by Bianca D’Arc
She’d gotten tongue-tied on meeting him. So much so that she’d forgotten her newly shortened name. It was Kat now. Kat Valiant was her new stage name. Shortened by her agent, Mel, to be more commercial. She’d gotten a shiny new union card with that name on it, gained through some arcane means on a less-said-the-better basis, and a fully executed contract. Katrina had shown up at the designated place in Virginia at the designated time and found the director, Sonia, already there.
Before the reading, Sonia had introduced her to Francesca, the makeup artist, who was simply stunning. Katrina felt short and plain next to the tall, auburn-haired beauty. Francesca wore her makeup expertly, which Katrina supposed was only to be expected. Still, she had to have some amazing bone structure beneath the paint to pull off such a sophisticated look. Katrina had wondered why Francesca wasn’t an actress or model. She definitely had the looks for it.
Sonia had also introduced Deidre, the sound engineer, who was another stunner, tall and graceful. She had smiled almost shyly at Katrina and put her at ease.
“You have a nice voice,” Deidre had told her in a quiet, gentle tone. “I’ll make sure you sound your best,” she had promised with an encouraging smile, which had set Katrina at ease. The people were nice and so far, they’d been incredibly welcoming.
There was a behemoth of a man named Clive Rojas, who was playing the role of Little John, who had been friendly and kind. Dennis Portnoy was another of the actors, who was playing the part of Friar Tuck. He was older, but no less handsome or fit. He’d have to wear padding to play the part of the portly friar. The others were no less striking. Every single member of the cast present at the reading was one of the beautiful people. She guessed she shouldn’t be too surprised. They were all actors, after all.
Still, Katrina couldn’t help but feel a bit plain next to all the tall and incredibly good-looking people in this room. She wondered why in the world she’d been cast as Maid Marian with women who looked like these readily available. Average height at five-foot-five, Katrina felt tiny around all the six-footers. Each had remarkable looks—lustrous dark hair or shiny blonde or red. Nobody had mousey brown, except Katrina. And nobody had plain brown eyes, except Katrina, either.
Were they all wearing contacts? She thought that was a bit extreme, though she supposed almost all of them had augmented their hair color in some way. The men were just handsome and fit, and the women wore their clothes and makeup to perfection. It was a skill Katrina had tried to gain, and she thought she did well enough, but compared to these beauties, she felt like a shadow.
Still. She was playing Maid Marian. There had to be a reason Sonia had chosen her. Katrina tried to find her confidence in that.
But it was hard to keep the confidence going when she looked over at her leading man, Rendall Smith. Katrina sincerely hoped she didn’t make a ninny out of herself during this production. She wanted so much to play it cool, but she wasn’t sure she could contain her enthusiasm.
She’d heard Ren could be a bit of a cold customer where fans were concerned. Katrina wasn’t sure if that coolness would extend to his fellow actors, but he was the biggest name on this project. He could behave any way he wanted, and it would probably go unremarked.
She just hoped he remained friendly. Or, at least, not cold. She didn’t expect to be the man’s best friend, but it would help her acting if he was at least comfortable to be around. Especially when, later in the script, she’d have to kiss him.
Her toes tingled just thinking about it. She was getting paid to snog Rendall Smith!
One of the most handsome men she’d ever seen. His hair was dark and straight. He’d worn it all different ways in different movies and it always looked good because he had a symmetrical face with a strong jaw, straight nose, chiseled cheekbones the cameras loved, and those mysterious green eyes that were almost unearthly. She suspected he’d have longer hair for this role and she couldn’t wait to see it. Maybe she’d even get a chance to run her fingers through his hair in the more intimate scenes. Now wasn’t that something to think about!
How in the world was she going to act alongside him, knowing what was coming later in the script? How would she be able to keep her very real attraction under wraps? She’d die of embarrassment if he ever figured out just how much of a crush she still had on him. She hadn’t even realized it herself. Not until now. Sitting next to him in a room full of professional actors.
