Chapter Eleven
“Your character isn’t you, though. If anything, I’m the man in the relationship,” Nina said in a tone that implied she thought she was being helpful.
“My character is still a man, even if he’s a sensitive one.”
“You have to do more than brood, Your Highness. You have to give the audience layers. This movie is pretty sparse on plot. They need to feel the heat between our characters, but that can’t happen if you think this guy you’re playing is all flash and fire but no depth. We’re not ‘Roughhousing’ anymore.”
Emrys felt his face burning in anger. “Are you saying you don’t believe my performance?”
“I’m saying you’ve gotten too comfortable. Recognize that your character is at the mercy of mine but is far too proud to admit it, and you’ll have what you need.” Nina stretched her arms over her head, catching the attention of several patrons of this common Portland coffeehouse. Nina was a fabulous actor, but she seemed to repel clothing. Even in jeans and a V-neck T-shirt, she seemed like she might at any moment be naked and on top of you, doing a little dance.
Having experienced that made Emrys a bit immune to the natural charm that oozed out of her, but it was good to remember what reactions he should have, given his character would be obsessed with hers during the last days of their lives. The film was good—dark, but good. Emrys appreciated the opportunity and thought that his and Nina’s names would help push the film farther than it might have gone otherwise.
What he didn’t appreciate as much were the acting lessons that Nina wanted to force on him.
“You might be confusing me with my character, but I’m not,” Emrys objected. He lifted a large mug of coffee with both hands and sipped.
“Hm.” Nina stood and leaned over.
Emrys looked up at her dubiously.
“Show me how your character reacts to this.” She moved her arms closer together and flashed him a smile. The movement lifted her breasts into full, glorious view.
Emrys raised a brow.
“Yeah, see, that’s way too cool for your dork of a character. He needs to be more flustered. He needs to be at a loss for words, a loss for breath, even. So when that scene in the diner happens, and she’s above him and leaning in like this—” Nina touched her fingertips along his jaw and came in close. “He doesn’t know what to do with himself. She has the control. He wants it but can’t get it. He wants control in general—over his life, over his failing heart, but he can’t have that, either. But if he plays his cards right…”
Nina leaned in to whisper in Emrys’s ear. “He could have what she’ll give him.”
“You’re so dramatic,” Emrys complained. He gave her a shove and laughed. “But you are entertaining,” he admitted. “I’m really glad Jennifer porked up.”
Emrys smiled and checked his phone. Messages from Caitlyn. She’d been trying to get in contact with him this week, but the filming schedule had been grueling. They didn’t have a lot of time here, if they wanted to keep the film under budget, and that meant that he and Nina needed to be on their game at every moment. It also meant that he was sometimes too wiped out. Between his schedule, Caitlyn’s training, and the time difference, they’d fallen asleep on one another in the middle of a call twice now.
He trusted that his mother and sisters would keep Caitlyn occupied until he could get back, but it was vital to keep connected. This wouldn’t be the only time he was on location filming. Maybe he could convince his mother to release Caitlyn from manners school early, since he’d willingly given Caitlyn over to her. Caitlyn liked visiting new places so much that she would probably forgive his poor attentions over the last few weeks just for the chance to hit another place on her bucket list.
“Hello, darling,” Emrys greeted her. “Are you feeling well enough to come up to see the set?”
***
When caught between the prospect of fessing up to Emrys and spending another day in “Sébire Finishing School,” Caitlyn decided the former was marginally preferable.
The flight was incredibly long, but the private bedroom in the jet was comfortable. The jet took off midday so that Caitlyn could sleep through the tail end of the trip and arrive refreshed. From the jet, a private car took her to the hotel room where Emrys was staying, and all the way her heart thudded in her ears as she tried to think of what to tell him.
When she arrived at the hotel, however, the concierge informed her that Emrys had already gone to the set and left word that Caitlyn was welcome to join him. Although the driver would have taken her, she didn’t want to have this conversation with his coworkers watching. So instead, she settled her things into the room and decided that she could kill some time around the city. She’d never been to Seattle before.
After slipping on a pair of checkered leggings and a loose scarlet and violet striped sweater, Caitlyn returned to the car and had the driver take her downtown. There she got a large cup of tea and walked the streets for a while, taking in the ambiance of the city. Despite the cold, she liked the energy of the people bustling and biking by. She bought a bag of strawberry-glazed sweet rolls and munched on them as she wandered through a park and people watched.
It wasn’t a bad way to pass the morning, but eventually it began to drizzle. Caitlyn ducked into a shop for an umbrella. She pushed her damp hair out of her eyes as she looked. It was late enough now that she might be able to get Emrys to come out with her for lunch off-set, if they were on schedule. She shot off a quick text and then spotted the umbrellas. Unsurprisingly, the store stocked quite a lot of them, and the other customers who had walked in slightly wet seemed used to the rain. It was coming down harder now, and Caitlyn was glad she hadn’t tried to push through it. She could have her driver come pick her up, if the weather got too bad.
