Touching the Billionaire - Holly Jaymes Page 0,41

stand. I wavered a bit, but Blaine was there to steady me.

“Get a good night’s sleep, Theo. You’re on the home stretch of this project and I think you have a winner here. So keep your eye on the prize and your head in the game.”

I kept his statement in my head as I finally managed to get myself in bed, gripping the sheets as the room kept spinning. But along with keeping my eye on the prize and head in the game, I couldn’t help but think of Madeline. If this movie was going to be a hit, she was going to be a big part of it. The story about us in the tabloids and my reputation would only make it harder for her, so I needed to do more to make sure that that didn’t happen. I had to let everyone know what a tremendous job she was doing. What a spectacular actor she was.

It was fortunate for me that the next day the scene I had to shoot was one involving the aftermath of getting my ass kicked and feeling like shit because I really did feel like shit. I wanted to blame the hangover, but I knew it was more than that. I felt like a fucking asshole going out and pretending to schmooze with women when where I really wanted to be was with Madeline. I hated that because of my crazy libido, I might have done damage to her fledgling career reboot.

Blaine’s words came back to me, so I focused on keeping my eye on the prize and head in the game as I walked onto set and into the makeup room to get my fake bruises, black eye and scrapes.

“So you and Madeline Fox, eh?" the makeup guy asked.

I closed my eyes and willed for calm, because what I really wanted to do was turn around and throttle the guy. “Now, you know how the gossip rags are.”

“So that picture of her going home with you, that wasn’t anything?”

“She’s staying with her sister who lives in the building. So no, it’s nothing.” I glared at him in the mirror.

“That’s good to hear,” Corrine’s voice came from behind him. I looked up to her reflection in the mirror as she moved to stand next to me. “Of course, there are also these pictures on the Internet of you getting wasted last night. What was that all about?”

I shrugged.

“I thought you were done with those wild ways,” she said.

“You know how it is.”

She studied me for a moment. “I do know how it is. So was last night about you sowing your oats or were you trying to offset that story about you and Madeline?”

“The latter.”

She gave me a nod and apparently accepted my story, since she started to walk out of the makeup trailer. “See you on the set in twenty.”

I wasn’t sure how I did it, but I made it through the day. I actually made it through the next couple of days of shooting. But then I noted that Madeline and I had another scene coming up that we were filming in the morning. It wasn’t a very long scene. I wasn’t even sure it was significant and I considered cutting it.

But I missed seeing her, and it would give me a chance to check on her to make sure she was okay. I’d been hearing that she was doing good work on the set. She didn’t seem to be affected like I was. That was a good thing, right?

On the morning that we were to film together, when she showed up on the set, it was clear to me that there was awkwardness and distance between us. We’d have to get past it or it would show up on screen.

I walked up to her. “How are you?”

She smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. “Good. I’m leaving today after filming to go visit my grandparents.”

I nodded, hating how awkward this felt. “Good, I hope you have a good time.”

“Thank you.”

We stood there in uncomfortable silence for an inordinate amount of time. But then Corrine called us to the set to do a scene where Madeline’s character and mine were playing a game of verbal cat and mouse while having coffee at a café.

We got through the scene, but I knew something was missing. Corrine had us do the scene several times. We did more takes than we had done in any of our previous scenes, so I knew for