Dazzled (36 page)

“And how
are
things with Lilia?”

I pulled a face.

“That good?”

“Ha, well… I’d be happy if I never had to have anything to do with her ever again.”

“But you know you have to – for publicity?”

“Yeah, I get that, Melody, believe me. And I don’t want to make your job harder
… Actually, there was something I’ve been meaning to ask you?”

“Oh? I’m intrigued.”

“The contract with the studio?”

“Yes?”

“Do I have to do it if there’s a sequel to
Dazzled
?”

She gave me a shrewd look.

“Well, I’ve seen the contract, obviously, but I’d have to check the fine print. I would suggest, however, that even if you’re not locked into a sequel – and I’d be surprised if you weren’t – you should think
very
carefully before you turned it down, simply because of…
personal
issues. Miles, you’re a young actor and you have great potential – that much is clear. But you’re at the beginning of your career, and you should think
very
hard about making a bad decision at this point.”

“You think it would be a bad decision?”

She leaned against the wall and sighed heavily.

“Financially, yes. Professionally, that’s less clear-cut. The reviews for
Dazzled
are all good, particularly for your role. But part of my answer will depend on how your next project
Lifers
is perceived. It’s a tougher sell, but people need to know you can do more than fantasy and romance.”

She was right, I knew she was right. But the thought of having to work with Lilia again – that sucked.

“Do you still want me to investigate the contract?”

“Yeah, please. Just so I know where I stand.”

She smiled. “You’re learning, Miles.”

I’d only been back in my room a couple of minutes when there was a knock at the door.

I pulled it open, excited and, in all honesty, a bit nervous.

Clare was standing there with a little scowl on her face that made me smile.

When she stormed into the room, I felt my smile slip.

“I suppose you were going to tell me that there was a sequel to
Dazzled
?” she snapped, her eyes sparking, and her mouth clamped into a hard line. “Perhaps it just slipped your mind?”

“Well…”

“Because it really pisses me off that I had to read in a bloody newspaper rather than to hear it from you!”

“Hey, wait a minute!”

“No, you wait! If we’re going to do this whole dating lark, then…”

I was so happy to hear that she still wanted to date me that I shut her up the only way I could think of.

I kissed her.

As soon as our lips met, my body went into overdrive. I wanted to
touch
her everywhere. I wanted to
feel
her everywhere.

Her hands flew up to my neck and gripped me hard.

Then she pushed me away abruptly, leaving me panting like a dog.

“You can’t distract me that easily!” she barked.

I couldn’t help grinning at her, and before you roll your eyes, I
know
that was a really dumb thing to do.

Clare

I was furious. You know, the whole red mist, ready to do some violence sort of fury.

I stormed into that hotel room, prepared to give Mr. Oops There’s Something Important I Forget To Tell My Girlfriend a piece of my mind. A really sharp piece.

But then he kissed me. And I almost let him get away with it. But just because my heart was thundering like a 300 pound sprinter going over the hurdles, and my blood was about to superheat to the temperature of a solar flare, I wasn’t letting him get away with that.

I pushed him off.

And he
grinned
at me! That was
so
out of order.

“I am seriously pissed here, Miles! Don’t you dare grin at me or you’ll be needing the services of a
Hollywood dentist after all.”

“Okay, okay! I get it. But, shit, Clare, you’re so hot when you’re angry.”

I gaped at him. I was standing there yelling at him and
that
was turning him on?

I was so screwed.

“Be careful what you say next, Stephens! You do realize my vagina has an on—off switch linked directly to whatever comes out of your mouth?”

He gave a dark laugh.

“Are you sure?”

“Yup, pretty sure.”

“Are we talking about just the
words
that come out of my mouth?” he asked, flicking his tongue over his lips as I imagined it licking between my breasts and toward my stomach. Or a bit lower.

“Um…”

“Nothing else of interest?”

“Um…”

He took a pace toward me so his body was flush against mine. He leaned down very slowly, pushed a strand of hair behind my ear, and placed his lips against my ear.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

He tugged my earlobe with his teeth and kissed his way down my throat to my collar bone. Wrapping his arms around my waist, he walked me back toward the bed.

“This is coming off,” he said, tugging at the hem of my sweater. “And this
definitely
has no business covering up those fan-fucking-tastic tits,” he continued, peeling off my t-shirt. He unhooked my bra with one hand, and started massaging my breasts with the other, pinching the nipples lightly.

He unzipped my jeans and pulled them down slowly. I lay on the bed, splayed out like a baby whale while he stood, fully clothed, gazing down.

Moving lazily, he removed his t-shirt and jeans with teasing slowness, and slid down until he was level with my side. He kissed my lips softly, then scooted further down the bed and kissed his way from my knees back up to the top of my thighs.

“Still mad at me?” he said.

“Um…”

“Still want to tell me off?” he murmured against my skin.

