No Matter What (87 page)

***

India
was tired, and emotional.
 
It had been a long day, with filming going on well into the night out on The Strip, and all she really wanted to do was go to sleep.
 
She knew Michael would be waiting for her at the villa and that was probably the only thing that was keeping her going because she was having a real job just keeping her eyes open.
 
Being with Kenny all day today hadn’t been the easiest thing in the world to cope with either.
 
Not after what they’d done the night before.
 
She knew she should never have let that happen, she should never have broken down so easily and let him get that close again but she had.
 
But, if she was honest, she’d loved feeling him there again, it felt so comfortable when he made love to her.
 
He felt right.
 
But he wasn’t.
 
He wasn’t right.
 
Michael was.

Closing the door of the villa behind her she threw her bag onto the floor and went into the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water and searching the cupboards for chocolate.
 
She needed a sugar rush, having not eaten that much all day.

“Don’t I get a hello?”

She turned round and smiled as she saw Michael leaning against the door post, looking handsome and relaxed.
 
Her husband.
 
Just seeing him there seemed to erase any thoughts of Kenny and, as she ran over to him, throwing herself into his arms and letting him pick her up and swing her round, she almost forgot about last night. Michael was back and she felt safe again.

“Missed me?” he asked, holding her tight, just wanting to look at her, take in her beautiful face.

“What kind of stupid question’s that?” she smiled.
 
“Of course I’ve missed you.
 
I always miss you.
 
Always.”

“Really?”

She stroked his face with her fingers, kissing him gently.
 
“Yeah.
 
Really.”

He wanted to believe her, he wanted to feel like she was telling the whole truth but he knew she’d been with Kenny.
 
He knew what they’d done the night before, he knew that, in the room next to where they were now, his wife and her ex-husband had made love on the floor, and with every fibre of his being it killed him to think that Kenny Ross had touched her that way.
 
Again.
 
It killed him to know that he’d done things to her that only
he
should be doing, saw things only
he
should see.
 
But he’d seen the photographs, he’d seen the evidence in all its sordid glory.
 
Vince had been too late to stop that one from happening.
 
He’d seen his wife, beautiful and naked in the arms of the one man Michael wished would just leave them alone so yes, he’d got what he’d wanted, if that’s how you chose to look at it.
 
And in reality a part of him wished he had just left it well alone because thinking it might be happening and knowing it actually was were two completely different things, and it hurt like hell.
 

Everything going round in his head scared him to death because he
should
confront her, just like Vince said he should.
 
But if he did that he faced losing her because it would bring everything out into the open and, in his own irrational way of thinking, keeping it under wraps somehow meant it might never actually amount to anything.
 
And if that was the case then he had more of a chance of holding onto her.

“Are you ok?”
India
asked.
 
 
He seemed preoccupied all of a sudden.

He looked at her and smiled, snapping himself out of the dark thoughts going round in his head.
 
All he had to concentrate on now was loving her in the only way he knew how, and he had to do that, he had to show her how much she meant to him; how much their life together meant to him.
 

“I’m fine.”

She smiled back, standing up on tip-toes to kiss him again.
 
“Can we go to bed then?”

“Yeah.
 
You do look tired.”

“I don’t mean to sleep, Michael.”
 
She pressed herself harder against him, slipping her arms round his neck.
 
“You’ve got work to do, Mr Walsh.”

He felt that familiar ache take over again, that ability she had to turn his whole world upside down with one look, one kiss, one sentence.
 
It was happening now and he wasn’t going to fight it.
 
She still wanted his baby –
his
baby, nobody else’s - and he was going to cling onto that and give her what she wanted, because he was still confident that, when it happened, everything would fall into place, and Kenny Ross would be forgotten.
 
As confident as he could be given the mess they were in.
 
A mess he just hoped didn’t have time to get any worse.

CHAPTER 43

2003

India
stood in front of the mirror and smiled as she ran a hand over her bump.
 
She was eight and a half months pregnant and was having what had to have been one of the easiest pregnancies going.
 
No morning sickness, no aches or pains, not even any cravings, and the only weight she’d gained had been the small and perfect bump she now carried so proudly.

They were having a boy, they knew that.
 
They’d wanted to know.
 
They’d already picked his name, already decorated nurseries for him in their homes in Malibu and the Hollywood Hills, and they’d bought more baby stuff than was probably necessary, but with his arrival now just a couple of weeks away their excitement was building.
 

India
couldn’t wait to meet her son.
 
She couldn’t wait to meet the little man who’d brought her and his daddy so much closer together.
 
He was already the most special thing in her life and he wasn’t even here yet.
 
But he wasn’t far away. She could feel it.

Every day she spoke to him, telling him about the life he was going to have and the people he was going to meet and she’d feel him move about inside her, almost as if he was excited and eager to get out and start this life of his she kept telling him about.
 
Their baby was finally real and he was fine and he was going to be here with them before they knew it.

She looked at herself again.
 
