No Matter What (27 page)

CHAPTER 17

Work on
India
and Michael’s movie was going well.
 
It was almost ready to wrap and
India
had loved every second of working on it, mainly because the director was Michael, but also because it was such a fun film to be part of, and that was all due to Michael too.
 
He’d thrown himself totally into the movie and he knew just how to make it fun for everyone involved, as well as making sure everything got done.
 
To be able to be with him every day was heaven for her.
 

The ‘Viper’ shoot had also been a success.
 
They’d been really good about fitting everything in around her and her filming schedule, so much so that they’d done the interview on set and shot the photos at her home in
Beverly Hills
, pictures that had turned out beautiful, tasteful and sexy.
 
They didn’t show too much – even though she was quite obviously naked - but they gave away enough for people to see that she truly was an incredible woman, a woman who, as Michael had so eloquently put it, most men would kill to fuck.
 
She had an amazing body and those pictures showed it all off to its perfect extent.
 
Michael had even had one of the photos blown up and hung up in his office and she knew he carried at least three smaller pictures around in his wallet.
 

Things had been so busy over the past few months, and with Christmas just around the corner,
India
really hadn’t had much time to think about Charley.
 
She hadn’t been in contact again since the night of the premiere and, for some reason, that made
India
nervous.
 
If she really was in trouble just what could be happening to her?
 
She’d also made the decision not to tell Terry anything just yet.
 
He loved his new job, he was settling into
L.A.
life, slowly, but he was getting there, and she didn’t want anything to spoil that.
 
So she’d decided to wait and see if Charley got back in contact, because that’s all she really could do now.
 
Wait and see.

Tonight Michael was taking her out to dinner.
 
No real reason, there didn’t have to be a reason anymore, not like when she’d been that girl back in
Newcastle
, when they’d usually only gone out to eat when they’d had something to celebrate.
 
Here they ate out often.
 
Money being no object anymore had given
India
that luxury, but it was something she still never took for granted.
 
And luxury it certainly was tonight.
 

They were on their way to one of the most exclusive restaurants in one of the most exclusive hotels in Bel Air, something
India
could only ever have dreamed about before.
 
It was a place that she never thought she’d ever visit, and if she’d still been with Kenny she suspected it was somewhere they’d never have come to.
 
Or anywhere like it.
 
It just didn’t seem his kind of place.
 
Maybe once it hadn’t been her kind of place either but with Michael, he wanted to give her the romance and the dream, and with him everything just felt so different.
 
She felt like a princess when she was with him.

Pulling up outside the hotel, India took Michael’s hand as she stepped out of the car, the flash of paparazzi bulbs that seemed to accompany them everywhere these days clicking away, all desperate to get yet another photograph of the two of them together.
 
It was something she was fast getting used to, the fact everyone seemed to want to know their every move.
 
It wasn’t always something she liked the idea of, and there were times when she really didn’t feel like having her photograph taken, but it was part of the package.
 
It came with the territory.
 
And she
was
dating one of
Hollywood
’s biggest stars so there really was no hiding place.
 
So, as usual, she dealt with it like the professional she was.

She clung onto Michael’s hand as they were guided inside, the sudden tranquillity of the place a welcome relief from the shouting of the paparazzi out front, and she stopped, just for a second, to take everything in because sometimes just getting the few yards from the car to wherever they were going could feel like an uphill struggle, and she needed to get her breath back.

Once inside, a very polite and friendly member of staff was there to greet them, leading them through the hotel to the famed restaurant via what
India
could only describe as some kind of fantasy land, like closing the doors on the world outside and walking into a fairytale.
 
There were tropical gardens with the most incredible coloured plants and flowers, jacaranda trees and palms that seemed to sway in a make-believe breeze as a waterfall cascaded into a bluer-than-blue stream and she couldn’t take her eyes off the beauty that filled the place.
 
It was breathtaking!
 
She’d never seen anywhere like it before, and she’d
been
to Vegas.

She squeezed Michael’s hand tight as they were taken to their private table in the elegant and romantic dining room, and he smiled at her, watching her face light up as she looked around her.

“This is ... it’s beautiful.
 
This place is just incredible!”

Michael quickly ordered champagne then turned his attention back to
India
, taking her hand and kissing it gently.
 
“An incredible place for an incredible woman.”

They looked at each other, and burst out laughing.

“Sorry, that
was
a bit on the corny side, wasn’t it?”

She leaned over the table and slowly kissed his mouth.
 
“You’re a romantic, Michael, and I love it.
 
I love
you
.”

She’d never really said those words to Kenny, not in this way, not meaning them the way she meant them when she said them to Michael.
 
She’d loved Kenny, of course she’d loved him, she still did.
 
Just, not like this.
 
Not this all-consuming, head-spinning love.
 
Even though her and Michael had been together for months now her stomach still did little flips whenever he walked into a room, or smiled that crazy smile he’d perfected in so many of his comedy films.
 
