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Sauntering over to the spot where he worked to strip down the contents of his bag now overflowing with purified water, Shannon figured she’d better follow his example and sort through the stuff she had to bring with her.
“Do you have any idea where we are?” she asked, just because she hated pronounced silences.
Her mom had been either depressed or bored with her life for as long as Shannon could remember, and her silences had always meant trouble was brewing. Usually that she’d overstayed her welcome wherever her mom was filming and that Shannon would be on her way back home with a nanny before long. She’d worked damn hard to keep her mom too entertained to fall into the long silences and then send her away, but she’d had even less success as a daughter than as a serious actress.
“I tried to take a shortcut off Route 1 back in Insurgentes, where the interstate veers east before coming back west. But I stopped seeing signs a good five miles before we were run off the road.”
She recalled they hadn’t noticed any other vehicle besides the van once they’d left the main route, so even if they could scale the embankment they’d fallen down, it wouldn’t do much good to wait for traffic on a road that had looked more geared to ATVs than real cars. “So we can either backtrack to the highway or try to cut northeast and see if we can meet up with it ahead of us.”
She unzipped her biggest suitcase, the vintage trunk, one of her favorite pieces of luggage, and wondered how she would leave anything behind. Even though they couldn’t see any other signs of two-legged life right now, that didn’t mean looters wouldn’t crawl out from the bushes to make off with her stuff.
“Right.” Romero dug a knife out of a tool kit that had fallen out of his trunk, and stuffed it inside the bag he apparently planned to bring with him. “But if we backtrack, we know the phone won’t work for the whole trip. Whereas if we move forward, we at least have the possibility of finding some kind of cell coverage.”
Shannon glanced at her bridesmaid dress, her curling iron and her hot rollers. None of them would be helpful on a journey through the Mexican desert, but she couldn’t see herself leaving all of it behind either, especially as the dress was the single most expensive item in any of her suitcases. Romero’s trunk latch had broken when he forced it open, so they couldn’t lock it up again. Tugging out the pink garment, she rolled it up tight to pack in the medium-size carry-on bag.
“You’re not bringing that with you.” Romero seemed to be cutting the carpet out of the BMW, for no real purpose that she could see.
“Did I tell you what to pack?” The sun overhead went behind a cloud and she noticed for the first time the day turning overcast. The ugly birds that had been stalking them had taken off, but she didn’t know if that meant impending bad weather or that the carrion-eating rats with wings had gotten tired of waiting for them to die.
“No, but that’s because I have the greater good in mind instead of thinking about what to wear tomorrow.” The carpet he’d been sawing at flopped on the ground, the underside stiff and rubberized.
“I’m not wearing this dress tomorrow.” In fact, she’d never wear it again, since the first thing she had to do when she returned home, after feeding her dogs, was post the garment on eBay to try to make a little money back on the ridiculously expensive piece. “But it’s Vera Wang. I can’t bloody well leave it in the desert for thieves.”
Any woman of Shannon’s acquaintance—and most of the men, for that matter—would have understood. A vein in Romero’s temple throbbed so hard it looked like it might well explode.
How could he walk out on her without a fight, and yet a dress brought out the ferocious beast in him?
“I think thieves are the least of our problems. Put the dress back and take the rest of the water I couldn’t fit in my bag.” He exaggerated the articulation. Clearly, he thought she was a moron.
“You know I may not have all the right survival skills to make it in the Mexican desert.” It looked like a freaking desert to her, damn it. She tossed bottle after bottle of water on top of the Vera Wang as a compromise. “But I’ve lived in Hollywood on my own since I was fourteen, becoming an emancipated minor at sixteen after my guardian aunt spent all my mom’s fortune.” Not that her personal history wasn’t known by every Hollywood insider, outsider and tabloid, considering her mother’s fame. “That means I’ve been surviving for over a decade in a jaded jungle full of people who wanted to tear me down, or at the very least, expected me to turn into my druggie mom. And not only have I managed to have a successful career—” okay, so she’d fudged that part, but this was her rant “—I’ve also never been photographed naked, never threw up in a nightclub, never got in a fight with the paparazzi, and not once did I cave to addictions that spit people out by the dozens every day in Los Angeles. The mere fact of my existence speaks to my intelligence, don’t you think?”
When she had all the bottles of water in her bag, she zipped it up and stared at him, daring him to tell her what to do again.
“I hope you’ve got everything you need in there, since you don’t have an ounce of space left.” He glared meaningfully at her bulging bag.
She didn’t. She had to have her face cleanser and a few other toiletries. But she could stuff those in the side pouches, couldn’t she? She was about to fire off a sharp retort when she remembered the movie script. Even though the treatment was for some crummy indie film cashing in on her mother’s fame, her ass would be grass if someone else got their hands on the screenplay and leaked it.
