Rendezvous (Renegades 5)

“No. No card.”

Jillian pursed her lips in one of those how-disappointing expressions. “Men.” She shook her head. “Oh well. He’ll make up for it in bed. He always does.”

That grated along Brooke’s already exposed nerves. “Oh, yeah? I’ve never had a guy like that.”

At least not until Keaton. And she wondered for a distracted moment if she’d ever find another.

“Oh, honey.” She gave Brooke a condescending, pitying look. “They’re the only kind of guy worth spreading your legs for.”

The image of Jillian spreading her legs for Keaton made Brooke’s breakfast roll toward her throat. She shook it from her head and tapped into her phone. “If you say so. Let me give Jeannette a call—”

“I’ve already talked to her,” Jillian said. The edge in her voice exposed her annoyance with Brooke’s dismissal of a topic her boss obviously wasn’t done talking about. “Keaton may not look like much in the grubby clothes he wears on the set. But, oh”—her voice turned dreamy and dripped with lust—“that man is a dark Adonis in a tux. Hair cut and styled, clean-shaven, smiling, those perfect teeth contrasting against his skin , those dark eyes of his twinkling with mischief…”

Jillian put a hand over her abdomen and sighed a moan. “The man is irresistible.” She tilted her head and smiled at Brooke. “I may not be the only woman who thinks so, but I’m determined to be the woman keeping his off-hours occupied during the next eight weeks. I’ll have to talk to Copalli about holding him on the movie.” Her gaze went distant as she pulled the top off the coffee meant for Brooke and lifted it toward her mouth. “The real trick will be keeping the other sluts’ hands off him.”

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sp; Brooke’s stomach twisted tighter. “You don’t think he can be a one-woman man?”

Jillian sipped from the coffee, made a disgusted face. “Godawful. That man is going to have to become my sexual slave to make up for this. She dumped the coffee in the sink, and Brooke fisted her hands in anger. “As for being a one-woman man, I couldn’t care less. I only want him to distract me during this shoot. Besides, he’s in his prime. And I mean prime. He’s young, he has plenty of money, no responsibilities, and an exciting career. He travels everywhere, rubs elbows with all the most famous and wealthy, and the most beautiful women all over the world want to sleep with him—because he is truly a hell of a fuck. And unlike in the movies, that’s a lot harder to find than you think. Oh, yes, he’s the whole package.” She met Brooke’s gaze. “If you were him, would you want to settle for one woman? I wouldn’t.”

Brooke didn’t know. She’d seen the uglier side of that beautiful fast life, and it didn’t suit everyone. She and Ellie were perfect examples. Of course, they were also women. After so many years on the road with Ellie, behind the scenes in the music world, Brooke thought she’d seen a lot. Then she’d been introduced to Hollywood and realized she hadn’t seen the half of it.

Now she wondered if she was being naïve by letting Keaton sweet-talk her into investing too much of her heart, when he really didn’t know what it took to make a relationship work. When he himself admitted he’d never done anything but temporary before. Who was to say that in one of the millions of lonely moments they would spend apart, he wouldn’t simply say yes to one of those hundreds of beautiful women who hit on him? And who was Brooke to ask him not to? These were the best years of his life. He should be out doing everything he ever wanted to do, not struggling to fit in a sketchy rendezvous with a part-time girlfriend on the fly.

“Is that what went wrong between you two?” Now Brooke’s gut burned. She opened her iPad and clicked into Jillian’s schedule to keep her hands busy and hide the emotions rising to the surface. ”Why it didn’t work out? Because he was always looking for the next woman?”

“Keaton?” Jillian asked, laughing softly. “No. Most men with his looks and confidence and swagger know they hold the keys to the kingdom.” Jillian ran her fingertips over the edges of the rose petals. “They lie, they manipulate, and they use. They play games to keep themselves entertained at the expense of others. But Keaton has always been…just Keaton, which is probably why he’s held my interest so long.”

A strange discomfort settled in Brooke’s chest. She opened her mouth to change the subject, but Jillian spoke again.

“Yesterday, for example. He didn’t pull any punches when I tried to turn on the charm. He doesn’t like me because I’ve spent my life acting much the way all those other people act. Any other man in that studio would have hugged me back, made a date for drinks, schmoozed me up and down.” She lifted her brows at Brooke. “I am a movie star, you know.”

“Then…you’re in it for the chase?” Brooke frowned, confused by Jillian’s perspective. “Why chase if you already know he doesn’t like you?”

“Oh no.” Jillian laughed, low and husky. “Hell no. This isn’t about the chase. This is all about the catch. This is about the sex. And the sooner I get that boy into my bed, the better. He may think he’s above all the bullshit that goes on in this business, but underneath that upstanding, solid, honorable facade, he’s still a man. A man with a voracious sexual appetite. And I’m still the most gorgeous woman within a fifty-mile radius—maybe more. Even a forthright, tell-it-like-it-is, no-sugar-coating, up-front guy like Keaton wants to get laid. And the hotter the woman, the better.”

Laughter bubbled up inside Brooke. Jillian might be beautiful on the outside, but inside, she was as ugly as a tar pit. And so damn superficial she couldn’t even see there were people who valued inner beauty more than the outer beauty. “So, you think he’ll overlook the fact that he doesn’t like you or the way you operate, just to fuck you because you’re beautiful?”

“Hell yes. He did it once, didn’t he?”

“Once?” Brooke tried not to sound accusatory. “I thought you said you reconnected with him a month ago.”

“I did. Just not the way I would have liked. I plan to change that this time around.”

A knock on the door broke into Brooke’s thoughts.

“That’s Jeannette,” Jillian said without making any move toward the door. “Percy’s coming right after to do my hair.”

Brooke moved to the door, greeted Jeannette, and stepped aside to let the slender woman in her fifties pass through the tight space so she could set up at the dining table.

“Where are you filming?” Brooke asked.

“Warehouse B.”

Good. That meant Brooke could hang out in warehouse A and watch Keaton work. The thought made her smile. She could watch Keaton all day long and never get bored.

“Run along,” Jillian said, dismissing Brooke like a child. “And double-check my massage, manicure, and pedicure appointments for tomorrow. I don’t want anything to go wrong with my spa day after a hard work week.”