"Please come back tonight..." , the way he said it had sent shivers all through her body.  Pretending aloofness was proving harder and harder to accomplish as their arrangement continued.  It was for the best, she told herself...for the gazillionth time.  She would only hurt him.  Drag him across the slimy underbelly of Hollywood and drown him in the sludge that oozed from the beautifully white, veneered teeth of the industry.

Keep anyone worth caring about at a safe distance. 

Where she couldn't see the golden flecks in his hazel green eyes when he showed the cracks in his own brand of aloofness. 

3 am, early for the party set, and she was ready to go. Had been since she showed up with her modest entorage of her agent Schoenberg, his assistant Marcie, and most vexing of all, Anthony Christian.  All six-foot-three, two hundred pounds of lean Hollywood perfect muscled and tanned bit of him.

Another set up by her agent to get them seen together.  The stir of a possible romance between the stars of the upcoming last installment of the incredibly popular Witches Broom Trilogy.  Her character is an action figure, a video game heroine, a wallpaper cutout, a kids meal toy, a veritable brand name, in truth. 

Tiring of the attention from covert glances to outright squeals of manic fan-dom when she walked by an open area, she just wanted to leave.  She wanted to go back to him and finish what he had started when she finally caved and showed up.  She wanted to make him follow her to his room and ride him like a crazy woman until she couldn't think anymore... all the while trying to avoid looking into those golden flecked orbs which threatened to undo her resolve to keep him only so close.  He would taste so much like the sanctuary she craved.

She tugged at Schoenberg's wrist and yelled over the music in the hot spot club they were parading around in, "I've got to go, walk me out to my car".  Schoenberg looked quizically at her, and just shook his head then nodded it meaningfully at the barely eighteen year old actress hopeful at his elbow by the bar. 

She glared at him and was about to lay into him about paparazzi and a path to her car when Anthony slid his hand up her forearm and took her hand through the crook of his arm, "I will walk you".  She had to hold back the urge to pull away.  He was dangerously sexy, charming, and the latest Hollywood 'It' man, and he had made it clear on more than one occasion that he found her attractive.  They worked to close for too long, and she knew him too well.  They wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell at making it as a Hollywood couple, so why bother.

Anthony led the way through the ever tightening throng of clubgoers, and as they crossed the threshold of the door, he drew his arm around her back and pulled her protectively into his smoothly muscled body as the world exploded into light and sound. "Sadie, SAAADIEEE," and "over here, Sadie", "did you have a good time, Sadie? Look Here"

From across the street she heard regular fans calling out "OHMIGOD!!! it's Sadie Matthews!" She did her best to wave out to them past the crush of photoraphers while Anthony pushed them to her awaiting car.  The door opened, and she slid in. 

Blinded by the flashes that seemed to intensify, she was unprepared when Anthony's not unpleasant breath fanned her lips just before his took hers in a perfectly lingering but honest and chaste kiss.

She was dazed, "What the hell, Tony?" she said just so he could hear her over the excited voices of the photogs, "...did you see...did you get...AH I got it..."

Anthony cupped her cheek and leaned in to speak in her ear where THEY couldn't see his words.  His warm, moist aired words tickled her ear.  "Don't go back there tonight, come with me."

Startled that he knew where her head was, she pulled the car door in a way that made him back up for her to close it, but she didn't start the car.  He knocked on the window.  She lowered it.  He leaned in.  "I'm going to my flat at the beach.", he said simply as he laid a soft kiss on the hair at her temple to the sound of the flashbulb symphony. 

Then the air was cool where he had vacated the space near her head and he knocked on her roof to signal her to drive away. She drove two lights down, where turning left would take her to one man, and turning right would take her to the other.

She clicked on her turn signal...