Hope and relief streamed through his chest and loosened his limbs. He laughed. “I’m barely holding myself together here, girl.”
She squeezed his hand, but her expression sobered. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you how much I admire you. Your talent aside, your work ethic and your warmth… You’re really special, Chase.”
Those words would have made his heart soar if it weren’t for the heavy “but” ready to drop. “That means a lot to me, especially coming from someone I respect so much.”
Her gaze flicked away, and she licked her lips. It was her tell, the gesture she made just before she had to tell someone something uncomfortable. He’d seen it several times on set. “I’ve been thinking…”
All the air left his lungs, and his stomach dropped.
“Baby…” The word slipped out half whine, half warning.
She met his gaze again. “You know how we’ve talked about relationships? About people and their affairs and how those get reflected on their reputations?”
He tightened his fingers on hers. “That’s not us.”
“It could be. Way too easily. And it could happen so fast, we wouldn’t even know until it was too late.”
“You can’t be serious.” Frustration leaked into his voice. “You know we’
re good together."
“We are. As friends, as coworkers, we’re magic. I don’t want to lose that, Chase. I care about you. I know we’ll work together again, and I want it to be as great then as it has been the last couple of months.”
“Being together and working together don’t have to be mutually exclusive.”
“They do for me. I’m sorry. I really am.” Her mind was made up; he could hear it in her voice. “I just don’t think this is smart. Not for me. For you, it’s no big deal. No matter what happens between us, it won’t affect your career. Men bounce back, like you did with Lila,” she said, referencing his ex and their messy ending. “Women…every wrong move sticks to us. And like I said, for me, it’s even riskier than for most.”
“Risk is what you do. Risk is your life.”
“No,” she said, serious and resolute. “It may look like risk on the face, but security is built into every stunt. My life is about minimizing risks, not taking them.”
He exhaled heavily. “Come on, Z. This could be something different. Something big. Something we’d look back on and regret not going after.”
She leaned her head against the pillar. “Or it could be the most reckless move I could take. There’s only one industry for stunts. And that industry is all about reputation and contacts. This is a one-time-chance career. The moment I ruin it, I ruin it.”
He groaned and dropped his head. Hell, if one of his sisters were in Zahara’s situation, he would tell her to take three giant steps back and look at things again with her career longevity in mind. But right now, all he wanted to do was tell Zahara to leap and promise to catch her.
“You’re such a dreamer.” She pulled her hand from his and stroked her knuckles along the stubble on his jaw. Warm sensations trailed down his neck. “So fresh. So optimistic. I love it, Chase. I do. But I’ve been in this industry a lot longer that you have. I’ve seen bad shit happen to really good people. And I’m the only person I have to depend on.”
“What about me? You can depend on me.”
“Be realistic. We’ve known each other two months.”
If he took his heart out of the equation, he agreed it would be best for them to step back—at least until they got to know each other better. Until she knew him well enough to know he would never turn his back on someone he cared about. Never push away someone who needed him. It wasn’t who he was.
“Come on,” he teased, “with our schedule, we’d have been friends for a year in normal-human time.”
She smiled, but he saw the determination in her eyes. She’d already decided. She’d reached some invisible line she’d created in her head long before tonight.
An edge of desperation joined his nerves and buzzed beneath his skin. “We just need more time. That’s cool. We can step back, take things slow.”
She sighed and glanced around the room. He got the feeling she was already halfway out the door. Hurt whipped up. Then anger rose to his defense. But a revelation cut through all those emotions.
His words came out even as the thought was formed. “You’re scared.”
“What?” She scowled at him. “That’s ridiculous. I don’t do scared.”
“Oh yeah you do,” he insisted with a whole new level of understanding. “You’re scared of me. Of us. You feel it, just like I do. You know how powerful it is. How close it is. At our fucking fingertips. You’ve felt it for months and denied it, not because we worked together, but because it terrifies you.”