“When it comes to things like this, and our stunts, you need to trust me with your body. I’ve got you,” he whispers into my ear. His words send a pulse of desire through me. Instead of stepping away, he continues to hold my upper arm, and he gives me a countdown “five… four… three …” then once the count reaches two, he takes a step away from my back.
Instantly I miss how warm he was, and the intoxicating smell of his cologne, warm and woodsy. He continues to count me down, and when he gets to “one,” I exhale quickly and against my better judgment, let my body fall backwards.
The whoosh of air on my skin has me ready to panic, but before I can seriously contemplate the idea of hitting the ground, or allow my body to seize in panic, Roman’s arms wrap around me, and my back is nestled into his chest. Before I can think about it too much, he pushes me up to stand firmly on my feet and lets go of me.
“Thanks,” I mutter, heat flooding my cheeks over the fact that I needed that much support to do a trust fall. Poor Tanya must be ready to shit a brick over on the other side of the mat thinking that they cast an absolute chicken for a stunt-heavy role.
It’s not that the stunts intimidate me. I mean, sure, the prospect of launching myself off tall heights and being near explosions and doing wild jumps is certainly a little scary, but what has me most nervous is the idea of relying on another person for my safety. Especially when that person is someone who I know I dislike, and who I know dislikes me. That said, I do feel a little better after what Roman said to me before the fall.
“Alright, excellent. Now let’s get to the first step of the stunt.”
Chapter Twenty-One
CLOVER
Is it possible to break one’s body from overexertion? If so, I think Roman and I have both done it. We’re lying on the mat a few hours later, after having run the stunt enough times that we know our bodies would give out if we tried it anymore.
Tanya, being the nut she is, smiles overtop of us as we both try to catch our breath.
“Excellent work today,” she says, “You’ll be ready to film that one in a few weeks. Of course, we’ll keep meeting and practicing before the camera rolls, but it’s in good shape. You’ve got tomorrow off, and then we’ll run some new stunts the day after. We only have so much time to make sure you’re ready for everything. Take a hot bath tonight and stretch.” With that, she leaves us to pant and wipe the sweat from our brows.
“That was…” I say between gasps.
“Fucked up,” Roman finishes. I can’t help but crack a smile.
“For once, I think we can agree on something.”
We sit in silence in Roman’s car together as he drives us to a nearby cafe. Apparently, this is a spot that the paparazzi frequent, and he told me earlier that there should be some waiting for us.
“How do you know there’ll be paparazzi there?” I ask, mystified at how the whole thing works.
“There usually are at a few common spots where celebrities frequent. Outside this cafe is one of them,” he says as we turn onto the road where it’s located, “and on the off chance that there weren’t going to be any, Janine called in a tip to say we’d be headed there this afternoon.”
“People actually do that?” I ask, bewildered. “I thought all paparazzi encounters were by chance.”
He laughs, but it sounds hollow. “No. There’s a lot more to this game that I’m sure you’ll learn in the coming months.”
“I don’t even know what I don’t know at this point…” I admit as I spot a few paparazzi standing outside. I’m nervous about walking in front of them. This is the first time I’m going to get physically close to any of them, and I don’t want to screw it up the same way I screwed up my first attempts at the trust fall today. My stomach also sours at the thought of the negative comments on the last article that came out. I’m sure there’ll be another slew of them this time around. I need to get thicker skin for this shit. When I look over at Roman, I can see he’s studying my expression.
He doesn’t say anything, but the silence is pointed.
“It’s nothing,” I mutter.
He still doesn’t say anything, and now his eyes are appraising me more closely. I don’t like it.
“Can we go already?” I ask, eager to get this over with.
“Fine. But you should know that they’ll probably be shouting things at us, and they’re known to say things that’ll get a reaction out of people. My best advice is to keep yourhead down and ignore what they say,” he admits. When I look over at him, his gaze seems far away, distracted.
“Okay,” I say, trying to pull him back to the present. “Let’s go.”
“I’ll help you out of the car, and we’ll hold hands on the way in,” he says.
“Okay.” I appreciate him giving me the heads up when it comes to what kind of PDA will be occurring.
Roman gives me a brief smile that doesn’t touch his eyes before he hops out of the car. As soon as the door opens, I hear a flurry of movement and shouts.
“There!”
