Lucky Star: A Hollywood Love Story (14 page)

“So … one dresser drawer, a quarter of the closet, and my couch in your painting room.”

He shifted in his seat to face me. Sucking in a breath, his brow creased and he exhaled. I waited for him to speak, but the words seemed to fight with him. His nervousness made me nervous and the butterflies so often hanging out in my belly these days transformed into a whirling dervish of some other flying insect that wasn’t quite so sweet.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, black velvet box. “I didn’t do this right the first time.” Dropping to his knees in front of me, Cameron took my left hand in his and placed a soft, openmouthed kiss to the middle of my palm. When he looked at me, his face was full of joy.

“Sarah Anne Travers, will you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”

Opening the box revealed a late-Victorian, early-Edwardian era engagement ring with a raised diamond at its center. A filigree wrap with two small, triangular sapphires flanked the larger stone. It was a work of art, the painstaking work of a master jeweler, and the most stunning ring I had ever laid eyes on. Tentatively, I reached out to touch it but then let my hand drop. I couldn’t believe it was mine. That he was mine.

Cameron placed the ring on my left hand, the band sliding home perfectly on my finger. As if it was supposed to be there; almost like it had been made especially for me. It being an antique, that was a flight of fancy on my part, but it felt right, like the ring had found its new home.

“It was my great grandmother’s.”

“When did … how … but ...”

Staring down at his grandmother’s ring on my finger, he rubbed the pad of his thumb over my knuckles. “I was in Ohio picking this up the day Julie called to say I had a meeting with Broderick to discuss the role. I told my parents I was in love with you and that I was going to marry you someday, if you’d have me. I flew back that same night.”

“I don’t understand,” I whispered.

“Don’t you?” His eyes flicked between mine and realization dawned.

Cameron had proposed while still inside of me, and while that had been unexpected, it hadn’t been as spontaneous as I’d initially believed. There’d been a small part of me that worried he hadn’t meant to ask the question at that moment, and maybe that was true, but now I knew he’d
always
meant to ask me at some point. Whether it had happened after having made love or at some other point didn’t matter. He’d come to me on Friday already knowing that some day he’d ask. He’d wanted me, always.

As the knowledge took root in my heart, my eyes welled up with tears. Goddamn, I hated crying, but if ever there was a moment where it was called for, that was now.

***

While I was giddy to be officially and unequivocally engaged to Cameron –
I even have the ring to prove it
, I thought, staring down at my hand for probably the millionth time since he’d placed it there – after reading those texts, I had
not
been looking forward to the party, celebration of that fact. Sure, I wanted our friends and family to see how right we were for one another, but those damn texts swirled in the back of my head, reminding me that not everyone cared about something as wonderful as promise and commitment between two people who loved each other.

And so I smiled happily, chatted with those I knew supported us, proudly showed off his grandmother’s ring, and did my very best to ignore the assholes who’d so callously told Cameron he was making the biggest mistake of his life. That they acted pleased for him publicly while their private thoughts were the exact opposite did nothing to lessen my disgust. At least if they’d openly rejected our engagement I could have thrown them out of my house. Instead I’d had to act happy to see them and smile merrily at their fake exclamations of “Congratulations!” and “You lucky dog!” I must have done an admirable job of pretending because no one seemed to notice that whenever one of them came too close I’d walk away as soon as I could.

I felt like my face was going to crack in half from the amount of smiling I’d been doing since our first guests arrived at four o’clock and my feet were screaming at me to sit down and take a load off. Finally, blessedly, our guests drifted home and I was able to shower and climb into bed before midnight. Cameron climbed in next to me and pulled me into his embrace.

“That makes it official.” He nuzzled his lips against the spot where my neck met my shoulder, the one that was so sensitive to his touch and did crazy things to my libido. “No backing out now.”

“As if I would.”

“Good.”

He dragged the covers away and trailed a path of kisses down my neck to my chest, just above the top of my camisole. He continued licking and suckling my skin as his large, warm hand made its way under my shirt and cupped my breast before rolling my nipple between his fingers. “Any way I could convince you to get out of your clothes?”

I sighed happily and stretched my body on a satisfied groan as my tense and sore muscles contracted and then relaxed. “I’ll make you a deal. You undress me, have your wicked way with me, and I promise to do the same for you some time when you’re too tired to do anything but just lay there.”

