Two cars followed her to the club, which she noted was a lot less than the week before. Lila hoped that meant that the tabloids were tired of digging up dirt on her. When she got to the club, she grabbed her bag out of the trunk and proceeded through the front door. She couldn’t change in the locker room because other women would certainly be there to witness her transformation. So she walked into the dining room, which hadn’t opened yet and locked herself in the ladies’ bathroom.
Lila quickly changed into her Jasmine persona. She teased the hair on the wig, applied false eyelashes (even though she planned on keeping her sunglasses on) and put on more makeup than she would normally wear in a month. Once her makeover was complete, she sashayed out the door to wait for the taxi that she had called earlier.
Just as she was about to get into the car, Lila saw Creigh walk off the golf course. She had spoken to him several times since the night he spent at her house but she hadn’t seen him until that moment. The urge to run over and throw herself into his arms was nearly unbearable. Lila laughed by how shocked he would be should some outrageous redhead jump him out of nowhere. With that image in mind, she hopped into the cab and gave the driver the address.
Lila wasn’t expecting a big turnout at the Book Nook as the store only had three days to publicize her appearance. So when the taxi pulled to a stop in front of the small store, she was more than surprised to see a line out the door. Not knowing how she was going to get through the day, Lila took a deep breath, called on all her acting training and forged a path through her fans. With an outrageous hitch in her giddy up, she blew kisses and waved at the crowd.
Once she got inside, Yolanda Fernbacker, a woman that she had known her entire life, rushed to her side and gushed, “Miss Sheath, we are so delighted to have you here!” Then she leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, “That scene in the carriage was so wicked that I read it four times!”
Lila saw Yolanda in a new light. Who would have ever thought that a dried up librarian-type like her would be reading erotica? She leaned in and drawled in a heavy southern accent, “My stars, darlin’, that’s nothing compared to some of the scenes in the sequel!”
Yolanda looked flushed and asked, “A sequel? Really?”
Lila lied through her teeth, “That’s right, shoog. It’s called She Sins at Noon.”
In an excited frenzy, Yolanda showed Lila to the table that was set up for her in the rear of the shop. She signed autographs for two full hours without anyone once questioning her disguise. She recognized several people, many of whom astonished her. No one even gave her a double take. It just went to show that people generally believe what they’re told to believe. She actually started to feel rather proud of herself until she looked up and saw Bitsy staring down at her.
Lila figured the only way to get through the next few minutes was to act as outrageous as ever. So she asked, “And what’s your name, shoog?”
Bitsy handed her five books and said, “Miss Sheath, I want you to know that my daughter and I are huge fans of yours!”
Lila gulped, “Is your daughter here with you?”
Bitsy answered, “No, unfortunately she’s not, but I’d like you to sign one of these books for her.” Bitsy went on to dictate the note for her to write:
Dearest Lila,
Always remember that sinning can be done any time of day.
Get Busy,
Jasmine
Lila rolled her eyes under her sunglasses. She really wasn’t sure that she was comfortable with the bizarre changes to her mother’s personality. But the good news was that if her own mother didn’t even recognize her, no one would.
She had another scare twenty minutes later when Jilly and Jessica came in to get their books signed. They also bought a book for her. They wanted that one to be inscribed:
Lila, I’m thrilled you found your own Julius to sin with! You go girl!!!
Jasmine
Lila started to wonder what kind of prude her friends and family thought she was. All this time she behaved in a perfect ladylike manner because that’s how she was raised to behave. Then she finds out that all the ladies around her aren’t quite the prissy packages she was led to believe. She briefly wondered why it had taken her all these years to discover the truth.
Fifteen minutes before the signing ended, Lila shook a cramp out of her hand and looked up to see none other than Melinda Forrester standing in front of her. Her first reaction was to pick up a stack of books and start hurling them at the starlet one-by-one. But Melinda gushed, “Miss Sheath, it is such an honor to meet you. I am one of your biggest fans ever.”
Lila thought she was going to throw up. Then she looked behind Melinda and saw that Creigh was there with her. What in the hell was going on? Why would Creigh be at a book signing with Melinda? According to him, he had signed off of her case and wasn’t even representing her anymore.
Melinda asked Lila to sign her book:
To My Favorite Star of the Silver Screen,
You were robbed of that Oscar!
Jasmine
Instead, Lila signed it:
To The Biggest Whore of the Silver Screen,
Can’t win them all on your knees.
Jasmine
When she handed the book over she told Melinda, “Don’t read it until you get home, hon. I put a little something special in there for you.”
Melinda swore that she wouldn’t and then got side tracked when she was asked for her own autograph by a couple of teenage girls who recognized her. While she was busy talking about herself to her fans, Creigh sidled up to the table and gave with a heart stopping smile.
She steamily asked, “And what can I do for you, sir?”
