Aimee Duffy - Trouble in Tinseltown

Book One of Summer Flings

Aimée Duffy

A division of HarperCollins Publishers

www.harpercollins.co.uk

HarperImpulse an imprint of

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

77–85 Fulham Palace Road

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperImpulse 2014

Copyright © Aimee Duffy 2014

Cover images © Shutterstock.com

Aimee Duffy asserts the moral right

to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction.

The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are

the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to

actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is

entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International

and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

By payment of the required fees, you have been granted

the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access

and read the text of this e-book on screen.

No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted,

downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or

stored in or introduced into any information storage and

retrieval system, in any form or by any means,

whether electronic or mechanical, now known or

hereinafter invented, without the express

written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © July 2014

ISBN: 9780008106263

Version 2014-07-25

Digital eFirst: Automatically produced by Atomik ePublisher from Easypress.

For the ninja, super-graphic-girl and queen Catco.

I couldn't have done this without the support of you 'special' ladies.

Copyright HarperImpulse an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 77–85 Fulham Palace Road Hammersmith, London W6 8JB www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain by HarperImpulse 2014 Copyright © Aimee Duffy 2014 Cover images © Shutterstock.com Aimee Duffy asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Ebook Edition © July 2014 ISBN: 9780008106263 Version 2014-07-25 Digital eFirst: Automatically produced by Atomik ePublisher from Easypress.

Dedication For the ninja, super-graphic-girl and queen Catco. I couldn't have done this without the support of you 'special' ladies.

LA LA

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Aimée Duffy

About HarperImpulse

About the Publisher

‘ This is where we’re staying?’

Ciara Bree gaped for so long her eyes watered and stung. When they had first talked about a round the world trip, back when they had spent those endless days in their college library at Oxford, she’d never expected this.

Glamping in some fancy static caravan rigged out for the three of them, yes. Maybe even the odd budget hotel or hostel – something that would be affordable with the cash she’d managed to save from her part-time uni job. But this… A mathematics and statistics graduate from Wicklow didn’t have words for this.

Her bestie, Elle Muir, sauntered towards the white mini-mansion, right smack at the bottom of Hollywood Hill. ‘My granddad said we could crash at his houses during our trip, as long as we promise not to break anything. No point wasting precious shopping credit when we can have this for free.’

‘C’mon Ciara!’ Her other best friend, Gem, shoved her shoulder, but she must have still been in shock because her legs refused to budge. They’d never been poor growing up, and her da had always given her everything she wanted – and some things she didn’t, like tuition fees to Oxford. She’d known Gem and Elle came from families so rich the Crown Jewels would be their Mas’ idea of day jewellery, but she’d never met them in the flesh and it was much easier to believe her two best friends liked to exaggerate. After all, like her, they were super smart. Only difference was, when she’d gone to Oxford, she was The Ultimate Geek and they were more Geek Chic.

With a laugh, her friend said, ‘It’s not like we’re staying over there. You can pick your chin off the floor now.’

Following Gem’s outstretched arm, towards a mini-version of the White House, Ciara saw the comparison. They were staying in what looked to be the garage of the super-mansion she had first seen – though this garage still came with a huge drive, palm trees and exotic-looking flowers galore. But… feck. Their temporary home had her flustered, or maybe that was the midday Californian sun made stronger since it reflected off the bright walls.

Ciara just shook her head. ‘I’ll never roll my eyes at you again when you go on and on about this stuff.’

Gem pulled back her bright red hair into a ponytail then swiped a coat of sweat off her forehead. ‘I want to have a dip in the pool to cool off before the jet lag kicks in. You coming?’

Nodding, she followed wordlessly into the house to be shocked anew. If the outside had her chin dropping the inside would have her tongue rolling down to meet it. Chic, shiny floors covered what she assumed was the entrance vestibule, though this was much bigger than her dorm room. Bigger than five, probably. A massive, spiral staircase was situated opposite the door and artwork that looked suspiciously like originals instead of knock offs hung strategically on the walls. Ciara was scared to breathe for fear of steaming up the shiny floor or staining the pristine walls, and feck! She still had her shoes on!

‘Let’s turn this duty free bottle of tequila into something strong and icy before we hit the pool.’ Elle held up the airport bag with a grin.

‘Ooo iced margaritas?’ Gem asked.

At Elle’s nod they rolled their suitcases through the swanky house. Ciara worried that her Tesco special bag was spoiling the look of the whole place just by being there.

The kitchen was bigger than her whole house, complete with shiny chrome accessories, a kitchen bar and small dining table – not to mention the integrated appliances and even crushed ice maker. It did make Elle’s job of filling a massive jug with ice much easier, but everything seemed so foreign, like she was watching an episode of MTV Cribs not getting ready for her first stop on a crazy round the world trip.

‘Should we take our bags up first?’ she asked, having visions of jet lag kicking in when she was poolside and falling into a margarita induced coma.

‘No way. I say we dig around them for a bikini then chill at the pool for a while,’ Elle replied.

Gem agreed, unzipping her bag and picking out one of goodness knew how many two pieces, all still with the tags on. Ciara did the same. After all, she was as unlikely to win a fight with Elle as she was able to pick up a car and swing it over her head.