There was entirely too much noise and way too many people packed into the small space. It was a little unnerving that everyone except him knew exactly where they should be and what they were doing.

“Here.” Small hands took his shoulders and pulled him back a step just as a large microphone boom swung around and nearly clocked him in the face. “Come stand over here by me.”

He turned and noticed that Emma looked like she had gotten more rest than he had.

“You look refreshed.” It came out more as an accusation than a statement.

She chuckled softly, then leaned closer and whispered. “I’ve spent an hour in makeup.”

She smelled like a sunset in the spring. When she leaned away, he instantly missed the scent of her.

“How do you know what’s going on during all this?” he motioned to the madness around them.

“You don’t, you just get really good at getting out of the way.” She nudged him closer until they were both clear of a very tall ladder that was being carried by three men.

“Have you had breakfast?” she asked.

“They had a car pick me up and take me to…” He dropped off when he remembered the name of the place. His face heated and he glanced around.

“The Eggslut?” she asked, putting a hand on his arm.

“Yeah, I guess that was the place.” He shifted, feeling a little uncomfortable.

It wasn’t as if he was a prude, but he’d been raised by a woman who hadn’t allowed that kind of language in her house. That was before she sank into madness.

Emma’s chuckle caused him to glance back at her.

“You really are a gentleman.” She shook her head, then glanced over when someone called her name. “I’d stick to this spot until someone comes for you.” She touched his arm, then quickly disappeared into the mayhem.

A few minutes later, he was gathered and showed to a chair near the bright lights. For the next three hours, he sat back and watched as they went over the same scenes more than a dozen times. He wondered how the actors and actresses didn’t melt under the heat of the lamps or break character as they repeated the same lines over and over.

He knew the lines by heart and grew frustrated at hearing them so many times.

Someone called lunch and everyone seemed to disappear into the darkness. He was left sitting in the chair, wondering if it was okay for him to move.

“JT, you want to tag along for some lunch?” Jim Cartyn tapped him on the back. “I was just heading out to the Palms.”

The man was roughly JT’s age and stood only five foot five. When he’d first met Jim, he’d wondered how the guy could have gained so much respect and esteem. After an hour with him, he’d easily figured it out.

Not only was he the nicest man he’d run into in LA, but the smartest. The man knew something about everything and had traveled everywhere in his twenty-some years.

JT instantly felt like he’d wasted his life. He was due to have his twenty-ninth birthday in a few months and had never been out of the United States. Hell, he didn’t even have a passport.

“Sure.” He followed the small group out of the massive warehouse and blinked a few times until his eyes adjusted.

Someone handed him a pair of sunglasses, and he thanked the younger man. Once he could see again, he noticed that he and another man were the only ones left standing with Jim.

“My assistant, Tobias,” Jim said absently.

“Your car is just arriving,” the young man said, looking down at his cell phone. “Now.”

Sure enough, the limo pulled in and stopped in front of them.

JT got in after Jim and sat with his back to the rear of the car. He had never gotten used to riding backward.

“What time did you get in?” Jim asked, pouring a glass of water from the bar, then offering it to him.

He took it and downed the liquid and realized he hadn’t moved from his chair in the studio in the hours that the filming had gone on. He’d been so interested in watching how things worked that he hadn’t budged.

“About one. I ran into Emma in the lobby,” he added, setting the empty glass down as the limo made its way through traffic.

“Yeah, I’ve heard there was some trouble in paradise.” Jim sighed. “We’re trying to keep it under wraps until release day.”

JT’s eyebrows shot up. “She’s dating someone?”

Jim laughed. “I forgot that you’ve hidden away on that island of yours.” He shook his head. “I would’ve thought that you had the internet though.”

“I do.” He frowned. “I just don’t usually have time to read the gossip sites.”

Jim nodded in agreement. “She and Mark have been an item for a few months.”

JT’s frown returned. “Was it serious?”

Jim shrugged. “Not really, especially since it’s been rumored that he’s been cheating since day one.”

JT felt his temper flare up and had to glance out the window quickly before Jim noticed.

