Authors: Michelle Betham
‘You can go up and see her,’
India
said, finally turning round to face JJ, unable to avoid looking at him now.
‘If you like.’
He kept his eyes on hers, walking over to her and she didn’t move.
Even when he was right in front of her, so close she could feel his breath on her cheek.
‘Why are we doing this,
India
?’
She looked up at him, staring into those incredible dark eyes.
She’d never forget looking into those eyes on their wedding day, full of hope that she’d finally found her prince.
She’d never forget how happy she’d felt, how handsome he’d looked.
How beautiful that amazing day had been.
And yet, here they were, on the brink of divorce after less than two years and there hadn’t even been a row, no real reason for them to be separating at all.
It was hard to accept, but she knew she couldn’t stay with him.
She just knew.
Even though there was still a part of her that loved him so much.
He reached out and gently stroked her cheek with the back of his hand, still staring into her eyes.
Jesus, why couldn’t things have been different?
Why couldn’t she just see how great they were together?
They’d been through so much and he couldn’t believe she was willing to throw all of that away for something so uncertain.
‘You don’t have to do this,
India
.
You don’t have to walk away from me.’
She put her hand over his and moved it away, breaking the stare.
‘Yes, Joe.
I do.’
The moment was over and JJ knew that.
Too fleeting to be able to make anything out of it.
Maybe he hadn’t tried hard enough, or maybe it wasn’t even worth bothering because she had her back to him again; a signal that she didn’t want this situation to carry on any longer, and he got the message.
‘I’ll go get Ellie then,’ he said, watching her as she zipped up their daughter’s pink overnight bag, keeping her back to him.
‘I’ll bring her back tomorrow evening, if that’s okay?’
India
nodded, staring out of the window.
She was all but dismissing him and it made him sad.
She deserved to be happy, but it was almost as if she wouldn’t allow anyone in to help her find that happiness.
She wouldn’t allow anyone beyond the barriers she put up.
And JJ wondered if, maybe now, it was time to stop trying.
***
Dominic MacDonald was thirty-six-years-old, six-foot-one-inches-tall and about as handsome as you could get without it being illegal.
He had messed-up, almost scruffy-looking dark brown hair but on him it looked less rock star and more stylish, framing a face that carried the most incredible blue eyes and a smile that could only be described as devastating.
Yet, despite all of this, he wasn’t somebody who knew he was good looking and wanted the world to know that, although, he could turn it on when he needed to.
When the situation called for it.
But, when he wasn’t playing Mr Movie Star he was a modest, almost understated young man.
He was naturally charming, very polite, and someone who just happened to be one of the most incredible looking men in the world of movies right now.
With a flair for romantic comedies he was an actor who was very much in demand.
He was a lot of people’s first choice for leading man and he played the part like nobody else could, with his natural charm and modesty translating perfectly onto the big screen.
Originally from
Manhattan
, he’d moved to
L.A.
in his mid-twenties, when the movie offers had started flooding in, and over the years he’d had a steady and successful career, working with some of the biggest names in
Hollywood
with varying degrees of success.
Because his one downfall was the fact he couldn’t stay away from relationships with his leading ladies.
He had a reputation for falling in love with his pretty co-stars then leaving them the second a new movie offer appeared with a new conquest on the horizon.
But even
he
was getting tired of that now.
He wasn’t twenty-five anymore.
He was getting older.
But, despite that, settling down wasn’t high on his agenda just yet.
No, he had quite a few things to sort out before he even began to think about that, because the past year or so had thrown up a few surprises in Dominic’s life.
He was still getting his head around everything his mother had told him just before she’d died, only a few months ago.
Things she’d waited until her final breath to tell him.
Things he’d had no idea about, until now.
Things that had messed up his head for a while but he was in control now, it was all in hand.
He was coping with the news, and in some ways it made a lot of things in his life make a lot more sense but, well; he’d get there.
He knew what he was doing.
Walking over to the bathroom mirror he stared at his tired reflection.
Maybe he shouldn’t have stayed up half the night playing poker, not when he should be preparing for this new movie he was due to start shooting any day now.
He looked back out into the bedroom, at the pretty young woman lying naked in his bed, still asleep and not anywhere near as appealing as she had been last night when he’d been blinded by too much Jack Daniels and a box of Cuban cigars.
He really had to cut back on nights like that, so maybe heading to
Las Vegas
– the setting for his new movie – wasn’t the ideal place for him to be going.
But, then again, it was also the place he needed to be.
He was looking forward to it.
For a number of reasons.
Who wouldn’t say no to a couple of months in Vegas?
Especially when you were going to be working alongside the one actress he’d waited years to make a movie with.
The one actress he’d always wanted to meet but, so far, had never managed to get anywhere near.
Now, however, he had a reason for wanting to get close to her.
