No holds barred hotel bo.., p.1
No Holds Barred (Hotel Bombshell Book 3), page 1
No Holds Barred
HOTEL BOMBSHELL
BOOK THREE
ADRIAN J. SMITH
Copyright © 2025 by Adrian J. Smith
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Design by Anette Sommerseth @sapph.dsgn
Pre-Season
Chapter
One
Nervous energy raced up and down Angelica’s spine, settled in the pit of her stomach for a brief second, and then raced back up her spine. It’d been that way all day. Meeting with Rex—only Rex—for the first time since filming wrapped wasn’t putting her in a good mood. They hadn’t talked. Not that they really talked about much personal in general, but being confined with Rex in a room for an hour was putting her nerves into overdrive.
She heard his deep tones in the hallway immediately. Taking three slow deep breaths, Angelica prepared herself for what was about to come.
“I hope you don’t mind, but Eva’s with me.” Rex popped his head through the door and locked his dark brown eyes on her.
All the tightness in Angelica’s stomach eased instantly. “Of course not!”
She’d missed Eva so much. And despite filming last season, with everything going on, she hadn’t felt like she’d gotten as much one-on-one time with her. Before Rex could say anything else, Eva barreled through the door and raced straight for Angelica, wrapping her arms around Angelica’s hips and holding her tightly in a hug.
She breathed in, catching the sudden whiff of lilacs. Tears sprang to her eyes, stinging them. But she swallowed hard and held them at bay. She’d thought she was over that, or at least that she’d be able to handle whatever breakup she’d had with Hope. It had been about six months since they’d seen each other last.
Angelica released Eva and smiled down at her. “I swear you grow a foot every time I see you.”
Eva’s cheeks reddened and she shook her head. “Nope. But I’m about to celebrate my eighth birthday. You should come to my party.”
“I don’t think I’d be quite the right crowd for what you want at a birthday party.”
Eva laughed loudly and shook her head. “No! Not that party. The family party.”
Rex cleared his throat. “We uh…do a family dinner for the birthday girl every year. She gets to pick what she wants to eat, and there’s cake and a couple presents. We’re still doing that this year, despite…everything.” He finished awkwardly.
Despite the divorce was what he meant.
“We’re in the process of hiring a new nanny, so I didn’t have anyone to watch her while we met today.”
“Right.” Angelica could easily draw the lines of conversation that Rex wasn’t saying, but she wasn’t about to lay it out for him either.
“They broke up!” Eva chimed from the back of Angelica’s office, standing by the storage area behind her desk. “Hey! I drew this!”
“You did.” Angelica smiled as she turned and walked back toward her desk, her heels clacking on the floor as she went. There was such a stark difference in Eva now. It wasn’t that she was two years older than when Angelica had met her, there was a maturity that hadn’t been there before, as if she’d seen some of the tragedy of the world rather than being insulated by it.
Eva snagged the framed drawing and held it closer so she could squint at it and study it. Angelica focused on Eva, wanting to use her as a distraction from the conversation she knew she still needed to have with Rex.
“I don’t think I need a nanny anymore,” Eva said, canting her head at the picture. “I’m not a baby.”
“No, you’re not.” Angelica pressed a hand to Eva’s shoulder. “But someone still has to watch you so you’re not running around unsupervised. It’s the rules of the set.”
Eva wrinkled her nose and slid a glance toward her father. “I liked my last nanny, but Daddy didn’t like her.”
“She didn’t want to travel with us for filming.” Rex shrugged his shoulders and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Something about being too far away from family for too great a length of time.”
Angelica hummed. So the last nanny wasn’t the one that Rex had brought to the premiere of season two. How many had they gone through in the interim? And how had the breakup gone?
She was damn sure everyone had pegged that as a rebound fuck.
“I miss Auntie R when we’re gone.” Eva tossed an irritated look over her shoulder at Rex, as if she had all the attitude in the world.
Wow, whatever had happened on the filming break had definitely turned this cute little kid into a preteen, and Angelica, oddly enough, was here for it. Then again, she also wasn’t the one at the other end of that glare either.
“I drew this for you and then mailed it.” Eva smiled handing the picture over to Angelica. “It’s you and me.”
“It’s us?” Angelica furrowed her brow. She’d always just assumed it was Eva and Hope.
“Of course it is.” Eva’s voice softened immediately, as if she was explaining something a two-year-old should understand. “You’re here and I’m here. It’s when we used to do math together. Remember?”
Oh, the way she said that last word, like there was accusation in every single syllable.
“Yes, of course I remember.” Angelica stared down at the drawing. “That’d explain all the math on the fringes of the picture, right?”
“Right.” Eva grinned at her and then took the photo, setting it back where it was. “I should draw you a new one. I’m much better at drawing now than I was when I was a kid.”
Angelica nearly snorted at that one. By God, Eva had grown up this summer.
“Do you want some paper to work on it now? I don’t have much in the way of anything to draw with other than a pen and paper, but I’d love to add to my Eva collection.” Angelica folded her hands together, staring down at Eva’s bright crystalline eyes, framed by her dark hair. She really was the picture of her mother.
