Authors: Michelle Betham
‘Reece, baby, come on.
None of this is Dominic’s fault.
He had no idea Michael was his father until a few months ago, and he has no idea what Michael did to
India
.’
‘She hasn’t told him?’
Martha shook her head.
‘But she told Kenny, am I right?’
‘And JJ,’ Martha whispered.
Reece looked down at the ground.
He wasn’t surprised.
He’d always known those two had been privy to information that he never had been.
‘I can’t let this go, Martha.’
He felt her touch his arm and he looked up, tears suddenly filling his eyes.
‘He raped my baby.
He did that to her… How am I supposed to deal with that?’
Martha took his hand, squeezing it gently.
‘I don’t know, my darling.
But for
India
’s sake you have to think about this, you have to think about
her
…’
Reece shook his head, fresh anger rising up inside him.
‘No.
No, I need to talk to
him
…’
‘Reece!’
But it was no good.
Michael Walsh had hurt his daughter in a way even Reece hadn’t thought possible, and he couldn’t just sit around and let that go.
Someone had to pay for that, and Reece was determined that someone wouldn’t be
India
.
***
Vince was tired.
He was tired, and he was missing Vegas.
Missing Charley.
Missing Lily, his gorgeous little girl who was just the perfect mix of himself and his beautiful English wife.
A little girl who was, thankfully, far too young to understand just what the hell was going on in her mom’s life right now.
He’d spent the past few days trying to smooth things over at the
Beverly Hills
branch of
Charley’s
because poor Saskia just hadn’t been able to deal with everything by herself.
But Charley wasn’t really in the position to come back to
L.A.
and sort things out, not when a lot of their more well-heeled clients seemed to think that
she
was the problem.
As far as their celebrity clientele were concerned, however, nothing had changed there.
In fact, Saskia had informed him that, if anything, the list of celebrities wishing to make
Charley’s
their salon of choice had almost doubled.
It was the rich women of
Beverly Hills
and Bel Air that appeared to have the biggest problem with having their hair styled by an ex-porn star.
Although, Vince suspected, that was probably because, for a lot of them, it was digging up pasts that some may consider just a little too close to home.
Not all of the rich and beautiful housewives who passed through
Charley’s
doors had been born into the lifestyle they were now very much accustomed to.
A lot of them had just married the right man.
A lot of them had pasts they’d rather not be reminded of, and maybe being so close to someone they could identify just a little too much with made their weekly salon visits a touch too uncomfortable now.
But not everyone was being so unsupportive.
Since Vince had been here he’d experienced a lot of support for Charley, a lot of people asking how she was, how was she coping, when was she coming back?
A great many people were choosing to ignore everything that was going on in the press, considering it to be something that should stay where it belonged – in the past.
But there were still some that would rather
Charley’s
chose a different location.
But Vince was a natural charmer; people loved the warmth he radiated, the way he could make people feel at ease just by smiling at them.
It wasn’t something he had to try hard to create, it was just the way he was.
So, thankfully, after just a couple of days in
L.A.
, he knew he could leave
Charley’s @ Beverly Hills
behind, safe in the knowledge that, for now at least, Charley’s business was weathering the storm.
And he could head back to Vegas to make sure everything was just as it should be there, too.
Because this wasn’t over, not by a long shot, and Vince was smart enough to realise that.
He still wasn’t exactly sure what Jimmy Cash was hoping to achieve in the long run, and he still didn’t think Charley was coping half as well as she might think she was, so he needed to get back to Vegas.
Because
he
wanted to be the one who was there for her should this thing get out of hand – and right now, he wasn’t completely certain that he was the only one Charley was turning to.
***
‘What are you doing?’
India
asked, watching Dominic as he shuffled from foot to foot, his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his jeans as they both leant back against the wall outside the imposing entrance of The Amber Palace, waiting for filming to start.
They were shooting scenes outside the hotel that morning, which meant closing the main entrance for a couple of hours, but already a crowd was forming around the set perimeters, gathering to watch another day in the life of movie stars whose real lives were way more complicated than any movie script.
And
India
suspected that’s what people were
really
there to see.
Dominic turned to look at her.
‘I’m not doing anything.’
She continued to stare at him.
‘Yeah.
You are.
You look nervous.
What have you done?’
He laughed, pushing his unruly dark brown hair back off his face, away from those amazing blue eyes.
‘I haven’t done anything.
What is
wrong
with you?’
‘Believe me, when you’ve had the life
I’ve
had you can’t help being suspicious.’
‘I’m making you suspicious?’ Dominic laughed, moving round so he faced her, placing one hand on the wall beside her head, staring deep into her eyes.
How come he’d never really noticed her before all of this crap had thrown them together?
It wasn’t like they hadn’t been to the same parties, the same award ceremonies, the same premieres.
He guessed he’d been too busy playing Movie Star Playboy and she’d been too wrapped up in whatever shit his new-found father had been putting her through.
