He straightened, and then tugged on her hand to help her up.
“I don’t want this,” she said, standing and knowing the last thing she needed was to feel this way—especially when wrong felt...right.
“Sometimes what we think we should want is beside the point.”
She wanted to argue, but for once, she didn’t know what to say.
“I’m going to take a cold shower,” he said with a rueful smile, and then turned.
She half expected a teasing addition—Want to join me?
But he said nothing further, and somehow she found his seriousness more troubling than his playfulness.
* * *
Bed & Breakfast in Brentwood. Chiara Feran and Her Stuntman Seen Moving in Together.
Chiara stalked back to her trailer along a dirt path, her scene complete. Filming had moved for today from the Novatus Studio lot to nearby Griffith Park.
The blog Celebrity Dish had scooped WE Magazine and run a relationship story about her and Rick. Melody should still be happy about her exclusive interview, but it hadn’t taken long for the gossip to start making the rounds...
Chiara attributed her bad mood to lack of coffee...and a certain stuntman.
Yesterday afternoon, they’d had a near tryst on her weight bench. There was no telling what he was capable of if he stayed in her house much longer.
She’d shown up at work at six in the morning intent on avoiding Rick, and had sat in the makeup chair. It was now ten, and there was still no sign of him. After their encounter in the exercise room, she’d heard him shower and leave her house. He still hadn’t returned when she’d gone to bed hours later.
Perhaps he’d met and hooked up with a woman. Not that it was her business. Even if it meant he’d gone straight from her arms to those of another... Damn it.
At least Pegasus Pride would wrap soon. They were in the last days of filming. The scenes that she’d been in with Rick acting as a body double for her costar Adrian had been thankfully few.
Head down, she turned a corner...and collided with a solid male chest.
The air rushed out of her, and then she gasped.
But before she could wonder whether her favorite fan had made a surprise appearance again, strong arms steadied her, and she looked up into Rick’s green eyes.
“You.”
“For two people who are roommates, we hardly ever run into each other,” he said in an ironic tone.
Chiara blinked. His hands were still cupping her upper arms, the wall of his chest a mere hair’s breadth away. The heat emanated from him like a palpable thing.
“It’s a big house and an even larger movie location.” She sounded breathless and chalked it up to having the air nearly knocked out of her.
He was irritating but also impossible to ignore—and she’d been throwing her best acting skills at the problem.
“Miss me?” he teased drily. “I thought we were supposed to be joined at the hip these days.”
How could she answer that one? After he’d left last night, she’d succumbed to a restless night’s sleep. He’d left her satisfied and bereft at the same time. Sure, she’d gotten release, but they’d missed out on the ultimate joining, and hours later, her body had craved it. At least he wasn’t openly chastising her for her artful dodge that morning.
He stepped closer and eased her chin up, his gaze focused on her lips. “I missed you.”
“The mouth that can’t stop telling you off?”
He gave her a crooked smile. “We’d be good in bed. There’s too much combustible energy between us. Admit it.”
“Can’t you tell good acting when you see it?”