Could This Be Love?

by Lee Kilraine

  Sijan frowned. “That kind is a fantasy. Why would you post stuff like that?”

  “How do I know it’s a fantasy? These women have details.”

  “That sound remarkably like the love scenes in his movies, I bet,” Tynan said. “But you wouldn’t know about that, since you’ve never seen one of his movies, have you?”

  “Oh, okay, you’ve got me there. I haven’t seen a single one of his movies, but . . . but, that would be discrimination if I couldn’t be the Sijan Cates Fan Club president just because I haven’t seen one of his movies.”

  “If you haven’t seen one of his movies, why else would you be a fan?”

  Avery reached over and grabbed Sijan’s chin in her hand, turning it toward Tynan. “Well, there’s this face, for one thing. And I’ve heard the body is just as good.”

  “You’ve heard? This would be from the ‘encounters’ on the fan site?” Sijan looked down at her lying face, more intrigued than he wanted to admit. His body might be tempted, but he was going to let his brain rule the day. The physical attraction was off the charts, but so was the crazy factor.

  “Sure. Your ex-girlfriends. Your doctor. Your personal trainer. The woman who waxes your chest. We get quite a variety of people who post in the ‘encounters’ section.”

  “None of them are true.”

  “Details,” she reminded him.

  “Lies and fantasy.”

  “All right. You’ve convinced me.” She nodded her head once. “Tomorrow I’m going to delete the ‘encounters’ page on the website. But, hey, the ‘Sijan sightings’ page gets a lot of hits. You seem popular with the paparazzi. I’m surprised there aren’t any here tonight, as a matter of fact.”

  “The VFW is a private establishment. They can’t come in,” Tynan said.

  Ouch. Sijan’s shin intercepted another kick under the table.

  “I’m feeling a little stuffy in here. I think it’s the cigar smoke. Seems I can only take it when I’m the one smoking them.” Avery shrugged. “Go figure. Would anyone mind if we take a walk outside after our drinks?”

  That piece of visual imagery sidetracked him for a minute. Pia and Avery guzzled down the rest of their drinks, left some money on the table to cover them all, and herded them out the door. Why did it all of a sudden feel like they were being led . . . like lambs to slaughter?

  He placed his hand on Avery’s waist, and the electricity shot up between them like they were standing in water too close to a fallen power line. Dangerous. Avery tripped and he caught her, bringing her into his chest just outside of the swinging double doors of the VFW. He gazed down into her flushed face and felt her tremble in his arms. Too dangerous. Time to make his exit. “Avery—”

  “I think I have to kiss you,” Avery whispered, blinking up into his face.

  And she melted against him like she belonged there as the world around them faded away. Her lush figure was soft against his, cutting all normal brain function except the most primal. Her gaze tangled and tied up in his, drawing him in toward her heat. His brain hissed a warning to run as fast as he could in the opposite direction, but the electric attraction was short-circuiting his common sense. She framed his face with her hands and touched her lips to his. There was only the taste of her lips, the feel of her body soft against his, and the heat gnawing at his gut. Then she touched her tongue to his and the world exploded. It took him a second to register the sparks weren’t only from their spontaneous combustion.

  What the hell? Cameras flashed as the cameramen and women called Sijan’s name, trying to get the front-page photo. Crap. How in the hell had he forgotten about the paparazzi? He looked down into Avery’s face and knew he should have run when he’d had the chance.

  ***

  The familiar barrage of flashbulbs and clicking cameras hit Avery like a rogue wave. She pulled her lips away and stared up at Sijan’s handsome face. The touch of his lips had almost made her forget everything. That shouldn’t have happened. Her past should have been a shield against this man and his sexual charisma, darn it.

  Focus, Avery. You’ve been around good-looking Hollywood types before. With disastrous consequences. Ignore the fact that your insides feel like honey on a warm summer day and pull it together. Think about Tansy and stick to the plan.

  The knowledge that help for Tansy was one flash away wasn’t enough to overcome the old familiar reaction to the paparazzi. Her stomach wrenched like she was on the top of the highest peak of a roller coaster that had dropped out from under her. One photo. That’s all she needed—then she could disappear back into her carefully constructed private life.

