Illusions of Love

by Michelle Betham

  ‘There are things you don’t know about Dominic MacDonald, India. Things that, maybe, you should know.’

  She stopped walking again and swung round to face him. ‘Like what?’

  ‘Can you trust him?’

  ‘What are you trying to say here, Michael?’

  ‘I’m asking if you can trust him. So, can you?’

  ‘I don’t know him well enough to have those kinds of feelings for him. What is this, Michael?’

  He moved closer to her, reaching out to gently touch her check, stroking it with the back of his hand. ‘I just don’t want to see you hurt, India.’

  She looked up into those blue, blue eyes of his. ‘Nobody’s going to hurt me.’

  He gave a small laugh, pulling his hand away, still staring at her. ‘I’ll see you on set.’

  There was no point in telling her anything just yet. Hopefully he’d sown a seed of doubt, planted something there in her mind that would prevent her from getting any closer to Dominic MacDonald, and then when this man – this uninvited guest – finally tripped himself up and the truth came out, India would back away from him faster than he could ever anticipate. And Michael would step in, play the shocked and stunned long-lost father confronted with this son he never knew he had – he’d play the innocent victim, and make sure that Dominic looked like the liar he was. A man who’d kept this big secret from India, when he really should have told her everything. But he hadn’t. And that was his first mistake.

  ***

  ‘She suspects something, doesn’t she?’ Charley asked, pulling her knees up to her chest as she sat on the sofa in Kenny’s apartment within The Amber Palace. She felt drained and exhausted with the effort it was taking to pretend everything was alright, when it was so far from that.

  Spending her life looking over her shoulder, jumping at every random noise, every shadow, every time she heard footsteps behind her; it was wearing her down. And not being able to share any of it with Vince, having to shut him out of her life almost until she knew exactly what was going on, it was so tiring. Even Lily could tell something wasn’t right with her mum, and that was the worst thing of all.

  ‘India isn’t stupid,’ Kenny said, sitting down next to Charley, handing her a mug of coffee. ‘Well, not when it comes to things like this she isn’t, anyway.’

  Charley looked at him. ‘Does this thing with her and Dominic bother you that much?’

  He sighed, pushing a hand through his hair. ‘It doesn’t bother me at all, Charley. Not really. I just worry about her, that’s all. I love her like crazy, y’know? And I’m just scared that she’s getting herself into something with Dominic that she doesn’t really understand. It’s like… it’s like she always has this need to be with someone when I wish she’d just take a step back and spend some time getting her head together. The last thing she needs at the minute is some mixed-up relationship with her co-star. Especially one with a reputation like his.’

  ‘She doesn’t really know him all that well, does she?’

  ‘No. She doesn’t. But you know India. She has a habit of jumping into these things without thinking anything through first. I just don’t trust him.’

  Charley smiled at him. ‘You don’t trust anyone she gets involved with, Kenny.’

  He couldn’t help smiling back. ‘No. I don’t suppose I do.’

  Charley stared into her coffee. The only time she felt safe was when she escaped up here to Kenny’s apartment. She didn’t even feel safe at home, with Vince, because she couldn’t talk to him about any of this, she couldn’t be herself, she couldn’t get things off her chest, and that was hard. But Kenny made everything seem so much easier to cope with because she could open up to him, let it all out. Tell him how she really felt. ‘I’m scared, Kenny.’

  He gently took the coffee out of her hands, placing it on the table in front of them. ‘Come here, come on.’

  He pulled her into his arms for a hug and she clung onto him, grateful for the warmth and security that something so simple could give her right now.

  ‘I know that me constantly telling you it’s going to be okay isn’t really helping but, I will try and make sure that it is okay, Charley. I promise you that.’

  She held onto him tight, her arms around his waist as he kissed the top of her head. She just wanted to close her eyes and forget any of this was happening. She just wanted to stay there, and forget.

  ‘But what if it isn’t, Kenny? What if this all goes wrong… what if Jimmy’s after some kind of sick revenge?’

