“Why not?”
He sighed. “Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to stand here and keep my hands off you?”
Charlotte had a pretty good idea, since she was fighting the same battle to keep her hands off him. She smiled.
He frowned in return. “Answer the damn question.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“Raine is staring at us.”
“You let me worry about Raine.”
Six
Charlotte changed out of her dress and took a long, hot shower. Afterward, she was still too keyed up to sleep. It was past midnight, but people were still working in the yard. Equipment roared to life, and a few firefighters stood by the smoking rubble with shovels and a hose.
She slipped into a pair of jeans and a short T-shirt, stuffing her feet into a pair of low sandals and pulling her damp hair into a simple ponytail.
Maybe she could find some brandy in the kitchen. A strong drink might help her sleep.
She padded down two flights of stairs, past the film sets in the entryway and the great room, along the hall toward the back of the house. She heard voices through the open door of a library.
Alec, Kiefer, Jack, Lars and three other crew members sat around a large table.
“David will be here in the morning to do an assessment,” said Jack, slipping his cell phone into his pocket.
“We’ll lose two shooting days at least,” said Lars with a scowl. “Somebody’s ass is on the-”
“I can pull a construction crew off the project in Toulouse,” Kiefer said to Alec.
Charlotte cringed. Alec had been clear that none of his employees were to be impacted.
“I don’t think it’s necessary to fire anyone,” said Alec, staring directly at Lars. “Seems to me you’re going to need all the skilled labor you can find.”
The three crew members stilled, and Lars’s mouth worked as his face went ruddy. “How is it any of your-”
“It’s my yard that was burned to a crisp,” said Alec. “And I don’t intend it to become a permanent movie set.”
“We move on,” said Jack, nodding in Alec’s direction, clearly overruling Lars. “Accidents happen.”
It was the first time Charlotte had seen her brother pull rank. Maybe it was because she didn’t particularly like Lars. Or maybe it was because he was backing Alec. But she was proud of Jack.
Alec caught sight of her. He gave her a little smile and motioned her in, indicating an empty chair next to him.
“The construction crew?” Kiefer asked Alec.
“If we can spare them,” said Alec, letting his thigh come to rest against Charlotte’s as she sat down. He had also changed, into a pair of black slacks and a royal-blue, pin-striped dress shirt. He hadn’t bothered with a tie, and she discovered she liked the casual look on him.
“Send me the bill,” Jack told Kiefer.
Kiefer gave him a nod.
Lars was silent and sullen, his jaw clenched where he’d pulled back from the table.
One of the other crew members flipped through a clipboard. “If we switch scenes thirty-five and sixteen, and move up the party sequence, we can make up some time,” he said.
“Can you get the extras in tomorrow?” asked Jack.
“On it,” said the man, making a notation.
“The story editor isn’t finished with thirty-five,” said Lars.
“He has eight hours to
“Unacceptable,” Lars retorted.
“You want to duke it out with David tomorrow?” asked Jack, a tightness around his mouth. “Because I’m not about to tell a man coming off a string of low-budget independents that our story editor is a prima donna.”
Alec leaned over to Charlotte and whispered, “I think Jack has this well in hand.”
She tried not to smile. She’d always assumed Jack’s laid-back persona meant he wasn’t as strong as some of those around him. He might disguise it, but her brother seemed to have a backbone of steel.
“Charlotte?” came Raine’s voice from the doorway.
Charlotte guiltily snapped her leg away from Alec’s and pushed back her chair.
“I was looking for you,” she said to Raine, coming to her feet. She crossed the room without looking back. “I was hoping to find some brandy,” she told Raine in an undertone.
“Right this way,” said Raine, pointing to the kitchen. She was still wearing the kicky little black skirt with a fitted, purple tank top. Charlotte couldn’t help wondering what Raine had been doing for the past hour.
She settled into a breakfast nook, while Raine rattled through a cabinet.
The bay window faced east, so the destruction of the front yard was out of sight. The moon was full, the stars in multiple layers. Pot lights outlined a few of the garden pathways, and the pool was just visible down the slope, beyond an oleander hedge.
“I know I won’t sleep, either,” said Raine, curling onto the semicircular bench seat across from Charlotte. She set down a bottle of cognac and two thin crystal snifters.
“I’m so glad nobody was seriously hurt,” said Charlotte.
“Now that out there,” said Raine, pouring the amber liquid into the glasses, “that was more like the real Alec.”
“He took it very well,” Charlotte agreed. Though she supposed two hours of vigorous sex might have mellowed him out a little. “What were you doing with Kiefer?”
“We’re renovating the head office in Toulouse. The architect wanted to change the configuration of my offices.”
“Problem?”
Raine grinned. “Not really. But don’t tell Kiefer.”
“You’re making him sweat?”
Raine nodded.
“Just recreationally?” Charlotte took a sip of the cognac, letting the warm liquid ease down her throat.
“You bet,” said Raine with a toss of her bobbed hair. “Life’s too easy for Kiefer.”
“And it’s not for you?”
Raine frowned. “It’s not the same thing. I don’t have every woman in France laying out the red carpet for me.”
“You’re his boss.”
“Ha! I’d love to hear you say that when Kiefer’s in the room.”
“Say what when Kiefer’s in the room?” Kiefer appeared from the hallway.
Charlotte glanced to Raine, unsure of what to say.
“Go ahead.” Raine laughed. “Tell him.”
Charlotte cleared her throat, trying to guess what kind of a hornet’s nest she was walking into. “That she’s your boss.”
Kiefer scoffed out a strangled laugh. “Not until she can read a balance sheet, write a contract or take me in a fistfight.”
“I own fifty percent of Montcalm Corporation.”
“We both know that’s an honorary thing.” His gaze zeroed in on the bottle, and he helped himself to a snifter from a glassed-in cupboard.
“See what I have to put up with?” Raine asked Charlotte.
“Do you have signing authority?” asked Charlotte, taking Raine’s side. She liked Kiefer, but she assumed he could take care of himself.
