Star of His Heart (3 page)

So he had sat there, letting her have her way with his face while he imagined all kind of things, especially the image of her naked.

More than once during the shoot, he had had to remind himself that he didn't really know her and that it would be crazy to lose focus. But he would be the first to admit that he hadn't counted on being bowled over by a woman who had to tilt her head all the way back just to look up at him. He smiled, remembering the many times they had looked at each other and the number of times they had tried not to do so. And nothing could erase from his mind the sight of the soft smile that had touched her lips when she'd seen his tattoo and when he'd told her why he had it. If he had been trying to impress her, he would definitely have garnered brownie points. But he wasn't trying to impress her.

He shifted in bed, knowing he had to stay focused and not let a pretty face get him off track. All that sounded easy enough, but he had a feeling it would be the hardest thing he'd ever had to do.

“Q
uiet on the set!

“Take four!

“Action!”

Rachel sat quietly in a chair and watched the scene that was being shot. When she heard two women, Paige and another actress on the set named Tae'Shawna Miller, whispering about how handsome and fine Ethan was, she had to press her lips together to keep from turning around and reminding them about the no-talking-during-a-take policy. But that would make her guilty of breaking the rule, too.

So she sat there and tried tuning them out and hoped sooner or later they would close their mouths. It didn't
help matters to know that Paige was one of the women. Rachel figured she of all people should know better.

Rachel turned her attention back to the scene being filmed and couldn't help but admire the way Ethan was delivering his lines. He was doing a brilliant job portraying Dr. Tyrell Perry, the sexy doctor with a gruff demeanor that could only be softened by his patients. And from the looks of things, a new twist was about to unravel on the show with Dr. Perry being given a love interest—another new doctor on the hospital staff, the widowed Dr. Sonja Duncan.

Rachel had been on the set talking to one of the cameramen when Ethan arrived that morning, swaggering in and exuding rugged masculinity all over the place. The number of flirtatious smiles that were cast his way the moment he said good morning had only made her shake her head. Some of the women were probably still wiping the drool from their mouths.

Why did women get so silly at the sight of a good-looking man? She would admit she had been attracted to him yesterday like everyone else, after all she was a woman, but there was no reason to get downright foolish about it.

“Freeze! No talking on the set!”

Frasier was looking straight at Paige and Tae'Shawna and frowning. He knew exactly who the noisemakers were, and to be called out by the director wasn't good. They had caused time to be wasted, and everyone knew Frasier didn't like that.

“Unfreeze!”

This time around, everyone was quiet while the shooting of the scene continued. In this scene, Dr. Tyrell Perry and Dr. Sonja Duncan were discussing the seriousness of a patient's condition. It was obvious in this scene that the two were attracted to each other. The television viewers would already know through the use of flashbacks that Sonja's late husband, also a doctor, had gotten killed when an L.A. gang, intent on killing a man being treated in the hospital, burst into the E.R. and opened fire, killing everyone, including the doctor, a nurse and a few others waiting to be treated.

Rachel figured since Livia was only a temporary member of the cast, there would not be too much of a budding romance between the two doctors, although it wasn't known just how Livia's exit would be handled. Frasier was known to leave the viewers hanging from scene to scene, so it would be anyone's guess what he had in mind. She couldn't help but wonder if the chemistry the two generated on the set would extend beyond filming.

She hadn't gotten a chance to get to know Livia. During the makeup and wardrobe sessions there hadn't been much conversation between them. Her initial impression was that Livia was just as shallow and self-absorbed as the other Hollywood types Rachel had met. She'd seen no reason for that impression to change. Livia had a reputation of being a party girl and as much the tabloid princess as Ethan was the tabloid king. So it would stand to reason the two would be attracted to each other both on and off the set.

“Cut! Good scene! Let's enjoy lunch. Everyone take an additional hour and be back to start again on time.”

Rachel smiled, grateful for the extra time. It seemed a number of people were in a hurry to take advantage of Frasier's generosity…in more ways than one, she thought, when out of the corner of her eye she noticed several women bustling over in Ethan's direction. She rolled her eyes. My goodness, did they have no shame? Interestingly, Livia walked away in another direction, as if the attention given to Ethan didn't concern her one bit.

Shaking her head, Rachel walked back to her trailer to grab her purse. She had a few errands to do before lunch was over.

 

Ethan watched Rachel leave before forcing his attention back to the two women standing in front of him. Tae'Shawna had all but invited him over tonight to go skinny-dipping in her pool. Of course he had turned her down. Paige had offered to come over to his place to help him go over his lines. He turned her down as well. For some reason, he wasn't feeling these two. If truth be told, he wasn't feeling any woman right now. Except for the one who'd just headed off toward her trailer.

“So what are you doing for lunch, Ethan? We would love for you to join us,” Paige invited, interrupting his thoughts.

“Thanks, but I have a few errands I need to take care of,” he said, knowing it was a lie as he said it. But in this case, he felt it was justified.

“No problem. Maybe we can help with your errands and—”

“Thanks again, but that's not necessary,” he said, pulling his keys out of his back pocket. He had planned to wait until the weekend to shop for Kendra's gift, but now was just as good a time since these two were beginning to make a nuisance of themselves.

“I'll see you ladies later. I need to leave so I can be back on time.”

For a second Paige looked like she was going to invite herself along. Instead she said, “Then I guess we'll see you when you return.”

He only smiled, refusing to make any promises as he headed toward the exit. He was grateful for the additional hour and planned on making good use of it. Moving quickly, he reached for the door at the same time someone else did. The moment their hands touched he knew the identity of that person. Her scent gave her away.

“Excuse me.”

“Excuse me as well,” he said, taking a step back, opening the door and holding it for her to pass through. “You're taking advantage of the extra hour, I see.”

