Harlequin Desire January 2021--Box Set 1 of 2 by Maisey Yates (inspirational books .TXT) 📗

unique, and I wouldn’t trade it for some cookie-cutter upbringing in the suburbs.”

“Did your mother have a chance to read it?” he asked.

She let out a bitter laugh. “I don’t have to tell you that she hated it. She thought it tarnished her image, and she’s probably right. Then she died before I got a chance to publish anything else. Now my publisher wants another memoir, and I can’t bring myself to do it.”

Julian wished they could get to the hugging stage of this relationship, because he desperately wanted to pull her close. “Hey, listen,” he said. “Your mother wasn’t objective. You do a good job showing her humanity.”

“She didn’t want to be human, Julian. She wanted to be a star.”

“Stars burn out.”

She turned to him, eyes brimming with questions. Good thing Pete pulled up to the gates of Sand Castle. Julian helped Nina step out of the car, hyperaware of the glances and phones angled their way. He rested a hand on the small of her back and ushered her up the stone steps and into the courtyard, heading toward the lift.

“I smell like a horse,” he said, close to her ear. “Shopping for flowers is hard work.”

“I smell like roses,” she said.

“Of course.”

“But I’m grimy,” she admitted.

“I’ll race you to the shower.”

“You can have the shower,” she said. “I want to soak in a bath.”

The front desk clerk chased them down. “Ms. Taylor! Wait! There’s news!”

Nina turned to him expectantly. Julian had a feeling that he wouldn’t like the news. When the doors to the lift parted, he wanted to stuff Nina inside.

“Your room will be available in the morning. I wanted to tell you myself.”

Nina cleared her throat. “That’s great. Thanks.”

On the ride up, her mood flattened. She stood fussing with the plant.

Julian leaned against the back wall. “If this is going to be our last night as roommates, maybe we should order in.”

She looked up at him. The spark had returned. “I’d like that.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Nina woke up alone in the large bed. The note on the pillow beside her was short. Morning workout—J.

The night before, she and Julian had stayed up late. He’d recommended they watch Thunder on a large screen in high definition and with surround sound. “It’s not the type of movie you can watch on your phone.”

They ordered dinner, tossed silk pillows and a blanket onto the antique rug, and camped out on the bedroom floor. They watched the movie, and when the credits rolled, Nina grabbed the remote control and hit Pause.

“Straight talk?”

“Absolutely.”

“It’s not trash.”

“Think so?” He stretched out on the pillows. “That’s a three-star review in my book.”

“And you’re hot in it,” she said. “Really, really hot.”

His eyes flashed. “Are you trying to start something tonight?”

“Only a conversation,” she said. Although she couldn’t deny that being this close to him sent waves of warmth through her body. “Ever heard of the Bechdel test? Two named female characters in a film discuss something—anything—other than a man.”

“I’ve heard of it. I’m not a caveman,” he said. “And I know it doesn’t apply here.”

“How could it? None of your female characters have names.” Nina pointed to the screen frozen on the list of characters by order of appearance. “Girl in Yellow Bikini… Ferrari Girl… Casino Girl Number One… Casino Girl Number Two… Girl at the Bar… All you’re missing is the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo!”

Julian doubled over with laughter. His T-shirt bunched up to reveal a patch of taut brown skin. Nina sat on her hands to keep from reaching out and discovering more.

“Now repeat after me,” she said. “Representation matters!”

“Don’t blame me. I had no say in the matter.”

“But you were the star!”

Nina would not let him off the hook. Some actors had inclusion clauses in their contracts to improve representation of women and minorities on film sets.

“I got the job because I looked the part,” he said. “If I made noise, they’d have kicked me off the project. I was no one and I had zero clout. I got that job on my headshot alone.”

“Really?”

He winked. “It was a good headshot.”

Such a modest man! “Okay, but later—”

“Later, the criticism caught up with them. That’s when they brought in Bettina to play a computer scientist.”

Nina reached for her glass of wine and took a swallow. “And that’s where they went wrong. The one woman with any agency is a computer scientist in a film populated with assassins and criminal masterminds. What’s lacking is a female crime lord, assassin, bomb expert… You know…the type of character that is central to the plot.”

His expression clouded over, and Nina knew she’d touched on something. “Aha! I love it when I’m right!”

He reached out and brushed a lock of hair from her cheek in a surprisingly tender gesture. “What do you love about it? The ego boost?”

“Maybe,” Nina replied in a whisper. “You may not be the only egomaniac at the Sand Castle.”

They’d stayed up late, talking. But in the morning, she awoke in bed, on her side of the pillow partition, with no idea on how she’d gotten there.

The lines were blurring fast.

* * *

“We serve breakfast anywhere. Our guests love to lounge by the pool.”

“Where would I go if I wanted to avoid the guests?”

“The rooftop deck is deserted at this hour.”

“So that’s where I’ll be.”

Nina took a stack of magazines up to the roof. An attendant promptly brought her a mimosa and a platter of fruit. She took a seat at an umbrella table with a view of the pool. Just as she got settled, her phone chimed with a text message.

Hey there! Just checking in.

It was her cousin Valerie Pierre. She never checked in; they weren’t close. Valerie was the one relative on her father’s side whose contact information she’d bothered to save. Nina’s parents were only together long enough to conceive her. They were two New Jersey kids who met, predictably enough, at a party in the city. Her mother was the aspiring actress who’d caught the acting bug from