Chapter 38
Thirty-Eight
THEO
SIX MONTHS LATER
Elstree Studios, London
“And cut!” I called, waiting a beat before crossing into the paths of the cameras.
Olivia and North turned to me on the soundstage, and I ignored the grotesquely realistic dummy corpse lying on a prop morgue table.
“I think we need to try it without North’s last line.
There was this expectant pause between you before that moment, and it was perfect just like that. Try it again?”
“Agreed.” North nodded congenially. “Liv?”
“Yes, that works for me.” She nodded but turned to look out toward the soundstage. “I feel some sweat on my upper lip. Do I need a touch-up? I don’t want to be shiny on camera.”
“Makeup!” I called, striding out of shot to a waiting Sarah. “We’ll start rolling in five!”
Even though filming for the Juno McLeod TV series had started a week ago, it apparently wasn’t losing its excitement for Sarah. She was practically bouncing on her toes as I approached her.
“Their chemistry is perfect,” Sarah whispered. “Maybe we need to make some changes from the books.”
“You mean North and Olivia’s? I think so too.
” Our shoulders brushed as we leaned conspiratorially into each other.
While North didn’t want to be typecast as a serial killer, especially after we all found ourselves splashed across the news for a few months again after Gray’s attack and capture, he did want a part in the show.
After a screen test with Olivia, I thought him perfect for playing her younger male partner at work.
In the books, Sarah had written an antagonistic relationship that started with a power struggle between them.
Over time, North’s character grows to admire her.
Sarah’s writing also hinted that perhaps he had romantic feelings for Juno that were never returned. Never even crossed her mind.
“I think it might work to hint at a mutual attraction as the show goes on.”
I pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “You took the thought right out of my head.”
Sarah grinned giddily. She was bloody adorable.
Chuckling, I left her side to approach our first cameraman, Jim. “Move in a little more on their faces toward the last half of the scene. I don’t want the corpse distracting the audience as they talk.”
Jim nodded. “Got it.”
I stepped away as Olivia’s makeup artist hurried off set. “Rolling in five, four, three …,” I trailed off, mouthing two and one as I counted down with my fingers in the air.
Sarah’s right, I thought as Olivia and North delivered their lines with such ease and tension, even I forgot for a moment it wasn’t real. And that’s when you knew you had magic in your hands.
Juno would be a success. I could feel it in my bones.
“Someone took a photo of us walking to the studios this morning.” Sarah thrust her phone in my face as I lounged on the couch.
There were two photos of us on the screen—one of us holding hands as we walked with coffee cups, and another of me kissing her hungrily on the street. I remembered she’d tasted of hazelnut.
“That’s a keeper. Makes me horny looking at it.” I grinned as she pulled the phone back with an eye roll.
“What doesn’t?”
“When it comes to you, I am a caveman controlled by my libido,” I cracked as I scrolled through a streaming service looking for something to watch.
“Your libido aside, why are people still interested in us?” Sarah huffed, throwing her phone on the coffee table.
I turned my head on the back of the couch, running a soothing hand over her legs resting across my lap.
“Because you are the enigmatic and beautiful best-selling author of the number one book series in the country, and I am the second son of a viscount turned reformed playboy director. We make a good story.”
“It’s our story.” She pushed up, moving to straddle me.
I immediately dropped the TV remote to rest my hands on her hips. “Hello there.”
She grinned wickedly as she smoothed her palms over my chest. “I don’t want to share you with the world.”
“You don’t,” I assured her. “No one knows what’s between us but you and me.” She slipped her hands beneath my T-shirt and I hissed. “Bloody hell, your hands are cold.”
“Blame it on this unseasonably cold and damp day.” She wriggled on top of me and I felt my blood rush south.
“Why don’t you warm them …,” she trailed off as her fingertips traced over the healed knife wound.
There was barely any raised skin on it, but Sarah could find the wound blindfolded.
It still upset her to see the dark red scar left behind.
Frankly, I wore it like a badge of honor.
Not only had I protected Sarah from Quinn Gray, but I’d been the luckiest bastard on planet Earth to walk away mostly unscathed.
My surgeon, Dr. Hyatt, had run tests once I was awake and well enough.
No nerve damage. I could feel all my little toes and fingers.
Recovery was a bit of a bastard because I proved to be an impatient patient, but I tried for Sarah’s sake. I didn’t want to drive her away now that I finally had all of her.
During those weeks, we worked from my flat on getting the show on its feet. Skylark bought it, and I made sure Sarah’s percentage was more than fair. Moreover, we’d have to buy rights to the other books if the series did well, which would prove very lucrative for her.