For the life of him, Creigh couldn’t figure out why Lila was sitting in a book store wearing that outrageous costume unless she really was Jasmine Sheath. He was both delighted and annoyed. Leave it to Lila to be a secret writer of smut. That part didn’t bother him at all. In fact, he couldn’t wait to buy one of her books and find out what her true fantasies were. He planned on making each and everyone of them come true. But the fact that she hadn’t told him made him angry. Did she think she couldn’t trust him? For that reason alone, he decided to have some fun with her. Creigh leaned across the table and answered, “For starters, you could take all your clothes off and dance naked for me.”
Lila gasped and primly replied, “That is not likely to happen.”
He said, “Well then, how ‘bout you sign a book for me too?”
Lila asked what he wanted her to write and immediately regretted it. He asked her to write:
To the Hottest Hunk of Man on the Planet,
You are the best I’ve ever had!
Jasmine
Needless to say, Lila didn’t write that. She wrote:
Get a grip, pig!
Jasmine
Creigh read her inscription and laughed. Then whispered, “I’d really like to tickle the backs of your knees. Want to have dinner tonight? I could use you as my plate.” With a wicked gleam in his eye, he added “And I always lick my plate clean.”
Lila couldn’t help but getting excited my Creigh’s filthy proposition. She wanted to cry that he wasn’t the man she thought he was. She wanted to beat him over the head with one of her high heels. But more than anything else, she wanted to take him up on his offer to get naked. Before she could recover enough to respond, he looked over to Melinda and added, “Just don’t tell my girlfriend. She’s the jealous type.”
That was all it took for Lila to jump to her feet and channeled her mother, “Get the fuck out of here you disgusting rodent!”
The remainder of people in line were shocked by the author’s outburst. But Creigh merely smiled and laid a business card on the table, “Call me if you change your mind.” Then he collected Melinda and left. The only reason Creigh even agreed to drive Melinda into town was because of the author she wanted to meet. When Creigh saw Melinda’s copy of She Sins at Midnight, he thought it would be a nice gest
ure to have a copy signed for Lila. That is until he realized Lila was the author.
He briefly felt bad for giving Lila such a hard time, but he looked forward to seeing how she would treat him now that he had made a lascivious pass at another woman. Not only that, but he told her that Melinda was his girlfriend. There was no way that Lila could fess up to being angry with him unless she divulged her secret identity. And the bottom line was that Creigh had no intention of falling in love with Lila Montgomery unless she was willing to trust him with all of her secrets.
Chapter 28
Jessica decided that the only way to decide how she felt about Oscar was to do what her friends suggested and just kiss him, the sooner the better too so she didn’t chicken out. The idea of locking lips with Oscar Solomon made her heart race in wild anticipation, all the while leaving her decidedly nauseous. She felt like she was a teenager all over again, with one exception. She was never this uncertain of herself as an adolescent. The travails of married life had definitely taken their toll on her self-esteem.
Pulling into Creigh’s driveway, Jessica wondered how she was going to get away from Melinda long enough to get Oscar alone. She decided to go out to the guest house to find Cynthia.
Cyn left the bungalow and headed up the path toward the house only to run into Jessica. Upon seeing her cohort, she exclaimed, “Our plan is really going to work. Melinda bought the whole story and she’s already left Amalgamated. Can you believe how easy this was?”
Distracted, Jessica answered, “Wow, that’s great.”
Immediately sensing something wrong, Cyn asked, “Uh, oh. What’s wrong?”
With her emotions boiling over, tears started to stream down Jessica’s cheeks, “Oh Cyn, I just don’t know what to do. I have such a problem.”
Cyn lead Jessica back to her cottage and settled her onto an overstuffed chair, “Spill it. What’s wrong?”
“It’s Oscar.” Cyn waited quietly for Jessica to continue, “I really like him.”
Cyn asked, “You mean you like him, like him? Like Melinda likes him?”
Jessica nodded. “Yup. I like him, like him and I don’t know what to do about it. Lila and Jilly think I should kiss him.”
Cyn yelped, “You told Lila and Jilly?”
“I just told them that there was a man that I cared for. I didn’t say it was Oscar.”
Clearly relieved, Cyn replied, “So what’s the problem? I agree with the girls, you should definitely kiss him.”
“When? Melinda’s never going to leave us alone together long enough for anything to happen.”
Cyn looked at the clock on her wall and saw that it was already five in the afternoon, “Don’t you worry. You leave Melinda to me. In the meantime, go fix yourself up and take Oscar out to dinner, just the two of you. I’ll keep the tramp busy with fairy tales of her rocketing stardom.”
For the first time that afternoon, Jessica smiled, “Really Cyn? That would be great. I’ll take Oscar over to the club, as long as you’re sure you can keep Melinda occupied.”
“Oh, I’m sure. That girl likes nothing more than talking about herself and I’m prepared to listen to her all night long if it’ll help your cause.”
Jessica jumped up, gave Cyn a big hug and thanked her, “I’m going to owe you so big for this!”
She was out the door when Cyn agreed, “You sure are.”
* * * * *
Oscar was at a loss with what to do with himself, as he had no intention of spending any time with Jessica and Melinda together in the same room. He decided to search for a good book. His plan was to lock himself away for the rest of the night and escape all women and plague of thoughts that were taking over his brain.