“I could do that.” Eva rubbed her lips together, much like Hope did. Angelica paused briefly at it and then blinked to clear the thought from her head.
All break she’d struggled to get Hope out of her mind and heart, but now, with Eva and Rex in the room with her and the knowledge that filming would pick up again soon, she was struggling with the intensity of those feelings. Finding some paper and pens for Eva, Angelica set her up at her desk and then snagged her iPad to start work at the conference table with Rex. They had a number of things to discuss, businesswise, but Angelica also wanted to talk to him about how he was planning on making this work with the split.
She just hoped that Eva would be occupied enough not to overhear or jump into that portion of the conversation.
Angelica slid into a seat and waited for Rex to settle. While he looked good, when she was this close she could see the stress lines on his face, the dark circles under his eyes, and the way he held himself.
“I’m not going to ask about Hope except where it pertains to filming,” Angelica said, keeping her voice quiet.
Rex’s shoulders visibly tensed, the line of muscle in his jaw tightening. He dropped his chin slightly as he looked over his shoulder and glanced at Eva before focusing back on Angelica. “This isn’t about Hope.”
“Oh.” Angelica wanted to smack herself in the face. It was about the fact that she had been the other woman in the entire arrangement. Even though he’d agreed to it. He still harbored resentment toward her. Of course he would. That was only natural. It didn’t help her any, however. In fact, it made the slope she was now on a whole lot trickier than it had been before.
Rex sighed heavily and ran his hand over his cheeks. “Hope and I have been working on what comes next with parenting, but not with filming. You’re right that we should start that conversation.”
Angelica stayed silent. She had no direction to go from here that wouldn’t put her in the line of fire. She was tired of all the back-and-forth, but she also knew that she’d be the one to bear the brunt of the blame as soon as everything had come out. She’d gone into her relationship with Hope knowing that.
“You and I also need to have it,” Rex said, his voice slightly louder now.
Angelica looked up immediately, locking her gaze to his. She pursed her lips and clenched her jaw, her entire body sitting on the edge of her seat as she waited to see where this conversation would go next.
“I won’t lie and tell you that I’m not going to struggle working with you going forward.” Rex sighed again, looking directly at Eva. “I still don’t know what Hope sees in you.”
Sees? As in present tense?
Angelica wasn’t going to press that one. She didn’t want to push her luck, and she wasn’t sure she actually wanted the answer to that unasked question.
“You’re cold and icy, and I don’t think you care about anyone other than yourself. But Eva seems to like something about you, too. So maybe I’m just blind to it.”
“Or refusing to see what’s under the surface,” Angelica added, biting her tongue. She hadn’t meant to speak, but they’d grown so familiar with each other over the years that perhaps it was difficult to avoid the familiarity any longer. “Do you want to work primarily with me or Hope?”
“You.” He said the word simply and firmly.
“Are you sure?” Angelica blinked at him. “I can work with Cadence.”
“I still need my space from Hope. And this is going to be new for both of us. You and I have had issues for years, but I know what those problems are.”
Angelica hummed, nodding. “The devil you know?”
“Exactly.” Rex’s lips quirked upward slightly. “And there’s the fact that Logan asked that I work with you this season.”
The hairs on the back of Angelica’s neck rose up. “Logan? Why would he ask that?”
She’d never expected another producer and studio executive on the show to step in quite like this. Though she and Logan had several conversations over the filming of the last episode and during the break about different behaviors on the set in the last two seasons. And while he’d been interested in dealing with them, this was their last season of filming unless they were renewed, and he wasn’t willing to upset certain people for one season.
“Because Josef has been treating you unfairly.” Rex cocked his head at her. “Prove me wrong.”
“I can’t,” Angelica murmured.
She hadn’t expected anyone to actually say those words out loud. Even Logan hadn’t done that much. He’d defended her, yes, but he hadn’t said so simply that Josef was wrong, that his actions toward her were wrong. Not in the way Rex just did.
“So, like we’re back in Vegas, I’m going to stand between you and him.”
“By your own choice? Or Logan’s orders?” Angelica held her breath, not sure why she needed to know his reason.
“By my choice.” Rex nodded at her firmly. “Hope was right about one thing. I need to stand up and do more, because someday, Eva’s going to be in the same situation you were in unless men like me do something different than we have for generations.”
That made far more sense. He wasn’t doing this for her. He was doing it for Eva. Angelica relaxed back into her chair and glanced at Eva, who was still coloring happily at her desk. “All right. Then you film with me and Cadence films with Hope.”
“Good. Settled.” Rex held his hand out toward her.
Angelica hesitated for a brief moment before she slipped her fingers into his and curled them into the handshake. Rex’s hand was rough, callouses along the edges of his skin. He shook her hand firmly before letting go.
“Now, about filming, Cadence has some wild ideas.”
Angelica chucked lightly in agreement. “She does.”
