“I don’t know. I went for a swim and got stuck on the rocks. The lifeguard who saved me turned out to be Alex Stone.”
“Yeah, I saw him striding away like he had a bee up his butt. I also saw a lot more of you than you were willing to display this morning.”
Maddy felt heat in her cheeks again. She couldn’t believe that had just happened. “Oh God,” she groaned, “this is going to go viral isn’t it? It’s Alex Stone, it’s bound to go viral. And I’m going to be laughed at by the entire world.”
“Laughed at?” Kim shook her head. “Honey, have you seen yourself in that bikini? You’ve got those curves working for you in ways most women can only dream of. And any men watching that video are going to be watching it when their wives are out of the room that’s for sure.”
“Kim!”
“It’s true, Honey. Most men say they want women who are like sticks but believe me, they prefer curves.”
“No, they prefer women like you. You’re perfect.”
Her friend shook her head. “I’m telling you the truth; a lot of men prefer curvy women. It’s the caveman inside them. They may say they want a girl with a supermodel figure because it’s drilled into them by the media but there’s a piece of caveman in there that doesn’t care what society expects... and that caveman wants a soft, plush female with big hips and tits.”
“I don’t think so.” Maddy remembered Eric’s look of disgust when she got heavier. He lost interest in sex, became moodier, then finally dumped her like a sack of garbage. A heavy sack of garbage.
“Uh oh,” Kim said, looking out at the beach, “they’re coming this way.”
Struggling through the sand toward them were Tammy Jones and her cameraman. Tammy was speaking into the microphone and Maddy wondered if they were still on air. “Get us out of here,” she told Kim.
Kim started the car and pulled out onto the road.
As they drove into town, Maddy closed her eyes. She wanted to forget about the beach, her bikini, Alex Stone and her unexpected TV appearance. She wanted to forget about all of it.
But she was sure she would never live this down.
CHAPTER THREE
“As soon as I can get back to my car, I’m out of here,” Alex said into his phone. He had escaped the crowd on the beach and walked down the road that led into town. If he could find a coffee shop to hole up in, he could return to his car when the crowd on the beach had lost interest and Tammy Jones had moved on to cover the Shark Festival. Then he would drive back to London and forget all about Sunnystone Bay and the girl in the bikini.
Who was he kidding? He wasn’t going to forget her for a long time.
When he watched her and her friend walk along the beach, his attention had been caught by the caramel-skinned beauty in the black bikini. She was an Alex Stone woman all over: slender, pretty, sleek. The kind of woman he was expected to have hanging off his arm at red carpet events.
The blonde had been cute, especially the way she kept pulling her t-shirt down, but that was all.
When he swam out to help her get loose from the rocks his first impression had been blown away by her sassy attitude and pretty face. She was more than just cute; she was stunning. Her face had an Eastern-European look about it. Exotic. And her pale blue eyes were mesmerizing. Alex had looked into those eyes and actually felt his heart quicken.
What surprised him most was the fact that she was not an Alex Stone woman at all. He ran his mind back to the start of his career. Ever since he had become a star he had only dated women with lithe model-figures. Hell, most of them were models.
Before he became famous, he had dated bigger women but that had been years ago and now he was expected to turn up to media events with a piece of eye candy on his arm. He had a reputation as a womanizer because he was seen with a different woman at nearly every event. The truth was, he went through these women quickly because he didn’t connect with any of them. Something was missing.
Then there had been California. He scanned the street for a coffee shop to take his mind off that.
“You can’t leave, Alex,” Joe told him on the other end of the line.
“My cover is blown. There’s no point in me staying here any longer than I have to. Arrange another research session with another lifeguard somewhere else. This town is a bust.”
“You were doing the research at Sunnystone Bay because that’s where some of the locations for the movie are going to be.”
“That doesn’t mean I can’t leave here and go somewhere else. I’ll come back when filming starts.”
