Caught on Camera (Black Towers Book 1) (10 page)

A knock on her door jarred her from her thoughts.

“Georgia?” Cole asked through the door. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes with a tissue from the makeup counter.

Cole opened the door a crack and stuck his head inside. “Are you sure you don’t want to come to dinner with us?”

“No, I’m fine. Thanks.” She plastered on what she hoped was a convincing smile.

“Do you want me to drop you off at home?”

“No, that’s okay.” She picked up her phone and waved it in the air. “I’ve already called a cab.”

He started to her for a moment before responding. “Okay. If you need anything, just text me, okay?”

“Don’t look so concerned. It’s just allergies, that’s all.” To prove her point, she blew her nose into her tissue. “See?”

“Okay.” His smile seemed warm and genuine. “I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Okay.” Georgia waited for the door to close before wiping her tears once more.

Chapter Ten

“I have no comment on my brother’s personal life.”

Leta Anderson- Palecki

Something about this didn’t feel right. Back when they were dating, Cole didn’t remember Georgia mentioning allergies. In fact, all week she had seemed perfectly fine. Allergies might explain the watery eyes and stuffy nose, but they didn’t explain the sadness he saw in her eyes, or the way she couldn’t quite meet his gaze when she talked to him. There was something else going on, he was sure of it.

“Are you ready to go?” Leta asked.

“Bang, bang!” Manny shot at his knee, and Cole absently ran his fingers through the boy’s hair.

“I’m going to have to take a rain check on dinner.”

“How come?”

“Something came up.”

She flashed him a suspicious look. “You mean Georgia Evans came up.”

He felt the heat rise to his cheeks. “It’s that obvious, huh?”

“Everyone knows you never got over her.” She nudged his elbow. “Go on. Manny and I can take in a movie. I’ll be in town for a couple of days. We can do breakfast tomorrow.”

“Sounds perfect.” Cole gave her a big bear hug. “Thanks, sis.”

“No problem.” She playfully punched him in the arm. “Just don’t screw it up this time.”

Cole frowned. “She was the one who left me, remember?”

“I’m sure she had a good reason.” She bent down next to Manny. “The guy is always the one to blame.”

Cole rolled his eyes as she explained to Manny that he would see his uncle in the morning.

“No!” The little boy whined.

Cole bent down next to his nephew. “We’ll collect information about the enemy and meet again at oh-nine-hundred hours, soldier.” He schooled his face into a serious expression.

Manny stopped whining and saluted. “Yes, sir.”

Cole saluted back. “Until then, obey your mother.”

“Yes, sir.” He bumped his fist with Cole and straightened.

“You’re so good with him.”

“It’s a gift,” Cole joked, standing.

Leta laughed. “Okay soldier,” she said to Manny. “Let’s go home.” She steered Manny toward the exit as Cole headed toward Georgia’s dressing room. With each step, he became more and more determined to corner Georgia and make her tell him what was going on. It seemed as if they had been making real progress lately. She was opening up and they were connecting. Something had happened with Leta that spooked her and he was determined to find out what.

He was so close to getting her back. He wasn’t about to let some unknown entity stand in his way.

As he came closer to her dressing room, he slowed his steps. Georgia’s voice rose up from behind the closed door. It was obvious she was talking to someone. Cole told himself that he was just listening for a break in the conversation so that he could enter, but as the seconds passed, he became more and more uncomfortable with what he was hearing.

“I can’t do this anymore, Sharon,” Georgia said. “I can’t work with Cole.”

Cole knew that Sharon was her agent. She’d the same woman represent her back when they were dating.

“I don’t care about my career anymore. You have to get me out of this.”

Cole leaned in closer to the door and put his hand on the polished wood. Had he gone too far with the scene earlier?

His gut said no. Georgia had loved every minute, every thrill.

“You don’t
understand
!” Georgia’s voice rose shrilly. “I saw him with his nephew today. It brought back too many memories.”

