The Stars Trilogy (11 page)

“Where to, Sir?” Carlos, who had settled in the driver’s seat, asked Dare.

“Just drive around for a while.” Dare pushed a button and the dividing window shut closed, isolating them from Carlos.

Celine swallowed nervously. The spacious and plush interior of the vehicle with its black, fine leather seats accentuated by tiger-printed fabric seemed to have shrunk into a cocoon for him and Dare.

“Let’s move over there,” He transferred to the stretch of cushioned seat in the middle of the limo.

She moved to sit beside him, putting adequate space between them.

“Want a drink?”

Before she could answer, he pulled out a bottle of wine from a compact chiller and popped it open. He picked up one of the wine glasses on top a gleaming lighted counter.

She studied him covertly, her eyes traveling eagerly all over him. His hair was cut shorter than his usual hairstyle, dark brown and high-lighted with blond streaks. His jaw line, sharp and angular defined masculine appeal on a whole new level. The day-old stubbles just added to his raw sexiness. In magazines, his features were Photoshopped to fine perfection but his real life beauty was more arresting and mesmerizing. Gosh, those lips were simply illegal! Not thin but curved as a woman’s, inviting a million kisses and eliciting a million kissing fantasies. How many times had she dreamed of kissing him? His muscle-corded forearms were dusted with fine, golden hair, his fingers, long and tipped with neatly cut nails. Strong, capable hands that could probably do anything, and she could think of a lot of things he could do to her--

He handed her a half-filled wine glass.

“I don’t…” she started to say.

“Just a mild one for you.”

She reluctantly accepted the glass. “Thanks.”

He opened a bottle of cognac and poured some in his own glass.

The vehicle was designed to accommodate probably a dozen people but she felt trapped inside it, with a big bad wolf for company. She could sense it, his palpable animosity toward her, and she didn’t understand why. She’d waited a long time for this but it wasn’t happening like she had envisioned. Hah, what did she expect? That Dare Montgomery would drop to his knees and propose marriage to her on sight? That was Sleeping Beauty from the book of Lalaland and this was humid West Hollywood at nine in the evening.

Get real, girl.

“Relax,” he said softly. “Drink.”

He drank from his glass and settled into a sprawling position, legs indolently wide open, the designer jeans he was wearing delineating his lower body in perfect detail. Those giant commercial billboards didn’t do justice to the real man. She could stare at him forever.

She took a sip from her glass. The wine traveled smoothly down her throat, warming her stomach. She wished the butterflies down there would settle even for a bit. She had never envisioned that on the first day of meeting him again after more than fifteen years, she would be sitting with him in his limo drinking wine! Talk about being put on the spot!

He turned his body toward her, stretching one arm on the seat’s back rest. “How long have you known Ben?” His tone was serious.

She couldn’t meet his eyes, so she stared at her glass. “Uhm…Four months, more or less.”

“I see. And you became friends within that period?”

Something in his tone made her sit straighter in real alarm. She was not yet accustomed to meeting his piercing blue eyes head on, but his last question compelled her to look at him and hold his stare. Watching his movies repeatedly had made her familiar with his facial expressions and idiosyncrasies. There was no mistaking the suspicion in his eyes.

“Is there…anything wrong with that?” she asked him tentatively.

He ignored her question. “How long have you been working for him?”

“Uhm…what is this, twenty questions?” she attempted to be glib.
God, what am I doing that’s making him mad? I’m hardly moving here.

He wasn’t amused. “Just simple questions. I’d like to get to know Ben’s friends.”

“And what would you benefit from getting to know me?”

His eyes smoldered. He was really angry now, she could tell.

Lordy, what did I do?

She was a natural bitch, alright, even in the presence of the man she loved. She’d been a pampered alpha female all her life but she would bite her sharp tongue and retract her lethal claws if it would land her the man of her dreams.

The books all agreed on one thing: behaving like an alpha bitch around an alpha dog always had dangerous consequences. In order to attract a man like Dare, a prime example of an Alpha male (oh yes, she had gone as far as consulting the psychology books and even the ephemeris, just to fully understand Dare’s nature), she should be a mild-mannered beta female first, just long enough for him to lower his guard, so she can lasso him to the land of ever after. Afterward, she can be an alpha bitch all she liked.

