Sweet Child O' Mine

"Hello?" she asked wondering whose number this was.

"Lyssa, its Duane Lee."

"Duane! Where are you? We haven't heard from you in over six months!"

I sigh, knowing I should have called much sooner. "Actually, I'm in Rome...Ive been working as a bodyguard for Maggie Miller." I say the last part with a small laugh.

"Wow. Are you serious? Leland would be so jealous." she says laughing with me. "Sorry, I know you don't want to talk about him right now."

She was right, I didn't even want to hear his name. "How is Ellie, did she have a birthday party today? Is she growing up?" I ask, feeling a fresh tear running down my cheek.

"She's getting so big Duane Lee...she's getting taller and running around everywhere. She looks so much like you. I wish you could have been here." she says quietly, knowing that it would hurt more than help, but at least I knew I was missed.

"I wish that too Lyssa. And I know I probably shouldn't be calling, but I needed to hear someone's voice...other than Maggie's. Someone familiar." I tell her. "I should let you go. I'm on Maggie's phone, its one of those international phones ... fancy, fancy!" I say, making my sister laugh.

We say our goodbye's and I feel some what relieved that she took the call from me. As I sat the phone down on the nightstand it started to vibrate. I picked it back up, the new message symbol was flashing. I knew it was wrong to snoop in Maggie's phone but my curiosity was piqued and I opened the message anyway.

It was from Lyssa. The subject read, "Shhh don't tell anyone!" When I opened it up, there was a picture of my little girl, wearing a pink dress with her name embroidered on it. "Ellie." I said, touching the phone with my finger tips. She was so different than the last time I saw her. Her hair was long and brown, the same color as mine. Her eyes, big and blue.

Maggie's POV:

The rain was beating against the windows at the end of the hallway as I knocked lightly on his door, it was still early in the morning, but I had been up for hours thinking about what I had said to him over dinner. I wanted to apologize for intruding into his private life; whatever relationship he had with his daughter was his business. I couldn't help that I was curious... well, nosy. I just needed to know, and wouldn't stop until I found out!

I turned the door knob slowly, peeking my head inside; his back faced me as he lay on his side. Biting my lip, I crept quietly into the room not bothering to close the door. I stood beside the bed, leaning cautiously over him; the top of my legs brushing against his bare back as I did. I bit my lip; 'I should really put more clothes on when I creep around like this' I thought to myself as I angled my head, trying to see if he was awake.

For some reason he had my cell phone clutched in his hand. I reached over him, trying to pull it from his hand, he moaned and rolled onto his back, as he did my foot slipped on the hardwood floor and I fell on top of him. His eyes shot open as I lay sprawled across his stomach.

"Hi." I say quietly. "Close your eyes, its all a dream." I say waving my fingers around his face.

"Right..." he says wiping the sleep from his eyes.

"I didn't say it was a good dream..."

He shakes his head, smiling as he sits up further in the bed. I push myself up and off of him, taking my cell phone out of his hand. "I just needed this." I say shaking the phone at him.

"You know - " he says as I start to leave the room. "If I keep finding you in bed with me, I'm gonna get the impression that you want to be there."

I smile to myself before turning around to face him. "Like I said, its all a dream." I turn on my heels and leave the room. I was in one of those rare moods where I thanked God for the ability to act. Most of the time I thought of it as a curse, one that robbed me of my life and my family, but when it came to Duane Lee, the gift of acting was wonderful. Whether it served to amuse my purpose or his, that was yet to be seen.

''That was a close call', I thought to myself as I got dressed for the day ahead. I didn't know what it was about that man, but he got under my skin, in a way I didn't normally allow. He was a mystery, and I loved a good mystery! Some how I needed to find out everything I could about this man...the sooner the better.

I sat down at the kitchen table and pulled out my laptop, typing his name into Google. I wasn't really expecting much of anything to pop up, what I got instead was over a million results. "Oh my God." I whispered out loud, quickly clapping a hand over my mouth to keep it shut.

I couldn't let him know what I was up to. I moved the cursor over to click the first link, but heard his footsteps getting closer and closer as he walked down the hall. I slammed the laptop shut as fast as I could. I would have to search for him another time; when I was alone.

************

Over the next couple of weeks we wrapped filming and flew to Barcelona, Spain to finish up my part in the movie. I loved being in Barcelona. The city was beautiful, history was everywhere and the men....the men were beautiful too.

"What are you smiling about?" Duane Lee asks as we exit the plane.

