I rubbed the stubble on my jawline, wishing Nora had actually slapped me just then like her flashing eyes had threatened, just so I could feel my face tingle from her touch. She was so fucking sexy, and that attitude of hers had only strengthened in the days since I saw her last. I suppose that was my fault.

I’d tried to apologize, but she wasn’t having a bar of it….although I guess I hadn’t exactly tried all that hard. I needed to try again, get just one more chance to be alone with her. That probably wouldn’t be too hard, seeing as we were working together now, which I still couldn’t quite believe. I almost had a heart attack when I saw her standing there in the studio lot twenty minutes ago. It was such an amazing coincidence, and the sappy side of me saw it as somewhat of a sign.

A stop sign, if you asked her. That’s exactly what she’d say; I already knew her insults and mannerisms quite well.

I spent the rest of the day fucking around on the set, getting to know the crew and my fellow actors. Nora occasionally came down with the writers to hand out revisions for the first few pages of the script. At around five, she grudgingly headed over to me and waved her hand in my face. “Hey. Can you come with me?”

“I wish,” I said with a smirk. Then I grimaced. “Sorry. I promised I’d stop that, didn’t I?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Yes, you did,” she replied in a grumpy tone, although I could see a slight flash of amusement in her eyes. “Anyway, Bonnie wanted me to go over some character details with you. Just so we know you’re on the right page about Simmons’ life and personality.”

“I’ve done my research, don’t worry.”

“We’ll see. Come with me.”

She led me back inside and upstairs, and she directed me into a room on the third floor. “Sit down,” she said, gesturing at a chair. She looked about as pleased to be stuck in a room with me as a snake would if it were stuck with a mongoose.

“Walter Simmons is a very complicated character,” she began. “You’ve obviously picked up on that from reading the script—wait, have you even read it?”

I snorted. “Of course I have.”

“Good. Anyway, it’s the nuance of his character that we’re interested in exploring via your portrayal. So you need to capture that.”

“Before you ask, I do know what the word nuance means in this context.”

She rolled her eyes. “Good to know. So what do you know about him so far?”

I explained everything I’d learned about the man I was playing in the research I’d done. When I was finished, Nora’s face remained blank, so I couldn’t tell if she was impressed or not.

“I guess you do know a bit about him,” she finally said.

“See? I meant it when I said I did my research. So you know what that means?”

“What?”

“That I mean what I say,” I replied. “So now you know I meant it when I said I was sorry about the other week.”

“By that logic, you also meant it when you said women are inferior and serial killers are the most interesting thing in the world.”

“Okay, I didn’t mean those things. But you get my point. I really am sorry.”

She let out an exasperated sigh. “Jacob, I told you, I don’t want to talk about this.”

“I know. But just hear me out, at least.”

She was quiet for a moment, and then she nodded. “Fine. I’ll listen to you, but only so I can hear exactly what the hell even happened that night, because I’m still confused about some parts.”

“Okay. I’ll start from the beginning.”

“Good choice,” she said sarcastically.

“I met James at my friend’s office. They work together. I was chatting to him, and he seemed pretty distraught over this demon woman he kept going on about. He told us all the awful things you supposedly did, including the fact that his dog was stolen.”

Nora winced. I soldiered on despite how much I hated making her feel like crap. “So later that night, Chris—that’s my friend—and I were getting drunk at a bar. We thought it might be funny if I tracked you down and took you on the shittiest date ever just to make you feel bad after everything you did. Allegedly did, I mean. And I was also going to steal the dog back. It never occurred to me that that weedy little prick James was actually making all this shit up.”

“So the date…it was just a sort of joke, really,” she said quietly.

I shook my head. “No. I mean, yes, I suppose that’s what it was in the first place. But I saw a picture of you beforehand, and I honestly thought you were the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Believe me, I wanted it to be a real date. Not just a joke.”

“No you didn’t,” she said with a sigh. “You don’t need to lie to make me feel better.”

“I did think that. I really did. Not lying. When I saw you, I wished like crazy that you weren’t such an insane harpy so I could actually pursue you properly. And then on our fake date, when I tried to steal the dog and you started yelling at me, I realized you weren’t actually insane.”

“Wait… you realized I wasn’t an ‘insane harpy’ when I was attacking you with a garden hoe and trying to convince a Labrador to tear you to shreds?”

I chuckled. “Yes. You had every right to be angry at me in those moments. But I knew then and there that you were a kind, loving person. The way you saved Oscar and all. So I’m sorry, Nora. That’s all I really wanted to say. I never meant to hurt someone like you. I genuinely believed James when he told me all those awful things about you.”

“Okay.”

“I suppose at least I can learn from this even if you hate me forever—I won’t blindly trust someone who complains about their ex ever again,” I added.

“And I’ve learned to never accept dates with hot movie stars,” she said with a wry smile. “I suppose I’m not exactly blameless, though.”

“What do you mean?”

