Red Carpet Redemption Page 16

  Dane leaned back in the director’s chair and sighed. He should never have agreed to this movie. It was like the romantic comedies he’d done early in his career when he was trying to make a name for himself. The last couple of years, he’d been more selective about the projects he chose. He wanted them to have range for him to showcase his acting muscles. Instead, he’d taken what he could get to keep his mind off Iris, and was faced with memorizing bland clichéd dialogue. It was driving him crazy.

  He hadn’t meant to snap at Morgan. It wasn’t her fault he was in a bad mood. He’d been this way since he’d left Iris’s home that fateful morning over a week ago.

  Staying in Los Angeles hadn’t been an option. There were too many reminders of the places they’d gone or things they’d done. Even his beach house wasn’t an oasis anymore because all he could think about was the first time he’d made love to Iris. How beautiful and intense it had been.

  Dane doubted he could ever go back there now. It was too painful. So when Jason told him this movie was teed up and ready to go in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, he’d jumped on the opportunity to get out of town. He’d regretted it almost immediately. Despite the scenic beachside location, he was miserable. His heart wasn’t in the role; he wanted meatier, grittier material. But most of all he wanted his life back. He wanted the life he’d created with Iris and Jayden.

  His cell phone vibrated and Dane answered. “Hey, sis.”

  “Are you being mean to Morgan?”

  Was he being filmed on Candid Camera or something? Dane jumped up from his chair and glanced around. That’s when he saw a honey blonde walking toward him on the sand.

  “Fallon? What are you doing here?” Dane asked, ending their call.

  “Saving you from yourself, it would seem,” she stated with one hand on her hip. She was wearing a maxi dress and holding a pair of strappy sandals. “When I called your house to check on you, I was informed by your maid you’d left to work on a film in North Carolina. After you called me last week, I’d already planned to come to you. I just needed to get childcare arranged. But then Morgan called me and told me you’d been a tyrant all week and thought you might need your big sis to give you a kick in the rear, so here I am.”

  Dane grinned. “Morgan called you?”

  “She cares about you. She’s been your assistant for over a year now. And she gives a crap about you despite how you treat her.”

  “Yeah, she’s a good kid.”

  “She’s twenty-four years old.”

  Dane chuckled. “I don’t know what it is, but now that I’m a father, I feel older. Wiser somehow.”

  “Wiser?” Fallon raised a brow. “I don’t know about that.” She looped her arm through his. “Walk with me for a bit.”

  “All right.” They walked in silence for several minutes before he said, “I’m surprised Gage let you out of his sight.”

  “Gage has mellowed, Dane. I admit when we were first together he was rather dark and intense. But he’s grown. We both have. And I can see you have too.”

  Dane’s brow furrowed. “You can?”

  “Oh, yes. I may have joked with you back there, but you’ve matured greatly, Dane. You no longer think about just yourself. You put others’ needs ahead of your own.”

  “Well, being a parent kind of forces you to do that.”

  She nodded. “It does. But that’s only part of your growth. You’ve grown because you’ve finally opened yourself up to love.”

  Dane shook his head. “No, you’re wrong. I might have fancied myself in love, but it was one-sided. Iris doesn’t love me.”

  “I don’t believe that. And neither do you. Otherwise you wouldn’t be so angry and biting everyone’s heads off. Besides, I know a woman in love and Iris has been bitten by the love bug.”

  “What would you have me do, Fallon? She sent me away.”

  “Fight, Dane. Fight for what you want. Don’t let anyone, anything or any career—” she motioned around them to the set “—get in your way. I took a private jet here and it’s waiting to take you home and back to Iris.”

  “What if she sends me away again?” Dane inquired.

  “Maybe she ran scared,” Fallon suggested. “But if you coming back doesn’t show her that you’re absolutely made for each other, nothing else will.”

  Dane pulled Fallon into his arms and gave her a squeeze. “Thank you, sis.”

