His Sexy Bad Habit (17 page)

Antonio shook his head. Casey placed her hand on his shoulder. “I know what was going on with you and Marian before she died and how she was going to leave you for Brandon.”

Antonio shrugged her off. “And you thought what? After she died that I’d be so devastated I’d turn to you? Is that why you tried to move in here? Casey, I don’t see you as anything more than a sister.”

“That’s because you didn’t give me a chance,” she said. “We could be good together and we could raise A.J.”

“No, we’re not. Now, you can go inside and have dinner with your nephew, but you need to get it out of your head that you and I will ever have that kind of relationship.”

Tears welled up in Casey’s eyes. “So, you want to be with that slut? A whore who sits around your house naked so you can have your way with her? That’s what you want? What is it, you can’t handle a real woman? Maybe that’s why my sister cheated on you.”

Antonio balled his hands into fists and shook
his head. All of Casey’s talk about her sister’s memory had been nothing but bull. He glared at her. “How can you disrespect your sister’s memory like this? You claimed you loved Marian. If she had lived, we’d probably be divorced. Do you think you and I would be dating then? As far as your sister cheating, that speaks to her character—not mine.”

“But … but …”

Antonio pointed to the door. “A.J. is waiting for you and I don’t want to have this conversation again—ever.”

“Fine, Antonio. But I thought you should know.”

I wish you didn’t feel that way,
he thought as he watched Casey walk into the house.

Serena woke up after a restless night of sleep. She’d never thought
that movie
would come back to bite her after all these years

As a business woman, that sexy movie wouldn’t play well in Charlotte or with the people in her life. Antonio popped into her mind. What would he think if he saw that movie?

Shaking her head, she looked at the clock on her nightstand and saw that it was five after seven. She needed to get out of the bed and get ready for her meeting with Kenya. Serena was thankful that Jade’s sister-in-law had agreed to meet with her, and hoped Kenya would be able to make the movie disappear. Slowly rising from the bed, Serena lumbered to the shower and hopped underneath the warm spray. She closed her eyes and thought about what her life had been like when she made that movie with Emerson.

She’d been ready to make a name for herself with the sexy thriller. That movie had been
poised to launch her, and especially Emerson, into the upper echelon of Hollywood royalty. At the time she hadn’t minded being his arm candy. She hadn’t cared that people were going to look at her and pay more attention to her body than her brain.

Serena wasn’t that woman anymore. She wanted people to take her seriously. They’d just gotten through bad press at Hometown Delight and the movie was going to make things worse.

Or is it?
she thought.
You wanted to write a movie. You basically rewrote the screenplay. Maybe you should just make him reshoot it and take the money. No, I’m not going to have my hard work put Emerson back on the map. Why would he do this? Why now?

Serena shut the shower off and hopped out. As she toweled herself dry, she heard her phone ring. Dashing into the bedroom, she grabbed her cell phone without looking at the
CALLER ID
. “Hello?”

“Good morning, Serena. Have you thought about my offer?” Emerson asked.

“Didn’t I tell you to stop calling me? That movie is not going to be released, so why don’t you go back to Hollywood and find another student to lie to and leave at the altar.”

“I’ve regretted that day for the longest time, but you don’t understand what I was dealing with,” he said.

“Emerson, I don’t give a damn. When I made that movie, I thought I was going to be your wife and we were going to be players in Hollywood.
That part of my life is behind me. You’re behind me and I wish you would just disappear.”

“Maybe I could do that if I thought this was the life you really wanted. Serena, are you happy in this small town with no passion?” Emerson asked.

She laughed sardonically, realizing Emerson never knew who she really was. “You don’t know a damned thing about my life. If you did, you’d know that I don’t need the Hollyweird spotlight to be happy.”

“No, but I know I can make you happy. Tell me that you don’t miss us,” he said, his voice thick and seductive.

Serena wasn’t falling for it. She wasn’t going to be Emerson Bradford’s victim again. “You know what,” she said, her voice cool and calm. “I do miss you, Emerson. I miss your ego. I miss how everything revolves around you. See, I now know what it is like to be important in someone’s life and not treated as a lump of clay to make them famous. That’s all I ever was to you, Emerson. Those days are over and whatever plans you have or wanted to make with that movie, forget them.”

“Serena, I was trying to make things better for both of us,” he said. “When the studio decided they weren’t going to release the movie, I felt as if I let you down. Now, I have a chance to right that.”

“No, you had a chance to right that on our wedding day. You could’ve come to me and told me what was going on. Back then, I was stupid enough to give a damn and would’ve done anything
to make you happy. So, I don’t want to hear your sob story. It’s five years too late.”

