Unmasked (Revealed #1) (33 page)

EPILOGUE

Sean

Shifting on the plush leather seat of the limo, I did up the buttons on my tux and sighed as we pulled up into the line of cars waiting outside the dazzling lights of the theatre. Looking out through the darkened windows, I scowled at the enormous crowd that had gathered on this warm evening to watch and cheer us on our arrival. For fuck’s sake, it was like we were animals at the zoo or something. Didn’t these people have better things to do with their lives than stand on street pavements gawking at us?

Running a hand over my face I tried to lighten up, but it was no good – I was in an absolutely foul mood.

Shaking my head, I knew I should be more appreciative of the fans and press gathered outside. After all, they were the reason that
LA Blue
had been nominated for three awards tonight: best drama, best director, and one final nomination for me as best actor. The screaming, clamouring mass of bodies waiting for us to emerge from the car was also responsible for me having the successful career that I did. If they didn’t watch and support me, I’d be a nobody, out-of-work actor, this was a fact that I was very well aware of. Nodding decisively, I made a mental effort to smile on the red carpet tonight and sign plenty of autographs.

Even with my decision to be appreciative and receptive tonight there was no getting away from the fact that I disliked events like this immensely. Firstly, watching myself on the big screen seemed way too egotistical for my tastes, and secondly, the fact that I always had to accompany my co-stars to these bloody things really grated on me, especially now that I had Allie back in the UK to think of. No wonder she had been sceptical about my claims that I had been relatively well behaved during my recent career, because the press always had a field day about me and my supposed list of co-star conquests, making sure to snap plenty of pictures of me at these events with any female that I so much as dared to speak to.

I was sure tonight would be no different. Closing my eyes, I lay my head back on the seat and drew in a long breath as I prepared for the circus to begin. Our car shifted one slot closer and stopped again, giving me at least two more minutes of quiet time to prepare myself for the chaos of clamouring journalists and fans. What I wouldn’t give to be back in England and snuggled up to my girl. A heavy sigh escaped my chest, and then the next second I felt a soft finger smooth down the line between my brows.

‘That’s a heavy frown,
darrrling
.’

Savannah Hilton’s soft, purring voice broke me from my thoughts and had my eyes snapping open instantly. Blinking, I found her sitting close beside me, leaning in and smiling at me flirtatiously as her strong, fragrant perfume filled the air.

Scowling harder, I knocked her hand away from where it was stroking my forehead and tried to shift myself away, which, in the close confines of the car was near impossible.

‘Oh, don’t be like that, darling. You know the press will want to see us looking loved up, so we may as well make a start now, hmm? We were so good together, weren’t we? We could be like that again, Sean, you know we could,’ she murmured invitingly.

Instead of rising to her bait, I sighed heavily and turned to look out of the car window again. Savannah and I had worked together for years now, on and off, and we did have some chemistry together, I’d give her that. Physically speaking, she was an attractive woman, any man could see that, but there had never really been enough beyond that to tempt me to go further.

Besides, I knew Savannah didn’t really want me, not in a relationship sense anyway. She just wanted to sleep with me to add my name to the scores of others she had bedded in the past. Unfortunately, I’d made the mistake of messing around with her one night last year after a drunken awards party. It was long, long before I’d met Allie, and God did I regret that night. As drunken mistakes go, that was one that kept coming back to bite me in the arse. Thankfully, we hadn’t actually gone the whole way because I’d been too plastered, but to be honest, if we had she would probably have lost her interest in me by now.

I might have had my time as a wild child where seemingly perfect women like Savannah would have been exactly my type, but my days of playing the field were long over. I knew for sure that Savannah’s ‘perfect’ body and face were, in fact, the result of many small surgeries over the last few years, and I suspected the same was true of the tits that she now had pressed against my arm. She was the perfect woman in the eyes of many men, but not mine.

