Exposing Alix (20 page)

Lena examined her nails. “Six.”

“And how many did you star in?”

“Two.”

“And how many times did you take top billing?”

Lena frowned. “Never. What the hell are you driving at?”

“This is all new for you, isn’t it. The attention. The
pressure.”

“No, not really. Like I said, I’ve starred in two other
films. It isn’t like I’m a nobody.”

Alix acknowledged the truth of Lena’s statement with a
short nod. “Of course not. But this film is riding on your shoulders. Do you
think about that? Ever wonder why Ryker cast you?”

Of course she thought about it. Of course she wondered why
Ryker had cast her. She’d wondered about it every night for the past six
months. But she didn’t intend to tell Miss Smarty-Pants that. “Because I was on
the cover of
Maxim
the month he was casting the show?”

Alix shook her head. “You’re used to people thinking of
you as nothing but a pretty face, aren’t you?”

Lena looked up from her contemplation of her manicure.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’ve been cast as a hooker, a model, a single woman who
almost breaks up a marriage, a hot girl a geek tries to date, and a spy’s love
interest. What do you think I mean?”

“So? Maybe I am a pretty face. What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing. Except, someone forgot to give you the message
that you’re also a decent actor.”

Lena snorted. “Right. Look, I’m not saying I can’t act,
but that’s not what they want me for. I’m the eye candy. The lure we throw out
to bring in the boys. There’s nothing wrong with that, but don’t expect me to
be Meryl Streep, okay? I’m doing the best I can.”

“What are you most scared of, Lena? Is it trying to act
and having the critics say you didn’t succeed, or not being able to hide your
feelings from Jake anymore?”

Lena’s mouth dropped open, and a jolt of cold fear ripped
through her. “Jake? What does this have to do with Jake?”

Slowly, Alix extracted a tube of lip balm from the pocket
of her jeans. She slid the tube between her fingers, back and forth, until
somehow the gesture became lewd. Lena watched, fascinated, as Alix ran one
finger around the top, then down the side. She pulled off the cap and rubbed
the ChapStick over her lips. Lena couldn’t look away from her mouth. Absurd as
it should have been, those full lips instantly became a focal point of
sensuality. When Alix rubbed her lips together and pursed her mouth into the
suggestion of a kiss, it was as if she was communicating directly with a lover.

“You can make anything sexy,” Alix said softly, putting
the tube back in her pocket. “It’s all in the way you approach it. I could go
down on this ChapStick, and if I believed it enough, it would excite the men
who watched me. As far as I can tell, you’ve been working all morning to
convince yourself that you don’t find Jake sexy. That he doesn’t turn you on.
That you aren’t going to melt if he touches your face or kisses your neck.
You’re scared, and even if you refuse to admit it, it’s destroying the film.”

Lena sucked in her breath. “So it wasn’t enough to have
Ryker beating up on me? They had to hire someone else to do it too?”

Alix crossed her arms over her chest. “I have no interest
in beating up on you. But you’re holding back, and I can’t have that.”

Lena bit her lip, feeling an unexpected tightness in the
back of her throat. “You don’t know me.” She had to swallow hard to continue.
“You don’t know anything about me.”

Alix lifted her enormous glasses and pushed them back into
her hair. She met Lena’s eyes in a hard, intense stare. “You’re an actress. A
decent actress, though you’re doing your best not to admit it. We can figure
this out together, but you can’t keep holding back. He’s a tube of lipstick. A
boy you dated in high school whose name you can’t recall. He’s nothing. You are
the star.” Her voice was low, mesmerizing in its intensity. “You are the star.
Now start acting like one.”

Alix ignored Ryker’s raised eyes
as she walked back through the door with Lena. She wasn’t sure if her little pep
talk had made a difference, but it was clear that something needed to change,
and soon. Ryker wouldn’t let Lena keep shooting herself and the rest of the
cast in the foot. At some point, he was going to lose patience, and Lena would
find herself in a very bad position.

Even with her eyes averted, she could feel him watching
her, and as if of their own accord, her hips took on a new, sensual sway. They
hadn’t talked much on the way back to her hotel last night. Ryker kept watching
her out of the corner of his eye with a gaze thick with promise. She wasn’t
sure if she found it insulting or thrilling. She had no idea what he thought
their future would hold, but she had a feeling it wasn’t just friendship.

