For Lust or Money

Zach chuckled. “I’m just trying to get the best performance I can out of Miss Castelle.”

KELLY STARED AT her reflection in the dressing-room mirror. Her face was flushed and her eyes bright and it wasn’t until a few minutes ago that she was able to breathe normally.

This was crazy! From the moment Zach Haas had stepped out from behind the camera, she’d been unable to think, unable to do anything more than just lose herself in every detail of his face and his body. The sound of his voice, the color of his eyes, the shape of his mouth. He was one of those incredibly gorgeous young men, the kind who didn’t realize the effect they had on women, the kind who made females of all ages weak in the knees.

In the course of a half hour together, she’d managed to convince herself that he was probably the best kisser on the planet, that he had a killer body beneath the baggy cargo pants and T-shirt he wore, and that he could seduce a woman by simply smiling at her.

Yes, he was young. But his playful, boyish nature combined with just a bit of bad-boy attitude and quick-witted intelligence was a lethal combination in a package like that.

She’d pegged his age at twenty-five, give or take two years. If he were only twenty-three, then she was dancing close to perversity. But if he were twenty-seven, then that was nearly thirty. And any man over thirty would be an appropriate choice for her.

Kelly groaned and buried her face in her hands. What was happening to her? Ever since leaving L.A., she felt as if her life were spinning too fast for her to think straight. Was it the heat? Or was she really standing on the precipice of a midlife crisis?

“Are you all right?”

She sat up and looked at Jane’s reflection in the mirror, then slowly turned around in the chair. “I’m fine. It’s just been a really long day. I got on a plane this morning at 5:00 a.m. and I haven’t had a chance to relax since then.”

“Your car is waiting out front. He’ll drive you back to the hotel and pick you up tomorrow afternoon. We’re scheduled to tape at three and Zach will probably be available before then to rehearse. If there’s a change, Nicole will call you at the hotel.”

“Thanks,” Kelly said. She slowly stood. “Again, I’m sorry about all the trouble I caused.”

“Don’t worry. We’re all looking forward to seeing Zach in front of the camera. He’s usually the one giving us grief about our jobs, now we can give him some grief about his performance.”

“He seems like a really nice guy,” Kelly commented, trying to sound objective and uninterested.

“He can be. He’s also an incorrigible flirt and too sexy for his own good. Be careful with that one,” Jane warned. “I suspect he’s talked his fair share of ladies right out of their clothes and into his bed.”

“I got that feeling, too,” Kelly said, forcing a smile.

“But then, he is legal, so what goes on between consenting adults is…”

“How old is he?” Kelly asked.

“Twenty-four, I think. Maybe twenty-five. He was in graduate film school until he started working for the show last winter.”

Twenty-four, Kelly mused. Somehow nine years seemed a whole lot more acceptable than eleven. There was a double-digit difference between them!

“Well,” Jane said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I’ll be here,” Kelly replied. She stood up and began to gather her things to change back in to her street clothes. She slowly unbuttoned the silk shirt she wore and let it fall off her shoulders. A soft knock sounded on the door and a moment later it opened. She expected to see Jane again, but Zach stepped inside.

Kelly snatched up the shirt and held it over her chest. “Hi,” she said.

Zach’s gaze slowly drifted down her body. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

Kelly turned her back to him and slipped in to the shirt again, clutching it closed in the front. “What is it?”

“Nothing important,” he said.

She faced him, waiting for an explanation. A frown furrowed his brow and he studied her face for a long moment. Then in a few short strides, he closed the distance between them. Before she could even protest, he captured her face between his hands and kissed her, his mouth melting against hers, his tongue delving into the crease of her lips.

When he finally drew back, Kelly couldn’t think of anything to say. Should she be angry or insulted? In truth, her mind was whirling. Zach Haas knew exactly how to kiss a woman. He’d obviously had a lot of practice. After all, she’d been fantasizing about it since he’d stepped out from behind the camera and it had been so much better than she could have imagined.

“There. We got that out of the way,” he murmured, running a finger along her cheek.

“Out of the way?”

“I knew if we didn’t, I’d be thinking about it all night. And since we have to do it in front of the camera tomorrow, I thought we might want to get the…bugs out.”

“So that was just practice?” Kelly asked, trying to catch her breath.

“Maybe,” he said. “And little bit of curiosity. Should we try again? Practice makes perfect.”

She didn’t object and he took that as an invitation. He kissed her again, this time lingering over her mouth until she opened beneath him. The kiss was deep and stirring and Kelly felt a delicious warmth course through her body. What harm could it possibly do to kiss Zach Haas? It certainly was one of the more pleasant experiences of her life. And an actress had to prepare for these things. Besides, she needed something to take her mind off the disaster that had made up the day’s events. Now, at least she had a bright spot to look back on.

“Maybe we should rehearse tonight,” Kelly suggested.

A wide grin broke over Zach’s face. “I think that would be a very good idea. I want to make sure we get it right. It needs to be believable.” He slowly backed toward the door, keeping his eyes fixed on her face. “I’ll call you when I get done at the station.”

“Yes, call me,” she said. “I’m staying at the Sheraton.”

“I know,” he murmured. “Everyone from the show stays there. I’ll see you later, then.”

“See you,” Kelly said, giving him a little wave.

When the door closed behind him, she drew a deep breath and groaned. Oh, God, what was she doing? Every instinct told her to keep her relationship with Zach strictly professional. And every impulse told her to do the opposite. He was just so…hot! And it had been a long time since she’d indulged in the pleasures that a man’s body offered.

There had been boyfriends over the years, but Hollywood romances were always rather shallow and short-lived. And Kelly had a unique talent for picking men who were emotionally unavailable. Whenever things came close to getting serious, they usually headed for the door. She once visited a therapist to try to sort it all out and the woman had claimed it was Kelly who was deliberately choosing men who wouldn’t stay because she was the one afraid of commitment, afraid of anything coming between her and her career. But who cared about commitment? All she wanted was a chance to kiss Zach Haas again.

Kelly reached up and touched her lips, still damp from his tongue. Her heart was still pounding at a rapid rate and she could barely draw a breath without growing dizzy. She felt silly and nervous and overwhelmed. What difference did age really make anyway? Hell, any man who kissed as well as he did was no novice to seduction. They were two consenting adults who were attracted to each other, so there was nothing standing in the way.

She was just a little bit more adult than he was.

2

KELLY RELAXED in the backseat of the Town Car as it sat stalled in rush-hour traffic. She pulled out her day planner and wrote down her call time for the next day, then flipped through the pages, searching for the number of her yoga instructor. She traded acting lessons for private yoga instruction and she’d made plans to meet with Katie tomorrow morning. Plans that would have to be cancelled. “McCready,” she murmured.

As she was looking through her planner, she passed a familiar name. Angie McMahon. Sweet Nothings. Atlanta, Georgia. She and Angie had been roommates—and best friends—seven years ago, until Angie gave up acting to marry a businessman from Atlanta. They hadn’t spoken in almost two years, but still exchanged long letters with each Christmas and birthday card they sent.

“Are we near Buckhead?” Kelly asked the driver.

“About five minutes away,” he said. “But your hotel isn’t in Buckhead.”

“I’m not going to the hotel. I want to go somewhere else if that’s all right.”

“Wherever you want to go, miss,” he said. “You just have to be there by six. I’ve got to make a run out to the airport for a pickup.”

“I can grab a cab back to the hotel,” she said. “The shop is called Sweet Nothings.” Kelly read off the address and the driver nodded, then made a lane change when they reached the next intersection and turned right. Within minutes, they were moving more quickly.