she replied, hoping he’d take her words as a dismissal.
“Not quite.” He placed the papers on the love seat next to him and leaned back, looking every inch as if he belonged. “Now we need to talk about us.”
“Us?” Her big blue eyes widened in alarm. “What do you mean? There’s no us to discuss.”
“But there is,” he countered. “I mean, if I’m going to play the role of your latest boy-toy, then I think we need to get our stories straight.”
Again her features settled into the cool, ice princess look. “First of all, at thirty you’re far too old to be considered a boy-toy and at twenty-six years old I’m far too young to have a boy-toy.”
She’d apparently done some checking into his background to know his age. Twenty-six. Clay did a quick calculation in his head. So, she’d been eighteen when she’d had Gracie. He’d known she was young despite the fact that she had the self-confidence and cool presence of somebody older.
“A has-been at thirty,” he said dryly.
“Welcome to Hollywood,” she replied, equally as dry. “It’s the land of perpetual youth and make-believe.”
“If I’m going to be part of your make-believe world, then you have to give me some sort of script to follow. You mentioned earlier that we’d tell people we met at a charity function and we’ve been seeing each other ever since. But, the devil is in the details. Specifically, what kind of function was it and when exactly did it take place?”
She frowned and flipped through the pages of a calendar on her desktop. “It was a dinner for the advancement and research of childhood diseases and we attended it in the middle of June.”
“And one month later we’re living together?” He crooked an eyebrow upward.
A tight smile curved her lips. “In Hollywood a month is an eternity when it comes to personal relationships. In any case, that’s all anyone needs to know when it comes to you and me. I’m not given to sharing the personal details of my life with anyone.”
Why didn’t that surprise him? Something about her bugged him and he was rarely bugged by anyone. It intrigued him. She intrigued him. Her coolness, the slight edge of brittle defensiveness he felt emanating from her and the wall he sensed she kept erected between herself and anyone else definitely fascinated him.
He stood, deciding that it was time to call it a night. He was beyond exhausted and that was probably why she was getting to him in a way he didn’t quite understand.
She stood, as well. “It’s vital to me that nobody suspect that you’re anything but my boyfriend,” she said as they started to leave the office together.
As she stepped in front of him to exit the room first, he placed his hand at the small of her back. She stiffened, as if she found his touch abhorrent.
“I thought you said you’d been an actress. You’re going to have to be a better actress than that,” he said from behind her. “If you want people to think we’re a couple, then you’d better not tense up whenever I happen to touch you.”
She whirled around, a spark of anger flashing in her eyes. To his stunned surprise she coiled an arm around his neck, the anger instantly doused as she gazed lovingly into his eyes. “Don’t worry about my acting skills, darling.” She trailed a finger down the side of his face, a cool touch that shot an unexpected heat through his body. “That’s one thing I do very well.”
As quickly as she turned it on, she shut it off. She stepped away from him, the flash of anger back in her eyes. “I’ll see you in the morning.” She twirled on her heels and left him standing there.
Clay expelled an unsteady breath. She was lethal and he’d have to remember that she was good, very good. Good enough to have just earned herself a freaking Academy Award nomination for her little performance.
As he headed up the stairs to the bedroom he would call home for the duration of his stay, he wondered why she wasn’t working anymore. Had it just become easier to rest on her daughter’s laurels than to work herself?
Certainly, Gracie’s talent seemed to be paying off bigtime. He frowned as he thought of the little girl’s schedule. Work, school, voice and dance lessons, drama coaches and trainers, every minute of every day was filled, with no time for her to just be a kid. It seemed like a heavy load for an eight-year-old to carry just so the adults in her life could live in the lap of luxury.
Before entering his bedroom, he stepped quietly into Gracie’s room. While she’d been with her mother preparing for bedtime, Clay had acquainted himself with the house security and had double-checked the windows in the little girl’s room to make certain they were locked.
The grounds were surrounded by a high concrete wall and the home security system was one of the best he’d ever seen. He felt fairly confident that while Gracie was inside the house she’d be safe.
He’d also learned from one of the maids that the only staff who stayed overnight in the house was Helen, the cook, who had a small suite of rooms just off the kitchen. The rest of the staff either had their own homes or stayed in staff quarters located in a building at the back of the property. So, he wasn’t too concerned with a threat to Gracie coming from within the house itself. Unless Helen hid some maniac tendencies that weren’t immediately apparent. He grinned at the very thought. She might be cantankerous, but he doubted she was murderous.
He left Gracie’s room, his glance shooting down the hallway toward Libby’s bedroom door, which was closed. For just a moment his body remembered the heat of hers as she’d leaned into him and the sweet curve of her lips as she’d feigned affection for him.
Ms. Libby Byrant was some piece of work. He had a feeling she was not just cold, but capable of manipulation and subterfuge to gain a means to an end. But, damn, she was pretty.
He dismissed thoughts of Libby as he went into his bedroom. It took him only minutes to strip down to his boxers and get into bed.
Exhaustion tugged on every muscle. He’d been on a whirlwind of work for the past six months. Before Las Vegas had been Dallas and before Dallas had been a job in Miami. Job after job, city after city blurred together in his mind.
When this particular job was over he was looking forward to some downtime at home in Cotter Creek. Hell, he hadn’t even met his brother Tanner’s new wife yet and they’d been married for two months. In a couple of weeks his brother Zack was getting married to Katie Sampson, the young woman from a neighboring ranch.
Maybe he’d be home by then and able to attend the wedding. As his thoughts turned to home and family, he found himself thinking of his mother, Elizabeth.
From what Clay’s father had told him about his mother, Hollywood had been her town. She’d been a fast-rising star before she’d fallen in love with Clay’s father, Red. The two had met when Red had been working as a stuntman on one of Elizabeth’s movies.
Elizabeth had left Hollywood and her career behind to move with Red to Cotter Creek, Oklahoma, where the two had made a home and begun their family. Clay’s oldest brother, Tanner, had been ten when Elizabeth had been killed and
