Limelight (Hollywood Stardust)
Page 25
Her final words out, she stood, stomped over to Drew, collected her purse and camera and held out her hand. “May I have the keys please?”
Without any hesitation, he surrendered what she wanted.
Though his jaw was set, his nostrils flared, she saw something else there, lingering in the background. Amusement? Understanding? Well, no matter, she already did the damage. “I’ll meet you in the car, right after I create a ruckus walking through the lobby.”
Like when she played a role, she saw nothing but her mark, as she did exactly what she promised, and stormed through the facility and out the sliding glass doors with her head held high. On the flip side, her performance was worse than any hack actor, over dramatized and done purely for shock value. She went right to the SUV, got inside and turned on some music.
The classic rock both she and Drew preferred filled the car and she shut her eyes and put her hand over her mouth. She wondered if Drew knew she really tried. Since the moment she entered Organic Oasis yesterday until she walked out of Drew’s meeting just now, she tried.
When he looked at her, he struggled, unable to see anyone but the girl who broke his heart. Why couldn’t he remember the fun too? How did he fall in love with her in the first place if she was only evil? Why were they even on this trip if he couldn’t remember some of the good?
For all these years, those were the memories that kept her going.
She stared out the front window. This town had the same look and feel of where they shot the carnival scene in Hollywood Stardust and her favorite morning ever.
“Drew.” The sky was just lighting up and she had pulled him to the opening she found in the chicken wire fence the day before. “Here it is.”
“You do know this is called trespassing, right?” Shaking his head, he had held the little flap further apart, let her slip inside the fairgrounds and followed.
“How can it be trespassing? We’re filming here.” She grabbed his hand and dragged him onto one of the main thoroughfares. “I say we’re getting into character.”
“All right, whatever works for you.” He yawned.
She turned around, absorbing all the grandeur that was the fair. “It’s really cool here.” All they had seen was the inside of the arcade, though she got to walk through a carnival a few times for some establishing shots.
“Typical carnival.”
“I wouldn’t know what’s typical.” From the time she was eight years old she created a spectacle everywhere she went. It was easier not to go.
They looked at each other.
Only with Drew could she have a whole conversation and never say a word.
“Come on.” Now it was his turn to drag her. “Let’s see what there is to see.”
Hand in hand, he took her past the stands that in a few hours would sell really fattening food she wasn’t allowed to have, the Ferris wheel and the games that were impossible to win until they came to a big long building.
“What’s this?” She wrinkled her nose at what appeared to be nothing but a barn.
“You know, fairs are also places for exhibits.” As if on a mission, he led her around the side to a door chained by a padlock.
She watched while he found a little tool in his pocket and used it to pick the lock. “Drew, what are you doing?”
“Get ready to run.” The lock snapped open.
“Why?” She grabbed his arm.
“In case this is alarmed.” He untangled the chain from the door and pushed it open.
Her heart beating at break neck speed, she gasped and jumped ready for sirens.
Only a big, black empty space greeted them.
Without a word, he guided her inside. He closed the door behind them enveloping them in pitch dark and fumbled along the wall.
“Drew.” She kept tight hold of him.
“Hold on. I know it has to be here.”
A click echoed around her and then suddenly the entire space was illuminated by huge hanging models of the planets. Against the black background it was almost like they were standing in the solar system. “Oh, my god!”
“Amazing, isn’t it?” They walked to the center of the room. Little exhibits lined the walls all about space and astronomy.
“You knew this was here.” Her co-star loved all things planetary.
“When you were filming the other day, I wandered over. I thought it would be perfect to show you.” He pointed up at the sun.
“This is creepy cool.” The place was impressive enough to be a movie set for sure.
“I knew you would understand.”
Still looking up, they both walked among the humongous planets.
“You know what else would be creepy cool?” Electric excitement bubbled through her.
“Enlighten me.”
“What if the planets were really this big in the sky, or what if we had multiple moons.” Just the thought of the universe gave her shivers.
“Miss Holland, that would indeed fit the bill.” He laughed.
“It would be cool, too, though don’t you think?” She stopped and rather than continuing to stare at the planets studied him. Since they began filming he’d changed, turned into more of a man.
“Are you sure you never did a sci-fi film?” He winked.
“Nope, not my genre. I was turned down for a couple of roles though. I guess I’m not the galaxy explorer type, I’ll leave that up to you.” She poked him in the side.
He stifled a chuckle and swatted her hand away.
“You know what I want to do?” Hiding out with only the universe as their witness was most freeing, and she stood in front of him.
“Slide around the rings of Saturn?”
“Well, as fun as that would be, I think I may want to go to Jupiter where it rains diamonds.” She stepped closer and held her arms out. “I want to dance.”
