by Donna Fasano
At first, the hostess tried to stop the woman, saying that restaurant policy did not condone customers bothering their celebrity clientele. Sean interceded by thanking the hostess for looking out for his privacy, but then graciously consented not only to having his picture taken with several fans, but he signed autographs as well.
“Hey, it comes with the turf,” Sean said, after the final woman walked off elated. “I see it this way—if it weren’t for people like these, I wouldn’t be sitting here with you now. Fans are what keep working actors afloat.”
How sweet. Jenna almost cooed. Maybe her wariness was unfounded. Maybe Sean was really a good guy.
She ordered vegetarian empanadas, and Sean insisted on adding a few more dishes from the menu.
“Don’t ask me who’s going to eat all that.”
“You need it.”
“Are you trying to say I’m too thin?” Hadn’t he just complimented her on the way she looked onstage in Chang’s dance, implying she had a great body?
“You’re perfect. I just want to sit here and watch you put things into that sexy mouth of yours.” He reached across the table and stroked a finger down her cheek.
She tried to think of a comeback, but his touch sent every coherent thought out of her head. To cover her nervousness, she took a gulp from her glass of wine (that she’d sworn she was not going to drink).
But that didn’t make him pull his hand away. Instead, he gently lifted her chin. “Do you know you have a face that could hold a camera?” The question came out like a purr. She could almost feel his voice caressing her.
Jenna clenched her teeth, trying to keep herself grounded. She focused on the delicate gold light that shed a warm glow across the white tablecloth and said in a calm, steady voice, “Tell me, Sean. What is this ‘strictly business and legitimate’ proposal that you wanted to discuss with me?”
He sat back. “As you may or may not already know, I’m one of the producers of Sunrise Lane. And we need a dancer to play a key role for the rest of the season. The dancer will be having an affair with me.” He let out a sultry chuckle. “Well, not with me, but with my character, Justin Grant. We’ve kicked around hiring an actress and using a double to do the dance sections. Pretty standard approach. But I thought I’d go take a firsthand look at some real dancers with the possibility of using one for the role. I’d almost given up on the idea—until tonight. Of course, my decision would have to be agreed to by a few other key people, but that shouldn’t be a problem. Not once they see you.”
“Me?” Was he saying what she thought?
“Lots of people tend to think that TV shows like Sunrise Lane are tossed together with casual abandon, trite constructions of some crafty Hollywood screenwriters who are only interested in putting together a slick product that will appeal to the most mundane senses of the mass public. Not true. We take pride in our work. When considering someone for a role, I want an actor who’s not merely playing a part, but embodying it. Your character would be Cassandra Dawson, an ambitious and ruthless ballerina, who moonlights as a high-class prostitute and knows how to lure in men, control them, and make them crazy about her.”
So not me. But Jenna wasn’t about to reveal to Sean that she was not only a small town girl at heart, but also the biggest pushover in the world, falling in love way too easily with powerful and seductive top dogs—like him. She couldn’t seem to stop herself from getting all starry-eyed over them. Until they revealed their true identity, going from Prince Charming to Prince Vlad The Impaler of women’s hearts. “Tall order.”
“And you can fill it. I’m not fooled by your mousey act. On stage you’re a lioness.”
“I’m not sure if that’s an insult or the biggest compliment I’ve ever had.”
He gave her one of those born-handsome grins that was no doubt half the reason for his show’s great ratings. “Believe me, it’s a compliment. And having done time on the live stage, it’s one I don’t give very often. Will you give it a shot?”
What a night. Tossed adrift by Broadway biggie Chang Mulligan, only to be rescued by prime time TV star Sean Risk. Add in her growing discontentment with her life in the ballet, and Sean’s unbelievable offer couldn’t be more serendipitous. It seemed too good to be true.
And maybe it was. Maybe this smooth-talking hunk was just playing her. “There’s a part of me that would love to make a change. But I’ve got a contract with the ballet company, and I don’t take it lightly. Are you actually offering me a job?”
