Scandalous Lies: An addictive, sexy beach read

by Nigel May

  ‘So what am I actually here for? My agent said you guys saw me and thought I should try out as a pilot or something?’

  ‘Not as a pilot, but for a pilot. A pilot show. Although I’m sure you’d look hot in a pilot’s uniform.’ Flirting or just Hollywood banter? A naïve Aaron couldn’t tell. ‘A lot of the TV networks make pilot TV shows which they hope will be made into future TV series. Not many are actually commissioned but if you manage to find yourself on a successful one then you are made, literally overnight. Major bucks. Look at Friends. Had you even heard of Jennifer Aniston before that? No. I was the first in school to go for the Rachel cut. It was the must-have for me as a teenager. She’s my shero. And Matt Le Blanc was seriously hot. We’re trying to get them both for Super Nova. Nova thinks you’re seriously hot by the way.’

  Aaron’s head was spinning. ‘So I’m wanted for a pilot show?’

  ‘Well, kind of, the producers of Super Nova are planning a new action series for the networks. They want it to be really British, plummy accents and the rest, I blame the whole William and Kate phenomenon. Plus James Bond of course. Everybody loves a Brit in Hollywood. Your accent is really cute by the way. Is it Scottish?’

  ‘I’m from Cornwall.’

  ‘That’s near Scotland, right?’

  Aaron didn’t correct her. He was finding Addison’s effervescence hugely entertaining, as was the bouncing of her breasts as the limousine sped its way into central LA.

  ‘TV networks want a new action hero, all smart yet oh-so-English so everyone is on the lookout for the right face. They saw yours in a feature about those two British dancers, Foster and Mitzi. That was so sad by the way.’

  Having lengthened the word so to three times its natural length, Addison stopped talking for a second. Genuine empathy or another slice of frothy LA interaction? Again, Aaron couldn’t tell.

  ‘They were reading the article and your photo stood out. They liked your look and found your agent.’ She slapped Aaron’s leg light-heartedly to emphasise the glorious, if somewhat bizarre, chain of events that had led to Aaron’s current situation.

  ‘When is the audition? What will I have to do?’

  ‘In three days’ time. Well, if it’s anything like the ones I’ve been on, if they like the look of you you’re half way there, but to get the part you’ll have to read a few lines from the pilot script and maybe strip off a bit too. I understand the action hero won’t just be getting action crime-fighting on the streets. He’ll be a real ladies’ man too. The women will love you.’ Addison paused for a second again. ‘You’re not gay, are you? Mind you, how many in this town have played the All American Guy when really they’re an All American Gay?’

  ‘No, I’m all straight,’ smiled Aaron. ‘So do you act too?’ This seemed ironic, seeing as Aaron didn’t actually act himself, but it seemed as though that was the last thing anyone was actually considering.

  ‘My main job is working as a production assistant on Champagne Super Nova. You must meet Nova while you’re here. She could get you on the show. She is a-ma-zing, another shero. But everyone is a wannabe actress in LA, no matter what their profession. Me and my flatmate, Diana, we’ve both done a few bits and pieces. Mainly straight to DVD flicks where you’re either covered in blood, covered in bugs or being eaten by some mutant terror. I think between us we’ve been up for or bagged every freaky critter flick going - Zombeavers, Hellyfish, Piranhaconda, Squidosaurus, Crabzilla, Camel Spiders, Big Ass Spider … you name it, we’ve fought it off or been chewed up by it at some point. I’m waiting to hear on a part in Clampires right now. Giant blood-sucking clams that pray on hapless swimmers in the shallow waters of Summer Camp City. It’ll be a blast. If I scored a part in a Sharknado flick I swear I would literally die a happy woman. Tara Reid, another shero.’

  ‘So will I see a script beforehand?’ questioned Aaron, still mulling over the thought of a vampiric clam. It was like Addison was speaking a foreign language.

  ‘All in your hotel suite. There’re a few scenes for you to learn and information about night-life near your hotel. There are some fabulous bars around there so if you fancy a drink then just give me a buzz.’