“Listen, Alex, my phone hasn’t stopped ringing. That piece on Good Morning Everybody was seen by millions of viewers, most of them housewives and stay-at-home moms. That’s the demographic you need to get back on your side after the...” he lowered his voice to a whisper, “...California incident. They all want to know about you and this...” he paused and Alex heard papers shuffling, “Madison Davis girl. They like her Alex. She came across well on camera, especially when she planted that slap across your face.”
He chuckled. “Anyway, we need this. Get to know the girl. Make sure the cameras are around when you do. Show all those housewives that you aren’t the womanizing bastard they think you are. You’re Alex Stone, a man of the people...people like Maddy Davis. You can be seen with a normal girl on your arm for a change and we can put all that California business behind us.”
“Are you kidding me, Joe? That girl hates me. She thinks I tried to rip her clothes off for no reason. Never mind that I was saving her from drowning. Once she knew I wasn’t an actual lifeguard, that’s when she slapped me. She doesn’t want to get to know me, she wants to kick me in the balls.”
“Alex, listen to me I’m going to say this straight, OK? Your box office pull is waning. Women don’t want to see your movies anymore. Don’t you want to be back where you were when you were one of the biggest names in Hollywood? Before you became more famous for being a womanizer than for your movies? Before California?”
“Of course,” Alex said, remembering the good old days. He still wasn’t exactly sure what went wrong or how his career and life had slipped from the lofty Hollywood hills into the toilet.
“Then get to know Maddy Davis. Take her out for dinner. And for Christ’s sake make sure there are cameras around when you do. Show the women who read the celebrity magazines the other side of Alex Stone. Show them you’re not afraid to be seen with a girl who isn’t a model or pop star. No matter what she looks like.”
“What do you mean by that?” Alex found a place called Java Beans, crossed the street and went through the doors into an establishment humming with chatter from the customers. The rich aroma of coffee hung in the air and made Alex realize he was down on his daily caffeine intake. Maybe that was why he felt so bad right now.
“She’s a big girl,” Joe said flatly.
Big in all the right places, Alex thought. His mind replayed the sight of Maddy rising out of the water like a busty goddess of the sea. He wondered if he had been with so many diet-obsessed models that he had forgotten what a real woman was supposed to look like. Curvy hips. A big rack. Thick thighs that didn’t look like brittle twigs.
He indicated to the barista that he wanted a large Americano and he told Joe, “I’ll do it. I’ll get to know her. Find out where she’s staying.”
“I will,” Joe said breathing a sigh of relief, “and make sure there are cameras around.”
Alex hung up and waited for his coffee. Attracting cameras was going to be easy. He wasn’t so sure about Maddy Davis.
She was going to be a lot harder to attract.
CHAPTER FOUR
Maddy’s room in the Seagull Inn was basic but comfortable enough with a double bed, flatscreen TV, tea and coffee-making facilities and a clean bathroom. The window looked out onto the road below and the cliffs in the distance. The street outside was busy with tourists arriving for the Shark Festival, their vehicles creating a low hum which Maddy could hear despite bein
g on the second floor of the Inn. She closed the window to shut out the exhaust fumes.
A knock at the door was followed by Kim’s voice, “Maddy? Let me in.”
Maddy opened the door and her friend swept into the room. “You need to put the News Channel on,” Kim said. She found the remote and pointed it at the TV, thumbing the channel button until she found what she wanted.
The scene on the screen showed Alex Stone being interviewed by Tammy Jones on the beach. Maddy cringed inside. She knew what was coming next.
She appeared from the right of the picture marching across the sand toward Alex. The tiny black bikini barely covered anything. Her breasts bounced and shook, barely tethered by the fabric. She had heard that the camera adds ten pounds but her belly and thighs looked even more rounded on the TV than they did when she looked in the mirror. She groaned as the TV-Maddy slapped Alex across the face, knocking his sunglasses off and revealing his true identity.
“This is so embarrassing,” she told Kim.
