Love in the Limelight Volume Two: Seduced on the Red CarpetLovers Premiere

by Ann Christopher

“I think I just experienced déjà vu. It seems like we just had this conversation.”

  “We did just have this conversation,” Rachel said. “Ramell did get married.”

  “To who?”

  “To you!”

  “Me!” Sofia laughed, slapping a hand over her forehead. “Don’t be silly! Where would you get that ridiculous idea?”

  “But…wasn’t that him who just answered the phone?” Rachel asked.

  “No…that was…” Sofia drew a blank. “That was…” The floating baritone resurfaced in her mind. Who was that? Her head swiveled to the left, over to the huge lump that was buried beneath the covers.

  “Sofia?” Rachel inquired.

  Sofia didn’t answer, mainly because her heart had now found a new home in the center of her throat. With her head still pounding and her hand sweating, she reached out and grabbed the top of the comforter and slowly started to pull it off from whatever or whoever was lying beside her. When the bedding inched away and revealed Ram’s peaceful sleeping face, she screamed, dropped the phone and scooted sideways so fast that she toppled out of bed and hit the floor with a thud.

  Ram jumped up like a toasted Pop-Tart. “What? What’s going on? What’s happening?” His head swiveled around while his hands went into instant defense mode like he was about to karate chop the first thing he saw.

  “What are you doing in my bed?” Sofia barked.

  Ram’s head jerked to his right, but when he saw the bed empty, he had to lean all the way over to the heap piled on the floor. “What are you doing down there?”

  “I asked you first.” Not until his gaze began to roam over her did he realize that she was naked. “Close your eyes!”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. I said close your eyes!” He started laughing at her. “Now!”

  He tossed up his hand and closed his eyes. “All right. All right. They’re closed. Are you happy?”

  Sofia reached up and snatched the comforter from off the bed and covered herself. “I’m still waiting for an answer,” she snapped. “What the hell are you doing in my bed?” It no longer mattered that her head felt like it had its own personal jackhammer drilling away or that in her fall she jerked the telephone cord out of the wall socket. She needed answers and she needed them now.

  “Well?”

  “I don’t think that I understand the question,” he said, leisurely lying down on his side. “I know that I’m a little hungover right now, but I definitely remember you inviting me into this bed.”

  “I most certainly did not!”

  “You most certainly did. When I carried you into the suite, I asked you ‘My bedroom or yours?’ and you said, ‘You choose.’ Then I said, ‘Let’s start off in your bedroom. Maybe we’ll go to mine on round two.’

  Sofia gasped. “Liar!”

  “What?” He laughed, not taking her charge seriously. “You even suggested that there might be a round three. Which there wasn’t, by the way.”

  Her eyes grew larger with each word he said. “Are you saying that we…me and you…had sex?”

  Ram’s frown deepened as if he didn’t know how to take this strange interrogation. “Well, I guess that would depend on your definition of sex.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, we definitely flew past first, second and maybe even third base. It was sliding into home where we sort of fell apart.”

  Sofia grabbed her head. She was still having a hard time trying to process any of this. “But why…? I don’t understand. Why would I…? Why would we…?”

  “Well, it is what most people do after they get married.”

  “Get married?” She jumped up onto her feet but forgot the comforter.

  Ramell’s smile returned when his gaze caressed her small curves. “No worries. We can easily just pick up where we left off,” he said, peeling back the sheets so that she could see that he was hard and ready.

  Sofia gasped, but her eyes zoomed in on Ram’s thick and sizable member. For a moment she experienced a surge of recognition.

  He started patting the bed. “Don’t worry. I won’t bite…unless you want me to.”

  His body was like a huge magnet and Sofia felt herself pulling toward him. But she quickly slammed her eyes closed and tried to shake off whatever spell or voodoo had come over her. “This is not happening,” she recited to herself. “This has to be a dream…or a nightmare…or something.”

  “Careful,” he warned. “I think you’re on the verge of hurting my feelings.”

