A STELLAR AFFAIR (A Hollywood Bad Boy Romance) (23 page)

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

She met Reena’s gaze over his shoulder. Her manager was shaking her head, a warning look in her eyes.

 
She could only give Reena a helpless look.

Wes was still fuming
as they came down to the hotel’s driveway. A limo was waiting for them. He’d be taking Ava to the airport.

There were real paparazzi waiting for them as they came out of the hotel’s main doors. They swooped on them like vultures, their camera shutters shooting like faint sounds of a machine gun firing.

“Wesley! Ava! Smile please!”

“Did you guys really get married yesterday?!”

“Ava, look over here. Please!”

Wes held Ava’s arm firmly and guided her toward the waiting limo as Norton tried to shield them from the marauding paparazzi.

“Wes, you’re a lucky man, bruh! You beat Tyrone to the fucking jackpot!”

He froze. He turned around and looked for the person who last shouted, locating him right away.
 

“Wes, don’t mind them, please! Let’s go,” Ava said,
 
pulling at his arm.

But he just couldn’t let it pass. “What did you say?” he demanded.

The paparazzo gave him a shit-eating grin. “Cash and cherry, bruh. Cash and cherry! You lucky bastard!”

He grabbed the man’s jacket, ready to smash the man’s teeth in with his fist.

But Ava was pulling at his other arm. “ Wes, no! Norton, pull him away!”

Norton
pulled him away from the paparazzo and practically pushed him inside the limo with Ava. The door to the limo slammed shut.

“Why did you do that?! Are you crazy?!” Ava shouted at him.

“He was disrespecting you!” he shot back.

“Well, newsflash, macho man! A lot of the same shit will happen in the coming days! What are you gonna do? Beat them all like a common thug?! You’d be no better than them!”

He covered his face with his hands, breathing hard, trying to calm down.

Shit!

The silence inside the limo
was deafening he couldn’t stand it.

He stared at Ava. She was busy on her phone. Or pretending to be.

She wasn’t talking to him, won’t even look at him.
 

He knew he was wrong. Regardless of his pure intentions, it was wrong to react that way. He had to learn to deal with the paparazzi. He didn’t use to give a flying fuck about what they said about him, but now he did. He cared a lot what they’d say about him and Ava. Especially about Ava. He didn’t want anybody talking shit about her or disrespecting her in any way.
 

As the limo ate the miles going to the airport, his mind raced.
 

He came to a sudden realization, and with that, a decision.

“Av…”

He ignored her.

He knelt on the floor before her and grasped her hands. “Av.”

“What?” she snapped at him, her eyes, cold.

“Have you ever had a moment when you’re so sure of one thing in your life? Like you have to do it and nothing else in that moment?”

She stared at him. Then nodded. “Yeah…”

“What was it?”

“When I was being watched by 50 million people worldwide during the America’s Next Idol final and I knew I had to win it or nothing. Landing at second place was not an option.”

He smiled and he had never been more sure of anything in his life than what he wanted to do at that moment. “When you get to L.A., I want you to meet with your lawyer.”

“Why?”

“I want you to ask him to draw an airtight prenup that will protect your best interests when you get married.”

Her lips parted.
 

He inhaled deeply and spoke from the bottom of his heart. “Ava Ryder, would you give me the honor of becoming my wife?”

She blinked, then her eyes widened. “Wes…”

She looked shocked. Poor baby. Who wouldn’t be? He couldn’t believe he just asked her to marry him either! “You don’t have to say yes now. But you’d better be ready to say it when I get back in L.A. next week because I’m gonna ask you again.”

Her eyes had gone wet. Good sign.

“Oh Wes,”

“That a yes?”

“I guess…? Oh jeeez! Are you serious?!”

“As serious as my parents’ marriage.”

She had this suspended look of disbelief on her face, then a sound escaped her throat. He wasn’t sure if it was a laugh or a sob, but it was a great sound because her eyes were shining with tears.

She framed his face in her palms and kissed him.

That was the only answer he needed.

For now.

C
hapter
S
ixteen

Wes was nervous as hell.
 