  Avery faced the paparazzi, leaned into Sijan’s shoulder, and flashed a brilliant smile toward the wall of clicking cameras, each one trying to get the photo of movie star Sijan Cates that would pay their salary for the month. Next to her, Sijan’s body turned into a stone fortress. Keep smiling. Count to five. Let the paparazzi get some good shots, then make a clean, fast exit.

  One. Two. Three—whoa! What? Sijan wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her back around and into his chest. Her breath caught and she jerked her face up to find Sijan gazing down at her. His lips formed the sexiest, hottest “I’m going to lick you all over” smile, but his eyes were snapping with heat, and it wasn’t desire, unless desire to wring her neck counted.

  “You set me up.”

  Tynan leaned into their space, shaking his head. “Jerry’s not going to like this.”

  “Neither will the studio.” Sijan’s nostrils flared and his eyes hardened as he continued to gaze down at her. “I don’t suppose it bothers you that this is going to get me in big trouble?”

  “I’m sorry, but sometimes you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do.”

  “Avery.” Sijan’s forehead smoothed out and he ran his hands up and down her arms slowly, sensuously, as if he knew every inch of her skin like a lover. “When you’re right, you’re right.”

  And before she knew what was happening, Sijan pulled her up against his hard body, locked her within the circle of his arms, and kissed her. A steal-your-breath, tongue-tangling, scorching kiss. The clicks and whirs of the cameras faded beneath the blood pounding in her head, but the frenzy of exploding camera flashes penetrated her closed eye lids. When he finally ended the kiss and released her lips, she would have oozed into a melted puddle on the sidewalk if he wasn’t holding her tight against his body. He’d scrambled her brains and left her legs way beyond al dente.

  She pulled herself together and attempted to make her quick exit, but Sijan’s arm held her tight to his side. Trying to wiggle free, she whispered, “What are you doing?”

  He leaned in and kissed her ear with his warm, too-sexy lips as he said, “Honey, you just earned a starring role in my life.”

  Then Sijan turned toward the waiting paparazzi, nodding and greeting more than a few. “Hey there, Burt, Miranda, Scott. Everyone. Nice of y’all to track me down. I was supposed to keep this a secret, but I can’t help wanting everyone to know.”

  The hum of cameras and clamoring questions quieted on a dime. The crowd lowered their cameras just enough to let their excited, expectant faces peek out.

  “I’d like to introduce you to Avery. My fiancée.”

  Chapter Four

  A very’s face whipped up to his, and she stared at him like he was crazy or on fire. Well, hell, he knew he was both. It was crazy stupid to let sexual attraction make him an easy victim for this mugging by the paparazzi. So much for staying out of the headlines. He’d just got burned. Bad. And surprise, surprise, it looked like his “number-one fan” was just another starlet out to get famous. He’d made a tactical error, and now it was time to regroup.

  “You’re crazy. What did you do?”

  “Took your advice.”

  The paparazzi exploded. They called his name frantically, firing questions about who she was and how they’d met while clicking madly away on their cameras. And all the while, Avery clung to him, her arms around his chest, h
er face tucked against him, her warm breath soft against his neck. Huh.

  “Get me out of here,” she whispered into his neck without lifting her face. “Now.”

  Guess she’d bitten off more attention than an inexperienced wannabe starlet could handle. Yep, stardom was a bitch wielding a double-edged sword. Welcome to my world, lady. She was right about one thing though. It was time to wrap this performance up.

  “Thanks, guys. I hope you’ll respect our privacy and give us some space to celebrate and enjoy this special time in our lives.” He looked around at the still frantically clicking cameras. None of them wanted to go in case they missed something. “You know it’s only a scoop if you’re the first to sell it, right?”

  That got them moving and had them scrambling en masse for their vehicles. Well, that and Tynan’s imposing glare. When the last paparazzo had peeled out of the parking lot, Sijan peeled Avery out of his arms and stepped back adding an extra cushion of space.

