Crush This!

by Tasha Black

Then she threw her things into her suitcase and bolted out the door.

  17

  Adrian

  Adrian arrived at the casting session feeling shell-shocked.

  He’d returned to the cabin after the all-night run and Lucy was gone. Her things were all gone, she was nowhere to be found, and she’d left a note so crisp and professional it was clear that she shared none of his feelings.

  * * *

  Dear Adrian,

  I’m so sorry about my indiscretion last night. There was no excuse for me to throw myself at you in that way. Please know that I have too much respect for you professionally to ever allow it to happen again. I hope this mistake won’t affect our positive working relationship. If you choose to forget it happened I will have one more reason to be eternally grateful to you.

  Yours,

  Lucy

  * * *

  He’d wanted to rip it to pieces, or set it on fire. Indiscretion, forget it happened… every word of it was an offense to his feelings, feelings he would have sworn she shared.

  But clearly she didn’t or she wouldn’t have headed back to Glacier City without him.

  He’d stormed around the little cottage, furious.

  She’s ours, the panther roared victoriously in his head.

  Leave it to the panther to notice she’d signed off with the word “yours” and decide to ignore the rest of the message.

  At last, he’d pulled himself together. He needed to get to the casting session. After yesterday there was a mess to clean up.

  He’d straighten things out, then get back to Glacier City, find her, and make her see things his way.

  The thought of it calmed him and he was able to shower, dress, and drive to the little town.

  As he did, a quiet voice in his head began to remind him that she was young, that he was a dangerous shifter, that maybe it was best to let her go.

  The panther raged against this idea and it was hard to focus on driving.

  He arrived and parked outside.

  It was such a different feeling from yesterday’s heady anticipation. Now he had to go in, deal with whoever Horizon had sent in Jeremy’s place, apologize, and get a performance out of the actors, all without Lucy’s finesse.

  Focus, Harkness.

  He stepped inside.

  “Hey, Mr. Harkness,” Rod Bilworth said immediately. “Do you know where Lucy is?”

  Great.

  “Uh, I think she had to head back for something,” he said vaguely, dashing into the casting room before Bilworth could ask a follow-up question.

  Adrian was astonished to see Jeremy Hall standing at the center of the room.

  “Harkness,” Hall said coldly. “I’m surprised to see you here.”

  “I could say the same,” Adrian said, steeling himself against the almost irresistible urge to punch the unbelievable asshole in his smug face.

  Adrian was normally a very disciplined person, but freedom had made the panther bold. This was going to be a nail biter of a struggle between man and beast.

  Before he had a chance to find out which of them would prevail, the door opened again.

  Lucy Wren walked right in, as cool as a spring breeze, and sat down at the table.

  “Are you ready, Miss Wren?” The annoying PA ran a hand fetchingly through his dumb red hair like he was in a Mentos commercial. He doubtlessly wanted to impress her.

  “Yes,” she replied crisply. “Please send in Emilia.”

  Adrian and Jeremy were both left gaping.

  But the door opened, the perky blonde actress came in, and the day began.

  As Lucy read actor after actor, Adrian had plenty of time to get good and mad.

  And he had plenty of reasons.

  He’d called Horizon this morning, told them in no uncertain terms that they needed to get Hall out of there, or William Howard Casting was going to dump their account and bring a sexual harassment suit against them.

  He wasn’t surprised Jeremy wanted to be here, but Horizon had a lot of nerve not stopping him.

  Lucy had been very lucky that Adrian was hanging around in the woods in panther form last night. He’d heard every word Hall had said to her and he’d seen the bastard’s hand on her arm. She shouldn’t have come in today if she had any reason to think that Hall might be here. The man was clearly unhinged and her safety was at risk.

  Even if she didn’t care about her own safety, Adrian did - a lot. It made his blood boil to see Hall right there, three feet away from her, after what he had tried to do.

  As the hours passed, Adrian found the flames of his fury burning hotter and brighter.

  18

  Lucy

  Lucy smiled at the final actor slotted before the lunch break.

  “Thanks, Andrew,” she said. “You did a great job.”

  He grinned in a very pleased way, nodded to her and took off.

  “Take an hour,” Adrian said suddenly in a loud voice.

  She nearly jumped out of her seat.

  He’d been right beside her all morning, but he hadn’t spoken a word.

  Adrian was in his classic, full-out thunderstorm mood, only worse than ever before.

  And with creepy Jeremy Hall giving her the stink-eye from the other side of him, Lucy had been glad there were actors to focus on.

  She was entirely to blame for Adrian’s mood. After all, he’d probably had no intention of sleeping with his former apprentice.

  And he had no way of knowing that Jeremy was angry with her for trying to protect him.

  But it didn’t make it any more fun for her.

  “Go on,” Adrian repeated. “An hour. Get out of here.”

  She looked up and saw he was talking to Hall and the PA.

  Jesus.

  She tried to pack up her laptop and headshots as fast as she could before he turned his grumpiness on her.