  Sofia’s eyes flew back open and, sure enough, Ram was still lying on the bed in his beautiful birthday suit. “Oh, my God.” She dropped down and snatched up the comforter again. But it was one sudden move too many. Her stomach rolled while her gag reflexes were activated. She dragged the comforter up with one hand and then slapped the other hand across her mouth to buy a little more time while she raced toward the bathroom.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  She didn’t get far before tripping over the long comforter so she dropped it and continued her race toward the toilet. Once there, she dropped to her knees and proceeded to expel the many drinks she consumed the previous evening. “Oh, God,” she moaned when she managed a half of a second to breathe. A moment later, she was hit with another wave of soured alcohol.

  “Poor baby.” Ram retrieved a face towel from one of the racks and quickly wet it with cool water. Once he had wrung it out, he made it over to the toilet and started pressing it against Sofia’s hot face and neck.

  Sofia glanced over at him and was relieved and a little disappointed that he’d put on a pair of boxer shorts before coming in to help her.

  “Shh. It’s going to be all right,” he assured her while he pulled her long hair out of the way. “Just try to take deep breaths.”

  She closed her eyes and tried to follow his instructions. When the towel started to warm, he rushed back over to the sink and ran cold water over it again. It took a while before everything started to settle down and she was able to look up at him. “Are we really married?”

  He nodded. “If memory serves me correct.”

  She didn’t know whether to throw up again or start crying. How could something like this happen? Why couldn’t she remember… “Wait. Was it by a black Elvis impersonator?”

  A smile lit Ram’s face. “Aww. You do remember.”

  Sofia turned back toward the toilet and threw up.

  *

  An hour later, Ramell helped bring his hungover wife back from the brink of sickness. He pumped her full of fruit juice and crackers to get her amino acids up. After that he gave her some Excedrin for her headache and then helped her to the shower. Through it all, he had to admit that he liked taking care of her. While she was in the shower, he ordered himself a minibuffet since they had missed both breakfast and lunch.

  He started cleaning up the bedroom while he waited. It was busy work so that he didn’t have to think about what Sofia would say once she came out of the shower. Judging by her reaction to the news of their marriage, he had very little hope that they would reach their two-day anniversary.

  He plugged the phone back into the wall just as the bathroom door swung open. Ram looked up to see Sofia draped beneath a white hotel robe that was at least two sizes too big. Even with her hair wet and no makeup, she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever known.

  “We need to talk,” she said.

  “I had a feeling you were going to say that.”

  The phone rang. He picked it up because it was already in his hands. “Hello.”

  “Ramell,” Jacob Wellesley roared. “What’s this I hear about you marrying my niece?”

  “Uh, Jacob! Hello!” He glanced over at Sofia.

  Her eyes bugged out as she started shaking her head.

  “Well?” Jacob demanded.

  Ram couldn’t tell whether his new business partner was mad or just sincerely wanted an explanation. “Yes, sir. About that, I’m sure it has come
as a bit of a shock but—”

  “Shock? Hell, I’m wondering what on earth took you so long!”

  “Yes, I, um… What did you just say?”

  “I said that it took you too damn long.” Jacob laughed. “I can’t tell you enough how thrilled Lily and I are about this latest development.”

  “Oh, really?” He looked back over at Sofia who was now mouthing questions to Ramell, trying to figure out what her uncle was saying.

  “This just means that I made the right decision in merging our companies together. Plus, it means that our business is still technically family-owned. I have to be frank with you, I’ve been up nights worried about all of this. Now I feel as if a giant load has been taken off my shoulders.”

  “It does?” he asked.

  “What?” Sofia whispered, creeping over to him.

  Jacob continued. “I was up every night. Doing this deal made me feel like I was somehow stabbing Sofia in the back. She has worked very hard in the company and in a lot of ways I should have made her full partner years ago. At the same time, all those hours she puts in had us all worried. Now that you two are going to officially be a team, well…I know that you’re going to look after her best interest and not let her take on too much. Frankly, I think you are a godsend.”

