Second Chance: A Christian Romance (Royals Book 2)

by Nicole Taylor

  Testino laughed.

  “I know. A lot of footage will end up on the cutting room floor but you must be familiar with that. Months of shooting a film cut down to what, one and a half hours?”

  Robert chuckled. “Okay, so we begin shooting first thing tomorrow, right?”

  “No. Since you didn’t want Dana Dickson in the loop until the point of the shoot we’ll have to do the rehearsals for your scenes together before we begin the actual shoot. The scenes you will appear in separately we can rehearse here at the hotel today with each of you. You first.”

  “What time?”

  “How about in an hour?”

  Robert shrugged. “Sounds fine. Is Giuseppe going to be here?”

  “Wouldn’t miss it. He’ll be here tonight.”

  “Cool. I’m actually excited about this, you guys. I’ve got to say it’s really impressive stuff. I had no idea all of this went into selling a fragrance.”

  “The fashion and cosmetic industry is big business,” Joe said. “We always have to look for creative ways to stay ahead of the competition. Given your wide appeal, we knew that female audiences, in particular, would lap up five minutes of you on screen.”

  ~*~*~*~

  Robert went through his rehearsal quickly and efficiently. The whole business took less than an hour, and then he was free to go.

  He decided to go for a swim in the hotel pool. It was his form of exercise these days. Hence, the reason he had bought a home with an Olympic-sized pool. He completed twenty laps every morning and then felt ready for the world.

  He went back up to the room to change and then headed for the pool. As he passed the reception area, he glanced up at the counter and almost froze mid-stride when he saw Dana Dickson checking in. He drank in the sight of her. Her hair was bundled on top of her head and she looked different somehow, younger and more fresh-faced. After a few seconds, the reason dawned on him. She wasn’t wearing make-up. If anything, she looked even more beautiful without it.

  He ducked his head and strode through reservations to the pool area, trusting she wouldn’t recognize his retreating back.

  He shed his tee shirt and threw it, along with his sunglasses, onto a nearby chair then went to the deep end of the pool and plunged in. As he swam, he thought about his plans for the next two days. It was a crazy idea of course. There was no guarantee that she’d go for it, but if his success rate with women in the past was anything to go by there was a high probability it would work.

  Robert felt a quiver in his stomach for a moment as he remembered that Dana wasn’t like the women in his past. He still had not quite recovered from the shock of her rebuff. Notwithstanding the fact that no woman had ever turned him down before, he didn’t believe for a second that she wasn’t attracted to him. He had seen the spark of interest in her eyes. No, it definitely had to be his cursed ladies’ man image that had made her wary. And the fact that he had risen to fame in the title role Don Juan, didn’t help matters. He would set her straight on that score very soon.

  Robert grabbed his towel and began to dry off. He looked up and caught three attractive young women casting furtive glances his way and then giggling with each other. He shot them a polite smile. He instantly regretted that move.

  From his peripheral vision, he saw them swing their legs to the floor and sashay over to him.

  “You’re Robert Cortelli, aren’t you?”

  The one with an olive complexion and endless dark brown hair nailed him with the question, her eyes as wide as saucers.

  “No, I’m not,” he lied. “People get me confused with him all the time.”

  She looked doubtful for a moment and shared glances with her two cohorts.

  “Oh, well you’re a dead-ringer for him. You could get roles as his double, I swear. Couldn’t he?”

  She sought confirmation from her friends who nodded and continued to fix their awestruck gazes on him.

  “You missed a spot,” she said and before he could object she grabbed his towel from the chair and began to dry off his arm.

  One of her friends took a step closer and peered up into his face.

  “Are you sure you’re not Robert Cortelli? You look an awful lot like him and I heard on the news this morning that he was in Naples to shoot a film or something.”

  Robert sighed. “Okay, you got me.”

  She began to squeal with delight. He quickly grabbed her and placed a finger over her mouth.

  “No need to create a scene. It’s really not that big of a deal.”

  The three watched him with wide-eyed excitement. They apparently were not convinced. He sighed and his gaze drifted upward – and hit Dana Dickson squarely in the face! She was staring at him in slack-jawed surprise. Then her eyes darted from him to the three young women, and what she thought of him and his little fan club was clearly spelled out on her face. She shot him a withering look, turned on her heel and walked in the opposite direction.

  Robert sighed in frustration. Great. Now he would have to work double time to reverse her opinion of him as a Don Juan.

  He still had his hands on the girl’s bare arms. He removed them as if they were hot coals and took a step away from the three of them.

  “Umm…girls–”

  “Alissa and this is Rochelle and Desiree.”

  “Girls, listen I’ve got to go, okay? It was nice meeting you, though.”

  “You too,” they gushed. “Can we have your autograph?”

  He looked around helplessly. “I don’t have a pen.”

  “I do,” the blonde chirped and ran back to her seat. In a few seconds, she was holding out a Sharpie. She had no paper.

  “What am I going to sign?” he asked in confusion.

  “These,” she said, pushing her chest forward.

  “What?” he asked incredulously.

  She pointed to the twin pitons on her chest.

