His eyebrow rose. “Like she’s going to listen to me.”

“You never know which intervention breaks through.”

At least he considered my suggestion. He stared at me for what felt like forever until he finally said, “You want the role?”

“What?” I recoiled as if he’d tossed a live grenade in my lap.

“Do you want the role?”

“Are you serious?”

“Absolutely. You know the dialogue better than she does and your delivery when we rehearsed was completely natural. You know you can do it. Question is, do you want it?” Suddenly I was very aware of the wall behind me. “Ryan, you can’t ask me that, nor do you have the authority to offer it.” Someone knocked on the RV door and then I heard a familiar female voice. “Ryan?” Nicole called out.

I could tell just by how wide his eyes got that Ryan was at a loss for a next move. I took him by the hand for a moment and then opened the trailer door.

Chapter 11

Departure

“I must have been good today to come home to such a sight,” Ryan said when he found me reading on our bed, the sound of his approval resonating around his lascivious grin.

He was standing in the doorway, arms folded across his chest, smirking like the Cheshire cat.

It was late, almost ten o’clock at night, and I had anticipated him being wiped out, but I was so damn relieved to see his smile return.

Guess he liked my new cream-colored lace camisole top and matching panties more. It was as far as I had gotten dressed after my shower and exhaustive day keeping up with Anna Garrett and her credit cards. I smiled at him, feeling that thrill he always manages to incite in me with nothing more than a look.

I hadn’t seen him since he left with Mike that morning and I was glad to see he was in a fairly good mood, considering the heaviness of his day. Hopefully his good mood would stay, helping to cushion the talk yet to come. I’d been feeling sick about it all day, but after my phone call with Marie I couldn’t put it off any longer.

My sadness from knowing I’d have to go home soon had me stuck to the bed while my internal giddiness from not seeing Ryan all day had me desiring to jump up and latch my legs around his hips. Ryan sauntered over; his finger traced over the fine spaghetti strap of my top and down the valley of my spine, sending quivers right into my groin. A soft, throaty growl rolled up his throat. I licked his fingertip when he seductively drifted it over my lip.

“I figure if I’m going to spend your money, I might as well get things you’ll appreciate.” He flashed his million-dollar smile, the one that makes my knees weak.

Damn, I’ll miss this every day.

Like a big cat mounting its mate, he crawled onto the bed and over the top of me, loving my bare shoulder with his mouth.

“Oh, I appreciate. Very. Very. Much.” His thighs surrounded the outside of mine, dipping his hips to prove his appreciation by letting me feel his denim-clad erection in the cleft of my rear.

I twisted beneath him, flipping over to my back. His tongue swirled with mine, reminding me just how much I missed him today.

“You are so fucking beautiful,” he breathed out on my lips, lowering his body to rest next to me. “I missed you today.”

I smiled, thrilled to know he felt the same way. I brushed his hair from his eyes when he rested his head on my chest.

It had been three days since the methamphetamines meltdown and everyone’s lawyer and manager was in town to hold hands and lord over the situation. “I heard you did an excellent job this morning,” I said, kissing his forehead.

He sighed. “You’re banned from hanging around Anna.”

I pushed back a little to see his face.

“Why? She’s the one who gave me the nod of approval on this outfit.”

Ryan held up one finger. “I retract the ban.” He gave me a reassuring smirk. “I figured she’d fill you in.”

He mumbled something about hens and gossip. If he only knew the half of it. After spending so much time with her, I had dirt on half of Hollywood.

“Anna was very impressed with the way you handled yourself. You still okay with the decision?”

His shoulder rose and fell. “Don’t have much choice, do I? She cried again when I said she’s lucky she didn’t get fired today.

Nicole better keep her nose clean this time.

She gets caught using again and that’s it.” His eyes locked on mine. “I’m almost hoping she messes up. I told Jonathan you’d be a good replacement.”

Surprise and some annoyance jolted into my chest. “I’m not an actress, Ryan. You shouldn’t have done that.”

He propped his head up. “Why? What are you afraid of?”

Oh, not much. The media making a huge production out of my transition? False accusations of me using you to get ahead? Incorrect theories that this is some sort of publicity stunt? Having your career negatively impacted because of it?

“It’s a bad idea.”

He frowned at me. “You’re a natural, you know.”

The thought made me shiver, knowing his view was biased. “If I’m going to ever go that route I want to earn it, not have it handed to me.”

Ryan’s lips twisted. “You’re the only person who would see it that way.” Somehow I highly doubted that. “The gossip magazines would have a field day, Ryan.

You know it as well as I do. You don’t need that looming around your public persona. It will be bad enough when things are said about my small cameo.”

“Could be your debut.”

I rolled my eyes.

“What?” he sniggered, dropping his arm onto my paper pile. He picked up a few of the pages I was reading and glanced at them. I saw his eyes turn skeptically quizzical.

“What’s all this?” He scrutinized the papers.

“Anna gave me some documents to look at; financials and stuff.”

He flipped through several of the sheets, becoming more and more intrigued as he panned through. “This is for Slipknot. Why the hell do you have . . .? Are you . . . are you supposed to have this stuff? This is the agreement with their production company, Light Reel Pictures.”

He toggled from gaping at the pages in hand to gaping at me, as if I’d committed a horrendous crime. “Production agreements, Light Reel’s contract . . . Holy shit, Taryn.” I took some of the pages from his hand, trying to lessen the breach, knowing that even he wasn’t privy to some of the agreements made to get Slipknot filmed. “She gave them to me in confidence. We’ve been talking a lot and I had questions. I think she’s made a pet project out of me.”