Roaring Hot! (Contemporary Romance): A Billionaire Biker Romance (20 page)

Mia knocked at Amy’s door early the next morning. “Your meditation time.”

“Yes, yes.” Amy dragged herself from the futon. She had hardly slept.

Mia had postponed the script reading in Kyoto until today, but Amy couldn’t be sure she’d remember the lines. Even the excitement of meeting the
Dark Samurai
author wasn’t enough to jolt her from the shattering of her heart.

How was she supposed to meditate? To empty her mind and prepare when all she could think about was not thinking about Teo. Urgh. She rubbed her puffy eyes and opened the door.

“You okay?” Mia’s face was lined with concern as she checked Amy’s schedule on her tablet. “I can reschedule all your other appointments, the interview with the Yamada descendant on the gondola up Mt. Fuji, the nun and the temple, all except for the reading. Altamount wants to make a big announcement, and the paparazzi smell blood because they spotted Teo and his grandmother leaving the complex last night.”

Amy’s temples throbbed, and she hadn’t even had anything to drink the night before. “What does Teo and his grandmother have to do with Altamount Studios?”

Mia shrugged and rolled her eyes. “Wow, you’re really out of it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Amy threw her pillow at the wall. “Speaking of grandmother, Teo’s a big liar.”

“What do you mean?” Mia’s finger paused over her tablet.

“He said his grandmother was sick and only had a few months to live. That’s why I went along with the entire fake girlfriend thing. Now he doesn’t even remember his own lies.”

Mia snapped the cover on the tablet and threw her head back, laughing. “You and Teo are made for each other. So freaking gullible.”

“Gullible?” Amy’s fists clenched. “If you know something, spit it out. I have the feeling you were in cahoots with him. Don’t forget that I pay you.”

“Yeah, sure, you do. Who else would you have looking out for you?” Mia rolled her tongue in her cheek. “Truth is Teo thought his grandmother was sick because he can’t read Japanese worth squat. Tasha told me Teo snooped Oba-chan’s email and it was about a fictional character she was developing.”

“Fictional character?” Amy slapped the futon and groaned. “Doesn’t matter. I was so stupid to believe him. So stupid.”

“Why?” Mia settled on Amy’s futon and smoothed the sheets. “There’s nothing stupid about falling in love.”

“Except he doesn’t remember me. He came to see if he could use me to trigger his memories.”

Life was so unfair. While she was glad Teo’s grandmother was okay, and he was back together with his mother, their coziness only meant she was an outsider, excluded. She was a curiosity for them, a woman who had exhibited the symptoms of love, but for whom Teo had no remembrance.

“Maybe you did trigger his memory,” Mia said. “He seemed awful swoony over you.”

“He says he doesn’t remember. Why would he lie?” Amy held her head and sighed.

“Uhm … uhm … uhm,” Mia hummed. “How about his body? I’m sure he showed you how he felt, judging from your well-loved appearance yesterday morning.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Amy dabbed her eyes with a tissue. “He used me and now he’s gone.”

“You told him to go. You said it would hurt less.” Mia’s voice grated Amy’s oversensitive ears. Since when had she become the voice of reason?

“Mia, what’s your point?”

“While he was with you, did it hurt?”

“As long as he didn’t talk, no.” Even now, delicious tingly chills skittered over her hypersensitive skin at the memory of his touch.

“So, why did you send him away?”

That woman didn’t quit. What was she, an annoying oracle?

Amy flung the sheets from the futon. “Can’t you shut up? Teo doesn’t love me. Nothing else matters.”

“How do you know? That’s your judgment of the situation.” Mia rubbed her shoulders. “Meditate on it. I’ll be back in half an hour.”

Amy dropped to the matted floor and knelt on a pillow. Her mind was far from calm.

How can one love without memory?

How can one love with memory?

Is love a memory? What is love? What is memory?

* * *

Amy stepped out of the limo and entered the Yamada mansion compound in Kyoto.

She took a deep breath as she stepped into a pair of slippers. She could do this. It was only a script reading, a private one with the author. She’d already been guaranteed the part, but even if she were to lose it, the worst had already happened, and she was still alive and functioning.

A servant led her to a room resembling a museum filled with armor, swords, and life sized models of fighting men. Calligraphic scrolls hung from the walls among portraits of the Yamada clan lords and rulers.

