by Julia Bright
“Okay, Andrew suggested I bring the contract with me. I’m glad I did.”
Cam smiled and took the folder, opening it on the kitchen countertop. He read over the paperwork and noted the agent’s name was Jackie Knightsbridge. Andrew moved close and read over his shoulder. After Cam finished looking at the paperwork, Andrew took the folder and requested a few minor changes. The clauses Andrew asked for were smart. It would give them an escape without penalty if some crazy fan or stalker began showing up. The clause was a common request when stars rented, but he wasn’t at the level to need the clause. Maybe with the new movie, he would be.
At one point, he’d seen a car driving slowly up and down the street. He didn’t like that their location had been released to some crazy photographer, but Andrew had convinced him it was necessary to make the story believable. After they finished with Jackie, Andrew opened the front door and had Cam step out with Rose. He was holding Rose’s hand, thinking about how perfect she felt by his side when the car he’d seen earlier pulled to a stop and someone stuck a camera out of the passenger window and speed-snapped a bunch of photos.
Rose was shocked and scooted over to stand next to him. He put his arm around her and drew her even closer. It was the perfect setup and he knew the photos would be blasted all over social media within the hour. The car took off, and he turned to find Andrew standing in front of the house number. He sighed and felt a little more numb as though a part of his soul was being stripped away by the deception they were playing at.
The house had been photographed but Andrew had known enough not to allow the street number to be seen. He hoped it would be enough to convince the director and the producer he was stable and could take on the movie role.
Rose stepped back and smoothed her hand down her dress, looking a little flustered. He took her hand again and kissed her knuckles. “I’m sure they won’t be back. They didn’t even get out of the car.”
“What if they publish where we live?”
Andrew placed one hand on Cam’s shoulder and the other on Rose’s. “I had just stepped out of the house, and luckily enough, I’d been standing in front of the house number. You should be in the clear. I’m sure even TMZ isn’t dumb enough to publish where you live.”
Jackie moved to stand in front of them. Her brows were pinched together tightly. “Are you two okay? There are other houses.”
“No, this one is great,” Cam said. “I’m sure it will die down quickly. I’m not that big of an actor, and we probably won’t have anything to worry about.”
“Okay, if you’re sure?” Jackie asked.
Rose smiled and patted her on the shoulder. “We’re fine. Really, it’s okay. We love this place.”
Jackie looked relieved before she spun around, a little skip showed in her step as she moved down the sidewalk. Cam shot Rose a small smile, wishing they were moving in that evening. Instead, they would head back to his and Zach’s place to spend the night. He wasn’t sure where he would sleep. They should have stayed at a hotel, but he hadn’t been thinking clearly. Hell, since meeting Rose, thinking had been almost too difficult. All he knew was she pushed his buttons and he liked how he felt once she did.
Chapter Fifteen
Rose had somehow grabbed a bag of clothes, personal items, her computer, and escaped her apartment without running into Kady or Presley. No amount of apologizing would make things right with Kady. There was no doubt in her mind after they’d decided to run with the story she would have regrets. Both her roommates would be pissed when they found out she was staying the night with Cam Harris. Kady needed a break on a story that would catapult her to the top of the game, but Presley would be pissed because of what she’d lived through. If Presley ever found out the truth, Rose would never live it down.
She gambled that Amanda hadn’t been prepared for things to turn out this way for Rose. Her being featured in photos with Cam Harris would only make Amanda more angry. Of course, if she tried to say the story had been a lie, she would look like a fool. The whole thing was insane. That fact was punctuated even deeper when Zach Harris stepped into the kitchen at his house and saw her. Zach turned on Cam and shoved him up against the wall, his breath heavy.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Zach yelled.
“Hang on a minute,” Cam growled out.
Rose took a step back before anger took hold and propelled her closer. Reaching out, she grabbed Zach’s arm, holding it so he couldn’t easily punch Cam. Zach’s head snapped around and he growled.
