by E V Darcy
It was true he wasn’t supposed to be there, but when he’d heard the others talking about Paige coming to shoot this thing, he’d found himself heading in on his day off…
Pete glanced between Paige and Casey before nodding and darting away again.
‘They can’t do a behind-the-scenes sneak-peek without you,’ she protested as she turned to face him. Casey found it endearing that she was so offended on his behalf. He was used to shit like this. It wasn’t a coincidence they’d scheduled the promo to be filmed when he wasn’t supposed to be there. After all, he only got on the Destiny promos because the fans demanded it when he was missed off the first few.
He also knew exactly what the Network was using him for with Legacy. He was merely the hook for the Destiny fans to start watching, so he’d be surprised if his character lived past the first season. Tristan would probably become a solo lead after that, his character carrying on to avenge his partner’s demise.
Fans would eat that crap up and ask for more.
‘They can, and they will.’
‘But—’
‘Paige, drop it.’ He hadn’t meant to snap and he realised his mistake right away when she shrank back into her seat, but he knew his lot in life. He knew that he’d created the animosity between him and the Network years ago, that it was his own fault they treated him the way they did. It had taken being trapped under a hotel for him to realise he’d screwed up his career. It wasn’t that he wasn’t good enough, and it wasn’t that he hadn’t had the opportunities either; it was simply him.
‘Sorry,’ he said to her with a sigh.
‘Its okay,’ she said meekly.
‘No, it’s not.’ He shook his head. ‘Look, there’s this big party tonight, being thrown by the producers to celebrate the premier going out. There’ll be food, the show will be aired and afterwards we’ll have music and plenty of free booze—’ He cut himself off as he realised who he was talking to. ‘Well you get the idea. It should be fun, why don’t you come along?’
She gave him a small, almost apologetic smile. ‘Tristan’s already invited me.’
Of fucking course, he had.
‘Well, guess I’ll see you there then,’ he said with false joviality. ‘I’ve gotta go and see wardrobe. They asked me to pop in for a fitting when they saw me earlier.’
‘Okay,’ she said, and he could tell by that single word that she didn’t for one moment believe him. ‘See you later.’
He smiled and hurried away, cursing himself all the while.
Casey watched from across the lot as Paige finished the interviews. A few writers, the show runner, the pilot director, a couple of the regulars, and Tristan had all been questioned—some longer than others—and each one had been… professional, was the word he’d settled on. Paige had done a good job; she’d been friendly, her questions engaging and relevant, but unless they were going to perform a miracle post-production, the whole thing felt very flat. By the way her shoulders slumped after her director yelled cut on Tristan’s interview, he suspected she felt the same.
He watched as Tristan leaned over and pressed a kiss to Paige’s cheek, patting her on the arm before jumping from his seat. He shook the director’s hand as they sauntered towards where his gang of groupies congregated. He said something that made them all fall about in laughter. Casey shook his head and turned back to watching Paige as she walked around the set, talking to the camera.
She was a natural in front of it, which amused him, as she was always nervous beforehand. He’d seen her on an number of occasions, trying to calm herself right up to the second the camera started recording. But as soon as that red light went on… Boom! It was as if she was born to be there.
He gave her a casual wave as she spotted him; she paused for a second before motioning to her cameraman to follow her. She started to head towards him. What the fuck was she doing?
‘Oh, look who’s here!’ she said with mock surprise, hamming it up for the audience. ‘Casey McManaman. Imagine seeing you here.’ He smirked at her antics but shook his head. He appreciated the thought, but there was no way they’d include any of this.
‘You’d think I worked here or something,’ he replied. She grinned broadly at him.
‘No one actually thinks you work, Casey,’ she told him with a wink.
‘It’s because I make it look easy.’
‘You are easy,’ she laughed. The comment was so flyaway, a flirtation, something he’d heard a million times before. Hell, it was something he’d said thousands of times over, but hearing her say those three little words twisted something with him.
