Illusions of Love (3 page)

‘Because, I… I just don’t feel like it, Layla.
 
Maybe I
am
a little tired.
 
I could do with an early night.’

‘Do you want me to say hello for you?’

He knew what she was doing, and he couldn’t really blame her.
 
They’d been together for a long while now yet their relationship had all but stagnated.
 
She wanted marriage; he just wasn’t willing to make that commitment to her.
 
She wanted a baby, he just couldn’t go there.
 
It didn’t feel right, because it wasn’t.
 
It wasn’t right at all.
 
Layla was a wonderful, beautiful woman, but she wasn’t
India
.
 
Nobody was
India
, and even though he’d tried to stop comparing everyone to her he just couldn’t do it.
 
From the second he’d laid eyes on her almost twenty years ago, when she’d been nothing but a shy and pretty twenty-two-year-old from the
U.K.
, he’d been in love with her.
 
That love hadn’t always been perfect, and he’d made some horrific mistakes that he was more than lucky she’d forgiven him for, but he’d never got over losing her.
 
Not when it had taken him so long to win her love in the first place.

He’d overcome the obstacle of Kenny Ross – major movie star and
India
’s closest friend.
 
Kenny Ross –
India
’s first husband, albeit for all of a few weeks.
 
Kenny Ross – a man that would constantly be in her life.
 
A man Michael had always seen as his biggest threat as far as
India
was concerned.
 
But, when her short-lived marriage to Kenny had collapsed, Michael had been there to pick up the pieces, he’d made sure of that, and she’d eventually made every dream he’d ever had come true by falling in love with him in a way he could never have imagined.
 
And they’d been happy.
 
They’d been so happy, until he’d ruined it all with one act of terrifying stupidity that had caused her to cut him out of her life for so long; too long.
 
And he was lucky she’d ever accepted him back, even if it was only as a friend.
 
She’d done it for the sake of their son, he knew that, he was under no illusion it meant anything else.
 
But he’d never stop hoping.
 
Especially now it looked like her marriage to JJ Foster was coming to an end.

‘Michael?’

Layla’s voice shook him back to reality and he looked at her.

‘Jesus, Michael, you were miles away.
 
I’m going now, alright?’

‘Yeah.
 
Yeah, sure.
 
You go enjoy yourself.’

She walked over to him, kissing him lightly on the cheek, feeling sad at the ever-growing distance between them.
 
‘Have a good night, okay?
 
And get some rest.
 
You’ve been working too hard.’

He watched her go before leaning back against the table, throwing his head back, sighing heavily as he pushed a hand through his hair.
 
He was relieved she was gone, relieved to be alone.

Pouring himself a large glass of bourbon he went into his study and closed the door behind him, switching on the large TV on the wall opposite his desk, watching as the images flickered into life in front of him.
 
The same DVD had been in the player for months now.
 
He saw no reason to change it.
 
It was something he enjoyed watching, something he could watch time and time again and never get tired.

Sitting back in his chair he swung his feet up onto the desk, taking a sip of bourbon, not taking his eyes off the screen, because there she was – the only woman he’d ever wanted.
 
The most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
 
His ex-wife.
 
India
Walsh.
 
Movie star.
 
Mother of his son.
 
The woman he was still very much in love with.

CHAPTER 3

India
quickly pulled on a T-shirt and ran a brush through her hair before zipping up her boots and running downstairs.
 
She was going to be late for her own party at this rate, although, party was probably pushing it a bit.
 
It was just a little get together for a few friends, very informal, and hopefully a chance for everyone to have a good time before they all went their separate ways to shoot their movies or make their music, or deal with whatever business they were currently dealing with.
 
She had friends from that many walks of life it was hard to keep up with what everyone was doing half the time.

‘There you are, Angel!
 
I thought you’d got lost.
 
Mind you, that’s possible in this house, the size of it.’

India
smiled as she saw Bobby waiting for her in the large yet cosy kitchen of her Hollywood Hills home.
 
Bobby Castle, her trusted and invaluable P.A., Godfather to her kids, and the best gay friend a girl could wish for.
 
Bobby had worked with her for over ten years now, and without him she’d fall apart, no word of a lie.
 
He kept her crazy world in check, he organised her life, but, most of all, he understood her better than anyone else.
 
She loved him like a brother, and she needed him more than she’d ever care to admit.
 
In a long-term and extremely happy relationship with Miguel – an in-demand mixologist to the stars whom he’d met seven years earlier when the handsome Puerto Rican had been working the bar at a party thrown by India and her then-husband Michael Walsh – Bobby Castle had a life he adored beside a woman he couldn’t live without.
 
And for Bobby to say that, then
India
really had to be something special.
 
But they were a team.
 
And neither of them would have it any other way.

‘Stunning, as always,’ Bobby smiled, kissing her on both cheeks, holding her at arm’s length as he looked her up and down.
 
‘But then, you always did know how to rock a T-shirt, Princess.’

She stuck her tongue out at him as she opened the fridge, helping herself to a bottle of beer.
 
‘It’s a party, Bobby, not a red carpet premiere.
 
And where
did
you get that shirt?’

‘A yard sale.’

India
almost choked on her beer.
 
