Love in the Limelight Volume Two: Seduced on the Red CarpetLovers Premiere
Page 16
“I should be on my knees after what I said the other night.”
“Well, why don’t you correct the record right now?”
“I’m happy to. I love you. You know that, right?”
“Oh, God,” she said, sobbing again.
“After the accident, I really thought my life was over. I wanted it to be over—”
“Don’t say that.”
“I didn’t think I’d ever be happy again, and I certainly never thought I’d find a woman who makes my heart stop in a way no one else has ever done before.”
“But why?” Holding his hard cheeks between her hands, she stared up into his turbulent eyes and tried to understand what he’d said and done. “Why did you act like you’d never be over Annette?”
“Because I was scared,” he said simply, the confession stunning her. “Why would a woman like you want to be with a man like me when you’ve got this—” he flapped a hand toward the shoot and the fans “—this life?”
Silly man. “Why? Because I’m crazy in love with you, and your daughter, and your winery and your parents. Oh, and your dog. That’s why.”
“So…maybe you’d want to live there with us?”
“That’d be nice. Since that was my last shoot and I won’t have much income anymore. It’d be great to have somewhere to stay.”
“I’m not asking you to give up—”
“I’d already decided before I ever went to Napa. The modeling thing is over. Been there, done that. Yawn.”
“Are you sure?”
“Oh, I’m sure.” She hesitated but now was as good a time to tell him as ever. “Besides. Kendra and the new baby deserve a full-time mother, don’t you think?”
“Speaking of Kendra, that girl tried to get me to take her and the dog to the airport so she could fly down here and—wait, what? What did you say?”
Taking his hand, she pressed it to her stomach. “I’m saying that Chambers Winery is a fertile place. Must be something in the air. I hope that’s okay with you.”
“Okay?” His voice cracked and his face twisted with utmost, blinding joy. She had a one-second glimpse of renewed tears in his amber eyes before he dropped to his knees, wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his face to her belly. “Yeah. I think that’s okay.”
Epilogue
Nine Months Later
“Shh,” Hunter said. “You have to be quiet.”
“I can be quiet,” Kendra shouted, dancing on her toes. “I can be very quiet. Watch me. You’ll see. Willard can be quiet, too, can’t you, Willard?”
Willard began to bark.
Hunter rolled his eyes. So much for that. So much, also, for keeping the dog, his slobber, his dandruffy hair and his canine germs away. It was probably okay, though, and sometimes it was best not to fight the system. At least he’d gotten Kendra to pause in the bathroom to wash her hands after she got home from summer camp.
Okay. Here goes.
With a deep breath, he opened the nursery door and hoped for the best.
But of course he already had the best possible life, didn’t he?
There she was, over in the rocking chair amidst a sea of flowers, presents and balloons, with a shaft of sunlight from the open window hitting her hair just right, shooting it through with streaks of gold. Looking up from the bundle in her lap, she caught his gaze and smiled, stopping his heart the way she always did. The way she always had, since that first day.
Livia. His wife. His life.
“Hey, guys,” she said. “How was camp?”
Kendra ignored the question. Creeping forward with Willard on her heels, she accepted Livia’s kiss on the cheek and peered down at the newest member of their growing family.
“Is this the baby that was in your belly?” she breathed.
“Yes,” Livia said.
“What’s her name?”
“Jayla Marie.”
“Does she know I’m her big sister?”
Livia smoothed Kendra’s hair. “Why don’t you sit on my lap and tell her?”
Kendra didn’t need to be asked twice. Vibrating with impatience while Livia shifted Jayla to one side, she hopped up and—it figured—insisted on holding the baby herself.
“Hi, Jayla,” she cooed. “Hi, Jaaay-laaa. I’m your sister. You have to do everything I say. And leave my dinosaurs alone, okay?”
Hunter, who’d come over to keep a closer eye on Willard, who was sniffing the baby’s bare pink toes with great hope, laughed. So did Livia. Then they stared at the miracle they’d created together.
Despite all his dire warnings about being quiet so the baby could sleep, Jayla was awake, her eyes, which were an indeterminate shade somewhere between his whiskey color and Livia’s hazel, focusing on Livia and then Kendra with bright interest. Her fat fists waved. Her plump legs kicked, ruffling the skirt of her little pink dress. And her perfect rosebud of a mouth curled into a smile so beautiful he didn’t even care that it’d only been caused by gas.
He stared down at his girls, stricken silent with joy.
Livia, in that knowing way she had, glanced up and held his gaze. “Well, Daddy,” she asked, taking his hand and squeezing it, “what do you think?”
Blinking back his sudden tears, he smiled.
“I think I’m the luckiest man in the world. That’s what I think.”
Willard, taking advantage of his distraction, licked Jayla’s toes and then stared up at them both, his tongue dangling in clear agreement.
*
LOVERS PREMIERE
Adrianne Byrd
This book is dedicated to A.C. Arthur,
Ann Christopher and Brenda Jackson.
