Page 88 of Lucky Star

Chapter Thirty-Five

Cameron

** One Year Later **

“You ready to do this?”

“If I said no?” Sarah smiled to let me know that she wasn’t saying no.

“We would turn this car around and head back to the hotel where I’d worship your body until it was time to board the plane and go home.”

She hummed low in her throat. “Mmm, when you put it like that, maybe I should say no.” She laughed and kissed me lightly. “But as good as that sounds, this is more important.”

“Nothing’s more important than having my way with my lovely wife,” I answered.

I had a lot to be thankful for, but nothing more so than the woman by my side. I still couldn’t believe she was mine. Never in a million years would I have seen our friendship playing out like this. In fact, there’d been a few times I’d convinced myself I was going to have to live my life without her, watch while she fell in love with some other man. I hadn’t thought I could be enough for her, but I thanked my lucky stars that one night, many long nights before, we’d gotten completely shit faced and had sex for the first time. The immediate aftermath of that encounter had been bleak, but it had gotten us to where we were today. For that, I couldn’t complain.

Yeah, life was good.

While I had been in Vancouver shooting The Ties That Bind, Sarah had returned to L.A. to sell her house for a ludicrous amount of cash. She’d used some of that money to buy a small gallery in Eagle Harbour. Now, she was one of the young creatives who, as they liked to say, ran the town. She’d started painting again, too, and a handful of her pieces now decorated the walls our friends’ homes and businesses, including Stewart’s office and the coffee shop Drea and Alex owned together.

Once Jillian and I were done with principle filming, I’d joined Sarah back at our loft overlooking the harbor, where we’d spent several happy months until we sold it and bought a bigger house on the opposite end of the beach from Thad’s place.

“All right let’s do this then,” I said, sliding along the leather seat and pulling Sarah with me.

“Wait,” she said, placing her hand on my shoulder. When I swiveled her way, she took my face in her hands and flicked her eyes between mine. “I want you to know how proud I am of you.”

“I know.” Sarah didn’t need to tell me though because it was there in everything she’d ever done for me. From the very beginning, she’d been my biggest fan, and because she’d taken a chance on me, I’d gotten my shot at a role that had changed our lives forever.

She leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine before pulling away reluctantly. “Are you sure it’s not too late to go back to the hotel so you can have your wicked way with me?”

I eyed her hungrily. In a black halter dress, it was all I could do not to slip my hands under the fabric and cup full breasts in my palms. If I did though, I’d never leave this car, and we both knew it.

“Later,” I said, with another quick kiss that promised when all this was over, I’d devour every succulent inch of her beautiful fucking body.

“I’m going to hold you to that.”

“I expect you to.” We’d been married for almost a year, and every time I was with her was better than the last. I never got tired of exploring her body, of listening to the sounds she made when I entered her, or the moans and gasped she shared as I brought her to ecstasy.

She nudged me away. “The sooner you get out there, the sooner we can go back to the hotel.”

Stepping out of the limo into the bright lights of Tinsel Town, my hand raised in a relaxed wave, the crowd erupted into a roar of my name, my character’s name, and chants of “over here, over here” as photographers and reporters vied for my attention. Searchlights crisscrossed the starless night sky. Overhead, helicopters buzzed as they jockeyed for the best position to capture the red carpet arrivals from the air.

Pulling Sarah in tight against me, I stepped onto the red carpet and led her over to the first reporter I’d been instructed to speak with. Jillian had arrived twenty minutes before, the beleaguered Murray on her arm. After I’d learned about the role she’d played in setting up our fauxmance, I’d distanced myself from her, and we’d gone from being friends to something more closely resembling distantly polite colleagues. Thankfully, we were both professional enough to be able to manufacture the type of fake passion the studio hoped for. Much to their surprise, the fans seemed to accept that we’d never hooked up and were just good friends. Only once filming had wrapped did Broderick admit the “relationship” had never been necessary.

I shook his hand and thanked him for coming. While this was the first time the movie would screen in its entirety, Broderick had teased the press with a few key scenes over the last few months, and so far, feedback had been positive.

“Hi Cameron, thanks for stopping by,” James Gomez Richardson said while the cameraman next to him began rolling. “Coming off the sneak peeks your director, Broderick Johnson, shared at TIFF and the Vancouver International Film Festival, early buzz about your performance is positive.”

“Thanks James, I’m really happy with how things turned out. It was a pleasure working with a director like Broderick, and of course, Jillian is extremely talented. They both made my job easy, and I’m thrilled Broderick took a chance on me.”

“As you should be,” he responded, then segued into his next question. “There was a lot of skepticism early on over the source material, but it seems there was no cause for concern. How’d you find filming an adaptation of a beloved book?”

“It was great. The dialogue was strong to begin with, and the relationship between Xander and Arabella was so emotionally charged it came across perfectly on film. I’m just happy I was able to do this complex, damaged character justice.”

As I continued answering his questions, Sarah stood at my side like a pro. Initially, I’d been worried about how she’d feel being cast into the spotlight only to then be virtually ignored. But she was a pro, and she’d done admirably well. She was used to being asked who she was wearing, and while I knew she hated the focus on her appearance, she stood next to me and told the world how proud she was of me. Tonight was no exception.

“And your lovely wife, Sarah. You got married during filming, right? How did she take your rather graphic sex scenes with your co-star?”

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