Cole had to strain to hear Sharon’s voice. It sounded grainy and full of static. He guessed that she had her on speaker phone.

“I know that it must have been painful to watch,” Sharon said. “But Cole didn’t bring his nephew on set to upset you. You said yourself that his sister’s visit was a surprise.”

“It doesn’t matter. The whole thing was still painful.” Georgia said. “It reminded me of everything I lost.” She sniffed. “And of everything I can never have.”

“Oh come now, save the drama for the screen. Lots of women have miscarriages and go on to have healthy children.”

Cole stilled as Sharon’s words sliced through him. Georgia had had a miscarriage?

She had been pregnant with someone’s child?

The realization was like a knife in his gut.

“You don’t know what it was like . . . to leave everything behind to go through that rehab program. I did everything I was supposed to do and I still lost the baby. I’m cursed.”

“Honey, you are being too hard on yourself.”

“I can’t continue filming, Sharon. Every time I see him it brings everything back. It hurts too much.”

“If you want a career in show business, then you have to, honey.” There was a slight pause, and then Sharon continued. “Does Cole know what happened to his baby?”

Wait. What?

His
baby?

Georgia had been pregnant with
his
baby? That was why she’d run away?

Wildness clawed at his insides. Shoving open the door, Cole stalked inside the dressing room. Georgia gasped and turned in her chair as he closed the distance between them.

“You were pregnant?” Cole roared as he placed his palms on the chair’s armrests, trapping her in the cushioned seat.

“Cole—”

“Maybe I should go,” Sharon said through the phone on the dresser. “I’ll talk to you later, Georgia.” The soft click indicated that she had disconnected.

Cole didn’t know what to say. Every muscle in his body was frozen in shock and his mind blanked with pain. She was pregnant. Not only had she hidden that pregnancy, but she’d gone through the pain of losing that baby on her own.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He hated the fact that his voice shook, but he was… he didn’t know how to process this. “Is that why you broke up with me?”

“I—”

He stared at her sapphire eyes, bright with unshed tears. “It was, wasn’t it? You didn’t think I could handle being a father. You thought I’d leave you.” He pushed off the chair and began to pace, needing to do something to vent this anger.

“It wasn’t as if either one of us were in any shape to be parents.”

He stopped and stared at her. “But you didn’t even give me the choice.” He waved his hands in the air. “You just got up and left.”

“I didn’t find out about the pregnancy until after we broke up.”

“But you still didn’t tell me.”

“I was in rehab.” She stood and fisted her hands at her sides. “They wouldn’t let me talk to anyone.”

“I can’t believe this.” He pushed his hair out of his face and started pacing again. “I want to kill you.”

She recoiled against the chair. “You wouldn’t—”

He stopped pacing once more and flashed her a disgusted look. “You really don’t know me at all, do you?”

She hesitated, then lifted her chin. “I know that you weren’t too hurt by me leaving. The following weekend the tabloids reported you with another woman.”

“She was a friend.”

“And the one after that?” She pointed at his chest. “You bounced from bimbo to bimbo while I struggled through rehab. While I carried your baby!”

“I was trying to forget!”

“It didn’t seem too difficult—”

“It was fucking hell, Georgia.”

“Yeah, must have been hell fucking all of those women—”

“You left me.” He flexed his fingers at his sides. “I tried calling you, but you disconnected your number. I stopped by your apartment, but your landlord said that you had moved out.” He closed the distance between them. “Tell me,
Georgie
, what the hell was I supposed to do?”

She stared at him for a long moment, not responding.

“Jesus.” He wanted to shake her, but instead stepped back toward the door. “You just don’t get it, do you? I was shattered, Georgia. I thought you were different, but then you told me that I was nothing more than a player looking for the next party. In that moment I knew that you saw me just as the rest of the world saw me. Cole the playboy, the one who never takes life seriously. The problem is that it’s all a game, Georgia. It was part of the package I’m selling to the media. It’s not who I really am. I thought you knew that.”

