Hibiscus Films

"Why didn't you ever call me?" she murmured against his clavicle. "And why on earth did you let me call you 'Carter' all this time?" Felipe savoured the feeling of having the woman he loved in his arms like this, holding on just a smidge longer before he finally had to answer her.

"After the heated talk we just had, you're really asking me that?" Juno wrinkled her forehead, not understanding. "You're moderately successful and middle-class, and you still felt ashamed accepting help from someone better off than you," Felipe said.

"I was living out of my car," he kissed her forehead and held her close again. "No way did I think I deserved to even be friends with you, nevermind more than that."

"Then why didn't you call me after you hit it big with Boxcar?" Juno asked, her hands sliding up his back as she tried to match the tightness of his grip.

"Because..." Felipe sighed. "I told myself what's the point if it turned out to be a one-off? I didn't want to contact you as someone who briefly succeeded, then failed."

"And after your string of other hits?" she countered. "It's okay if you wanted to date gorgeous actresses instead of coming back to me; you can be honest." Felipe shook his head and smiled.

"Juno, you were the gold standard," he clarified. "Part of it was that I didn't think I would ever be successful enough to deserve the woman whose kindness was directly responsible for everything I had.

"The other part was I'd built you up so much in my head that I didn't see you as a real person with flaws. You sure fixed that in the last few weeks though." Juno pulled back and scowled at him before nuzzling her nose against his neck again.

"I can't believe you kept a sticky note telling you to join a gym," she said incredulously.

"Of course. It was my good-luck charm." Felipe adjusted his arms around her so he could put his fingers in her hair. "That sticky had the best career advice I ever got." Juno giggled, then sighed against Felipe's mouth as he insistently kissed her.

"But you understand now I didn't want to just sleep with you when it was a goddamn miracle you ended up calling me first, right?" he softly asked. She nodded. "And even if I was a total sleaze, I wouldn't spend thousands to option a sub-par screenplay.

"I am not going to tell you again how talented you are, corazόn. And Evan-fucking-Dokbua will find that out when the movie built on your script murders the box office one day."

This time, Juno initiated her own demanding kiss, tangling her fingers in Felipe's hair and pulling him toward her. As her kisses grew deeper and fiercer, he slipped her open cardigan off her shoulders and yanked her tank top out of her PJ pants.

She then briefly broke away to lift his t-shirt over his head and drop it on the couch. Juno then searched for Felipe's tongue with her own, while backing him up to the spot where the t-shirt had landed. Her hands grazed every hard ripple on his torso before she sat him down. Then as she was about to climb onto his lap, she stopped.

"Wait," she said, recognition flashing across her face. "Your production company--Hibiscus Films. You didn't name it after..."

"Yes," Felipe smiled bashfully up at her. "The pattern on your sundress the day we met." Juno looked at him for a moment, then quickly pecked his lips.

"Stay here," she ordered while slipping into her bedroom.

No, she's not going to, Felipe thought as his erection threatened to shred the front of his jeans.

"Wow, it still fits," she said, emerging not a minute later with a little twirl.

The moment Felipe laid eyes on her in that dress, all bets were off. He made it over to Juno in just two long strides, picked her up, dropped her onto her back on the couch, and lifted up her skirt. He groaned in disbelief to see she wasn't wearing panties, then wasted no time throwing one of her legs over his shoulder as his tongue dove inside her.

Juno's other leg rose on its own over the backrest of the couch as she gasped at the ferocity with which Felipe devoured her. It was when he began to lightly, then roughly, graze her clit with his tongue that Juno began to mutter his name, which drove Felipe into a greater frenzy.

She cried out and arched her hips as the tremors in her core exploded, after which her lover gently kissed her inner thighs while she came down.

Felipe smiled watching Juno's half-closed eyes and quavering jaw as he effortlessly picked her up, carried her to her bedroom, and laid her atop her duvet. When he cuddled close beside her, she lightly scratched her nails against his jeans.

"Why are you still wearing pants?" she slurred. Felipe chuckled.

"I didn't want to assume you wanted--"

"If I was ready to rail some movie star two weeks ago in his limo, why wouldn't I want to do the same with this sweet boy who remembered me for over a decade?" Juno knelt between Felipe's legs and unzipped him.