Thank God her how-to-tips were back in her memory bank! And so was her confidence. She can do this. Charm him in her ragamuffin look. She should be able to attract him with her any-look. After all, they’d be spending the rest of their lives together.

She cleared her throat. “Uhm, Ben and I would always bump into each other within the building, at the elevator, in the hallway, at the lobby and our favorite café at the ground floor. It was inevitable that we would become friends, don’t you think?” she said as pleasantly as she could, even if she found his manner of questioning offensive.

Patience.

This was just their second meeting, anyway. And it had been ages since the first one. And he didn’t recognize her from Eve. Disheartening. But she had been a young girl when they first met. Of course he won’t recognize her anymore. She still didn’t know how to introduce herself to him in a manner that won’t freak him out. He was a very famous person now, a far cry from the Cyclone operator she’d met at Coney Island. She wanted to be with him on a long term basis, not a temporary fan-idol meeting that would end after he’d signed his autograph on her heaving chest. Yes, she had to tread carefully. She didn’t wait almost two decades to meet him again only to screw it up with typical fan-gushing.

“What exactly do you do for Ben?”

Okay, THAT. Ben totally caught her off guard with her ‘new job’ as his PA but she would gladly perform CPR on the old man again for his generosity. “As his Personal Assistant…I…”

Drat, what does a PA do? I own major stocks of a giant media corporation. I currently hold a seat at the board. I was a VP before I came here to the States, although I got that position from nepotism. I’m used to giving orders, not taking them.
She thought of Lily, her own PA back home. What did she usually drive the poor girl crazy with?

“Uhm, I run errands for him…you know, pay his bills, fill up forms for him…uhm, pick up his laundry, arrange his schedules, shop for him...all that stuff.”

She cringed. She would never be caught dead doing those lowly errands for anybody. But then again, that was no longer true since she came here for her Operation: Get Dare
mission. She’d done some menial jobs, dusting costumes at a Tim Burton film, running errands for a bunch of asshole small-time assistant directors who all wanted to get under her skirt, serving meals for the extras of a B movie. The things she had allowed herself to do for the love of this man! He should be kissing her feet!

Gosh, his eyes are just beautiful. How can any man have lashes like that? Long and dark and perfectly curved. He should be advertising for L’Oréal!

“I’m just wondering, how can you afford the rent at the Sommerset with a PA’s salary?”

Her back stiffened at his point blank question. His eyes were now disdainful.

He was judging her.

She forced herself to stay calm and just shrugged. “Maybe I have rich parents.” She never had to defend how rich her family was. It was just something that she took for granted. She was born into it.

“Or uncles.”

“Huh?”

He gave her a flagrantly lascivious once-over. “I can’t blame them. You have a good gig going, kid. Innocent girl-next-door-act. It works on some lonely old men. And idiots, too.”

She felt like he had back-handed her hard across the face.

Whack! Just a few sentences and her fairy tale dream of ever after with this man threatened to disintegrate right before her very eyes.

Everything in her screamed in violent denial.

Noooo! Please, no! You can’t do this to me, Dare! I’ve been waiting for so long for this! You can’t ruin it for me!

Fire seemed to blaze inside the cool interior of the limo. Her heartbeat accelerated again but no longer because of excitement. She could hear every painful kick of her affronted heart, almost deafening her. Angry tears of betrayal burned at the back of her eyes.

“Take it back,” she uttered in a strained voice.

His brows just rose in mockery as he drank from his glass again. “Come on, don’t be mad. You think you’ve fooled me? I have screwed enough women and I can spot a gold-digger from a mile away. How much do you need to leave Ben alone? Name it. I will pay you. Now. In cash.”

She was blind-sided.

Totally.

Nothing, as in NOTHING had prepared her for this. She had never entertained this possibility, that her knight in shining armor, the man she had put on a pedestal for so long, was a first class asshole!