  Ram smiled. “I can’t tell you how much it means to me to hear you say that, Jacob.”

  “You love her, don’t you?” Jacob asked.

  Ram’s gaze caressed Sofia’s face while he spoke from the bottom of his heart. “For as long as I can remember.”

  “I knew it!” Jacob’s laughter thundered through the phone so loud that Ram had to pull it away from his ear for a second. “Is she there right now? Her aunt and I would love to talk to her.”

  “Yes. She’s right here.”

  Sofia shook her head and backed up.

  “He wants to talk to you,” Ram insisted.

  “No. No.” Ram thrust the phone under her ear. “Noooo— Hi, Uncle Jacob.” She forced a smile into her voice, but gave Ram an evil look.

  “Congratulations, Sofia,” Uncle Jacob boasted. “I was just telling your husband how thrilled your aunt and I are about this wonderful news! Even though I question the venue you and Ramell selected. A black Elvis impersonator?”

  “What? How did you—”

  “It’s all over the news. The media followed Akil Hutton and his new girlfriend there thinking that they were about to get hitched and instead got tons of footage of you and Ramell getting married. It’s a little unconventional, I admit, but it looks like it was a lot of fun.”

  “We were on the news?” Her gaze shot back over to Ram.

  “Don’t look at me,” he hissed. “You’re the one that proposed to me.”

  Sofia covered her hand over the phone. “What?”

  He shrugged. “I take it you don’t remember that part, either.”

  “Clearly. I was drunk out of my mind,” she hissed. “Why didn’t you stop me?”

  “You seemed fine to me. Besides, I was drinking, too,” he reminded her.

  “Hold on, Sofia,” Uncle Jacob interrupted her next retort. “Your Aunt Lily wants to talk to you.”

  “Wait, Uncle Jacob.”

  “Sofia?” Her aunt’s soft voice drifted over the line. “Baby, is that you?”

  Sighing, Sofia dropped down onto the bed. “Yes, Aunt Lily. It’s me.”

  “Baby, I’m so happy for you,” she sniffed. “I’ve always suspected that you two had strong feelings for each other. And I prayed for so long that someday you both would get together.”

  Sofia frowned. “You did?”

  Her aunt laughed. “Please. I think we all did. I remember back in the day that boy must’ve proposed to you every day of the week. Your mother and I used to find it adorable.”

  The mention of her mother instantly brought up many conflicting emotions that glossed her eyes with tears.

  “Aww. You used to tease that boy mercilessly,” Lily said. “Personally, I’m thrilled that he hung in there. You two are perfect for each other—but for a while it seemed like you were determined not to realize it.”

  Sofia didn’t understand where all this was coming from. People thought that she and Ramell were perfect for each other? Sure, once upon a time she used to fantasize that one day they would get married, but that was a long time ago. She was only a child.

  “Aunt Lily, I think that there’s something I should tell—”

  “The only thing I hate is that we all couldn’t be there—Elvis impersonator and all.”

  “Yeah. About that—”

  “So you have to let me throw you two a big reception. It’ll be tight since we’re still planning Rachel’s wedding and all, but you have to let me do this. I’ve been looking forward to this day for so long.”

  A long pause hung over the phone while Sofia tried to come up with the right words. Instead of admitting that she was just seconds from telling Ram that she wanted an annulment, she said, “We would love for you to throw us a reception, Aunt Lily.” Her gaze jumped back up, this time to see Ram’s startled face. “Nothing would make us happier.”

  Chapter 11

  While Ramell and Sofia headed to Los Angeles, they were still dancing around just how they were going to handle this whole marriage thing. Their cell phones and emails were overflowing with congratulatory messages from friends, colleagues, studio executives and even tabloid magazines and bloggers. For a moment, they were being treated as if they were celebrities themselves. The embarrassing part was just how much of their wild night was documented.

