Page 1 of Star Pupil

Prologue

Griffin

Growing up in Hollywood, I’d seen plenty of beautiful women throughout my life. I’d even dated my fair share of them. But nothing could have prepared me for the effect Avery Rose had on me. She’d been discovered in a Midwestern shopping mall of all places, plucked out of obscurity to be cast in one of the leading roles of a teen action movie with a blockbuster budget.

Along with everyone else connected to the movie business, I’d heard about the young beauty who was being called the next up-and-coming starlet. I knew I’d bump into her at one point or another, Hollywood was like a small town in many ways, but I hadn’t bothered to listen to the gossip surrounding her since I knew most of it tended to be exaggerated bullshit. I also didn’t want it to color my impression of her since my company was going to be in charge of the education and welfare of all the minors in the movie while they were on set during filming.

Maybe if I’d paid more attention to the talk about Avery, I wouldn’t have reacted the way I had. The moment I spotted her across the studio’s lot, I froze in my tracks and stopped mid-sentence in the middle of a conversation. With her wavy dark hair, pale skin, wide blue eyes, and curvy figure, she was an intriguing combination of sensual innocence. I felt the punch of attraction from more than thirty feet away.

The timing was impossible. She was three months away from her eighteenth birthday—too fucking young for my twenty-seven years—but it didn’t stop my obsession from starting. I wanted her as my own, and I was damn well going to figure out a way to make it happen.

“Mr. Stone.” The production assistant tugged on my arm to regain my attention.

“What?” I snapped, tearing my gaze away from Avery.

“I’m supposed to get your approval on the classroom space before the set teacher you assigned us brings the actors back here as part of their tour.”

“She’s one of the teachers. There will be another teacher working with her who starts tomorrow,” I corrected distractedly, following him through the lot and into a room which was set-up with computers and desks. It was nicer than most spaces we were given, but it was about what I’d been expecting considering my connection to the studio and the number of minors on set. A quick scan of the room confirmed it would be sufficient.

“The classroom is fine,” I told the assistant. He hurried away, presumably to tackle another item on his long list of things that needed to be accomplished immediately.

I sauntered down the hall until I was far enough away from the classroom that I could keep my eye on it without being too obvious about it. My phone vibrated in my pocket, but I ignored it as a small group neared the doorway. Avery hung towards the back, holding the hand of the seven-year-old who was slated to play her little sister. The two teenage actresses who had been hired to play her best friends were busy flirting with the boy who was going to play opposite Avery. Even with his hands full, he still managed to sneak glances back towards Avery.

“Little shit,” I grumbled, making a mental note to get my hands on a copy of the script to make sure the fucker didn’t have the chance to get his lips on my girl.

My girl.Damn. The world as I knew it really had shifted beneath my feet if I was this territorial over a woman I’d not even officially met. Hell, over any female, since I’d never been possessive with anyone else in the past. But as I stared at her ass, mesmerized by the sway of her hips, I wasn’t bothered in the least by the change in my perspective. In fact, it seemed I was ready to embrace my inner caveman.

Yanking my phone from my pocket, I headed out of the building to my car. After I slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine, I punched in the number to my office.

“Stone Studio Teachers,” my assistant answered.

“I’m headed back into the office earlier than planned, Olivia. I’ll need the files for all of our available teachers on my desk. I need to find someone new to take the second spot on theNippedcontract.”

“But the students will be on set starting tomorrow!” she complained. “What happened to Mark? He didn’t say anything to me about not being able to take the job when he was here yesterday.”

“I’ll make it up to Mark, but this particular contract won’t do for him. They need all female instructors for this project.”

“Since when?” she asked. “There was no mention of it in any of the paperwork the studio sent over.”

“Since now,” I growled, leaving out the fact that I was the one who wasn’t okay with a male teacher being that close to Avery. Especially not one who was a few years younger than me and looked like Mark did. Maybe if he was forty years older—no, even then I wouldn’t have been okay with it. While I was at it, I planned to pick someone motherly who was willing to keep an eye on Avery for me. And once that was done, there were a few other things I needed to do to make sure the path to my girl remained clear when she turned eighteen.

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