“Um…”

“Go on, Clare,” and he bit my neck. “Tell me how
bad
I’ve been.”

“Um…”

Yeah, I’m not sure who won that conversation.

Deep Throat

Clare

Miles was yelling at me – and I was yelling back.

“You were going to sleep with Nazzer! He’s a complete tosser!”

“Yeah, but he’s
your
friend!”

“That’s how I know what I’m talking about!”

His eyes flashed and he was breathing fast, his hard chest rising and falling rapidly.

How dare he look so damn hot when he was shouting at me
.

I was considering storming off, but it’s hard to make a dramatic exit when you’re sitting naked in a Jacuzzi, let alone flounce. I was not a flouncer – it would have just looked wrong.

“Yeah, well I didn’t sleep with him,” I pointed out, trying to sound calmer.

Telling Miles about that night in the pub with Paul and Nazzer was not the smartest thing I’d ever done, but honestly, I thought he’d laugh.

Instead, I’d got a very different reaction.

“It’s not like you and me were even talking to each other,” I said, “let alone, um, dating.”

“Yeah, but
Nazzer!
Couldn’t you do better than that?”

“Actually, no!” I snarled, my cheeks flushing, “And if you have to know, he turned me down for a
Thunderbirds
marathon.”

“Thank fuck for that,” Miles said, quietly. Then he looked up. “He what? A
Thunderbirds
marathon… what channel was it on?”

I felt my eyes cross with anger and humiliation, then I saw the suppressed smile that lifted the corner of his mouth slightly.

“You smug bastard!” I shouted. “I totally believed you then!”

He shrugged and sighed.

“I’m still pissed off that you thought of sleeping with Nazzer.”

“And I’m still pissed off that I had to watch you bump uglies with Lilia for two whole days of filming!” I fired back. “Let alone knowing you were doing it for real when the cameras stopped rolling.”

He winced and looked away.

“Sorry,” I said, quietly. “That was below the belt. I mean… um… sorry.”

He still couldn’t look at me, and I felt bad for making him feel that way. I wasn’t being fair.

“Hey,” I said softly, shifting across so I could lean against him. “I didn’t mean that.”

“Yeah, I know,” he sighed, running a hand through his wet hair. “Can we just
not
do this. I hate arguing with you.”

“Okay.”

“Thanks.”

“Um… but don’t get upset. I want to ask about the sequel. Why didn’t you tell me?”

He rolled his eyes.

“I only found out about it last night,” he grumbled. “Hyde came up to me at the premiere and said we should talk about the sequel when I got back to LA. It was the first I’d heard of it. I mean, Laura Dorien hasn’t even written a second book. But, I guess because this movie is making money for the studio, it’s a no-brainer decision.”

“So you’re going to do it.”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?” I felt hopeful but a little confused.

“Well, Melody is going to check my contract to see if I’m locked into it, but even if I’m not, she said I should think about it anyway.”

“Oh.”

He put his arm around my shoulders and tugged me closer.

“What do you think? Do you think I should do it?”

“Oh, no way, Miles! You are
not
putting the responsibility of that decision in my lap!”

He looked annoyed. “I’m not trying to! I’m just asking my
girlfriend
what she thinks about something that will affect us both.”

“Oh, sorry,” I mumbled. “I can’t get used to that – you know, discussing things – couples stuff.”

I sucked on my teeth as I thought about it, and Miles smiled when I blew out a long breath that made me sound like a tired carthorse.

“Melody thinks you should?”

“She says I shouldn’t dismiss it just because of…”

“Because of Lilia?”

“Well, yeah.”

“She’s right.”

“She is?”

“Look, it’s only six weeks of filming. You’re a professional – you can do that.”

He frowned. “Yeah, but there’s still months of promotional stuff that we’d have to do together. I might not be able to come back to London for a while.”

“Maybe you could make a film in
Britain?”

He frowned.

“That would be great, but the UK film industry needs a life-support system right now.”

“Well, you never know. It could happen. It would be cool if you used your own voice for a change – not always having to do an American accent.”

He frowned again. “I’m so used to that now, I don’t know if it would make it harder or easier. Doing an accent, it gives me something to hide behind, you know?”

I felt sad that he still felt like that. But that was probably what made him such a brilliant actor, feeling everything so much, living without that extra layer of skin that most people needed.

“Well, it would be brilliant if you did film in the UK. Hey! Maybe they’d shoot a period piece. You could wear breeches. Your arse would look so hot in breeches.”

Even the word was turning me on… bree—ches. Yes, and a loose white shirt – a wet shirt – clinging to every muscle.
Look, I
know
that’s been done, but come on! You have to admit that’s hot!

He laughed, but I was serious.

“Anyway,” he continued, “I’ll have to see her – Lilia – on Monday when we do the New York junket. I wish you could be there for that.”

“I know. Me, too.”

His face suddenly brightened.

