by Noelle Adams
End up in a zombie costume and make juvenile faces at the girl he’d much rather get to know better. Check, check.
Starting his own company at age seventeen and becoming a multi-millionaire by twenty-one hadn’t deprived him of that much of his childhood—had it?
Ah, who cared? With her back turned, he could let his gaze detail Goldie’s new costume, and wow, what a difference. Wardrobe had replaced the drab, shapeless nurse’s uniform with a pair of three-inch red heels, tight jean Capri’s that showed off her legs and molded her cute backside, and a snug sleeveless red blouse with a small ruffle along the low scoop-neck that highlighted her ‘just-right’ upper assets. Her abundance of curls had been released from the starched nurse’s cap and spiraled down past her shoulders in a cascade of gold.
A transformation to rival Sandra D in Grease. Only thing missing was the leather jacket. His sentiments were vocalized in a horn-dog howl from the other half of Romantic Comedy, or RC as Russ had taken to calling the couple. In the absence of a real name, of which Zach had no interest in learning, he’d dubbed the gel-haired slime ball Slick.
“Yeah, baby, that’s what I’m talkin’ ‘bout,” Slick said.
Zach delighted in the look of dislike she cast in Slick’s direction. Bet she wished she’d let Zach defend her now, no matter what her age. From his vantage point, he saw his friend look up from his clipboard, spot Sadie, and hand his notes over to his assistant.
“All right,” Russ called over a loud hand clap. “Take your places everyone. RC, you’re in the desk in front of Zach.” He turned them both toward the aisle. Zach pointed to the desk in front of him while the redheaded director instructed Goldie, “I want you to sit on Arnie’s lap and when I call ‘action’, start…ah…sucking face.”
Zach couldn’t hold back a surprised snort of laughter at his friend’s unexpected humor. Russ threw him a smiling glance and shrugged his shoulders before clapping his hands again.
“Let’s do this!”
Slick strutted between the rows of desks, cow-chewing his gum like he was all that. Goldie remained at the front of the class like a deer caught in the headlights.
Russ snapped his fingers in front of her face with impatience. “RC means you.”
She blinked up at the director, like Goldilocks facing Papa Bear. Oh-oh, rescue time again. Zach put his fingers to his lips and released a shrill whistle. Everyone’s attention lit on him in the ensuing silence.
“Hop to it, Goldie,” he motioned her back, “before Russ crosses over to the dark side.”
She whipped a glance at the director, whose thick auburn eyebrows lowered into a frown, and then she scurried between the desks.
Artful make-up enhanced her pixie features and highlighted those large, sky-blue eyes. So darn cute and yet sexy at the same time. Now she looked like a Sadie.
Zach slouched an extra inch or so in his chair to settle in for the upcoming show. He shouldn’t take such pleasure in watching her squirm, but having expected Russ’s torture from their bet to be excruciating, she was making his day.
Slick took his seat and patted his lap when she approached. “Right here, sweet cheeks. Come to daddy.”
Ew. Zach grimaced. So much for enjoying the show. Above him, Sadie’s nose wrinkled like earlier when Russ first called for a volunteer, and she muttered, “Don’t make me throw up.”
Zach tried to catch her eye, not sure if he’d offer sympathy or an I-told-you-so smirk, but she avoided even a split-second glance at him as she gingerly perched on Slick’s leg.
No more than she sat, she leapt up to glare at the guy. “Watch your hands.”
Slick shrugged, a guiltless expression on his face.
“Waiting on you, RC,” Russ called out.
The cowboy in the neighboring desk added a disgruntled mutter, that was echoed by the female cop behind him. Though Zach didn’t buy Slick’s innocence any more than Sadie seemed to, he drummed his fingers on the desk. Best to keep the man in charge relatively happy.
“Sure you can handle this?” Zach asked in a low voice. “At this rate, we’ll be here all day.”
Color infused Sadie’s cheeks, but she still didn’t acknowledge his presence. She returned to Slick’s lap, her lips pressed in a thin line of determination. Her hands rose to his shoulders, and she shook her hair back over her slim shoulders. The movement thrust out her chest and Zach noticed Slick’s gaze drop—and stay.
