Free The Perfect Hero by Victoria Connelly Page B

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    ‘Hello,’ he said.
    Gemma nodded.
    ‘You okay?’ he asked. ‘You look cold.’
    ‘I’m fine, thank you,’ Gemma said politely, half-expecting him to move on to wherever he had to move on to. But he didn’t.
    ‘That dress doesn’t look very substantial,’ he said.
    ‘It isn’t,’ Gemma said and then blushed as she saw his eyes sweep over her exposed bosom.
    ‘ROB?’ a voice yelled from the other end of the Cobb. ‘Get over here, will you?’
    The man shrugged. ‘No rest for the wicked,’ he said and, as quickly as he’d appeared, he disappeared, leaving Gemma with the impression that he was, indeed, very wicked. But rather cute too.
    Adam always felt like a bit of a spare part when he was on set. For a start, he wasn’t really needed. Nobody asked him his opinion about the way a scene should be shot and, if there were any questions about the script, they were always directed to Teresa. But he didn’t mind. He quite liked being in the background. It gave him a chance to observe everything that was going on around him. He loved the bustle of film sets – the excitement had never waned over the years. No matter how many he’d been on one, there was always something different to experience. For the Persuasion shoot, it was the transformation of the Cobb. There were canteen trucks, trucks for the actors full of costumes and make-up, vans full of cables, dolly tracks down for the camera, and ropes cordoning off several streets with notices up apologising for any inconvenience. He’d been working on a film up in Scotland when the 2006 production of Persuasion had been shooting in Lyme Regis and he’d been gutted to miss it. Now, he took a step back and gloried in the chaos that he’d caused by sitting down to write a script one day.
    He’d been told about the burst pipe at The Three Palms and how Teresa had managed to find Wentworth House. Adam smiled as he’d thought about its new owner. It had been her, hadn’t it? The girl with the toffee-coloured hair he’d seen outside the estate agents. She hadn’t recognised him but how could she have? He hadn’t exactly made his presence known that day, had he? But he remembered her. There’d been something about her that had captivated him immediately. She had a sweetness about her the like of which he’d never seen before and it had been so easy to talk to her. He’d been surprised at how at ease he’d felt in her company. Women usually had the effect of tying him up in knots but Kay had loosened him. Gemma was the same. He adored Gemma and cared enormously about her but she didn’t give him that fluttery feeling in the pit of his stomach that Kay did.
    Adam took a deep breath of salty air. Now was not a good time to fall head over heels. He’d just started a new screenplay and was up to his eyeballs in ideas plus there was still so much to sort out with the film. His phone never stopped ringing. Unless he switched it off, of course, which he often did when he was writing. His imagination was working at full capacity at the moment and there really wasn’t room to start imagining romantic scenarios in his own life. He had to write those of his characters first. But that was easier said than done, wasn’t it?
    A sudden gust of wind buffeted Adam and he buttoned up his coat. It was cold for May and the sea was a menacing grey to match the sky. He watched as the actresses left the safety of the make-up vans, the fine fabric of their dresses wrapping around their legs. They were all wearing coats and he could see strands of hair desperately trying to escape from the confines of their bonnets.
    ‘It’s impossible!’ Beth shouted above the wind. ‘I can hardly get my breath.’
    Sophie and Gemma linked arms and struggled along behind Beth as they approached the Cobb. The sea was whipping up some alarming waves now and they were hitting the Cobb on the far side and spraying over the top, soaking anyone who dared to stand nearby.
    Teresa was