In Love with a Star Page 6

  “Leny, you have come! Great! Come and sit at table, everything is ready”, Emily got enthusiastic taking her to the table, before Chris intruded and caught Emily by her sides, dragging her to himself and plunging his lips on her long and sinuous neck, making Emily laugh and blush, while she tried to get free and escape his assault.

  Leny kept standing in front of them, less than a meter far, so shocked she couldn’t even look away.

  She saw Chris holding the girl in his uncovered arms, which showed more tattoos, including a Chinese inscription. He hold her tight till she stuck to his sculpted abdominals, while he moved with his mouth to her cheek and then stopped on her ear, where he whispered something which was supposed to be extremely provoking, as shown by Emily’s surprised and excited smile, when she turned to him.

  “What a pork, Chris!”, she giggled, before he put his tongue into her mouth and lost himself in an obscene kiss, accompanied by his hands moving demanding and without rest all over her body and finally stopping on her round buttocks.

  “You’ve got a fantastic ass, Emily!”, Chris muttered to her in a low voice, but not so low as not to be heard by Leny, who was forced to grasp the back of the nearest chair to avoid falling down, while her body started to draw back shattered, as if distance could wipe those images from her mind.

  She had seen Chris many times in an intimate attitude in “Love School”, with some other actresses, but she knew it was all fiction. She had also put all the gossip about him and his thousand love affairs into the “It’s only fiction”, drawer in her mind.

  She had never considered as real his love affair with her cousin, even if it had made her suffer more than anything else.

  But now…Chris and Emily were kissing and touching each other in front of her eyes, in the living room of her aunt who was pretending not to see them, even if the pleased smile she had on her lips made what she thought about them very clear.

  Her own mother looked happy as well.

  Luckily, dinner was served and the two lovers were forced to part and sit down for a while.

  Still shuttered, Leny chose the farthest chair from her cousin, but her aunt pushed her to the head of the table, just next to Emily, where she could see clearly how Chris was keeping his hand on the interior of her tight.

  The sushi was soon served and Leny wished that new food would distract her from them.

  Unluckily Chris had the idea of hugging Emily, resting his cheek on hers, while with his free hand he took the food from the dish and put it softly into her mouth.

  “You must put it all into your mouth, my love”, he whispered to her in an allusive voice, making everyone blush.

  Leny started to feel really sick. She didn’t know whether the food was gone bad or whether Chris’s sexual allusion had shattered her so much… or whether the word love had been worse than a punch in her stomach.

  She couldn’t eat anymore and, trying to chase away that wave of jealousy and pain, she kept her eyes on the dish till the end of dinner.

  “Don’t you like sushi?”, Rose got worried, seeing her niece keeping playing with food without eating a morsel.

  “Not much”, Leny acknowledged, avoiding to lift her eyes from the dish.

  “I’m sorry. Would you like something else?”.

  “No, auntie. Thank you. In fact before I came here, I had a sandwich which must have cut down my hunger. I’m sorry…”, Leny lied feeling guilty when she thought about the care her aunt had put in preparing all that delicious food.

  “A sandwich? You don’t know how unhealthy eating that kind of food between meals is!”, Emily spoke considering herself an expert of diets and food associations.

  Leny made the mistake of lifting her eyes to look at her incredulously, but what she saw tightened her stomach still more: Chris was caressing and kissing her fair and silky hair with his adoring glance.

  Leny realized he had never addressed such a glance to her.

  He didn’t love her, but it was evident he loved Emily.

  How could it be otherwise?

  Emily was perfect: the same beauty and the same social background.

  How could she believe that even for a moment Chris could return her?

  Feeling like that, her head started beating painfully.

  She felt so sad and empty.

  “Aren’t you ok?”, Emily realized staring at her worryingly.

  “I just have a terrible headache”, Leny acknowledged trying to smile.

  “I’ve got an idea. What about going to the spa tomorrow? To the swimming pool where chrome-therapy was made and where we went once when we were little girls? Do you remember? What do you think about that? Only you and I, ok?”.