  But she dropped a stack of eight-by-tens on the floor, and by the time she picked them up again, she and Adrian were alone in the room.

  “What in god’s name are you doing here?” His voice was dark as night.

  Why, oh, why, was she only able to interpret the furious look on his face as sexy?

  She backed up slightly anyway, her body cleverly responding to the anger in his voice even if her addled brain could not.

  He stalked her, like some sort of animal. There was such grace to his movement that she forgot to be afraid.

  “What are you trying to do?” His question was a demand.

  She found her spine.

  “Look,” she spat back at him. “I might have slept with you, but I’m not a toy for you to play with and then throw away. This is my career, and I might have made a mistake, but if you think I’m not going to fight to keep my job, you don’t know me at all.”

  He recoiled as if she had struck him.

  “I’m not talking about that,” he said after a moment.

  “Oh really?” She was just getting started telling him off, and she couldn’t wait to yell some more.

  “I’m talking about your safety,” he continued. “How could you come here when Jeremy Hall is here?”

  She gaped at him.

  Adrian shouldn’t know what had happened with Jeremy last night.

  How could he possibly know?

  Just then Rod Bilworth popped his head in the door.

  “Hey, um,” he said, “there’s, like, a policeman here to talk to you?”

  19

  Adrian

  Adrian sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He hadn’t called the police about Hall, though he probably should have. Maybe Lucy had.

  A pair of police officers entered the room. One was an older African-American woman, the other was a burly young guy with a mustache.

  “Hello,” the policewoman said. “I’m Officer Connell, this is Officer Peterson.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Lucy said warmly. “Lucy Wren.”

  Damn her and her ability to go from angry to friendly in a heartbeat.

 
; “Adrian Harkness,” he said. “What can we do for you?”

  “We’re going around to all the folks staying at the Kingsbay Motel Cottages,” Officer Connell replied. “The girl at the front desk indicated that we might find you here.

  “Yes, we’re staying at the cottages,” Lucy replied. “Did another tree fall?”

  Officer Peterson chuckled until Connell shot him a look.

  “No, honey,” she said. “There’s been a wild animal sighting. We’re asking everyone to be on the lookout until we can get to the bottom of it.”

  Adrian’s heart pounded. How could he have been so stupid as to let someone see him?

  “What kind of wild animal?” Lucy sounded more curious than frightened.

  “Sounded like he saw a big cat or something,” Officer Peterson said. “But I doubt it was actually a lion or a tiger in the middle of South Carolina.”

  “However,” Officer Connell said, giving Peterson another stern look, “large animal prints were found just outside the cottages. As a precaution, we’re asking guests to stay inside after dark.”

  “Will do,” Adrian said immediately, moving to usher them out.

  “Thank you for understanding,” Officer Connell said, standing her ground. “You didn’t happen to see anything unusual during your stay, did you?”

  “No,” Adrian said immediately.

  He looked to Lucy.

  Damn it.

  She had seen something.

  But she shook her head.

  “We’ll keep a look out,” she said. “Thank you for the warning.”

  Interesting.

  “You’re welcome,” Officer Connell said. “Are you really casting directors?”

  Lucy nodded with a warm smile.

  “You know, my niece is a singer,” Officer Connell said shyly. “I wonder how she would go about learning more on how to become a professional.”

  Adrian fought the urge to roll his eyes. This happened literally every time he interacted with anyone outside the business who wasn’t a friend, and sometimes even when they were.

  Lucy smiled and slipped a card out of her handbag.

  “You have her call me, Officer Connell,” she said kindly. “I would be more than happy to talk with your niece.”

  “I’ll do that.” Officer Connell smiled, her careworn face suddenly beautiful. She held the card as if it were a precious diamond.

  “Well, we’ll see you folks later,” Peterson said.

  They headed out the door, leaving Lucy and Adrian alone, except for the silent Rod Bilworth, whose mouth was drawn up in an almost comical “o” shape.

  “Big cats,” he whispered. “Wow…”

  20

  Jeremy

  Jeremy walked to his car in utter disbelief.

  Naturally, he’d stayed right outside the door to listen in on Harkness’s argument with Lucy first.

  It was infuriating to learn that she had slept with Harkness last night instead of him.

  He’d almost been too angry to notice what happened next.

  And it would have been a shame if he’d missed it. Lucy had missed it and she was in the middle of the argument herself.

  But she wasn’t as smart as Jeremy. Few people were.

  When Harkness let slip that he knew what happened with Lucy and Jeremy last night, it had gone right over Lucy’s head.

  But Jeremy had noticed.

  Adrian hadn’t been in the woods with them last night. If he had, he would have intervened.

  But Harkness knew what happened and Lucy hadn’t told him.

  Which could only mean one thing...

  He had intervened.

  Which meant those yellow eyes and big paw prints were somehow tied to Adrian Harkness. He didn’t know why Harkness would be traveling with an illegal exotic pet like that, especially something dangerous. But he knew that the man wanted it to be kept a secret, and that was reason enough for Jeremy to want to blow the lid off the whole thing.

  But how?

