With His Love (For His Pleasure, Book 16) (13 page)

“I know. I know. And I failed you in that.”

“I’m happy with Hunter, Mom. Really, really happy. He loves me the way I deserve to be loved.” Funnily, as she said the words, Kallie discovered that she meant them from the bottom of her heart. Even as she’d been upset and frustrated with his control issues, Kallie now saw that nothing could ever stand in the way of the love they felt for one another.

“We saw that part of him when he flew out and showed up, unannounced, on our doorstep yesterday.” Her mother laughed through her tears. “He insisted that we gather everyone up, all the siblings, and come out to dinner with him. He was a complete and total gentleman, even as we tried to make excuses. He won us over, Kallie. And at the end of the meal, he made a very long, eloquent speech about how you’d changed him.

He said that there was a time when he would have agreed with our low opinions of him—

but that he could no longer say he felt that way. Hunter told us that you’d saved his life, but more importantly, you’d saved his soul and his heart. And honey, it was probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard someone say about another person in all my years.”

“Really?” Kallie said, shocked that her mother—a practical person if ever there was one—could have been so moved by Hunter’s words.

“After Hunter left, the whole family got together again and talked. And we all agreed that we support the two of you in whatever you do.”

Kallie felt so relieved, it was as if her heart had just been released from prison.

Everything was suddenly lighter, the whole world looked entirely different, and she realized that she hadn’t even known how much their disapproval had been effecting her.

“Even Sean and Lydia agreed?” Kallie asked.

Her mother paused for a long while. “We didn’t include them in the conversation.

You see, Lydia can be a little…difficult. She was very adamant that Hunter was a negative presence in your life, hinting that she knew things about him, but she never shared what it was that was so bad. I no longer feel comfortable including Sean and Lydia in that kind of discussion, she’s just too volatile and headstrong.”

Kallie smiled. “I think I know what you mean. Although I have no idea what she thinks she knows about Hunter. She’s hardly spent any time around him.”

“Regardless, Kallie, I just want you to know that you have my and your father’s unflagging support. And please tell Hunter that we look forward to welcoming him officially into our family. Will you do that for me?”

“Of course I will. I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too.”

They got off the phone, and Kallie just sat back and allowed herself to breathe and take it all in. Immediately, she realized that she owed Hunter a bit of an apology.

She stood up to go to his office, but as she was leaving the room, Hunter was coming in. They saw each other and smiled.

“Listen,” he said. “I need to say this to you.”

“I have something to say to you first.”

He shook his head. “Kallie, I’m serious. I have to say my piece. Now just hear me out.”

“Hunter—”

He walked closer and put his hands on his shoulders and looked her in the eyes.

“You were right about everything you said to me today. You were right to be angry with me, and you really opened up my eyes to how insufferable I’ve been. I value what we have too much to blow it. I’m going to do a better job of really listening to you from now on. And I’m going to start by taking the entire week off of work. Hell, I’ll take two weeks off. I want to be together always.”

Kallie smiled, and found that she was almost too overcome with emotion to speak. Finally, she gathered herself. “I love you,” she said.

He leaned in and kissed her for a long time. His lips were like the sun, warming her, melting her, making everything right. When they broke off from kissing, he smiled again. “I’ve never seen you more beautiful than you are this very second.”

“My mother called me just now,” she told him.

His eyebrows rose. “Uh oh.”

“No, it was a really good conversation. She told me what you did—she said that you said some of the most beautiful things she’s ever heard. And it changed everyone’s minds. They’re going to attend the wedding now.”

“Really? I had no idea.” But the way he said it made Kallie think that perhaps he’d suspected that he’d changed their minds.

“I just love you, that’s all I know.” Suddenly, it occurred to her. “You know what?”

“What?”

“I think we should just get married this coming weekend. Screw it.”

He laughed. “You’re not serious.”

“I am. It doesn’t need to be a big thing. People can attend or not attend. I don’t even care anymore. I just want to be married to you, already.”

