I look to the right, seeing Jessica standing, beaming with pride, and I nod my head. “Wow, this is surreal,” I say right off the bat, looking at all my peers. “I’m speechless. On my way here, my mother looked over at me in the car and asked me if I had something prepared. I looked at her and said it will never happen, and if it does, I’m going to wing it.” The crowd laughs. “I want to congratulate the other four guys in the category.” I look down at the gold man in my hand. “I have to thank Ryan for giving me a chance so long ago and then being there every step of the way. Especially when he came to me with this script.” I swallow. “Everyone associated with this movie. I don’t want to name anyone in case I forget someone.” Everyone laughs. “I guess I should have written a little note.” I look out into the audience and then to the front at my girl. “To my parents, who are always proud of me no matter how many stupid things I do.” I know the time is running out, but I don’t care. “And finally, to Jessica.” I look over at her as she wipes tears from her eyes. “For loving me with everything that you are. For holding my hand at night, every night. For being my best friend, for listening to my fears and my dreams. Before I go, I have to share a funny story with you,” I start, and I suddenly get nervous. “Tonight when we were getting ready for this huge thing, the jeweler comes over with a ring that I wanted her to wear for the night. She had seven people around her, making sure she was ready and in place. I put it on her left hand and rushed her out of the room without a word . . . so I really, really hope that tonight when we get back home, and I get down on one knee and beg her to be with me forever that she’ll accept to keep the ring and me forever.” I raise the Oscar with one hand. “Thank you for taming Hollywood’s Playboy, Jess.” I look at her, and she looks down at her hand. I don’t think she really noticed the five-carat ring until right then. I walk down the stairs to her and kiss her. “I love you,” I tell her. “Marry me.” She doesn’t say anything; she just nods her head, and they are ready to usher me to the back to talk to the press. “I’m not going anywhere without you,” I tell her, and she grabs my hand and walks behind stage with me. One hand holds an Oscar, the other hand holding hers, and I can say that without a doubt this has to be the best day of my life.
Until nine months later when she gives birth to our first son.
* * *
THE END . . .
For Tyler & Jessica but it’s just the beginning for Kellie & Brian
* * *
Hollywood Princess
Kellie
An Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy, a Grammy—she has them all.
She's the most sought-after woman in Hollywood.
Even if her rise to fame was a fluke, you can't deny the camera loves her.
The problem is so does everyone else, and she's about to leave on the biggest press tour of her life.
Around the world in ninety days. Should be a piece of cake.
* * *
Until her new security detail walks in the room and she’s looking into the eyes of the only man who didn’t fall for her charm.
* * *
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Hollywood Princess & Hollywood Prince
Kellie
* * *
An Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy, a Grammy—she has them all.
She's the most sought-after woman in Hollywood.
Even if her rise to fame was a fluke, you can't deny the camera loves her.
The problem is so does everyone else, and she's about to leave on the biggest concert tour of her life.
Headlining for the first time in five years.
* * *
Around the world in ninety days. Should be a piece of cake.
Until her new security detail walks in the room and she’s looking into the eyes of the only man who didn’t fall for her charm.
* * *
It's only a matter of time till he falls for Hollywood's Princess.
* * *
SNEAK PEAK
* * *
Chapter One
Jessica
* * *
Breaking News: Tyler Beckett is ready to take on the press. Sources say no expense will be spared, and the press will be handpicked. The question is, who will be the lucky ones?
* * *
“Knock-knock,” I say, knocking on the big brown door to my editor Stephanie’s office. Laser-focused on her computer screen, she looks up at the unexpected, yet hopefully welcome intrusion and removes her glasses. Her button-down white silk shirt is tied at the neck with a bow sash off to the side, showcasing how put together this woman really is.
* * *
“Hey, Jessica,” she says, smiling at me. “Come on in.” She motions with her hands to the empty seat in front of her executive desk, causing her gold and silver bangles to clink together.
* * *
“You said to come see you before I head out for the day,” I say, acknowledging the reason I’m invading her space. Walking into her corner office, I’m drawn to the view of the Hollywood sign like a beacon in the distance.