She still loved just kissing him whenever they had a few spare minutes on set and she longed for those evenings when they’d just snuggle up together on her huge sofas at home and watch TV, those evenings when they’d invariably end up making love before they even got to the bedroom, the nights when it felt like they were just two normal people instead of a celebrity couple in a crazy world that spent so much of it’s time wanting to know what they were doing.
 
She couldn’t think of a day when those feelings would go, and she didn’t want to.
 
She could see her future in his beautiful blue eyes.
 
She wanted to grow old with this man.
 
She wanted him in her life, forever.

Michael held onto her hand, looking into her eyes, eyes that were telling him how much she loved him and even now, even after months of holding her in his arms every night and knowing that she loved him more than he could ever have thought possible, even now he still couldn’t believe that she wanted him.
 
He was middle-aged, sixteen years her senior, a divorced-more-than-once man who’d been in and out of re-hab in his past and yet this beautiful, young, incredible woman wanted him.
 

“I don’t think you’ll ever know how much I love you, India Steven.
 
You’ll never know.”

She looked down at his fingers as they stroked hers gently, his thumb moving back and forth across her tanned hand and she felt that stomach flip again, that feeling of a thousand butterflies flying loose inside her and she just wanted to take him in her arms and hold onto him.

“Move in with me, baby,” he whispered.
 
“Please.”

She looked back up at him.
 
“Michael ... I thought we’d talked about this.
 
Oh, Jesus …” She pushed a hand through her loose blonde hair.
 
“Do you know what?
 
What the hell.
 
What am I doing pretending I don’t want you to be there every second of my life because I do.
 
I
do
want you there.”

He looked at her with wide, hopeful eyes.
 
“So ...?”

She smiled at him.
 
“So, let’s do this.
 
On one condition.”

He shrugged and smiled that movie star smile of his.
 
“Hey, you can come with as many conditions as you like.”

“I’m being serious, Michael.
 
I’ll live with you, but move into my place, ok?
 
You
move in with
me
.
 
I love my home, it’s my sanctuary.
 
I feel safe there.
 
But if you’re there with me then it’s my perfect heaven, isn’t it?
 
Our
perfect heaven.”

He stroked her fingers again, knowing he was now just one small step closer to putting a ring on there, to making her his forever.

“I don’t really care where we live, baby.
 
As long as we’re together.”

She felt like she was going to cry again.
 
This was crazy!
 
He was still doing this to her, still making her feel so emotional that it messed her up inside.
 
Nobody else could understand what she felt for this man – she found it hard to understand it herself sometimes, found it hard to control.
 
He was so much a part of her that she felt as though she’d fall apart if he wasn’t around.

“When did you know you loved me, Michael?”
 
She suddenly felt a real need to know the answer to that.

“From the very second Vince showed me your photograph.
 
Before I’d even met you.”

She looked at him, reaching over the table to touch his cheek, lightly running her thumb over his mouth.

“I fell in love with you the second I looked at you,” he went on.
 
“I knew that, because, seeing you with Kenny Ross that day of your screen test, the day I first saw you for real, it tore me apart.
 
And when I heard you’d married him I felt a pain I can’t even describe.
 
It hurt, right here.”
 
He punched at his chest.
 
“All I knew was that I wanted the world to go away because if I couldn’t have you, I was nothing.”

“Oh, Michael ...”

“To see something so beautiful, so perfect, and to know that she was with another man ... I’d never experienced that feeling,
India
.
 
I never knew what that felt like until you walked into my life, but I wouldn’t change any of it.
 
Because I now know that I had to go through that pain, I had to experience that hurt and that longing to be able to love you like I do now.
 
To know that I will never, ever love anyone like I love you.”

She felt like she was in some kind of perfect, romantic fairytale in this beautiful place with this wonderful man and she never wanted this moment to go away.
 
She wanted to bottle it up and keep it forever so she’d always remember it, always know and feel this strong, intense love, always know it was there.

She leaned into him and closed her eyes as his mouth touched hers.
 
She’d found her dream in the arms of this amazing man and there was nothing in her world that could take that away from her now.
 
Everything in
India
’s life was just perfect.

***

Reece was getting closer to Terry and that mattered a great deal to him.
 
If he could win over her brother, then, when the time came to tell
India
the truth, surely that could only make things easier.
 

Reece still had no idea why he was holding back from telling
India
what she needed to know.
 
It just always seemed that as soon as the time felt right he’d find himself backing off and bottling out.
 
It was as if he was frightened of losing her, scared of her reaction.
 
Maybe he’d left it too long, maybe he should have told her sooner but he couldn’t go back, could he?
 
He could only deal with the here and now.
 

He poured out two mugs of coffee and took them over to Terry at the kitchen table.

“Do you think
India
’s getting too serious too soon with Michael?” Terry asked Reece as he sat down opposite him.