Idolized (Hollywood Stardust Book 3) (50 page)

“Oh, they make the organic baby food.” Erin nodded. “But then I want to triple our ads.”

Cora shook her head. “Quadruple the amount of ads, but I’ll give you premium placement.”

“On Ivy’s show.” Drew added.

The man was smart. “Deal.” Cora just made up for one of the television account and held her hand out.

Both Erin and Drew shook her hand, and she turned her back to them. “John, as I was saying, I’m ready to pull your ads, but I will have you know that the second that Ivy Alexander has an exclusive story on those pictures cost per click will double, and I’ll never give you back your old rate once I terminate you contract. On the other hand, if you add some revenue to the mix, I may be inclined to tell you that Erin Holland-Fulton is ready to endorse your baby food and we’ll forget this whole unfortunate incident ever happened. I also need not remind you where babies come from, do I?”

The crowd in the trailer chuckled behind her.

“You bring up some major points, Cora. Hold on a moment,” John said.

Ryder took her hand. “Did I ever tell you it turns me on when you go out for blood?”

At last she smiled, a lesser man would be threatened by what she had to do to make things work in her world.

“Cora.” John returned to the phone.

She leaned against Ryder and cocked the phone for him to hear.

“I want to apologize about our kneejerk reaction to the situation. We are an old, family-run business, but under further evaluation, we have to realize we must stay with the times and what our customers want,” John explained. “We will increase our spend twenty percent. Please have the ad department call me personally to set it up.”

“Thank you, John.” She hung up.

Ryder gave her a squeeze, but she wasn’t done yet. She spun on her heel to Viktor.

Viktor tossed his cell phone aside and jumped up. “Make your call, you’re one and a half percent up and we’re all getting a year supply of Stallion Maxum condoms, as well as any other things to tickle our fancy.”

Everyone in the trailer let out a cheer.

“If anyone is going to supply my daughter with sex accessories, it will be me.” The voice of insanity entered her already crazy situation.

“Mother.” She grabbed on to Ryder and turned.

“There they are, Tony.” Arms wide open, her mother barreled toward them, wrapping one arm around her and the other around Ryder and bursting into tears. “Viktor!” The woman held her hand out. “Everyone hug!”

Viktor came over and Cora was suffocated in a pile people.

Her mother pulled back, kissed her twice, kissed Viktor and then took Ryder’s face into her hands. “My, my, you are the gorgeous one, aren’t you?”

For the first time ever, Ryder was rendered speechless.

“I don’t know if you need any sex toys with this one around, he’s just one huge plaything.” Her mother pinched his cheek. “I’m Rita Cummerbund, otherwise known as Madame Sublime, or Cora’s mother.”

“Yes, you are.” Ryder’s face lit up with amusement.

Cora scanned the room for Rodger.

“That was the second personal thing I tried to tell you.” Rodger shook his head.

Cora backed away. The woman and her living toy were here and now she had another thing to deal with. “I need to make a phone call.”

* * * *

“BOSS, I DID A FUNDRAISER for Ryder’s Rescue,” Ben’s voice came through Ryder’s phone. “Once news of Cora’s attack hit the airwaves, the donations started pouring in. I deposited everything into the account we set up, and I got a shipment of tote bags with your logo on them. They’re being delivered to the Sierra Towers.” Ben finished his weekly report to Ryder on his charity.

“Wait.” Ryder’s Rescue had a logo? Ryder stopped in front of the door to his and Cora’s suite at the hotel in Arizona. Something, maybe the pictures in tabloids, or watching Cora save her hide in the trailer this morning, or the fact he loved her told him he absolutely couldn’t protest when she announced her mother and stepfather would be hosting dinner for them tonight. Still, he had his charity to deal with.

“What’s wrong, boss?” Ben asked.

Part of dealing with his charity was refraining from divulging this information to Cora until later, much later, like when he had more to show for a charity than some cash and checks. More than ever, he had to make Cora look good. Every day he saw how she defended him, them, their movie, and after watching her go on a rampage saving face and part of her business, he knew he had to watch everything. “You can’t ship them there, you should receive them. I mean Cora and I are out a lot and you’re the one who has to make sure they get to the right location. Plus, you have to keep records.” On the good Karma side of things, he was finally paying Ben for some of his work. It was the least he could do for the man keeping his charity afloat.

