B01EU62FUC (R) (11 page)

“Thank you,” Valerie said with a smile. She couldn’t not react well to a fan, even one who had made her feel cheap.

Jesse put his arm around her shoulders and guided her out to the car. “I hate that you had to go through that.”

She shrugged. “It’s part of this lovely mess I’ve made of my life.”

He turned to her in the car, his hand gripping hers tightly, trying to pass his strength to her. “You didn’t make a mess of your life. And you’re doing a great job of cleaning up the mess
he
made.”

She leaned into him, her face going to his shoulder. “I’m glad I have you to lean on when I’m not feeling so strong.”

He tilted her face up to his, kissing her sweetly. “You know, I’m happy to be here for you.”

She nodded. “You’re the type who would have been there for anyone.”

“I am. But it’s so much easier with you.”

She sighed. “We have to get back to the set before Steven comes looking for us.” She moved over to buckle her seat belt while he started the car.

Steven hadn’t sent out a search party, but he was getting close. “I heard what happened. I was worried you two weren’t coming back in time.”

Valerie smiled. “We’re professionals. Just took a little longer at the police station than we’d thought.”

Steven put a hand on Valerie’s arm and smiled, before turning to Jesse. “I’ve hired an extra six security guards. Two more per shift.”

“Good. I don’t want Curtis getting on this set at all.”

“A guard will be outside Valerie’s trailer at all times.”

Valerie sighed. “I never thought I’d say this, but I’m looking forward to the
Night Show
. At least we won’t be stuck here waiting for him to do
something
.”

Their last scene of the day was a hot and heavy kissing scene at the ranch house where Jo lived.

When Dylan took Jo into his arms, on a blanket spread on the floor in front of the fireplace, Valerie completely forgot she was acting. Always before, some part of her mind had retained the knowledge that people were watching them, but this time was different.

Jesse’s arms moved around her, and his mouth descended on hers. Her arms moved around his torso, her hands going under his shirt without thinking about it. Always before, she’d had to be told how deep to get into character, and she’d been told where to place her hands. No direction was needed this time.

Her hands explored his back as she clutched him to her. She felt him lower her onto her back on the blanket, and one leg wrapped around his. When the phone rang on cue, she jerked away from Jesse, startled.

The look of passion was still on her face as she answered it. “Hello?” She paused a moment to listen. “Yes, he’s here. I’ll put him on.” She held the phone out to Dylan, doing her best to stay in character.

He kissed her again as he took the phone from her, an unscripted kiss. “This is Dr. Drake.” He paused, his hand stroking up and down her arm as he listened. “Yes, I’ll be right there.”

He dropped the house phone back into the cradle and pulled her to him once more. “I’m sorry for the interruption,” he whispered against her lips. “Lunch tomorrow?”

She nodded, her eyes never leaving his. “I’ll cook.”

He nodded, hurrying toward the door.

When Steven yelled, “Cut,” Valerie didn’t wait. She hurried out the door after Jesse, taking his hand and dragging him off toward the trailer they were sharing.

Jesse asked no questions, understanding her need. As soon as they were inside, he closed and locked the door, holding her against it as he kissed her. “I need you!”

Valerie wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, never taking her mouth from his. He carried her to the bedroom and lowered her onto the bed, coming down atop her, stripping off his shirt along the way.

“Everyone knows exactly what we’re doing,” she said, breathlessly.

“I can’t care about that right now. Don’t ask me to!”

She shook her head. “I won’t!” She caught him around the neck, pulling his lips back to hers. Nothing mattered but getting them both naked. Nothing.

An hour later, Jesse lifted his head from the pillow. “I’m going to ask for more kissing scenes to be written into the script.”

Valerie laughed. “This was
so
much better than a cold shower.”

He shook his head at her. “What would the press say about Valerie the Virgin if they could see her now.”

She blushed. “I don’t know, and I don’t want to. I hope no one thinks to interview the cast and crew about how things have been different between us since we married.”