  “These.”

  ~*~*~*~

  Dana was stunned. Robert Cortelli was there at the hotel in Naples. Of all the places in all the world, why Naples? And in the same hotel where she was staying to boot. Could it be a coincidence or was it more sinister than that?

  She shook her head. Way too weird. Until a few weeks ago she’d never even met the guy. Now it seemed as though he was everywhere she went. And predictably, there were women following. Just when she had started to have doubts that her decision to turn him down had been the right one, he had confirmed what a player he was with not just one but three women draped all over him. The thought of it just made her sick.

  She had planned to hang out by the pool until rehearsal for the commercial but no more. She’d either go to another pool on the property or return to her room and relax instead.

  She just needed to find out where the other pool was first. She approached the reception desk.

  “Hi, can you tell me where your pools are located?”

  The receptionist smiled politely and spoke in heavily accented English. “There’s the one on the eastern side. That’s the biggest and nicest one.”

  “Been there. The scenery left much to be desired. What else?”

  “Um…there’s a smaller, more intimate, pool to the west. You just need to take the first left turn when you leave the lobby and follow the path right out to the end. You cannot miss it but if you do, ask any staff member and they’d be happy to direct you.”

  “Okay, thanks.”

  Dana tightened her sarong skirt and headed to the west while gripping the novel she planned to devour for the next half an hour.

  ~*~*~*~

  Robert couldn’t claim to be exactly surprised that the ladies had asked him to autograph that part of their anatomy but what did surprise him was the disgust he felt. It wasn’t the first time in his life such offers from the female species had been flung his way, in fact, occasionally the come-ons had been way more graphic.

  Back then, he’d been amused and a little flattered at his effect on members of the opposite sex. Now, though, all he felt was
disgust. Just now he’d felt like sitting those women down and saying, “Listen, young ladies, you need to have a little more pride in yourselves.” Instead, he’d explained that he was not a tattoo artist, grabbed his things and beat a hasty retreat.

  There was something so regal about Dana Dickson that he could never see her reducing herself to such levels of debasement.

  What was wrong with him? He’d just met the woman four weeks ago and he was already comparing her to other women. He clearly had a bad case of infatuation.

  As he entered the lobby, he saw the lady in question heading in the opposite direction. He decided to discreetly follow her. There would be no doubt in her mind that he was stalking her now.

  ~*~*~*~

  “May I sit beside you?”

  Dana was not pleased about the shiver that ran up her spine at the sound of that voice.

  “It’s a free country,” she said briskly. After all, it didn’t matter one way or the other where he sat.

  She heard him chuckle, and then she heard the scrape of the lounge chair as he drew it closer to her own.

  Dana tried valiantly to continue reading her book but she kept reading the same dialogue over and over again. Nothing she read any longer made sense. Minutes later she gave up and lowered the novel to her lap.

  She gave him a sidelong glance.

  “What’re you reading?” he asked.

  “Anna Karenina.”

  “That’s heavy stuff! I never pegged you for a Tolstoy type of girl.”

  That got her attention. She abruptly turned to him.

  “You know nothing about me so I can’t think what kind of girl you could have pegged me for.”

  He swung his legs over the side of the chair and positioned himself so that he was now staring directly at her.

  Dana’s heartbeat began to race even though she begged it to behave.

  Robert placed his elbows on his legs and leaned forward.

  “I would love to change that. Get to know you better.”

  “Really? Have you grown tired of your three girlfriends already?” she asked tersely.

  His eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

  “Who?”

  She rolled her eyes and turned her gaze to the kidney-shaped pool and the curved trunks of the palms beyond.

  “Are you talking about those women at the other pool? Hey, I don’t know them from Adam. They just attached themselves to me like little leeches. They wanted my autograph or something. Trust me I’ve never seen them before in my life.”

  “You don’t owe me an explanation. It’s really none of my business.”

  “So, what do you think about the love affair?”

  “What?!” her head swiveled around and she stared at him.

  “Between Vronsky and Anna.”

  “Oh! Well…I think it’s sad.”

  “Sad? Why?”

  “Sad that Anna isn’t happy with the man she’s married to. Sad that she thinks she needs someone else to make her happy.”

  “Some might say it was Karenin’s own fault for neglecting her.”

  “I don’t agree. I think that there is such a thing as commitment. She vowed to be committed to him ‘til death did them part. She shouldn’t have ignored that.”

  “Ahh…so you’re not a romantic then. You don’t believe that all that matters is how two people feel about each other.”

  “Au contraire, I am a romantic. I believe in love that lasts a lifetime. The love between one man and one woman. That’s not what Anna and Vronsky have. They are infatuated with each other. They’re in lust not in love. Love is facing the world together as one force, facing the peaks and the valleys of life together. Love involves sacrifice. It puts the other’s needs before one’s own. Lust is fleeting, it’s selfish, it only thinks about gratifying desire.”

  Robert gazed at her in silence for a full minute with a look of admiration on his face.

  “What a speech. I stand corrected. You are a romantic.”

