From E.D. Parr
Their love story is hot and heart wrenching. There are places in the story I wanted to shock because life throws wildcards at everyone now and then. I also wanted the guys to love each other deeply.
Justin hides a fun-loving trait until the end of the story when I hope readers will see how much he loves Caer in the epic actions he takes to prove it.
Love on Show
Dishy Justin Harper plays gay bad boy, Brandon in a TV show that’s fast becoming a cult classic, but Justin hides the fact he’s gay in real life. When a new actor is cast to play his TV show love interest, Justin can’t deny the raging attraction he feels for gorgeous Caer Rossi.
Caer Rossi makes it clear he thinks Justin is smoking hot. He can’t wait for the kissing scenes, and they sizzle, but underneath the performance for the TV show, a deep, loving passion builds between the two men. Something has to give, but what and who will it be when a journalist threatens to ruin Justin’s perfectly crafted public persona?
Chapter One
“You know I asked specifically for an actual gay guy to play Stephen. I believe Tripp
promised me this season I wouldn’t
have someone whose face registered distaste every time we kissed. Hell, Petra,
surely you understand. It got so bad we could only shoot a kissing scene with
the last actor’s back to the camera.”
“We like
this guy. He’s hot. He’ll have the audience drooling. We liked his audition. You’ll
like him.”
“Is he gay?”
“Not as far as we know. People don’t know you’re
gay—not the public. I mean, who asks these days? I mean, who cares?”
“I
fucking care. I’d be out, but for the PR spin, but for Tripp anyways.”
“Yeah, I know, but don’t tell me you haven’t bought
into it. You hide your preference very well. Look, this guy did okay kissing a
man in his audition. Give him a go. He’ll be here tomorrow.”
“Give him a go? His character,
Stephen, is supposed to be the love of my
character’s life. We can’t simply ask the writers to dispense with him in some
freak accident again. It’s time my
character showed some fidelity and integrity. The bad boy is settling down this
season.”
“The fact is he’s hired.
You’d have met him already, except you went off touring Italy for the entire
break. Please tell me you’ll at least be kind to the guy.”
“I will. Yeah, I’ll be kind
if you let me pick him up from the hotel. I’ll be the runner. It’ll give me a
sense of his personality to see him in ‘everyday life’.” Justin Harper raised
his hands and put commas in the air around his last words.
The AD pursed her lips. “He
might know who you really are. Okay. Take a decent car, Justin. I don’t want
you rocking up in that tricked out old Wrangler.”
Justin grinned and a
mischievous glint appeared in his eloquent blue-gray eyes.
“It’s just a sound system
and a customized soft top—tricked out, that’s hilarious, and I bet he’s never even watched the show so he’ll have no idea
who I am.”
“Take the BMW. Pick him up
tomorrow at 10:00 AM.” Petra McIntyre snatched keys from a wicker basket on her
desk and threw them to him.
Justin swiped them from
their trajectory, spun around in a fancy dance move, and stalked out of her
office.
“His name’s Caer Rossi,
he’ll be at the Regent.” Petra called after him.
“The usual place, then.”
Justin gave her a wave over his shoulder to show he’d heard.
****
Caer Rossi looked out of the hotel window at the
rain falling in sheets to the gloomy streets below. The wind blew the rain at
an acute angle so it appeared to hang outside the raindrop-dappled glass like
some bizarre work of art. He couldn’t see anything, let alone what might be a
studio car standing by the sidewalk.
So
much for spring. Caer snatched up his duffle bag and tablet
computer in its sleeve. I should have
watched at least one episode of this series. The driver should be here. I’ll be late. He caught sight of his
face in the ornate mirror hung in the center of the oatmeal-colored wall. A
frown creased between his eyes. He rubbed at it. I need to calm down or I’ll screw up. He took a deep breath.
His agent told him he’d got the part, but Caer had
yet to meet the actor he would play opposite, and his nerves jangled. It wasn’t
completely unknown for offers to be withdrawn. He’d not received a contract so
far. Auditions were grueling and done with other hopefuls rather than any
actual cast of the show. The whole process had been what Caer considered odd.
The evening before, the assistant director had
called and told him they’d send a runner to drive him to the studios at ten.
The designated time arrived and ten minutes later Caer decided he’d continue to
wait in the hotel foyer.
He was about to leave the room when the pale
gondola-shaped telephone on the small desk in the corner rang with a bird-like
trill. Caer picked up the handset.
