I blink at her, because she hit home. “I believe that, too. But you misunderstood me. This story is new. It’s not about the addict. It’s about the people who love them. We never hear their stories. Not the way it really is. We don’t get to see the pain they go through loving someone who can’t stop and lies to their face every day. Who betrays them and their trust on a regular basis. The people who watch someone they love kill themselves day by fucked-up day. How much that hurts. How those people will do anything to save them, even if that means slowly killing themselves and their own futures in the process.”
Something changes in her eyes as she calmly stares at me. “Wow.” Walking to her purse she sits on the chair and takes out her lipstick, reapplying it and glancing back to ask me, “You going to just stand there or do you want to talk to your new producer about how we’re going to get this done?”
Frowning I stay where I am. “You haven’t read the script.”
“So I’ll read the script,” she shrugs with her back to me, hair shining in the light. “If you wrote with as much passion as you displayed just now, I’m not worried. Have a seat. Let’s get to know each other.”
CHAPTER 5
M AX
I ntrigued, I close the door but stay where I am. She looks back to see why no footsteps are approaching her, and smiles as I lean against the door with crossed arms. Over her shoulder amusement glitters in her eyes. We stare at each other. A sexy smile spreads on her face. “Sit.” She points a long fingernail at the couch.
“No.”
Her smile twitches. “Sit down.”
“No fucking way.”
Biting her bottom lip, the seductress eyes me. “Take a seat and let’s talk.”
“You get up and we’ll chat right here by the door.”
“So I can be ready to leave.”
“Yep.”
With a throaty laugh she stands but leaves her purse behind her long-legged stroll. “You’re interesting, too. What’s your name?”
“Max.”
“I’m Natalie.”
My eyebrows twitch up. “You don’t say.”
“You know another Natalie? Don’t tell me that’s your mother’s name. Because that could become weird.”
Cocking an eyebrow at the sexual innuendo I pull out my phone, search for the number Eleanor typed in and hold it out. “This you, or just a sign I need to call this other Natalie?”
She cocks her head, bob hanging longer on one side. “How’d you get that?”
“I have my ways,” I smirk, sliding the phone back into hiding. “Tell me about yourself now.”
“No, how’d you get my number?”
“Not telling.”
“Try.”
“Don’t have to.”
She stares at me, huffs through her nose with an amused smile and flips around, walking in a circle. “I guess you must frequent strip clubs.”
I choke on my, “What? No. Oh wait, are you a stripper?”
She pauses. “Hardly.”
“Okay, enough with the cat and mouse, Natalie.”
“But it’s so fun,” she whispers. “Why stop?”
My gaze travels down her body in that stance she just posed in, arms crossed, legs spread, one heel at a forty-five degree angle, body bent a little with her chin jutted out. My cock’s shouting all kinds of ideas at me, and I’m thinking he might be right. “Okay, I’ll play. You’re not a stripper. You dress like a rockstar. Do you DJ at the strip clubs?”
She laughs, “I wish, but no.”
“So you’re not musically inclined.”
“Not even a little bit.”
“Hmm.” I drop my gaze to the short carpet, thinking of potential guesses, then lock eyes with her to ask, “You own them?”
“No, but you’re warm.”
“And you’re hot.”
Her eyelashes flicker and drop slowly to rise up my body until she finally smirks, “So are you.”
My voice, and my cock, just got thicker. “Come closer.”
“Why?”
“I think you know why.”
Those heels take their time but they do obey. A smile tugs at her lips. When she’s in my personal space her long eyelashes drop and with lust in her voice, she whispers, “You’re waiting to see what I’ll do.”
“I’m not going to pull a casting couch scandal and have my name dragged through the paper. But if you wanted to kiss me right now I wouldn’t stop you.”
A grin flashes on her mysterious face. “Max, is it? You’re not in the power position. I am. So you’re not dangling the carrot of your dreams. I am. If I came onto your project you’d be lucky to have me.”
I lick my lips, salivating. “What makes you so sure?”
“Because I deliver more than five people can on their best days. I hardly sleep. I don’t take no for an answer. When I set my mind on something it gets done. I manage several strip clubs for a very demanding boss and his silent investors, and I’ve given their profits a one hundred and eighty percent increase in revenue in under two years. I know how to cut the right corners, come up with new marketing strategies. When to pull the plug and when to keep going. I put the money where it matters most. But the thing is, Max.” She stretches out the single syllable like she’s licking my shaft. “I want to get behind a project that doesn’t have as much of a negative social stigma as the one I’m currently embroiled in. The stripping industry doesn’t look great on a resume. So when I heard there was an aspiring director interviewing potentials I walked over and here I am.”
I’m rock hard, painfully contained, practically hissing with desire to pin her arms above her head and fuck the ever-living shit out of her right here and now.
“Sounds like you need the carrot, too, Natalie.”
“Maybe we both need the carrot.” She takes my hand and
