Touching the Billionaire - Holly Jaymes Page 0,63
my utter devastation showed up on my face. Once I finished there, I made my way to the set, this time a crowded bar.
He walked on the set and because we were supposed to pretend like we weren’t into each other, which I’d just learned he didn’t have to pretend about at all, he said “hello” and gave me an easy smile.
Lucky for me, the scene required that I hate Theo Wolfe or at least Jack Cole as played by Theo. At this moment in time, hating him required very little acting on my part. I didn’t just hate Theo. I loathed him. I thought he was the most despicable and disgraceful man on Earth.
We started the scene with the basic banter that quickly grew into a shouting match of words. In every put-down, every nasty thing Nicolette called him, it was actually me, Madeline calling out Theo. In some cases, I didn’t feel the dialogue went deep enough into how awful he was, and so I threw in my own input. I added lines about what a disgrace to the human race he was. I pointed out that it was no wonder that people didn’t respect him, or always dismissed him, because he was a sociopath, fake and phony.
Then I cranked my hand back, resisting the urge to make a fist, and I let it fly as it landed hard, square on his cheek, knocking his head to the side and forcing him back a step.
Corrine called, “Cut. Jesus, Madeline, you’re not supposed to really hit him.”
His hand pressed against his cheek and he shook his head slightly, like he was trying to get his brain to settle back in place. That little move made me feel triumphant.
Then, doing exactly what Theo had been doing since the moment I met him, I plastered on a fake, sheepish smile. “Whoops, sorry.”
Theo attempted an affable smile. “Remind me to never get on your bad side.”
“Too late.”
His brows furrowed Like maybe now he was just realizing something wasn’t right.
We did the scene again, and because I was ready to be done with all of this, especially Theo Wolfe, I did my best to stick to the script so that we could get it finished in as few takes as possible. This time, I said the lines and slapped him like I was supposed to do the first time. And when Corrine said to cut and then called it a wrap, I turned and walked off the set, heading straight to my trailer.
I was done with filming and so while there were few people stopping by to congratulate me and say goodbye, once I thanked them, I hurried to pack my things and get off the set as quickly as possible. I cleaned out my trailer and then walked to where a car sat, waiting to take me home. I nearly reached it when I heard my name called. I told myself to keep walking because I didn’t want to talk to Theo Wolfe. Especially out in public, because I would likely give something away about how we’d been spending our evenings.
“Madeline,” he said a little bit more forcefully, and I felt his fingers wrap around my arm to stop me.
I whipped around. “What?” I did my best to make my face look pleasant in case anybody was watching, but if he was looking closely, he’d see my disgust of him in my eyes.
“What's going on?" he asked.
“What do you mean? We’re two actors on a set acting, and now I’m done, so I’m going home. Isn’t that what we agreed to?” I said, my lips dripping with sarcasm.
He looked down on me, his brows pulled together like he was completely baffled. He scanned the area around us as if to gauge who might be listening in.
Then he leaned a little bit closer to me. “Are you angry at me? Did I do something?”
I let out a derisive laugh. “It really says something about you that you don’t have any clue at what you did. You’re worse than I even first thought.”
He jerked back like I’d slapped him again. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Oh come on, Theo. We’re finished here. You don’t have to pretend anymore.”
“Pretend what?”
I had to hand it to him. He was a good actor. He looked completely agape.
“You don’t have to seduce me anymore to get the performance you want. We’re done.”
“Oh, fuck.” He drew both his hands through his hair and looked up to the sky