Then she reached the bottom of the catwalk and those amazing eyes of hers slammed into his. Robert felt as though a lightning bolt had struck his heart. He couldn’t contain the grin that spread across his face and then suddenly his heart leaped into his throat as he saw her begin to stumble and then off balance. His training all those years as a wide receiver kicked into gear. He flew out of his seat and expertly caught her in his arms before she could hit the floor. She was surprisingly light for such a tall woman but then he’d heard that models lived on rabbit food.
What was also surprising was that instead of the gratitude he expected to shine from her eyes, instead of the ‘my hero’ he expected to flow from her lips, all he got was a scowl and a snarl. Like it was his fault she’d tripped and fallen.
At the show’s end, he was ushered into the after-party but contemplated leaving early. Evidently, there had been some misunderstanding. Dana Dickson did not appear interested in apologizing for her previous conduct at all. In fact, she had looked at him as though he was road kill.
As he made his way towards the exit, a reporter from Entertainment Weekly stuck a microphone in his face. “How’d you enjoy the show?”
“It was alright.”
“That catch was really entertaining. Was it staged?”
He winked. “I’d prefer not to share insider secrets since it wasn’t my show. I’ll let Heather Lawrence do that.”
“So, are you and Dana Dickson an item? You know that kiss the two of you shared the other day set tongues wagging.”
“I wouldn’t say we shared a kiss. I kissed her, that’s all. Don’t read too much into it,” he replied, knowing full well that they would, in fact, read very much into it.
After the reporter had gone off to search for her next victim, she was replaced by a journalist from the L.A. Times who asked him a similar set of questions. He was able to escape a few minutes later and then was waylaid by the designer who had sent him the ticket.
She shook his hand. “Thanks for coming,” she gushed. “It was fortuitous you were here or we might have had a minor catastrophe.”
He stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans and looked down at the tiny woman and shrugged.
“Oh, I’m sure that some other patron would have caught her.”
“Maybe not. Not everyone has your quick reflexes.”
“Um…are you sure she wants to apologize. I wasn’t getting that vibe.”
“Sure she does. Let me take you backstage. I’ll go get her for you.”
~*~*~*~
Dana brushed out her long hair. She knew that Heather would want her to attend the after-party but the experience of falling off the stage into Robert Cortelli’s arms had unnerved her. She had to leave. She would take the back way out to lessen the risk of running into him.
She quickly pulled on her dark blue skinny jeans and taupe top. She was in the process of pulling on her suede flats when Heather walked into the changing room.
“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” Heather asked.
“I don’t want to answer any questions from the press about that fall, Heather. I need to go.”
“There’s someone here to see you.”
“Who’s that?” Dana smoothed some lip gloss on her lips and recapped the tube. She reached down and grabbed her bag. “Well, who?” she asked Heather expectantly.
“Robert Cortelli.”
Her eyes widened then narrowed to slits.
“Oh is that why you look so star struck? I already told you what I think of him. I have nothing to say to him.”
“Let’s talk about it in my room before you leave.”
Dana sighed and followed Heather.
“There’s nothing to discuss. This is pointless.”
“I’ve got a hunch that Robert Cortelli is really into you, Dana.”
“First of all, who cares and, second of all, I think we both know what guys like him are really after.”
“I don’t think he’s like that.”
Dana rolled her eyes and pulled her bag strap over her shoulder.
“Oh? I didn’t know that you and Robert Cortelli were pen pals. Tell me more.”
“I’m serious. Suppose this guy is God-sent?”
They were now just outside Heather’s room. Dana stopped short and shook her head in amazement.
“The macho heartthrob. You think God sent him for me. Heather, you’re losing it.”
Heather’s hand was on the doorknob.
“You don’t know what’s in the guy’s heart. You should give him a chance.”
“A chance to do what?”
“Ask him yourself.”
“Huh?”
Heather opened the door with a flourish and Dana found herself staring into the sparkling dark brown eyes that had haunted her dreams for the last couple of nights. Their owner immediately stood.
Dana heard Heather whisper, “Apologize for that slap. I’ve got to rejoin my guests.”
“Hi,” he said, hands in pockets, looking a bit less the cocky movie star and more the guy asking a girl to the prom.
“Are you stalking me?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest and trying for a stern tone.
Instantly, the confident star was back.
“Why would I need to stalk you?” was his snappy reply. “You’re the one who fell into my arms. I mean, I’ve had women throw themselves at me before but you’ve taken it to a whole ‘nother level, sweetheart.”
Dana opened her mouth with a quick retort but a giggle escaped instead. Then another and before she knew it, she was holding her sides and shaking with laughter.
She found a seat and eventually sobered. She wiped her eyes with the back of her thumb.
“Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For catching me. After the way I went off on you the other night you would have been justified in letting me fall flat on my face.”
“Oh, I couldn’t do that. That would’ve been a waste of a perfectly good face,” he said deadpan.