Lifting a hand, I placed it on her bare shoulder to stop any further advances, scowled, and turned my face away. ‘Enough, Savannah. I told you, I have a girlfriend. What we have to do for the crowds is one thing, but what we do in private is completely separate.’ I hated the fact that Savannah and I were supposed to put on a façade of closeness for the public. The director loved it, convinced that hints of a romance between his two lead co-stars was a massive boost to ratings, but to me it was just another tiresome side to Hollywood’s supposed perfection. I’d prepared Allie as best I could, warning her what it would be like, but God knows what she would make of it all when she saw the lengths we were supposed to go to.

I loved acting with a passion, but God, did I hate the shit that went along with it.

‘It doesn’t have to be,’ Savannah pouted, her voice bringing me back. ‘She’d never find out. England is a long way away, and I can be very discreet.’

Shaking my head in distaste, I was halted from saying any more as our car pulled up to the red carpet. Straightening my back, I smoothed down my suit and wished for the millionth time that Allie was here with me instead of Savannah, and then glanced across at her.

‘Ready?’ I asked briskly, and upon seeing Savannah’s eager smile I shook my head warily and frowned at her. ‘Behave tonight, Savannah. Understand?’

Raising an eyebrow, she scoffed out a laugh. ‘You’re not the boss of me, Sean. Besides, surely you remember how naughty I could be in the bedroom, so why on earth would you expect me to behave now?’ With that, she pushed open the door and slid out to the sound of the crowd erupting. Fucking hell, this woman was such a liability. If she wasn’t such a good actress I would have demanded a re-cast and asked our director, Finlay Mark, to get rid of her.

Once Savannah was out of the car, I drew in a calming breath, wishing I could slam the door and instruct the driver to whisk me away. But I couldn’t. As much as I wanted to escape, I was contractually obliged to attend these events and so, after attempting to paste a vague smile on my lips, I climbed from the car.

There were several seconds of fans erupting into a screaming cacophony of voices, and then I was temporarily blinded from the light of a multitude of cameras all going off. Gradually my ears and eyes adjusted, and I blinked to see Savannah waiting for me with an expectant look on her face and her hand held out to me.

Staring at her outstretched hand, I drew in a slow breath through my nose and lowered my eyes to pretend I was fiddling with the buttons of my suit. I was going to look unbelievably rude ignoring her gesture like this, but it was all I could think to do. Sidestepping her, I paused a little further down the red carpet and saw from the corner of my eye Savannah drop her hand in an irritated huff before she began to swagger her way towards me.

As much as I wanted to run, I couldn’t, so I simply tensed my body and stared out at the crowds with a small, thin smile on my lips instead. I felt Savannah stopping by my side and continued to stare intently forwards, hoping she would follow my lead and give up on her quest to get me to touch her.

My eyes were forward, but I could see her gazing up at me. Predictably, I then felt one of her hands slide into the crook of my arm as she leant in close and lifted her face near my ear. Finally looking down at her, I found her in her element, smiling resplendently at the gathered journalists and waving her free hand with gusto. Stiffening my arm, I discreetly attempted to disengage her hand but felt her grip tighten as she flashed me a narrow-eyed smirk. She was doing this deliberately, just like the diva she was.

My body was rigid with annoyance and worry. If Allie saw pictures of me like this, she would go ballistic.

‘You can’t escape me forever, Sean,’ Savannah murmured in my ear. Tensing my entire body, I endured a few minutes of pausing for some photographs and then went to shift myself away, only to find Savannah lifting her spare hand and placing it firmly on my chest, her fingers sliding underneath the lapel of my jacket out of view of the cameras and curling so they dug into my skin almost ferociously.

Anger ricocheted through me. What a fucking cunning bitch! We were supposed to pose for a few pictures together, and then could go separately the rest of the way, but Savannah was gripping me so tightly now that the only way I could free myself would be to forcefully shove her away from me, no doubt causing a scene, which I was far too much of a gentleman to do. A fact that Savannah was no doubt fully aware of.

