Page 13 of Behind the Scenes
. . .
All things happened for a reason.
I believed it down to my core. Every move I made had gotten me to where I was in life and one step closer toher.
I had originally been pissed off that I was forced to stay for more scenes. I even told my manager to cancel the whole thing, but he reminded me how long it took to get a chance to star in something that had the possibility to be as successful as this.
I hated when he was right. I would have fired him long ago if it weren’t for his incredible connections. No one else at the agency knew as many people as he did—even though I wasn’t sure how—but it was enough for me not to butt heads with him that much.
His cockiness and the shady things he’d done with my contracts and money were enough to put him on my shit list, and he was lucky I made an unreasonable amount of money to overlook the theft.
And the director… Well, he was another being altogether. In his entire career, he had never failed. All the movies he’d made had been the talk of the entire industry and earned everyone millions. To be part of something he was filming was no small feat.
So no matter how annoying and demandingthey were, for my own career, I needed to listen. But it hadn’t been the reasoning or the chance at starring in something that could change the course of my life that had made me pause and rethink what I was doing.
It was his words.
What’s gotten into you? You’re about to blow up everything you’ve worked for, and for what?
A part of me—alargepart, if I was being honest—didn’t give a fuck. But then there was my more rational side, reminding me that my career was the only reason I had been able to lie as low as I haveandlive comfortably.
It was my cover. One that had taken years to curate and gave me the power to do whatever I wanted. Since I had such a well-put-together mask, no one looked twice at what I did in the darkness. I had to be careful. Had to move in silence.
But I was also too blinded by love to remember that. From the moment I saw her, Laura had been a constant in my mind.
What did Laura eat today?
Did she have a trial?
Did any of her clients threaten her?
I couldn’t stop my thoughts fromalwaysleading toward her. Even as I was angrily stewing in my trailer, wondering if she liked my present was all I could think about.
But everything I’d done up until then would be wasted if I continued to blow my cover. Besides, Laura wouldn’t want an unemployed, broke psychopath as a partner.
She deserved more.
So instead of taking my anger out on the cast and crew after hours of filming, I took a break in my trailer.
Another sign from the universe.
Because if I hadn’t been lying on my couch, how would I have had the pleasure of meeting the love of my life in person for the first time?
She came into the trailer like a deadly force, throwing open the door and slamming it against the wall. She didn’t bother closing it as she looked at me, frowning with her hands on her hips.
The sun was setting behind her and complemented her skin beautifully. Her hair was still up in her high ponytail, and her deep blue eyes were narrowed right at me.
She was a vision, and she wasfinallyclose enough to touch. Not that anything in the way she looked gave me the impression that she wanted me to touch her.
Baby steps.
Her sudden appearance had knocked the breath out of me, and her glare pinned me to the couch. So I resorted to words.
“If you wanted to see me so badly, darling, I would have sent a plane?—”
She dug into her purse as she crossed the trailer and dropped a heavy stack of papers right over my chest. If my breath hadn’t already been knocked from my lungs at the sight of her, that would surely have done it.
“One, I’m not yourdarling. Two, I’m not taking you on as a client,” she growled, weaving every ounce of venom in her body into her words. “And three,thisis a restraining order. One more attempted contact, and I’ll be seeing you in court. I wonder what your fans will think when they realize how much of a psycho you really are.”
