Betrayal

Chapter 2

BRIGITTE SHOOK HER gently when they got to the house in Bel Air. Tallie didn’t like obvious shows of wealth, but she had a beautiful home that was simply decorated, with stark, modern open rooms, and a peaceful feeling to it. Tallie had no need for clutter in her life. She had a house in Malibu she rarely had time to use, the apartment in New York for Max, and a small apartment in Paris that she had bought with her first big success. It was something she had always wanted, although she hadn’t been there in two years, but she loved knowing she had it, and loaned it to friends occasionally. Brigitte had used it for her last vacation, and loved being there. Tallie had been in Africa on location while Brigitte had gone to Paris for a week. The perks of Brigitte’s job were nothing less than fabulous, which was what being a personal assistant was all about. You shared your employer’s life, and gave up your own to do it, and Brigitte’s own life fit easily into Tallie’s or around it. She had a date that night at ten o’clock, and if it turned out to be midnight because Tallie needed her for something, that was fine with her too.

“You’re home,” Brigitte said softly as Tallie opened her eyes. The script changes were still on her lap, unread. But Brigitte was right, she could do it in the morning. She felt refreshed after she’d slept. For a minute, she didn’t know where she was.

“Wow, I slept the whole way,” Tallie said with a grin, and looked like a kid sitting in the front seat of the Aston Martin outside her house. She still had all the pens and one pencil stuck in her hair. She added them one by one throughout the day.

“Hunt texted me and said he has dinner ready. You’re a lucky woman,” she said, as Tallie opened the door of the car.

“Yes, I am.” But they both knew that an arrangement like Hunt and Tallie’s had never been what Brigitte wanted. She liked her freedom and a variety of men, usually younger than she was, for only a short duration in her life, and most of them were actors working on Tallie’s films. She had a weakness for young actors who had the potential for behaving badly. She never kept them around long enough to give them that chance. She slept with them during the filming of the picture, and after that they both moved on. It worked for her.

“I’ll pick you up at four-thirty tomorrow morning,” Brigitte called out to her, and Tallie waved as she got to her front door. She wanted to be back on the set by six. As usual, it would be a short night, and before she could unlock the front door with her key, it was opened by a tall, handsome man with dark hair and a beard wearing an apron over a T-shirt and shorts. He kissed Tallie hard on the mouth, and the door closed.

Brigitte drove away. One of the actors from Tallie’s current movie was waiting for her at her house. She had told him where the spare key was. Tommy was twenty-six years old, and when Brigitte got home, he was naked and waiting for her in the pool.

“Well, isn’t that a pretty sight.” Brigitte smiled as she admired him, and then stepped out of her skirt, and stood there in her thong and high heels, and then she pulled off her shirt and unhooked her bra. The breasts she had invested in several years before stood in sharp relief against the spotlights as the young actor gazed at her appreciatively. She had an amazing body, and made good use of it.

“Come on in,” he said invitingly, thoroughly enjoying the warm water and the prospect of a night with her. They had been having an affair for the past six weeks, during the making of the film. No promises had been exchanged and wouldn’t be. The kind of night they were about to spend with each other was all they wanted and all it would ever be. Brigitte wanted nothing more. She dove into the pool and came up between his legs, and he laughed. She was an incredible woman, and he had a great time with her. And he was hoping she’d help get him a part in another of Tallie’s films after this. She hadn’t promised, but she had implied it. And even if she didn’t, he was having a ball with her. She was one of the most important women in Hollywood, as far as he and others were concerned, she had total access and the confidence of Tallie Jones. The one thing you could never do with Brigitte was say anything bad about Tallie. Brigitte was instantly ready to kill you if you did. She was the most loyal woman he had ever met. And offered the best sex.

Hunt handed Tallie a glass of wine as she walked in. She put her canvas bag and the script down on a kitchen chair, and smiled at the great smells all around them. The kitchen led out into the garden, and they wandered out onto the deck together and sat down. She was happy to see him and glad she had come home to him instead of staying in Palm Springs, and he was happy too. He was an easygoing person, and their lives had meshed perfectly for the past four years. There was rarely any friction between them, he had never disappointed her, and she loved sharing her work with him.

“Good day?” he asked, as he took off the apron and tossed it on a chair. He was taller than she was, and slightly round since he enjoyed eating well, but he was a handsome man. He was forty-five years old, and the beard gave him a more mature look than his years.

“Very good,” she confirmed with a smile about her day. “When are you coming to Palm Springs?”

“I can’t tomorrow. I’ve got meetings. Maybe the day after. How’d the death scene work out today?” He tried to keep up on the script changes, but with Tallie there were many of them, and sometimes she altered the script as she went along. She was always sensitive to how the dialogue was working, and let her actors add something more to it, if they could. The results were often breathtaking.

