Illusions of Love (27 page)

‘Nothing’s the matter,’ he smiled, stroking her fingers, bringing them up to his mouth and kissing them.
 
‘So, let’s say we give them what they want, huh?’
 
He sat up, keeping her astride him, holding her round the waist as she knelt up, stroking the hair from her eyes as she looked into his.
 
‘Me and you.
 
A couple.
 
Together.
 
Do you think you could go with that?’

She couldn’t help smiling.
 
She felt like she was back in high school, embarking on her first real relationship with the hottest guy in class.
 
‘Yeah.
 
I can go with that.’

‘Good.
 
That’s good, baby, because something’s happening here, and I don’t know what that is exactly, but… I’m kinda excited to find out.’

She stared into those almost mesmerizing blue eyes of his, her stomach flipping over a thousand times a second as his mouth touched hers and she just wanted to lose herself in him, stay there in his arms and learn everything there was to know about this insanely handsome man.

But, if she knew the truth about Dominic MacDonald, knew who he really was, and just why he’d made a play for her in the first place – even if his reasons
had
changed dramatically now – would she still want to be with him?

***

Vince watched Charley from the back of the bedroom, watched as she slowly applied her make-up, ready to join everyone else in one of The Amber Palace’s larger nightclubs to celebrate
India
’s forty-third birthday.

She’d changed a little over the past few days.
 
She’d become more like the Charley he knew; she was smiling, seemed more relaxed, although that was only when he saw her.
 
And that still wasn’t all that often.
 
Either the salon needed her or there was paperwork to be done, and this just wasn’t the way Vince had envisaged her visit to Vegas panning out.
 
He’d thought they’d be hanging out together, even if that meant her being with him on the film set, but she didn’t even seem to want to watch her best friend at work.
 
As far as he knew she’d visited the set just once since she’d arrived, stayed for an hour, then left again.
 
Kenny had promised to talk to her but so far he’d come back with nothing that explained any of his wife’s erratic behaviour.
 
So maybe it was time for him to confront her himself.

‘Are you hiding something from me, Charley?’

Charley stopped what she was doing and swung round on her stool, looking at Vince, trying her hardest to paint a smile on her face that she hoped would satisfy him.
 
‘Hiding something?
 
Why… why would I be hiding something from you, Vince?’

‘You think you’ve been acting normally since you arrived from
L.A.
then, do you?’

She kept staring at him, because looking away would only serve to make him more suspicious.
 
But she couldn’t stop the feeling of nervous tension in her stomach, tying itself up in knots, almost making her breathless.
 
‘Things… things have just been a little crazy, Vince.
 
You know how it is.
 
You know how busy I’ve been.’

He leant back against the wall, folding his arms, not taking his eyes off her.
 
‘Which is why I thought that, once you got to Vegas, you’d want to relax.
 
You’d want to take some time out, to be with me.’

‘I
do
want to be with you.’

‘You do?
 
Because, you’ve got a really strange way of showing that, honey.
 
I think I can probably count on one hand the amount of waking hours we’ve actually spent together.’

Charley felt the panic rise up in her, mentally trying to push it aside, knowing she had to do something to placate him, and quick.
 
Otherwise he was going to push her to the point where she had no choice left but to tell him the truth.
 
And that couldn’t happen.
 
He couldn’t know about Jimmy; for the sake of their marriage, their daughter – their life together – he couldn’t know about Jimmy.
 
She didn’t want him in that position.
 
She didn’t want him in that danger.

She stood up and walked over to him, taking his hand in hers and squeezing it, willing him to hold her and he did, sliding an arm round her waist, pulling her close.

‘I’ve missed you so much, Charley.
 
You’ve been here and yet, I’ve missed you.’

She looked up at him.
 
Her handsome, strong, wonderful husband.
 
She really didn’t like shutting him out, but it was necessary.
 
In her mind it was the only thing to do right now.
 
Kenny had everything under control.

Thinking about Kenny, and what had happened between them – what was
happening
between them – was something else she had to push to the back of her mind and she closed her eyes for a brief second, blacking out the memory, letting her husband kiss her in a way she hadn’t let him kiss her in a long time, shutting everything else out.

‘Okay, now,
that’s
the Charley I know and love,’ Vince smiled, holding her tight against him.
 
‘Where’s she been, huh?’

Charley smiled back, running her fingers through his hair, trying to pretend everything else wasn’t happening, that it was all normal and just as it should be.
 
Even if it wasn’t.
 
But it could be, for a little while.
 
If she let it.
 
‘It doesn’t matter where she’s been, Vince.
 
Just that she’s back.’

Oh, God, she wanted everything to go back to that status quo she was so used to.
 
The normality and routine she’d gotten used to living, she wanted that so badly.
 
But until Jimmy Cash showed his hand she couldn’t do anything other than live her life looking over her shoulder.
 
Outside of this room, anyway.
 
But here she was with a man who loved her beyond anything else, and she needed him.
 
She really needed him.

‘I thought I was losing you,’ Vince whispered, slowly slipping the straps of her dress down over her shoulders.

‘Oh, baby, you’re not losing me.’
 
