Silver Screens and Broken Dreams (Echoes of Us #2)

6.

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” — Dr. Seuss

Dylan

T hree months later

“So, welcome everyone.” I stood at the top of a giant boardroom table, with no fewer than twenty seats on both sides. The dark oak wood was so shiny that I was sure I could see my own panicked reflection in it.

I glanced off to my left at Natalie, who gave me a tiny thumbs up, her face creased with concern. She'd informed me moments before the first table read that she'd had a dream that I'd shit my pants while giving my opening welcome speech. I clenched my buttcheeks together and glanced around the table. Along with a couple of the producers from the network, the table was filled with a mix of well-known and up-and-coming young actors who had been selected from an exhaustive list to become the stars of Amore Blue .

On the left of the table were three guys who, under any normal circumstances, would have played front and center in any one of my wet dreams. Chase Sterling, Max Stone, and Ryder Hart. Whilst Chase and Max were at this point veteran actors at twenty-eight and twenty-nine respectively, having a very broad IMDB presence already, Ryder was very green and had only appeared in a couple of indie projects that went straight to television, but were only really shown at three in the morning alongside the infomercials.

On the right of the table were Madison Reign and Harper Starling. These two young women had been cast as the younger sisters of our star, Jax Conway. My eyes darted around the room and confirmed that our lead was nowhere to be found. I knew for fact he was supposed to be here, as his agent had contacted our team earlier to tell us we were good to go. There had been some last minute issues with a film contract Jax had in Romania, but they had managed to get him out of it so he would be able to star in our show.

“I see our very own Nico Amore hasn’t arrived yet.” My gaze slid to Natalie who merely rolled her eyes and shrugged. “But no matter, we will move on with introductions. If you could give your name and what your role is on the show and maybe just a little bit of background about your previous work. I’ll start. My name is Dylan Cooper, I am the head writer and the show runner for Amore Blue . I started out writing when I was in…”

“Sorry I‘m late,” a deep baritone voice crooned from the door to my left. I geared myself up to snap some cutting remarks about tardiness and respect for our co-workers. That retort was lost in my throat as my eyes fell on possibly the hottest man to ever walk the earth. Of course, I’d seen Jax before in movies and had been able to tell that he was objectively hot as fuck. But nothing had prepared me for the absolute sensory overload that came from being in the same room as him.

“Harumph…” I actually just said that. I quickly cleared my throat and refrained from backhand-slapping Natalie, who was currently laughing into her palm. I glanced once again at the personification of sex on legs, mostly to apologise for my co-worker who was shaking with laughter and to welcome the star of our show to the table. “Arooo…” Okay, so that was closer, but the hello was somewhere between hello and a wolf howl. Come on Dylan, pull it together.

“I’m Jax.” My gaze lifted to meet his. If there was any hope left in my heart that he would be oblivious to his immediate effect on me, it was dashed the moment I caught the cocky smirk playing at the corner of his lips as he appraised me from head to toe slowly.

What the absolute fuck! How dare he look at me like a piece of meat? I was pretty much his boss. I looked quickly around the room again with misplaced hope in my heart that people were too busy reading script pages or chatting amongst their co-stars, rather than witnessing my loss of verbal function. Madison's and Harper’s eyes were like saucers, and their excited stares bounced quickly between me and Jax.

“Yes I know you who you are Mr. Conway, thank you for joining us.” Yay for the return of speech. “Would you care to take a seat?” I gestured at an empty seat at the opposite head of the table. The lead tended to sit at the head of the table, as their lines tended to be with all cast members during each episode. So the lead needed to be easily accessible to everyone. The only issue was that he would be in my direct eyeline at all times.

As Jax gracefully took his seat, I couldn’t help but steal furtive glances in his direction while attempting to maintain an air of professional nonchalance. My internal monologue shifted gears, running on a reel of disconcertingly vivid observations about the man who had just disrupted the equilibrium of my workday. His tousled dark hair possessed an unruly allure, as if each strand had rebelled against conformity in a silent act of defiance. The chiselled features of his face seemed sculpted with precision, forming a symphony of masculinity that effortlessly captivated the room. But it was those eyes —deep pools of intensity that bore into the soul — that left an indelible mark, promising secrets and stories yet untold. As he settled into his chair, a subtle swagger in his movements hinted at confidence bordering on arrogance, a quality I begrudgingly acknowledged only added to his irresistible mystique. The realisation dawned on me: Jax Conway wasn’t just a charismatic actor; he was a force of nature, a magnetic field disrupting the carefully plotted coordinates of my professional world.