He sputtered a moment, but then just agreed. “Sure. Why not? I’ll take this week off, and then the following two weeks for our honeymoon. And fuck anyone that doesn’t like it.”

“I think I like the new attitude,” she told him.

That’s when he literally swept her off her feet, picking her up into his arms. She let out a surprised yelp.

“We need to celebrate,” he said, looking down at her with lust in his eyes.

“I can’t imagine what you have in mind.”

“Yes you can,” he laughed, and then carried her out of the room and upstairs to the bedroom.

SCARLETT

Eliza was pitching a fit. The entire crew was standing around, watching it happen, as usual.

Scarlett stood a few feet away from Bryson and listened to the diva complain to him.

“I can’t do this, Bryson. I can’t say these fucking lines—it’s totally humiliating.”

Bryson was watching her with a weary expression on his face. “Just give it a try, Eliza. You’re doing fine—”

“Fine isn’t good enough, okay? Fine gets me back on the B list. Maybe you’re happy on the B list, but I spent my whole career trying to climb out of the trenches and this isn’t the film that’s going to send me back to the bottom of the ladder.”

“Calm down. It’s just a scene.”

“This scene is about to put me back in rehab,” she shouted.

I wish she’d go already, Scarlett thought.

It hadn’t been very long since Eliza’s horrifying overdose. Although, as it turned out, she was never really in too much danger. They’d pumped her stomach and found alcohol and a few too many prescription painkillers.

Nobody had been altogether sure if it was an attempted suicide, a cry for help, or just a case of someone overmedicating themselves. Eliza denied trying to hurt herself, and after a short bit of time in the psychiatric unit of the hospital, she’d been released on her own recognizance.

But even though she was released from the hospital with a clean bill of health, there was no doubt the girl was in need of a significant amount of therapy and treatment, and the stress of a grueling film shoot wasn’t helping matters.

As it was, Eliza had had very little time to recuperate and then she was back on set, acting mostly like it had never happened. Only a few people were aware of what had occurred: Bryson, Scarlett, Dale Nolan, Max Weisman and the top executives from the studio. That was it. The whole goal had been to get Eliza “patched up” enough to go back to work and keep everything hush-hush and off of Page Six.

It seemed to have worked, for the most part. Everything, that is, except the tiny little fact that the girl in question was as nutty as a fruitcake and twice as nasty.

As Scarlett stood here now and watched the latest in a fairly long line of Eliza freak outs, she was starting to wonder if any of this madness was truly worth it.

Bryson, Eliza and Dale Nolan huddled together momentarily to discuss some of the dialog changes that Eliza wanted. Scarlett stayed out of it, knowing better than to get involved.

Ever since the overdose, things between Scarlett and Bryson had changed. He’d been nice enough to her professionally, perhaps more inclusive than ever. She was still highly involved in the film and he even requested her help on the occasional rewrite.

But as much as he appeared to respect her abilities on set, he had completely and irrevocably reversed the romantic aspect of their relationship. It was like a switch had been flipped on the day that he was informed of Eliza’s overdose, and Bryson was never the same.

They’d never so much as even spoken about it. Bryson seemed content to act like there had never really been a connection between them physically or emotionally—he even seemed to be acting as though there was never a friendship.

She was now merely his assistant, and though he was courteous and kind, it hurt.

His disinterested demeanor cut her more deeply at times than if he’d just broken up with her and fired her.

Many times in the days since Eliza’s hospital stay, Scarlett had looked at her phone and considered sending a heartfelt text or calling him to tell him how hurt she was at the way he’d changed. But somehow, it never seemed like the right time.

And Bryson had been nothing but polite and complimentary during work hours, so she never had a good reason to bring anything up during their days together.

Scarlett was shocked back into the present moment by one of the AD’s yelling

“fifteen minutes, everyone!”

Bryson had called for a break and now he moved away from the others, motioning for Scarlett to come with him.

“She’s uncomfortable with her character’s emotional neediness in the scene,”

Bryson informed Scarlett as they walked together.

Scarlett took notes as she tried to keep up with Bryson’s quick and lengthy stride.

