Idolized (Hollywood Stardust Book 3) (3 page)

Still, the woman media-blocked his entrance, and though he made sure to have no expression on his face, he waited to determine whether he needed to fight.

“Cora Caine.” The reporter tiptoed toward the intruder. “Welcome to the red carpet.”

Yes, Cora Caine, the CEO of Chargge.com.

When her web portal/search engine/multimedia site was purchased three years ago by the same company that owned the studio that produced
Hollywood Stardust
, she became a billionaire overnight. She also seemed to be the one pushing for the Stardust movies to continue.

Rather than answer, Cora glanced around and as if she finally realized she was in front of reporters and photographers, she struck her version of a pose.

More accurately, she put her hands on her hips and pursed her lips. “What was the question?”

Inside, Ryder winced. The reporter hadn’t asked a question. However, Cora’s demeanor gave him some much needed intel. Apparently Ms. Caine hadn’t intended to sabotage his moment in the limelight, but simply took the wrong way.

“Were you always a fan of the
Hollywood Stardust
movie? Is that why you became involved with the sequel?” Where the reporter was smooth with his costars, at having her flow disrupted, her voice shook.

“The original movie is one of the most beloved of all time. When my team ran our algorithms, we decided it would be a good investment.” Cora crossed her arms over her chest, setting up a barrier to the reporter and covering up one of her best assets.

Ryder wasn’t sure if she even answered the question. He was still stuck on the word algorithm. What the hell was an algorithm? Did anyone know?

“Oh, well, yes.” The reporter’s smile faded. “Your dress is gorgeous. Who are you wearing?”

Ah, the old standby question. It was also a gift on the reporter’s part. Hopefully, Cora would take the hint and lower her arms, because no one should be allowed to miss that body. All her curves were made for exploration. Instead of revealing the designer, Cora returned to that pursing her lips thing, making her look like an inexperienced actress trying to impress. Not the appropriate look for a corporate bigwig.

Sometimes the best battles were won purely on opportunity and coincidence. It was time for a surprise attack. After a quick check of his tie, Ryder swooped in and came up right behind Ms. Caine. She gasped, but that didn’t stop him. He put one hand on her waist, and with his other hand, he pulled the back of her dress, got a quick glimpse at the label and leaned into her ear. “Owen Blakeney, Blake Designs.”

“Ryder Scott, what a surprise!” The reporter smiled again.

Cora twisted around to see him, her lock of hair hitting him in the face.

He corralled her hair and decided the best course of action was to take over. “The gorgeous Cora Caine is wearing an Owen Blakeney dress that fits her better than any glove I’ve ever seen, and as luck would have it, I have one of his tuxedos on tonight.”

“Are you ready to reprise your role as William?” the reporter asked.

“I think the more accurate question would be, is William ready for me?” He chuckled and slid his hand down. Hey, since he saved her ass, he might as well get a little touchy-feely.

“Ms. Caine, are you pleased with the outcome of the second movie?” As the reporter asked yet another question, Cora tensed like she wanted to walk.

In an effort to keep the media monstrosity in place, he tightened his hold and continued to speak for Ms. Caine. “With all the unique circumstances, I think this was a perfect way to tell the story. Now I believe it’s time to walk the rest of the red carpet.” He gave the reporter a wink and with his arm around her waist, guided Cora toward the hotel entrance.

“You can let go of me now, Mr. Scott.” She put her hand over his.

“Why would I do that? It feels like it belongs here.” They continued toward the doors, and he nodded at no one in particular.

The doormen did their jobs, but before she entered she turned to him. “I can guarantee that no part of you belongs on any part of me.”

“I don’t think anyone, let alone you, can guarantee that.” To prove his point, he let his hand skim down to the swell of her backside. The angle of the curve let him know if he delved a little deeper he would get quite the magnificent handful.

Her green eyes darkened, and they stared at each other.

“What are you looking at?” She didn’t walk away, but she did narrow her eyes.

