Page 12 of Dirty Like Me
“Uh-huh,” Katie said, her voice small. I barely caught it over the music. “Maggie kinda filled me in.”
She looked over at me, just barely. Her gaze completely missed my face, sweeping down over my bare chest and my arms as I played the guitar. I’d been offered a robe, but it was warm with all the lights and people in the room, so I wasn’t wearing anything but the black boxer briefs the wardrobe girls gave me.
“Jesse will guide you through it,” Liv was saying. “Just follow his lead. We’ll start slow and go with the pace that feels right for you two.” She said some other stuff about where the camera would be and whatever else. I wasn’t listening.
I was watching Katie.
She looked kinda pale, but a makeup girl had materialized to touch up her face. As she did her thing, Katie looked pretty much anywhere but at me.
Maybe this girl wasn’t so different after all.
I’d definitely met a hell of a lot of girls who’d bust their asses to get backstage, then act like they were too cool to be there.
But fuck, she was cute.
When Liv turned away, she met my eyes. Finally.
One of the hair girls stepped in to tousle up her already killer sex hair. Paired with her doe-eyed fawn-in-headlights look, it was starting to make my dick throb.
Fucking Zane.
As soon as we were more or less alone, Katie smiled at me a little. “I don’t suppose you have another piece of gum?”
“I might.” I chewed my cinnamon-flavored gum exaggeratedly. “Maybe this is my last piece. We could share.”
She glanced at my mouth and blushed. “I don’t think so. I, uh, just threw up.”
Say what?
She turned toward me, carefully, like if she turned too fast the whole room was gonna spin out from under her. She even put a hand out and held onto the bed to steady herself.
I set my guitar aside.
Then I sent someone to get Jude to get the gum from my jacket, which was locked in Brody’s office.
“I rinsed my mouth out,” Katie explained, “but I feel like I could use a little more… you know…” She trailed off, her eyes huge.
I leaned forward, scoping her out. “Are you fucking high?”
Her eyes lit with surprise, bright and clear. “No.”
I looked her over more carefully. “But you’re sick?” Shit. I was planning to lay down some new rough tracks in L.A. within the next few days, and I couldn’t do that if I was puking my guts out.
“No,” she said. “Nothing like that.”
I scanned her again, but the robe wasn’t giving anything away. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”Worsethan being sick or fuck-struck for Zane. If I had to film a love scene with this chick while she was knocked up with some other dude’s kid, it would totally buzzkill this entire thing.
“Definitely not.” She blushed again, which was good. She could use some more color in her face. “Just… nervous.”
And maybe I was an asshole, but that made me smile. Ear to fucking ear.
One of Jude’s guys appeared with the gum and Katie shoved a stick in her mouth. “Thank you.”
Then one of Liv’s minions called things to order and Liv strode over to us again.
“We’re going to run through the song a few times,” she said, “covering everything from different angles, then we’ll push in for some closeups.”
Katie nodded, chewing furiously.