“Isn’t her emotional neediness kind of important? It’s a pivotal scene—maybe the pivotal romantic breakthrough between their characters.”

“I know that,” he said with a strong trace of impatience in his voice. “But maybe we can dial it down a little bit to get Eliza off my case. We’re losing time, we’re running behind again, and the last thing I can afford now is for her to blow up and lose me the entire day.”

“All right, all right,” Scarlett said, feeling hurt from his tone, but trying her best to play the good little assistant as she had been all along. “I’ll take a look at the scene. I’m not sure how much I can do in ten or fifteen minutes, though.”

“If you need a little more time, take it.” He checked his watch. “I’ll be on the phone anyway.”

“Everything okay?” she said, hoping she wasn’t overstepping her new boundaries, now that they pretty much never discussed anything personal.

Bryson kept walking, but his pace slowed. “Max and the execs wanted to see what we shot so far, so I sent it over and they had a screening this morning. I’m about to hear what they think of it in the next few minutes.”

“I’m sure they’re going to love it.”

“We’ll see. If it’s bad news, you might not even see me afterwards. A new director might just pop up and a trap door will open and I’ll fall through it, never to be heard from again.”

Scarlett hated the implication behind his words. “I’ll take a look at the scene while you’re on the phone,” she said softly, trying her hardest not feel or show any emotion.

“Okay, see you in a bit. I need to get some privacy.” He walked off, perhaps to go and sit in one of the trailers.

They were currently set up in a field near an old mill, outside of which some of the key romance scenes were being shot for the next day or two. It was a quiet area with woods and a small river, and there were some picnic tables to sit on. She sat down with the pages of the script that needed changing and smoked a cigarette.

Fixing the scene to fit Eliza’s specifications was a difficult task, because the basic premise of this scene was that it was the culmination of the emotions that hadn’t been expressed between the two characters. And it was Eliza’s character that had to really let down her guard and show her vulnerability. Scarlett suspected that Eliza’s complaint was less about the scene and the dialog, and more about the fact that Eliza didn’t want to really put herself out there emotionally.

Still, Scarlett did her best to “dial down” the intensity, editing out a few of the more melodramatic lines that Eliza’s character was supposed to say. She felt that the scene could still end up being powerful, and perhaps Eliza would be more comfortable when she saw those lines had been removed.

She was re-reading the script for the fourth or fifth time when Lydia appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. “Are you ready with the revisions?” she demanded.

Scarlett didn’t even know that Lydia had showed up to the set, although it shouldn’t have surprised her. Lately, Lydia and Eliza seemed to be best pals and they were stuck together like a couple of popsicles in a child’s art project.

Scarlett straightened. “I’m just looking the script over. And I have to wait for Bryson to check it out, since he’s the writer and director.”

Lydia put her hands on her hips and made a face. “Listen, Scarlett. Eliza’s emotionally very raw today. She’s finally found her center and she’s ready to shoot now.

She needs her script with those changes, and she needs it like now.”

Scarlett tried to control her voice. “I’m on top of it, Lydia. And last I checked, you don’t work here. You’re just on set as a friend.”

“I work here as much as you do, and Eliza’s way more important than you are.

So I’d watch your step or you’ll get on my bad side—and Eliza’s too.”

“Duly noted,” Scarlett said sarcastically.

“Oh, look who’s decided to show up again,” Lydia cracked.

Bryson was coming towards them now. Scarlett tried to read his expression, hoping to see some kind of positive reaction to whatever news he’d gotten from his phone call with the executives. But he was stone faced. “What’s going on?” he asked, as he approached.

“Eliza’s freaking out—she needs to shoot this scene now,” Lydia told him.

“Fine.” Bryson looked at Scarlett. “Is the scene ready? Did you make those changes?”

“I did,” Scarlett said, picking up the script and handing it to him, “but I figured you’d want to look it over first.”

He glanced at it. “I’m sure it’s fine.” Then he looked up at her again. “I trust your judgment.”

His compliment gave her a fleeting burst of warmth throughout her body, but it quickly cooled as she realized that it was professional comment and nothing more.