Chapter Five
Lachlan walked Anthony out to his BMW in the car park at the rear of the building.
“You did great man. This is going to be huge.” Anthony was eager to celebrate his success, suggesting they meet up at a bar a few blocks away.
“I’ve got plans.” No way was he going to waste his evening with Anthony when he could go back to the hotel and see April.
“Really? You’re in town less than a week and you have to spend the next two days in photo shoots, then Friday it’s that charity ball and Saturday you’re off to Melbourne. We won’t get the chance to celebrate again.”
“Sorry mate. I really do have plans. We’ll celebrate next time I’m in town. I promise.” Although clearly disappointed, Anthony shrugged and climbed into his car. Lachlan waved goodbye as he drove away, then hailed a taxi for himself. He hated not having his own car, but since he wasn’t expecting to leave the city during his stay, he couldn’t see the point of hiring one.
Unbidden, the image of April came to mind, a goofy grin along with it. She’d been in his head all day, hovering in the background, waiting for an unsuspecting moment when she would announce herself again and interrupt his thoughts, distracting him, arousing him. He’d been nervous about seeing her again this afternoon. He hadn’t meant to manipulate her into going to the ball with him. He had planned to bring it up later that evening, only Anthony had opened his big mouth and then it just seemed like he had no other choice. Besides she’d seemed so eager when he’d first asked and he didn’t really believe her sister would care. She was sixteen. Most teens would love it if their sister was dating a movie star.
The ride to the hotel was quick and Lachlan eagerly walked into the elevator and pressed the button for April’s floor. Only when the door closed did it occur to him that she wouldn’t be back yet, Karen and Abigale would no doubt have kept her behind at Landslide Productions, they could still be talking even now. Isn’t that what women do?
Reluctantly, he pressed the button for his floor and when the doors opened he dragged his feet along the fading carpet, his eagerness dampened by his own impatience. It had been a long time since he’d felt like this about seeing a woman. Not since Samantha.
At one stage he’d thought Samantha was The One. He’d wanted to spend his life with her. But then her career took off and everything changed. They’d met at the premier of Teen Cop, his first starring role in a movie. She was a singer in a girl group that was having some local success, but which hadn’t made the big time. Her image back then was girl-next-door and it was a side of her that had really appealed to him. But then she decided to go solo and thought that she had to change everything about herself in order to make it big. Her clothes got shorter, her makeup got thicker and her hair was forever changing to fit some crazy fashion. It wasn’t just her appearance that changed. As the public started to buy into the crap, Samantha started treating everyone as if she was doing them a favour by talking to them. She became rude and insufferable and he spent half their time together embarrassed by her behaviour and the other half trying to slow down her drinking. The day she demanded he leave the set early to pick her up from the spa was the day he decided he’d had enough. They’d broken up two years ago and until now, he just hadn’t felt the need to get into another relationship.
Relationship? Is that what he wanted with April. Things had been so easy between them and when he’d kissed her … fireworks. All day he’d been thinking about kissing her again and seeing her at the meeting it took all his self-control not to reach out and touch her. Maybe a relationship was exactly what he wanted.
She’d confused him for a moment there, when he’d first come into the conference room, but he had to admit her tactic had been effective. If she hadn’t stood up to Gavin then, from the start, they’d be walking all over her throughout the project and in the end, she wouldn’t have any say in how the movie panned out.
At his door he fumbled about in his pocket for his room key before letting himself in. The maid service had been there, and he noticed the chocolates on his pillow arranged in the shape of a heart. Lachlan sighed wearily—this was the part of fame he found most tiresome. Sure it had been great in the beginning, having women throw themselves at him, but it was never anything more than a passing interest. Much as he hated to admit it, Craig was right, many of the women who hung around the pubs and clubs frequented by celebrities saw them as a mere notch on their bedpost and he refused to be one. He’d grown up in the glow of the devoted relationship his parents shared and he knew from an early age that he wanted that for himself. He didn’t want to settle for anything less and he’d learnt early on that meaningless sex purely for the purposes of sexual gratification left him lonely and hollow. Of course, that didn’t mean he was a saint. Far from it. He was just very selective in the women he took to bed.
He recalled April’s words the night before, after she’d come back from the bathroom. She’d said she wanted him to be a notch on her bedpost. He knew she’d been joking around, that she hadn’t meant it like that, but the thought had set his blood on fire. He would gladly be a notch on her bedpost, it was all he could think about. Just remembering the way he’d woken up that morning with her head merely centimetres from his groin threatened to undo him and made him feel like he was about to burst a blood vessel.
Lachlan walked to the bathroom and turned on the water. A cold shower, that’s what he needed.
He had just turned the shower off when he heard a knock at the door. Quickly grabbing a towel, he wrapped it around himself and peeped through the hole in the door. April. Even through the peephole the sight of her was enough to render his cold shower useless. He tightened the towel around his waist and opened the door.