“Is it? Or is it an opportunity?” Kim looked serious, her big brown eyes sincere.
“An opportunity for what? To be laughed at? Because that’s what’s going to happen now. I’ll be known as the fat girl in the tiny bikini who slapped Alex Stone on TV.”
“Or... you could be known as the journalist who got an exclusive interview with Alex Stone for London Eye.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Look, Honey, that guy owes you right? He virtually assaulted you on those rocks.”
“I wouldn’t say that. He did save my...”
“He owes you. Big time. Do you want to be doing layouts for the magazine for the rest of your life or do you want to be a reporter?”
“You know I want to be a reporter.”
Kim gestured to the TV where the scene of Maddy slapping Alex played over and over in a corner frame while Tammy Jones stood on the beach speculating why the Hollywood star was in Sunnystone Bay posing as a lifeguard.
“They don’t know what he’s doing here,” Kim said. “You can find out.”
“How? I don’t think he’s going to talk to me after I slapped him like that.”
“Tell him you’ll press charges for sexual assault. That’s the last thing he needs with his reputation. His career will be over. Don’t you worry, he’ll talk to you. You get an exclusive story, show it to Karen and she’ll promote you. Simple. You need to get out of that office.”
Maddy thought about it. It sounded simple enough. All she had to do was get a meeting with Alex Stone. That was going to be a lot harder than it sounded. He was probably on a flight back to Hollywood by now.
The room phone rang.
“Expecting a call?” Kim asked.
“No, it must be the hotel reception.” She picked up the phone.
“Hello, Miss Davis?” said a male voice on the other end.
“Yes.”
“Miss Davis... or can I call you Maddy?... my name is Joe Tanner. I represent the interests of Alex Stone, who I believe you met today on the beach.”
She felt confused. “How did you... find me?” If Alex Stone’s agent could find her then so could the press. She couldn’t face them right now.
“Sunnystone Bay is a small town,” he said, “there aren’t many hotels.”
“What do you want?”
“It’s not what I want, Maddy, but what Alex wants. He’s not happy about the way you two parted company and he wants to make amends. He’s not saying he did anything wrong mind you. He did save your life out there after all, we need to remember that. No, he just wants to take you out to dinner and get to know the girl he saved.”
“Dinner?”
Kim, who had been sitting on the edge of the bed and eavesdropping, nodded vigorously. She mouthed, “Promotion,” at Maddy.
“Well I guess that would be OK,” Maddy told Joe Tanner.
“Excellent. How does the Cliff Cottage Restaurant sound? Eight o’ clock.”
“That sounds fine. I’ll be there.” She hung up.
“Well?” Kim asked.
“I’m meeting Alex Stone at the Cliff Cottage at eight.”
“Excellent!” Kim pumped her fist into the air.
Maddy looked at the phone on the nightstand. “I don’t get it. Why is he so anxious to see me that he got his agent to track me down? I slapped him on live TV. Why does he want to see me again?”
“He probably knows he’s crossed some legal line by ripping off your t-shirt like that. This is damage control, he’s making sure you won’t sue.”
“Maybe,” Maddy said, unconvinced.
“Don’t look so worried. This is your big break. Now let’s get changed and hit the beach. There’s a festival on remember? We’ll be back in plenty of time for you to get ready for your date.”
“It isn’t a date,” Maddy said firmly.
Kim raised an eyebrow. “Really? Honey, Alex Stone is an eligible bachelor: rich, famous and good-looking. And you are a single pretty girl with curves to die for.”
“Don’t start that again. I have no interest in Alex Stone in that way.”
“Are you kidding? Didn’t you see him in The New York Affair? He was so dreamy in that movie. What about Meet Me in Hell? That bedroom scene was so hot. That could be in your future, Honey. Who was that lucky actress he did that scene with? I think they shacked up together for a while.”