“Good call, Boss. I’ll take care of it, plus we have some people asking about our next fundraiser.”

“You’re in charge. I have to go.” Finally, Ryder opened the door to the suite. Hold on, was this his suite? At least he thought it was his and Cora’s suite. For a quick second he leaned back to double-check the number. Yes, this was their place all right.

Their place but different.

Really different.

This morning when they left, the living area was a comfy living room with overstuffed couches and a chair where only last night Cora sat on his lap and fell asleep in his arms while he studied the shoot schedule for the next day.

However, now it was set up like a formal dining room in some mansion. Five, no make that six, uniformed waiters lined the walls, along with what appeared to be a private chef in one of those hats and everything.

Drinks in hand and in matching old-fashioned blue silk smoking jackets, Tony, Cora’s stepdad and Viktor stood in one corner near a formal bar complete with bartender. Viktor lifted his chin in Ryder’s direction.

“There he is!” In only what Ryder would call a bright blue formal prom meets ball gown, Rita, Cora’s mother appeared from around the corner. “The man who took care of my daughter.”

The woman snapped her fingers and one of the waiters came over with a glass of wine while a different one came over with another one of those blue jackets on a hanger. She took the wine off the tray while yet another attendant came over and lifted the train of her skirt. Together Cora’s mother, the one waiter with the jacket, and the guy in white gloves holding the train, approached Ryder.

“Good evening,” he said. Of course the one thing missing from this equation, and there was a lot to equate in the form of people in his suite, was his girl. “Where’s Cora?”

“Help him.” Rita scowled at someone, Ryder wasn’t quite sure who, and someone came over, took his bag, bent down and helped him slip his shoes off. They put a pair of blue slippers on his feet and the guy with the smoking jacket helped Ryder on with his, including tying his tie. Rita handed him the wine and lifted her glass in his direction. “To the man who put my daughter on the map today. Those pictures were phenomenal.”

Something about that comment seemed off. It wasn’t that her daughter had a billion-dollar business she built out of a garage, or produced the movies that people waited two decades for, or maybe the sheer fact her daughter was the most gorgeous smart woman on the planet didn’t put her on the map. But an almost sexy picture without even a nip slip that clearly upset her daughter made the woman want to get a pushpin and commemorate the moment?

“I need to find Cora,” he said.

“She’s finishing getting ready.” Rita guided him to the other men. “Go play with the boys. I bought Tony a new toy because he’s been so very good.”

Something told him to play along so Ryder joined Viktor and Tony at a table with what appeared to be an antique chess set. Since he met Tony earlier, he felt like he had seen the man before but couldn’t place him.

“Ryder, do you play chess?” His fingertip on one of the carved stone pieces, Tony quickly looked up at him and then returned his focus to the game.

Ryder’s father would have told him life was a chess game and to get through in life all someone had to know was how to move the pieces. “I have dabbled.” Right as he went to look for a place to sit, one of the servants carried a chair over to him.

“You know chess and tennis are a lot alike. You have to keep moving forward, you have to catch your opponent off guard, and when all else fails, you need to play right down the center.” Tony made his move and sat back in his seat.

Tennis. That was it. “You’re Tennis Tony!” About twenty-five years ago, the man was the star of the tennis circuit and was one of those athletes that all the women went crazy for with his long brown hair and perpetual tan. That was pretty cool.

“In the flesh.” Tony bowed his head.

“Do you still compete?” Sports was never Ryder’s forte. Neither was singing or dancing. He was an actor through and through, that and the owner of a charity.

“Not since Rita found me and made an honest man out of me.” A smile grew over Tony’s face. “Then I didn’t have to.”

Ryder nodded, and concurred. They had some things in common. Both celebrities both saved by their girls. “I hear you.” With his wine in hand, he sat back and watched the game. Rarely did people just go about their business when he was around, and this whole thing was oddly settling, like he didn’t have to put on a show.

