Heartthrob (Hollywood Hearts, #1)

by Belinda Williams

  I turned my back on her as the oven started to beep. It was just as well or I would have glared at her for bringing up Lena’s divorce. I had no doubt that’s what she was none too subtly hinting at. “I’d say things are going well enough, wouldn’t you? A Golden Globe nomination and a movie with Jacob Swan?”

  When I turned back to her holding the cooked turkey I saw the flicker of something cross her features, but then it was gone. She was an actress, after all.

  “Lena and Jake make a perfect couple,” she said. “Makes it hard to be the other woman.”

  The turkey clattered onto the counter and I whipped my arms back as some of the oil jumped from the pan. I barely felt the sting of the hot oil on my forearms as the words ‘perfect couple’ and ‘other woman’ whirled in my head, but they made no sense.

  “Hey there.” Jake came up beside Faith and draped an arm around her shoulders. “Tried Ally’s cookies yet?”

  “They’re delicious,” she said, but there was a distinct lack of heartfelt emotion. “I was just saying how hard it was to be the other woman.”

  “Yeah,” Jake agreed. “Two beautiful women to choose from and I can’t make my mind up. Might as well enjoy both.”

  I’d given up trying to look busy and just stood staring wide-eyed at them. What on earth were they talking about? Jake and Lena weren’t a couple, were they? Lena wouldn’t neglect to tell me something that major. And if Faith was the other woman, did that mean Jake was cheating on her? Openly? There was no way Lena would go for that. Not in a million years. Not after the circumstances of Lena’s divorce, but also because she wasn’t interested in Jake. Was she?

  Jake looked over at me and his grin faded. “What’s wrong?”

  I shook my head quickly and grabbed for a pair of tongs so I could serve up the vegetables. “Nothing. Nothing’s wrong.”

  “Bambi,” Jake said and his grin returned. “Now I get it. Bambi.”

  “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” I lied, silently cursing my big, brown eyes.

  I concentrated on putting the roasted potatoes into a serving dish because that was the only thing still making sense.

  “She thinks you’re cheating on Lena,” I heard Faith whisper loud enough for me to hear.

  “She what? Oh. That. Yeah, well I did, but it was only that one time. You’re pretty hard to resist.”

  “What?” My voice cut through the general hum of everyone’s conversation. All the guests paused to stare at us. I tried not to close my eyes, instead channeling my energy into giving Jake the evil eye.

  “Ally?” Lena rushed through the crowd toward us. “Is everything alright?”

  No. Everything was not alright. I’d just found out my best friend was being cheated on. And what was worse, she hadn’t even told me about her new relationship. So what if it was a fling? I’d want to know about it.

  Because you like him?

  No, I didn’t like him. Not anymore. Not with his cavalier approach to women. And I’d been pathetic enough to think he was a genuinely good guy.

  I swallowed the ball of fury lodged in my throat. “I just spilled some oil on my arm, that’s all. I’m OK.” I gave her, and everyone else, a reassuring smile, being careful not to look at Jake. “Really.”

  “OK. But I think you should run some water on your arm,” Lena replied. “Just in case. Oil burns can be really nasty. Go and use the guest bathroom. I’ve got some first aid supplies in the vanity if you need them.”

  I nodded. “Good idea. Back in a sec.” Stupidly, I glanced in Jake’s direction as I removed the oven mitts from my hands, but my eyes landed on Faith instead. She was sipping from a glass of wine. I might have been wrong but I thought I saw a hint of something through the glass. A smile?

  Unbelievable. She was enjoying this. Which meant what? She was an evil bitch? Highly probable. Or she was still involved with Jake.

  Head spinning, I quickly exited the room, running in the direction of the bathroom.

  Chapter 12

  By the time I reached the guest bathroom—which was bigger than most people’s bedrooms—my hands were shaking.

  I went to the sink and turned on the faucet. The cool sting of the water on my skin barely registered.

  What was with these fucking people? I’d never believed the stories in the media. I’d assumed most of the movie stars were normal like the rest of us and figured the journalists took a huge amount of creative license when they wrote their articles. Half the time the stories were so far out that what they wrote couldn’t possibly be true.

