Remember My Name. Havana Adams

breathless bark of laughter.

      Isabella Murada on her knees with his cock in her mouth; that truly was a million dollar shot. And movie star or not, Alex was still man enough to appreciate it.

      Later, as they lay in the massive bed on 750-thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, the windows thrown open so that the silvery white light of the full moon flickered into the room, Alex watched Isabella sleep, as she always did, naked on her back. One arm was flung over her head and the other rested low on her abdomen. Even in sleep she looked ready for sex. He would miss her, he thought. Isabella was a smart girl and in a town defined by transactional relationships, where everyone used everyone, Alex understood her desire to be with him. She had left a Spanish millionaire for him and though the sex was good, great even, Alex wasn’t so arrogant as to think that was the full story. Isabella was 28, in model years practically middle-aged. She was a woman looking for her next step, she wanted to make the crossover from model to actress and she’d decided that he was her ticket there. He hadn’t minded really but somehow this afternoon, he’d realised that he was bored, that he needed something new, some new challenge. He needed to shake things up and as every model that had gone before Isabella had learned, when Alex moved on, he was gone. The shift was brutal and immediate and Alex had perfected a principle of never going back and never looking back. He never hooked up with his exes, never revisited fields that he had already ploughed. There’d be a gift, one phone call – the mark of the English gentleman that he was – but when it was over, it was over. Isabella must have sensed his boredom.

      “You and me, we’re good together,” she had reminded him earlier, as she had sat astride him, still panting. And Alex had smiled. But once they were back in LA he knew they’d be over. He’d made a life of loving and leaving women. There was no reason to change his ways now.

       CHAPTER 2

      “Harder, do it harder.”

      Three days later and half a world away on a bright London morning, Talia Blake was woken by this loud, rasping instruction and she blinked with disorientation even as her bed was shaken, beat after beat after beat, by a pounding from the room next door.

      “Oh for fuck’s sake. Nina!” Talia yelled in frustration as she snapped awake and sat upright in bed gritting her teeth, even as the lovers came, apparently simultaneously, in the kind of crescendo of banging and squealing that would make a philharmonic orchestra proud. Not for the first time, she wondered how it was that she always managed to land herself with nymphomaniacs for flatmates. As the aerobics finally subsided, she glanced at her bedside alarm clock: 6.15am; she could still have another half hour in bed. She snuggled down under her thin summer duvet and tried to find a comfortable spot as another squeal rang through the dividing wall. Nina and her gentleman caller were going for an encore performance.

      “Shit,” she muttered under her breath and, with a muted scream of frustration, Talia gave up on sleep. She kicked the duvet aside and swung her feet onto the floor. She looked down at the improbably high, attention-grabbing scarlet Charlotte Olympia platform shoes which she’d kicked off last night before falling into bed. Reaching down to grab one of the pair, she banged it hard against the wall giving four hard knocks. It had little effect and the sound of frantic lovemaking continued unabated, if anything getting louder.

      Nina had once told Talia with a degree of pride that she was sure she could fuck through an earthquake. Talia was sad to report that she now knew this to be true, probably. To think after her last two disastrous flatmates, she’d deliberately sought out a single roommate. Talia thought longingly about the day when she would finally have a place of her own. She wished she could afford to rent alone or better still, buy a flat of her own. Perhaps it was her Only Child Syndrome rearing its head but so many mornings she longed to lie in for as long as she liked, she longed not to have to race to the shower, not to be confronted by mess that wasn’t hers, she longed not to be confronted by evidence of other people’s sex lives.

      Wearily she stood up and grimaced as she caught sight of last night’s make-up now smeared all over her face. She’d been too exhausted to wash it off when she’d finally rolled in, dropped at her front door by a black cab after three in the morning. Thinking about last night brought a smile to Talia’s face. The Gilded Cage, a top London club that routinely welcomed celebrities from all over the world, had played host to the summer party of Encounters, the highest-rated soap opera on television. Talia as a storyliner on the show had been there, albeit with some reluctance. She hated parties; she’d often told herself that she simply didn’t have the party gene. She could never hear above the music, never knew how to approach people and start off conversations, and she didn’t drink enough for alcohol to save her either. She might have found an excuse not to go but one of her closest friends, Simone, who also worked in television, had extracted a promise from her that she would make an effort and turn up, if only for her career’s sake.

      Darting through the throng of paparazzi and autograph hunters determined to catch a glimpse of the show’s stars, Talia had planned on staying only an hour or two, get her face seen and then leave but surprisingly she’d found she actually enjoyed the party. No expense had been spared, from fire eaters, to stilt walkers to fortune tellers, and she had been glad that she’d forced herself to put on the only sexy dress in her wardrobe, a Diane von Fürstenberg, a gift from her best friend, Helena, which she had never worn before. Even Tamara, the show’s resident bitch both on and off screen, had paid her a compliment.

      “Darling, what a transformation, very dramatic.” Tamara had smiled, air kissing in her general direction before disappearing through the crowd, leaving Talia dazed in a heavy cloud of Chanel No 5.

      The DVF dress, a dramatic statement against her brown skin, was a distinctive print of vibrant yellows, reds and greens, the kind of bright colours that Talia usually shunned, but from all the compliments she’d received the night before, she’d realised that perhaps colour should play a larger part in her wardrobe. She’d teamed the dress with the high Charlotte Olympia heels. The heels also came from Helena who, as an editor on style bible Époque, had access to an apparently limitless fashion cupboard, which meant she was constantly pressing beautiful designer accessories on Talia. Between Helena and Simone, Talia often found herself being lectured about her refusal to engage with fashion.

      “I’m not into pain and all these clothes are just not comfortable or even practical,” Talia had once told Helena, but her friend had simply snorted and the gifts continued. It wasn’t that Talia couldn’t see the beauty in designer clothes; it was simply that her budget didn’t stretch to the frothy, outlandish garments that were a part of Helena’s world. For Helena, fashion was life. But for Talia, nothing was more important than her career at Encounters. She liked comfortable, practical things and, as she’d found, tottering around in the platform shoes the night before, fashionable and comfortable didn’t seem to go hand in hand.

      Nevertheless, she had actually enjoyed the party and danced to every song on the dance floor. Once during the night, she’d found herself pressed against a wall by an insistent First Assistant Director from the show.

      “You look so fucking gorgeous in the dress, I should have talked to you before now.” The drunken confession had been followed by a very wet kiss. For Talia this was pretty much unheard of and she allowed a small smile. She could practically hear Helena’s voice now – “You should have gone home with him.” She might not have followed Helena’s standard advice but Talia still allowed herself a small pat on the back at her small progress. She’d not pushed the AD away immediately; she’d allowed him to kiss her for a moment, never mind that the smell of beer on his breath slightly turned her stomach.

      In the room next door, Nina and her lover had finally subsided and Talia flicked on the radio then moved to the small desk in the corner of her bedroom. She powered up her MacBook, as she did every morning without fail. As the laptop loaded up, Talia pulled some clothes out of the wardrobe, paying slightly more attention than usual to what she picked out. It was appraisal day today and she wanted to look smart. She’d already been prepped for what to expect and Talia felt a shiver of excitement, which she quickly banked down.