Unscripted (24 page)

“
Blake, I’ll be coming back to the penthouse. You can have the rest of the night off, and I’ll see you back here later.”

“
Miss Prescott, you need to call me when you want to be picked up so that I can bring you back here,” he said, pulling on his coat over his thick shoulders.

“
Sorry Blake. I hope you don’t feel like a babysitter. Also, you can just call me Holliday. I don’t mind,” I offered as he helped me with my coat.

“
No, Miss Prescott. I don’t feel like a babysitter. I’m just doing the job assigned to me by Mr. Connolly,” he said warmly. “But if you don’t mind, I’d prefer to address you as Miss Prescott.”

I smiled and nodded at him. I had a feeling he wanted to make sure things remained professional between us. I could respect that.

While Blake whisked me off in the car to my sister’s, my phone began to ring. It was Amelia. I’d completely spaced on returning her call the other day. I wasn’t up for a conversation to hear about her possible troubles with her husband, boring job or her stupid Mommy and me classes. Although, given my current mental state, I could probably commiserate, but I didn’t need any more negative vibes. I just let it go to voicemail.

It was wonderful to be around Charlotte, Lucan and the twins. I felt like Alexa and Owen had grown so much since I’d last seen them a week ago. We started with a small Italian salad topped with salami and crunchy vegetables. Lucan had made fettuccine with wild mushrooms and artichoke hearts served with warm crusty bread as the main course. Everything was incredibly flavorful and spiced just right, causing me to inhale my food. The cuisine at The York was routinely delicious, but I’d really missed Lucan’s home cooking.

After dinner, Lucan told Charlotte he’d put the twins to bed and do the dishes, giving us girls time to chat. We went into the den where Charlotte poured a bottle of red wine while I lit the fireplace. I took a seat in one of her two oversized oatmeal Belgian linen armchairs and peered at the Manhattan skyline. This was probably my favorite room in her entire place. Charlotte and Lucan’s penthouse was a work of art, a loft style design with floor to ceiling windows and soaring sixteen-foot ceilings. Expansive was too vague of a word to describe it: four bedrooms and five bathrooms with incredible views of the city, three wraparound terraces, a private elevator, custom closets and heated floors in the bathrooms were all included. Everything was top of the line, including all of the flooring and tiles that were hand-cut and imported from Italy. No expense was spared in renovating and decorating their home.

“
I’m in love sis,” I said dreamily, running my toes through the soft light brown shag rug underneath my feet.

My sister lifted an eyebrow in my direction as she took a sip of wine. “Oh, what brought you to this conclusion sis?”

I cocked my head at her. “Well, for starters, we basically spent four and a half days holed up in a romantic setting, the penthouse, baring our souls, secrets and bodies to one another.” I stood up and walked to the window, taking a sip of wine. “I feel like I’ve known Ronan forever.” Turning back around to face my sister, I said, “He’s been gone nine hours, but it seems like days. I’m completely miserable and utterly overjoyed at the same time.”

I admitted to Charlotte that I told Ronan I loved him while he slept and told her about our romantic last few hours together where he said he loved me too. Even though I didn’t say it back to him in that moment, I think either he felt it or heard me say it to him when I thought he was sleeping. I told her about the property at The Addison and how Ronan was moving his permanent residence to New York City. My lengthy admission ended with me sharing the few pictures on my phone I had of Leah and Jade and explaining that Ronan had hired Blake to keep me safe while he was away. I must have sounded like a giddy teenage girl in love for the first time. My cheeks hurt, I noticed, when I finally shut up after rambling on about Ronan.

Walking back to the window, I revealed, “Charlotte, I’m scared. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. He comes with a lot of baggage, some good and some bad. Then there’s the whole money, power and status thing. Oh, and he’s a movie star, the cherry on top of the delicious sundae.” I took a breath and then asked, “Should I stop and just accept the past week for what it was, or do I take a leap of faith?”

I was ready for my sister to tell me I was insane and for her to lecture me for having my head stuck in the clouds, but she didn’t do any of that. She walked over to where I was standing and wrapped her arms around me, giving me a hug. “My dear little sister, I’m afraid you have been bitten by love, and you’ve got it bad.” She pulled back and sighed. “Doesn’t being scared tell you something?”

I looked at her confused. I could tell she was about to drop one of her inspirational pearls of wisdom on my psyche.

“
If you’re scared that should tell you that you are on to something important.” She swept my bangs away from my eyes. “You’re taking a chance, and that frightens you, but if you never take a chance you could miss out on something phenomenal. On the other hand, there is no greater risk than following your heart because it can go either way.”

Charlotte’s words hit me like waves crashing over my body, pulling me under an emotional riptide. I didn’t know if I felt better or worse. My emotions were all over the place where Ronan was concerned. I think she might have been right about one thing. I felt the fear, but I needed to take a chance on Ronan. He could either be everything I’d been searching for my whole life or just another footnote on the journey to love. I hoped it wasn’t the latter.

Saturday, Charlotte and I had a spa day to get me out of my emotional haze. I’d received one message late the night before from Ronan telling me that he’d arrived safely and was at his home with the girls. He’d said he had a few meetings today but would definitely call me as soon as he could.

