The girl wore a plain, pale pink t-shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of slightly scuffed white sneakers, but she looked better than most women did in a ball gown and Callin could only dream of what she would look like if she was done up. Or better yet, naked and in his arms.
He could feel his cock responding to the sight of the girl, a throbbing feeling spreading out from it and traveling all through his entire body. He could feel his dragon stirring inside of him, wanting him to claim this girl as his mate right now. He resisted the urge to close the gap between them and pull her into his arms and kiss her, but he fought the feeling only because he didn’t want to scare her off. He knew this girl was going to be his.
“Hi, I’m Callin McKenzie,” Callin said, smiling at the girl.
She smiled back, her lips slightly parted, her eyes back on his, searching his face. God, she was gorgeous. Callin couldn’t help but wonder how such a perfect creature could even exist, let alone be in his line of sight.
“Brianne Ellison,” she managed to say after a slight pause.
Her voice was slightly breathy, as though she had been running, and Callin’s cock twitched at the sound of it. He had had that effect on her. He had been the one to make her sound slightly out of breath like that. He couldn’t help but think of how she would sound when he was fucking her, when she was coming hard. He had to stop thinking like that or he was going to grab her and hold her right here and right now.
“Brianne,” Callin repeated. “I like it.”
And he did like it. It suited her somehow, this small and almost fragile-looking girl who stood before him, making him want to protect her at all costs. The thought sent a jolt of anger through him. It was Brianne who Valerie had been yelling at when he came to her trailer. Well, he was going to have to put a stop to that. He figured Brianne was Valerie’s assistant, but that didn’t give her the right to talk to the girl like she was nothing.
“Callin? Can I help you with something?” Valerie demanded.
Her voice was taut, like she was covering her anger now that he was here. He had almost forgotten she was in the room. He had almost forgotten everything except Brianne. With an effort, he tore his eyes away from Brianne and looked at Valerie. Valerie was what he thought of as Hollywood pretty. She was tall, imposing, with the body of a goddess. She had a pretty face, there was no denying that, but he knew what lurked beneath the face: the bitchy comments, the nastiness. And to him, Valerie was ugly.
Callin forced himself to smile at Valerie.
“I just thought I’d drop in and see how things are going,” he said. “With it being your first day on this set and everything.”
“Oh, everything’s great,” Valerie gushed, twisting a piece of her hair around one finger.
“Good,” Callin smiled.
He knew she was lying. Not that everything wasn’t great, because it was, but Valerie would find fault with it. She could find fault with anything. This nice girl act was just that—an act. And Callin knew what it was about. She was jealous of the way he had looked at Brianne, and she wanted him to think that she wasn’t the worst person in the world. It wasn’t going to work on him. He had seen too many of her true colors to be fooled by one smiling sentence.
“Are you finding everything okay?” he asked.
“Yes, thank you,” Valerie said. “Although my assistant here seems to be having some trouble with that.”
Callin turned to Brianne, grateful to be able to look at her again without making Valerie angry. He could handle Valerie and her anger, but he didn’t want to make life any more unpleasant for Brianne.
“What is it you can’t find?” he asked her kindly. “Maybe I can point you in the right direction.”
“I… I don’t know,” Brianne said, looking confused. “I seem to be finding my way around okay.”
“Ah, so you’re just useless and slow, then,” Valerie said with a smug smile. “I was giving you the benefit of the doubt, assuming you were having trouble negotiating your way around the set.”
Brianne’s bottom lip quivered slightly but she bit it quickly and looked down at the ground.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
Valerie was rolling her eyes as Callin turned back to her.
“Look, Valerie, I know you’re not accustomed to being the star of a movie, so let me give you some advice,” Callin said. He knew his choice of words would rankle with her and he was right. She shifted uncomfortably on her feet, and when she smiled and nodded for him to go on, he could see her smile was fake. It brought him great pleasure which he was very careful to hide. “Punctuality is important, but no one is going to be mad at you if you’re a couple of seconds behind schedule. And everyone knows this is your first time on a big set like this; by extension, they know it’s Brianne’s first time on a big set like this too, and everyone will cut her some slack until she finds her feet.”
He turned and gave Brianne a subtle wink, letting her know he wasn’t really blaming her for anything that might happen. She gave him a quick flash of a smile.
“I see,” Valerie said