Though he had met Cora a few times, he never had the opportunity to be this close up to her. In fact, she was quite attractive, actually beautiful, with feminine little features in complete contrast to her harder than steel attitude. Part of him wanted to take a bite, but the other part was afraid he would chip one of his teeth and his caps were damn expensive. “Why don’t you use one of your algorithms and figure it out?” He purposely lowered his eyes to her copious cleavage. “Instead of snapping at me, maybe you should thank me for saving your ass out there.”

She raised her chin. “My ass did not need saving.”

“I think that’s where you and I need to agree to disagree.” With a quick glance back to ensure at least a few of the cameras were on them, he gave into the temptation from earlier and finally let his palm graze over the aforementioned body part. Oh, he was spot on, her ass was perfection.

Her eyes ablaze, she dramatically grabbed his hand and plucked it off her. “My algorithm tells me this is done.” She spun on her heel and stomped into the hotel.

Once more, Ryder looked back at the media. Even more people were focused on him, and he gave them a slight bow. Those gathered let out a collective
awww
. “I better get inside.” He widened his eyes to garner any last bit of sympathy and paused to allow the photographers to get their shot before following his impromptu date. Tomorrow’s stories would have him plastered everywhere. Job well done, Ryder. Job well done.

* * * *

AS FAR AS CORA WAS CONCERNED, the only good part about hanging around celebrities was the minute she entered a room, people didn’t stop and stare at her.

In fact, she barged through the party in search of her employees, and no one gave her a second glance, everyone focused on the stars. All she needed to do was make her appearance and corral the cast of the next movie for a quick meeting before she could leave and go get some real work done.

Of course, she already had quite a run-in with Ryder, but he caught her at an unusually weak moment. She never intended to end up on the red carpet, but got sick of sitting in a line of limos and left the car out of order. The stupid ushers guided her right to the scene of the crime, or in this case, the step and repeat.

Thus far, her idea to capitalize on the Hollywood Stardust franchise was paying off and putting her in prime position for what she was truly after. The stars’ affiliation with her website entertainment portal, Chargge.com, increased her numbers and made her even more relevant. By casting a younger set of heartthrobs in the sequel and returning to the original cast for the finale, everyone from thirteen to sixty was panting to see how the famous foursome would end their story.

She glanced around the party, finally finding the star cluster she was after. Logan, her so-called business partner in this endeavor, his wife, who worked for Chargge’s entertainment productions, the scientist, and the bimbo all stood huddled around the first of the offspring to come from their galaxy. All Cora was missing was the super nova leading man, and that was fine by her. From the way they all orbited each other, any news would get back to Ryder, the who didn’t seem to belong in their solar system.

With enough astronomy comparisons under her belt to create an entire sci-fi movie, like an asteroid she shot forward. Fine, she had one more simile in her. It was just too easy.

“Cora.” Logan spied her and lifted his hand.

She swore not to smile when the little boy with his hair pulled back in a matching tiny ponytail to his father did the same thing.

Though she might be the checkbook behind the movies, every time she entered their circle, she still felt as if she were standing out of their orbit.

For a moment they all remained silent.

Logan cleared his throat. “What did you think?” The man seemed to hold his child a bit tighter and wrapped his arm around his wife.

Erin held onto Drew, and Cora swore Drew almost shielded his wife’s eyes, but instead, his hand went to her stomach.

Since the day Chargge went public, everyone reacted this way to her. Well, it wasn’t a surprise, since she made people money, a lot of money, including herself. She opened her mouth and those around her leaned toward her.

“Hey, thanks for keeping her warm for me.” Out of nowhere Ryder handed her a glass of sparkling wine. He tapped his glass against hers. “I didn’t mean to leave your side, but I stopped to get your favorite.”

She glanced down at the glass. “My favorite?”

“Yes, love, your favorite.” He bent down and spoke in her ear. “You love a Muscato wine, a little sparkle, a little sweet and a little unpredictable for you. I would have pegged you a dry wine girl. What other surprises are you hiding?”

All right, the wine was her favorite. Her mouth suddenly became dry as the wine Ryder assumed she should prefer. She took a sip of the effervescent liquid. “You never know what I’ll do next.” In truth, she didn’t mean her statement to come out as suggestive as it sounded, but maybe he didn’t notice.