It was a pleasure working with you talented ladies.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
Prologue
Los Angeles, April 1983
“Sofia Wellesley, will you marry me?”
Ten-year-old Sofia’s amber-brown eyes sparkled at the bundle of wild daisies Ramell Jordan thrust toward her. Daisies were her favorite flower and always put an instant smile on her face—which he knew very well. As for his ridiculous question, she just rolled her eyes and pretended not to have heard it.
“For me? Thank you.” She took the flowers and shoved them under her nose so she could inhale their fresh spring scent.
Ram waited and then his wide smile crumbled into a frown when his girlfriend walked away. “Aren’t you going to answer my question?” he asked, as they strolled through the back gardens of the Wellesley estate.
“What question is that?” she asked absentmindedly, still drifting away from him in her bubble-gum-pink sundress.
“C’mon. You know.” He stopped following her and folded his arms under his chest. “I’ve only been asking you every day for the last two weeks.”
Sofia kept walking and smelling her flowers. About a minute later, Ram ran and caught up with her just like she knew he would.
“Well?” he tried again.
“I told you that I needed to think about it. Marriage is a very important decision in a girl’s life and it’s not something to be taken lightly,” she said, quoting her mother perfectly. “And just because I’ve known you all my life doesn’t mean that we’re destined to be together. We may grow up and want to see other people.”
Ram frowned. He didn’t like the sound of that. “See other people like who?”
Sofia shrugged her thin shoulders. “I don’t know. There’s like a gaz
illion people in the world.”
“You want to date a gazillion people?” he asked with his eyes practically bugging out. “Do you have any idea how long that would take?”
“I don’t know. Probably like five years.”
“Well, five years is a looooong time.”
Finally, she stopped walking and turned toward him. “Momma said that if a boy really liked you then he would wait, no matter how long it takes.”
Ram tossed up his hands. “That’s ridiculous! What am I supposed to do while you’re out dating a gazillion people—play Atari and drink juice boxes?”
“Oh stop being overly dramatic.” Sofia rolled her eyes. “You’re going to do what all boys do—work and save a lot of money.”
“Wait a minute. I work while you date other people? That hardly seems fair.”
“Oh, I’ll work, too,” she said, beaming. “I’m going to work with my dad and Uncle Jacob. I’m going to work with movie stars, directors, writers—you name it.”
“You’re going to do all that and date a gazillion people?” He rolled his eyes and then shook his head. “All of that is going to take forever. We’ll be old—like thirty or thirty-five.”
Sofia’s brows stretched upward. “Are you saying that you won’t want to marry me when I’m old?”
“What? No. I didn’t say that,” Ram backtracked. “I’m just saying that I want to marry you while you’re young, too.”
“Well we’re young now. And we see each other every day as it is so what’s the problem?”
“I didn’t think we had a problem until you said you wanted to date a gazillion people. If you can lower that number down some then maybe…”
“Okay. How about a bazillion?”
He crossed his arms and gave her a stern look. “Lower.”
“A billion.”
“Lower.”
“A million.”
“Lower.”
“Umm…a thousand?”
Ram shook his head. “No.”
“Lower than a thousand?”
“Definitely.”
“A hundred.”
“Lower.”
“Fifty.”
He paused as if it was a number he could work with but then started shaking his head. “Lower.”
“Oh, I give up. You’re being totally unreasonable.” Sofia turned and stormed toward the sprawling mansion.
“Fine. If you’re going to start dating other boys then I’m going to start dating other girls—starting with Twyla Henderson.”
Sofia stopped in her tracks and turned around. “What did you just say?”
Pleased to see that he’d finally gotten her attention, Ram thrust his chin up and puffed his chest out. “You heard me. I’m going to date Twyla Henderson. She’s pretty enough and I know for a fact that she likes me.”
“And you also know very well that I don’t like that big bully. All she does is talk bad about people and think that everyone should kiss her butt because her father knows a bunch of famous people.”
“Whatever. She’s always nice to me.” Ram turned and started to stroll in the opposite direction, mimicking one of Sofia’s slick moves. He smiled when he heard her stomping up behind him.
“Ramell Jordan, I forbid you to go out with that knock-kneed cow.”
He turned around, laughing. “Knock-kneed?”
“You heard me.” She pushed up her chin. Her anger made red splotches on her smooth brown skin.
“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “Hardly seems fair that you can date millions of people but I can’t see one girl that goes to our school.”
“You can date anybody but her!”
“Okay. How about Jill Marshall?”
Sofia’s face twisted in disgust. “The girl that makes bubbles in her milk every day at lunch? Why would you want to go out with her?”
“Connie Woods?”
Sofia opened her mouth but then closed it. She liked Connie. Everybody did. When she hesitated, Ram took her silence as a stamp of approval.
“Great! I’ll go over to her house right now. Maybe she’d like to go to the arcade or the roller rink.” He started to march off.
“Ramell Jordan, you’ll do no such thing!”