He chuckled, picturing it. “Well, they used to run off after their kissing scenes and they’d each take a cold shower. They’d show up later with their skin all blue from the ice water they dumped over their heads. Now, they head back to her trailer, and you wouldn’t believe the sounds we hear!”

Valerie giggled. “Yeah, I don’t want to see that write-up.”

He grinned at her. “I hope you know you’ve made me the happiest man alive!”

“Because I dragged you back to the trailer after our kissing scene?”

“Because you’ve agreed to share your life with me. I still can’t believe how lucky I am to have to beside me.”

She shook her head. “I’m the lucky one, Jess. Your love makes me so much more than I’ve ever been.”

He leaned down and kissed her softly. “We complete each other. I think I knew it before we even kissed, when I saw you read the lines for Jo.”

“It took me longer. I didn’t know it until you’d kissed me.”

“Just keep on believing it.”

The crew wrapped early on Friday afternoon, so Jesse and Valerie could catch their flight to New York. She had tucked her hair under a ball cap, hoping to avoid recognition, and he’d put on a pair of glasses. True fans would still spot them, but maybe they would be able to avoid having to sign autographs on the plane.

“The show is filmed at ten, so we’ll have just enough time to land and get to the studio. The network will have a car waiting to drive us there.” Jesse leaned over the partition between the seats as he talked to her.

She nodded. “I’m still really nervous about this one.”

“Isn’t this the show where you said you were going to stay a virgin ‘til you married?”

“Don’t remind me!”

He grinned. “I watched that night, and I was so happy to hear you say that. It meant you weren’t sleeping with Curtis. I think I’d have had to kill him if you had been.”

She shook her head. “You would not.”

“Probably not. But I’d have considered it!”

She pulled her script out of her purse. “I’m going to work on learning my lines for next week. I want to be able to enjoy our time in New York.”

“Oh, I guarantee, we’ll enjoy our time in New York.” He ran his hand down her arm, leaving her no doubt as to his thoughts.

“I do want to see a show.”

“There’s television in the hotel room. We’ll watch a show after.”

She laughed. “Jesse, you really are naughty at times.”

“Only with you!”

Valerie paced back and forth nervously back stage while she waited for their names to be called. Jesse finally caught her by the hand and held her still. “You’re making me dizzy.”

“Will you promise to grab me and kiss me if I start to say something stupid?” she asked, her eyes wide.

“I have permission to stop you from talking by kissing you?” He raised an eyebrow letting her know that there was no question of his taking advantage. He would.

“Only if I say something stupid.”

“Well, if you start talking, I won’t know what you’re going to say, so I’ll just have to keep kissing you!”

She sighed, shaking her head. “Forget I said anything.”

One of the backstage attendants came to them. “One minute before you’re on.”

Valerie started breathing quickly, getting more nervous by the second. Jesse pulled her to him and kissed her, not to shut her up, but to calm her down. Of course, it just served to stir them both up in a different way.

“Next we have our special guests, Valerie Dobson and Jesse Savoy, the stars of
Lazy Love
!”

Jesse pulled her out onto the main stage, their hands gripping each other’s tightly. They took the two seats next to the desk where the host sat, and each of them pinned on a microphone.

“So, I hear you two crazy kids ran off and got married.”

Jesse grinned, bringing Valerie’s hand to his lips and kissing it softly before answering, much to the appreciation of the audience who gave a joint, “Aww.”

“We did. We’ve been married for a week today.” He wrapped his arm around Valerie’s shoulder’s, feeling her lean against him. “She’s made me the happiest man on earth.”

The host, Matt Winters, smiled at that. “There have been rumors for years that you were in love with Valerie, even though she was dating another man. What do you have to say to that?”

Jesse kept his face passive. “I married her the day she broke off her relationship with that other man. What do you think?”

The audience laughed, and as Valerie looked out at them, she saw many of the women looking at the two of them with sappy expressions.

“Valerie, you famously came on this show four years ago and said you’d be a virgin until the day you married. Did you make it?”

She smiled, having anticipated the question. “I did. Though some of those scenes with Jesse made it hard.”

“In more ways than one,” Jesse said, a grin transforming his face as he looked at Valerie.

