The Director's Cut by Js Taylor (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📕

He shakes his head. “Please, Issy, you have to trust me.”

“No.” I set my jaw determinedly. “We talked about this. Stop shutting me out.”

“Issy.” James’s tone is stern. “Please, just take my word for it. What I’m doing is for the best.”

His eyes are pleading with me, and I feel my stubbornness slide away.

“Are we going somewhere else in Spain?” I say, finally.

“No,” says James. “We’re flying back to England.”

Back to the lion’s den. Is this good news?

“So we’re no longer under threat from the newspapers?” I clarify. “We can go back to the studio?”

“No.” James is shaking his head. “The new location is strategic, for my plans to stem this leak.”

“Then where are we going?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

I huff out my cheeks, frustrated with all this subterfuge.

“James…” The words come out falteringly.

“Yes?”

“Do you really think you can find out this leak? Tell me honestly? Are we just running away?”

James’s face lifts in a gentle smile. His eyes flick down to the desk. Beside the piles of documents is his Apple laptop.

“I want to show you something,” he says, lifting the lid of the laptop and firing it to life. The screen display pops up, and James scans through a multitude of what looks like admin folders.

Then he clicks open a file, and an image pops up.

It’s a photograph of a woman lying on a chaise lounge. And it takes me a second to compute what he’s showing me.

Wow. That’s me. But I look so different, the way James has captured me on camera. The unfamiliar sight takes my breath away.

“I never showed you the pictures I took of you,” he says gently.

My eyes focus on the image. I’m laid out on the chaise lounge in my underwear. My gaze is settled unwaveringly towards the camera.

I’m surprised by the boldness of my expression. I don’t remember feeling that brazen.

James flips to a second image.

This time the focus is only on my face. My eyes are slightly dropped, knowing. And my lips are parted. If I were to describe the expression on my face, I would call it an awakening. As though a lifetime of sexuality has rushed into my body, just at the moment the camera flickered.

I’m astounded to see myself like that.

I turn questioningly to James.

“Did you alter the images?”

He smiles. “No. This is you. Pure and unadulterated. Can you see why I love you so much?”

I have no idea how to reply.

James takes his hand away from the laptop keyboard. The screen is still facing towards us, and I drag my eyes away from the woman on the display. “I only kept two pictures,” he says. “The second is my favourite. The close-up on your expression.”

His face is inches from mine now.

“Never, in all my time filming,” he says, “have I seen such layers of emotion distilled into one image. You have a beauty which is nothing short of decadent. It is all consuming. It is enchanting.”

I blink back into his eyes, heady with his view of me.

James reaches up and takes my face in his hands. “When I first filmed you, I was struck by your incredible eyes,” he murmurs. “And the truth you could show in them. But now I realise, it goes so much deeper. Your appearance is the tiniest factor in what makes you so beautiful.”

He kisses my mouth, and I feel my soul expanding towards him, drinking him in.

“You are courageous,” he says, between kisses, “you are lovely, and I can’t believe you are mine.”

“I love you,” I say, blinking away the tears which have sprung into my eyes.

“I love you too,” says James. “And now I’m going to answer your earlier question with one of my own. You asked whether I could deal with the press leak.” He nods to the camera. “Do you really think, there is anything I wouldn’t do for that incredible woman? Do you think I couldn’t move mountains to protect her?”

“Oh James.” I feel the insecurities rush out of me, and suddenly there is no danger. Only him. “I love you so much.”

James holds me tight, and I feel myself safe in his strong arms.

“So aren’t you going to tell me where we’re relocating to?” I ask, after a moment.

James smiles. “Yes. Filming has only brought the event forward. I had been meaning to take you there, in any case.”

“Take me where?”

“Can’t you guess?”

“No!” I bat his arm in annoyance.

“It’s a grand old country estate,” he says teasingly. “I think you’ll like it.”

“Tell me!”

James is grinning now. “We’ll all be flying to Berkeley Hall,” he says. “We’ll do some filming on the estate. The entire area is totally secure. And,” he adds, fixing me with his green eyes, “I’ll be able to take you to meet my parents.”

Chapter 31

For our return flight to England, James has managed to arrange a private jet, which delights Natalie. Inside the aeroplane is absolutely incredible. The interior is arranged like an enormous, sumptuous living room. There are sofas, huge comfy seats, and a big movie screen.

James and I are keeping a tactful distance apart. So I share my enthusiasm with Callum and Will.

“It’s a pretty sweet ride,” agrees Will, taking off his sunglasses as he takes in the inside of the plane. “Maybe Mr Berkeley will give us a ride back to LA,” he adds, grinning at Callum.

The extras are being flown home on a later charter flight. I got a chance to say a last farewell to Lorna just before we headed our separate ways. I’m hoping that I’ll see her soon. But with the press leak looming over us, it’s difficult to know when.

The flight is uneventful, but as we’re dipping low to land, there’s a clear view of a huge manor house with miles of rolling estate grounds as far as the eye can see.

It’s absolutely enormous, and I realise that Berkeley’s father doesn’t just have an aristocratic title. He owns a very decent chunk of England.

The plane touches down