somebody I had a fling with last year.”
“Blackmail?” she said, indignant on his behalf.
“Not yet. But it could get there. He’s making rumbles about supposedly having some kind of proof.”
Candace glowered at him for being careless. “Tell me you didn’t let some dude take pictures.”
“Do I look mentally challenged?” He sounded indignant.
“Sorry.”
“And before you ask if I left DNA on a Gap dress, let me explain. It was just some text messages.”
“They can be faked,” she said, waving an airy hand.
“Yeah, but look at what happened to Tiger.”
True. Text messages could definitely come back to bite you. She made a mental note. Next time you’re about to break up with someone, borrow his phone to destroy the evidence first.
He turned to face her. “So you see why this is so important? With that tabloid article hinting I was going to settle down with you, I think I can put out the fires for a while. Once I nail this franchise, I can get haughty and walk away to do high-minded indie films.”
Haughty wasn’t hard for Tommy, although she knew it was a pretense. He was almost always in character. Right now it suited him to act the part of spoiled Hollywood star. But playing the role of her husband? That would take some Oscar-worthy skills.
“Please, Candy, I’m begging you,” he said. “Just give me a few years—five max. You and I both know it wouldn’t be the first five-years-to-hide-the-fact-that-I’m-gay marriage in Hollywood.”
Five years. Could she really give up five years of her life? Okay, so she was only twenty-six, she wasn’t seeing anyone and had no interest in settling down and having babies until she was in her thirties. Still…it was quite a commitment.
“And there’ll be no prenup. You’ll get half of whatever I earn.”
Her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
He saw her reaction and pounced. “You know you could use the money, since you won’t let me lend it to you. You can help out your parents and your sister, give your grandfather the money to get that broken-down winery he bought last year up and running.”
That was all true. Curse him for understanding her well enough to know exactly which buttons to push.
“And it’ll be fun. We’ll walk the red carpet together.” He dropped an arm over her shoulders and pulled her close. “I’ll be all romantic when I give my Oscar acceptance speech and thank the wildly sexy woman who made it all possible.”
Hmm. That sounded like fun.
“There is still one big problem,” she finally said. “I like sex. Five years is a long time to go without it.”
“You don’t have to,” he insisted.
“Eww,” she said, shoving his arm off her. “That’d be like having sex with my brother. My gay brother.”
“I wasn’t talking about me! You can have affairs.”
“Tacky. Besides, that’d really cause some gossip. I’m already on the radar of those leeches.”
She hated that, truly. Being the subject of gossip was infuriating, and she doubly hated the idea that some people might have decided she got her start in Hollywood because of Tommy. If anything, he’d gotten his first break through her. He’d come to visit her at work at one of the studios one day, met a casting director and the rest was history.
“Look,” he said, “we both know you’ve got a gazillion gigabytes of internal memory when it comes to sex. You’ve already stored up experiences that helped you through dry spells in the past.”
She couldn’t argue that, but did stick out her tongue at him. It wasn’t nice of him to point out all those dry spells, usually caused because Candace had a bad habit of going out with guys who were far more focused on material things and their own ambitions than they were on her. “Your point?”
“My point is, I’ll send you on a trip to France for two weeks. You can boink your way from Bordeaux to Paris, free from the paparazzi. Once you back up some orgasms on your libido’s hard drive, you can come home and we’ll announce our engagement.”
He always managed to make her laugh. “And what if my vaginal computer crashes? Am I supposed to zip off to a bordello to do an emergency dump onto my flash drive?”
“I bet you’d make it two years. Then, when you’re crawling out of your skin, I’ll pay for you to go to Australia and you can throw a few shrimp on your barbie.”
He said the words in a cheesy down-under accent, and she couldn’t help laughing. The whole thing was absurd, ridiculous.
But, craziest of all, she was seriously thinking about it.
Not just because she loved Tommy, or because it might be fun playing Hollywood wife. No, because she could really use the money. Her parents were happy in the Florida home where she’d grown up. But since her dad’s heart attack two months ago, they’d been stretched thin financially.
Her sister had just finished grad school and had a mountain of debt. And her wonderful, willful grandfather had, indeed, been struck by some wild notion and bought an old run-down winery in Northern California a year ago. The place had nary a grape in sight, and Grandpa had no clue how to grow them, much less turn them into wine. But he was determined to make a go of it.
So, yeah, the money would come in handy. Tommy had offered to help out, but she wouldn’t accept charity. She always earned what she got. And frankly, if she had to give up sex for five years, she would earn every penny. Because, no matter what he said, she’d never risk having an affair after their engagement was announced, a time when she’d be more under the paparazzi spotlight than ever. This sowing-her-wild-oats-in-France thing would be it, the full extent of her sexual activity for five long, lonely, vibrator-filled years.
Could she do it? For Tommy? For her family? For the money?
“So what do you say? Pretty please?” he asked, flashing those baby blues and his amazing smile. That grin, that wicked sense of humor and his innate kind streak always made her give in. He deserved the brilliant career within his grasp. No creepy blackmailer should have the right to take it away from him.
“Oh, hell.” Farewell penises of the world. “I guess I’m in.”
“Yes! You are the best friend ever.” He pumped both fists in the air, then dropped to one knee. Taking her hand, he stared at her adoringly, playing the man-in-love character. Put him in a Nick Sparks film opposite Emily Blunt and nobody would ever guess he’d once seduced the star football player of their high school.
“Candace Eliza Reid, will you be my bride?”
“Yes, I will. Now get up, idiot. And get your travel agent on the phone because I am so taking you up on that Paris thing.”
“Or maybe Italy for some spicy pepperoni?”
