Star of His Heart. Brenda Jackson
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Mom, so don’t go planning a wedding for me yet.”
Later that night when he slid into bed, he couldn’t help but think just how blessed he was. Both of his parents were alive and in good health. As the oldest son, Hunter had taken on his role with ease and was the perfect businessman to manage the family’s vast wealth. And Hunter had had the insight to utilize the property surrounding the winery to build the bed-and-breakfast, which was doing extremely well. The reservation list was always filled up a year in advance.
As much as he’d loved Napa Valley, Ethan had known it wasn’t in his blood to the extent it had been in Hunter’s. After college, he returned home and tried working alongside Hunter and his parents, but he hadn’t been happy. Hunter had said it was wanderlust and that eventually he would get over it, but he never did. A year later he had made up his mind to pursue his dream.
So here he was, living in a nice place in L.A. and building the career he’d always wanted. Money was no object, thanks to a trust fund that had been set up by his grandparents as well as the financial standing of the winery, in which he was a stockholder. Of course, every once in a while some smart-ass reporter would ask him why an independently wealthy person would want to work. He was sure Anderson Cooper was asked the same question often enough, too. Ethan wasn’t privy to Anderson’s response, but his was simply, “Wealthy or poor, everyone has dreams, and there is such a thing as continued money growth.”
He reached over to turn off the lamp light, thinking that things had gone better than he’d expected on the set today. His lines had flowed easily, and for a while he had stepped into the role of Dr. Tyrell Perry. To prepare, he had watched medical movies and had volunteered his time at a hospital for ninety days. He had come away with an even greater respect for those in the medical industry.
As he stared up at the ceiling his thoughts shifted to the woman he’d met that day, Rachel Wellesley. There had been something about her that pulled her to him like a magnet. Something about her that he found totally adorable. Even among the sea of model-type women on the set, she had somehow stood out.
And when she had leaned over him to apply whatever it was she brushed on his face, he had inhaled her scent. With his eyes closed, he had breathed it all in while imagining all sorts of things. It was a soft scent, yet it had been hot enough to enflame his senses.
So he had sat there, letting her have her way with his face while he imagined all kind of things, especially the image of her naked.
More than once during the shoot, he had had to remind himself that he didn’t really know her and that it would be crazy to lose focus. But he would be the first to admit that he hadn’t counted on being bowled over by a woman who had to tilt her head all the way back just to look up at him. He smiled, remembering the many times they had looked at each other and the number of times they had tried not to do so. And nothing could erase from his mind the sight of the soft smile that had touched her lips when she’d seen his tattoo and when he’d told her why he had it. If he had been trying to impress her, he would definitely have garnered brownie points. But he wasn’t trying to impress her.
He shifted in bed, knowing he had to stay focused and not let a pretty face get him off track. All that sounded easy enough, but he had a feeling it would be the hardest thing he’d ever had to do.
Chapter Four
“Quiet on the set!
“Take four!
“Action!”
Rachel sat quietly in a chair and watched the scene that was being shot. When she heard two women, Paige and another actress on the set named Tae’Shawna Miller, whispering about how handsome and fine Ethan was, she had to press her lips together to keep from turning around and reminding them about the no-talking-during-a-take policy. But that would make her guilty of breaking the rule, too.
So she sat there and tried tuning them out and hoped sooner or later they would close their mouths. It didn’t help matters to know that Paige was one of the women. Rachel figured she of all people should know better.
Rachel turned her attention back to the scene being filmed and couldn’t help but admire the way Ethan was delivering his lines. He was doing a brilliant job portraying Dr. Tyrell Perry, the sexy doctor with a gruff demeanor that could only be softened by his patients. And from the looks of things, a new twist was about to unravel on the show with Dr. Perry being given a love interest—another new doctor on the hospital staff, the widowed Dr. Sonja Duncan.
Rachel had been on the set talking to one of the cameramen when Ethan arrived that morning, swaggering in and exuding rugged masculinity all over the place. The number of flirtatious smiles that were cast his way the moment he said good morning had only made her shake her head. Some of the women were probably still wiping the drool from their mouths.
Why did women get so silly at the sight of a good-looking man? She would admit she had been attracted to him yesterday like everyone else, after all she was a woman, but there was no reason to get downright foolish about it.
“Freeze! No talking on the set!”
Frasier was looking straight at Paige and Tae’Shawna and frowning. He knew exactly who the noisemakers were, and to be called out by the director wasn’t good. They had caused time to be wasted, and everyone knew Frasier didn’t like that.
“Unfreeze!”
This time around, everyone was quiet while the shooting of the scene continued. In this scene, Dr. Tyrell Perry and Dr. Sonja Duncan were discussing the seriousness of a patient’s condition. It was obvious in this scene that the two were attracted to each other. The television viewers would already know through the use of flashbacks that Sonja’s late husband, also a doctor, had gotten killed when an L.A. gang, intent on killing a man being treated in the hospital, burst into the E.R. and opened fire, killing everyone, including the doctor, a nurse and a few others waiting to be treated.
Rachel figured since Livia was only a temporary member of the cast, there would not be too much of a budding romance between the two doctors, although it wasn’t known just how Livia’s exit would be handled. Frasier was known to leave the viewers hanging from scene to scene, so it would be anyone’s guess what he had in mind. She couldn’t help but wonder if the chemistry the two generated on the set would extend beyond filming.
She hadn’t gotten a chance to get to know Livia. During the makeup and wardrobe sessions there hadn’t been much conversation between them. Her initial impression was that Livia was just as shallow and self-absorbed as the other Hollywood types Rachel had met. She’d seen no reason for that impression to change. Livia had a reputation of being a party girl and as much the tabloid princess as Ethan was the tabloid king. So it would stand to reason the two would be attracted to each other both on and off the set.
“Cut! Good scene! Let’s enjoy lunch. Everyone take an additional hour and be back to start again on time.”
Rachel smiled, grateful for the extra time. It seemed a number of people were in a hurry to take advantage of Frasier’s generosity…in more ways than one, she thought, when out of the corner of her eye she noticed several women bustling over in Ethan’s direction. She rolled her eyes. My goodness, did they have no shame? Interestingly, Livia walked away in another direction, as if the attention given to Ethan didn’t concern her one bit.
Shaking her head, Rachel walked back to her trailer to grab her purse. She had a few errands to do before lunch was over.
Ethan watched Rachel leave before forcing his attention back to the two women standing in front of him. Tae’Shawna had all but invited him over tonight to go skinny-dipping in her pool. Of course he had turned her down. Paige had offered to come over to his place to help him go over his lines. He turned her down as well. For some reason, he wasn’t feeling these two. If truth be told, he wasn’t feeling any woman right now. Except for the one who’d just headed off toward her trailer.
“So what are you doing for lunch, Ethan? We would love for you to join us,” Paige invited, interrupting his thoughts.
“Thanks,