Still reeling from his caresses, she asked, “What about Melinda?”
Creigh answered, “There is no Melinda. I couldn’t care less about that spoiled, vicious, slut. Lila, Melinda orchestrated the whole scene by the pool. I didn’t even know she was there until you saw us.”
Lila believed him. After all, she knew how Melinda operated and she was not going to let her ruin things between her and Creigh. Lila pulled him toward her as her fingers started to slip the buttons on his shirt. She had waited too long for a man like him to worry about some stupid three date rule.
Creigh gave into the temptress beneath him and kissed her with clear intent. He couldn’t seem to get enough of her. His hands rode up her nightgown and cupped her breasts, then his mouth followed suit. His body was so full of need that he thought he’d burst if he didn’t have her soon. He heard Lila moan, “I’m not usually like this you know. I never go to bed with men this quickly.”
Creigh managed, “I know you don’t. Believe it or not, I’m not usually this easy myself.” Lila smiled and let herself get swept away in the sheer and utter bliss of joining her body to his. The last thing she remembered thinking was that she felt just like Vivian when she and Julius finally consummated their love.
* * * * *
Lila yawned and stretched and tried to hang on to the fantastic dreams that she had the night before. She smiled and tried to roll onto to her stomach only to be blocked by a hard solid form. Not quite awake, she ran her hands over the warm mound and thought that this dream was the best ever. It was so real. When the object of her attention moved and groaned, she woke up with a start. This was no dream. Creighton Ashwood was lying in bed next to her.
Lila turned bright red as Creigh started to run his hands across her totally naked body. He was just getting to some interesting places when there was a light knock on the door. Bitsy walked in and announced, “I’ve brought you coffee, darlings!” Smiling at Creigh, she asked, “How did you kids sleep?”
Lila was beyond mortified. She couldn’t seem to assimilate the fact that she was in bed with a man in her parent’s house and her mother had just walked in on them. Not only that, but she brought them coffee. How did she know?
Finding his voice, Creigh answered, “I slept like a dream Bitsy, how about you?”
She winked, “Well, my dear, I probably got a little more sleep than you did, don’t you think?”
Lila wanted to die. “Mom, what are doing here?”
Bitsy set the tray down on the dresser, “When your Father told me that he unlocked your window so Creigh could sneak in, I just had to find out for myself how things worked out.” Then with a big smile, she added, “I’m glad to see that they did.” Handing Lila and Creigh each a mug of coffee, she asked, “Now should I bring you kids breakfast in bed or will you be joining us in the kitchen?”
Creigh laughed and announced, “I think we can make it down the stairs Bits. That is if I can find my pants.”
Lila screamed, “Mother, will you please leave? And Creigh, quit talking about your pants.”
Bitsy announced, “I’m on my way, darling. Be in the kitchen in ten minutes.” As she walked toward the door she picked a book up from Lila’s nightstand, “She Sins at Midnight, hmmm? This looks good, Li. Mind if I borrow it?” Without waiting for an answer she took the book and left.
Creigh snuggled into her, “You know, you don’t strike me as the trashy romance type. I took you more for a Jane Austin girl,” then teasingly added, “after all, you are supposed to be a lady aren’t you?”
There in a nutshell is why Lila could never tell anyone that she actually wrote romances. She was supposed to be a lady. Irritated, she replied, “Who cares what I like to read? You do realize that my mother just walked in on us while we were in bed.” As an afterthought she added, “Naked.”
Creigh laughed, “It didn’t seem to bother her too much.”
Exasperated, she sighed, “It may not bother her but I’m mortified.”
Creigh tried to pull Lila closer, “Honey, you’re thirty-two and I’m forty. I’m pretty sure that your parents don’t expect either of us to live like monks.”
Lila pulled away, “But that’s the thing. I haven’t you know…” she indicated the rumpled bed, “done this since college.” Then horrified that she confessed such a thing, she buried her face in her pillow and thought she’d die of embarrassment.
