For the Night: Complete Box Set (77 page)

‘Cut!’ yelled the Director. ‘God damn it Logan,
try and at least look like you’re enjoying yourself. She’s hot. She’s bloody
hot, you’re some kind of sex God. We’ve had to double security there’s that
many screaming women outside trying to get in and I’m replacing your male
co-stars quicker than I can count. You intimidate every bloody guy on set, cast
and
crew with your damn looks and muscular body. We see you with Summer
and there’s sparks and heat. With Vivian I don’t see sparks, I need a bloody
heater to warm me up it’s so fucking cold in here! I need bloody sparks from my
leading couple. The audience want sizzling chemistry and I’m getting nothing
from you. Vivian on the other hand looks ready to eat you alive. We’re not filming
Praying fucking Mantis,
or
Dominatrix
. It’s
A Dominant’s
Revenge.
You’re supposed to be the sexual predator,
you’re
the
dominant. Fucking act like it. Everyone, take ten and we’ll come back and start
again,’ he bellowed. I marched back to my trailer and slammed the door. I hated
fucking failing, but how the hell was I supposed to act like I craved my
co-star when she wasn’t bloody Summer? I picked up the phone and rang her.

‘How’s it going?’ she asked.

‘Crap. I’m totally fucking crap!’

‘No you’re not, Brian wouldn’t have signed you if
you were crap. You landed a major motion picture with your first audition,
that’s absolutely incredible. Do you know how often that happens?’

‘It happened to you,’ I replied, as I closed my
eyes and sank down into my recliner, carefully positioned under the air
conditioning unit.

‘Hello? My first film role,
not
my first
audition. You’re a miracle in the acting world, not just the miracle in mine,’
she laughed, making my heart melt, as well as the ice in my water. ‘Tell me what
I can do, why do you think it’s going so wrong?’

‘I have no chemistry with Vivian. “No fucking
sparks.” How do you do it? That last premiere we went to, I nearly leapt on
stage and ripped Damien right out of the screen to knock him out for making you
look like that at him.’

‘Simple, I just imagine that it’s you, Lucas.
Pretend it’s me, but obviously don’t kiss her properly or
I’ll
knock you
out. Just imagine it’s you and me, imagine it’s our first time in ages because
we’re both in different countries and it’s the first time we’ve laid eyes, or
hands on each other in weeks.’

‘Why the hell did I agree to become a damn actor?’
I muttered, frustration and longing to have my woman in my arms right now,
ripping me apart. ‘I was earning a good living doing my personal training, not
to mention the substantial income I’m still getting from my commission deal
with Trey and my ex-clients, I could have just put the training appointments on
hold while I followed you wherever your locations were set.’

‘Lucas, you’re so talented, you’re so much more
than just a personal trainer. Anyone with dedication could do that, though I
doubt they’d look half as sexy as you do,’ she advised, finally making me crack
a proper smile. ‘It takes a unique ability to be able to make an audience
believe whatever you’re portraying and you have that. Think of all those
fantasies you carried out for all of those women over the years, fantasies that
didn’t even turn you on. You did it because it was your job and you were good
at faking it, that’s all an actor does, fakes it. You can do this, don’t make
me leave set early and fly across from London to slap some sense into you.’

‘I’m missing you so much, angel,’ I sighed, her
voice was so reassuring and calmed me, as well as bloody turning me on.

‘I’m missing you too, but it’s only another week
before sets shut down for Christmas, one more week and we can be home together
again.’

‘God I want that so much,’ I groaned, then sighed
as I heard the call to return to set being made. ‘I’d better go, it’s time to
go and fake it.’

‘You fake it better than anyone in the world,
Logan Steele,’ she laughed. ‘Love you, speak to you later, ok?’

‘I’ll ring you when I’m back in the hotel,’ I
confirmed. I smiled as I heard her blow a kiss down the phone. ‘Love you too,
angel.’ I hung up and rubbed my hands over my face. The last eight months had
been crazy. When we’d returned from Scotland, back to the real world after we
dropped our news on them, we’d expected a backlash. Instead everyone was
praising Summer for telling the truth and she’d been appointed as spokesperson
for a charity offering support to teenage victims of rape and abuse. Instead of
being in the papers as “The boyfriend of Summer Beresford,” I suddenly became
known as “Logan Steele, master seductor” and had to take on more security, to
protect me from the scores of women screaming outside my front door every damn
day, so Summer had suggested I move in with her. Her agent Brian had rung me
immediately, saying he wanted to represent me, but as I’d been outed as “Logan
Steele” that was who I should remain, in the public eye at least. He seemed to
think Logan Steele had a better ring than Lucas Steel. He begged me to give him
one night to convince me that I could make it as an actor, that he could make
me into a super star. So, Logan Steele, actor for the night, went to meet him.
Summer encouraged me, as did my parents. It did seem to make sense, I had the
face and the body that screamed leading male, especially now Daron Beck was
locked up behind bars. Hollywood was desperate for the next hot superstar. I
sighed and wiped myself down with a cold face cloth and strode back to set,
determined that I was going to knock this out of the park.