  ‘Hey, come on.’ He tilted up her chin so she was looking right at him, her tired and frightened eyes meeting his. ‘You can’t think like that, honey. You can’t…’

  And he hadn’t intended for what happened next to happen, neither of them had, but it was like something was pushing them together, some invisible force they had no control over. And as his mouth gently touched hers she responded as though it was the most natural thing in the world, an action that had almost always been on the cards from the second she’d told him about Jimmy’s reappearance.

  It was a slow, gentle kiss, a kiss that had now transcended that barrier between friendship and whatever else was there on the other side, because neither Kenny nor Charley were entirely sure what that was. All they knew was that they needed each other – for different reasons, maybe, but they needed each other. And whether those reasons were right or wrong, neither of them really cared. Charley needed the safety that Kenny could give her, and Kenny needed the distraction that Charley could provide. And together, that could only spell out one hell of a lot of trouble.

  CHAPTER 20

  India lay on top of Dominic, the heat of the Las Vegas evening hitting their naked bodies through the open window as they kissed like a couple of teenagers in the aftermath of first-time sex.

  For the past couple of days they’d been more than aware of the ever-increasing gossip surrounding their “did they or didn’t they?” sex scene, as everyone was calling it, and that same question had now hit the headlines with newspapers, magazines and entertainment shows going all out to keep it a much-talked-about subject. All India knew for sure was that the studio itself was in raptures over the publicity it was giving a movie that had yet to finish shooting.

  They wanted to make sure this one ran and ran, and both she and Dominic had been told to keep the mystery, let nothing out of the bag, don’t let anyone know the exact truth – even the studio bosses didn’t want to know what had really gone on. And it wasn’t what India had wanted to happen, but it had, and they should have known from the second they’d done what they had that this was the way things would turn out. They’d lost control, and now they were headline news.

  ‘I don’t even think Michael had any real intention of actually putting that scene in the finished movie,’ India said, resting her chin on her hands as she lay on Dominic’s chest.

  ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘He set it up. The whole thing. Me and you. He’s done this kind of thing before; I know the way his mind works.’

  ‘But, why?’ Dominic asked, gently stroking India’s back, running his fingers lightly up and down her spine.

  ‘Who can tell? He’s a very complex man is Michael Walsh.’

  Dominic knew that only too well. ‘Does he get some kind of a kick, watching you with other men?’

  ‘No. Completely the opposite I would have thought.’

  Dominic wondered if Michael had any idea that he’d watched his own son being so intimate with his ex-wife. Because he couldn’t wait to lay that one out in front of him.

  ‘He’s gonna have to put it in the movie now though, isn’t he?’ India sighed.

  ‘Does that bother you?’

  ‘Jesus, Dominic, come on! I’d be lying if I said it didn’t. We know what we did out there, we know what happened, and I can’t say I’m excited by the prospect of Christ knows how many millions of people watching us.’

  ‘I am,’ he smiled, moving his hand down into the small of h
er back, his fingers still stroking her skin with small, circular motions. ‘That’s one hell of a freakin’ turn on in my eyes.’

  ‘Dominic!’ she laughed, gently punching his arm.

  ‘I think we should go ask to watch the rushes. Just you and me, alone, in that screening room... watching you and me, up there on the big screen…’

  ‘You’re a bastard.’ But she smiled as she said it; she couldn’t help it. Part of her was just as turned on as he was at that thought because that’s what this man did to her. He turned her on. Too much. And now look at the consequences.

  ‘And while we’re watching you and me…’ he whispered, his mouth so close to hers, ‘… we could re-live it, all over again.’

  ‘I can’t keep up with you,’ she groaned, feeling him hard against her thigh, her whole body tingling with anticipation. A never-ending anticipation.

  ‘Oh, I think you’re doing a brilliant job, beautiful.’

  She closed her eyes as his lips touched hers in a long, slow kiss, and for a few brief seconds she wished the rest of the world would just go away and leave them alone, let them get to know each other without all the publicity and media that was now surrounding them, ten-fold to what it had been before they’d recklessly decided to do what they’d done a few days ago.

