Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 57423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 230(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 230(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
She needed to find a way to make him understand. “They sometimes say bad shit about me, but you can’t let that get to you.”
“It’s your career on the line. I won’t let them get to me. I’m not going to hurt your career by trying to defend you with my fists. But I will try to get you out of there as quickly as possible. We need to decide how we’re playing this now.”
“Playing this?”
“He wants to know if he can hold your hand in public,” Big Tag translated. “Did he wear a condom?”
“Yes,” she shot back. “But one of his own because yours are trash. You know you should really think about this. You claim to provide a premium service, but those are like bulk condoms.”
Taggart’s laugh boomed through the yard, and he shook his head. “I like this one, West. Keep her alive.”
He walked away, and she was left with West.
And his question. “I don’t want to hide you. I don’t want to pretend like you’re just my bodyguard, but I also want to look…”
She thought about what she’d been about to say. Professional. She’d been perfectly professional, and these people didn’t care. They only cared about her past. Why was she trying to placate them?
“You want to look…?” West asked expectantly.
What had she told Kala? That she got to decide who she was. No one else. West was the first man she’d had real feelings for in a long time, and she didn’t want to hide that. She went on her toes and kissed those ridiculously sensual lips of his. “I want to look like the person I actually am. I think I’m going to save the acting for the set this time around if that’s okay with you. But you should know the paparazzi will find us.”
His hands found her waist. “Let them.”
She leaned her head against his chest and let herself breathe. The bad parts might not be so bad if she had this man to hold her hand.
Chapter Eight
West studied the grand living room, utterly fascinated by the transformation. Just a few days ago, it had been a blank slate, a soundstage with nothing but equipment, and now it looked like the inside of a luxurious mansion.
Just a few weeks into this assignment and he was finding a world that never bored him. He’d thought he would absolutely hate the times when Ally was working and he was at loose ends, but once the crew figured out he didn’t mind helping, they’d started to put him to work. He’d learned a lot about lighting and special effects when he was sure Ally was in a safe space. The acting part didn’t do anything for him at all, but there was something magical about using lights to make an actress practically glow.
Of course he didn’t need lights to make Ally glow. All he needed to do was kiss her until she couldn’t think.
He was rapidly falling in love with a woman who would leave in two months. They had an expiration date, but he didn’t like to think about that.
Ally sat on one of the ornate couches, watching as her “mother” gave a speech about keeping the family together in the face of the tragedy they were going through.
This he’d been told was “blocking.”
Over the last few weeks, Ally had done an enormous amount of research. Her days were filled with working out, doing publicity stuff that he didn’t understand, and then she got down to the actual work. Sometimes she fell asleep in the car and he had to carry her up to the condo.
He wasn’t sure how she managed it all, but at least JK Harris had been perfectly quiet. They had to deal with the paparazzi, but he’d found a fun way to get around them when he wanted to.
Sometimes having an identical twin came in handy.
“Mr. Rycroft?”
West turned, and the director was walking his way. He hadn’t talked to the director much. He didn’t seem to be around the set a lot, which confused West. Jay Clarke seemed to spend most of his time in one-on-one sessions with the cast. “Hello, sir. You can call me West. Shouldn’t you be in there? Aren’t you the director?”
Jay looked like he’d just walked in. He hadn’t set his messenger bag down yet, but the cast had been working for over an hour. “I don’t handle this part of the production. That’s what second units are for. I have two second ADs I trust. I oversee things. When we actually film this scene, I’ll be on set, but this is more for the actors to get the blocking down and to test the light and make sure everything will run properly.”
So the director had better things to do than grunt work. “Understood. I’ll be honest, I thought this would be far more boring than it actually is.”