Alix had wrestled with her body for hours before dropping
off to sleep. She considered all the reasons she didn’t want to sleep with him
and all the reasons she did. In the end, she’d woken up with no better answer
to her dilemma than she’d had the night before. She wanted him, but she needed
love. And she had no doubt that when it came to Ryker, falling in love would be
nothing less than disaster.

Then again, millions of people had sex without being in
love. There was no reason why she couldn’t be one of them.

“Are we ready yet?” Alix asked Ryker, clearing her mind of
any thoughts of love or sex as she came to stand beside him. She kept her voice
low as Lena positioned herself on the edge of the sofa. Lena’s eyes were
glassy, and she looked dazed. “I think we need to shoot now. I mean, right
now.”

Ryker seemed to realize that she was serious and clapped
his hands as he called everyone back to attention. With a few brisk commands,
the crew was in place.

“Action!”

Jake entered the room, stalked around the set, and ended
up in front of Lena. They’d run this scene, the same one they’d rehearsed
Alix’s first day on the set, at least fifty times already that morning.
Practiced it, shot it from various angles. Each time, it was wrong. Though Jake
seemed to be responding well to her changes, Lena was getting worse by the day.
She looked like a marionette, going through motions someone had laid out for
her. Alix felt certain her new staging and composition would help the film, but
Lena’s performance had to improve, or nothing else would matter.

Jake murmured his lines, his body practically radiating
repressed passion. If nothing else, this movie would renew his career, which
had been somewhat rocky after his last movie, which had been a big-budget flop.
Lena stood, pleading with him not to leave. She laid her hand on his chest, and
Jake covered it with his own. Their eyes met, and she wrapped his arm around
her body. He leaned toward her, and she melted against him, parting her lips
and breaching the distance between them with a slow, deliberate movement. They
shared a long, sweet kiss, mouths fused together as tightly as their bodies.

For an instant, Alix thought Lena had finally broken
through her fear. But then she pulled away, her eyes glittering with repressed
emotion.

“I’m sorry.” Lena sank down on the sofa. “I’m sorry, but
we have to stop.”

Ryker bounded up from his chair. He opened his mouth, fury
visible in every line of his body. Alix grabbed his arm, hoping to forestall
the flood of words she could see he longed to spew at the actress, who had
crumpled onto the sofa.

“Lena?” she said. “What’s going on?”

Lena’s huge eyes, framed by thick, dark lashes, filled
with tears. “I can’t do it,” she said, her voice husky. “I can’t do it.”

“Lena—”

Jake started to speak, but Alix cut him off with a raised
hand. “Of course you can, Lena. It’s just ChapStick, right?”

Lena shook her head, thick black curls tumbling around her
shoulders. “Nice try, but it’s not going to work.” She raised her head and
looked at each of them in turn. “It’s too late for that. I’m sorry but you’ll have
to figure something out without me. I’ve tried and I’ve tried, but I’m never
going to make you happy, Ryker. You want something I just can’t give.” She took
a deep, trembling breath. “I’ve made up my mind. I quit.”

#

“We’re screwed.” Ryker lifted a glass of whiskey to his
lips and drank it down in one shot. He slouched in the leather Eames chair and
stared at the enormous blank screen in Gunther’s viewing room.

Alix stared down at her own drink and winced at the fury
in his voice. “She needs a break. I’ll talk to her tomorrow. She can’t quit.”

“You’ll talk to her?” Ryker set down his glass. “Forgive
me, but she quit after the last time you talked to her. I’m not sure I want you
anywhere near her.”

Alix sighed. “You may be right. Still, I think we can change
her mind.”

“I’m not sure I want to change her mind. I already have
most of my important footage.” Ryker rubbed his face. “I could film the rest
with a double. Splice in her face, shoot from behind. It’s just the sex that’s
left anyway.”

“Just the sex.” Alix shook her head. “That’s exactly your
problem. It’s not
just
the sex. It’s the most important part of your
film. You can’t shoot the most important part of your film with a body double.”