The
 
NAFA or North American Film Awards was Stoneryder’s official red carpet event as a bona fide couple. He didn’t want to fuck this up. The entire world would be watching and he didn’t want to leave any doubt in anybody’s mind that Stoneryder was as real as a Grade D diamond. Their relationship was no longer a show but a reality.

In fact, he wanted to ditch Stoneryder altogether. He just wanted them to be known as Ava and Wes, a happy, crazy couple.
 

“Relax, you look dapper, Mr. Stoner,” she teased him as she fixed his bow tie in the limo.

He smiled, taking in her loveliness in her peach gown. She was a stunner, as usual and she took his breath away when she emerged from her dressing room an hour ago. He couldn’t believe she was really his. The first man to have her. He swore he’d be the last man to have her. He’d never let this precious, precious treasure go. Ever.
 

He’d made love to her everyday since he arrived for a three day break from shooting. He’d fly to France the next day for another week of grinding work. Jaq was obsessed with his deadline and he was working everyone’s ass like a Nazi general on the set.
 

He was hoping Ava would go with him to France. He didn’t think he’d survive a week without her. It wasn’t easy to just hop on a plane and fly trans-atlantic at the drop of a hat. Jaq would fry his ass if he went missing from his set for a whole day. Jaq gave concession for him in Vegas but he made it clear he would beat his deadline come hell or high water. The studio was already whipping Jaq’s ass for a summer release next year and Jaq wanted the European shoots to wrap up ahead of schedule. The only solution to his “problem” was for Ava to go with him to France. But he was hesitant to ask her. She had work to do here in L.A., too. She was one of the biggest recording stars in the world. He couldn’t just ask her to drop everything she was doing so she could accompany him to wherever he was working. It was not fair to her.

But god, thinking about not being with her for even half a day was already making him feel depressed. Needless to say, Ava had become an integral part of his existence. He was a man of action. Action was his stock in trade. But he was not a man of quick emotions. He couldn’t remember ever being attached to a woman in this manner.
Like he couldn’t function without feeling the woman was his, that she fully knew she belonged to him. That it was him and him alone that she needed and wanted.

God, this insecurity was laughable. He’d never thought he’d ever be reduced to this, but here he was. Insecure as fuck.
 

He would have to pop the question again tonight. He had to put a ring on it before he left for France. There was no way he’d feel at ease from five thousand miles away without making sure she was engaged to him.

“So…when are we going to take the test?”

She raised a brow. “We?”

“I sure won’t miss it for the world, baby.”

She smiled. “Maybe later?”

Her period hadn’t arrived yet since they met. He was almost sure she was pregnant. He swore he could see it in the glow of her skin, in the extra-sensitiveness of her body when he touched her. He’d been reading some about pregnant women, too.

He touched her belly. “A girl.”

“Nope. A boy.”

“Fraternal twins?”

They burst in a laugh.

“You think your wrigglers are that fast, huh?”

“Oh, they got to their destination on the first night, so, Formula One fast.”

She smacked his shoulder, giggling.

The door of the limo suddenly opened.

They’d arrived at the venue.

He wanted to grab the door and close it again but the noise coming from outside already broke their magic moment.

Stoneryder faced the press
together for the first time.

Ava was feeling emotional as they couldn’t seem to stop taking pictures of them. She must be really pregnant.

The joy in her heart was immeasurable. She’d never walked the red carpet with a man she truly loved in ages. She’d forgotten how it felt. But what she was feeling as she posed with Wes in front of the cameras was incomparable. There was no pretense anymore. She was standing beside him as Ava Ryder, her girlfriend and he was Wes Stoner, her boyfriend, in the real sense of the word. She hoped all those lenses would capture the happiness in her eyes. Stoneryder was no more.

She felt immense pride to be standing beside this man who belonged to the most respected tier in this very competitive business. Come to think of it, she had a trophy boyfriend, too. How lucky could a girl get?

Wes was nominated for Best Supporting actor in a big-budget political drama he did last year. The movie did well at the box office, too.
 

Word was out that he was a favorite to win, but the competition was stiff. He told her in the limo that he felt humbled to be nominated alongside veterans like Anthony Hopkins and Robert de Niro.
But he wasn’t putting his high hopes on this one. He was just glad he was nominated again for the third time at the NAFA.