Georgia blinked back her tears. “But those women.”

“Were an act. Most were just friends. Some I had sex with, sure, but only after months of trying to track you down. Did you know that I went to that rehab clinic?”

“You what?”

He nodded. “When they made the announcement in the media, I went to see you, but I wasn’t on the approved list. I was told that you weren’t allowed to see anyone, so I left you a note.”

“I-I never got it.”

“No, I don’t think you did. If you had it, then you’d know how messed you I was—how messed up you made me.” He pointed at her and stiffened his jaw. “You were the only one who understood me, Georgia, the only one I trusted.” He lowered his hand. “I thought you trusted me, too.”

“I did—”

“You kept my baby from me!” Cole roared.

Pain sliced through Georgia’s chest as she realized what she had done. “I lost the baby in rehab,” she whispered. “It was during the time when they wouldn’t let me talk to anyone on the outside.”

“What about after, when you left?”

She shrugged. “It didn’t seem important anymore.”

“Not important?”

“What was I supposed to say, Cole? Congratulations, you’re a father. Oops, sorry, my mistake. I lost the baby. You can go back to your whores now.”

“They aren’t my whores. Haven’t you been listening?” He ran his hand over his face as a myriad of emotions crossed his features. “You should have told me, Georgia.”

“I couldn’t.”

“It was my baby, too.” He jerked open the door and stepped out into the hall. “It was my baby too.”

Chapter Eleven

“Do I still drink? Sure. I drink lots and lots of tea.”

-Georgia Evans

The atmosphere on the set was a nightmare.

Georgia was starting to understand just how hard it had been for Cole when she’d refused to interact with him outside of their scenes. Things with Cole were still a mess—he had just shut down. Completely.

Kevin was starting to get irritated, enough so that she had wanted to talk to Cole about it after the shoot, but Kevin had dragged him aside for some talk about his character and Georgia hadn’t wanted to hang around like a lost puppy. So instead, she’d headed to a nearby coffee shop and purchased some green tea, content to people watch for a few hours. After draining her cup, she realized that she wasn’t quite ready to go home to her empty apartment just yet, so she ordered a second.

Despite the problems on the set, Georgia was feeling—well, she was feeling okay.

The shadow that was her baby with Cole had hung over her for years. Now that Cole knew, the pressure was gone.

Almost done her second cup of tea, she was considering a third when a shadow fell over her table. Looking up, she saw Cole staring down at her.

“Mind if I sit for a moment?”

She shrugged and took a sip of her tea. “It’s a free country, last I checked.”

He sighed as he slid into the chair across from her. “We need to talk.”

Georgia took a quick look around. This coffee shop was close to most production studios in the city, and while someone would probably take their picture, the fact that they weren’t the only celebrities wandering around made them less of a target.

Cupping her hands around her empty mu, she stared down at the bottom. “I know.” She just wasn’t ready to do it yet. She didn’t know if she’d ever be ready.

“What you did—not telling me about my baby—that’s not okay, Georgia.”

“I see that now.” She cringed. God, all these years she’d been blaming Cole, and in the end, it seemed that she was the one who’d fucked up. “I’m so sorry.”

“And I’m sorry that you had to go through all of that alone.”

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. I should have been there for you. I should have stormed down the rehab doors and made a fuss until they let me see you. Hell.” He leaned back in his chair and pushed his hair from his face. “I should have gone into rehab with you.”

“But you didn’t.”

“No. I tried to move on with my life.”

She nodded, bitterness coating her tongue. “I know. I read about it in the papers.”

He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. “What you read in the papers was a lie.”

She looked up at him and raised her brows.

“It was.” He shifted in his seat and glanced around. When he spoke again, he lowered his voice. “I haven’t changed, Georgia. I’m still that same guy you loved.”

“The tabloids had said that you were with a different girl every week.” She blurted this out, suddenly aware of how much it bothered her. “Do you know how much that
killed
me?”

