One Night with a Star (Second Chances Book 2) (8 page)

“You,” she snapped before she could stop herself. “You’re what’s wrong. Men are what’s wrong.”

Simon looked up at her from the sofa with playfully large eyes. “Uh oh.”

“Don’t you go being in a good mood when I am genuinely upset,” Jenny fired back at him.

He cleared his throat and sat straighter, fighting to swallow his smile. “Why are you upset?”

Damn him, the last thing she needed him to be right now was genuine. Black and white. That was the way things needed to be. Not all this confusing mess of justification and excuses.

“I’m here to help you buy a house,” she said. “That’s it. I’m not going to tell you my problems or listen to yours. This is a business relationship.”

“Okay,” Simon answered slowly. He stood, taking his open laptop with him. “Why don’t we go sit at the table on the porch and look at houses.”

No. No, that wasn’t right either. He was supposed to shout at her, accuse her of things the way Neil had. They were supposed to have a fight now so that she could scream and vent and carry on and get it all out. He was not supposed to be the better man. He’d walked out on her, then been absent when she needed him most.

“I can’t do this,” she wailed, breaking down. God, it was awful of her. Right there, in the middle of the living room, just breaking down like a pointless sissy. She covered her face with her hands and sank to the couch as her tears flowed.

Simon sat beside her, putting his laptop on the coffee table. “It’s just a house.” He spoke softly, his accent making his words even more comforting, like a soothing BBC presenter.

“No it’s not.” She grabbed hold of her frustration and jerked to face him. If she was going down, she would go down with her head held high. “You have no idea what happened to me when you walked out.”

His expression shifted and tensed, as if he suddenly understood what they were talking about. “I’m sorry,” he said, laying a hand on her arm.

“No, I don’t want you to be sorry. I want you to go back and fix things. I want you to give me my pride back and my self-respect.” It sounded so pathetic saying it out loud that she groaned with the foolishness of it all.

“If I could, I would,” Simon said. He paused. “What happened to get you all worked up about this again?”

“Everything,” she burst. “People gossiping about seeing us at the mall the other day, asking me if we hooked up at the wedding. Neil being a jerk about me spending time with you and about celebrities in general. I can’t take it anymore. I’m too tired.”

For a minute, there was silence. As soon as the initial burst of emotion was over, Jenny felt sick to her stomach. Simon must think she was a complete fool now. Worse, she cared what he thought. How could she?

“Come on,” he said at last. He stood and reached a hand down for her. “You need some fresh air.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said, miserable.

“Not even the porch?”

She winced. Now she was the one being a jerk. She forced herself to take his hand and let him help her stand, but as soon as she was on her own two feet she let go and marched ahead of him.

It was a sunny, October day, and Summerbury beach looked postcard perfect. Waves and sand in the foreground, orange, red, and yellow leaves behind it. There was a nip in the air, but it was soothing, cutting straight through the heat that Jenny’s tears had brought on. She marched to the edge of the railing and leaned against it, staring out over the beauty of Maine and hugging herself. Simon came to stand next to her.

“You know where I went when I left here last summer?” he asked, taking in the view instead of looking at her.

“Where?” She sniffed, wiping the back of her hand across her face, not caring what it did to her make-up.

“Newfoundland.”

“Newfoundland?” she blinked.

“Yeah.” He relaxed into a smile and leaned his backside against the railing, facing her. He shrugged. “I’d been in New York City before coming up here to spend time with Spence. Things were bad. Loud, brash, dangerous. Drugs, women, stuff I never want to think about again. Stuff I want to protect Daniel from if I can. I wanted to go as far away from all that as I could.”

“So you went to Newfoundland.” She took a deep breath.

“Yeah,” he laughed. “It was one of the first flights available out of Boston. Beautiful place, too. Long, long days, because it was summer. Simple nature. I hiked, camped out, did a lot of thinking.”

“Just like that?” She frowned. “Without any plans or anything? How did you eat?”

“It’s not an uninhabited wilderness,” he said. “St. John is a pretty cool city, lots of great restaurants and music.”

Jenny shook her head. “I don’t know anything about it.”

