by Lola Gabriel
He thought perhaps he had gone a bit too far with the thinly veiled lecture he had given Valerie, but he wasn’t overly worried about it. She was only here because of him, and if she started making trouble for him, or being too problematic on the set, he would simply get her fired and she knew it. It would make things awkward at home for a while, but Valerie was always the first one to say that her personal life didn’t affect the pack, so he figured if it came to it, he could throw that one back in her face.
He was going to keep a very close eye on Brianne, though, and make sure that Valerie started treating her with a little bit of respect. And, of course, the thought of spending extra time around Brianne was no chore. In fact, it was something Callin could barely wait to do.
“Hold on!” Valerie shouted from behind him. “I’ll walk over with you.”
Callin slowed down and waited for Valerie to join him. She smiled at him and began talking about their upcoming kiss scene. He was dreading it, but he didn’t let that show.
“Who knows?” Valerie said with a smile that Callin thought was meant to be seductive, but to him looked anything but alluring. “Maybe you’ll fall in love with me after this.”
Callin stared at her and she laughed.
“Relax, Callin. I’m joking,” she said. “But it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to find out how deep the chemistry between us goes, would it?”
She picked up the pace, leaving Callin to mull over her parting line. All he could think was what chemistry? He couldn’t help but wonder if Valerie really believed there was chemistry between them, or if she was just laying down the groundwork, trying to put ideas into his head, so that when she eventually decided that the time was right for them to be mates, he would be conned into thinking he had always wanted that too.
Whichever of those things it was, it was a dangerous game, and Callin knew he had to play this very carefully. Because pack alpha or not, there was no way he was going to be mated to Valerie. He had never wanted that, and now that he had seen Brianne, he knew he had found his true mate. And he intended to do whatever it took to get her.
5
Brianne stood beside the camera crew, watching the scene between Callin and Valerie being filmed. She tried to tell herself she was watching the scene just to pass the time until Valerie needed her, but she knew that wasn’t strictly true. She was watching it because she couldn’t take her eyes off Callin. He was magnetic, both in and out of character.
Brianne felt a tingling nag of jealousy as Callin’s character watched Valerie’s character, looking at her how Brianne wanted him to look at her. She had to wonder how much of the scene was really acting and how much of it was real. The chemistry between the two of them sure felt real. It felt so real at one point that Brianne felt her cheeks heating up and she felt like she was a voyeur, watching two people have an intimate conversation.
She reminded herself this wasn’t the case. Even if the chemistry between the two of them was real, the words they were saying and their actions in the moment were all scripted. She was allowed to witness this, as were the hundreds of other people milling around. She told herself the chemistry she felt between the two characters couldn’t be real. If it was, then why hadn’t it been present in Valerie’s trailer earlier? And why had Callin looked at her like he wanted to consume her?
Brianne watched as Valerie’s character picked up her suitcase and started to walk away from Callin’s character. He reached out and grabbed her arm, spinning her to face him.
“Why are you doing this?” she demanded.
“Because I love you, dammit,” he replied.
There was a dramatic pause, just long enough for the audience to really feel the tension in the moment. Brianne even found herself holding her breath as she watched the scene unfold, and she already knew what was coming next. Callin dropped Valerie’s arm and the two of them came together in an explosion of groping limbs. Their lips met and Brianne felt a wave of nausea engulf her as her jealousy ran rampant through her body. All she could think was that it should be her in Callin’s arms. It should be her he was kissing like he never wanted to let go.
The set was silent as the kiss went on, Callin pushing his hand into Valerie’s hair and Valerie pulling Callin more tightly against herself. Brianne had to swallow hard to remove the lump that had formed in her throat. Surely that couldn’t be acting. That passion looked all too real to her.
She told herself she was being silly. None of it mattered anyway. As if Callin McKenzie was going to want to be with her. And even if he did, she wasn’t ready to let go of her fears about him being a dragon, another Valerie. But he certainly didn’t act like Valerie. He seemed normal… nice. Not like Valerie at all. But it didn’t matter. With or without Valerie on the scene, the idea of Brianne and Callin being together was never going to work out.
“Cut,” the director called, startling Brianne slightly and pulling her back to the present.
Callin stepped back from Valerie like she had burned him. He turned away from her and walked over to the director and began to talk to him. Brianne saw immediately that her jealousy was completely unfounded. It wasn’t that Callin was rude to Valerie, it was just that it was clear he was that good an actor—there was no chemistry from him at all, and the fact that he walked away immediately after the kiss solidified that notion for Brianne. If he felt anything even remotely close to what his character felt, he would have wanted to hang around Valerie for as long as possible after the scene ended.
Valerie looked a little hurt that Callin had walked away from her so quickly, although she tried to hide it. The chemistry might not be real on Callin’s side of things, but it was definitely real on Valerie’s side. Brianne already knew Valerie planned to marry Callin one day. She told her about it often enough, but until that moment, Brianne had believed Valerie when she said it was simply a tactical move, that she planned on running the pack with Callin by her side. Now, she saw there was more to it than that. Valerie might not be ready to admit it, maybe not even to herself, but she definitely wanted Callin for her own. And not just because of the status boost it would give her.
