IMPACT: A Secret Baby Sports Romance (40 page)

Chapter Seven

Rane

It made no fucking sense. But as I watched her walk barefoot across the ballroom floor, biting her plump bottom lip and refusing to meet my eyes, I felt a very strange sense of triumph.

I was going to get to kiss this girl.

Fuck yeah.

The little slip of nothing. God
damn.
I write the lyrics for Ruthless, but the sight of her soft, freckled, nearly naked body left me completely at a loss of words. I was already reaching out for her, ready to touch her. I had a sixth sense about how that creamy skin would feel under my fingertips. I had a perverse desire to suck marks onto the tops of her freckled breasts.

One of the lighting people chose that exact moment to plug in one of the main spots, sending out a bright flare that seemed to light her from within. She looked like a goddamned angel.
Forget church, I'm having a fucking religious experience right here.

An ominous electrical hum grew louder. Then a crack and a shouted, "Fuck!"

There was a blinding flash. Stinging sparks rained onto my skin and I was rolling out of the way before I knew had happened, landing in a crouch on the marble floor.

"Fire extinguisher! Now!" Dee shouted. A panicked PA ran up and blasted the flickering satin bedsheets with a spray of foam before they ignited. Crew members ran this way and that, trying to salvage the equipment, save the historical building... completely ignoring me.

But Maddie wasn't. She stood stock still, staring at me, paler than I thought possible. Her hands fluttered once before she clutched her arms tightly to her chest. "Holy shit, are you okay?"

I stood up from the floor and patted myself down. "Yeah, seems that way."

"You could have been really hurt!"

"Nah, I'm fine."

This answer seemed to piss her off a little. She looked around in indignation and raised her voice. "What kind of shoddy workplace is this? That was a serious accident!"

"Hey, calm down." I held up my hands. "Everything's fine."

She glared at me. "No. It isn't." Her huffy fury was making her tits bounce, which made me grin. "Hey! Eyes up here."

Whoops, she caught me. "What?"

"Aren't you taking this seriously?"

"I don't take anything seriously, Princess."

I swear it was an accident, calling her that. She was acting like a snot and it just slipped out. Too late, I remembered the show she had grown up on, her nickname. America's Princess. Princess Parker.

She reddened and looked like she wanted to murder me with her eyeballs. But I was saved from certain death when Warlox came floating into my field of vision. "Looks like we lost one of the main spots," he hissed.

I turned back and looked at the mountain of foam. "And the bed, too," I observed. I looked back and saw Maddie shivering a little. Bitch or no, the chick was standing practically naked and no one was paying any attention. "Hey, yo," I bellowed to the rushing crew.  "Will one of you assholes get this lady a robe?"

Harlow flew up, swooping a white robe around her shoulders. Maddie clutched it gratefully and I tried to ignore how her flame-red hair and reddened cheeks made her look just like a church candle.

"Thanks," she whispered to me, barely audible.

"Yeah, sure." Our words hung there in the air like an echo before she turned away from me. I wanted to yell at her to look at me again, but I didn't know why.

"We can't start shooting the bed scene until the prop department gets the bed linens fixed and lighting wires up a new spot," Warlox fretted.

I sighed loudly. "So, fuck it then. Let's do something else. You gotta have something else scheduled for today."

Dee reappeared. "Some band shots and the run through the ballroom."

I called over to Maddie. "You up for running?"

She clutched her robe tighter. "Away, you mean?" At least she was attempting to make a joke.

I grunted. "Don't tempt me."

She gave a deep shuddering sigh and hopped from foot to foot. "Yeah, I'm kind of keyed up. May as well use it." She looked off in the distance and the oddest thing happened. As I watched her, it was like a wall grew up around her. That red-faced anger froze over into an icy, frigid calm. Her jaw jutted slightly and her eyes stopped shining. She lifted her chin and her spine and fucking
glared
at us. "I'm ready when you are."

"Harlow has your wardrobe ready, right?" Dee prompted.

