Drop Dead Beautiful (13 page)

“Two minutes,” he hissed. “Two more freakin’ minutes, then you come in and break it up.”

“HELLOOO.” Whoever was on his cell was yelling for attention.

“Sorry,” he said, realizing it was Venus.

“
What
is going on?” Venus wanted to know.

“Oh, hey, it’s nothing,” he said vaguely. “I’ll tell you later.”

“Why not now?”

“Uh … I gotta call you back.”

“Why? What are you doing?”

Another interrogator. What was it with women and their questions?

“I’m in the middle of an interview, so I’ll—”

“Who with?”

“Some magazine.”

“
What
magazine?”

“Really, babe, I gotta call you back.”

“Fine,” she said in her best
You’re an asshole
and
I hate you
voice. “You do that.”

Oh crap. Now he had Venus on his case and that wasn’t a good thing.

“Billy,” Florence called out from the living room. “Where are you, dear? I need to verify a couple of facts.”

He was
not
having a great day.

Venus clicked off her cell and frowned. What was up with Billy? He wasn’t himself, he was edgy, and—dare she even think it?—distant.

Oh God, he was distant. Did that mean he was having second thoughts about their relationship? Did distant mean he was looking for an out?

This was ridiculous. They’d been together almost a year, and as far as she was concerned they were blissfully happy. Well … about as blissfully happy as two movie stars can be considering their every move was dogged by the paparazzi, not to mention the false rumors that appeared in print or on the Internet every single day. She couldn’t count how many times she was supposedly pregnant, or how many times they’d secretly gotten married, or how many times they’d broken up. All lies. All hurtful. All damaging to their relationship.

Venus sighed as she realized she’d done something
extremely foolish. She’d fallen in love with Billy, and how dumb was
that?
Now she was experiencing all the pangs of teenage rejection, because surely if he didn’t have time to talk to her—that was rejection?

Dammit! Love was a pain in the ass. Love made you weak and vulnerable and open to getting hurt. This was not her M.O. at all. Venus was strong and invincible and an icon. That’s why her fans loved her so much. Now she’d gone and fallen in love with a boy—not a man like Cooper, a boy—a movie star boy who however hard he worked would never be as famous as she was.

Or as rich.

And yet … it didn’t matter to her, she was cool with it.

But if he rejected her, dumped her …

No, it simply couldn’t happen.

Stop being needy, she told herself. Everything’s fine. Billy loves you. He tells you all the time
.

Billy Melina. Who would’ve ever thought
he’d
be the one when he’d walked into Alex Woods’s office eight years ago? She certainly hadn’t. All she’d seen then was an apprehensive, fidgety twenty-year-old boy who, when he’d read a scene with her, had exhibited a fierce and endearing talent.

She’d kind of steered him through his first important role, and he’d given a dynamic performance, launching a highly successful career.

They’d become friends. She was married to Cooper and had a small child. Billy was on the road to stardom with a pretty new girl on his arm—or in his bed—every other day. Occasionally they spoke on the phone, or ran into each other at big events such as superagent Ed Limato’s Oscar party or one of the endless award ceremonies.

When Billy made the cover of
People
magazine as “The Sexiest Man Alive,” she’d sent him a life-sized inflatable doll with a funny note attached. And when she’d won two Emmys, a People’s Choice Award, and three Grammys all in one year, he’d sent her a Harry Winston diamond star pendant with a sweet letter praising her achievements.

After that they’d started meeting for lunch on a regular basis. She’d teased him about his parade of nubile girlfriends; he’d listened when she’d found herself confiding her marital woes.

He was understanding and an excellent listener.

When she finally left Cooper, Billy was there to hold her hand and help her through it.

One memorable night their friendship developed into a full-blown love affair. She hadn’t planned it, hadn’t wanted it, but somehow it was inevitable.

The gossip rags went into overdrive. Venus and Billy Melina—what a tabloid-headline-making duo! It was all too irresistible.

Now they’d been together almost a year, but she wasn’t sure how it was going. She knew she should be happy— Billy hadn’t said anything or done anything that would make her feel otherwise—but deep down she had a nagging feeling that something was amiss, and one of the keys of Venus’s huge success had been to always follow her instincts.

