A Reluctant Boy Toy (Men of St. Nacho's #3) - Z.A. Maxfield Page 0,3

shown up early, and as far as I could tell, he’d only asked for a small, likely unexceptional, concession.

Surely no one considered that diva-like?

As an incorrigible observer of human behavior, Sebastian Keye reminded me of the wolves and hybrids I’d pledged my future to protect.

If he really was a troublemaker, I wondered what else he had in store.

Chapter Two

Bast

“Here you go.” Molly opened the door to the stuffy motorhome and switched on the lights. “Let me get these windows open so you have fresh air and sunlight.”

“Thank you.” I went to the room where my bed was made up and flopped down on it.

We were parked in a quiet grove of evergreen trees. Except for birdsong and the chitter of squirrels, it was quiet. I planned to keep it that way. It took a noisy generator to produce AC, but everything else operated on battery, and the weather had been mild.

I threw my things on the queen size bed. “You think they noticed I was early?”

“Sure. But that doesn’t mean they believe you’ve changed.”

“I’ve changed? I never did anything wrong to begin with.”

“Oh honey, you know what I meant. It’s all bullshit.” Her brown eyes met mine. “You don’t still care about that, do you?”

“Not really.” My unearned reputation for bad behavior followed me like stink from a trash truck. It stayed with me from project to project, despite everything I tried in order to win hearts and minds. “Did you see the guy with the eye patch and the wolves?”

“I was busy dealing with the AD. What about him?”

“Talk about sinister. He’s probably an animal handler, but he’d be great as a baddie on the show.”

“That’s not very nice, Sebastian.”

“I wonder if he got those scars on the job. The animals in the pen couldn’t have been wolves. They were too big. Plus, wolves are super shy. They weren’t huskies. I wish I’d gotten a closer look. They were gorgeous.”

“They were probably mixes, right?” she asked. “Don’t they use those in film?”

“Hybrids. Yeah, probably.

“You going to be okay here?” she asked. “I made sure you’re half a mile away from everyone else.”

I glanced out the window again. “I won’t know until full daylight, but this looks like a good place.”

“They had to move one of the handler’s trailers to accommodate you. I hope you’re suitably grateful.”

“I’ll send a note, but I told you. I don’t care what they think about me anymore.”

“Sure you don’t,” Molly said dryly.

Molly was the finest PA I’d ever had, and she taught me to allow people’s preconceived notions to work in my favor. Her chatty, slightly collegiate guise worked as a kind of distraction while I let my hauteur run wild. Like the odor of past transgressions, our mutual deception kept everyone at a distance—just the way I liked it.

It didn’t stop the whispers that followed us. It didn’t stop the irritated glances I got from other actors or the shoulder knocks from the crew. But I needed a wide bubble of human-free space around me, and as I got older, I got better at carving one out, even on a film set where everyone felt perfectly free to be all up in everyone else’s business.

If I hadn’t been looking out the window, I wouldn’t have seen eye patch man drive past in his van.

From what I understood, our hybrid wolf actors had come from a wolf sanctuary in Colorado. I’d read about it when I’d signed on to the production.

The sanctuary was not only providing a pair of wolfdog hybrids to film closeup work, but they were providing stock footage of real wolves in the wild, which the production team would seed into each episode for verisimilitude.

The two animals I saw earlier had been lovely creatures. I had a couple scenes with them, and I hoped I’d get to spend some time observing them up close if that was possible.

“Okay.” Molly had her tablet ready. “You’re due for makeup at seven a.m. You want to eat something here or take a bento?”

“I’ll eat here.”

“Fine.” She turned to the full-size refrigerator to see what we had. The motorhome had been stocked according to my lengthy rider. Boxed breakfasts and lunches from Bistro in nearby St. Nacho’s. Dinners from whatever place I chose each day.

“I’ll organize while you’re working today.” Molly placed a breakfast omelet in the microwave and arranged fruit and juice on a tray. “I’ve sent the day’s schedule to your phone along with the interview questions for BuzzFeed. They want those back