When Dreams Come True (The Star Series Book 1) (8 page)

“Don’t make me fire you.”

“Oh, that’s what, the tenth time this week? I’m not scared of you.”

“Don’t make me kill you in one of my books.”

“You already have.”

“Damnit. I can do it again.”

“Go ahead.”

Settling back into Will’s arms, she laughed. “I’m watching you.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Hannah turned from her and said something to Royce.

“You’ve got quite a relationship with your assistant,” Will commented as he played with a lock of her hair.

“I’m so lucky to find someone I am friends with and love who can also put up with me and keep me organized so I can spend more time writing. I have to threaten and do whatever I can so she’ll take a break and just relax sometimes.”

“That’s very nice of you. Some people would take advantage.”

Lissa shrugged. “If you have the means, you take care of the people who mean the most to you.”

“I couldn’t agree more. But I do have a question. Let’s say someone wanted to do for you something similar to what you do for Hannah. How would you react?”

She ducked her head. “Not as well.”

“So let me get this straight.” He wrapped his other arm around her so she was trapped. “You want to do nice things for your friends, and you expect them to take it, but when someone wants to do something for you… Let me guess: you feel it’s wrong and you don’t deserve it.”

She played with the rolled-up cuff of his shirt. “How do you know me so well, so quickly?”

“That connection I mentioned before. Plus, I observe people. I’m an actor, so I’m always cataloging human emotion and how different people react to similar situations. Besides, you, darling, are a wonder to observe.”

They pulled over on the road and stopped. She felt she was saved from saying anything to him, and good timing, too. She was at a loss and couldn’t deny her connection to him either. Looking back on all the research she’d done on him, all the pictures she’d looked at… She never expected she’d ever meet him, let alone spend all this time with him. The more she had found out about him, the more intrigued she became, so she did more and more research until she felt she was at creeper level, and then she was embarrassed about it all. She knew she hadn’t spent that much time with him, but he actually seemed better than everything she’d read.

The men led them a short distance away from where the vehicle was parked. There, laid out before them, was a picnic overlooking Los Angeles. It made a breathtaking picture with the sun starting to set across the ocean.

They spent an enjoyable evening together, sharing food, stories, and laughter. It was all so easy and comfortable between the four of them. When the sun went down and Hannah became cold, Lissa watched as Royce ran up the trail to get her an extra blanket. Hannah had been pretty closed-mouthed when she’d asked her what she thought about Royce, but it looked like she was going to have to press the issue to find out what Hannah really felt. Lissa didn’t want to see her friend hurt, but she’d been so closed-off to men for so many years, she could only hope at some point Hannah would want to have another relationship.

Will stood up and held his hand out to her, and without asking any questions she placed hers in his and he helped her stand. They walked, hand in hand, a little further down the hill. Since the moon was almost full, they had no problem walking on the trail. She didn’t think the view could get any better, but it did.

When they stopped, he pulled her in front of him and wrapped his arms around her stomach. She leaned back into him and rested her head on his chest. There, in that moment, she knew it was the right time to open up to him. “Will, I don’t know where to begin. Everything since I turned around in the restaurant and saw you has been like a dream come true for me. Yesterday and today has been…” She shook her head. “Here I am, an author, and all I can come up with is ‘amazing’. I should have bruises up and down my arms from pinching myself because I didn’t believe it was real. I’m so grateful, and so happy I met you.”

“Me, too, darling. When you’ve dreamt of someone for so long and you finally find her, it takes your breath away. You want to fall down on your knees before her and offer her the world.”

Tears blurred her vision as she overcame her fears and whispered, “I never believed in love at first sight, but could we really even call this first sight? We both did our research before we met, we were both curious, and, what, half in love with what we found on the internet? For sure attracted to what we knew of each other.” She turned in his arms. “Even now, with these feelings racing through me, I worry, I wonder… what if it’s all an illusion? What if it’s something I’ve created in my head? I don’t know if I could bear it.”

Gently, he wiped a tear away from her cheek. “Melissa, we’re not inexperienced teenagers, or even brave twenty-something-year-olds. We know there are no guarantees. All I can do is offer you my heart and soul, knowing deep down I have never felt this way before, and I’m not letting you slip through my fingers. I will do everything in my power to make you believe in me and the feeling which courses through my soul for you.”

His arms tightened around her waist, slightly lifting her up. As his mouth came closer her eyes drifted closed, hoping she was going to feel his lips on hers again. She wanted to open herself up to him, to completely be lost in him, feel him, allow him to devour her.

When he finally kissed her, she could swear she heard the angels sigh and every other overused cliché around. As his lips slid across hers, his fingers tangled in the back of her hair while she clawed at his shoulders. Without heels on, she couldn’t seem to get close enough to him. They were both in battle, soft and rough, fast and slow. Their kiss was so gentle, yet their hands roamed so impatiently.

She had no idea how long they were lost in each other. All she knew was she never wanted it to end. But wanting and knowing it would were two different things. When he finally pulled away, she was left breathless and longing for more. She rested her cheek on his chest as he kept her close to him.

“You’re going home tomorrow.” His voice rumbled through his chest.

“Yes.”

“So am I. Then I’m off to film a movie.”

“I have a manuscript I need to finish.”

“We’ll find a way to make this work.”

She pulled away and looked up at him. “I’m not asking anything of you.”

“You aren’t asking; I’m giving. I’ll have Beau talk to Hannah, and they’ll make sure we have time to at least talk on the phone daily. Maybe we can set up those video chats.” He tipped her chin up so she was looking at him. “And I promise, the first chance we get, we are spending time together. I don’t care what it takes. I will
not
miss out on time with you.”

