Page 65 of Behind the Scenes

I’ll get to it tomorrow.

My gaze traveled up to the entrance just as Harley was coming out.

“They won’t take long,” Harley said with a tired smile. “Sorry for making you wait again. I know you’re probably starving.”

I merely shrugged and watched her as she sat down. The tiredness was even more apparent. Her shoulders were slumped, and while her tone was mostly joking, it lacked the energy it usually did.

“The director was hard on you today,” I noted, my eyes traveling her frame.

“He’s hard on me every day. But he’s good at what he does, and I don’t mind it as long as the outcome is good. Small bit of suffering for a large payout.”

“Did you get good footage today?” I asked, remembering how many times they had to start and stop filming mid-sentence because the director said “something was off.”

She let out a sigh and ran her hand through her hair.

“Well, yeah. Better than yesterday. The other actor seemed more focused too,” she added. “The director wanted to reshootsome stuff tomorrow, but we don’t have time for that. We have too many sunset scenes and not enough days here.”

“One and a half days left,” I reminded her.

“Counting down the days until you’re rid of me, my love?”

Her words caused a sudden flush of heat to rise in me.

“Per our contract, we have to see each other every few days,” I reminded. “There’s no getting rid of you.”

For the first time, I noticed I wasn’t bitter about it, though.

“When will you come to terms with the fact that maybe you just don’t want to?” There was a cocky smile on her face. “That maybe you feel the draw too. That maybe this is the best time you’ve had in years?—”

“Whoa, don’t get too ahead of yourself, Killer.”

The nickname caused her eyes to narrow.

“What?” I asked. “Don’t like it? Don’t want to talk about it?” I leaned closer. “Too public?”

It might not be smart to goad her like this, but I couldn’t really stop myself.

“What do you want to know?” she asked, leaning forward to match my position. “Want to know why I do it? The rush I feel? The urge when it’s been too long? How it feels to have taken so many lives that I have literally lost count of how much blood has stained my hands?”

The air felt dense. It wasn’t just her words, but the way she said them. The darkness they hid. She wouldn’t hurt me. I knew that.

But the danger still caused a shiver to crawl up my spine. And it wasn’t a bad one.

She could if she wanted to.

That was the feeling. She wouldn’t hurt me, but she was capable of it.

And there was a part of that danger, as much as it had my fight-or-flight instinct raging, that had something else churning in my stomach.

Something warmer.

Somethingneedy.

It gave me an idea. One I had been playing with all day but never really got the nerve to fully flesh out.

Our stare down was interrupted by the staff coming out with our plates, both piled high with delicious-smelling food.

And just like that, the danger was gone. Like a light switch, Harley had done a one-eighty, and I was left with someone much more…docile.