“Sure am.” He raised an eyebrow. “I’ll help you get out of your contract. My agent can handle all that. Say yes, and I’ll have him draw up papers tomorrow.”
Whoa. This was for real. “I don’t know, I…” She’d wanted a change so badly, but now that it was staring her in the face, the thought of leaving the only world she knew—the one she’d fought so hard for—sent a chill through her. “Once I quit the ballet company there’s little chance they would ever take me back. Do you know how many thousands of dancers want my job?”
“Do you know how many millions of women would give their right arm for a chance at a role on a popular prime time television series?”
Jenna sighed and nodded. “Yes, I do, Sean. It’s an incredible opportunity.”
“It’s the kind of opportunity that only comes once in a lifetime.”
“But I’ve never done any acting.”
“What do you think you’re doing when you project those different moods in that solo you danced tonight? You’re a natural.”
“It does sounds fantastic and exciting, but you’ll have to give me some time to think it over.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry to push you, but my partner has an actress he’s been ready to sign for over a week now. I can’t stall him any longer. I’d like to text him tonight and tell him I’ve got the perfect woman for the role.”
“Tonight?” Jenna’s mouth went dry. Her mind raced. This was crazy. She couldn’t just jump into another career like this, one she knew nothing about. But another voice inside her head let out an exhilarated whoop, telling her to go for it. She downed another gulp of cabernet sauvignon.
The food arrived and Sean dug into a chicken and rice dish. “How do you know you won’t like acting better than dancing? I can help you get other work if your part on Sunrise doesn’t continue into next season. I know a lot of people in the business. On both coasts. And I won’t ask what you earn as a dancer, but something tells me you’d be shocked at what your rate of pay would be as an actor. Especially once you get rolling.”
“Nobody goes into dance to make money. You have to really love it. The trouble is I’m not so sure I do anymore.” Her stomach in knots, she couldn’t do any more than push her food around on her plate.
Sean touched her hand. “Pass this up and you could be kicking yourself later.”
There was no denying what Sean said. Jenna knew she’d never be offered something like this again. Aside from her feelings of frustration in her current life, the ankle strain she had last spring was a haunting reminder that there was always the chance of an injury that could end her dance career at any time and she’d have nothing to fall back on. But still… “Maybe I can get a leave of absence. The season just finished so it’s not a bad time to ask for one.”
“Is that a yes? It’s now or never, Jenna.”
She took another sip of wine, followed by the longest, deepest inhale she’d taken since that night she waited in the wings for her cue to step onstage and dance the Lilac Fairy solo in Sleeping Beauty for the first time.
She glanced up at him. “Okay. Yes. I’ll do it. I accept.”
As they toasted her decision, Jenna wondered if she’d just been offered a dream come true or if she was about to make the biggest mistake of her life.
Chapter 2
At 2:35 a.m. Aiden Flynn stood on the narrow second-story deck outside his room at Richardson’s Bed and Breakfast. He estimated the temperature to be somewhere in the high thirties, making i
t a relatively balmy night for mid-January. The sky was crystal clear this time of year, particularly here on this rural strip of land that reached over a hundred miles out into the Atlantic Ocean on the North Fork of eastern Long Island.
When he first heard a door click and saw a shadowy figure step from the room next-door onto the deck, he’d been annoyed at the intrusion, reluctant to leave his view of the Orion Nebula. Now his Celestron telescope sat on its tripod in the dark corner near the railing while his gaze locked instead on a sight even more beautiful than the night sky.
She looked like a magical fairy. A sleek and graceful figure flitting about in the dark, the soft light that radiated from the window behind her giving her a misty glow.
The full sleeves of her white kimono-style robe billowed out like gauzy wings as she flapped her arms and pivoted about, her long dark hair dancing against her shoulders. The waist-high fence dividing his deck from the adjoining one hid her legs from him, making her appear to be flying.
