Saved by the Movie Star Page 3

  He nodded. “I only stayed with her as long as I did because I was trying to help her. But it got to a point where I wasn’t ready to sacrifice my own happiness when she wasn’t even trying to pull herself together. I didn’t want to get dragged down with her.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Thanks. But I’m the one that should be apologizing. I’m sorry she upset you so much.”

  “It’s just hard being confronted with someone who hates you, you know?”

  He dropped a hand down on top of hers where it rested on the stone wall. “Don’t let it get to you. You’ve got more important things to worry about.”

  Her skin burned where it made contact with his, but she was determined to stay cool about it. “Like what?”

  Pulling his hand away, he said, “Making sure my bad acting doesn’t screw up this movie.”

  She laughed. “Whatever. You’re the A-lister here.”

  He smiled but shook his head. “But you’re the one with real talent. I’m hoping you can give me some pointers.”

  Hearing the insecurity in his voice, her heart went out to him. Shifting around to face him, she said, “You are more talented than you give yourself credit for. You haven’t had this good of a script or director before. You’ll see. You’re going to rock this role.”

  And she meant it. She’d seen signs that he could be brilliant. Maybe she could help to bring it out of him. She’d seen his potential while working on Chain Reaction. With his looks and physique, he certainly looked the part of an angel soldier. And there was no way that someone as genuine as he was couldn’t learn to emote for the camera. He just needed help bringing his emotions to the surface on demand.

  “I hope so,” he said. “For all our sakes.”

  “Trust me,” Veronica said.

  He met her eyes and stared into them. “I do.”

  After a long moment, her awareness of him—of how close he was and how alone they were—threatened to unravel her reason. Afraid that her internal struggle might show in her expression, she slid to the ground. “What do you say we get back to the reading then?”

  Chris followed her in one easy movement. He strode forward and held the door open for her.

  “Chris?” she asked as they walked back to the conference room.

  “What?”

  “I appreciate you getting this role for me. My agent told me you did.”

  He shrugged. “I wanted the best. And you were it.”

  Glad for the dim light of the hallway, she allowed herself to smile.

  “So, are we friends again?” he asked.

  Veronica dared a look up at him. “Definitely.”

  “Great. I’ve been worried. Nothing like heading into a kissing scene with someone who hates your guts, you know?”

  She chuckled. “Is it less awkward if you like each other? I haven’t had many onscreen kisses.”

  Chris raised his eyebrows and smirked.

  This time there was no hiding her blush. “I mean as friends.”

  “In my limited experience, yes. But then, all my kiss scenes so far have been with Kim. And they got extremely uncomfortable there at the end. Anything has to be better than that.”

  He opened the door to the conference room, and she accidentally brushed her shoulder against his chest as they went in. “I guess we’ll find out.”

  Chapter Six

  Chris originally couldn’t have thought of anything worse than Kim crashing the reading, but in a way, it had been a good thing. After he and Veronica had talked, all the awkwardness between them had gone away. The rest of the reading had been incredible and each scene had shown more and more what a great script and what a great cast they had. So, when it was over, Sam had let them go for the night with sharp instructions to be ready bright and early on Monday morning.

  He’d thought about asking Veronica to go eat dinner with him so they could have a chance to talk about their roles more and how they each wanted to play them, but she’d waved at him in a decisive way and left immediately with her agent. Considering he had to be up for training at five in the morning, it was probably a good thing. He’d go home and chug a protein shake before he went to bed early. So much of his anxiety over the project had dissipated with the successful reading, so maybe he’d finally get a good night’s rest.

  When he pulled up at his house in a gated community in Bel Air, he saw Kim’s Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrofoglio sitting in his driveway. The car was as over the top as she was. She was outside the car, leaning against the door, waiting. He groaned and pulled past her to into his garage. The last thing he needed was someone to get a picture of them arguing outside his house.

  As he got out and walked toward her, she shot him a smile, just as if she hadn’t created an embarrassing scene earlier in the day. Since then, she’d fixed herself up by curling her hair and applying a heavy layer of fresh makeup, but the ravages of her hangover were still apparent in her bloodshot eyes.

  “What are you doing here, Kim?”

  “I came to talk, of course. And to apologize. I never should have showed up at the reading today. I wasn’t thinking straight.”

  “You’d make better decisions if you gave the booze a rest.”

  “I know. I’m giving it up. I need to work, Chris.”

  “Yeah, I get it. But not on this film. You need to let it go.”

  “I would if there was something else in the works—something we could do together.”

  Chris looked down at the pavement and rubbed his forehead, trying to ease the tension headache that was forming there. “Look, we’ve talked about this. I’m trying to break away from being typecast as your screen bunny. I need to do other things, or I’ll never be able to do anything else.”

  Kim’s expression hardened, her lips pinching together. “You wouldn’t even be acting if it weren’t for me. And now you’re just going to drop me?”

  She had a fair point, and he hated that. “I’ll always be grateful for that, Kim. But you don’t own me or my career. I need to build something that belongs to me. Surely you see that.”

