Second Chance: A Christian Romance (Royals Book 2)

by Nicole Taylor

  Dana leaned against the door frame and observed him. He was dressed in a white shirt and blue jeans. His thick, black hair was long and fell just short of his shoulders. It had taken him a year to grow it that length for the movie. He also had a short, trim beard for the role. Thanks to photos taken on the set, the press already loved the look. Even though the movie wouldn’t be out for several months, the buzz was that men were now growing out their hair to coincide with Robert Cortelli’s latest hairstyle for when the movie The List was released.

  She had to admit that he did look incredibly sexy with the long hair and the beard. Quite frankly, no matter the look, Robert Cortelli breathed sex appeal. And clearly, Dana wasn’t the only one who thought so. For three years straight he had been crowned People Magazine’s ‘Sexiest Man Alive’.

  This train of thought left Dana suddenly conscious she didn’t look her best in the biscuit-colored sweatshirt with a couple droplets of pasta sauce down the front and with her hair pulled back in a rough ponytail. She decided to hurry upstairs and, at least, change her shirt and brush out her hair. The black jeggings could pass inspection.

  When she returned ten minutes later, the four were huddled together, their faces buried in Robert’s tablet. From past experiences, Dana knew they were viewing video footage from the set. Most likely it was action-packed footage based on the boys’ “cool” and “awesome” exclamations. Alex seemed less impressed by the photos and more impressed with the fact that she was curled in her father’s lap.

  “Daddy, Wow! Did you do that stunt yourself?” asked Aaron.

  Robert chuckled. “Sure did.”

  “Sweet!” exclaimed Adam.

  Dana’s mind drifted to the number of times Robert had been hurt doing stunts. She had begged him so many times to leave that work to stunt doubles but his response was always the same. “I need my performance to be authentic. When I wince in a scene, I want it to be real. I don’t want it to be contrived.”

  Alex twisted in Robert’s arms and looked up and saw Dana.

  “Mommy,” she said.

  Robert swung his head in Dana’s direction. When their eyes met, she realized that no matter how mad she got at Robert Cortelli, her heart still cried out for him.

  They stared at each other for several moments. His formerly laughing mouth closed and after several beats curled into a tentative smile.

  He slowly got up, set Alex down on the seat, amidst her protests, and covered the distance between them. Dana remained rooted to her spot but she did push off the door frame and straighten up. She crossed her arms over her crisp white button down shirt, thankful that she’d made the decision to wash her face and brush her hair. There was a part of her that still wanted to impress her husband.

  “Hi there,” he said as he leaned over to drop a kiss of greeting on her lips. “I’ve got something for you.”

  Robert reached into his pants pocket. When he slid out his hand, he was holding a tiny box.

  Dana barely glanced at the box as her hand closed around it. She refolded her hands.

  “Thank you,” she said in a formal voice. I want you, not your gifts.

  His smile faltered. “You’re not going to open it?”

  “Later. I see you made it in time. I thought you said you wouldn’t.”

  He frowned. “I guess you didn’t check the message I sent you last night. Immediately after you messaged me, I arranged to come home.”

  His voice dropped a few decibels.

  “I had actually forgotten it was their birthday. Can you believe it? I’ve been so busy and the pace was so hectic. Thank you for reminding me. Emilio nearly had a stroke when I told him I had to leave. It meant twelve hours of flying and filming will be delayed by a day and a half but it was worth it seeing their faces...”

  She nodded and swallowed. Now he was forgetting his kids’ birthday. It just got worse and worse.

  “…and yours,” he added softy as he encircled her waist and drew her close to him. She didn’t unfold her arms. She wanted to stay hardened against him. It made the distances easier somehow if she convinced herself she didn’t care. He ignored her posture and wrapped his arms around her. He leaned down and dropped tiny kisses on her neck. She got a whiff of Giu’s cool, fresh scent and unfolded her arms and allowed them to slide around his back.

  “I missed you, baby,” he whispered and his body’s response to her said that it wasn’t a lie.