He glanced towards Tristan, to where he was probably regaling his fan club with more lewd tales of his and Paige’s bedroom escapades, and suddenly his own life appeared before him. It was filled to the brim with people and laughter, yet completely empty, devoid of anything meaningful. He glanced back to Paige, to her growing stomach and wondered how different his life would have been had Rabhya been honest with him. Hell, he wondered how different these last few months would have been had Paige’s baby been his.
‘Casey?’ Paige asked hesitantly, dropping her microphone and stepping towards him. He shook himself out of his thoughts and looked at her properly. She was smart, strong, beautiful, and feisty. He imagined her after the birth, with her babe in her arms, smiling up at him with her big green eyes, warmth shining within them. He’d bend down, press a kiss to her pink lips, wrapping her arm around her and the baby, protecting them, loving them.
His chest tightened at the thought, and it wasn’t with fear as it had been a thousand times before. No, this time it was emptiness, a longing for something he couldn’t have…
He’d already lost her, but what if he could salvage something of his life?
He narrowed his eyes as he looked at the camera.
‘Nah, people really wouldn’t say I was easy—at least not to work with. Nick will vouch for that…’
19
Paige had not been staring at the doorway all evening just waiting for Casey to arrive. Nope. She certainly hadn’t ensured she positioned herself in every group she and Tristan joined, just so that she’d be able to see who entered and left… Na-ah. No sir-ee!
And she certainly wasn’t not listening to the conversations going on around her… She blinked as she realised that was a double negative. Damn. She was confusing herself.
But all that didn’t matter. Because, when Casey walked in, she forgot everything but him. He was dressed in another navy blue, three-piece suit, white shirt, and a thin silver tie—actually fastened this time—decorated his neck.
‘Excuse me,’ she said to no one in particular in the group. She didn’t see Tristan raise his brow at her leaving, but she felt his gaze on her back as she made her way across the room towards his co-star. Although, that sensation could have been caused by any one of the one hundred pairs focused on she and Casey as they approached one another.
She’d never had a moment like it before. It was what fairy tales described. Eyes locking across a crowded room, the world melting away, the music stopping, and only the two of them existing in that moment.
If only that were the truth. If only they could go back to the hotel, to being trapped, just the two of them. It had been so easy then, no complications, just the two of them without all the bullshit everyone else brought into their lives.
‘Hey, Kitten,’ Casey said as a slow sexy smile spread across his lips. His eyes took her in, his gaze sliding down over her body. It almost felt like a physical touch, as if his fingers were trailing down her skin, over her breasts, to her stomach. Usually, he turned away or quickly met her gaze again when he saw the roundness of her belly, but now his eyes lingered and Paige felt her breath catch as she saw heat within them. She’d seen it before, almost every time they met; there was that dark desire deep within them, but it was always smothered the moment he saw her pregnant stomach. This time, the heat not only held, it seemed to ignite further and stole her breath as his eyes
met hers again.
‘I didn’t think you were going to make it, after all,’ she said, breathily. ‘I’m glad you did.’
‘Me too,’ his voice was still low, deepened by his desire for her. She took in a shaky breath as he reached out a finger to trace the line of her jaw.
‘You look good.’
‘Thank you,’ she murmured, closing her eyes as his finger reached her chin, and his thumb caressed her lip. She didn’t think as she pressed a kiss to the pad of his thumb, but knew she’d done the right thing as she heard the sharp inhale of his breath.
‘Kitten,’ he murmured, as he stepped closer. His other hand brushed her hair over her shoulder, before tracing a line up her neck and cupping her face. She turned in to his touch, had craved it, wanted it, and now she had it she wanted more. She didn’t care how many people were watching, what they thought; she wanted his lips on hers, tasting her, owning her. She wanted him pressed against her, to feel every hard line of his body as she moulded herself against him, allowing him to take control and—
‘Casey,’ Tristan’s cool voice greeted his co-star. Paige’s eyes flew open as she gasped for breath. Dammit, he’d been so close, a fraction of a second longer and he’d have claimed her once more, and by God would she have been a willing sacrifice. ‘Good to see you made it.’
