Beach Party Post 2

Please read the first beach party post for information about the day. This is a blurb and the Prologue for Return Engagement, and the picture is of the picture frame that I'll be giving away.

Blurb:

Elizabeth Lane has heard the call of the four most seductive words in the entire English language: what might have been. Would you risk everything you hold dear to find out what might have been? That’s the choice which Elizabeth has to make.

Elizabeth is lucky, for she has it all, money, fame, a satisfying career and a devoted fiancé. Her humble beginnings are all but obscured, but she isn’t the kind of woman Senator Henry Lovinggood wants for his son, Richard. Senator Lovinggood plans to make Richard the President of the United States; he’ll need a woman from a wealthy, powerful family by his side. Ten years ago he broke Richard and Elizabeth up, but this time it won’t be so easy, for Elizabeth wants to know what might have been. This time she’ll fight back, a struggle which ultimately leads to kidnapping and attempted murder and alienates her from the man of her dreams.

Prologue

“Stop it!” Elizabeth cried. She scrambled off the bed and put as much distance as possible between them. “It’s over, Richard! No, don’t shake your head at me. I mean it.” Her face blazed with color. “We have to end this, or I’ll be exactly what the tabloids called me. I can’t, I won’t, live with that.”

Chest heaving, Richard struggled for self-control as he faced Elizabeth across the bed, distracted by her beautiful blue eyes and disheveled dark hair. What did the sleazy, tabloid press matter? They loved each other; why did she panic over a few nasty stories?
“Honey, you’re an actress,” he soothed, his voice velvety soft and persuasive. “The tabloids won’t leave you alone no matter what you do. Half the stuff they print is lies anyway. Why are you letting them scare you?”

She stared at him with eyes stretched wide. “You’re sev-enteen years old! In California you’re still a minor, and I’m an adult. They have a right to accuse me of cradle robbing! Don’t you know how many people agree with them?” Her voice dropped. “And that includes my mother and your parents. They’re so mad at us it scares me.”

Richard ignored the fact that his father’s reaction had scared him too. “You talk like you’re fifty,” he scoffed, “but you’re only five years older than me. You know it doesn’t matter.” He lunged for her hand, but Elizabeth danced away from him.

“It may matter to your career. Have you forgotten Sena-tor Lovinggood’s plans for you? Your dad wants you to be the president one day, but a scandal like this could ruin your chances before you even get started.”

Richard impatiently shook his head. “Don’t you get it? You’re more important to me than any career in the world! Without you I don’t care what happens to me.” His eyes sof-tened. “We fell in love with each other the first time we met in the studio. Why would you even consider letting five lousy years ruin things for us?”

Elizabeth dropped her head and bit her lip to hold back her tears. “I know what I have to do, but why does it have to hurt so much?” she whispered so low that Richard barely heard her. She raised her eyes to his. “I love you, Richard, but we can’t keep our hands off each other. It’s only a mat-ter of time until we do sleep together.” She made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob. “If we do sleep to-gether I’ll deserve everything they’ve said about me. Please, please go.”

For a moment the issue hung in the balance. The air in the room which already shimmered with emotion now started to sizzle, but with an exclamation of surrender Richard bent and scooped his shirt from the floor. “I’ll call you.”

Elizabeth’s eyes filled with tears. “No, please don’t. It’s over; don’t you see?”