A sudden urge seized him. He had to see the rest of her. He told himself it was only to know if her feet touched the ground.
The moment he took a step toward her, she gasped and stopped moving. She looked directly at him, her face a perfect pale oval in the near dark. Something in her wide brown eyes touched a part of him that he’d thought was long gone—and brought home the weight of his loneliness.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Did I startle you?”
She crossed her arms protectively over her chest. “I forgot someone else might be out here. It’s off-season. In the winter I’m usually the only one on this floor during weeknights.”
“Aren’t you cold?”
“No. Yes. Well, it’s why I came outside. To get the cold air in my lungs. It’s invigorating. And frankly, right now I need that to make my body feel alive. Combats my anxiety. Brings out the animal in me. You know, as in, grrrrr.”
“Actually, I think it’s more like brrrrr.”
She smiled, tilting her head. The light splashed over a childlike face, fine-boned and delicate in its perfection. “Guess I look pretty dumb hopping all around like this. Kind of embarrassing.”
Dumb? Beautiful was more like it. He couldn’t help staring. Yes, her bare feet touched the ground. And her mid-thigh robe revealed long, bare legs with well-defined muscles that weren’t lost on Aiden. He was an obsessive runner and worshipped at the shrine of the sculpted thigh. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”
“You were here first.” She shivered and shifted on her feet, shaking out her hands, and he noticed her little dance was not a happy one.
“Is something wrong?”
“Um, this scary thing started happening.”
The tremor that crept into her voice made him step closer. “Anything I can do to help?” Aiden hoped his tone was solid and comforting enough to make her open up to him. For some reason he badly needed her to do that.
She shrugged, and the collar of her loose, silky robe slipped off to one side, revealing a lean, ivory shoulder that nearly unraveled him. He changed his mind and decided it was time to back away, to just let the conversation die.
But then she came toward him and said in an almost desperate tone, “I couldn’t sleep and then my chest got all tight and my heart went kind of nuts and, um…”
“Hey, I’m the king of insomniacs. I’ve read just about every book on how to get to sleep.”
“Really? Did you ever hear of counting your breaths to make yourself drowsy?”
“Sure.”
“I was doing that. But I got to thinking if I don’t keep paying attention to each and every breath I might forget to breathe. In which case, if I fell asleep, I’d stop breathing and never wake up. Crazy, huh?” She bit her lower lip, then started pacing and shaking her hands, her voice thin and trembling, increasing in pitch. “It’s happening again. My heart’s racing, and my arms are tingling. I feel like I can’t control my breathing, like it’s going to—”
“Medulla oblongata.”
Her feet stilled, and she turned to him. “What?”
“The part of your brain stem that controls all your involuntary functions. Like breathing. Even if you deliberately forced yourself to stop, you’d just faint and start breathing all over again. The body was made to survive. Takes a lot more than scary thoughts to close the show.”
Her gaze fell on him through the darkness, and Aiden could feel her wide eyes assessing him. He almost wanted to turn away, go back to his telescope and hide. But then she might go back in her room and he’d never see her again. And for some reason that mattered to him.
“Makes sense,” she finally said, then continued in a self-deprecating tone. “And here I was convinced I was dying. To think I got an A in biology class.”
“Sounds like you just had a panic attack. Irrational fears. Impending doom.”
“That’s me, all right.” She let out a self-conscious giggle that was half gawky girl, half sexy woman. Like her body.
The combination got under his skin in a way that surprised him. He hadn’t paid much attention to any women since his beloved Wendy had left this world. Sure, he’d had sex now and then. What man could go five years without it? But he’d kept it all on the surface. Never let anyone breach his protective wall. So how come those huge brown eyes focused on him now were searing straight through to his core?
“You get them, too, don’t you?” she asked, her soft, earnest voice like velvet against his skin. “That’s how you know.”