A leer twisted the guy’s mouth while his right hand slid down to palm her butt. Zach tensed, fighting the unexpected urge to smack him upside the head. What did he care?
Sadie shot back to her feet.
Annoyance practically emanated from the front of the classroom. “Is there a problem?”
“No.” But then she straightened and faced the director’s glare. “Actually, yes there is. Tell him to keep his hands off my ass.”
Zach bit back a grin, surprised and glad she’d stood up for herself. His friend sighed, a huge expulsion of air that sounded through the whole room. He focused his gaze in their direction, but spoke to the entire classroom.
“I’m losing my patience. We’re on a schedule here people. Can we just be professional and get this thing done today?”
Sadie’s shoulders were rigid as she resumed her position without another word. Slick’s hands remained slightly above her waist this time.
“There we go, see how easy?” Russ encouraged with heavy sarcasm. After the snap of the clapperboard for take one, his deep voice boomed across the quiet set. “Ready…aaaand action.”
Dave, the actor playing the movie-rental supervisor, strode into the room to begin his spiel and Slick dove into his roll with enthusiasm to rival a kid in a pie-eating contest.
Poor Sadie’s face was the pie.
Zach’s eyebrows shot skyward as the guy upped his frantic pace and shoved his tongue inside her mouth. Disbelief bubbled up in his chest and escaped in a snort of laughter.
“Cut!”
Sadie jerked away and spit into the aisle. Zach nearly choked on his laughter when he saw the wad of Slick’s gum splat on the floor. He looked up to see Sadie mopping around her lips and chin with the back of her hand. Zach shifted his gaze from her grimace to find people up front frowning at him.
He tried to clear the smile from his face as he raised a hand and called out, “My fault, sorry.”
Suspicion narrowed his friend’s gaze, but he simply said, “Let’s take it from the top.”
The next take was a repeat of the first. Zach tried his damnedest, but he still couldn’t contain his amusement at the hyper-activity of Slick’s tongue. Supervisor Dave glowered over a pair of spectacles perched on the end of his nose and action halted again.
Zach finally received a look from Sadie. Her expression screamed, Shut the hell up!
“A grinning zombie doesn’t work for this shot, Zach.” Annoyance obvious, Russ added, “A laughing one is worse.”
“I know, sorry,” he repeated. Channeling his well-honed boardroom demeanor, he summoned his poker face.
The girl by the camera announced take three, lifted the clapperboard, and snapped the top strip down. Dave began again. With extreme effort, Zach held his expression neutral as Slick searched for the bottom of the pie crust while Sadie did her best to control the guy’s roving hands without outright ruining the shot.
Zach gave her an A for effort. From where he sat, the comedy in RC was more than evident in their kiss, but romance was sadly lacking. He tilted his head for a better angle and squinted in consideration.
Nope. Hell, even qualifying the action in front of him as a kiss was a stretch.
“Damn it, Zach. Cut!”
Sadie whipped around and her curls bounced about her shoulders. “You’re doing this on purpose,” she accused, blue eyes dark with fury. “Knock it off.”
Zach sat up straighter and lifted his palms up in a gesture of innocence. “I didn’t do anything this time.”
At the front of the classroom, Russ
crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re watching like they’re a porn video.”
He tossed a wry grin at the director. A twitch at the corner of his friend’s mouth told him Russ thought he was ruining takes on purpose and planned to fight fire with fire. But he wasn’t, and that comment was uncalled for. He’d never squinted at porn in his life.
Slick puffed up his chest and grinned when Zach’s gaze shifted to him. “Zombie-boy is jealous.”
Juvenile behavior definitely went with the set. Zach snorted, suddenly annoyed with the entire situation.
“Please. It’s like watching a virgin trying to French kiss without having a clue where the tongue goes.”
Indignant sputters erupted from Sadie. “I do not kiss like a virgin!”
Zach rolled his eyes. “Not you, Goldie. Him.”
Indignant sputters erupted from the other half of RC.