“Brianne? Would you fetch me a glass of water, please?” Valerie said as she moved across the set and headed toward the seating area to the left of it.
“Of course,” Brianne replied, heading immediately in the opposite direction toward the refreshments area.
Brianne was shocked that Valerie had not only said please, but had asked her to get the water rather than demanding she got it, or worse, yelling at her for not already having it. She had even used a reasonably nice tone of voice. Either Callin’s words from earlier had really gotten through to her or she wanted to act like they had when he was around. She would take either one if it meant that Valerie was civil to her, even if it was just pretend. Pretend manners were still way better than being yelled at all of the time.
Brianne was halfway to the refreshments area when she felt someone fall into step beside her. She looked up with a half-smile which instantly widened to a full one and made her heart beat a little bit faster when she saw it was Callin beside her.
“Hi,” she said a little bit shyly.
“Hey,” he replied. “So, how’s it going? Are you finding your feet okay?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Brianne smiled.
“Let me guess,” Callin said, lowering his voice and glancing around to make sure no one could overhear him. He grinned conspiratorially at Brianne. “Everything’s fine except for being stuck working for Valerie.”
“I didn’t say that,” Brianne said with the same conspiratorial grin Callin had given her.
“And I didn’t say your smile is the most beautiful thing I’ve seen all day. But that doesn’t make it any less true,” Callin said.
Brianne felt a shiver go through her, despite the fact that Callin’s words made her skin flush red and hot. She didn’t know what to say to that and she opened her mouth, hoping something intelligent would come out. It didn’t.
She just stared at Callin and made an umm sound. He laughed and nudged her gently with his elbow, sending more shivers through her where they touched.
“Oh, come on. Don’t tell me you don’t know how your smile lights up your whole face,” Callin said. “Because if you don’t know it, then I’ll feel bad for pointing it out so casually.”
Brianne laughed softly and some of the awkwardness left her. The sexual tension between her and Callin stayed, though, as did the patch of heat on her arm where he had touched her. Brianne could almost feel the electricity sparking in the air between them. She felt as though she could reach out and touch the sparks.
“So, anyway,” Callin said with another of those grins that set Brianne’s heart racing, “the best way to get around Valerie and get her to thaw a little bit is just to agree with everything she says. No matter how crazy it is. And then you can join the crew when they laugh at her after she’s gone.”
Brianne giggled a bit, but she shook her head.
“And they say loyalty is dead,” she smiled. “Does your assistant do that?”
“Well, I’d like to say no because I treat her with respect, but the truth? Yeah, probably,” Callin said.
Brianne laughed again. She was starting to think she had been wrong in assuming Callin would be an asshole just because Valerie was one. Now that she thought about it, it was like assuming every human was an asshole just because she had met one that was. On the contrary, Callin seemed to be down-to-earth, funny, and self-deprecating rather than full of himself and arrogant like Valerie.
“Brianne? My water?” Valerie said, coming to join Callin and Brianne. “Honestly, Brianne, you’ve got to stay on the ball. Getting some water was a pretty simple task.”
“I’m so sorry,” Brianne said, instantly feeling herself deflate.
She hated that Valerie had shown her up like that in front of Callin, but for once, she couldn’t even bitch about the woman in her head, because she was actually right this time. Getting some water was indeed a simple task, and Brianne had dropped the ball completely by letting herself get distracted by Callin.
“It’s my fault, Val,” Callin said. “I was trying to find out how much you pay Brianne so I could offer her more money and tempt her away from you.”
“You just keep your hands off my assistant,” Valerie said to Callin as Brianne hurried away to grab the water.
Valerie had laughed a little when she said it, but Brianne thought that beneath the joking tone Valerie used, there was an icy-cold threat there. And she knew it was about a lot more than who she may or may not work for. She decided then that she definitely needed to keep her distance from Callin, because Valerie seemed like the sort of woman who would do whatever it took to get her way—even if that meant making someone disappear.
6
So far, things seemed to be going well on the set, but it had only been a couple of weeks since filming began. Still, though, Callin was pretty happy with how things were going. After the first day when Valerie played the diva a bit, she seemed to have calmed down a lot. He thought it could be an act, with her just doing what he had said in order to be seen as a real actress. But even if that was the case, her act was keeping the peace and the crew and Brianne weren’t feeling her wrath quite so much. He was even starting to think that maybe he had been wrong about her. Maybe she just genuinely believed the stereotype that you had to act like a bitch to be taken seriously in this industry and his talk had made her see that really wasn’t the case. Either way, it was going better than he had ever expected it to with Valerie involved.