“So shall we?” I asked, gesturing around the room for introductions to recommence.

“Oh, let me,” Jax coughed, standing quickly from his seat. “Since I held everyone up, at least I can get us underway.”

“Oh, I don’t…” I began, before being pulled harshly back into my seat.

“Sit your ass down,” Natalie hissed in my ear, “I wanna hear that fine-ass man speak.”

Sighing, I sank back in my seat and tried to look at anywhere but him. When he spoke, the silky smooth voice caressed my ears, drawing my gaze right to him like a sexy heat-seeking missile.

“Well, I’m Jax Conway.” He looked around the room, his charming smile disarming all whom it fell upon. I could feel the sighs and grunts of approval around the room. It made my skin itch, watching everyone’s obvious perusal of him like he was a piece of meat to be savoured. “Well, at least I’m Jax now, my name was taken from me when I joined Hollywood.”

Laughter rose around the room, making my eyes roll into the back of my head. Wasn’t THAT funny .

“I will not start reeling off my credits, firstly because that might take a while. An old man like me who has been around a while tends to rack up credits along the way.” His gaze locked with mine as he sent me a quick wink. My blood sizzled underneath my skin.

“Old man?” Natalie whispered in my ear. “Daddy can spank me anytime.”

“Natalie!” I hissed.

“I will just say I am very happy to have joined this cast on what I think is going to be a very important show. As a bisexual man myself…” My world screeched to a halt.

Jax Conway was bisexual?

Every time I had seen him in the press, he had been curled around some starlet or runway model. Well, fuck me!

Please.

Nuh uh, Dylan! Professionalism time!

“I see some of you are shocked by that. I have never hidden the fact that I ‘ swing both ways ’, but the media focuses on what it wants, and what it wanted from me it turned out was some generic Hollywood leading man type and when the cheques are rolling in, who am I to disillusion the masses?”

I watched as Jax, enthralled the rest of the cast and crew one by one. Of course, he had done his research and could pull compliments out of the air for each one of the crew. I would like to say that I sat there stoically judging him with a narrowed gaze, but in fact, I could not hold back the puppy dog eyes that I along with the rest of the cast, were shooting his way.

“And Dylan Cooper.” My name jolted something inside me, an inner voice screaming at me to pay attention to the gorgeous hairy-forearmed muscle daddy in front of me. “I would just like to say how honored I am to be the lead in what may be your first, but I truly hope won’t be your last show.”

“Oh, well…” I began, my voice spluttering like a moron.

“And what an important show to be a part of, right guys?” A chorus of agreement sounded out from around the room.

“It’s really a joint…” I gestured behind me to Natalie, whose grin was so wide I feared it might split her face in two.

“Let me just say…” His silky voice drew my attention solely back to him, his dark cool gaze seeming to dig deep into my soul and grab hold. My stare focused on that luscious mouth, the plump lips, and that fucking tongue. “I am very much looking forward to working closely with you.”

“Uhhhhh.” My brain exploded all over the pristine white wall behind me. That was the only explanation I could come up with that explained why I no longer had the capacity for clear speech or meaningful movement. I stared open-mouthed at that Adonis of a man, as his lips tilted into a sly grin and with one final wink from his eye, I melted into a puddle on the floor and pour into the drain never to be heard of again.

“I think what our fearless leader is trying to say,” Natalie piped up, her hand on my shoulder, assuring me I was indeed still a fully-formed human and not a slurry of human goo down a drain somewhere, “is that we too are looking forward to working closely with all of you. ”

Pulling myself back from the brink, I shook myself out of my hot bisexual daddy reverie and returned to the land of the sane. “Uh yes absolutely,” I coughed, clearing my throat. “Anyway, you have all seen the preliminary scripts. I’m going to pass around the scripts for our Week One, Episode One.”

“Production on Amore Blue is officially underway, Scene One!” Natalie shouted across the room. I heard cheers and claps from around the spacious board room, but my eyes locked with Jax Conway’s and I could not pull away. The heat I saw returned in his gaze would surely set me ablaze.

“Let’s get started,” he smirked.