“Crap.”
Romero was at least wise enough to go back to peeling the carpet out of the trunk instead of gloating. Maybe that was a benefit to being with a man who never argued. He didn’t jump down her throat when she messed up, either. Sighing, Shannon sank to her knees to retrieve the one item she couldn’t jam into some tiny side flap. The padded manila envelope contained the project that represented Shannon’s only offer to stay in Hollywood. Not that she was taking it.
From Ceily’s description, Shannon knew the movie was about her poor mother’s arrival in Tinseltown, and her rise to fame that had included nude spreads in a variety of men’s magazines and rumors that she’d used sex to get some of the industry’s juiciest roles. Later, she’d descended into drugs, alcohol and depression. Nothing the public hadn’t heard about before.
Baby Doll would be a movie about a woman’s use of sex to get her way—a theme Hollywood producers loved. But Shannon had managed to have a sixteen-year career without taking her clothes off or playing the sexpot. Her mother had been famous for both, blazing through Hollywood with studio directors and producers panting at her heels. Bridget Leigh had elevated sensuality to an art form.
No, Shannon didn’t want to do a movie focused on all the things she resented most about her mom, the things that took Bridget away from her daughter before they could fix their dysfunctional relationship. But the script couldn’t stay here, either. Vera Wang would have to go.
“Is that the proposal for the film about your mom?” Romero had set aside his knife and rolled up the carpet tightly with a bungee cord around it.
He stuffed the long roll into an elastic side strap on his overnight bag, which was more functional than label conscious. Romero had never been about high fashion or glitz, even in his days with bandmates who wore eyeliner like it was going out of style. Hence his decision to invest a few grand in a new brand of hiking boots to help give the fledgling company a PR boost. He liked to fish on the weekends and take a boat out to Catalina.
“Yes.” She hadn’t wanted anyone to know she was desperate enough even to consider this kind of film. Especially not a man she wanted to eat his heart out. “I’m probably not going to do this project, since I have a lot of other things in the works.”
Like a play so far off Broadway she’d probably be playing Staten Island.
“But it’s important enough to sacrifice the Vera Whatever for it.” He retrieved some energy bars from his glove compartment before moving to where she bent over her suitcase, firing water bottles out onto a thin brown patch of grass.
Thunder rumbled in the distance.
His nearness rattled her far more than the threat of a downpour. They were even closer than they’d been in his car. His knee grazed hers. The veins on his bicep bulged from his battle ripping out the carpet. The scent of clean male sweat mixed with the bay rum of his soap in some kind of alchemy wizardry that created an instant aphrodisiac. Or maybe that was just because thinking about sex was easier than picking through her reasons for saving the script over the monetarily valuable bridesmaid’s dress.
“It’s not my script to leave in the middle of the desert.” She dodged further argument, stuffing the treatment into her suitcase and packing the pink dress back into the larger of her suitcases, which would have to remain with the ruined automobile. “Much as I might like to line a few birdcages with some of the tripe I’ve read about my mom.”
Shannon watched his broad hands wrap around one water bottle after the next as he repacked her smaller bag, her body remembering the feel of those warm fingers stroking up her back in the night. He’d told her once that the length of his fingers made it easier to play guitar. Musician’s hands. But she’d been as impressed with the way he played her body, always able to coax a response from her no matter how tired or overwrought she felt from the daily grind of life on the set.
God, she’d almost forgotten how great those days had been. She’d spent so much time alone while he’d been on tour. Then, even after he’d come home, she had lost him to his music all over again while he’d worked on a new CD. Maybe she’d put too much emphasis on talking, since right now she could picture herself being damn content with not speaking at all and just…touching.
“You don’t like the film because it’s low budget.” Romero zipped the bag, his forearm brushing her knee. The contact made her eyes flutter and threaten to close. She loved that sensation.
“Among other things.” She forced herself to focus on what he was saying. The film script. “Even the pictures I made that went straight to DVD were at least produced through major studios. Distribution was assured.”
And she’d been assured her performance would at least be viewed by more than a few hundred people. She didn’t need huge financial rewards from her work, but she dreamed of her skills being appreciated. Her talents shared.
Another clap of thunder made her shove the large suitcase beneath the protective shelter of the overturned car. If there was any chance thieves didn’t steal her stuff, she’d rather not have it water damaged.
“In the music business, great work is usually produced by people who have more freedom to follow their vision. Maybe that script you’re afraid to read will surprise you.”
She rocked back to sit on her heels just as the first raindrop kissed her cheek.
“I’m not afraid to read it.” Liar. That’s why it had been shoved in the back of a drawer since she’d received it a few days after Romero walked out. She’d known the project was coming, and had discussed it with him briefly in the days before he left. She was surprised he even remembered, since he hadn’t commented much at the time.
He’d been in his quiet, brooding musician phase.
