Persona (The 'Professional' series)

BOOK: Persona (The 'Professional' series)
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Persona

(Book 1 – ‘Professional’ series)

 

 

By Ceri Bladen

 

 

Copyright © 2012 by Ceri Bladen

All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by
any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical
methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other
non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write
to the author
:
[email protected]

This is a work of fiction.  Names, characters,
places, brands, media and incidents are the product of the author’s
imagination.  The author acknowledges the trademark status and owners of
various items used by the author, which have been used without
permission.  The publication on/use of these trademarks is not authorised,
associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

This ebook is for personal use only.  This ebook
may not be resold or given away to other people.  Thank you for respecting
the author’s work.

 

 

 

 

 

Acknowledgements

A huge
thank you to my husband, Marc, and children, Caitlyn, Thomas and Daniela, for
supporting me and letting me have time in my imaginary world!

 

Table of Contents

Chapter 1
. 2

Chapter 2
. 4

Chapter 3
. 5

Chapter 4
. 11

Chapter 5
. 13

Chapter 6
. 15

Chapter 7
. 22

Chapter 8
. 27

Chapter 9
. 30

Chapter 10
. 34

Chapter 11
. 36

Chapter 12
. 38

Chapter 13
. 46

Chapter 14
. 48

Chapter 15
. 49

Chapter 16
. 51

Chapter 17
. 52

Chapter 18
. 52

Chapter 19
. 54

Chapter 20
. 56

Chapter 21
. 63

Chapter 22
. 66

Chapter 23
. 70

Chapter 24
. 72

Chapter 25
. 73

Chapter 26
. 85

Chapter 27
. 92

Chapter 28
. 96

 

Chapter
1

She faltered
over the button.  After the moment of hesitation, she pressed ‘send’ on
the text and felt the relief flood through her. 

She hadn’t
sent him a text in a while.
 
She had been
feeling depressed and hadn’t wanted to frighten him with her dark
thoughts. 

As she
looked blankly out of the window, she twisted a strand of hair between her
fingers and bit her bottom lip.  It bled. 

He had been
a good boy lately, not
too
many
women.  She did love him after all.  One day he would love her…

Chapter 2

Bored,
bored, bored. 

Daniel
Spittle couldn’t remember the last time he was this bored.  He moved his
eyes around the room to search out his friend, trying to keep his forced pose
for the photographer.  “Hey Eric, tell me again why my agent said this
photo shoot was a good idea?”

Eric
Spalding, Daniel’s best friend since school, grinned as his friend looked
uncomfortable.  “Your last film was a hit, but it was a while ago. 
You need to keep that ugly mug of yours in people’s minds?”

“Why don’t
you write me a film script then?  You’re supposed to be a writer.” 
Daniel light-heartedly hissed through gritted teeth.

Eric
smirked, knowing his friend was pulling his leg.  “I keep telling you, I
am an author, not a script writer. Completely different.  Now come on, pay
attention, your photographer calls!”

Daniel
forced himself to pay attention to the photographer again.  He was hoping
the look was the
smouldering
one that the photographer wanted, not one
that looked as though he was in pain, which he was.   

He had
endured, and to Daniel, it felt like enduring, hundreds of photos taken
throughout his career.  Some were professional shoots, many more were the
paparazzi taking shots of him coming out of clubs with his latest
squeeze
.  
The camera always gave his face and body justice, he was naturally photogenic,
but he still did not feel comfortable sitting and posing for staged
photos.  Daniel sighed, no doubt, the prints would be photo shopped to the
hilt after.

He was a
professional actor, but it still took him outside his comfort zone to pretend
to
make love
to the camera.  It
wasn’t
a woman for goodness
sake! Christ, he had no trouble with women, he had plenty of them, but looking
into the camera as though it was a woman wasn’t his thing.  Daniel looked
towards the camera and tried to concentrate on getting the job done
efficiently, so he could leave as quickly as possible.  At last the
photographer seemed happy with what he had. 

Daniel
walked over to the coffee pot that was in the corner and poured himself a tepid
cup, it looked like thick molasses.  At least it would fire his
system. 

He rolled
his shoulders and stretched his neck, hoping that some of the tension would
disappear.  Over the rim of his plastic cup, he watched the photographer
look at the shots on his camera, smiling.  Good, it looked as though the
job was over,
 
the last thing he wanted
was to sit through that again.  He would have to have a word with Mz Alice
Hall, his agent, there must be other ways to keep his face in the public
domain.

Eric started
flipping through Daniel’s mail on his phone.  “Ah, Stalker X is back!” he
laughed.  “I thought she had grown bored of you!  You haven’t had a
text from her for about a month!”

“What has
she got to say this time?”  Daniel continued to take off the studio
clothes, not that there were many of them, as the photographers always seemed
to want his ‘six pack’ on the photos as much as possible. Daniel shuddered as
his previous waxing session was remembered.  He personally liked his chest
hair, but it had to come off for photographs, or when he was filming. 

