Hollywood Playboy (Hollywood Royalty 1)

“When do you leave to go to Washington?” I ask him about his next movie that is set to film there. He made me read the script, and I think it’s going to be huge, bigger than Adrenaline Rush, and that crushed the box office.

“You mean when do we leave?” I look up at him, glaring. “Jessica, I don’t want to come back to my house at night and be without you,” he says, bringing me closer to him. “You can work from the house. You know you can’t sleep without me either. The last time I went away for three days, neither of us slept, and you wore my sweater the whole time.”

I glare at him. “I didn’t wear the sweater the whole time.” He laughs at me. “You’re lucky I love you.” He pulls me closer to him. Fine, I hate being apart from him. I mean, in six months, we’ve been away from each other for three days, max. It was supposed to be seven, but he went postal and came back home. He also got a new PA, this time a guy named Joshua. He’s twenty-three and straight out of college. He’s amazing and also has the best-looking boyfriend I’ve ever laid eyes on.

“Joshua got us a house with three bedrooms in case my parents come and visit or your friends come.” I can only imagine the house Joshua got. The last time we asked him to book us a hotel, he booked us the penthouse suite with two floors. “I’m filming for three weeks, and then we can come back home.”

“Fine,” I huff, knowing full well I would not be able to last three weeks without him. It’s come so easy to the both of us; it’s just us. We sit and watch way too many episodes of Dateline and have even expanded our TV repertoire by streaming Law & Order episodes. We cook together, and we hold hands and go hiking. We are rather boring, but it suits us. We’d rather be in front of a fire together than walking down a red carpet, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the whole world.

“I love you,” he says to me. “Thank you.”

“For what?” I ask him, my arms around his waist and my leg over his. The fire crackles in front of us, and the crickets chirp in the distance.

“For showing me what I was missing this whole time.” He kisses me without letting me tell him the same thing. He is always telling me he loves me, as if I could forget. I feel it all the way down to my soul, every touch, every kiss, every word he whispers to me is all done with his whole heart. I don’t get to tell him that I’m the lucky one. I don’t get to tell him anything because once again, he shows me just how much he loves me.

EPILOGUE TWO

Tyler

Two years later

“No matter what happens . . .” Jessica whispers from her seat next to me. I’m sitting in the front row at the Oscars, and I look over at her. The woman who makes all my dreams come true just by being here. She sits next to me with her hand in mine, wearing a beautiful champagne-colored dress that goes way too low in the front for my liking. The dress hugs her every curve, and kicks off at the knees, the back of the dress has a train with even more material. She looks more beautiful than anyone I’ve ever seen. She walked the red carpet holding my hand, and the press calls her name more than mine. She has a way with them that takes all the attention from me, and she knows I needed that tonight.

“Here are the outstanding nominees for performance by an actor in a leading role.” I hear the woman talk.

I watch it happen in slow motion, my eyes on hers as the past two years play out in slow motion. The movie pushing me to the edge, but knowing I had to do it. Her being there holding my hand the whole way, giving me pep talks when I wanted to give up. The way she smiles at me, the way she holds my hand, and the way she loves me. “And the Oscar goes to . . .” I don’t hear anything because Jessica jumps up and starts clapping, her eyes filled with pride and tears, and I get up in shock. It must be shock. I grab her face and kiss it, turning and walking up the stairs. This moment right here is a moment I will remember for the rest of my life. The black stairs are shiny as I walk over to the woman holding the Oscar in one hand as she hands it to me. I thank her, kissing her on the cheek, and then turn to look out into the audience.