Illusions of Love

by Michelle Betham

  ‘She isn’t hurting Vince.’

  ‘You know that for sure, do you?’

  He looked down at the floor for a second, shoving his hands in his pockets. ‘Yes, I do.’ He looked back up at India. ‘I promise you, India, I’m not lying to you. I would never lie to you. She isn’t hurting Vince.’

  India just stared at him. She was tired now, and this obviously wasn’t getting her anywhere. She wasn’t finding anything out here, except the knowledge that whatever Kenny was telling her, it wasn’t the whole truth. She believed him when he told her he wasn’t lying to her, but that only meant that he wasn’t telling her everything. ‘And if you can’t talk to me either…’

  ‘India… Jesus, just trust me, okay? Please?’

  He held out his arms and she stepped into them, letting him hold her tight, hugging him like the best friend that he was. She needed this man, she always would, but tonight he was making her feel as though they’d lost that closeness, that he was putting up a barrier, something to stop her from getting too close. And it was a feeling she hated, but one she knew he was all too familiar with because she’d given him plenty of opportunities in the past to feel just how she was feeling right now.

  She pulled back slightly and looked at him, up into those deep, dark eyes, still holding onto his waist. ‘Don’t shut me out, Kenny. Don’t do that.’

  He stroked the hair from her eyes, absent-mindedly letting his fingers fall down to her shoulders, running them over her skin, all the time looking at her. The woman he’d never stopped caring about. ‘Trust me, baby. Please. That’s all I ask.’

  She leant into him again, falling against him, suddenly just wanting to feel his body against hers, that familiarity that always – always – made her feel safe. A few seconds of remembering how it used to be. Then she pulled back again and hit his arm, hard enough for him to wince in pain.

  ‘Jesus, India! That fucking hurt!’

  ‘It was meant to. Whatever’s going on, sort it out, Kenny. I mean it. Because I’ve got enough to worry about, okay?’

  He gave her a mock salute and she had to smile, leaning over to kiss him on the mouth.

  ‘And we both need some “together” time. Soon. You got that?’

  He smiled back, relieved she was backing off from the questioning, and ridiculously happy that she was acknowledging the fact they needed to spend some time together. Because they just didn’t get the chance to do that so much these days, and he missed it. He missed her. More than he cared to admit.

  She ran back over to Dominic who was leaning against the wall, his hands in his pockets, a look of concern all over his handsome face.

  ‘What was all that about?’ he asked, somewhat moodily, holding out his hand which India took, letting him pull her against him.

  ‘I don’t know, to be honest. Something’s going on with Kenny and I just can’t work out what it is. But there’s something he isn’t telling me.’

  ‘What is it with you two anyway?’

  She looked at him. ‘We’re best friends, Dominic. You got a problem with that?’

  ‘Do you kiss all your best friends like you kiss him?’

  She stared at him. ‘Where’s this come from all of a sudden? What’s the matter with you? Me and Kenny, we’re friends. That’s all. Just friends.’

  Dominic held up his hands. ‘Hey, okay. Okay. I know you guys are close, it’s just that, seeing it for real, seeing the two of you together – you really are close, aren’t you?’

  ‘Are you trying to say something?’

  ‘Jesus, India, you’re on the freakin’ defensive, honey. I’m not trying to say anything.’

  She sighed, playing with the collar of his shirt, her whole body tensing up and suddenly she just wanted him to take all the crap away. The fear of Kenny and Charley getting themselves into something she couldn’t even comprehend, the fact Michael was back to his game-playing best – she wanted Dominic to take it all away.

  ‘Come on,’ she said, taking his hand and leading him away, out of the club. ‘They won’t miss us for a few minutes. Anyway, it’s my birthday and I want something right now that only you can give me, and this time, I’d rather we were behind closed doors when it happened.’

  Dominic smiled, quite happy to be led anywhere by this crazy, hard-to-understand woman because there was a good chance it was going to lead to more mind-blowing, hot and dirty sex. And if that was the case, who was he to put up a fight?