She erupted in giggles again. This guy was funny.
After the laughter had died down, he said, “Dana, I really was sorry that night for kissing you. It might not have come across as genuine because I didn’t want to admit to you that I was wrong. I guess I was still smarting from that slap, literally and figuratively.”
One corner of his mouth lifted. After a few beats, his expression turned serious.
“Can you please forgive me?” he asked.
How could she stay mad at him after an apology like that? She swallowed and nodded, “Ummm…I guess I’m sorry for slapping you too.”
A smile played around his lips.
“Are you? Really?”
“That’s what I just said,” she replied saucily.
He chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. I deserved it. So about that fall. What happened?”
She shrugged and averted her gaze.
“What do you mean?”
“One minute you were striking a pose and the next you were grasping at thin air. Did your shoe get caught in something?”
“Something like that. Models fall on the runway more often than you’d think. Some of those shoes are really not meant for walking.”
“Seems dangerous. A woman could break her neck in heels that high. Why was the runway elevated anyway? At Assante’s show, there wasn’t a stage.”
Dana smiled. “What can I tell you? Our Heather likes to be different.” Her tone revealed the affection she held for her dear friend.
“So, are you joining the after-party?” he asked.
“No, actually I’m going back to the hotel.”
“How about coming with me to the Sundown Club. I’m meeting some friends there tonight.”
Dana felt an immediate discomfort in her spirit.
“Sundown Club?”
“Yeah, it’s this new nightclub. Pretty cool place.”
She pursed her lips.
“I don’t go clubbing. Not anymore.”
His head jerked back in surprise.
“Okay. How come?”
“I’m a Christian.”
“Oh!” his thick, dark brows shot up.
She was not really surprised by his reaction. She got that, and worse, to such an admission these days.
“You seem shocked,” she commented coolly.
“I guess I never associated the world of high fashion with Christianity.”
“Why not?” she asked stubbornly, although she knew the answer. She was grappling with the contradiction herself.
“Modeling isn’t exactly synonymous with virtue.”
Dana straightened her back.
“Yes, of course. How could I forget what you think of the modeling profession?”
“Let’s not go there again. You already said you forgave me so you’re not allowed to bring that back up.”
“I forgave you for kissing me, not for your impertinent remarks.”
Again he looked surprise. Was it her use of the word ‘impertinent?’ Perhaps. Most men seemed shocked when they found that she could actually walk and talk at the same time. What many people didn’t know was that, while she only had a high school education, she was an avid reader, especially of classic literature.
“Sorry, I was stereotyping. I really don’t know anything about models,” he confessed sheepishly.
“Obviously, you don’t think models are very wholesome,” she heard the defensiveness in her tone. The nerve he had struck the night of Assante’s show was still raw.
“It would be stupid of me to make a blanket statement about models but let’s not pretend. Most of the sultry poses, not to mention clothing I see models in magazines wearing, don’t exactly reflect Christian purity.”
“And what magazines are we talking here? Maxim? FHM?” she baited, eyeing him knowingly.
He didn’t bite, though.
“How about the Victoria’s Secret catalogue? You’re their biggest model from what I understand. How do those poses square with your beliefs?”
Whoosh! That indictment knocked the wind out of her.
“Is this an interrogation?” she asked.
“No, not at all,” he replied hastily. “Tell me more about your church.”
“Why don’t you tell me if you go to church since you know all about what’s virtuous and what’s not,” she asked as she folded her arms across her chest and leveled her gaze at him.
He paused for a moment, seemingly caught off guard.
“I’m Catholic. I attended Catholic school from preschool to high school. I had a pretty religious upbringing.”
“You didn’t answer my question. Do you go to church?”
“No, I don’t. You don’t have to go to church to love God. I pray. Every morning I get up I thank him for life.” He reached into his shirt and brought out a cross on a chain. “And this I wear close to my chest. It’s my luck.”
“You think that’s enough?” she asked.
He looked uncomfortable for a moment as he looked into a corner of the room. “Sure. God knows I love him,” he finally said without conviction.
“That’s the lie I fed myself for many years too. But I had to face the truth eventually.”
“What do you mean?”
She looked around the small, sparsely furnished room absently as she spoke.
“I grew up in the church. My mom made us go. We didn’t have a choice. So I went. It was a ritual. Sunday and some Wednesday nights we went to church. Then I migrated to Paris at eighteen and, with my work schedule, most Sundays I was either in bed catching up on sleep from a late Saturday night or out on a photo shoot.”
“So what happened to change that?”
“Heather happened. She was always inviting me to church and finally, a few months ago, I went and had an experience that changed my life. The pastor said that there was nothing in the world that could come close to the greatness of knowing Jesus Christ. Nothing. I realized at that moment that there was an emptiness in my soul that all the money and the fame and the clubbing and the people weren’t able to fill. I gave my life to Christ. I feel like I’m now a work in progress. I still struggle with certain aspects of my character, like my temper…”
“You think?” Robert interrupted with a grin.
