When Dreams Come True (The Star Series Book 1)

by Stratton, M.

  She could hear the excitement in his voice. “Yes. I’m planning another book, where he is released from the facility, completely rehabilitated, or so they say. He wants to ruin their happily ever after.”

  “I knew it.” His breath came harder on her neck. “Knowing how he was in this one, I can’t wait to see what you have in store for him with the next one. Tell me.”

  His scent was so intoxicating she was willing to give him anything to stay that close to him. Again having an intimate moment with him surrounded by so many people. “I can’t. I don’t have it all worked out yet.”

  “Well, I can understand that.” He pulled away from her and pulled something out of his pocket. “Here.” He lifted her hand and turning it over, placed a card across her palm. Closing her fingers around it, he gave her a little squeeze. “Don’t lose that. You’ll keep me informed, right?”

  “Sure. Yeah, I can do that.” She didn’t want to be a complete dork and open her hand, but she suspected it was a way to get a hold of him, most likely email. She wanted so badly to do a happy dance, but she was trying to be all professional and like she took lunch meetings with famous actors in Los Angeles all the time. Acting like a groupie would totally blow the image.

  They spent the rest of the lunch talking about the movie and the possibility for more. She thought it was going well, and then Sam said they were going to be drawing up contracts for her first series. She knew she didn’t have to worry; Angelica knew what would be best for the both of them and she’d make sure they got the best deal. Besides, they had the basics down with this one.

  When dessert was delivered, Lissa felt that she might finally be able to relax and enjoy some food. The lemon-raspberry cheesecake was one of her favorites and she couldn’t decide between that and the chocolate mousse. Somehow, Will must have seen her looking at his dessert and when he offered her a bite she almost fell off her chair. The world famous movie star was holding his fork out for her to take a bite of his mousse. What if she was reading him wrong and he was expecting her to take the fork from him and feed herself? Or should she just lean in and take the bite? He waved it closer to her.

  Very carefully she moved forward, afraid she would miscalculate and stab herself in the cheek. She tentatively took the bite, trying not to think about how the fork was just in his mouth. She closed her eyes as it melted in her mouth, trying not to moan at the decadent taste of it.

  “More?” his soft, sexy, deep voice asked.

  Oh, God, yes. That and you, spread all over me. “No, no, it’s your dessert. I’m fine.”

  “It’s just you looked like you were thoroughly enjoying it.”

  “I was.” She needed a drink of water and took a sip.

  He pushed his plate toward her. “Who am I to deny a woman her pleasure?”

  Not sure she’d heard him right, she wasn’t paying attention to what she was doing and ended up choking on her water. Her face turned red as she coughed and she was sure everyone was, once again, staring at her. Once Angelica’s hard pounding on her back had gotten her coughing under control and she could talk again, she pushed the plate back to him. “Really, mine is good. Please, have yours.”

  They finished their dessert and it was time to leave. He was right there pulling her chair out when she was ready to stand, a hand on her elbow. She was wearing heels and it was nice to be able to wear them and still be shorter than his six-foot-two. As they walked out together, he kept his hand on the small of her back and guided her off to the side so they could wait together for the valet to bring their cars around. Angelica had driven, but since she and Sam were deep in conversation about ten feet away, it was nice to have a few private moments with Will. It may be my only one, ever. Deciding to let him know how much she appreciated it, she wanted to come clean.

  Once again, the two of them were in a bubble. She turned so she could look at him. “Thank you.”

  “For what, darling?”

  “Making me feel so comfortable. This whole thing.” She waved her hand around. “It isn’t something I normally do. You made sure I didn’t make a complete dork out of myself.”

  “So, you’re saying you were a partial dork today?” he asked, smiling.

  She couldn’t help it; she smiled back at him as she reached up and put her hand on his arm. “Actually, I was on my best behavior. I’d have to say I was only about ten percent dork, and most of that was internal conversations.”