  She pulled away from him slightly, looking into those incredible eyes of his. ‘What’s happening here, Dominic? I mean, everyone’s talking about you and me and yet, we don’t even know where we really stand with each other. Do we? Everyone’s got us down as a couple …’

  ‘Easy mistake to make, India.’

  She ran her fingers over his rough chin, watching them as they traced his jaw line, touched his slightly open mouth. ‘Is that what we are? A mistake?’

  He shook his head, gently stroking her waist, his other hand taking hold of hers, wrapping his fingers tightly around it. This was it. The moment when he chose to either see this game out the way he’d originally intended and walk away from all of this before he got in too deep, or listen to his heart and enter into a situation he’d never experienced before. Would it really complicate things? When the truth finally came out? Jesus, of course it would!

  ‘What’s the matter?’ India asked, sensing he’d gone off into a world of his own.

  Should he tell her? Now? Should he tell her the truth? Before he confronted Michael? No. He had to do one thing right; he had to talk to Michael first before he even thought about telling anyone else. If he told anyone else. Because they were playing this by his rules. Whatever Michael felt was irrelevant.

  ‘Nothing’s the matter,’ he smiled, stroking her fingers, bringing them up to his mouth and kissing them. ‘So, let’s say we give them what they want, huh?’ He sat up, keeping her astride him, holding her round the waist as she knelt up, stroking the hair from her eyes as she looked into his. ‘Me and you. A couple. Together. Do you think you could go with that?’

  She couldn’t help smiling. She felt like she was back in high school, embarking on her first real relationship with the hottest guy in class. ‘Yeah. I can go with that.’

  ‘Good. That’s good, baby, because something’s happening here, and I don’t know what that is exactly, but… I’m kinda excited to find out.’

  She stared into those almost mesmerizing blue eyes of his, her stomach flipping over a thousand times a second as his mouth touched hers and she just wanted to lose herself in him, stay there in his arms and learn everything there was to know about this insanely handsome man.

  But, if she knew the truth about Dominic MacDonald, knew who he really was, and just why he’d made a play for her in the first place – even if his reasons had changed dramatically now – would she still want to be with him?

  ***

  Vince watched Charley from the back of the bedroom, watched as she slowly applied her make-up, ready to join everyone else in one of The Amber Palace’s larger nightclubs to celebrate India’s forty-third birthday.

  She’d changed a little over the past few days. She’d become more like the Charley he knew; she was smiling, seemed more relaxed, although that was only when he saw her. And that still wasn’t all that often. Either the salon needed her or there was paperwork to be done, and this just wasn’t the way Vince had envisaged her visit to Vegas panning out. He’d thought they’d be hanging out together, even if that meant her being with him on the film set, but she didn’t even seem to want to watch her best friend at work. As far as he knew she’d visited the set just once since she’d arrived, stayed for an hour, then left again. Kenny had promised to talk to her but so far he’d come back with nothing that explained any of his wife’s erratic behaviour. So maybe it was time for him to confront her himself.

  ‘Are you hiding something from me, Charley?’

  Charley stopped what she was doing and swung round on her stool, looking at Vince, trying her hardest to paint a smile on her face that she hoped would satisfy him. ‘Hiding something? Why… why would I be hiding something from you, Vince?’

  ‘You think you’ve been acting normally since you arrived from L.A. then, do you?’

  She kept staring at him, because looking away would only serve to make him more suspicious. But she couldn’t stop the feeling of nervous tension in her stomach, tying itself up in knots, almost making her breathless. ‘Things… things have just been a little crazy, Vince. You know how it is. You know how busy I’ve been.’

  He leant back against the wall, folding his arms, not taking his eyes off her. ‘Which is why I thought that, once you got to Vegas, you’d want to relax. You’d want to take some time out, to be with me.’

  ‘I do want to be with you.’

  ‘You do? Because, you’ve got a really strange way of showing that, honey. I think I can probably count on one hand the amount of waking hours we’ve actually spent together.’