‘Wouldn’t miss it for the world,’ Casey replied, looking up at the man that stood behind her. He held the man’s gaze as his thumb continued to caress Paige’s jaw. Her heart was racing, her chest heaving for breath and she wanted him to look at her, to kiss her and finish what he’d started. But, slowly, he stood back to full height, and without glancing at her again, his hand dropped away as he took a step back.
She wanted to cry out at the injustice of it, wanted to turn around and rage at Tristan for interrupting what could have been their moment, the pinpoint in time that rectified everything that had gone wrong between them.
‘I see you brought your friends,’ Tristan said, as he put his hand on the small of Paige’s back. She stiffened under his touch, feeling how wrong it was compared to that of the man in front of her.
‘Yes,’ Casey replied. ‘I’m sure you know Marc…’ Paige’s eyes glanced at the man who stepped up to his right. ‘And his girlfriend, Ellie Roscoe,’ Casey carried on as Ellie appeared on his left. They flanked him like a pair of bodyguards, ready to do battle at a moment’s notice for their friend.
‘A pleasure,’ Tristan said but didn’t offer his hand. ‘Paige, I wanted to introduce you to Benedict. Excuse us, Casey.’ Paige opened her mouth to protest, but Casey beat her to it.
‘Enjoy.’
With one simple word, she was dismissed.
‘Marc, Miss Roscoe,’ Tristan added. With a small push of pressure, he directed her towards another group of actors he knew—ones who had nothing to do with the show, but who had come to support him.
She met them in a haze, Casey’s actions the cause of the confusion clouding her mind. She nodded and smiled in what she thought were all the right places, as she tried to make sense of the strangest day she’d had in a long time.
For months, she’d been thinking that Casey had spoken the truth that night when they’d been reunited; that he had wanted her in his life, but not if it came laden with a babe, no matter if it was his own flesh and blood. However, the way he had spoken earlier that day… If he ever had a child…
Did that mean he hadn’t understood that the baby was his, and that he hadn’t realised when she’d told him she was pregnant, she’d been trying to say he was the father? Her whole world had shifted with that thought; the idea he believed her to be carrying someone else's baby—possibly Daniel’s considering he thought she’d run back to him—sickened her to the core. Made her want to slap him for thinking so ill of her, but at the same time pin him to the nearest surface and show him he was the only man for her… or maybe let him show her. She smirked at that thought.
‘Paige?’ Tristan’s voice interrupted her thoughts.
‘Hmmm?’ she asked turning to face him.
‘Are you okay? You seem to be somewhere else.’
‘Oh,’ she said, blinking, remembering where she was and who she was with. Tristan had become a good friend over the last few weeks, but he had terrible timing—both in her thoughts and in reality. Who the hell interrupts what is clearly an intimate moment between two people—no matter how public it might be?—especially when she’d poured her heart out to him about how much it hurt that Casey hadn’t wanted her and their child.
Unless… Perhaps he had thought he was saving her from more heartbreak, from Casey using her for a night of pleasure before throwing her away. It both endeared her to her friend and made her want to throttle him. She’d take a night with Casey, with him using her whenever he wanted, just to be able to have him in some way.
Dammit, that was not healthy.
She rubbed the back of her hand over her forehead, pushing some of her hair out of her eyes as she peered at Tristan. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said with a small smile. ‘My back is starting to twinge, I need to sit down.’ The group of men was gracious enough to let her leave with only a murmur of disappointment and a frown from Tristan as she left his circle of friends. She made her way across the room to a small booth she’d seen earlier in the evening, right in the corner where she’d be able to watch the party without being disturbed.
‘Oh!’ she exclaimed as she approached. Casey and his small entourage sat within its confines, looking as if they’d been in the middle of a deep conversation that she’d interrupted. ‘I’m sorry,’ she apologised. ‘I didn’t realise this would be taken.’
‘Really?’ Marc said, with a raised brow, quickly raising his drink. ‘It’s the best seat in this place. I’m surprised we managed to grab it before anyone else.’
