Eternally North (41 page)

I loved how he was
gradually revealing more about himself, opening up and trusting me. I
held back the tears welling in my eyes and kissed the tip of his
nose. “So imagine little… Johnny in, I don’t know, Hogsville,
Montana, who gets hit every day by his father and watches helplessly
as his mother takes repeated beatings so his wanker of a dad doesn’t
go for his baby sister and him, over and over. Imagine if Johnny
adores Tudor North, ‘The Blade Reaper’, and he woke up one
morning to his hero on TV, confessing how he was abused as a child
and how he was putting his energy into raising awareness of the issue
and that he wanted to help other victims of abuse. It could give him
hope.”

Tudor was staring at me
slightly dubiously, but I continued. “The press will hound you,
that’s a given, but is it not worth it to help even one child? To
show even one person that there is more to life than the end of a
fist? At least that’s how I feel about it. It might be a bit naïve,
but surely this is your chance to do what every celebrity says
they’re going to do. Give back, make a bit of the world right
through the power of their art. All that crap.”

He smiled at me in
disbelief and pulled me into his embrace, looking at me with love.
“How did I live before you? Without you?”

I shrugged teasingly.
“In a constant mood, from what I can gather.”

He chuckled and kissed
me. “Before I got Sunshine back in my life.”

He was such a mush!

I stood and held out my
hand. "Come on, big boy, how about we go to bed and I'll make
you forget all this for a few hours?"

His eyes lit up as he
slowly lifted himself from the chair. "And how exactly will you
make me forget, Ms. Munro?" he teased.

I put a hand on my hip
disapprovingly. "Erm...
Scrabble
you num-nut, what did
you think?"

He swept me off my feet
and began to carry me to his basement. "I've got a Scrabble word
for you. It’s spelt S - E - X."

I put a finger to my
cheek and tapped. "Hmm? You used an 'X', isn't that a triple
letter score?"

He pulled my ear to his
mouth. "You're gonna get a triple score," and he began to
pick up speed, until he threw me on his bed and proceeded to strip.

Scrabble quickly became
my new favourite game.

Kate, Tudor’s viper
publicist, was a stiletto-heeled-force to be reckoned with. She was
forty, had bright red hair, was about five foot nothing and scared
the absolute shit out of me! Even Tink had some verbal restraint
around her – something I had never seen happen before. She was all
business and got straight to the point as we gathered around the
dining room table to discuss Tudor’s options.

"Good news is we
have found the source of the leak, the little fucker. It was a rookie
cop who was paid quite handsomely by a big-time journo who he'd
contacted after Boleyn was attacked. He was on the scene and
identified you instantly, thought he could make a quick buck. He paid
off a couple of doctors from Victoria and Kelowna to get a hold of
your medical records, that’s how he got the information on your
injuries and accessed confidential files on your father’s history –
it was all there for him to piece together. Needless to say, he's
being dealt with internally by the police. The bad news is that it's
out now and we've got to address it, we are backed into a corner."

Tudor looked first at
me and then at Henry. "I've been thinking, I feel I need to
address it truthfully, all of it, full disclosure. Sunshine said
something last night that I keep thinking about. She said that by me
being open about it I might be able to help other people to know
they're not alone and that they are not to blame. I could even work
with charities – I’d love to help out. I think that if we can get
something positive from all this shit then at least there’s a light
at the end of the tunnel. At least, I think that's the way to go.
What’s your professional advice?" he asked Kate.

Kate swivelled in her
seat to regard me, her eyes narrowed. "You advised him to do
that?"

I gulped loudly,
drawing a sympathy squeal across the table from the fairy. "Y-yes.
Don't shout at me!" I pleaded.

I heard a laugh next to
me as Tudor shook his head.
Hey, I wasn't kidding, I was deadly
serious; she’s scarier than the Bogeyman!

She raised her
abnormally thin pencilled-in brow. "It's good, and it’s what I
thought he should do."

I began to exhale
slowly now the threat to my life was averted. "You know, when
Tudor told me he wanted to go public about his new little English
pet, I tried everything to talk him out of it."

