When Dreams Come True (The Star Series Book 1)

by Stratton, M.

“Just because I’m half-asleep doesn’t mean you can lie to me. I can walk, so put me down.”

  “Melissa, I don’t think—”

  “I can do this.”

  “Sure you can.” He continued to walk to the elevator and set her down when then reached it. “Fine, then prove it. Stand up.” Slowly he lowered her legs, keeping an arm around her shoulders.

  Once he set her down, the pain from her feet worked its way up and she swayed into him. The elevator dinged and before she could attempt to take a step, he lifted her back into his arms.

  “I could have walked.”

  “Sure you could have, but I can’t think of a better way to romance you than carrying you up to your room.”

  “Unless you throw your back out carrying me around.”

  “Hush, and just enjoy it. I know I am.”

  “Where did Hannah and Royce go?”

  “They went on ahead since we had to get Sleeping Beauty out of the vehicle.”

  “Hmmm…”

  She looked up at him and he was smiling, so she laid her head on his chest and enjoyed the feeling of being in his arms. Too soon they were inside the room, and he set her down and cupped her cheek with his hand. “Sweet dreams, my sweet Melissa.”

  “Goodnight, William.” She covered his hand with hers. She wasn’t going to ask him when she’d see him next. For all she knew, he’d be on a plane in a couple of hours, and she couldn’t bear the thought of counting the minutes until she was able to see him again.

  Leaning down, he kissed her on her cheek. “I’ll call you.”

  “I’ll answer.”

  He smiled as Lissa wrapped her arms around him pulling him close. When his arms circled her, she sighed in contentment.

  “God, you fit so perfectly in my arms,” Will whispered in her ear. “I don’t want to let you go.”

  “Then don’t.”

  He pulled his head away slightly so he could look into her eyes. She could barely see the blue of his, his pupils were so large. Her breath hitched in her chest and deciding it may be the last time she’d see him, she ran her hand up and tangled her fingers in his hair, pulling him toward her.

  As soon as their lips touched, she swore fireworks went off and the angels started to sing. His worked their magic across hers and she lost all track of time. When he started to pull away, she whimpered.

  “So sorry, darling.” He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “I need to stop while I still can.” He kissed her other cheek. “Shakespeare had it right; ‘parting is such sweet sorrow’.” He pulled her in close for one more quick hug, releasing her too soon for her liking. He held his hand up to his lips and sent her a kiss before closing the door quietly behind him.

  She stood there staring at the door, wondering if and when she’d ever see him again. Her heart ached at the unanswered question.

  Lissa and Hannah relaxed in the living area of the hotel room while eating fruit and pastries, discussing the night before and comparing notes on the people they’d talked to. Lissa felt guilty. She’d been so tied up in Will she hadn’t spent much time with her best friend.

  “Stop,” Hannah ordered.

  “What?”

  “Do you not think I don’t know what you’re thinking about?”

  Lissa raised her eyebrow at Hannah. “Huh? Is that the whole ‘you know that I know that you know that I know’ thing?”

  “Yes, and I had the time of my life last night. Nothing could have been better. You want to know what the icing on the cake was? Seeing my best friend fall in love.”

  Shooting straight up, Lissa tried to play it off as if she wanted another strawberry and leaned over to pick one up. “What? You’re crazy. I most certainly did not fall in love yesterday.” She popped it into her mouth, trying her best to seem nonchalant.

  “The hell you didn’t.”

  Lissa stuck her tongue out at her. “How about I give you ‘I fell in like’ with Will.”

  “You keep telling yourself that.” Hannah crossed her arms over her chest.

  “I will.” She leveled a narrow-eyed gaze at Hannah. “And we can drop the subject now.” Seeing Hannah’s innocent nod, she knew she wasn’t in the clear. Hannah would definitely be bringing it up again. “What time did Angelica say the car would be here?”

