The Italian Heartthrob: Forbidden Standalone

by N J Adel

  “No, Maggie. I—”

  “Please,” she pleaded. “For me.”

  “This isn’t fair. You know I can’t say no to you. I just don’t want her to hurt you again.”

  “She won’t. I won’t let her. Promise me, Mike.”

  He sighed in defeat. “I promise. And I’m so sorry about all this. I didn’t mean for you to get caught in the middle.”

  Her hand pressed to her chest, where her scar was. “I knew she hated me,” she mused. “But I never thought she’d go this far.” Tears rolled down her face. “It fucking hurts.”

  “I know.” He rubbed her back, deciding to postpone telling her what he really was about to tell her yesterday. She was in too much pain already.

  A commotion coming from outside the room distracted him for a moment.

  “Shit. That must be Kyle,” she said.

  “Kyle? What the fuck is he doing here?”

  “When I passed out, they called him. He’s the emergency contact on my phone. I forgot to change it. I’m sorry.”

  The door opened, and Kyle barged in, Samantha on his tail. “Maggie.” He gave Mike a fierce look as he stalked to the empty side of the bed. “Honey, how are you feeling now?”

  “Don’t call her that.” Mike glared at him.

  Kyle ignored him, reaching for Maggie’s hand.

  “Don’t even think about touching her.” Mike’s voice took a harsh edge.

  “Mike, a word?” DeVries requested.

  He glowered at Kyle, ready to pull him apart if he came near her again. “I’ll be right outside.”

  DeVries followed Mike, closing the door behind her—a gesture he didn’t appreciate.

  “Should I call her parents?” she asked.

  Mike shook his head, his foot behind him pressing against the wall, his eyes pinned to the closed door, his blood simmering. “Nick is probably out of town, and from now on, contacting Andrea is not an option for any given reason.”

  “I see. Okay, uh…”

  “What?”

  “Some reporters followed Burley here.”

  “That fucking asshole,” he yelled, and she urged him to keep it down with a warning stare. “Did he talk to them?”

  “No. He came straight to her room.”

  He sighed. “Well, I’m her best friend. I have every right to be here. I’ve checked her in the ER twice before myself. You can use that story.”

  “We’re gonna need some more visitors, though, to make this look normal.”

  Kyle stepped out of the room and stood against the wall opposite from Mike.

  Mike’s foot dropped. “Did you bring the press on purpose?”

  “That’s what you care about? Maggie just had an accident. Her arm is broken, and she’s all bruised and depressed, and all you care about is the press? Your image? What about her?”

  Mike stalked toward him. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I care about nothing but Maggie. And if she doesn’t want the press saying certain things, I make sure they don’t. Got it?” His hand fell on the doorknob.

  “You only care about taking what’s not yours,” Kyle mumbled.

  A wildfire raged in Mike’s chest. “She was never yours. Don’t forget your place, Burley. You’re only here because she forgot to change her emergency contact.”

  “Yeah. Forgot. Keep telling yourself that.”

  Mike pictured his fist connecting to the jaw of this cazzone. “If you think she still has a thing for you, you’re delusional. You had your chance, and you blew it. She’s all mine now, and I won’t let anyone or anything take her away from me.” Mike looked at DeVries as he shoved a finger in Kyle’s face. “He doesn’t get to leave or talk to anyone till we figure out this mess.”

  Kyle squared off against him, and the dynamic changed. He was tall. Too tall with broad shoulders and beefy hands.

  Mike backed up a pace to compensate, anticipating a fight. This was good. Really good. God, he’d been waiting for an excuse to take a swing at this giant ass for so long.

  “I don’t take orders from you, Gennaro.” He slapped Mike’s finger away from his face. “But I’ll do whatever is best for Maggie.”

  “Like you know anything about that.”

  Kyle twisted his jaw. “Arguing with someone like you is pointless. Just take care of her. She’s not okay. That kind of stress and depression is a serious trigger.”

