We stepped into the hallway and stopped as we came face-to-face with the shit-talking reality starlet, just leaving her dressing room. She looked shocked to see us, but quickly shifted to a bright, friendly smile.

Elena looked her up and down slowly. The dismissive, bored half-smile she gave the woman silently conveyed that the starlet's shallow nonsense was beneath her, not even deserving of the effort it would take to glare. She tugged my hand and strode past the woman with her chin held high.

Damn, she was hot when she destroyed people without saying a word.

38

Elena

Alex got home from a meeting at the studio and kissed me deeply.

He nuzzled my neck. “I could get used to this.”

“Since we’ve got six days to go, you shouldn’t.” I’d been teasing, but I saw the hurt flash across his eyes. It was gone in an instant and replaced with a look of pure mischief.

Alex was entirely too excited, which meant he thought he was about to get the better of me. What was he up to?

“How’re you enjoying being famous?” he asked, far too casually.

“I’m not sure I would say I’m famous. Maybe infamous. Or notorious. But either way, it’s fine. I can’t really take advantage of it while I’m still chained to you, can I?”

He smiled at me with naughtiness twinkling in his eyes.

“A funny thing happens with fame. Stuff from your past starts magically appearing…old high school yearbook photos…video of your very first play when you were a kid…that one porno you shot before you were famous.”

I gasped and looked up to see him dangling a thumb drive in front of me.

“It was never released! How did you find that?” I pretended to be horrified.

“Someone leaked it, but Asha is working on having it removed.”

“Have you seen it yet?” I asked innocently, taking a drink to hide my smile.

“No. Maybe we should watch it together. You know, like we watched some of my early films.”

“Not a chance!” I tried to look horrified again.

“Come on, it’ll be fun…are you ashamed of it?”

“Okay, fine. Put it on.” I sighed dramatically.

He grinned and set the thumb drive on the counter. “I was just giving you a hard time. We don’t really have to watch it. I only wanted to see your face when you knew I had it.”

“Oh no you don’t.” I grabbed the thumb drive and took it through to his fancy media room. “You’re not getting out of it now, Mr. Chase. You wanna bluff, you better be prepared for me to call it. Have a seat. We’re doing this.”

He sunk into one of the chairs, looking like he didn’t believe I was really going to play it. He had no idea what he’d just walked into. I had zero shame about this little film. In fact, I was thrilled he’d found it. It was an exceptional piece of pornography and I considered myself a connoisseur.