Page 27 of Hollywood Crush (West Wales Romance #2)
Tudor - Five Months Later
“A little bit higher!” Danny shouted from where he sat comfortably in a deck chair across the dirt track.
I grunted and pushed my side of the sign upward. “Bloody hell, this is heavy.”
“Wuss,” said Llywelyn where he stood on the other side.
Both of us were up separate ladders and doing our best not to drop the hotel’s brand new sign.
He had a spirit level to make sure that Danny wasn’t off with his visual measurements but Danny had so far been unhappy with our lacklustre placement.
“That looks about right! Tudor, I think you’re dropping a bit though!”
“The spirit level says it’s fine!” I shouted back.
“Well maybe the spirit level is wrong?” Danny asked. I shook my head in exasperation.
“Maybe you should come up and do it yourself!”
“I can’t,” he said. “I broke my ankle, remember?”
“Five months ago!”
“Yeah, well, I thought I felt a twinge. Get that sign screwed in and come over and take care of me.”
Llywelyn chuckled and drilled in his side of the sign. He leaned over carefully and passed me the drill to do the same on my side. “Perfect,” he said quietly. Both of us descended and moved the ladders away.
“That looks amazing!” Another voice, this belonging to Llywelyn’s long-term boyfriend and all-round nice guy James. He was walking up the hill with their little rescue dog, Dinky, in tow.
We both walked over the dirt track that served as a kind of car park for the hotel and looked at our handiwork.
“It’s a real proper hotel,” said Daniel reverently.
“It is now,” I replied.
Over the past few months, I had used the retainer money from the Thrones of Blood production to spruce the outside up so it was just as nice as the inside.
Llywelyn had been the driving force, putting his new carpentry qualifications to use and buttressing up the outside so it no longer appeared to sag under its own weight.
We had replaced boards as well as the shale on the roof and repainted the white wooden exterior to a navy blue that contrasted beautifully with the greenery around it.
The sign above the door no longer read Gwesty Maes Gwyn , which meant White Field Hotel in Welsh. It was now Cartref , or Home.
“Ready for the grand re-opening?” asked James. “ I remember opening the cafe. I was terrified. Now though, I’m glad. It was the best thing I’ve ever done.”
“I can’t wait,” I said. “Come and have a look at what I’ve done with the conservatory.”
James took Dinky into his arms and followed into the hotel. Daniel caught up and linked his fingers in with mine. He’d been by my side each step of the way, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I hadn’t repainted the reception area. I was too in love with the old mahogany panelling to do that.
But Daniel had made me buy more lighting, and he was of course right.
The place had a homely glow with a few more lamps about the place.
We turned down the corridor to the greenhouse/conservatory --we still hadn't decided what to call it to customers -- past my room and the gym.
When I opened the door and heard James gasp I knew I had done a good job. I looked at Danny, who grinned back at me like a fool.
The greenhouse was filled with little bistro tables and fold-out chairs.
Around the edges were pots filled with different plants - the summer crops giving off their final yields of peppers, tomatoes and beans.
In other pots, my winter crops — potatoes, cabbages and cauliflowers — were all starting to come through.
In each corner grape vines were stretching up steel supports to the glass ceiling, dying off but ready to give their first crop the following summer.
The sun was shining through the glass, the windows open let a breeze in and the whole place smelled like the outdoors.
It was intoxicating to me and I hoped future guests felt the same.
“This is beautiful,” James and Llywelyn said in unison. It made me smile to know how much they had become like one another in the 9 months or so they had been together.
“That it is,” Daniel replied. “You should see Tudor’s plans for the place!
He’s going to grow dwarf fruit trees in pots here, and here he’s…
” I let myself zone out as he led the two of them around the greenhouse.
My smile stretched even wider, if it were possible.
This project was my baby, but he was just as enthused by it as I was.
That’s how relationships work , Mam had surmised one day. I came here because it was your father’s dream, but I didn’t want it. What makes a relationship is having your own goals, your own dreams, and supporting each other through them.
And we did. Once Daniel had showed the two of them around the conservatory I led the three of them back through the hotel to the opposite wing.
Where the old dining hall had sat we had created our own little Hard Rock Cafe, dedicated to film and TV.
