Sweetest Sin: Bad Boy Bundle (92 page)

“You're done with that little blonde now, aren't you?” he asked, “You've moved on to greener pastures and all that?”

I thought about whether I should lie or tell the truth in response to this question, though I really didn't know the answer myself. The idea of being finished for good with Savannah, never seeing her again was just insane. I knew I couldn't do that. I couldn't let that happen. Still, I knew that waxing lyrical about how soft her skin felt beneath my fingers or how her eyes shone in the moonlight wouldn't win me the favors with Craig. As far as he was concerned, famous bachelors getting into serious relationships and making them public was a big no no.

“That's not the point. It's not why I'm here. What I want to know is how I can change my image,” I said. Craig looked taken aback. He leaned back in his chair, his eyes narrowed in confusion at my statement. He clearly hadn't been expecting it, “What? What's the problem?”

Craig gave his head a quick shake and snapped out of it, forcing a smile on his face.

“No problem. It's just an unusual request. I don't really get clients of your caliber asking how to change their image, unless they've been involved in some kind of sex scandal or said something ignorant about a minority group in an interview. Can I ask why you want to change, by the way? Dane Reynolds is a brand name at this stage. You have a great image to go with it too. You're the man who ever guy wishes they were. The good looking, rich guy who has to fight the ladies off with a stick. Why the hell would you want to change that? It's perfect the way it is,” said Craig. I could see where he was coming from. Branding was so important for any media figure to pay careful attention to it was what got you big deals and helped your fan base to grow. My own public image was so deeply ingrained into the minds of the film viewers that changing my image would be
almost impossible.

“Almost,” Craig assured me, “That doesn't mean totally and utterly impossible. It just means that we have to be creative about it if this is what you really want.”

“It is,” I said.

“Good. But what is it? I mean, what is it that's made you want to change? You're doing really well at the moment. People obviously lap this shit up, and you gotta keep the people happy Dane. Whatever you do, the people need to be happy or they won't buy your shit,” he said, “What do you want to change about your image?”

He looked at me expectantly. I searched for some way to voice my thoughts without being outright rude. When that didn't work I had to give in and explain things in my plain old standard of English. Offensive to him or not, it was the truth.

“I want to be able to have relationships,” I said. Already Craig's eyebrows had gone up so fast that they were hidden by his hairline. That didn't stop me, “I want to have real relationships with real women. I'm not interested in fucking women and leaving them high and dry anymore. I just don't have the energy. I want to be able to have sex with the same girl every night and cuddle up and watch a shitty movie afterwards.”

I should have said 'relationship' rather than 'relationships' as there was only one woman in the world I could see myself doing this with. Savannah was like the Yin to my Yang and though I hadn't managed to get the words out yet, I loved her more than anyone I'd ever met in my life. However, I didn't want Craig to blame Savannah for my sudden change of heart. That wouldn't be fair at all. My feelings were my responsibility and mine alone.

Craig took a moment to formulate his response. It was short but effective.

“Bad boys don't have girlfriends,” he said quietly. What kind of shit was that? Did people really care that much about what I did in my spare time? As long as I wore leather jackets and played cocky characters in the movies my bad boy image would stay. That was what I thought, but I was doubting myself now.

“This bad boy does,” I said. We weren't official yet, but I was planning on asking her soon. Maybe I'd take her on a really nice date again. I could even buy her a nice bracelet. Yeah, that would be perfect. She was bound to say yes. I couldn't resist adding, “I'm going to ask her to be my girlfriend.”

It wasn't something that I'd been thinking about much, but the moment I said it aloud was the moment that I knew I had to do it. No matter how much sense Craig tried to talk into me.

He literally spent the next two hours informing me why this was an awful idea and how he couldn't in good conscience advise me to do what I was planning on doing.

“It won't work. You're going to have to chose,” he said, “Be successful or fuck off with some girl.” “I chose both.”

Craig laughed spitefully.

“Fat chance in this industry. You get one if you're lucky and then deal without the other as best you can,” he said.

“That's an old fashioned way of looking at things,” I said, which was a polite way to tell him that his ideas about how the world worked were fucking stupid an outdated.

“It's a realistic way of looking at things,” he said, “I'm sorry, I know I'm your manager and I'm trying my best to support you, but you can't throw your career down the shitter like this buddy. You just can't.”

“I can do whatever I want.” Craig inhaled deeply.

“Fine, but if you do you'll be doing it without me,” he gave me an apologetic look, “I am sorry to do this, but if you go public with your relationship I'll no longer be able to represent you.”

“Oh,” I said. Craig had been cleaning up my messes for years now. I wasn't quite sure that I could handle Hollywood by myself without him to act as a buffer for the worst of it, “I see. That's your choice and you're entitled to make it I guess.”

“Yes I am, but I don't want to. Please buddy. Just reconsider. Sleep on it for a little while,” he said.
Maybe he was right. It did feel like I was being a little bit rash with all of this now. I hadn't even managed to tell Savannah that I loved her to her face. How the fuck did I expect to do it in front of the whole world?

“All right,” I said, “I'll think about it for a few days.” Craig beamed at me.

“That's my guy. You'll be back to your old self in no time.”

My old self. I couldn't remember if he was the good version of me or that was the current version of me. It was difficult to say. Maybe I wasn't good at all.

Craig was usually right about these things, as much as I hated to admit it. I would end up listening to his advice, no doubt. If I wanted his representation I would have to force myself to keep my relationship with Savannah secret for as long as possible. Maybe even forever. It wasn't that far fetched an idea.