  He was going to extricate himself from this movie and get back to Los Angeles. This time he would tell Iris how he felt. He would tell her and show her exactly how much he loved her and their life together. And this time, he wasn’t taking no for an answer.

  Seventeen

  Iris was nervous as she drove to Dane’s set in the Outer Banks of North Carolina that afternoon. She’d never been to the state before, much less to the East Coast, so she was way out of her comfort zone. But she had to do this.

  On the nearly seven-hour flight from Los Angeles to Norfolk, Virginia, Iris had had plenty of time to think. Shelly was right; she’d made a big mistake listening to Jason and giving in to her fears about whether she and Dane truly had a shot. How would she ever know, if she gave up on them at the first sign of adversity? She was guilty of the very same thing she was accusing him of.

  Dane had been shocked when she’d told him they were over. He’d told her he loved her, for Christ’s sake! And if there was a chance, any chance they could be happy together, have a family, then she had to be willing to risk it all, including her own embarrassment at coming to Dane’s movie shoot. She owed him and herself that much.

  Iris was thankful when she phoned Morgan that Dane’s assistant hadn’t hung up on her. In fact, she seemed ecstatic to hear from Iris. She’d shared that Dane had been miserable since he’d left her over a week ago and was ripping everyone to shreds. No one was off-limits. Iris knew Dane wasn’t that person, but he was hurting and she was the reason. She apologized profusely to Morgan and hoped her coming would change things. Morgan understood and gave her all the details on where to find them, and said there’d be a set pass waiting for her.

  When she arrived, Morgan immediately came to meet her. “I’m so glad you’re here,” she said. “I think you are exactly what, or shall I say who Dane needs to see.”

  “Do you really think so?” Iris asked. “He’s probably really upset with me.”

  “And he may not be happy with my interference either,” Morgan said with a snort, “but I had to do something. You guys are so cute together.” She looped a lanyard over Iris’s head. “He’s down that way.” She pointed toward the set.

  “Thanks, Morgan.” Iris gave her a nervous smile and started walking toward her future.

  * * *

  Dane walked briskly with Fallon through the sand to get back up the embankment to the main road. He needed to get his wheels. He was anxious to get home to Los Angeles as fast as he could.

  Dane came to a stop by the stairs leading to the parking lot. “You don’t mind traveling to Los Angeles and then back to Austin?”

  “Not at all. I’m here to help, but it looks like I don’t need to...”

  Dane glanced up. Surely his eyes were deceiving him. Iris couldn’t be standing at the top of the stairs leading to the beach—here in the Outer Banks of North Carolina? He blinked several times to make sure she was real and that he hadn’t imagined her. But when he looked again, she was smiling down at him and his heart swelled.

  “Iris?”

  She nodded.

  “I’m going to go now,” Fallon said, backing away from Dane. “I think the two of you—” she used her index and middle finger to point at them “—have a lot to say to each other and don’t need an audience.”

  Dane looked back at his sister and mouthed the words, “Thank you.” He watched her for several beats as she walked down the beach until her figure became a speck on the horizon. Then
he looked up, only to realize Iris had beat him to the punch. She had descended the stairs and was standing in front of him.

  “What—what are you doing here?” He couldn’t get the words out. He was tongue-tied.

  “I had to see you,” Iris replied. “I—I had to tell you I made a mistake and I was fool to let you go.”

  A lump formed in Dane’s throat and he wasn’t sure he could speak, so he listened.

  “I thought I was doing what was best for you. Jason said that—”

  “Jason?” he interrupted her almost immediately. “What does Jason have to do with any of this?”

  “He came to see me. He said you were tanking your career by being with me and Jayden, giving up good projects, and it was going to ruin everything you’d worked so hard to build. I couldn’t let that happen.”

  “So you told me to go?”

  She nodded and an errant tear fell from one of her eyes. She wiped it away with the back of her hand. “Yes. I said horrible things to you that day. Words I deeply regret. I wish I could take them all back because I didn’t mean any of them, Dane. I only said them because I knew if I didn’t hurt you, you would stay and I needed you to go so you could be happy.”