“Does she know?” he asked, watching the scenery flash by.

“I don’t know, but something tells me she has an idea, especially since several tabloids have published images of him with others.” Jim downed his own water. “So, what did you think of it all today?”

The conversation changed several times before they finally made it to the restaurant. When they arrived, they were quickly shuffled to a private table near the back windows. He’d never had service like they received over lunch. The food was some of the best he’d ever had, and the staff had been on it. His glass never went empty even though he never noticed the waiter filling it.

His imagination took over and he started fantasizing about ghost waiters or supernatural beings come to earth just to fill water glasses.

When they rode back to the set, he was wishing he could retire to the hotel to catch up on some rest. He never really had headaches, but now he had a nasty one brewing. He figured it was the few hours of sleep mixed with all the bright lights on the set.

But he pushed through the next few hours while nursing some caffeinated drinks. When filming wrapped up, there was talk about dinner and drinks, but he opted out and made his way back to the hotel.

Letting himself in, he pulled off his shoes and shirt and fell face-first onto the massive bed.

When he woke, it was to a knock on his door. He rolled off the bed with his eyes half-closed. When he opened the door, he blinked a few times to see Emma standing in the hallway, her face red as tears caused her makeup to run down her face.

Without saying anything, he pulled her gently into the room and shut the door behind her.

“What’s wrong?” He dropped his arm as she hugged herself.

Once again, he noticed the tight outfit she had wiggled herself into. This time, it was a soft cream with burgundy heels that gave her a few inches.

“I just… needed someone to talk to.” She sighed and closed her eyes. He could tell when she opened them she was a little more in control. “He’s in my room and I didn’t know who else to go to.” She glanced around the room and then her eyes moved back to him.

He stepped aside and motioned for her to come in further.

“Do you want something?” he asked, running his hands over his face and through his hair as she headed to the large windows that overlooked the city.

He’d barely glanced out them earlier that morning. The view had nothing on the scenery at his house, but it looked better from up here than it did when standing on the dirty streets.

“Some water,” she said softly.

He busied himself by pouring her some water from the large bottle sitting at the bar area. The room was massive and he felt guilty for letting the producers put him up in it.

He gave her the glass, and she took a sip, then sat down on the sofa and put the water on the coffee table. “I didn’t wake you?”

“I’d caught up on my sleep,” he lied, but seeing the worry in her eyes had jolted him wide-awake.

“You’re a terrible liar.” She smiled over at him.

He sat next to her. “Want to talk?”

She looked over at him, then her eyes moved down and he remembered he hadn’t pulled on a shirt. He thought he saw heat flood behind her silver eyes as they ran over his chest and arms. He had to swallow the wave of desire that swamped him as she looked at him.

When her eyes returned to his, she blinked and the heat was replaced by sorrow.

* * *

JT stood quickly after he noticed her eyes roaming over his chest and walked into the next room. She could hear him pulling on a shirt and waited for him to return. She hadn’t meant to gawk at him, but he’d been so pretty.

She used this time to make sure her makeup hadn’t caused her to look like Alice Cooper.

She’d admired him the first time they’d met, shortly after her auditions. His messy long blond hair was totally out of the norm in Hollywood, causing the women to swoon when he shoved it out of his eyes. He was taller than most men in Hollywood as well. Actors may look big on the screen, but most were well under six foot. JT hovered a few inches above that line.

There was little known about the man and that made him an attractive mystery that many tried to solve. Including her.

He walked back into the room and took two glasses down from the bar. As he poured them drinks, she appreciated how large and wonderful the room was.

He handed her a glass of dark liquid, and she took a sip of the bourbon. Its warmth spread down to her toes.

“Mark is cheating on me,” she blurted out.

“I’m sorry,” he said after a moment.

She shrugged and took another drink. “He’s been cheating since our first date. It’s one of the reasons I refused…” She shook her head when she realized what she was about to admit. “I don’t normally allow him to come up to my room.”

“Why did you tonight?” JT asked.

