Page 11 of Broncos and Ballads (Healing Springs Ranch #2)
Venus hadn’t been feeling the energy for the photo shoot since it’d started, and she wasn’t sure why.
“Relax, Venus.” The photographer was sprawled out on the ground now, his lens pointed up.
Venus tried to soften her expression. She didn’t want wrinkle lines, especially not while modeling a new makeup line for Fitzsimmons SYA Beauty, one of the most expensive brands in the world, at the Fitzsimmons headquarters on the Champs-élysées in Paris.
But she had been feeling the tension ever since Kristin had stepped into the photo shoot a short while ago and informed her that she had a date with Brock when she finished.
“More.” The photographer kept the lens pointed at her face. “S’il vous pla?t, ma chérie.”
Again, Venus attempted to let the tension ease from her body.
She shifted into a new pose under the studio light and against the cityscape backdrop, one of Paris along the Seine River.
The room was full of the usual people on the fringes of the set—assistants, set designers, makeup artists, hair stylists, wardrobe stylists, and more. Most of them were quietly watching her.
She was used to being scrutinized, and today was no different…except that she’d been tired all week since Reed’s engagement last weekend. And she hadn’t been expecting to meet with Brock tonight. That had come from out of nowhere.
The photographer lowered his camera and pushed himself up to a sitting position. “I think we should call it a day, no?”
“Yes, I agree.” Venus hated to end a photo shoot on a negative note, but it was getting late, and she was already running behind for the dinner with Brock. She took a step away from the backdrop and out from underneath the lights.
She could see the Fitzsimmons representative scowling and starting toward her. Venus ducked her head and lengthened her stride toward the dressing room. “That’s all for tonight. Thank you, everyone. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She spoke the words over her shoulder without hesitating in her stride.
As she stepped into her dressing room, she closed the door behind her on anyone who might try to follow her.
She leaned back against it, dragging in a breath through the tight confines of the formfitting gown.
It was a stunning dress that Fitzsimmons had given her as part of the photo shoot, a sleek floor-length creation that was made up of gold beaded fringes throughout.
Its square neckline and slim bodice fit her to perfection.
With her golden hair curled and falling over her shoulders, the new warm tones of the eyeshadow made her blue eyes even bluer, so that the photos had been some of her best to date—or at least, the photos from earlier.
“There’s no time to change, Venus,” came Kristin’s voice from outside. “Besides, what you have on will work.”
She didn’t want Brock to think she was trying to impress him. That was actually the last thing she wanted to do. Even so, she added a spritz of perfume, reapplied her lip gloss, then found the clutch that matched the gown and filled it with a few personal items.
When she opened the dressing-room door, the studio had emptied, thankfully.
“Once-a-week dates with Brock are too much.” Venus crossed toward the hallway that would lead to the rear exit of the stately building.
Kristin followed behind. “Brock’s manager insisted that you make appearances together once a week. You know that.”
Venus’s heels clicked on the tile floor. Once she was finished with the shoot in the studio tomorrow, she was flying to Cannes in the French Riviera for another shoot on the beaches to get a more natural setting.
She’d planned on relaxing in her hotel room tonight after the long day of being on her feet. But somehow she’d been scheduled to have dinner with Brock in order to prove to the whole world that they were still dating…because clearly, a week without seeing each other was cause for concern.
She sighed with exasperation. “Why the worry? Everyone knows we’re both busy with our separate lives.”
The tap of Kristin’s heels echoed behind Venus. Her agent, in a stylish suit, was tall too, and thankfully always able to keep up. “Since we leaked the news about your dating Brock to the press, neither of you have said a word. That’s not exactly proving you’re in a happy and loving relationship.”
“Well, that’s because we’re not.” Venus hadn’t spoken with Brock since she’d walked away from him after the engagement party.
“You have to act like it.”
She halted abruptly and faced Kristin. “Should I just put an end to the charade?”
As a former model, Kristin was still graceful and lovely even though, at thirty-five, her features and body were no longer considered young enough. Instead, she’d turned her experience into being an agent, one of the best employed with IMG, New York’s top modeling agency.