“Used to.” Yeah, after seeing his whole world fall apart and being totally powerless to stop it, he knew what it was to have fear take over. “But I got pretty slick at deflecting them. I learned to switch my focus. I’d think of stuff like… peanut butter and chocolate brownies.”
“Brownies?”
“Gooey and rich. With walnuts. The kind my grandma used to make.”
“Riiight.”
“So cynical.”
“So corny.”
He shrugged. “Okay, I made up the part about Granny.”
“Ha! I could tell your were fibbing.”
“Oh, she made cakes once in a while, but they sucked. Terrible cook. Not your proverbial grandmother.”
Beautiful, bell-like laughter burst out, but she quickly cupped her hand to her mouth.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t want to wake up the other guests.”
“I am the ‘other guests.’ And as you can see I’m already awake.”
She pointed a finger upward. “There’s a nice couple staying on the third floor. And they look like the kind of people who actually go to sleep at night.”
He shook his head. “Think what they’re missing. Stars overhead, panic attacks. How’s yours doing now, by the way?”
Her rosebud mouth formed an O. “You made me forget all about it. Thank you.”
They stared at each other a moment, and Aiden couldn’t think of anything he wanted more right now than to kiss those full, sweet lips. He looked away.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Aiden Flynn.”
“Well, Aiden, I’ve got a hot tip for you on brownies. My sister’s best friend, Natalie D’Alessio, owns the Coffee Cove down on Cove Street, and she makes the most outrageous brownies.”
“You’re a local girl?”
She nodded. “I’m Jenna Richardson.”
“Related to the woman who owns this B&B?”
“She’s my mother. I grew up in this house. But it was a farmhouse till I was ten, not a B&B.” She heaved a sigh. “I’m kind of back home for a while. You know that TV show called Sunrise Lane?”
“Sure. That’s the one they shoot in the Hamptons.”
“Well, I’m going to be in it.”
“You’re an actress.”
“Not really. I’m a dancer, a soloist for American Ballet Theater. Or I was until two weeks ago. I’m on a leave of absence from the company for three months. I got really confused about my life and decided to make a ch
ange. To try out a new profession.”
“That’s brave.”
She gave him a sheepish look. “Truth is, I caught a huge lucky break. Sean Risk, the star of the series, is also one of the producers. He saw me perform, asked me out for dinner, and before dessert arrived he offered me a role on the show.”
In return for? An unbidden surge of protectiveness—and jealousy—sprang up in Aiden. He forced it back with the reminder that he wasn’t looking for a woman. And this magical female creature would never want him anyway. Even if she didn’t have a movie star courting her. “That’s really fabulous.”
“Exactly. So why am I so freaked out?”
“Maybe because there’s so much to lose.”
Jenna combed her fingers through her long sable hair. “You aren’t kidding. What if I bomb? Ballet is all I know. It’s been my life since forever. What if I mess up my lines tomorrow? What if the ratings go down because I’m so bad? What if Sean hates me for ruining his show? What if—”
“Whoa.” He stop-signed his hands. “You’re a runaway train. There’s your panic attack.” He gestured at the night sky. “The universe is filled with what-ifs. There are always things beyond our control. Take it from one who knows what it’s like to try and rail against the forces of nature. After a point you have to surrender your attempts at control and enjoy the ride. Or in some cases… suffer through it.”
Jenna smirked. “The C word. I know it all too well. Dance is all about control. It’s about practicing something over and over and over until I get it right. Or analyzing a flaw in my technique and working my tail off to correct it. The perfect career for those of us who are never satisfied. Letting go of that is like trying to break an addiction. I’m afraid something terrible will happen if I let go. But sometimes it feels like a prison.” She twisted her fingers together. A troubled gesture that made his heart melt.
They stood so close now, one on either side of the fence, that if he bent forward he could bury his face in her hair. Instead, he inhaled the scent of her coconut shampoo, wondering if she knew how beautiful she was.
