AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She stares at me, curiosity in her gaze. “What about toilet paper? How do you pack toilet paper?”
I chuckle, keeping the truth of the matter to myself. My mate wasn’t built for roughing it in the woods and since we won’t be separated again while she lives, my living rough days are over until…
“Never mind,” she says, her attention already drifting. “I have to study.” She pulls her phone out, taps her screen and begins reading, muttering lines to herself, her brow wrinkled in concentration. Occasionally she looks up to direct me to the studio lot.
“Just up ahead,” she says, and I sense a note of panic in her voice.
Immersing myself in her brain I see more than just panic. Her anxiety is exploding into a five-alarm fire. I pull the Jeep to the curb and turn it off.
“What are you doing?” Her voice is high. “I’m going to be late.”
I turn to her, taking her shoulders in my hands. Touching my mate is the fastest way to sooth her when she’s overwhelmed by emotion. “You’ll do great, Vanessa.”
Though her shoulders gradually relax beneath my grip, her voice is still rushed as she says, “How do you know? I’m the queen of fumbling auditions. It’s why I’ve had so many with so few parts offered.”
“They already want you, right? That’s what a screen test is.”
She nods. “Yeah, it usually means you’re close to getting the part.”
“Then you’ve got it in the bag.”
“How do you figure?” Her heart rate is slowing, so I continue moving my thumbs in small circles against her shoulders.
“I’ve seen the way you talk to people. You have a light inside you that shines so bright it attracts them to you like moths. They hang off your every word.” It’s true. I spent the evening before trailing Vanessa through nightclub after nightclub watching as her friends basked in her perpetual glow, while outsiders attempted to get closer.
“You really think so?” she asks, her eyes luminous as she leans toward me.
My thoughts shift gear as my tunnel vision narrows on her silky cherry red lips. They look like tiny pillows inviting me in to rest upon them. Maybe after a chaste kiss or two, they’ll open, accepting my tongue. Maybe later, after we’ve known each other a while, she’ll take my cock, filling that gorgeous mouth…
“Keenan?”
I blink, lifting my gaze from her lips to her eyes. Thank god she can’t read my mind clearly yet.
“I should really get to the studio. It won’t look good if I’m late.”
I clear my throat, turning the car back on. “Of course.”
At the closed gate to the studio lot, we’re confronted by a guard asking for our identification. Vanessa digs through her purse, fishing out her driver’s license and handing it over. He takes it, finds her name on the list and nods. I hand mine over, relatively certain my name isn’t on any studio list.
Sure enough, the guard hands my ID back. “Ms. Bedalia is good to drive through to building C, but you’ll have to stay out here.”
I can feel Vanessa’s tension and I’m about to say it’s fine to get her to the studio on time when I catch her frantic thoughts.… don’t think I can do this without him. It’s one thing to read a few lines of script, but this is an actual screen test for a major movie with one of the world’s most talented directors. What if I screw it up? I need someone there to stop me from dying of shame after.
I shove my door open, forcing the security guard back a few paces. I grip him by the back of the neck, not too tight since humans are delicate. “I appreciate you’re just trying to do your job out here, and on a regular day I’d applaud you for keeping the people on this lot safe, but your job is interfering with mine.”
“Uh… what job’s that?” he stammers, shaking under my grip. I’m a foot taller than him and outweigh him by a hundred pounds. My hand completely encircles his neck.
I think about escorting Vanessa and her friends the night before, then grunt, “Bodyguard.”
“Y-you’re her bodyguard?”
“Yeah, I am. It’s my job to make sure she makes it safely in and out of this studio and I’m not gonna let anything stop me from doing my job. As a fellow security officer, you get my dilemma, yeah?” I stare down at him, allowing him to see the flicker of my wolf superimposed over my face.
He stiffens and moves away from me, pulling his neck from my grip. “I-I’ll double check the list.” He speeds into the guard house and slams the door shut, sliding the lock home before picking up a phone. I wonder if he’s calling more security, but after a minute he replaces the phone, opens a small sliding window and bends to speak through it. “You can both go on through.”
He slams the window shut and lifts the gate.
I climb into the car hoping he isn’t stalling while he gets the cops involved. I don’t have time to get myself arrested for a second time this week.