  ***

  Michael watched them leave, knowing where they were going and what they were going to do. But he also knew they’d be back. And he hated having to do this to her, especially on her birthday, he really did. He hated having to do anything more that could hurt her, but it was time to get the truth out there. Time to start winning her back. Time to put an end to Dominic MacDonald taking anything else away from him. It was time.

  ***

  Jimmy tipped his hat further down over his eyes as India Walsh and Dominic MacDonald – two very famous movie stars quite obviously on their way to find a quiet corner in which to fuck each other senseless – ran past him, laughing like a couple of high school kids cutting Prom Night early.

  So, things were moving along nicely for India. Things seemed to be moving along nicely for quite a few of them. All of Charley’s friends, happily getting on with their successful, A-list lives. All except Charley. But, soon enough, she wouldn’t be the only one whose life was slowly being turned upside down.

  Yes, things were working out just fine right now. But Jimmy knew he didn’t have all that much time left. They wouldn’t all be together in this one place forever, and he needed everyone together. If he wanted this plan to work out just the way he wanted it to. Because, once everyone went their separate ways then his chance was lost. So, he had to start moving. He had to start making Charley pay, and he had to start now.

  Jimmy Cash wanted revenge, and he was about to make Charley Maine pay bigger than she’d ever thought possible.

  ***

  Dominic pushed India up against the sideboard, the huge French windows of his Penthouse suite thrown open to let in the warm, stuffy Las Vegas night air. The sounds of a vibrant 24-hour town filled the room as he bent her forward, pulling her back against him as he thrust into her, his hands on her hips to keep her right where he needed her to be.

  Her shouts and moans were turning him on more than ever before, the sound of the air conditioning and the noise of a Vegas night doing nothing to drown them out. He was in the middle of a fucking living dream here, a fantasy he never wanted to wake up from. Even if he didn’t really know where it was heading. Jesus! What was he doing thinking about shit like that when he was inside one of the world’s most beautiful women? And the grip she had on him was verging on painful as he tried to go deeper, tried to push farther into her, tried to forget that – underneath everything that was happening here – one hell of a mess was just waiting to be unleashed. A mess he really had no idea how to deal with anymore, because he was falling for this woman. She was no longer a pawn in a game; she was no longer some kind of trophy he wanted to take from his long-lost dad – just because he could. She was no longer any of that. She was somebody he cared about, somebody he needed. And that had changed everything.

  He gave one long, last thrust and she screamed out loud as he came inside her with a force that pushed her right up against the sideboard, but he held onto her, keeping her close as her climax matched his before finally pulling her upright, holding her against him, wrapping his arms around her from behind.

  ‘Jesus, Dominic… that was, incredible!’ She leant back against him, trying hard to get her breath back, her chest heaving with the exertion, her skin damp with sweat.

  He kissed her shoulder, wanting to keep her right where she was for a few more minutes because he wasn’t all that keen on rejoining the party just yet. He felt much more like staying here, just the two of them. Alone. Something they very rarely were, but that was the life of a movie star. Especially a m
ovie star who was involved with another high-profile movie star.

  ‘India, can I ask you something?’

  She turned round to face him, looking into those incredible blue eyes of his, pushing his hair back off his face. ‘Yeah, of course you can.’

  He let his hands rest in the small of her back as he pulled her closer, so close it felt as though every inch of their bodies were touching, and just knowing she was there made him feel like a kid who’d just managed to get the best looking girl in school to go out with him. He felt about sixteen again as nerves set in and his stomach flipped over and over in a million never-ending somersaults, his mouth suddenly dry as he tried to form the words he needed to tell her. Words he’d never really told anyone else before. Not ever. Because he’d never felt like this before.