Zach sat forward and extended a placating hand. “Slick, seriously, you’re taking the term suck face way too literally,” he advised. “You look like a fricken’ octopus.”
He glanced toward the technical crew reviewing the previous take and turned his hand palm up with a lift of his shoulder. “How do you not see that?”
“And you think you could do better?” Russ asked.
“A dog could do better,” he retorted, only half joking.
“Hey!” Slick protested.
A thick auburn eyebrow cocked skyward. “Then you’re perfect for the job.”
“Hah. Funny.” Zach sat back and crossed his arms over his mangled chest. “No.”
“That wasn’t a request,” his buddy countered with a smug smile.
Sadie shot to her feet, giving Zach cause for instant reconsideration of further argument. Kissing her might be worth having his face plastered on national television. Not to mention he’d get another dose of her enticing scent.
She slapped at Slick’s lingering hand on her thigh before turning her gaze to the director. “Excuse me, don’t I get a say in this?”
“No,” he boomed.
Zach took a second to assess the situation. Fulfilling his side of the bet as a nameless, unrecognizable zombie was one thing. Being undisguised on-screen as the male half of RC was a whole different ball game. Especially since he had a whole slew of press interviews set up for tomorrow morning and he’d no longer be the reclusive, faceless owner of MovieMail. Russ knew it and was going for the throat, the vindictive bastard.
On the other hand, after tomorrow anyone who cared would know who he was, so did it really matter if his face was seen nationally in his own commercial? Negotiations with Truner would be completed by the time it was edited and aired, so it’s not like he would risk the acquisition.
Zach pushed up from the desk, hauled Slick to his feet and gave him a not-so-subtle shove toward the door.
Three
Sadie spent the time it took for Zach and Arnie to switch costumes waiting in RC’s assigned desk—after she’d gone to the bathroom to rinse her mouth a dozen times and chewed a handful of mints.
Her relief that someone noticed her partner’s utter ineptitude at kissing had been wiped out by the director’s edict. It was all Zach’s fault for goading her into this little horror film. Now she was going to be stuck kissing the nosy, arrogant zombie for the rest of the shoot. Yeah, he wouldn’t actually be a zombie anymore, but still, clothes didn’t change the jerk underneath.
Then again, could anyone be worse than the guy who took his ‘God’s gift to women’ delusions way too far? Even thirty minutes later, her vivid sensory recall of the first three saliva-drenched takes made her nauseous. And the gum.
Yech.
After a shudder of disgust, she lowered her forehead to her arms crossed atop the desk. Gemma was going to owe her more than ‘one’ for this day.
Truthfully, Zach’s first interruption had been a Godsend. But with the second disruption, she realized how miserable the hours would stretch if she had to endure take after take after take. Because Zach was right—a dog’s tongue would’ve been an improvement over Arnie’s slobbering appendage. Pretty Boy no longer fit, but Zach’s Slick sounded literally just right.
A pair of dark brown boots and denim-clad legs appeared in her peripheral vision.
“Ready, Goldie?”
Zach.
Please, God, don’t let him be an octopus. Then the damn nickname registered and she lifted her head to give him the evil eye.
Only she was the one who got an eyeful. Without the ratty gray wig, fake blood, and grotesque rotting flesh, the undead version of Zombie Zach was a visual feast.
A forest green shirt intensified vivid jade eyes surrounded by thick lashes. She absently wondered if those lashes were so dark from residual make-up or his natural color? Short-cropped near-black hair suggested natural, but she wasn’t about to stare long enough to find out for sure.
If the man kissed even one percent as good as he looked, her bad-luck-keeps-getting-worse-day was about to flip.
Whoa…what was she thinking? She didn’t want to kiss him any more than she’d wanted to kiss Slick. She pushed up from the desk, but darn it, even with the red heels from wardrobe, Zach was a good six inches taller than her, and she had to tilt her chin to meet his gaze.
“My name is Sadie,” she reminded in a cool tone, determined not to make any of it easy for him.
His lips twitched before he slid into the small desk. “I know.”
