Illusions of Love (77 page)

It took a long while for him accept that what he’d done was save lives.
 
He’d put paid to a recurring nightmare.
 
He’d given people their lives back.
 
Given people peace and a sense of justice, no matter how warped that justice may have been.

But the one thing that night had taught him was that you get no second chances.
 
You have one life, and you have to live it to the full, do your utmost to get what you want and not give up without one hell of a fight.
 
And, in the end, he hadn’t really had to fight all that hard, because that night had also taught
India
a thing or two.
 
It had taught her that, sometimes, the person you need to be with has been right there, under your nose, for as long as you can remember.
 
And the realisation that you’d probably always been in love with that person, no matter how much you thought you hadn’t been, had hit her hard.
 
She’d always thought Michael was the man she could never forget when, in reality, it had always been Kenny.

So she’d known her and Dominic were never going to work.
 
Despite the feelings she had for him.
 
He was a wonderful man, but he was Michael’s son, and that was the problem.
 
He was too close a reminder of a man she was always going to have feelings for, no matter what, and that rendered any relationship she could have with him off-limits.
 
It just wouldn’t have worked.
 
It couldn’t have worked.
 
And she hadn’t really wanted it to work in the end.
 
Because there was Kenny.

Just weeks after returning from Vegas she’d changed her name back to India Steven, and that had been the catalyst that had started the rumours of her romance with Kenny.
 
They’d never given anyone anything in which to fuel those rumours, they’d just continued to do what they’d always done – act as the best friends they’d always been when out and about, whilst behind closed doors they were getting to know each other all over again.
 
As lovers.

They’d just bought a new house in Pacific Palisades, kept a smaller beach house in
Malibu
, and both of them had just signed on the dotted line to star in another movie together.
 
Life was looking up once more.
 
And this time it felt right.
 
It really felt right, in a way
India
couldn’t explain.
 
There was no uncertainty, no feelings of doubt.
 
She was in love with Kenny Ross, and she probably always had been.

‘Happy?’ Kenny asked, sliding his arm around her shoulders, pulling her in next to him.

‘Are you kidding me?’
India
smiled, clinging onto his waist.
 
‘I’m ecstatic!’

He laughed, leaning over to kiss her quickly, an action that – once again – started up a flurry of camera activity as flashbulbs popped like tiny fireworks around them.

‘We’re gonna be okay, aren’t we, Kenny?’ she asked, looking up into his dark eyes, his handsome face with the ever-present beard and the unruly long hair something she’d never get tired of looking at.

‘We’re gonna be better than okay, baby.
 
Me and you, it had to happen sometime.
 
We just can’t seem to do anything without taking the most complicated route possible.’

And wasn’t
that
the truth?

She smiled again, still holding tightly onto him.
 
‘Yeah.
 
We’re gonna be better than okay.’

She closed her eyes as his mouth touched hers again, the kiss long and deep as all eyes remained on them.
 
Questions were being thrown at them from every angle as they were hurried along, past the waiting crowd and the eager press, all keen to find out how long it had been going on.
 
Well, that was an easy one to answer, as far as they were concerned.
 
Forever.
 
That’s how long it had been going on.
 
Kenny Ross and
India
Steven.
 
It had been going on forever.

THE END.

For more information on Michelle Betham you can find her on Twitter @michellebetham

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And you can find her blog at
 
www.michellebethamwriter.blogspot.co.uk