What were her instincts telling her now?

She wasn’t sure. She didn’t know.

But hey, she had to believe it would all work out in the end. Everything always did.

“You drink too much,” Ling scolded.

“What now?” Alex Woods said, emerging from the shower, knotting a towel around his waist.

“Last night you came home drunk,” Ling continued in a sanctimonious tone. “And you were driving, Alex, that’s extremely stupid. If you had been stopped and Breathalyzed, it could have turned out very badly.”

Was his exquisitely beautiful Asian lawyer girlfriend calling him stupid?

No. It wasn’t possible.

Or was it? Because if it was, it was time for her to go. Nobody called Alex Woods stupid and got away with it. If
she was working on one of his movies, he would fire her ass. But she wasn’t working on his movie, she was living in his architecturally modern beach house, sharing his oversized water bed, and sometimes driving his Porsche. Plenty of perks. More than enough. And he did not need criticism coming out of her perfectly formed mouth. Oh no. Her mouth was for other purposes.

“What if you’d been arrested?” Ling droned on. “Then what, Alex? Headlines you do not care for. Publicity you hate.”

“Spoken like a true lawyer,” he said, dropping his towel.

“I’m sorry if you do not like to hear the truth,” Ling said, all pissy-faced. “But it is only for your own good.”

Yeah. Sure
.

“Did you have your gun on you, Alex?” Ling continued. “Because I continually remind you that you do not have a license to carry a firearm, and were you stopped and the gun was found, that would constitute a far greater problem.”

“Okay, okay,” he said impatiently. “I’m listening. Next time I go on a bender I’ll leave my gun at home. Does that make you happy?”

“Yes, Alex, that makes me happy. Although why you need a gun at all—”

“I get threats, Ling,” he said, reaching for his pants and pulling them on. “How many times I gotta tell you?”

Over the years he’d grown to realize that there wasn’t a woman in existence who knew when to shut the fuck up. Except perhaps Lucky Santangelo. When it came to Lucky, she could talk all night and he’d listen to every word. But then, Lucky was unique, a one-of-a-kind woman who possessed the three B’s in abundance—Brains, Beauty, and Balls.

Thinking about Lucky made him smile.

“Why are you smiling, Alex, it is not funny,” Ling scolded, as if she were speaking to a naughty child.

“Give it a rest,” he said. “I don’t
want
to hear it and I don’t
have
to hear it, so shut the fuck up.”

“Do not speak to me like that,” Ling said, tilting her chin.

Oh Jesus. She wasn’t his
wife
, why was she lecturing him as if she were?

He stared at his five-feet-two-inches-tall girlfriend with the slim, toned body and ridiculously large fake tits—too big for her slender shape. Her tits had always bothered him. What was she thinking when she’d had them done?
I want to be a lawyer, but maybe I’ll moonlight as a stripper on the side?

It didn’t make sense.

“I have a major fucking hangover,” he said, feeling the throb in his head. “So I suggest we drop this conversation before you get yourself in trouble.”

“Very well, Alex,” she said, tight-lipped. “But I tell you only because I care.”

“I’m sure you do,” he sighed.

End of dialogue.

Cut.

Print.

Chapter 18

Hugging her father felt so damn good. Gino the survivor, a real character. Lately Lucky had come to the conclusion that the older she got, the more she understood him. Now she realized why he’d married her off at sixteen. He’d thought he was protecting her, saving her from her wild ways, and his mind was set that way because he’d been raised during a time when women were not considered smart, independent human beings; women were considered soft and obedient, they were supposed to get married, have kids, and shut the fuck up.

Wow! What a shocker she must have been to him—a girl who craved freedom and power; a girl who was sexually free; a girl who did things her way and turned out to be exactly like Daddy.

The two of them could laugh about it now, for Lucky considered Gino to be not just her father, but also her best friend. She loved hearing him reminisce about the early days when he was living on the streets of New York struggling to make a buck. He often spoke about the time he was involved with the very elegant and very married Clementine Duke, the nightclub he opened way back, his long stretch in prison, and the excitement and challenge of building his first hotel in Vegas.

Oh yes, Gino had stories like nobody else.