When she stepped into the line, she alternated between looking at the candy—tempting, if she hadn’t just eaten three strawberry rolls—and her phone. There were two people in front of her when her eyes lit on the magazines above the gum.
Blazoned across the cover was Emrys and a gorgeous woman with curly black hair and plump, pouty lips, which were nearly touching his as she leaned over him. “Things Heat Up for the Playboy Prince!” the headline declared.
Caitlyn covered her mouth, feeling as though she might throw up strawberry pastries all over the floor. Had she seen this woman before? She looked familiar, but Caitlyn wasn’t sure. She moved through the line mutely, picking up the magazine to buy with her umbrella. Once outside, she unfolded the umbrella and tucked the offending publication into her bag before storming down the sidewalk.
Not knowing the area, navigating in the rain with tears clouding her vision, Caitlyn was soon lost. She stopped at a proper café to get a cup of coffee and order some lunch. She had to think about this. The papers exaggerated, sure, and they got details wrong. But there was usually something connecting them to reality. Something there to spin. And that picture…it showed Emrys about to kiss that woman. And he was looking at her like she was a prime steak.
On her phone, Caitlyn searched the woman’s name—Nina Jones—only to find that the tabloids had caught them together once before. Having sex in the alley behind a popular European club. That was where she’d seen Nina’s picture before. She’d been mentioned in one of the articles a month ago that had rehashed Emrys’s “misspent youth.” And she was only more beautiful now.
Appetite lost, Caitlyn pushed her chicken Caesar salad aside. It was one thing to be caught by the tabloids in a compromising position. He might have been about to kiss her. He might not. But how could he go into this movie, knowing for months that he would be acting opposite his ex, and not warn Caitlyn about it? Deliberately not telling her that he planned to be in close quarters with this woman suggested that Emrys had thought something might happen between them, or that he had something to feel guilty about. If he were lying to her about this, he could be lying about other things. And she would fall for it, always. Every lie, every explanation or excuse, she would fall, because she had fallen for him so hard and never loved another man the way she had loved him.
It didn’t matter now whether she could fit herself into his world. She couldn’t be with him if she couldn’t trust him. He’d broken her heart years ago, with no warning or explanation, and despite his promises to regain her trust, he’d just done it again.
Wiping her eyes and trying to catch her breath, Caitlyn called for the driver.
***
Emrys arrived at his hotel room a bit irritated. He’d expected to see Caitlyn this morning but had been disappointed. She’d texted him for lunch plans, but when he’d texted her back, she had never responded. After they had lost the light for the day, the director decided to call it quits; these scenes needed a particular time of day, and they weren’t ready yet for another set of inside scenes.
Thus, Emrys entered the elevator still dressed in the tattered jeans and band T-shirt his character preferred. His shoulders were tight with annoyance and stress, but his heart was hopeful for the moment he would see Caitlyn again. It was a testament to how deeply imbedded she was in his heart that he couldn’t be away from her for a few weeks without feeling as though a part of him had gone missing.
But when he opened the door to his suite, there was no Caitlyn. No suitcase. Nothing to show that she had ever been here, aside from a stray tube of lip gloss on the dresser and something lying on the bed. Emrys drew nearer to investigate, but then drew back again when he saw himself there on the cover of a tabloid with Nina. It had been the moment earlier that week when they had been talking about their characters. Had Caitlyn seen this? Was this why she had come and gone?
Underneath the magazine lay a letter stuffed into an unsealed envelope. Emrys opened it and read.
Emrys,
I have loved you since I was 19 years old. I have loved you with all my heart and to the best of my ability. Now that you’ve seen the magazine, you know that I know. I know that you’ve been with this woman, and I know that you’ve been working with her without telling me. I also happen to know that you sent me back to be “trained” by your mother and sister, deliberately and without telling me. I don’t know what you think would have happened if you had just let me in on the plan, since I obviously could have played the part you wanted me to better if you had simply told me. But like our engagement, you saw fit to keep me in the dark, trapping me into either following along or hurting you. Which I would never do, if I could help it.
I love you, but you are a liar. You manipulate me instead of letting me in, and whatever happened between you and that woman, things have come up that make it completely unacceptable for me to keep letting you do this to me. I might be able to play along in this love game of yours, for which the prize is a truly obscene amount of money, and maybe also the satisfaction of defying your father. If it were just me, maybe I would continue to let you hijack my life and trick me into your schemes, but it isn’t, and I can’t let this keep happening.
I hope you have a long and scandal-filled career. Fame and success suit you. I’m taking my life in a different direction.
Love,
Cait