  “I look forward to seeing if I can bring out more of the dork in you.”

  “Be careful what you wish for.”

  “What’s life without a bit of dorkiness?”

  “A life less dorkful? Dorkless? Void of dork?”

  He threw his head back and laughed. She couldn’t help it when she joined him, all of her tension leaving her body in that one shared act of laughter.

  “Ahhhh, Melissa Loring, I look forward to working with you.”

  “Me, too.”

  “Wonderful. Will you be on set, or don’t you know yet?”

  “I should be, based on what we’ve asked for in the contract.”

  “Excellent. Now, about that whole superhero convention I was part of. Do you like superhero movies?”

  Lissa bounced on her toes in excitement. “Oh, yes, I do. My friend, she’s also my personal assistant, she’s here with me, and we watch them all the time.”

  “You know part of the reason I’m in Los Angeles right now is because the premier for the next installment of the superhero movie is tonight..”

  “Hannah and I were wondering if we’d have time to squeeze in going to the movies while we were here, or if we were going to have to wait until we got home. We’ve been counting down the days.”

  “I could get the two of you in to the premier tonight.”

  “Get out. No way!” She stopped herself from punching his shoulder just in time.

  “Way.”

  She giggled. “Seriously?”

  “Very serious.”

  “Oh, my! Oh, I can’t wait to tell Hannah. She’s going to love it. She’s a huge fan of Royce Rivers. Thank you.” She wrapped her arms around him and his automatically went around her. She backed up a little bit from him. “Sorry, that was a bit forward.”

  He didn’t let her go. “Don’t worry; it’s refreshing. You have no idea how it makes me feel to make someone else happy. Something which is so easy for me to do means so much to the other person.” He let her go when his car arrived then grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it. “I cannot begin to tell you the pleasure it was to meet you. I’ll send a car for you, so all you and Hannah need to do is show up. I’ll take care of the rest.”

  “Thank you, Will.”

  “My pleasure.”

  She waved to him as he pulled away. Seeing Angelica’s car waiting, she walked over to it and sat down before her legs gave out. They waited until they were away from the restaurant before they turned to each other and screamed like teenage girls.

  Lissa felt like a lovesick school girl riding the elevator up to the suite she shared with Hannah. Angelica had dropped her off, with no supervision. What kind of agent was she? Angelica knew exactly how scatterbrained Lissa had been since the lunch, but she let her find her own way around the huge hotel. She’d hit the wrong buttons, and even completely forgotten to get off the elevator a few times before she’d finally figured out what floor to get out on. And she still managed to trip on her way out. All because she’d met Will Martinsson, talked with him, had lunch with him, was invited to his premier and had hugged him. She swore she could still smell his cologne on her. She took a sniff of her shirt and sure enough, his scent still lingered.

  When she entered the room, she could hear Hannah on the phone talking with someone. She continued through the suite to the balcony and went out, staring at the city below her. Standing there she took deep breath after deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. She went over and over every little thing she’d done at lunch, ever
ything she’d said, hoping there wasn’t anything she felt too stupid about doing. The last thing she wanted was to dwell on what she’d done for the next twenty years.

  “Hey there, mama. How was lunch?” Hannah walked out onto the balcony and handed her a glass of wine.

  Without thinking, Lissa drank it all down in one big gulp while staring at her friend who stood a few inches shorter than her own five-foot-eight. Hannah was full of energy and had a no-nonsense approach to work, which worked really well with her own head-in-the-clouds dreamy approach.

  “Whoa, was the meeting that bad?”

  Shaking her head, she wasn’t sure how to tell the best friend she’d had since they were both in college. The one who’d always stood by her and made sure she didn’t get lost in her writing. The one she’d met the month after her parents died in the car accident. If Hannah hadn’t been there, she never would have believed it herself. “Come on, let’s go inside.”

  “Why?” Hannah frowned at her.