Harlow seemed to be mesmerized by Maddie's transformation as well. She blinked. "Yeah, sure. Wanna come with me, Mads?"

"Madeline," Maddie corrected coolly, then stalked after her like a queen, without even a glance in my direction.

I shook my head. "Well, okay then..." I muttered to myself.

Keir was at my elbow all of a sudden, looking half in the bag. "So, those were some intense fireworks. You okay?" he slurred.

Balzac called from the doorway. "You good, Rane?" Twitch bounced behind him and Pepper managed to add a degree of concern to her slouch.

"Yeah," I shrugged. "
I'm
fine." I forced myself to stop staring at Maddie's back like it would explain her sudden transformation into an ice queen and smirked at my brother. "
You
would have screamed like a girl, though."

"Maybe." Keir tipped his flask again. "But we'll never know because I'm not the one 'starring' in this video."

"Thank you for reminding me yet again."

"They don't need us until after lunch," Balzac called. "I'll make sure Keir doesn't eat your sandwich."

I nodded at him. "Make sure he eats something, though. I don't want him blackout drunk by two."

"Oh, fuck off, I already have a dad," Keir mumbled, then clapped me on the back. "You good?"

"Your concern is touching. I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

Keir wasn't too drunk to raise a skeptical eyebrow. He gestured in the direction of wardrobe. "Because you're staring at Mad Maddie like she pissed in your Cheerios."  

We both glanced over in that direction.

That was a mistake.

Maddie's body was partially shielded by hanging dresses, but I knew immediately she was completely naked. The curve of her back was a sinuous S that culminated in the ripest, roundest, prettiest little ass cheeks I had ever seen.

"Fuck, I'll drink to that," Keir growled, lifting his flask in appreciation.

I felt a small match of possessive anger flare to life in my chest. But it disappeared as I watched Maddie lifting her arms over her head, her lithe body disappearing under a mountain of frothy pink tulle that matched the roses in her cheeks.

The roses that were there until that weird ice-over happened.

"You look like a dog standing outside of a butcher shop," Keir smirked. "Wipe the drool off your chin. That's Sylvia's girl."

"No shit, Sherlock."

"How is she so far?" Keir wondered.

"Hot and cold," I answered truthfully. That was the best way I could describe it. "Like she's two different people. Mean and then sweet and then mean again."

Keir looked at me and made pointed buzzing sounds. "Crazy," he sing-songed, elongating the z.

He was saved from a punch to his face when Warlox called out, "Rane! Ready when you are!" I mentally shook myself.

"Haha!" Keir punched my arm.

"You're kind of a dick, anyone ever tell you that?"

"Not even once. I'm the nice brother. You're the aloof asshole. I've gotten the voicemails from your conquests saved to prove it."

I shoved him, feeling marginally better at the familiar brotherly sparring. "Hey, gimme some of that." I yanked his flask out of his hands and downed the rest of it. 

"Dick!" he exhaled.

I wiped my chin. "Thank you. I needed liquid fortification for dealing with ice queen over there."

Keir looked at Maddie. "Shit. Dad could have at least mentioned that she was smokin'." He looked me up and down, then waggled his flask. "I'll go pour us some more."

I lifted my chin in appreciation and made to shove my hands in my pockets, but the fucking leather pants were too damn tight to do even that. Made me wish I still smoked, to give my hands something to do other than attempt to trace the curve of that ass in the air.

Chapter Eight

Madeline

"Quiet on set!" Dee barked.

"Wait!" I panicked. This was not how I was used to working. I had a whole process. "What's my motivation?"

Dee looked at me like I had sprung a second head. "It's a music video, not some serious drama. Just try to look pretty."

Try? Ouch.

Warlox looked at his monitor and raised his breathy voice to a whispery scream. "You've just told him that you're damaged goods and need to leave. He's trying to convince you to stay. The chase is a metaphor."

I looked over at Rane, who managed a full-body shrug. "I didn't chase after her in real life, you know. Chicks are the ones chasing me." He cocked a half-smile, half-sneer. "If that's what you're asking."

