Harlequin Romance September 2021 Box Set Read online

  “Well, it’s an amazing accomplishment.”

  She smiled as if truly proud. “Thank you. It is.”

  He handed her his phone. “Take my photo with it.” She complied and then they took selfies with the both of them and the star. The silliness of it all relaxed them and they made funny faces and giggled until their sides ached.

  A tour group walked by, distinguishable because they all wore matching laminated cards on red lanyards around their necks. Some diligently checked every star on the walk, perhaps looking for someone in particular.

  In front of hers they overheard an exchange. “Luna Price. What ever happened to her? She hasn’t worked in a long time.”

  “I never liked her, anyway.”

  It was a laugh-or-cry moment. Fortunately, Luna chose the former. They both burst into hysterics and Charlie tugged her down the block.

  * * *

  “Ms. Price.” A knock was heard at Luna’s trailer door. “We need you in five.”

  “Thank you,” Anush Vardanyan called out as she opened the door a crack. Charlie had met Luna’s best friend and employee a couple of hours earlier, when the two women reunited after last being together in Kentucky. He knew it was Anush who’d made the reservation with the M Dating Agency, taking it upon herself to decide the week’s transition before going back to work would be just what Luna needed. Charlie wanted to hug the dark-haired young woman dressed all in black for her foresight, as meeting Luna was one of the most important things that had ever happened to him. Anush had also been instrumental in getting her into treatment for her eating disorder in the first place.

  “Ms. Price, can you turn your head this way for me?” a makeup artist asked while he added the finishing touches to Luna’s heavily painted and powdered face as she sat in the styling chair. She complied.

  “Ms. Price, can I get you a little more to the left?” asked the hairdresser, who was working on her locks at the same time, and whose request required Luna to move in the opposite direction the makeup artist had asked for.

  “Ms. Price, may I apply one more gloss coat to your nails?” the manicurist chimed in, which forced Luna to extend her hands while her hair and eyelids were being attended to. Now Charlie couldn’t see her face from the angle he was sitting at on one of the sofas in her lavishly appointed trailer. But he could see from her reflection in the mirror that all of the primping was taking its toll as her eyebrows were raised and her lips were a straight line. They’d been at it for well over an hour. A protective instinct in him wanted them to stop.

  Inside the trailer was a bathroom with a shower, a dining table and chairs in a kitchen area, a high-tech office nook, two sofas facing each other and a huge mounted television monitor. Luna’s dressing area held racks of costumes. The makeup chair was in front of mirrors that adjusted to present different angles, and various lighting options.

  “Charlie,” she said, managing to call out among the tangle of hands on her, “have you ever been to a film set before?”

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “Be prepared to be bored. We do things over and over again. There are a lot of people to please.”

  “I’m sure I’ll find it fascinating. Don’t forget, I spend my days in front of a computer screen.”

  During moments of this whirlwind adventure with Luna, Charlie had here and there momentarily forgotten that he ran a huge tech empire in a land called England far, far away, so enthralled had he become with all things Luna.

  The lump of coal that he carried in his chest would forever remind him of the past, of the losses that could never be replaced. The sounds that called to him in the night, even here in LA, the pierce of a screaming baby even though Charlie wasn’t with his young Lily when the accident took her life. Those voices, he could never run away from. He was checking in with Tom first thing every morning and there were no burning fires and so his mind hadn’t really been on business, which was a first in ten years. Was it actually okay for him to take a little more time to rejuvenate? He couldn’t convince himself that it wasn’t.

  When Luna stood up after the ministrations were complete, it was quite the presentation. The movie industry was serious business, and these were professionals at the top of their game. Luna looked...quite simply flawless. Not a hair out of place. Her skin as smooth as a slate of marble. Almost otherworldly. Almost bloodless. Not at all like the animated face that he had laughed so much with that he thought his sides would split on the way home from their jaunt to Hollywood Boulevard yesterday. He still couldn’t tell who was really who in this town of artifice.

