My heart aches. We went from flirty and happy to this in a matter of minutes. All because of me. But based on how much I liked pushing staples into his upper pec, a lot worse couldhappen if I’m here too long. A lot that would have him giving me more than the cold shoulder.
He said I wouldn’t go too far, but I wanted to. No with him but someone else. With the pizza delivery guy who kept flirting with him with his eyes, and the director of a show he was supposed to start working on next week, who was screaming at him through the phone because he couldn’t do it after all.
“Yeah,” I say, throwing the strap of my bag over my shoulder. “I’m ready.”
A loud silence spreads between us as we walk to the car and drive away. It stabs at my ears, and when we’re ten minutes away from my apartment, I turn to him and say, “I really am sorry.”
“Me too,” he says, sounding defeated while the muscles in his throat tighten.
Neither of us talk for the remaining time, and as I get out of his car, grabbing my bag from the floor, my chest is heavy. “I’ll see you on set.”
“Yup. Along with everyone else working. Take care, Mr. Maxwell.”
Ouch. That stung, and the disdain in his eyes told me he wanted it to, but whether he meant it or not, it followed me inside, causing my skin to itch from the inside no matter what I did to forget it.
Eighteen
Hayden
I’m a patient man.I’m a patient man.I keep thinking it over and over, until I can hear nothing else around me. Then he walks into the building, his eyes sweeping over me by the crafty, and his loud presence drowns out my words.
His lips rub together, the corners twitching, and when he finally parts his mouth to talk, I look over his shoulder. “Want to get lunch later? Rosario’s is a great little Mexican place ten minutes away from here.”
He freezes, and when I keep looking past him, he turns his head to one of the PAs he’s had running around for him.
Her eyes sparkle and she clutches her coffee cup to her chest. “Sure.” She likes me. I could tell after our first day on set together. First, it started with the touching when she’d talkto me, and then she’d sneak me my favorite candy randomly throughout each day we worked together. She was as subtle as a gun. “Did you want to go in your car or mine?”
“Mine works. I’m right outside the front.”
She blushes, swaying from side to side like some schoolgirl. “Great. Meet you here at one?”
“One sounds great.” Sterling’s eyes bounce between us, his shoulders rolling in toward his body. It’s bothering him. Good.
I smile widely at her, offering her my phone. “Here, put your number in there just in case.”
She grabs it from my fingers and our skin rubs together. I feel nothing. I don’t really give a shit about her, but he doesn’t have to know that.
She giggles, setting her coffee cup down, and punches the keypad. Seconds later, she hands it back to me, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “All set. See you later.”
“See ya,” I say, turning around to force my gaze to follow her as she passes me by.
“What was that?” Sterling says in a demanding tone, as if he has any damn right with the way he shut me down yesterday.
“What was what?” I say coolly.
He gestures behind me with his hand. “You and her?”
“We’re having lunch. What seems to be the problem, Mr. Maxwell?”
“Stop calling me that,” he stammers. “It’s Sterling. Your little movie star, remember? Or what did you say when you had your cock buried in me the other night?” He lowers his tone. “Baby.”
My expression stays neutral, not wanting him to see he’s pulling a reaction from me. “Yeah, that was before you decided to end our . . . what was it we had?” I stroke my chin, my tone firm. “Oh yeah, an arrangement.”
“Hayden,” he says, and the way he does it squeezes at my heart. He sounds so broken and lost.
“I have to go. I think I hear someone calling my name.”
“I don’t hear anything,” he says, grabbing my arm. “Please, Hayden.”