Wedding Promises

If nothing else, it was definitely not a boring dress.

She might not be as beautiful as Melissa, in her pale pink gown that showed off every curve and slender line of that famous body, and she knew she couldn’t live up to the beauties Noah usually had on his arm. But, in this dress, Eloise felt beautiful in herself. And that was enough for her.

The restaurant floor was already buzzing by the time Eloise arrived. Whereas a more normal wedding might just have a rehearsal dinner for the wedding party and family members, Melissa and Riley had wanted a wedding extravaganza and that was what Laurel and Eloise had given them. For the rehearsal dinner—ignoring the fact they hadn’t actually had a rehearsal of the wedding itself because Melissa said she’d played a bride on screen often enough to know what to do—they were holding another drinks reception in the bar area, then a special dinner for all the guests in the restaurant. The wedding party, along with Melissa and Riley’s families, would then retire to a private room, where they could do the usual speeches and gift presentations.

‘Now that is a dress.’ Noah’s voice, warm and appreciative, behind her, was already so familiar that Eloise smiled even as she turned to face him.

‘Somehow, I had a feeling you might like this one.’

‘I do.’ He raked his gaze up and down her body and for once Eloise didn’t even blush. He’d seen more, after all. ‘It looks fantastic on you.’

‘But let me guess.’ Eloise leant closer to keep her words private. ‘It would look better off.’

Noah met her gaze and smiled, and Eloise knew there was a promise in that smile. ‘That goes without saying.’

‘You’re in a good mood,’ Eloise said, taking in his sparkling eyes.

‘I just gave the best audition of my life, over video chat.’

‘For the part? Eight Days After?’

‘That’s the one.’ Noah grinned again, as if he couldn’t quite bring himself to stop. ‘If they don’t give me the part after that, then they never would have. I gave it everything and was pretty darned good too.’

Eloise wondered what it must be like to live with that sort of self-confidence, even if only in a professional sphere. ‘You found a way to go deeper, then?’

‘Yes.’ His expression dropped into something more serious, but so compelling Eloise couldn’t have looked away if she’d wanted to. ‘You. You helped me talk about Sally, helped me examine what I felt back then, so I could transfer it to the character. I’d been putting off dealing with that for a long time.’

‘I’m not sure one conversation counts as dealing with it,’ Eloise warned. Grief was a tricky thing—especially when it had been blocked and ignored as long as Noah’s had.

‘But it’s a start,’ he said. ‘And I have you to thank for it. However can I repay you?’ His lips curved up into a smile again, but this one felt more intimate. More seductive.

‘I have some ideas...’ she said.

Noah leant in, just a little more, and in a flash Eloise remembered where they were—in the middle of the bar, surrounded by celebrities and at least one photographer. She pulled back, and spotted Melissa watching them from across the room. She didn’t look happy.

‘Time to mingle.’ Eloise gave him an apologetic smile. ‘But I’ll see you later?’

‘Most definitely.’ She felt Noah’s eyes on her as she walked away and she knew, deep down, he was definitely imagining her naked. And she loved knowing that.

She spent the drinks reception chatting with the other guests, many of whom she’d failed to speak to at all before then—a side effect of being so caught up with Noah, she supposed. Since many of them just expected her to nod and smile politely as she listened to them regale her with their best stories of celebrity life, she had plenty of time left for daydreaming about the night ahead, once she and Noah were alone again.

Tonight, there would be no secrets between them. No emotional outpourings and confessions.

Just them, and one perfect night before the wedding from hell.

She couldn’t wait.

Eventually, it was time for the party to move through to the restaurant for the dinner. Eloise groaned inside when she spotted the menu, and remembered that Melissa had wanted a seven-course tasting menu, with matching wines. Add in the speeches and the gifts for the groomsmen and bridesmaids and it would be hours before she could escape with Noah.

Then she saw him, sitting beside her place at the table, and realised there was no way she was going to make it that long.

‘You switched the place settings,’ she whispered as she slid into her seat. ‘Melissa will be mad.’