Stacey had donated pictures from her make-up continuity shots and the costume department of a new period show Danny had worked on years ago in Cardiff had kindly allowed him to take a jesters’ costume to display in a glass case that hung on the wall.
Around the room were various other bits of memorabilia from various shows that we’d had to shell out a bit of money to buy.
“A piece of the Millennium Falcon ?” James practically salivated as he ran over to one of the displays hanging over a table.
“Ahh, Star Wars is old news,” I joked. “We’re all about Thrones of Blood here now.”
“Shh, don’t jinx it,” said Danny. “It might do terribly and then I’ll be a flop.”
I smiled, but knew better than to try and correct him.
He’d wrapped filming with a new director the week before but the teaser posters and 30 second clips from the first filming block had already accrued millions of views online.
I had already talked with the production company about retaining the hotel for another season to be filmed next summer, they were so confident in the show’s prospects.
“How’s work coming along anyway?” Llywelyn asked.
I jumped in before Daniel could answer with another self-disparaging remark. “They’ve asked him to star in a big new BBC detective drama set on the Welsh coast. He could start filming down in Pembrokeshire in a couple of weeks.”
“That’s amazing!” said James, and Daniel ducked his head, blushing.
I figured Sandra had never quite told him how naturally brilliant he was, and I’d noticed he sometimes got praise-shy now when I, Mam or anyone else said how brilliantly he was doing. His phone buzzed in his hand and he took it as an easy escape by walking out of the room.
“Hi Annie,” I heard him say as he stepped out.
“His new agent is brilliant,” I told Llywelyn and James somewhat proudly. “She just does her job and takes her fee. His money is his, and he puts the rest through accountants. And thanks to the publicity from Thrones of Blood the offers are flooding in for him.”
After the few weeks of studio shoots on Thrones of Blood that were done as soon as Danny could walk, he’d received more job offers. Having taken stock of how much the show had paid him and the much reduced expenses of living with me he had been picky about what he accepted.
“How are you going to get people to staff the hotel, the greenhouse restaurant and this place when it’s full?” James asked. “I can’t even get a part time member of staff down at the cafe!”
“Well, Daniel’s the one who came up with the brilliant idea,” I said as he walked bak into the room. Even in the soft lighting I could see he had blushed again. I couldn’t get enough of praising him.
“Wasn’t my idea entirely,” he mumbled as he looped one arm around my waist.
“We’re offering room and board as well as pay,” I said.
“This place is going to be buzzing with celebrities every year for a few months if Thrones of Blood is renewed, and even if it’s not Daniel is famous enough…
” he blushed again, “…to bring in some tourism. I put out jobs for cleaners, front of house and a sous chef on the weekend and already I’ve had tons of applications.
I’ll be managing the restaurants and Mum will manage the hotel, but between us we should be able to take holidays for the first time in years. ”
“I’m so, so excited for you,” said James with a genuine smile. Once again I found myself glad that Llywelyn had found him. Daniel squeezed my hip gently.
Dinky wriggled in James’ arms. “Right, we should be off,” he said. “That’s enough excitement for one little pup.”
We bade our goodbyes to Llywelyn and James and then closed the door behind us. The hotel was quiet. Mam had gone down to the local pub for the evening - one of the many nights off she’d managed to sneak in since we had no guests during the renovation.
“I took the BBC detective job,” he said quietly. “They’ll be filming in Aberystwyth from next month.”
“I’m so bloody proud of you,” I said. I pulled him in for a kiss and he gladly gave back.
“Come on,” I said. I took him by the hand and led him to our room.
Our relationship was strong enough for him to spend weeks away at a time filming.
We were definitely having enough sex in between to make up for it.
The room still looked almost identical to when Danny had first seen it, but that was next on my list of things to change.
Now the customer facing side of the hotel was done I was determined to have our living just as comfortable as my Hollywood man deserved.
As soon as the door closed behind us I pulled Daniel in for another kiss.
His fingers danced along my waistband before deftly undoing the top button of my trousers.
Just his touch was enough to make me achingly hard and my cock strained against my trousers.
Danny pulled the zip down and released me from the confines of my trousers and boxers in one swift motion.