  Maybe I’d been wrong.

  I looked at my reflection in the mirror and winced. My skin appeared pale; Bambi was alive and well.

  For the first time since I’d arrived, I missed Providence. I missed Mama and crazy Aunt Gloria, and I even missed Arabella. Somehow I knew if I told her what was going on she’d understand—after the expected squealing.

  “There you are. This place is huge. I almost lost you for a sec. Let me take a look at that arm.”

  My Bambi impersonation intensified at the sight of Jake standing in the doorway of the bathroom, which I’d stupidly left wide open. He met my eyes in the mirror.

  “Shit. The burn is worse than you were letting on, isn’t it?”

  He came to my side, placed his hands on my shoulders and gently guided me around to face him.

  I opened my mouth to say something—I had no idea what—but his quiet oath cut me off. He closed his fingers around my right arm and pulled it under the stream of water.

  The bite of the water was enough to break me out of my stunned state. I snatched my hand out of his grasp and took a step away from him. “Get your hands off me!”

  Jake raised his arms, palms facing me. “Whoa. I’m sorry. I know it hurts but it’s going to hurt a lot more if you don’t keep it under there.”

  “What hurts is that you’re obviously not who I thought you were,” I whispered, furious at myself that I was dangerously close to tears.

  Jake frowned, his eyebrows pulling together so a pair of little lines appeared above his annoyingly regal nose. “Ally? What are you talking about?”

  I opened my mouth to scream at him, but then quickly snapped it shut when I realized all the guests would hear. “You cheated on Lena,” I hissed instead.

  The lines deepened. “Well, yeah. But don’t you think you’re taking it a bit seriously?”

  “Seriously?” The word echoed off the tiled walls and I forced myself to lower my voice again. “You cheat on my best friend and you think that’s something you shouldn’t be taking seriously? What the fuck is with you people?”

  Jake stood staring at me for a long moment, then the lines disappeared and his eyebrows rose. He took a step toward me and I moved back until I was only inches from the wall.

  He stopped again. “Ally,” he said softly, like I was some sort of wild animal he needed to coax. “We were talking about the movie.”

  It was my turn to stare.

  He took another small step toward me. “The movie we’ve been filming. Faith played the other woman.”

  “And you slept with her?” My voice sounded small in the harsh acoustics of the bathroom.

  “Yes. In the movie,” he repeated, just in case I hadn’t got it the first time.

  “Oh.” I battled the need to cry with a horrible, sickening sense of embarrassment that threatened to overcome me. “Oh.” I brought a hand up to my forehead. “You must think I’m a complete idiot.”

  He came to stand directly in front of me so we were only inches apart. “No, I don’t think that.” His voice was still quiet, but even now it hadn’t lost that deep edge.

  Something else twisted in my stomach along with the embarrassment.

  As if to prove the point, he offered me one of those killer smiles. “I do think you’re having a hard time telling reality from fantasy though, but I’ll just put that down to the whole innocent Bambi thing you’ve got going on.”

  I closed my eyes
, wishing I was anywhere but here. “I’m an idiot.”

  “No.” Jake reached over and took my hands. “You’re the first real person I’ve met in a long time.”

  I sucked in a breath and opened my eyes, not sure what to make of the way his blue eyes flared at me.

  “A real idiot,” I joked, uncertain whether to remove my hands, look away or run altogether. “I thought you were a good guy. Then back there, I thought it was all an act. And now I don’t know what to think. Nothing in this goddamn town seems real.”

  With one small tug he pulled me to him. “Trust me. This is real.”

  Then he kissed me.

  This wasn’t happening. But as his warm lips brushed mine it felt like I’d never experienced anything more real in my entire life.

  I sighed into his kiss, which he took as an invitation. His tongue entered my mouth and the taste of him overwhelmed me. He tasted like he sounded. All heat and warmth and spice combined to make one hell of a kick to a girl’s system.

  Strange thing was, it was like he was drinking me in. Like I tasted so good he couldn’t get enough.

