Page 27 of A Star is Scorned

“That, that’s not true!” Flynn struggled to get the words out.

“She cornered me. I was trapped. I couldn’t exactly cause a scene in front of Will Hays, when the whole point of our being there tonight was to show off how much your steady presence has reformed my wicked, wicked ways.

It’s that woman’s fault you and I are stuck in this mess in the first place.

” There was something bitter in his voice, and she realized for the first time that maybe Flynn had been as reluctant to agree to this farce as she had.

But then, something in him softened, the fight going out of him.

“Look, if you want to accuse me of sleeping with a different woman every week, of being a scoundrel and a cad, fine. I’m not going to lie to you and try to pretend like that little book isn’t exactly what you think it is.

But don’t accuse me of being something I’m not.

I’ve left behind my share of broken hearts, but I don’t promise anything I’m not willing to give.

I don’t jilt women. I don’t lead them on.

If you sign up for a ride on the Flynn Banks merry-go-round, you’ll know exactly what you’re getting.

Is it my fault if a dame loses her head every once and awhile?

Everyone knows who I am, and if some wacky doll gets stars in her eyes, I certainly didn’t put them there. ”

Something occurred to her then. “That night, when you jumped in my car, you were trying to get away from Rhonda.” He didn’t answer, but the firm clench of his jaw told her she was right. From the moment they’d met, he had been outrunning Rhonda Powers. And despite this fact, Livvy had been jealous.

It was ridiculous. And hilarious. Because he was right: He was honest about who he was.

That was why she was reluctant to give him even an inch when it came to letting him into her life and her heart.

She knew what that would mean: heartbreak.

Flynn Banks was not the marrying kind, but Livvy was.

There was no sense in falling for someone who made it abundantly clear that he could never be what she needed.

Maybe hitting that bump in the road and finding that book had been the work of her guardian angel.

“I’m sorry I thought that there might really be something between you and Rhonda,” she murmured. “But I have to get this right. My job—no, my life—depends on us convincing everyone we’re falling in love.”

“Well, it’s you who has the tougher acting assignment,” Flynn retorted.

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

“You’ve made it quite obvious since the first moment we met that I’m beneath you.

That any association with me was unacceptable because it might tarnish your lily-white, stick-up-your-arse reputation.

And maybe it will. I’m the son of an aristocrat and went to the best schools that money can buy, but you can’t dye a black sheep white.

I don’t have a problem acknowledging that I’m a womanizer and a booze hound and that my greatest asset is my pretty face, not my intellect.

I like stiff drinks and beautiful women.

Never pretended otherwise. You wanted me to think you were too good for pirate movies.

But you know something? People like pirate movies. ”

Livvy felt like a grade A heel. She’d been trying to protect herself, but she’d ended up making Flynn think she disdained him. When her problem was quite the opposite. “I like pirate movies.”

“And books and fencing. I know you do, Livvy.” His voice had moved from accusatory to a gentle vulnerability, a softness she almost couldn’t bear in the face of how rude she’d been.

“I like that you like those things,” Flynn continued. “Once we got past that rocky start, I realized that you might play your cards close to the vest, but you’re every bit as true to yourself as I am. It’s something I admire in you.”

His words took her breath away. Everyone always wanted her to be something she wasn’t.

Her father and mother had stifled her, insisting she always be the portrait of propriety.

Judy never asked anything of her, but Livvy knew she had to be the mother hen for the both of them.

And the studio didn’t want Olivia Blount; they wanted Liv de Lesseps, worldly star with a name they had invented and Flynn Banks’s arm candy.

But what did she want? Had she thought of her own wants even once in the month and a half since she’d come to Hollywood?

They pulled up to a stoplight, and she turned to find Flynn studying her. A burst of yearning tugged at her heart, and she leaned ever so slightly closer to him, wondering if he might kiss her again. This time without an audience.

Flynn said, “Livvy, this thing between us might be falser than Joan Davis’s eyelashes.

” The reminder was like having a bucket of water pitched over her head.

But then he said something that slipped into the corner of her heart, a corner she realized she had earmarked for him.

“But you… You’re quite possibly the realest person I’ve ever met. ”