Really? She did?
I looked at my squirming boyfriend’s guilty expression and scowled.
Kate clicked the top of her expensive pen in my face to regain my
attention. "... But maybe you are good for him, at least in
private. Of course, his female fans won't be happy about you, but
it’s good that you’re average and fairly normal-looking –
non-threatening, you know – but we'll cross that bridge when we
come to it. For now, you've impressed me, not an easy thing to
achieve," and she patted my head, patted my head like a friggin'
poodle. I wanted to say something in return, but instead I kind of
let out a little yip.

Kate just smirked –
yep, I'm a friggin' poodle, an average, non-threatening and ‘
normal
’
looking poodle!
Goodbye, first place at Crufts!

Kate the Viper turned
to Tudor. "I'm setting up a press conference for later today,
the sooner we give them a statement, the sooner we can control it. I
loathe lack of control," she visibly shuddered. "Now, you
need to do this alone as the press have not seen you go public yet
with Little Miss Sunshine here, and we need to give them one thing at
a time. Spoon feed the bastards, leave them salivating for more."

He shook his head, and
folded his bulging arms across his chest. "Not happening. Tash
will be sitting next to me where she belongs."

Ha, that told her!
Wha–?

I grabbed Tudor’s
arm. "Err... Tudor, I'm not sure I can do that, and if Kate
thinks I shouldn't then..."

"No," he
banged his fist on the table, causing Tink to scream in response –
his poor nerves had been shot ever since we had found out about the
leak.

Kate clicked in Tink’s
face with a "Shh, pansy!" causing him to flinch back and
cower in shock. I was still staring at my crazy muscled man, who was
trying to argue his case for having me with him at the conference.

Tudor pointed at Kate.
"She's sitting next to me, she's my girlfriend,
permanent
girlfriend and I want her there. If I’ve got to address all this
personal stuff, then I’m doing it with the one I love beside me."

He turned in my
direction, eyes pleading. "I need you there, Tash, please just
do it for me."

Well, what am I
meant to say to that?

I lowered my head in
defeat. "Fine! But I'm pissed at you for putting me on TV. I
haven't even had chance to apply fake tan!" I teased.

Tink held up a finger,
halting the conversation. “I have some instant dark tone Bronzante
in my bag, we’ll turn you from a white bap to a brown baguette in
no time, my little ham roll."

I blew him a kiss and
he caught it, bringing it to his cheek but then grimaced and stated,
"Next time Wil, leave out the tongue. I don't like air-kiss
girly frenchies."

Most of the table, now
used to our antics, ignored us but Kate sat there shaking her head,
muttering something to herself about "Fucking weird Brits!"

So that was that, a press conference
was going to be held later that day and I would be sitting next to my
man. My man the movie star… with the abusive past that he was about
to discuss with the entire world. That wasn’t intimidating at all –
Not. At. All.

Five hours later, and
the press were waiting two doors down from our dressing room where we
had been told to sit and wait (like Kate's good little bitch
poodles).

The
publicist-extraordinaire had managed to get a conference room large
enough for all the press at the Saddledome stadium. I was wearing a
fitted black silk vest top, stilettos and skinny high-waisted
trousers, with my hair down – oh, yeah, and Tink’s instant fake
tan (two coats, FYI).

To say I was nervous is
not exactly accurate but to save some ugly descriptions involving a
high dose of toilet humour, I’ll leave it at that! Tudor, at least
was amused at my expense and therefore not as freaked out as I
thought he would be.

He motioned for me to
join him on the sofa, and I scurried over and sat down, throwing my
legs over his and using his presence to calm me down. "You'll be
fine, gorgeous. I'll do most of the talking. I have your back."
I nodded in comprehension, obviously not convincing him.

"Tash, look at
me." I met his loving gaze. "I really appreciate you doing
this for me, I know it's gonna be hard but I'm truly thankful."

That soothed me some
more and I smiled up at him. Tudor North, Tash Munro’s personal
Prozac.

