The Director (Hollywood Nights) by Cara North Page B

such a short time.
                “No, Shay.” He looked at her and
said it again, “You see me .”
                She nodded.
                “I know I’m fucked up. I know this.
I have been for most of my life. I’m not a bad guy really. I just don’t like a
lot of people.” She grinned up at him and he knew they had that much in common
already. “They annoy me.”
                “But not me?”
                “No,” he said and was surprised that
it was true. “Not you. Not yet anyways.”
                She opened her mouth with a feigned
shock and he laughed.
                “I can’t make any promises. I don’t
know how this will turn out,” he said honestly. “I just want a chance to see where
the road might lead because it feels…right.”
                She stroked his beard and said,
“Okay.”
                “Okay?”
                “Yes, because I think you can see
me, too,” she said as she slid her hand to the back of his neck and pulled him
towards her. “As long as the first place it leads us is to the bedroom because
I am pretty sure after that hallway incident, you owe me one.”

 
    Chapter
5

 
                “Can I have the last piece?” he
asked and reached for it anyways. She laughed.
                Shay looked at Jed Gunner sitting
across from her at the kitchen table. He had eaten most of the pizza. How could
she complain? After all, he spent most of the afternoon eating her. She
clenched her thighs together at the memory.
                Her face must have given her
thoughts away. He smiled and said, “You look terrible.”
                “I feel terrible.” She could barely
believe how easy it was to hear the undercurrent of seduction in the
non-complimentary compliments. They were two sick and twisted puppies. She
loved it.
                “I’m going to make you feel
miserable later.” He winked.
                She giggled. He had made her happier
than she could remember being in her entire life. “When are you going back to
New York?”
                “Trying to get rid of me already?”
                “No,” she said and meant it. “I was
just wondering. I’ve only been there once before. I didn’t get to see much of
it.”
                “You’d like it there.” He picked up
the soda and took a drink. He sat it down and looked at her. “We should go.”
                “I…uh,” Shay could feel the
butterflies in her belly. She was nervous. “I can’t right now. I mean I just
started working. I don’t think they will use me as much in the second one. I
don’t have a contract at all for the third. I doubt anything will come along so
I have to see this through. Harvey took a huge risk with me. I can’t let him
down.”
                “I understand.” He nodded. “We don’t
have to go right away, but if you want to go when this contract is up, we’ll
go. I know people, too. I could get you work if…”
                “No!” She pushed up from the table
and picked up her plate. She did not want him to think on any level she was
using him for her career. A year ago she might have taken him up on the offer.
Today, there was no way she could entertain the thought.   “Just…no, okay?”
                He nodded. She held her hand out for
his plate and he handed it to her. “This was nice, right? Having dinner
together.”
                “Yes,” she admitted. “It was.” She
looked at him, he was up to something. She asked, “What?”
                “It might also be nice if we went
somewhere for dinner.”
                She thought about it a moment and
said, “Okay. If you really want to go out with me in public I just need to know
one thing, what should I