  “Ally,” he breathed, and his hands dropped to my waist.

  The touch of his fingers, even through the material of my dress, made me react without thinking. I tilted my hips toward him—another invitation. His obvious arousal straining between us had us both inhaling shuddering breaths.

  Seeing as none of it could be real—I was obviously hallucinating—I let my hands explore. First Jake's strong shoulders. All that sculpted muscle beneath his shirt had me wishing I could feel him skin on skin. Then to his smoothly shaven face. He nipped at my lips as my fingers traced the line of his jaw and I felt my belly tighten. My hands found a path down the contours of his back to his backside. When I held on and pressed myself even harder against him, his low groan sent a wave of heat straight from my core right through me.

  “Hey, Ally. Lena said to . . . ”

  Jake and I jumped apart at the sound of Chloe’s voice. When I dared a look in her direction, it was pretty obvious she’d seen what we’d been up to.

  “Um, sorry.” She looked away, finding the bathtub of great interest, but kept talking. “Lena wanted you to know that there’s some antiseptic cream in her bathroom upstairs if you need it. Apparently it’s really good with burns. It’s the one in the purple tube. Or maybe you don’t need it after all? It looks like you’re doing OK if that was anything to go by—”

  “Chloe?” Jake said, and she met his eyes reluctantly. “Got it. Thanks.”

  She nodded and bit her lip. “Cool. OK. Well, I’ll leave you to it. Although if Ally’s alright I think the turkey’s out there getting cold . . . ”

  “Thanks, Chloe,” I said.

  She nodded once more then disappeared.

  Crap. What on earth had I been doing? Indulging myself in fantasyland, apparently. I had no business kissing Jacob Swan, least of all in Lena’s house on Christmas Eve.

  “Ally?”

  I dared a glance at Jake then immediately looked away. I didn’t want to meet his eyes. I was too scared to see if desire for me still ran hot in his gaze or if that hungry look had been replaced with regret. At this point, I honestly had no idea which would be worse.

  “You heard Chloe. Turkey’s getting cold.” My voice sounded like someone else’s, which made sense because the Ally I knew didn’t go around kissing famous movie stars. I stepped around him and headed for the door, only releasing a breath when I made it into the hallway.

  What had just happened? Minutes earlier I had run from the kitchen convinced Jake wasn’t what he seemed. Major misunderstanding on my part, of course, but I couldn’t help feeling I’d still gotten the first part right. Jake wasn’t what he seemed. His good-guy act and easygoing nature just hid the dangerous truth.

  Jake was a heartbreak waiting to happen.

  *

  Somehow I managed to get through dinner. Being in charge of the food helped, and so did the fact that there were around twenty-five guests. I was careful to sit at the other end of the table from Jake. If it annoyed me that Jake acted no different after our kiss, I tried not to show it. Or that he sat next to Faith and made a habit of casually touching her during their conversation? I told myself it was none of my business.

  They’d slept together on-screen so there had to be a degree of familiarity involved, I reminded myself, and then tried not to think about it. Maybe this would be the one movie of Lena’s I missed. I couldn’t imagine pretending to make love to anyone. Particularly when it came to Jake. There’d be no pretending around him if my reaction in the bathroom earlier was anything to go by.

  Once dinner was over Lena ushered the guests into the expansive living room that she rarely used. It had a bar area and Jay was going to be serving drinks. Apparently he’d done some bar work when he was younger, but I had a feeling it was his way of keeping an eye on Lena—a job he took very seriously.

  I was under strict instructions not to clean up and to enjoy myself with the rest of the guests, but I made an excuse about preparing dessert and stayed in the kitchen. I ended up shifting the empty dinner plates to one corner of the counter anyway, even though Lena had staff coming later. After that I concentrated on putting the finishing touches on the dessert. Going with the cocktail theme, I was serving deconstructed Christmas pudding trifles in glasses.

  “Don’t tell me there’s dessert as well?”

