The car comes to a stop at the bottom of the steps we have to walk up to the red carpet. It’s the same steps that are in the final scene of the movie. The car comes to a stop, and the driver gets out and opens the door. My father gets out first, his hand coming into the car to help my mother out. “Cassie,” I say when she starts to inch toward the door, and it’s just the two of us, “this fucking stops here. Are we clear?”
She rolls her eyes and gets out. Tomorrow, shit is going to be cleared up or else I’m going to lose my fucking mind. I finally get out of the car, turning to the fans on the other side of the street and raising my hand to wave. I turn back and see my parents standing on the steps together, smiling at me. I walk up the steps to them, and we stop about halfway up to turn and wave at the crowd, and this time, the crowd gets louder and louder. “This is crazy,” my mother says, walking between me and my father.
We finally get up to the top step where the carpet starts, and my eyes search for Jessica. Yamina is the first to come up to us with a smile. “Welcome, welcome, welcome,” she says to my parents. “How exciting is this for you?” She talks loudly now since the fans are chanting my name.
My mother leans in and yells, “It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen.” Cassie walks to them and tells them more or less how this is going to go, and then I spot Yolanda.
“Welcome,” she says, walking over to me. “We have to wait just a second. Alex and Meghan just got here, and to say the cameras are blinding is an understatement.”
“That’s fine.” I look down the line, but I don’t see Jessica.
I just nod at her, and Yamina yells, “Showtime.”
Looking forward, I see that my parents have started walking, and Cassie waits next to me. “I can walk by myself,” I tell her, and she just nods and walks ahead of me. I start at the edge of the red carpet, giving them the smile that is the same in every single picture. I pose with my hand in my pocket for a couple of shots and then see I’m behind Alex, who is standing with a beautiful woman on his arm.
“Hey, look who showed up.” I laugh and go over to greet Alex with a handshake. “I heard that it’s your big night, so thanks for taking all the attention off me.” I wink at him, so he knows it’s a joke. “This your girl?” I point at the redhead next to him. “How the hell did you manage to get her to like you, let alone date you?”
“It was all my charm,” Alex says. “That and she returned a bottle of my wine,” he says, and I know Alex only serves wine that comes from his vineyard, so it must have been a hard pill for him to swallow.
I throw my head back and laugh. “I like her already.” I look at her, extending my hand. “I’m Tyler.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Meghan,” she says, and I just smile at her. My eyes finally find Jessica in the corner, and I admire how the dress looks perfect on her. Exactly as I planned her to look, except she isn’t at my side.
“And she isn’t French.” I laugh, taking this opportunity to change things up. “This is better than I thought. Let’s get a picture.” I put Meghan between us, and the three of us pose for pictures that will most likely be on the cover of all the French papers tomorrow. My hand loops around her waist. “You son of a bitch,” Alex says, his French accent sticking out. “You better get your paws off my woman.”
I shake my head, and I’m finally close enough to Jessica to call her name again. “Jessica.” She turns and looks at me, her green eyes so dark and angry. When she sees it’s me, she just turns back around and ignores me. “That woman,” I say to them before I storm toward her, the press no doubt watching every single moment.
She sees me and raises a microphone in her hand and turns to smile at me. “And here he is, the man of the hour.” I know I glare at her, and I don’t answer. Instead, I grab the microphone and toss it to the camera guy. Leaning in so only she hears this, I say, “If you fight me on this, you are going to make me do something neither of us is ready for.” I watch her eyes, and I know from the look of them she wants to kick me in the balls, tell me to fuck off, and turn and walk away. Not today. “Now get your ass on that red carpet and stand by my side where you’re supposed to be.”
“You’re making a scene,” she says, looking over and seeing Yamina and Yolanda approaching.
“Tyler,” Yamina says, “we are so sorry. We got your request.”
“Wasn’t my request,” I say to them, and she finally looks up at me. “The studio made a plan, and I’m respecting that plan. I have no idea what happened.”
