Hollywood Wives - the New Generation Read Free Page A

at what he did.
    Lissa was always open to young and excellent: it kept her career
edgy and fresh.
    Throwing her head back, she struck a pose, honouring the camera with
a true-to-form provocative gaze. Parted lips, half-closed diamond blue
eyes, an expression of sexual yearning.
    Lissa Roman gave great sex. It always paid off.
    Kickboxing class over - a virtual feast of kicking, punching and
sparring - Nicci hurried into the dressing room, took a quick shower
and changed into shorts and a stomach-baring T-shirt: all the better to
show off her killer abs, glowing tan and recent navel piercing. Then
she stared in the mirror for a moment, which reminded her that she'd
certainly inherited Antonio's looks. Rich, dark brown hair cropped like
a gamin, with long bangs falling into her huge brown eyes, which were
fringed with impossibly long, silky, midnight black lashes. Long legs
and a lithe, lean body. Her over-full, sexy lips and high cheekbones
were the only clue that she was Lissa Roman's daughter.
    Yes, she decided, she was definitely going to call Antonio. He
had
to come to her wedding. He was her father, after all, and she needed
him beside her on the most important day of her life. It wasn't like
she had any other family - Lissa's parents were forbidden territory,
although she'd always harboured a secret desire to contact them, see if
they were as strict and unloving as Lissa said.
    Grabbing her bag, she headed for the car park, where she climbed
behind the wheel of her gleaming silver sports BMW, an engagement
present from her fiance, Evan.
    Ah… Evan, she thought fondly. A goer. A doer. A man with a mission.
Thirty years old and already a self-made millionaire
from a string of off-beat comedy movies he'd co-written and co-produced
with his brother, Brian.
    So intently was Nicci thinking about Evan, that she did not notice
the dusty brown van pull away from the kerb and fall in behind her car
as she left the parking lot and hit Sunset.
    Evan and Brian Richter. A younger, hipper version of the Farrelly
brothers. Their rise to power had been meteoric - six movies in five
years, all of them box-office smashes.
    Nicci had met Evan at the dog park on the top of Mulholland. She'd
been walking her then boyfriend's Great Dane, and Evan had been trying
to control a couple of crazed, large German shepherd puppies, who were
intent on running riot and attacking as many other dogs as possible.
Coolly assessing the situation, she'd gone up to him, grabbed the
leashes out of his helpless hand, chased down both puppies and collared
them firmly.
    'Here,' she'd said brusquely, delivering the two German shepherds
back to Evan. 'I suggest you hire a trainer.'
    'How much?' he'd asked, all spiky brown hair, lanky limbs and
comic-book features.
    'How much what?' she'd answered haughtily.
    'How much'll
you
charge to do it?'
    A disdainful look. 'You can't afford me.'
    A crooked grin. 'Wanna bet?'
    What the hell? She had no job to speak of and he seemed vaguely
legitimate. 'A thousand a week. Cash,' she'd said, challenging him.
    No challenge was too big for Evan Richter. 'When can you start?'
he'd said, admiring her spunky attitude.
    And that's how it all began. A casual meeting, with neither of them
knowing anything about each other. He'd only kept the dogs a few weeks
because they were messing up his impeccable house, but by that time
Nicci and he were quite inseparable.
    That had been five months ago and now they were due to be married in
six weeks and she had a wedding to organize with no help from Lissa,
whose only suggestion had been to hire a wedding planner.
    Nicci sighed. Naturally she loved Evan. Sort of. Well, he made her
laugh, didn't treat her badly and gave great head. He could also handle
the fact that she had a famous mom, which freaked most guys out. That
should be enough to sustain a long and fruitful marriage… shouldn't it?
    Yes. Except there was one tiny little drawback. Very small.
Extremely insignificant.
    Nicci loved his