  “Happy?” His voice rose. “Iris, don’t you get it? You and Jayden make me happy,” Dane responded. “You’re my world.”

  “We are?”

  “Of course you are. Haven’t I told you from the moment I first met you? It’s always been you. I don’t want anyone else. Because none of them, none of these actresses or celebrities—” he pointed behind him toward the set “—are you. You’re the woman I’d measure every other woman against anyway, and they’d be severely lacking.”

  “You don’t have to say that.”

  “Damn it, Iris. When will you get it? It’s you I love. It’s only you.” Dane hadn’t intended to blurt out his feelings, but seeing Iris so unexpectedly gave him hope. She hadn’t traveled cross-country to his movie set just to say hello. She’d come for a reason. He just prayed and hoped she felt the same way about him.

  A shadow of a smile crossed her face and it filled him with such joy. He’d been missing this for the last week. It had felt like the sunshine had gone from his life and there was nothing but dark storm clouds left.

  Her next words were softly spoken, but he heard them all the same. “I love you too, Dane.”

  Dane released a long sigh because it was a balm to his aching heart. “You do?”

  “Yes, I came all this way to tell you. I was a fool for listening to the haters and the doubters who don’t believe in us and I’m done with it. If you can forgive me, if you can accept my most heartfelt apology for hurting you and putting us through this week of agony, then I’m yours. Mind, body and soul.”

  “Oh, Iris.” Dane swept the woman he loved into his arms, anchoring her to him while his mouth lowered to kiss hers. Iris’s lips immediately opened under his and she accepted his invitation, fusing her mouth with his as they sought to get closer together. Her kiss rocked his soul and promised him a lifetime of happiness.

  “We should get out of here,” he said. His breathing was ragged and edgy, and he was hungry for her. He couldn’t wait to run his hands all over her.

  “Please,” Iris murmured. “I can’t wait to be alone with you too.”

  Taking her by the hand, Dane led Iris away to start the next phase of their journey.

  * * *

  It wasn’t too late. Dane could and would forgive her. Iris had never been so grateful in her entire life, except when Dr. Lee had told her they’d found a donor match. When she’d seen Dane in dark jeans and a navy T-shirt standing at the base of the stairs just now, she’d nearly lost her nerve, but when he’d looked at her and given her one of his signature devastating smiles, she’d seen the truth there. She’d been right to come. He’d wrapped his arms around her, and it was exactly what she wanted—what she needed. She needed him more than words could ever express. And she could see he needed her too.

  Hand in hand, Dane led her to an SUV that was his to use for the duration of the movie project. The drive to the vacation rental house on stilts where Dane was staying didn’t take long. When they got there, they quickly exited the vehicle and rushed up the stairs, eager to be alone together like two love-crazed teenagers.

  They didn’t make it to the bedroom. Dane tumbled her back onto the couch. He knelt over her, his hand slipping behind her head so he could loosen her topknot. Her hair was free within seconds and he sat back on his haunches to wrench his T-shirt off. Iris stared up at him and inhaled his delicious, rich, woodsy scent she loved so much.

  His gaze caught hers and he smiled wickedly. “I’ve missed you, Iris.”

  “And I’ve missed you.”

  He began unbuttoning her blouse and before she knew it, both that and her bra were tossed to the floor beside the couch. Then he kissed her long and hard until she was breathless and she didn’t care. She wanted to hold his mouth prisoner against hers forever.

  Hot, all-consuming desire enveloped them and they fell onto the rug, laughing. But that didn’t keep them from their kiss. They greedily feasted on one another. She was holding on to his muscular shoulders while his arms molded to the shape of her. She could feel him all around her and Iris welcomed his dominance because only Dane could make her feel so alive.