  A come-on or Tinseltown politesse? Either way it brought a smile to Aaron’s face. As the limousine pulled up outside his hotel all thoughts of horticulture, herbaceous borders or rampaging weeds seemed a million miles away. He was ready to taste a slice of fine American Pie.

  Addison left Aaron to check in and departed with a cheerleader-cheery wave. She was smokin’ hot. He was thinking about the weird world he’d just landed in. The one thing he wasn’t thinking about was Tanya.

  Tanya had thought of nobody else except Aaron on her entire journey to Milan. The attendant on their private jet, all bearded and welcoming, had reminded her of Aaron. The swarthy Italian chauffeur who had met her and Devon at Milan’s Malpensa airport and driven them swiftly to their five star hotel had a masculine, devilish and dangerous air of Aaron about him. Even the trees and greenery of Corso Concordia, surrounding the opulent splendor of the Chateau Monfort Hotel immediately transported her back into the arms of the rugged gardener. It was as if she was being taunted at every Italian corner.

  But she was here for Devon, for her husband, for the man who really loved her and despite her wishing she was thousands of miles away in the embrace of another lover, she was determined that he should not get even the merest breeze of a notion that she was being adulterous.

  ‘I was thinking we could go shopping before dinner, Tanya. Maybe pick up a few outfits prêt-à-porter for our evenings together,’ suggested Devon, as he splashed a few drops of Clive Christian cologne onto his freshly shaven cheeks in one of the mirrors of their hotel suite. ‘I was thinking you could buy some more of that outrageously sexy lingerie you love to wear for me.’

  Devon walked towards his wife and wrapped his arms around her from behind as he spoke, allowing his lips to nuzzle gently against Tanya’s flesh.

  He smelled incredible, the heady exotic tones of the aftershave lighting her senses, acting as an instant aphrodisiac. For a split second she felt turned on by the man next to her. She closed her eyes and turned to him, finding his lips with hers. His kiss was deep and urgent and Tanya could feel his arousal straining under the fabric of his trousers.

  She tried to respond to Devon’s hands as they travelled up her body, cupping her breasts and finding her nipples between his fingers. They automatically hardened, the mere touch enough to activate her desires. But something was blocking her. Something wasn’t allowing Tanya to continue. She pulled away from her husband, removing his hands from her breasts.

  ‘Easy, Devon. There is plenty of time for that.’ Sensing his disappointment, Tanya reached down and gave his hard cock a mischievous squeeze. She raised her eyebrows suggestively. ‘Later, my lover, later. You are right, we are in Milan and we should shop. Let’s put that credit card to work shall we?’ She kissed him again to show how much she loved the idea of spending. ‘You know how much shopping turns me on.’

  She hoped it would, because as it was right now, the only thing in Milan that wasn’t reminding her of Aaron was her husband, and unfortunately he would be the one expecting to make love to her later on that night.

  Thirty-Seven

  Victoria seethed and watched as Chloe kicked the football back towards Leo, his gap-toothed smile lighting up an otherwise grey day as he and the nanny played in the back garden. She was watching them from the window of her bedroom at the back of their family home.

  It had been less than twenty-four hours since Victoria had seen her husband ploughing his cock into the nanny while she, the woman who had raised his children and played loyal wife for the best part of a decade, was supposedly sleeping upstairs trying to recuperate from her car accident. This was not the makings of the happy ever after endings she’d been promised on their wedding day.

  As yet, Victoria had said nothing. She could feel the venom running through her veins for both Scott and Ch
loe. No matter how hard she tried to erase the image of the two of them together it was there, embossed on her senses. She hated them both. Chloe, for taking advantage of her husband while his poor wife lay incapacitated, unable to fulfil her marital duties in the bedroom. And Scott, for succumbing to the obvious joys of a younger woman, for being weak and spineless and for not keeping his dick in his pants. Or should she actually lay the blame at her own doorstep for allowing the sexual flame of their marriage to extinguish itself without a fight. The one time Prom Queen had let her crown slip and become a Has Been.

  But she would not let her marriage crumble, of that she was certain. There was no way that she would allow Leo and Lexi to become children of a broken home. Her body may be broken and weak but her family would not be. Scott was hers. Nobody else’s. This wasn’t just about keeping up appearances, this was about what she had wanted on her wedding day. What Scott had wanted too, as they had looked to their future.