Creigh put his arms around her and simply stated, “I’m honored.” Then with a swat to the butt, he added, “Let’s go face the music, shall we?”
Breakfast turned out to be as surreal as everything else in the Montgomery household. Will greeted Lila and Creigh cheerfully and asked, “Do you kids want blueberries in your pancakes?”
Bitsy, who apparently now believed that Creigh never had anything to do with Melinda, squeezed the juice and asked Creigh how long he planned on staying in town. Neither of her parents brought up the reason that Creigh was in their house at 8:20 in the morning. And thankfully neither of them mentioned the night before.
After breakfast, Will collected a stack of tabloids and suggested, “Why don’t we ban these ridiculous rags from this house once and for all.”
Lila agreed. After all, the tabloids had been playing fast and loose with her sense of well-being and she was more than ready to regain a feeling of control in her life.
Bitsy grabbed one of the papers and thrust it toward Lila, “Just look at this one before we throw them away. It’s my favorite!”
Lila took the paper and burst out laughing. The cover was of Jilly and her mom wearing their Plutonium Chef gear. Lila was lying at their feet and the headline read:
Today’s Ingredients are: 1 Vandal, 1 Atrocious Outfit, 1 Starlet and 2 Crazy Chefs…GO!
Chapter 24
Melinda woke up on the wrong side of the bed. She hardly slept a wink as she was so intent on hearing when Oscar came upstairs. Wherever he spent the night, it wasn’t with her, and she was beyond infuriated. She finally dragged herself out of bed and left her room without even bothering to get dressed first.
When she walked into the kitchen, Melinda realized that she was the last one up. Jessica was at the stove flipping pancakes and stirring scrambled eggs, Cynthia and Creigh were on the terrace drinking coffee and Oscar was squeezing fresh orange juice. Melinda stared at him like she had never seen him before. Oscar Solomon didn’t squeeze his own juice. Who was this man?
Jessica was already dressed and looking like she had just walked off the cover of “Town and Country.” She saw Melinda and cheerfully greeted “Good morning, Melinda. Did you sleep well?”
Melinda mumbled, “Like you care.” Then in a louder voice answered, “We slept fine, thank you.”
Oscar turned to her and inquired, “We? Was someone else in bed with you last night?” He smiled at how effectively he let Jessica know that it wasn’t him. Although by the look on Melinda’s face it would probably never be him again.
Melinda eyed her soon to be fiancée like she wanted to stab him with a fork and answered, “No Oscar, I was alone as I’m sure you know.”
Jessica continued to flip and stir and suggested, “Why don’t you go take a shower, Melinda? You look exhausted and it might perk you up a bit.”
Without saying another word, the movie star stormed out of the kitchen.
Oscar was enjoying the novelty of being fought over by two beautiful women. He smiled and Jessica said, “Now Oscar, enough work out of you. Come sit down and have a nice breakfast.” Jessica served them all a delicious feast and no one mentioned Melinda’s absence.
After the meal was over, Oscar started to feel bad about the way he treated Melinda. After all, he was in Bentley to sort out her bad press and to try to get things back on track. As much as he was attracted to Jessica, he knew that Melinda was the one who was of his world. She was the one he was planning to marry. Thanking Jessica for the lovely meal, he excused himself from the table.
* * * * *
Melinda wa
s in her bathroom taking a hot, steamy shower when the door opened and she felt a draft. She knew that it had to be Oscar crawling back to her. But she was too mad at him to let him just walk his way back into her good graces. Her plan was to simply ignore him until he went away.
But going away was not Oscar’s style. He never waited for Melinda to send signals. After all, she was his to do with as he pleased. It was the nature of their relationship. He stripped off his clothes and pulled back the shower curtain.
Without looking at him, Melinda screeched, “Close the curtain, its cold in here!”
Agreeably, Oscar said, “I’d be delighted to.” And then he stepped in and joined her.
Indignantly, Melinda ordered, “Oscar Solomon, you get out of here right this minute!”