“Caer Rossi.”
“Your car is at the front, Mr. Rossi, if you’re
ready.”
“Thank you, I’ll come down.”
Caer had dressed in character. He figured the
producer would ask him to read with the guy playing the lead this time. Dress
always helped him feel his character, so he’d bought a business suit that was
so sharp he felt not so much elegant as deadly. His wingtips glowed with two
coats of self-shine Kiwi. This work would bring him back to England from
Toronto for at least a year, and more importantly, away from Tom Holden, the
man who’d broken his heart. The salary was double what his last part earned him,
not something to discount either. The only thing he didn’t like was that he
considered the show a soap opera. His agent called him an artistic snob and
told him the show was on its way to being a cult classic. Caer read the new
season’s script twice. The dialogue made him smile in places with its inanity.
All the same, he wanted the part.
Caer clicked his room door locked behind him. He
took the elevator to the lobby and walked out of the car doors as they slid
silently open. He gazed around. The hotel foyer was darkly opulent. Clean-cut
people in business attire, some carrying ultra slim laptop cases, stood in a
group by the door to the bar conversing in subdued voices.
A guy standing next to the huge revolving front
doors stood out like a beacon against the scene. The man offered his back view
to the lobby as he stared out of the embossed glass doors. Tall, with a
battered black leather jacket that stretched across broad muscled shoulders,
his bottom half in ripped faded Levis showed off a delicious hard ass. Long
legs culminated in a pair of pointed black suede boots.
Smokin’
hot. Caer tore away his gaze and went to the reception
desk. “Caer Rossi, you called about my car having arrived.”
The desk clerk smiled, and nodded her head toward
the doors of the hotel. “Yes, Mr. Rossi, the driver is waiting over there for
you.”
Caer glanced toward the doors and the jean-clad
hunk. He looked back at the hopeful face of the clerk. “Him?”
The clerk nodded.
Caer approached the guy, and walked around him.
“I’m Caer Rossi, you’re waiting for me.”
A couple of inches shorter than the man, he looked
up into the driver’s face as he spoke. A shock of attraction almost took the
‘me’ of his statement from him in an intake of breath. The man was truly
gorgeous. His dark hair tousled around his ears. He had the sexiest eyes Caer
had ever seen, blue-gray and fringed with the kind of long black eyelashes seen
in mascara commercials, though lengthening fibers clearly didn’t enhance these.
Caer gazed at him. Hell, he’s amazing.
Bet he’s straight.
Caer tried to suppress a sigh of appreciation. It
had been a hard six months trying to heal his broken heart after Tom ended
their relationship. He’d gone on a blind date because a friend said it would
take the edge off his sorrow, but although the man was handsome and
interesting, Caer couldn’t put much into the evening. The sigh escaped him. He
missed sex and companionship, but at the time, he couldn’t summon the belief
he’d meet anyone who’d replace Tom in his heart. Now he wanted to move on with
his life.
The runner didn’t appear to hear the sigh. He held
the rim of a pale colored, rain splattered Fedora in both hands, and dipped his
head to Caer politely with a smile.
“Good morning … sir.” He stuffed the hat under one
arm and held out a hand aimed to take Caer’s bag and tablet. Sexy little lines
appeared by the sides of his sparkling eyes as he smiled.
Caer stared, hypnotized by his beauty for a few
seconds, and then dragged himself into professional mode. “I can manage my
stuff, but I’d appreciate you holding an umbrella over me as we walk to the
car. The rain is pounding down and arriving bedraggled to a meeting is never a
good idea.”
The runner nodded solemnly. “Yes, sir.” He turned
to the wall and picked up a large black umbrella previously hidden by his sexy
bulk. “I’ll get out there and have this up for you in a jiffy.”
Caer watched him move through the revolving doors
and unfurl the umbrella, which he must have brought for Caer since his Fedora
was dappled with raindrops.
He took the hat from under his arm, pushed it onto
his head, and stood waiting.
With a smile of thanks, Caer went through the
doors.
The guy walked next to him holding the umbrella. He
opened the car door and Caer jumped in. He leaned back in the soft leather seat
as the driver got into the front of the car and tossed the half-open wet
umbrella onto the passenger side.
Copyright E.D. Parr, Evernight
Publishing 2018
Siren Bookstrand https://www.bookstrand.com/love-on-show-mm
No comments:
Post a Comment