said with alarm, turning her attention back to the phone. “I set call for nine o’clock. They’re probably freaked. I need to phone Meryl.”
“Babe—”
“God, shit, I overslept,” she mumbled, moving her thumb over her phone.
He snaked his arm out and pulled it from her fingers.
Her head snapped back. “Rush!”
He sought patience.
“Rebel, you officially quit that job yesterday when a body was dumped in front of your house,” he reminded her.
“Yes, but my AD doesn’t know that.”
Okay.
She’d said yes.
At least that was good.
“AD?” he asked.
“Assistant director,” she answered. “We had three big scenes we were filming today. The first one was intense, and not sexually intense, emotionally intense. My actors are good at orgasms, not so good at emotions. They need me. We usually have a powwow before big scenes. They’re probably ticked.”
“That job is done for you, you get that, right?” he asked just to confirm.
She nodded.
Then he stifled a growl when the nod turned to shaking her head.
“Benito’s a monster, but my cast and crew have no idea about that and they look to me for everything, Rush. God, I was so busy fucking you, I totally did not come up with a plan to handle bailing on them.”
Well, all right.
He reached to her, slid an arm around her waist and pulled her up against his body.
“Can anyone take over for you?” he asked.
She gave him a look that said she thought he was crazy.
He was not crazy.
She was bailing on that job and she had to come to terms with that.
“Can they?” he pushed.
She did that thing where her eyes darted around before they came back to his.
“It’s mine,” she whispered.
Ah.
He was getting it.
She pressed up against him, latching on to his neck at either side.
“It’s porn but it’s mine. The stories aren’t exactly Pride and Prejudice, but they aren’t Dude, Where’s My Virginity? either.”
He wanted to laugh.
But he didn’t.
Because she was proud of them.
They were porn, but she’d put her time and talent in them and she was proud of them.
He didn’t give a shit they were porn.
She cared about what she did. She cared about the people she did it with.
He gave a shit about that because that said a lot about her.
He shouldn’t have been surprised.
He still was.
“Just phone, baby,” he said quietly. “Tell them something urgent came up, you’re shutting down the set for now, you’ll explain more later. We’ll come up with something and when it’s all done, you can tell them how it went down.”
She drew in a big breath but said nothing.
“Call this Meryl, yeah?” he prompted.
“What about Benito?” she asked. “Obviously he got wind I didn’t show. He doesn’t get involved but it’s his show. He comes ’round, he’s a presence. Meryl probably freaked, since this is not me, and called him.”
That was when it hit Rush.
“He’s calling you, wondering where you are, he did not dump Turnbull at your house.”
“Whoa,” she breathed, her eyes getting big.
“Yeah,” he said.
“We need to tell Hank and Eddie that.”
“We will. After you call Meryl and stop her from freaking.”
“Right.”
He put enough space between them to hand her the phone.
She stayed close even as she used it.
And then he found something affecting about the fact she made the call on her speakerphone, holding the phone against his chest when it was ringing, which meant she was totally down with him hearing.
“Tallulah!” a voice cried in greeting. “Thank God! Are you okay?”
“Meryl, I’m so sorry. I got news of something yesterday and everything else just slipped my mind. I . . .” her eyes lifted to his, “it’s serious. I have to deal with it. I need to shut things down and I don’t know when I can start it up again. I’ll know more later today and call you. I’m so sorry.”
“Oh honey,” Meryl replied. “What’s going on? Do you need anything?”
She dug her cast and crew.
And obviously, they dug her too.
“No, not right now. I’ll let you know though,” she lied, took a deep breath, kept hold of his eyes and he knew it cost her when she asked, “If this is gonna take a while, do you think you can take over?”
Yeah.
It was porn.
But it was hers and she didn’t want to let go.
“What?” the assistant director’s voice was breathy over the phone.
“I’ve got notes. I can email them to you. You can . . . you can . . .” she pushed into Rush, “take my chair.”
The voice on the speakerphone was stunned. “Ohmigod.”