  Before Jeremy could formulate a plan, his cell phone buzzed.

  “Giles,” he said in a friendly way.

  Jeremy had taken to calling his grandfather by his first name lately. It made sense, now that he was a man, that he would be on manly terms with the guy whose company he would own one day. And besides, it was embarrassing to call him ‘Grandpa’ in front of the underlings. His grandfather hadn’t complained, so he figured it was okay.

  “Jeremy Hall, what have you done?” The question seemed to fly through the phone and smack him in the face.

  Jesus, had they already figured out he was skimming a little money? It wasn’t even enough to do much with - it shouldn’t have been a big deal. It was more like a small loan against what was coming to him.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Did you really proposition and threaten that girl?” His grandfather’s voice was furious.

  Shit.

  “The guy William Howard sent was rude to me during the casting session,” Jeremy said quickly. “I told the girl there had better be an apology. There was no threatening or… anything else.”

  “Good, good,” the old man said. “Who can back you up on it? Don’t they have those camera fellows in the room with you the whole time?”

  “Uh, no, no one else was there,” Jeremy said. “We went for a walk to talk about it privately.”

  “In town, out in public somewhere?” His grandfather sounded hopeful.

  “I went to her motel,” Jeremy admitted. “We walked in the woods.”

  “Why would you do that?” His grandfather sounded confused.

  “She was nice,” Jeremy said. “I didn’t want to embarrass her.” That was close to the truth at least. Sort of.

  He could hear the wheels turning in his grandfather’s head. He needed to end this call now.

  “I’ve got to run,” he said. “One of the actors is coming.”

  “We’ll continue this conversation later,” his grandfather said sternly.

  Fuck.

  Jeremy hung up the phone.

  Harkness was going to pay big time for his tattling. And just losing the account wouldn’t be enough now.

  Oh no, Jeremy was going to get Harkness’s dirty secret out in the open. He would make a plan, and then he would bait Harkness into bringing out the big cat and getting into a world of trouble.

  21

  Adrian

  Adrian clutched the wheel so hard his knuckles went white.

  He’d never seen Lucy so upset.

  He was torn. He desperately wanted to make things right between them, claim her as his own, whether she wanted him to or not.

  And just as badly, he needed to protect her, even if it meant protecting her from himself. His panther was huge and dangerous, and his temper wasn’t his strong suit. He could harm her so easily.

  And he was older. Ten years might not seem like a lifetime, but she was so innocent…

  “I know you’re angry,” Lucy said, interrupting his train of thought. “But I hope we can put this behind us.”

  “Put it behind us,” he repeated incredulously.

  “Obviously we can’t let it happen again,” she said quickly. “But I love working with you, Adrian. I know you get frustrated with me, but I have so much respect for you. You’ve given me everything. I’ll do whatever I have to do to earn back your trust.”

  The panther raged inside him. Adrian felt his skin ripple in sympathy, as if he were going to shift right now, behind the wheel of a car.

  He blinked hard and focused on the road, trying not to feel the shivers down his spine or scent the female beside him, so alluring through the panther’s nose.

  But damn it, she made it so hard. He needed her.

  He pulled over as waves of the change tried to wash over him again. Gravel crunched as he skidded to a stop. They were nearly at the motel, but he couldn’t risk her safety if there was any chance he might shift without meaning to.

  Lucy placed a hand on hi
s arm, sweetly, as if she thought he had a headache. “Are you okay?”

  I love you. I’ll never be okay again, he thought wildly to himself.

  She gasped and drew her hand away.

  “I’m fine,” he said, sneaking a glance, afraid that his arm was transforming.

  But it wasn’t.

  Why had she gasped like that?

  Lucy had her face in her hands beside him.

  “Are you okay, Lucy?” He was completely confused. She looked despondent.

  “I…I don’t know,” she stammered. “What if this was more than a fling, Adrian?”

  This had to be a dream.

  His mind flashed to see her in a white dress, in an apron, in a business suit, in a station wagon full of laughing children, in a rocking chair on a porch…

  But that was selfish, worse than selfish. She was young and talented, and she had a bright and happy future ahead of her. He had no right to claim her for himself.

  “It can’t be more than a fling, Lucy,” he said, wondering if she heard the tightness in his voice.

  “Why not?” He loved her rebellious tone, for once she sounded relaxed instead of restrained.

  “You’re young, you don’t understand,” he said wondering how he could avoid talking about the panther. “I’m no good for you.”

  “What does that even mean?” Her voice was up a note from usual. “No, never mind. I know what it means.”

  Suddenly she was removing her seatbelt, opening the door to the car.

  “Lucy, what are you doing?”

  “I get it, Adrian,” she spat, “I really do. You like me, but you prefer your actresses. And who wouldn’t? They’re so pretty and they always tell you exactly what you want to hear.”

  And with that, she was gone, bolting into the shadow of the trees like her life depended on it.

  Actresses?

  But the panther was not going to give him time to figure out what she meant. The beast had had enough small talk. He wanted his mate and he wanted her now.