  In a world of camera phones, it seemed that everywhere and everything they did that night ended up somewhere on the web. Ramell made it clear that he liked the ones with her dancing on club tables. For Sofia, it was the video of Ramell’s debut strip performance.

  “I would’ve gone Full Monty if you would’ve let me,” Ram said while he flew them into the private airport.

  “That would have played well on Entertainment Tonight,” she chuckled.

  “I want to know why you stopped me,” he said, glancing over at her.

  “Maybe because even in my drunken state I realized that we needed to hold on to some dignity.”

  “Or maybe you didn’t want to share me with all those other women,” Ram suggested. “I kind of like the idea of you being possessive.”

  “Oh, please.” She straightened herself in her seat while her fingers flew across her iPad. She was rapidly transforming back into her old self, with her ever-present Bluetooth hooked onto her ear and her ability to type ninety words while still holding a separate conversation.

  Ram shook his head. “Do you have to do that now?”

  “Do what?”

  “Work. We have a lot of stuff to figure out, Mrs. Jordan.”

  Her fingers tripped over themselves at the sound of her new title. She wanted to be irritated, but the truth of the matter was that her heart quickened a little bit whenever he called her Mrs. Jordan and parts of her even tingled a little. What the hell is going on? She glanced over at him and met his smiling eyes. One thing was for sure, Ram certainly didn’t seem bothered by landing himself a new wife at all.

  She forced her gaze away and coughed. “What sort of stuff do we need to figure out?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Things like…where are we going to live?”

  “What?”

  “You don’t think that it might be a little strange if we return home and go back to living in separate houses?”

  “I guess that’s a good point,” she conceded, and then thought about it for a moment. “How about my place?”

  “You live in a high-rise.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “So. Now that we’re a married couple maybe a house is more appropriate?”

  “Meaning your house,” she said, crossing her arms.

  “I do happen to have one available,” he reasoned. “And you don’t have to worry, I have excellent taste. It’s not your run-of-the-mill bach
elor pad.”

  “Says you.”

  “Says everyone. It was actually featured in Architectural Digest last summer. Of course, I had to take down the sex swing, but if you want we can get it out of the attic.”

  Her head whipped back over to him.

  “It was a joke. Ha. Ha. We’re supposed to laugh at jokes, remember?” Ram reached over and elbowed her playfully. “You really need to learn how to lighten up.”

  “Have you ever thought that maybe you play too much?” she challenged. Now she had to try to get the image of her riding on his swing out of her mind, even though she was partly intrigued.

  “One can never play too much, sweetheart.”

  It was the endearments that were doing her in. Baby, sweetheart, honey, Mrs. Jordan. Each one sounded and felt like a lover’s caress and was undoing the foundation of everything she thought she knew about herself.

  “So would you like to go out with me when we get back home?” Ram asked.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Well, it sort of just occurred to me that despite our knowing each other for all our lives, we haven’t officially gone out on a date.”

  “We don’t have to date.” Sofia shook her head. “We’re married now.”

  He laughed. “Yeah. I guess we sort of put the cart before the horse here. But I’d like to take you out. Plus, I hear that married couples are bringing dating back with a vengeance.”

  She shook her head but a smile curved across her lips.

  “Does that mean we have a date?”

  Sofia tried to stifle the small flurry of excitement fluttering in the pit of her stomach. Why was she feeling like this and why couldn’t she stop it? Self-discipline was something she prided herself on, but since Ram charged back into her life it’d been more or less thrown out of the window entirely.

  “Yes? No? Maybe so?” he asked.

  “Well where do you plan on taking me?”

  “Ah. Ah. Ah.” He took his hand off the controls to wave a finger in front of her. “I want it to be a surprise.”

  She lifted her eyebrows but still couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. “All right. Fine. May I at least know when this postmarriage date is going to take place?”

  “Sure. How about tomorrow night?”