She returned his smile. “…but I know I’ll get there with God’s help.”
He nodded as if he really had been listening and understood.
“I see. Well if you don’t want to go to a club that’s fine. We can go wherever you want. I just want to spend time getting to know you.”
Dana sighed deeply. She so wanted to say yes, but she was afraid. She’d gone down this road so many times before. It always started just like this, with interest on their part in getting to know her. Only they often wanted to get to know her a little more intimately than she liked and when she declined it did not go over well. No. Robert Cortelli was of a similar ilk. Good looking, famous, charming, sure of himself. She didn’t need his type in her life. Surely, God had someone in store for her. Someone who was interested in more than her looks. Someone who viewed her as more than a trophy.
Dana stood up abruptly. “I can’t. I’ve got to go.”
“Wait…I’d like to see you again. How can I contact you?” he asked as he also rose to his feet.
She paused, battling with herself as she struggled to respond with her head and not her heart.
“Robert, I’m not interested in seeing anyone right now. I’m focusing on other things in my life, like my spirituality and my career.”
His face fell.
“Sorry. Bye.”
She backed out of the room. That absolutely had been the right move. So why did she feel as though her heart was being squeezed by a giant hand?
~*~*~*~
“Sandy, you need to make it clear to them that I will only do the commercial when they can get Dana Dickson to co-star with me. Until then I’m not doing it.”
“Robert, they will sue you if you don’t do the commercial. It’s in your contract.”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it, I said I will only do it when they get Dana Dickson. Sandy, I pay you a percentage of my income, so if I don’t get the promised million from this commercial, it doesn’t augur well for you. So you need to stop telling me what can’t happen and go out there and make it happen. Don’t call me back unless it’s to tell me that she has agreed to be in the shoot. I don’t care if they have to pay her half of my earnings to get her there. Do whatever it takes.”
Robert disconnected the call and allowed his head to fall back against his bedroom wall. For a moment, he wondered if he was being unreasonable, but then he thought about the sleepless nights he’d had in the last couple of weeks since Dana Dickson had turned him down flat. There was something about that woman that just captivated him. He could not get her out of his mind. He didn’t know the reason for her refusal to date him, but he felt instinctively it might have to do with his image as a ladies’ man. It was not an accurate image but women always just seemed to appear out of nowhere wherever he went. Early on, Sandy had told him that it could actually be to his advantage to play along with the media’s portrayal of him as a hearthrob. He had advised him that it would be good for his career to be seen out with a pretty girl every once in a while. It kept him curent and increased his popularity among his fans, he’d said. He had listened to Sandy and now it had come back to bite him.
Robert drew in a deep breath. So now he had to work hard to prove to Dana that he was not that guy. He was not a womanizer. Instead, he had a deep desire to become a family man, to follow his father’s example of the wife and the kids and the house on the hill. All that. He just needed the opportunity to share this desire with Dana. The commercial would grant him that chance. Once Sandy and Assante’s team got her to Naples, he’d take it from there. After all, Naples was his father’s hometown. What better omen was there than that?
Chapter 4
It wasn’t quite what he’d expected. I
t was almost like a movie short, Robert mused. If someone had asked him what was involved in shooting a commercial for a fragrance he would have said, “You pose and gaze into the distance with a contemplative and brooding look. Then probably say something like, ‘I wear this cologne all the time and if you want to be rich and good looking like me wear it too.’ In other words, apply little effort at all while saying super corny lines.”
He had to give props to Assante’s team for creativity. While the commercial wouldn’t require him to come close to flexing his thespian muscles, it would involve slightly more work than he’d envisaged and the approximately six lines he had to say weren’t bad either.
Following his flight, he was escorted to his hotel and before he could even take a seat Anna was summoning him to a meeting with the team. He was introduced to the creative director, Joe Razzi, and the director, Emilio Testino.
He had asked Assante’s team to keep his name a mystery for as long as possible for obvious reasons. He didn’t want Dana to turn down the assignment because she knew he’d be involved.
“Just want to confirm, Dana Dickson is the model, right?” he asked as he twisted his watch band.
Joe Razzi nodded. “She’s coming in from Paris this afternoon.”
“Is she staying here at the Vesuvio?’
“Yes, she is. Will that be a problem?” Joe asked.
“No. Still, I’d prefer if she didn’t know I was the actor involved until the day of the shoot.”
“Okay, Robert, we just want you to have an idea of what to expect. You would have been given an overview by Sandy. But I’ll let Emilio elaborate,” Joe said.
Emilio Testino was a good looking Italian-American who had gained fame in recent years for a series of critically acclaimed movies. He smiled.
“Essentially it’s going to be shot at four locations, the train station, a room in this hotel, the beach, and finally the Castel dell’Ovo.”
“Four locations for a five-minute commercial. Interesting,” Robert observed drily.
Second Chance: A Christian Romance (Royals Book 2) Page 3