She it felt like such a fraud. She wasn’t a professional. She’d barely been an amateur when she gave up acting in order to pay the bills. She’d put away her dreams and taken the job her parents had offered. The job they had mapped out for her—along with the rest of her life.
In her parents’ minds, she would work at the trattoria and find a nice young man, at some point. Preferably someone who liked Italian food and had some sort of skill that might come in handy for the restaurant. An accountant would work. He could help them keep the books and file taxes. A lawyer would work for them, too. If she managed to hook a great chef, she knew her folks would be overjoyed.
Then, when her folks were ready for retirement, they would hand over the reins to her and her future husband. They had it all worked out. Unfortunately, Katrina had never envisioned her parents’ hopes for her would actually turn out as they had planned. She’d prayed they wouldn’t.
Katrina had always wanted to work in the arts. She’d studied voice and acting in school. Her parents had indulged her whims, as long as she kept working part-time for them. They might have preferred her to study business a bit more seriously, but they had also been proud of her abilities to entertain. She gave them credit for always being there, at her performances. They’d always brought her flowers on opening night of any production she’d been in. They’d even catered cast parties and showcased photos of her in her various roles on the walls of the restaurant.
But, after she graduated from school and tried for a couple of years to make it as a professional in Manhattan, and failed… Well, they’d been there to help her pick up the pieces. They loved her, and she loved them. They just never fully realized how important theatre had been to her.
Oh, they’d made all the right noises about supporting her career choice, but she knew they hadn’t really been surprised when she’d failed to be able to support herself. It had been a bitter pill to swallow, going back to the restaurant. Giving up on her dreams. Taking the job they had always wanted her to have and conforming to their ideas of how her future should unfold.
Then, out of the blue, Sonia had walked into her life and changed it forever. Even if this production didn’t work out the way she hoped, Katrina knew she could never go back to the restaurant. Not after getting a taste of what it was really like to be part of a film production.
She’d find a way—even if this didn’t work out—to stay in the field, somehow. But, if her fairy godmother had her way, Katrina’s career might very well be launched in the right direction, in the next couple of months. The stars were finally aligning in her favor, and not just the celestial ones. Having a movie star of Rendall Smith’s caliber as her very first leading man in a screen role was downright magical.
As his voice washed over her from just a few feet away, she almost wanted to pinch herself to be absolutely certain she wasn’t dreaming. He was magic. His presence—his sheer star power—was going to make this film a raging success. She could feel it in her bones.
If she could just live up to his standard, and not make a fool of herself in some way, she might just be able to make a name for herself out of this project. At the very least, it was finally—finally—a real screen credit she could put on her resume. At long last, she was finally a professional actor, earning a real wage in pursuit of her craft. Acting alongside some amazing performers, though of course, in her mind, they were all eclipsed by him. Ren. Sexy, studly, stupefying Ren. Lord have mercy.
Chapter Two
Ren could feel her thinking about him. Of course, that didn’t make any sense at all. Clairvoyance and min
d reading had never been among his many gifts. Still, something made him think Kat was sitting there, all prim and proper, thinking about him.
He knew he would have to kiss her as part of the script. The climactic love scene wasn’t completely risqué, but it wasn’t tame, either. There were a couple of other steamy spots in the story, as well, but the climactic love scene was the longest and most detailed. It came near the end of the movie. The big payoff for the emotional story line, right before the final battle scene.
Sonia had pared down the shooting schedule to keep costs as low as possible and take advantage of a short break in his own scheduled commitments. They were going to film everything in just a few weeks. Sonia would then work with the post-production team, calling on the actors only when necessary to fix something.
Ren had intended to spend these precious weeks off with his Clan on Jaguar Island, where he kept a residence. Only his desire to help Sonia get established—and his Alpha’s request that he do all in his power to help her—had made him change his plans. Ren wasn’t stuck up about his success, but he knew this movie didn’t have much of a chance of gaining international attention without his presence. Sonia had been quietly earning a name for herself, but she needed that one big success to really launch her into prominence.