  So typical. All he wants from me is sex. Dana’s body stiffened.

  “Really?”

  He drew back and looked hard at her.

  “Why is that always your response these days?”

  She gave him a wry smile as her hands dropped to her sides.

  “It kind of rings hollow since we hardly spend time together.”

  He nodded thoughtfully and his gaze dropped to the floor for a second.

  “This movie will wrap up in a few days and then I’ll be home and we can–”

  “When you get home I’ve got to fly to Paris for a couple days. I’ve got to do a Lancôme photo shoot.”

  “Fine. When you get back, then. We can fly off to Fiji for some together time.”

  “When I get back I have a couple of meetings to discuss my new movie.”

  He drew a hand through his hair. “Right.” He drew out the word. It was loaded.

  Dana felt a headache begin to form. She glanced at the kids. They were thankfully still engrossed in the video footage. Her gaze returned to Robert.

  She said in low tones, “You happily plan your schedule without a thought of me all the time. Don’t act as if I’m the bad guy because now that you’re ready to spend time with me I can’t fit it into my schedule.”

  He opened his mouth to protest but she held up a hand.

  “Not now, okay? Let’s talk after we put the kids to bed. There’s a lot we need to discuss…like your obsession with your career and the impact it’s having on our marriage.”

  Robert took in a deep breath. He glanced at his watch.

  “It’s 8:00 p.m. I’d still like to spend a little more time with them before they go to bed, if that’s okay.”

  She nodded.

  He turned to the kids.

  “How about we extend your bedtime to ten o’clock tonight? What do you say to that?”

  “Yeah!”

  Dana noticed that Alex, usually the first to bed and the first to rise, sounded weary. Indeed, while the spirit was willing the flesh was weak.

  “I don’t know if they’re going to make it. They’ve been up since 5:00 a.m. They were very excited about their birthday,” she cautioned.

  “Nah, they’ll make it. They are super troupers. Right kids?”

  He left her to give the trio high-fives.

  Dana shrugged and retreated to the study to check her email while Robert and the children adjourned to the entertainment room to play video games.

  After about an hour and a half spent replying to her mail and checking her social media posts, she peeped in on them. Alex was stretched out on the couch and was somewhere in the land of Nod while the boys continued to rally out.

  Robert, with the shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbow, looked up at her from the sofa where he was fiercely battling his two sons.

  “Don’t go past ten. Tomorrow’s still school,” she reminded him.

  He nodded.

  “Okay, kids. As soon as we finish this round it’s bedtime.”

  This was instantly followed by groans from the two.

  “School’s tomorrow. Remember you agreed to a ten o’clock bedtime. Doesn’t a man always keep his word?” Robert asked them gently. They nodded.

  “I’m going to take a bath,” Dana said.

  A corner of Robert’s mouth lifted and he gave her a wink.

  “You go ahead. I’ll get them ready for bed and tuck them in when we’re done.”

  “Will you read us a bedtime story?” asked Aaron.

  “Absolutely! What will it be this time?”

&n
bsp; “Mom’s been reading us The Chronicles of Narnia,” said Adam.

  “Which one?”

  “The Silver Sword.”

  “Wonderful! We shall continue with The Silver Sword then.”

  Dana retreated up the stairs. She had to acknowledge that when he was home Robert was the perfect father. So attentive, so loving, so kind. Still, she felt herself bristling at the “a man always keeps his word” comment. How many times had he broken his promise to her to take a break from filming and spend more time at home? When he was there, she was always waiting for him to disappear again. The situation was becoming untenable. They were like two ships passing in the night. A voice in her head suggested that maybe her absences when he showed up weren’t helping either but she immediately dispelled the thought. Wasn’t she supposed to have a career too? What about her needs? What about her desires? How did life get to be all about him?

  ~*~*~*~

  Robert softly closed the door to Aaron’s room, the third bedroom door he’d closed for the night, having put all the kids in their individual rooms after a spirited reading of The Silver Sword in the play room.

