“That’s the tricky part,” Yazmin said, while Carrie snuck looks over her shoulder. “We tried to call you this morning to see if we could meet before we arrived on set, so we could have a word with you before the others got here.” I didn’t have to ask who “the others” were given the very sour look Yazmin was shooting in Kayla’s direction.

“Your showrunner has been informally talking to our boss about working with his wife. We wanted to offer you this chance first.”

“But we were sort of ambushed when we got here.” Carrie’s high laugh did nothing to hide what she really thought of Chase and Kayla’s shenanigans. Hers was probably the call I’d ignored this morning in favor of talking to Theo. The call I never returned because by the time we were done with... I breathed through my nose as guilt roiled through me. This was exactly what letting myself become distracted by sex would get me.

“I can work with whatever timeline you have,” I said once I could speak without sounding like I was about to cry. Not because I was upset. But because I was furious with myself.

“The boss asked to see them in two weeks,” Yazmin explained.

I cringed internally, thinking that was exactly when we’d be finishing up production here.

“I can do that.” It would mean working around the clock between my obligations for the library renovation and my bookish renovations, but I would make it work. There was no way I was letting fucking Kayla steal this from under my nose.

“I know it’s tight, but we want to get your material as early as possible so we can really sell it to higher-ups.” This came from Yazmin, and fuck I almost really cried then. Because this woman was going out of her way to make this happen for me.

“Thank you,” I said, a little breathless, with a hand clutched to my chest. “You won’t regret it.”

“We’ll be in touch,” Yazmin said, before the two women walked away.

“Holy shit.” I whistled as my eyes searched for Theo of their own volition. A boulder of regret settled in my gut as he spotted me and gave me one of his Dallas smiles. A little dirty and a lot fucking charming. My core responded to the sight of that powerful body, as it always did.

I wanted to run to him, let him wrap me up in those strong arms that I now knew made me feel so safe. I wanted to tell him that something great had happened. That I was on the cusp of getting what I’d worked so long for. I stood there swaying, my legs aching from the need to move toward where he was.

Then I reminded myself what was at stake, and I made myself walk away.

Chapter Fifteen

Theo