  Hannah looked at the time. “In a little over an hour. She has the whole day planned out. We’re completely tourists today, and I can’t wait to see everything.” She pulled out her list. “This is going to be so cool.”

  When Lissa’s phone rang, she caught her breath but let it out when she saw it was Christine, her publicist. “Shit, we never called Christine yesterday.”

  “Shit is right. You’re in trouble.”

  Lissa held the phone out to Hannah. “You answer it.”

  “No, no way.” Hannah backed up. “I’m not answering it. You’re the one she’ll be pissed at. Besides, I answered last time.”

  “Fine. Great assistant you are.” Lissa tapped the answer button then put it on speaker and closed her eyes tight, waiting for it. “Hello, Christine, my love.”

  “Don’t you give me that ‘Hello, Christine, my love’ crap. You’ve got some explaining to do.”

  “Whatever could you mean?” Lissa opened her eyes and looked at Hannah for support.

  “Oh, okay. We’re going to play it that way, are we? You do remember the fact that I’m your publicist, right? We’ve been together forever. We started out together. Remember that first online release day party? Do you? I see that means nothing to you because if you cared even just a little bit, you’d have filled me in on what was going on. Oh, I don’t know, after your lunch with Hollywood’s hottest stars. Or how about when you went to the premier of a movie which is going to be blockbuster? Or, hey, what about while you were on your way to the after-party, dirty dancing with him or sitting on his lap? Any of this ringing a bell?”

  “It all rings a bell. A very nice bell. You should have seen it.” Lissa tried not to laugh at the expression on Hannah’s face.

  “Listen here, hooker, I tried to call you a thousand times yesterday—”

  “Actually, only 127 times.”

  “Shut up before I punch you in the stomach the next time I see you. If you see someone calls you more than, oh, I don’t know, ten times in one day, you might want to call them back.”

  “Hannah, can you get me a pen and paper? I need to make a note.”

  “Melissa Emily Loring, if you keep this shit up I swear on everything that is holy I’ll make your life a living hell.”

  “Christine, you know I love you.”

  There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment before Christine spoke. “Yes, damnit, and I love you, too.”

  “There. Now that we’ve got all that out of the way, what did you want to talk to me about?”

  “Have you seen the video and pictures from yesterday and your little adventure with Will Martinsson? Jesus, Lis! Will ‘I’m too fucking hot for my own good’ Martinsson? How in the hell did that happen? Tell me everything.”

  After she filled her in, Lissa waited to see what Christine would have to say. She knew it would be good.

  “When are you going to see him again? Now, before you say anything, I know you, and no, we aren’t going to exploit him. But I’d like to be able to be watching for the news items so we can get the word out to your readers. There is already a huge spike in activity on all of your social accounts. So far, mostly good with only a few crazies coming out.”

  “Well, that’s good, I guess. And I’m not sure when I’ll be seeing him again.”

  “Well, why the hell not?” Christine’s anger came through the phone. “Does he not think you’re good enough for him? Get me his number; I’ll set him straight.”

  “Calm down, tiger. There’s this thing called schedules, and his time is booked far in advance. Besides, his assistant Beau wasn’t around when he dropped me off last night to see. He sa
id he’ll call, and I guess we’ll know more then.”

  “Is it serious?”

  Lissa thought back to their conversation. She really didn’t want to share with anyone, though. She wanted to hold it all close to her heart. “Maybe.”

  “Fuck. Hannah, I know you’re there. Tell me the truth. What’s up with them?”

  “Oh, no doubt about it, totally serious,” Hannah said and ducked when Lissa threw the pillow at her.

  “I thought so.” They could hear Christine tapping her pen.

  “Hey, why do you say that?” Lissa wanted to know.

  “Hannah, get your tablet. I’ve emailed you pics.”

  The pictures went by one after another, showing her and Will. She was always pretty critical of herself in pictures but she thought she didn’t look half bad, and considering how charismatic Will looked, even in still pictures, she’d take what she could get. There was one underlying theme in each of the pictures: heat, and it was almost a visible thing. Sort of like a third person in the picture, between them but also pulling them together. There was no denying the fact that they both were attracted to each other.