“Well, then we’ll have to do so with only the songs of the stars as our music.” He bowed, put one arm around her waist and held her hand.
“Stars play a very important part in our life.” She let him lead her in a little dance. “It will be our song.”
“Deal.” He had pulled her in a little tighter. “I wish everyone got to see this side of my favorite star.”
“I reserve it only for you.” The same feeling of safety she always felt around Drew had encompassed her.
The song on the car sound system changed, jolting her out of her reverie.
Everyone, absolutely everyone, had some sort of preconceived notion of her.
In the case of this meeting, she proved Drew right. She couldn’t be trusted with his business or him. If she left, he might be able to claim his life as Isaac Abrams again, with her, Isaac was gone.
She bent over, sure she would be sick. Drew never even tried to defend her and for the first time she couldn’t even be mad, because she didn’t even give him a chance.
At a knock on the car window her heart seized and she shot up to find him standing at the driver’s side.
She pressed her hand to her chest and unlocked the doors.
It seemed to take forever as he opened the back door, put his computer case away, closed the back door and got inside the vehicle.
He hit the button to turn off the music, put his hands on the steering wheel and stared out the windshield without starting the car.
“Drew.” She had to say something.
In a slow move straight out of a suspense film, he turned to her. His eyes narrowed like a hunter zoning in on his prey.
“Are we still going to go to a Bed and Breakfast?” She tried to use a sing-song voice. “Maybe work out some of the aggression?”
His only answer was a blink.
“Drew?”
He continued to stare.
“Did he place an order?” She bit her lower lip.
He exhaled, more like huffed, and she sort of expected fire to come out of his nose.
“Drew?” At last she dropped the cutesy act. “I have something to tell you.”
With her apology his features seamed to soften.
“Maybe on our next stop we can dance. The songs of the stars will be our music.” Tears heated her eyes. If he didn’t acknowledge one of the best times of her life she didn’t know what she would do.
He faced front once more and turned on the car, backing up out of the space, the tires screeching as he pulled away.
“Drew?” She bit her nail. “Where are we going?”
“To the Bed and Breakfast.” At last he spoke. “Don’t say another word until we are inside the room.”
“Drew.” She winced at having said his name.
He slammed on his breaks. “I’m not eighteen anymore. When I say do not talk, I mean do not talk. Do you understand?”
She nodded and sat back in the seat.
He hit the gas, and she prayed his idea of a bed and breakfast wasn’t dumping her at the uranium mine with no climax and then vanishing again.
HOLLYWOOD STARBURST
EXT. POCAHONTAS, IL, HIGHWAY 70 – DAY.
Roxy is in the car, music blaring and speeding down the highway. From behind a sign, a policeman on a motorcycle emerges, turns on the lights and sirens and pulls her over.
ROXY
What?
ROXY hits the steering wheel and pulls the car over to the side of the road. Out of her rearview mirror she watches the officer come over to her side of the car. Before she rolls down the window, she tries to fluff her hair and licks her lips.
OFFICER leans down into the window.
OFFICER
License and registration.
ROXY tilts her head and smiles.
ROXY
Is there something wrong?
OFFICER taps his pen against his clip board.
OFFICER
You were going 85 in a 65 mile per hour zone. The documents please.
ROXY gets her license out of her purse and the registration out of the glove box and hands it to the officer.
ROXY
You know, honestly, there is no one on the road. I guess I sort of lost track of the speed.
OFFICER inspects documents and writes down information.
OFFICER
The signs are clearly posted.
ROXY purses her lips, but then forces a smile on her face.
ROXY
Well, I definitely learned my lesson. Do you think I can get off with a warning?
OFFICER
The ticket is the warning. You can thank me that I caught you before we were scraping you off the pavement.
OFFICER hands the clipboard to Roxy to sign.
ROXY lifts the pen, but doesn’t sign. Instead, she turns to the officer.
ROXY
You know the road is really empty, nothing was going to happen.
OFFICER
(Low, slow voice)
Miss, you will need to sign the ticket, or I will be forced to take you into the station.
ROXY presses her lips together, signs her name on the ticket, and thrusts the clipboard back at the officer.
OFFICER tears ticket off the pad and hands it to her.
OFFICER
Where are you going?
ROXY doesn’t look in the officer’s direction and tosses the paper on the passenger seat.
ROXY
Home.
OFFICER
Take it nice and slow and read the signs.
THE OFFICER leaves. Again ROXY watches in the rear view mirror as the officer gets on his bike and takes off.
ROXY
Jerk!
ROXY flips off the officer as he drives away and gets out of the car.
ROXY
(Screams)
Jerk!
ROXY kicks the tire then yells out in pain and falls down, clutching her ankle. She leans over and starts crying.
