Page 92 of Cast to be Mine

“You don’t deserve that reputation,” I said. “I shouldn’t have let it go on as long as it did.”

“You didn’t do it,” she said. “I know it was the studio making that call. My agent loved it.”

“I didn’t.”

She smiled. “I know.”

“We had to hide whatever this is between us because of some bullshit rumor the studio loved.” I stepped closer, cupping her face in my hands. “I couldn’t stand it anymore. You didn’t deserve any of it. You’re not some scandal. You’re not a story. I’m sorry I didn’t push back harder.”

“I don’t need you to rescue me,” she said. “I could have pushed back as well.”

“You were manipulated by people in power,” I said. “It was wrong. They know how desperate newcomers are. They took advantage.”

She nodded. “You’re not wrong. But I’m not a shrinking violet. I had no doubt I could recover.”

“Liar,” I said with a soft smirk.

“I’ll survive.”

“I got a lot of angry phone calls after that video went up,” I admitted. “Carol at the studio was furious. Said I torpedoed weeks of free publicity. My father called to yell at me for going rogue on a major PR decision.”

“What did you tell them?”

“That I didn’t give a shit.” I shrugged. “It was the right thing to do. I’d do it again.”

Grace laughed softly, leaning into my touch. “Loretta was furious too. She called me three times before I even got out of bed. Said I should have at least been the one to break the story. Something about controlling my own narrative.”

“What did you tell her?”

“That I didn’t know it was happening.” She paused, her eyes searching mine. “And that I was grateful someone cared enough to fix it for me.”

I pulled her closer, pressing my forehead against hers. We stood there for a moment, just breathing each other in. Damn, I missed having her in my arms.

“We still can’t tell people we’re together,” she said quietly. “Can we?”

“No.” The word tasted bitter in my mouth. “Not yet. We’ve still got a week of shooting left. If it comes out now, it’ll overshadow everything. The movie. Your performance. People will say I cast you because we were sleeping together.”

“Which isn’t true.”

“We know that. But perception is everything in this industry.” I pulled back just enough to look at her properly. “Once we’re back home, though. Once the movie’s wrapped and there’s some distance between us and the production, I want to talk.”

“Think we can figure out what this is?”

“We can be whatever we want to be.” I kissed her forehead, her cheek, the corner of her mouth. “No more hiding. No more pretending. Just us.”

She smiled, and it was like watching the sun come out. “I can wait a few weeks.”

“And then I’m taking you on a real date. Somewhere nice. Somewhere public. Where everyone can see us together.”

“Sounds perfect.”

She kissed me again, slower this time. Sweeter. Like we had all the time in the world instead of stolen moments in hotel rooms.

“We have an hour before we need to get to set,” I said.

She looked into my very soul and then rose up on her tiptoes. The kiss started slow. Just her lips moving against mine. I loved that she never rushed anything. She kissed the way she moved through a scene. All intention, like every beat mattered. Her hands came up to my chest, brushing across my pecs and then up to my shoulders.

I walked her backward toward the bed.