  Her legs naturally splayed to accommodate him and he obliged, moving from her mouth to her breasts. And when he fastened his mouth on her tightly budded nipple, a flame of excitement shot straight to her belly and she moved her hips instinctively to feel him.

  “I want to do things slowly,” Dane murmured against her bosom. “I want to savor you.”

  The sweep of his lips against her skin was like a hypnotic swirl against her flesh. Iris no longer thought about her imperfections when she was with Dane. She thought only of him. “There will be time for slow later,” Iris replied. “I need you now.”

  He gave her a devilish grin and lifted off her long enough to peel her jeans and panties from her trembling body, baring her completely to his gaze, to his touch, to his mouth. Then he was stripping his remaining clothes from his body and joining her on the floor.

  But before they made love, she had something to say. Something that needed to be said. She grasped both sides of his cheeks with her palms. “I have to say this, Dane, and get it out while I can.”

  “Whatever it is, sweetheart—” his eyes peered into hers “—you can tell me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Iris responded. “I’m truly sorry. And I promise I won’t hurt you again. I promise to always fight for you and for everything we have built together. I will be strong for you as you’ve been strong for me and Jayden, and I won’t let anyone or anything come between us again.” She was his, body and soul, and she would love him to the day she died, with everything she had. “I love you, Dane.”

  “I love you more than anything in this world, other than Jayden,” he responded.

  “More than your career?”

  “Yes,” Dane stated emphatically. “Now let’s quit talking and let’s start loving.” His lips slanted over hers, his tongue plundering inside her mouth while his hands moved lower to part her thighs. She granted him access, enjoying every sensation, especially when one of his skilled fingers slipped into her tight channel.

  “Dane...”

  “Yes, baby...” He swirled his fingers across her nub, again and again, sinking deeper and deeper inside her. It felt so incredible she began to shake.

  “That’s right, Iris. Let go.” He slipped out and this time inserted two fingers. Her muscles clenched and began tightening around him; she could feel herself about to come.

  But Dane didn’t let her. Instead, he slid home inside her and she tilted her hips, welcoming his length while locking her legs around his back. Dane filled her so completely. With clarity Iris knew what she’d found wit
h Dane was life changing. When he moved, she followed, matching him until the pressure began to build and he was surging inside her over and over and over again. Ecstasy came swiftly, suspending them momentarily in time as Dane pumped his release and gave a low groan. He collapsed on top of her before withdrawing to lie beside her, and tried to catch his breath.

  Dane turned his head to look at her and whispered, “I love you, Iris.”

  “I feel the same,” she said with a smile.

  He sat up and leaned on his forearm, becoming serious. “Yeah, but this time I’m telling you I can’t imagine my life without you, and I don’t want to live like I did this last week in a half existence. I want to live fully and completely with you and Jayden for as long as we have.”

  “What are you saying, Dane?”

  “I guess I’m going about this all wrong,” Dane said. He rose from the floor and slipped on his boxers. “Let me do this the right way.” He bent down on one knee. “Iris Turner, will you do me the supreme honor of being my wife?”

  * * *

  The words felt good on Dane’s lips and he liked the way they tasted.

  Iris bolted upright. Her eyes were wide and luminescent, searching his for an indication he was serious.

  He was.

  “And before you ask me if I’m sure, Iris, I am. I’m not doing this out of duty. I’m asking you because I want to be with you.”

  He could see her battling herself, as if she wanted to say something. All he wanted Iris to say was yes. “I wasn’t about to say no,” Iris responded. “I was just thinking I’d like to wait until Jayden’s better.”

  Dane grinned from ear to ear. “Does that mean...”

  Iris chuckled. “It means I’m saying yes. A thousand times, yes!” She threw her arms around him, closing the distance between them. “I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

  His lips dipped lower and his mouth found hers in a heady kiss that bloomed with love he’d never known he could find. And Dane gave himself up to the feeling because Iris had shown him how good love could be. It didn’t have to be distant like his parents’; it could be wondrous, crazy, joyous and everything in between.