I also talked with my brother a little more.
Our relationship might never be perfect, but I’d heard how Sebastian had shown up for Sarah at the hospital.
And he apologized. I supposed I owed him something of an apology, too, for refusing to make amends.
Everything wasn’t miraculously perfect overnight between us, but we were working on it.
As long as he didn’t expect me to welcome our father back into my life, we’d keep working on it.
As for Gray, we’d delayed filming to be witnesses in his trial last month.
It was all very public and had brought scrutiny back on us, King’s Valley, on North …
but we all got through it. Thankfully, helping bring Gray to justice had not only eased some of my guilt, but it fostered a positive public opinion of me and North.
It hadn’t been easy.
Sarah had just gotten over her nightmares when the trial brought them all up again. This was the first week since Gray had been sentenced to life in prison with no parole that she’d slept through the night. I think working on Juno had distracted her well enough.
It had distracted me too.
From the memories. And from the victims’ families whom I had to look in the eye in court. They were gracious, perhaps too gracious to me, considering it was my work that had been warped. They even thanked me for bringing Gray to justice.
I told them it was a team effort because it had been.
The police who’d gotten Gray’s DNA.
Sarah, who’d fought him off like a warrior, giving us time to get to them.
I couldn’t even bear to imagine what might have happened if she hadn’t.
“Hey.” She brushed her lips over mine, crushing her delectable tits to my chest. “Where did you go?”
“I’m right here,” I assured her, sliding my hands under her top as I reached for her mouth again. When I broke the kiss, I held her stunning gaze with mine and whispered, “I’m always right here. With you. No matter where you are.”
Her expression softened as she melted into me. “What would people do if they knew just how much of a romantic you are, Theo Cavendish?”
“They wouldn’t do anything.” I grinned wickedly as I tightened my embrace and launched off the couch.
She squealed in surprise and clung to me, legs wrapped around my waist as I carried her into the bedroom.
Dropping her on the bed, I whipped off my sweater and started unbuckling my jeans.
Sarah gave an excited little laugh that warmed me through, and she shimmied out of her own jeans.
“They wouldn’t do anything,” I repeated, “because you aren’t going to tell them. ”
“I’m not?” She breathed, whipping off her T-shirt.
“No. You’ll be far too busy coming around my cock. Many, many times.” I crawled over her.
Her cheeks flushed like I knew they would, and she wrapped her arms around my neck, drawing me down with her. “Then stop talking about it and come inside me.”
I laughed against her lips as I guided my cock to her entrance. She gasped as I pushed inside her snug heat. Groaning, I braced myself over her. “That’s it.”
“Oh, yes.” She gripped my waist. “Yes, more.”
“Take more.” I pumped harder, deeper. “That’s it, good girl.”
Her inner muscles pulsed around me, and I smirked knowingly. “You take my cock so well, my love.”
“I love it.” She gasped, arching into my thrusts. “I love you!”
“Don’t,” I gritted out as sensation shot to my balls. “Fuck, you know you can’t say that.”
Sarah’s eyes gleamed. “I love you.”
I tried to think of other things as I pumped into her. “Don’t you want this to last? Fuck!”
We’d discovered that her telling me she loved me while I was inside her was a rather unfortunate trigger that could make me spend like a callow youth. Being loved by Sarah McCulloch was my goddamn kink.
And the little she-devil loved it.
Sarah’s orgasm was sudden as she arched with a cry, throbbing around me. “I love you!”
My climax ripped through me as I yelled and shuddered between her pretty thighs, emptying everything I had into her. “I love you too.” I bowed my head in the crook of her neck, panting for breath. “I think I might need to see a sex therapist if we’re ever to have sex that lasts again.”
Sarah shook with laughter beneath me. “We have sex that lasts. I just knew I was going to come fast and I wanted you with me.”
Gently pulling out of her, I hardened at the sight of my come coating her skin. “Well, looks like round two won’t be far off, anyway.”
She reached for me, but I grabbed her wrists, pinning them to the bed.
“This time, keep the I love you until after we’ve come.”
Sarah pouted. “I thought you liked it.”
“Too fucking much, and you know it,” I growled, kissing her hard.
Then languidly. Tasting her, devouring her.
We made out like teenagers, lips bruised and swollen by the time we came up for air.
I brushed the hair off her flushed, sweat-dampened cheeks.
“I’m so bloody glad you knocked on my door last winter. ”
Her smile was slow, but it lit up her whole face. “I’m so glad you knocked on my door too.”