Her kids adored him and he them. Gino Junior called him
Mister Cool, and Bobby had always looked up to him. Max—not so much. “He’s like
major old,”
Max always grumbled whenever Gino visited, as if being old was a bad thing. “Why do I have to kiss him every time I see him? He smells of fish, like a decrepit trout.”

“Your grandfather believes in taking a lot of vitamins,” Lucky had explained. “Sometimes they leave an odor.”

“It’s utterly
gross!
” Max would complain.

Perhaps it’s just as well that Max is not here for dinner
, Lucky thought, ushering Gino and Paige upstairs to their room. She gave Gino another hug, and left them to unpack.

Downstairs Lennie was about to get to work on his script. “Good thing we made out before they got here,” he remarked.

“Glad you’re pleased.”

“And it wasn’t just sex, it was fantastic sex, an’ not even make-up sex!”

“You’re such a romantic.”

“I try.”

“Try harder,” Lucky quipped.

A short while later Bobby and Brigette arrived.

Is it possible that this tall handsome guy is my son? Lucky thought proudly. Wow, I must’ve done something right
.

“Where’s Max?” Bobby asked, exchanging a series of playful punches with Gino Junior, who was excited to see his big brother.

“She went to a party up in Big Bear,” Lucky explained. “She’ll be back in time for Gino’s celebration.”

“
Great,”
Bobby complained, pulling a face. “I come into town and she takes off. I gotta have a serious talk with that girl.”

“I wish somebody would,” Lucky muttered.

“What does
that
mean?”

“It means she’s exactly like her mom was when Lucky was her age,” Lennie interjected.

“Who’s exactly like their mom?” Brigette asked, entering
the house, followed by a red-faced driver attempting to balance several large Fendi bags.

“There you are,” Lennie said, grabbing her in a bear hug. “How’s my girl?”

Brigette smiled. She had special feelings for Lennie, who’d once been married to her mother, Olympia. Lennie had always treated her with kindness, unlike so many other people she’d had to deal with. “I’m doing okay, Lennie.”

“You look fantastic,” he said, thinking how fresh and pretty she was for a girl who’d been through so much.

“Max is on the missing list,” Bobby announced. “She took off to some party,” he added, shaking his head as if he couldn’t quite believe that his half-sister hadn’t stayed around to greet him. “How about that? Wait till I get hold of her, she’s in for major punishment.”

“You can phone her later,” Lucky said. “Lay a guilt trip on her, especially as she left without saying good-bye this morning.”

“
Bad
little girl,” Bobby said. “Hey, Mom, you’re looking as beautiful as ever.”

“Thanks, Bobby, you always know what to say.”

“Don’t thank me, thank the good genes you got from your old man. Is Gino here yet? Can’t wait to see him.”

“They arrived ten minutes ago, they’re settling in.”

“We could’ve all stayed at a hotel,” Bobby said. “Wouldn’t that’ve been easier for you?”

“Not at all,” Lucky replied. “In case you haven’t noticed, this house is huge—there’s plenty of room for everyone. Besides, us all being here together is kind of nice. We should make the most of it.”

“How soon do you get your Malibu house back?”

“Another couple of months. But it’s not so bad, ’cause Lennie’s going to be shooting his movie in Canada, and I’ll be spending most of my time in Vegas.”

“Oh yeah!” Bobby said enthusiastically. “The Keys. Can we talk about me opening a club there?”

“We already have a club, Bobby. You know that.”

“Yeah, but you don’t have
my
club. It’s taken off big time.”

“I’ll keep you in mind if we decide to open another one. Maybe sometime in the future if you’re really serious.”

“It’s great to have connections,” Bobby muttered. “Gets me exactly nowhere.”

“Who’s coming tonight?” Brigette asked.

“Family only,” Lucky replied. “I’m cooking pasta, so you’d all better be ravenously hungry, or else.”

“Did you invite Venus?” Bobby ventured.

“Still got a crush?” Lennie interjected with a sly grin. “ ’Cause if you do, I hear she’s into younger men.”

“Be quiet,” Lucky said, trying not to smile. “Bobby never had a crush, did you?”

“No
way
,” Bobby said, a touch too emphatically.

“She’ll be at the party Sunday,” Lucky offered. “You can catch up then.”