Page 17 of Between the Lines

She hadit, in droves, and was absolutely intent on proving it, to everybody.

The work ethic was sexy as hell, which made my commitment to on-set professionalism,especiallywith my female coworkers, just a little harder. As we developed a friendship…it got even worse, but I was committed to respecting the boundaries—thatwas the reputation I wanted, not the guy who dated a new person with every script.

And yet…it was a relief when she made the move to let me know she’d been feeling the same things.

By that time…I wanted herbad.

“Shaw,what?” Ellie said—repeated, actually, laughing at the fact that I’d been too immersed in my little trip down memory lane to realize I was just staring at her.

“Oh, my bad,” I recovered. “I was asking what you were about to get into?”

“My trailer, to change, then my car.” She smirked. “I’ve been set loose.”

“Loose enough to catch a very late lunch with me?”

Her eyes widened in surprise, but she shook her head. “Unfortunately not—today is PJ’s birthday,” she said, referring to her nephew who was actually theFourth, not a Junior, but since he and his father were the living Pierres…

“Already?” I asked. “Wow.”

“Well, one and a half years old—remember, the half-birthday thing my family does,” she explained. “The party isn’t until the full birthday, but today they’re doing cake, so I want to go love on him a bit.”

“Definitely understand that, Auntie Ellie,” I teased her. “Please tell him I said happy half-birthday.”

“I amnottelling him that,” she countered. “Cause thenmylittle half-birthday wishes won’t mean shit compared to one fromShadow Wolfhimself.”

My eyes went big. “Wow,” I chuckled. “Don’t do that.”

“Right—no one is supposed to know the secret identity.”

“Quit playing.”

“I’m notplaying. If I was playing, I’d tell you what everybody said about your shoulders in those leaked set pictures.”

I put a reflexive hand up to one. “What was said?”

“I’m not playing, so…”

“I see how you do,” I called after her as she walked away with a grin. I had to force myself not to watch her—the entire exchange had likely caught enough attention to be the source of gossip fodder.

I didn’t need that, and neither did she.

Not anymore.

It had been one of the most surprising things about her—she wasn’t shy by any means, but she didn’t want or need a bunch ofstuffhappening around her. Really, she craved peace. I’d noticed it on that first set with her, how much more observing she did than speaking, and it had actually been the catalyst for me striking up conversation outside of our characters.

I wanted to know what she was seeing.

That answer had been…everything.

The loss of her mother as a very young girl, her father and brother both battling with addiction, her attraction to people leading a pretty risky lifestyle…it all led to a unique sort of exhaustion she was trying to claw her way out of at the time we met.

I wasn’t sure Pierre even knew she swore getting that role had saved her life.

But she’d definitely been on the rise ever since.

I didn’t want to see anything get in the way of that—especially not anything related tome, not when I’d already done direct damage too.

We were in a good place.

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