  ‘How… how do you really feel about me, India? I mean, I know all of this has happened really quickly and things have moved along so fast, but…’ He looked at her, into a face so beautiful it tore him apart to think about what he was doing to her, and he had to avoid that now. Somehow. Should he tell her himself, before she found out from someone else? Or should he try to pretend none of it had happened in the first place and put Michael Walsh back where he belonged? In the past, forgotten. After all, he didn’t need him, did he? He didn’t need a father he’d never known. He’d got by in life quite happily without him, and this game he’d thought he’d wanted to play – this ridiculous attempt at trying to prove something to a man who didn’t even matter – it was redundant now. It meant nothing.

  India didn’t really know what to say. She hadn’t expected some big, deep and meaningful heart-to-heart with him. They were together, they were having fun, and being with him felt good. He made her feel young again, he made her feel alive, able to cope with anything, even Michael and whatever shit he might be creating. But, as for anything else, she didn’t know. She was going through an extremely high-profile divorce, Michael was messing with her head again, and what had all that been with Kenny downstairs in the club?

  ‘Dominic, I… Baby, I am having the time of my life with you…’

  The air conditioning was suddenly making her feel quite chilly and she stepped away from him, grabbing his shirt and covering herself with it, walking over to the huge open French doors, staring out at the lights of Las Vegas spread out before her, like a blanket of multi-coloured stars against the clear black night sky.

  She closed her eyes as she felt his arms circle her from behind and she leant back against him, a tiny shiver running right through her as his mouth brushed her neck, his breath warm on her skin.

  ‘I’m falling in love with you, India.’

  Her heart almost stopped dead as he spoke words she’d never thought for one minute she’d ever hear from him. Not from Dominic MacDonald, a man whom she knew had boasted he’d never been in love, a man who’d said he never really wanted to feel like that because it would tie him down, get in the way, cloud things – and wasn’t that the truth? Which was why she’d gravitated towards him in the first place, because love was the last thing she needed right now. She had enough complications going on without falling in love with a man she hardly knew. She’d fallen foul of that all too often and look at the crap it had caused.

  She kept her eyes closed, reaching up behind her to touch his face, burying her fingers in his hair as he continued to kiss her neck, moving the shirt she was wearing down off her shoulder, letting his fingers stroke it as his other hand gently ran over the curve of her waist.

  But she couldn’t say anything back to him. She couldn’t tell him she loved him too, because she didn’t. Or she couldn’t, she didn’t know. She couldn’t work out what was going on anymore.

  ‘India…’

  She turned round and kissed him slowly, catching him slightly unawares, but it took just seconds for him to respond, his open mouth moving against hers, warm and soft, making her feel things she didn’t want to feel, making her weaker than she wanted to be.

  ‘I’ve been here before, Dominic.’ She gently stroked his rough chin, running her fingers over his lips. ‘With JJ…’

  ‘Baby, I’m not JJ…’

  She put a finger to his lips, shaking her head. ‘Sssh… I know that, okay? But… I can’t rush into anything; I don’t want to do that. For both our sakes, Dominic. It’s just… it’s just too early to be throwing words like love around.’

  ‘Especially when it’s coming from someone like me, huh?’

  She couldn’t help smiling. ‘Hey, come on. That’s not what I meant. I just… I just can’t tell you something so… Look; it’s hard for me, okay? Hard for me to get so involved again, because every time I do something goes wrong. And I’m just not ready to feel that way again.’

  ‘I won’t hurt you, India.’

  She stroked his cheek, staring into those piercing blue eyes, wanting to believe him. She really wanted to believe him. But it wasn’t just that, was it? ‘But I might hurt you, Dominic. And I don’t want that to happen.’

  ‘I’ll take my chances, India. I’m a big boy now.’

  She smiled again, playing with the hair at the back of his neck. ‘Oh, I know that, mister.’ She kissed him slowly, closing her eyes as his mouth moved against hers, her stomach flipping over and over. ‘Let’s just see how things go. Okay?’