  There was fire in her eyes now. “You’ll regret this. And so will Veronica. She’ll deserve everything she gets too.”

  “Leave her out of this. She hasn’t done anything to you.”

  Kim gasped with outrage and disbelief. “I guess sleeping with my boyfriend wasn’t doing anything to me. Stealing my parts wasn’t doing anything to me.”

  Chris narrowed his eyes. In the beginning, when rumors about he and Veronica had just surfaced, she’d known they weren’t true. Why was she talking this way now? “You know that’s not true, Kim. Veronica and I were never anything more than friends.”

  “It’s all lies. I never should have believed you. But it wasn’t your fault. She took advantage of you in a weak moment and is using you to claw her way up.”

  Chris was fighting hard not to roll his eyes now. It was too ludicrous to be true. In fact, it was so far opposite of the truth that it was laughable. But he knew all too well that people would eat this kind of stuff up. Somehow, he had to keep Kim from taking this any further. “Kim, you’ve been drinking and you’ve had a hard time of it. I know that. I think you should go home and rest and talk to me again in the morning. When you have a clear head, you’ll see things straight again.”

  “I’m seeing them clearly for the first time. I’ve had my eyes opened.”

  “Kim, you haven’t been reading things on the internet again, have you? You know that’s all a load of garbage.”

  “Is it? Is it?” Her voice had gone shrill now. She tapped the screen on her phone a few times and then thrust it towards him. “I guess this is just fake.”

  It was a picture of him and Veronica eating lunch together on the set of Chain Reaction. It was clear they were enjoying each other’s company, but that was it. “This is what has you so upset? We were just grabbing a bite to eat between takes. As friends. There is absolutely nothing going on here.”

  “Come on, Chris.
A blind person could see the way you’re looking at her. You never looked at me like that.”

  That made him pause, but this wasn’t the time to consider the implications of what it meant if she was right. Right now, he needed to get her home. “Look, let’s talk about this tomorrow. Let me drive you home.”

  He walked over to her car and opened her passenger door. She glared at him for a moment but gave in and got in the car. He drove her to her house in the east end of Bel Air, watching her as he drove. She was silent and slumped over, staring out the window. When he pulled up in front of her house, he left her in the car and went up to ring the doorbell. By the time he had urged her out of the car, a few of her staff were spilling out of the house, gathering around her like protective hens. Chris walked out the front gate without a backwards look, just relieved to be done with the situation for the night.

  He got out his phone and put in a request to be picked up by Uber and then leaned against a tree on the curb while he waited for his ride. He was exhausted in every way possible, but there was still plenty of time for him to get a good night’s rest. He just wished there wasn’t a prickling worry about what Kim would do next. Should he warn Veronica? Or would that just needlessly stress her out?

  Remembering the picture Kim had shown him, he did a Google search and found the picture in no time. He studied it for a long time, oblivious to the occasional passing cars and people out walking their dogs. People who lived here were used to seeing celebrities. Something about the picture fascinated him. They were looking at each other as if they were completely at ease and totally interested in what the other had to say. And Kim was right. He’d never looked at her that way simply because they’d never connected on that level. With them, it had just been something they’d fallen into.

  They’d met in the Bahamas. Chris had played college football but after graduation with a degree in sports medicine, he’d drifted from one place to another, trying to find a place that felt right. Working as the fitness director for a resort had been a good gig, especially when he’d been asked to give a one-on-one exercise class on the beach to a celebrity like Kim Donnelly. Before he knew what was happening, he’d been whirled up into her life and cast in a movie with no former training. More than a little flattered, he’d been happy to give it a try. He’d had no idea at the time that he would develop such a passion for acting.

  He’d always be grateful to Kim, and they’d had a lot of good times, but he’d never loved her.

  The fallout from their breakup was still a nightmare. He’d seen so many celebrity couples take a thrashing when their romance didn’t work out. Everything was too public, too pressured, and created too many consequences to their career. His had been no different. Clearly, the only answer was to avoid romantic entanglements with anyone he worked with. Especially with Veronica. He shuddered, thinking of how badly things could go if he was stupid enough to try that. It was so not worth it, no matter how tempting it might be.

  The Uber car pulled up then, so he straightened and got in.

  “Wait,” the driver said. “Are you Chris Sanderson?”

  “Yeah. A very tired Chris Sanderson.”

  “My wife is never going to believe this. But don’t worry, sir, I won’t bother you for an autograph or anything. I’ll get you home in no time.”

  “Thanks, man.”

  The driver was true to his word and left him alone. Chris appreciated the man’s tact, so he gave the driver one of his manager’s cards. “Call this number tomorrow, and I’ll get you and your wife tickets to my next premier.”

  The man’s eyes grew wide. “Really?”

  “Yes. Have a good night.”

  “You too, Mr. Sanderson.”

  Chris waved and walked back into his house. It hadn’t necessarily been a good night so far, but it had been enlightening.

