Riley"Clayton's waiting for you." Deza walked out of the open door I stood holding open for no one."Oh, yeah. I'm sorry.""It's all right. He's mesmerizing to all of us. You just gotta learn how to keep a poker face around him." She winked at me and walked toward Ethan."Ethan or Clayton?"She glanced back. "Both."I chuckled and walked down the hall toward the conference room Deza had texted me earlier. I was nervous, but I wasn't. It was an odd place to be, but seeing Ethan helped something snap into place. I was good enough to act next to the biggest, hottest name in Hollywood. I could hold my head a little higher than I had lately, and surely believe a little more in myself. Everyone around me seemed to think I was capable of greatness.When the hell had I started to believe that I wasn't? Shit, when had I ever started believing that I was?"Sorry to keep you waiting." I walked in and stopped short. Something about Clayton left me paralyzed in place. It wasn't his looks or the w
Ethan"All right. Get in your places, people. We want to wrap this shit up in a timely manner, right?" Daniel Barns clapped his hands and turned in circles, repeating himself until everyone walked up toward the stage. He was another director for Eon, and not my favorite by any stretch of the imagination, but I wasn't starring in the movie, so no need to throw a fit over it.Seeing Riley the day before had me wanting to throw caution to the wind and drown her in lust until she yearned for me the way I yearned for her. I rolled my eyes at the internal monologue going on in my head. I sounded like Rhett Butler from Gone with the Wind. "Places. And... action."I turned and jogged through the scene of New York City at night, the streets so real, the buildings gone. They would add those later with computer generation."Don't let them catch up." Tricia ran toward me and grabbed my hand as I moved in front of her and ran faster. The belts below my feet sped up and I cursed myself internally
EthanWe finished about twenty minutes early, and the crew wanted to go out for dinner, but I turned down the invitation. I found Deza sitting in her office with her eyes closed."Hey, pretty girl. I'm going to the lookout point with a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates. I ain't got no flowers to make the place pretty, but you'd fill in nicely instead." I wagged my eyebrows at her. "Or maybe you'd be the chocolate."She snorted. "You're an idiot.""You coming with me?" I pulled out my keys and let them dangle from my fingers. "I brought the convertible.""Yeah. I'm coming. No trying to seduce me. I don't know where that dick has been over the last ten years. I ain't interested." She scrunched up her nose and got up."Here you go, trying to make me feel dirty for loving anal sex again." I scoffed and wrapped my arm around her shoulders as we walked toward the parking lot. "You'd love it too if you let me-""Hush. No being dirty. I ain't in the mood to play around with you."I glanc
RileyI wasn't sure how I felt about my lessons with Clayton a few days before. There was a part of me that wanted to be ashamed that I'd kissed him, but it was training ground, and it hadn't been him. It had been Ethan. I could pass any improv given to me if it was about love or lust or wanting. All I had to do was think about him.Walking to the parking lot from my last class for the day, I realized something. Jace and I would never be anything but really good friends. He needed to know that. As much as I hated to let him go for fear that things wouldn't work out in my own life and I'd really be left alone for the first time ever, I had to do the right thing.He deserved to be set free."Oh my God! It's Riley Phillips. Riley! Riley!" A group of people jogged toward me, all of their eyes wide and the smiles on their faces too big to be fake."Hi." I turned to fully face them and stood in awe as they shoved various pieces of paper toward me."Can you autograph my notebook? Just put to
Riley"Yes. My mother died in an accident last week. The sorrow of having to bury her next to my brother is too much to think about. I have no one left in the world but my best friends, Charlotte and Jace. And it's funny, but having friends doesn't seem to be enough." I blinked back tears as Clayton's brow drew in tightly."Are you speaking truth, or working yourself into a darkness for the purposes of our afternoon together?""Truth." I let my eyes move across his face as my heart quivered in my chest. "I don't know how to use that pain to fuel me. I've trapped it somewhere to keep myself safe. Safe from breaking down. Safe from promising myself to a man that couldn't ever be what I want him to be. Safe from begging for the touch of another man who could have all of me if he even tried a little."His eyes filled with tears as well. "How beautiful you are. You have no clue of your power, little dove."I took a deep breath. "Let me unlock it, and then you tell me where we're going.""G
Ethan"Dear baby Jesus. Why did we think this was a good idea?" Liam groaned as him, Deza and Frank walked huddled against me through the UCLA campus. Someone had gotten the memo that I was coming to see Riley in her play that night. Who spilled the beans was beyond me. I hadn't told Riley my plans in case they changed, and the only people that knew were the three wrapped around me as we shuffled forward."Guy, I'm not a senator or a prince. Fucking get off me and let me walk." I pushed at my brother's back as he walked in front of me. I'd stubbed my damn toes on his big black shiny shoes a million times.I would have thought after having the whole day to myself that my mood would have been better, but it'd been a long ass week. I was more worn out from laying around, thinking about Riley than actually living my damn life."Shut up and keep moving forward," Deza barked from beside me as the crowd around us seemed to grow. We had five guys working security for us because people were cr
EthanI sat in the dark beside Deza, holding my breath as the curtain lifted thirty minutes later and the music filled the auditorium. I'd always been a sucker for Phantom of the Opera, not that I would have told anyone. The love story was dark and concerning as hell, but I sure loved the passion between the two. Somehow the guy playing across from Riley didn't instill anything but pity from me. His face was covered in zits, but he still put forth a great performance.A smile lifted my lips as I thought back on my conversation with Riley on having to kiss the guy and not really being too into him at all. I could see why now. It wasn't just the acne. She was a ten and he was a two at best. Hell, I was a seven or an eight on a good day.She turned to face the crowd and chill-bumps raced down my spine. Intriguing. Beautiful. So fucking hot. Like an innocent princess in need of deflowering.Deza handed me a rose as the lights came on at the end and the curtain went up. I dropped it on the
RileyCharlotte met me at the back door of the theater when I'd finally pushed through the crowd. The smile on her face mixed with the way Ethan watched me moments earlier left butterflies dancing in my chest. They like me. All of them. It was weird to think that I wanted their approval, their accolades, but I did."You need to change?" She reached out and pulled me into a tight hug. Her navy dress looked good on her, and momentary worry rushed through me. Would Ethan think she was more beautiful than me? Stupid. I was being stupid. It didn't matter if he did."Yeah. I have a white dress hanging up in my dressing room back here. Come with me." I grabbed her hand and pulled her down through the back of the auditorium as we giggled and talked about how great the play was."Maybe you should be on Broadway and not in the movies." She closed the door behind us and pressed her back to it."Maybe." I shrugged and put my back to her. "Can you help me get out of this?""Yeah." She walked towar