Illusions of Love (24 page)

***

India
sat down on the bed, pulling her knees up to her chest, hugging them tight as she stared up at the lights above her, trying to block out the sounds of a movie set as she waited for Dominic to join her.

She hadn’t spoken to Michael since she’d arrived back on set, other than to get the direction she needed for the scene, and that was fine with her, because his behaviour was unsettling; it reminded her of times she’d rather forget.
 
Something was going on, she could sense it, and having no idea what that was wasn’t a feeling she’d been in a hurry to revisit.
 
Especially where Michael was concerned.
 
Was this all part of some game he was playing?
 
She just couldn’t work it out, and that was the worrying part.

‘You okay?’ Dominic asked, sitting down next to her, his naked body covered only by a small white towel tied tight around his waist.
 

India
had to smile as she looked at him.
 
He really was the most confident actor she’d ever worked with in this situation, because this wasn’t the first time she’d shot a scene like this.
 
Far from it.
 
It was just the first time she’d had to shoot one with someone she felt so attracted to.
 
With someone as hot as Dominic MacDonald.
 
With someone she’d had sex with not half an hour ago.

‘I’m fine.
 
I could do without all of this, but that’s the nature of the job I suppose.’

‘You telling me you’re not looking forward to being with me?
 
To having me touch you right where I
know
you like to be touched…’

He slid his hand under the robe she was wearing, his fingers gently brushing her thighs until she smacked his hand away.
 
‘Pack it in, Dominic!’
 
But she couldn’t help laughing, although, that was probably caused partly by nerves.
 
‘Jesus, this is hard enough without you making it worse.’

Michael watched from behind the monitor as Dominic and
India
laughed together, revealing a closeness he hadn’t really been prepared to see.
 
But all that did was make it all the more important for him to get this scene in the can, and then think very carefully about confronting a man who’d walked into their lives and given Michael a bigger headache than he could ever have anticipated.

Dominic MacDonald had become a threat Michael just hadn’t been prepared for, but that was fine.
 
It was okay, Michael could deal with him.
 
Even though he’d never had to deal with a situation quite like this one before.

Taking a deep breath he called for action, watching the monitor as the scene took shape.
 
He watched as Dominic slowly pulled the robe away from India’s now naked body, running his hands over her breasts, down over her hips and thighs, his eyes scanning every inch of her as she bit down on her bottom lip, her arms thrown up above her head which only served to accentuate everything Michael missed every day of his life, and a pain like someone stabbing his heart and twisting the knife cut across his chest, forcing him to briefly look away.

Knowing she was with another man was hard enough, but actually seeing her like this was something else, and now it was happening – pretend or not – it was the single-most painful thing Michael had ever experienced.
 
Had he made a mistake by creating this scenario?
 
No.
 
It had needed to happen, to make him realise how much he needed
India
back in his life.
 
To make him realise how much he still loved her.

He’d given them free reign of this scene, letting them go for it without too much help from him.
 
His main job was to direct the cameras, make sure the angles were right, that not too much was shown, but what did it matter anyway?
 
It was more than likely that none of this would make it to the final edit anyway.
 
This was all for Michael, a personal crusade to mess up his own head and then spur him on to bring Dominic MacDonald down.
 
To make sure he knew the score, because Michael didn’t really care who he was.
 
That didn’t matter, and it should – but it didn’t.
 
Because all that mattered to Michael was getting
India
back.
 
And that meant Dominic had to lose.
 
Everything.

***

Reece hung around in the open doorway of the hotel room they were using for this scene, watching from a distance, but close enough to be able to see Michael’s reaction to what was going on.
 
And it was just as he’d feared.
 
Michael Walsh was once more on a mission, and the target was quite obviously his daughter.
 
The past was once again rearing its ugly head and Reece felt his stomach dip at the prospect of what might happen next, because Michael was nothing if not unpredictable.
 
And whatever was going on, it concerned
India
and Dominic, Reece knew that for certain.

There was no reason for this scene to be playing out in front of everybody, and the image of his daughter in the arms of a man she was involved with, off screen as well as on, was one that Reece neither wanted nor needed to see, but it was quite obvious that Michael had done this for a reason.
 
And probably a very selfish and dangerous reason, but this time Reece refused to be shut out of whatever this situation turned out to be.
 
Michael Walsh had hurt his daughter once, in a way that Reece still had no idea about, and that in itself was enough to make him certain that was not going to happen again.

As Michael visibly flinched, Reece turned briefly to see his daughter and Dominic engaged in a kiss that should never have been anywhere near a movie set.
 
Not this kind of movie, anyway.
 
What was happening here was a private moment, something that should have been kept behind closed doors.
 
It was almost as if they’d completely forgotten where they were.

He could see people whispering to each other, uncertain as to whether what they were watching was acting or real, given how everyone knew the way the two leads in this movie were starting to feel about each other, and all Reece wanted to do was run over there and pull them apart.
 
What the hell was Michael playing at?