  I looked up from the glass I was preparing. An older woman with dark brown hair and eyes was watching me. Her cropped hair sat tucked behind her ears and she was short like me, but a lot more petite. She wore a simple fitted black dress that suggested class and purpose. It was hard to tell how old she was because everyone in this town was of an indeterminate age. At a guess I’d say she was in her forties, but of course she didn’t look like it.

  “Hi. There’s always dessert,” I told her. “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Ally.”

  “I know who you are. I’m Suzie O’Brien, Lena’s publicist.” She came over and extended a hand.

  I held my hands in the air and wiggled my fingers at her. “Sorry, but unless you want cream all over you we might have to take a raincheck.”

  She nodded. “If the main course was anything to go by, that dessert is going to be divine.”

  “Thanks,” I replied, secretly glad of the compliment after my earlier run-in with Faith.

  Suzie watched with interest as I continued to prepare the desserts. “You have an unusual skill set. Hospitality and fashion design don’t often go hand-in-hand.”

  I looked up in surprise then kept scooping cream into the top of a glass. “I guess it’s not too different to acting. Don’t most actors wait tables between going for auditions? You have to rely on something stable to pay the bills until you make it big.”

  “Is that what you’re hoping to do? Make it big?” she asked.

  I finished the glass I was working on and slid it away, wiping my hands on my apron. “Not really, to be honest. Until Lena gave me this opportunity, I’d all but given up on fashion design.”

  “And now?”

  I looked at Suzie again. She wasn’t what I’d pictured for a Hollywood publicist. Stupidly I’d expected a bubbly blonde who spoke a million miles a minute. Suzie seemed more interested in asking me questions than listening to herself speak.

  “And now I’m making the most of a fantastic opportunity,” I answered.

  Suzie reached over and picked up one of the clean teaspoons sitting on the bench. “Do you mind?” she asked, indicating to one of the finished desserts. “I’d rather eat it out here where I can moan with free abandon.”

  I smiled. “Be my guest.”

  She carefully scooped a small amount onto the spoon. “Oh wow,” she said, when she tasted it. “Delicious. I mean this in the nicest possible way, but please don’t cook too much for Lena.”

  My smile turned into laughter. “Don’t worry. I’m under strict instructions to stick to fashion design the m
ajority of the time. Allowances made for special occasions, of course.”

  “Of course.” She paused eating, the spoon hovering in mid-air. “It might be a good idea to give some thought to your bio before the Golden Globes.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Well, you haven’t exactly had a traditional career path in regards to fashion design. Putting my publicist hat on, I’d suggest that if you want people to take you seriously, you need to word your experience carefully.”

  “The fact that I’ve had none, you mean?” I still hadn’t finalized the bio on the website Lena had helped me to develop. It wasn’t any surprise Suzie knew about it because it was Suzie’s company that had pulled it all together.

  “I didn’t say that. And you wouldn’t be the first person in your predicament. There’s plenty of people in this town who are catapulted into fame with little experience. Often it comes down to luck.”

  I studied her for a moment. I was beginning to understand why Lena had selected Suzie as her publicist. She may not have been bubbly but she was obviously very strategic. “A lot of people would say you make your own luck,” I told her.

  “That’s very true. That’s what I’m in the business of, as it turns out.”

  “Luck?”

  “Success.” She picked up the spoon and took another mouthful. She rolled her eyes again. “Heaven. Anyway, my point is you’ve got as much chance as anybody else at being successful. The best way to ensure that is to sound successful.”

  “Are you suggesting I lie in my bio?” As questionable as my limited experience was, I had no plans to embellish it.

  “Not at all. Lena said you won a scholarship to study fashion design, is that right?”

  “Yes, but that was years ago and I didn’t accept—”

  “It doesn’t matter. I understand circumstances weren’t conducive. We can talk around that.”

  “We?” I might be new to Hollywood, but I wasn’t stupid. “I’m pretty sure I can’t afford you.”

  “Maybe not yet, but we look after Lena. How about we draft a bio up for you and email it over? Then you can see what you think?”

  I hated to think how much Lena paid Suzie to ‘look after’ her; it would probably just make my head hurt. “I’m not sure—”