“Cassie said you wanted to walk down the carpet with your parents,” Yolanda says, and I swallow down the rage by putting my hand in my pocket instead of punching something. “It was a simple request.”
“It was.” Jessica must feel the way I’ve changed and that I’m not okay, that this whole thing was in a way my own fault. “It’s not a big deal.”
“No,” I snap now, grabbing her hand and bringing her with me to where my parents are standing and talking to Cassie. “Seems that there was a mix-up.”
“Hello, dear,” my mother greets her with a smile. “You look so good.”
“Cassie, you wouldn’t know about the mix-up, would you?” I look straight at her, waiting for her to say something.
“I assumed with your parents here, you would want to walk down the carpet with them,” she says, refusing to back down. “It’s not every day they show up.”
Jessica turns to look at my father who finally breaks his silence. “Why don’t we discuss this when there aren’t so many eyes on us?” Holding out his hand to my mom, he turns to smile at the cameras. I finally pull Jessica to my side, putting an arm around her waist, and I smile for the press.
“Tyler. Let me go,” she hisses through her smile. “You didn’t pose like this with any of the other journalists.” I don’t say anything; instead, I just let her go, knowing if I don’t, it will be so much worse. So I hold out my elbow for her, and she whispers, “Thank you.”
“Oh, trust me,” I finally say when I look at her, “the last thing you should be doing is thanking me.” She nods her head and walks with me down the rest of the red carpet. A commotion behind me gets my attention, and when I turn around, I see Alex in the middle of it. “We are having dinner with my parents after this.”
“I’m not feeling well,” she lies, “so I’ll have to take a rain check.” We walk into the theater, and this time, we all walk to our assigned seats. I look down and see that Cassie is sitting on the other side of my parents with me next to my mother and Jessica next to me. Four empty seats beside Jessica are reserved for Alex. My mother leans over me to talk to Jessica, and she smiles with her.
Alex finally makes his way to his seat, and now I lean over Jessica. “I heard there was a cat fight on the red carpet, and it had nothing to do with me.”
“For once,” Jessica says under her breath, and I just glare at her, but she never looks my way. The lights flash once, then twice, and three times, letting everyone know that the movie will be starting. I sit back in my seat and watch the beginning of the movie. Jessica sits next to me with her hands in her lap. I feel her nervousness the whole time, her thumb moving up and down on her finger. I know what she’s doing; she’s biding her time before she can escape, knowing I can’t make a scene here.
I wait for it, wait for her to get up and excuse herself, walking out of the theater. “I’ll be right back,” I tell my father and walk out, this time walking faster to the door. “Jess,” I hiss before I follow her out.
She finally turns to me when we make our way to the back, hidden from view. “Tyler, I’m asking you to give me some space, please.” She stands with her back toward the wall of the building, and as I walk forward, she backs up.
“I knew when I first saw that dress that it would look amazing,” I say, looking at her from head to toe. “I knew you would take my breath away, and you do.” She looks down now, her shoulders slumping a bit. “I’m sorry, baby.” I get closer and then see people walking around, so I stop. “I’m sorry,” I
whisper, and she looks up. “I’m so sorry there was a mix-up.”
“It doesn’t matter.” She tries to pretend it doesn’t matter, but it does to her, to me, and to us.
“It does matter,” I finally say. “Please spend the rest of the night with me, by my side.”
“People are going to talk,” she says, and I shake my head.
“I promise no one is going to know anything. We are going to go back into the movie,” I tell her, my hands itching to push the hair away from her face, “then we are all going to go to the reception and shake hands and take pictures, and then we are going to go back to my room. No one is going to know anything, just like no one knows anything now.”
“Tyler,” she whispers, “I don’t want to be in this fight with Cassie. I don’t want to go toe-to-toe with her.”
“I promise you, I will handle her.” Finally, her eyes look up.
“If you talk to her, she is going to know she got to me”—she shakes her head—“and I don’t want her to know.”