She turned towards him and thought about it. “I guess because we needed to speak in private. Most of the time when we’re together it’s in a crowded restaurant or bar or at work where everyone is watching and listening.”

JT downed his drink in one quick swallow, then set the empty glass down. She set her own glass down and forgot about the rest of the drink.

“Sometimes I question if coming to California was the right thing to do.” She leaned back slightly and relaxed into the soft cushions. She’d been on her feet for hours. Her toes were numb from being shoved into heels. She desperately wished to take them off but didn’t want to seem too forward.

“Where were you before?” he asked.

“Savannah.”

His eyebrows rose slightly. “No accent?”

“It comes out when I least expect it or don’t want it to.” She sighed. After a moment of silence, she asked. “You’re in Maine?”

“Just outside of Portland.”

“It must be nice.” She decided to screw etiquette and slipped out of her shoes and stretched her toes. “Your family is there?”

He nodded. “What about you? Any family?”

She shook her head. “That’s one of the reasons I moved across the country and tried to follow my dreams. My father died of cancer a few months before I came here.”

“What about your mother?”

“She was never in the picture, not after…” Again, she stopped herself from giving too much away. She’d held in so much in the past few years since being in the spotlight. Why was she opening up to this man now when she hadn’t even told her agent, Rich Andress, this much about herself? “No, you? Mother? Father?” She waited.

“My mother and a sister are still in the same town where I grew up.”

“Your father?”

He shrugged and leaned back slightly. “He’s not in the picture anymore.”

She was silent for a while. “I’m not sure what to do about Mark. I’ve been asked not to break up with him until after the movie releases. They think it will hurt the numbers on opening week. Until then, we have to act like a perfectly normal couple.” She rolled her eyes. “I don’t even know what I saw in him in the first place.” She closed her eyes and tried to remember what she’d been thinking several months ago when she’d agreed to go out with him. It had just happened. One night they were hanging with the crew at a dark bar and the next moment, Mark was kissing her. “It wasn’t as if I enjoyed his company. We never really had time to hang out between filming. I don’t even think we’ve had a full conversation. Until tonight.”

“What happened?”

“He unloaded on me.” She took a deep breath, not wanting to remember all the things Mark had called her that had caused her to leave and seek shelter with someone she hardly knew.

Her eyes met JT’s blue ones, and she saw something she had never seen in another man before. He was actually listening to her. She could tell he cared, too.

“He said things that I’m sure he wouldn’t have said if he weren’t drunk.”

JT was silent, so she continued.

“He told me I was background noise in this film. That I’d only been hired to show off my tits and scream.”

Something flashed behind his eyes.

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” JT said softly.

“I know.” She glanced towards the windows, wishing she wasn’t so exhausted. She shook her head. “I guess I’m just too tired for that to register in my brain. It’s like all those bullies in school that would follow you around and call you names. Once you were safely back in your own room, you could think of a million comebacks.”

“I find it impossible to believe that you were bullied.”

She laughed quickly. “Oh, I was. I had braces and glasses, and I was one of the top students in my class. I walked around school with a target most days. Kids hated me because I upset the grading curve or because I looked ever so much the geek.” She rested her arm on the back of the sofa and leaned her head on it. “What about you? I bet you were easily one of the most popular boys in your class.”

His eyes moved away, and she could see she’d struck a chord.

“Kids can be mean. That doesn’t mean Mark had any right to say those things to you tonight.”

“No, it doesn’t.” She smiled.

“I can talk to Jim if you want?”

She shook her head lightly. “No, it won’t kill me to stick it out for a few more months.”

“I’m sorry you have to go through this,” he said. “It can’t be easy… having your personal life under a microscope all of the time.”

“Sometimes I wish I could escape. Have my own island to retreat to.” She thought about crystal blue waters with white sand and closed her eyes on the image. “A place where I could hide away until I wanted to be seen again.”

When she opened her eyes again, JT was looking at her funny.

“I have my own place,” he said. “You’re welcome to visit anytime.”

“Thanks, I didn’t mean to unload on you.”

“Sometimes we all need someone to talk to,” he answered, and she smiled at his reply.