"It's not, but thanks," I sniffed.
What an arrogant tool,
I told myself. Then I snuck another look at him, just in time to catch him yanking his T-shirt over his head
.
When he caught me looking, his grin spread wider.

Don't bite your lip, Maddie, that's just what he expects.

Warlox cleared his throat. "Maddie, find your mark. Just run to the camera here. Rane, you're back there, waiting for your cue."

I had a million questions about motivations, but I pressed my lips together and nodded. Loud, pulsing, grating cock-rock blared through the speakers strung around the cavernous room, and the halogen lights blinded me. After the disaster this morning, I still felt shaky. And this? This was the first time I was in front of a camera in a very, very long time. Too long.
Do I still have it? Was I fooling myself in thinking I could start again?
What if I really was a washed up hack, a pathetic former child star still clinging to relevance for too long after her ship had sailed. The people, they were all watching me, waiting to see if I was about to fuck up or not. I fought the urge to run away screaming.

Then Warlox yelled action and I stopped fighting that urge.

I ran...screaming.

"Cut!" Warlox called.

"Holy shit," I heard a voice mutter from one of the wings. I looked up and saw Harlow surreptitiously lowering her hands from over her ears. She gave me a watery smile and a weak thumbs up.

Warlox nodded in my direction. "Okay, yeah, brilliant, good feeling there. Maybe next take, you dial back on the shrieking?"

"I really don't know how I should be feeling right now." Rane chuckled behind me. "Never had a girl react to me quite like that."

"Right, honey." Warlox clapped his hands together. "He's not Godzilla leveling Tokyo. He's your boyfriend."

I took a deep, cleansing breath. "Sure, sure. Sorry, Warlox. Sorry, Rane," I said. Then I made the mistake of looking back at Rane.

His leather pants were so tight they looked sprayed on. Leaving very little to the imagination.

Cock-rock indeed.

"This time, I'm gonna catch you," he said, baring his teeth and stomping like a movie monster.

I tore my eyes away from that bulge. "No way." God damn him, was everything a joke? He had just shrugged off the accident like it was nothing, now he was mocking how seriously I took this. I hated how much I needed this break.

"Yep. You'd better run faster."

I rearranged my face into a mask of indifference. "Is everything a joke to you?"

He cocked his head like he was seriously considering my question. Then he smirked that arrogant little smile of his. "Pretty much everything. Yeah."

"Action!" Warlox called over our bickering.

The music blared and once my cue hit, I turned from Rane and tore ass across the ballroom. This time, I was determined to show him that this wasn't a fucking joke, that I wasn't a joke, that we needed to be serious about the work we were doing. I ran like it was my job, because it was. 

We shot the scene again and again and I started to feel my instincts take over. This
was
my job, and I was fucking good at it, too. And Rane, as infuriating as he could be, made it somehow easier. His constant joking wore down my buzzing nerves until I was laughing along with him.

I felt...normal.

I felt...good.

"Okay, kids, I've got some good stuff here." Warlox watched the playback. "Last time, I want to set up a different camera angle."

I plopped down in my chair. "I'm going to break an ankle in these heels," I complained.

Rane loped over, rolling his neck from side to side. I was starting to get used to the way his body looked in the lights, so I was now able to ignore how every highlight and shadow was sculpted like he belonged in a museum.

He plopped down in the chair next to me and slammed back a bottle of water. "I'm going to chafe to death in these pants," he complained back. "So we're even."

I clapped my hand over my mouth to catch the surprised giggle that threatened to escape.
A giggle? Really, Maddie?

"Trade you?" I teased.

He grinned. "I already went through my glam-rock phase, thanks."

"You did?" I tried to picture it. It was surprisingly hot.

"It was...blessedly brief."

I laughed out loud. "You know, my co-star turned out to be a cross-dresser. It was quite the scandal, 'til...until..."

"Until yours?" Rane suggested.

I reached down and fiddled with my ankle strap to avoid looking at him. "Yeah."