“Get your bitch off me,” Zach barked.
“Excuse me?” Rose said, fighting to keep her voice even.
Zach shook off her hold and moved away from his brother. Cam stepped between them, keeping one hand on Rose protectively. “Don’t ever call her a bitch.”
“You fucking idiot. She’s playing you. She’s not pregnant. I was there when you met her,” Zach yelled.
“Stop.” Cam held up both hands and took a step closer to Zach. “I know what I’m doing.”
“What are you doing?” Zach looked between Rose and Cam. Never before had she felt so threatened. There was little doubt in her mind that Zach wasn’t safe. He wasn’t the type of man she could trust being around. The anger was thick coming off him and she felt like she was in danger. The media had it wrong. Zach wasn’t the nice one and Cam wasn’t the playboy.
“Zach, this is what I want.” Cam’s voice stayed even as he spoke. “I need you to just respect my judgement on this.”
“No, no. She’s taking you away from me,” Zach yelled.
“That’s not what’s happening, Zach. She isn’t taking me. I’m still your brother.”
“But you’re moving out. I saw the photos of the two of you on TMZ. Do you think I’m stupid?”
“No, I know you’re not stupid. I told you I needed to move out.”
“I’ll clean up my act,” Zach whined.
Cam cocked his head to the side and grunted. “You’re high right now.”
“So what?”
“Zach, I have to be clean. I have to look like I—”
“Like you’re a pussy,” Zach yelled before storming out of the kitchen.
Cam blew out a breath and shook his head. He turned to face Rose and her heart melted. He looked so sad and she hated that she was the one causing him problems.
“I’m sorry.” She should walk away, but she didn’t know how to fix the situation.
“It’s not your fault. Before any of this happened with the party and you and the story, I knew I had to move out. Zach wants things to stay the way they are. He doesn’t believe I should even try to get a part in the movie. He wants me to keep doing the sex parties and drunken college boy thing with him. I just can’t. And it’s not just the money, it’s everything.”
“Go talk to him, maybe?”
“No, he’s high and angry. He’s probably going to play some video games, and then once he calms down, I’ll go talk to him.”
“Does he get high often?”
“All the freaking time.” Cam rolled his eyes and his lips curled up in a snarl before he turned away from her. He grabbed a glass from the cabinet then grabbed a second one, handing it to her.
“How about you? Do you get high often?” Her question was whisper quiet as her hands shook. She set the glass down on the countertop and it clattered a bit before it settled.
He shook his head. “Not anymore. Before, when we were first in the business, it was fun, or I thought it was. I did some questionable things.”
“Like?”
Cam blew out a breath then turned to face her, leaning against the counter. A haunted look passed over his face and he shivered. “I’m not proud of how we acted. I was young and dumb. Girls threw themselves at me. We lived with few rules. I was an idiot.”
“What’s changed?”
For a long moment, Rose thought Cam wasn’t going to answer the question. After filling his glass with water and taking a drink, Cam met her gaze.
�
�I know I’m young. I’m not in my prime yet. I’m still in the beginning stages of having a career, but I see the writing on the wall. If I don’t do something like change my ways, I’ll be a washed-up has-been in no time. There are a lot of actors who came in and played the small parts in stupid drunken college guy movies, but they made changes and became successful. But there are a lot more who came in and thought what they did on screen should be emulated in their life. I can’t be the guy who does drugs and uses women. That’s not me. I know it’s ironic, or maybe not ironic, maybe it’s just insane that I am asking you to play this game, because it’s kind of like using you—well, it is using you. And for that, I’m sorry. If you want out, it’s okay. We’ll come up with something else, some other story that will place no blame on you.”
Rose shook her head and moved closer to Cam, stopping only a few feet from her pretend boyfriend. “We’re both going to get something from this. You aren’t using me.”