“Yeah, she basically scraped me up off the tennis court. I was going through a rough patch. You know how it is, the money starts rolling in and then it rolls out just as fast.” Tony made another move.

Ryder pushed his back into the chair. He knew that whole role all too well and ran his hand through his hair. “What do you do now, Tony?”

Tony studied the chessboard.

“My sugar face is kept plenty busy tending to the needs of his wife.” Rita and her dress guy came over. She perched herself on the edge of Tony’s chair and rubbed his neck.

Tony nodded, took Rita’s hand, kissed the back and returned to his game.

“Yes, I was taken with him the second I saw him on the television, he was so beautiful. Once my company went public I promised myself I would meet him, and I arranged for a VIP room at one of his tournaments.” Rita petted Tony’s hair down and giggled. “Once he introduced himself, I knew I had to have him, and I practically asked him what I had to do to keep him.”

“And keep me she did.” Tony peeked over at him as if sending him a message. “I could do worse than end up married to a woman who researches and studies sex and toys for a living.”

Ryder downed the rest of his wine and shifted in his seat. Was this how powerful women got their mates? If they changed a few details, they could easily be telling his story. Did Tony just give up, let Rita take over?

“Did you show Ryder what gorgeous husbands get when they treat their wives right?” Rita crooned.

Staring right into Ryder’s eyes Tony lifted the sleeve on his smoking jacket to reveal a watch that anyone with any knowledge of brands and designers would know ten thousand miles away. “We added this to my collection on the way here.” Tony leaned over to allow Ryder to get a better look.

Ryder admired the timepiece. No, Tony didn’t give up, he just took the easy road. The same path his father told him to take, the same path he tried to travel down many a time. He had the easy road handed to him, but did he want it? Wasn’t part of this whole gig to share things? His stomach tightening, he jumped up out of the chair.

“Ryder? What’s the matter?” Rita made some hand motion, and no less than three men rushed over to her. “Mr. Scott needs some more wine, and he must be starving. He has to keep up his strength and eat.”

“No, thank you, I’ll be right back.” As fast as he could, but not to appear as if he were running, he headed straight for the bedroom of their suite.

There, stuck in the middle of a big blue cloud was his girl hunched over her laptop.

“Honey, I’m home,” he said.

Scowl firmly across her face, she glanced over at him. “I’m blue.”

“I’m matching you.” He went to her side. “What’s the deal?”

“My mother is nuts, any more questions?” She returned her attention to her computer.

“Hey.” He took her chin and turned her toward him. “You’re working way too much.”

“I could say the same to you.” After giving the laptop one last look, she closed it.

“No.” He shook his head. “My work is much different than your daily grind.”

A little smile flickered over her lips and she pressed her palm to his cheek. “Well, if my daily grind allows me to see this gorgeous face at the end of it, it’s all worth it.” She leaned in and kissed him.

He broke the kiss and pulled her in for a hug. Yes, his whole life he was told to find the easy road, but just because one had the pavement to skate on, it didn’t mean they had to glide through life. Rita’s pet names and tokens to Tony made it clear how and why they got together, and maybe he and Cora started out the same way, but he didn’t want to end up sitting in front of a chess set without having truly worked for anything.

Boy, would his father be disappointed.

Maybe his father was never truly in love.

Cora pulled back. “Ryder, are you okay?”

If nothing else, he needed to finish this movie and then really get to work. That was the right thing to do for him and for Cora. “Yeah, baby. I just love you.” Somehow, he would break the rumor about him being a kept man.

HOLLYWOOD STARDOM

FADE IN:

INT. HOLLYWOOD – TELEVISION NEWS SET - EVENING

CHARLES is on the sound stage sitting with the NEWS ANCHOR about the possibility of an asteroid hitting the Earth.

CHARLES

There are satellites and telescopes all over the world monitoring for any sort of danger twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  The asteroid passing by the earth tomorrow will not come anywhere close to us, and there is absolutely no cause for alarm.