  Chapter Seven

  When the first day of shooting at last came around, Veronica found herself in the makeup chair at five-thirty in the morning and more awake than she could have been if she’d been able to sleep until ten. There was something so enlivening—and addicting—about finally getting onto set after months of preparation. And now there was another challenge besides just her own acting. She couldn’t wait to help Chris unearth the talent she knew he had.

  Chris came into the hair and makeup trailer while the hairstylist spritzed her hair with a mixture of water and leave-in conditioner, very similar to the one she used. It was the only way to keep her curls from frizzing out.

  “Good morning,” he said, plopping down into the makeup chair next to her.

  She looked up from the script in her hand—the half-page script for the day’s scenes. “You’ve got a big day ahead of you.”

  He took a cup of coffee and some sort of wrapped breakfast burrito from one of the catering staff that followed him in. “No kidding.”

  As usual, the film was shot completely out of order. Because they were shooting in late summer, the decision had been made to shoot everything they could in the studio before moving to their outdoor locations in hopefully cooler weather. Because the story was set in a dystopian world, most of the backdrops were being added in digitally later anyway.

  Today wasn’t going to require much from her. Most of the challenge would be for Chris. They were shooting the climactic scene where Xander believes that Eden has been killed and starts kicking butt in an avenging angel sort of way. For her it would require nothing but lying convincingly limp and ensuring the continuity of her hair, clothes, position, and expression stayed the same between takes. For Xander, he was going to have to go the gamut of dark expressions from shock and grief to blind, consuming fury. His fight scene alone would take most of this day and the next to shoot.

  “Hey, Curly Top?”

  Veronica looked up from the script and narrowed her eyes at him. “Still calling me that?”

  “Who else? Your shirt is dirty.”

  She rolled her eyes. The olive-green T-shirt that would be her wardrobe for most of the movie definitely looked the worse for wear—as it was supposed to. At this point in the story, Eden and Xander had been hiking through the woods and sliding down mountainsides to escape the dark angels chasing them. She thought the costume designer had done a brilliant job, actually. “Oh, yeah?” she asked. “I can’t wait to see what your shirt looks like.”

  “I hope it has big pit stains on it.”

  Veronica burst out laughing. “Gross, why?”

  “So I can be sure to stick your face in one while I’m carrying you from the rooftop.”

  “I see you’ve matured in the last year.”

  Chris chuckled, but Veronica’s makeup artist needed her to stop talking so she could get started on her face.

  She was done before Chris since he still had to get over to wardrobe. If she went back to her trailer, she’d be tempted to eat something, which would mess up her makeup—an artistic rendering of mud-streaks and blood smears. Instead, she decided to head to the set, even though she hadn’t been called yet.

  The set was abuzz with frantic activity as the crew ran wires, positioned cameras, and worked on lighting in the huge studio that had been hired for this stage of production. The building looked to be over a hundred feet long––or more––in both directions, with forty-foot ceilings. A network of joists and scaffolds were built around the main set which was draped with green-screen material. Several smaller sets were interspersed throughout the building, with endless cords running everywhere and equipment scattered throughout. At any given time, both camera units would be at work shooting scenes as quickly as they could, with Sam on A unit and Alan taking care of B unit.

  She liked to get to the set early so she could map out in her mind everything she was going to need to do and start sinking into the world and character. Unfortunately, there wasn’t going to be a ton to work with. Their scene was being shot on the big green-screen set. In her mind’s eye, she tried to envision a dark and broken city spread around behind the set.
r />   “No, no,” someone said, coming up behind her. “Sorry, but they aren’t ready for you yet.” It was Alan, the assistant director.

  “I know,” she said, keeping her tone cheerful and relaxed. “I like to come early. Don’t worry, I’ll stay out of the way.”

  Alan brushed his floppy red hair back, not looking any happier. “We don’t want you to get hurt.”

  She doubted that was his only concern, but she nodded. “I’ll be careful. I promise.”

  Alan shook his head, obviously giving up, and walked away to get back to whatever task he was on.

  “That’s it. Don’t let him scare you away,” Chris said, coming up behind her.

  Turning, she smiled and admired the vision of male perfection that he was. Instead of wearing a shirt with pit stains like he’d hoped, he was shirtless with dirty cargo pants like a soldier would wear and a mean pair of boots on his feet. His makeup artist had been as thorough at streaking him with mud as hers had been, so his white teeth flashed even more brightly than usual as he grinned at her.

  Even knowing that he’d been bulking up for the part, seeing him like this was startling. She couldn’t believe the definition he’d managed to achieve. He’d been fit and well-defined on Chain Reaction. This was just…unbelievable. “What on earth have they been doing to you?”

  He paused and raised an eyebrow before looking down at himself. “I’m afraid to answer until I know what you’re talking about.”

  “You don’t even look real.” She stepped closer and examined the corded length of his impressive arm. She poked at his bicep. “It feels real enough.”

  Chris crossed his arms across his chest, depriving her of the chance to make fun of his pecs as well. “It’s very real. This is called four months in the gym for five hours a day with one of the top trainers in the industry. And a strict diet and hydration strategy.”

  “So, how does a big pile of french fries sound right now?”