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  “You’d like to think of us showering together for all those years, wouldn’t you?” She shook her head, loving the line of his thinking, but refusing to admit it.

  He opened the door, and they entered the ranch house where most of the filming was done. Valerie had once asked why they didn’t sleep in the house. The short answer was, they wanted it kept ready for filming at all times.

  Steven was waiting for them both. “Make-up.”

  They wandered off to wardrobe to have their make-up done, and Valerie frowned. She was ready for their week off, so they wouldn’t be interrupted constantly.

  After their final scene that night, Steven called them both over. “I’ve got you two on the Night Show on Friday to talk about Lazy Love, but most especially your marriage.”

  “The Night Show?” Valerie squeaked. “Really?”

  “You said you wanted to do all the shows. There was a cancellation, so they put you two in the slot.”

  “So are we wrapping early on Friday so we can fly to New York?” she asked.

  Steven nodded. “Producers decided it was worth it to get the extra publicity for the show.”

  Jesse wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “We can catch a play while we’re there if you want.”

  “I’d like that. Anything to take my mind off the Night Show.”

  Jesse nodded to Steven and started walking toward her trailer with her. “How did you ever get to be an actress when you absolutely abhor being in front of people?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t mind being in front of people if someone provides me with a script. After I messed up that one interview that got me pegged as Valerie the Virgin for the rest of my days, I decided I didn’t ever want to be in front of people without a script again.”

  “I don’t blame you for that, I guess. If you want, I’ll make sure everyone knows you’re no longer a virgin on the show.”

  She pushed him playfully. “Don’t you dare! I would think the fact that we’re married would clue most people in enough that you don’t need to announce it.”

  He chuckled. “Well, I could give them a demonstration of how we kiss before we make love. Would that help?”

  “You know I think they’ve seen enough demonstrations of that on the show. They probably don’t need any more.”

  Jesse shook his head, as if saddened by her words. “You never let me have any fun.”

  “Well, if you don’t consider making love with me fun, I don’t know what you’ll call it!” She stopped walking and put her hands on her hips, glaring at him.

  “Oh, that? I call that essential for life.”

  She laughed, loving his easy teasing. “How did you ever live without it then?”

  “I don’t know that I’d call what I was doing living. Merely existing.” He gave a long-suffering sigh, and she slapped him playfully.

  “You’re crazy, you know.”

  “At least I’m fun crazy and not creepy crazy.”

  “Well, that’s true. You’d think I’d be able to find just one man in my life who wasn’t insane, though, wouldn’t you?”

  He acted all offended by her words as he opened the door to the trailer to let her precede him inside. “You’d think. Oh well. We’ll have fun anyway.”

  She stopped short as soon as she saw the table. “Did you have flowers brought in?”

  He hurried in and stopped when he saw the bouquet on the table. “No, I didn’t. You don’t know where those came from?”

  She shook her head, stiffening a little. “Curtis does that sometimes when he knows I’m upset. He won’t be here. He’s long gone.”

  “So how did he get them in your trailer?”

  She shrugged. “It wasn’t locked.” She tried to hide the shudder that ran through her body. It wasn’t over yet. It would never be over. Curtis wouldn’t let her be happily married to another man without constantly making her feel as if he was watching over her shoulder.

  Jesse opened the door and spotted one of the security guards. “Watch her for a minute,” and he led her down the steps to the man. “Have you seen Curtis around here?”

  The guard shook his head. “He was here this morning, but we ran him off.”

  “Looks like he left flowers on her table.”

  “You’re going to need to start locking up, Mr. Savoy.” The guard looked at Valerie. “Do you want me to check it out while you keep an eye on her?”

  “No, I’ll look.” Jesse hoped to find the other man hiding somewhere in the trailer. He knew it was perverse, but he wanted nothing more than to take out his frustration on the other man with his fists.

  He checked every space where someone could have hidden, but Valerie was right. Curtis wasn’t there.

  When he stepped back outside, he realized she was shaking. “Let’s drive into town and stay there tonight. There’s a small hotel in Wiggieville.” He couldn’t let her stay in a place where she wouldn’t feel safe, and there’s no way she could feel safe in that trailer after Curtis was just there.

  She let out a shuddering breath before nodding. She wanted to protest that she wouldn’t be run out of her own home, but she didn’t have it in her. She couldn’t stay there knowing he’d been in her trailer within the last couple of hours. “All right.”

  “I’m going to pack a bag. Wait here.”

  She stood with the guard, whose name she didn’t even know, shifting from foot to foot. “Thank you for waiting with me.”

  He nodded. “I’m sorry you’re having to deal with him, Mrs. Savoy. Some men just don’t know how to take the word no.”

  “Yeah.” She wasn’t about to explain anything to him, and she was more than a little relieved to see Jesse leaving the trailer and heading toward her. He had a suitcase in one hand and her purse in the other.

  “Thought you’d want this,” Jesse said, handing her the purse. “Are you ready?”

  “Yup.” She didn’t know what else to say. All she wanted to do was get away from there.

