Page 34 of Act Like You Don't Care

Twenty minutes later, I was still tossing and turning, half-aroused from the session in the window.

“I’m going to go sit in the hallway,” Miles said softly. “You want a drink or anything to help soothe your nerves?”

“I’m fine,” I said sullenly. “Just turn the light off before you go.”

“Sure.” The light went out shortly after, just before the click of the latch closing on the door. I was alone, in the dark, with the fading smell of alpha and citrus around me.

With a sigh, I punched the pillow a couple of times to fluff it, then forced myself to lie still and breathe softly and deeply until I finally fell asleep.

Miles

My brother Jim called me first thing in the morning. Tam was in the shower, already occupied with the coming shoot. I answered the phone with a casual, “What’s up?”

“You sure you aren’t planning a career in the movies yourself?” Jim asked, without so much as a hello, good morning, or sorry for calling you at the ass-crack of dawn.

“Why? What are you seeing?”

“Well, if this doesn’t bring the guy out of the woodwork, I don’t know what will. You two need to learn to close the curtains.”

“We did.”

“Not soon enough. You sure you aren’t getting any side benefits?”

“Not a one. And do you think last night wasn’t planned?” On a professional level, it had been perfect. On a personal level—well, I had some regrets.Actors. For the time he’d been wrapped around me, I was nearly convinced that the emotion there was real. Or at least the desire. My body was certainly convinced of the interest and it had been painful to remember that we were both professionals and pry myself off him.

And then he’d gone to bed like it had all been nothing.

Which, granted, it probably was to him.

My move out to the hallway to work hadn’t just been so he could turn the lights off and sleep without me keeping him up. It had been to give me some time to get my head on straight as well.

I glanced toward the bathroom when the shower turned off, then drifted over to peek out through the curtains. “Nothing new?”

“Nothing yet. I’ll ping you as soon as anything changes. Stay close to him, just in case. This trip wasn’t exactly a secret.”

“Yeah. Glad it’s not longer. As much as I like having this distance between him and our stalker, not having our usual support network makes the back of my neck itch.”

“You’ve got a good team out there and LAPD says they’ve sent a briefing packet over to the locals. On the remote chance that he does actually follow you, he’s got several layers of security to get through before you even need to think about him.” Jim paused. “What’s up? You’re not usually this touchy. Not in this way, anyhow.”

Damn. “Just short of sleep. I was up late last night reading the reports and up early this morning to grab a shower before Tam so we aren’t late to the set.”

“Uh-huh,” Jim replied.

"Do you have anything else I need to be aware of?" Tam had just come out of the bathroom wearing only a pair of jeans and water droplets and I felt a temporary, wistful regret that our clinch last night had been just an act. He was beautiful, in the way that a man in his prime could be. Well-muscled and in fantastic shape and my hands ached with the brief memory from last night.

"Not that I know of. Keep an eye on your alerts," Jim said, breaking into my little reverie.

I turned my attention back to the computer screen. "All right, I'll keep you updated throughout the day." I hung up and closed the laptop.

"Won't be two seconds," Tam promised, pulling a light gray hoodie over his head and throwing a pair of socks onto the end of the bed. "Any changes to the schedule?"

"None," I told him. "We're still on time."

"Good," he said, only half paying attention as he tried to put a sock on one foot while shoving the other already socked foot into his sneaker. "I hate being late."

"You know, it might be easier if you just did one at a time," I said and dropped to one knee in front of him to fix his shoe so his foot would go in.

Tam chuckled. "Little early to be proposing, isn't it?"