Noah (21 page)

Chapter 19

Two weeks later

"Cut!" I barked out. Turning to my script supervisor, I removed my headphones and asked what'd gotten her fucking panties in a twist.

"I went through the footage of the scene this leads up to, and we need to change the order of the canvases," she replied in a rush.

I glanced across the street where Sophie and the man playing April's brother were holding three large canvases, which April had painted for her son. Each one had a theme. In toned-down graffiti, using muted colors instead of flashy neons, April told her stories topic by topic. Love. Betrayal. The future. Dreams. Lies. Conspiracies…

Her misguided legacy.

"What're you waiting for?" I asked. The clock was ticking.

While the script supervisor scurried off to correct the error, I spoke to Lucia about her taking a second unit to do flyover coverage next week. I'd work almost exclusively with April's brother and ex, so it should be a quiet one, and I could manage without Lucia.

"Noah!" I heard Tennyson call.

"Yeah?" I turned around and saw him by the trailers. "What's up?"

"I need a minute of your time."

Had to be serious for him to interrupt shooting, so I made my way over, and he opened the door to the trailer Sophie used.

"I got off the phone with Asher a little while ago." He headed to the seating nook and adjusted a laptop so I could see the screen. "The West Coast is up, and this is spreading like wildfire."

I scanned the headline of a gossip site, my chest tightening with anger.

"Director of Sophie Pierce's new movie finds love with his nephew!"

"Oh, fuck." I drew a hand over my hair and pulled out my phone. "I can't believe this. We gotta call it a day to do damage control." As my blood started to boil, I texted Julian to get his ass in here. "Mother
fucking
…" My jaw tensed, and I nearly hurled the phone at the nearest wall.

This could set Julian off. He hadn't told his grandparents. He and I weren't even official yet, having decided to tell our closest once filming was over.

"It'll be okay, Noah." Tennyson gave my shoulder a squeeze. "We'll take a couple days off to get to the bottom of this. It reeks of insider gig."

"What do you mean?" I muttered, my jaw clenching at the thought of a particular motherfucker who could've given out information to the press.

"We haven't created any buzz for this project." He bent over the laptop and more articles about Julian and me popped up. "I want to sell the film at Sundance or in Cannes, so location sites and dates haven't leaked out. Finding Sophie isn't very difficult; there're vultures everywhere. But…" He glanced over with a cocked brow.

I nodded. Our sets had been clear of press, which limited the options of knowing who the fucking director of her new movie was. Industry folk always knew more. Between studios and various companies involved in filmmaking, the chatter was constant, though it tended to stay internal. Unless it was intentional to leak the information or if it was a huge scandal involving a star.

Then there were supposed friends. Or ex-boyfriends…

But even so… "I'm not famous enough for this," I told him. "I'm of no public interest whatsoever."

That was why Julian and I hadn't hesitated to roam freely in Paris. Nobody gave a fuck. 

"You are now." He flipped to a page where a series of photos of Julian and me were revealed. "First of all, congratulations." He smiled wryly, with a spark of genuine amusement in his eyes. "You two are clearly in love."

I cocked my head, studying the photos. Somewhat grainy but clear enough. They were all taken a few days ago. Julian and I had had dinner at another bistro, and we'd sat outside. The photos showed laughs, us sitting close, hand-holding, a few kisses… The last one was of me ushering him into a taxi.

If not so much was at stake, I could've laughed it off or said I didn’t care. And we did look all cheesy and lovey-dovey together. But I didn’t know how Julian would react, and this wasn’t good publicity for the film.

In print, my relationship with Julian looked bad. Ignorant fuckers would see incest or an older man taking advantage of a much younger one. I wasn’t even fucking old, but forty-one against twenty-four could be portrayed as a fuckload.

"This can ruin shit, Tennyson." I had to put that out there, 'cause he was too chill about it. Maybe it hadn't occurred to him, though that didn’t make any sense. "There are scandals and there are scandals. This ain't the kind that will drive more people to see the film."

"Oh, screw that." He slid into the booth and took a sip of his coffee. "Worst-case scenario, we keep a low profile and wait for the next season. Either way, I don't believe this will affect the film much at all. Perhaps in the next few weeks or so, but Hollywood forgets quickly."

There was a knock on the door, and I let Julian in as a wave of nausea came over me.

"I'll give you some privacy, and then we'll talk back at the hotel," Tennyson said.

*

It was getting ridiculous.

Julian had been staring at the laptop for half an eternity.

Or ten minutes.

He went from article to article and read the gossip about us. I hadn't even read the bullshit. It was probably lies, anyway.

"It says you seduced your nephew," he mumbled. "You took advantage of my grief after our family died to get me into bed."

I sighed heavily and sat down across from him. "I don’t care about any of that. I'm only concerned about how you feel."

He made a face and went to another gossip site. "Basically, I am a weak child who can't stand up for myself, and you're a perverted uncle preying on me. Wonderful." He shook his head, finally facing me. "You're waiting for me to freak out."

"Your grandparents…"

"I know." He swallowed and averted his eyes to the screen. "This isn't how I would've wanted them to find out, and it's not like I can jump on the next flight to go see them. We have another month here."

"You can do whatever you want," I told him gently. "Family comes first—"

"You come first for me." His tone was soft, but he held my stare firmly and didn’t break away. "I'm not sure you've realized that yet."

Maybe I hadn't. It was difficult to embrace, difficult to understand I was so important to someone else.

For this conversation, I felt it was best to start over. I got up and joined him on his side of the booth instead, and I cupped his cheeks and rested my forehead to his.

"Tell me what you want."

