Page 7 of Stunts and Sparks

She leapt up almost as soon as she hit the mat, clearly wanting to keep her distance now that she hated him. Cole rolled his eyes. “Better?” he asked her.

“Much,” she answered coldly.

“Great!” The director shouted down at both of them. “Love it. Now let’s try a couple more takes, something partway between the last two if you can manage it. That first take was just so…dynamic.”

Heather groaned audibly.

Cole passed by her and muttered. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. A deal’s a deal. I won’t do anything unexpected.” He chuckled after he passed her. “Unless you beg for it.”

She stood stunned for a moment and then jogged to catch up to him. “I could do without the sexual harassment, too, thanks.”

“Right. I’ll scratch off fun, spontaneity, and good-natured teasing from my list of things that are allowed on set, shall I? Will that make you happy?”

She passed by him like a breeze, and he could have sworn he smelled a perfume in her hair. “Extend that to outside the set, and we’ll be good.”

Cole preformed the stunt three more times with about as much energy as a zombie on tranquilizers. It didn’t matter anyway. As long as he’d been doing this job, he’d gotten good at reading directors’ reactions, and he already knew which take this director liked best. The others would just be there for potential backups, for digital splicing in case something was off about the good take.

Heather didn’t say another word to him. Even on their way out, when he said, “See you tomorrow, then,” she just gave him a barely-there wave. She didn’t even look his way. All the way home, Cole couldn’t stop thinking about her. Why did she have to be so difficult? Why did he have to wind up working with someone he despised, who clearly despised him right back? And why did she have to be so damn cute?

He stopped and grabbed a couple slices of pizza on his way home. He didn’t feel like cooking, and he was too miserable to worry about his strict diet tonight. All he wanted to do was eat his frustrations in the form of triple cheese pizza and then work off the calories like always.

Usually, Cole kept to a strict, high protein diet, along with a twice-daily workout routine. He only ate carbs when he knew he would be needing endurance. Well, he supposed he was going to need to endure Heather’s bad attitude for the rest of the shoot. That was justification enough.

He crawled into bed and pointed the remote at his TV. There was a couch at the foot of his bed — blue, of course, and perfectly comfortable — but having a studio apartment meant you never had to feel lazy about using your bed as a nice lounger on days that seemed to go on too long. At least, he didn’t. He watched a couple episodes of his favorite show, but he couldn’t seem to process the plot at all. He just kept thinking about that perfumewafting from Heather’s blue and green hair as she walked past him.

It was a glitch, that image, that scent, playing over and over again in his head, not allowing him to think about anything else. Her hair, moving past him, leaving the ghost of her scent behind. And it infuriated him.

He finished his pizza and changed into his workout clothes in a bad temper. Cole worked out twice a day religiously. After his time in the military, he did everything he could not to let his body soften. Getting into stunt work was helpful in that respect. It motivated him to keep working on himself. This was his whole career, after all. He needed his body to be in the best shape it could be in. He needed his mind to be in good shape too, but that seemed a less than reachable goal at this time. Anyway, a workout would do him good.

The apartment building he lived in was a nice one with a state-of-the-art gym the residents could use. It was part of the reason he had chosen this building, despite the fact that this apartment was a studio rather than a one bedroom. The gym was important. He marched toward it now feeling like he needed it more than food.

As he marched, he thought about Heather. In the elevator, he thought about Heather. While he made his way toward the treadmill, he thought about Heather. It was unhealthy, to say the least, and he kind of hated himself for it. But he hated Heather more.

During his half hour on the treadmill, he thought about how little he liked her, which seemed to necessitate thinking about how irresistible her figure was, how her wrist felt with his hand wrapped around it, how utterly adorable she was when shesmiled. And these were all flaws as far as he was concerned. They were hiding a prickly interior. She was silk on the outside but all rusty nails deep down.

Seriously, why couldn’t she just relax, laugh a little, have some fun? It was like she was determined to make him miserable. He left the treadmill and started with strength training. For some reason, he seemed to have more energy than usual. His level of aggression was impressive. But Cole had always been good at channeling negative energy into something useful.

He worked out twice as long as he usually did. He lifted until his arms were sore, and when his arms were sore, he moved on to his legs. By the time he was finished, he was drenched in sweat, but all the way back to his apartment, he continued to think about Heather. He wondered whether he would even be able to sleep that night. One thing he knew for sure was that he wouldn’t be able to sleep through the night without at least dreaming of her.

CHAPTER 5

HEATHER

Today was going to be easy, Heather decided. First, they were on location not on set. A change of scenery was going to be a good thing. They were on the side of a road that might be called the scenic route by anyone traveling on it. It was windy with trees, and it cut into a hill so the view to one side really was beautiful. On top of that, all they had to do was drive. There would be no hand-to-hand combat, no falling off of buildings together. How could anyone mess up a pleasant drive on a scenic highway?

Granted, the scene wasn’t meant to appear safe. It was during a buildup to the climax. The villain was supposed to have kidnapped Heather’s character, and he was speeding to his secret lair with Heather in handcuffs in the passenger seat. But the drive would be a reasonable speed, not much over the limit, and it would be sped up with special effects.

The second scene of the day was a fight scene, but it was one where only Heather was supposed to land a hit, so she could be relatively sure there was nothing Cole could do to make things dangerous for her.

An assistant helped Heather into the car and added handcuffs, locking her wrist to the door after it was closed. The car was a fancy convertible, and an overhead drone would follow them to get a sweeping shot of the scene. The handcuffs were nonnegotiable as they would appear in the shot. Heather waited patiently for Cole to join her.

He sat down and put his seatbelt on. “It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?”

So his whole strategy was going to be just pretending yesterday didn’t even happen, was it? Well, she was not about to let him off that easy. She ground her teeth and looked away from him without saying a word.

“Come on,” he said. “We’re going to be working together for months. Let’s not make it miserable for both of us by fighting the whole time.”

Heather wished she could fold her arms over her chest to pout properly, but the handcuffs made that impossible. She had to resort to snark instead. “We can easily avoid fighting if some of us just keep our mouths shut.”

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