One Night With You by Candace Schuler

here." She clutched his arm frantically. "I can't do it."
    "Steady now, luv," he soothed, patting her hands comfortingly. He seemed not to notice how her fingers dug into the tweed material of his jacket. "The hardest part will be over in a minute. Just hold steady, luv—ah, there he is now."
    Jake had come through the big studio door, making an entrance, as befitted his star status, with a woman on either arm. Dorothea Heller was on his right, looking aristocratic in a black Chanel suit, her snowy hair arranged in a regal-looking braid around her head and those huge gaudy rubies gleaming at her neck and wrists and on her gnarled hands. A brunet clung possessively to his other arm. A gorgeous brunet, Desi noted before she dropped Eldin's sleeve and whirled away, turning her back on Jake and his entourage as they slowly made their way around the room.
    Maybe he wouldn't see her, she hoped, maybe he would just pass right on by. She fidgeted with the brushes and vials and tubes on the makeup table in front of her, moving them around so that they were lined up in neat, even rows. She shifted her stance a little, shielding her slim body behind the bulk of Eldin's, all the while trying to watch Jake's progress around the room without turning her head to follow him.
    He looked magnificent, as always. Taller somehow, she thought, harder, thinner maybe, and broader through the shoulders. His hair was cut shorter than she remembered—for this new role, she supposed. But it was a shame that it no longer curled onto the back of his neck and over the tops of his ears. His face seemed harsher without the softening effect of the longer hair. His chiseled jaw seemed even more determined, the planes of his face seemed sharper. But his eyes...his eyes were the same meltingly sensuous brown she remembered.
    Desi realized suddenly that she was staring into those eyes. Jake was standing right behind her, staring at her face in the makeup mirror.
    Shocked recognition widened his eyes for a second, followed by a myriad of other emotions, coming so fast, one after the other, that Desi couldn't be sure what she saw. Joy, she thought, but maybe that was because she wanted to. Surprise, certainly. Pain. Anger. And then, consummate actor that he was, a shutter seemed to come down, and it was as if she were staring into the cold, unfriendly eyes of a stranger.
    Follow his lead, Eldin had said. Pretend if he does.
    Desi turned around to face him.
    "And this is Desiree Weston, our head of makeup." Eldin was introducing her as if he didn't already know that she knew Jake far too well.
    "My pleasure... Desiree, is it?" Jake's caressing voice held a polite question as if he hadn't quite caught the name.
    "I prefer Desi, please," she said, and was amazed at the cool steadiness of her voice. The hand she held out to him was steady, too, and no longer damp with nervous perspiration.
    Amazing , she thought, as his big hand closed over hers, it's almost as if we've never met. I am actually going to make it through this without falling apart , she congratulated herself.
    And then Jake leaned down and his lips brushed hers in a brief, casual kiss—the kind of kiss that movie people are always giving one another.
    "Welcome to our little family," he said. His voice was casual, too, as casual as his kiss had been, but there was a sting behind the words. Had he stressed the word "family" just a bit? Did he know something? Could he possibly know anything?
    Desi felt the blood suddenly begin to race through her body. I will not blush , she told herself fiercely. I will not! But the inevitable heat rose from her chest upward, staining first her throat and then her pale cheeks a fiery red.
    Even then Jake might not have noticed, for she had half turned away as he moved to be introduced to someone else, but then the brunet clinging to his arm—the gorgeous brunet—spoke up.
    "You've made her blush, darling," she said, and Desi couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or