Guilty Pleasures Ch. 02: Veronica

Chapter 2- Veronica- Butterflies

Those butterflies were rampaging.

The actors on stage captivated all, but one. While the audience lost themselves in the story on stage, the actors behind it listened intently for their verbal cues. All except Veronica Tan.

She paces back and forth, ignoring the stage and instead focusing on herself.

Veronica always put forth her best effort into whatever role she was chosen to play, but this role was different. It was depraved and dirty. Sultry and seductive. The opposite of every role she's done so far.

For the first time in years she denied the leading female role. Something interested her in the lesser, side role. Having spent the past decade of her life playing princesses and queens, wearing ball gowns and ornate dresses, she craved for something less. In both senses.

Stopping her pacing, Veronica checks her "costume" one more time. Less of a costume and more of fancy undergarments, her fingers trace down her torso, from her bare shoulders, to her precariously covered breasts, to her exposed midsection, and the little more than a thong she wore for bottoms. She traced the natural tattoos that adorned her body from being a water genasi. They seemed to stand out more than ever now, with how much skin was being exposed.

Sandals adorned her feet with their wrapping surrounding her calves. A circlet adorned her head, gold and with an aquamarine in the center of the forehead. Her hair is a special kind of "practiced messy", signaling she had just had a bit of fun but was always ready for more. Veils adorned her arms and waist. Translucent silk that flowed whenever she moved.

After her quick check of all of the components of the costume, she double and triple checked them. While the circlet may have been gold, every single other piece of her outfit was a mixture of blue, cyan and teal. The perfect camouflage for the natural blue hues of her body. The costume was designed for her specifically to fit the role with her special skin tones.

If she moved gracefully enough and the spectator didn't look hard enough it would look as if beyond the veils and circlet and sandals, she could very well be naked. And with how little she was wearing, real wardrobe malfunctions were a very real possibility. More than enough times rehearsals were paused mid scene as the director had to tell her one of her naughty bits was exposed.

She remembered playing it off as no big deal, simply tucking her breasts back away or reorienting her bottoms while laughing it off. But no one is that unaware of their surroundings.

That first nip slip had been an accident. She had noticed a fair number of her peers paying a bit more attention to her during the scene, even though they should be rich nobles turning their noses up at the common whore in their presence. When the director stopped the scene to pull her aside and tell her she felt a cacophony of emotions.

First and foremost, she felt embarrassment, as any person should. Behind embarrassment some form of hurt pride emerged, because she was a professional and professionals don't have costume malfunctions. But then some other feelings emerged. At the realization as to why she had been getting so much attention there the breast in question started to feel hot. The heat that one feels when they know they are being stared at. And the final feeling was a faint tingling in her loins that spread to her entire body. Just enough to be noticeable and definitely confusing.

So naturally afterwards she had a few other "accidental" malfunctions. Each time the feelings persisted, but the tingling grew with each attempt. And with the tingling came arousal and a dampness in her crotch. That wasn't the only part of her body to perspire, as the tingling and perceived heat on her skin caused a healthy sheen of sweat, despite her not having to move as much as this character. Thankfully she was able to play it off as her being a water genasi as they tend to sweat a bit more than others.

She remembered the feelings while tracing one of the tattoos on one of her breasts, a spiral that started at the edges of it and ended on her nipple. The thought with the added stimulation sent a pleasurable and shameful shiver down her spine.

Realizing that for half a second her "check" had turned into her rubbing the sensitive nub for added enjoyment, she needlessly readjusts her top. She hopes that she was able to play it off well enough for the others backstage to think she was simply doing a thorough check.

Sneaking glances around at her fellow cast mates, there seemed to be a few who caught her moment of weakness. A stagehand who quickly averted her gaze, and a fellow actor who attempted to play it off as if he were looking past her.

"They saw. They know." She thought to herself. With the realization came another, stronger and more shameful shiver that tingled her skin and slightly more dampness in her groin.

Veronica turns away from the two witnesses, hoping the dim light backstage hid the blush she felt on her face.

Hearing a line that meant her cue was coming up she ran through her upcoming scene in her head. Everything she would do, from the tone of voice, to the gentle arm touches, the subtle, inviting motions. Her gaze, her costume, her very being. All of it was for the purpose of alluring the audience.

She had a taste of the excitement on a small scale in her rehearsals. Keeping her costume on well after the rehearsals ended, chatting with her friends and fellow actors. Feeling their gazes all over her.

During the rehearsals, when normally others would be practicing lines for their upcoming scenes, everyone watched her perform, entranced by her movements. They hung on every word that came from her lips.

She even grew bolder the closer they got to opening day. Sometimes throwing in improved lines. An extra, longing look at the male lead her character was supposed to be seducing. When she sat, she crossed her legs, and later, not so subtly, uncrossed and re-crossed them when the male lead's character was explaining to his wife who his "new servant" was. She added many of her own little things to draw more and more attention to herself. And the director loved it.
The story was about a young nobleman and how his life was torn apart by his attachment to a local prostitute. The prostitute was supposed to be so alluring that no man or woman could take their eyes off her. Even though some of her improvisations caused viewers to be distracted from the words of the main characters at times, that was what the character is supposed to do. She was simply playing the part of the alluring seductress. At least that was her excuse.

After one last check of her costume Veronica heard her cue. The scene followed the nobleman after a particularly nasty fight with his wife, where he would go into town and in a moment of weakness bed her character. It was the first scene of the play where the audience would see her in action.

Holding back her excitement she settled for a couple of giggles before the professionalism set in. Her face settling into the impish, playful smile of her character. Her eyes alight with mischievous energy, both practiced and very real.

She has grown used to the attention of her acting troupe, as they practiced nearly daily together. This was the real deal. Instead of the 40 people of her troupe she would reveal her character (and with how little clothing she was wearing, herself) to hundreds of people in the audience.

And this was only opening night. After news of her performance spread, who knows how many more would show up for the following shows. How many of them would have already heard of her character?
How many of them would be there just to see her?

Striding towards the stage from off to the side, each step she took only multiplied her feelings. Nervousness on how the world would accept her performance, as any actor or actress would feel. The general nervousness of being up on a stage in front of the public that any performer feels. And of course, the butterflies in her stomach that most people say they feel before a performance.
But unlike most people, she assumed, her butterflies were not in her stomach, but slightly further south.