Thrill! by Jackie Collins Read Free Book Online

stand it any more. Until you came ten times. Women read into his silent looks, it worked every time.
     
    The female producer - pretty in an older bimbo kind of way cleared her throat. Joey knew she must have humped some poor schmuck to get this gig - maybe she was even married to the geezer.
     
    The two casting women were opposites. One young, one old. One fair, one dark. One short, the other tall. They were both unattractive. He gave them the treatment anyway.
     
    The director was a straight white male, married with a shiny gold wedding ring to prove it.
     
    "Are you prepared to read?"
    the female producer asked.
     
    Joey nodded, glancing briefly at the pages he'd been studying in the waiting room. Then he placed the typed sides on a table, and performed the scene from memory, with the younger casting woman reading the other role. He gave it his best and when he was finished he knew that he'd managed to impress them.
     
    The older casting woman lowered her spectacles, staring directly at him.
    "Weren't you in Solidr she asked.
     
    "
    "S right,"
    he responded, pleased she remembered.
     
    36
    "That was'
    "Six years ago,"
    he interrupted, saying it first so it didn't seem as if he had anything to hide.
     
    "What have you done since then?"
    asked the director, twisting his wedding ring as if he wanted to wrench it off his finger.
     
    "My mother got sick,"
    Joey said, turning on the sincerity full voltage.
    "Hadda go home and look after the family."
     
    "I'm so sorry,"
    gushed the female producer, playing with a strand of stringy blond hair.
    "I do hope she's better now."
     
    "No,"
    Joey replied in his best Little Boy Lost voice.
    "She, uh . died. I stayed to see my little sister through school."
     
    "That's so caring you would do that,"
    exclaimed the younger casting woman, hungry eyes coming on to him.
     
    "Well. . ."
    he said modestly.
    "Now I'm back, an"
    I gotta get my career goin'again."
     
    "This is a very small role,"
    warned the director.
     
    "Can't expect the lead every time,"
    Joey quipped.
     
    "Nice reading,"
    said the female producer.
     
    "Thanks for coming in,"
    said the director.
     
    "We'll be in touch with your agent,"
    said the older casting woman.
     
    Joey knew dismissal when it was staring him in the face. But that didn't mean he wouldn't get hired. They liked him, he could tell.
     
    He exited the office with a jaunty swagger. Outside, in the waiting room, were a dozen young actors sweating their turn.
     
    "Don't bother,"
    he informed them, cracking his knuckles.
    "I nailed
    it."
     
    Nothing like making them feel insecure.
     
    Four days later he got the part.
     
    "It's decent money,"
    Madelaine informed him.
    "Three days"
    work spread out over two weeks"
    location in the Hamptons they'll pay for your hotel and a reasonable per diem. Don't let me down, Joey."
     
    "Would I do that, Maddy?"
    he asked innocently.
     
    That night he satisfied her in bed, sending her to sleep with a smile on her face. He'd slipped a Halcion into her decaf cappuc—
    37 cino, causing her to sleep so soundly that she was unaware when he left the apartment.
     
    He roamed the streets restlessly, finally going into a strip club and paying a cheap-looking girl with large silicon-enhanced breasts to perform a private lap dance. She did nothing for him. She was a whore. He hated her. Why did he keep on punishing himself with fast cheap sex that meant nothing?
    He took a cab back to Madelaine's apartment and eased into bed beside her. He'd never had a relationship that meant a damn thing. Never. In this life you had to use or get used. Sex was power. That's all.
     
    He lay on his back, eyes wide open, unable to sleep.
     
    Sometimes the screaming in his head was so loud it was impossible to live with.
     
    ft ft ft
    Madelaine took out insurance and paid for Joey to go to an acting coach. Even though he'd let her down once, she was so pathetically grateful to have him back she convinced herself he would never leave