Billionaire Mark Pepard, who also happened to be the jaguar Alpha, had prevailed on Ren to help her out. Sonia had been a key ally for the forces of Light the last time they had faced off against the Destroyer of Worlds. Sonia had come back to the mortal realm due to the rumors of the Destroyer’s return. So far, the Destroyer—a fey sorceress named Elspeth—had not shown herself, but many were coming to believe that she had, indeed, found a way back to the mortal realm from her banishment.
There was no way to be absolutely certain Elspeth was back until she showed herself in some way, but the signs were ominous. Her followers in the ancient order of the Venifucus brotherhood were growing ever more active and bold in their actions. The evil group had been thought to be extinct, but they had come back strong. Perhaps, stronger than ever, which boded ill for the side of Light.
The jaguar people were making a comeback of sorts, as well. They had been decimated by the drug wars in South America, but the billionaire Alpha of the Clan had created an oasis in the middle of the ocean. An island in the Atlantic, where jaguar shifters could gather and live in peace, well protected from the outside world that had done them so much harm.
There were isolated pockets of jaguars in several places around the world, but Mark Pepard had designed his island as a place where all jaguars would be welcome. He’d extended the invitation to Ren early on, and Ren had built a lovely little retreat on the inside curve of the crater that was, in truth, an inactive volcano, which formed the island. Ren fully intended to retire there sooner, rather than later, and live out the rest of his life in obscurity.
His face had become just a little too recognizable. He was a big bucks movie star—something he had never really intended when he’d fallen into the acting lifestyle decades before. He’d hoped to make a little money and enjoy the high life while he could, but despite his best intentions, he’d become an international superstar. People were already talking about how well he’d aged. Unlike the regular human actors he worked with, his face and body weren’t showing the passage of time. Shifters didn’t age like humans. Barring accidents or warfare, they could live for a few centuries in prime condition.
Ren would have to retire at some point and reinvent himself in a way that didn’t draw attention. He’d go to the island and live there for a few decades until the press had forgotten him, if possible. If not, he’d fake his death and perhaps come back as his own son, or something, in due time. He really wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but he had options thanks to Mark Pepard and the rest of the jaguar Clan.
For now, he was going to enjoy this movie. The human they’d cast as his co-star intrigued him. He wasn’t sure why, but he was a cat at heart, and curiosity was part of his nature. He just hoped that old saying about curiosity killing the cat didn’t hold true in this instance.
The table read progressed to its end. They had glossed over the action scenes and those troubling love scenes and mushy moments, focusing instead on the dialog. Even so, Ren felt distinctly uncomfortable when his character declared his love for Maid Marian. Suddenly, everything felt just a little bit too real.
It didn’t make any sense. Ren had performed similar scenes—some much more detailed and erotic—throughout his career, with various women. Never before had he felt this strange sensation. Like something that was almost real but wasn’t. He knew his world was one of illusion. He was paid to make people believe that he was the hero, the predator, the gangster, the joker. Whatever the role he was playing, he played it to the fullest.
For the first time, he almost…not quite, but almost…wanted it to be real. Not consciously, but somewhere within, he felt the rightness of the words as he read them off the page and spoke them into existence. It was befuddling. Bemusing. Completely at odds with the reality of the situation.
He was Robin Hood to this stranger’s Maid Marian. The hero. The scoundrel. The archetype that stole from the rich to give to the poor. A character of contradictions, not unlike Ren himself, in some ways.
Perhaps that was it. Maybe Ren was identifying a little too closely with the character he was being paid to portray. It hadn’t happened often in his long career, but occasionally, especially when he had first started acting seriously, there had been spill over into his real life. The characters he was playing for the cameras had influenced who he was when he was off the set.