* * *
When I walked into this office seven years ago, I intended to get some experience under my belt to add to my resume. I busted my ass in high school and had my master’s in foreign communications by the time I was twenty-two. I had a plan to travel the world and bring people stories that they often didn’t hear about. Aspirations for seeing my byline on articles and published in print and online were what I dreamed about the most.
* * *
But here I am, seven years later, getting the juicy Hollywood scoop that people crave. And the best part? I am not just good at my job; I am the best at it. I know every single photographers’ number by heart. If something happens in this town, people call me to offer first dibs on the scuttlebutt.
* * *
“Yes,” she answers. “Please sit.” I walk toward her, my long, flowing black skirt moving between my legs as I take a seat in one of the chairs. After crossing my legs, I wait for her to tell me why I’m here. “I got a call today from HillCrest.” She looks at me, rocking back in her chair.
* * *
“What now?” I ask. HillCrest is one of the biggest production companies out there. They began with indie films, and then one of their movies blew up and won seventeen Academy Awards. That was fifteen years ago … now, if you want them to back your movie, it means a blockbuster, even if it’s shit. Trust me, some pretty shitty ones have gone on to gross over the one-hundred-million mark that weren’t worth the paper the tickets were printed on.
* * *
“I’ll cut right to the chase.” Getting up and walking to the corner window, she keeps her back to me. “Tyler Beckett’s new film.”
* * *
“Adrenaline Run?” I ask her, thinking about the chatter of it becoming the biggest box office hit ever, or at least that is the word on the street. The trailers have been playing nonstop for the past two weeks, the billboards are everywhere, and the mass transit ads on every bus around every corner have a larger-than-life picture of Tyler Beckett in all his cockiness. Unless you live under a rock, you know that this movie is coming. “I’ve seen some of the trailers, and I’m not going to lie; no matter how much I want to hate the movie just because of Tyler, it looks like a good one.”
* * *
She turns around, now looking at me. “HillCrest is going all out for this film. I mean, all out.” She emphasizes these last words. “They are putting together a press junket.”
* * *
“Okay, that isn’t anything new.” I get up and walk over to her, both of us now surveying our respective kingdoms.
* * *
“No, you’re right,” she says and then turns to me, “but it isn’t going to be your ordinary hotel junket.”
* * *
“Well, then, what are they doing?” I ask her, my interest piqued now. “Knowing Tyler Beckett, it will be a spectacle no doubt
.” I’m tempted to roll my eyes.
* * *
“Yeah, you can say that.” She turns and walks back to her chair. “It’s definitely something no one has seen or done before, which is why we need to be at the forefront of the promotion.”
* * *
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, he’s so damn irritating,” I say in exasperation. She just stares at me, probably wondering where in the hell that outburst came from. I can’t tell you why I feel like this when it comes to Tyler, but I just do. Maybe it’s because he is always one step ahead of me when I have a juicy scoop about him. It’s like he knows I’m going to blow the lid on whatever salacious deets I have on his latest scandal, so what does he do? He releases a statement of his own right before I publish my story, sinking my breaking news before the ink even dries on the page.
* * *
He is known to play hardball, though. Three years ago, I got an exclusive video of him and a certain woman, a married woman even, who just so happened to be his best friend’s wife. They were on a yacht somewhere in the middle of Italy, and the hour before my story was set to run, he put out a press release that they were dating, and she was getting a divorce. Needless to say, I spent much of that night getting drunk and slurring a few choice words for the asshole. I don’t know where his spies are, but they are all around with their ears to the literal ground, so I learned quickly not to show my hand to anyone. But even with that, he remains one step ahead of me. Every. Damn. Time. It’s the most irritating thing.
* * *
“Thirty days,” she says, my mind still out in Tyler Beckett Purgatory, so I’m not comprehending what she’s saying. “Jessica, they are going on a thirty-day tour.”
* * *
“Thirty days?” I look up at Stephanie, not believing what she’s saying, but then I look back down again. Realizing she’s dead-ass serious, I roll my eyes at the audacity of a tour that lasts longer than some relationships in Hollywood. “That’s insane and dare I say a tad overkill.” I walk back to the chair and sit down. “How the hell are they going to pull that off?”
* * *
“They bought a plane, a big ass plane.” She stops talking, allowing that last part to sink in. “A select number of press are going to be traveling with them. They are doing ten worldwide stops. The stop in Paris will be the official movie premiere, then it will end in Australia, but the press tour stops before that in Los Angeles. There is talk of taking a few of you to Australia, but it’s still up in the air right now.”
