Before A Perfect World: Movie Trilogy, Book Two (The Movie Trilogy) (2 page)

“
V
.”

I couldn’t form the right words to say to her. Every sentence seemed insufficient
to the way that I was feeling. Knowing that she was there, in my arms, my child growing inside of her… I let the emotions take over for a few stolen moments.

“I know. I know, Keaton,” she hushed, bravely raising her face to mine. “I feel so close to you. I can’t even explain what this feels like. I’ve made him a
promise, and I’m making you one too. I won’t kiss him, and he won’t touch me. Let me focus on one thing at a time. I want a clear head, and I don’t have that with the audition of my whole career waiting for me through those doors.”

“
Why don’t you just tell him about my baby? Maybe he’ll walk away, and it’ll make everything more clear.”

“Would
you
walk away? If this baby wasn’t yours?”

I caught her chin in my hand, lifting her face to mine. “
Probably.”

“Really?” She sounded deflated.

“I’m being honest. There’s something primitive about seeing you here, now, knowing that I put my child inside of you.”

She gave me a dirty look, but I could tell that she was holding back a smirk.
“You’re kind of a caveman.”

“
I still haven’t shown you my mountain rape cave.”

She giggled. “Okay. Just let me focus on the audition. I can’t screw this up, Keaton, and I know you need someone to carry this role. I’m not asking you to do me any favors. Either I earn it or I don’t.”

“Go earn your part, Miss Hale.”

She nodded, taking a deep breath and turning toward the French doors.

“V?”

She turned, raising her eyes. “Keaton?”

“I wouldn’t walk away from you, kiddo. Not in a million years.”

She smiled, her entire face lighting up
exactly the way it did the first time that I’d met her.

When we moved into the open space, Max and Frank sat on the couch with their
iPads, and I flipped open the script. She widened her eyes, gesturing to the stapled papers in my hand. “You’re reading opposite of me?”

“Someone has to. Would you prefer Frank?” I suggested.

She tried to hide her grimace, and I remembered her calling him an asshole in the car on the way to the hotel. He started to stand, and she shook her head quickly.

“No, no, just clarifying. Okay, I’m ready.”

I smiled at her, disarming, willing her to calm down. “Page eighty-eight.”

She nodded, and I saw her fingers shaking as she turned the pages over. Max
typed something on his pad, and I watched her eyes dart over to him.

She was nervous.

“Hold on.” I turned toward the bar, tossing the script onto the counter before gathering ice into a glass. “You wanted some water. Sorry, I almost forgot. Hey, I’m going to turn these lights on, okay?”

Before she could answer, I flipped the panel near the bar open and adjusted the lighting.

I knew that she had only stage experience, and the bright lights came to life directly where she stood on the carpet, casting Max and Frank into the shadows.

She smiled gratefully, accepting the glass from my hand and taking a quick drink. “Okay,” she agreed, lowering the glass to the table near the couch.

“Kristie,” I began, “we got a tip that the next murder will be at Paramount Park, near Ogden, Utah.”

She realized that I’d started reading, and I watched her entire posture change.

Her eyes widened, her mouth opened slightly, and her mannerisms that I’d fallen so deeply in love with came to life before my eyes.

“And you’re
going
?” she demanded. “Two of the investigators were already killed, John.
Two
. They can’t catch this man. He’s like a ghost,” she cried, her blue eyes immediately sparkling with tears. “I love you too much to let you do this.”

I almost couldn’t read the script.

I was no actor, and I was too concentrated on her eyes to focus on myself.

She gave me an encouraging look, and I glanced down at my line.

“You knew when you married me what my job entailed, baby, I have to go-”

“Then I’m coming with you,” she
declared, lowering the papers in her hand to her side, taking a step closer to me. I focused on her mouth, her perfect heart-shaped lips, and slid my hand up her bare arm.

“Don’t kiss me,” she hissed, one frustrated tear slipping down her cheek. “When you kiss me, I forget what I’m so mad about. I forget everything.”

I smiled slowly, lowering my lips to hers.

I kissed her. God, I kissed her, with all
of the pent-up longing that had been building since I last held her in my arms. She cried out into my mouth, protesting at first, but my lips coaxed her cooperation.

She dropped the script and wrapped her arms around my neck.

“I love you so fucking much,” I hushed, my tongue plunging and tasting the familiar kiss that had filled my dreams every night. I had no idea if the line was in the script, or if Max and Frank were watching us. She tasted like Jolly Ranchers, and I groaned, tasting her.

She responded to me, crying out as I gripped her ponytail and tugged. Her neck was mine, and as she
broke away, I heard her murmur, “
Coffee and Red Bull.
”

When I smiled, she caught herself, panting softly in my arms.

“
Sex and candy,” I replied, pressing my mouth to her ear.

Visibly shaken, I watched her struggle to collect her thoughts.

“I’m coming with you,” she cried, clinging to my neck. “I won’t interfere in the investigation. I’ll stay at the hotel.
Please
, John.”

I paused for a moment.

She was
brilliant
.

It wasn’t until she called me ‘John’ did I realize that she was still fully in character, speaking her lines, auditioning for my film.

Max’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “Keaton, Ash is here. Do you want her to do a read with him?”

I untangled her arms from my neck, turning to my casting director.

“Ash Salter?” she breathed. “
The
Ash Salter?”