‘It’s worth it,’ Noah replied. ‘I’m not taking the chance of another groomsman seducing you away from me while you’re wearing that dress.’

‘You get very territorial over your flings, don’t you?’

‘Not usually.’ Noah frowned just a little, then glanced around to make sure no one was listening. Leaning in, he murmured, ‘Look, I reckon I can make it through maybe two of these taster courses before I have to have you again. So, when I leave, wait a couple of minutes and follow me, okay?’

Heat flared through Eloise’s body. Just knowing he wanted her as much as she needed him was an incredible aphrodisiac. Still, the more sensible part of her brain was screaming that this was a stupid idea. It was the rehearsal dinner! They would definitely be missed, and Melissa would be furious if she realised where they’d gone...

She should say no. She had to say no.

‘Okay,’ she whispered, and Noah smiled.

* * *

A storage cupboard wasn’t exactly high on Noah’s list of Most Seductive Spots, but right now he’d take what he could get. Sitting next to Eloise in that dress and not touching her—not even a hand on her back or a kiss on her cheek—had been physically painful.

And okay, fine. It wasn’t the dress that was causing the problem.

It was her.

In lots of ways, it was just as well that in two days’ time there’d be thousands of miles between them. Any less and he’d be tempted to hurry back and have her again, regardless of the rules.

He just hoped five thousand miles would be enough.

Time passed excruciatingly slowly as he waited to hear Eloise’s footsteps in the corridor outside. Surely it had to have been three minutes since he’d left the table? He’d chosen the cupboard for its proximity to the restaurant, and the fact he could see out the crack of the open door to watch for Eloise. Any further away and he’d run the risk of her not finding him. And that was not an option.

But right now he had to think about something else. Imagining Eloise was driving him insane, and if he didn’t slow down that dress she looked so incredible in wouldn’t survive its first encounter with his hands.

Think about the film. The audition. Noah smiled in the darkness. The director had pretty much offered him the role on the spot, he’d been so impressed. Noah had managed to channel all those emotions he’d been repressing into the part, just as he’d planned. And, yes, it had stung—but it wasn’t quite so painful when it was a character feeling those things instead of himself. He could do it, he knew now. He’d do the part justice; he’d win that award—and he could move on and leave all the awful pain and emotion behind him when he did.

Stefan had reiterated Tessa’s point about how important it would be to keep his personal life low-key, so the focus would be on the film not the stars, and Noah had agreed readily. Whatever he had with Eloise would be over soon enough and afterwards...he didn’t think he’d be hurrying into anything else for a while. He could take a break.

He’d dropped Tessa an email to let her know how it went, then hurried straight down to the rehearsal dinner to tell Eloise, to celebrate with her.

And what a celebration he had planned...

Apparently it was impossible to think about anything but her.

Finally, the restaurant door swung open and Eloise stepped out, her cheeks flushed with more than just wine, he was sure. She’d sat so tense beside him at dinner, he was certain she’d been resisting her urges almost as hard as he had.

It was hard to imagine that when he’d first met her he’d thought her reserved and stand-offish. Maybe with others. But with him she was a free spirit, giving everything she got and more.

He waited until Eloise was about to walk past the cupboard, then reached out a hand and dragged her inside. She squeaked with surprise, but then her hands were slipping under his jacket and up his back so he didn’t think she was too traumatised.

‘That was excruciating,’ she murmured against his neck, as he lifted her to rest against a conveniently located pile of boxes.

‘You’re telling me.’ He nudged her knees open with his hips and stepped between them, pressing up against her body. ‘I almost didn’t make it past the first course.’

‘I noticed.’ Her hands moved round to the front and unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt, and she leant in to kiss along his collarbone. ‘I thought you were going to drag me out of there ten minutes ago. Or maybe just take me on the table, in front of everyone.’

‘Not very secret, that.’ He slid his hands up her bare thighs.

‘No, not very secret.’

For a moment he held his breath, waiting for her to say something more. To say it didn’t have to be a secret. To say that she wanted the whole world to know about them. That she didn’t care what Melissa or anyone else said about them. That she trusted him not to let them mock her in the press.

