Mary, who’d been standing beside her, let out a wistful sounding breath. ‘He’s quite something to watch, isn’t he?’
Kat felt like a tigress, slowly drawing in her claws. ‘He certainly is.’
Mary’s eyes drifted back to Zac. ‘But it’s not just about acting, is it?’
‘Sorry?’
‘To make it onto the big screen you have to have that something extra, don’t you? A star quality, I guess people call it. A gloss, an aura.’ She laughed. ‘Oh God. I sound giddier than my pupils.’ She slid Kat a smile. ‘I understand from Debs that you’re his bodyguard. Maybe when you’re around him all the time, you become used to it.’
At that moment Zac glanced over, his eyes coming to rest on Kat. He didn’t smile, didn’t do anything other than hold her gaze for a few humming seconds before turning back to talk to the director.
Kat felt Mary staring at her, and when she turned, the teacher gave her a knowing smile. ‘Or perhaps the aura becomes more potent.’
***
Zac’s filming went on into the early evening. Debs and the class had long since gone. When he messaged to say it would be a late finish, Kat went home and threw together a corned beef hash – go her, she knew how to cook for a film star – before deciding to pick Debs up for a change.
‘I would’ve come straight home,’ Debs protested when she climbed into the Jeep.
‘I’m not picking you up for that reason. Zac’s working late, so I have some free time.’
She screwed up her face. ‘Is that because of us? Did we put him behind schedule?’
Kat hadn’t even thought about that possibility. ‘I’m sure it’s not. Even if it was though, it was his choice to invite you.’
Debs gave her a look, a devil-like gleam in her eyes. ‘You know he only did it to impress you, right?’ Kat felt her cheeks heat, which was enough to send her niece into fits of laughter. ‘OMG, Kat. He fancies you and you fancy him. I know it.’
Kat spent the rest of the journey assuring Debs there was no fancying being done on either side, though from the twinkle that persisted in her niece’s eyes, she wasn’t sure she’d convinced her.
Hardly surprising, considering she hadn’t convinced herself.
Now it was eight o’clock, and she was back at the studio to pick Zac up. He was freshly showered and giving off too many pheromones for her weakened state.
He was also, she noted as he stared straight ahead when she climbed into the driver’s seat, still upset with her. What you think is starting to matter to me more than almost anything else. His shocking words had circulated through her head on a loop all afternoon. Couldn’t he see she needed to keep him at arm’s length to do her job? The thought of her failing again, of taking her eye off the ball for that split second … her hand trembled as she put the car into gear. Damn, she couldn’t afford to be thinking like this.
Nor could she afford for him to wriggle any further under her skin. Her heart was damaged, she was damaged. There were far easier women for him to throw his undeniable charms at.
‘I made a corned beef hash for dinner,’ she said finally into the silence. Then cringed. She sounded like his wife.
‘Next you’ll be telling me you ran me a bath.’
‘Only showers in our place. Sorry.’
‘As if that was the only thing stopping you.’
Her hands gripped tighter to the steering wheel. ‘Please, can we just get back to the way things were.’
‘And what way was that?’ She felt the intensity of his stare. ‘You pretending not to want me? You kissed me back, remember.’
God, she did remember. All too clearly.
As she dug around for a suitable reply, the sound of his phone echoed round the car.
‘Saved by the bell,’ he murmured, staring down at the caller ID. ‘Excuse me, I need to take this.’
He greeted whoever was calling with a smooth hello, but after that, there was silence. And when she pulled up at a red light and glanced sideways at him, his face had drained of colour.
‘What is it? What’s wrong?’
After uttering a faint, ‘I can’t talk right now, I’ll call you back,’ to whoever had called, Zac slowly slid the phone back into his pocket. ‘Nothing that concerns you.’ He turned to her, his expression tight. ‘As your client,’ his emphasis of the word sliced right through her, ‘I believe I’m entitled to a modicum of privacy, at least.’
Chapter 17
The moment he bit out the words, Zac regretted them. Still smarting from Kat’s continued need to push him away, snapping at her had been an instinctive reaction, but also a mean one. She might not want him as he wanted her, but he thought she did at least like him, and wasn’t finding this any easier than he was.
The call from Helena had blindsided him though, and he simply couldn’t cope with Kat’s concern right now. It would take all of his focus, all of his strength just to keep it together until he could make it into the four walls of Mandy’s room, shut the door, and phone Helena back to get the full, gut wrenching picture. After that …
He drew in a sharp breath and let his head fall back against the headrest. One step at a time.
At least his being a sod to Kat had, for once, shut her up. Knowing he’d upset her gnawed at his insides, but he was incapable of even the most banal conversation right now.
‘Would you like me to heat up the corned beef hash?’ she asked with cool politeness as they walked into the house.
‘No … thanks.’ The thought of eating made his stomach churn. ‘I need to make a call.’
Very aware of her eyes on him, he dashed up the stairs and into the room he’d temporarily commandeered.
‘Helena.’
He sounded breathless and didn’t know whether it was from the flight of stairs, or the fear currently clawing at his insides.
‘Zac, dear, I’m so sorry to be the bearer of such awful news. The liaison officer was trying to reach you, but I told them I would pass the information on.’
‘It’s okay, what did they say?’
‘He’s going to be released early. They couldn’t give a date yet, all they could say was his release had been approved.’
Fuck.
He sunk into the bed, weighed down by a wave of hopelessness. His carefully crafted life was about to get smashed wide open.
‘We don’t know what his frame of mind will be,’ Helena said softly. ‘He’s been in prison for nearly twenty years. It’s bound to have changed him. He probably won’t even want to look for you.’
‘Perhaps.’ But the thought that he might, had plagued Zac for years. Hell, when he’d started receiving the notes, signed in pink lipstick, for God’s sake, his paranoia had been so acute, his first thought had been that the bastard was somehow behind them.
‘Even if he does want to search you out,’ Helena continued in that same calm tone, ‘twenty years has definitely changed you. You even have a different name, Zac. He won’t recognise you. With luck, he’ll live the rest of his life without troubling you.’
With luck. He wasn’t sure how much he had left in supply. His whole career was based on luck; the right place at the right time, with the right director. God knows, twenty years was a long time though. Long enough for his life to have changed beyond all recognition.