“Whatever.” He got to his feet and held a hand to her to help her up. “If you don’t want to take a risk on something more artistic, I understand.”
Shannon nearly fell right back on her butt. Then the heavens opened up and doused them, saving Romero from seeing the smoke pour from her ears at the insult he’d just sent her way with so little thought. He pointed east, apparently showing her the direction they’d be taking on this hike from hell to get back to civilization.
He understood if she didn’t want to make a more artistic movie? Like the rest of her pictures had been total dreck? Besides, this would be a skin flick, wouldn’t it?
Her feet moved alongside his, her toes already protesting the three-and-a-half-inch heels, which sank into the sand with every single step. He thought she didn’t have the creativity to collaborate with a screenwriter? Or did he think she didn’t have the acting chops to pull off the kinds of sexually aggressive scenes she would have to play as the notorious Baby Doll Bridget?
She was no damn prude. And she could act, by God, or she wouldn’t have been offered some theater opportunities in New York, even if they were a little removed from Broadway’s mainstream.
“You think I can’t do something artsy? Assuming I’d have the creative freedom to add some depth to this script?” She stopped in her tracks, unable to stew silently the way he could.
Rain ran in rivulets down his face as he turned to look back at her, the drops chasing each other along the stark angles of his chiseled cheekbones.
“It’s not that—”
“Then you think it’s too sexy for me.”
He was silent for a beat too long.
She could hardly believe it, after she’d fought for so many years to prove she wasn’t her mother, and no one in the industry had bought it. Apparently Romero bought it.
“You’ve always said you didn’t want to be remembered for your cup size.” He reached for her, smoothing aside a section of hair the rain had plastered to her forehead. “Those are your words, not mine.”
Yeah, and they were still totally true. So why was she up in arms about him thinking she couldn’t play the kind of role some would believe she’d been born to play? But then, she’d always been the feeler, reacting on instinct, while Romero was the thinker. Maybe he had a point. And she would have some input into a film about her mom? She hadn’t even considered that, yet it could be a chance to add some substance to the popular vision of her mother.
But that realization didn’t stop her from being just a smidge miffed that he thought she couldn’t carry off the role of a screen siren.
“Then maybe I need a little more practice being sexy.” A flash of indignation had her stepping out of his reach to peel off her satin blazer. The slick fabric was soaked anyhow. Or maybe she was just looking for a way to make Romero suffer the way she suffered around him.
Shannon let the jacket drop on the ground, where she stood and faced the rainstorm in her lavender-colored tank top. Let him feast his eyes on that for a little while and tell her she wasn’t sexy enough.
HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN able to look away if it hadn’t been for the rhinestone bra strap.
He’d been semiprepared for the unveiling of those incredible breasts that she’d inherited directly from her bombshell mother. Shannon had one of those bodies that made men go dumb with sex thoughts—it was just an immutable law of nature. She often wore jackets and blazers or the occasional sweater to deflect the inevitable head-turning stares her body brought her way, so Romero had forced himself not to look south of her chin when her little satin jacket came off.
But damned if the glitter of a cheeky bra strap didn’t catch his eye. It peeked out from under the cotton tank top now molded to her skin, the shimmering stones wrapping around her shoulder and disappearing under the top just above the start of a bra cup. And, yeah, he could see that, too, since her tank top had turned utterly transparent with the rain.
With an effort he raised his eyes, since he’d never been the type to ogle a woman. He’d been brought up better than that, for one thing. His family may have driven him crazy with the constant bickering, but at least they’d instilled good manners. Plus, he’d been solicited by enough beautiful women over the course of his lifetime that he considered himself fairly immune to something as fleeting as looks. But Shannon had always had a unique effect on him. He’d wanted her for reasons that included sex, yet went above and beyond.
When he met her gaze, her blue eyes flashed with a laser intensity he could only describe as insolent. She’d pushed him and pushed him to fight with her—for the past few hours, three months ago, all freaking year. And now she wanted to taunt him with something he craved very, very much.
Big. Mistake.
He shrugged his bag off his shoulders and stalked toward her, rainwater pooling around his feet before being absorbed by the sand.
Her eyes widened.
Two more steps brought him toe to toe with her, invading her personal space and making his presence damn well-known.
“Romero?” She bit her lip as she peered up at him. Her breathing came hard, each inhale bringing her breasts into the barest of contact with his chest. A teasing caress that only added to the fire inside him.
A fire she’d damn well started.
“I don’t think being sexy is your problem.” His hands gravitated to her waist. He knew the layout of her body better than his own, having memorized the spatial relationships of her curves long ago.
He noticed she didn’t have one of her smart-mouth comebacks for him now. A good thing, since he had a better idea for putting her mouth to work.