She couldn’t accept it. Not his beloved Dare! This was so NOT in her dreams!

Her immediate instinct was to fight for her dreams. Defend it from the very man who was trying to destroy them.

She leaned forward aggressively. “Take it back!” she spat, her hand knocking the glass he was holding. Expensive Cognac splashed on the car’s carpeted floor.

His eyes widened in surprise.

“No wonder Ben had a heart attack! Having you as a client must have been too much for him! He told me so! Now I know! You’re the reason he had a heart attack!”

“Now, you listen here, you little...”

She jabbed a finger inches from his face. “Don’t you dare call me names! You have no right! I will not take insults from anybody, not even from you! Take it back!”

“I will take back nothing!” he growled.

She glared at him, her entire body hyper-ventilating with the turbulence of her emotions. Her chest felt constricted and she had difficulty breathing. Shock, disappointment and denial mingled inside her and she wanted to scream so she can drag more air into her suffocating lungs.

He sat there like a king, looking down at her with arrogant condescension from his high throne, his eyes raking her with indifference as he unknowingly, ruthlessly ground her precious dreams under the heel of his boot.

This was not the man she had loved for so long. For seemed like forever, she had kept him in her most sacred memories, cherished and revered. All these years he had been the living, breathing memory of that unforgettable young man she met in Coney Island, who, in less than thirty minutes, gallantly helped her conquer one of her greatest fears. He taught her how to fly. He made her young heart soar to the heavens.

The person sitting in front of her was a total stranger. She didn’t know how to deal with him.

“Stop the car!” she screamed.

“What the…? Hey, calm down!”

“I said stop the car, damn you! Stop the car, stop the car!!!”

He pushed a button and spoke, “Pull over, Carlos.”

The moment the car screeched to a halt, she scrambled to the back door.

Dare grabbed her arm.

“Let go of me!”

He let her go and she reached the door in no time. She grabbed the handle but it won’t budge. “Let me out of here!”

He was cussing behind her. The door suddenly opened. She nearly fell to the ground.

Clumsily, she was able to get out of the limo, furious beyond hell.

Carlos was looking at her with a puzzled expression. “Are you okay, Miss?”

Her tears fell. She angrily turned and walked away.

“Celine!” she heard Dare call out to her.

“Bastard!” she hissed to the wind, feeling betrayed by the very man whom she had given half her life to. She didn’t know what to do, didn’t know how to accept this. God! She just wanted to get away from him, from that hateful, judgmental man that he had become. That monster in there was not her Dare!

He caught up with her in his limo. “Get back in the car,” he commanded. “Celine!”

She continued walking, not looking at him. They were along Melrose Avenue. People were starting to notice them.

“Do you want the paparazzi to get this?”

That got her attention. Paparazzi?

She looked around and she saw some men running toward the limo.

“They are coming, dammit! They know this car! Get inside, now!”

Indeed, the paparazzi were coming! They were rushing like a pack of hungry wolves toward them.

Oh my God! This is not happening!

She turned back to the limo. It halted beside her. Dare opened the door and grabbed her hand, dragging her inside again. He slammed the door shut, so hard the huge vehicle vibrated.

The limo shot out at high speed.

Silence.

The slight purring of the Hummer’s engine was the only sound between them. She sat there, turned away from him, watching the West Hollywood skyline pass by from the window on her side.

“Look, I will not apologize for what I said.”

She didn’t answer. She wasn’t surprised anymore at his continued arrogance.

God, I will make semblance of this after he’d left. I can’t deal with this right now, with him so near. This is not the man I have longed to be with all these years. MY Dare is a good, honorable man. He is gallant, respectful, gentle, loving--

“It is the truth!” he barked at her.

She looked at him then and smiled sadly. “Did your success do this to you?”

“What…?”

“Turn you into a hard core cynic?”

His eyes narrowed. “You don’t know me well enough to make such judgment.”

“Neither do you.”

That shut him up.

She was glad he didn’t say anything more until they’d reached the hospital. The moment Carlos opened the door she jumped out of the car and ran to the entrance, not even looking back.