  She was right. It was probably best not to push too hard right now. It would happen. He had no doubt about that. She’d fall for him just as hard as he’d fallen for her, he was sure of that. He was just going to have to be patient and let her get there at her own pace. ‘Yeah. Okay.’

  He flashed her that movie star smile and she wanted so much to just stay here with him, to lie in his arms and forget everything else around them. But they had a party to get back to. They had to show their faces, they had to keep up that front, that image, even at her own birthday party. And if they stayed missing for too long all they were going to achieve was the creation of yet more rumours. ‘Come on, handsome. Let’s get back down there.’

  ‘Do we have to?’ he groaned, pulling her back against him, sliding his hands underneath her shirt to touch her naked breasts, coaxing a tiny gasp out of her.

  ‘Yes, we do.’ She removed his hands and stepped away from him, going over to retrieve her clothes that were lying in a pile next to his on the floor where they’d thrown them off at a ridiculous speed the second they’d set foot inside the apartment.

  ‘It’ll happen, India. You know that, don’t you?’

  She looked up at him as she slipped back into her skinny jeans. ‘What will?’

  ‘Me and you. It’ll happen.’

  ‘I thought it already had,’ she smiled, pulling her top down over her head and running her fingers through her hair.

  He walked over to her, smiling too, reaching out to gently brush a strand of hair back behind her ear. ‘You’ll fall in love with me. I know you will. One day.’

  And, as India looked up into those incredible eyes of his, she thought there was a chance he might just be right.

  ***

  Michael had been patient, he really had. But as he saw India and Dominic walk back into the club, arms wrapped around each other, leaning into one another, looking for the whole world to see like two people who’d just had great sex, he couldn’t take it anymore. He’d had it; he was tired of it all, of knowing the truth and keeping it to himself. Now she needed to know the truth, too. She needed to know just who she was sleeping with. And he needed Dominic MacDonald out of her life because with every second he was there, getting closer and closer, it took her farther away from him. Farther away from his second chance.

  Downing the last of the bourbon in the bottom of his glass he threw it down on the bar and walked over to them, any remaining feelings of guilt he may have been feeling at doing this to India wiped away with one look at Dominic’s hand in hers.

  ‘Michael… is everything alright?’ India asked, trying not to giggle out loud as Dominic whispered something in her ear that promised a late bi
rthday present she’d never forget.

  Michael watched them for a second, studying their body language, the way they interacted with each other – the looks, the little touches, the way Dominic would smile at her for no reason, he recognised it all because he’d felt that way too, once. No, he’d never stopped feeling it. Not where India was concerned.

  ‘No. Everything’s not alright. Not really.’

  India looked at him, narrowing her eyes, a bad feeling suddenly washing over her. She’d been here before, she could sense when something was about to happen and she held onto Dominic’s hand tight as she watched her ex-husband with a familiar feeling of trepidation.

  Michael continued to stare at Dominic, trying to find something in this young man that he could relate to. He was his son, after all, wasn’t he? There should be something in there that he recognised.

  ‘Have you got a problem, Michael?’ Dominic asked, pulling India closer to him, sensing the tension. He could feel it in the way she was gripping his hand.

  ‘Yeah. I’ve got a problem, Dominic. You. You’re my problem.’

  India felt her stomach sink, so fast she had to grip Dominic’s hand even tighter. ‘Michael…’

  Michael turned his attention to India, fixing her with a look that told her this wasn’t going to be pretty, and suddenly she just wanted to run away, to leave behind whatever crap he was going to cause because that’s what was about to happen here. She could feel it, hanging heavy in the air like a storm cloud that was about to burst open.

  ‘No, India. It’s time to get this out in the open.’

  Now it was Dominic’s turn to feel an icy shiver run up his spine. Did Michael know something? Jesus, no! Was this how it was all going to come out? Was this how India found out the truth? Because this wasn’t how Dominic wanted it to happen. Anything but this, because this was not going to be good.