“He’s not allowed back. We agreed not to press charges against him as long as he agreed never to come back to the set,” Reese said, fixing Oliver with his steely gaze.
Mason was looking at Reese, his blue eyes dancing with delight. He enjoyed making Reese have to explain this; making him uncomfortable.
“So Rachel’s coming back, but her husband isn’t,” Alina said with finality.
I nodded as I watched her relax.
Just then, I shared a quick look with Mason. He was trying to read me; trying to suss me out with those icy blue eyes. He thought he could dive into my eyes and fish out all of my secrets.
I broke his gaze, training my eyes on Alina.
Her husband beats her, she’d said.
I felt a pang of empathy for Rachel. If he was strong enough to knock a tooth out of Leo’s mouth with a punch, I couldn’t imagine the kind of damage he’d be able to do to a small, pixie-like woman.
Mason was right. Shit was about to hit the fan.
“Just to be clear, he’s not allowed on the set, right?” I said.
Reese fixed his steely gray eyes on me. “He’s not. Everyone here is safe.”
“Wait, do we have security?” Oliver asked.
Reese closed his eyes, clearly annoyed. “Yes, we have security. We’ve had it this whole time,” he said, gesturing to the area around us.
I looked around at the surrounding tables and saw some large men quickly look down at their food, pretending that they weren’t staring.
Were they undercover security guards?
Reese looked up at Mason, his eyes a burning silver. “Happy?”
Mason smirked. “Very.”
The tension in the restaurant lessened once the waiter brought out our desserts. I noticed that Alina skillfully changed the conversation to talking about Mason’s last project, and he was so full of himself that he took the subject and ran with it.
I was only half-listening as I scooped my ice cream sundae, trying not to look at Leo.
“Psst,” Oliver hissed from across the table.
I peeked up and looked into his sea-green eyes, which he promptly darted over to Reese.
He wanted me to do what we’d discussed earlier. All part of this weird plan to hook me up with Leo and him up with Reese.
I had my doubts that it would work, but he’d urged me to go ahead and do it anyway.
“We’ll plant a seed when the time is right,” he promised when he was drunk.
I thought he’d forget about everything as soon as he became sober, but here we were.
What’s the worst that can happen? I thought to myself. What Oliver asked me to do was stupid and childish, and there was no way it would produce the results he was hoping for.
Do it, his eyes said, fixing on me from across the table.
I rolled my eyes, sat down my spoon, and said, “Reese, can I have a moment to talk to you alone?”
Everyone at the table stopped eating and they all looked at me.
Having all five of their eyes on me at once was probably the most uncomfortable I’d ever felt.
Reese eyed me suspiciously. “Could it wait until after we eat?” he asked, his spoonful of gelato inches from his mouth.
This was exactly what Oliver predicted he’d say.
“No,” I said, just as planned.
The power of that word shifted the energy in the room; shifted the power into my hands. It took everything in me not to squirm.
His eyes narrowed. “What could possibly be so important that it can’t wait?”
I swallowed. He must have already been irritated from being around Mason for this long.
“It’s about tomorrow,” I said, the words leaving my mouth and floating onto the table, pretending to be the centerpiece.
His eyes shifted to understanding, then concern.
“Very well, then,” he said sharply as he dabbed his mouth with his napkin and then placed it on the table.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Oliver watching me carefully.
This was going exactly as we’d planned.
I glanced at Leo as I stood up.
If he likes you, he’ll watch you leave the room. Trust me on this one, Oliver said to me a few hours ago.
And just as he predicted, Leo’s gold eyes were fixed on me as I stood up.
Blush fired up into my cheeks and I bit my lip. I couldn’t bear to meet his eyes again.
As I followed Reese outside, I was aware that there were four pairs of powerful eyes on my back. I could feel them digging into me like darts.
My heart was beating fast. I had to remember what Oliver told me to say…
But before I knew it, my time was up. I was outside face to face with Reese in the dark, the crickets chirping around us and the full moon overhead.
“What is it, Charlie?” he asked, his voice taking on a more gentle tone.
“I don’t like him,” I said, just as Oliver told me to say.
“Don’t like whom, exactly?” he asked, one of his dark eyebrows going up.
“You know who. Mason,” I said. “I don’t think I can do the scene tomorrow.”
Oliver told me that that would be the ideal thing to say to Reese; that he cared about his art so much that he would do anything he could to keep things going according to plan. He would give me anything I wanted as long as I agreed to do the scene.
There was a slight twitch to his mouth as he frowned. “You agreed to do it earlier,” he reminded me.
“I thought about it more, and I don’t think I can,” I insisted, fixing him with my gaze.
Everything in me wanted to turn and run away, to get away from his surgical silver gaze. But I forced myself to stay rooted to the spot.
His eye twitched a little as he looked down at me. He wasn’t used to being told no.
“You don’t like him either,” I said, pointing out the truth.
“I’m fine with Mason,” he lied. Even as he said it, I noticed a tightness to his jaw.
“Well, I can’t do