  He led her to his car, and she climbed into the passenger seat. “I’m so sorry,” she said, mumbling the words as she brushed a tear from her cheek.

  “What are you apologizing for?”

  “For getting you into this mess. You shouldn’t have to be taking your wife off in the middle of the night because some freak doesn’t know how to leave her alone.”

  Jesse shook his head. “I knew what I was getting into when I married you.”

  “You couldn’t have known how bad it would be,” she protested.

  He shrugged. “I had an idea. I hope you know you’re worth it to me. And so much more.”

  She frowned. “Wouldn’t you rather I had no boyfriends in my past, and it was just you and me without having to look over our shoulders, though?”

  “Of course, I would. Mainly because that would save you a lot of fright and embarrassment. It’s not your fault, though. I don’t blame you for any of this.” He pulled out onto the road and drove toward Wiggieville. “Do you know if he’s ever seen a psychiatrist?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t. I could ask my mom.”

  “I think that’s a good idea. If he’s seen someone for this kind of behavior in the past, we might be able to build a case, and get him into a psychiatric hospital.”

  She pulled her phone from her pocket. “Hey, Mom. I have a question for you. Do you know if Curtis has ever gotten help for his problems? Psychiatrist, counselor? Anything like that?” She listened for a moment. “Okay, thanks.”

  “Mom’s going to find out. She wasn’t sure, but she said it seemed as if he had.”

  “Okay, good.” He reached over and took her hand, holding it tightly. “You know you’re going to be fine, right?”

  “I know you’re going to try to take care of me.” And I’m going to take care of myself.

  He pulled into a small hotel twenty minutes later, and she waited while he checked them in. When he got back to the car, he rubbed the back of his neck. “Do you have any more of those promoti
onal photos of us?”

  “Yeah, I always carry a few.” She picked her purse up, glad that he’d thought to grab it before leaving. “Desk clerk knew you?”

  He nodded. “And when I said I needed a room for two, he had read we’d gotten married. He said his wife would never believe him and asked for autographs.”

  “We’ll sign them for him before we go up.” She had no problems signing autographs. It was always easy to slip away once she had.

  “Do you ever get tired of the fans always hounding us for autographs?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “I’m just thankful the fans are paying the bills. I think of them as my bosses.”

  He laughed. “I guess I never thought of it that way.”

  “Without them, we’d just be a couple of people playacting in our spare time.” She meant her words too. She was in the entertainment industry, and she knew she was good at what she did. But if there was no one to entertain, she’d be waiting tables.

  “Good point!” He grabbed the suitcase he’d packed from the backseat. “After you.”

  They stopped at the front desk and she took out the picture she had, signing it quickly to the front desk clerk’s wife and then having Jesse do the same. “I hope she likes it.”

  The man, in his late forties, stood with a goofy grin on his face. “She’s going to love it, and I will be the best man alive for a few hours.”

  Valerie laughed. “Enjoy your time as the king of the world then!”

  “Oh, trust me I will. I’m in the doghouse right now, so this is just what I need to get out again. Thank you so much!”

  Jesse smiled, nodding to the man, and heading for the elevator. “You handle one-on-one fan encounters a lot better than I do.”

  “Which is a good thing, because you handle the interviews so much better. I’m really worried about Friday night.” She just knew she was going to slip up and say something stupid again. Just so her sex life didn’t get discussed, she’d be good. Of course, her sex life was always discussed at interviews.

  Jesse shrugged. “Don’t be. I’ll do most of the talking.”

  “What if they bring up that awful name?” she asked as he opened the door to their room with the keycard.

  “I’ll tell them that you said you’d be a virgin ‘til you married, and you were. We can leave it at that.”

  She shook her head. “I hate the fact that they call me that.”

  “I bet they don’t call you that anymore. We’re married now, and people have seen the heat between us. There’s no way anyone thinks you’re still a virgin.”

  “I wonder what they’d say if they knew we’d waited a couple of nights.”

  “Who cares?” he asked. “What we did after we married was our own business. No one has any right to know, and even if they did, it wouldn’t matter.” He locked the door behind him, and set the suitcase down.

  “It wouldn’t matter to you, because the paparazzi hasn’t been obsessed with your sex life for the past four years.”

  He grinned. “No, they haven’t, because I haven’t had one.”

  “About that—Amber told me that you really haven’t been with a woman since you met me. Is that true?”

  He shrugged. “Does it matter?”

  “It does to me.” If he’d truly been celibate since meeting her, that meant that his feelings for her were stronger than she’d realized. His sex drive was strong, and going without for her was almost unbelievable.

  “I haven’t. I had a girlfriend the day I met you, but we weren’t serious. We’d been dating for a couple of months. I broke up with her the next day. I knew I only had eyes for you.”

  “I feel like I’ve been running around with blinders on for the past four years.” Valerie shook her head. “Why was I the only one who didn’t know how you felt?”

  “I honestly don’t think you wanted to know. Even the security guards knew. I was the butt of every joke.”

  “It didn’t bother you?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “I’m a big boy. I could take it. I couldn’t help my feelings for you, and I didn’t want to. Loving you, whether or not you ever love me back, has made me a better man. I’ve had someone besides myself to focus my energies and attentions on.”