ROXY
(Whining)
I just want someone to make it better for once.
Chapter Twenty-One
“HURRY UP.” Drew opened the door to their suite. Since Grand Junction didn’t seem too fond of Drew Fulton, he donned a baseball cap and sunglasses. He checked into the promised Bed & Breakfast under Isaac Abrams and guest while the said guest waited in the car without speaking. If Drew Fulton proved to be too much, Erin Holland would be over the top.
However, at the moment, he didn’t care who he was or who she was. He was a man, a successful man, but anytime he found himself in the vicinity of Erin Holland, he turned into a drippy nosed hormonal teenager. Especially once she mentioned the morning they spent at the fairgrounds. It had to stop now or he would personally put her on the next plane to LA LA Land.
Carrying the picnic basket the owner insisted on packing him, Erin rushed inside the suite, stopped and gasped. “Oh.”
Aside from ensuring they had everything private, including an entrance and a bath, he also opted for the best suite, complete with a balcony and all the trappings a B&B offered, comprising overstuffed calico sofas, a fireplace, and what appeared to be a four-poster canopy bed in the bedroom. “I take it the accommodations are to your liking?” He dropped their bags in the entryway and crossed his arms.
“It’s incredible.” She darted around the suite, put the picnic basket on the coffee table and smiled up at him. “It looks like a movie set.”
He willed himself not to be sucked into the black hole that was her pretty pink lips upturned as if she wanted to please him. “We don’t live in a movie.” If she didn’t know this already, he needed to be the one to tell her. In fact, he needed to explain a lot of things.
“Would you like something to eat?” She peeked in the basket. “We have a bottle of wine.”
He gave her a slight shrug and didn’t move from his spot by the door. She might be the actress, but he would take on the part of director.
Playing her part to perfection, she remained silent while she set out the food, opened the wine, and poured them each a glass. Once finished, she sat on the couch and patted the cushion next to her.
Not in any lifetime would he go to her. Well, at least not now. The line had been drawn.
“Drew.” She pursed out her superpower, the lower lip of death. “I really am sorry.”
He decided not to tell her he got the order, and the fact Mr. Trusdale took notes on some of Erin’s points. As a side note, he also chose to leave out the part about how the client was always a jerk.
“For the record, I think Allan is a much better account, especially since you’re custom making his product.”
“Did I or did I not tell you to be good?” Though the conversation seemed like it took place several years ago, he distinctly remembered uttering the words. “Is it possible you could have just remained quiet?”
“I told you I was bad.” She took one of the glasses of wine, stood and approached him. “Why are we here, if I didn’t earn my prize?”
“I wanted to be here. So we’re here.” He stared down his nemesis.
“Are we going to do what we came here for?” She kept eye contact and offered him the glass of wine. “I promise from now on when you tell me to be good I will be, starting right now. In fact, if you give me the chance, I’ll be exceptional.”
“You need to learn how to listen. Not everyone is taken with Hollywood and stars.” As he gulped down the wine, he allowed her to lead him back to the couch. He sat and put the glass on the table.
She stood before him and unbuttoned her suit jacket, peeled the garment off and tossed it on the floor. “The question is, Mr. Fulton, are you taken with Hollywood and stars?”
Her breasts overflowed from the cream-colored silk camisole she wore under her jacket and his body produced the requisite reaction. “Lately, both have been making my life extremely difficult.”
“Maybe you should let the star make your life a little more pleasurable.” She shimmied out of her skirt, kicking it in the opposite direction of the jacket
.
“Maybe you should have thought of that before you shoved a camera in my account’s face.” His eyes went right to her legs.
“Oh, I was a bad girl, and I was trying so hard to be good.” Still in her heels, she walked around the table, removing the camisole and her bra, leaving her only in a barely there thong. She got on the couch and crawled over to him, positioning herself face down over his lap. “Maybe I need to be punished.”
The sight of her rounded bottom made his mouth water. Strange, even though she was a star and everyone commented on her beauty, he knew deep down she only saw what she perceived as her flaws. Since the day he met her, he only saw her, the person beneath the star. “You want me to punish you?”
“I think you need to punish me.” She propped up on her elbows and turned back to him. “Maybe if someone did as he wanted and punished me, we could focus more on the good than the bad.”
Point taken. He tilted his head and grazed his hand over her smooth skin, considering her offer. If anyone ever needed a punishment, it was the woman slung over his knees.
“I think you are dying to punish me.” She wiggled her wares at him. Goaded him. Dared him.
For once in his life with Erin Holland, he called her bluff, raised his hand and spanked her. The snap of his flesh hitting hers echoed through the room, the sting radiated up through his palm and with it the overwhelming sensation of gratification surged through him.
“Drew!” With wide eyes, she stared at him.