Star of His Heart

“It matters because I like you and I’d like for us to be friends,” he said.

She pushed a wayward strand of hair from her face as she looked at him. “And why would you want us to become friends?”

Providing an answer to that question was easy enough. “The one thing I noticed yesterday was that you’re genuinely a nice person.” He chuckled then added, “Hey, you didn’t rag on me about being nervous. And it’s obvious everyone on the set likes you, from the maintenance man all the way up to the bigwigs. I figure with that kind of popularity, you can’t be all bad. Besides, you and Livia are the only two females on the set that I feel pretty comfortable around.”

She lifted a brow. “Livia?”

“Yes.”

She tilted her head back as if to give him her full attention. “Not that it is any of my business, but I thought that maybe something was going on between the two of you.”

He smiled. “There is, on the show. But it’s all acting. She’s supposed to be my new love interest for the next few episodes.”

She nodded. “Your scenes earlier were pretty convincing.”

He chuckled. “We’re actors. They were meant to be convincing.”

Ethan glanced at his watch. “I’d better get going. I want to pick up something for my six-year-old niece from the Disney Store. After watching The Princess and the Frog she’s into princesses, so I thought I’d pick her up a Princess Tiana doll.”

A smile touched the corners of her lips. “You have a niece?”

“Yes, Kendra. She’s my older brother’s little girl and, I hate to say it, but she’s perfect.”

She chuckled. “I believe you. And there’s a store in walking distance on Hollywood Boulevard. I’m headed that way myself to pick up something from the art supply shop.”

He turned the idea over in his mind only once before asking, “Mind if I tag along?”

He did his best not to watch the way her lips were tugged up in a smile when she said, “Sure, you can tag along, as long as we don’t talk about work. We need to give our brains a break.”

He jammed his keys in his pocket as he resumed walking by her side. It was a beautiful August day, and he had a beautiful woman strolling alongside him. Things couldn’t get any better than that. “So what do we talk about?” he decided to ask her.

She slanted her head to look at him. “You.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“Hey, we talked about me yesterday.”

Her mouth twitched in a grin. “Yes, but all I know is that you’re from Napa Valley and you have a niece.” She chuckled. “I guess I could go by what I’ve heard and—”

“Read in the tabloids,” he said, finishing the statement for her.

“No, I don’t do tabloids. It would be nice if others didn’t do them either, then they would go out of business.”

He glanced over at her and laughed. “You don’t like the right of free speech?”

She laughed back at him. “More like the right of sleazy speech. Ninety percent of what they print isn’t true, but then I guess that’s the price of being a star.”

He smiled, liking the way the sunlight was bouncing off her hair, making it appear even more lustrous. He liked the short cut on her. “Yes, it’s one of the detriments, that’s for sure. I just go with the flow. As long as I know what’s true about me and what’s not, I don’t lose any sleep.”

She didn’t say anything for a while, and then replied, “I hate being in the spotlight.”

She kept looking ahead, but he’d heard what she said. Clearly. If that was true, he wondered how she managed it, being a Wellesley. The company her family owned was so connected with this industry, and had been for close to thirty years, they were practically an icon in Hollywood.

He had researched information on Limelight when he’d returned to the States from abroad. He had even considered contacting them to handle his affairs before he’d chosen Curtis, who’d been a friend of a friend to whom he’d owed a favor. But he wouldn’t hesitate to consider them again when his contract with Curtis ended. Lately, he’d begun feeling as if he was making his own contacts. Everyone he knew handled by Limelight was pleased with its services. Not once had they ever been made to feel like they were a passenger instead of a driver.

“Being in the spotlight doesn’t bother me,” he decided to say. “It comes with the territory. But then, my family is well-known in Napa Valley, so I got used to having a mike shoved in my face, only to be quoted incorrectly.” He could recall a number of times when he’d been referred to as “the playboy Chambers” while Hunter had always been considered the one with a level head. The responsibly acting Chambers.

“And it doesn’t bother you?” she asked.

He met her gaze. “A distortion of the truth will bother most people, and I’m no different. However, I don’t lose sleep over it,” he said, shifting his gaze to study her features.

But he had a feeling she would.

There had to be a reason, and the question rested on the tip of his tongue.

But he had no right to pry. This woman owed him nothing, had no reason to divulge her deep, dark secrets and innermost feelings. Not to him. They weren’t husband and wife. They weren’t even lovers. Nor would they ever be.

No, he reminded himself, he was trying out the friendship thing.

Chapter Five

Rachel could feel the power of Ethan as he walked beside her. And although it sounded strange, she could feel his strength. Not only did she feel it, she was drawing from it.

The very thought that such a thing was possible should be disconcerting, but instead the knowledge seemed to wrap her in some sort of warm embrace. That in itself was kind of weird since they’d decided to just be friends. She was fine with that decision. In fact, she refused to have things any other way. She didn’t mix business with pleasure and she had too much on her plate to become involved in a serious relationship.

The last guy she had gone out with that she’d truly liked had been Theo Lovett. That had been a couple of years ago. They had dated for almost six months before she’d found out the only reason he’d been interested in her was as a way into her family’s business. Luckily, she’d overheard him bragging to a friend on the phone when he’d thought she was in the shower and out of hearing range. Theo’s explanation that he’d only been joking with his friend hadn’t made her change her mind when she had kicked him out that day.

She stepped out of her memory and into the present. Apparently she’d missed some of what Ethan had said while she’d been daydreaming, because he’d changed the subject and was talking about his family.

“My older brother’s name is Hunter. There is an eight year difference in our ages.”

She glanced over at him. Despite the fact he was a lot taller than she, walking side by side they seemed to fit, and their steps appeared to be perfectly synchronized. How was that possible with his long legs and her short ones? He’d evidently adjusted his steps to stay in sync with hers. It was a perfectly measured pace.

“There is a nine year difference in me and my sister’s ages,” she said.

“Really? Was your sibling as overprotective as mine while you were growing up?”

Rachel made a face. “Boy, was she ever. She was ten when our parents were killed in a plane crash, and I was one. Our aunt and uncle became our legal guardians, but somewhere along the way my sister, Sofia, thought I became her responsibility. It was only when she left for college that I got some breathing space.”

“Are the two of you close now?”

“Yes, very. What about you and your brother? Are the two of you close?”

“Yes, although I would be the first to admit he was somewhat of a pain in the ass while we were growing up. But I can appreciate it now since he covered for me a lot with my parents.”

She could imagine someone having to do that for him. She had a feeling he’d probably been a handful. “Was your family upset when you decided not to enter the family business but to forge a path in a different direction?”