Hollywood Prince (Hollywood Royalty 3)

“There you are,” he says. “I just got a phone call from Ryan about the work you are going to do here.”

“Yes,” I say, not knowing how I’m going to break it to him that I’ll be quitting this job. I was going to wave the white flag and admit defeat. When my phone buzzes and I see it’s Carter trying to message me, I do what every other woman would do. I put him on “do not disturb.” Take that.

“Come, we have to talk,” he says and pulls me away. He takes me in the golf cart, and we make it to stage four, and I sit in the chair next to him. “This film is going to be his big break,” he says of Carter. “I’m going to push him to be his best. I’m going to push him until there is nothing left in him, and then when he gets up to accept his award, it’ll be mostly because of me.” He laughs, and I laugh with him. “The boy hasn’t had much luck in the past. Maybe it’s his time to have better luck.”

I’m about to ask him what he means by that when I hear the booming voice. “Where have you been?” I see Carter with his hands on his hips, and I take in his outfit. He looks so rugged and not like the Hollywood prince that he is.

“I was here catching up with Ivan.” I smile at him like nothing happened, but he just glares at me.

“I’ve been calling and texting you,” he says between his clenched teeth.

“Did you?” I pick up my phone. “Nope, not me. Perhaps it was someone else?”

He looks at me, but he doesn’t have a chance to say anything because Ivan claps his hands. “Okay, children, it’s time to work.” He gets up and walks to the set where he talks to a couple of the crew.

“I called you,” he says, coming to me, standing in front of my chair. “Twice.” He holds up two fingers.

I lean back in the chair and shrug my shoulders. “No idea.”

“You sent me straight to voice mail,” he says, and I just smile.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t get a phone call or texts,” I tell him, and he holds out his hand.

“Let me see your phone.” I hold out the phone for him. He presses the middle button and then looks at me. “What’s your code?”

“Try the word asshole,” I say and then slap my hand to my head. “Fine, it’s my birthday.” I wait for him to ask me what it is.

“Can you put your code in?” he asks, and I do, and then he looks through the phone. He takes his phone out and calls my phone, and it’s obviously sent straight to voice mail because he then presses his name. “You blocked me?”

“Did I?” I act shocked as I take the phone away. “No.” I pretend to look at my phone “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I wonder how that happened?”

“Erin,” he says, his jaw tight.

“Carter!” Ivan yells. “Let’s get the show on the road.”

I look at him and smile. “Break a leg.” He glares at me, and I hold up my two hands. “Fingers crossed,” I say, crossing my two fingers together.

He comes a touch closer, resting his hands on the armrests of the chair. “I’m going to table this discussion for later.”

“I’m not talking to you because you’re a horse’s ass.” I lean in closer to him, hissing out ass. “Actually, I take that back. I don’t want to insult the horse.”

“Carter!” Ivan yells, and he just looks at me and walks away. I watch him walk over to him as they stand in the middle of a fake living room with a staircase in the back. If I wasn’t here seeing the entire surroundings, I would think it’s actually a house. There is a guy waiting on the side with a long mic and a huge box hanging from his neck. “Okay, places everyone.” Ivan walks back to his chair and sits in it. He puts on his headset, and someone wheels what looks like a television on it. “We can see them close up,” he says, informing me. A woman goes up to the set where Carter is now sitting on the couch.

Jennifer steps in front of the scene, and says, “Risking it All, scene twenty.”

I look around while people start to shout things.

“Picture’s up,” one person says, and someone else repeats it.

“Roll sound,” another says, and I hear someone shout, “Rolling!”

“Sound speeds!” the guy at the end shouts.

“Camera speeds,” comes from my left and then one from one right. “Slating and mark.”

Then Ivan shouts, “Action,” and I watch as the scene plays out. The knock on the door and his co-star coming in who, in the film, is his brother as they go over the fact that his wife kidnapped his daughter, and he can’t find her. It takes him five takes before Ivan has it just the way he wants it. “Cut and print.” Ivan tosses his headset on his seat and goes to talk to the two men, and they go over a couple of things. The three of them discuss something I can’t hear.