Ruined (Barnes Brothers #4)(59)

“Of course.” Seeing the pissed-off look coming from the makeup artist, Marin closed her eyes. “You know me better than that. I finish what I start.”

“Well, true. Under normal circumstances. You’re not under normal circumstances now, though.” There was a faint brush of cloth against leather. “Be ready to knock me dead today, Marin. We’re not spending all night shooting these scenes.”

She heard Sojo stalking off and tried to tell herself she could breathe easier. But Geneva wasn’t done. “Keep your eyes closed,” she said irritably. “And the next time you think about crying over a man, think of me instead. I can make you cry more.”

Marin sighed. She didn’t want to tell the woman that she hadn’t been crying over Sebastien—exactly. But she wasn’t going to confirm or deny anything right now. She knew better than that.

And Geneva was fishing. She was one of the biggest gossips in the business and everybody knew it. Because she was a genius, people pretended otherwise, but Marin wasn’t about to play into her games.

“I’ll keep that in mind, Gen.”

Then she settled down and started to work on clearing her mind.

She was going to need calm more than ever before.

“I dreamed about you. I looked for you. Even after she broke my heart, I dreamed about you. I looked for you.”

***

“I’ll have you know that Zach owes me fifty bucks.”

It was the final break of the day and Sebastien and Marin were both taking great pains to look unaffected. Everybody else was taking great pains to look uninterested in them—save for Abigale Applegate Barnes—Sebastien’s sister-in-law and Marin’s best friend.

She’d shown up just as Sebastien issued his warning to Dash and had spent most of the day watching and speculating—and listening. She didn’t pay as much attention to the filming process, but Abby had grown up on the set of a TV show. She didn’t much care for the bright lights of Hollywood anymore.

Besides, the real life drama playing out between Sebastien and Marin was a lot more entertaining.

Marin paused in the middle of taking a drink of water. “What are you two betting on now?”

“You.”

She sat down on the couch, nudging Marin’s slim hip with her own, decidedly less slim one. Abby was a study in lush curves. After she’d left Hollywood behind, she’d stopped watching every calorie, stopped concerning herself with whether she should or shouldn’t. Her life plan had been all about doing the things she hadn’t been allowed to do growing up in front of a camera. It had ended up a wreck—then that wreck had turned into Zach, so it was all good. And she still didn’t have to count calories, so she was happy.

“Why are you betting on me?” Marin narrowed her eyes.

“Just something I said once. Zach told me no way, no how. I told him it could happen.” Abby slid Sebastien a look and smiled at him. “Now you two just need to get all official so I can collect.”

Sebastien stared at Abby for a long, hard moment. She just smiled, and then leaned over, murmuring something so low, only Marin heard.

When she got up and walked off, Marin gulped water.

“What did she say?”

Somebody shouted out the time, signifying the end of the break.

Sebastien didn’t move, still watching Marin.

She got up, starting toward the door.

“Marin.”

Huffing out a breath, she glared at him. “She’d planned to take me out to dinner, but she thinks I’m probably already otherwise engaged. She said she’s got to fly back tomorrow so I better stay in touch. She also had a warning—you Barnes boys can be a headache.” She sniffed. “Like I didn’t already know that.”

***

“No.”

Sebastien folded his arms across his chest and glared at the assistant director. Eddie Horowitz was a great guy, an artist in his own right, and while Sebastien could see where he was coming from, he wasn’t doing it.

“If you want that specifically, we need her body double.”

Marin stood to the side, rubbing her temples while Sojo stood between Eddie and Sebastien.

“We won’t be able to get the up-close scenes of her face that I want if we use the double. This is bullshit. Marin’s done this sort of thing before. It’s a cakewalk.” Eddie waved it off, like it was a done deal.

“Sebastien’s right,” Sojo said when Eddie turned to her.

As Eddie exploded, Sebastien moved over to Marin. She looked tired. It had been a long day already and they still had this last scene to finish up. She was wearing the clothes for the scene: a shirt half-buttoned over the pretty, silvery blue bra and jeans, no shoes, her hair artfully disheveled.

While Eddie demanded to know when actresses had turned to fading flowers, Sebastien caught Marin’s eyes. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” she said shortly. “And right now, I’m getting more and more irritated.”

Her gaze shot past him when Eddie’s voice rose, threatening to break the sound barrier. She stepped to the side and said, “Hey! I’m right here . . . if you want to get any more insulting, why don’t you just say them directly to me?”

Eddie opened his mouth, then shut it.

Sojo looked at him like she wanted to smack him. “Can we please wrap this up?”