  When they’d gotten back to her house yesterday, Luna had warned him that she needed to get to bed early because she’d be up at dawn. He’d assumed she meant slumber. After a quick dinner they fell into her big comfortable bed to delight in each other, so that she still got to sleep on time, something else they chuckled about.

  He’d lain awake and watched over her as she rested, learning the lights and shadows of her bedroom, wondering to himself how long he should stay and what coming here at all might mean. To her. To him. It was all so unexpected, finding in Puerto Rico a bond that seemed like one in a million.

  Oh, Amelia, were those kites on that sunny lawn of El Morro really a sign?

  “Here we go,” Luna said to him now, with a gesture toward the trailer’s exit. Anush swung the door open and a muscular handler was there to accompany Luna to set. Charlie, Anush and the glam team followed behind. Charlie was fascinated at the entourage he had become part of. They walked a short distance to the soundstage, a cavernous structure as big and tall as a barn. But once inside, Charlie could see that a set of an office had been constructed.

  “Films are shot out of sequence,” Anush told him as they entered the stage. “Today, Luna, playing Alice Stephens, is going to be kidnapped by the evil Gaseous Goblin.”

  “Oh, no, no, no,” a booming voice called out. The film’s director, Kitt Kormen, a compact man in his thirties who wore a cap backwards on his head, charged over to Luna and her group. “She looks horrible in that dress. Is she hot, or is she a potato sack?”

  A costumer rushed over. “Kitt, we approved this in meetings. Do you want to see it with a belt?” Charlie noticed a few members of the crew who were mulling about stopped to watch Kitt’s tirade and whispered among themselves.

  “I want to see a dress that doesn’t make her look like a stone pillar. Can we get something with shape? Is that too much to ask?”

  If first impressions were right, Charlie could see why Luna didn’t like Kitt. A gentleman might have welcomed a movie star back onto a set after her time away from the cameras. Charlie could see the stress wash over Luna’s face, even under all the makeup she wore. She’d told him about this kind of scrutiny regarding her looks. That it was part of the job. A part that she wasn’t well able to cope with, and had led her to dysmorphic ideas about her body. A body that Charlie adored touching and tasting and wrapping himself around. A body that was perfect.

  While everyone waited for some new dresses to be considered, Luna and the team filed back to the trailer. Anush went to her car and returned with a stack of men’s clothes in her arms. “Charlie,” she said as she entered the trailer, “Luna said you needed some clothes for your time in LA. We guessed at your size. Do you want to try these on?”

  Charlie looked at Luna, who had sat carefully in a chair so as not to muss her hair and makeup. “Oh, so now I’m the one who has to model outfits for approval?”

  “Ha,” she jeered. “Misery loves company.” And they laughed again.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “SO, WHAT IS actually going on with you and Charlie?” Anush asked a few days later after entering Luna’s trailer. “You didn’t tell me you were bringing him back to LA.” She set the two iced lattes she’d picked up for them on a table. Luna had been rehearsing some lines before being called to set and was ready for a brea
k. She picked up her drink and with a well-practiced maneuver she was able to get the straw between her teeth so that she could enjoy it without marring her perfectly applied lipstick. They were alone because the beauty squad was out at lunch.

  “Puerto Rico wasn’t what I was expecting, that’s for sure.”

  “Great.”

  “You rascal. You were hoping this would happen when you booked the M Dating Agency trip, weren’t you?”

  “Guilty as charged. I thought the whole thing would do you good, but what’s wrong with letting a man get to know you and not her?” Anush emphasized the last word as she swept out her arm, indicating the racks of costume and surfaces strewn with photos of Luna. “That’s what resulted, isn’t it?”

  “Oh,” Luna said on a whoosh of breath. “I don’t know. It’s complicated. He lost his wife and child. He’ll never get over his heartache. It’s all fun and fine now, but what about the long run?”