There had been barroom brawls that mirrored the ones written in scripts. There had also been romances with eminently unsuitable women who had become way too clingy. He’d been a heartbreaker. He knew that and accepted it. Sometimes, he hadn’t been the nicest of guys. Which was another reason to avoid this human female.
He didn’t like hurting people. He especially didn’t like trampling on the emotions of women who made the mistake of thinking he was for them. Oh, he was a killer. The jaguar inside him could not be tamed like some house cat. It liked to hunt, and it liked the victory of the kill, but he never toyed with his victims. If he was going to bring down a deer, he did it cleanly and as quickly as possible. And one thing was sacred—he never hunted human prey, neither physically nor emotionally. Which was why he never got involved too deeply with human women.
Not anymore, at least. Ren had unintentionally broken enough hearts in his youth. He was done with that kind of behavior. But this woman… This fragile human woman… She made him think things that he should not be thinking. Not about a human.
Ren felt relieved when the table read ended. He wanted to get away from his troubling thoughts and the even more perplexing woman seated at his side. He couldn’t just leave, however. He had to stick around for a few minutes to make small talk with the other actors. It was expected. Especially now, with his fame shadowing him like a malevolent beast, he had to make nice with the others, so they wouldn’t make assumptions.
Misunderstandings could become toxic on a close set like this. If some of the others, who didn’t know him as well as his Clanmates, got the wrong idea about him, it could cause untold friction. Worse, if the tabloids got hold of the story, they could do lots of damage to his reputation.
In the long run, it wouldn’t matter when he retired and left the spotlight, but for right now, he wanted the set to be comfortable and welcoming to all. He didn’t, however, have to make small talk with his co-star. He used the excuse of chatting with friends he hadn’t seen in a while to avoid her, for the most part.
She was a shy little thing, so that helped, as well. Kat showed she wasn’t the type to horn in on a conversation, so she mostly stayed in the background. She talked to Sonia, of course. Sonia, in turn, introduced her to some of the others, and they kept her busy enough. Though, why Ren noted all of this remained a mystery to him.
It was like
he was hyper-aware of the woman. He didn’t understand why. What was it about this human—this fragile being—that made him want to make sure she was all right? Protective instincts he had managed to curtail while operating mostly in the human world began to reassert themselves.
Why now? Why her? What did it all mean?
Katrina felt really strange as the table read came to an end. She was getting all kinds of weird vibes from her co-star. Maybe it was just her imagination, because she still felt a bit overwhelmed at the idea of working with him. He was such a big star. For her first steps back on the acting stage, so to speak, to be with someone of his stature was definitely intimidating.
He was chatting with everyone, apparently having many old friends among the cast. He seemed friendly enough, but he hadn’t spoken much to her outside the very intimate lines of the script. She had to admit, when he’d turned toward her at one point and declared his love as Robin to her Marian, her little heart had gone pitter-pat.
He really was a good actor. Even at a table read, the richness of his voice and the tonality of his words impacted her. She couldn’t even think about how it would be when they were both in costume and on the set, ready for a real take. She’d probably stutter and mess everything up at least a dozen times.
Gah! She hoped not. She didn’t want to be the amateur among this group of professionals, but unfortunately, that’s exactly what she was. Sonia came to her rescue as Ren went to talk with his old friends. She brought some of the other women in the cast over to meet her, and Katrina spent a few minutes learning about the other women who had speaking roles in this movie.
Traditionally, the story of Robin Hood was more male-centric with the band of Merry Men and all the action and fight scenes, but this script created a few more opportunities for female roles than previous versions. Katrina was glad she wasn’t the only woman in the production with a serious part to play.
An older lady named Kara Taran was playing the tavern lady who helped hide the Merry Men when they went into town. Kara had been in several movies in the past few years that Katrina had seen. She knew the woman had proper acting chops, and even so, she made Katrina feel welcome. She had a motherly look about her, which was perfect for the role of the tavern lady.