‘Finlay will be very angry with you if you don’t play along,’ she murmured, referring to the stupid clause our director had in our contracts – as much as I hated it, public shows of physical contact between Savannah and me were something else I was contractually obliged to do, a stupid scheme concocted only recently by Savannah and Finlay to keep the fans happy. Needless to say, it was a clause which made me decidedly
unhappy
.

Plastering a fake smile on my face, I was inwardly seething at her behaviour, while simultaneously panicking about what Allie would make of it if she saw any pictures on the internet or in gossip magazines next week. I’d have to call her tomorrow and explain, which seeing as she was already worried about my job and the differences in our lifestyles, wasn’t a conversation I would particularly relish.

‘Smile, darling,’ Savannah whispered as she slid her hand down to mine and interlocked our fingers as we began to trail up the red carpet. Flinching away from her breathy whisper, my scowl was well and truly in place as flashbulbs continued to pop around us and I began to practically drag her up the remainder of the carpet and towards the theatre doors. At least once we were inside away from the prying eyes of the fans and press I could stop this ridiculous pretence and get some space.

My eyes fell on a journalist to my left who was snapping pictures of us while his colleague furiously scribbled some notes on his pad and I shook my head, my heart sinking. No doubt the papers would be full of pictures of us hand in hand, followed by more regurgitated bullshit stories about me and my heartless conquests.

It hadn’t always been like this. Back when I was a newbie, the papers had looked upon me in a much more favourable light. Then the stories had been about the handsome newcomer to Hollywood, the boyish chap who wooed interviewers with his easy banter and won over tough directors with his effortless skill and dedication to the job. But then the accident with Elena happened, and I withdrew into my shell, practically quitting my acting career overnight, becoming snappy with journalists pushing for details and twitchy and irritable in front of crowds. Overnight, the press had gone from loving me to being out for my blood. That’s how easy it was to lose favour in this town, and unfortunately for me, I’d never managed to win it back.

As I turned warily towards Savannah, I watched as her perfect face, perfect hair, and perfect mouth began moving towards mine as her warmth and perfume once again invaded my senses and my personal space. The crowd were chanting and cheering us, begging for a kiss, their voices drowning out practically every other sound around me. It would be easy enough to allow her to get her way … I was a hot-blooded male, she was undeniably beautiful with a stunning body to match, and the producer would no doubt love the extra attention it would get the show.

As I considered this, Savannah's hand slid lower, her fingertips dipping just inside the belt at my waist and rubbing in a way that had my cock responding against my wishes as it gave a small twitch of interest. Clearly my lower anatomy didn’t have the same loyalty to Allie that my brain and heart did, and was just happy that someone was showing it a bit of attention. My entire body tensed as I felt my traitorous cock reacting to the contact on the muscles of my abdomen and I desperately gritted my teeth as I tried to focus my mind on anything other than Savannah’s straying fingers. Christ, if she kept on like that I would be stood on the red carpet rocking a gigantic hard-on. Sliding her arm around my waist, Savannah leaned into me so her lips were hovering by my ear, her breath fanning across my cheek warm and lightly floral. ‘Come on, Sean, just one quick kiss? For the cameras, hmm?’

Thank you for reading!

What will Sean do? Will his lifestyle pull him apart from Allie and their new found relationship? Or are they strong enough to survive the oppressive nature of Hollywood?

Find out in
Unravelled
, part two of the Revealed series, when Allie ventures across to America.

If you’ve read my previous series you will know I am a bit of a fan of a cliff hanger ending, but don’t panic, I have worked hard with the publishers on this series to ensure there will only be minimal gaps between release dates.

I write for my readers, so I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free get in touch with me:

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@AliceRaine1

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You will also find some teaser pics for upcoming books to whet your appetite!

Alice x

Alice Raine

The Untwisted Series

The Darkness within Him
– Book 1
Out of the Darkness
– Book 2
Into the Light
– Book 3
Enlightened
– Book 4