‘I think the guest list is favourable to a rather specific set of people,’ Ellie mused before taking a sip of her own drink, peeking around the pillar that hid them so well, and looking towards the rest of the room. ‘It seems more of a party to be seen at; hiding and private conversations aren’t the raison d'etre of the night.’
‘Yeah,’ Paige said, glancing between them. While she’d met many stars over the last couple of months thanks to The After Show, this was Marc Matthews, one of the biggest stars in Hollywood! She’d barely managed to speak to him at the convention due to being awestruck, asking only one question during his Meet and Greet, much to her then editor’s disappointment.
‘Why don’t you join us?’ Ellie said as she set her drink down and gestured to the side of the booth opposite, next to where Casey sat. Paige glanced at the quiet man, who kept his eyes on his drink as if he were trying to remain invisible.
‘Um, I don’t think—’
‘Please,’ Marc said. ‘We insist. What are you drinking?’
‘I’ll get it,’ Casey said quickly, hauling himself out of his seat and hurrying to the bar before she had even said what she wanted.
‘I’m Ellie,’ the woman next to Marc said with a smile. Paige took that as her cue to sit down and carefully scooted into the booth opposite the couple.
‘Paige,’ she replied when she finally settled into her little corner.
‘I love your show,’ Ellie said enthusiastically. Paige sized the woman up, but only saw honesty in Ellie’s blue-grey eyes.
‘Thanks,’ she replied, unsure what she should really say to the duo. It wasn’t as if she knew them, although she could probably recite a million things about Marc if she happened to be questioned on him.
‘Seriously, it’s so good! You’re awesome at getting people to tell you things. I keep telling Marc he needs to go on it.’
‘Like hell!’ Marc said with a laugh. ‘God knows what she’d get out of me! And I’ve had enough revealed about my life in the last few months, thank you very much.’
Paige couldn’t help the smile that spread across her lips at his good nature. While he’d been one of the boys in his earlier years, he’d become ver
y secluded over the past decade or so. He’d come out of his shell a little at the Desti-nation convention but he was still very private, and it was something he’d begged the press to respect—not that they were listening. Only the week before, it had been reported that his new full security team had caught two reporters trying to sneak into the grounds of his mansion, trying to get a snap of the new little family unit he was forming with Ellie.
Damn, Paige would love to have him on the show, just to let him see that not every journalist was an asshole.
‘So, how come you’re hiding?’ Ellie asked, after a moments of silence. ‘Surely with a show like yours, networking would be high on your list of things to do?’
Paige frowned. ‘I’m not hiding,’ she protested. ‘My back was hurting, I needed to sit down.’
‘Yeah, I hear pregnancy causes all sorts of aches and pains.’ The other woman took a sip of her mojito, and for the first time since finding out she was pregnant, Paige felt the burning need for something much stronger than a soft drink. ‘How far along are you again?’
Paige’s stomach dropped at the genuine curiosity in the other woman’s question. It was another nail in the coffin that Casey hadn’t reached a total of two when he’d added one and one together that day in her hotel room.
Fuck.
‘Twenty weeks, give or take a day,’ she said carefully. Ellie nodded and smiled at her, but Paige saw Marc frown from the corner of her eye.
‘Isn’t that about the time you can find out the sex? Are you gonna?’
‘Yes,’ she told Ellie—had Casey not discussed anything with them? ‘I have an appointment this week to know if it’s a boy or a girl.’
Marc sudden straightening in his chair caught Paige’s attention and he stared at her with wide eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but Casey’s return halted the words in his mouth.
‘Here’s your coke,’ Casey said, scooting into the booth next to Paige. Had Marc’s horrified gaze not filtered between the two opposite him, Paige would have smiled widely at Casey’s return; he’d remembered what she’d said that morning, the little flyaway comment about what Blueberry made her crave. But Marc seemed to have put everything together, and she knew he’d made the connection; his friend was the father of Blueberry—why the fuck couldn’t Casey realise it too?