“That’s exactly my problem?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Forgive me, Miss Director, but we’ve been working together for two weeks. I
could have lots of other problems that you don’t know a thing about.”

Alix stood and began to pace the room. “Seriously, we need
to figure out how to get Lena back on the job. And we need to decide what to
tell Gunther.”

In an instant, his voice turned cold and hard. “
We
don’t need to tell him anything. This is my movie. I’ll talk to Gunther.”

“You’ll talk to Gunther about what?”

Alix and Ryker whipped around in unison to see the tall,
stocky figure leaning against the doorway. The bright sunlight illuminated his
white shirt and linen pants and reflected off the gold chain around his neck. A
thick swath of white chest hair peeked out from the top of his shirt.

A rush of overwhelming relief washed over Alix, and she
started to take a step toward him. But then she stole a look at Ryker and
froze.

Ryker’s jaw was set and tight. He looked as he had as they’d
approached Rosalia’s house: hardened and ready for battle. As much as she
wanted to run to Gunther like a child and tell him what had happened, Alix knew
in an instant that her loyalty lay with Ryker. It was his movie, and he
deserved her trust in letting him fix it.

“Gunther.” Ryker acknowledged his presence with a dip of
his head but made no move to stand.

“Ryker,” Gunther drawled. He gave Alix a brief hug before
pushing her back to study her appearance. “Lord, Alix, you look like hell.
Don’t you own a decent-fitting pair of pants?”

Alix’s cheeks burned. She’d never had a parent around to
embarrass her in front of the cute boys in high school, but she now imagined
she knew what it would have felt like. “Just because I refuse to spend two
hundred dollars on a pair of jeans doesn’t mean I look like hell,” she said.
“And it’s nice to see you too.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and looked back and
forth between her and Ryker. “So? What are you going to tell me?”

“We’ve run into a little technical glitch,” Ryker said
smoothly. “Nothing we can’t fix.”

Alix hid her shock. If Ryker wasn’t telling Gunther about
Lena, he probably had a good reason.

“Alix?” Gunther said, searching her face for confirmation.

She forced an easy smile. “You heard him. Technical
glitch. Hair in the gate. Happens all the time, you know.”

Gunther narrowed his eyes. “Hmmm. Well, if you say so.” He
abruptly clapped his hands together. “I’m here to tell you to go put on your
sparkly shoes, Alix. I’m having a party tonight, and I expect you and Ryker to
be there.”

Alix recoiled. “A party? I thought we’d decided I would
lay low while I’m here.”

Gunther shrugged. “This will be an intimate gathering.
Just thirty or forty friends. No press.”

“There’s always press.” Alix walked back to the bar at the
end of the room and stared blindly at the bottle of whiskey Ryker had opened a
few minutes before. She hadn’t wanted a drink then, but now she did. Familiar
feelings of dread clawed at her stomach at the thought of entertaining
Gunther’s Hollywood crowd.

Ryker sighed. “You might have given us a little advance
warning, Gunther. We’re pretty busy on the set right now.”

Gunther waved a dismissive hand. “You’ll have it wrapped
up in time. My place at eight. Don’t be late!” With a cheerful smile, he turned
and disappeared down the hall, leaving the door to slam shut behind him.

Ryker groaned. “That’s all we need. One of Gunther’s
little gatherings. He must be trying to start generating buzz for the movie.”

“It’s not my fault he wants to have a party.” She tried
not to sound defensive, though it was hard when Ryker was staring at her as
though she had somehow deliberately planned for this to happen.

“Sure it is,” Ryker said. “He didn’t have parties for me
before you got here.”

Alix splashed a measure of whiskey into a glass. She held
it up to her lips, steeled her courage, and took a sip. It burned her mouth,
and she barely kept from spitting it out. She swallowed, coughed, and set down
the cup.

“Not much of a drinker, are you?” Ryker observed.

She coughed again, her tongue and throat on fire. “Wine,”
she squeaked out. “I can drink wine.”

“If you say so.” He drummed his fingers on his knee.

Alix removed the elastic from her hair and shook it out
over her shoulders. A deep, throbbing pain had erupted behind her temples the
moment Lena said
“I quit,”
and she rubbed gently just above the sides of
her glasses to ease it.

“Headache?” Ryker asked.