  The kids always enjoyed when he read to them because it never failed to be a theatrical dramatization. He was a born ham as he liked to say. He couldn’t help it. Anytime he read, or even related a story, to an audience it became a full-scale dramatic production complete with voice intonations and sweeping gesticulations.

  Robert made his way across the long hall in the impressive two-story mansion on Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills that he had purchased over twelve years earlier for $10 million. The house was now valued at $58 million. Many considered it quite a lucrative investment and he supposed it was. The only thing was that a house that size required lots of money to maintain. He was paying out money by the truck loads. He faced thousands of dollars in heating and air-conditioning costs, landscaping fees, not to mention property taxes, alone.

  As he approached the master bedroom suite, he did so with equal measures of anticipation and trepidation. Anticipation, because he missed his wife and desired to be close to her both physically and emotionally. Trepidation, because he knew that Dana was not happy with him. He had tried to compensate by picking up a pair of diamond earrings on the way to the airport as a peace offering and by taking the kids off her hands. He wasn’t sure that either of those gestures had been enough to warm her heart towards him. These days it seemed like he could do very little right.

  It annoyed him to no end that he could only get a proper greeting half the time he was home. The other half felt as though from the time he landed she was out the door, to some assignment or the other. It was like they were working a shift system.

  Whenever he would bring it up, she would respond that she had a career too. As though he objected to her pursuing an acting career. He wasn’t a Neanderthal for heaven’s sake. He had grown up with a mother who had a career. But his mother had always seemed to make it work so effortlessly. She was a wife first and foremost. Then a mother. Then a screenwriter. What was so wrong with that order of things?

  It wasn’t enough that Dana acted like he was being a chauvinist when he asked where she was off to, she also had to try to make him feel guilty about working hard. He had nothing to feel guilty about. He was doing what any self-respecting man would do – providing for his family. A definite necessity to continue their lifestyle which not only included the mansion on Crescent Drive but two other properties, several vehicles, a Gulfstream jet and an army of employees. He sometimes felt like CEO of a corporation when he considered the number of staff they retained: lawyers, accountants, personal assistants, publicists, personal trainers, maids, gardeners, security personnel, a personal chef, a chauffeur, a pilot...

  Besides, he loved his job and because of his worldwide box office appeal, there was never any shortage of scripts, good scripts, and he took full advantage of them. He brought out no less than two movies a year. And in addition to being considered one of the hardest working actors in Hollywood, he was also regarded as one of the most versatile. In the last three years alone, he had starred in everything from action films to romantic comedies, to period dramas to thrillers. And even though he still had to contend with the heartthrob label, his two Oscars, and two Oscar nominations proved that he was also respected as a talented actor. As a result, he reigned as Hollywood’s highest paid actor, earning a whopping $25 million per film.

  Based on his father’s success in films he expected, at least, another two and a half decades of superstardom before things began to taper off. He intended to seize every opportunity from now until then.

  As Robert ruminated, he entered the bedroom. He found it empty and remembered that Dana had said she was taking a bath. He unbuttoned his shirt and had visions of joining his wife. If she’d have him. He had been home for the weekend twice during filming and each time she’d given him the cold shoulder.

  Robert tried to stamp down the feeling of unease that had risen in his chest at that last thought. Never before in their marriage had that been an issue. No matter what arguments they may have had in the past, they had always enjoyed an amazing sex life. Until now. Was his marriage on shaky ground?

  He shook his head as he tossed his shirt in the nearby clothes basket and slipped out of his pants. No, he had nothing to worry about. Dana was just being a little temperamental. She’d get over it. Once this movie was over he’d whisk her off to Barbados for a week or two for a romantic getaway. In fact, their wedding anniversary was the following month. He could wait until then. He’d wine her and dine her and pamper her and seduce her and things would be back to normal in no time.

  The sight that greeted Robert as he walked into their large, ensuite, marble fantasy of a bathroom, made him groan. Dana was fast asleep in the huge, free-standing bathtub. He reached for a towel, draped it around his neck and lifted her out of the tub. She stirred in his arms and her eyes drifted open.