  “Trigger? Trigger for what?” Mike asked, losing his patience.

  Kyle stared at him, studying his face. Then he shook his head. “You’re even dumber than I thought.” He scoffed. “You keep saying you know her better than anyone, but you don’t know anything.” He turned, withdrawing to the waiting area. “Just take care of her, Gennaro. She needs it.”

  Scene 52

  Maggie

  “Are there a lot out there?” I motioned with my chin toward the hospital main entrance where Mike rolled me via wheelchair. Samantha, Kyle, Amanda, Raoul, and some of my movie crew trailed behind.

  “A few,” Mike muttered, helping me with my jacket. “The sooner we get this ex thing straight, the better.”

  When the doors slid open, I blinked behind oversized sunglasses at the lights of a hundred cameras. “That’s not a few.”

  Samantha stepped ahead. “One at a time, please. Let’s all remember this is a hospital, and Ms. Dawson has been in an accident and needs her rest.” She pointed at a male reporter in a brown suit. “Yes?”

  “How badly are you injured?” he asked.

  The physical pain was nothing compared to what I felt inside. My soul is bleeding. If only they had a machine to tell me how bad the damage was. “A broken arm and a few bruises. The doctors released me and assured me everything was all right.”

  Samantha nodded at another reporter and another. The Kyle-Mike related questions hovered cautiously at first. Lies and half-truths sifted through my mouth whenever needed. All that media coaching I’d been receiving finally came in handy.

  Then the blunt questions came.

  “Is it official?” A dark-haired female reporter asked. “Are you two together now?”

  I raised a brow. “The two of us?”

  “You and Mike Gennaro. He’s standing next to you as we speak, while your ex is standing in the back.”

  “My ex has a name. Please show him some respect.”

  “Apologies. I meant Mr. Burley’s standing in the back,” the reporter amended.

  I cleared my throat and took a quick glance at Kyle. His blue eyes were fixed on me, a sad smile on his lips. My gaze shifted back to the reporter. “Mike, like the rest of the amazing people here, came to see his injured friend. As for my…status, I am currently and officially single.”

  “But Mike was here before anyone else.”

  I shrugged, looking at Mike. “I don’t know about that. But knowing him my whole life, I’d be very surprised if he wasn’t. He’s my best friend.” My voice choked with exhaustion and emotion.

  “Why hasn’t either of your parents come to see you?”

  My heart squeezed. Mike must have noticed something because he came forward.

  “Okay. That’s enough. Thank you,” he announced. “And before you jump to any conclusions, Ms. Dawson, upon my request, has kindly agreed to spend the next couple days at my house to recover, instead of her parents’. They’re out of town on business, and she doesn’t wish to disturb them. We all know how busy Nick and Andrea Dawson can be.” He put on his industry smile and wheeled me through the crowd.

  Scene 53

  Mike

  Two days later, despite Mike’s urges, Maggie went back to work. For ten days, she did nothing but that. “I need to make up for the lost time,” she had told him. But Mike knew better. She was drowning herself in work, running from herself and the pain she didn’t want to face.

  After long conversations with her doctors—the trauma surgeon and the psychiatrist—they warned him this would happen. She was officially depressed, which meant she’d work, eat,
sleep and have sex too much or not at all.

  When she thought he wasn’t looking, she cried, and he watched silently from afar, alarmed, Kyle’s words banging in his head; stress and depression could be a serious trigger, but for what? He thought Kyle meant substance abuse, but Maggie hadn’t touched weed or alcohol since. What else could it be?

  What did Kyle know that he didn’t?

  At night, Mike never went to bed before Maggie, no matter how sleepy he was. Sometimes, she crawled into his arms and slept there. Other times, she curled as far away from him as possible. Although it bothered him, how distant she’d become, he didn’t say anything.

  Wait it out. That was his mantra now.

  What hurt him the most was the times she woke up in the middle of the night and locked herself in the bathroom to cry. Her sobs, her pain led straight to his heart.

