Starlet: A Dark Retelling - Cora Kenborn Page 0,60
between you two.” Rosten takes a few measured steps toward me. “Are you fucking him?”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s a simple question,” he says, his eyes darkening. “Are. You. Fucking. McCallum?”
“No!” At least not yet.
“Good, then we can proceed.” I have no idea what to say. I’m speechless. Which doesn’t matter because Rosten doesn’t seem to notice. “Silverline is producing a new film.” Returning to his desk, he pulls a bound folder from a desk drawer and drops it in my lap. “It’s already well past the casting stage and into the table reads. However, the female lead isn’t working out, so I’ve decided to recast.”
Bound Fate.
Top secret my ass. I’ve heard of these books. Violet was obsessed with them. She nearly lost her mind when rumors circulated a Hollywood studio had bought the movie rights for the entire trilogy. However, nothing was ever confirmed.
Well, until now.
“Huh.” I have no idea what else to say, so I flip to the first page, shocked at the name I see. “Holy shit, you’re replacing Greta Amherst?” The woman is a legend. Only twenty-six and already two Oscars and three Golden Globes under her belt. “Who’s replacing her?”
“You are.”
My head jerks up, the script almost tumbling off my lap. “I’m sorry?”
“Alexandra, Greta is beautiful and talented—”
“And a guaranteed box office draw.”
He flashes that brutally white smile. “True, but so are you, my sweet. You’re the topic at every water cooler. I wouldn’t be the businessman I am without capitalizing on that.”
“So, you’re putting me in a movie because of my name.”
“No. I’m putting you in the movie because you were born to play the role.” Rosten leans over my shoulder, flipping the pages of the script until he finds the one he wants. “See there? Isabella is an innocent, young girl, just coming into her sexual awakening. Sebastian is the much older CEO who breaks her inhibitions and drags her into a world of darkness and carnal sin.”
He’s right. The lines he’s referring to are explicit and from what I can tell, the role calls for pretty much full nudity on my part. “I don’t know if this is the right fit for me.”
Rosten leans back, his hands rubbing my shoulders. “Do you want a sweet, romantic comedy that paints you as the cute, little Romanov girl they remember, or do you want a gritty leading role that shows the world Alexandra Romanov is all grown up?”
Please stop.
“I have to think—”
His hands pause. “No thinking, Alexandra. Either you take the role, or I give it to Kya Perrone. Yes or no.”
Shit.
The tabloids love a good rivalry whether it’s real or not, and Kya versus Alexandra is the cat fight du jour. Even though we’ve never spoken two words to each other, the media has us at each other’s throats, fighting for roles, and trash talking behind each other’s backs.
Michaela says it may be fabricated bullshit, but the more my name stays on people’s tongues the better. I’m not so sure. Because if Kya gets this role and it explodes, where does that leave me?
I’ll tell you. As the dumb bitch who handed it to her on a silver platter.
“Fine,” I bite out through clenched teeth. “I’ll do it.”
“Excellent, I—”
“On one condition.” I say the words before I change my mind. “Leave Dominic McCallum alone.”
“Very well,” he says, returning to his ministrations. “Welcome back, Alexandra. Things might not have ended the way we planned before”—I wince as his fingers dig into my skin—“but this time will be different.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Dominic
A wave of dread builds like a slowly rising tide as I drive my Harley up Stone Canyon Drive. However, it’s only when I pull into the bowels of the mansion that it comes crashing down and swallows me whole.
Scrubbing a hand down my face, I catch my reflection in the side view mirror. God, I look like shit. Lines crease down from the corners of my blood-shot eyes, and I haven’t cared to shave in four days. At least Rosten kept his end of the bargain and my mother is back upstairs in the main level of Moss Valley Hospital. That’s one less thing keeping me up at night. But I’ve done nothing but obsess about everything else.
Especially what happened in that hallway with Angel.
I tried to push her away, but Rosten backed me into a corner. The fucked-up part is he didn’t have to push very hard. I half walked there myself just to get close to her again. I lose control around her, which is a