“Deal.” He smiled wickedly and regardless of how tired I might be now soon, I knew, my body would respond to his touch.

When my shirt was gone, he took my nipple between his lips. As he sucked, nibbled, and laved at my flesh I felt my exhaustion slip away, to be replaced by a hot and driving desire. I rolled us over until I was on top, straddling his hips. Rubbing myself against him, I ran my lips along the seam of his lips and he welcomed my tongue into his mouth. Cameron placed his hands on my hips and pushed me down onto the length of his rock hard shaft as he lifted his hips to meet me. Needing him deep inside of me, I lifted my hips and he helped me slide my cotton panties down my legs before tossing them across the room. As I sank down on his thick, delicious cock, Cameron feasted on my breasts, rolled the sensitive buds of my nipples between his strong, capable fingers. He surged forward and I took the whole of him in, deep. When he tweaked my nipples in his fingers and pulled on them, I felt the exquisite ache shoot down my body to ignite my core.

“Oh my god, I love fucking you,” I whispered on a moan, my breathing ragged as I neared the first of my orgasms. That was the thing about being with Cameron. If I didn’t come at least twice before he did, he hadn’t done his job properly. He wouldn’t seek his own release until my body was spent from our lovemaking.

“Fuck me Sarah,” he bit out between grunts of pleasure. “Fuck me hard.”

I ground my hips down and felt the first evidence of my orgasm spiral out across my skin. My limbs tightened and I saw pinpricks of light behind my eyelids. He glided upward, impaling me on the velvet steel of his cock, and I broke apart a tidal, the feeling of pleasure so intense that I could do nothing but sob his name.

Cameron rolled us over and continued thrusting into my pulsing, throbbing core. Then, flipping me onto my stomach, he locked his arm under and around my torso while his fingers danced over my sensitive clit. He fucked me hard and steady from behind, exactly the way I liked it, each thrust hitting my g-spot. Inch by incredible inch, he found his home inside of me. When my orgasm hit, an immense, overwhelming crescendo of all my senses, I felt him everywhere – behind me, in front of me, inside of me – and I couldn’t focus on any one thing. Sight, sound, smell, taste were no longer separate entities; they’d become all of me, the only thing that mattered. Wanting the feeling to go on and on and on, I pushed back onto his cock, met his powerful thrusts, and then I strained forward seeking out those exquisite fingers that played me so expertly.

I could tell he was nearing completion from the short, heated gasps he left on the back of my neck. “I’m going to come baby,” he whispered in my ear. “Push back on me, hold me tight.”

I did as he asked, gyrating my hips in fast, insistent circles as he pumped himself into my soft, warm flesh. He sucked in a ragged breath and arching his back on one final thrust, he cried out my name, abandoned himself to the pleasure my body alone could provide. He exploded within me and I came again in a blinding, dizzying burst of ecstasy, my pussy milking him as pulsating waves of pleasure rocked my body.

“You feel so good,” Cameron said, as we collapsed in a heap of sweaty, sated limbs.

“Looks like I have a meeting with Broderick and the studio’s PR team tomorrow at 2 p.m.” Cameron said, scrolling through his email one last time before calling it a night.

“Yup, I’ll be there.”

“I never thought to ask, do you go to all of Broderick’s meetings?”

I set the alarm on my phone and placed it on the nightstand next to me. “Not all of them, but I’ve been handling some of the behind-the-scenes publicity so he wants me there for the hand off.” I paused. “I’m the one who’s been calling up bloggers and leaking them information about the movie to keep that crack head Leslie Laney from getting herself publicly attached to a role.”

He snickered. “Did she really think she was up for a part?”

“Who knows what that woman thinks? I can guarantee she was never on Broderick’s list of prospects. Maybe she thought if the rumors were loud enough he’d be forced to see her?” I shrugged, because who the hell knew what went on in Ms. Laney’s head when she was sober, never mind when she’d gone on one of her binges as she so obviously was now?

“I can’t imagine having to act opposite her.” He shivered dramatically. “Can you imagine having to kiss her?” He stuck his finger in his mouth and mimed gagging. Because apparently he was twelve. I put my hand to my head in the shape of a gun and mimed blowing my brains out. Because, apparently, so was I.