  “Because I need another drink, I need to sit down, and I need a pillow to scream into. You’re going to need one, too, and I don’t want to scream on the balcony. The last thing I want is to have the cops called on us and somehow get thrown in jail, and then we’d miss tonight. Oh, my God, Hannah; just wait.” Lissa grabbed her hand and dragged her back inside, closed the balcony door and pulled her down to sit next to her on the couch.

  “Tell me what happened. You’re killing me here.”

  “Shit, Hannah. Seriously, I don’t believe it myself. Quick, pinch me.” She held her arm out. “Ouch. Crap. I still don’t believe it. Here.” She dug his card out of purse and with shaking fingers handed to her.

  Hannah took the card. “Oh.” She flipped it over. “Well. Is it a fake? Who’s playing a joke on you? I’ll kick their ass.”

  “Calm down there, Betty Boxer. No one is playing a joke on me.”

  “Then… how…” Hannah looked up at her. “Really?” she whispered.

  “Really.” Lissa’s eyes were huge. “He sat next to me. The whole time. For lunch.”

  “Dude…”

  “I know,” she whispered. “We talked. He listened to me. I didn’t say anything too stupid. Hannah, he is so charming.”

  Hannah sat up straight. “Wait, why was he there?”

  “That’s the thing; they’ve already shown him the script. He’s read my books. All of them! He thinks they’re good. They are talking about him being cast in it. He wants to be in it.”

  “Holy shitballs. Seriously? Of course you’re serious; you wouldn’t joke about something like that. Damn, Lissa, he was your muse for that book, and to have him show interest in being cast in it? Wow.” Her eyes lit up. “That’s so cool.”

  “That’s not even the best part.”

  “How could it get better?”

  Lissa looked at her watch. “Because in a little over two hours, there is going to be a car waiting for us downstairs to take us to the premier of the movie he’s in tonight. Not just him, but also a certain Royce Rivers.” Lisa sat back and waited for it. Sure enough, after about fifteen seconds Hannah stood up and started screaming. Shoving her down and putting a pillow over her face, Lissa dissolved into laughter. “I knew it. I knew this would be how you reacted.”

  Hannah pulled the pillow away. “Seriously? We’re going?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Wow.”

  “I know.”

  “No, wow. What are we going to wear?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “Well, we’d better figure it out quick, and we need to do something with our hair and makeup. There’s so much do to. Did Angelica say anything?”

  “Yeah, she actually said she’d be back here any minute now with reinforcements and everything we’d need for tonight. Whatever that’s supposed to mean.”

  “Oh, awesome. I should still call her.” Hannah whipped out her phone and started barking orders to Angelica on what they were going to need.

  Lissa ignored her when the conversation got loud. They were both the take-charge, no-nonsense, ‘just get the job done’ type of people. They were looking out for her best interests, so she knew there was nothing to worry about. And they both were great friends; she could trust them always with anything.

  Flipping his card around, she pulled out her phone and put his information into it. It was so weird seeing his name there: Will Martinsson. Pulling her journal from her bag, she quickly sketched him. She wasn’t really an artist, and she never thought she’d captured the feeling of the moment, but she wanted to do something to remember it all the same. She added a sentence or two he’d said at lunch around the picture. Needing something to focus on, she starting adding more and more detail as she closed her eyes to remember him, especially the teasing light in his eyes.

  When the knock on the door came, she jumped and quickly closed the journal. She never wanted anyone seeing her artwork; she thought it was that bad. Most times it ended up in the waste basket. She went over to the door and opened it for Angelica, a couple of other people and a rack full of clothes.

  “What the heck?” She tried to back out of their way but wasn’t quick enough as one of the wheels rolled over her foot. “Ouch!”

  “This isn’t going to hurt a bit.” Angelica misunderstood her. “I have everything you need here. You’ll be absolutely beautiful for the red carpet.

  “You do know we’re down to about an hour and a half, and there are two of us.”

  “This is why I brought two teams, one for each of you.”

