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He had to reach out, though, had to tell her not to give up on them. He sent her a text. Counting the seconds til I have you in myarms.
It was several minutes before she dug in her purse, seemingly looking for a tissue, and opened her phone. He watched her read his message, a small smile crossing her lips, then she typed her reply.
You shouldn’t text in the theater. It’srude.
Ah, sweet Maddie.Crying her eyes out in the lobby and she wasn’t letting on at all. He hated that he was glad. Wished she could be honest with him. Wished he wanted her to be honest with him. Wished he wanted to be honest withher.
He sent her a text that matched the tone of hers. Neither shouldyou.
I’m not in the theater.
Neither am I. He hoped she’d look for himnow.
Shedid.
She stood and crossed to the railing to look down on the lobby below her. Then she peered across the lobby on their level and their eyes met. His heart skipped a beat. She was so beautiful. Even tear stained and mascara streaked she was still the most beautiful woman he’d evermet.
He took a deep breath and walked toher.
“Congratulations on the Santini film,” she said as he nearedher.
He shrugged, his hands in his pockets. “I haven’t acceptedyet.”
“Youwill.”
This was good. She’d opened the door for him to agree. He could just say it and that would be that. They could skip the more serious aspects of his conversation with Stu and his mother. He could take the out she was giving him so freely. It would be soeasy…
She leaned on the railing next to him, close enough for him to touch her, and he did, reaching a finger under her eye to wipe at her mussed make-up. “What if I don’t wantit?”
He met her eyes, tumbling into them as he always did when she gazed at him so trusting and soul piercing. “Youdo.”
Ah, she knew he wanted that role. Of course she knew. She saw him. Always. “Ido.”
Her breath hitched as he put a hand around her waist and swiftly pulled her to him. “I want you, too,” he whispered, his nose circlinghers.
“I know.” She wrapped her arms around hisneck.
He cupped her face and kissed her lips, sweetly and softly. She tasted of tears and makeup and something else—sorrow or heartache, maybe. He didn’t want to taste that on her mouth, wanted to take her away from all his bullshit. Wanted to escape with her. “Let’s get out ofhere?”
“You can’t abandon your mother, silly.” She smoothed his black silk tie, and he wished she was removing it instead.
“Then let’s find some place more private.”
She glanced around, and he followed her gaze. There was an usher behind them and a woman leaving the restroom.
“There’re too many eyeshere.”
Yes, too many eyes. Eyes that could make their moment a scandal in a minute. They shouldn’t even be holding each other like this, in public, not if he wanted to protect her from that. Still he couldn’t let hergo.
After they’d held each other for much too long, she pulled away. “You should get back. You’ll be missed.”
In her words, he felt the chains that bound him, the constant monitor of the public that he wore like shackles. “Yes.”
She stepped to leave him, but her hand lingered in his, and he pulled her back to him, not wanting to let go. Ever. “Maddie, I—“
She searched his face and he almost finished his sentence, told her how he felt about her. But saying those words, there would be no going back from that. That would be his decision and he just…couldn’t.
“Kiss me again,” he said instead.
She delivered a light kiss. But he seized her lips with his own, his tongue possessing her with demanding need, claiming not only her mouth but her soul. With his kiss, he marked her as his, reserved her for a future that he wasn’t able to give her. Yet.
When he separated his mouth from hers, he leaned his forehead against hers, his chest rising and falling in her rhythm. “Maddie, I’m glad you’rehere.”
Lame.He had given her nothing tangible, nothing that told her how he felt, no hint that he was confused about her—that he wanted what they had to become something more. The only words he had for her were, “I’m glad you’rehere.”
Totallylame.
He vowed he’d give her a clue. And while he sat in his box seat pretending to watch the rest of Beaumont's interview, he made his plans.
