Picture Perfect Read online

  She found him downstairs in his study, sitting in the tremendous leather desk chair, his body bent over a list of financial holdings. Spaced across the top of the desk were the three Oscars he'd won when she was in Pine Ridge. She stepped into the room, closing the door behind her.

  Alex looked up. "He's asleep again?"

  Cassie nodded. "For the next couple of hours, anyway."

  She reached across the desk and picked up the Oscar in the corner, smoothing her fingers over the streamlined back and the crossed arms. It was much heavier than she had expected. "I was so proud of you," she murmured. "I wanted to be here."

  "I wanted you to be here too."

  They looked at each other for a long moment, and then Alex's hand covered hers on the Oscar and set it on the desk. He pulled her onto his lap.

  Suddenly nervous, she splayed her hand across the sheaf of papers on the desk. "How much are you worth?" she teased.

  Alex looked away. "Not nearly as much as when you left," he said. "You probably noticed we're down to a skeleton staff, and I ought to tell you the apartment's been on the market for a couple of months now. I--I took a big loss producingMacbeth ."

  Again Cassie felt her stomach cramp at the pain he'd suffered as a result of her disappearance. Trying to smile, she tipped up Alex's chin. "The good news," she said, "is that I've learned a lot about roots and berries. We're in no danger of starving."

  The corners of Alex's mouth turned up. "I don't think we're quite at the brink of bankruptcy yet," he said. "But I would get a kick out of watching you forage your way through Bel-Air."

  Cassie wrapped her arms around Alex's neck and pressed her cheek against his heart. "I really missed you," she said. She wished he would put away his files and take her upstairs. She wished at the very least he would kiss her.

  "I have a favor to ask of you," Alex said.

  Cassie looked up, and then beamed, realizing he was giving her the choice. Hadn't he said he would sleep in a different bedroom if she wanted? Obviously all he was waiting for was a hint, a clue, a caress.

  "I know you're going to want me to see...someone. A psychiatrist or something. I was just hoping you wouldn't go mentioning it. You know, to someone like Ophelia, or your cop friend in South Dakota." He lowered his eyes. "That's all."

  Cassie felt his words tug at her. Did he really think that after all he'd been willing to do in order to get her back, she might intentionally try to hurt him? "Alex," Cassie murmured, "I never said anything to anyone before. I'm not going to say anything now." She stroked the back of his neck. "I have a favor to ask of you too." Alex swung his head toward her, his eyes glowing. "I was wondering if we could go to bed," she said.

  Alex's breath drained out in a long sigh. He tucked Cassie's head back against his chest. "I thought you'd never ask."

  HE WAS AS NERVOUS AS A TEENAGER. PACING NAKED IN FRONT OF the mirror, he thought about Cassie lying under the covers just a few feet outside the bathroom door. He wondered if her body had changed because she'd had Connor. He wondered what she would be wearing, if anything, and then he thought maybe he should wrap a towel around himself. She might want to talk first. Hell, he didn't even know if it was all right to do this, so soon after the baby.

  Placing his hands on either side of the sink, he leaned toward the mirror. "Get ahold of yourself," he ordered out loud. He closed his eyes and thought of all the love scenes he'd done over the years, takes and retakes with his hands on the breasts of beautiful women and his mouth roaming over their pancaked skin. He'd been able to act natural in front of an audience of cameramen, directors, gaffers, grips; but with his own wife and no crew in sight, he was terrified of doing something wrong. The truth was, there was no woman who could make him feel like Cassie did. She touched him without ulterior motives; she gave all of herself; she loved him simply because he was him.

  He took a deep breath and pulled open the bathroom door. Cassie was sitting propped up in the bed, the sheet drawn to her bare shoulders. The covers moved as she wriggled her toes. "Oh," she said, "I guess youdidn't fall in."

  Alex laughed and sat on the edge of the bed. "What did I do to deserve you?"

  Cassie gave him a cocky smile. "You got very, very lucky." She stretched her hand up to him to pull him closer, and the sheet fell away from her breasts. Alex had only the slightest glimpse of the milky skin, the dark spread nipples, before he crushed her against him.

  "God, you feel good," he whispered against her mouth. He dug his fingers into her hair and kissed her, telling himself to go slowly before it was over too fast. But Cassie's hands came to his waist to unknot the towel and before he could help himself he'd settled between her legs and driven into her, crying out.

  He collapsed against her chest, mortified. "I'm sorry," he said. "I feel like I'm fifteen again."

  Cassie stroked his hair. "It's nice to know you were even more nervous than I was." She shifted her hips beneath him, and he pulled her onto her side so she wouldn't bear his weight.

  He looked down at her body, still lined from her pregnancy and thick at the waist and stomach. "I'm fat," she announced.

  "You're beautiful," Alex said. His fingers traced a stretch mark on her hip. "Is this--okay to do?"

  Cassie laughed. "It's a little late to be asking, don't you think?"

  Alex shook his head. "No, I mean...did I hurt you?"

  Cassie's eyes met his, and he realized that the phrasing of the sentence went much deeper than he had intended. "No," she whispered. "And you won't."

  She felt Alex moving beside her again and she reached for him, but he gently pinned her arms at the sides of her head. "No," he said. "Let me."

  He began to love her, inch by inch, and this time it burned from behind her skin. When he came into her, Cassie saw for just a moment the skeleton of her life. There was no house, no Oscars, no Connor. There were no old secrets and no residual pain. There was just Alex, and Cassie. She remembered how Alex Rivers had stirred things inside her she'd never known about; how, always, she would love him. And with these beginnings shining so brightly again, it was difficult to imagine that for months she had passed them by without a second glance.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  IF nothing else, Hollywood had always been fickle, which was why only a few days went by before Alex Rivers was once again the hottest property in town. His Cinderella romance of Cassie had matured--now he was a movie star with family values, someone willing to sacrifice box office success and cancel production if it interfered with the time he needed with his wife. Suddenly, the pariah who had seemingly made a mess of his life was the celebrity whom everyone in America could relate to, a public figure who only wanted to be an ordinary guy.

  The house and Alex's production office were flooded with gifts for Connor--baseball mitts and rattles and tiny sweatsuits from fans, sterling spoons and Tiffany place settings from studio executives, who included notes for Alex that said they'd been behind him all along. Screenplays were sent to him by the dozens; Herb Silver called four times a day to offer him packages in which he was being asked to star and direct. Alex took the baby gifts--he liked to watch Cassie opening them--and he skimmed through the scripts, but as for settling another deal, he was planning to wait. He had more important things to do first.

  "He smiled," Alex said one morning, holding Connor up like a loving cup. Cassie grinned and kept walking into the dining room. "Hang on. I can make him do it again."

  Cassie lifted her eyes toward the ceiling and took a sip of her coffee. "Maybe you can have him rolling over by the time I get back."

  Alex settled the baby on his shoulder and gave her a jaunty grin. "Maybe I can," he said.

  He was beginning to think that Cassie had been right. He had wanted to hire a nanny--after all, that's what most couples in his position did when they had a baby--but Cassie wouldn't hear of it. "I will not have someone spending more time with Connor than me," she'd said firmly, "and that's not negotiable." She had arranged with Archibald Custer to take a