by Raine Thomas
Now she did elbow him. He just rubbed his side and grinned at her. When her phone buzzed in her purse, she pulled it out and found a text from Sydney.
I’ll come with you, it read.
Smiling, Lily texted back, Great! Want me to pick you up?
No. I’ve got plans afterward. Text me the address and I’ll meet you there.
Lily had to pull up the address on her phone. She copied and pasted it into a text back to Sydney. Sydney texted her a thank you and said she’d see Lily the next day.
“What was that all about?” Dane asked.
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
He shrugged and tried again to urge her to engage in a little necking. She reluctantly evaded him out of hickey fear. They arrived at the drop-off location shortly thereafter.
By the time they actually reached the red carpet, Lily felt like she had entered an alternate universe. She knew House of Archer had introduced Lily Montgomery to the world, but that had only been three short weeks ago. She figured it would take more time for her to get well known. Even the response on social media hadn’t given her a good grasp of the following she had already developed. She was completely staggered by the number of fans screaming for both her and Dane from the moment they exited the sedan.
Most of Dane’s fans likely knew who she was because they followed music and entertainment news. Still, she would have thought those fans would hate her. Their avid response indicated anything but.
She did her best to remember Dane’s coaching and act like it was all perfectly normal as she smiled and waved. She was grateful Dane mostly kept his arm around her. Every time he had to remove it to sign an autograph, someone was right there asking for her autograph, too.
They both paused for photos with fans, some individually and some together. Then there was the walk in front of the step-and-repeat bearing the movie’s logo. There were more photographers posted there than Lily had ever seen collected in one place. Even with the A-listers making their appearances, the photographers acted like Lily and Archer were the most important subjects they would ever capture on film.
“Lily and Archer, right here!” she barely registered amidst the chaos and flash bulbs. “Lily! Archer! Lily, can we get you solo? Archer, please step over here. Right here, please. Right here! Turn to your right please. Sorry, just one more time, right here. One more. Just one more. One more time, you two!”
The commands were shouted by different photographers all trying to be heard over each other. Dane had instructed her to remain by his side smiling throughout, not responding to questions or moving away from him. She had no objections to that.
The photos went on for so long that her cheeks were burning from the effort of holding her smile in place by the time they were allowed to carry on along the red carpet. Much as Dane had commented in the car, he then had to participate in the cast group shot. That didn’t turn out to be nearly as dreadful as Lily feared. Someone came to get her to pose for solo shots while he was busy, so she stood on her own and smiled some more as the photographers went wild. She was deeply relieved when Dane came and got her.
“Now it’s time for the interviews,” he told her as they moved along the walkway.
She nodded. He had also mentioned this part. There were crew members and hosts from various entertainment outlets in attendance to interview the actors appearing in the film. A staff person would guide Dane from host to host to answer a variety of questions before he went to the next leg of the walk into the theater. Lily, she had been told, would be ushered off to await him at the other end of the gauntlet. It seemed perfectly do-able.
“Lily and Archer, you’re with E!,” barked a female in a logoed shirt. “Right this way.”
The female headed off towards a filming station. Lily was sure her eyes were as wide as salad plates over being included in the interviews. Dane just tightened his hold on her waist and leaned down to brush a kiss over her lips while they were safely tucked behind a tall banner.
“The public loves you, Lily Momilly,” he said. “I can’t blame them. Think you can fake it ‘til you make it here?”
Her stomach pitched and rolled, but she nodded. Maybe they wouldn’t ask her anything, she silently prayed, suddenly quite okay with being his vapid arm candy.
“We’re here with The Void’s front man, Archer, who plays the role of confidential informant Derek Squires in Game of Risk,” the host said to the camera while Dane and Lily stood in the bright lights set up for the shoot. “Archer, tell us what it was like to transition from rock star to government agent for this film.”
Lily looked at Dane as he replied. She didn’t absorb a thing he said. She was unexpectedly struck by the fact that she was standing there with one of the hottest, most successful celebrities in the country, a status he had more than earned. His talent was staggering. She could think of only a handful of celebrities who were both skilled actors and amazing singers. He, without a doubt, topped the list.
How the hell had she ended up here?
“And Lily,” the host said, prompting her to tear her gaze from Dane. “Are you excited about seeing Archer in a...we’ll say ‘questionable’ role?”
She smiled. “I’m always excited to see him.”
The host laughed before she could expand on her response. “Ah, the early stages of romance. Archer, what was it like working opposite India Lockwood?”
Lily was careful to hide her annoyance over being cut off after what amounted to a pathetic interview response. If she was going to be dragged on camera, she at least wanted to make the most of it. She knew every appearance like this needed to build on the House of Archer storyline to keep the show credible. She tried to prepare some replies in her mind for possible questions so she wasn’t caught off-guard again.
“Before you go,” the host said a moment later, “I just have to ask you about your necklace, Lily. Is that a tribute to Archer?”
She reached up to touch it. “Yes, it is. I saw it and just had to have it. Fortunately I’m a little spoiled by this guy,” she said with a wink at Dane.