Is that what he’d honestly thought?
 
That something was going on with someone else?
 
Her mind quickly wandered back to Kenny and she tried to shut that memory out again, because whatever
had
gone on there, it had meant nothing.
 
It was just something they’d both needed for their own private reasons, and they understood that.
 
So it wasn’t wrong, was it?
 
It wasn’t wrong when there was no intention of anyone else ever finding out.
 
When all they were doing was comforting one another in the only way they could.
 
Yeah, Charley, you keep telling yourself tha
t.
 
‘I promise you, Vince.
 
You aren’t losing me.’

And that was all he needed to know, for now.
 
As long as he knew it was nothing to do with him, then that was fine.
 
That was okay.
 
But Vince Maine wasn’t stupid, and he wasn’t’ naïve enough to think that whatever she was telling him was the whole truth, because he knew it wasn’t.
 
He knew Charley inside out now; he could tell when something was on her mind, and something was on her mind big time right now.
 
And Vince would do everything in his power to find out just what that something was.

CHAPTER 21

‘Happy birthday my darling,’ Reece smiled, kissing
India
on both cheeks then standing back to take a look at his beautiful daughter.
 
Dressed in the simplest of outfits – skinny jeans, strapless black top and spike-heeled ankle boots, her blond hair piled messily on top of her head – she looked incredible.

‘You’re not gonna start with the nagging then?’
India
asked, wary of facing her father for the first time since the rumours about her and Dominic’s “did they or didn’t they?” sex scene had started.
 
He’d been in L.A. for a couple of days visiting Martha on the set of her new movie, so it was the first time she’d seen him since the news had hit the front pages of the tabloids and gossip magazines.

Reece looked at her, all too aware of what she was getting at.
 
And there was plenty he wanted to say on the subject of her and Dominic and what was being said about them, but maybe tonight wasn’t the right time.
 
He’d witnessed just a few seconds of that scene being filmed, and even those images had been way too graphic for him to grasp, so to think that things may have gone further was just too much for him to comprehend right now.
 
And it was something he would never put himself through, he’d never see that scene, he’d never watch it, he’d make sure of that.

‘Did you do it?’
 
He hadn’t meant to say that out loud but he’d been unable to stop himself from asking the question.

‘Not tonight, Dad.
 
Please.’

‘Everything okay here?’ Dominic asked, arriving by
India
’s side, handsome and sexy-as-hell in a black shirt and pants, his hair in that messed-up, just-got-out-of-bed style that he was known for – and that
India
loved – the movie star smile firmly in place as he circled her waist with his arm, pulling her into him.

‘Everything’s fine,’ Reece replied.
 
He held Dominic’s stare for a few seconds before turning his attention back to
India
.
 
‘I take it, by this display of protective behaviour, that you two are officially an item then.’

It wasn’t really a question, and
India
felt about fifteen again.
 
She guessed she always would, because she’d given her father no other option but to be suspicious of every relationship she got into now.
 
Her past had seen to that.

She looked up at Dominic, removing his arm from around her waist and slipping her hand into his.
 
He just smiled that smile, kissed her quickly, then left her alone with her dad.

‘It’s a bit early for him to be playing the gallant hero, isn’t it?’ Reece said, immediately wishing he hadn’t said anything at all because the look on
India
’s face wasn’t one he felt comfortable with.
 
He could do without alienating her, especially at a time like this.
 
He held his hands up.
 
‘Okay, okay, I’m sorry.
 
I’m sorry.
 
I’ll back off, I’ll quit with the over-protective father routine.
 
Just…’

‘Be careful.
 
Yeah, yeah, I get it.’

‘You’re gonna be in the public eye all over again, you know that, don’t you?
 
Now you’re in some kind of relationship with your co-star.’

‘It’s not like I’ve never had to handle that before, Dad.’

He wanted to say so much more to her but tonight was her night, her birthday, a night for her to cut loose and enjoy herself.
 
Anything else could wait.
 
‘Go on,’ he smiled.
 
‘Go have a good time.’

She threw herself into his arms and hugged him tight, and he held onto her like he never wanted to let her go.
 
And he didn’t.
 
Because every time he let her go something happened that he couldn’t control; she got hurt, and he’d have to pick up the pieces all over again.
 
He could only hope that, this time, things would be different.

***

‘I’m almost certain Vince suspects something’s up, Kenny,’ Charley said, suddenly feeling more than a little self-conscious talking to him.
 
But that was only because of what had happened between them, and nobody else knew about that, did they?

‘Then you’ve got to try and be less edgy around him, Charley.’
 
Kenny couldn’t really concentrate tonight.
 
He was too busy watching
India
and Dominic kissing like a couple of kids by the bar, laughing and play-fighting.
 
It shouldn’t bother him, he’d thought he was over all that, but it did.
 
It bothered him.

He turned his attention away from his best friend and her new boyfriend, smiling at Charley.
 
His beautiful distraction, and now he knew why he needed her so much.
 
‘It’ll be okay, I’ve told you.
 
I promised you that, didn’t I?’

She smiled too.
 
He made her want to smile.
 
‘You’re the only one who can say that to me right now and make me actually believe it.’