Lovers and Liars by Brenda Joyce Read Free Book Online

you discovered acting.”
    “Yeah.” Jack smiled, running his fingers through his thick hair. “Rather, I discovered the high-school drama teacher. God, she was beautiful!” Tall, beautiful Delia Corice.
    “And?”
    “I fell madly in love with her. I took all her classes. I wanted her to notice me, so I tried damn hard to be good. First time in my life I ever had any ambition to succeed.”
    “Go on.”
    “I was a natural. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was damn awful. But I had natural talent, and Miss Corice took me under her wing, really worked with me. I guess I was a pretty fast study.” His lightning grin appeared.
    A very fast study.
    He would never forget the first time she had made love to him. He had shown up on her doorstep to be “tutored.” Well, he had been tutored, all right. It wasn’t the first time for him—he had lost his virginity at twelve—but it was the first time he had ever eaten pussy. He loved it. So had she.
    “And after high school?” Linda said, interrupting his thoughts. She frowned, looking at her own notes. “According to my research, you spent six years in New York doing repertory theater, then came to L.A. in seventy-seven.”
    Jack smiled easily, but his stomach tensed at the false bio he had constructed years before. “Right.” He confirmed the lie. “I did rep in New York, and when I came out here I did commercials for a couple of years. Then, presto. They cast me in the role of a hard-nosed detective in my own series, and I believe you know the rest of the story.” He smiled. What the hell. No one wanted to hear the truth. He didn’t want to hear it.
    “There’s such a big gap in your life from the time you went to New York to when you got the part of the series detective,” Linda insisted. “What really happened?”
    Jack never stopped smiling as he leaned back casually on the sofa. What really happened? Unconsciously, his fingers went to the slight bump on his nose, the only external scar he carried. He rubbed it. He would never forget the pain of those brass knuckles.
    And he would never forget that day. A sunny, cloudless day that had hit 102 degrees in midtown, a real scorcher. Thursday. July 31, 1971. Jack would carry the memory of that day and a chilling hatred in his heart for Abe Glassman until the day he died.
    The reporter for US was looking at him curiously. He never had given a satisfactory answer to her question. “Istruggled,” he said lightly. “Just like a thousand other actors and actresses.” He shrugged. “It’s a boring story.”
    “I doubt anything about you is boring,” Linda said, pushing her glasses back on her nose. “How does it feel to be considered one of the sexiest men in the industry?”
    Jack’s grin widened. “I didn’t ask for it.”
    “Do you think you’re sexy?”
    “Do you?” he shot back, still smiling.
    “How come you’re always smiling?” Linda asked, smiling herself.
    “Life’s funny.” He started to chuckle. “Listen, sweetheart, if you’d been where I’ve been, you’d be grinning too.”
    “I guess so. How does it feel to be doing a movie? Inside gossip says North-Star’s already lined up another film for you. Outrage ?”
    “It feels good,” Jack said. “I admit it.”
    “During those lean years did you think you’d ever get there? Here, I mean?”
    “To tell you the truth, baby, I sometimes wondered.” More than wondered, he thought, grimacing unconsciously. He leaned closer, until his face was inches from hers. “Look, I’m bored with this interview.”
    She blinked. “Uh—just a few more questions?”
    “Later. Right now I’m more interested in you.”
    “What do you want to know?” She flushed.
    His voice lowered to a hoarse whisper. “I want to know how you look with those clothes off, how those beautiful long legs feel wrapped around me. I want to know how you taste.”
    Linda’s mouth dropped open, and she stared.
    Jack put his hand on her hair and pulled her close,