  Tonight, he decided he would no longer stand arms-folded. He had to do something. Anything.

  He knocked on the bathroom door. “Maggie?”

  He heard her sniffle. “Go back to bed. I’m coming right behind you.”

  “Vita mia, just let me in.”

  There was a moment of silence, and then the door opened. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she wrapped her good arm around herself. “Were you up the whole time?”

  He nodded. “Every night.”

  She headed toward the bed. “You should take those sleeping pills they prescribed me. They’re not working for me. Maybe they will for you.”

  He followed her. “The antidepressants aren’t working either, I guess.”

  She pulled the bed covers up to her shoulders as she slipped back into bed. “You guessed right.”

  “We should try something else.”

  Her eyes flicked at him. “I’m still not in the mood for sex. I’m sorry.”

  “I know, and you don’t need to apologize.” He sat next to her, and his fingers stroked her hair. “I wasn’t talking about sex, Carolina.”

  “If it’s not drugs or sex, what else can cheer me up?” Her lips stretched in a sarcastic smile.

  “How about talk?”

  She stared at him, her smile gone.

  “I don’t remember a time when we could shut up around each other. I love that about us. We have no filters. We can talk about anything anytime.” He drew closer. “I love to listen to you.”

  “Me too.” She turned away from him. “But I don’t wanna talk about what happened.”

  “Okay. Talk about something else,” he prompted.

  “Like what?”

  “Anything that makes you happy.”

  “I don’t think I’ll ever be happy.”

  Her words stung, like a punch in the face. Was that how she really felt? She’d never be happy, not even with him? What good was he if he couldn’t make the girl he loved the most happy? If he couldn’t take away her darkness and despair? He couldn’t be more useless.

  “I mean there are moments when I am…happy, especially with you,” she added, and hope flickered in him. “Then I don’t know what happens. It’s like the feature isn’t installed in my program. I’m sorry.”

  “I wish you’d stop apologizing for anything and everything,” he said. “You do that a lot, and it’s irritating. Not everything is your fault, amore. You really need to start believing that.”

  “I know. I’m trying, Mike. I’m sorry.” She shook her head, looking away. “Shit.”

  He chuckled. “You’ll get there.”

  “Not in this lifetime, obviously.” She shrugged. “Speaking of time, I think I should return to my apartment.”

  He scowled. “What? No.”

  “I was supposed to stay for two days. It’s been two weeks now.”

  “Do you hear me complaining? This is the only good thing that came out of this situation.”

  Her fingers brushed the back of his hand. “Babe, you canceled all your promotion tours and interviews to babysit me. You need to get back to work.”

  “I don’t need to do anything but be with you, Maggie Dawson.”

  She smiled.

  He pointed at her lips. “What’s that on your face?”

  “What?” Her hand rose to her face.

  “Right here.” His finger touched her mouth. “Is that a smile? Like a real smile?”

  Her lips stretched into a grin.

  “OMG, it is a smile!”

  It turned into a chortle. “You’re one crazy son of a bitch.”

  “A smile and swearing? Ladies and gentlemen, she’s back,” he announced.

  “Fucking pazzo.”

  “This pazzo missed you so fucking much.” Without thinking, he leaned in and kissed her. Her lips were hot and soft and brought all the feelings he’d been bottling down for the past two weeks to the surface. Pulling away, he winced. “Now it’s my turn to apologize. I’m not pressuring you into anything. I just really missed you.”

  She stared at him for a few moments, a sparkle igniting in her eyes. “I missed you, too.” Her eyes dipped to his lips. The warmth of her breath scorched him. “I almost forgot how you tasted.” Then her fingers twined with his as she pulled him into another kiss. “You shouldn’t have waited this long to kiss me. I can’t be the one who makes the first move all the time.”

  “I was…”

  “Afraid.” She finished his sentence. “You’re always afraid, Mike.”

