Page 95 of Cast to be Mine

“I know.”

“Patty’s going to blow up my phone any second.”

“I know. Go.” He reached past me for the door handle, doing his usual routine. “Let me check the hall.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “You’re buck naked. If there is someone out there, they’re going to see a lot more of you than they should.”

I opened the door, my mind calculating time to shower before I had to meet⁠—

Chantilly Montana was standing six inches from my face, her hand raised in a fist, frozen mid-knock.

I forgot how lungs worked.

For one endless second, the three of us formed a perfect little tableau of guilt. Me, rumpled and flushed. Her, in a tennis outfit that had never seen a tennis court, sunglasses pushed up into artfully styled hair. And behind me, Micah, in nothing but his birthday suit caught with absolutely no way to be dignified about it.

Chantilly’s gaze traveled over me but seemed focused on Micah. I glanced over my shoulder and noticed he’d had the decency to grab a throw pillow to cover himself.

She smiled. Slowly. The cat. The canary. The whole fucking thing.

“Did I interrupt something?”

“No,” I said, at the exact same time Micah did.

We both stopped.

“We were having a discussion,” I said, hearing my voice climb an octave. “About the cliff sequence. From the other day. I caught him coming out of the shower. That’s it.”

“Grace had some thoughts about the way I handled her coverage. Safety stuff. She came to rip me a new one before set.”

“Because you don’t get to decide what is and isn’t safe for me in a scene,” I said, latching onto it like a lifeline. I even managed a little righteous indignation, which wasn’t hard, because I meant every word. “That was the discussion. A heated professional discussion.”

Chantilly looked at me. Then at Micah. Then, deliberately, at the bed behind him, which was a crime scene of twisted sheets.

Silence stretched between the three of us.

I stepped into the hall and closed the door behind me.

Chantilly loved this. I could see her little scandalous brain spinning content. “Well. Don’t let me keep you from your next vigorous disagreement. I just came to tell Micah the video hit nine million views, but I can see you’re both very busy.” She tilted her head, and her smile turned into something I could not read.

“Later,” she said in a cheery voice.

She walked down the hallway toward the elevator. I decided to take the stairs. I could not be in a small box with her. I should have let Micah check the hall.

“Oh, God,” I whispered, my voice echoing in the stairwell.

I knew what I looked like. Lips swollen. Neck blotched. Wild hair. Bra half hanging out of my pocket. If Chantilly had any doubts, they were gone now.

My phone exploded the second I got into my room. Six texts from Patty. I called her, walking to the bathroom to take a two-minute shower.

“I’m fine. I’m in. I woke up early and went for a walk and left my phone.”

“I have your coffee,” she said.

“I’m going to take a quick shower and I’ll meet you downstairs.”

In the shower, the hot water pounding the tension out of my shoulders, I let myself spiral in the privacy of the heat and steam.

Chantilly knew.