I looked Alex Chase up and down and nodded my head back and forth the same way he’d done to me. “Nine months. Maybe six if he actually does his homework.”
Alex Chase’s grin somehow got bigger. “I’m not trying to take your job, sweetheart. I just need to be able to fake it convincingly.”
I could feel my cheeks flushing, but there was nothing I could do to stop that show of emotion. “This isn’t just any part. You have the opportunity to give us the kind of authentic BDSM we’ve never seen onscreen before. You have a responsibility to the fans, to the kink community to get it right.” I held up a finger when he tried to respond. “This isn’t the same thing as teaching you a few tricks to command a corporate boardroom. And even those weren’t a single session. I am the best, Mr. Chase. But I can’t help you if you’re not going to take it seriously enough to put the work in. ”
That wiped the smile off his face. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t care whether I got it right. I had to fight for this role. My career is at stake if I blow it. Filming starts in a month. Surely someone with your…unparalleled skillscan handle it in a month.”
Now the sonofabitch was resorting to flattery. And that was working too. Even though I could see through his antics, I wasn’t immune to them.
I let out a deep sigh. “I’d need you here basically every day.”
Alex Chase’s whole face lit up and traitorous butterflies exploded in my stomach.
Rami shook his head vigorously. “He can’t come back here. The press would have a field day with it.”
I said, “Okay, I’ll come to you, but it’s going to cost you and we’ll have to work it around my schedule.”
Rami still shook his head. “You’d be photographed and then the dating rumors would start.”
I cringed at the very idea of being tabloid fodder like that. “So you head it off by telling them I’m just training him.”
Rami said, “You’ve signed an NDA and you’re not part of the business, so I’m going to be perfectly frank with you. The studio doesn’t want it getting out that he’s struggling. They’re already worried about how fans will react to the casting announcement since it’s so off brand for him. They’ve got their own consultant and were against us hiring someone else, but their person isn’t helping and we can see a train wreck coming. If we push any harder, we’re going to make them doubt he can do it. It's late for recasting, but anything is possible.”
If no one could know I was teaching him and there was the constant risk of paparazzi following me or using their stalker lenses, I couldn’t see a solution. Maybe it would’ve worked before when no one knew what I did for a living, but I’d been dodging my fair share of photographers since that video had leaked. But Victoria sent me in here, so I felt some responsibility to at least take the suggestion seriously.
Rami scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “How else could we do it? Alex has too many commitments here to get away somewhere. We could try a neutral location, but if you kept going back, someone would notice, so we’d have to change it every time. There’s too many risk points with how focused people are on Lady Elena. If you got caught before the casting announcement, they’d assume Alex was a client and then he’d get rolled into your VP scandal in a negative way that might jeopardize the role. You can’t get away with more than a few meetings.”
Alex Chase turned his whole body to face me, making it feel like the conversation was now just between the two of us. “We could date.”
I sat there and blinked at him. I would’ve thought he was joking, but the intensity of his expression told me otherwise.
When I still didn’t say anything, he added, “Rami is right. They’ll assume we’re dating, so why not use that as our cover? We won’t really date, obviously. But we could stage a relationship, keep them focused on that so they don’t think to question why we’re spending so much time together. It’s the perfect solution.”
I was pissed at myself for being hung up on his use of the wordobviously. Why was it so obvious we wouldn’t really date?
Focus. Does what he’s suggesting even solve the problem?
I raised a brow. “You don’t think the studio would be suspicious you’ve hired outside help if we suddenly start dating?”
He blew out a breath. “At that point, they won’t give a shit if you’re teaching me at the same time. Have you seen how viral you are right now? There’s an entire TikTok trend of people begging you to do things to them and even a petition demanding they castyouas Lucas Steel. I start dating a notorious dominatrix and people will lose their ever-loving minds. All eyes will be on us as the casting decision is announced. They can’t buy that kind of press.”
I considered him. “Why would I agree to that kind of public scrutiny?”
“Besides the pleasure of my company, you mean?”
Alex Chase was clearly used to charming anything female that moved.
He was annoyingly relaxed as he said, “You have a responsibility to the fans, to the kink community, to help me get it right.”
Shit.
He’d turned my own words on me. I did feel a sense of responsibility. I was capable of helping, possibly one of the few people who could if he was struggling as much as they thought he was. How could I pass up the opportunity to help them get such a monumental character right?
But at what cost?
I smoothed my skirt even though it didn’t have any wrinkles in it, a nervous habit I thought I’d long ago overcome. “I don’t owe anyone my privacy. What’s left of it anyway. I need to let the VP mess blow over, not drag myself into what could easily turn into another scandal.”
He shrugged. “From where I’m sitting, it looks like you have an image problem no matter what. Secrecy is fundamental to a large portion of your client base, right? But like it or not, you’re in the spotlight now. All your clients have to be a little nervous they’ll come under scrutiny. The stakes are higher if it gets out they’re clients. That leaves you with two choices. Lay low and hope it passes without disrupting your income…or lean into it and embrace this newfound fame, leverage that into whatever career choices you want—TV show, book deal, branding opportunities.” He winked at me. “I’ll even let you break up with me. Thanks to that video, you’re infamous. We could make you famous.”