But she didn’t. And she shouldn’t. Because that wasn’t the deal they had. It wasn’t even what he wanted really, logically.

This was a fling. That was what she’d asked for, what he’d promised.

So that was what he had to give her.

Even if he was starting to feel as if he wanted more.

As if he wanted everything.

‘I’ve never had sex in a cupboard before,’ she murmured against his ear, and Noah dragged himself back to focus on what he could have. Eloise, here and now, wanting him. ‘You’re providing me with all sorts of new experiences this week.’

‘I’m a full service secret fling,’ Noah said, untying the back of her halter-neck and lowering the zip to reveal her bare breasts. ‘No bra?’

‘Seemed like a waste of time.’ Eloise gasped as he dipped his head to kiss her.

‘Agreed,’ he said when he came up for air. ‘Now, let’s see what else you’re not wearing under this—’

A flash of light cut him off as the cupboard door he was leaning against opened, sending him tumbling into the hallway, pulling Eloise with him. He blinked at another flash and saw Melissa, Sara the journalist and her photographer standing over them.

And suddenly nothing was secret any more.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

ELOISE YANKED HER dress back up, trying to make herself respectable again, even though the sinking feeling inside told her it was already far too late.

Scrambling to his feet, Noah pushed her behind him, giving her the cover she needed to fix her dress. But his shirt was still open, exposing exactly what they’d been doing.

Not that anyone could be in any doubt after that display.

What had she been thinking? She’d known this was a terrible idea from the start. But then Noah would say something to convince her and there she’d be, half naked in a cupboard.

Or outside a cupboard. With her teenage nemesis arching her eyebrows and the world’s media taking photos.

‘Well, really,’ Melissa said too loudly, her words echoing off the walls. ‘Some people just don’t know how to behave at a respectable wedding, do they?’

Eloise wanted to ask her to keep it down before anyone else heard and came out to investigate, but that was probably why Melissa was doing it in the first place, she realised. She hadn’t managed to keep Eloise and Noah apart, so she’d decided to go the other way. If they were intent on stealing the limelight at her wedding, she was going to ruin them.

Abject humiliation. Melissa wouldn’t settle for anything less than making sure Eloise’s whole world knew who she was and what she’d done—the same way she had when they were teenagers and the guy Melissa had a crush on asked Eloise out instead. Soon, the whole school knew every story about Eloise’s mother and believed that she was just the same and the guy never spoke to her again.

The only difference was that this time Melissa had made sure the actual whole world would know, through the power of the media and the Internet.

Never mind the humiliation Eloise’s mother’s antics had brought her over the years, this was a million times worse. And the most awful part was that she’d done it all herself. There was no one to blame except her own suddenly overactive libido...and the secret part of her heart that hoped to be something more than a fling to someone like Noah Cross.

She’d had ideas of her own importance, her own entitlement to the spotlight—and now she’d been burned.

‘Melissa, come on,’ Noah said, laughing lightly as he tried to reach for the photographer’s camera. She stepped back out of his reach and Eloise knew that no one in their right mind would give those photos up. Noah Cross, caught in the act? That had to be worth a fortune.

And nobody would care if her reputation was shredded in the process.

She had to get out of there. She had to get a million miles away from this spotlight, right now.

‘I have to go.’

Holding her dress in place, she pushed past Noah and the others and ran towards the lifts. She could hear him behind her, calling her name, making excuses, but she couldn’t turn back, couldn’t listen.

This wasn’t her world, even if Noah and Melissa’s celebrity lives had infiltrated Morwen Hall. Soon they’d be gone and she could get back to quietly living down her mother’s reputation. To her responsible, boring, staid and lonely existence.

It had to be better than the shame and humiliation burning through her right now.

* * *

Noah watched Eloise run away and had to force himself not to chase after her. She didn’t want this—she’d made that clear from the start.

This was his fault. She’d wanted secret and in his desperation he’d ruined that.

And now he had to fix it.

‘So, Noah. Any quote to go with our pictures?’ Sara asked, holding out her phone and showing it was recording. Another part of his life on the record.