Something crashed down the hall and Rose jumped but Cam didn’t look fazed at all. After another crash, Rose lifted her brows and took a step toward the kitchen entrance. She glanced back over her shoulder, worried about the lack of concern from Cam. “Should we help?”
“No. He’s just knocking over shit in his room. He does that all the time when he’s like this. I’ll go clean it up in the morning.”
“Do you have to do that often?”
Cam rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and stared at the floor. “No—yes, it depends on what you call often.”
Her heart squeezed for this man. He’d been living with his brother for years, taking care of him, probably having to deal with Zach’s bad attitude without exposing him. It was almost abusive.
Cam held out his hand and she took it. “Come on, it has been a long day. Let’s go see where you’ll be sleeping.”
Rose balked, digging in her heels. “What about you?”
“I’ll sleep on the couch.”
“You can’t.”
He shook his head, his eyes going wide. “But—”
“We have to convince everyone, and that includes your brother. If you’re sleeping on the couch, he’ll know this is fake.”
“Damn it. I didn’t think of that.”
“I can leave and go back to my place.” She was looking for simple solutions. When she’d said he couldn’t stay on the couch, Cam had looked disgusted at the prospect of sleeping with her. Living in the same house with the man and pretending to be a couple would be difficult.
Cam sighed and gave her a small smile. “Don’t leave. We’ll figure something out.”
Rose followed her fake, sexy actor of a boyfriend back to his room, all the while wishing this were for real. Things like this didn’t happen to her, not in real life. The guys who tried to pick her up were usually down on their luck and looking to score a good meal at the diner. When flirting with her didn’t get them free food or even discounts, they would get angry. Since Mike had changed the burger and added a few items to the menu, the people who came in for meals were different, and none of them had tried to pick her up. Cam was probably incredibly pissed that he was having to pretend to be in a relationship with her. She wasn’t the kind of woman Hollywood types like Cam dated. Her hips were too wide and she didn’t have enough in the boob department. Her hair wasn’t perfect, though Dee had come damn near close to giving her super-hair. The reality was she would never measure up, and Cam saw it too.
Chapter Sixteen
Somehow Rose fell asleep in seconds, but he was still tossing and turning hours later. Twice he’d come close to drifting off only to turn to face Rose and realize he wanted her so badly his dick was throbbing. Finally, he got up and headed to the bathroom, locking the door behind himself. It took him a few minutes to get comfortable enough to actually jack himself knowing that Rose was sleeping in his bed just on the other side of the door. Thoughts of her in that dress she’d worn today filtered through his mind, followed closely by thoughts of her out of that dress. He could imagine how he would strip her, revealing her skin slowly as he kissed every inch of her as they made love.
He wanted to press her up against the wall and feel her body against his. His thumbs would graze over her breasts, moving closer to her nipples. Then he would take one nipple into his mouth and suck. His whole body tightened and his balls pulled up. The thought of licking her nipple, burying his face in her breasts, made him edge closer to the orgasm that would bring him relief. Excitement pumped through him as he thought of her reactions to his touching and kissing. He bit his lower lip and squeezed his dick tighter as his orgasm hit, leaving him shaking.
After cleaning himself up, he moved back to the bedroom, almost sorry that he’d jerked off with her lying so innocently in his bed. If she’d known what he’d been doing, what he’d been thinking about her, she would have probably walked out. After jacking off, it didn’t take long for him to fall into a deep sleep with dreams filled of Rose.
When he woke suddenly, he realized, first, that he’d slept hard since the sun was streaming in, and second, that he was plastered against Rose with her hair in his face. And the third and most devastating revelation was that his dick that he’d thought he’d tamed the night before was seriously searching for a way into Rose’s body.
Her ass was pressed firmly against his hips and his dick rode her crack. One movement and he might just come. She felt like heaven in his arms. It was fresh, sweet, and amazing beyond anything else he’d ever experienced. He wanted this for real.
