Chapter 25

Twenty-Five

Roc

“Zander?” Harlowe’s voice warbled, and her knuckles went white as she clutched the doorframe. “What are you…?”

Zander. Her costar and recent ex-boyfriend.

“Aren’t you going to let me in, Har?”

She didn’t step back to open the door wider. “I’m shooting soon. You should have told me you were coming.”

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise, would it?” He laughed, as if his unannounced arrival had surprised and delighted even him.

“This is my last day of shooting. Maybe we can talk afterward.”

“Seriously?” The levity had dropped from his voice like a cheap costume that came in a plastic pouch. “You aren’t going to let me in? I just want to talk, babe. You owe me that.”

The hackles on the back of my neck prickled. How many men had I heard tell women exactly what was owed to them, usually before demanding more than they deserved?

I stepped forward to intervene, but Harlowe was already backing up as a tall twenty-something with spiky hair and cold blue eyes pushed his way past her and straight into me.

“Whoa.” He almost bounced off my chest, thrusting his hands up to push himself away from me. “Who the fu—?”

“I’m her bodyguard, and you don’t seem to understand when a woman is saying no.”

Harlowe backed away, holding her robe closed with one hand, her gaze bouncing between the two of us. The actor might have been tall, but I was taller. I also had muscle and tusks, while he was slim and had perfectly bleached teeth.

It took Zander about a breath to assess me and realize he was on the losing end of the pissing contest. He held up his hands. “My bad.” Then he cut his gaze to Harlowe. “I didn’t know you had a bodyguard staying with you.”

“He’s not staying with me,” she said much too quickly as she avoided my gaze and narrowed her eyes at him. “After we broke up, I got a lot of bad press and some crazies threatening me online, or did you not know that making me look like the villain in our breakup would incite a troll mob?”

Her rushed denial that I wasn’t staying with her had not been what I’d been expecting, but I reminded myself that it was the truth and that actors in Hollywood talked. From what I’d heard, this one talked too much.

He flashed a smile he probably thought was charming, but it faded when she didn’t return it. “I had nothing to do with that, babe. You know what it’s like with publicists.”

My gaze hadn’t left Zander, and it bored into him now. How had Harlowe been involved with such a coward? He was clearly used to getting his way and getting away with all his bad behavior. I curled my hands into fists, inhaling and exhaling steadily to keep myself from removing him from the premises by force.

He flicked a nervous glance at me and then away just as quickly. “Can we talk privately, Har?”

Harlowe shook her head. “Like I said, this isn’t a good time. I have to be on-set soon.”

He took a small step toward her, cocking his head like he was trying to calm an agitated dog. “Don’t be like this, babe. I came all this way because we were good together, and we can be that way again.”

“You want to get back together?”

“We may have fought a lot, but I never stopped loving you, babe.”

Harlowe made a strange, high-pitched sound in her throat. “We were miserable together.”

His apologetic expression twisted for a beat. “I’ve learned a lot since we broke up.”

“It was only a few weeks ago. How much could you have learned in a few weeks? You barely learn your lines on time.”

Zander flinched at this, but his grin rallied. “I came here to win you back, Har. We belong together. You know it. I know it. We were magic together, babe.”

Every molecule in my body wanted to pummel this arrogant asshole. What I wanted even more was for him to know that he’d been replaced. Harlowe wouldn’t be getting back together with him or getting together with anyone else because she was with me. She was mine.

I allowed my gaze to leave Zander and go to her, fully expecting her to be vibrating with the same anger that pulsed through me. But she wasn’t. She gnawed at her lower lip while shifting from one foot to the other.

“I don’t know,” she finally said, the words rushing from her mouth. “All I know is that I can’t do this now. I need to change.”

Zander’s smile was one of triumph, but I felt like I’d been sucker-punched. She didn’t know? I cleared my throat, giving myself a second to get my emotions under control. “Harlowe—”

“I need to focus on my scenes.” The words that cut me off were as sharp and cool as shards of ice. “That means I need everyone out.”

I managed to steer the punk actor from the trailer as I left without a backward glance. I paused on the top step after pulling the door shut behind me.

“Don’t take it personal, man.” Zander pivoted when he reached the ground. “She hasn’t changed all that much in a few weeks either, and she’s never liked bodyguards.”

I grunted, thinking that it was very personal, but he also might be right. Some things would never change—including me.

I’d known at my core that getting involved with a client was a mistake. As I walked away from Harlowe, I couldn’t blame her for proving me right. The mistake had been mine, but it was one I could undo.