“You don’t even know the half of it. The list of directors who won’t work with her is longer than anyone lets on because no one will insure her presence on any respectable movie set. She’s done.” I paused, “And with that, so am I.” I turned off my bedside lamp, kissed Cameron goodnight, and plopped down on my side of the bed, fluffing the pillows under my head just so.

Cameron whispering to me how thankful he was to have me in his life was the last thing I heard before sleep took over.

I had to be in the office much earlier than him so I snuck out of the house as quietly as possible. I didn’t begrudge him the extra couple hours of sleep because soon enough he’d be up before me for early morning call times and late nights filming while I’d be the one at home relaxing.

I carried my triple grande cappuccino and Broderick’s extra hot black coffee into his office and was surprised to see he’d made it in before me since I was usually the first one in the office, even on days when he had early meetings. I set the drink down and turned to walk back to my cube when he stopped me.

“Hey Sarah. You got a minute?”

“Sure.” I plunked my ass down in the leather chair across from him while he took a deep, fortifying drink of his coffee and looked around the room before bringing his eyes back to me. He looked uncomfortable which made me uncomfortable.

“Soooooo,” he drew the word out into one long sound that had my knee bobbing up and down nervously in front of me. “How come you didn’t tell me about Cameron?”

I recalled the conversation we’d had the week prior. I’d been evasive at best and had lied outright at worst. It just depended on your perspective. “I did.”

“Right. You said you
knew
him. You didn’t say you were in a relationship with the guy.”

Shit.

“It was complicated. We weren’t exactly talking at the time.”

“And yet he was hanging out in the parking lot on Friday night waiting for you. That doesn’t sound to me like someone you weren’t speaking to.”

“Yeah, we weren’t talking before then. He came to apologize on Friday and we made up.” Not that it was any of his business.

“And now?”

“And now?” I both knew and didn’t know what he was trying to get me to say and didn’t know why I was being so evasive. I’d just admitted that we’d made up and if he’d bothered to look at my hand he’d see the damn ring. I think I avoided answering outright because there was something about the way he framed the questions that put me off.

“What’s the status of your relationship now? And I’ll warn you, before you decide to give me some half-truth, know that I’ve heard a lot of different stories about you two this weekend.”

Sighing, I capitulated. After all, I had no reason to give Broderick any sort of half-truth or cockamamie version of our story. There was nothing for me to be ashamed of. Cameron had been my best friend, we had fought, made up, and now he was mine. Besides, it wasn’t like our engagement was some big secret. We’d just had a party to tell everyone we knew.

“We’re engaged.” I held up my hand to show him the ring he’d obviously missed and he laughed, a mirthless sound, and I knew whatever he was going to say next would prove very problematic.

“Who knows?”

Ah, fuck. I could guess exactly where this was going. I’d been in this city too damn long not to. It’s what I’d been worried about from the very beginning.

“Why does it matter?” If he was going to do this to me, I was going to force him to say it out loud. If he thought I’d danced around some truths before, that’s exactly what he was doing to me now.

“You’re not that naïve, Sarah.” He grabbed a pen and scribbled something in his notebook. “We’ve got the publicity team coming in this afternoon and since Cameron’s a relative unknown, you and I both know they are going to recommend one of two ways to boost his star power.” He dropped his pen and stared at me. “The first option they’ll present will be to set him up with someone like Giulliana Howth or Deanna Ragnon. Having already cleared it with both parties’ agents, by 7 p.m. tomorrow night he’ll be photographed having an intimate dinner over candlelight with one of them.”

Shit. So Cameron’s agent Julie had already given the green light. I wondered if she’d told him already. Is that what had prompted him to rush back to his apartment yesterday morning and get the ring? Did he know this was coming and not say anything to me?

Broderick didn’t have to tell me what option number two looked like or how easy it would be to pull off since they wouldn’t have to involve any outside parties. So I said it for him. “Or they’ll fabricate a relationship between Cameron and Jillian because that’ll be easier to manage.” My voice shook with each word I spoke. “They’ll leak pics from the set of them hanging out together, laughing, going sight-seeing all over Vancouver. They won’t care that I’ll have been right there the entire time. They won’t care that if they bothered to pay even a modicum of attention they’d see Cameron spending more time with me than anyone else. They’ll find a way to make it look like he and Jillian are off in their own little world, so caught up in one another they don’t even notice the paparazzi lurking in the bushes.”