He’d wanted to tell the world about him and Eloise. But not like this.

Stefan. The part. He’d promised he wouldn’t do this, promised he’d keep things low-key. And this was pretty much the opposite. The role he’d thought he had nailed—this could ruin everything. Send him back to playing brainless action figures for another seven years. Unless he could convince people that things with him and Eloise were serious, something more than a fling. Maybe then he’d get a second chance from Stefan...

The idea was intoxicating. He could play at love with Eloise, enjoy what they had for a little longer, until it came to its natural conclusion when no one cared and the world wasn’t watching. He could still have everything he wanted if Eloise went along with it, if he lied... He could turn this round, still be the good guy maybe.

But first he had to get a handle on himself, on all the emotions rushing through him at the speed of light. As if, after spending so many years not feeling them, now he’d let them in they were making up for lost time. Embarrassment, fear, anger, lust—they all surged through him, swirling around into a toxic mix that left him close to losing it.

No. He wasn’t that man. He’d never been the celebrity yelling at reporters or causing a scene. He wouldn’t start now—not least because it would only make things worse for Eloise, and he couldn’t do that to her.

Cold realisation flooded through him. The only thing he could really do now was protect Eloise. Even if it meant giving up on the part he wanted so much. Because he couldn’t promise her for ever, couldn’t ask her to act out a sham relationship. Couldn’t break her heart a few months down the line when she realised that what she saw really was all he had to give—there was nothing deeper.

He couldn’t hurt her any more than he had to. And the only way through this with minimum casualties was to lessen the impact of what had happened.

Which meant pretending it was nothing at all.

He couldn’t do it—couldn’t pretend what he and Eloise had was nothing. It might not be everything but it was something. He couldn’t deny Eloise that way, not after everything she’d done for him.

Except he was doing this for her. So he had to.

Maybe he couldn’t. But Noah Cross, celebrity, notorious womaniser and charmer could.

It took only a second to switch on the character—the one he’d been playing since the day Sally died. It was so familiar that, until this week, he might even have said it was the real him.

But it wasn’t. He knew that now. He’d found the person he was underneath all that scar tissue. He just wasn’t sure if he’d ever let him out again, except for when he was in character.

‘What is there to say?’ he said with a shrug and a crooked smile. ‘You know how it is at weddings. All that romance in the air. A fling always makes it a little more entertaining, right?’ He cringed inside as he remembered saying the same thing to Eloise at the welcome drinks. Could that really have only been two days ago?

‘So, it’s nothing serious is what you’re saying,’ Sara pressed.

Noah forced himself to laugh, to sound as light-hearted and as uncaring as he should be about the situation, trying not to think what Stefan would think. ‘Sara, I’d think you—and the rest of the world—know me a little better than that by now.’

‘So, just business as usual for Noah Cross then,’ Sara said. ‘Another wedding, another woman.’

‘Basically.’ This felt so wrong. Even though he was only telling the truth, saying what he and Eloise had agreed should be the case, he could tell by the creeping sense of shame filling him that something had changed.

Eloise wasn’t just a fling. Wasn’t just another woman.

Except she had to be. And he needed to rebuild his walls to keep her behind them before he left.

Especially if he wanted to save her from a mauling in the media and Melissa’s wrath.

‘She’s nothing to me,’ he lied, ‘and I’m nothing to her. Just a spot of fun. Now, if you’ll excuse me...’ He started to move towards the elevators, hoping to catch up with Eloise, but Melissa grabbed his arm and dragged him around the other way.

‘Absolutely! We’ve got a rehearsal dinner to finish, remember, best man?’

‘Right.’ Noah smiled weakly and went back to work.

Eloise would have to wait.

* * *

Another night with no sleep, Eloise thought as the sun peeked over the horizon the next morning, hazy behind the grey winter clouds. And this time for far less satisfaction than the night before.

She hadn’t had the courage to go back to the rehearsal dinner, although she suspected Noah had. She’d heard him banging on her door around midnight, asking her to let him in, but she’d ignored him. Maybe he’d thought she was asleep, or angry, or out. She didn’t care. Eventually he’d grown tired and left her in peace.