He scowled, though he didn’t withdraw. "No… It's what
we
want."

He had a point. It was about us. But even so, they weren't my grandparents. They were his.

"I get that, baby. I do. And maybe I even needed the reminder." I brushed some hair away from his forehead. "It's not my grandmother and grandfather, though. So what I'm saying is, I'll be with you every step of the way, but you gotta tell me how you wanna play this."

His brows knitted together, and he looked down as he thought about it. "Like I said, I—
we
…can't be on the next flight to Pittsburgh. So I don’t know. But as long as we deal with things together, we'll work it out."

I nodded. "Together."

He quirked a grin and kissed me quickly. "Admit you thought I was going to have a meltdown."

"Perhaps…" I let out a small laugh, more relieved than I could say. "I've never had so much to lose as I do now."

This time, he kissed me deeper and lingered. I cupped his cheek and stroked the tip of his tongue with mine, knowing this could get outta hand too fast. I'd been fucking worried, and now when I could relax, I wanted to maul him.

"You know who did this, right?" He climbed onto my lap and straddled me, his piano fingers scratching my scalp as he kissed me harder. "Or maybe I'm assuming too much."

"No, I have a pretty good idea. I'm sure you do, too." Fuck holding back, fuck timing. I pushed him down on my cock and didn’t protest what-so-fucking-ever when he began undoing my belt. He made me lose my head every goddamn time. "We gotta tell our closest today. Tennyson wants to talk when we get back to the hotel."

"Okay." He swallowed nervously, and I was quick to derail his thoughts. "Um…" He grunted as I released his cock from his pants and stroked him firmly. "What—what should we do about Nicky if it is him?"

That one was easy.

"I'll fucking bury him."

*

That night, Julian and I made our way to Tennyson and Sophie's suite. It was on the same floor, and we passed Sophie's PA along the way, who was taking the kids for ice cream.

I'd barely knocked when Tennyson opened the door, looking tired but wearing the same wry smile that was practically his trademark expression.

"Come on in, you two." He opened it wider and stepped aside. "Apologies in advance for my feisty little wife. She's just learned I've known about you a while."

I smirked and squeezed his shoulder. "I bet the sex will be fucking spectacular, though."

He winked.

Passing him, I grabbed Julian's hand and aimed for the seating area in the living room. Sophie was on one of the couches with a tablet, looking freshly showered in a robe and damp hair. Tennyson said she was catching up on the recent gossip about us.

She didn’t even look up until we'd sat down on the couch across from her and Tennyson's. She eyed our clasped hands and huffed.

"I still can't believe you didn’t tell me," she muttered to Tennyson.

He smiled and placed an arm around her. "You would've done the same thing, princess. Don't even try to deny it."

She scowled but didn’t say anything.

"I put him in that spot, hon," I told her patiently. "If you wanna be mad at someone, aim it at me. Not at him." I glanced at Tennyson. "If it weren't for that bastard, I would've lost my marbles once or twice too many."

Julian gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

Tennyson inclined my head at me, a mere acknowledgment. For being assertive and quite fucking arrogant about his profession—as he should be—he was ridiculously humble off the set. He didn’t take praise very well.

"I mean it, man."

He furrowed his brow. "I didn't do that much."

I sighed and slid my gaze to Sophie. "Peg him or something."

Tennyson laughed, and it became impossible for Sophie to stay
huffy
. She hid a grin behind the lapel of her robe and rolled her eyes. I could tell she had a lot more to say, but hopefully, she knew this wasn’t the time.

"So…we gonna talk about this media shitshow now?" I placed my arms along the back of the couch. I needed physical contact, though, so it didn’t take too long before one of my hands found Julian's neck. "Based on how tired you look, Wright—no offense—I'm guessing you've been on the phone nonstop since we left the set." I absently rubbed the back of Julian's neck and played with the soft curls of his hair. "Who's in the loop?"

"The world?" Sophie quirked a brow.

I chuckled.
Touché
. Bad wording.

"I've made a…
few
calls today, I suppose." Tennyson sat forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "The good news is that this will die down fast. Asher's people have dug around a bit, and it appears we're looking at a single source who won't say anything else."

Julian and I exchanged a quick glance before he cleared his throat and faced Tennyson.

"We believe it's Nicky who's behind this," he said quietly.

"Your ex?" Sophie tilted her head.

I gnashed my teeth together.

Julian nodded. "Yes. Noah and I talked earlier, and it's the only possibility, we think. He knew the location, when we'd be here, who we are, and so on. He's also bitter about losing a chance at getting further in the industry."

I took it from there and explained to Tennyson and Sophie about some of the things that had gone down with Nicky. The motive was sure as fuck there, and they could see that, even before I'd finished telling them how Nicky had threatened to expose us.

Tennyson cleared his throat when I'd finished. "So, legal actions—"

"Fuck that," I said. There wasn’t a whole lot we could do, anyway. "I've already had his name blacklisted at major studios. By the time I'm through, he'll be lucky to get hired as a fluffer."

"Déjà vu." Sophie grinned and nudged Tennyson.

I remembered. One of my old roommates had been hooked on Sophie before she and Tennyson got together. Then things had blown up a bit, and Tennyson had threatened to destroy the guy's career in physical therapy so he would end up giving massages to porn stars in the Valley or some such shit.

I'd been wasted that night, but witnessing Tennyson Wright go from stoic and chill to seething and feral was an unforgettable sight.

"That little fucker had it coming," he muttered. "Though, I never had to make good on my threats. This Nicky appears to be a whole other matter." He slid his gaze our way. "Leave it to Asher, and consider Nicky finished in this industry."