It's the best kept secret in Hollywood. Multi-million-dollar actors, Nick McDonald and Lisa Hamilton, are known for their hot, hot scenes on camera. They have to be a couple, right? Wrong. In fact, Lisa is married and expecting twins! A big complication when she has a movie shoot ready to start and premiers to attend.
With millions on the line, what's an actress to do? Hire a body double—her twin sister, Hannah.
It isn't long before those hot movie scenes are sizzling. Hannah might not be an actress, but she knows what she wants—and Nick is just the man to give it to her.
EXCERPT
Hannah Hamilton thumbed through the script. She must be out of her mind to let Lisa talk her into this. If Hannah wanted to
be an actress, she would have been an actress. She dismissed that nightmare of a plan a long time ago. Lisa grabbed the bull with both horns
and rode it to the finish line.
She glanced under her brows at her twin. It was no longer like looking in a mirror. Pregnant with twins, Lisa was huge, and not just because there were two babies in there! Hannah prayed she wouldn’t gain weight like this when and if she ever got pregnant. But from the instant Lisa knew she was pregnant,
all her eating rules were flushed down the toilet. She claimed she wasn’t going to worry about what she could and couldn’t have; she was
going to enjoy every second.
She tossed the script to the small table between their chairs. “This isn’t going to work.”
Lisa hoisted her legs to the footrest in front of her. “Yes, it will. Trust me. No one will ever know the difference. You
and I have been reading through these things together from the first day. You’re just as good an actress as I am.”
Hannah glanced around the swank trailer that served as her sister’s dressing room, a near duplicate of
the one Nick McDonald, her perpetual co-star had. They were already on the set. They both knew she was going to go through this.
She’d already gone to makeup for the shot and wardrobe had blessed her with a red satin robe for the first scene...and little else. Why did she hedge now? Because it was deceitful? Because she was afraid she might like it too much? Or because of the sex scenes she’d have to do with Nick McDonald?
Who was she kidding? Like every other woman across the country, she had a king-sized crush on him. Oh, hell, she was in love with him. Who wouldn’t die for the chance to have that man’s arms around her, even if it was only acting? And his looks? The camera didn’t do him justice.
She’d met him more than a few times. In each instance, Hannah had to force her mouth to remain shut. Electric blue eyes sparkled with his smile, and he smiled a lot. His hair was the color of dark chocolate and obeyed the merest flick of his long fingers. And he wasn’t pretentious
in the least. In fact, he was very...accessible. Just your normal, run of the mill, guy next door...who happened to earn up to twenty million dollars a movie.
Hannah could never string more than two intelligent words together whenever she was around him, no matter how nice he was. If he noticed her
awkwardness, he was kind enough not to mention it. In fact, he hardly said much to her at all. Which was just as well. If the man ever touched her, Hannah would crumble into a thousand pieces. Now she was expected to not only act with him, but to create those hot sex scenes the team of Lisa Hamilton and Nick McDonald were so famous for.
“What...what if he gets a hard-on?”
Lisa laughed as she rubbed her belly. “It would be a first. You’ve been around the business long enough to know this isn’t a tryst. It is a production with the director, cameramen, sound and lighting techs just about up your ass. The environment is not conducive to passion.”
“It just looks so...real.” Hannah felt stupid even saying that.
“That’s why they call it acting. Nick and I are very good at what we do.”
Yes, they were. And they got paid very well for bringing those blockbuster movies to life. Very well. Like Lisa, Nick spread the wealth among his family.
Hannah’s parents would never have to work a day in their life any more. Lisa had bought houses for Hannah and their two younger brothers. She would have taken care of them for life, too, if their father hadn’t stepped in. Their dad didn’t want his children to become leeches. Lisa sidestepped him by drawing their brothers into the business. They didn’t do half-bad themselves.
The only hold out was Hannah. She preferred her relatively quiet life as a high school English and Drama teacher, even if she did have to spend the first week of each school year convincing new students she wasn’t the great Lisa Hamilton. Hannah just couldn’t see herself going through all of the hassle and the invasions of privacy Lisa dealt with. Although she
had to hand it to her, Lisa and Nick had done an excellent job of perpetuating the myth of a hot and heavy off-screen relationship. Generally, no one knew Lisa was married to wealthy investor Franco Maneli and they were now expecting twins. It was one of Hollywood’s best kept secrets. Unfortunately, it was also the reason they were sitting in Lisa’s trailer today waiting to start shooting Lisa and Nick’s new movie.
