Star Attraction by Sorcha MacMurrough Read Free Book Online Page A

a doll just for your ego
and your pride in your own status.   If you want me for my brains, fine, if not, find yourself some other
simpering bimbo!” Zaira hissed, and made to rise from her chair.
    But Brad held onto her wrist
firmly, and declared, “Simpering bimbos don’t suit me, but you do.   All I meant was that you're an
attractive woman, and I don’t see why you insist on hiding that fact.” He
stared at her intently in silence, until Zaira finally calmed down and
shrugged.
    “Because I'm still married, and
because I don’t want to call any sort of attention to myself,” Zaira admitted.
    “But you haven’t done anything to
be ashamed of!   And besides, how do
you really feel about your husband?   So loyal, that if he walked in the door this minute, you would throw
your arms around him and forgive him everything he’s put you through?”   Brad asked, watching her face closely.
    Zaira scowled and shook her
head.   “No, no chance of that.   He let me down badly in every respect,
and I'll be getting a divorce on the grounds of desertion as soon as I'm
able.   I shall pay off all my debts
with the money you’re going to pay me, then I'll be free of the past.”
    “I look forward to celebrating
your freedom, then.   I know you
said you didn’t care about designer clothes, but perhaps you’ll come out of
your self-made shell then, and show me the real you.”
    Zaira became lost in the depths of
his eyes, which glimmered like the sea in the dim light of the pub.   “Brad, I don’t know even know who the
real me is anymore.   I thought I
had all the answers, until the day the police knocked on my door.”
    “Well, perhaps I’m one of the
answers.   This will be a great
opportunity for you to try something new, and I’m not often wrong about
people.   You have a great deal of
courage, Zaira, enough courage to keep going after all that, enough courage to
try living again, and maybe even enough courage to let yourself fall in love
again,” Brad asserted.
    Zaira trembled as he said the word
“love,” and knew the conversation was getting far too intimate.   “I’ll take the job for the present, so
long as you understand that I put my lecturing first, and then we’ll see how I
get on after that.”   She stood up
and insisted, “No, I can’t stay for another, thanks all the same.    Thanks for the offer as well, and
I’ll let you know when I’ve got something worth looking at.”
    “Great,” Brad said, beaming like a
kid at Christmas, “but don’t keep me waiting too long!”
    Zaira’s grey eyes locked with his
one last time, as she struggled to tear herself away.   She waved goodbye, and propelled herself forcefully out of
the door and across the park to the restaurant where Matt was meeting her.

 
     
     
     
     
     
CHAPTER SIX
     
     
    Two days later, Zaira was already
regretting all the complications she had created for herself by not setting the
record straight about she and Zoe Dominick being one and the same person, as
she struggled into the long black wig and out of her suit into some more casual
clothes.   The days had sped by in a
whirl of lecturing, writing, and consulting with Matt over the terms the
lawyers had drawn up concerning all her arrangements with Brad Clarke.  
    She was rather enjoying working on
the screenplay, indeed, had become almost obsessed by it, thinking about it all
the time, to the exclusion of virtually everything else.   She delivered her lectures almost
without thinking, like a robot, so anxious was she to get back to her laptop
computer and carry on where she had left off.
    Matt had been shocked beyond
belief at all her news, and while he was pleased for her, he was concerned that
she might be overdoing it, and that Brad might be rather cross when he found
out that Zaira Darcy and Zoe Dominick were one and the same woman.
    To avoid that, Zaira was now
wearing the wig to their rehearsal, but she realized that she couldn't possibly
wear