I groaned, closed my eyes, and leaned my head back against the chair in defeat.

“Look Sarah, I know this is shit timing for you but this is the nature of the business. We can’t have millions of women lusting after some dude with a new wife. Cameron is going to have to agree to one of these scenarios so you need to tell me which one hurts you less.”

Maybe I should have been grateful he was giving me an opportunity to provide input, but the truth was
both
scenarios would hurt me. Terribly. I could have said neither option was acceptable, put up a fight, but the reality staring me in the face was that me being on Cameron’s arm wasn’t the best thing for his career right now. The moment he’d been cast he’d effectively given up control over his public persona. This was his shot at the big time and he needed to take it. I could swallow my pride if it meant never having to worry about his next job.

I brought my head up and stared at Broderick across his desk. Option number two required his other star to go along with the ploy. “What does Jillian say?”

“She has a long-term boyfriend who lives in London no one seems to know about so it’s not an imposition for her to continue keeping him a secret. Apparently he’s a big time chef so he’s too busy to be bothered by what she does on a movie set.” Did I imagine the sneer on his lips when he’d shared that detail? Or was I projecting my own disbelief that someone could be with someone for years and not care what happened on set? “Keeping him away from Cameron and Jillian won’t be a problem.”

I groaned. Why’d he have to go and use that word? “Is that what I am Broderick, a problem?” I tried to keep the hurt from my voice but failed.

He scoffed and brushed his hand in front of him. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

“No, it might not be what you
meant
, but it’s the truth, isn’t it?” I’m a thorn in your side you didn’t anticipate dealing with, aren’t I?”

He squared his shoulders before responding, his body no longer quite so relaxed in his seat. “Look, I’ll be honest with you. It’s not ideal.” Running his hand over the scruff of his beard, he added, “I like you, Sarah. My wife
loves
you and that makes you practically family. I don’t want to see you get hurt but this is my movie and I can’t have your personal life fucking things up. We have to do this.”

“I know.” The admission came out as a whisper.

“Can you get Cameron go along with it?”

Of course. They needed
me
to convince him to pretend we weren’t together, that he hadn’t
just
put his ring on my finger. If he went into the meeting with PR later today without me talking to him and they threw this out, he would be furious. I imagined him telling the ice-cold blonde running the account to go fuck herself and I smiled inwardly, wishing it could happen but knowing that I couldn’t let it. They’d fire him and he’d be back to square one. Worse, he’d be the guy who’d been fired before the movie even started, and that’d make him un-hirable in the future.

Resignedly, I said, “I’ll talk to him.”

***

I’d convinced Cameron to show up an hour early for a pre-meeting meeting with me by letting him know if he didn’t he wasn’t going to like how his afternoon with the publicity team played out. While I waited for him, I paced the hallway, wearing a trail in the gray industrial carpet. Silently, I seethed, wanting nothing more than to tell Broderick to take his plan and shove it up his ass but the decision wasn’t mine alone. And even though it would be career suicide, deep down I hoped Cameron would tell them to take a flying leap off a tall building. I mean, what woman doesn’t want her man to fight for her? For their relationships?

“Sarah baby, what’s wrong?” I turned around to see Cameron walking toward me, his face a mask of concern.

“Come with me.” I walked out the door toward the parking lot, not stopping to see if he followed. I climbed into my car, the only place I could think of where we wouldn’t be observed or overheard, and gripping the steering wheel, let my head fall forward.

Cameron climbed in next to me and when he closed the door, the world fell away. “Talk to me Sarah. You’re scaring me.”

When I turned to face him, I wondered if this was the moment when I’d lose him. “I’m going to tell you something and you have to promise me that you won’t freak out.”

“You’re already freaking me out.” And then eyes going wide, he blurted, “Are you pregnant?”

I glared at him, gave him a real proper side-eye. “No I’m not pregnant!” Scowling, I asked, “How can you even ask that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because all you’ve said is that I shouldn’t freak out while
you’re
sitting here freaking out,” he shot back. “It’s the only thing I can think of that would have you panicking like this.”