Read Online Over Exposed by Stephanie Julian - Free Book Online Page B

house.”
    â€œOkay. So . . . how goes it?”
    He paused and he was pretty sure he heard Trudeau suck in a sharp breath and hold it. His assistant wasn’t normally easy to rattle. Then again, the way he’d been acting lately, he shouldn’t be surprised she was worried.
    â€œActually, it’s going pretty well. I think I’m finished.”
    She released her breath on an audible sigh of relief. “Great. That’s great.” She didn’t even try to hide her relieved enthusiasm.
    Damn, he must have been worse than he’d thought these past few months. He made a mental note to get her set up with his masseuse for regular sessions. She deserved it for putting up with him. He’d add an unlimited account at M.A.C., too. Trudeau liked her cosmetics.
    â€œIs that it?”
    â€œWell . . .”
    Aw hell, he hated when she said that. “Just spit it out. What else?”
    â€œMark’s been awfully quiet the past few days and I’ve learned to be wary of that.”
    Mark Schumacher was his company’s chief financial officer. Greg trusted him implicitly, but everyone knew when he went quiet, he was doing numbers in his head. And that meant numbers weren’t adding up somewhere else.
    â€œHe only went silent two days ago but, well, you know what that means.”
    â€œYeah, I do.” It meant they had a film threatening to go over budget and that meant Greg would need to get involved.
    â€œShit.” The curse came out a little harder than he’d intended. “Steven or Amanda?”
    He couldn’t imagine it was Amanda. Amanda Maitland was only twenty-two and out in the middle of nowhere Iowa filming a quirky, character-driven script she’d also written. Her last film had earned her Drama Desk and Directors Guild nominations and enough Oscar buzz to make Greg throw some money into a promotional push for the independent film he’d picked up at Sundance.
    Steven Lawler’s adaptation of a popular young-adult bestseller had blockbuster written all over it. If the famously temperamental director could keep a lid on himself. Greg typically managed to keep the guy on track, but he’d been out of touch lately, hadn’t he?
    So when Trudeau said, “Amanda,” his brain hit a roadblock.
    The girl had one hell of a brilliant brain, but she
was
young and this was her first studio film.
    â€œDo I need to catch a flight?” Meaning, had Trudeau already booked him a flight? Sometimes his assistant was ten steps ahead of him, which was exactly why he’d tried to put a “’til death do us part” clause in her contract.
    â€œNot yet. I’ll corner Mark. See what’s going on.”
    They rang off a few seconds later, after she’d promised to be in touch soon.
    With the phone still in his hand, Greg considered calling Mark himself, but he knew if he made that call, his time here was over. And that’s exactly why he’d tried not to have his phone close at hand all the time.
    Okay, now he needed to get out of this room and leave his phone behind. He wasn’t going to get any work done.
    And he wanted to talk to someone—
    No, not true.
    He wanted to talk to Sabrina.
    Usually, he had no problem controlling his cravings. Not so much today.
    He checked downstairs first but didn’t see her anywhere. Back upstairs, he checked her room. She didn’t answer when he knocked and he debated just walking in. Good sense prevented him, knowing it’d be a huge breach of privacy. The other half of him wanted to kick in the door, maybe rifle through her underwear for a souvenir.
    Yeah, maybe he should just go back to his room and lock himself in.
    A faint thumping from somewhere above caught his attention and he followed it like a beacon.
    The door to the suite at the top of the building hung open and he forced himself to stop and seriously consider his next move.
    He’d been upstairs.