"You give me so much credit, baby, but it wasn't me," she said, pulling his pants and underwear off in one yank. "You made the most out of every opportunity you got, and then you never turned down a chance to make the lives of thousands of strangers easier. Of course I want to make love to that guy."

With that, Juno gripped the base of Felipe's shaft with one hand and rapidly licked his tip. She smiled to herself at the look of pure shock on his face as his eyes rolled back, then started running her fingers along the ridges of his scrotum.

After gradually taking inch after inch of him into her mouth, Juno began to swirl her tongue around his cock, then looked up at him again before starting to suck.

Felipe had never seen anything hotter than the sly glances she threw at him while her lips pressed tighter and tighter around him. She began sucking harder and harder and Felipe put his hands to his head and groaned, certain she would break him in just a few more seconds.

But then, she let him slip out of her mouth with a little smile. Before Felipe could figure out what she was doing, Juno propped two pillows behind him against the headboard.

"Sit back, baby," she instructed, straddling him and kissing his face. "I want to finish what we started in the limo."

Felipe loved her sundress, but he wanted it on the floor now. After he lifted it over her head, he alternately sucked on each of her breasts, acutely aware that his cock was flush against her wetness. Juno moaned and squirmed, then pulled her chest back from his mouth. She gingerly reached down and guided him inside her, all without breaking eye contact.

They both sighed as she sank herself down and let him fill her, then Felipe cupped her rear and resumed ravishing her breasts. This time, however, he was distracted by Juno grinding her hips against his, unhurriedly rising and lowering herself onto his lap.

"You're torturing me, amorcita," he grunted, wanting this to last but wishing she would go faster.

"Whaddya gonna do about it?" she teased, her playful grin telling Felipe she was ready for him to take control. He had Juno straighten her legs a bit, then rolled her over onto her back without pulling out of her. Her smile was now gone and replaced with a flustered look as she felt Felipe not only thrust deep, but also lightly press her clit with his thumb.

He couldn't help but think that having a strong core had its advantages, as it wasn't difficult to pleasure her in that plank position and watch Juno's face while balancing himself on just one forearm.

"Felipe..." she moaned as she tossed her head to one side. He was beginning to speed up, and she was beginning to feel the pressure build. After a few more seconds of him rubbing her clit in time with his thrusts, Juno couldn't take it anymore and squealed Felipe's name against his shoulder.

Her legs flailed on either side of him but Felipe kept going because he couldn't get enough of how beautiful she looked while climaxing. When he felt Juno's muscles relax and he wasn't able to stave off his own urges any longer, he hastily slammed into her until his vision blurred and he erupted while panting against her hair.

Juno sighed lightly against Felipe's mouth as he tenderly kissed her, his arms shaking as he tried not to collapse. She kissed his face, then rolled over into the crook of his arm after he shifted onto his back. After they took turns using the bathroom, Felipe came right back to bed and held Juno close, this time between the sheets.

"I am so glad your name isn't really Carter," she said, prompting him to laugh as he ran a finger along her ear. "I really didn't want to be calling that out."

"Blame my first agent," Felipe grinned. "When I got my first speaking role, he thought 'Carter Amos' had more promotional appeal."

"You mean it sounded more white?" Juno read between the lines.

"You got it," Felipe affirmed. "I was so desperate to break into the movies that it didn't matter what I had to give up about myself. Part of me at that age also wanted to leave Felipe Cifuentes behind and start fresh."

"How come no one knows this about you?" Juno asked, tracing her fingers down the olive skin of his torso. "In my research on you for the feature, your real name never came up."

"Maybe my team was good at constructing that image," Felipe shrugged. "I bet you didn't know that Helen Mirren's real name was Ilyena Mironov." Juno looked at him like she couldn't decide whether he was kidding. "Or that Ben Kingsley's real name was Krishna Bhanji. A lot of actors are told they won't get anywhere if they sound too 'ethnic.'" Juno grimaced.

"It's not all bad, corazόn," Felipe said, brushing his fingers across his lover's collarbone. "I didn't legally change my name like a lot of actors do. What started in racism turned out to be great for my privacy. One time, a cop pulled me over, looked at my license, and told me I look like that action hero. I told him yeah, I get that a lot." Juno grinned as Felipe went on.

"Plus, Nico's last name is also Cifuentes so I don't need to worry about LA paparazzi tracking him down at school."