I left the office and returned home without any groceries. Savannah didn't even notice or ask where I had been. She was too busy working on Chrissy's ball gown. It was coming together nicely now. With a few finishing touches it would be absolutely perfect. Chrissy would love it. Everyone would. Savannah Finn would become a famous brand in itself and she wouldn't need me anymore.

That would probably be what was best for both of us.

Savannah

The evening of the premiere sneaked up on me like a wolf waiting to pounce on a vulnerable baby lamb. Not that I wasn't thinking about it every day in the lead up to this fabulous event. In fact I was living and breathing this event like no one else was. Dressmaking was stressful at the best of times but especially so when you were on such a tight deadline and using such expensive material. There were sleepiness nights spent sewing decorative pearls onto the silk or crying when the sewing machine wouldn't co operate with my vision. I was stressed out of my fucking mind but it didn't matter. It didn't matter at all because I was all right. I wasn't thinking about my complicated
relationship with Dane and where the hell we thought it was going. I shoved that right out of my head in order to focus on my work. If I hadn't managed to do that I would have simply gone crazy, I was sure of it.

Chrissy arrived to pick up her dress on the night of the premiere. I had it waiting in the living room for her, pinned to my model. She let out a gasp of disbelief when she saw it. It had turned out as well as any of us could have hoped. Better, even. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever designed. I was so pleased with her reaction to it that I wanted to cry and call my mother. However, I somehow managed to control myself. Just for a little while.

She immediately asked to try it on. I gave her permission to do it, telling her that it was her dress now and that I was finished with it. She gingerly removed it from the model and I looked away when she slipped it on.

When I looked back it was my turn to gasp. It looked perfect on her slender frame and the pink complimented the warm tones in her skin. The front had a high neck and a fitted waist, while the other side was cut low to show off a lot of her perfectly toned back.

“Oh Savannah, you did an amazing job!” she said, gazing at herself in awe, “This is the nicest dress I've ever worn. I'll be so proud to let people see me in this on the red carpet. I hope you're proud too.”

“Thank you so much, that's so kind of you,” I said. The stack of money that she gave me was even kinder. I hadn't been planning to charge her for this dress. At the end of the day she was doing me a favor by wearing it and I would be paid back in exposure. Though I tried hard not to accept her money, Chrissy was more aggressive that I was. I tucked it into the pocket of my jeans, trying not to think about how much she had just given me. It was a lot. That was all I knew.

“I just wish you were coming with me,” she said, once she'd changed back into her regular clothes and I had her dress all wrapped up on a covered coat hanger. “I bet we'd have fun.”

“I bet we would, but you'll still have fun on your own. Besides, I've got some microwave popcorn with my name on it to snack on while I'm watching the live coverage. I'm not going to miss seeing
my dress on TV for anything in the world,” I said. Chrissy laughed.

We said goodbye and I wished her luck before she got back into her car. I closed the door and leaned against it. I was stating to understand how Cinderella felt in the old story. Being the one who wasn't invited to the ball sucked. The dress had looked so gorgeous on Chrissy, but that didn't stop me from wanting to keep it for myself.

Suddenly Dane strolled down the stairs, dressed in a full tux and holding a midnight blue dress in his hands. It was a ballgown that I'd been making eyes at for the last few weeks anytime we'd passed the store window it was displayed in. I had no idea he'd even noticed.

“So,” he said, “Feel like going to a premiere?”

“Are you serious?” I asked. He nodded, that mischievous grin that I loved so much appearing on his fine features.

“Yeah. I got tickets forever ago and figured I wouldn't go. These things are usually boring as fuck, but I think it might actually be fun with you there,” he said, hastily adding, “Only if you want.” “Of course I want to go,” I said. In that moment it was what I wanted most in the whole world. Well, almost. What I really wanted was for Dane to grab me and profess his love for me. I wanted him to stop being too afraid to let people see us together. Even if they made up terrible rumors in the tabloids it wouldn't matter. We knew ourselves well and we knew each other well so we knew what each of us were capable of.

Still, a movie premier was the next best thing.

Dane

I agonized over Craig's ultimatum until the night of the premier. I woke up feeling so clear and so good that day that the choice was obvious to me. I mean, who was a choosing between? My scummy agent, who'd only been kept in business for so long by screwing over his competitors and stealing clients. Or on the other hand, there was Savannah. The sexiest, smartest, most beautiful woman I'd ever met in my life. I could never imagine meeting someone else who made me feel this
way. This was love.

This was love, all right. It was the love you heard about in songs or saw tearing people apart in films. It was powerful, potent and often devastating in the wrong hands. It was vast and unstoppable. So I stopped trying to fight against it.

Savannah appeared at the top of the stairs after changing into her gown. The shade of midnight blue I'd chosen perfectly illuminated her milk white skin.

“What is all this even for?” she asked, stroking the material of the dress.

“I want to show you off,” I smirked, “I have a trophy girlfriend. Not really. You're gorgeous and sexy as hell but you've got brains and talent too. I'm sure everyone will be asking about when you're putting a collection out.”

“Girlfriend?” the other words seemed to get lost in translation. That was the only part that managed to filter through. Part of me had hoped that she would just go along with it without question. Then again, that wouldn't be Savannah. Not my Savannah, anyway.

“Yeah. I was thinking I might start calling you that if you're OK with it,” I said, shifting from foot to foot. Fuck, this dating stuff really was hard. I could only wait and hope that she wouldn't flat out reject me as I was sure any normal woman would do.