“She crossed a line, and I’m not letting her get away with it,” I tell her. “She doesn’t speak for me.” My hand finally reaches out to her, and I hold it, turning my body to block it from any prying eyes. “Please.”
“You aren’t going to let up, are you?” she asks, her eyes becoming a touch brighter.
I shake my head. “No, not when it comes to you,” I finally say, and she nods her head.
“Go back in,” she says, “I’m going to go to the bathroom and freshen up.”
“It kills me that I can’t kiss you right now,” I say, my hand squeezing hers. As I turn and walk away from her, my feet are heavy for leaving her, so I stop at the bar inside the waiting area to make sure people see me apart from her. I watch her walk back into the movie, her head down as always. She doesn’t see the heads that turn to look at her; she doesn’t see the men who smile at her secretly. I stand at the bar drinking the whiskey that the bartender poured for me, taking my time getting my heart back to normal so I can go back in there and be Tyler the actor. I’m going to need every acting skill I’ve ever learned not to look hopelessly in love with a woman who has the power to destroy me.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jessica
Looks like this pop star is on her way to rehab. Again.
“Wasn’t it wonderful?” Susanna says from beside me in the middle of the reception, both of us holding champagne glasses. “I swear when he comes home, I’m sitting him down and scolding him for doing all those stunts,” she whispers, and I laugh. The movie was amazing, his stunts were real nail-biters, and he looked like the superstar that he is. I watch as he makes his way around the room, thanking people for coming. “He wasn’t the one who didn’t want you by his side.” I turn to his mother now. She looks around to make sure it’s just the two of us. Frank’s standing at the bar to get another beer. “I saw him checking his watch five times waiting for you.”
“It was a misunderstanding,” I tell her, trying not to make it a bigger deal or look like a bitch in all this. “It all worked out.”
She nods her head at me. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.” I laugh at her, knowing exactly how she feels. There have been people going around with “amuse-bouches” as they call it. “The last crab cake I had was the size of my pinky nail.”
“How much longer?” Frank asks when he finally gets back to our side. His parents haven’t left my side since we walked out of the movie. They stand with me, and I introduced them to all the journalists. “Susanna, I love you and my son, but this collar is getting tighter and tighter as the night goes on.” He pulls at it. “I swear I’m suffocating.”
I look at the clock on my phone. “It’s almost eleven.” Looking around, I see that it’s still fully packed. “Why don’t we get in the car, go back to the hotel, order a bunch of room service, and make the superstar pay?”
Susanna and Frank both laugh. “I like her,” Frank says. “I’m going to go tell him we are leaving.” I watch him make his way to Tyler and lean in to talk in his ear. Tyler’s eyes fly up to mine, and he just smiles and nods. Frank walks back to us. “Let’s go.”
I nod at him and walk out of the event with his parents, walking down the steps to the limos lined up waiting for people to leave. We walk to the front of the line, and the chauffeur opens the door for us. “The Four Seasons please,” I say, getting into the car after his parents, his father already taking off his tie. “I forgot to get Tyler’s key,” I say, putting my head back and closing my eyes.
“That’s okay,” Frank says. “He told us he’d meet us in our room anyway.”
“Are you sure?” I ask them. Frank just smiles, and Susanna is the one to talk.
“If we let you leave, he might have a nervous breakdown.” She laughs, and the car comes to a stop. “Now let’s go order all that room service,” she says, and the man opens the door for us to walk into the hotel. The lobby is quiet at this late hour, and I get into the elevator with them to go up to their room. Frank opens the door for us, and I see the marble is almost the same as the entrance. We walk into the room, and I see a pantry on the right-hand side, so I follow Frank, and he stops in the living room. “This room is massive,” I say, and Susanna sits on the ivory couch, slipping off her shoes. The whole room screams elegance and money. The walls all have mirrors on them. Two huge windows show the balcony outside. “Go see how beautiful it is outside, and I’ll call room service.” She smiles and then looks at Frank. “Get her a glass of wine.” He nods at me, and I smile at the two of them. “Is there anything you don’t eat?”