He shrugged. “Sometimes you just need to take a break from it all to get your head on straight. That’s the whole reason Spence came up here. Me? I had to go a little more remote. I guess it’s because my head needed much more straightening. The funny thing is, I found myself saying exactly what you just said to me, in there.” He nodded toward the house. “That I wanted my pride back, my self-respect.”

The slipping, melting sensation that took over Jenny’s chest wasn’t entirely welcome. The last thing she needed right then was to feel sympathy for Simon. She didn’t need to be reminded of all the reasons she had liked him so much, so quickly either.

She sniffed one last time, wiping away the last signs of her burst of weakness. “Did you go to rehab or something?”

He met her eyes. “Actually, yes. I did.”

She sucked in a surprised breath. “How come I didn’t hear anything about that on the news?”

“I did it quietly,” he answered. “Far more people, celebrities, do stuff like that on the quiet than you’d think. In fact, I always wonder when I see my peers do rehab like it’s their next film roll.” He let out a breath. “Maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe that’s not kind.”

“But…but it worked?” she asked. It was a world she’d never thought anything about. Simon’s whole reality was something she’d never thought about. She’d assumed the same rules that applied to her applied to him as well. Maybe she shouldn’t have.

“I’m clean, if that’s what you’re asking,” he said. “I’m incredibly lucky. Addiction is different for everyone. Some people have it so deeply ingrained in their body and mind that it grows on them like a cancer. Others, like me, can beat it with willpower and therapy. I actually feel guilty that I didn’t struggle more. Not that it hasn’t been a struggle.” He held up his hands to emphasize his point. “But I’m making it. I’m changing.”

She could see it. She could see him. Her whole body clenched tight with the truth of it as she looked into his eyes. Painful as her life had been in the last year, Simon hadn’t lied to her. He’d been honest with her. She stopped short of saying he’d done what was best for her, though.

“You could have told me,” she said with a last fizz of anger. “You should have told me where you were going and why. I would have been supportive. You would have known about Daniel from the start.” And maybe everything wouldn’t have fallen apart for her.

“Last year’s Simon didn’t think that way,” he said, lowering his eyes. “This year’s Simon definitely would have called you.”

He glanced up, and their eyes met with such intensity that Jenny felt tears sting at the back of her eyes all over again. Not for rage or frustration, but because of the heartfelt regret she saw there. Just because things had been hard for her, didn’t mean they hadn’t been hard for him too.

“I guess in a way,” he went on, a faint smile playing on his lips, “you could say that everything this year’s Simon has learned and made of himself has all been leading up to this. I won’t let you down again, Jenny.” His smile widened and he stood straighter. “There. Soul-searching in Newfoundland, rehab, and rebuilding my life and my career, and now I’ve said what the point of it was, is, and always will be. Jenny, I won’t let you down again.”

Her throat squeezed. Her knees threatened to give out. “Goddammit, Simon. You’re going to make me cry again.”

He shrugged, grin downright insufferable. “It’s just what I do.”

“No.” She smacked his shoulder for good measure. “Stop being so cute. I don’t want to fall for that again.”

“Then don’t. Fall for me for some other reason this time.”

She let out a frustrated growl. “I don’t want to fall for you at all. I have a new life. I’ve got a boyfriend.”

“What, him?” The sparkle was back in Simon’s eyes in full-force.

“Don’t push it, buddy.” She poked a finger hard into his shoulder. A wave of lust hit her at the firmness of his muscles. “Just because you tell me a beautiful story of how your life has changed doesn’t mean I’m going to sigh and swoon and run back to you. You hurt me, no two ways about it. When I say I won’t let it happen again, I mean it. I’ve got far too many other things going on in my life right now to be that foolish chick from last summer again.”

“I’m not asking you to be,” he said, inching closer.

“Good. Then we’ve got that straight. Right now, you’re just a client who I’m helping to find a house.”

“And the father of your son,” he added with a playful wince. “You can’t short-change me on that one.”