Ignoring her, he lathered up his hands with soap and started to rub them on Melinda’s back. He said quietly, “I’m sorry you think that I have to ask your permission Melinda. After all, you are mine…” his hands found their way to her chest, “bought and paid for.”
* * * * *
Oscar and Melinda had been upstairs for over an hour. Jessica realized she didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what they were doing. But she wasn’t bothered by it. After all, they’d had a long standing relationship and as far as she was concerned, she knew that she was the one who got Oscar all hot and bothered. He was just using Melinda as a poor substitute for what he really wanted.
Jessica wondered why she was thinking about him so much anyway. After all, she was still a married woman and she was certainly not looking to find a replacement for Charles anytime in the near future, even though she had every intention of divorcing the bastard as soon as possible. It’s just that Oscar Solomon was so incredibly appealing to her. He was funny and charming and amazingly down to earth. He had qualities that Jessica had never known in a relationship.
When Oscar and Melinda strolled down the stairs later that morning, Melinda was attached to him like a tapeworm. She made eye contact with Jessica and grinning like the cat that ate the canary, purred, “Sorry we were up there for so long, but we got a little side tracked, if you know what I mean.”
Oscar was horribly embarrassed by the innuendo. He avoided looking at his hostess when he asked, “Jessica, have you seen Creigh? He and I need to have a chat about the current publicity situation.”
Smiling as though nothing had happened, Jessica answered, “He’s in the library Oscar. I’m sure he’d be delighted if you joined him.” Still not meeting her gaze, Oscar muttered his thanks and left the women to their own devices.
Oscar entered the library and found Creigh sitting behind an imposing desk. After the basic pleasantries were exchanged, he asked, “So Oscar, what’s on your mind?”
Oscar took a seat on a leather wing-backed chair and answered, “Lila Montgomery is on my mind.”
Creigh thought, “You’re not the only one,” but instead of saying that out loud, he asked, “What about her?”
“Well, first off, what’s your relationship to her?
Creigh was not about to tell Oscar that Lila was the woman that he couldn’t stop thinking of, that he dreamed of her every night and that he had spent the previous night making love to her. For his plan to work, Oscar could have no clue where Creigh’s interest really lay. So he answered, “Lila is the daughter of my mom’s old tennis partner, that’s it. She’s eight years younger than me so we didn’t even grow up together.”
Oscar added, “Melinda mentioned that you seemed rather interested in her.”
Creigh grinned, “You know how it is Oscar, beautiful young woman catches your eye…” and he gave him a wink to indicate that they were birds of a feather.
His client chuckled, “I do know how that story goes, my friend.”
Creigh decided to do a little digging of his own, “So what’s going on with you and Melinda? Are you two just passing the time together or is she perhaps going to be cast in the role of wife soon?”
Shifting uncomfortably in his chair Oscar answered, “I’m going to ask her to marry me Creigh, which is why I’m here. I want to clean up all these rumors about Melinda before we announce our engagement.”
That of course was not the answer that Creigh wanted to hear. He had hoped that his client had doubts about his intended’s fidelity and that perhaps he was reconsidering their relationship. Had Solomon Films business not been so important to his firm, Creigh would have just come right out and told Oscar the kind of woman he was involved with. Now, he would simply have to show him.
Chapter 25
Lila couldn’t wait to tell her friends about her night with Creigh. As Cynthia still wasn’t answering her cell phone, she decided to start with Jilly and Jessica. She invited them to lunch at The Grill at twelve-thirty, which gave her just enough time to soak in a hot bubble bath and relive the high points of the encounter.
While lying in the grapefruit scented foam, Lila realized that she was already head over heels in love with Creighton Ashwood. She was pretty sure it wasn’t just the sex either, although that was amazing. After all, she had been half in love with him since her senior year in high school. She even patterned Julius after him and Julius was the man of her dreams. Now if things could just work out for her as well as they did for Vivian.
She still had to worry about everyone finding out about her book, but she had nearly convinced herself that she could show up at the awards ceremony in disguise. She wasn’t as confident how she would handle a book tour. As if her thoughts were on an open psychic channel, her cell phone started to ring.