“The movie’s coming out,” Emerson said with finality. “The public’s already buzzing about it.”

“What?”

“Somehow,” he said, “a few scenes have been leaked on the Internet.”

“Son of a—” Serena snapped her phone shut and released a string of expletives as she stomped over to her laptop. She typed in Emerson’s name in the Google toolbar. When the video clip showed her scene from the movie, she called Kenya immediately.

Antonio kissed A.J.’s cheek as he dropped his son off for his first day of day camp at Discovery Place in Uptown Charlotte. “Have a good day, son.”

“Bye, Daddy.” A.J. ran toward his friend Kashim Richardson.

Antonio headed to Ray’s Splash Planet to meet with county park and recreation officials about a renovation project. When he arrived at the location, Norman was standing outside waiting for him. Antonio pulled his truck into an empty parking spot and prayed the meeting didn’t last long. He wanted to surprise Serena with lunch. He’d missed her last night as he’d shared an uncomfortable dinner with Casey. He’d tried to put on a front for A.J’s sake, but he couldn’t get Casey’s confession out of his mind. What had she expected to gain by telling him that she was in
love with him? Did she think he had those same feelings? Had he done something to lead her on?

“Antonio, are you all right?” Norman asked as his friend approached him.

“Yeah, just thinking about something that happened last night,” he said.

“Am I going to be jealous if I ask for details?” Norman quipped.

Antonio smiled, knowing Norman was talking about Serena. “I wish,” he said, growing serious again. “Remember what you’ve been telling me about Casey all this time?”

The older man nodded.

Antonio shook his head and closed his eyes. “Well, you were right, my friend.”

“She made a move on you?”

“Last night A.J. and I grilled some turkey burgers and he wanted to invite his aunt. When he spoke to her on the phone, she said something derogatory about Serena and when I confronted her on it, she confessed that she is in love with me.”

“Can’t say that I’m surprised. What are you going to do about it?” Norman asked.

“I don’t know. A.J. loves his aunt and I don’t want him to lose another person he loves. But I’m not comfortable.”

“Did you tell Serena?”

“Hell no,” Antonio said. “They already had a run-in and I am trying not to have that happen again.”

“Besides,” Norman said with a smile, “you don’t
want to do anything to mess up what you have going on with Miss Serena. Don’t tell her.”

Antonio closed his hand on Norman’s shoulder. “She’s really special.” His face lit up with happiness.

“I haven’t seen you this happy in a long time, so whatever she’s doing to you, let her keep doing it.”

The men headed into the building and sought out Torrey James, Ray’s Splash Planet director. When they reached his office, his secretary guided them inside. Antonio looked at the young man staring at the computer screen wondering why he was being so unprofessional. Norman cleared his throat. “Excuse me, are you Mr. James?”

The man looked up and pulled his glasses from the top of his head. “Yes, sorry about that,” he said as he rose to his feet and extended his hand to Antonio and Norman. “A friend of mine in Los Angeles sent me a movie clip and it’s unbelievable. I apologize, gentlemen, let’s get started.”

Antonio smiled at the man, knowing that working with the county would bring more money into his business in the fall and winter when contracts usually dried up, but he couldn’t help asking, “What kind of movie clip is it?”

“I’m not even sure, but the actress is hot! Detrick was telling me she lives in Charlotte and I’m trying to figure out why I’ve never met her. It’s an Emerson Bradford production. If he’d released this instead of those last few movies he made, he’d be cool again.”

“This I have to see,” Norman said, never one to turn down looking at a pretty woman. Torrey turned his monitor toward the men and logged on to the Web site.

Despite himself, Antonio watched the clip and when he saw who the actress was, he nearly dropped to the floor. Norman’s mouth dropped and he turned toward Antonio. “Is that …?” he asked quietly.

Antonio shook his head and Torrey looked from Norman to Antonio. “Do you know her? Can I get an introduction?”

“Norman, can you handle this meeting?” Antonio asked. “I have to go take care of something.” He tore out of the office confused by what he saw on the Internet. Was that Serena and was that simply acting? Why didn’t she give him the details of the movie when he’d asked her about her life in Los Angeles?

I’m tripping. Everyone has a past and this is just a movie,
he thought as he got into his truck and started it up. Still, Antonio didn’t like what he was feeling. How was he going to explain it to A.J. if this movie gained a lot of publicity?

He drove to the restaurant, but when he didn’t see Serena’s car in the parking lot, he headed to her townhouse. She wasn’t at home. He wondered if she even knew what was going on.

