He was just… golden. A sparkling gold man.
I had to wonder why he was sitting alone when everyone else on the cast was split into groups like this. Something about it felt very cliquey.
Suddenly I felt a tug in my gut as the feeling of someone watching me prickled across my skin. When I returned my eyes to the table, I saw Mason’s bright blue eyes boring into me.
It was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
I couldn’t deny the effect he was having on me with those eyes. They cut through me like blades of ice.
“So you’re here for the whole season?” he asked in a bored tone.
But even he couldn’t disguise the hint of interest that lined the edges of his words.
I was used to reading people; I was a hairstylist, after all.
“Yep, the whole season,” I answered, meeting his gaze.
He cocked his head to the side and smiled big and bright, and I thought I was going to fall out of my chair.
“Well, welcome then. You’re going to be doing hair and makeup, right?” he asked, his voice dripping with a tantalizing taunt.
I tried my best to not let it affect me, but whatever energy he was giving off was overpowering. “I… yes. Hair and makeup are my specialty,” I said, igniting a false confidence within me.
Alina was eating her food, completely oblivious to whatever thing was happening in front of her.
“And you did that?” he asked, jerking his eyes over to Alina with a fierce motion.
I nodded and smiled.
The smile ran away from his face and he turned serious. He turned his attention to Alina and said, “You could have worn a wig, you know. That’s what they did in The Last Kingdom for the blonde girl character. You didn’t have to do… all this,” he said as he gestured to her hair.
An unpleasant feeling twisted in my gut.
“I wanted to get all the way into character,” she said with a simpering smile. “Wouldn’t want the critics to accuse me of being ‘so lost in my own reflection, that I forgot to act!’”
My mouth popped open. That was exactly the line from a well-known critic who’d very publicly written a piece about Mason’s performance in The Last Kingdom.
Mason’s eyes narrowed the tiniest bit. It was subtle, but it spoke volumes.
He stood up, drained the last of his beer with a gulp, and set it back down on the table with a clunk.
“I’m going to head back to the set,” he said, his face turning arrogant and his eyelids going heavy. Every syllable was like a dagger, a promise aimed right at Alina: You’ll pay for that later.
She took another bite of her sandwich, unaffected.
“Okay, bye Mason!” she said with her voice wavering on his name flirtatiously.
He scowled, an expression that looked much more natural on his face. When he played the king in The Last Kingdom, that was his famous look.
As soon as he left the table, it was like there was a vacuum of gravity sucking all of the heat into the spot he left. The laws of physics knew that something with a huge cluster of energy had just left that space and it was trying to correct the balance.
I shuddered as I felt the warmth leave me.
Alina turned to me with a sly smirk spreading across her face.
“That was bold,” I said.
“I’m a bold lady. I’m Lady Bryn,” she said matter-of-factly as she bit into her pickle.
Chapter Five
After Mason left, I watched as Alina took command of the table. I let her direct the conversation with the other stars — she looked completely natural in the spotlight.
I was an introvert surrounded by extroverts. Watching all this energy crossing the table in front of me was starting to get a little tiresome, but I had to remind myself that I’d never get an opportunity like this again. Getting to be around these over-the-top personalities was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I was going to force myself to experience all of it.
Still… I couldn’t help but relate to the golden man in the corner, Leo Knight. His nose was still in the book, and I was stricken by a wild thought:
Was he using the book to hide his face?
He moved the book away from his face for a second to take a sip of his beer.
When I got a full view of his face, I was stunned. He seemed like he was simply too beautiful to exist; too beautiful to be allowed. That face couldn’t be real; that chiseled jawline, those perfectly sculpted lips, that strong nose, those bushy eyebrows…
Seeing him in person was a completely different experience than seeing him on T.V.
He was beautiful in a way that made me feel less close to him; less relatable. One thing that Mason had was that guy-next-door thing going. He was handsome in a way that made you think of your high school crush, all propped up by popularity and arrogance. It was way easier to picture yourself getting a chance to have him look at you one day, than it was to do the same for Leo.
Leo was like a statue; it was like he was sculpted into perfection but the hands of a skilled artist. He looked up from his book and fixed his golden eyes on me.
And just like that, I felt it. It was the feeling me and Alina were talking about earlier in her trailer; that gut punch. It was as if suddenly, everything in my life made sense. Everything that had ever happened to me, had happened because it was leading me to this moment.
I blinked and I saw Hazel’s shimmering silver eyes, filled with an I-told-you-so brilliance.
My mouth came open and Leo returned his eyes to the book.
All the wind was taken out of my sails.
I was nothing to him; I was just a hairstylist. Some rando that showed up on