  “Ciao, bella,” he drawled. She really was heart-stoppingly beautiful.

  Her lips parted and he couldn’t resist. His head dipped and he gave her a slow, simmering kiss. She reached up a soapy hand and draped it around his neck. He still loved the greeting she gave him as soon as she awoke. Just before she remembered how much she resented him.

  She seemed to remember all too soon because he could feel her tense in his arms. She pushed against him. When he reluctantly broke contact, she said drowsily, “We need to talk, remember?”

  Yes, he remembered. Although he would rather forget. He really was not in the mood for an argument about his absences. He didn’t feel like being a whipping boy tonight. What he would prefer was a proper welcome home. It didn’t look like that was going to happen, though.

  He kept his tone light. “You look tired. Let’s do that in the morning.”

  To Robert’s surprise, Dana yawned and replied, “Okay.”

  He headed for the bed, threw the towel on it and gently placed her on top. He slowly dried her off, keeping hope alive that he might arouse her interest in some nocturnal activity, but she seemed exhausted. He sighed, tucked her under the covers, and dropped a goodnight kiss on her brow. One icy shower coming up.

  ~*~*~*~

  The alarm clock went off and Dana awoke with a start. She silenced the alarm and lay back on the bed, eyes opened, willing herself to get up and start her day. She knew that Robert was not there without even turning her head. She could sense it in the familiar stillness of the room. He had told her that he’d continue their discussion that morning knowing full well he’d be gone before she could wake up.

  For some reason though she still ran an arm over his side of the bed. To her surprise, she felt something. It was paper. She took up the white stationery and read: “Had to leave early to get back in time for tomorrow’s shoot. Love you, mia cara. Always. Bobby.”

  Dana crumpled up the paper and tossed it on the floor. She crossed an arm over her eyes and fell back on the mattress.

  Her first prayer to God that day
was, “Please free me from this, Lord. I don’t want to be married to Robert Cortelli anymore.”

  Chapter 9

  “Look at him go. He’s fast,” Carl Diggs, the 1st assistant director, commented to Emilio Testino as they watched Robert Cortelli chase the villain down the street. Robert was in a flat out sprint.

  “And fit,” Carl added. “Most actors would let a stunt double do that.”

  Emilio grunted. “Robert doesn’t let his stunt double do anything. The poor man sits around here catching flies.”

  “Oh, I don’t know, he does let him test out the safety rigging,” Carl responded drily.

  Emilio snorted. “I guess that’s the trouble when doubling for someone like Robert. He excels at everything. He’s an incredible fighter, driver, rides horses, rides motorcycles, and flies planes. He’s like a live wire. Up early and goes to bed late. He works out like no one I’ve ever met. I don’t know how he does it.”

  “Do you think he’s on drugs?”

  Emilio shot Carl an incredulous glance.

  “Robert Cortelli on drugs? Are you kidding me? Don’t you see what a fitness fanatic he is? The man drinks green juice for breakfast and protein shakes for lunch for heaven’s sake. The only pills I’ve ever seen him pop are vitamins and herbal supplements. He treats his body like a temple. Did I ever tell you that the first time we worked together, it was to shoot a commercial? Even then he was brilliant. He’s a director’s dream. I love working with him. I can keep the camera on him the whole time because he’s the one doing this stunt. It just makes the scene more real.”

  Emilio turned his attention back to the camera. Several minutes later he yelled through the megaphone.

  “Cut and print. Perfect, Robert. Perfect shot.”

  ~*~*~*~

  Dana sat on her living room sofa and munched on a solitary cookie, her first treat for the week, as she issued instructions to her household manager, Ingrid Anderson. Ingrid was tasked with managing the army of household staff, running the day-to-day affairs of the home and communicating with vendors and delivery people. She was like a modern day butler of sorts. Dana had hired Ingrid about three years ago when responsibilities of managing such a huge property, amidst caring for her children and launching an acting career had become a burden.