  “Geez, Christine, why are you even calling? It’s pretty clear they’ve got the hots for each other,” Hannah stated.

  “Now watch the videos. I’ve put them in order for you.” Her pen was tapping faster.

  The first one up was of her and Will outside the restaurant where they had lunch, then it moved onto the red carpet. Seeing images of them walking together as they made their way to the theater was strange. She was so focused on him and not making a fool of herself that she seemed to have, at least partially, blocked out the cameras.

  “Oh, this one I’ve already seen! Remember, I told you I was able to watch that moment with you and Will? We should totally have some popcorn for this.”

  “Shut up.” Lissa shoved Hannah’s shoulder. She couldn’t say much as she remembered exactly what words they’d spoken to each other. It was strange seeing it all play out and remembering what it felt like to be in that moment with him.

  The next video came up. “Oh, shit… wow… ummm… yeah, that’s kind of hot.” The video was of their dance together.

  Christine’s pen stopped tapping. “Kind of? What planet do you live on? You just about blew up the internet with that one.”

  “You should have seen it in person. I thought the dance floor was going to go up in flames.”

  “Can we move on?”

  “Oh, no, there’s another video.”

  “Great, what’s this one of?”

  “Just watch,” Christine ordered.

  It was their private conversation, where she was sitting on his lap. It was dark, so you couldn’t make out much, but from the angle the video was shot it looked like they kissed.

  “Well, that’s a bummer.”

  “Why?”

  “It looks like we kissed, but we didn’t. I got the short end of the stick there.”

  “I don’t know, it looks to me like you might be getting the ‘stick’ any time now.”

  “Christine!”

  “Are you going to answer my questions now?”

  “Wait, first, these are all over the internet?”

  “Oh, yeah. Every major and minor entertainment news organization is carrying them.”

  “Has Will or his people made a statement yet?” Lissa questioned.

  “Nothing yet. They have left me a message, and I would have already called them back if, oh, I don’t know, my client had called me back at least once in the past almost twenty-four hours so I would know what her side of the story was.”

  “We’re talking now.”

  “Yes, now tell me everything. Having lunch with him wasn’t on your schedule.”

  “The studio brought him. You know my psycho in the book? Well, he wants to play him in the movie. He was there because he wanted to meet me. He’s read all of my books.”

  “Really… well now, that is very interesting.”

  “Then he found out that Hannah and I love the superhero movies he’s been in, and it just so happened the premier of the new one was last night, so he invited us.”

  “Yes. And you both get to walk the red carpet with two very hot, very eligible movie stars.”

  “Oh, yeah, baby,” Hannah chimed in.

  “And how did you get to go to the after-party?” Christine fired away.

  “He wanted the whole experience to be complete for us.”

  “So, you’re saying he was just being polite to a couple of very beautiful women who happen to like superhero movies.”

  “Sure.”

  “Lissa. Don’t make me say your full name again. Why is it like pulling teeth to get anything out of you?” She could hear Christine gasp on the other end of the phone. “You’re not…!”

  Hannah grinned. “She is.”

  “I’ll be damned. Really? Wow… Lissa, that’s great. I’m so happy for you. After all this time, finally you let someone in and fall in love.”

  “What the… no… I’m not in love. I’m just in like.”

  Christine snickered, “Yeah, right. Keep telling yourself that. Hey, I personally think it’s totally fucking awesome someone who writes about this whole ‘love at first sight’ crap actually went and did it.”

  “You’re both wrong, and this conversation is over. We have to get ready to go.”

  “Wait! Are you seeing him today?”

  “No, he hasn’t called, and Angelica has tourist things for Hannah and me to do today.”

  “Let me know if that changes, as soon as it changes.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Shut up, whore.”

  “I love you, too, Christine.”