Inhaling the scent of her, which was intensified by the combination of rain and heat, he bent forward, brushing his lips against hers. He speared his hands up the back of her tank top, splaying them over her skin. Her eyelids fell to half-mast and he moved in for the full taste, his mouth as hungry for her as every other part of him.
If she wanted to play sexual instigator, he planned to show her exactly what she did to him.
4
TOUCHING SHANNON TRIPPED a switch inside him.
No, her peeling off her clothes was what had done him in. The challenge in her eyes as they’d stood in the desert downpour had proved even more difficult to resist than her body, and that was saying a lot considering the woman in his arms.
Her flesh felt hot against him, the warmth of her skin coming through her clothes despite the cooling rain streaking over them. She wrapped her arms around his neck, drawing him close while she arched up on her toes. Her hips gravitated to his, his blood running thick and hot through his veins at the feel of her soft curves against him.
He wanted to take her.
The desert fell away along with the rain, the cacti and the totaled car. All that mattered was getting Shannon out of her clothes and all over him, quenching the burning that fired his skin.
He deepened the kiss and lifted her off her feet, needing to touch every part of her within his grasp. She made a hungry sound in her throat, a soft cry that he recognized all too well as her personal litany of desire—a precursor to a sweet chorus of sighs and moans that were better than any music he’d ever written.
“Shannon.” Her name fell from his lips between kisses, as if he needed to confirm the fact that the woman coming undone against him was the same one who’d churned up more emotions in him in a year than he’d experienced in a whole lifetime before meeting her.
“You make me crazy,” she whispered back, clutching his T-shirt in one hand and a fistful of his hair in the other.
She edged back to look at him while he still held her in the air, suspended off the ground a good couple of inches. His heart slugged hard against his chest, against the softness of her breasts pressed against him, the heat steaming off them where their bodies melded together.
“You make me want to have sex in the middle of the desert.” Which was the same as making him crazy, since he’d never do something like that out here in the open during the middle of a flash flood.
He leaned in to kiss her, to take that mouth of hers and have the last word in this argument between them that never ended. At the last second her hand reached up, applying the slightest pressure to his chest.
“I know it’s no business of mine now that we broke up. But since you just kissed me, I have to ask—did you sleep with that groupie from the wedding?”
It took him long, drawn-out seconds to process her words, since he was so hot he thought he’d explode. When the meaning finally sank in, the icy chill of reality forced him to set her on her feet.
“What are you talking about?” He shook his head, wondering what had happened to the self-confident, devil-may-care woman he’d fallen in love with. She’d never been the jealous type, leaving him to pursue his interests while she went after hers.
Did she honestly still care who was in his life?
“You danced with her a lot last night.” Her eyes were no longer passion-fogged, but clear. Worried. “I saw you walking down to the beach—”
“To get away from all the questions I fielded about you the whole day.” He released Shannon completely, his hands twitchy with sexual frustration, especially when he considered how he’d feel if the tables were turned and it had been her dancing with some other guy the night before. Ouch. “And even though you haven’t asked, I’m going to tell you—there hasn’t been anyone else for me since we split up.”
Plucking his bag up off the ground, he turned on his heel and began walking, figuring any direction was a far cry better than being next to a woman who tempted him beyond reason. A woman he hadn’t come close to forgetting.
“NO ONE?” Shannon couldn’t resist asking for a small point of clarification as she hurried to catch up with Romero, shocked that he had confided something so personal. Something that touched her in spite of everything they’d been through.
“You’re a tough act to follow.” He didn’t even turn to look toward her, his feet trudging to the northeast as the rain pelted him from the right. “And give me credit for having a little more respect for you than to pick up a stranger and take her back to my hotel room when I was staying right across the hall from you. After what we shared.”
Shannon didn’t know if she felt more relieved that he hadn’t been with anyone else or sad that she’d blown an opportunity to get naked with him herself. Probably a mixture of both.
Adjusting the strap of her bag, she followed Romero, her thoughts confused. Her feet sank in the mud as she walked, the skinny heels of her shoes disappearing into the wet sand and somehow becoming vacuum packed into the muck so that the earth made a sucking sound each time she pulled her foot out.
“Well.” She didn’t have a clue what to say to him, her heart still skipping wildly from his touch even while her brain told her she ought to have a little more restraint where he was concerned. He had wanted to separate from her, after all. “Thank you for that. I haven’t been dating, either, but I know men seem to rebound faster.”
Excluding her mom, who had gone through men as fast as she made movies. Maybe that’s why Shannon wanted so badly to get her relationships right. She’d seen firsthand how much it hurt her mother to lose each consecutive boyfriend, never realizing how her own actions had played a role in the revolving door in her life.
“I think that’s just an illusion.” Romero didn’t even look back, his long strides eating up the rain-soaked sand. “And I never pictured you as the type to jump into new relationships anyhow.”
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