The Trouble with Marrying a Movie Star (25 page)

I gawked at him. "It's very much true, and that say's a lot. The fact that I think so should matter."

"It does! If I knew she had harassed you—"

"She wasn't harassing me; she was trying to stake a claim on someone who wasn't hers."

He smirked. "I'm yours?"

"You were."

The smirk dropped. He grabbed my hand again, and the familiar current ran through my body. "I cut all ties with her before coming to London. I never saw or spoke to her, only the times we ran into each other, and we have discussed that in this business, that happens a lot, baby. Unfortunately, there was a time in my life that I considered her to be a friend. There were very few people who I found I could trust, and she happened to be one of them."

We discussed this and what he was saying wasn't new, I just wanted her permanently out of our lives.

"What Brittney and I had…it was an arrangement. There were
never
any feelings on my part, so I brushed off any of your concerns regarding her and me. I knew nothing more was going to come from it. I know now, I should have listened to you—to everyone more closely."

"You're a guy, Andrew."

"What does that mean?"

"You are clueless when it comes to how manipulating women can be."

"I wasn't manipulated," he said offended.

I shook my head. "That woman has probably been manipulating you from the start. Don't get mad. I told you; women are very good at that, and conniving women like Brittney revel in it."

The look on his face expressed that he was pissed at my comment, but he held it in. "Well, you will not have to worry about hearing from Brittney. I told her that if she steps within five hundred feet of you, I will destroy her by any means necessary."

I was more concerned about her coming within 500 feet of him.

"I think I had better handle Brittney." I was hoping that ending her life as painfully as possible was one of the ways, but I didn't condone violence. "And the Brittney 'trust' reference was a slap to my face."

He scooted in closer to ask, "Can you forgive me?"

I searched his remorseful eyes. "Yes." Then I thought out loud and said more to myself. "I'm having more of a problem forgiving myself." It was the truth. Things would have been less...dramatic maybe if I had told him everything in the beginning. "Can you forgive me?"

"Of course, baby, as long as I can try to make things up to you?" He smirked.

I smiled at him, thinking we
both
have
a lot
of making up to do.

Andrew grinned wider as he moved in for a kiss. Until, I placed my hand up to block him as he looked confused. "I thought you said you forgave me?”

"I do, but we have a lot of things to work out."

He raised both brows. "I thought that's what we were doing."

"We were talking. I think we will need to do a lot of
that
before…well…"

His face turned sour. "Is this my punishment?"

"You're not five. This is a good thing."

"How is
this
good?"

"Again, there's a lot we need
to work out and that's not going to happen overnight."

He sat back, and you could see that he didn't want to agree with me, but he did. "I plan on making this up to you."

I nodded. "Why don't we take it slow? We have Erin's wedding next week—"

"Do I need to ask you to be my date?" he asked with a snarky tone in his voice.

"Well, that's a start, asshole."

"Come on, you have to understand and we're engaged…" His eyes widened. "Are we still engaged?"

Good question
.

There was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to marry Andrew, but not until everything had been resolved. "I want to marry you, but we have to work out our issues before we get married."

He sighed out in relief. We both did, actually.

Andrew reached inside his pants pocket, and pulled out my ring—which stunned me—as he weaved it in-between his fingers. "I always keep it with me. It’s a part of you that has kept me sane these last few weeks." My breath sped up, while I stared at his fingers. "I'll keep it with me for now."

I found Brittney in her production office standing by someone's desk talking. I charged right up to her, grabbed her arm, and looked for a place to talk.

Andrew told me later that he had had another run in with Brittney. This time it was at a private club he was a member of, and I guess she had tried to throw herself at him. Andrew said he had set her straight in front of everyone. Even so, I had had enough.

"Andria? Ouch! You're hurting me!" I squeezed her more tightly. I barely had a grip on her scrawny ass.

Seeing the perfect place, I dragged her—protesting—and pushed her through the bathroom door and up against the wall. "I warned you bitch!" I heaved out. My heart rate was going a mile a minute. "I have put up with your crap for too long. Stay away from Andrew! He has told you countless times before, and now
I'm
telling you."

She grinned and asked, "Now we both know that won't happen, and how are you going to stop me? Manhandle me for a while?"

Then, Andrew strutted in with an ice-cold glare and walked straight up to us. His hard demeanor made me let go of Brittney while moving over to the side. "Let me make this perfectly clear. We are never to speak again. If you try that bullshit that you pulled the other night again, I will make sure you get blacklisted, by any means necessary. You'll barely be able to do an infomercial."

"You would never!" she breathed out.

"You and I both know I can, and I will. I have warned you. You crossed the line speaking to Andria the way you did as well. And if you
ever
speak to her in that fashion again, I will make sure your tongue is cut out. Do we
finally
understand each other?"

She nodded.

I chuckled to myself. It looked as if she had peed her pants.

I stepped forward and pressed into her, making sure she could see the whites of my eyes as I sneered out, "If you
ever
make a play for Andrew again, what he has just said won't compare to what I will do to you. They will be finding pieces of your body scattered throughout California." I tilted my head closer so that she could take a good look into my eyes. I was dead serious.

I truly wasn't a violent person, and neither was Andrew. I didn't condone violence, but I thought I would make an exception this time. You can push a person just so far before something cracks. With me, it was the people I loved. I was very protective and would never apologize for that. Andrew was the same way, even more so, and the two of us together...well....

Andrew and I still had a lot to work out, but crossing Brittney off of my list and out of our lives was a great start.

It was muggy and sticky. My clothes stuck to me as I walked through the French Quarter with Erin. The worst part was that I was cramping up a storm, but my hormones seemed to be back under control. I had finally gotten my period, and with all the last-minute preparations for the wedding and my trip to Oahu, it reminded me that I needed to tell Andrew about the pregnancy scare. I had texted him to let him know that we needed to talk about something that happened during the time that we were apart. We agreed to talk after the brunch on Sunday when things had settled down.

I was sure that his reaction was going to be far less dramatic than Erin's. After I had mentioned being late, she went off on a tantrum. Keira joined us when she heard the commotion from next door. Erin was more upset that I didn't call her the moment I even thought it was possible. She was one of the first people I would have called, but so much was going on in her life, I didn't want to be a bother. Admitting that made it worse, and then she lectured me about friendship, and that it didn't matter what the hell was going on. She was right on all accounts. If it were reversed, I would have dropped everything to be there for her.

Erin and I were shopping around looking for a specific shade of nail color. She finally found a place that she had looked up online that carried it. We were on our way to the store to purchase it.

One of Erin's checked bags hadn't arrived. When she had first told me this, I was ready for her to lose it, but I was pleasantly surprised that she had held it together. If it had been her wedding dress, then yeah, but they were all items that we could replace.

My best friend was getting married tomorrow, and everyone had flown in for the occasion. I had arrived a few nights ago to help Erin with any last-minute details. However, we weren't expecting the media storm that came with Andrew and me attending the wedding.

Somehow, word had leaked that we were having a secret wedding in New Orleans. I had flown out at the beginning of the week, and Andrew flew out yesterday morning with Owen and Keira. His mom and dad had arrived yesterday, along with both of my parents, Bob and Pilar. Everyone who was an important part of both of our lives convened in one place at the same time.

For a normal couple, there would be nothing strange about that, but we weren't a normal couple; of which I was reminded of every day. Maisie had contacted Andrew late yesterday afternoon. She was more on top of her game than Frank ever was. She had received a call from an insider at some magazine, and somehow rumor had it that we were getting married this weekend.