  “Do you even know what you just did?” Avery ran a frantic hand through her hair before throwing her hands onto her hips. “Why did you say I was your fiancée? Why didn’t you say I was your long-lost cousin?”

  Pia and Tynan coughed.

  “No.” Pia’s brows scrunched low. “That wouldn’t have worked.”

  “At all. Not with the way you two were looking at each other.” Tynan grinned. “Or the way you kissed. Cousin? Hoo, boy. Talk about a scandal.”

  Sijan shook his head. “No, this was my only way out of this.”

  “What about me?” Avery stared at him, hands still on her hips, only now she threw in an impatient toe tap.

  “You?” What the hell was she mad about? “You wanted your picture in the paper with me, right? Darlin’, you’ve got the attention of every photographer in Hollywood and every other two bit reporter. You’re welcome.”

  “I just wanted one photo. Just one. That’s it. Sue me, why don’t you?”

  “I just might, because you know what I wanted? No photo. I wanted to stay out of the tabloids. Just this once. That’s it.” Sijan was pissed. He was used to being used. It happened all the time in Hollywood. But he had come home to Climax to stay out of the headlines. “I’ve got a movie ready to release in three months and the studio ordered me to stay out of the papers. No more scandals.”

  “One photo is not a scandal.”

  “Have you looked in the mirror? I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t have ‘scandal’ tattooed on your ass.” He pointed his finger at Avery. “I’ve already got my lawyer busy with one greedy, manipulative woman. You owe me.”

  “You’re crazy.”

  “Three weeks. You are going to pretend to be my fiancée for three weeks. I guarantee another scandal will break out in Hollywood by then, in which case we’ll never have to see each other again.”

  He saw the denial on her lips when her friend Pia stepped in and whispered frantically with her. He heard the words “lawyer” and “you can’t afford that” and something about a plan and . . . cupcakes? Then the confab wrapped up with Avery whipping around to him, her arms crossed over her chest, her chin tilted in defiance.

  “Two days.”

  “Two weeks.”

  “Three days.”

  “One week.”

  “Five days.”

  “Deal.” And they shook hands like wrestlers facing off on a mat. He wouldn’t bother to tell her he’d get what he needed no matter what they had just agreed on. With his new movie set to premiere in three months, he had a movie studio to satisfy and a possible Oscar nomination on the line.

  Most important to him, though, was the deal he’d worked out with this film. The studio had agreed to experiment with profit sharing with the whole crew, from the most inexperienced gaffer to makeup and set design crews. He had agreed to a smaller salary to make it happen, so he sure as heck didn’t want bad press from him to screw with the film’s profits.

  “Hotel?”

  “Oh, I don’t think so.” Avery’s voice dripped disdain as if it had been swimming in it. “I don’t have to sleep with you to pretend to be your fiancée.”

  The woman was nuts if she thought being used was an aphrodisiac. “I need the name of your hotel to pick you up tomorrow.”

  “Oh. Right. The Honeybee Hotel over on—”

  “I know where it is. Be ready at ten.”

  “Whoa, wait. What exactly do you have in mind when you say ‘pretend’ to be your fiancée? A romantic dinner out? Ring shopping?”

  “Yeah, sure. Something like that.” Nothing like that. More like a photo in front of Lonnie’s Bait and Tackle shop and a visit with sick kids over at Memorial, but Sijan figured he’d spring that on her tomorrow. He’d admit the beautiful scheming starlet had outsmarted him today, but tomorrow was his.

  “She’ll need to know how to dress,” Pia said. “Princess Diana or Marian the staid librarian?”

  Sijan’s gaze ran over Avery’s curves and barely there dress. “How about Fräulein Maria from Sound of Music? You know, when she’s a nun.”

  “You got it. I can do covered up. But I’ll be ready at one and not a minute before.” Avery pulled Pia by the arm and they headed away. He was too angry to tell them they were walking in the wrong direction for the Honeybee.

  “What were you thinking, Si?” Tynan shook his head as the brothers stood watching the women exit into the evening. “Your fiancée? Seriously?”

  “Not one of my best moments, I’ll grant you, but it was the only positive spin I could think of.”