Jenny let out a breath. “Fine. But don’t get any ideas.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

There was a pause. The breeze blowing up from the ocean took on a biting chill. Jenny couldn’t move, though. She wasn’t sure what she should do or where she should go next. Nothing that had happened in the last hour or so had been part of her plans. In the end, it was Simon who set things in motion.

“How about this,” he said, standing straight. “I’ve got a car now. Yvonne sent me one. I’ll give you the pages for the three houses I’m most interested in, and you can do what you do to set up viewings, or whatever they’re called. You’ve had a tough day, so why don’t you go home to Daniel. I’ll drive behind you to make sure you make it okay, then I’ll come back here so you can have some space and some time.”

Few offers had ever sounded so good or melted Jenny’s heart so thoroughly. “Sounds good,” she said.

“Good,” Simon echoed. “See? I can be a nice guy too.”

She laughed at him, rolled her eyes, and shook her head as she started back into the house to fetch her purse from the couch where she’d left it. Her heart thumped so hard she was sure Simon could hear it. He was a nice guy after all. What the hell was she supposed to do with that?

Chapter Eight

“Take a deep breath, mate,” Simon murmured to himself as he followed Jenny’s car along winding coastal roads to her parent’s house. “Don’t screw this up.”

For a minute there, it had looked as though he and Jenny might actually be getting somewhere. Seeing her so upset, and for no reason that he could figure, had been harder than he would have thought. It had made him realize that he hated seeing Jenny in a fit. She was a goddess, and goddesses should never have to feel bad. But getting to the bottom of what had upset her was trickier than it looked, especially since he probably had more than a little to do with it. Telling her about Newfoundland and his journey over the last year was just the beginning of things he could think of to make it all better.

When Jenny pulled into the long driveway in front of her parent’s house, Simon involuntarily caught his breath. The verbal castration that he’d gotten from her dad was still fresh in his mind, enough so that he was tempted to cup his hands over his balls as he approached the house. He took another deep breath, cut his car’s engine, and got out.

Jenny looked much better than she had at the house as she climbed out of her car. The drive wasn’t a long one, but it had been enough for the frustrated flush to leave her face, and for her eyes to lose their redness.

“Everything okay?” he asked, approaching her with his hands in his pockets.

“Yeah.” She smiled. A valiant smile, but one that tried to mask obviously frazzled nerves. She didn’t look at him directly. “Thanks for keeping an eye on me. I’m fine now. You can go home.”

Simon shrugged. “Let me walk you to the door at least.”

She bit her lip and raised a hand to her neck in uncertainty. The combination of gestures sent a bolt of heat straight to Simon’s groin. On second thought, maybe this vulnerable Jenny was just as hot as the bold and brave one. His heart pumped faster, sending blood to places that probably weren’t in his best interest right then.

He walked up to her side, then the two of them continued along the flagstone path to the covered entryway by the front door.

“You sure you don’t want to tell me more about what had you so upset earlier?” he asked, working to keep his voice as gentle and approachable as he could.

“I’m sure,” she said, though she stared at her feet as she did.

He hated seeing her so distressed. Hated it, and he wasn’t going to stand for it. It was a gamble, but he slid his fingers along Jenny’s jaw and under her chin to tip it up so she would look at him.

“I may have been an utter waste of space in the past,” he began, “and I make have completely cocked things up between us last year, but I swear to you, I will not do anything to hurt you going forward if I can possibly help it.”

“Simon.” She sucked in a breath as her brow furrowed with a rush of emotions.

“I mean it,” he stopped her from saying anything else. “And I won’t try to push in or bully you into any sort of a relationship that you’re not ready for this time.” Well, it was a tiny lie, but one he figured would be forgiven. “I’m here for you if you need me. I’m here for Daniel if he needs me. End of story.”

She stared at him. He couldn’t read what was going on behind those beautiful blue eyes of hers, but whatever it was, it was intense. The early autumn breeze swirled in the leaves around them, and the twilight hues of gold through those leaves gave Jenny a luminescence that took his breath away. A man could stake his life on a woman like Jenny, rush off to war, and die happy knowing he was fighting for her.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind when Jenny swayed toward him. She grabbed hold of his arms, and without giving him the chance to think, she surged into him, slanting her mouth over his in a kiss that left him stunned. The petal-softness of her lips short-circuited every part of his brain, the sweep of her tongue across the line of his lips floored him. He couldn’t even kiss her back or respond with more than an avalanche of lust that sent his body into primal need.