  Dana gave a short, self-conscious laugh and looked down at her book. After several moments, she allowed her gaze to re-connect with his. It held. He had such beautiful eyes, like chocolate and diamonds. They threatened to suck her into a vortex. She couldn’t let that happen. She broke the connection and looked away.

  She heard him clear his throat.

  “Have dinner with me tonight. I’d like to hear some more about your thoughts on true love.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Here, by the pool?”

  “Here in Naples. At this hotel.” She met his eyes again.

  “I’m shooting a scene here.”

  “For a movie?”

  He shifted in the chair. “Something like that.”

  “That’s quite a coincidence. I’m here shooting a commercial.”

  “Kismet.”

  “Huh?’

  “Not coincidence. Kismet.”

  “Kismet?”

  “Yeah, fate. It was fate that we were paired together at Assante’s show. Fate that you fell into my arms the night of Heather Lawrence’s show and fate that we’re here together now.”

  She glanced down at her hands as she struggled to tame the emotions warring inside her. She did not want to be drawn to this man. How many times in her life had she seen her girlfriends in the industry fall for guys like him? Gorgeous guys who were just looking for a good time and when they’d gotten the goods moved on to the next conquest. She hadn’t been exempt herself.

  “Robert, I need to be upfront with you. I don’t think there’s a future for us.”

  “Why not?” he asked, aghast.

  “I just think we have separate values.”

  “How do you even know that? You don’t know me. That crap in the press isn’t who I am, Dana. Just give me a chance to show you.”

  “Okay, suppose I told you that I’ve taken a vow to be celibate until I’m married.”

  She fixed her eyes on him as she said this, curious about what his reaction would be. To his credit, Robert actually appeared to be considering her words. He looked out across the pool, deep in thought, and after some time slowly nodded. He met her eyes unflinchingly.

  “I’d say I think that’s admirable. I can respect that position.”

  She blinked a few times. Well, she hadn’t expected that!

  “Oh…kay…then. Well, we’ll see.”

  “Why are you surprised?”

  “Because the last guy I said that to laughed in my face and called me weird.”

  “The guy’s an idiot. There’s nothing weird about a woman who respects herself.”

  She watched him in stunned silence. If that was a line, it was a very good one. This guy just knew all the right things to say. But only God knew the heart. She prayed for guidance but she still wasn’t sure what to say.

  “Um…I need to think about that some more, okay?”

  “So does that mean you won’t dine with me tonight?”

  “We’ll see. I’ve got a rehearsal for this commercial coming up soon so I’ve got to go back to my room and change. I’ll call you later when I’m through.”

  “Okay, if I’m not in my room, please leave a message on the answering machine.”

  “I’ll do that. Hear you later, then.”

  Chapter 5

  “Earth to Robert…”

  “Huh…” Robert blinked a few times and glanced across at Anna Terranova. She was waving a well-manicured hand in front of his face.

  “Where’d you just go?” she asked.

  Robert lifted the glass of gin and tonic to his lips and took a sip. He scanned the lounge area for the tenth time in the last twenty minutes. Still no Dana.

  “What were you saying?”

  She shook her head in exasperation.

  “I was talking about the meeting Sandy is having with the Sony Studio executives next week to discuss your role in Damage. Sandy told me he’s going to negotiate for twenty million.”

  That caught his attention.r />
  “Twenty million dollars?”

  “No twenty million rupees. Of course twenty million dollars. Didn’t Sandy mention it to you?”

  “When we spoke yesterday he only said he was going to demand a higher figure than what I currently earn based on what my last movie grossed. He didn’t give me a specific amount.”

  “Plus, we are going to ask for a percentage of the movie revenue.’

  Robert blinked rapidly. “I’m glad to have you guys negotiating for me. I don’t think I would have had the nerve to ask for all that.”

  “That’s why you pay us to do it for you. I don’t know if you understand how big you are. Why do you think Assante is paying you a million dollars to shoot a five-minute commercial when he could have hired a male model for a fraction of that? Because, he knows that your appeal is so great that it will cause those colognes to fly off the shelves by the hundreds of thousands and at one hundred dollars a bottle he’ll make back and exceed that money before year end. Between you and me, Sandy told me that he made a mistake with Train Crash when he didn’t negotiate a percentage of the receipts. Not this time. This movie is going to be a sure fire hit and you will reap some of the benefits.”

  Robert nodded with satisfaction. It was like a dream come true. Everything was lining up for him. Finally, he was emerging from under his father’s giant shadow and earning some respect as a serious actor in his own right. All of his hard work was paying off. He now felt poised to share it all with the right woman. If only negotiating with her was as easy as negotiating a contract with directors and producers.

  That set him to brood again. He anxiously raked his gaze across the lounge as Anna responded to a call on her cell phone.

  “Assante’s here,” she informed him a few minutes later as she returned her phone to the table. “Joe and Emilio are going to brief him over dinner in his suite in about twenty minutes. You should be there.”

  Robert shook his head. “I can’t. She may still show.”

  Anna’s mouth tightened and she sighed impatiently.

  “You do know that she can walk off the set tomorrow if she’s so hell bent on not working with you, don’t you? I hear that she can be a real diva.”