“A little? Ha,” Dane joked, in tune with what she was doing.
The host grinned as he thanked them for their time. Lily saw the judgment in his eyes, carefully masked by polite interest. She figured viewers would likely be looking at her the same way.
Perfect.
They moved along, answering similar questions from each of the hosts. Lily was baffled by the number of questions about her necklace. She decided it was possible she shouldn’t have worn a dress with a deep V neckline since it was drawing attention to the pendant. Dane didn’t seem to mind, though, so she just answered the questions and they continued on.
After what felt like an absolute eternity, they were ushered into the theater and shown to their designated seats. Lily settled in and watched what she decided was an excellent movie. Dane’s role was fairly brief, but still key to moving the plot along. He managed to make the role shine.
As the credits started rolling, she lifted his hand to kiss it. “You amaze me,” she whispered to him.
He smiled. “Thanks.”
The music playing during the credits kept them from any further conversation. When it was finally time to leave, Dane helped her to her feet and they headed to the exit.
“We’ll have to wait for the car,” he said, leaning down so she could hear him over the building noise. “Since we turned down all of the after-party invites, we should probably hobnob a bit while we’re waiting.”
She nodded. When they got to the waiting area, she noted that there were still plenty of cameras around. She pasted a smile on her face.
After a moment, she spotted Rick Kingston. She hadn’t seen the television actor since the first House of Archer trailer released and he was inadvertently linked to her thanks to some carefully edited footage showing them cozied up and laughing together. She had talked to him several times on the phone, however. Seeing him now wasn’t a surprise. When he saw her, he smile
d and winked at her.
“I think it’s time to split up,” she told Dane.
He followed her line of sight. “All right,” he reluctantly agreed. “But don’t lay it on too thick. I don’t want to have to break the guy’s face.”
She squeezed his hand before releasing him and letting him go. He angled over to a trio of females as she headed to Rick. Cameras followed their every move.
“Good to see you again, Lily,” Rick greeted her, bending down to press his lips against hers in a kiss that lingered longer than strictly proper. “I see you’re still with that hideously unattractive rock star. When are you going to come to your senses and leave him for me?”
She laughed and patted his chest since his hands were still holding her upper arms. “You just have to wait your turn,” she teased.
“Well I’m sure you’re worth the wait,” he said suggestively. Then he leaned down closer to her ear as though telling her a secret. “That enough, you think?”
She laughed again and nodded. She was grateful he was so ridiculously charming. It made flirting with him and making it look natural immeasurably easier.
“I’ll let you get back to your date,” she said. “I just wanted to say hi.”
“I’ll leave her in a minute if you just say the word,” he replied with another wink. “Enjoy the rest of your evening.”
Lily turned and debated whether or not to interrupt Dane. He had moved to the far side of the room to talk with India Lockwood. Since she didn’t see anyone else she knew, she supposed she should. She started towards them, wondering if she should look irritated about him being with the beautiful actress when she got within view of the camera currently on the pair.
“Wow. You sure get around, Montgomery,” came a male voice from behind her.
Her heart throttled up into her throat. She whirled to face the speaker.
“Johnathan,” she gasped. “What are you doing here?”
“What does it look like?” he asked with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m mingling.”
He didn’t have a press pass and he was wearing a suit. “Mingling?” she croaked, praying Dane didn’t look back and see them talking after how ticked he’d been earlier after the trailer. “Are you working on a story?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said in a way that told her the story was about her. “Well, not right this instant, I suppose. I was asked to attend this event as a guest. It’s amazing what doors opened up for me when it came out that we used to be engaged and I’m connected to House of Archer. You fell into a goldmine there.”
A reply escaped her. She was still furious with him for what he had said in the interview from the trailer. At the same time, she was terrified Dane would see him and display some of the violence he’d wanted to unleash earlier. Cameras circled her and Johnathan, capturing everything and adding to the outrageous stress turning her stomach into a fiery maelstrom.
“Who invited you to attend?” she asked.
“Who do you think? The House of Archer producers.” He shook his head over her expression. “You knew they’d be gathering content at something this big, didn’t you?”
Lily supposed she should have known. There were cameras from hundreds of different media sources there. Why not cameras from House of Archer? The producers had done things to stir up drama for the show before.
But this was like a sucker-punch right to the face.
“What are you trying to do here, Johnathan?” she asked, appealing to the kind-hearted man she dated for eight months. “I didn’t want to hurt you, yet now it seems you’re setting out to hurt me.”
“You didn’t want to hurt me?” he repeated, not bothering to keep his voice down like she had. “Is that what you thought when you were kissing your rock star boyfriend while we were still engaged?”
All of the conversation around them suddenly went quiet. Heads turned to look at them. Lily knew the closest cameras had picked up everything.
Worse, she saw Dane’s head swivel around. His dark eyes landed on Johnathan. He started through the crowd towards them.
“Oh, God,” she whispered, pressing a hand to her stomach.
