“Oh, my,” Jay whispered, a little bit of awe in his voice. Jay saw actors and models all day long, living in New York, but there was something different about Max. He had sex appeal coming out of his pores without trying. Something some models would sell a body part to attain.
He looked rumpled and grouchy, but still hot as hell.
She got all tingly in places that hadn’t tingled for almost two years.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.
“Shay.” Kevin handed her a cup, and she took it, sipping the coffee for lack of something better to do. She didn’t want to be caught drooling.
At least none of her coworkers were here to see this. When Desi called to say Max would be there, Shay contacted the head of production and requested a private trailer so they could talk. Laura, the girl who did her makeup most days, had already come and gone. She’d hoped Jay would be gone by now too, but he’d been chatty this morning.
“Mr. Sheridan, this is Shayna Moore.” Kevin moved away from her, so Max’s piercing gaze hit her full force once again.
Oh, my just didn’t reflect the way her hormones ramped up and nearly burst an ovary.
“Miss Moore.” Max nodded toward her, his hat firmly in place.
“Jay, you’ll need to finish this after I speak with Mr. Sheridan.” Her voice had a huskier tone than she wanted, but the live and in person Maxwell Sheridan put his photos to shame.
“Honey bear, if you don’t pounce on that, I will.” Jay’s exaggerated whisper was as loud as it was intended to be, and Shay glanced at Max, worried. A lot of men didn’t take Jay’s flirting well. Max surprised her by laughing.
“I’m Jay.” Jay held out his hand, and Max shook it. “You don’t bat for the same team, do you?”
“No, sugar, I don’t, but tell you what. You find me somewhere I can get some decent coffee, you can flirt all day long.”
Jay fanned himself while trying to brush up against Max on his way out the door. Shay shook her head. Jay had no shame.
“Thanks for that,” she said. “He doesn’t always get the best reaction to his flirting.”
Max shrugged. “I have friends who’re gay. Gotta let people be who they are and love who they love.”
“Do you need anything else, Shay?” Kevin asked.
“No, but thank you.”
Once Kevin left and closed the door, the two of them were alone.
Max swallowed and strolled into the trailer, noting that a large makeup kit lay open on one of the small stations. Hair products were scattered around the station where Shay sat.
He looked everywhere but at the woman sitting quietly in the chair. He’d nearly lost his breath when he stepped into the room and saw her. Sky blue eyes were framed perfectly in a heart-shaped face with pale, creamy skin. Chocolate curls fell down her back, and those soft, kissable lips called to him. He shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from touching her.
He’d never had this kind of reaction to any woman. Ever. What the fuck had his little sister gotten him into?
“Would you like to sit?”
Shay had one of those soft, musical voices that would keep men coming back. Why was she starring in a soap opera and not on a Hollywood screen?
“Sure.” He ambled over and dropped into one of the chairs scattered around her. He kept himself a good few feet away, though. Reaching over and hauling her into his lap wouldn’t earn him any recommendations. It might land him in jail, though.
“So…uh, how does this work?”
He looked up and was struck again by how blue her eyes were. They reminded him of a cloudless summer sky back in Texas. Shit, he was in trouble here. Thankfully, once this initial consultation was over, he could hand her off to the team and go back to his other jobs.
“I hear you have a bit of a problem.”
“You could say that.” She laughed nervously, and he nearly swallowed his tongue. She was going to star in some of his dreams for the foreseeable future. “I seem to have a bit of a stalker. It’s not something I ever worried about before.”
“Stalkers are more common than you think, but until you get one, it’s not something you would worry about, Miss Moore.”
“Please call me Shay.”
Fuck that porn-worthy voice of hers. “Shay.” He nodded and continued. “When was the first time you became aware of your stalker?”
“I get lots of mail just like the other cast members of the show. The crazy gets weeded out before we see it, so I never knew how bad some of mine had gotten. It wasn’t until a dozen black roses were sent here last week with a death threat that I even knew this guy had escalated in his threats. The flowers weren’t checked before they reached me. That was the first time I knew something was wrong.”
He made a note to have a chat with security about that shit. Not just for Shay, but for all the cast. Crazy didn’t need stupid.
“Have you seen any of the mail?”
She shook her head. “The studio said they didn’t think it was a good idea. They filed a report with the police after the roses. I’m not sure if the police have the threats or not.”
“The police spoken with you yet?”
“Briefly. My filming schedule doesn’t work well for them.”
He’d call the head of security and find out who the detectives assigned to her case were. He also needed to see the threats she’d received. He hoped security didn’t just hand everything over to the police.
“Tell me about your house.”
“Apartment,” she corrected. “I don’t have a house here in New York.”
“Des said he broke into your house.”
“We’re still not sure about that, but I have this uneasy feeling the guy who broke into my house in Virginia is the same person. My dad said the place was trashed. He had the police come in. That was last week. My apartment got broken into yesterday.”
“You spent the night there last night?” Real alarm shivered through him. If the man had gotten in once, he could again.
“Of course not. I stayed at a hotel last night.”
“Good. We’ll need to go in this morning and assess your security there. Anything you need, we’ll put in.” He pulled out his phone and texted Mason Kincaid, KSI’s tech guy. Mason had just graduated college in May, and his brothers put his computer skills to good use.
“You want access to my apartment?” Shay frowned, not sure she was okay with people in her apartment while she wasn’t there. She sort of knew Max through Desi, but she didn’t want strangers around her things.
“Miss…Shay. We need to go in and find out how he got through whatever security you have. We need to make sure you’re safe before we can let you go back to your apartment.”
“So, you’ll take my case?” She hoped to God he said yes. This was starting to scare her. The man had violated her home in Virginia and her apartment here in New York.
“KSI will be happy to do it. I’ll go into the office this morning and arrange for a bodyguard for you. Security here on set is pretty lax. I don’t trust that your stalker won’t get through the gates and back here to you…”
She was already shaking her head before he finished. “No. I don’t want some stranger following me around.”