Touching the Billionaire - Holly Jaymes Page 0,14

for her. But, you’re in luck because we need to move the MOMA scene and we were thinking of doing the party scene there. We can do that first and then the library. I can let her know.”

I nodded. “Good. Great. Thanks.” I rushed off, feeling like a fool. I was nice to women. I had good manners. But I wasn’t the type of man to “soften the path” or worry about them. The moment Madeline strode up the hall in her kick-ass leather skirt, billowing red hair, and don’t-fuck-with-me attitude for the screen test, I was off my game.

I might have been off in my personal life, but I was on the ball professionally. Twelve hours later, I was heading home, and again felt a twinge of disappointment that Madeline wasn’t in the elevator. My finger hovered over the eight-button on the panel. I could stop by and tell her about the change of plans in filming. But Corrine said she’d tell her so it would seem odd if I showed up too. Plus, I wasn’t liking the feeling that I was behaving like a puppy.

On Madeline’s first day of shooting, she arrived hours before me. One of the benefits of being a man was that I didn’t need hours of hair and make-up. I showed up on set wearing the suit and my hair slicked back, ready for the party scene at the Langford mansion in England, where I’d be stealing a painting and returning it to the descendants of the family from whom it was taken in Paris in 1939.

I lingered on the set with the extras, waiting for Madeline to arrive.

“Remember, when you dance, keep your hands a respectable distance from her ass,” Corrine said as she approached me.

I smirked, but didn’t have time to reply when her attention was directed behind me.

“Madeline, you look like a billion bucks.”

I turned to see what a billion bucks looked like and my jaw nearly dropped to the floor. Holy fuck, she was gorgeous. The dark green dress was just sexy enough to be tantalizing. Her hazel eyes held a greenish-hue that I’d never seen before. Her hair was bunched up on her head in some fancy style that probably took forever, but the loose tendrils gave the appearance that she’d just been ravished against the wall. Maybe we could change the kissing scene to a sex one in the library, I thought.

“You’re gawking,” Corrine whispered next to me.

I cleared my throat and put my hands in my pants on the off chance that full feeling I had in my dick was noticeable.

“How is Nicolette expected to carry a gun in this dress?” Madeline asked when she reached us.

"She uses her brains and wits,” Corrine said, studying Madeline.

“It doesn’t seem very realistic.”

“Says the woman who spent her childhood talking to a puppet,” I quipped. The minute I said it, I felt like an asshole. Why did she bring out my worst impulses?

“Kids believe in puppets. Adults don’t think an Interpol Agent would work without her gun.”

“You’re following him, surveilling him. You don’t need a gun. Besides you’re not alone,” Corrine said.

“That’s right, my all-male team is around the place and they have guns.” Clearly Madeline didn’t like the image that was being depicted.

“Jesus, give her a gun,” I said. I was irked and I directed it at her, but in truth, it was on me. She was right. She should have a gun or she needed a team that included women. “And get some women on her team.” I walked away to take a moment. I needed to be suave. Confident. Arrogant. I wasn’t feeling any of those at the moment.

Twenty minutes later, we were ready to go. I entered the scene as indicated in the script. My goal was to blend in. I was a billionaire, so of course I’d be there, but I didn’t want people to remember that I was there. I was also taking in the floor plan and the security, in and outside of the home. Eventually, I’d make my way to the library where the artwork in question hung. I was scoping the joint to rob it.

People around me were laughing, talking, drinking. I picked up a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. I tilted my head back to sip, and when I brought it straight again, I saw Nicolette across the room. Thank fuck I’d seen her before as I’d probably have blown the scene if this was my first view