She looked embarrassed. “Well, I accepted the date and stayed on it even when it got awful as part of my own little deal with a friend.”

I wrinkled my forehead. “What?”

“I was upset about James spreading rumors about me, and my best friend—Angie, you met her at the bar— told me she’d recommend me for this job if I did one thing: go out and get a date with the first guy who hit on me, and stay for the whole thing. She thought it would cheer me up. And you were the first guy.”

I grinned. “Wow…so this whole time I’ve been feeling bad, but you were playing me just like I was playing you.”

“In a way. I would’ve felt worse about it if you weren’t such a terrible date.”

I grinned. “You know all that stuff I said was bullshit, right? I don’t actually pursue fifteen-year-olds or smoke in restaurants. I mean, for the record, I used to smoke, but I quit recently, and even if I didn’t, I’d never do it somewhere like that. And I certainly don’t believe women are inferior, either. I’m not as bad as I made myself out to be. Promise.”

“Yeah, I figured,” she said. “No one could actually be that bad. Although at first I thought you were doing it as some sort of test to see how much shit I was willing to take.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” I said. There was an awkward pause. “Anyway, thanks for listening,” I added.

“It’s okay,” she said quietly. “Thanks for the apology.”

“I hope we can work together properly now, without all the death threats?”

“Let’s start with less death threats for now, and see how that goes,” she said with the faintest of smiles.

“Fair enough. Anyway, do you need anything else from me today?”

She shook her head. “No, you can go. You’re done for the day.”

“All right. Need a ride home?” I said as I rose to my feet.

“No, I’ll probably be here till quite late. Because I was brought onto the project so late, there’s a lot of work I need to do on the scripts, and only a limited time period to do it all.”

“Right. Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow. We’ll all be here going over the scripts and rehearsing lines.”

“All right,” she replied. She looked like she was about to say something else, but then she simply waved. “Bye, Jacob.”

“Bye.”

I headed toward the door, but then I stopped and turned back around. “Wait a minute. It’s nearly dinnertime. You can’t work without food. I’m ordering takeout for you.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“No, but I want to,” I replied, striding back over and taking a seat again. “What’s your favorite Chinese dish?”

She sighed and leaned back. “I guess I could go for some fried rice and honey chicken,” she said in a grudging tone.

“Done.”

Half an hour later, the room was filled with the delicious aroma of fried rice, honey chicken, satay sticks, sweet and sour pork, and chop suey.

“I just realized something,” Nora announced after swallowing a mouthful of rice.

“What’s that?”

“You tricked me into another date after all,” she said, gesturing around at all the cardboard cartons filled with food. “I can’t resist Chinese takeout.”

“I didn’t know that, so it wasn’t a trick,” I said with a grin. “Just dinner.”

“Well, it was a damn good dinner. Much better than overpriced lobster and skull bowl conversation,” she said, patting her stomach with satisfaction.

I laughed. “I was pretty bad that night, wasn’t I?”

“Yeah. You’re very good at being very bad at dating. It’s a testament to your acting skills.”

“I’ll add it to my résumé.”

She laughed too, a tinkling sound that made my insides turn to mush. As I stared at her, I noticed some red sweet and sour sauce on her upper lip. There was a box of tissues on a small shelf on the other side of the room, so I got up and grabbed one before returning to the table and leaning down over Nora.

“Don’t move for a sec,” I said, carefully dabbing at her mouth with the tissue. “You’ve got a little something…right here.”

I heard her take a sharp breath as my fingers brushed her upper lip, and I was close enough to see that her pupils were dilated. I couldn’t resist. I pressed my lips down to hers, softly and slowly, and then I was kissing her. There was no turning back. She tasted fucking amazing, just the way I’d imagined, sweet and hot and delicious. Her lips parted as she let out a moan, and I kissed her deeper, claiming her mouth with my own.

“Mm…no, wait. Stop. This is wrong,” she said, suddenly pushing me away.

I wiped my mouth, my lips tingling where hers had just been. “Sorry,” I said quietly.

“It’s just…we work together now,” she said. “I don’t want to get a bad reputation in the industry.”

My heart soared a little at that, despite the fact she was rejecting me. At least she wasn’t saying, ‘I still think you’re a giant piece of shit’ anymore.

“I understand. And I guess there’s also the awkward start we got off to,” I said, trying to sound casual. “Or as you called it, a declaration of war.”

She didn’t smile or laugh at my silly crack; instead she simply stared at me, eyes wide, like she wasn’t quite sure if this was all happening or if it was a dream.

“I better go,” she finally said, her voice soft as she rose to her feet and started gathering her papers. “I can do the rest of this work from home.”

“All right. Guess I better head off as well. Got a party to go to later.”

She smiled. “Have fun at it. See you later.”

Then she turned and walked out, and I was left feeling empty and confused. Shit, I still barely knew this woman, and I wanted her more than anyone else I’d ever met.

When it came to Nora, I was already a goner.