "She's a little bit magic."

Julia sets down her coffee mug, then her keys. Finally, she turns back and gives me a quiet smile. "I hope you're good to her, then."

"I'm working on it," I say, thinking of the delivery she should be getting in about an hour.

Lillies, because she thinks roses are cliché. And white roses anyway, because my mom worked in a greenhouse, so I'm possibly the only straight guy in America that knows that white roses symbolize friendship. And a venti white chocolate macchiato, which Sophie enjoys with an enthusiasm usually reserved for hard drugs. She drinks them about once a year, because she claims they contain a number of calories equivalent to eating an entire water buffalo.

"I'm sorry for screwing up this movie," I tell Julia. "You've been knocking it out of the park playing Ana, and I've been doing nothing but holding you back."

She opens her mouth to protest but I raise a hand to stop her.

"No, it's okay. It was my problem. I've been approaching all these whips and chains scenes the wrong way, like it was something I was doing to you, when we should have been doing it together."

She closes her mouth and tilts her head at me.

"It's not an attack-," I start.

"It's a dance," she finishes, and I can't help but nod.

"The belt scene is the only one where they fall out of synch," I shake my head. "I didn't get that before. It's awful, yeah. It is supposed to be awful because that is the one where he's really subjugating her, showing the darkest parts of him."

"So what do you want me to do?" Julia asks.

"I want you to have a safeword," I tell her. "BDSM is done in scenes, just like in a movie, and people have safewords so they can yell and cry and beg as much as they want, but they both know as long as the safeword isn't used, they are both actually happy with how things are going."

She nods. "Sure."

I step closer and grip her shoulders. "But you have to use it, Julia. If I think you're just gritting your teeth for the sake of the performance, I'm not going to be okay with doing this movie. I have to be able to trust that you'll be honest with me about where you're at."

She reaches up and squeezes my hand. "One condition."

"Fair enough," I say, dropping my hands and leaning back against her dressing table.

"You have to have one, too. If a scene is getting to you, or you aren't sure if I'm really in pain, or you're uncomfortable for any reason, you have to call the cut." When I hesitate, she presses. "Promise me."

I smile a tight, rueful smile. "Have you been talking to Sophie?"

She crosses her arms.

"Lucy's going to shoot me if I stop every scene twenty times to check on you, and it's really going to screw up your flow once you're really into a scene," I point out. Not to mention that it will reveal me for the pussy I actually am to dozens of crew members who rightfully expect me to be able to maintain my professionalism.

Julia gives me a look that reminds me that she won a Grammy for playing an empress. Maybe she should be playing the Dom.

"It's not about me trusting you," she reminds me. "It's about trusting each other, and if we can't do that, you're right. We can't do this."

"Fine," I relent. "What's our word?"

Julia gives me a strange smile. My first acting coach made me study pages of labeled facial expression. I have an incredible vocabulary when it comes to visually expressed emotions, but I have no idea what this smile means, or who it belongs to.

"Cut," she says, with sadness weighing the word.

Author's Note: Please leave me a note to let me know what worked or didn't work for you in this chapter. I was really torn in many places about how explicit to be about my character's feelings. Please let me know if you think I was too blunt, and likewise, if you were confused by anything, I'd be happy to answer questions.