Page 75 of Just Like in the Movies

‘I did.’

He lifted her fingers and kissed the knuckles, just as Brynn arrived with her lemon-tini.

‘Here you go, Honey, although it doesn’t look to me like you need it,’ Brynn said with a conspiratorial smile which made Luke chuckle before the bar owner left again.

Lifting the frosty glass, Luke handed it to her. ‘Here, drink up, you’re gonna need it.’

She picked the lemon slice off the rim and took a quick sip of the citrusy cocktail. ‘Why?’

‘Because tonight we’re going to the preview of my mom’s one-woman show.’

Ruby let out a delighted laugh, the burst of relief flooding through her veins with the liquor. ‘But that’s …’

Wonderful. Amazing. Awe-inspiring. And not a goodbye. Not yet.

‘Likely to be painfully cheesy,’ Luke supplied with a playful shudder which made her feel as if she had just landed in Oz. ‘I need you with me, to protect me from death by a thousand clichés.’

‘You shouldn’t talk like that about Helena Devlin,’ she said taking a jauntier sip of her lemon-tini. ‘I’m sure h

er show is going to be incredible.’

And Ruby was going to be one of the first people to see it.

‘Your mum is an icon,’ she added.

But it wasn’t Helena’s status as an actress, a performer, a personality, even a legendary love goddess that was making Ruby so excited.

Tonight she was going to get the chance to meet Luke’s mother. And sleep with him. Again.

After her brief conversation with Helena over the phone all those weeks ago, and years of devouring her exploits in movie magazines, and the few things that Luke had let drop about her, Ruby would always have been curious and excited to meet her.

But what intrigued her most of all now was the thought of seeing Helena with her son, and getting a new insight into the man she’d fallen in— She cut off the thought, hastily reconfigured it … Fallen in lust with.

‘Don’t you dare tell her that,’ he said, sending her a quelling smile over the neck of his beer bottle. ‘Or this is going to be an even bigger ordeal.’

‘Bring it on,’ she said, clinking her glass with Luke’s bottle, and sending heartfelt thanks to whoever might be watching over her tonight.

Chapter 16

‘Devlin? Luke Devlin? Luke? Look this way.’

‘Who’s the pretty lady with you, Luke?’

‘Are you looking forward to your mother’s show?’

The photographers’ shouts hounded Luke across the red carpet, which seemed to go on forever, making him doubt his kneejerk decision to bring Ruby to his mom’s show every step of the way.

What the fuck were you thinking, inviting Ruby to this shitshow?

He kept his hand anchored to Ruby’s hip as he escorted her across the zoned off area toward the entrance of the National Theatre. The monolithic theatre complex’s Brutalist façade rose up on the South Bank of the Thames, the stacked grey concrete floors starting to reflect Luke’s ugly mood.

If the press figured out who Ruby was, his cover would be blown at The Royale.

A micro-celebrity he didn’t recognize stopped to pose for the cameras in front of them and he had to break his stride to stop from barrelling right through the woman.

The shouted questions became more urgent, more insistent, and even more intrusive.

‘Who’s your father Luke?’