The Jaguar Star (Tales of the Were: Jaguar Island Book 4) Bianca D'Arc (popular romance novels txt) 📖

immensely, and when dinner was done and the lobby started to empty out, Katrina was glad to go back to her room to get an early night. She had to be up at the crack of dawn for tomorrow’s shoot.

Chapter Nine

From that point on, each day followed pretty much the same pattern. Katrina would enter the makeup room at the hotel, sit in the chair, and chat with Franny while she transformed Kat into a much better-looking version of herself. They’d go to the location together, and Katrina would get into costume. Then, Guermo would do her hair, and she’d chat with him for a few minutes while he made her hair look however it was supposed to for the scenes they were shooting that day.

During any downtime, Kat would usually study her notes and the script, though she already had it committed to memory. A little repetition never hurt, and it had been so long since she had thought seriously about acting as a profession that she was nervous enough to want to go over things in her mind, again and again.

The pattern held for the next couple of days, but then, one day, the makeup room was not empty when she got there. Far from it. No, Ren and his larger-than-life personality was taking up a lot of the space, all by himself.

He was laying on the unused bed, on top of the covers, fully dressed. His head was propped up on two of the pillows, and his hands were folded across his abdomen. His hair, worn longer than his usual cut for this production, looked artfully mussed. How did the man manage to look so darn sexy even when he had those knock-out green eyes closed?

Katrina stopped short in the doorway, but it turned out, he was awake, despite appearances to the contrary. He lifted one hand and waved her in, all without opening his eyes.

“Come in, Kat. Franny will be right back.”

“How did you know it was me?” Katrina asked as she edged into the room and shut the door behind her.

He opened his eyes and smiled at her, making her heart skip a beat. It really should be illegal for him to be that good looking so early in the morning—or at any time of the day, really.

“I have my ways,” he replied mysteriously. “Go, sit in the chair. Franny doesn’t have to do much to me because I refuse to get made up like a clown just for a few close-ups,” he grumbled. “Though, I will allow her to take the shine off my face when necessary for photographic purposes. So, she’ll do your makeup first, then we’ll argue a bit about my face. Then, she’ll give in, and we’ll head over to the location. One big happy family.”

“Funny, I never heard that you were difficult on set,” Katrina dared to tease him as she sat down in the makeup chair.

“I’m never difficult,” he told her from his sprawl on the bed. “I’m just right.”

Katrina laughed out loud as the door opened and Franny came in.

“Glad to see you two getting along,” Franny observed, eyeing Ren suspiciously. “Are you going to give me trouble today?”

“That is never my intention,” Ren replied, closing his eyes, as if too tired to keep them open. It was clearly a strategy to avoid confrontation until it was necessary. Franny huffed and came over to Katrina.

“At least you trust me to do my job,” Franny said, patting Katrina’s shoulder. “His highness doesn’t trust anybody’s judgment but his own.”

“I guess you two have worked together before,” Katrina commented, looking from Franny to Ren and back again.

“Oh, yes. Many times,” Franny replied. “A lot of us are doing this film as a favor to Sonia. We usually work for the bigger studios, but we all like Sonia and want to help her get her own production company off the ground.”

“She’s lucky to have friends like you guys.” Katrina was impressed that Sonia had been able to get people who normally worked for big bucks to do her little low-budget film.

Franny started working on Katrina’s makeup, which meant she couldn’t make too many more comments because she had to hold somewhat still while Franny worked. She faced the mirror and tried not to fidget. She could feel Ren behind her, reclining on that bed. Seeing him laying on a bed, of all things, brought to mind naughty images. It was the association of bed and sexy Ren that turned her imagination to things she probably shouldn’t be thinking about. Ever.

Ren was not for her. He’d been alternately friendly and stand-offish, but never had she gotten the impression that he was attracted to her. Not really. He’d been kind. He’d been encouraging with her acting. He’d even been protective when he’d seen her safely to her room that first night. But he’d never given her any real sign that he was interested in her in any sort of romantic way.

For all she knew, he had girls in every port—or the Hollywood equivalent. She knew she wasn’t anything special, and worse, starting some kind of on-set romance would end in a broken heart from which she might never recover. And that’s if—and that was a big if—he was even interested.

No. For her own sake, she had to keep her attraction to him under wraps. She couldn’t afford the emotional turmoil. Katrina knew from past experience that she wasn’t the type of woman who could get involved with a man without investing at least part of her heart in the relationship. If there wasn’t even a chance of a future with someone, there was no point in starting anything, was her philosophy. It might be a little extreme, but she didn’t want to get her heart broken, and a guy like Ren—who could have any woman he wanted—wasn’t a good bet.

She looked up into the mirror as Franny worked and caught Ren watching her with those almost glowing green eyes that had made him