“Kenya, you’re telling me there’s nothing I can do?” Serena groaned. “This is all over the Internet
and it isn’t going to take long for some reporter to link this movie to the restaurant.”

Kenya pulled her reading glasses off and gave Serena a solemn look. “I wish I had better news for you, but from what I’ve uncovered, no studio has purchased the rights to this movie. Emerson is more than likely the leak.”

“That filthy bastard,” Serena swore as she slammed her hand against Kenya’s desk. “I’m sorry.”

“That desk has been hit before. Let me ask you this, other than starring in the movie, what else did you do?”

“I did a lot of rewriting on the script, but that was when I thought Emerson and I were going to get married, so I didn’t press for credit.”

“But you do have a right for compensation,” Kenya said, then pressed the
CALL
button on her phone and called her assistant, Talisha. “T, I need you to look up some telephone numbers for me.”

“Yes, ma’am,” she said.

Kenya rattled off the names of some major studios in Hollywood and Emerson Bradford. “I need these as soon as possible.”

“All right. Don’t forget, your husband is coming by at eleven,” Talisha said.

“Thanks.”

Serena recognized the smile on her attorney’s face. That’s how she felt when she thought about Antonio or knew she was going to see him. But what if he saw that movie clip? What would he think?

“Are you all right?” Kenya asked when she noticed the frown on Serena’s face.

“No. What if Antonio sees this?”

Kenya shrugged. “Here’s the one thing that you have in your favor. It’s not as if this is some sex tape. It is a movie. You were acting.”

“But I’m not some celebutant trying to get her face on
E!
Even if it is a movie everyone in my life might not see it that way,” Serena said, then dropped her head in her hands.

“We’re going to see if we can stop this, but I don’t want you to get your hopes up. If nothing else, we can get you a piece of the box office.”

Serena rose to her feet as her cell phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled the phone out and saw that it was Antonio calling her. “Kenya, I’m going to take this. Call me if you find out anything.”

“All right.”

Serena stepped into the hallway and answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Serena, where are you?” Antonio asked.

“I’m about to head home. Is everything all right?”

“You tell me,” he said. “I saw something on the Internet that—”

“Damn it,” Serena muttered. “Antonio, I wanted to tell you about that. Will you meet me at my place so we can talk?”

“Sure,” he said.

Serena rushed to her car and sped home, hoping she would be able to explain the movie away and Antonio would be understanding about
it.
And if he isn’t, what am I going to do about it?
she thought as she pulled up to her townhouse and saw Antonio leaning against his truck.

She placed the car in park and hopped out. She half expected to see anger in Antonio’s eyes, but instead, he opened his arms to her and gave her a big hug.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

Serena looked up at him and smiled. “Thank you,” she said.

“For what?”

“I just knew that you were going to be upset about this. Hell, I’m upset about this. But …”

“It was a little off-putting to see that,” he said. “Did you know this movie was going to be released?”

“It hasn’t been released,” she said with a groan. “But the vindictive son of a bitch who is doing this is trying to rebuild his career on something I did when I was young and stupid.”

“Are you going to sue?”

“I was talking to a lawyer earlier today,” she said as she held on tighter to Antonio. “You know what makes this tougher?”

He looked down at her and asked, “What?”

“At one time, I thought I was going to marry this guy.”

“Whoa.”

“Can we go inside?” she asked. Serena knew she had to come clean about everything.

“All right,” he said as he dropped his arms from around her. Once inside, Serena headed for the kitchen and made a pot of coffee while Antonio
sat on a bar stool and watched her. He could tell Serena was trying to find the courage to tell him what was going on. As the coffee brewed, she turned to him and offered up a weak smile.

She placed her hand on top of his. “When I went to Los Angeles, I wanted to write. I took classes at UCLA and I met Emerson Bradford.”

“He did
Sultry Summer,
right?”

Serena nodded. “But before that he was trying to come up with his breakout hit. He said I belonged in front of the camera. He wooed me and talked me into starring in this movie. Since I was in love with the man and wearing his engagement ring, I jumped at the chance. But things didn’t work out and the movie disappeared. I found myself standing at the altar alone on my wedding day.”

Antonio took her hand in his and brought it to his lips. “That had to hurt,” he said. “What was his excuse for leaving you there?”

“He has no excuse,” she said. “Until he showed up in Charlotte about a week ago, I hadn’t heard a word from that sorry piece of … for five years, I hadn’t heard a word from him and all he could say about not showing up for our wedding was that the studio declined to release the film and he felt as if he let me down.”