She ground her teeth together as he spread his legs, extending one knee for her to sit. Then he patted his thigh with a grin that was way too damn appealing.
“Right here, sweet cheeks, come—”
“Don’t say it,” she warned. “Don’t you dare.”
Out of nowhere, a smile threatened. It broke free despite her best attempts and Zach chuckled. The low rumble made her stomach tumble as if she’d just taken a plunge on a roller coaster.
“Clock’s ticking, people,” the bear of a director called out as he strode into the room. “Take your places.”
Sadie took a deep breath, only to be inundated with Zach’s appealing scent. Resisting the urge to suck in another lungful of citrus, she sat on his knee, and placed a hand on his broad shoulder for balance. Solid muscle rested beneath her fingers, and she fought the longing to explore further.
Slick headed down the aisle with an annoyed frown that was evident even through his new zombie make-up. Russ called him back and put him in an empty desk at the front of the classroom.
Before she could fully appreciate that move, the bear hollered, “Action.”
Zach’s large, warm hands spanned her waist and pulled her forward. Shoot—she wasn’t ready. She faced him, met his green eyes, and froze. As they stared at each other, she became aware of her heart beating.
Actually started to count each thudding pulse. Ba-buhm. Ba-buhm.
His face drew closer as if the film had been switched to slow motion.
Ba-buhm.
His lash color was all natural.
Ba-buhm.
Dark and thick and—
“Cu-ut. You actually have to kiss her, Zach.”
Sadie blinked and pulled back.
Zach cleared his throat and did the same. “I know, I know.”
Strangely offended by his carbon-copy tone of the director’s, Sadie muttered, “Don’t sound too excited.”
He smiled. Lifted one hand and slid his fingers into her hair to cup the back of her head. Drew her toward him with gentle, unrelenting pressure.
“Believe me, Goldie, I’m as excited as you are,” he murmured as the clack of the clapperboard registered.
“And…action.”
Counting heartbeats became impossible as slow-mo flipped to fast forward.
Zach’s mouth settled on hers while the supervisor in front began his dialogue. Sadie stiffened, mentally preparing for a Slick repeat. Warm lips brushed hers, back and forth. Pepperminty. Undemanding. Sensual. Coaxing.
She relaxed with relief and leaned into hi
m, twining her arms around his neck. Just when she would’ve angled her head and parted her lips to take the kiss to the next level, that booming voice battered her conscious.
“I said cut, RC!”
Sadie slid her hands down to Zach’s chest for a light push. He pulled back and lifted his lashes. The flicker of heat in his eyes kept her heart rate zipping along at record speed.
“Russ called cut,” she explained in a breathless whisper.
“Oops.”
The director was busy hollering at someone else for a change and Sadie found she didn’t know where to look as she waited for the next take. Zach’s arms remained firmly locked around her. The tanned column of his neck seemed a safer bet than his mesmerizing eyes or tempting lips.
“You married?” he asked.
Her gaze jerked up and she answered without thinking. “No.”
“Boyfriend?”
None of your business was the smart answer now that she’d recovered from the initial surprise of his personal questions.
“No.”
He grinned. “Me neither, Goldie.”
Why’d he have to ruin it with that name? “I didn’t ask,” she snapped.
“RC, kick it up a notch this time,” came the order from the front. “I want to see some passion.”
“You got it, boss,” Zach called back.
This time he didn’t wait for the clapperboard, and she never heard it or the director after Zach’s lips captured hers. There was nothing coaxing about this kiss. A firm hand threaded through her hair and angled her head. He swept his tongue along the seam of her mouth, demanding entry. His commanding control was hot and exciting, and Sadie couldn’t have denied him even if she’d wanted to.
The classroom and actors and cameras faded away. It was just the two of them, giving and taking, thoroughly enjoying what the other had to offer. Well, she thoroughly enjoyed him, at least.
His hands roamed over her back, pulling her closer, tracing her spine, and then they moved back up into her hair. She whimpered approval and returned the favor, exploring the muscles of his back and luxuriating in the soft silkiness of his short hair. A groan erupted from his throat when she lightly raked her nails along his scalp.