“It was perfect,” Tallie said, looking pleased. “I’m starving. What’s for dinner?” He often made Japanese food for her, Chinese, and Thai. He had a gift for Asian cuisine, and French, and sometimes made Mexican on the weekends. Hunt loved cooking, and everyone devoured what he made. It was fun coming home to the surprises he prepared, and the dinner he served her that night was no exception. They spent a relaxing evening, talking and eating on the deck, and he had gotten a bottle of her favorite white wine, Corton-Charlemagne. It was like going out to dinner whenever she came home, only better, because they were alone and she didn’t have to get dressed up or even comb her hair.

He was already working on putting together their next joint venture. They would be on location in Italy for it, and he was planning to spend a lot of the time there with her. They wanted to rent a villa in Tuscany for the duration of the film. He was already lining up the cast, and working with their insurers and investors to secure the film. It was what he did best, while Tallie did the directing. And he set it all up meticulously. He had enlisted an important Japanese investor to back the film. It was easy raising money for a movie directed by Tallie Jones, but all the conditions had to be right. Hunt was great about it and as meticulous a perfectionist as Tallie.

“I think we’re all set,” he said about the Japanese investor as they cleared the table together after a wonderful meal. She had thanked him with a kiss. “The only thing he wants is an audit of our books on the project, and our personal ones as well. I guess he wants to make sure we’re both solvent and won’t run off with his money.” He was smiling as he said it. “You don’t have a problem with that, do you?” he asked her as they cleaned up the kitchen.

“Of course not. I’ll tell Victor Carson to give him whatever he wants.” They both knew he was a solid investor, and they wanted his money for their next film.

“He’s using some very fancy independent accounting firm, run by a couple of ex-FBI guys. I hear they’re pretty thorough, but that way everyone will be happy. We’ll have his money, he’ll know we’re honest, and we can lock everything in.” He’d been talking to all the big agents in Hollywood about who he wanted to star in it, and once they had the money, they’d be ready to move ahead very quickly with contracts.

“I’ll have Brigitte call Victor tomorrow,” Tallie said as they turned the light off in the kitchen and went upstairs to the large master bedroom with the enormous movie screen in it. They loved lying in bed and watching movies. But not tonight. It was midnight by then, and she had to get up in four hours. She was used to living on very little sleep when she was working.

She had wanted to call Max that night, but it was too late in New York by the time she thought of it, and she’d have to call her in the morning. And then Hunt mentioned that her father had called right before she got home and he’d forgotten to tell her.

“He has to have some tests tomorrow,” Hunt told her, and she looked instantly concerned. “He said it’s nothing important, just routine stuff. He was wondering if you were working tomorrow, and I said you were.”

“I can have Brig take him, or his housekeeper Amelia,” she said thoughtfully. Her father always said that her assistant was a Hot Mama, which made her laugh. He thought Brigitte was gorgeous and the sexiest woman he’d ever seen.

“I told him I’d drive him,” Hunt said easily. “I can make the time. It’s not a big deal. He was fine with it, if that’s okay with you.”

“You’re a saint,” she said, putting her arms around him and he pulled her close.

“No, I just love you. Thanks for coming home tonight.”

“Thank you for cooking me dinner. Do you want to come to Palm Springs tomorrow night?” she asked him again, thinking that they’d have more time together without the long drive back to L.A., and the hotel they were staying at in Palm Springs was very nice, and had a terrific spa. She liked it when he came out there to spend the night with her. And sometimes it was easier for her than coming home if she had long shooting days.

“I’ve got some things I really need to do tomorrow, and a meeting tomorrow night. I think I’ll come out the day after. Why don’t you stay out there for the next couple of nights, so you don’t have the long drive after work, and I’ll spend the night with you the day after tomorrow?”

“Sounds good to me,” she said, and then went off to take a shower, and a few minutes later she was in bed next to him, and cuddled up close to his body. She noticed that he was naked, and she peeled off the T-shirt she had worn as a nightgown, and they lay pressed against each other as he kissed her, and she was even happier that she’d come home.

“I miss you when you’re on location,” he whispered to her, and she kissed him again. Palm Springs was hardly a hardship location. There were films she had made where she’d spent six months in the jungle, three months living in a village in Africa, and they had been in places where civil war had broken out while they were there. Palm Springs was a piece of cake, and it was only two hours from home. They’d be coming back from location soon anyway, and it was a little bit like a vacation when he came out to spend the night with her.

“I miss you too,” she whispered as he started to make love to her, and after that she forgot everything but him.

Afterward, they lay in each other’s arms and talked for a few minutes, and she had to fight to stay awake. She was so peaceful and at ease, she couldn’t keep her eyes open. She put an arm around him, and while he was still talking to her and stroking her hair, Tallie fell sound asleep.