He was going to keep a very close eye on Brianne, though, and make sure that Valerie started treating her with a little bit of respect. And, of course, the thought of spending extra time around Brianne was no chore. In fact, it was something Callin could barely wait to do.
“Hold on!” Valerie shouted from behind him. “I’ll walk over with you.”
Callin slowed down and waited for Valerie to join him. She smiled at him and began talking about their upcoming kiss scene. He was dreading it, but he didn’t let that show.
“Who knows?” Valerie said with a smile that Callin thought was meant to be seductive, but to him looked anything but alluring. “Maybe you’ll fall in love with me after this.”
Callin stared at her and she laughed.
“Relax, Callin. I’m joking,” she said. “But it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to find out how deep the chemistry between us goes, would it?”
She picked up the pace, leaving Callin to mull over her parting line. All he could think was what chemistry? He couldn’t help but wonder if Valerie really believed there was chemistry between them, or if she was just laying down the groundwork, trying to put ideas into his head, so that when she eventually decided that the time was right for them to be mates, he would be conned into thinking he had always wanted that too.
Whichever of those things it was, it was a dangerous game, and Callin knew he had to play this very carefully. Because pack alpha or not, there was no way he was going to be mated to Valerie. He had never wanted that, and now that he had seen Brianne, he knew he had found his true mate. And he intended to do whatever it took to get her.
5
Brianne stood beside the camera crew, watching the scene between Callin and Valerie being filmed. She tried to tell herself she was watching the scene just to pass the time until Valerie needed her, but she knew that wasn’t strictly true. She was watching it because she couldn’t take her eyes off Callin. He was magnetic, both in and out of character.
Brianne felt a tingling nag of jealousy as Callin’s character watched Valerie’s character, looking at her how Brianne wanted him to look at her. She had to wonder how much of the scene was really acting and how much of it was real. The chemistry between the two of them sure felt real. It felt so real at one point that Brianne felt her cheeks heating up and she felt like she was a voyeur, watching two people have an intimate conversation.
She reminded herself this wasn’t the case. Even if the chemistry between the two of them was real, the words they were saying and their actions in the moment were all scripted. She was allowed to witness this, as were the hundreds of other people milling around. She told herself the chemistry she felt between the two characters couldn’t be real. If it was, then why hadn’t it been present in Valerie’s trailer earlier? And why had Callin looked at her like he wanted to consume her?
Brianne watched as Valerie’s character picked up her suitcase and started to walk away from Callin’s character. He reached out and grabbed her arm, spinning her to face him.
“Why are you doing this?” she demanded.
“Because I love you, dammit,” he replied.
There was a dramatic pause, just long enough for the audience to really feel the tension in the moment. Brianne even found herself holding her breath as she watched the scene unfold, and she already knew what was coming next. Callin dropped Valerie’s arm and the two of them came together in an explosion of groping limbs. Their lips met and Brianne felt a wave of nausea engulf her as her jealousy ran rampant through her body. All she could think was that it should be her in Callin’s arms. It should be her he was kissing like he never wanted to let go.
The set was silent as the kiss went on, Callin pushing his hand into Valerie’s hair and Valerie pulling Callin more tightly against herself. Brianne had to swallow hard to remove the lump that had formed in her throat. Surely that couldn’t be acting. That passion looked all too real to her.
She told herself she was being silly. None of it mattered anyway. As if Callin McKenzie was going to want to be with her. And even if he did, she wasn’t ready to let go of her fears about him being a dragon, another Valerie. But he certainly didn’t act like Valerie. He seemed normal… nice. Not like Valerie at all. But it didn’t matter. With or without Valerie on the scene, the idea of Brianne and Callin being together was never going to work out.
“Cut,” the director called, startling Brianne slightly and pulling her back to the present.
Callin stepped back from Valerie like she had burned him. He turned away from her and walked over to the director and began to talk to him. Brianne saw immediately that her jealousy was completely unfounded. It wasn’t that Callin was rude to Valerie, it was just that it was clear he was that good an actor—there was no chemistry from him at all, and the fact that he walked away immediately after the kiss solidified that notion for Brianne. If he felt anything even remotely close to what his