  “Anybody could say that about any relationship. You can’t predict the future.”

  “It’s just that when I was in therapy, there was a lot of talk about me taking care of me. And keeping the focus on that.”

  “What are you afraid of?”

  Luna took another sip of her drink. “I feel like I’m falling in love with him.” She let the words settle all around her to decide if they were true. Which they were. She absolutely adored having Charlie here at the studio and with her at night. She could have never guessed at the security that would make her feel. He’d flown up to Silicon Valley today and she was looking forward to his return. He was going to accompany her to a film premiere tonight. She was in such a better mental state that even Kitt’s tantrums were easy to keep in perspective. Charlie was the unforeseen element that Luna hadn’t known was missing.

  But she was afraid of a crash. She was afraid of counting on anyone. Afraid that she didn’t know how to trust. What if she ruined it by being too needy? Or not needy enough? Afraid of the words he’d said, that he’d never love again, plain and simple, for fear he couldn’t withstand any more heartbreak.

  “Why is falling in love a bad thing?” Anush persisted. “I want to fall in love. Doesn’t everybody?”

  “I don’t think he’ll be able to do it again.” Especially if he stayed in LA much longer. He was not part of this artificial world that was her stock and trade. He was a quiet man and even though that was something she felt so calm and comfortable around, the reality was that she had a loud life.

  “So you’ll take it one step at a time.”

  “Stop being so optimistic,” Luna teased.

  “Isn’t that why you keep me around?” Anush smiled back. “So, what are you wearing tonight?”

  And suddenly, as one of the most glamorous women in the world, she was reduced to a giggly teenager who wanted to look cute for her prom date.

  * * *

  Judging from Charlie’s response, she succeeded. Anush had helped her pick out a slinky green dress that Luna secretly favored over the others because it matched the color of Charlie’s eyes. It was sleeveless and with a neckline that made a V so low it almost reached her waist. In fact, Anush employed the Hollywood magic of double-sided tape to keep it from becoming scandalous when Luna moved.

  In his slim-cut black suit, no doubt bespoke from the finest tailor London had to offer, Charlie was knee-bucklingly handsome. Which was good, because he could have no idea of the inspection that was about to take place. When the driver brought him to the studio, where Luna had dressed after wrapping the shoot for the day, the look on Charlie’s face was classic. Like a cartoon rabbit whose eyes popped from their sockets and bounced outward on springs. His lascivious glance started at her exposed throat and made its way slowly, ever so slowly, at that, down the open expanse of her chest until his eyes settled where the fabric finally came together just above her waist. Even though he’d told her many times that he liked her naked and natural better than in any of the other guises she wore, she had to admit that she liked looking sexy when she was about to introduce him to the world as her man.

  Even though the studios, and her team, had often paired her up with someone for public appearances, it had never felt like an organic date. Yes, on occasion she’d spent the night with one of them at a hotel afterward, but dawn had always brought out selfish ambitions or opportunistic efforts that she saw right through. Like when she’d been tricked by Troy Lutt, who was out to make a buck off her mistake in being with him. Being driven home up the hill, alone, on those mornings after had been the most hollow and lonely Luna had ever felt, and often led to those horrible internal battles about her body and food.

  So for the first time, she was going to arrive at a big Hollywood event on the arm of a man she cared about. A tiny worry about being drained dry again by the bloodthirsty press percolated within her, though, and she didn’t know how Charlie would respond to the limelight. After all, he’d come to Puerto Rico to get ready to put on his own public face after so many years in isolation. But Hollywood was no place for a slow start; it was straight into the frying pan.

  Still, part of her was excited to reclaim her place as one of the queens of Tinseltown. She deserved a comeback with all of the fanfare. After the driver pulled to the curb where the red carpet began, he came around to open the door for them. Charlie stepped out first and turned to extend his arm to help Luna out. As soon as she emerged, the screams of her name began. She took Charlie’s arm and they turned to face the crowd side by side. But he didn’t manage the proud and privileged smile she needed him to beam to the camera. Instead, the massive barrage of flashing camera lights were so bright that Charlie quickly jerked his arm up to cover his eyes from their blinding burn.