  “Some hiatus. That was more like a hiccup.”

  Sijan grimaced. “You should have poured my drink over my head.”

  “I practically did.” Tynan pointed at him. “But no matter what crazy thing she said, you ate it up. I had your back, only she had you by the—”

  “I know, I know. It’s like she lured me in just so she could feed off me.” He shoved his hands into his pant pockets when the urge to hit the nearest inanimate object continued to build. Un-frickin’-believable. He’d been seduced by a bloodsucking starlet.

  “Here’s something that might help: she’s either an ambitious starlet or a psycho groupie.”

  “That’ll do it. I’ll spend only enough time with her to fix the optics on that kiss, and then never see her again. A few weeks or so of being ‘engaged’ and posing as the happy couple, then when the paparazzi’s focus moves on, we’ll quietly call off the engagement. Scandal averted.”

  “A sound plan in theory, but based on what I saw tonight . . .”

  “I can resist her.” It should be easy after the way the woman had just played him. “But I’ll have a back-up plan.”

  “Yeah? What’s that?”

  “A cold shower and a wooden stake.”

  ***

  “Holy cow, that blew up in my face.” Avery plopped down onto the hotel room sofa wishing she could turn the clock back twenty-four hours. “Clean up on Aisle Avery.”

  Pia grabbed two waters from the mini fridge and tossed one to her. “That’s the downside of crazy plans. They can explode six ways to Sunday—fast. What are you going to do?”

  “We are going to keep our heads and try to salvage this thing. That’s what.”

  “Right. Of course we are. How are we going to do that?”

  Avery took a drink of water and started pacing in front of the couch. “What day does The Tattler go on newsstands?”

  “Every Wednesday at sunrise.”

  “That’s in two days. Okay, I’ll be his pretend fiancée for two more days until we know the photo makes it in the paper.”

  Pia nodded. “Two days. You can swing that.”

  “I sure hope so. With your help, I’ll play it stylish bimbo starlet, and hopefully by the end of the two days the press will be bored and I’ll have gotten a call from my foster family.”

  “One stylish bimbo starlet coming up. You’ll blend in with the rest and just be the latest of Sijan Cates’s women.”

  “Yes! Let’s thin
k positive. The good news is we’ve escaped from tough situations before.”

  “True.” Pia looked doubtful. “But it’s not every day a rising star turns her back on Hollywood and walks away.”

  “Walks away? I ran as fast as I could. Thank God you ran with me.” With three movies to her name, Avery had been on the fast track to stardom . . . and heartache. She’d arrived in Hollywood a wide-eyed sixteen-year-old, but fled at twenty-one on the verge of losing her sanity and her soul. She and Pia had gotten lost in Texas for two days before they decided driving without a destination wasn’t working. So they’d taped a map of the U.S. onto a dartboard in a Texas honky-tonk and the dart had landed almost dead center on the small circle marking Greensboro, North Carolina.

  “The other good news is Sijan didn’t reveal my last name. That should slow them down long enough to get bored with another one of Sijan’s starlets.”

  Pia nodded and her face relaxed. “Good point. The tabloids say he changes women so often they’re more like accessories rather than relationships.”

  “Typical actor, but a nice reminder to wrap this up as quickly as possible. And, because I refuse to let another Hollywood jerk affect my life, I’m going to call Petey’s guardian right now and see if he’s up to shooting his commercials. Our production guys can drive over and we’ll have the commercials in the can by the time we’re ready to get out of Dodge.”

  Pia gave her a thumbs-up. “Except for having to put up with Petey for two days, it sounds like a perfect plan.”

  “I know, right? Getting some work done will make this fake fiancée fiasco less painful. Then, before I know it, Sijan Cates will be a dot in my rearview mirror.”

  Chapter Five

  By the time Sijan picked Avery up at one the next day, she’d already had a busy morning. After a visit to the nearest mall to procure a small wardrobe for her role as fiancée, she and Pia had spent the extra hours with their client Petey and his guardian discussing the scripts for the three thirty-second spots in the new ad campaign. Once their production crew arrived tomorrow, they’d be all set to start shooting Petey’s commercial.