Frank grinned.
“She’s definitely working for me. I say we let her read with Ash.”

I stepped backward, adjusting my collar and looking down at the script that had fallen to the floor.

“Yeah. Bring Salter in. Same scene. Is that okay?” I urged, watching her react to my order.

“You want me to read this scene with… Ash
Salter
?”

The door
opened, and Kathy led the two-time Oscar winning actor behind her.

I turned to Vivian, watching her face
go white and her fingers move to scratch her neck.

And I pinched her nose.

She jumped, bursting into laughter, and I smirked.

“Be cool, kiddo.”

She batted at my hand, her voice lowering. “Okay, boss.”

Paternal insti
ncts went out the window, and my instant hard-on was nowhere near professional.

I wanted her.

Now, later… always.

“
Keaton, it’s great to see you again. Mr. Lander,” Ash said, greeting us, and I watched as People’s
Sexiest Man Alive
turned toward Vivian. “You must be Miss Hale,” he chuckled, his signature sky-blue eyes gleaming. “I’m looking forward to reading with you. I admit though, it’s a little intimidating to read with the director’s fiancée.”

V

Fiancé
e?

I’d completely forgotten the newscast from a month ago, so absorbed in my own
ordinary life with Matthew.

Keaton had already introduced me to
Entertainment Tonight
as his fiancée.

His divorce from Kelsey King had been finalized two weeks ago
, and the truth about her feigned pregnancy was made public. I knew that because I was stalking
E! Online
for reports.

And
Ash Salter was about to read with me.

He
reached for my arm, tugging me closer, just as Keaton had only minutes before. He was the ultimate playboy of Hollywood, claiming a future of bachelorhood at only thirty-three. His windblown, blond hair and clear blue eyes were even more attractive in person.

“You knew when you married me what my job entailed,
Kristie, I have to go-”

“Then I’
m coming with you,” I insisted. Granted, it was clear that his acting abilities were far more developed than Keaton’s, but he wasn’t
Keaton
. My lack of enthusiasm was enough for Keaton to take notice, and my hovering director stood up and walked to me.

“
Vivian, do what you did with me. Take a step toward him. Ash, slide your hand up her arm, drop at her shoulder.”

The actor did as Keaton instructed, and Keaton’s gaze went from pleased to furious within the span of three seconds.

“Wait, no, don’t touch her. Just keep your distance until you kiss her.”

I
had just kissed Keaton.

I kissed him.

I
had
to kiss him, it was part of the script. I wasn’t Vivian, and he wasn’t Keaton, we were Kristie and John.

And Matthew would have to understand.

“Do you remember our honeymoon? In the mountains?”  Ash was ad-libbing, or pulling from some place in the script we hadn’t gotten to yet. Before I could stop him, he backed me against the wall, his strong fingers sliding through my hair. “Baby, I won’t let anyone hurt you. Never. Do you understand me?”

And holy hell, his lips
were on mine. There was a moment of question, but he charged through my defenses. When I softened my own mouth, he took that as a green light, his fingers encircling my neck, possessive, ardent. “Promise me you won’t interfere in this investigation, Kristie,” he breathed, his tongue darting in and out of my mouth.

Small tongue. Lips too soft.

Stop thinking about his kiss! You are a professional. Act like it.

“
John
,” I murmured, scraping my fingernails gently against his face.

“
Cut! That’s good.” Keaton’s strangled voice sent Ash backwards, and the director moved between us. “A little too much enthusiasm for the scene, though, Salter.”

I grinned at the edge in Keaton’s voice. Jealous?
Keaton?
Impossible.

“Definite chemistry,” Max argued, glancing at his watch. “Okay, thanks, that’s it for today. Vivian, Ash, we’ll be in touch.”

My smile fell, and I realized that I’d been expecting a decision immediately.

“We’re doin
g one callback, tomorrow morning,” Keaton assured me. “Vivian, I want to talk to you before you leave.”

Max and Frank walked out of the office with Ash, and I spun around, glaring at Keaton.

“You should have warned me that I’d be reading with Ash fucking Salter! I looked like such an amateur! I know that Reese Witherspoon already auditioned for you, and she and Ash were in that… that cowboy movie-…,”

“V. Stop.” He reached for my water, lifting my hand and wrapping my fingers around the glass. “Listen to me. You need to keep your stress level low.
I bought this book about pregnancy and read about what you went through, eclampsia. This is going to be considered a high-risk pregnancy for you. Have you seen a doctor yet?”

“No,
but I have an appointment when I get home,” I admitted. Nervously, I twirled a long strand of auburn hair around my finger.

He bought a book?
A pregnancy book?

Oh,
God, my heart.

“You have an appointment tomorrow,
at one of the best OB-GYNs in LA. And I’m going with you. Alone. Without Harry fucking Potter tagging along.”

“Would you
stop
with the glasses jokes? They’re so stupid,” I snapped.

“Fine. Sorry. Not really. Listen, you’re g
etting a callback, and the second audition will be less than five minutes long. Convince him to stay at the hotel, and then I’ll take you to the appointment.”

“Will I know right away if I got the part?” I asked, unable to contain my excitement. My wide smile took over my lips, and as though contagious, his grin stretched from ear to ear.

God, he was gorgeous. He made jeans look so professional, and
so
damn sexy. His crisp, white button-down complimented his tanned skin, and every part of my body longed for him.

I wanted nothing more than his lips on mine.