Wicked Force (Wicked Horse Vegas #4.5)(33)

“I’ve been going crazy waiting for you to get here so I could tell you. You have to tell me what to do, Kynan. I need someone objective because my mom is pushing me hard.”

“You think I’m objective?” I ask her incredulously. Because the way I’m feeling right now, I want to pick her up, throw her over my shoulder, and carry her down to Mexico. I have enough money saved up from my days in the Royal Marines that we could buy a nice little hacienda and live happily ever after.

“Of course you’re objective,” she murmurs with a smile. “You’re the most upstanding person I know.”

I want to curse the heavens for giving me this amazing, complex woman who makes it so hard not to just fall deeply in love with her, as well as giving me a conscience where I can’t put myself as the top priority in her life. I have to make sure she has good advice all the way around.

“I think you have to do the audition, Joslyn. If you don’t, you’ll always wonder at what might have been. And you have nothing to lose doing it. If you’re bad, then you’re bad, and you know your life will be as an amazing singer. Ian will have another opportunity for you. But if you’re good, you may have stumbled onto something that you were meant to be and never even knew it.”

Her eyes get shiny and her voice rasps when she says, “But I’m also supposed to be yours, and I have the feeling this is going to take that away.”

“Never,” I promise her, although I can’t know that to be true. “But you can’t worry about that right now. You have enough worries on your plate trying to figure out whether or not you can even act.”

She snickers and then giggles, and the wetness leaves her eyes.

The door flies open and Michel comes back in, casting us a cursory glance. He snaps his fingers with impatience. “Robe. Get in your robe. We have lots to do to take your beauty to the stratosphere, darling.”

Both Joslyn and I laugh and I give her a quick kiss on the mouth. “Get in your robe. I’m going to run out to get you a Frappuccino. I’ll be back in a few.”

“You are the best boyfriend ever,” she exclaims and then kisses me not so briefly and a little bit hot. I groan and push her away. Michel watches and fans himself dramatically.

I leave the dressing room and head down a hall that will lead to the cast entrance/exit. Just as I’m opening the door to step out, Madeline is on the other side getting ready to enter.

We both startle in surprise, but I give her a smile. “Madeline... how are you?”

Her lips press into a flat line. “I wish I could say I was well, but you must know I’m not happy about this thing with you and Joslyn.”

“I can only imagine,” I reply dryly.

“She has big things ahead of her,” she tells me pointedly. “Please don’t be selfish and hold her back. Don’t ruin this for her.”

The crass Brit inside me would tell her exactly what to do with those sentiments but I have to remember this is Joslyn’s mom and if I have anything to do with it, she’s going to be in my life a long time.

“Madeline,” I say in a warm, sincere voice. “I will only ever support Joslyn and that includes a career that might lead her away from here. You don’t ever have to worry about it. Her success is more important to me than anything else.”

She blinks at me in confusion, then her eyes narrow somewhat in distrust.

I nod and add on, “I even encouraged her to go for that movie audition. I think she’d be amazing.”

Her eyes narrow further and she asks suspiciously, “You do?”

“I do,” I tell her earnestly, but I also trust that Joslyn is going to be the one that makes the decision no matter what I or her mother wants. I vow to myself I’m going to make sure she relies on her own gut instinct, her own desires, and what she really wants out of life.

If I can ever do justice to my feelings for Joslyn, it will be to make sure she stays true to herself all the way and that she pursues the dreams she wants.

Regardless of how I or her mother feels about it.





Chapter 16



Joslyn



“I have faith in you,” Justin whispers before he kisses me.

His lips are soft, his hands gentle on my face, but I can’t get into it. My body is stiff as a board and my tongue is as dry as sandpaper.

Justin pulls away slightly to look in my eyes, and I see amusement there. And not the kind where we’d share a mutual laugh but more in a condescending way. He thinks I’m adorable for even trying to hang on par with someone of his caliber.

“Okay,” Marshall King calls out to us and I take a big step back from Justin. “That was fine, Joslyn.”

I expected him to yell “cut” but we’re not filming so I guess that’s not how it works. This is merely my audition for the movie “Shining Star,” a drama about a poor girl from the wrong side of the tracks who makes it big on the talent of her amazing voice. The audition is taking place in a rented conference room in downtown LA and I’ve not felt comfortable since we got off the plane this morning.

I turn toward my mom to see her reaction and restrain myself from wiping my mouth. It felt weird to kiss another man, and although Kynan assured me he was okay with it because he knows the audition called for it, it still feels a little like betrayal.