It was an image he couldn’t face any longer and, taking one last look at Michael who was now focusing on the monitor, his face impassive and expressionless, Reece walked away.
 
He just wished Michael could do the same.

***

‘You okay, baby?’ Dominic whispered, his mouth close to her ear.
 
All
India
could do was look into his eyes and nod, because this was surreal, and she was having trouble dealing with it.

Being this close to him, with so many people around, so many people watching, it was crazy!
 
Yet Dominic was making it all so easy, talking to her all the time, his fingers so gentle on her skin as he looked at her.

This was unlike any other sex scene she’d ever shot before because this time she couldn’t fully detach herself from the emotions she really felt for this man.
 
She couldn’t switch off; she couldn’t forget that it was just acting, that this wasn’t real.
 
She couldn’t do that.

Closing her eyes, she clung onto him as he gently pushed her legs apart with his knee and like a reflex action she drew them up around him, the thin bed sheet barely covering them, his hand in the small of her back pushing her up against him.

She could hear Michael’s voice issuing instructions to camera operators, she could feel the heat of the lights and Dominic’s naked body so close to hers, and her head was spinning as she tried to quickly remember that this was a movie scene, this was supposed to be pretend.
 
But what was happening here was far from pretend.

They were filming the most realistic of love scenes, and it shouldn’t be happening, but she was getting off big time knowing that everyone was watching, and yet nobody had any idea just how close they really were.
 
How realistic this really was.

So, when the climax came, when she felt her body jolt upwards as his arms held her tight, it was like nothing she’d ever felt before.
 
The cries she gave out were real, the shot of white-hot electricity that engulfed her was real.
 
What she felt for this crazy, sexy man was real.

And all they could do when it was over was hold each other, their breathing fast and heavy, the sweat from the heat of the lights making their bodies damp and sticky.
 
What they’d just done could quite possibly be deemed incredibly stupid, yet it had probably been the single-most exciting thing she’d ever experienced.

They vaguely heard Michael shout ‘
cut!
’ but they didn’t make any attempt to move, except for to pull the sheet up farther over them, both of them unsure just how much had been seen, or how much had been noticed.
 
But it had happened now.
 
Nothing could take it back.
 
And it was then that
India
knew she wanted Dominic MacDonald more than she’d ever wanted anything before.
 
But Dominic wanted her more.

***

Michael turned away from the scene in front of him, taking off his cap and running his hand through his hair.
 
He’d seen enough, but at least now he knew what he was dealing with.
 
And it wasn’t going to be easy, this battle he now had ahead.

He’d just seen his beautiful ex-wife making love to a man Michael just hadn’t been ready to face, because he hadn’t even known he’d existed.
 
Until now.
 
But he was here, uninvited, and very much in their lives, and
India
– his beautiful, beautiful
India
– had just shown everybody, in the most public of ways, how she really felt about him.
 
About Dominic MacDonald.
 
A man Michael had to get ready to fight, big time.
 
His own son.

CHAPTER 19

‘Hey, stranger!’
India
smiled, sitting down opposite Charley who was having a quiet coffee in the Terrace Breakfast Restaurant, her dark glasses down over her eyes as she sat under the shade of a canopy, out of the already blazing early morning
Las Vegas
sun.

Charley looked up at her best friend, pushing her sunglasses up onto her head and smiling, although she felt like doing anything but.
 
If it wasn’t for Kenny she honestly thought she’d have lost it by now, but knowing he was around and that she wasn’t alone made her feel just that little bit safer.
 
‘Hey back.
 
How you doing?’

‘That should be
who’s
she doing,’ Bobby sniffed, sitting down next to
India
, pushing his reading glasses down onto his nose as he consulted his ever-present diary.

Charley threw a puzzled look in
India
’s direction.

‘He means Dominic MacDonald,’ India sighed, sitting back in her chair and accepting a glass of orange juice from a waiter who quite obviously had some kind of crush on her, made obvious by the way he looked at her with a ridiculous smile on his face.

‘She’s like the Pied Piper,’ Bobby said, not looking up from his diary.
 
‘Except, instead of rats she attracts toy boys…’
 
He looked up, throwing
India
one of his disapproving expressions.
  
‘Actually, on second thoughts…’

‘For Christ’s sake…’
India
sighed again, slightly heavier this time, pulling her hair back into a loose ponytail.

Charley was still looking puzzled.
 
‘Am I missing something here?’

‘Oh, haven’t you heard?’ Bobby gasped, leaning forward and adopting his “
I’m about to let you into some gossip
” stance.

‘Heard what?’ Kenny asked, appearing at the table, kissing
India
quickly before sitting down opposite her, throwing a smile in Charley’s direction.

‘Madam here, and her latest young stud,’ Bobby replied, pursing his lips in a mock-disapproving manner.
 
‘On set, yesterday.’

‘Bobby…’
 
India
started to protest, but then gave up.
 
What was the point?
 
It was practically common knowledge anyway.

‘The gossip is
rife
around here, believe me,’ Bobby went on, waving his arms about in an over-dramatic fashion, completely ignoring
India
.