April, Dani - Superstar (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (21 page)

Back in the front room, she was not self-conscious as she dressed in front of him. He let her rummage through his travel bags to try and find a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Of course they were all quite a few sizes too large for her much smaller body.

“I’m still not going to run away with you, Chrissie,” he told her as he stepped into his boxers. “I’m not going to let my brothers run away with you either.”

“Then what am I going to do?” she asked him, resigned to whatever he had to say because she knew he was the boss here. Just like back home her father was the boss. “Will I just lose you guys? Is it all over?”

“Not yet. We’re going to take you home.” He was now stepping into his jeans.

“Take me home?” Chrissie repeated, not understanding him.

“That’s right,” he told her. “Hey, those are my good jeans. Why don’t you find a pair of my old ones? They should be in the bag over there by the door.”

She was just wearing her thong, walking around the big front room and pillaging in his bags to try and find clothes for the day. She shrugged and dropped his good jeans and went to the bag he had directed her to.

“Where do you live anyway, Chrissie?”

“Mostly I just live out of hotel suites. Daddy always has me going around the world on tour or to shoot movies. I hate hotel suites.”

“But when you’re not doing all that bull, where is your home?”

“Hollywood, California.” She reached inside the bag and brought up a pair of torn jeans that looked like they must have been the ones he was talking about. “Will these do?” she asked him.

He nodded that they would. “Hollywood is a long way from here,” he told her. “You want us to just take you to the airport back in Aspen?”

“No,” she said as she started to shrug into the jeans with the tear in them. “You know I don’t really want to go back. But I do like my house in Hollywood. I just bought it last year. It’s not very big, but I get to live there alone. Daddy hardly ever comes by. For a while, Zach stayed there with me. But really I never get to spend too much time at my home.”

He pulled his T-shirt over his head and came over to sit down on the arm of the couch next to where she was dressing. “How would it be if we drove you back home, Chrissie?”

“You guys want to drive me back to Hollywood?”

“Yes,” he said and pulled her down into his lap where she instantly wrapped her arms around his neck. “We’re not running away with you. We’re running you back to your life.”

“Even if I don’t want to go?”

“Yes,” he told her and reached up to fasten a strand of her still-wet hair behind her ear. “You don’t have a choice about that. But when you get there, it is your choice how you want to live your life.”

She felt scared all over again. She realized she was sitting there on his lap without even wearing a shirt, and of course she hadn’t had a bra to wear since she started on this adventure. She reached down to the bag at her feet to take out one of his shirts.

“Is it all right if I wear this one?” she asked.

“No. That’s one of my good shirts. There’s an old one at the bottom. You can wear that.”

She placed the shirt aside on the couch and looked up at him. “I’m afraid,” she said.

“You don’t have to be,” he reassured her. “You don’t have to do whatever your father tells you to or what your agents or managers say. You are an adult woman living in a free country, and from what I hear, you have a lot of money. When you go back, you are going to be in control of your own life. You’re not going to let anyone else be in the driver’s seat from now on.”

“I’m weak,” she told him. “I’m afraid of being by myself. I probably can’t do it. I always let other people make my decisions for me.”

“I can’t help you with that, Chrissie. When you get there, it’ll be up to you. But if you want, my brothers and I will give you a ride back home. I’ve always wanted to see what Hollywood looks like anyway.”

In spite of the terror inspired by the thought of going back to face up to her life, Chrissie was intrigued at the idea of a long road trip with the three brothers. “I’ve never been driving that far,” she told him. “How long will it take?”

“Probably about two days. I’ll just be able to make it back to my home in time to go to work next week.”

“Great and I’ll make it to my home in time to start shooting my new movie next month.” She gave a sad smile. Her voice did not contain any enthusiasm.

He gave her rump a pat through the shaggy jeans she wore and scooted her off his lap. “Don’t you dare complain. You have a life everyone else wishes they had.”

She kneeled down to the floor to pick out the T-shirt at the bottom of his bag. “Yeah, and I wish I had everyone else’s life. Go figure.”

When she found the shirt, she pulled it over her head. She took a deep breath and forced herself not to cry and to make the best of things because she knew that’s what he wanted her to do.

“Actually, I am looking forward to spending a couple of days out on the road with you guys.”

He had put on his coat and was heading out the door. “I’m going to go and tell them the change of plans. I’m sure they’ll be looking forward to it, too.”

* * * *

They were driving south along a Colorado State highway, skirting the Rocky Mountains to the west. Ethan drove, and Brad sat up front with him. Chrissie was in the back with Scott and the three dogs.

“There’s a mall up ahead in the next town,” Brad called back to her from the front. “You want us to stop there?”

“Oh please!” Chrissie could hardly wait.

Brad and Scott had taken the news of their change of plans well. In a way, Chrissie thought perhaps they were relieved. They got to spend more time with her, but they were no longer being asked to leave behind their lives, and all three guys were anxious to see Hollywood and her home there. Ethan had come to the rescue of his younger brothers. Chrissie felt that he had probably done that a lot during their lives. She only wished that she had someone who would come to her rescue before these next two days ended.

