Plain Jane in the Spotlight

Lucy Gordon Plain Jane in the Spotlight

A book in the Falcon Dynasty series, 2012

Dear Reader,

With the third book of The Falcon Dynasty, I found myself facing new challenges. Travis is unlike most other heroes, and certainly unlike the other Falcons. Amos’s ruthless, demanding nature has descended to several of his sons. Darius, Marcel and Leonid have obvious traces of their father. Even Jackson is a Falcon, in his clear-eyed determination to do things his way.

But Travis is different: an actor in the glamorous city of Los Angeles, he’s a gentle, sweet-natured man, who makes his way through life with charm and humor. His greatest gift is for winning hearts, so his career flourishes and he can take his choice of beautiful women. Whatever he touches turns to gold, and he seems to have everything a man could wish for.

It takes a special woman to discover the truth. Charlene would call herself plain and dowdy, but she’s the only one Travis trusts sufficiently to reveal the vulnerability he hides from the rest of the world.

Despised and half rejected by his domineering father, Travis has always felt on the outside of the Falcon family. Now Charlene’s open arms offer comfort and safety, and he takes joyful refuge in them. But when suddenly he has the chance to win Amos’s respect, it could be at Charlene’s expense.

What he does now will define his life, and his decision reveals him as a true Falcon: not to be deflected from his chosen path. But few men would have the strength to do what he does.

Travis is my favorite Falcon. I hope you love him as much as I do.

Best wishes,

Lucy Gordon

CHAPTER ONE

‘FOR pity’s sake, Travis, why do you never listen? You’ve been warned a dozen times. Stay out of sleazy nightclubs.’

Denzil Raines, boss of the Sandora Studio in Los Angeles, snapped out the command and tried to control his temper. It was hard because Travis would try anyone’s patience.

The studio produced several money-making television series, but none of them raked in the wealth as fast and gloriously as The Man From Heaven, starring Travis Falcon, and protecting that investment was a major operation.

The young man enduring the lecture seemed to sum up the whole of the investment in himself. Travis’s body was lean and vigorous, his face was handsome, his air charming, his smile devastating. It spoke of eagerness to enjoy life to the full. Late nights, curiosity for new experiences, untiring energy for a vast range of pleasurable activities. They were all there in the quirk of his mouth, the gleam in his eye, and they caused much hair tearing among those who needed to keep him in check.

Denzil reflected that he’d picked the right word. Sleazy. That was it. Sleazy nightclubs, sleazy pleasures, sleazy Travis. But he knew it was precisely the hint of a ‘bad boy’ lurking in the shadows that hit the magic spot with the public. And it would go on doing so as long as it stayed in the safety of the shadows. If it was allowed to escape… Denzil groaned.

Travis was standing by the window, looking out over the view of Los Angeles. Clearly visible in the distance was the huge gleaming sign, HOLLYWOOD, that for ninety years had symbolised the city where glamour, entertainment and money united in brilliant supremacy. His gaze was fixed on the sign, as though to remind himself of the achievements he was fighting to keep. He stood, bathed in sunlight, apparently nonchalant, but actually alive to every threatening nuance.

‘I didn’t know it was sleazy,’ he said with a shrug. ‘My friend chose it for his stag night.’

‘Stag night?’ Denzil echoed in outrage. ‘Then you might have guessed there’d be half-naked dolly birds prancing around. What else are stag nights for? You should have got out of the place instead of… this!’

He held out a newspaper, jamming his finger down on a picture of a man and a girl clinging to each other. He was sitting down, shirt ripped open, the half-naked girl on his lap, her arms about his neck, kissing him madly, which he showed every sign of enjoying.

‘You had to lay yourself out for those girls,’ Denzil groaned.

‘I didn’t lay myself out,’ Travis protested. ‘I was having a quiet drink when this lady…well…’

‘Quiet? Hah! When did you last do anything quietly? And she was no lady. She’d been hired for the night to “entertain” the male guests. She entertained you all right.’

‘I didn’t ask her to sit on my lap.’

‘You didn’t push her off, either.’

‘No, that would have been rude. I was just trying to be polite.’

‘Oh, it was politeness that made you put your arms about her waist, draw her close, nuzzle her-’

‘I’m only human,’ Travis protested. ‘When a half-naked girl drapes herself over a guy he’s expected to show some appreciation.’

‘You did that all right,’ Denzil snapped. ‘She’s not the only one who’s half-naked. Look at your shirt, open to the waist, so that she can dance her fingers over your bare chest. Did she pull it open? Did you? Or did you arrive like that, hoping something would happen?’

Travis groaned. ‘Can we just leave this? I didn’t know the press was there, OK?’

‘The press is always there where you’re concerned,’ Denzil growled. ‘You should know that by now. Ever since the show became a hit they’ve been watching you, trying to find out something that makes people’s hair stand on end. And, let’s face it, there are plenty of those!’

‘I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may incriminate me,’ Travis said with a touch of wry humour.

‘Very wise. They just want to catch you out with something really damaging. It wouldn’t be such a problem if you were playing a different character, but this one is full of danger.’

The TV series, The Man From Heaven, was the talk of the entertainment world. Superficially, it seemed a conventional hospital drama, centred around the young, handsome Dr Brad Harrison, played by Travis Falcon. But beneath it was another tale. The doctor lived a life of strict virtue that was wildly at odds with his flamboyant sexual presence, and there was just a hint that he wasn’t a mortal man at all, but a spirit from another dimension.

It was the intriguing contrast between Dr Harrison’s austere life and the sexual indulgence open to a man of his attractions that had sent the show to the top of all the popularity charts. The producers were determined to keep it there, if only they could rein in Travis’s more lurid off-screen activities.

‘Folk out there like nothing better than to discover “the heavenly being” acting on his lowest human instincts,’ Denzil pointed out now.

‘But I’m not a heavenly being,’ Travis said firmly.

‘You don’t have to tell me that,’ Denzil snapped. ‘Look, the public’s crazy about you, the money’s pouring in. The next series is being planned. But that could all change if you step too much out of character in private. Look, I’m not unreasonable. Of course you want female company. Just not that sort.’

Travis studied the picture again and sighed. ‘I know. I was careless. I’ll be more careful.’

‘It would help if you were in a relationship with a respectable girl. Don’t pull that face. I know “respectable” is like the kiss of death to you, but we need the public to believe in you as one of the good guys, not a philanderer.’