Page 33 of A Lucky Shot

“I’ll be too busy to even think about anything other than this movie.”

“Good.” Stephen stepped into his shoes without doing up the laces. “And about the film? Don’t worry. I’ve got your back.”

It wasn’t home, but it was for now. He already missed his walls, bronze so dark they were almost black. The botanical mural he’d painted over the course of a year, with each fiddlehead fern and palm frond painstakingly placed. The expanse of wall in front of him was a blank canvas, waiting for something to fill it. The studio would lose the damage deposit, but that sounded like a them problem.

Josh chucked his phone onto his rental’s couch and sunk back onto its tightly woven tweed, scrubbing a hand over his patchy stubble. He hadn’t been lying earlier. He did think he and Cass would work well together. Even before they fell into bed, they’d had a good time. The most fun he’d had in ages, arguing about every detail about the films. If he hadn’t wanted to put his hands on her so badly, he would have talked with her all night.

It had been a pleasant surprise to see her come through the door, even if she looked like she was seconds from dying from embarrassment.

Go figure. The one person he knew in town was the one person he couldn’t hookup with. It might be nice to have a friend in town. Nice change from his usual relationship status. And they could argue about other things without landing up naked.

Lots of people in the industry mixed business with pleasure. Lead actors entering liaison, stunt coordinators falling for each other, the director screwing a production assistant. Or a handful of production assistants.

That wasn’t his style. One poorly ended fuck buddy arrangement on set was enough. The only drama he wanted to be responsible for was on the other side of the camera, so not having a rotation of women here to dip his dick into was a blessing. He needed to focus. No room for mistakes. Melanie might not fire him from the project if he screwed this up, but she’d never work with him again.

More than that, Sirius Darker was too important to him to fuck it up.

No, his energy was needed on set, not trying to get laid. Especially not with someone he worked with, even if they’d sparked so hot they set the night on fire. Her round ass fitting perfectly in his hands, every curve softening against all his hard parts.

He willed himself not to take a final look at her gorgeous body when he pulled up their chat to delete the thread. For good measure, he cleared the cache, to remove temptation.

No rule against thinking about her, but he’d be too busy for anything other than pulling this movie together over the next several months.

Come to think of it, it was probably a good thing they had already slept together. Otherwise, he might be distracted wondering what it would be like to have her underneath him.

Good thing he got her out of his system already.

CHAPTER SEVEN

CASS

The scuffed two-top table parked in the middle of the crowded diner had enough real estate to let the two women spread out purses and phones and still have room for their meals. Cass edged to the front of her seat, her toes just reaching the stool’s crossbar.

“I can’t believe I didn’t make the connection. I think I saw Stephen’s name on the list and I just …” Libby mimed the words flitting out of her brain. She stabbed a sausage link rolling across her plate. “Sexy Dimples shows up on your film set and gets to just walk around and look gorgeous in front of you?”

“We can’t call him that anymore.” Not now that she had to see him all the time. It’d be just like her to drop that nickname in the middle of a meeting. “And, technically, it’s his film set.”

“Aren’t you worried about proximity effects?” asked Libby. “All that untapped sexual tension building up?”

It hadn’t been all that bad. They’d met so much over the last month in pre-production, respectfully disagreed on a hundred things, but everything was hammered out. Josh stayed in his narrow, professional lane, never once making a comment about their time together in front of anyone. It was like their night together, the weeks of flirty texts that followed, had never happened at all.

“That sexual tension is tapped,” Cass muttered, “and no fears about proximity. I work with good-looking people all day long.”

“So, hotness isn’t a factor. Then, what’s the problem?”

“I mean …” Cass sighed. “I hadn’t hit it off with anyone in so long. Since Nick, anyway. And Josh and I had a really good time. It was all safe and everything because he was out of town, and I could just be myself and we had this amazing night that I could fantasize about and let it be perfect.”

“And now it’s going to get messy and real.”

Cass nodded miserably. And fine, maybe she was a little worried about proximity. Libby had been right. Men like Josh were more than her type. They were her weakness. All chemistry, then after some time, empty promises.

That was one of the reasons the out-of-town thing had worked so well. There was no chance to get to the point of empty promises.

She’d never been fastidious about keeping work and personal life separate, dating a few people she’d met on set. But never during production. And it’s not like she and Josh had dated. They’d known each other for nine hours, which was spent silent in movies, arguing about the movies, then rolling around in bed. Or him pinning her against the wall. Or on the floor on the way to the bed.

Cass dropped her head into her hands. “He’d made it clear he had no interest in being anything other than being strictly professional. Plus, that was months ago. If he can forget about it, so can I.”

“Can you though?”

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