“California Longley,” Maddy said, “she ended up on a late night talk show in tears, remember? Telling everyone how badly Stone treated her. Not so lucky. Didn’t she say he started to treat her that way after she put weight on?”
Kim went quiet for a moment while she processed that then said, “But he won’t treat you that way, Honey. He’d have to answer to me if he was bad to you.”
“He’s not going to treat me any way because I’m going to interview him and that’s all. Anything else is off the table.”
“You sure? He’s real cute. Hey, you’re not still pining over Eric are you?”
“No,” Maddy said quickly.
“Because he was a real loser. You deserve better than that creep.”
“I know. Come on, let’s go to the beach.” Maddy did know she deserved better than Eric but a man like Alex Stone was way out of her league. Besides, she didn’t want or need a man right now.
Alex Stone was about to find out there were some women he couldn’t charm into bed.
CHAPTER FIVE
Alex sat in the Cliff Cottage Restaurant at five minutes to eight. He had asked the waitress - a voluptuous brunette whose name tag said her name was Blaire - for a window seat. At least if the conversation with Maddy Davis got too boring he could look out at the cliffs and the sea. Not that he would look bored of course. He would put every ounce of acting ability into a facsimile of rapt attention. The cameras wouldn’t know the difference.
Joe had arranged for some of the most rabid paparazzi to know the location of Alex’s dinner tonight. Just in case that didn’t work and his picture didn’t show up in tomorrow’s newspapers, Alex had hired a group of local teens to be outside the restaurant later to take photos and videos on their phones and upload them to various social media sites.
The more he thought about this date with Maddy, the more he realized how shrewd Joe’s idea was. Ever since California went on a late night TV chat show and told the viewers how Alex had mistreated her after she put weight on, Alex had received a backlash from organizations that supported “real women”. He was hounded by questions from the press about his attitude toward “big women”.
That was laughable; California Longley could not be described as either “big” or “real”. Her assertion on TV that she had been dumped by Alex after putting on weight had simply been her attempt to grab headlines after their relationship came to a natural end. All those women standing up for California didn’t seem to recognize one simple fact: California was still as thin as most runway models. And the “real women” activists did not consider the fact that California had
spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on plastic surgery. Real indeed.
Yet somehow Alex had come out of the situation looking like the bad guy. Here was a star who only dated women who fit the unrealistic media portrayal of what a woman should look like. He treated all others with disdain.
In a way that was ironic. Alex was sure that a lot of his ex-girlfriends would say that he treated all women with disdain.
So Joe’s public relations gimmick was genius in its simplicity. Alex would appear in the newspapers and magazines with a plump girl - a girl much bigger than California Longley had ever been - on his arm. Everyone would realize that Alex Stone was indeed a nice guy and everything could go back to normal - including Alex’s box office pull. All women would love him again. Simple.
Even Joe’s choice of restaurant was perfect. The Cliff Cottage was simple and homey. It didn’t have a pretentious inch anywhere in its wood-paneled walls and timber-supported roof. The windows were big Victorian sash windows that looked out over the bay. The food was apparently good quality.
That was the impression Alex wanted to portray tonight. He was a good quality man taking a “real woman” to a good quality restaurant.
It was a plan so simple it could not fail.
The restaurant was busy. A lot of the diners sitting close to Alex had recognized him but nobody had tried to speak to him. Most just stared openly at him as if he were an exhibit at a zoo.
“Mr. Stone, your guest has arrived,” Blaire said, suddenly appearing at Alex’s side.
“Thank you,” he replied, standing and turning toward the reception area. When he saw Maddy approaching the table, he wondered how the woman he had seen at the beach, all curves and sex appeal, could now make herself look so plain. Maddy’s curves were squeezed into a dark gray dress which was buttoned up to her neck. A light blue cardigan hid her upper arms. Her blonde hair tumbled down around her shoulders giving some hint of sensuality but her face was barely made up. True she had a natural prettiness but she had done nothing to accentuate it.
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