She didn’t feel tired, she’d never felt tired throughout the whole time she’d been pregnant.
 
She’d felt alive, she’d felt incredible, amazed that they’d been able to make this little person, and as she ran her hand over her bump once again she laughed out loud as he kicked her hard, letting her know he was there.

“Is he making his presence felt again?” Michael smiled, coming up behind her, putting his hands on her bump, kissing her neck.
 
“Whoa!
 
I felt that,” he laughed, as their baby kicked again.
 
“Maybe we got ourselves a little soccer player in there.”

India
smiled, sliding her fingers between Michael’s, over her bump.

“Well, he’d have inherited that from his uncle then.”

Michael kissed her neck again.
 
“Terry would have loved this little guy.”

India
leaned back against him, closing her eyes.
 
“He’s watched over us, Michael.
 
I’m sure of that.
 
After what happened last time ... he didn’t want us to go through that again.”

Michael held onto his wife, his hands reluctant to leave the bump that carried their little boy, a baby that had already changed their lives before he’d even arrived. He’d never seen
India
look so beautiful, so angelic almost as she did carrying this child.
 
She’d sailed through the pregnancy.
 
She’d never let it get in the way of anything, including sex.
 
Even now, with the baby just a matter of days away, they were still making love.
 
Positions had changed, and it wasn’t always easy but they couldn’t keep their hands off each other, and that was fine with Michael because he’d never found her so sexy.
 
She looked amazing, and tonight he couldn’t wait to show her off.

For most of the time she’d been pregnant they’d remained quite private, attending only a couple of premieres and parties during the early stages, and they’d been photographed just a handful of times over the course of the last few months, despite media interest being on red alert once the pregnancy had been confirmed.
 
Their only major outing had been Reece and Martha’s wedding six weeks ago.
 
India
had been around seven months gone by that time and photographers had fallen over themselves to get a picture of her with her bump so visible.
 

They’d also given one exclusive interview and photo shoot to a major magazine, and it had been the only interview they’d done in the months leading up to this baby, but now they had offers amounting to millions of dollars coming in every day for the first pictures of baby Walsh and neither of them were quite sure what to do on that score just yet.
 
What they did know though, was that any money they received from any photos of their child would go straight to charity.
 

But tonight - so close to the imminent arrival of their baby - tonight was the premiere of Michael’s movie, the one he’d shot with Reece last year in
L.A.
, when
India
had been filming in Vegas with Kenny.

 
‘Above Board’ was having it’s U.S. premiere in Westwood Village and a list of who’s who in Hollywood were due to be there, as well as it’s stars – Reece, of course, and Layla Boyd being just two of them, and despite the headaches and hard work it was a film Michael was extremely proud of.
 
Tonight was a big night, but even he knew that the press and paparazzi wouldn’t only be looking out for his movie and its stars.
 
They’d also be looking out for his extremely beautiful and heavily pregnant wife, because, even now, at over eight months pregnant, she was going to outshine every female on that red carpet.
 
He had no doubt about that.

He slipped on his jacket and watched as she pulled on a baby blue dress and matching strappy sandals, an outfit just perfect for an
L.A.
summer evening such as tonight, and Michael loved the way the dress fitted her still perfect figure, accentuating her baby bump.
 
She’d never wanted to hide it.

Her make-up team and hair stylist had made her look even more beautiful than she already was with pale, natural make-up that suited her lightly tanned skin, her hair loose and curled around her shoulders, and he honestly didn’t think it was possible to love her any more than he already did, but, as he watched her apply a light dusting of bronzer over her collar bone, he was falling in love with her all over again.
 
He was fifty years old, he was a middle aged man with a wife sixteen years his junior but he was about to become a dad for the very first time and he’d never been happier.
 
They’d gone through so much, the journey to get here hadn’t been easy but it was happening, and that’s all Michael cared about.
 
Kenny Ross may still be a friend to his wife but it looked like, finally, that was all he was ever going to remain.
 
Michael didn’t like it, but he’d live with it.

India
turned round and smiled at him.
 
“Do I look ok?”

He shook his head.
 
“No.
 
No, you don’t look ok.
 
You look amazing!”
 
He went over to her, pulling her as close as he could, given the bump, kissing her slowly. “You look stunning, Mrs Walsh.”

She smiled again, gently stroking his face with her fingertips.
 
“You don’t look too bad yourself, Mr Walsh.”

And he didn’t.
 
He looked incredibly handsome in a dark suit and tie, and so relaxed due to having so much deserved time off.
 
They’d really needed to spend some real time together, not just a few days here and there, and doing that had been their saving because she’d been so close, so very, very close to doing something she might have regretted.

“I really want to make love to you, right now,” Michael whispered, kissing her neck, his hands sneaking up her dress.

“Yeah, well, you can’t because if we do you’ll be late and this is
your
movie, mister.
 
How would it look if you’re late for your own movie premiere?
 
 
Besides, you’ll mess up my make-up and it took Scott ages to get this right.”