Sense began to return to him, but only barely, when she slipped her arms further around his neck, pressing herself into him to deepen their kiss. Something clicked inside of him, and he responded with powerful longing, closing his arms around her and drawing her in. He kissed her back from the bottom of his soul, sliding his tongue against hers and nipping at her bottom lip. Memories of the way they’d been together last summer, how hot and intense and perfect they had been, slammed into him. He was hard before he knew what hit him and ground that hardness against her hip. She hummed in the back of her throat, a heady, desperate cry that made him want to take her to the backseat of his car and put them both out of their misery. Nothing had ever been as right as kissing Jenny like this.

The light came on in the entryway, giving them a two second warning before the front door cracked. It was barely enough time for the two of them to jump apart before Jenny’s dad yanked the door fully open and stood glaring at Simon.

“What the hell is going on here?” her dad barked.

“Sir,” Simon yelped, sounding and feeling like he was about fourteen. Talk about putting an instant damper on some truly delicious, carnal feelings.

“Dad,” Jenny groaned, breathless. “What are you doing?”

“I could ask you the same thing, young lady.”

Jenny sighed, covering the embarrassment and heat behind her flushed cheeks with frustration. “Come on. It’s not like I’m a kid anymore. You can’t threaten my dates anymore.”

“So this is a date?” Her dad’s eyebrows flew up. He turned his fury on Simon for a second before switching it to sharp disapproval for Jenny.

“It’s not a date.” Jenny crossed her arms.

“You’re damned right, I’s not a date,” her dad said. “Because you’re dating Neil. And I’m not having this slimy celebrity seducing you again.”

“No harm was meant, sir.” Simon defended himself by holding up his hands. “I was just seeing your daughter home because she was upset earlier.”

“Upset?” Jenny’s dad blinked from him to her and back to him. “What did you do to upset her?”

“Dad, it wasn’t Simon.” Jenny raised her voice to get him to stand down. “It was just some stuff at work. None of your business.”

“You’re my daughter. Your business is my business.”

Behind him, the sound of Daniel crying came gradually closer.

“Is that Jenny?” Jenny’s mother asked from somewhere in the house. “Because it’s about time. Our poor little tiger is starving.”

“I’m coming, Mom,” Jenny called into the house. She scooted to the door, trying to make her way around her dad. “Simon, I’ll call you in the morning to set up appointments to see some of those houses.”

“Sounds good,” Simon replied, waving goodbye as though they hadn’t just been joined at the lips in a display of epic passion that would make the heavens weep moments before.

She sent him one last, fleeting smile, then hurried into the house. “There’s my sweetheart,” Simon heard her say once she was out of sight.

He would have turned to go, but Jenny’s dad continued to stand where he was, arms crossed, looking as though he was debating all the ways he wanted to rip Simon’s balls off and feed them to the dog.

Simon shifted from foot to foot. He should say something, defend his actions and defend Jenny. She had every right to kiss him—and holy heaven, what a kiss—no matter what her old man thought. There just didn’t seem to be any right, wise words to say.

“Stay away from my daughter,” her father said at last.

It was the prompt Simon needed. “If she wants to be with me, I’m not going to stop her because her dad doesn’t like me.”

“I don’t like you,” her father confirmed, narrowing his eyes.

“And I don’t blame you. For all you know, I’m just an entitled bastard out for a few cheap thrills.”

“You said it,” her father growled.

“I did. But it’s not true.” He crossed his arms in imitation of the man’s posture. Two could play at this game. “With all due respect, sir, you have no idea who I am or what I’m after. You’ve made a snap judgment about me—albeit an understandable one—but you haven’t bothered to look past that to the truth. At least Jenny’s trying to do that.” He hoped. The kiss seemed to prove that theory.

Her father continued to stand there like a New England lighthouse, but a thread of uncertainty sparked in his eyes.