"Oh nothing...just remembering why I love Spain!." I say twirling around in a circle. He shakes his head as I do a silly dance around the airport. It didn't help that I had a few drinks on the short flight here, of course, it didn't take much to make me silly.

We both stopped dead in our tracks as I came to the entrance of the airport; there had to be a thousand people there, chanting my name. I instantly hid behind Duane Lee, clutching his shirt. I had never encountered this many people in one place before, it was a little unnerving.

"Its okay." he says, reaching behind his back to reassure me. This was a first for him as well, most everywhere we had been together there had been a minimal amount of people.

Ralph and a few other people traveling with us made their way through the crowd first and I followed behind them. "Hold my hand, don't let go." Duane says, lacing his fingers through mine. I nod a quick 'yes' as he pushes the door open.

The sound was deafening as we made our way through the airport. People were calling my name, asking for autographs, shoving pictures in my face. Duane Lee walked as fast as he could considering the circumstances. He tightened the grip on my hand as he pushed several people out of the way as they began to pull at my clothes. "I'm scared." I said as loud as I could, trying to get his attention.

"I know baby, I know." he says, pushing the last group of people away from us. As we walked out the other side of the airport to the waiting SUV, he picked me up throwing me over his shoulder and ran as fast as he could.

Once inside the vehicle we were both panting and short of breath. "Well that was a first." I said, taking a sip of the water Ralph had just handed to me. "Cant wait to see the pictures that show up after this."

Duane Lee glances at me, raising an eyebrow. "In the tabloids, you mean?"

I giggle and nod my head, taking another drink of water. "Tabloids, blogs, web sites, fansites... you name it. Wouldn't be surprised if you had a fansite floating out there after this."

That was definitely the interesting part of being famous, the amount of time people spent writing and speculating about you or the people you were dating. Most celebrities steered clear of what anyone thought of them. I wasn't most celebrities. I kept tabs on what people thought. Especially my fans.

I glance at the seat next to me where Duane Lee was sitting and smiled. "You called me baby." I say quietly, looking up at him.

"Habit. Sorry." he says, staring out the window.

"Its okay...no one's ever called me that before." I tell him as he turns his head toward me, giving me a half grin. Most of the men I dated were too self absorbed to give me any kind of nickname or pet name, like baby or honey.

I was really questioning my taste in men lately. Normally I went for the classic Hollywood bad-boy type guy, not that it did me much good. Those relationships never lasted more than a few months. Mostly of my own doing; out of boredom I was always looking for something more; a relationship with substance.

A week later:

Maggie's POV

We were out to dinner, celebrating something I couldn't quite remember at the moment. "I'm so bored." I lean in, whispering to Duane Lee, trying my best not to giggle as the producer of the movie was giving some sort of toast to the cast.

He puts an arm around my chair, "Me too" he says whispering back to me with a wink and that grin that looked sexy through my blurry vision. I giggled and bit my lip, knowing I was past my usual limit I put on drinking. I didn't know if it was the stress of the long days filming or the lack of having a man by my side, but I was feeling lonely and I didn't like it.

"Its like his mouth is moving and all I hear is blah, blah, blah." I whisper back to Duane Lee, scooting a little closer so I wouldn't have to talk so loudly. He smiles, rolling his eyes. I knew I was flirting, and didn't care to stop. Duane Lee was my bodyguard, the one person who I had to put my trust in...wasn't it logical that I found him attractive?

Finally the dinner was over and I was free to go about my business. Some people left, some stayed to dance at the beautiful restaurant , I on the other hand wandered into the street, with Duane Lee close behind me.

"Lets go to a bar!" I say, turning to face him as we walk down the winding sidewalks of Barcelona; he had no choice but to follow.

Three hours and several bars later, I stumbled back onto the busy city streets, bracing myself against Duane Lee. "Whoa...don't fall down." he says laughing, as he catches me by the arm. I giggled as I stared into his eyes.

"I think you've had enough."

"Nah ...I'm fine." I say as I giggle again. "But I am ready to go back to the room."

"Sounds good to me. Its been a long day." He says, with a smile as he looks down at me.

Honking horns, and people talking as they passed by were the only things we heard as we made our way back to the room in silence. It had been a very busy night, as I drug Duane Lee from bar to bar as I drank. It wasn't something I did often, or at all when I was in LA; there was too much pressure there, I never felt like I could be myself and let go. But, somehow with Duane Lee by my side I felt invincible, for the first time in many years I didn't care what anyone thought of me. That freedom was intoxicating and I was becoming drunk on it.