  She took his hand and led him to the huge king sized bed in the middle of the room, sitting down on the foot of the bed. “I think you’re the best man I’ve ever known.”

  “You do, do you? And you’re not just saying that because you know I’m in love with you, and you can’t honestly say the words back?”

  Her heart jumped into her throat. She knew she was close to being able to say the words back, but she wouldn’t. Not yet. Not until she was completely certain that she meant them. And not until she knew Curtis was out of her life forever. “I thought that before we ever married. I had a lot of respect for you as an actor and as a person. You were my friend, whether Curtis liked it or not.”

  He put his arm around her, pulling her toward him. “You know, I’m happier than I’ve ever been. I don’t like the whole Curtis thing looming over us, but I’m married to the woman I’ve loved for years. I get to take you to bed every night and make love to you, and I get to work with you all day every day. You are the center of my life.”

  She frowned. “I still feel inadequate. I don’t feel like I deserve that kind of love.”

  “Whether you deserve it or not, you have it, and it’ll never go anywhere. If I spend the rest of my life waiting for the words, then I do. You’re the one that I love. I could break into song, but no one wants to hear that.”

  She laughed. “Thank you. Thank you for choosing me as the object of your love and affection.”

  He squeezed her hand. “I’m glad to have you beside me.”

  CHAPTER 7

  Jesse took Valerie to the police station the following morning so they could take out the restraining order. She hated having to explain her history to the police officer, who obviously knew her from the show.

  Officer Hamilton was kind but pointed with his questions. “Did you ask him to leave you alone?”

  “I broke off our relationship, and I work on a closed set. He’s continuing to send me notes, and he entered my trailer last night to leave me flowers.” Valerie clung to Jesse’s hand while she answered the questions.

  “Did you feel threatened by the flowers?”

  She nodded. “I felt threatened by the fact that he entered my living space without me there. I will start locking my trailer.” It had never seemed important to lock it, because the set was supposed to be closed. Not that it mattered with Curtis.

  Officer Hamilton looked at Jesse. “Do you feel as if your wife is in any kind of danger?”

  Jesse glanced at Valerie, not wanting to make her uncomfortable, but knowing everything needed to be said. “Yes, I do. I know he’s abused her for the past four years.”

  The officer’s face remained passive. “Why didn’t you end the relationship before now, Mrs. Savoy?”

  Valerie took a deep breath, wishing she could explain her behavior in ways that made sense to people who had never been in the same situation. “I was afraid to. He threatened me often, and I was afraid he would hurt my family or myself.” She glanced at Jesse. “I don’t know that I could have done it this time if Jesse hadn’t heard the commotion and come to help me.”

  “What commotion would that be?”

  Valerie’s eyes met the officer’s. “He threw a vase at me and hit the wall beside my head. The sound of it breaking brought Jesse running.”

  The officer made a note. “And this happened when?”

  “Friday afternoon,” Jesse answered for her.

  “And you were married when?”

  Valerie’s face flushed. “Late Friday night.”

  “Were you planning to marry before this incident?”

  Jesse was sick of the questions. “I’ve been in love with Valerie for four years now. As soon as she was single, I begged her to marry me. I did it partially to protect
her from her former boyfriend. There were no plans to marry before she broke it off with Curtis, but I would have welcomed a marriage at any point for the past four years.”

  “So the two of you weren’t having an affair while she was in a relationship with him?”

  Valerie felt sick to her stomach at the question. “No, sir, we weren’t. We had never even kissed unless it was called for in the script before Friday afternoon.”

  Jesse frowned at the officer. “She’s telling the truth, though I don’t know why it matters. Even if we had been having an affair, which we weren’t, he had no right to hit her. Ever.”

  “No, of course, he didn’t.” The man continued to make notes while Valerie stared at her hands. Finally, he stood up. “Thank you for your answers.”

  Jesse shook hands with him. “He’ll be arrested if he gets too close to her?”

  “Yes, of course.” Officer Hamilton looked uncomfortable for a moment. “I admire your work. Your show is one of my favorites on television. I love that it’s filmed so close to Wiggieville.”

  “Thank you,” Valerie said with a smile. She couldn’t not react well to a fan, even one who had made her feel cheap.

  Jesse put his arm around her shoulders and guided her out to the car. “I hate that you had to go through that.”

  She shrugged. “It’s part of this lovely mess I’ve made of my life.”

  He turned to her in the car, his hand gripping hers tightly, trying to pass his strength to her. “You didn’t make a mess of your life. And you’re doing a great job of cleaning up the mess he made.”

  She leaned into him, her face going to his shoulder. “I’m glad I have you to lean on when I’m not feeling so strong.”

  He tilted her face up to his, kissing her sweetly. “You know, I’m happy to be here for you.”

  She nodded. “You’re the type who would have been there for anyone.”

  “I am. But it’s so much easier with you.”

  She sighed. “We have to get back to the set before Steven comes looking for us.” She moved over to buckle her seat belt while he started the car.