Kiyoko Yamada’s assistant met her, bowing low. Amy returned the bow.

“Kiyoko Yamada is excited to have the reading at her home,” the middle-aged woman said. “It brings honor to her ancestors.”

Servants brought Amy tea as she unrolled the new script and reviewed it. She would be meeting the Dark Samurai, her character’s love interest at the reading.

“Kiyoko is seated in the auditorium,” her assistant said. “When you are ready, kindly step through the stage door. The studio will be filming the reading, but you needn’t worry. It is a private viewing and will not be shown outside of the Yamada family.”

Amy gulped and tamped down the jitters. “Is my costar prepared?”

“Yes, he’s ready. You go on stage first, and he joins you after your soliloquy.”

Amy took a shuddering breath and tucked the events of the past day behind her. Her career was under her control and the key to her future. Like her character, Akiko Yamada, she would not screw up her future and her family’s honor on a rogue samurai, a man without a heart.

She placed the script on the table and walked onto the stage. She was in her father’s garden plotting her escape from an arranged marriage. Her soliloquy yearned for freedom and self determination. Akiko was not a woman of her times. She would never marry for position and power. As much as she loved her father and her family, she would not be a pawn.

A masked man jumped the wall and clamped his hand over her mouth.

“I’ve come to free you of your father’s vows.”

Teo? He was the Dark Samurai? Or had he cut into the reading? Paid off Kiyoko Yamada’s assistant to let him onto the stage?

“Never. I honor my family. Unhand me, or I’ll … I’ll …” Crap, her breath hitched and she flubbed for her lines.

Teo’s solid body pressed against her. His hand around her waist and hot breath at her ear shorted her brain circuits. He rubbed his cheek over hers. “I’ve watched you from a distance, lovely Manami. My heart knows you as if we had always known each other.”

Amy’s pulse pounded in her ears. What he said was the Dark Samurai’s line, almost, except he’d called her Manami instead of Akiko, her character’s name.

“Leave.” She stepped from his grasp, reciting her lines. “Even though I yearn to be free, I will not be beholden to a man such as you.”

He ripped off the mask. “I’m the man who loves you.”

The sight of Teo’s face threatened to melt her to her knees. His expression was pleading, but strong and resolute, like a warrior’s, earnest, ready for battle.

“You don’t know me. Tell me, what do you love? My family’s wealth? My lineage from the Emperor Meisho?”

“We grew up together. Surely you remember me, your servant’s son.”

So he
had
read the script. Could he actually be her costar? But how? She hadn’t heard any gossip from the casting director. Everything had been hush, hush, and there was no way Teo had enough experience to pull off a leading, romantic role.

She huffed, screwing her eyes into slits of disdain. “We might have played together as children, but you turned your back and left. You’ve forgotten me. Not a word. And what could I do? Tell my parents I pined for a servant’s son? It’s too late, I’m to be married in a fortnight. Go, and never darken my door again.”

Teo edged closer and bent his head to her face. “I may have lost the memories of our time together, but not the love I have for you.”

Wait. Teo had gone off script. Was he speaking about himself or his character?

Amy trembled from his closeness, his scent and body heat hugging her so enticingly. She couldn’t succumb, not when her every nerve burned for answers. “If you’ve forgotten me, how can you say you love me?”

“I don’t need my mind to know what my heart wants.” His voice deepened, sending shivers of longing through her body. “We were together while I was asleep. You were with me on a bright cloud, surrounded by sparkling waters, high above the darkness of life. You wrapped around me with fuzzy globes of love.”

“Fuzzy globes of love?” Her jaw slackened. Teo sure had a way with words.

“Like pillows and arms and breasts.” His mouth curved into a semi-smirk. “I’m not explaining very well. But it was peaceful and comforting. I’m sure it was you.”

She drew back, retaining her dignity as he tried to conjure memories of her. She could see it in his face, the way his eyes moved, looking inward into his imagination, but unable to land a solid memory of her.

Her heart shriveled, and she cast for a way to let him off the hook. “You were hallucinating. It happens in a coma.”

Teo shook his head and tilted her face up, locking his eyes onto hers. “No, you are my love. I don’t need videos, or text messages, or people telling me about you to know what I know. I might not remember the exact things we did, but as soon as I opened my eyes, I knew you were missing. I panicked, because I didn’t know your name. Later, Tasha and Oba-chan told me about you, how you went looking for my mother. I knew then that you loved me.”