  True. As long as he couldn’t find the courage to come clean about his darkest secret, he’d always be afraid. But how could he tell her now when she was like this, fragile and hurt? How could he break her heart even more? Wasn’t it enough what she had to go through?

  “And you’re afraid of nothing,” he said. “The bravest person I’ve ever seen. Remember when you insisted you could catch a fish with bare hands? You almost lost a finger that day. And that time when we were skating and you went on that thin ice on purpose? You scared me shitless. Thank God you only twisted your ankle.”

  “Bravery is not the lack of fear. It’s the ability to face your fears.” She put her hand on his cheek. “Neither of us can be called brave, babe.”

  PART THREE

  HEROES AND VILLAINS

  Scene 54

  Maggie

  TWO MONTHS LATER

  “Maggie, how does it feel now that you’re not a debut director anymore?” Tracy, an interviewer from Entertainment Tonight asked.

  “I’m beyond excited to start my second project.” I smiled. “Today, as you can see,” I added with a hand gesture introducing the inside of my trailer to the cameraman. “Though I kinda still feel like a debut somehow. I mean, I’m currently, nervously, waiting for my first feature to premiere.”

  “Do you have a release date?”

  “April 18th Everything Under the Sun premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival. That’s less than a week from now.”

  “Congratulations. That’s fantastic news.”

  “It is. I still can’t believe it’s happening. It’s like a dream.”

  “As an experience, how is Black Sheep different from Everything Under the Sun?”

  “It’s different on many levels. I’m personally attached to Black Sheep. Raoul Garcia, the writer, is a close friend of mine. I was there when he wrote it, and I loved every part of that story. To be given the chance to transform it into something you can actually see is…amazing.” I crossed my legs. “I’m also so lucky to have such adventurous talents to work with. Artists who are not afraid of change and taking risks. For instance, Mike Gennaro goes through a complete makeover to play a villain for the first time.”

  “A villain? That’s something you don’t see quite often. How are we supposed to hate Mike Gennaro?”

  “I know, right?” I leaned forward. “Well, the beauty of this script is that only the audience can decide whether to hate Chuck Sullivan, the character Gennaro plays. There’re a lot of gray areas here, and you may wind up sympathizing or even rooting for him in the end.”

  “That’s very interesting. I can’t wait to
see this movie already.”

  “Thank you. It’s a very emotional story and full of controversies.”

  “Not to mention it’s packed with super sexy stars.”

  “Uh…that too. Well, give a single woman casting approval, and this is what you get.” I let myself blush. According to Lahey, Mike’s publicist who had been media coaching me for the past months, a little awkward humility played well on TV. “I never thought I could have that many handsome superstars on one set.” A little humor, too. “Who are all conveniently single, by the way. It’s very distracting, Tracy.” I made a face. “But I’m a professional. I can handle it-ish.”

  The interviewer laughed. “Well, you heard her, boys.”

  “I’m still single, too. Just saying.” I shrugged. “Just saying.”

  Tracy laughed again. “If you get to date any one of that stunning cast, who will it be?”

  “That’s a trick question. I can’t date any of them because I have to manage the whole team. I think it’s very difficult to be the boss of someone you date.” I still had no idea how I was going to do that with Mike.

  “But on-set romances between actors and directors happen all the time.”

  “Um…yeah, they do. It’s mostly the female lead who falls for the male director. When it’s the other way around, and you’re The Kid on set, I don’t think the odds are in my favor.” I giggled. “I’m staying optimistic, though.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Tracy squeaked. “Before we go tour this amazing set, I have to ask you one last question. I know you’ve been asked this a million times, but people are pretty convinced you are in fact Mike Gennaro’s love interest—”

  I tilted my head. “Oh, God. That thing again. Please don’t ask.”

  “I’ll be fired if I don’t.”

  “Okay. Whatever I say, people are going to believe what they want to believe. Just ask yourself one question. I’ve been single for almost three months, and I see Mike every day. If I was that girl, why hasn’t he asked me out yet?”