Ryder sidestepped, his arm pressing against hers. “I hope that rings true for later as well. Maybe right around the time you tell me all about algorithms.” He tapped his glass against hers and faced the rest of his friends. “So, what are we doing?”

In a need to recapture control over this meeting, she stepped forward, right into the eye of the storm. “I believe you were waiting for my critique of your film.”

Evaluation was never easy, as she knew from experience over and over again. Everyone froze in place.

Well, everyone but Ryder who took to sipping his wine, giving Erin’s stomach a thumbs-up and high-fiving Logan’s child.

Before answering, and frankly enjoying the way the rest of them trembled, she reached into her handbag for her phone. She put Ryder to work by handing him her glass of wine while she quickly assessed some data. A few clicks told her what she needed to know. “Well…” Out of the corner of her eye, she spied Ryder taking a sip of her wine and shrugging.

Rather than watch him, she forced herself to continue. “The rumble already is promising. We made the right decision to give the green light on the last movie.” She scrolled down to get the rest of the report. “The public does want to see the four of you reprise your roles, but we knew that. I am sure
Hollywood Starburst
will go down as the middle child of the group. The first being the classic and the last being what people want to see. It will now forever be known as the filler, but we had to have a bridge.”

Without taking her eyes off her phone, she reached over and took another taste of the wine. Since she had their attention she might as well say what she came here for so she could go and get out of this too tight dress and into forgiving stretchy leggings and work.

Once again she handed Ryder her glass. At least the living coaster was good for something. After reading the rest of the data, she lifted her head. Ryder stared right at her and deliberately took another sip of her drink. Fine, the man was good for two things, holding glasses and standing there and looking pretty. She best get to her task at hand. “Because of Erin’s situation, I have an announcement.”

“Drew and I have a pregnancy clause in our contracts.” Breathless, Erin shot the words out.

“As do Ivy and I.” Logan nodded.

“Thank god I need no such clause,” Ryder huffed.

“You are not pushing the movie back.” Logan’s jaw tightened. “We’d lose momentum. We can work around Erin’s special situation and whatever else comes along.”

“Drew.” Erin hid her face in her husband’s shoulder.

“What’s going on?” Drew patted his wife, but stared Cora down.

Cora waited to ensure their collective hissy fit was over. “You know, only because you are stars is this type of behavior tolerated. If you would have let me take a breath, I would have told you that we are fast tracking the movie and would like to move the production up two weeks. Of course, if Erin goes into labor, we will honor the contracts and pause until she and Drew return from paternity leave. This way we have a bit more time built in.” Before nodding, she rewound her words making sure they were all politically correct. Once certain, she took another sip of her wine and returned it to her human cup holder.

The smile on Erin’s face had a domino effect on the rest of the flock.

Thankfully, she managed to avoid asking Erin how her timing could be so perfectly bad to add another person to the earth, but it was now her time to bid her little sheep
adieu
. “We want a smooth shoot that can be wrapped up quickly.”

Logan stepped forward. “There is one problem.”

Oh, a confrontation. Her blood rushed, and she lifted her chin. “What might that be, Mr. Alexander?”

“What about the end of the movie?” His voice hardened.

Cora couldn’t stop her smile. Until the day the last scene was shot, none of them would know the end. Though movies were often shot out of order, the final scene would purposely be shot last. “As we have discussed numerous times, the end of the movie won’t be revealed to anyone until the day we shoot it.”

“Do you know the end?” Ivy asked.

“What do you think?” Of course she didn’t know the end. No one, not even the screenwriter knew the end. She gave them each another nod and turned to leave.

“Cora.” The smooth sound of Ryder crooning her name made her stop.

“If you have any further questions Mr. Scott, you can call my office.” Apparently these people didn’t understand some of the unfortunate ones like her, needed to do actual work for a living.

He held his hand up to stop her. “Ms. Caine, I definitely need to ask you a question before you depart.”

As if he lived his life perpetually in a movie, the music for the party began. The alternative pop from the
Hollywood Starburst
soundtrack echoed through the space.