The filming was pretty much on schedule and so far, there had been no major setbacks, which Callin was also happy about. The only thing he wasn’t overly happy about was Brianne. Not that her presence on the set every day didn’t make him happy. On the contrary, it did. It made him really happy. But he hadn’t gotten past the flirting stage with her yet and it was killing him not being able to hold her, to kiss her, to fuck her until she was screaming his name. His dragon was in a constant state of arousal and discontent, urging him to take things further with Brianne.
And he wanted to. God, how he wanted to. Although the air around him and Brianne was always charged with a deep-rooted chemistry that he felt in his very soul, and although they flirted whenever they got the chance to, they didn’t get the chance to often enough for his liking. Valerie was constantly finding Brianne things to do that seemed reasonable on the surface, but which Callin knew were aimed at keeping Brianne away from him. That was exactly Valerie’s style. To speak to Callin about it would mean she had to admit that she felt threatened by a mere human, so instead, she tried to make sure there was no way for Callin and Brianne to connect. And it was working.
Callin was sure that was the only reason nothing had happened between him and Brianne. If he could only have a bit of time alone with her, he knew things would start to move between them. His dragon senses told him that she felt the same attraction to him that he felt to her.
Under any normal circumstances, Callin would have asked Brianne out on a date and they could have had a normal evening away from Valerie’s watchful eye, and Callin was sure that the sparks would have continued to fly. This was no normal circumstance, though, and while Callin ached for Brianne, he was also a professional, and the movie had to come first. The truth was, with the grueling schedule of relearning lines for scenes that had been changed, and the long days of filming, there just wasn’t time to start a relationship, and the last thing he wanted was to start something with Brianne and then have his work schedule clash with their dates and make her feel like she was second best.
Even with all of that being said, the movie was scheduled to take nine months to a year to complete the filming and Callin knew he couldn’t wait that long to take things to the next level with Brianne. He had to find a way to get her alone without Valerie hovering around or finding something urgent for Brianne to do that took her away from him. He had even debated having Valerie fired, but he knew that would achieve the opposite thing to what he wanted. If Valerie wasn’t on the set, then Brianne would have no reason to be here either, and as much as Callin and Brianne joked about Valerie being the worst boss in the world, Callin sensed that there was something there. Something that kept Brianne loyal to Valerie and he didn’t think he could persuade her to work for him instead.
He sighed and tried to shake off the thoughts. They haunted him, chasing themselves around and around in his head constantly, and he was never able to come up with a workable solution. He had even considered just walking up to Brianne and kissing her, but he was afraid of what Valerie might do if she found out that her assistant had kissed him.
He turned his attention to the script in front of him, putting his problems to one side for the moment and going back into work mode. Tomorrow, Callin and Valerie would be filming a scene from before their characters got together. The scene was loaded with romantic tension and it led to them almost kissing. Callin wasn’t sure the script worked, though. He thought it might feel a little bit too stiff. He reread the lines, taking note of the moment when the two of them would be mere inches apart, staring into each other’s eyes, before the scene ended without them actually kissing.
The scene was designed to make the audience hold their breaths and feel the characters’ disappointment when they were robbed of their first kiss. It was meant to make the audience root for the couple, and Callin knew it could work—as long as everything about the scene was executed perfectly. If it felt even a little bit stiff or fake, it would instead have the audience rolling their eyes and shaking their heads.
He stood up. The only way he would know for sure whether or not this was going to work was by running the lines through with someone. Callin knew it was late; it was almost one a.m., and most of the cast and crew had gone home for the day. He figured his assistant, Shauna, might still be around somewhere, though. He had told her to go home hours ago, but she often ignored that instruction and stayed on the set until he left
. And she was a good partner to run lines with.
He wandered out of his trailer. None of the other trailers had any lights burning in them and the only sign of any other life on the set were the two burly security guards who stood at the entrance. One of them raised a hand to him and he returned the wave as he headed for the main building. It was possible Shauna was in the small office a couple of the assistants shared, but he was starting to think it was unlikely when he saw how dead the place was.
Callin made his way to the shared office. His hopes were raised slightly when he saw the light was on through the window in the office door. It looked like Shauna had stuck around after all. He opened the office door and looked around.
“Dammit,” he cursed under his breath.
The room was empty. Shauna had obviously just forgotten to switch off the light before she left for the night. Callin reached for the switch, but as he did so, a movement caught his eye behind one of the desks. He felt his dragon stirring, his body tingling, as Brianne crawled out from beneath the desk and got to her feet. She started slightly when she saw him standing there.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said.
“It’s okay,” she smiled. “I was just about ready to head out and I had one last email to send. The internet wouldn’t work and I finally figured out that one of the cables had come loose. I’ve put it back in now, so fingers crossed it works this time.”
As she spoke, she moved around the desk and sat down. She reached out and clicked her mouse. She smiled and made a little whoop sound.
“Finally,” she said. She looked up at Callin and smiled at him. “What are you even doing here anyway? I thought everyone was long gone.”