  Their wedding had been so perfect. Victoria resplendent in her Chanel dress, Scott in his bicep-hugging tux, both of them loving the moment when their friends and family – including Evie as her maid of honour – could see that they would be together forever. That Victoria Wentworth had found the man of her dreams. Because even though her marriage may have pushed all of her professional aspirations to one side there was never a millisecond of doubt in Victoria’s veil-clad head that Scott was the man for her.

  They’d honeymooned in Barbados, in a beautiful five-bedroomed luxurious Bajan beach house. It was unnecessarily large, but just metres from the clear blue ocean and it sported a 180 degree view of the golden powder-soft sands. They had spent their time watching the turtles lay eggs on the beach, swimming in the calm waters and making love underneath the stars. They had christened every bedroom too. It would have seemed churlish not to. It was a perfect time. Before her insecurities, before her need for pills, before her weight gain, before her husband had strayed …

  Before Chloe. Which left Victoria with just one option. She would have to remove her from the family equation. Scott wouldn’t like it and neither would the children but there had been nannies before and there would be nannies again. The next one would not find the need to babysit her husband’s cock, Victoria would make certain of that. Her own mother had once told her that being a mother was all about discovering strengths that you didn’t know you had and dealing with fears that you never knew existed. Her words echoed through Victoria’s brain. Despite the lack of strength and the punch bag of pain moving through her own body, she would deal with this nightmare as she saw fit. The fear of her family falling apart had never been on her radar before. Now it was. And despite her inner screams it was a fear she would not surrender to.

  Despite having staff to do everything for her, there was one job that Nova would never let anyone else do and that was preparing Charlie’s room for when he came to stay. It was her ultimate delight as a mother. Despite all of the fame and the riches, her favourite role in life was still welcoming her only child back to the family home. Even if the house she now shared with Jacob in Bel-Air was a lifetime away from her roots growing up as Nina Cooper in West Hills, wherever she lay her large-brimmed designer Hollywood hat was her home, and she would always turn one room in the house into ‘Charlie’s room’ for any visits. She would decorate it herself, polishing his high-school sports trophies and dusting the framed photos of him and her together over the years. She would take extra special care of one showing a young Charlie with his granddad just before his death and another of Charlie and her first husband, Goldman.

  Charlie had phoned his mother to tell her he would be arriving in just over a day’s time to join Georgia. Even though she was under no illusions about the fact that he and Georgia would be sharing one of the mansion’s king-size bedrooms together, Nova’s autopilot mothering insisted that she prepare ‘his’ room. He and Georgia could share that if need be but the room would still be there for Charlie to savour. A four-walled memory book containing a lifetime of the precious moments they had been through together. Nova smoothed down the silk sheets on his double bed and made sure that every inch was crease-free. She sat his favourite childhood teddy, a rather cloth-eared but much loved cuddly bear called Fred, on top of one of his pillows and vacuumed around the bed until the floor was free of any specks of dust or dirt. Charlie’s stays were the only times Nova would ever entertain doing the vacuuming in her own home these days. That was what maids were put on earth for. But for her child, nothing was too much effort.The noise of the vacuum drowned out the slight creak of the bedroom door opening and Jacob walking in. She wasn’t aware of him until he wrapped his arms around her. The action startled her.

  ‘Oh Jacob, you scared me, darling. I was just sorting out Charlie’s room for him. He’ll be here tomorrow. How does it look?’ She switched off the vacuum as she spoke.

  ‘I could eat my dinner off that floor, it’s so clean. Talking of food, I have just had a call from the networks for Super Nova. Ratings for the new episodes are through the roof and they want to throw you a celebration party – champagne, caviar, nibbles, that kind of thing, in Hollywood tomorrow night to say thank you. No filming for the show, as they want you to relax, but a few snaps may make the press the next day I dare say. They want to know if you have any ideas about entertainment. They’re keen to book a name.’

  ‘Oh, a party, how fabulous!’ Nova clapped her hands together with anticipatory delectation. ‘Charlie will be back, so we can make it a double celebration. A welcome home to my one and only son. It’s perfect. Now who does he love? Isn’t it Cher he adores? Can you try her?’