In the hours leading up
to the conference, Kate and the legion of lawyers she had commanded
onto a conference call had briefed Tudor on what he should say, what
he should and should not answer and what aspects he should discuss,
particularly as the trial was still pending.

They had decided to
stick to the facts – his father’s abuse (no details), his life
moving around and how that affected his family (excluding names and
any mention of Boleyn) and also his involvement in the recent
incident.

Pamela had been
informed by phone, and she was happy with the road Tudor was taking,
and he seemed relieved that this whole fiasco would be dealt with
before he left for LA.

During the painful wait
before our public debut, I was keeping myself occupied by looking
around the dressing room, wondering how many stars had sat there
waiting to perform. I chortled when I saw the obligatory movie-star
mirror with light-bulb surround –very Hollywood. The last time I
had seen one of those frames was last year outside the cinema after
Nathan's sexual showpiece, where the bulb had nearly exploded in my
face. Bloody hell, I had come such a long way since then!

Wait a
cherry-picking minute! Glamorous cinema posters, asking for a sign,
an exploding light bulb, one hot and muscled bad boy... could it be?
Was that the message all along? Mighty Zeus! It must have been. Why
didn't I put it all together before now?

I suddenly sat bolt
upright and shouted, "Oh My God!" My hands covered my mouth
as I tried to believe what this all could mean.

Tudor jumped beside me,
worry etched on his face. "What, Sunshine?”

I turned to gawk at
him. Why had I never thought of it before? I asked for a sign all
those months ago, and I always thought it was everyone’s favourite
author, Jane, from beyond the grave, but... I grasped Tudor’s
handsome face in my hands. "It was you." I whispered in
shock.

He looked at me like I
had sprouted another head. “I'm confused."

I laughed hysterically
and kissed his pouting lips. "Last year when I found Nathan with
his PA, I took a walk and, in my despair, asked the universe for a
sign, something to guide me, a sign that something good would happen
in my life, that I would find true love.

“I saw a Jane Austen
quote in a book shop window, and I thus took that as my message to
live more care-free, you know, ‘Carpe Diem’, and that decision
ultimately led me to Calgary."

Tudor nodded at me
slowly like he was witnessing me losing my mind.

"Bear with me,
babes," I urged.

He motioned for me to
continue.

"Just before I saw
the quote, I was looking at movie posters, thinking what it must be
like to live such a fantastical life.” Tudor snorted loudly at that
ridiculously incorrect assumption. I continued, “… anyway, a
light bulb surrounding a poster popped, just like that one," I
pointed to the mirror in the room. "At the time I put it down to
bad electrics, but it wasn't, that must have been the message I was
meant to receive, it was a sign about you."

He moved to speak and
then shook his head instead. "I'm sorry, Tash, I'm still
confused. Are you feeling okay? Is the stress of facing the press
getting to you?"

"Tude, the poster
was for
The Blade Reaper. You
were the actor in the picture.
The sign must have been that I was meant to find you. My true love."

He looked up and smiled
a full Hollywood happy smile, finally getting it. "So you're
telling me that we were destined to be together from the beginning?"

My heart stuttered. "I
guess so. Looks like we were written in the stars," I said in a
hushed voice.

"I never doubted
it. You're it for me.
I
knew it from the get-go."

The hosts of
butterflies were back in my stomach and I moved to straddle his
waist.

“So we are really
doing it this time, for keeps? I’m just checking that we are both
on the same page about diving in with both feet?”

Tudor’s lips rose
into a smug smirk, delicious dimples out on full display and he
pulled me down to his mouth. “For me it was always for keeps, and
my feet have been knee deep in your love juice from our first
meeting,” he announced cheekily.

Ugh… love juice?
Let it go, Tash… but love juice? What a bad choice of words! It
seems I’m not the only one who says inappropriate things... bloody
love juice!

I giggled and he thrust
a hand in my hair to pull me in to his awaiting lips just as Kate
entered the room, spoiling the lovey-dovey moment.