  Leny wished she could refuse, but her cousin’s imploring attitude prevented her.

  She just nodded, making Emily start with happiness and run to her bedroom to choose the swimsuit she was going to wear.

  “Wait, I’ll help you choose”, Chris exclaimed excited following the girl into the room.

  “Sorry, but aren’t you working tomorrow, my dear?”.

  “Of course, mum”, Leny answered feeling terribly guilty.

  She had to take two analgesics that night to stop her headache, but above all to make her mind so dim she could avoid thinking about what she had witnessed that night.

  Seeing Chris and Emily make love to each other had been too much for her mind and her heart.

  She had been able to restrain tears, but not pain.

  It kept coming back, letting her breathless and with a grip in her stomach which made her double up with pain.

  Defenseless and alone in facing what had been happening to her in the last two months, she started trembling and crouched still more in her bed, trying to get a bit of warmth from the crumpled pillow and the warm and soft blanket.

  7

  As they had agreed, Leny rang her aunt Rose’s doorbell at 10 a.m.

  “Emily is in her room”, her aunt muttered sleepy, before she went back to his room and started sleeping again.

  Trying to show one of her best smiles, she knocked at her cousin’s door, where she had often slept when she was a child and was scared of the darkness or of thunders.

  “Please come in”, her cousin replied shouting, while she kept trying to fasten the skimpy bra of her bikini.

  When Leny came into the room, she was surrendered by a great mess.

  There were clothes everywhere, covering the whole room like a huge and colorful blanket.

  Emily was standing in the middle, a few steps from her bed.

  “Can you help me to tie it up?”, she asked her, holding the strings of her bikini behind her back.

  “Of course”, Leny hurried, but just as she was tying a bow in a way it couldn’t scratch her cousin’s soft skin, she saw something move under the clothes covering Emily’s bed.

  With the sound of a fire-alarm hammering into her brain, she stared at the bed, till she saw Chris’s naked body came out of the sheets.

  “Emy, where are you? Why didn’t you wake me up? Please, come back to bed”, Chris’s hoarse and sleepy voice whispered, while he kept stretching in bed making the sheets fall down and showing his powerful abdominals with a compass card tattoo, his sculpted muscles and his thin and tight hips, decorated with an Arabian motto.

  The sheets continued to slip inexorably, as if they wanted to caress that Adonis.

  When also his lower belly and his ilia where brought to light, Leny blushed ashamed and uneasy. Some inches more and Chris’s only hidden part would be revealed to her.

  “I’ll wait for you outside”, Leny muttered shattered, stumbling on all the objects thrown onto the floor.

  As soon as she got to the door and turned the handle, she felt she had reached a lifeboat.

  Once outside, she tried to control her wounded heart and her crazy breathing.

  “Is everything ok?”, her aunt asked moving to her room, a hot cup of coffee in her hands.

  “Yes, it is. Tell Emily I’ll
wait for her in the car”, she could just say before she plunged into the house lawn, next to her car.

  Bent double by a grip in her stomach and with furious tears ready to fight on her face, she started breathing deeply, trying to concentrate on the sounds and smells of the natural surroundings, but the sight of Arthur and Chris’s house overwhelmed her like a raging sea.

  She could hardly hear the gravel creak next to her.

  She suddenly stood up and looked in the direction of that sound.

  Chris was there, in torn and unbuttoned jeans. He had just closed his zipper to keep his member inside. He was also wearing a checked shirt left completely open on his naked chest and with rolled up sleeves.

  His hair was still in a mess and gave him a terribly sexy look.

  “Emily is on the phone with the “Love School”, director. It’ll take her a while”, Chris informed her coming near her, who was scared by his presence and opened the car door, putting it between them.

  She felt weak and frail at the moment. She needed a barrier.

  “No problem! I’ll wait for her in the car”.

  “I warn you it’ll take her a long time…I hope you don’t have just a few hours leave”, he went on approaching with a sarcastic smile and a strange glance in his eyes turned bad.

