Romy Sommer - To Catch a Star

And right now what she wanted more than anything was to see his ring, find out his secrets, and get back to her own life. Her neat, organised, quiet life where her pre-programmed stations were inviolate and a man’s gaze didn’t have the power to burn her.

Christian studied her. “You’ve lived your whole life here in Westerwald, and I’m going to bet you haven’t travelled much beyond these borders either.”

“I love my home,” she said, immediately on the defensive. “I don’t need to go anywhere else.” He’d touched a raw spot.

“You’ve never seen a different view of the world. You’ve spent your whole life in your neat, white world, being a big fish in a very small pond. You’re too scared to leave. Am I right?”

The raw spot grew even more tender. “Now who’s being judgie? Are you trying to get me back for last night? I apologised for everything I said. In my defence, I thought I was being car-jacked.”

“Tell me about these escaped convicts you’re so afraid of.”

Another subject she didn’t want to dwell on. But perhaps if she shared a few confidences, Christian would be willing to open up further too. “My father was a judge, and he convicted the two drug dealers for murder. They had a parole hearing last week and somehow on the way to court they managed to escape. My father’s afraid they’ll try to get revenge on him through me.”

“No shit! So you thought it would be a good idea to come work for me? Thanks a lot.” But he smiled. Having seen him wield a sword, she wasn’t surprised he was unafraid. She had no doubt he’d be able to take good care of himself in a fight.

“I didn’t really take the threat seriously – until you jumped into my car. Besides, I’m pretty sure they’re long gone by now. Would you hang around in Westerwald if you had a bounty on your head?”

He laughed. “Last night I felt like I had a bounty on my head, and I was more than ready to get out of town.” He sobered up. “From now on we travel with my car. The driver’s also a trained bodyguard.”

She sighed. Exactly what she didn’t want. “You’re as bad as my father. I’m not going to change the way I live my life for some vague danger. Then the bad guys will have won.”

Christian said nothing, and she flicked a glance his way. She didn’t like the way he looked at her. As if he was seeing her in a whole new light. Not unlike a hungry person eyeing a tasty meal.

She didn’t like the idea of him giving her too much thought at all.

“And your mother – what does she do?” he asked.

She shifted gears. “She’s dead,” she said at last.

“I’m sorry. Mine died recently too. Do you miss her?”

You couldn’t miss what you couldn’t remember. Tessa went back to being all business. “Your call time on set tomorrow is seven o’clock. I’ll be ready and waiting with your driver at six thirty. Would you like me to give you a wake-up call?”

“Join me for breakfast.”

Though the word “breakfast” was a misnomer, since he’d told her his idea of breakfast was espresso.

She floundered. Were meals part of the deal? She really should have checked.

“Or are you planning on sharing breakfast with your hot date?” he teased.

She set her jaw. “I’ll meet you at six in the hotel’s dining room.”

“I usually breakfast in my suite.”

“The dining room or not at all.”

“Yes ma’am!”

She turned into the tree-lined boulevard that housed The Grand Hotel. It lived up to its name, a grand eighteenth-century mansion converted into a hotel, with a park-like garden at the rear. It was private, exclusive and she couldn’t picture Christian, who was all vibrant energy, against the quiet, solemn, old-world interiors.

She pulled into the forecourt and kept the engine running. A valet leapt forward to open the door, but Christian waved him away.

“Is there anything else you need from me?” she asked.

When he didn’t answer, she looked across at him. There was a decidedly dangerous twinkle in his eyes that stopped her heart. She’d seen that look a hundred times and it couldn’t be from any movie. Why did he seem so familiar?

“Yes. I had a mishap with a dress shirt last night. Could you please arrange a replacement?” He opened his door and climbed out, then leaned back in to look at her. “Enjoy your date, but don’t stay up too late. We work pretty long hours in the movie business and you don’t want to burn yourself out.”

She nodded and he closed the door. He remained at the hotel’s front entrance until she disappeared from sight. Only then did her gaze leave the rear-view mirror.

“What do you mean you have a job?”

She hadn’t been sure Stefan was listening but now she knew she had his undivided attention. “It’s just a temporary thing, to help out my father.”

This was her ace. Stefan admired her father, though his respect was tempered with a healthy dose of fear.

She flipped her mobile to her other ear and reached for her wine glass. She’d never needed a drink as much as she did tonight. It had certainly been a rollercoaster twenty-four hours, and the crash course Anna had given her in how to be a PA had left her with a nagging headache.

“Are you working with him in Intelligence?”

Trust Stefan to find that impressive. She sighed. “Not exactly. I’m hand-holding a visiting celebrity.”

“Anyone I know?” There was a moment’s pause and she could easily picture Stefan on the other side of the line running through the list of visiting dignitaries – US state senators, ambassadors…

She sighed. “I doubt it. He’s an actor called Christian Taylor.”

Stefan whistled.

“You’ve heard of him?”

“Of course I’ve heard of him. Who hasn’t? That film where he single-handedly saves an entire city from terrorists was awesome.”

Awesome? She frowned. “I didn’t know you liked action movies.”

She worried her lip, pleased she hadn’t Skyped and he couldn’t see her face. Maybe knowing someone all your life didn’t mean you really knew them. And their courtship had been something of a whirlwind…

She shook her head, shaking off the niggling feeling that something wasn’t quite right. She was just tired, and there was still so much to do. When the wedding was over, this terrifying feeling of being suffocated would go away. She sipped her wine.

Stefan laughed into the silence. “I don’t work all the time. And spending as much time away from home as I do, sometimes the only way to relax is to tune in to a mindless movie.”

Mindless. Her point exactly. “What was the name of that film?” she asked.

“I can’t remember. Does it matter? I’ll check the internet for you… ” and that was Stefan, always willing to make the extra effort.

“It doesn’t matter.” She’d made her point. That was the thing with a movie. A couple of years later and the viewers could barely remember its name.

What Stefan did was much longer-lasting. As a policy consultant for Westerwald’s foreign affairs ministry, he had the power to shape the future, to affect people’s lives. Just as her father did, as the Archduke did. This was the world she was raised to be a part of. The world where what people did mattered.

Not the frippery world of make-believe in which people believed in their own importance and chased shallow dreams. And when those dreams couldn’t deliver, they invariably ended up dead. Or worse.

“He has a terrible reputation,” Stefan said.

“Who does?” Tessa asked, trying to back-pedal through her scattered thoughts.

“Christian Taylor. Apparently he’s something of a magnet for women.”

She shrugged. “I guess I can see the attraction.”