  * * *

  Luna’s New Man! The world’s best-known celebrity-watching site graphics were big and bold on the screen across a photo of Luna and Charlie from the night before. Over early morning orange juice and peanut butter on toast at her white breakfast table, Charlie was reading out loud to her from his tablet. Switching to another site, he read . “‘Luna Price’s return to Hollywood after an unexplained absence included the first viewing of what looks to be a romantic liaison. Sources identified the mystery man as Charlie Matthews, British billionaire who founded the wildly successful biotech firm AMgen at the tender age of nineteen. Hats off to the jolly chap who captured Luna’s heart.’”

  “Jolly chap?” Luna looked up from the script she was half studying. “They think they’re being cutely British with that? That’s cheap, even for them.”

  “Ugh, how can you bear this crap?” Charlie paused for a swig of his juice, then tapped on another article. “‘Matthews could star in his own drama, which would be a weeper, as ten years ago his young wife and child were killed in a car accident.’”

  His hands dropped from the keyboard. His face turned ashen. It was as though a still thickness had fogged the air.

  “Oh, Charlie,” Luna murmured, barely above a whisper. “I’m so sorry. These gossipmongers are completely soulless. They’d sell their own mother for a story.” This was exactly what she’d feared. That the brutality of the world she inhabited would cause him harm. She’d chosen this—the bad with the good was a trade-off. But he didn’t belong, and there was no benefit to him being stripped of his privacy and dignity.

  “Apparently,” he mumbled back. Before he could go further, she asked to see his tablet. For two reasons. One, he didn’t need to read anything else that might make mention of the personal trauma that had defined his adult life. And secondly, she figured she’d take her pain straight up and get it over with. She punched in the addresses for the fashion sites that would have been at the premiere last night in droves.

  It didn’t take her long to find what she knew she would.

  “‘Luna, trying hard to reestablish her big place in the film industry with an unfortunately small swath of a dress.’

  “‘Looking li
ke a four-leaf clover, Luna might be lucky in love but will win no pot of gold for her neon-green dress better suited to a teen pop star.’

  “‘Only someone like Luna, who has no curves, could pull off the engineering feat required to keep that dress up.’”

  Her gut began to bubble.

  Is she hot, or is she a potato sack? Kitt’s comment from her first day on set replayed in her head.

  Only someone like Luna, who has no curves...

  And then she found yet another site that had caught a photo of them that first day, unbeknownst to her, on Hollywood Boulevard. “‘What is Luna hiding under those baggy clothes and wig? Did visiting her own star give her a needed ego boost?’”

  There it all was, just as she had left it a year ago. The press’s unending cravings. It didn’t even seem to matter if it was true information or not. They wanted to assume, insinuate, guess. All the old feelings gurgled back. That her success hadn’t really been earned, but it had been granted. She could be a glittery enough object that held fascination, but only if she was constantly vigilant. Being perfect all the time was the only formula, yet perfection was subjective. How could she please everybody all the time? Therapy had taught her that she couldn’t. But something was stuck between her intellect and her emotions. Which is what had led her to make mistakes and keep secrets. Secrets she held tightly, silently, in the dark rooms of her mind until they almost killed her.

  And now she’d brought Charlie into the wreckage. How foolish she’d been, in the throes of seduction, underneath a magical waterfall on a faraway island, to ask him to come into this zombie feeding frenzy of her life. This was a side of the real her that nobody would want to be around. She pushed away her plate of toast, no longer hungry.

  “My car will be here soon,” she said softly. “Do you want to come to the studio with me today?”

  Expecting him to say no, she was relieved when he agreed.

  “Yes. I’ve got some work to attend to, but I can do it there.” His eyes were dull, but he bravely stood to get ready.