“So, come with me! You don’t have to be back at university for a few days yet. Come with me.”

“What, fly all the way to New York just for a weekend?!”

“Sure!”

“Get you, Mr. Jet Set!” I paused. “Are you serious?”

“One hundred per cent. I’ll book your ticket now if you say yes.”

Wow! He was just sooooo smooth. When did that happen?

“Well,” I said, slowly, “I could try out my kung fu moves on Lilia.”

He laughed, delightedly.

“You haven’t got any kung fu moves!”

“I so have! I used to love Bruce Lee films, and Jackie Chan.”

He grabbed my wrists as he pulled me onto his lap.

“Go on then. Show me some moves.”

So I did. Just not the ones he was expecting.

We finally fell into bed to sleep a couple of hours after midnight.

The Jacuzzi sex had been amazing – a bit weird, sort of squelchy, and we made a hell of a mess on the bathroom floor – but amazing. And for future reference, reverse cowgirl is definitely the way to go.

We both felt guilty about that – the spilled water, not the amazing sex, obviously – so we’d tried to mop it up with towels. We got through a lot of towels.

But hey, this was the
Dorchester – they’d probably had a lot worse things happen. Didn’t one of those rock bands bring back a live goat? Or maybe I was imagining it, which is pretty scary in itself.

And have you any idea
how much I loved room service?!
Food, drinks, whatever and whenever you wanted it. I felt sort of awkward having people jumping every time I snapped my fingers, metaphorically speaking, but Miles said he wasn’t going to feel guilty about it anymore, because the suits from the studio once had him working 64 days with only one short break, plus he’d worked Christmas Eve (which I didn’t like to remember), and all the days between Christmas and New Year. So if we wanted toast at midnight, we should just go ahead and order it. But hold the caviar. Neither of us liked that bizarre stuff.

For the last half hour, we’d been arguing – well, having a lively discussion – about what to do for New Year’s Eve. Miles said he wanted us to stay in and, you know, do
couples
stuff. It wasn’t that I was averse to his suggestion, but I had promised Nazzer and Paul that we’d go out, and Miles hadn’t seen his friends since April.

He was also irritated that I’d been Googling his name to see what the gossip sites were saying about him.

“I don’t know why you read that rubbish,” he complained. “You know they make it up when they don’t have a clue. You’ll just turn into a moody cow if you see something about Lilia.”

Which was true. But it didn’t stop me. I wasn’t deliberately being a masochist, but I thought it was a good idea to see what lies the harlot was putting about – when she wasn’t putting herself about. You know, forewarned is forearmed.

What I wasn’t expecting to see was a clip from one of yesterday’s interviews.

“He’s single, ladies! In an exclusive interview with rising star Miles Stephens, I can exclusively reveal that the shy hunk is
not
dating at all. In an intimate one-on-one, Miles said, ‘I’m
not even dating anyone at the moment. Anyone.’ Hasta la vista, Lilia! So line up ladies, because this man is open for business. And I’m first in the queue. This is Carmel McConnell reporting…”

“What the hell is this, Miles?” I yelped, spinning the laptop around to face him.

He looked at the screen and frowned.

“That’s from one of the interviews I did yesterday. What about it?”

“What about it? You lied! You flat out lied! You said you weren’t – and I quote – that you ‘weren’t dating anyone’. How is that supposed to make me feel?”

“I don’t know, Clare,” he snapped, pressing his lips together in a thin line. “Protected? Safe? Why the hell would I want to give some stranger the details of our private life to broadcast wherever the fuck she likes?”

Oh
.

“You
know
that isn’t real,” he said, pointing at the laptop. Then he gestured between us, “This… this here is what’s real.”

I felt like such an idiot.

“Sorry. I am – I’m really sorry. I don’t mean to be all paranoid, but you’re going back to LA soon and I don’t know when I’ll see you again. It freaks me out a bit.”

His head hung forward. “I know. I get it. But you have to trust me. I don’t go around dipping my wick into anything that has a pulse. I’m not like that – I never have been. Jeez, you
know
that.”

“I do know. I’m just being stupid.”

He pulled me into a hug.

“Promise me you won’t believe any of that shit,” he mumbled into my hair.

I blew out a long breath. “Okay.”

His grip tightened.

“Do we really have to go out tonight?”

“Yeah, you lightweight – it’s New Year’s Eve. Besides, Nazzer and Paul will be waiting.”

An hour later and halfway across London, I was regretting insisting that we meet up with the tosser twins, because the first thing Paul said when he saw Miles holding my hand was,

“Huh, so you’ve tapped that now, you dog!”

I thought Miles was going to go nuclear, and actually I kind of wanted him to, but he just acted cool.

“Yeah, well, you lost your chance, dickhead,” he said, his voice quiet and even. “She’s
mine
, so keep your fucking hands to yourself or I’ll break them off. That goes double for you, Naz.”