Hollywood Hero: A Sexy Billionaire Romance (The Director's Assistant Book 4) Read Online Free Page A

tape right too us! You’ve got no more bargaining chips left.”
    “Those… those photos,” I said with trembling voice, trying to stay strong. “And the debt you’ve been blackmailing me with. Are you going to hold up your end of the bargain?”
    He reached into a drawer of his desk, pulling out two Manilla folders. “These?”
    I recognized them immediately; my heart beating faster the moment they appeared. “Yes,” I said.
    He looked at them, then took one and flicked it across the table toward me. I snatched at it with trembling hands. It was my housing documents.
    “Truth be told,” McNamara said lazily, “that home loan was more trouble than it was worth. It will be a relief to wipe it—do you know how many strings I had to pull to crank the interest rate as high as I did? You should have had that house paid off a long time ago, but of course that wouldn’t have been very useful to me.”
    I looked at the second manila folder, and licked my lips. “And… and the photos?”
    He looked at the remaining document still in his hands. “Yes… your pictures,” he said. “They’re simply too good to hand over to you, I’m afraid.” He returned the folder to its drawer.
    “That’s not fair! That’s not what you agreed!”
    “No, actually, what I said was that I wouldn’t show the photos to your mother. I fully intend to live up to that part of my agreement. She never has to know about your naked photoshoot.”
    My eyes went wide. “ You bastard. ”
    “Josephine.” McNamara took another draw on his cigar, then exhaled a mouthful of smoke slowly in my direction. “Let’s face it. Those pictures are far too good to give to you. You’d just destroy them. But don’t worry, I’m a man of my word—they’ll stay safe in my… personal collection.”
    My skin was crawling. I swallowed back bile. “What about the videos then? I want those, too.”
    Now McNamara openly laughed. “Oh, I don’t think so.”
    “What? What do you mean, you don’t think so?” I said, desperation in my voice.
    “I’ll still be releasing them to the media. That scandal should effectively shut down any future attempts Archer makes on Janus.”
    “No!” I jumped to my feet. “You can’t do this!”
    “Josephine, you’re extremely… talented. Do you really want to deprive the world of the opportunity to see you work?”
    “You promised to hand them over!”
    “Well, if it makes you feel any better, you can have the originals. But keep in mind, I’ve made copies.” He laughed harshly, a blue cloud of smoke issuing from his mouth. “A little trick I picked up from our friend, Archer.”
    It was too much to believe, yet there it was. He looked completely serious. I slumped back down into my chair. “You mean to tell me that even though you blackmailed me into delivering the audio tape to you—even though you fixed my debt so I couldn’t pay it, threatened to release nude photos and then illegally recorded sex tapes of me without consent or permission, that you’re going to just take the audio tape and release the videos anyway?”
    “That’s the long and the short of it, yes,” McNamara agreed.
    I sat up straighter, a smile spreading over my face. That was all I’d needed to hear.

Chapter 5
     
     
    “Christian,” I said.
    He stepped up beside me. “Yes?”
    “I’m sorry I called you those names before.”
    McNamara burst into fit of surprised coughing. I ignored him.
    “Seriously,” I said. “I mean, you’ve done some bad stuff, but you’re actually a nice guy.”
    “That’s okay. I did kind of deserve it.”
    “Well… yes. But still, it wasn’t very nice of me.”
    “What the hell is going on here?” McNamara exploded. “I tell you I’m keeping the videos, and you just start apologizing to Captain Wimpy in the corner?”
    I turned back to face blue smoke and bright red face. “Well, I’ve got everything I wanted from you, I guess.”
    “I don’t think so,” McNamara spluttered.