Page 53 of Star Struck

‘Well, it is. I should have known, should have stayed away from you. But I . . .’ He stopped talking suddenly, and his hands began fidgeting. The arm of his glasses made its way back between his teeth.

‘Cigarette?’ I asked, sympathetically.

‘Kill for one,’ he agreed. ‘But not important. Not now. Come here.’ Shoving his glasses resolutely into the neck of his shirt he manoeuvred us further back until we were hidden by the shadows under the deep staircase. ‘You’ve heard the phrase “might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb”?’

‘Well, of course I have. I’m British.’

‘Good. Here’s my sheep then.’ With his eyes boring their way through to my brain, he tilted my chin with a finger and, when my mouth reached the requisite angle, lowered his lips to mine and kissed me.

My mouth opened under his gentle onslaught. Lips parted, I kissed him back, and suddenly we were in a tight clinch; my hands wound into his hair, his fingers ran up my arms and down over my back, making my skin burn where he touched it, and sing with the pressure of the velvet where he stroked the dress.

He was one hot kisser, no doubt about it. He ran his tongue along the underside of my upper lip, sending pulses of warmth through my bloodstream, bit gently on my lower lip until it swelled, grazed his fingertips along my collarbone until I almost fell off my high heels.

‘God. Jack,’ was all I could say when he eventually stepped back. My mouth tasted of oranges from the juice he’d drunk at the bar, and all my nerve endings were standing to attention, waiting for the next move.

‘Yay.’ He let out a breath which sounded like he’d been holding it since before we’d gone into that room. ‘Genius. I’m a bit impressed myself.’

‘That was . . .’

‘Yes. It was. I think I need to sit down. Well, maybe in a minute. Bloody hell, what possessed me to wear these?’ He moved the pyjama trousers around carefully, re-tying the cord that kept them closed. ‘Better. Right. Look, hate to abandon you after that . . . little moment, but I really, really need a smoke. I’m going to pop up to my room, grab my pack and then I’ll meet you outside, okay?’

‘Okay,’ I half-whispered, running my tongue over my now-pouting lower lip.

‘Back in five.’ With a last, hair-raising kiss dropped on the base of my neck and a lazy finger traced over my mouth, he was gone.

My heart was still thundering so loudly that I couldn’t hear the band playing in the diner, only the other side of the doors, and I found myself touching my lips with a feeling close to disbelief. Jack. Not only sensationally good-looking but a fantastic kisser? My skin felt alive, and the dress was charged with static, giving off little sparks whenever I moved. Wow. I needed to sit down. But I needed to find Felix more.

I slipped out of the shoes and with them hanging from a finger, and my other hand hitching up the skirts of the dress, I stepped out into the subtle lighting effects of the diner. Continuous scenes from the show were still being projected, but people walked through the beams, causing images to be flashed onto skin, making everyone look chameleon-like and unfamiliar.

‘Lissa!’ I spotted the slim figure, wearing a gold spray-on catsuit and crystal tiara, hanging around by the bar. ‘Have you seen Felix?’

She turned slowly, careful not to spill her drink. ‘Hello, Skye. He’s . . .’ an emphatic arm stroked the air, ‘somewhere.’

‘I really need to talk to him.’ Needed to get things straight with him before I could even think about what had happened . . . was happening with Jack. I didn’t want Felix to think badly of me, was what it came down to.

A slender shrug and I sighed. Much as I was growing to quite like Lissa, I just wished that sometimes she’d give me an absolute, definite answer.

‘Just out of curiosity — what did you come as?’ I looked at her slender figure, not a misplaced bump or dimple anywhere.

‘A diamond ring,’ she enunciated slowly.

‘Lovely. Very . . . sci-fi.’ I looked around the crowd and at last spotted Felix, minus his fur coat, standing in a corner with one arm wrapped around Jared. They were laughing hysterically and I seriously hoped that he wasn’t too drunk because I needed him to concentrate. I walked over to them.

‘Fe . . . we need to go somewhere quiet.’

Jared laughed louder. ‘Man, I don’t know whether to love you or despise you. Is there anyone here you haven’t had?’

Felix tipped his chin up, confrontationally. ‘This isn’t like that. But Skye, does it have to be now?’

Jared touched his shoulder. ‘I’ll see you later, babe.’

‘Jared!’ But Jared was melting into the crowd, a few last-minute autograph hunters at his heels. ‘Great. Just great.’ Felix turned on me. ‘This had better be good, darling.’

‘It’s not.’ I took his arm and drew him into the relative peace of the gap between the two open doors, through which the night breeze was cooling things down a little. There, holding my high heels in one hand and Felix’s elbow in the other, I told him about the little scene in the office. About his losing out on the prize.

Felix stood absolutely still. There was no trace of expression on his face, nothing to tell me whether he was devastated or amused by the accusations. No sign that he was on my side either. I finished telling him that Gary hadn’t believed that anyone had fed me the answers but that they had to be seen to be doing the right thing, and waited.

I didn’t have a long wait. Fe shook his head hard, like a horse that’s been bitten by a fly, then looked at me with dead eyes. ‘You stupid little bitch,’ he said.

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