We stepped out of the suite at the Illusions Salon and Spa to find ourselves swarmed by paparazzi. Blake kept them a good ten feet from us while we started to walk. He asked me if I wanted to be photographed or if I wanted him to get rid of them, and I said it was fine. Now was as good a time as any to gain some experience. Charlotte took the lead as she’s dealt with the media on numerous occasions. When she and Lucan had first started dating, she was still modeling. He was the handsome, wealthy Italian businessman who had connections to celebrities and royalty, and she was the stunning American fashion model. They’d dealt with their share of rumors created by the tabloids, including the one where Lucan’s ex, socialite Imogen Goddard, and he were spotted chatting at an event. Imogen had tripped and fallen into him, and the media had caught Lucan holding her in his arms. So of course they spun a romantic story. Pictures were worth a thousand words.

We walked and smiled, answering some questions about Charlotte’s upcoming collection for Fashion Week. They wanted to know why I wasn’t in Los Angeles with Ronan. They asked me things like:

“
WAS IT JUST A SHORT
HOLIDAY
ROMANCE WITH RONAN CONNOLLY, HOLLIDAY?”

“
RONAN WAS SPOTTED WITH HEATHER YOUNG AT THE COFFEE JUNCTION THIS MORNING. DO YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIP?”

“
ARE THINGS WITH YOU AND RONAN SERIOUS HOLLIDAY?”

Charlotte thanked the paparazzi as we headed into Nosh for some food and drinks. I flashed them a mega-watt smile and took cues from the few times I’d seen Ronan handle the media. Blake held the door for us and stayed outside, making sure they left us alone. They seemed satisfied and told us to have a lovely rest of our day. I wondered how they’d found us. Moreover, why would they want to photograph us just out and about having a relaxing girl’s day? After the photographers left I saw Blake on his phone. I wondered if he was calling Ronan or Dean.

“
You handled that really well, sis,” Charlotte said, taking off her coat. “That’s going to be a constant in your life with Ronan. Are you prepared for that?”

I took a seat at our table and said, “I think I could. I know it’s going to be annoying at times, but everything with a grain of salt right?”

Charlotte nodded and ordered a bottle of champagne. I began to fixate on Ronan being spotted with Heather. I did a news search for his name on my phone, and sure enough he was having coffee with her. But they’re co-stars so they might have been meeting the director or something. I’d just have to trust Ronan. He didn’t love her. He’d broken off their engagement. Being with Ronan outside of the four walls of his penthouse haven was going to be nothing short of challenging.

I ate dinner alone that evening at The York. I tried to catch up on work but couldn’t concentrate. A little after nine, I climbed into bed and lay there staring at the ceiling. I had barely survived my first day without Ronan. If it wasn’t for Charlotte keeping me occupied I can’t be sure I would have managed to make it through the day. After she dropped me off was another story. It was lonely in the penthouse without him. I felt like I was an addict in detox, like I couldn’t figure out how to breathe, something so natural I’d done all my life. The concept was now lost on me.

The time ticked by slowly. I couldn’t sleep and found myself crying for a good fifteen minutes in the shower. I cried a lot. Being apart from him was soul crushing. It nearly drove me insane. My chest hurt. I had this deep physical ache that I could not get over. I thought about going to the gym just to see if that would relieve some of my anxiety, but I just couldn’t pull myself together. I had a few shots of whiskey instead and started crying again. I really was truly pathetic, crying over a man I’d known for a week.

The tears stopped sometime after ten-thirty, and I drifted off to sleep. But I awoke around eleven when my phone began to ring. It was Ronan.

“
Hello, my beauty,” he greeted me sweetly with that throaty accent of his. It was so good to hear his voice.

“
Hi Ronan, how are you?” I said calmly, not trying to be overly excited.

“
I’m good. I’ve missed you so much. How are you doing?” he asked softly. Before I could answer, he continued. “Blake tells me you and Charlotte had a run-in with the paparazzi today.”

“
I miss you like crazy Ronan. The run-in with the paparazzi was fine. They asked silly questions but were respectful of our personal space. Blake did a good job,” I replied.

We talked for another fifteen minutes, and he told me about his meetings, even about having coffee with Heather. Ronan had had five people look at his house since he put it on the market with even more people coming by tomorrow. He had one offer, but it was much too low. His realtor found a few places that were for rent, and Ronan said one of the places was a house on the beach in Malibu. That made me smile, but he said he wanted to be closer to the studios, so that place was more than likely out of his final decision. The Addison said his place would be ready for him to move in after Christmas. He had some decorating ideas but wanted to run them by me to get my input. I told him I’d be happy to help. He told me he loved me again, and I didn’t say it back, not yet. I wanted to look in his eyes. I turned the conversation to sex.

“
Ronan, will you hurry up and get back to Manhattan. My body needs yours.”

He whispered hotly, “I can’t stand being apart from you. I’d love nothing more than to be in bed with you, fucking you,” he sighed. “I wish my hands were on your body instead of this damn phone.”