Falling From Grace by Alexx Andria Read Free Book Online

most — the indifference. Maybe he’d been The One. Heaven knew that when she’d been with him, she’d never been happier. Of course, she hadn’t actually known that what she craved had been in her grasp all along. No, she’d been too hungry for fame. And who was she kidding? She still hungered for that elusive high, which was why her stomach was unsettled and her nerves were jangled at the realization that she was leaving Los Angeles. You had to be around to be seen, as Raina reminded her. She looked to Miles. “How long is this little vacation?” she asked.
    “At least a week. Possibly two.”
    She swallowed the anxiety in her throat. “Two weeks? I can’t take that much time away from the scene.”
    “Sure you can.”
    “Miles…you don’t understand, Hollywood has a terribly short memory. I have to be around in people’s faces so that they don’t forget who I am.”
    “That’s bullshit. Nobody forgets about Meryl Streep and as far as I know she’s not out clubbing every night in the hopes of catching attention she doesn’t need.”
    Her cheeks burned. “Well, I’m not exactly Meryl Streep.”
    “Not yet.”
    His quiet confidence warmed her insides with unexpected joy and she smothered the irrational fear making her edgy. There was truth to his statement. Since hanging with Raina in the hopes of catching the right people, she’d done nothing but push the right people away. When she’d started this journey, she’d been so sure of how to shape her career but since her fame exploded, she’d been unsure of what the right move was and had leaned heavily on Raina and her crew for guidance. Maybe that’d been a mistake. “What did you think of Raina?” she asked, more for confirmation of her own misgivings than a true curiosity.
    “She’s a parasite. Where’d you meet her?”
    “At a club called Crimson,” she answered, glancing out the small window. “At first she seemed so much fun and for awhile, it was a lot of crazy fun but lately…I don’t know…I’m not sure Raina is good for me.”
    “Let me erase all doubt –  she’s not. She doesn’t care about you or your work. You’re a meal ticket. There’s a reason people who become wildly famous stick to their original base of friends — because they can’t trust anyone else. I can almost guarantee that your ‘friend’ Raina has her own interests at heart, not yours.”
    Dani nodded, feeling like an idiot for letting someone like Raina run her life for the past six months. “After Judgment , things went haywire and everyone wanted a piece of me. I didn’t know how to handle it all. Raina seemed to have all the answers.”
    He grunted with a shake of his head. “Yeah, well, it’s what you wanted, right? Everyone wanting a piece of you? I seem to recall that was your biggest dream —  total fame. I guess it’s true when they say, be careful what you wish for.”
    She shot Miles a reproachful look. “That’s not fair…everyone has dreams. It’s not nice to beat me up over mine. Besides, I didn’t know what I was truly getting into .” Or what I would lose . “Not everyone has everything in their head figured out.”
    “You’re right,” he agreed, adding with a shrug, “but somethings just come with the territory you’ve pegged as your destination. It’s up to you to keep your head straight when the world is turning.”
    Wasn’t that basically the same advice her dad had once given her? Thank God, her dad passed away two years ago, he would’ve been mortified to read the tabloids about her. Some of it was true, some of it was pure lies but no one ever took the time to sort it out. “How long is the flight?” she asked, fighting a yawn.
    “Long enough for you to take a nap if you want,” he said.
    “Do you mind if I use your shoulder?”
    “No,” he said, his gaze darkening ever so slightly, causing her breath to hitch. But he looked away before she could say anything aside from a murmured word of