Not that it had been very peaceful.

She’d stripped off that wretched dress and curled up in her warmest, softest pyjamas, make-up removed and hair brushed out. She’d cocooned herself in her duvet and tried to forget, tried to sleep. But every time she closed her eyes all she could see was that camera flash and Melissa’s arched eyebrows.

How could she have been so stupid? How could she have put herself in a position to let Melissa humiliate her all over again? Melissa always had to be the queen bee, had to have the highest profile. It was her wedding. Of course she was going to obsess about it being all about her. And, yes, she had Riley—hot up-and-coming star. But in Melissa’s world Noah was a bigger catch, one who’d eluded capture by every woman in Hollywood. Of course she was going to freak out about Eloise—sad, quiet little Eloise—sleeping with him. At her own wedding.

She was an idiot. All she’d needed to do was keep the lid on her libido until the wedding was over. How hard would that have been?

Eloise sighed. Impossible, apparently.

Eventually, she’d given up on sleep and logged onto the Internet on her tablet, refreshing Sara’s magazine pages until the exclusive she’d known was coming flashed up on the screen at last.

There she was. Eyes wide from the camera flash, her hand wrapped over her chest covering her nudity. Noah lay underneath her on the floor, then in later photos stood in front of her, looking mussed but gorgeous. Charmingly contrite having been caught, his shirt open a little too far, his hair ruffled beyond the usual fashionable mess. He could have stepped out of an advert for aftershave, not been caught falling out of a cupboard moments before having sex.

Whereas she... There was no doubt what she’d been doing. She looked exactly the type of girl Melissa had always told people she was.

Why could men get away with that sort of behaviour and women couldn’t?

Bracing herself, Eloise scanned down through all the photos to the text underneath.

Since half of Hollywood has decamped to England for the wedding of Melissa Sommers and Riley Black, we can report exclusively from Morwen Hall on all the wedding high jinks! Starting with this gem from the rehearsal dinner—best man Noah Cross has found some entertainment to make the week even more fun than Melissa and Riley planned: seducing the maid of honour!

It went on to detail who she was, how she knew Melissa and why she’d stepped in at the last minute.

Then it got to what really mattered.

So could this be true love for eternal bachelor Noah? Apparently not.

He said, ‘She’s nothing to me, and I’m nothing to her. You know how it is at weddings... A fling always makes it a little more entertaining.’

Looks like we’ll have to wait a little longer to see Noah walk down the aisle himself!

Eloise threw her tablet down onto the covers and wished she’d never looked.

Of course he’d said that. He’d never suggested anything else—in fact he’d said practically the same thing to her at the welcome drinks. She’d known what she was getting into. Like he’d told her the night before—he never gave his women false expectations, never fell for them, and never ever told them he loved them.

He played fair. It was only her heart that had cheated.

She’d been so sure that she could play the same game he did, that it wasn’t the same as her mother’s games if no one mentioned love. But, in the end, she’d ended up exactly where all her mother’s men had: alone, heartbroken, her reputation in tatters and everyone talking about her. It was exactly the way she’d felt after she’d found her mother sleeping with her boyfriend, or the day she’d realised that her university boyfriend had been using her all along—stupid, naive, gullible and humiliated.

She was just where she’d always promised herself she’d never be again. And all thanks to Noah Cross.

Because she’d let herself believe, just for a moment, that what they had could be something more than either of them had promised each other. That it could be for real—not a secret, not a fling, not anything to hide or be ashamed of.

And that moment was all that it took for her to fall head over heels in love with Noah.

Closing her eyes, Eloise fell back against the bed and swore softly. Turned out she really was every bit as stupid and naive as Melissa had always told her she was.

* * *

Noah awoke feeling worse than any hangover had ever left him and he hadn’t drunk more than a glass of wine the night before. He’d stuck the rehearsal dinner out until the bitter end, flinching when Melissa told the guests that Eloise had gone to bed with a headache. By midday they’d all know exactly why she’d gone to bed, he knew, but at least the lie had preserved her peace and dignity for a few more hours.