Summer

‘Evening, Miss Beresford, Bailey,’ nodded James as
we approached him.

‘Evening James, how are you?’ I smiled.

‘All the better for seeing you,’ he beamed. I gave
his arm a squeeze as I got into the car, Bailey, my bodyguard, allowing James
to close me in, as he went and sat in the passenger seat. ‘How did it go?’
James asked, as he headed towards the security gates on set.

‘Great thank you. It’s a total wrap, one whole
week early, I’m told it doesn’t happen very often.’

‘It’s because you do such a good job.’ He smiled
at me in the rear view mirror and I laughed.

‘I’ve not done that many films, James, I’m hardly
an expert.’

‘Not what Mrs. Smith says,’ he replied.

‘She’s seen one of my films? Have
you
seen
one of my films?’ I gasped, mortified.

‘Please,’ scoffed, James. ‘I’m with Bailey on
this, we don’t see the attraction of all this romance stuff. Give us a good war
film, or action one with guns blazing, that’s our kind of film. Mrs. Smith went
to see it with her girlfriends, and she’s got tickets to the second one out
next month already. She said you were incredible.’

‘Thank you,’ I blushed. I still couldn’t believe I
was doing a job I loved and everyone thought I was some kind of star. It was
only acting. I couldn’t understand all the hype around me, Lucas yes, I mean he
had star material written all over him, but me? I was just a pretty girl from a
run-down area of London who’d got a lucky break.

‘So, how are you coping without him?’

‘I miss him, like crazy,’ I sighed as I looked
down and tangled my fingers together. ‘He’s hoping to be home next Saturday
morning, has he asked you to pick him up?’

‘It’s all in hand, don’t you worry. You’ll be
seeing him again before you know it.’

‘I really wish that were true, but every day
without him drags so much. You must think I’m so pathetic.’ I wiped my eye, to
catch a tear that was teetering on the edge of my lashes. I really was lost
without him. I’d not sat in every night, with a tub of Ben and Jerry’s on my
lap, lamenting how awful my life was, it wasn’t. Far from it. I’d had Mandy and
Jayne over, been out dancing with Ellie, Brooke and Molly, I’d been to a number
of fabulous celebrity events, but coming home, to find the apartment empty, to
not have his warm body curled around me at night, his hot lips pressing against
mine for a quick kiss as he watched his football … I just didn’t feel whole
when he was away.

‘If you’re pathetic then so am I, Miss Beresford.
I miss him too. I have no one giving me grief when I drive,’ James winked. I
laughed, leaned forward and squeezed his shoulder.

‘You’re a really good friend to us, James.’

‘Even I’ve missed him,’ huffed Bailey, his eyes
set straight ahead on the road. That made me laugh even more, Bailey was a man
of few words, he was always so focussed on what was happening around us, making
sure there were no threats.

‘He’s a very easy man to miss,’ I sighed. ‘So,
tell me the sorts of films you’d recommend for an alpha male, I’ll download
some for when he gets home, so he can put his feet up and relax.’

‘I have a feeling he’ll be far more interested in
relaxing with you, Miss Beresford,’ James nodded, ‘rather than watching a film,
but sure, we’ll come up with a list.’

I waved goodbye to James as he sat in his car and
made a call, Bailey trying to hurry me through the crowds gathered outside the
apartment, I insisted on stopping to sign some autographs, much to his chagrin,
but God knows how long these people had been waiting.

‘Morning,’ I smiled as we passed Albert and Jake
in reception. They both smiled back, Albert giving me his customary salute.
Bailey came up with me to the front door and checked the top right hand corner
as I patiently waited with my back against the wall, away from the door, as was
protocol. He always put some clear tabs up there when we left, to see if they
were broken when we returned.

‘We’re good,’ he nodded to me as he headed in and
deactivated the alarm, which monitored all movement in the apartment. ‘Thanks
Bailey, have a great weekend.’

‘I’ll see you on Monday,’ he nodded. I smiled and
closed the door behind me, letting out a sigh. I’d tried to make plans with my friends,
but they were all busy, Mum and Dad had plans too, even Lucas’s parents were
busy. I kicked off my heels and picked them up, padding barefoot through to my
bedroom. I opened the door and dropped my heels on the floor with a shocked
gasp. Sitting in the middle of my bed, was a large white box, secured with
electric blue ribbon, with a typed note propped up against it.

‘Lucas?’ I called, my heart suddenly racing with
excitement. I ran into the en-suite, then through the whole apartment, checking
every room, sighing when I realised he wasn’t here. I walked back to the
bedroom and picked up the note and turned it over, but there wasn’t anything on
the back. How had a box been put in my bedroom when the door seal had been
intact and the alarm was still set? I wondered if it was James, he and Bailey
had a key and knew the code, maybe Lucas had asked him to arrange a surprise
and James would know to put some tabs back on the door so as not to freak out
Bailey. I undid the blue ribbon, which Lucas always chose for me and lifted the
lid of the box. There was another note, in Lucas’s handwriting sitting on top
of some tissue paper.