“The wheels are already set in motion,” Kristin said carefully, used to dealing with emotional young women. “If you put a halt to things now, it won’t look good for either you or Brock.”
Not to mention she’d make a fool of herself with Reed after telling him that she was committed to Brock. After Reed had texted and let her know that he would do better to support her relationship with Brock, how could she break things off now?
“You’re right. I have to drag this out for a little longer.”
“At least three months.”
“Right.” Three months was the timeline Brock’s people and her people had come up with.
Along with the once-a-week dates, a weeklong vacation was thrown in there somewhere during the three months.
Also, she and Brock were to be each other’s plus-one to all events, with the exclusion of family gatherings so that they didn’t put their families in the middle of the charade.
“We all agreed that you would both need to do enough to make the relationship seem believable.”
“And so you’re saying I’m not doing enough?”
Kristin didn’t blink at the direct question. Instead, she met Venus’s gaze with a directness of her own, which was a quality Venus appreciated about her agent. “Already, people here in Paris are saying they haven’t seen any evidence you’re in love.”
Venus scoffed. “How exactly do they know that? Is there a certain way a person in love acts? Especially when they’re not with their significant person?”
“I suppose so.”
“How?”
“They call or text that person whenever they can.”
She had noticed Brock hadn’t been calling or texting or pretending to have a real relationship. She hadn’t wanted him to make more of their agreement. On the other hand, she had expected him to show a little more interest, even if just a tiny bit. Any other man would have. So why not him?
A part of her already knew the answer. Brock McQuaid wasn’t like other men.
“Anything else I should be doing?”
“You can act a little excited when someone mentions Brock’s name.”
“What? No. That’s silly.”
“Then you can talk about him some, bring up his name, act like you can’t wait until you see him.”
“That’s all ridiculous. I wouldn’t do that in a real relationship, and I certainly don’t want to do it in a fake one.”
“Then at least when you’re out to dinner tonight, act as though you’re happy to be with him.”
Venus released a tight breath. She wasn’t happy about it, but she could see the point in at least projecting an image that she was. If there was one thing she was good at, it was projecting an image she wanted people to see.
“Fine. I’ll do my best.” She turned a corner and made her way down a flight of steps. As she exited through Fitzsimmons’s back door onto the side street, she stopped short at the sight of a limousine waiting in the shadows instead of her usual chauffeur.
She lifted a brow at Kristin, who stood in the open door.
“It was Brock’s idea.”
“You mean his assistant’s idea.”
“No, I talked to him, and he’s the one who arranged it.”
“Oh.” Venus had ridden in limos before to awards ceremonies, red carpet galas, and opening events, but never to dinner.
She studied the long, sleek vehicle for a sign of Brock.
“He’s meeting you at Maxim’s,” Kristin said, as if seeing inside her mind.
A part of Venus wished he were waiting for her in the car and that they could have a private moment before being subjected to the scrutiny of every other guest and waitstaff at Maxim’s. But what would she say to him? It wasn’t like they were really dating.
“After you’re seated”—Kristin’s voice dropped low—“I’ll leak word to the paparazzi that the two of you are having dinner together at Maxim’s.”
Venus didn’t like that idea, but it was a necessary evil. They had to be spotted together, a couple in love. Otherwise, what was the point of going out?
“You’ll get a few pictures together leaving the restaurant, then ride back to the hotel. He’s staying at Plaza Athénée too.”
She hadn’t taken Brock for the sort of man who would not only go to Maxim’s but also stay at the H?tel Plaza Athénée.
Only a short distance from Champs-élysées, it was convenient to Fitzsimmons, Dior, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, Tiffany & Co.
, and other stores that she’d modeled for over recent years.
Not only that, but every time she stepped into Plaza Athénée, she felt like she was royalty and visiting one of her palaces.
The antiques and the decor and furnishings were beautiful but in a decidedly nineteenth-century way.
“Tell Brock’s people he can stay where he usually does.”
Kristin just shook her head. “We already decided it would be best for the two of you to be at the same hotel since that’s what normal dating couples would do.”