“Why don’t you just tell people the truth?” she asked for what felt like the hundredth time.
Lisa groaned. “Oh, God. Please don’t make me answer that freaking question again.”
No, it’d had been discussed until they were both blue. Lisa needed Hannah to stand in for her. The myth had to survive. Too many careers depended on it. Delaying production of the movie would bring the media out sniffing for a story. Even if Lisa’s publicist did a little spin doctoring on the delay, there was still the issue of the premier of their latest movie. Hannah could hear the speculation now.
Where is Lisa?
Was there trouble in paradise for the sizzling duo?
Rumor has it in Tinseltown that Nick McDonald is gay.
They might be able to survive the fall-out, but ticket sales would surely drop on their future endeavors once people realized they really weren’t a couple. At least that was what the moneymen kept saying.
But, not to worry, we’ll just bring in the twin. Problem solved.
Yeah...right.
“Have you told Nick yet?” Hannah asked.
Lisa studied her perfectly manicured nails. “Not yet. We haven’t hadn’t any time alone and phone calls can be monitored.”
Hannah shoved to her feet and paced toward the kitchen. “Not if you use a regular phone.”
“Relax.” She flicked her concern away with a wiggle of her fingers. “I’ll tell him today.”
“Who knows?” Hannah hugged her arms around her midriff.
Lisa shrugged. “Franco, of course.”
That was a no brainer. Lisa told her husband everything.
“My agent, publicist, the producer and director.”
She covered her face as she shook her head. “Naked in front of everyone. How can you do it, Lisa?”
“It’s a closed set. Only necessary crew are there. Besides, you have a killer body. One any woman would be proud to have. I should know. It used to be mine.”
Which led to another question, another problem. Hannah nailed her sister’s green-eyed gaze with its mate. “And how do you expect to continue these scenes now?
Being pregnant, having twins, is bound to leave its mark.”
Lisa glanced away. Her answer was pretty clear—she was going to ask Hannah to continue as her body double.
“It’s not so bad.” Lisa traced the lines of pattern in the mauve chair. “We always do the sex scenes first so they are out of the way. After this shoot, it would be a week or two out of your life at the max. And, let’s face it, Nick and I don’t have that many more years before we’ve lost our edge and things start to...sag.”
“Maybe you’ll get lucky and he’ll have a twin he can trot out.” She hated herself for her surliness, but the more Hannah thought about being naked in Nick’s arms, the more out of control she felt.
Lisa’s long sigh was her undoing. Hannah had promised her she’d do this. They both knew she’d keep her word so why belabor the point? And Lisa was compensating Hannah grandly for the assistance—forking over her salary to Hannah after all the taxes and relevant fees were deducted. It was three months of her time during the summer. What harm would come of it?
A knock on the trailer door snapped her from her thoughts.
“That will be Nick,” Lisa said. “We normally go to the set together.” She smiled. “Want to have a little fun with him?”
More than she would ever realize. “What kind of fun?”
She scooted to the edge of her chair. “Let’s see if he can tell the difference. Pretend you’re me. I usually just tell him to come in.”
And here it starts. Hannah squared her shoulders. She supposed there was no time like the present.
“It’s open,” she called out.
The door swung out. Light splashed into the trailer, temporarily blinding her to all else as Nick McDonald stepped in. Seconds later, the door shut. Hannah’s eyes adjusted quickly. He stood there staring at her sister, seemingly dumbfounded. Like her, he was dressed for the set in a matching robe. She wondered if he had as little under it as she did. His script was rolled up in his and stuck in his pocket.
“You remember my sister Hannah, don’t you, Nick?” Hannah somehow managed to say.
He gave her pregnant sister a hesitant smile. “Of course. How are you doing?” He laughed lightly. “You’d think I’d know better than to ask a pregnant woman that. Congratulations. Lisa didn’t mention she was going to be an aunt.”
Hannah stepped between them. “With good reason. I didn’t know the last time we talked. She’s carrying twins and has about two months to go.”
He nodded at Lisa. “Well, congratulations still. Can’t be easy being pregnant, much less having twins.”
He turned that smile on Hannah. It shot through her like a laser beam. Hannah’s heart quickened, her blood raced, dampness soaked her crotch, just like they always did when she was near him. Only this time she couldn’t hide behind her sister.