“And I think I’m going to struggle to keep her under control.”
“Why would you want to?” Angelica opened an app on her iPad and prepared to take notes on their conversation. She needed to make sure that she was as prepared as she could be for the upcoming season of filming.
“Time. Energy. Effort. And finances. And I’m sure you’re far more aware of that last one than I am.”
Humming, Angelica nodded. “Yes. Some of her ideas would be expensive. But they’re not all bad.”
“Most of them aren’t bad.” Rex pulled up his iPad. “Most of them are good, actually. Just expensive and time consuming, and I’m not sure the return on investment of those two will be worth the outcome.”
“All right. We’ll have a conversation with her about those ideas. Production can take most of those conversations to limit you having to deal with them.”
“I’d appreciate that, thank you.” Rex sent her a quick smile. “Since we’re starting in Maine, and we’ll be on the coast proper several times during this season, I’d like to get some shots with both you and Hope with the ocean behind you. I’ll likely need you to do pickups on those moments.”
“Sure.” Angelica took a note on that. “The hotel isn’t on the water though.”
“Boston’s is.” Rex slid her a glance. “You’re not scared of the water, are you?”
“It’s a pool of death.” Angelica raised her eyebrows at him. “Who wouldn’t be afraid of it?”
“Really?” Rex sounded shocked.
“No.” Angelica laughed lightly, her cheeks heating up. “No, I’m not scared of the ocean. Though, it’s been a while since I’ve put a toe in the water, especially not the Atlantic.”
“Maybe you and Eva can find some time to go down to the water, then. I’m sure she’d like that.”
“I would too.” Angelica genuinely smiled at him. “I honestly missed spending time with her last season.”
“She did too. It was partly why I agreed to bring her today.”
“I’m glad you did.” Angelica focused back on her iPad, ready to dive back into work. She needed to be able to focus on what was coming next. And they needed to get their work done for the day. But she was glad that after everything they’d been through in the last two seasons, they had seemed to come to an arrangement.
She might even be so bold as to call it the beginning of a tentative friendship.
Although… she might wait to see how it all played out in Maine before she officially titled that. But knowing she wouldn’t have to fight Rex going into filming was a weight off her shoulders.
“The studio would like to shoot more teasers this season, try to up the viewership so maybe we can see a renewal,” Rex said. “So that means I’m going to need you and Hope to… play off each other a bit during these first two episodes.”
“I think we can manage that.”
“Good. I’ll let the two of you figure out how you want to do that.”
“I appreciate it.” Angelica wrote that down. Though she wasn’t exactly sure how she was going to broach that subject with Hope. Because she still wasn’t ready to talk to her.
Chapter
Two
“Turn to the side.” Wade’s voice was gentle in his correction.
Hope shivered, clenching her jaw as she crossed her arms, turned to face the wall, and looked over her shoulder at him. That was what he wanted, she was sure of it. But she’d been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn’t heard him the first time he’d said it. She clenched her jaw and tried to push down the disappointment that ran through her at every snap of Wade’s camera.
Where was Angelica?
Hope had expected to see her here, to be taking photos with her. And she’d spent the first half of her photo session with Wade looking over her shoulder for an entirely different reason. Where was Angelica? Because she certainly wasn’t here, and no one had mentioned whether or not she’d be coming.
“Hope?” Wade’s voice reached her ears.
“Yeah?”
“I need you to face the other way now.”
“Oh. Sorry.” Her cheeks tinged with embarrassment. She twisted her body the other direction and plastered on the smile that she knew he was looking for.
Wade raised the camera in front of his face and snapped another photo of her.
“Do you know if Ange is coming today? For the photos we’re supposed to take together?”
Wade lowered the camera, a line forming in the center of his forehead. “No, she’s not coming. I thought you knew that.”
“I must have missed the email somewhere explaining it.” Hope bit her lip as she stared back at him. What was she asking this for? Of course Angelica wouldn’t want to be in the same room with her. There’d be no other reason she wasn’t here.
“There was a scheduling issue, and it was impossible to get the two of you in at the same time this season, so I’m just going to edit the photos together.”
“Right.” Hope stared down at her feet, hating that she was reacting like this. She really needed to figure out how to control herself better. But they’d avoided each other all summer, and she wasn’t quite ready to be smashed into a room with Angelica. Then again, they needed to break the ice at some point, and Hope would prefer to do that sooner rather than later.
Everything in her life was pure chaos right now. And she’d just wanted the one consistent thing that would put her back on her feet, which was this damn photoshoot with Angelica. But that wasn’t going to happen now. Hope crossed her arms and looked straight up into Wade’s camera.
This photo shoot could end anytime now, and she’d be a happy camper.
“Hope?”
Fuck. Again.
“Yeah?” Hope really needed to pay more attention to what was happening in the room and stop dreaming about Angelica. Not that she was actually dreaming. But the ball of nervous energy and anxiety building up in her stomach over seeing her again wasn’t helping the situation any. Hope clenched her jaw tightly.