Lila checked the caller ID and answered, “Hi, Mitzi. What’s up?”
“Are you feeling a little better about things, dawling?”
Lila sighed, “I guess so. I mean, I’ve decided that I’ll go to the awards ceremony but don’t be surprised if I show up as a blonde.”
Mitzi laughed, “Well, I can’t say I’m not relieved. Now, just one more little bit of news…” Lila held her breath, “Maggie at Marsupial has set up a couple of little book signings for you before the award ceremony.”
Lila groaned, “Mitzie, I can’t leave home right now. Not without the tabloids stalking me everywhere I go. In fact I already tried sneaking out and they still followed me.” She knew that they would track her to lunch today as well, but being that the club wouldn’t let them in, they were going to be SOL at documenting her girls’ afternoon.
Mitzie answered, “I’m not sure how you’re going to get out of your house but the good news is that you won’t have to go far from home.”
Panicked, Lila asked, “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that Maggie has organized one book signing for you right there in Bentley and one in downtown Chicago.”
Lila gasped, “Mitzie, how am I going to keep my secret in my own town? Someone is bound to recognize me!”
Mitzie suggested, “You can always wear your disguise.”
Lila resigned herself and asked, “When are the signings?”
“The one in Bentley is on Friday afternoon and the one on Saturday is in Chicago. I’ll email you the information.”
Lila hung up the phone feeling an enormous rush of anxiety. Gone was her excitement over Creigh and lunch with her friends. She only had a couple days in which to devise the perfect costume and figure out how she was going to get through the signings undetected. Why couldn’t her life ever be nice and simple like everyone else’s?
Lila walked into the dining room and saw that Jilly and Jessica had already arrived. Jilly had just handed Jessica a brown paper back and declared, “It’s some of the best sex I’ve had all year.”
Lila overheard and asked her friend, “You just gave Jessica a bag full of great sex? Where’s mine?”
Jilly turned bright red and answered, “Li, I didn’t think you’d approve which is why I didn’t give it to you first.”
Meanwhile, Jessica opened the bag and pulled out a very familiar looking paperback. She gasped when she saw the cov
er, “Oooooooooooohhh, this looks like a good one!”
Lila stared at both of her friends in astonishment. Sitting down next to them she announced, “I didn’t take the two of you for trashy romance readers.”
Jilly answered, “I knew you wouldn’t approve. But let me tell you Lila Montgomery, some of the best romance of my life comes from these books and I don’t care what you think, I’m not going to give them up.”
Jessica announced, “The only romance I get comes from these books and believe me Lila, you don’t know what you’re missing.”
Shocked by her friend’s staunch support of bodice rippers, Lila asked, “What makes you guys think that I don’t read them too?”
With a shared look, Jilly answered, “Oh please, Lila, as if you’ve ever read She Sins at Midnight or anything like it.”
Jessica added, “You just seem too ladylike. You’re more the Charlotte Bronte type I bet. You know dignified romance, not hot and sweaty getting busy stuff.”
Lila replied, “I’ll have you both know that I’ve read one or two of those books before.”
Jilly laughed, “One or two doesn’t make you a fan, Li. I’ve read one or two hundred!”
Lila looked shocked. After all, she didn’t know anyone who read as many as she had.
Jilly misinterpreted her friend’s look as one of disgust and snapped, “Geez Li, I just read them. It’s not like I write them.”
Lila’s life was getting weirder and weirder by the second. But before she could defend herself and maybe even come out of the closet as the creator of the trash they were discussing, Jessica laughed, “Can you imagine the kind of desperate old spinsters who actually write these books? I’m pretty sure they haven’t had sex in longer than I have.”
Lila choked on her water. Hearing herself described a desperate old spinster changed her mind about telling her friends the truth. So she decided to confess what a vixen she really was and regale them with the events of the night before. When she finished recounting her tale, she asked, “Now, does that sound like a woman who wouldn’t approve of hot steamy sex?”
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