  “Whatever. I’m off to talk to his people and then start making a scrapbook of your love story so when you’re married, you can look back and remember how you first met.”

  “Shut up, whore.”

  Christine laughed and Hannah joined in.

  “Both of you. I’m ending the call now, bitch,” Lissa declared, laughing at their exchange.

  “I love you, boo.”

  “Love you, too.”

  When the front desk called to say their car was ready for them, Lissa and Hannah went downstairs. She wondered if she was being hyper-sensitive, but it seemed like people were staring at her more. If Will was with her then yes, she knew they’d be looking at her, but she figured it had to be her imagination. She brushed at her clothes to make sure everything was buttoned and zipped.

  The driver was out and around the car as soon as they exited the hotel, and he opened the door for them. She was surprised there were a few paparazzi around and they snapped her picture. While her mind whirled wondering why they might have been taking her picture, she absently stepped into the vehicle. Suddenly, she stopped half in and half out of the car when she realized there was someone already sitting right there. She blinked a few times hoping her eyes would quickly adjust to darker interior. When they did, she looked into the grinning face of Will, and she couldn’t help the matching smile from spreading across her face.

  Unfortunately, Hannah hadn’t been paying attention and she couldn’t stop in time, running into Lissa’s backside and pushing her into the vehicle. Lissa fell and Will easily caught her. She lay on her back looking up at him.

  “Come here often?” Lissa smiled up at him.

  “Oops. My bad,” Hannah said with a smirk on her face. “I guess you could say…” She tilted her head to the side. “You’ve fallen for him?”

  Lissa groaned at the lame joke and reference to their earlier conversation. She tried as gracefully as she could to move off Will’s lap, and with his help she was finally able to. Once they were all settled in, she turned to him and smiled. It was so good to see him. “How?”

  Will grinned at her and waved to Royce. “Well, we were talking last night and we both aren’t flying out until tomorrow. We came up with this bril
liant plan and spoke with Angelica, who put everything in motion for us.”

  “Hannah, remind me to have a talk with her about how I don’t like surprises.”

  “Should I also remind you not to go easy on her, Paula Pushover? Besides, you do too like surprises.”

  Lissa stuck her tongue out at her and sighed. Hannah was right; she was a pushover and did like surprises, but it was just so hard to get one over on her. She couldn’t stop smiling as she looked at him. “Does this mean we have the whole day together?”

  “It sure does, lovely lady,” Royce chimed in. “We’re going to do everything you had on your list, and then some. Just a relaxing day, getting to know one another.” He turned to Hannah and wiggled his eyebrows at her.

  “Keep dreaming, bud.” Hannah gave him a gentle shove.

  Royce covered his heart with his hands. “Oh, you wound me.”

  Lissa leaned closer to Will. “This is a wonderful surprise. Thank you.”

  “The pleasure is all mine.” He laced his fingers through hers. “I couldn’t stay away. I need to know more about you. I need to know we’re both feeling the same thing.”

  She glanced over toward Hannah and Royce who were deep in their own conversation. Taking a deep breath, she decided to hedge her bets. “Well, if I was reading this in a book, I’d have a hard time believing how quickly this is moving.”

  Will grinned at her. “Ahhhh… but your characters always have a connection from the beginning and fall in love quickly.” He tilted his head to the side and smiled. “Wouldn’t you say we’re in a similar situation?”

  “Hmmm…”

  He laughed softly. “Did I make you speechless again?” He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “I look forward to you trying to get me back.”

  Lissa frowned at him. “How did you know?”

  “That you’d hate being at a disadvantage and you’d do whatever you could to gain the upper hand and at some point render me speechless? Oh, I don’t know… lucky guess?”

  “I’m not buying it.” She narrowed her eyes at him.

  He leaned in toward her until they were almost nose to nose. “It’s the connection.” He placed his hand over her heart. “You feel it, you can’t deny it. It’s there; almost a living, breathing, thing between us. I’ll be damned if I’m going to walk away from this.”