He had her now, but he quickly fixed his face so that he looked confused. “Why not?”
“Because I forbid it,” she said, as if it made all the sense in the world.
A smile ballooned across his face. “Admit it. You don’t like the idea of me dating other girls just like I don’t like the idea of you dating a gazillion boys.”
Sofia pressed her lips together like she wasn’t about to admit to any such thing.
Seeing that she was going to continue to be stubborn about the issue, Ram shrugged his shoulders and said, “Fine. I guess I’ll go see what Connie is doing.”
He took one step forward and Sofia grabbed his wrist so fast that she dropped half of her fresh-picked daisies. “Don’t go!”
Ramell cocked his head and waited for the words he wanted to hear.
“All right. Fine.” She snatched her hand back and folded it across her chest with her other one. “I don’t want you to date other girls. There. Are you happy?”
“Extremely.” He turned toward her. “So how about getting married?”
“Sofia! Dinnertime! Time to come in!” Gloria, the Wellesleys’ housekeeper, hollered out through the French doors.
Sofia’s face split into a smile. “See you tomorrow!” She turned and shot off toward the house.
“Wait!” Ram called after her, but it was no use. She was already running as fast as her long legs could carry her.
He crossed his arms dejectedly. “Women!”
*
Sofia raced into the house, laughing because she had managed to get away from Ram once again without having to answer his proposal. Of course their game would resume tomorrow and she’d have to come up with a whole new set of stall tactics. Heaven knew that she wasn’t opposed to marrying Ramell. The two times that he’d managed to sneak a kiss from her from underneath the oak tree in her backyard she actually thought it was rather nice. Sofia liked Ram. She especially liked how his dark brown eyes would shine like two new marbles when she’d let him. But they were only ten years old. What was a girl to do?
“Go on and wash up,” Gloria said, pulling her from her reverie. “Your parents are busy with something in your father’s study, but when they’re done they’ll join you and your sister in the dining room.”
Sofia nodded and then ran through the house and up the long spiral staircase to her bedroom. Once inside, she hurried over to the pink vase on top of her chest of drawers and added the four remaining wild daisies she clutched in her hand with the other ones Ram had given her this week. It was starting to look like one of the huge bouquets her father usually sent her mother.
“Mrs. Sofia Jordan.” She practiced saying the name a few times in the mirror. “Mrs. Ramell and Sofia Jordan.” It had a nice ring to it, she decided. After standing there and admiring her wildflowers for a minute, she sighed and then turned toward her adjoining bathroom to go wash her hands for dinner. On her way back down the hallway, she stopped by her sister’s bedroom to peek inside.
A year ago, when her parents first brought Rachel home, Sofia was absolutely not in favor of the whole kid-sister idea. But the moment her mother had put Rachel into her arms for her to hold for the first time, things changed. Sofia didn’t expect the new baby to be so cute and adorable. It was love at first sight. She knew from that moment on that she would be like a second mom to her sister. And so far, that’s exactly what she turned out to be.
Seeing that Rachel was still fast asleep, Sofia carefully tiptoed backwards and continued to head back downstairs. However, she hadn’t even reached the middle stair before a tide of angry voices rose from her father’s study. If she had been told once, she had been told a million times not to go into her father’s study when the door was closed. But given the amount of yelling that was
going on, her curiosity took over and the next thing she knew she was creeping into the room.
As she poked her head in, the first thing she noticed was her father’s handsome face distorted and inflamed with anger.
“You think that I don’t know what the hell is going on in my own house?”
“John, John. Calm down,” Uncle Jacob, her father’s twin, tried to pull him away from Emmett Jordan.
“No, Jacob. Wait until you hear about this…this low-life son-of—”
“JOHN,” Sofia’s mother yelled.
“This backstabber,” he yelled, “has been sneaking around here with my own wife!” His narrowed gaze shifted to his wife. “Isn’t that right, Vivian?”
“No, John!”
“Don’t lie to me!” He charged toward her, but once again Uncle Jacob jumped in and blocked his path.
Vivian gasped and stepped back.
“I know what’s going on! I’ve seen you two with my own eyes!”
Her mother dropped her head into her hands and sobbed.
Her father’s rampage continued. “Fine! You want her…you can have her. But it’ll be a cold day in hell before I let you take my children and my company away from me!”
“John, please,” Sofia’s mother wailed.
Uncle Jacob kept his hold around his brother. “Everybody just needs to calm down.”
“Calm down?” John questioned wildly as he twisted his way out of his brother’s arms. “You know what? Everybody get the hell out of my house!”
A hand landed on Sofia’s shoulders and she nearly jumped ten feet into the air.
“What are you doing in here?” Gloria hissed.
“I was just… I was…”
“Sofia?” Vivian Wellesley turned her stunned, tear-stained eyes toward her and the housekeeper. “Get her out of here!”
“Yes, ma’am.” Gloria grabbed Sofia’s arm and dragged her out of the study and shut the door.