Heart palpitating, I snatch my T-shirt from the corner chair, pull it over my head, and storm out through the front door. A shaky hand dives into the pocket of my trunks, locating the pack of cigarettes. It takes an embarrassing amount of effort to pull one out, and I almost drop it twice in my attempt to light it up.
Adrian arrives a minute later, and Stevie tries to keep up as I throw myself into the limo.
When we’re on the move, I lean back and close my eyes, a thick plume of smoke filling the back seat, warping the view of her angry eyes and bright red cheeks.
She goes to speak.
I cut her off. “Not now.”
It’s a torturous thirty-minute drive in traffic, ripe with silence and unsaid things. Stevie abides by the request and doesn’t say a word until we’re inside my condo, finally alone.
Then she lets loose. “You humiliated me in front of one of the biggest directors in Hollywood,” she spits out while I collapse onto a barstool, my head in my hands. “What was that? What were you thinking?”
“Stevie,” I warn, her name strained.
“No. Explain to me what that was back there. Why would you do that? Are you actually trying to sabotage me?”
Slowly, I lift my head and peer over at her, every muscle tightened with knots, my hands still shaking against my will.
“God forbid I try to share the spotlight with Lexington Hall,” she continues, bitten-back tears glazing her eyes. Her voice trembles with the effort to keep it steady, and the crack in her words cuts through the room like a shard of glass. “Can’t have that. Can’t have the nobody farmgirl overshadowing you, right?”
“It wasn’t about that.”
She scoffs, her laughter bitter. “Then what the hell was it about? Because from where I’m standing, it looks a lot like you just decided to make a fool out of me for no reason.”
I swallow hard, every weight pressing down on me. “I was trying to protect you.”
“Protect me?” She takes a firm step closer. “From what, Lex? From getting a shot at something real? From finally having a chance to prove myself?”
“From all this!” I launch myself off the stool and swivel around to face her. “From this fucked-up place, this underworld, where bottom-feeders live to chew you up and spit you out without a second thought. You think that asshole cares about you? He doesn’t. He’ll use you, manipulate you, and when he’s done, he’ll toss you aside like everyone else who dared to believe they mattered.”
She blinks, taken aback. “So, what? You’re my savior now? The one who gets to decide what’s best for me?”
“I’m the one who’sbeenthere.” I slam a finger to my chest, my voice hoarse, hollow. “I know what it’s like to be caught in their web, to watch everything you are get twisted into something unrecognizable. And I can’t stand by and watch it happen to you.”
“I don’t need your protection. I’m not some naive kid who doesn’t know what she’s getting into.”
“Yes, you are.”
She gapes at me, eyes flaring, sparking with outrage. “How dare you.”
“Hollywood doesn’t care how tough you are. It’ll corrupt you, break you down, and you won’t even see it coming until it’s too late.”
“I’m stronger than that.”
“You’re not,” I say, voice dropping. “I’m sorry, Stevie, but you’re not, andthat is not an insult to you. It’s a testament to how powerful this place is and how it can bend even the strongest wills until they break.”
She’s not getting it.
I see it in her eyes, the fury still brewing, the staunch belief that I’ve made it my mission to undermine her worth.
I need to get very real with her, need to paint the picture in vivid color, and spill my worthless guts until she truly understands. Closing my eyes, I dip my chin and put it all out there. There’s no other way. “You want to know why I didn’t kiss you back that night?”
Silence howls in the space between us.
When I find the courage to glance back up, I watch as her face changes, eyes glossing over with memory, with pain. She shakes her head like she doesn’t want to know.
But she needs to.