Chrissie’s way of dealing with it was to try and block it out of her mind. She had the next two days to spend in this truck with these three guys who she had come to care for so much in such a short time. She forced herself to focus on those two days and not on the time that would come after they got her back to her home. She could only imagine what her daddy would be like when she first saw him again, and each time those bad thoughts tried to work their way into her mind, she forced them back with all the courage she could muster.

In another half hour, Ethan had pulled up the truck into a parking stall at the local mall of the small town they were passing through. When Scott helped Chrissie to hop down out of the truck, she had to pull up her jeans or risk them falling to her ankles. She was so ready to buy a change of clothes in this mall. She had gone shopping at some of the finest stores in the world, but at that moment none of them had ever looked better than that small-town mall.

“Do you have any money with you, Chrissie?” Ethan asked her as the four of them started to make their way across the mall’s parking lot. Scott was bringing up the rear tending to the three dogs.

“I don’t have any cash,” she answered him. “But I have all my credit cards. Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”

“But it’s risky if you use those cards. If your dad has convinced anyone in law enforcement that you really were kidnapped, they may be looking for them. If you use them, we might have a lot of questions to answer.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Scott called from the back. He had to run to the side to get Skipper to catch up with them. “I’ve got some cash with me. I’ll buy Chrissie whatever she needs. One of you guys will have to stay out here with Skipper and Chrissie’s dogs.”

“I have cash and credit cards, too,” Brad put in. Chrissie smiled. The two competitive brothers were about to get in a fight over who paid for her change of clothes.

“Well, that solves that problem,” Ethan told them. She noted that he hadn’t offered to spend any of his money. He was always such a hard case. Inwardly, she found herself laughing when she saw him walking with a noticeable limp. He also had a grimace on his face. After their escapades in the shower that morning, she knew why. She had squeezed him awfully hard. She cupped her mouth with her hand to keep from laughing outwardly.

Scott came up to Ethan and handed him the leash he had Skipper on. “Looks like you get to stay out here and look after the dogs, bro,” he told him. Chrissie wanted to laugh when she saw the look of horror on Ethan’s face. He had just talked himself into a boring job.

“Right, looks like I do.” Ethan shrugged and took the leash from his brother.

Inside, the mall was small and its array of shops simple. There was a women’s clothing section at one of the stores, and Chrissie and the two guys headed straight for it. The fashions on sale there weren’t exactly what she was used to, but she decided she liked them better than the latest designs out of Paris.

The guys waited for her outside the dressing room, and she took half a dozen outfits in to try on. She was determined to get them all but wanted to make sure they fit her first. Normally, she had a wardrobe person fit all of her clothes for her. The idea of actually trying on these new garments in private, and with the ability to choose which ones she liked best, was a new concept to her.

She was looking at herself in the mirror of the changing room. She had tried on a short skirt and a tank top. Beneath them was a matching set of bra and panties she had picked up from the intimate-wear section. She was determined to walk out of this store in something other than Ethan’s torn, old blue jeans.

A girl about her own age entered the changing room carrying a stack of new clothes about the same size as the one Chrissie had carried inside. The girl stood next to her and looked in the long mirror with her, rearranging her hair style. Then the girl caught Chrissie in the mirror and her stare lingered.

“Excuse me,” she said. “I think I know you from somewhere.”

Chrissie shook her head. “I don’t think so. I don’t live here. I’m just passing through town with my friends.”

“That’s really weird. You look like someone I’ve seen before…”

Chrissie tried to go back to examining the fit of her top. After another few seconds the girl was staring at her again. “I know you must have heard this a million times,” the girl told her. “You look like Chrissie Murphy, the singer. You even have your hair done like hers.”

“Yes, I have heard that a few times before.” Casually, Chrissie tried to face in the opposite direction. “I don’t really think I look anything like her myself.”

“Really? But you do. It’s amazing…”

“I don’t even listen to her music.” Chrissie had to fall back on everything she had been taught in acting class.

“I don’t either, but she does have a hot boyfriend. Zach Gomez. I love to listen to his songs. I think he’s really super cute.”

Chrissie looked over at the girl. “Believe me, Zach Gomez is a creep. Don’t listen to his music anymore.” She took her bundle of clothes and started from the dressing room. Then she turned and cast a last glance over her shoulder at the girl. “By the way, Chrissie Murphy doesn’t go with Zach Gomez anymore.”

She turned and walked out of the dressing room.

Outside, Brad and Scott were waiting patiently for her. Scott gathered the clothes from her. Both guys whistled at her when they saw her in the short skirt and tank top.

“You decide which one you want to buy?” Scott asked her.

“All of them.”

She watched as Brad and Scott exchanged a glance. “Don’t worry,” Brad told his kid brother. “I’ve got enough on my card for it.”

She realized that her method of shopping, which was just to buy everything in the store that she liked, was probably much different from their way of shopping. She put a hand on Brad’s shoulder.