Well, duh. Of course she loved him, but that still didn’t mean he felt the same way. Tears welled in Amy’s eyes and she shuddered to control them. Why wasn’t Kiyoko stopping the reading? They’d long departed from the script. Maybe she’d fallen asleep. Hadn’t Mia said the writer was over eighty years old?

“Amy, why aren’t you saying anything?” Teo caressed her cheeks, her lips, her chin, and her neck. “The reason you love me is because I loved you first. It’s true, isn’t it? Did I tell you I loved you while you were still unsure?”

“Don’t you remember?” She didn’t have the strength to back away. He
had
told her, and he’d believed it, shown it with his gifts and emotions. What did it matter who loved who first? She slid her hands around his waist and sank against his chest, feeling like she’d come home.

“You remember.” His smile spread and he glowed as if the moon reflected from his face. “I love you, Amy. I love you more than my past.”

Amy’s heart was about to burst as she gaped at him, the man she loved. Even though he’d lost the memory of their time together, she felt the connection, a quiet understanding, an awareness of truth.

His warm brown eyes encompassed her, flooding her with love, as if she were his world, the sole meaning of his life. There was no need for him to say more.

Her throat frozen solid, Amy could only nod. Nod and gape like a love-struck girl as Teo dropped to his knees.

“I, Teo Kazuo Yamada Alexiou, am your Dark Samurai. Will you accept me as your husband?” His eyes focused on her, he reached into his kimono and swept a solitaire diamond ring, the size of a marble, in front of her face.

All of Amy’s emotions exploded into her throbbing heart. She peered at his eyes, the once sad eyes etched with hope.

“Teo-chan, I accept.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him hard. “I accept everything about you. I love you more than my future.”

Clap, clap, clap. The sound of a single pair of hands came from off stage.

Amy jumped from Teo’s embrace. “The reading. I forgot. I screwed up the script.”

A small figure climbed the steps to the stage. It was Oba-chan. She calmly took the diamond ring from Teo’s fingers and held it in front of Amy.

“I, Kiyoko Yamada, author of the
Dark Samurai
series, approve.” She slipped the ring on Amy’s finger. “Welcome to the Yamada family.”

Turning to Teo, she hooked her hand around his elbow and winked.

“Grandma always knows best.”

~ THE END ~

This is a very strange one, but the first person I want to thank is Teo Alexiou, the hero of this book. He taught me to let go of myself while I’m writing, not to look over my own shoulder and wonder whether I’m hitting the right emotions, describing the right nuances, or what others will think about my “performance.”

As Amy and Teo’s story unfolded, I realized that my writing should flow as part of my being, radiating out of my innermost self. Yes, it will eventually be put on display, but not during the writing process when I, too, should be in the moment of “now.” Later is later, and the past is gone. All that matters is the awareness of the story as it plays itself out.

I thank my Sisters at Heart, not Crime, although sometimes it seems that way. We LOL, ROTFL, LMAO, and JK each other in a way only writing friends can do: Melisa Hamling, Brittney Rhondeau, Emerald Barnes, Stacy Eaton, Melissa Foster, Natasha Brown, Christine Cunningham, Bonnie Trachtenberg, Amy Manemann, Shewanda Pugh, Wendy Young, Lyssa Layne, Kim Cano, Elena Dillon, Jan Moran, Racquel Reck, Geraldine Solon, Sharon Coady, Kathie Shoop, Annamaria Bazzi, Jade Kerrion, Michele Shriver, Christina McKnight, Lauren Stewart, F.L. Williams, and Patricia Zick. Thanks for being only a “chat” away. I’ve met some of you in person and I hope to meet all of you someday.

I am blessed with the most awesome team of beta readers ever! They let me know if what’s on the page is what I meant it to be. Of course, they give me the ultimate gift, their precious time, to help me make my story the best it can be. Hats off to: Amber McCallister, Michele Shriver, Chantel Rhondeau, Kelley Kidder, Lindsay Medina, Patricia Zick, Joanna Daniel, Myra Brooks, and Racquel Reck. You ladies came through with a very fast turnaround with great remarks and insights. Thank you so much!