  Charley felt the panic rise up in her, mentally trying to push it aside, knowing she had to do something to placate him, and quick. Otherwise he was going to push her to the point where she had no choice left but to tell him the truth. And that couldn’t happen. He couldn’t know about Jimmy; for the sake of their marriage, their daughter – their life together – he couldn’t know about Jimmy. She didn’t want him in that position. She didn’t want him in that danger.

  She stood up and walked over to him, taking his hand in hers and squeezing it, willing him to hold her and he did, sliding an arm round her waist, pulling her close.

  ‘I’ve missed you so much, Charley. You’ve been here and yet, I’ve missed you.’

  She looked up at him. Her handsome, strong, wonderful husband. She really didn’t like shutting him out, but it was necessary. In her mind it was the only thing to do right now. Kenny had everything under control.

  Thinking about Kenny, and what had happened between them – what was happening between them – was something else she had to push to the back of her mind and she closed her eyes for a brief second, blacking out the memory, letting her husband kiss her in a way she hadn’t let him kiss her in a long time, shutting everything else out.

  ‘Okay, now, that’s the Charley I know and love,’ Vince smiled, holding her tight against him. ‘Where’s she been, huh?’

  Charley smiled back, running her fingers through his hair, trying to pretend everything else wasn’t happening, that it was all normal and just as it should be. Even if it wasn’t. But it could be, for a little while. If she let it. ‘It doesn’t matter where she’s been, Vince. Just that she’s back.’

  Oh, God, she wanted everything to go back to that status quo she was so used to. The normality and routine she’d gotten used to living, she wanted that so badly. But until Jimmy Cash showed his hand she couldn’t do anything other than live her life looking over her shoulder. Outside of this room, anyway. But here she was with a man who loved her beyond anything else, and she needed him. She really needed him.

  ‘I thought I was losing you,’ Vince whispered, slowly slipping the straps of her dress down over her shou
lders.

  ‘Oh, baby, you’re not losing me.’ Is that what he’d honestly thought? That something was going on with someone else? Her mind quickly wandered back to Kenny and she tried to shut that memory out again, because whatever had gone on there, it had meant nothing. It was just something they’d both needed for their own private reasons, and they understood that. So it wasn’t wrong, was it? It wasn’t wrong when there was no intention of anyone else ever finding out. When all they were doing was comforting one another in the only way they could. Yeah, Charley, you keep telling yourself that. ‘I promise you, Vince. You aren’t losing me.’

  And that was all he needed to know, for now. As long as he knew it was nothing to do with him, then that was fine. That was okay. But Vince Maine wasn’t stupid, and he wasn’t’ naïve enough to think that whatever she was telling him was the whole truth, because he knew it wasn’t. He knew Charley inside out now; he could tell when something was on her mind, and something was on her mind big time right now. And Vince would do everything in his power to find out just what that something was.

  CHAPTER 21

  ‘Happy birthday my darling,’ Reece smiled, kissing India on both cheeks then standing back to take a look at his beautiful daughter. Dressed in the simplest of outfits – skinny jeans, strapless black top and spike-heeled ankle boots, her blond hair piled messily on top of her head – she looked incredible.

  ‘You’re not gonna start with the nagging then?’ India asked, wary of facing her father for the first time since the rumours about her and Dominic’s “did they or didn’t they?” sex scene had started. He’d been in L.A. for a couple of days visiting Martha on the set of her new movie, so it was the first time she’d seen him since the news had hit the front pages of the tabloids and gossip magazines.

  Reece looked at her, all too aware of what she was getting at. And there was plenty he wanted to say on the subject of her and Dominic and what was being said about them, but maybe tonight wasn’t the right time. He’d witnessed just a few seconds of that scene being filmed, and even those images had been way too graphic for him to grasp, so to think that things may have gone further was just too much for him to comprehend right now. And it was something he would never put himself through, he’d never see that scene, he’d never watch it, he’d make sure of that.