Prologue

David

David had arrived in London early in the day because the next evening was the world premiere of his James Bond movie, Devil May Care. The event would start with a televised show celebrating the twenty-fifth James Bond movie from EON films. They planned to have all the men who played James in the past in attendance, three of whom were in their nineties.

They would also have many past and current cast members on the show, including the Bond girls. In addition to the show, David had been asked to do an interview on ITV. They were doing a special on the franchise, and he’d been slotted in the coveted final twenty-minute segment. He had Frank Ingram with him in his hotel suite; they were supposed to be prepping for the interview. Instead, they were dealing with the fallout from their flight there.

“I want to expose him for the pig that he is! He asked me if I wanted to blow him in the lavatory, for heaven’s sake,” Kristen Todd loudly complained.

“And I said ‘No’ for you,” David retorted, peeved.

Lexi Andon, David’s usual personal assistant, had bailed on him to work for Ben Cowley, who was filming in Paris this summer. Ben had worked with David on his three Star Academy movies and had also starred in Love Letters, a movie David had both acted in and was part owner of.

So, when Lexi called and said Ben needed a PA, David gave her his blessing. Besides, she deserved a summer trip to Paris for all the work she’d done for him. Now, he was regretting that generosity.

At the moment, David was also planning the demise of Kent Crain, the man in charge of assigning PAs and personal managers in his wealth management company. Kent had a pool of people to select from, ranging from one of David’s former PAs to others David considered both friends and capable. Instead, Kent had sent him Kristen.

David suspected that Kent was sleeping with her because she had zero experience doing this type of work. He had to admit, Kristen was H O T hot. She was a wannabe actress who Kent had met at some bar and then tried to launch her career. He’d called in several favors to get her auditions, but the girl was a bull in a china shop.

The trip started with her bitching about having to drive herself to the airport. Since she was Academy Award-winning actor David A. Dawson’s PA, she felt she should also get a limo. Then, she’d thrown such a fit about not flying first class that David had paid to make that happen; he’d just been lucky there’d been a seat available.

Before they’d even gotten off the ground, Kristen went total fangirl and started asking for autographs. The flight was full of people from the movie, so she had a captive audience and planned to make the most of it.

David was seated across the aisle from Grant Quigley, who was older—probably mid-sixties—and had been acting for the past forty years. The two had gotten to know each other during downtime while filming. Grant had a wicked sense of humor that always seemed to draw a crowd.

The two men were getting settled when Kristen appeared.

“You’re Grant Quigley, who played M in the movie. Could I get your autograph?”

“Kristen, leave him alone and go sit down,” David ordered. “Once we land and have settled in, I’m sure Grant will be more than happy to give you an autograph.

“That’s okay. Many of my fans want something to remember meeting me by,” Grant said to play it off.

David’s least favorite aspect of his fame was that fans would just come up and impose themselves on him. If this had been a fellow flyer or a flight attendant, he would have just ignored it. But this was his PA pestering a fellow actor.

“Do you have something to write on?” Grant asked.

Kristen gave him a stupid look.

“No ... I ... uh,” she stammered.

“Do you have a pen?” he followed up.

“I’ll be right back,” she said as she hurried back to her seat.

“I can tell her to forget it,” David offered.

“No, don’t. Like I said, I’m used to it.”

“I know, but she works for me,” David said to voice his inner thoughts.

“What happened to that cute one you were banging?” Grant asked.

While it hadn’t been a secret that Lexi had hooked up with David during filming, he wasn’t about to share details with this old horndog.

“Bite me. You’re on your own with Kristen,” David fired back with a grin.

David looked back to see what was taking her so long and almost died when he saw his PA accosting Chubby Feldman.

“Kristen, get over here. I’ll find you a pen,” David hissed.

He stood up and opened the overhead where he’d put his carry-on. He pulled out a pen and handed it to her.

“I still don’t have anything for him to sign,” she whined.

She was on his last nerve as he rooted around until he found a notepad.

“Honey, do you want something special to help you remember today?” Grant asked.

Kristen nodded vigorously that she did.

“Why don’t we wait until the seatbelt sign goes off, and then we could find a quiet spot so you could blow me?”

Grant asked for oral sex like he was having a normal conversation, and his request was nothing out of the ordinary.

“Eff me, just sign the damned autograph,” David barked.

“You don’t have to get all territorial with your PAs,” the older man said as he held up his hands like he thought David would punch him.

He signed the autograph, and Kristen made a happy bounce before proceeding to harass everyone else.

“Dude, that was not cool,” David complained.

“Back in the day, that worked eight out of ten times,” Grant said to justify it.

“What about now?” David couldn’t resist asking.

“Two out of ten, but it’s still worth it to try,” he assured David.

Now, in the hotel room, Frank was carefully trying to talk David’s PA out of her attempt to start her own personal #MeToo moment. She quite obviously planned to use the press exposure that David and the James Bond movies were sure to generate to help her start it with a bang. Of course, the last thing that the film’s launch needed was that kind of press.

But David also wasn’t in the mood to help cover up Grant’s boorish behavior. Nor was he happy with Kent for foisting this female disaster on him in the first place. At least this wasn’t a case of workplace sexual harassment. Grant had no influence over Kristen because she didn’t work for him.