chest.
When the director yelled ‘Cut!’ she removed the headphones and swallowed away the lump in her throat as she handed them back to the sound engineer. ‘Thank you.’
‘No problem.’ He smiled at her before moving away.
Will’s low voice rumbled at her shoulder. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing’s wrong. Thanks again for this, Will—it’s been amazing.’ She flashed him a smile.
But he could still read her too well, and his eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. ‘Feeling sick again?’
Actually, she’d pretty much forgotten the tail-end of her cold as the day progressed, so she could answer that one with conviction. ‘No. I’m feeling much better, as it happens—haven’t even needed tablets.’
He continued studying her eyes. ‘Then what is it?’
If she lied and said she was tired there was the chance he might suggest they leave—if he didn’t see right through her the way he usually did when she lied—and she wasn’t ready to leave yet. It wasn’t as if she could tell him the truth, was it? How was she supposed to look him in the eye and tell him her active imagination had painted a picture of a life that wasn’t hers so vividly that it made her feel the loss of it like a bereavement?
So she avoided his gaze and changed the subject. ‘Is this a new show?’
‘End of the first season. It’s done well in the ratings. Already been renewed.’ He waited for her to glance at him again before he added, ‘We’ll go take a look at the editing department next. Special effects are done somewhere else.’
Cassidy found herself mesmerised by the softness in his deep voice. And her errant tongue couldn’t help but ask, ‘Why are you doing this?’
Dark brows lifted in question.
‘I thought you were mad keen to get the script done.’
He shrugged. ‘Thought it might help.’
When he continued looking her straight in the eye, Cassidy had a moment of fear that he might know how much of a fraud she was. Was that what this whole behind-the-scenes day trip was? A way to try and get her creative juices flowing again? In fairness, it was a pretty great plan if that had been his aim. But if it had how, exactly, had he known? Had she been so transparent? Had the scenes she’d worked on with him been so dreadful in Hollywood terms? If they had, why hadn’t he said so? If he knew what a phoney she was why hadn’t he said something? Bringing her all the way across the world to allow her to make a fool of herself when in all probability he could more than likely have just bought her out of the contract…
‘You were always as fascinated by this stuff as I was.’ He stared into her eyes for another long moment, then looked away, turning his profile to her as he got to his feet. ‘Seeing it should keep it real in your mind while we work on the script. And if we can cut a few corners by filming some scenes here instead of on location then we can free up some of the budget for better effects.’
Ah. Right. Business. That made more sense to her than him doing it because he knew how much she would love it. It put her mind at ease that he hadn’t seen right through her charade. She didn’t feel any better, though—it would have been nice if he’d cared enough to do it just because he knew the pleasure she would get from it.
But then Will Ryan had long since ceased to think of Cassidy in terms of anything remotely resembling the word ‘pleasure’—physically or otherwise…
She nodded firmly and edged off the seat. ‘Editing department it is, then.’
THEY’D spent most of the day at the studio, so it meant they had to spend the next few days digging in. To Cassidy’s amazement it was going pretty well, all things considered.
Will’s guided tour had indeed given her an extra dimension of insight to the logistics of each scene they came up with, and—even though she knew he hadn’t intended it—it had also got her creative juices flowing. When they started getting words down on paper she felt as if she was getting a part of herself back again. It was exhilarating, and it boosted her self-confidence no end. Heck, she was even starting to have fun.
That would be the reason she would cite later for not having seen the danger coming her way before it arrived. Because if she’d been paying more attention…
When they couldn’t agree on what should happen at the end of an action scene, Will came up with the idea that they read the lines aloud. Nothing unusual about that, she had thought at the time. It wasn’t anything new, after all. When they had worked on the first of Nick Fortune’s adventures they’d often acted out a scene before they’d even put words down, and sometimes they’d become so absorbed in the roles they were playing that it had added a dimension to the fictional characters they might never have thought of otherwise.
But back then they’d had a very different relationship. And it never occurred to Cassidy to take that into consideration when they got to their feet with their matching sheets of script in hand, hot from the printer.
Nick and Rachel had got themselves into trouble, and had been arguing about whose fault it was they were in the mess they were. They were minutes away from being tossed off the edge of a cliff by armed terrorists…
‘“I suppose you’re going to kill us now?” That’s what you asked them? Why didn’t you just offer to shoot us too?’ said Will as Nick.
‘Oooohhh,’ laughed Cassidy as Rachel. ‘Believe me if I had a gun right now I’d be more than happy to shoot you!’
She grinned when Will changed his voice to read one of the terrorists’ lines. ‘Would you two shut up? You’ve got about five minutes to make your peace.’ He threw her an all too brief smile before jerking his chin at her to indicate it was her line.
Cassidy lifted her sheet and tried to find where they were. ‘Just make sure he goes first. He’s the one that got us into this mess.’
‘Me? I’m not the one who screamed and gave away our position!’
‘That spider was the size of Moby Dick!’ Cassidy couldn’t help but laugh again at the line. She loved that line. It was her line; she’d thought of it. She was back! What had made her think she couldn’t do this again?
Will became Will again. ‘Which brings us to the part under debate…’
The original idea had been to have Nick and Rachel fight their way out of the situation by distracting the terrorists with increased arguing. Cassidy had wanted it to be Rachel’s idea; funnily enough Will had wanted it to be Nick’s. Will suggested Nick should wink at Rachel, to let her know what he was doing. Cassidy said Rachel was too mad at him to play along with anything he came up with.
Suddenly Will looked at her, with a gaze that made her heart jump out of rhythm.
‘What?’ she asked a little breathlessly.
‘I have an idea.’ He stepped closer. ‘Play along.’
Cassidy turned her head and eyed him with suspicion. ‘What are you doing?’
‘They get to the edge of the cliff. They’re still arguing. Guns at their backs.’
‘Uh-huh…And then…?’
Something dangerous shimmered across Will’s eyes as he closed the gap between them, his deep voice lowering to a husky-edged rumble. ‘Then, just before they’re pushed over the edge, Nick asks for a last request for a dying man…’
‘And that request would be…?’
Will smiled that smile and knocked her on her ear again. ‘He asks to kiss Rachel.’
Cassidy’s