‘A
yard
sale?
 
When did
you
start going to yard sales?
 
What’s the matter?
 
They shut
Rodeo Drive
down?
 
And if you need a pay rise you only had to ask.’

He pursed his lips and smoothed down his rather bright and colourful shirt.
 
‘I’ll have you know this wasn’t just
any
old yard sale, Missy.
 
It was a yard sale at Mason Forrester’s house.’

Mason Forrester was a hot-shot movie studio owner and extremely successful businessman.
 
India
had worked with him a couple of times and always found him to be the epitome of professionalism.
 
His wife, DeeDee, was one of
Beverly Hills
’ most notorious socialites, always seen with the right people, always hanging out at the right places.
 
She was a regular at
Charley’s
and
India
knew her well.
 
Yard sales just didn’t seem her kind of thing.

India
took another drink and pulled herself up onto the breakfast bar, resting her feet on the stool in front of her.
 
‘Get out of here!
 
Mason Forrester?
 
Doing a yard sale?
 
Does DeeDee know he’s flogging half their wardrobe to all and sundry?’

‘It was DeeDee heading the sale, actually.
 
Which was for charity, for your information.
 
And what are you insinuating?
 
All and sundry indeed… All the
Beverly Hills
housewives were there, I’ll have you know.
 
It was probably one of the campest events I’ve ever been to, if I’m honest.
 
And they served the best Kir Royales I’ve had in a long time, although, don’t tell Miguel that.
 
He’d never forgive me.
 
I told him they were a little bit flat, but…’

‘Yeah, okay, I get it, Bobby.
 
It was a lot more than your average yard sale.
 
It’s still a hideous shirt, though.’

She ducked as he threw a magazine at her, laughing as he proceeded to tickle her mercilessly.

‘Am I interrupting?’

India
sat up straight and looked over towards the kitchen doorway, her heart missing that proverbial beat as her soon-to-be-ex-husband, JJ Foster, stood there, leaning against the door post, arms folded.

‘I’d better go see if Miguel’s fully stocked,’ Bobby winked at
India
, and she couldn’t help but smile at him.
 
Tactful, as always.

‘He doesn’t change, does he?’ JJ said, walking further into the kitchen.

‘No, and I hope he never does.’
 
India
slid down from the breakfast bar, putting her beer down on the counter top.

JJ pushed a hand through his dark hair, looking at her with those beautiful brown eyes that had once managed to draw her in and make her think they could be together forever.
 
But nothing ever worked out the way you thought it was going to.
 
She knew that better than anyone.
 
Now.

‘I’ve come to pick up Ellie.’
 
He couldn’t take his eyes off her, he really couldn’t.
 
Even though every second he was here was killing him, because he hadn’t fallen out of love with her.
 
As far as he was concerned he still wanted their marriage to work –
he
still wanted to try.

JJ Foster had met
India
three years after her very high-profile divorce from Michael Walsh, when they’d begun working together on the hit sci-fi TV series
‘Covert One’
.
 
It had taken a while for her to finally fall in love with him, but, once she had, he’d been the happiest man alive.
 
She was this beautiful, incredible woman who could turn him on with just a smile and all he’d ever wanted to do was be with her.
 
They’d had their amazing baby girl, they’d got married in a perfect secret ceremony and he’d thought that, after all of that, nothing could tear them apart.
 
But she’d never really opened up to him.
 
And that had been the problem.

She’d had secrets.
 
Real big secrets.
 
Secrets that, once revealed, had proven too much to handle and he’d taken the coward’s way out by running away when he really should have stayed and talked to her.
 
Secrets that had, ultimately, led to the shattering accident that had nearly killed her and it should never have taken something like that to make him realise how much he loved her.
 
That should never have happened.
 
He shouldn’t have let it.

But, against all the odds, she’d pulled through, they’d re-taken their wedding vows in full view of the world and he’d thought – he’d really thought – that coming through all of that would mean nothing could pull them apart again.
 
But he hadn’t banked on just how powerful Michael Walsh could be.
 
People thought you couldn’t compete with a man who’d had a hold over her for almost twenty years.
 
People thought you couldn’t fight a man like him, a man who’d all but destroyed her, a man who’d broken her down so many times and yet still she wanted him in her life
.
 
It was something JJ would never really get his head around.
 
It was something he’d never really understand.
 
But he still believed that Michael was the reason
India
couldn’t make their marriage work.

India turned away from JJ as she picked up Ellie’s overnight bag, unzipping it and checking – unnecessarily, because she knew she’d packed everything – that all the stuff she needed for a night with her daddy was in there; any excuse not to face the man she’d hurt in a way she’d never meant to.
 
But she hadn’t been honest with herself, so how could she possibly have been honest with him?

‘Ellie’s upstairs, in the nursery.
 
Emma’s just getting her ready.’

Emma was
India
’s most valuable member of staff, because she was the one who helped her look after the two most precious things in
India
’s life – her kids.
 
She’d been with
India
for over seven years, ever since Ethan had been born, and
India
didn’t think she could trust anyone else to care for her babies the way Emma did.
 
She was an angel, a friend, and
India
wouldn’t be able to live her life the way she did without her.