For Her (The Girl I Loved Duet 1)

“Yeah?”

I jump. “Geeze. You’re stealthy.”

“And proud of it. What’s up?”

“I have a gossip question.”

She holds out her hands like she’s bracing herself. “My entire life has been leading to this moment. What can I tell you?”

“Mr. Markham just made a comment that I don’t get. He said that I was proving myself a serious female director and that not everybody does that. He said it was just drama. You know anything about that?”

Her face lights up like a fucking light bulb. This girl loves gossip way too much. “I know everything about that,” she says. “June Cavallaro, over on Calamity Mountain.”

“Yeah?”

Gloria clears her throat, then whispers conspiratorially, even though if she knows this probably the whole city does. “Yesterday there were a whole bunch of pictures released of her and one of the actors on the show. Not just any of the actors, one of the young ones. He’s eighteen, and she’s going down on him like his cock is made of candy.”

A cold chill runs through me. A director and an actor. “And people are pissed because he’s young?” I ask, praying that that’s the reason that they’re upset.

“It’s that, but it’s also like, one of her first gigs and she’s fucking the talent. It’s not really a good look, you know?”

“Yeah,” I say.

“I’ll be back, I need to check with the script coordinator about Alex’s dog tags.”

And then she disappears and I’m left practically panting. Oh shit. Oh shit. This isn’t good. What if that were Peter and me? It easily could have been. We weren’t particularly careful. What the hell was I thinking? Letting him fuck me in the wardrobe closet?

This isn’t a good idea. We both need this project to succeed. Maybe an informal partnership is what we should stick to. It feels like a knife in the gut to even consider going backwards now, but what happens if we get caught and both our careers go up in flames?

Peter looks at me across the room, and I feel the familiar flash of heat, but this time it’s coupled with an overwhelming feeling of dread.

23

Peter

Present

Amber disappeared after we finished shooting for the day, and I got a text to meet her at her place. That’s fine with me. For a second I was worried that she might be having second thoughts, but then I remembered the wardrobe closet this morning. There wasn’t any hesitation there.

I got the updated script for the next episode, and I glanced at it while walking to my car. The changes that were made look really good, and they add depth to both my character and Genova’s. I haven’t been quite as excited to shoot something since the nightmare scene. The upcoming scenes are going to be amazing, and I fully plan on picking Amber’s brain after I’ve fucked her breathless.

Stopping briefly, I pick up some lilies. Amber has never been a roses kind of girl. But she loves lilies, and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to see her smile.

I hear her footsteps come to the door after I knock, and she opens it, eyes wide with surprise when she sees the lilies. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

I close the door behind me and pull her in for a kiss. She doesn’t resist, but she’s not present. She doesn’t kiss me back, she just lets it happen.

She puts the flowers in a vase and I watch, trying to figure out what’s bothering her. I can’t think of anything that happened on set today that would have upset her. All the scenes went really well, and everything with us was fine when we left it.

Maybe I can get her to tell me. “I got the new script. Like what they’ve changed. I think filming that will probably be the most fun we’ve had so far.”

“Really?” Her tone is absent.

“Yeah.”

“That’s good.”

I clear my throat. “What’s up, Amber?”

She turns like I’ve startled her and her name has finally drawn her attention. “Huh?”

“You’re trapped in your head and barely listening. What’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

I roll my eyes and cross the room, pulling her back against my chest and tucking my chin into her shoulder while she arranges the flowers. “You’ve always been a shit liar,” I say, pressing a kiss onto her neck. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

She sighs, and shrugs me off. Okay, so this is really bothering her more than she’s letting on. I wait to let her talk. I know there’s no rushing Amber. “You know who Jane Cavallaro is?”

I nod. “I’ve heard the name. Director. She’s been around for a few years.”

Amber walks into the living room and I follow her. She picks up her laptop and hands it to me. It’s open to a bunch of news stories. Well, they’re all the same news story, just different sources, and I would hardly call this news. It’s tabloid crap.