‘Yeah, Mr Movie Star.
You’re making me suspicious.’
‘Was I making you suspicious earlier this morning?
When I was ever-so-softly kissing your neck, stroking your skin… making you crazy with my tongue…’
‘Dominic… Jesus, we’ve got an audience here, y’know.’
He gently touched her cheek, running his fingers down over her neck, her bare shoulders, all the time staring right into her eyes and it was all she could do not to have him right there and then, regardless of who was watching.
They’d almost had sex in full view of a camera crew, after all, and anyone who saw this movie in its finished form was now more than likely going to see that very scene.
What was the point in being shy anymore?
‘Audiences turn me on, baby, you know that,’ he smiled, that killer smile, that smile that always got her.
That movie star smile that lit up his unbelievably handsome face.
She grabbed hold of his shirt and pulled him closer, kissing him gently, falling against him as the clicking of cameras once more filled the air, every tourist and photographer in the vicinity seizing another opportunity to grab themselves another picture of this new, exciting Hollywood pairing as they turned their on-screen romance into an off-screen reality.
Although, maybe they shouldn’t have been doing it quite so publicly.
She, more than anyone, should know better.
‘We shouldn’t be doing this,’
India
whispered, pulling away slightly as reality, and a sprinkling of common sense, finally hit her.
Looking over Dominic’s shoulder her stomach sank at the barrage of photographers lining the barriers at the side of the set, every single one focused on the two of them, all of them yelling questions at her about Michael, about her relationship with Dominic, even about Charley.
‘We should know better.
We’re grown ups, not a couple of infatuated kids.’
‘Being grown up is overrated.’
Dominic didn’t take his eyes off her.
He couldn’t, he didn’t want to, he just wanted to stay looking at her forever.
She was fast becoming his world and it was a feeling he wasn’t used to, but one he was willing to experience if it meant he could spend every morning waking up beside her, every day making love with her.
His father’s ex-wife – but he could live with that.
He could live with anything, as long as he had her by his side.
‘There!
You’re doing it again!’
‘Doing what?’ Dominic asked, shaking himself back to reality, sliding an arm around her waist, pulling her back against him.
‘Looking like you’re about to say something, and that makes me nervous.’
He smiled, but not the full-on movie star smile.
He didn’t always need to keep pulling that one out of the bag.
Not anymore.
He was learning to leave it behind when it wasn’t always necessary.
‘I just want to tell you that I love you, India Walsh.
That’s all.’
‘That’s all?’ she smiled, playing with the collar of his shirt.
‘That’s all,’ he whispered, moving in for another long, slow kiss.
Just the touch of her open mouth on his made him feel like nothing else mattered, and it didn’t, not really.
None of it did.
Even the fact that she hadn’t yet told him she loved him too, it didn’t matter, because he was confident that, one day, she would tell him.
One day soon.
‘Actually, maybe there
is
something else I want to say to you.’
‘Oh yeah?’ she asked, her mouth still so close to his as she spoke.
‘What’s that then?’
He tucked a strand of her long blond hair back behind her ear, searching her face for a reason why he shouldn’t ask her what he’d been planning to ask her all morning.
That’s why he’d been nervous, why he’d maybe acted a little odd in her eyes.
So, was now the right time?
He was also acutely aware of the cameras still clicking away in the background, of the questions being shouted at them from the sidelines.
No.
This really wasn’t the right time.
They’d given everyone enough of a show already.
He smiled again, running his thumb gently over her mouth before kissing her once more.
‘It can wait.’
And it could.
It
could
wait.
He just didn’t want to wait too long to make sure that his father had no chance whatsoever of ever winning her back.
***
‘See?
You don’t stand a chance, Michael,’ Layla said, looking over towards India and Dominic who were openly engaged in a possibly-much-too-public kiss, their relationship now quite obviously exposed to the world.
‘Deal with it.
It’s over.’
Michael followed Layla’s gaze, his stomach lurching as he watched Dominic pull
India
closer, smiling at her as she laughed in his arms, happier than he’d seen her in a long time.
But no, Layla was wrong.
It would never be over.
Ever.
‘If you’ll excuse me, Layla, I have a movie to finish shooting.’
Layla watched as he began to stride purposefully over towards the hotel entrance, where
India
and Dominic were standing.
‘Michael…’
He stopped for a second before turning round to look at her.
‘Just move on, please.
For your own sake.
She doesn’t love you anymore, can’t you see that?
But I
do
, Michael.
I
do.’
He looked at her for a few seconds more before turning back around, continuing to walk over to his two leading actors, who were creating far more fuss on the set that morning than he particularly wanted.
Things were crazy enough without his ex-wife and his surprise of a son carrying on for all the world to see.
He just wanted to get this movie wrapped and get back to
L.A.
, and this wasn’t helping to speed up that process.