"Nico..." Juno remembered, regret heavy in her voice. "I need to tell him I'm sorry for stopping my visits without even warning him." Felipe was heartened to know it hadn't just been his imagination that his little boy and the love of his life had developed something of a relationship over the last while.

"Come with me to pick him up," he suggested. "He's at a birthday party now and I have to get him in an hour."

"A whole hour?" Juno asked, lowering her mouth to Felipe's nipple and making him flinch when she gently tugged on it with her teeth. "What are we going to do until then?" Quick as a whip, Felipe flipped Juno over onto her stomach and covered her body with his own, his stiffness already pressing against her fleshy bottom.

"I don't know," he casually said, reaching around to stroke her breasts with his thumbs. He reveled in Juno's moans as he pinned her squirming legs with his own. "Maybe I can throw out a few ideas and you tell me what works for you?"

***Epilogue, three years later***

"It's gonna be weird being on the other side of this," Juno told Felipe as their limo neared the venue and they saw roaring crowds lining the streets of downtown Toronto. "I'm used to asking the questions."

"You've already been on the other side of this, sweetie," her husband reminded her. "But now that this is our second movie together, just brace yourself for more attention coming your way."

Since the film based off Juno's short story wasn't an action film and didn't have many characters to cast and direct, it had been a fairly straightforward picture to make. Hibiscus Films was able to release it within two years of End Code, not hiding the fact that its star, Felipe, and its writer, Juno, were engaged.

The initial buzz around that gossip gave the film an edge at the limited number of theatres it was released in, but Felipe had been right--Juno's original plot gave the movie staying power, leading it to ultimately draw $70 million in revenue on a shoestring $5 million budget.

"Ungh, baby, why do you keep your ringer on overnight?" Juno groused to Felipe early one January morning. It had been about four months since her screenwriting debut rocked the box office, and two weeks since they'd eloped. Felipe's phone was exploding despite it still being dark out.

"It's the morning of the Golden Globe announcements," Felipe told his new bride, ruffling Juno's hair before reaching for his phone on the nightstand. "And since Nico is with Chelsea, I can't just switch it off in case there's an emergency."

"I know, but it's our honeymoon," she complained, pulling the duvet over her head. "If it doesn't have to do with eating, sleeping, or fucking, I don't wanna--"

"Oh my god, corazόn, look at this!" Felipe exclaimed. Their first movie together had netted Juno a nomination for best screenplay. She sat straight up in bed and scrolled through her husband's texts, bewilderment splashed across her groggy face.

Then she reached for her own phone, which had similarly exploded but had been on silent all night long. When the ceremony came around, Juno begged Felipe to not drag her to LA but he ironically insisted as it was their first movie together. She was relieved when she lost, and even more relieved when the film fell short of an Oscar nom.

"Thank god we get to stay home," she said that morning as Felipe chuckled, marveling at how she was even more of a recluse than he was.

Juno had had more time to write their second film together as she'd quit her job at GTA Life. That bio-pic--about Emiliano Zapata and starring her husband--was the premier they were now headed to at the Toronto International Film Festival.

TIFF banners hung from every building within a city block's reach, and Juno drew a few slow breaths to calm her nerves. Felipe took her hand as he always did when they stepped into the throngs at work events, opened the limo door, and escorted her out.

She tried to resist the urge to squint at camera flashes shooting like lightning around her, still not used to plastering on a smile the way Felipe could. But at least this time she knew the drill. First, however, they'd have to slowly walk the red carpet and talk to the press.

Felipe had correctly predicted that she would have more questions directed toward her. Juno looked over at him before answering the first time, but he simply shrugged and smiled, reveling in the attention his talented wife was getting. He went over to the public's area to take pictures and sign autographs to avoid stealing her thunder while she finished talking to several media outlets in the press line.

"One last question, Ms. Delfina," the final interviewer called out, as Felipe came back shortly before they were due to go inside the theatre.

"The first time we saw you both together at the Toronto premier of End Code three years ago, there was already speculation that you were an item. Did you actually meet writing your first screenplay at that time, or did you know each other before that?"

Juno tossed a grin at her husband as she squeezed his hand and turned to go inside with him. Then she winked at the interviewer as she stepped away.

"Both."

***END***