“Promise.”

“My word is my promise.”

“Maybe you should seal that with a kiss.”

He smiled. “I will completely seal it with a kiss.”

Mid-July 2015

The next three months became routine for Lissa. Wake up, write, eat, at some point during the day or evening talk to Will and do just enough to make sure Hannah wasn’t worrying about her. Frantically, she focused on her writing. There was an unknown force driving her from within to write her stories, more so than usual. She wasn’t getting enough sleep or eating properly, but she was writing. And, most importantly, not wasting her day dreaming of Will.

The first couple of weeks after she was back home, he took up every waking hour. She was useless. She’d spend hours searching for new information on him on the internet, waiting by the computer for his video call to come in. A lovesick teenager had nothing on her. Hell, she even put her weak mother to shame with her obsession. She’d been thinking of her a lot since she’d last seen Will, not liking the similarities in traits she was seeing in herself and her mother. All of her memories were of her mother losing herself in her father’s shadow.

Then one morning, she woke up and said enough. She’d lost the previous two weeks of writing and was behind her schedule. This was her business; she couldn’t ignore it any longer. With renewed determination, she buckled down and worked harder than before to catch up and actually get ahead. As an added benefit, she was able to feel like she was contributing again, and not just thinking of Will twenty-four hours a day.

The nights were still the hardest, though, right before she fell asleep, or when she woke up. He was the last and first thing on her mind every single day. That was why she didn’t go to bed until she was ready to drop, sometimes crashing on the couch in her office, or even at her desk. If she was too exhausted to think of him, she could fall asleep. But it was also why she was usually up so early. She’d wake up for some reason and he’d be right there, and then there was no way she’d be able to fall back asleep. Her brain would remember their last conversation, or what she wanted to tell him the next time they talked, or even what she hoped it would be like the next time they were together, in person.

If their schedules permitted, there were times they’d talk for hours, about everything and anything. They built their relationship on words. Her world was closing in on her, and she spent the majority of her time in her office, writing, talking to Will, and sometimes working out with Hannah. She rarely went anywhere and if she didn’t have to, she wasn’t seeking out her friends. She knew it wasn’t any better than before when she was focused on him completely, but at least she was tending to her business. At least, that was what she told herself.

Looking at the countdown Hannah had installed on her computer, it showed she was going to be seeing him in just seventeen more days. They were scheduled to wrap on his current movie, and then they’d have about a week together before he had to be off again to a fundraiser in Paris and then an exclusive one-week theater performance in London. Instead of focusing on the date he’d be leaving her again, she tried to focus on the fact that they’d have a whole week together.

Shaking her head, she knew she was just fooling herself. She was as weak as her mother. There she was, a woman in her thirties, and yet she felt like she’d give any teenaged fan-girl a run for her money on who knew more about him, or would sigh more over his pictures.

Her eyes dropped to the time and saw it was six in the morning. She’d already been up for a couple of hours and was on her second pot of coffee. It was her week to go to the grocery store, and she knew she had to suck it up and get it over with before the heat became too unbearable and the ice cream would melt on the way home. Sighing, she got up from her desk and went to get changed, frowning when she realized that her pants were too loose on her. She made a mental note to add more junk food than normal to the list. Hannah would give her a hard time, but she hadn’t realized she’d lost so much weight.

Driving down into Tucson from her house at the base of the Catalina Mountains was always a breathtaking trip. She loved the fact that she wasn’t in the heart of the city, but close enough that it didn’t take much time at all to get where she needed to go. Absentmindedly she went through the store, adding things from the list and whatever struck her fancy. It had been so long since she’d cooked that she decided to pick something up and make dinner that night. She’d always loved to cook and maybe it would be good for her to remember there were other things in life besides writing, and not being able to get her boyfriend out of her head.

She stopped in the middle of the aisle and shook her head, trying to get the whole ‘boyfriend’ thing out of her mind. What was he really? She felt like he was more than just a boyfriend, but if he
was
more they’d be spending a lot of time together. They hadn’t been able to meet up in person since Los Angeles. Grabbing what she needed quickly, she suddenly wanted to get back home. She finished her shopping and stood in line, waiting to check out. Looking at the magazines she couldn’t stop herself when she saw Will on the cover of one. Reaching out her shaking hand she took it and a goofy smile spread across her face. There he was. She opened to the article on him and started reading while keeping one eye on the line. Trying not to sigh, she read his answers to the questions and could hear him speaking the words, the tone and lilt to his voice rising and falling with each turn of phrase.

“Excuse me.”

A voice came from behind her and she turned to see a woman about her age looking at her with wide eyes. “Yes?”

“I don’t mean to be so… I’ve never met…” The young woman blushed. “Can I ask? Are you Melissa Loring?”

“Yes, I am.” Lissa blinked rapidly when the woman started jumping up and down and let out a small scream.

“Oh, my gosh, I love your books. I’ve read them all, so many times.”

“Thank you.” It was the first time anyone had recognized her in public and not at a book signing, and it was a strange feeling. She didn’t feel she deserved that reaction at author signings, let alone in the checkout line of the grocery store.

“I can’t wait for your next book. And oh my, your movie! I definitely can’t wait for that to come out. That was one of my favorite books you wrote, and…” She pointed to the magazine, her voice rising. “Will Martinsson is starring in it. I can’t wait! Is it true you two are dating? Can I get your autograph? Do you live around here?” The woman turned to the person behind her. “Do you know this is Melissa Loring? She and Will Martinsson are an item and he’s staring in her movie.” She grabbed the magazine out of Lissa’s hand and shoved it in front of the other woman’s face. “You know, the sexy villain?”