  Jacob curled his lips in thought but didn’t answer at first. ‘You should vacuum more often. It’s spotless in here. The rest of the house looks positively shabby in comparison.’

  ‘Has the sunshine gone to your head and made you wacky, Jacob Chevalier?’ sneered Nova. ‘We have Juanita for that although I must confess I do seem to be a little more thorough than she is with this blessed machine lately. The other day there were loose strands of material all over our bedroom floor. One of my frocks must be moulting. Can you have words, darling? And do see if Cher is available for tomorrow, but don’t let her wear anything too over the top, okay?’

  Jacob left the room, a smile fastened across his face at another of Nova’s mad Hollywood moments. The sight of Nova with a vacuum always made him laugh. It seemed so out of place. He’d speak to Juanita later.

  He flicked on his phone and dialled the network. ‘Nova wants Cher.’

  Their response made Jacob smile even more as he hung up.

  ‘She’s a million dollars per appearance. We’ll book a tribute drag queen instead. Nova won’t even notice.’

  To be honest, with her son back home and in the same room, she probably wouldn’t. Jacob smiled at his slick efficiency. Another transaction done and dusted.

  As Georgia drove back onto the freeway just on the outskirts of LA, her mind was on her mother. There wasn’t a day that went by that she didn’t think of how empty the world somehow seemed without her mum, Sophia, in it. Memories of her tragically short existence filled her head. Such vibrancy and a thirst for life, a wanderlust to experience new joys scythed down in its prime.

  Georgia cast her mind back to Sophia’s funeral. The sun had shone overhead but that had been the only light on an otherwise black day. It was she who had supported her father as he sobbed uncontrollably. His grief was palpable, his loss for the woman who had shared his life for such a long time evident for all to see and hear. Georgia had managed to contain her own flow of tears, her sadness almost too great and overwhelming for crying. It was only when she’d seen Mitzi, the best friend who had supported her during every heart-breaking moment since Sophia’s death that she allowed her own tears to tumble.

  As the coffin was lowered into the ground and disappeared from view it was as though all physical connection between Sophia and Georgia was suddenly severed. They would never actually touch each other a
gain. On her return home from the funeral, a cacophony of images invaded her thoughts; her mother baking cakes with her, fitting her with an outlandish costume for Halloween to go trick or treating, brushing her hair a hundred strokes and then plaiting it into a ponytail. These were memories of happy, halcyon days that could never be lost. If she closed her eyes, she could almost still feel her mother’s touch. Almost.

  As she pulled up onto the drive at Nova and Jacob’s, it was a feeling that she hoped would never leave her.

  Thirty-Eight

  The first part of Tanya’s night in Milan with Devon had been an enjoyable one. She doubted that there was a woman alive who could rival her when it came to designer clothes and jewellery shopping and if there was one thing that Milan was able to deliver by the catwalk-full it was high end fashions.

  Tanya had sashayed from A to Z. From Alberta Ferretti and Bulgari through to Versace and Yves Saint Laurent, she had been unstoppable, the smell of designer leathers and the feel of shiny hot new fabrics as addictive to her as cocaine to a rock star. And Devon had been more than happy to let her run away with her addiction.

  After her six-figure shopping spree, the couple quickly changed back at the hotel and headed out to sample Milan’s nightlife. Their destination was the Just Cavalli restaurant and club; the signature of Italian cool with its glass walls, animal prints, black lacquered staves and bevelled mirrors. Tanya and Devon had indulged in one of the best meals they had ever tasted, losing themselves in the divine flavours of a plateau of Alaskan king crab and a serving of aphrodisiacal oysters. As the wine flowed and the bill rose, all thoughts of her gardener lover seemed to fade in a haze of fizzy bubbles and heady musical beats coming from the enormous garden and terrace outside the venue. It wasn’t long before Tanya found herself in the arms of her husband moving her body across the dance floor to the dynamic rhythms of Jason Derulo, Justin Timberlake and Ariana Grande. She was lost in an intoxicating mix of dance. Beauty and the beats.