She was in his bed, and they were pretending to be lovers, maybe there would be no harm in taking it one step further. Everyone already thought they’d had sex. What harm would there be in turning her over and staring deep into her eyes as he held her close and showed her what he wanted, needed, desired.
Cam was two seconds, maybe less, from snuggling against her neck and seeing if she would be willing to make this relationship real when he heard a knock on his bedroom door. The groan that escaped his lips was followed closely by a curse as he stood and slammed his toe into the chair in the corner of his room. Rose was sleeping on the side of the bed where he usually slept. He glanced back, making sure she was still asleep and went out to the hall where Zach stood, his eyes blazing with fury.
Cam moved quickly away from his bedroom and down the hall to the kitchen. Then he got another look at Zach and decided to take it out to the garage.
“What’s on your mind?” Cam asked.
“How could you have done this?”
“Listen—”
“No, you listen. You’ve always been the better one and I’m sick of you rubbing my nose into it.”
Cam took a good look at Zach and realized he was in way too deep. Zach wasn’t just smoking some weed, he was doing coke or something else. Zach’s life was imploding, and Cam had no way of stopping it. Zach had been close to going off the deep end so many times, but they’d been able to control it, reining him in by getting a movie roll together. But drunken college movie roles didn’t go to twenty-five-year-old men who weren’t in shape and were starting to develop a pony keg instead of a six pack in the front. Cam had kept his six, and actually cut them deeper over the last few months as he’d grown more serious about getting prime parts. Zach looked like he was on the edge of something bad, about to fall in.
“Zach, I’m not rubbing your nose in anything. You can clean up, change your life, look for new parts. I know Andrew would take you on as a client if you stopped the partying.”
Zach threw up his hands and shook his head. “Don’t you get it? I can’t stop.”
“Yes, you can.”
“No, this is me. I’m the fuckup that no one really wants.”
“I don’t know where you got that idea, or why you think that, but you’re not a fuckup. You’re a great guy. You don’t have to live like a fuckup just because you’re in Hollywood.”
Zach sat on a stack of weights Cam had begun using when he decided to get in shape. They were the same weights
Zach had taught him to use many years ago, and yet, Zach had abandoned it all. Looking back, maybe it would have been best had they not come to Hollywood. It was rough here. They didn’t fit in, not like other people who had grown up with rich daddies working in production, being directors, or performing other roles on movie sets. When they’d arrived, they were fresh—nobodies with no history. Guys who were willing to take the roles no one else would. One movie had done fairly decent and allowed them to get this house. A couple of movies had done okay, a few had bombed, but both of them had talent and the looks—well, Zach would again if he cleaned things up.
“I don’t know where to start. I get bored just sitting around. I need something to give me structure.”
Cam loved his brother but had no idea how to get him back on track. “Zach, I’m going to tell you the same thing Andrew told me when I wandered into his office and asked him to represent me. If you want to change, you have to be the one to make that change. I can’t do it for you. You have the potential, but you have to be the one to say no to the coke. No to the hookers. No to the all-night sex parties. I can’t say no for you, because it won’t stick.”
Zach’s brows bunched tightly and he shook his head. “I’m not ready yet.”
“Then stop blaming everyone else for you not being ready. I’m ready. I’ve been ready for months. I’ve stopped partying, and now I need to take this step and move out.”
Zach jumped up, his eyes blazing with anger. “You’re just going to leave me over some fucking bitch.”
Cam clenched his fists and squared his shoulders. “Don’t ever call her a bitch. Rose is a good person. Don’t ever say anything bad about her.”
Zach shook his head and then spit on the floor. “I don’t know what she did to you, but it’s bad. You can’t be serious about her. I don’t know how she got you to agree to this scheme, but you’re being taken for a ride.”
“No, Zach, I’m not. I know exactly what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. You need to make up your mind and figure out what you’re going to do. If you’re going to blow yourself away with drugs, just go home and save your money.”