“I’m serious about my feelings for your daughter, no matter who I am in public or what you think of me. I’m serious about my son too. So you’d better get used to it and respect your daughter’s wishes. I know I do.”

A tough, angry silence sprung up between them. If they were knights on a medieval battlefield, her father would have thrown down his gauntlet and challenged Simon to death by combat. Seeing as they were just regular, twenty-first century blokes, though, he could only grind his teeth and sneer.

“You hurt her again and you
will
regret it,” her father said at last, stepping back into the house and slamming the door without giving Simon a chance for a comeback.

Simon let out a breath, shaking out his arms. Thank God for his training as an actor, otherwise he might have tipped his hand and let the man know how terrifying he was. Winning Jenny back would be easy. Wooing her father to the point where he wouldn’t kill him would be the real challenge.

Jenny didn’t expect it to be easy to drive Simon around, showing him houses. She hadn’t decided whether she should be more embarrassed about the way her dad had tried to rip Simon a new one the evening before or about how she had kissed him.

What had been wrong with her? One minutes she’d felt a warm, fuzzy twirl in the pit of her stomach because he was being so nice to her, and the next she had thrown herself on him like a sex-starved madwoman. Good lord, but that kiss had been something else. She’d forgotten how perfectly their bodies fit together, how hot and demanding his kisses were. She’d forgotten the taste of him and the way his erection pressed against her sent waves of giddy pleasure straight through her core and on to the rest of her.

“Whoa, Jenny, isn’t that it back there?” Simon said, pointing to a driveway as she blew right past it.

She sucked in a breath and pulled head out of her…well, not her ass, but close by.

“Yep, that’s it.” She slowed and used the next driveway to turn around, face red. And not just from embarrassment about missing the house.

The worst part of the whole thing was, she missed feeling that hot, uncontrollable urge to fuck someone’s brains out. Sure, sex with Neil was good in a pinch, but the very idea of it seemed bland now that she’d opened the floodgates to Simon once more.

It was the worst thing that could have happened to her.

“So this house is pretty much everything you’re looking for,” she said as soon as she got out of the car. The more she focused on her job and kept talking, the more she could get through this without losing her sanity or her pride. “It has five bedrooms and three bathrooms, a nice big lot, as you can see, and a great living room for any entertaining you might want to do.”

“Let’s take a look.” Simon smiled. To look at him, you wouldn’t have thought anything was out of the ordinary. His smile and easy posture would never make you think that his world had just been rocked off its axis like hers had. Maybe she should be angry with him.

She shook her head mentally as she unlocked the house to let Simon in.

There was something thrilling about opening the door of a house on the market to show to a prospective buyer. Most people spruced their homes up to make them into showcases in an attempt to entice. Jenny loved the beauty and the order of it all. It was like opening a gift. She’d done her homework and looked at pictures and specs for the house before coming over, but there was nothing like the real thing. It almost made her feel normal again.

“The kitchen was recently updated,” she said, walking Simon through the spacious front hall. “They had all of the plumbing redone a few years ago too.”

“It’s nice,” Simon agreed. There wasn’t a ton of enthusiasm in his voice.

The urge to step up her game pulsed through her as she stepped down into the huge living room. “See. Beautiful cathedral ceilings, lots of open space.” And the current owners had decorated it in a cozy, modern style, although the furnishings didn’t come with the house. “Look at this gorgeous view.”

She stepped over to the tall windows that peered out into the garden, opening the blinds to let in even more light. Outside, the yard was cheerful with autumn colors.

“I’ll admit, it’s a lovely view,” Simon said, staring right at her with a smile that suggested things that were better left unsaid.

All over again, Jenny’s body hummed with the pleasure of last evening’s kiss.

“The house, Simon.” She tried to nip that in the bud. “Focus on the house.”

Simon shrugged, strolling closer to her. “A house isn’t a home without the people who live in it.”

Every step he took toward her sent her heartbeat higher. “I’m not living in your house.”

“Just visiting,” he suggested.

He strolled casually closer, his charm turned on to full blast. She should step back, move away, show him the rest of the house, the laundry room and the upstairs bedrooms.