minutes starts now, Ms Lane.’ And I suggest you don’t waste it by gawking at the star, she might as well have added.
Chloe glanced toward Liam who was still smiling at her and she realised that for all her pep-talking she was just as captivated by him as ever.
Then she realised something else. He didn’t recognise her.
Wait. What?
Chloe’s stomach clenched in disbelief. At the very least she had expected that he might be uncomfortable with her in the room and she only just realised how much she had been looking forward to that. For him not to recognise her after the way he had kissed her so tenderly at the prom, after the way he had humiliated her, was completely shocking to her. Completely, appallingly shocking. A well of hurt and rage so deep it was more like an ocean rose up inside her. Had she really been so forgettable back then? And worse, was she still?
As much as she hated to admit it, Liam made her feel invisible all over again which raised the old insecurities she thought she’d put well behind her. God, had she ever disliked anyone more?
Still reeling from having Chloe Tyler walk into the interview room, Liam hoped that he really was as good an actor as the critics proclaimed and that none of his surprise showed on his face.
He’d thought that perhaps his mind had been playing tricks on him earlier when he’d caught a glimpse of her outside the hotel. It had seemed too coincidental that the only person he’d intended to look up during his brief visit to London would come to him. But here she was. And she looked exactly the same.
Oh, she definitely looked more polished and was much better dressed than the last time he’d seen her in high school, but she was still all big blue eyes, fiery red hair and creamy skin. He’d always had a hankering to run his hands over her skin and that last night – prom night – he’d nearly given into it.
He’d kissed her just before entering his friend’s post-prom party and been blown away by how sweet she was. He’d kissed a stack of girls by the time he got to senior high but none had made his heart beat faster like Chloe Tyler had. Not that he would have admitted as much back then. Back then, when his friends had dared him to get the ‘nerdiest’ girl in the school to fall in love with him.
Not that Liam had ever seen her that way. It might have been completely illogical but he’d got to know her while she tutored him and he’d liked her. Not enough to ever consider dating her. His image had meant too much to him back then, especially with his father breathing down his neck about his university placement letters. The last thing he’d needed was to have his father accuse him of choosing an unsuitable girl to date. And his friends would have laughed; which Liam knew he would not have had the maturity to handle back then.
Looking back, he’d been going through a bit of an identity crisis thanks to his old man’s rock-solid expectation that he would follow him and his grandfather into the law. His grandfather had started the firm way back when and neither man had stopped waxing lyrical about whether Hunter and Hunter would soon become Hunter, Hunter and Hunter or Hunter and Sons.
Liam had wanted to act but the one time he’d broached the idea with his father he’d laughed and told him that only gays and girls went into the arts. With the school year drawing to a close and his university acceptance letter laying heavily on his mind he’d been looking for a distraction and his juvenile behaviour had wound up hurting the only person who seemed to value him for who he really was and not who he would one day become. The only person he had ever shared his acting dreams with other than his father and who hadn’t laughed in his face.
And here she was. In the flesh. In the very cool and reserved flesh. Not that he could blame her. He owed her one hell of an apology.
But what was with the name change? Had she really changed it or was Candy Lane a type of pseudonym? He knew plenty of actors who had distorted their name to make it sound better.
Or worse, was she married and Candy was a cute moniker her husband called her? He cast a quick glance at her left hand but she was gripping her iPad in such a way that he couldn’t see her ring finger. But he could see her long legs and he’d always wondered if they had been as shapely as her delicate ankles had suggested.
Yes, the answer to that question was a resounding yes, and a sudden picture of how those slender legs would look wrapped tightly around his hips as he thrust deep inside her shot into his head.
Liam shifted in his seat as a raft of raw lust caught him unawares and brought him up short. Where the hell had that come from? Okay, he might have thought she was a nice girl once, and perhaps he still remembered the heat behind their first kiss, but that was a whole solar system away from this kind of thinking. He didn’t want to have sex with Chloe Tyler, he wanted to apologise and atone for his unintentional, but cruel, actions in the past. He wanted to show her that he had grown up since then and that seeing the pain on her lovely face had been the start of that process.
The start of him working out who he really was so that when the YouTube video his friends had secretly put together had gone viral and casting agents had called in the thousands he’d been able to take advantage of his new, unexpected, notoriety and start the career he’d always wanted. That he’d inadvertently stood on Chloe Tyler to get it made him feel like an A grade asshole. Had she forgotten all about the teenage prank? Of did she still hate him as much as she had that night?
A five-minute interview with his PA wandering about was hardly the time for him to ease his guilty conscience and find out. But at least her turning up like this meant that he no longer had to try and find her while he was in town and he knew he couldn’t let her leave without arranging a time to catch up.
‘Take a seat,’ he offered amiably, indicating the vacant chair opposite his.
***
Liam’s delicious voice rumbled out of him rich and dark and sent shivers all over her… and that was the very last thought Chloe was going to have about him that didn’t include the words ‘rat’ or ‘loser’.
Stiffening her spine, she marched towards the empty seat opposite his and positioned her iPad on her lap, tapping at it to bring her pre-prepared questions up on the screen.
The word on the street was that Liam and Bethany Lord had been more than just co-stars on set. Chloe didn’t care about that. She liked to think of herself as more a hard-hitting journalist than a sensation seeker and would never stoop to report on such tawdry topic material. And Liam could sleep with half the women in Hollywood and she didn’t care a fig.
So, he hadn’t recognised her. So what? Deep down she was glad he hadn’t. Now she could relax. Treat him like an anonymous interview subject. Treat him just like any other stranger she had come across in her work. Treat him as if he meant nothing more to her than a piece of lint she might pluck off her jacket, and God help her if she had a knife handy she’d stick it right through him.
‘So, Mr Hunter,’ she began with supercilious sweetness. ‘Congratulations on the movie. It was quite a story.’
Liam’s grin was slow and kicked up the edges of his lips and Chloe ignored it completely. ‘I’m not sure from that comment if you liked the film or not, Ms… Lane, was it?’
Not wanting to outright lie, Chloe moistened her lips and pushed on. ‘You’ve never done a period piece before. Is