Oscar remembered that Melinda had a couple of novels on her nightstand and decided to sneak into her room to see if there was anything interesting. But when he peeked into her room, he heard the bath water running. In an attempt not to run into his almost fiancée, he grabbed the first book he saw and made a run for it back to his own suite.
Oscar had the door locked and was sprawled out on the bed by the time he realized the nature of book he’d pilfered. It was one of Melinda’s god-forsaken romances and it was titled She Sins at Midnight, of all the ludicrous things. Oscar almost went back in search of a manlier novel when he decided that reading a historical romance would be less torture than conversing with his intended.
Opening the cover, Oscar briefly read the inscription from the author. He was appalled by the blatant suggestion that Melinda owed her success to something other than her talent. Why would someone say such a horrible thing to a fan? Unless of course, Melinda’s reputation had become so bad that even strangers were insulting her. For the first time he let himself wonder if Melinda really was that big of a slut. The thought that immediately popped into his head was, yes.
* * * * *
Jessica dressed very carefully for her dinner with Oscar. She still wasn’t convinced the two of them would be able to sneak out of the house without Melinda noticing, but on the off chance that they did, she wanted to look her best. After all, the whole point of whisking him away, was to kiss him and see if there really was chemistry between the two them.
Jessica slipped on a very tasteful white silk dress that hugged her slender frame in all the right places. With the addition of a delicate gold chain linked belt and matching flats, she was ready to collect her dinner date and steel him away for a night of romance.
Jessica tip-toed down the hall past Melinda’s room and quietly knocked on Oscar’s door. When he didn’t answer, she tried the door and discovered that it was locked. She knocked again and whispered, “Oscar, are you there? It’s me, Jessica.”
Recognizing her voice, Oscar immediately opened the door. “Jessica, come in.”
The movie mogul stood before her in a burgundy silk smoking jacket and looked every inch her ideal man. Jessica smiled, “Hello there. I’m in charge of feeding you tonight and I thought we might go out. How does that sound?”
Oscar asked, “What about Melinda and Cynthia. Will they be joining us?”
“No, it seems they have some mutual Hollywood interests and have made plans to eat together in Cyn’s bungalow.”
A slow grin crept over Oscar’s face, “Give me five minutes and I’ll meet you out front.”
With her heart pounding in excitement, Jessica announced, “I’ll pull the car around.”
Oscar was so looking forward to the evening ahead that he was ready in three minutes instead of five. He knew he shouldn’t pursue a flirtation with Jessica, as it could only make his life more complicated, but there was something about her that reminded him so much of his college girlfriend that he couldn’t resist. Jessica was regal, refined and every inch a lady. She also made him feel like he was twenty years old again. He justified the dinner by telling himself it was just a meal and he did have to eat.
Jessica pulled her little white Mercedes around the circular drive, holding her breath the whole time that Oscar would come out of the house alone, without Melinda in tow. She didn’t relax until he was in the car next to her and they were safely through the driveway gates.
Oscar asked, “Where are we going?”
Jessica answered, “It’s such a beautiful night that I thought we’d go to The Grill at the club. That way we can eat outside on the veranda.” Jessica drove the rest of the way in silence. She was very nervous and realized the only way to get through the night was to pretend she was sixteen again. An age before disappointment ruined her confidence.
Jessica and Oscar enjoyed a lovely meal outdoors. They talked for hours about anything and everything. Jessica couldn’t believe she could enjoy a man’s company as much as she did Oscar’s. If she had been even the least bit hesitant about kissing him before, she certainly wasn’t after this evening. She wanted him more than ever and she was sure that one kiss would never be enough.
Oscar was so easy to talk to that Jessica found herself telling him all about her marriage to Charles. Os
car declared, “If I ever meet that bastard, I’ll kill him!”
Jessica smiled in response, “That would certainly save me the trouble of divorcing him.” Teasingly, she added, “How about coming over for dinner next week?”
Oscar took Jessica’s hand from across the table and seriously asked, “Jessica, are you really planning on divorcing Charles?”
Looking him straight in the eye she answered, “I’m filing next week.”
“May I ask what made you finally decide to leave him?”
Still holding his hand, she gave it a gently squeeze and answered, “I recently realized that I deserved better. I don’t want to be with someone who isn’t the love of my life.” Passionately, she added, “I’d rather be alone than be second best ever again.”
They spent the next several minutes in relative silence, each caught up in their own thoughts. After a desert of strawberries and cream, Jessica invited, “Oscar, would you like to go for a walk?”
Pulling out her chair, he replied, “I’d like that more than anything.”
While strolling across the vast grounds, Oscar slipped his hand into Jessica’s. They walked for several minutes before she led the way to small gazebo bench on the outskirts of the lawn. Oscar sat down next to her, so close their shoulders touched. Moments later, Jessica finally admitted, “Oscar, I asked you out here for a reason.”
Staring deeply into her eyes, he asked, “Really? What reason is that?”
Shyly, she confessed, “I wanted to kiss you.”
She Sins at Midnight Page 18