Dominic smiled at his reflection, running his fingers over his rough chin.
Yeah, he was looking forward to Vegas.
He had no idea what was going to happen once he got there, he hadn’t planned that far ahead yet, but one thing he knew for sure was that he was going to enjoy it.
He was going to enjoy every single second.
CHAPTER 4
Kenny Ross wasn’t really in the mood for a party but he needed something to take his mind off the impending breakdown of his latest relationship.
He’d been with Casey – an ex-Las Vegas showgirl, now working for Vince and Charley Maine as their Hotel Entertainments Manager – for over a year now but, due to his inability to move forward and take the relationship to the next level, she’d grown tired and, after a particularly draining argument last night, it now looked as though he was about to say goodbye to somebody that could quite possibly have been “the one”.
Or maybe not, because Kenny doubted he’d ever find “the one”.
Kenny was about to turn forty-six and he was getting quite used to the idea of spending the rest of his life a very wealthy but ultimately lonely bachelor.
That was the way his dice had rolled and he’d live with it, because only one thing could change the way his life would eventually pan out, and he’d thrown that chance away a long time ago.
He was happy, he couldn’t deny that.
In every other aspect of his life he was happy.
For over twenty-five years he’d been a hugely successful and talented actor with an amazing career behind him, and even now, about to hit the wrong side of his mid-forties, he was still an incredibly handsome man, still wearing that rock-star look that he’d made his own with his long black hair and scruffy beard and the unkempt clothes that never veered far from old jeans and biker boots.
He’d always had the reputation of being a free spirit, and he’d found that hard to shake.
Settling down had never really been high on Kenny’s agenda, not since he’d lost the only woman he’d ever really been in love with.
His best friend.
A woman who’d been in his life for almost twenty years.
A woman he’d once been married to and then lost in a stupid second of misguided, drunken lust.
One kiss – that’s all it had been.
One kiss, and he’d lost her.
India
Walsh.
They’d been friends from the second she’d walked into his life, back in the winter of 1991, when Reece Brogan had brought her over from
Britain
to screen test for the leading role in a Michael Walsh-directed movie that both himself and Reece were starring in.
She’d got the part, and Kenny’s life had never been the same again.
They’d struck up a bond that nobody had managed to break in almost twenty years, and many people had tried.
One person in particular had taken it too far.
Michael Walsh had caused untold damage with his actions, but they were very much in the past now and had ultimately only caused real damage to his own relationship with
India
, because she’d never once shut Kenny out of her life.
And he loved her so much.
In so many different ways.
They’d married when she’d been only twenty-three and him twenty-seven in a spur-of-the-moment $50 dollar
Las Vegas
wedding that had stunned everyone back then.
But he hadn’t been able to get his head around having someone else to think about and, ultimately, it hadn’t worked out.
She’d caught him with Charley, a stupid moment of madness that, looking back, had been so trivial, so pointless, but – for whatever reason – it had hurt
India
so much at the time.
And he’d always regret what had happened because that was the only chance he’d ever had of keeping her that close.
He’d never managed to get it back.
No matter how hard he’d tried.
So he’d had to get used to having her in his life as the closest friend he’d ever had and he knew he should be grateful for that, but it still hurt to see her with anyone else.
Although even
he
was sad to see her marriage to JJ Foster on the brink of divorce, because all he’d ever really wanted was for
India
to be happy.
‘Hey, you.
You ignoring me?’
India
smiled, sitting down next to him, handing him a salt-rimmed glass of something vivid green.
‘Here.
Try this.
It looks vile but it tastes great.’
He looked at her.
They’d come so far, and he still found it difficult to understand why they’d never made a life together because things could have been so different.
They really could have been.
‘What’s the matter?’ she asked.
‘Have I got a piece of olive stuck in my teeth or something?’
He broke the stare and took the glass from her, looking down into the transparent green liquid.
‘No.
It’s just, y’know, you look good tonight.’
She smiled again, leaning over to kiss his cheek.
‘All thanks to Charley and her fabulous team over at the salon.
I had a facial this afternoon that’s worked wonders on my tired, middle-aged skin.’
Kenny looked at her again, smiling too.
‘You?
Middle-aged?
Come on,
India
.
You’ll never be middle-aged.
Neither of us will.’
She laughed, snuggling into him as she took the drink back from him, taking a long mouthful.
‘Much better if you down it quickly, actually.’
Kenny slipped his hand into hers as she leant back against him, both of them so used to being this close, this intimate with each other even though, at times, the lines could become blurred and the boundaries between friends and lovers were crossed.
Yet those were the times Kenny dreamed of.
To have her that close for just a few minutes, to touch her in that way even though it never led to anything more, he would take it.
He had done in the past and he’d do so again in the future.
That had been his life for twenty years – taking anything he could get to be close to this woman.
That would be the way his life was forever.
His choice.