  “No, I’m free all day. I have to make up for extras, so I could ask for more time to spend with Emily before she leaves”, Leny said in a hurry trying to keep distances.

  “Of course…and what about tomorrow?”.

  “Tomorrow?”.

  “Are you free tomorrow?”.

  “Why?”.

  “To say goodbye to Emily before she leaves”, Chris explained as if it was obvious.

  Leny didn’t feel easy at all. There was something in his voice she didn’t like.

  “Of course”.

  “Do you have to make up for other extras?”, he supposed laughing. A gloomy and grim laugh.

  Leny nodded trying to get into the car to put an end to that conversation, but he caught her by her arm and dragged her out, making her hit the side of the car.

  “Ahi!”, she screamed bewildered by that sudden impetuosity.

  “Why did you make all those extras?”, he asked her in spite of Leny’s complaints and pressing her arm still more.

  “That’s not your business!”, she burst out nervously and scared. Chris had never been aggressive to her. Never.

  He laughed sardonically. “I wonder how much you must have earned going to bed with your boss…”, he whispered coming close to her ear “…little liar bitch”.

  Leny took some seconds to realize how he had called her: little liar bitch.

  “But how can you dare?”, she hissed with clenched teeth, trying to get free and pushing him away. “How can you dare calling me a bitch? You’re an idiot! You know nothing about me!”.

  “Nothing? But when I came to see you at Andrew Marshall’s firm, his wife told me very clearly how you got sacked two months ago because you made a move on her husband. They aren’t even going to give you a reference letter. You must thank my grandpa if they don’t deny you your severance pay too”.

  Did Chris go and look for her at the law firm? Why?

  Leny shook her head trying to keep her humiliation back.

  “Yes, I’ve been sacked, but I’ve never gone to bed with Andrew! Pamela invented this story to sack me and Laurel, a very good-looking and single colleague”, she explained in a voice full of scorn, but Chris looked amused.

  “Poor Leny, you’re clutching at straws! At first Travis, then Andrew Marshall and my grandpa, a silly old man who let himself be deceived by your beautiful face, while you actually aimed at his money…and now, I hardly avoided to be caught into your black widow’s cobweb!”.

  Hearing him talking about Arthur and treading on her absolute love for him with all those lies aroused in her a disastrous fury, which she vented slapping strongly Chris’s perfect face, so he soon found himself with a red cheek.

  “Try to doubt about my affection for your grandpa once more, and you’ll pay dearly for it. You can tell me I’m a bitch, if that makes you happy. You can tell me I’m a failure who wasn’t able to keep her boyfriend and job, but don’t dare anymore to discuss the true feeling there was between your grandpa and me by these dirty lies, ok?”, she said in a hoarse voice quivering with rage.

  Luckily Emily arrived, her eyes lost and sulky, but as soon as she saw Chris’s burning cheek, she became lively again.

  “Has someone slapped you, Chris?”, she asked amused and indifferent to her boyfriend’s murderous glance.

  Cursing in a low voice, Chris finally let Leny’s arm free from his grip and moved fast to the kitchen garden next to his grandpa’s house.

  When Leny got into the car next to her cousin, she tried to wipe away that feeling of bitterness and to concentrate on the new destination.

  “What happened?”, Emily asked her smiling.

  “I don’t want to talk about that”, Leny cut it short in an extremely nervous voice, making her cousin stay silent till they got to the thermal baths.

  They took slippers, bath towel and bathrobe and moved to the swimming pool they used to call “the magical rainbow swimming pool”, when they were children; it had been bettered and enriched by three small waterfalls, a hydromassage and some sweet-smelling vapor.

  The swimming pool was empty and only after the two cousins got into the warm water, they could relax breathing deeply at the same time.

  “We’re lucky. There is nobody today”, Leny tried to break the ice, feeling still uneasy about her previous behavior.

  “I asked the director to leave the structure all to ourselves. I don’t want to face crowds of fans or journalists”.