  Lissa sighed. “Angelica, we most likely aren’t even going to be on the red carpet. He said he’d get us in, but we’ll probably go to the back entrance and sit way up high with other people who happened to win tickets. You don’t have to go to all of this bother.”

  “Girl, correct me if I’m wrong, but you were at lunch, right?” She didn’t wait for her to reply. “That man’s super power is his charm, and he had it focused one hundred percent in your direction. Did you get that?”

  “Umm… yeah, I thought so, but then maybe he was just being nice.” Her arms were lifted by the ladies who were holding different clothes up to her, while another played with her hair.

  “Bullshit. Besides, going back to him being charming, do you really think he’d just let you arrive at the back door and not at least meet up with you at some point?”

  “Come on, Angelica. You know her,” Hannah said from behind her. “She claims she doesn’t want to get her hopes up, but she never thinks she’s as good as she really is, or that anyone would or should go above the bare minimum for her.”

  Lissa turned to glare at her and caught sight of the dress the ladies were holding up to her. “Oh, Hannah, that one is perfect for you.”

  “You think so? I kind of do, too.”

  Once the outfits were decided on, Lissa sat back in a chair and vaguely listened to Angelica tell Hannah all about lunch. But they didn’t know about the two brief, private conversations Lissa and Will were able to have, and she didn’t want to fill them in. She wanted to hold that little bit to herself. She couldn’t help it as she closed her eyes and smiled at the memory. Him leaning over to her; his scent filling her senses; his smooth, deep, lilting voice whispering in her ear. How many women would do just about anything to have that?

  “Lissa!” Hannah said.

  “Hmmmm?”

  “Quit daydreaming.”

  “I always daydream. It’s how I come up with my best stuff.”

  “Yeah, I know. But seriously, you might want to see this.”

  Her eyes flew open to Hannah in front of her, holding out her phone. There on the screen was a picture of her and Will in front of the restaurant talking, his hand on the small of her back. She was turned into him and had her hand on his arm. They were gazing deeply into each other’s eyes. The next picture was when then were laughing. It was strange to see; it still didn’t seem real.

  “Mys
tery woman, huh? Well, I don’t feel like a mystery. Boy, are they going to be sorry, because I’m really boring.” Lissa laughed humorlessly.

  “Stop, just stop. We’re not having this conversation again.” Hannah stomped her foot.

  Lissa waved her off. “It’s never a conversation. I make a statement, you disagree, and that’s it.

  Anyway, that’s just one website. It’s really no big deal. I’m sure if he waves and acts nicely to a stranger on the street they take pictures and blow it all out of proportion.”

  “It’s being carried by at least a dozen websites right now. Everyone is trying to figure out who you are.”

  Lissa knew it was no big deal for her, but she didn’t want Will to think she’d set it up to somehow get some publicity. “Anyone successful yet?”

  “Let me look.”

  “You know, this isn’t going to hurt anything,” Angelica said. “Having your name attached to his, that is.”

  “I’m not going to use him. He seems really nice. We talked. If things go right, he may end up starring in my movie, but then it might not work out.” She shrugged. “I’m not going to exploit him.”

  “This business is going to eat you up and spit you out,” Angelica hissed.

  “Ang, you know me. This is all wonderful, and it’s like a fairytale, a dream, but it’s not what I do. It’s not what I need. My writing is what I need. This,” she waved her hand, “this is the icing. If it’s all gone tomorrow, that’s fine, because I’ll still have my writing. I’ll be fine.”

  “So much for that,” Hannah said, her head bent over her phone.

  “What’s that?” Lissa frowned at her.

  “Here it is. ‘Author Melissa Loring was seen having lunch today with Will Martinsson and their representatives. As you can see, they are looking quite cozy together. What could this mean? Will he be starring in a movie based on her bestselling book? Or are they starring and writing a movie of their own?’”

  Lissa closed her eyes. “Oh, no, they didn’t.”