“Jesse!” she said with a blush. “I’m sorry, Matt. He hasn’t quite learned to behave yet when he doesn’t have someone give him the words to say. I think I’m going to have to start giving him a script before every public appearance.” She had thought the same about herself just a few minutes before, so it was nice to be able to tease Jesse about that.

Matt grinned, looking back and forth between them. “You look very happy, Valerie. I guess married life agrees with you.”

“Being married to
Jesse
agrees with me. I couldn’t ask for a more attentive, sweet husband. And he’s even sappy in a very manly way.”

Jesse glared at her. “You promised you wouldn’t tell anyone!”

“I did say it was manly sap.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek.

The audience roared with laughter. Matt waited a moment for them to quiet down. “Audiences have been tuning in to
Lazy Love
for four years now, just to see you two kiss onscreen. How much of that chemistry that’s between you two is just show?”

Valerie shook her head. “Not one iota. It’s all been as real as you see on the television from the first time we kissed.”

“Well, then, I think that calls for a live kiss for my audience.” Matt turned to the big crowd. “What do you all think?”

“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” the audience chanted.

Valerie looked at Jesse, her eyes wide. He shrugged back at her, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet. Lowering his head, he captured her lips with his, kissing her with all the passion that was raging through him after hours of them being in public together.

Valerie wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back, clinging to his shoulders.

When Jesse raised his head, his eyes were darker as they always were after a kiss. “No acting necessary.”

There were catcalls from the audience.

Jesse sat back down, but this time, he tugged her onto his lap instead of letting her take her own chair. “We’re newlyweds. You’ll all indulge us, right?”

Matt laughed. “Well, you two seem genuinely happy. We wish you all the best.”

“Thank you,” Valerie said softly. “I do need to point out there was an error when you introduced us, though.”

“An error? What kind of error?” Matt was obviously perplexed.

“My name is Valerie Savoy now. Dobson was my maiden name.”

Matt chuckled at that. “So you’re going to be old-fashioned and take his name, are you?”

“I think I made it clear the last time I was on the show that I’m an old-fashioned kind of girl.”

“You did at that!” Matt shook his head. “So, are you hoping for kids right off? Or are you going to wait?”

Valerie looked at Jesse with wide eyes. “You know we’ve never even discussed it. We were too busy enjoying being married.”

Jesse shrugged. “I think we’d both like to have children, so if they happen right off, it won’t disappoint us. The writers may have some trouble writing them into the show, but hopefully the next time Dylan proposes to Jo, she’ll say yes.”

“How many times has your character proposed to hers now?” Matt asked.

“Three,” Jesse said. “I’m glad Valerie didn’t make me ask her over and over again. It’s hard enough to do it for a show. In real life, I think I’d go insane.”

“Do you know if they plan to marry them off this season? Or next?”

Valerie grinned while shaking her head. “You know we can’t tell you that, even if we know!” The truth was, she had no idea if they were planning to marry them off, but she had a feeling they’d do it soon. They wouldn’t want an unplanned pregnancy for Jo.

“Well, we’ve got a clip here to show. Can you set it up for us?”

Valerie and Jesse exchanged looks. “I have no idea what they sent you,” Valerie said, with her eyes wide.

“I guess we’ll all be surprised.” Matt pointed to the big screen in the middle of the stage. “Let’s see.”

Valerie slipped off Jesse’s lap and back into her own chair, so she could see better. She rarely watched the show, because she got too worked up. Her eyes on the screen, she grinned when she saw the scene.

It was the one they’d filmed right before she’d noticed Curtis was on the set a week before. As she watched, Jesse kissed her and his hands were under her shirt. She had a leg wrapped around his waist, and she was sitting on the kitchen counter. When he tried to talk her into going to the bedroom, she pulled back, her face red and flushed.

As the scene faded away, she felt herself blushing. The whole world saw incredibly intimate scenes between her and her husband on a weekly basis.

Matt picked up the papers with his questions on them and fanned his face with them. “Whooey. You two outdid yourselves on that one.” He looked at Jesse. “You get
paid
to do that?”