* * *
“That schedule alone is crazy. Can you imagine a whole press tour and the logistics of something of that magnitude?” As I shake my head, my mind’s a whirlwind of what it would take to pull off a press junket that lasted that long.
* * *
“I honestly can’t fathom it.” She taps her finger on her desk, staring me down. “But they are taking ten journalists with them.” We stare at each other when she drops the bomb on me. The reason I’m here in her office right now. “You are one of the select few chosen.”
* * *
“No.” Sitting up straight, I look her dead in the eye, not even believing what I’m about to say to my boss. But there’s no other way to say it. “Not a chance in hell, Stephanie . . . no way.”
* * *
“You know what’s so damn funny?” She wears a knowing smirk on her face as she leans back in her chair, tapping her index finger on her chin. “That is exactly what Tyler said when he saw your name on the list of press members who would be joining him on the month-long tour.”
* * *
“He said that because of me?” I ask, shocked. I mean, I’m not shocked but still. “Me?”
* * *
“I need to know what that is all about. You aren’t telling me the whole story, and before I send you off to be a part of history in the making with this exclusive opportunity, I want the goods.” She knows I’m holding something back, yet refusing to say a word of truth.
* * *
“I have no idea. We don’t exactly run in the same circles.” I think we’ve been in the same room maybe ten times, and during each of those encounters, we were surrounded by hundreds of other people.
* * *
“Well, according to Ryan from HillCrest, yours was the only name he dragged his heels about.” Her eyes remain on me, waiting for me to confess all my dirty little secrets.
* * *
“Good.” I cross my arms over my stomach, mumbling under my breath to no one in particular. “He’s an asshole, and I don’t want to be anywhere near him either.” I think about the times I got cheated of an exclusive story because he got the jump ahead of me to put out his own story. The times on the red carpet when he would walk right past me, only to stop at the reporter next to me. The times I interviewed him, pushing his buttons by asking him questions I knew were off-limits. So it really comes as no surprise that he doesn’t want me on the tour.
* * *
“Ryan overrode him,” she tells me. My eyes plead with her to override Ryan even though I know her hands are just as tied as mine are in this situation. She then says the sentence I’ve been dreading to hear since she mentioned a thirty-day press junket and Tyler Beckett in the same breath. “Pack your bags, Jessica. You’re going on tour.”
* * *
Hollywood Princess
HOLLYWOOD PRINCE
Carter
A blonde, a brunette, a redhead…he can have his pick of them all on any given night and he knows it. They wait, hoping he looks up and gives them his signature smirk, choosing them over the others because that’s his game.
Except now he's signed the contract of a lifetime, one with a pesky little clause that says his zipper must stay up and his playboy image has got to tamp down. It'll be fine—a piece of cake, even—he can do this and he’s almost convinced himself of that … and then she walks in the room
The new PR girl whom they’ve hired to change his image, she's the star of all his dreams, but there’s one tiny little problem … she can't stand him and all of his player ways.
He knows he only has thirty days to show her why they call him Hollywood’s Prince. He’s up for the challenge, so game on.
Hollywood Prince
Books By Natasha Madison
Hollywood Royalty
Hollywood Playboy
Hollywood Princess
Hollywood Prince
* * *
Something Series
Something So Right
Something So Perfect
Something So Irresistible
Something So Unscripted
Something So BOX SET
Tempt Series
Tempt The Boss
Tempt The Playboy
* * *
Heaven & Hell Series
Hell and Back
Pieces of Heaven
Heaven & Hell Box Set
Love Series
Perfect Love Story
Unexpected Love Story
Broken Love Story
* * *
Mixed Up Love
Faux Pas
Acknowledgments
My Husband: Thank you for being by my side through this whole thing.
My Kids: Matteo, Michael, and Erica, thank you for sharing me with this book world!
Rachel: You are my blurb bitch. Whether you wear sloths or bats I still love you. Thank you for writing every single blurb without reading the book!
Beta girls: Teressa, Lori, Natasha M, Lori, Sandy, Yolanda, Yamina, Sarah and Melissa. Thank you for cheering me on and begging for more.
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