Rachel smiled up at him. “I think everyone is.” She glanced back over his shoulder. “Where's your fan club?”

His gaze scanned over her face and he saw a cute little mole near the corner of her lip. How could he have missed it yesterday? “My fan club?”

“Yes.”

They were walking together as they headed toward the parking lot. “Trust me, there are some fans you can do without.”

“And you want me to believe you're not flattered?” she teased, speaking in a low tone when a crew member passed them on the sidewalk.

He slowed his pace as they got closer to where the cars were parked in the studio lot. “Yes, that's exactly what I want you to believe.”

She stopped walking and so did he. “Why? Why does it matter what I think?”

Ethan thought she had asked a good question. Why did it matter what she thought? He knew the answer before he could pull in his next breath. He liked her, and if he had the time he would try to get something going with her. The thing was he didn't have the time. He had to stay focused and doubted he would have time to pursue a relationship, serious or otherwise, with any woman anytime soon. He kept reminding himself that this was his big break, and he wasn't about to mess it up by trying to get between any woman's legs. He had gone without for six months, and he could go another six months or more if he had to.

But that didn't mean that he and Rachel couldn't be just friends, did it? It would be nice to have someone who wasn't interested in anything more than friendship. The little attraction that had passed between them yesterday couldn't be helped. After all, she was a nice-looking woman and he was a hot-blooded man. But as long as
they kept things under control, being just friends would be fine.

“It matters because I like you and I'd like for us to be friends,” he said.

She pushed a wayward strand of hair from her face as she looked at him. “And why would you want us to become friends?”

Providing an answer to that question was easy enough. “The one thing I noticed yesterday was that you're genuinely a nice person.” He chuckled then added, “Hey, you didn't rag on me about being nervous. And it's obvious everyone on the set likes you, from the maintenance man all the way up to the bigwigs. I figure with that kind of popularity, you can't be all bad. Besides, you and Livia are the only two females on the set that I feel pretty comfortable around.”

She lifted a brow. “Livia?”

“Yes.”

She tilted her head back as if to give him her full attention. “Not that it is any of my business, but I thought that maybe something was going on between the two of you.”

He smiled. “There is, on the show. But it's all acting. She's supposed to be my new love interest for the next few episodes.”

She nodded. “Your scenes earlier were pretty convincing.”

He chuckled. “We're actors. They were meant to be convincing.”

Ethan glanced at his watch. “I'd better get going. I
want to pick up something for my six-year-old niece from the Disney Store. After watching
The Princess and the Frog
she's into princesses, so I thought I'd pick her up a Princess Tiana doll.”

A smile touched the corners of her lips. “You have a niece?”

“Yes, Kendra. She's my older brother's little girl and, I hate to say it, but she's perfect.”

She chuckled. “I believe you. And there's a store in walking distance on Hollywood Boulevard. I'm headed that way myself to pick up something from the art supply shop.”

He turned the idea over in his mind only once before asking, “Mind if I tag along?”

He did his best not to watch the way her lips were tugged up in a smile when she said, “Sure, you can tag along, as long as we don't talk about work. We need to give our brains a break.”

He jammed his keys in his pocket as he resumed walking by her side. It was a beautiful August day, and he had a beautiful woman strolling alongside him. Things couldn't get any better than that. “So what do we talk about?” he decided to ask her.

She slanted her head to look at him. “You.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“Hey, we talked about me yesterday.”

Her mouth twitched in a grin. “Yes, but all I know is that you're from Napa Valley and you have a niece.”
She chuckled. “I guess I could go by what I've heard and—”

“Read in the tabloids,” he said, finishing the statement for her.

“No, I don't do tabloids. It would be nice if others didn't do them either, then they would go out of business.”

He glanced over at her and laughed. “You don't like the right of free speech?”

She laughed back at him. “More like the right of sleazy speech. Ninety percent of what they print isn't true, but then I guess that's the price of being a star.”

He smiled, liking the way the sunlight was bouncing off her hair, making it appear even more lustrous. He liked the short cut on her. “Yes, it's one of the detriments, that's for sure. I just go with the flow. As long as I know what's true about me and what's not, I don't lose any sleep.”

She didn't say anything for a while, and then replied, “I hate being in the spotlight.”

She kept looking ahead, but he'd heard what she said. Clearly. If that was true, he wondered how she managed it, being a Wellesley. The company her family owned was so connected with this industry, and had been for close to thirty years, they were practically an icon in Hollywood.

He had researched information on Limelight when he'd returned to the States from abroad. He had even considered contacting them to handle his affairs before he'd chosen Curtis, who'd been a friend of a friend to
whom he'd owed a favor. But he wouldn't hesitate to consider them again when his contract with Curtis ended. Lately, he'd begun feeling as if he was making his own contacts. Everyone he knew handled by Limelight was pleased with its services. Not once had they ever been made to feel like they were a passenger instead of a driver.

“Being in the spotlight doesn't bother me,” he decided to say. “It comes with the territory. But then, my family is well-known in Napa Valley, so I got used to having a mike shoved in my face, only to be quoted incorrectly.” He could recall a number of times when he'd been referred to as “the playboy Chambers” while Hunter had always been considered the one with a level head. The responsibly acting Chambers.

“And it doesn't bother you?” she asked.

He met her gaze. “A distortion of the truth will bother most people, and I'm no different. However, I don't lose sleep over it,” he said, shifting his gaze to study her features.

But he had a feeling she would.

There had to be a reason, and the question rested on the tip of his tongue.

But he had no right to pry. This woman owed him nothing, had no reason to divulge her deep, dark secrets and innermost feelings. Not to him. They weren't husband and wife. They weren't even lovers. Nor would they ever be.

No, he reminded himself, he was trying out the friendship thing.