“It was done to maintain my image. They meant nothing to me.” When she frowned, he held up his hands. “Honest.”

He leaned on the table once more. “Regardless. You broke my heart when you left me, Georgia. I spent months trying to find you only to learn that you never wanted to see me again. What was I supposed to do?”

Georgia stared at her mug for a long moment before responding. “You’re right. I should have said something.”

She glanced up at him. “At least sent you and email when I was out of rehab.”

“I could have been there for you, Georgia. I could have helped you through all of that.”

“No, you couldn’t have.” She patted his hand. “I needed to find balance in my life again, and I had to do that by myself.”

“Perhaps.” He flashed her a half-smile. “But it would’ve been fun raising hell in that rehab center.”

She giggled. “Yeah, it would have.”

He covered her hand with his. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you two years ago. But I’m here for you now.” He waited until she looked up and met his gaze. “If you’ll let me be.”

“I don’t know, Cole. So much has happened between us. I’m afraid we’ll just self-destruct again.” Her mind flashed back to the scene they’d filmed where he’d actually been inside of her, and she flushed.

Maybe… maybe Cole was right. Maybe they could channel their destructive urges in other ways.

“I’ve missed you, baby.” All she heard was sincerity.

Believing him was her choice to make.

Georgia averted her gaze and smiled as she ran her fingers along the outside of her mug. "I missed you, too."

"I don't want you to go home alone tonight."

There was something about his voice, the insistence of his tone, that gave her pause. Then she remembered that he was reciting lines from the script. "I don't do one night stands."

He leaned forward and brushed his fingers over hers. “Who says I’m asking for one night?”

She swallowed the lump in her throat. His voice sounded more emotional than it did when they were filming. And those eyes . . . she had never seen anything so intense.

It took her a moment to find her next line. "Then what are you asking for?" she whispered.

He laced his fingers with hers and drew them away from the tea cup. "I'm asking for you to not think so much, Georgia. I'm asking for you to take a chance and see where all of this leads."

It was difficult to keep the excitement from her voice, but she was an actress, and so she knew how to school her features. "I have a reputation—"

She wasn’t fooling him. She could tell by the sparkle in his eye. “I don’t give a shit about your reputation.” He stood and pulled her up against him, and the world around them began to fade. His voice lowered and became thick with emotion. "I don't, and you shouldn't either."

She parted her lips to speak, but he placed a finger over them, stopping her words. He dropped his gaze to her lips. "The world outside doesn’t matter, baby. The future doesn’t matter. All that matters is right here." He jerked his gaze back to hers. "Right now. You and me."

“I’m not sure if I want to forget,” Georgia said as she inched closer. “We had some great memories.”

“Like with the Rolling Rocks?”

“And Paris.” She slid her arms around his neck.

“Paris? I thought you hated Paris because of the sex tape.”

She smiled and nibbled her lower lip. “Not all of it was bad.”

“No?” He slipped his hands around her waist.

She shook her head. “A few good things came of that trip.”

“Like what?”

“Baguettes.”

He chuckled.

“Espresso.” She inched closer and lowered her voice so that only he could hear. “And butterfly vibrators.”

“Really?”

She nodded.

Cole smiled and leaned his forehead against hers. “You know, there’s a lot more toys where that came from.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve collected some over my years in rehab.” She smirked and averted her gaze. “A girl has to get off somehow.”

“I’m intrigued, Ms. Evans. Very intrigued.”

She stepped out of his embrace and took his hand. “Come on then.” As she led him out of the tea shop, she glanced over her shoulder and shivered under his hungry stare.

“There’s just one thing,” She said as they paused on the sidewalk.

“Oh?”

She pointed at his chest. “No cameras this time.”

He grinned as he took her hand and kissed her fingers. “I think my home movie days are done. It’s far better to let the production companies handle that sort of thing.”

“Absolutely.” She pulled him down the sidewalk, toward her apartment.

It was going to be one wild night.