Heartthrob by Suzanne Brockmann Read Free Book Online

Because if I don’t get Jericho, I don’t have Susie. And without the two of them, I won’t have Jamaal.”
    “Victor—”
    He held up his hand. “I love you, you know that, and this is the best script I’ve seen in about ten years, but I
will
walk away from both you and this script if you don’t let me cast Jericho. I’m sorry, babe, but it’s ultimatum time. I want Jericho. Susie and Jamaal want Jericho. If you want me to stay connected, it’s up to you to figure out a way to make the backers want Jericho, too.”

Three

    H e’d seen her naked.
    Jed paused outside the door to Mary Kate O’Laughlin’s production office, and focused for just a moment on that empowering thought.
    He
had
seen her naked. And he’d seen her naked just last night, as a matter of fact.
    Although
The Promise
was O’Laughlin’s first foray into the world of movie producing, Jed had done a little research and found out that although she’d spent most of the past decade building her parent’s office supply business into a regional conglomerate, she was no stranger to the Hollywood scene.
    And her connection wasn’t merely through her shortlived marriage to director Vic Strauss. Mary Kate O’Laughlin had left her suburban Boston home at the tender age of eighteen, another of the many wide-eyed innocents drawn to the glitter and shine of Los Angeles. She’d washed up on the shores of Southern California under the pretense of attending UCLA. And although getting a college degree was one of her goals, it was a secondary goal, for sure. Shewas really just another moth lured by the Hollywood flame.
    She’d met Vic on the set of some low-budget horror movie. He was a second unit director, she was the third victim of the
Hillsdale Horror
, showing up on the credits under the name “Katie Marie.” She had three lines of dialogue before she met her demise—all of it spoken breathlessly as she’d danced in firelight, clad only in the barely there lace of her underwear.
    She had a body to die for, and Vic had clearly recognized her B-movie potential, because “Katie Marie” had shown up in his next picture as well—
Dead of Night
, another low-budget flick that he’d helmed. The movie had become a cult classic, propelling him to mainstream fame and fortune.
    In
Dead of Night
, the underwear had come off. Mary Kate O’Laughlin was only on-screen for a total of seven minutes in that entire movie, but, oh, what a seven minutes it was. She played the part of a college coed who had the misfortune of being picked up in a bar by a serial killer. She brought the man to her apartment, and the sex scene that followed was so steamy, so controversial, and so erotic that, even nearly a decade after the film was made, it was still the main topic of discussion on many internet bulletin boards.
    Jed had rented the movie last night, and watched that famous scene. And he’d rewound the tape and watched it again. And again and again.
    It was obvious that Katie Marie’s alter ego, Mary Kate O’Laughlin, was not eager to cast Jericho as Laramie. Victor had made that much crystal clear. She didn’t like him, didn’t approve of him, didn’t trust him, didn’t want him anywhere near this production.
    She had only reluctantly agreed to meet with him today, here in Boston.
    But he had seen her naked.
    Jed took a deep breath, closing his eyes and rolling his head to relax the muscles in his neck as he got into character. Kate O’Laughlin—she’d dropped the “Mary” sometime in the past seven years—wasn’t going to meet Jed. She was going to meet Jericho Beaumont, the movie star.
    Jericho was smooth. He didn’t have any of Jed’s insecurities or doubts. He was forthright and funny and friendly. He was going to walk into that office and charm the hell out of that producer.
    The fact that he’d seen her naked was really just a bonus, an additional detail to keep him amused.
    Fifteen minutes, thirty tops, and he’d have this job in the