Stiffening her spine, she marched towards the empty seat opposite his and positioned her iPad on her lap, tapping at it to bring her pre-prepared questions up on the screen.
The word on the street was that Liam and Bethany Lord had been more than just co-stars on set. Chloe didn’t care about that. She liked to think of herself as more a hard-hitting journalist than a sensation seeker and would never stoop to report on such tawdry topic material. And Liam could sleep with half the women in Hollywood and she didn’t care a fig.
So, he hadn’t recognised her. So what? Deep down she was glad he hadn’t. Now she could relax. Treat him like an anonymous interview subject. Treat him just like any other stranger she had come across in her work. Treat him as if he meant nothing more to her than a piece of lint she might pluck off her jacket, and God help her if she had a knife handy she’d stick it right through him.
‘So, Mr Hunter,’ she began with supercilious sweetness. ‘Congratulations on the movie. It was quite a story.’
Liam’s grin was slow and kicked up the edges of his lips and Chloe ignored it completely. ‘I’m not sure from that comment if you liked the film or not, Ms… Lane, was it?’
Not wanting to outright lie, Chloe moistened her lips and pushed on. ‘You’ve never done a period piece before. Is this ah, something we will see more of in the future?’
Liam shrugged. ‘If I’m offered them and the scripts are good.’
‘Right.’ She stared hard at her iPad and read the next lame question. ‘Did you enjoy making this film?’
‘I did.’
‘What made you choose it?’ And do you really not recognise me as the girl you kissed so sweetly at senior prom and then humiliated so spectacularly afterwards?
He shrugged easily. ‘The script. The director. The physicality of the movie.’
No, he did not and even though she told herself not to get angry her blood sang with it.
‘Right,’ she said again, not caring a wit about his answers. ‘And the physicality of the film is important, is it?’
He tilted his head a little at her asinine question and looked like he was about to say something before changing his mind. ‘Sometimes. I’m a physical guy, I guess. But I would say that’s less important than the storyline.’
‘Oh yes, the storyline.’ She sniffed. ‘Hardly ground-breaking stuff though was it? I mean, don’t you think it reinforces the old male/female paradigms?’
Chloe was hoping to score a point with that one but he gave her another trademark smile. ‘Depends which paradigm you’re talking about?’
Oh, he knew which one, damn him, and he looked like he was enjoying her grilling rather than being annoyed by it. ‘Well you rescue the heroine from the bad guys and save the day. Tell me, was it a stretch to play the hero?’ Considering it’s not part of your genetic makeup?
Chloe heard a muffled cough from Miss LA behind her and wondered for a horrible moment if she had said that last bit out loud. It was one thing to want to insult him and quite another to do it while she was on the clock.
‘I don’t think there’s any character that isn’t without his faults. Even a hero, at times.’ His eyes seemed to bore into hers and then he smiled. ‘And for a while in the film Bethany’s character thought I was the bad guy and she kicked my butt. Something you might have enjoyed.’
Not half as much as she would have if it had been real. ‘True, but then you once again ended up on top.’
His smile was lethally charismatic and Chloe couldn’t have looked away to save herself. ‘I don’t think she was too unhappy about that.’
What female would be?
‘In real life or in the movie?’ Chloe could have groaned as the crass question left her lips. So much for modelling herself on Veronica Guerin. But now that it was out there she had little choice but to lift her chin and wear it.
She noticed his thick, dark lashes come down over his mesmerising green eyes and thought that, if anything, the question had seemed to score a hit of some sort. Go her.
***
Chloe’s pointy little question about his co-star made Liam frown and usually he wouldn’t even bother responding to one of that nature. Romances between actors sold magazines. He knew it and so did the actresses he worked with but it didn’t mean they had to add fodder to it.
For some reason Chloe’s question bothered him and he realised with a flash of insight that it was because he didn’t want her to think poorly of him. He didn’t want her thinking he was just a pretty face who couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag, as his father did. He also didn’t want her thinking that he was some sort of player who couldn’t keep it in his pants.
Since starting in this business he’d had more offers from women than stars in the sky and he could count on one hand – okay, maybe two– the number of times he’d given into those. The fact was his career meant more to him than a quick bout of sexual release with women who would spread their legs for most any movie star they came across. ‘That’s like asking me if I really put my sword through the antagonist’s heart,’ he countered.
But Chloe was no longer the mouse she had been in high school. ‘Hardly.’ She stared him down and he wondered if she still wore those cute round glasses she used to. ‘Stabbing is illegal. Kissing isn’t.’
‘No, it’s not,’ he murmured. He found his eyes drawn to her throat as she swallowed. Hell, his eyes were drawn to every part of her and he really needed to get some control over his libido. He didn’t really want Chloe Tyler in that way, did he?