THEIR STARLET
Heroes of Olympus, 5
April Zyon
Copyright © 2017
Chapter One
Laughing out loud, again, Brooklyn shook her head at her cousin and snorted. How embarrassing! “Oh, God.” She laughed even harder. “Dion, I swear you are killing me here.”
“Oh, not killing you, Brook, just trying to get you drunk.”
“I’m already halfway there, cousin, dear, but I thought people got drunk to forget?”
“That’s the plebes, darling. You have never been, nor will you ever be, one of them. I need you drunk so that you can see the truth.”
Brooklyn snorted and giggled. “I snorted.” She was lost in giggles as she spoke. “What is it that I need to see, oh great and powerful Dion?”
“That your future husband is a douche-nozzle.”
She snickered again. She knew she shouldn’t, but couldn’t help it. “He’s so uptight. He said no sex before marriage. Who does that? I thought that all men wanted sex. Right?” She enjoyed sex, had always been uber-safe with it, but she loved making love.
“There’s a reason, Brook. Trust me. I know what I am talking about.” Dionysus wrapped his arm around her shoulders and tugged her out of the way of the people milling around in the bar that they were in. “There.” There was a definite note of glee and happiness in Dion’s voice that had Brooklyn looking up at him.
“You are looking very chipper, Dion. What’s up?” She took another long swig of her mixed drink.
“I need you to see, Brooklyn. Really see. I need you to break free of the shroud of lies that he’s woven. Look, really look.” Dion turned her head for her as he spoke against her ear. Her body was in front of his, and he was holding her head so she had to see what was there.
“Bloody hell,” Brooklyn whispered, which was comical in the loud club that they were in. “That rat bastard.” Her so-called fiancé was right there in a booth fucking a woman. She saw that his pants were open, and that bitch was riding his junk like he was a racehorse.
She was shaking she was so angry. Gone was the good buzz that she’d had going. Instead, in its place was a slow-burning anger. “Take me home,” she said to her cousin, and turned to walk out. The lying, cheating bastard wasn’t even worth her making a scene. It wasn’t the woman’s fault; it was the asshole-who-would-never-be-named-again’s fault.
“He played a good game, Brook. Honey, you couldn’t have possibly known that he was going to step out on you.”
“I should have known. There is no way on God's green earth that any man would be in a relationship with a woman for two years and not want sex. I think deep down I knew he had to be either cheating or gay, or both.” Brooklyn was buckled in on the passenger side of Dion’s Porsche, leaning her head back.
Once they were on the interstate heading toward her family home Dion spoke. “There are men out there for you, Brook. I know that you will find yourself with them. You were blinded for a time. I get that.”
“Yeah, but I never get blinded. Ever. Then again, people seem to fall in love and marry all around me.” She was the one who was unlucky in love. If she was dating a man, or even casually seeing one, it never failed that he would find his one true love very shortly after that. She didn’t understand it, at all.
“Why did you have to be related to me, Dion?” she asked her cousin, turning her head to watch him. “You are panty-dropping hot and single, so why did we have to be related? And why did you say they were out there for me?”
“One, we are related, so knock it off. I’m not to be tempted by you, Brook.” He looked over at her and winked. Taking her hand in his, he continued. “Second, I mentioned ‘men’ because I know that there are two men that are going to walk into your life. They will take you by surprise. Your reactions to them will be visceral, and you will know it. They will be different from any of the other men you’ve dated in your life.”
“Is that a reading?” Her cousin seemed to have a sixth sense when it came to things. He had saved her life when he refused to let her go on a blind date with a man that turned out to be a mass murderer. She shivered in reaction to the thoughts of that man.
“It’s the gospel, Brooklyn. I swear to you on all that I am, one day you will find the love that all the others around you are finding. You are going to learn soon just how to love and be loved.”
“I hope that you are right, Dion. I really do.” She sounded tired, even to herself. Grabbing her cell phone out of her small clutch, she broke up with her fiancé via text message. Yeah, that was an asshole thing to do, but he was the one who was balls deep inside some blonde bimbo.
Brooklyn couldn’t understand why she couldn’t find love. She knew she was beautiful. The string of pageant wins, right up to Miss America, proved it. However, she was more than the sum of her looks and knew that, too. She deserved happiness, and she deserved to find her one, or if Dion was correct, two, true loves.
“Wave your magic wand, cuz, and have them call me?” Brooklyn asked with a smile. She looked at her text from the now-ex and shrugged. “And Alan is taking it like I figured. I should have snapped a picture of him with the woman riding him and sent it to him.” She muttered as her fingers flew across the screen of her phone. “There, that should get my point across,” she muttered darkly and then leaned back again. “Do you think that Daddy will be swayed into using another security firm now that we know that good ol’ Alan is fucking his way across town?”
Alan was head of the security team her father used for her. Now it looked like it was time to start some new interviews. Wonderful, simply wonderful. With Alan screwing around that meant that he was easily compromised and couldn’t be trusted. She couldn’t trust him any longer either, and that hurt her more than she cared to admit.
Dionysus snickered. “I’m sure I will be able to talk your dad into someone else to be your protection while you do what you have to do. Speaking of, how long is the next shoot going to be?”
Who would have guessed that little Brooklyn Anderson from Nowheresville, USA, would be one of the leading starlets in Hollywood? When she’d told her mother that she refused to continue to do pageants, she had gone to college, where she received degrees in Theater and English lit, with a minor in photography. She was determined to make her own path and did. Her pageant momma ended up proud of her when she hit it big in Hollywood. Sadly, however, with fame came a shitload of headaches.
“Thanks, Dion. At least Daddy will listen to you.” One of the headaches of fame was the need to have protection with her. There had been several abduction attempts, as well as threats to her life. Lots of those. Joy be to the world.
“Don’t worry, cuz. I have just the right team for you. I promise.”