Here it comes...the questions...the assumptions...the judgments...

But he only took another swig of water. "Did he have trouble finding heels in his size?"

Relief flooded my chest. "Ordered them off the internet I think."

"Huh, so that was my problem." I could hear the grin in his voice.

"You think you're pretty charming, don't you?"

"Baby, I know I'm charming."

"Ready on set!" Dee called.

Rane stood up first. Without a word, he extended his hand. I hesitated before accepting it. Then allowed him to lift me gently, easily to my feet.

"Roll camera two. And action!"

I ran. My legs felt like two stumps of wood from the ill-fitting heels, but I ran anyway. I wasn't going to give in to the pain. I was a professional and I definitely wasn't interested in my co-star, no fucking way....

I had almost reached my mark when the inevitable happened.

"Fuck!" I cried as the spindly little heel hit the ground off-kilter. My ankle twisted sharply and I was falling.

And then I wasn't. "Got ya," Rane murmured in my ear as he scooped me back up again.

Each heartbeat that I stayed in arms stretched out for a lifetime, allowing me to notice each cell's worth of contact. His skin was warm, almost hot, and his arms were as strong and unyielding as tree branches. I felt the strangest urge to climb higher....

"Told you I would catch you," he whispered. I felt his breath hum across my ear. 

I licked my lips. My mouth was too dry to answer.

This close, I could see that what I had mistaken for a smirk was actually the tiniest of white scars that drew the corner of his lips upward. I wanted to touch it and I had no idea why....

He caught me staring at his lips and they curved upward for real. He flicked his tongue out, wetting them slightly, and I felt myself bite my own lip in response.

"Beautiful. Perfect. Cut!" Warlox sounded positively giddy. "That was great stuff, guys!"

Right. Shit. Acting.
I gingerly stood up straighter, wincing at the tenderness in my ankle. "Good reflexes," I said, nodding my thanks to Rane.

"No problem." His voice seemed lower than normal.

I swallowed. I needed to break this—whatever it was— moment? Right. We were not having a moment. "How's the chafing?" I teased.

He looked at me very seriously, tipping my chin upwards with a stroke of his finger. My breath caught and I felt my eyelids flutter downward before I caught myself and opened them up wide. He paused heavily, meaningfully, and bent even closer to my ear.

"My thighs are going to burst into flames.”

This time, I did giggle.

"Don't you take anything seriously?" he teased, which only made me laugh harder.

"I always hoped a man would speak poetry to me," I managed to gasp out.

"Stick with me, baby. I'm a freaking Shakespeare of filth."

"I'm intrigued." I stepped forward onto my bad ankle. "Ah, shit, that fucking hurts."

"No problem." Warlox looked up from the playback. "That take was perfect and I think I'm going to use the fall. Nice improv there." He nodded to Dee, who looked over her shoulder and nodded back. "Next scene, you can lie down."

"I can?"

"Yeah, they fixed the spot. Prop department changed the bedsheets. We’ll do that scene now."

"The...bed scene."

"Don't look so crestfallen. You'll bruise my delicate ego," Rane called over his shoulder. He was already over at wardrobe getting changed, but made no attempt to go behind the curtain before peeling those leather pants down his sculpted ass.

When I saw he was wearing absolutely nothing underneath, I turned quickly away, my cheeks flaming. I could still feel every place his skin had touched mine, and now I needed to do a love scene?

"Here, lean on my shoulder." Harlow appeared at my side. "Can you walk?"

I nodded. "I'm fine, just get me out of these fucking heels?"

"No problem. Next scene, you're really not wearing much anyway." She looked up at me. "I'm happy with my boyfriend and all that, but still...you lucky bitch."

I felt like my heart was trying to burst out of my chest. The bed loomed in the other room, once more lit to glowing. As I stared at it in mute trepidation, Rane, now dressed in low-slung boxer briefs and absolutely nothing else, leapt up onto the bed like a cat. He turned, rolled to his side and propped his head up in his hand.

Then he winked at me and patted the bed next to him.