“She is in a
good mood this time!  She is on about your
blue eyes that I want to
drown in,
and this is a good one, she would love your
hot, hard body to
squash her into her mattress
!”  Eric carried on reading the rest of
the text.  “Wow, she is hot for you at the moment! Last month, she wanted
to
claw out your wandering eyes
and
feed you until you become fat,
if
I remember correctly!” 

Daniel sat
down and pulled on his comfortable, leather Timberland boots.  “Yep, she’s
a weird one at times.  Let’s hope I never meet her, especially down a dark
alley, I wouldn’t know if she wanted to kill me or jump me!” 

He shook his
head.  Luckily most of his fans were great, but most stars had to deal
with the slightly deranged at times.  ‘Stalker X’, as Eric had named her,
seemed harmless enough.  It all came with the territory of fame and looks.
Some people thought they had a right to
have a bit of you
.  Some
thought they knew you, even though they only knew the characters you played on
screen. 

Daniel
recognised that he was born with good looks, he worked hard on his body too,
but sometimes, when he was alone in bed, he was plagued by the thought that he
would not be experiencing this fame if he didn’t look like he did.  It was
not a comfortable thought.  He was really a nice, genuine person, but in
his line of work, that was usually seen as a fault.   

Over the
years, when he was in the public domain, he had developed a persona, an alter
ego, mainly to protect himself.  He had fooled people into thinking that
he was a certain way, a womaniser, a player.  Hell, it seemed to get you
further in this business to come across as slightly arrogant, weaknesses were
not readily tolerated.  Only Eric, his best friend since school knew him
properly, the only person, other than his family, he allowed close to him.

Daniel
smiled to himself as he finished the last of his coffee; there were plenty of
good sides to fame too.  The women!  There seemed to be an endless
supply.  Some were only with him because both sets of agents thought it
would be good for their public image, but others, well.  He couldn’t say
that he didn’t enjoy making love to them whenever he could; he was a man after
all!   

Only when he
was alone, very occasionally, did the realisation flit through his mind that he
might want more than just a gorgeous, flawless body under him, he might want
marriage.  A shudder went down his spine. Or perhaps he didn’t!

“Come on
Eric.  Let’s get out of here before he makes me wear that!”  He
nudged Eric, laughing as he pointed to a tiny, leopard print thong hanging on a
peg.
 

Chapter
3

“Hi Lindsey,
is Alice ready to see me yet?”  Daniel strode into his Agents outer
office. 

Alice or Mz
Hall, as she liked to be called, had phoned him asking for him to come in and
see her.  She had something lined up that he might be interested in. 
Anything other than another modelling shoot would suit him at the moment.

Lindsey looked up from her typewriter, a flush rising into
her cheeks. “Mz Hall will be about five minutes.  Would you like a
coffee?”

“Sure
darling.  My usual, strong and creamy.”   Daniel watched as even
more colour rose in the secretary’s face.  Daniel sighed, you would think
after nearly ten years with the same agent, the secretary would have got past
being embarrassed when he entered the room. 

He watched
her as she poured the coffee from the pot, which was shaking slightly in her
hand.  Her straight brown hair fell in front of her face and she pushed it
back behind her ears, which were already holding the arms of her glasses.
 She reminded him of a terrified mouse in her tweed, brown suit. 

What was
she, about mid-twenties?  Why on earth was she wearing that frumpy
suit?  He had an idea.  Perhaps he would send her a more fashionable
one when he was next dragged shopping by Cassandra.  Cassandra, his
girlfriend, would be able to pick a nice suit for her.  She certainly had
enough practise!

Lindsey’s
hazel eyes met Daniels as she handed him his coffee.  He was slightly
annoyed to see her lowering them immediately.  What was it about him that
made women either come on strong or be in such total awe that they were like
frightened animals?  

Daniel’s
agent’s voice suddenly broke the silence over the intercom.  “Is Daniel
there yet?  Send him in please.  Could you finish typing up that
agents’ contract if you haven’t.   I would like to send it out
tonight?  Thanks.”

“You can go
in now Mr Spittle.”  Daniel noticed she still had her eyes averted from
his, he sighed as he opened the door, trying not to spill his coffee, which was
in the other.

“Well, hello
darling!”  He put on his megawatt smile.  “You are looking good
today!  You look so much younger than even the other week!  Come on,
what have you had done?”

“Still a
smooth one!”  Alice mumbled but smiled anyway. “Well, actually, I have had
a little filler here and there.  Agents have to look the part too you
know.  Anyway enough about me, I wanted to see you as I had an enquiry
yesterday about you.”  She indicated for him to take a seat in front of
her desk. 

BOOK: Persona (The 'Professional' series)
3.12Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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