I shake my head. “I eat just about everything.” I walk to the balcony door, passing the marble fireplace with a gold framed mirror hanging above it and vases of white roses. I push aside the sheer drapes and open the door, walking outside. A black table is in the middle of the long balcony with four chairs. Two white loveseats sit on either side of the table. Huge potted cement blocks hold up round green balls with lights on them. It’s magical. I walk out farther, looking up at the stars and feeling the warm breeze.
The door opens behind me, and Frank comes out. His tie is gone with his jacket, three buttons are open at his collar, and his sleeves are rolled up. “Here you are,” he says, handing me a white wine while he holds his bottle of beer. “Cheers.” I hold up my glass and clink it against his.
Susanna comes out holding her own glass with slippers on her feet now. “I ordered more food than we are going to eat, but that’s what you get when you give me bird food,” she says, going to her husband’s side. She puts a hand around his waist, and he bends to kiss her lips and then her head. Smiling at them, I take a sip of my wine, and when I hear the door open again, it’s Tyler.
He smiles at us and comes right to me. His arm goes around my waist, and his lips crash on mine. “Hey,” he whispers, then kisses me again. “Sorry I took so long.”
“Um . . . you just kissed me in front of your parents . . . again,” I whisper to him.
“Yeah, I guess I did.” He turns to look at his parents who are looking at us. “Did you order me a burger?” he asks, not letting go of me. His mother nods, and then his father walks toward the loveseat, leaving just the two of us. “I’m starving,” Tyler says, pulling his tie away from his collar with one hand and unbuttoning the first button. I try not to think about him kissing me in front of his parents. “Relax,” he says softly, kissing me again. “We are safe here.” I nod, then reach up with my free hand to wipe my gloss off his lips. “I made plans for us tomorrow with my parents.”
“You think that’s a good idea?” I ask him. “The whole town knows you’re here.”
“Yeah, well, Alex just came out with his new girlfriend. Trust me, no one is going to be looking for me.”
“Okay,” I say quietly. I don’t fight him on this. “You good?” I ask him.
“I am now,” he says, letting me go finally to shrug off his jacket and roll up his sleeves like his father. The food comes as soon as
he sits in one of the chairs, and we spend an hour getting way too full, all of us overeating.
We walk out of his parents’ room hand in hand, his fingers intertwined with mine, his jacket draped over his other arm. I don’t ask where we are going because I don’t care as long as I’m with him. He opens his door, and we walk in. He pulls me to the living room, and as soon as I see the room, I stop. There are red and white rose petals everywhere, and the lights in the room are off. The whole room glows from about a hundred candles, all in their own glass vases, floating on water. I spin in a circle, and they are everywhere. The rose petals make a path to the bedroom. “What is this?” I ask him as he tosses his jacket on the couch.
“This is the only way I can publicly tell you how sorry I am,” he tells me, coming to me. “I’m sorry.”
I shake my head. “It wasn’t your fault,” I tell him honestly, wrapping my arms around his neck. Finally, for the first time today, his hands go from my hips to my ass, pulling me into him. “But there is a way you can make it up to me,” I say with a twinkle in my eye, and he spots it. His cock is already hard, pushing into me.
“Yeah, and how is that?” he asks, kissing my neck now, and then trailing his tongue out till he gets to my ear and nips it.
“Nothing says you’re sorry like champagne waterfalls,” I tell him softly, and he groans, taking my mouth with his. His tongue slides into my mouth as my hands go to the buttons on his shirt, unbuttoning them slowly at first and then with need. The kiss deepens, and I slide the shirt off his shoulders, our lips still connected. He walks me backward to the bedroom until the back of my knees hit the bed, and I sit down on the bed. He doesn’t say anything because his eyes say it. The bedroom is exactly like the living room, the yellow glow of the candles filling the huge room, but in here, vases and vases of white roses are everywhere—on the floor, on the table, beside the bed. Every single exposed place has roses on it. “You did all this?”
Hollywood Playboy Page 17