Deadly Temptation (Book 3)

Deadly Temptation (10)

One Year later

Frustrated, Janessa threw the package into the wall with a scream. The gift inside shattered and the box fell to the floor, the shattered pieces spilling out. She was running low on patience and this was the last thing she needed right now. 

She had just started filming her new movie and already her stalker knew where her dressing room was to deliver his sick little packages. This time it was a glass picture frame with a picture of her inside but on the picture was his handwriting,

An early birthday present; a frame as fragile as you are and a picture that does your beauty no justice. 

Janessa immediately put it back in the box and tossed it across the room. 

It would be just about a year and a half since she discovered her little admirer. A year and a half too long, actually. Her hopes of drawing them out failed since they didn't take the bait she laid for them. Over the last year she began dropping hints to certain people on set and on her PR team. None of them took the bait and now she was left to figure it out all on her own before things escalated. 

The last six months, however, have been kind to her. Her last movie with Henry was a hit and now she was casted for a new TV drama series. Speaking of Henry, Janessa had been dating him under the quiet— for real this time. 

Since that night at the charity event, she submerged herself in work. Audition after audition, she was there— distracting herself from what happened in that hotel room with Keith. Some nights she would wake up moaning from her dreams— her dreams of Keith. She yearned for him in a way that she didn't understand. In her mind it was pathetic... a stupid schoolgirl crush.

—But she was no longer a school girl. She was now a woman with a mind of her own.

"Are you okay?" Henry's voice startled her. 

"Fine. Just a little frustrated." She sighed before stopping down and trying to clean up the glass shards before Henry could see them. She would hate for him to start asking questions— ones she wouldn't be able to answer. 

"Let me take you out tonight." His hands came around her waist once she dumped the pieces in the bin. 

"How about we stay in instead?" She smiled and leaned into him.

For the six months they have been together, they still hadn't shared a bed. Henry was surprisingly understanding and Janessa thought that maybe, just maybe this was her second chance at what should have been a regular life for her— the one Reese ruined for her. 

The only people she spent her time around was Henry and Lily— her red-headed petite friend who cut off all communication with Maria once she found out what she was doing. Janessa never confronted Maria nor did she want to. Janessa heard it for herself when she attended a party a few months back and saw Maria in someone's lap telling them all about Janessa's life. Every single detail— where she lived, her family and even details about Reese. 

Drunk or not, she had no right. So, Janessa left and didn't contact her after that. 

"Don't tease me, love." Henry chuckled. 

"I'm not." She spun around in his arms. 

"You're serious?"

Serious about getting Keith out of my head? Yup.

"Yes, I want to enjoy you while you're here." 

"I only leave for a few weeks back to London but I don't mind this little gesture." He smirked.