Hollywood Baby Affair. Anna DePalo

shocking speed. The kiss was smooth, leisurely...masterful but understated. Rick could double for any A-list actor in a love scene. He touched his tongue to hers, and the shock and unexpectedness of it had her opening to him. As an unwritten rule, actors on-screen did not French kiss, so she was already in uncharted territory. The hard plane of his chest brushed against her, and her nipples tightened.

      Think, Chiara. Remember why you don’t like him.

      She allowed herself one more second, and then she tore her mouth away and stepped back. For a fleeting moment she felt a puff of steam over his audacity. “All right, the screen test is over.”

      Rick curved his lips. “How did I do?”

      “I don’t even know your last name,” she responded, sidestepping the question.

      “I’ll answer to anything. ‘Honey,’ ‘baby,’ ‘sugar.’” He shrugged. “I’m easy.”

      “Clearly.” This guy could charm his way into any woman’s bed. “Still, I’d prefer your real one for when the police ask me to describe the suspect.”

      He grinned. “It’s Rick Serenghetti. But ‘darling’ would add the appropriate air of mystery for the paparazzi.”

      Serenghetti. She knew an Italian surname when she heard one. “My last name was originally Ferano. You know, Italian.”

      His smile widened. “I’d never have guessed, Snow White.”

      “They used to call me Snow White, but I drifted,” she quipped. “Not suitable for the role.”

      “No problem. I’m not Prince Charming. I’m just his body double.”

      She wanted to scream. “This is never going to work.”

      “That’s why you’re an actress.” He looked curious. “And, Odele mentioned, a beauty contestant. Win any titles?”

      She made a sour face. “Yes. Miss Congeniality.”

      He burst out laughing. “I won’t ask what your talent was.”

      “Ventriloquism. I made my dummy sing.”

      “‘Some Day My Prince Will Come’?”

      “Nothing from Snow White! I was also Miss Rhode Island, but obviously that was on the state level.” She’d gone on to be a finalist in Miss America, which was where she’d earned her title of Miss Congeniality.

      “Rhode Island is the smallest state. Still, the competition must have been fierce.”

      “Are you mocking me?” She searched his face, but he looked solemn.

      “Who, me? I never mock women I’m trying to score with.”

      “Wow, you’re direct. You don’t even like me.”

      “What’s like got to do with it?”

      “You have no shame.” When it came to sex, she was used to men wanting to bed anyone in sight. This was Hollywood, after all.

      “Is it working?”

      “Nothing will work, except Odele convincing me this is a good idea.”

      Rick frowned. “You mean she hasn’t already?”

      It took Chiara a moment to realize he wasn’t joking. “Please. She may have persuaded you to go along with her crazy scheme, but not me.”

      “I only went along with it because I thought you’d said yes.”

      Chiara watched Rick’s dawning expression, which mimicked her own. “I believed you’d agreed.”

      “Stuntmen are made of sterner stuff.” He threw her attitude right back at her.

      Chiara realized they’d both been tricked by Odele into believing the other had agreed to her plan. Rick had dared to kiss her because he thought she’d already signed up for her manager’s plot. “What are we going to do?”

      Rick shrugged. “About the gathering media frenzy? We’re already bickering like an old married couple. We’re perfect.”

      Chiara’s eyes widened. “You can’t tell me you’re seriously considering this? Anyway, we’re supposed to act like new lovebirds, not a cantankerous old married couple.”

      “If we’re already arguing, it’ll make our relationship seem deeper than it is.”

      “Skip the honeymoon phase?” she asked rhetorically. “What’s in this for you?”

      He shrugged. “Have some fun.” He looked at her lingeringly. “Satisfy my fetish for Snow White.”

      Chiara tingled, her breasts feeling heavy. “Oh, yeah, right...”

      “So what’s your take?”

      “This is the worst storyline to come out of Hollywood.”

      * * *

      For the second time in recent days, Chiara banged open the door of her trailer and marched in. “I can’t pretend to be in a relationship with Rick Serenghetti. End of story.”

      Odele looked up from her magazine. She sat on a cushioned built-in bench along one wall. “What’s wrong with him?”

      He was too big, too macho, too everything—most of all, annoying. She still sizzled from their kiss minutes ago, and she didn’t do vulnerability where men were concerned. But she sidestepped the issue. “It’s the pretending part that I have trouble with.”

      “You’re an actress.”

      “Context is everything. I like to confine my acting to the screen.” Otherwise, she’d be in danger of losing herself. If she was always pretending, who was she? “You know I value integrity.”

      “It’s overrated. Besides, this is Tinseltown.”

      Chiara placed her hands on her hips. “You misled me and Rick into thinking the other one had already agreed to this crazy scheme.”

      Odele shrugged. “You were already open to the idea. That’s the only reason it even mattered to you whether he was already on board with the plan.”

      Chiara felt heat rise to her face, and schooled her expression. “I’m not signing up for anything!”

      Her conversation with Rick had had no satisfactory ending. It had sent her scuttling, somewhat humiliatingly, back to her manager. Chiara eyed the shower stall visible through the open bathroom door at the end of the trailer. If only she could rinse off the tabloid headlines just as easily.

      “Fine,” Odele responded with sudden and suspicious docility, putting aside her magazine. “We’ll have to come up with another strategy to distract the press from your father and amp up your career.”

      “Sounds like a plan to me.”

      “Great, it’s settled. Now...can you gain twenty pounds?” Odele asked.

      Chiara sighed. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. “I’d rather not. Why?”

      She’d gained fifteen for a film role two years ago in Alibis & Lies—in which she’d played a convicted white-collar criminal who witnesses a murder once she’s released from jail and thinks her husband is framing her. To gain the weight, she’d indulged her love for pasta, creamy sauces and pastries—but she’d had to work for months with a trainer to shed the pounds afterward. In the meantime, she’d worn sunglasses and baggy clothes and had lain low in order to avoid an unflattering shot by the paparazzi. And she’d been disappointed not to get a Golden Globe nomination.

      She wondered what movie project Odele had in mind these days... Usually her talent agent at Creative Artists sent projects her way, but Odele kept her ear to the ground, too.

      “Last time I was heavier on-screen, I got a lot of backlash.” Some fans thought she’d