  “He must be a great fan of yours if he accepted a request like that”.

  “He’s just a great fan of filthy money, Leny. You can get everything you want by money in the world…or quite everything”, she sighed, her eyes blurred with sadness as she muttered the last part of the sentence.

  “It must have cost you a fortune”.

  “Privacy is very expensive when you’re a famous actress like me”, the young woman got sad, trying to hide her face into the water.

  “It’s the price for celebrity”.

  “Of course”, Emily muttered dejected, making Leny turn suspicious.

  “What’s wrong with you?”.

  “Everything…Nothing…I don’t know…I…you…I miss you, Leny. I’ve missed you all these years and I’ve also hated you…Why don’t you love me anymore? Are you angry with me because I’m famous?”, Emily burst out crying suddenly.

  Leny felt her heart go to pieces facing that outburst.

  She was very fond of her cousin and she really wished her to be happy, but now those tears made her feel shattered. Emily never cried. Neither when she was a little girl.

  What had happened to her, making her so sad?

  “I’m not angry with you. I love you, I adore you. You’re like a sister to me”, she consoled her trying to hug her.

  “So why have you never come to Los Angeles?”, Emily accused her angry.

  “I came once. Five years ago”, Leny reminded her with a lump in her throat, trying to remember that experience she had locked into the “Things to forget”, drawer in her mind.

  “Yes, you did, but then I bought a fantastic house thinking about you. I asked you thousands of times to come and live with me, but you never came back. You really hurt me”.

  “I’m really sorry, but I’ve already told you: my life is here. I’m fond of Pieville”.

  “I thought I was more important than this shitty village”, Emily burst out rudely.

  “You are. That’s why I didn’t come anymore. Believe me.”, Leny whispered trying to wipe away the memory of the conversation she had with Mrs. Marens, Emily’s agent, the last day she spent in Los Angeles. It was that conversation that made her run flat out and go back to Pieville with her tail between her legs, swearing to
herself she would never come back to that city.

  “Bullshit! You were just jealous of me and you wanted to get back at me. You can’t understand what I’ve been through during these years! You can’t understand how I felt being left alone and not being able to rely on you and on your words. The show business is a destructive world. They have been trying to destroy all my certainties. They made me feel I wanted to jump from a bridge…I almost turned cocaine-addicted…and you weren’t there! Leny wasn’t there, knowing always how to say the right thing at the right moment, making me feel special”.

  “Emily, I didn’t realize…”, Leny tried to say overwhelmed by those revelations.

  “Where were you?”, Emily cried shuttered.

  “I’m really sorry. I didn’t know…You’ve always been my beautiful and strong cousin, while I…”.

  “I felt beautiful and strong, because you made me feel like that. You always gave me safety and you helped me and told me I would become a great actress. You worked at “Sweety and Sweety”, with me for a whole summer, to help me pay my trip to Hollywood where you came with Chris. Thanks to that trip, I met Steven, “Love School”, movie director. If I am like this today, it’s just thanks to you. I’ve always believed in you and I’ve tried hard not to disappoint you”.

  “Emily, you’ve never disappointed me and you never will”, Leny whispered letting tears flow down and mix to the sweat and water drops on her face.

  “So why did you abandon me? I want to know! I must know!”.

  Leny shook her head still shuttered by those accusations, but she finally decided to let truth come out.

  “There is something you should know”.

  “Tell me. I need to know the truth”, her cousin prayed her grasping her by her arms.

  “You can remember that summer, can’t you? I had just taken my diploma, so my mum and I could finally make that blessed trip to come and see you…thanks to your money”, she started cautiously, trying to hide the pain concealed in the previous five years.”, I had just finished school and I was dead tired. The previous two years had been a nightmare. Almost all our schoolmates stopped talking to me after you had left. They were friends of mine only because I was your cousin. Only Sheila, Ethan, Tom and Brad went on talking to me…even if they just asked for information about you. They all had seen you on TV with Chris in “Love School”, and they were curious”.