“The truth hurts, doesn’t it?” Johnathan said in the same hard voice. “Finding out your fiancée is a lying opportunist who parts her legs for glittery things, that’s a real kick in the crotch.”
The words alone were enough to ignite her temper. When he reached out and took her necklace in his hand to punctuate his point, it pushed her right over the edge. She slapped him with a resounding and darkly satisfying crack hard enough that he staggered back.
While he was still recovering from that, Dane grabbed the hand that had taken her necklace and did something to it that had Johnathan hissing and going down to one knee. His arm was twisted at an awkward and painful-looking angle. Lily instinctively started to intervene, worried about Dane doing something he’d regret. Rick stopped her.
She battled against tears of hurt and anger as Dane leaned down next to Johnathan’s ear and said something so quietly that no one else could hear him. Whatever he said had Johnathan swallowing hard and nodding. Dane twisted a little more before shoving him hard enough that he fell on his ass.
Lily barely registered the applause that spontaneously broke out over the spectacle. She was too busy trying to process what had just happened while maintaining her composure. Johnathan scrambled back to his feet after Dane released him. Holding his arm close to his body, he cut a rather hasty path in the other direction.
When Dane turned to her, she saw the savage fury still burning in his gaze. His expression, however, revealed nothing...a testament to his acting ability. He moved closer to her and reached up to cup the side of her face.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
No, she thought as she nodded. Don’t cry, Lily. Don’t you dare cry.
“Well, I think you single-handedly made this the most entertaining red carpet event I’ve ever attended,” Rick declared. “Archer, I wanted to introduce you to my date. She works with Sacred Grace’s casting crew and she mentioned a recurring role I thought might interest you.”
“Sure,” Dane said, lowering his hand from Lily’s face and taking her hand in his.
Lily concentrated on her breathing as they walked back to Rick’s date. She didn’t look at anyone, knowing one sympathetic or judging look would send her into hysterics. She couldn’t even imagine what kind of backlash would rain down on their heads by morning.
“Where did you learn to do that?” Rick asked Dane under his breath when they were away from the bulk of the crowd.
“Former Navy SEAL,” Dane replied, referring to Trey.
“Ah. Well just remember that you asked for me to flirt with Lily when you see the footage, okay?”
Unexpectedly, Lily found herself laughing. Dane glanced at her and his lingering outrage seemed to dissolve. He grinned and brought his arm up around her shoulders before turning back to Rick.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said.
Chapter Twenty-Four
This one, please.
Keith followed Lex’s pointed finger and plucked the wildflower she wanted to add to the bouquet in his hand. He was holding it so she could sign when she spotted another flower she wanted.
They were in the park near her apartment. Megan sat on a nearby bench reading a magazine. Keith ignored her and focused on his sister.
This wasn’t the first time he’d helped her gather flowers. The flowers were usually wilted before they even made it into the Mason jar their mother used to hold them, but Megan put them in the center of the dining room table like it was the most dazzling display she had ever seen.
He noticed that Lex was gravitating towards pink flowers, which was unusual. Their mother’s favorite color was yellow, so Lex usually selected flowers in that shade. It wasn’t until he was holding an almost entirely pink bouquet that a thought occurred to him.
Sydney wore a lot of pink.
Resting the bouquet on
his bent knee since he was currently squatting, he signed, Is this for M?
No. For Angel, to thank her for spending time with me yesterday.
She went back to perusing the flowers. Keith slowly stood as he tried to sort through his various reactions to her statement.
There was irritation, of course. Sydney had gone to see Lex without telling him. She knew how much he hated that. But then, why would she have reached out to him after how he had ended things between them?
There was relief, too. As arrogant as he knew the thought was, part of him had worried Sydney might be holed up in her apartment in depression. At least she was getting on with her life.
Above both of those reactions, though, there was undeniable guilt. Because Sydney knew very well that the one way to hurt him as much as he had surely hurt her would be to hurt Lex.
And she hadn’t.
Lex tugged at his shirt. This one, she signed, pointing to another flower.
He squatted again so he could set the flowers on his thigh and signed, It’s thorny. You don’t want Angel to get hurt.
Her eyes widened and she shook her head. Not that one, she signed, moving on to look at the next bunch of flowers.
He was only too aware of the irony in him trying to protect Sydney from a flower’s thorns when he had already hurt her far worse.
How had things gotten so fucked up?
He shoved those thoughts from his mind so he could focus on Lex. They were near the end of their visit together. He had to get to the venue for that night’s concert. He smothered any hint of disappointment that there wouldn’t be a sweater-wearing female there for him to seek out afterward.
All done, Lex signed a few minutes later.
He nodded and took her hand, holding the flowers in the other. They walked back to Megan, who looked up from her magazine when they neared her. She smiled and closed the magazine, her eyes falling on the flowers.
Are those for me? she signed.
For Angel, Lex replied.
Keith noticed Megan hesitate for the slightest second before signing, That’s very thoughtful. I’m sure she’ll love them.