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Lara pulled back, surprised to see tears in Charlotte’s eyes, and Lara kept her arm on Charlotte’s shoulder as they turned to watch Ada.
Charlotte’s arm was around her waist, but Lara was running on adrenaline, unable to process how close Charlotte was, blinking back her own tears as she watched Ada thank the cast and crew.
“For so many years I feared that if I came out, I wouldn’t be able to do what I love. I have so many people I want to thank for believing in me. For sticking with me. My amazing friends. Charlotte, we did it,” she said with a breathless smile. “Kerri, I’m dedicating this one to you, our last project together. And to things to come. To new beginnings. To Lara. To my beautiful fiancé, Sydney. I love you. Thank you,” Ada said with that million-dollar smile as the music started, and she left the stage to a thunderous round of applause.
“I’m so happy for her,” Lara said almost to herself, dropping her head on Charlotte’s shoulder for a moment before realizing what she’d just done. She’d been so caught up in the moment, in the excitement.
“Me too.” If Charlotte thought she was being weird, she didn’t say anything. Her arm was still wrapped around Lara’s waist, and now Lara was having a delayed reaction to Charlotte’s proximity, to her touch, to the sweet scent of her perfume.
Goosebumps broke out over Lara’s arms at the same time as her body felt flushed with warmth.
Lara turned towards her, ready to say something, anything to snap her out of the lust-filled daze she suddenly found herself in, but when she met Charlotte’s mesmerizing blue eyes, all she could think was, this felt like a moment.
They were having a moment.
One of those experiences where everything else fades away, and it’s just two people, looking at each other with desire in their eyes, with that crackle of electricity in the air, and up until this point, Lara had kind of thought that was all just Hollywood’s idea of romance, something that could never happen in real life, because she’d never found herself in a situation like this.
But it was definitely happening.
With Charlotte Dixon.
Lara could have sworn that Charlotte had checked her out earlier, but it just seemed so far-fetched that Lara didn’t even allow herself to think that it had been real. She’d convinced herself that she’d seen what she had wanted to see, that there was no way that Charlotte Dixon had actually checked her out.
8
Charlotte’s pulse swished in her ears as she met Lara’s eyes. Why were they still standing in the middle of her living room? The noise of the TV was on in the background, but Charlotte was so focused on Lara, on whatever was happening right now, that she barely registered the sound.
She should drop her hand. It was still on Lara’s hip. It shouldn’t still be there. Ada had won. They’d listened to her speech.
There was no reason for Charlotte’s hand to still be on Lara.
But Lara wasn’t stepping away either.
Charlotte swallowed as she parted her lips to say something, anything to break the spell that they’d fallen under, but she didn’t say anything. She searched Lara’s caramel-brown eyes, her other hand lifting to lightly rest on Lara’s shoulder, sliding up to her neck as she leaned in, closing her own eyes and eliminating what little space was left between them.
Charlotte brushed her lips across Lara’s, and while she knew this was the last thing she should be doing, she couldn’t stop herself, and the soft whimper that left Lara’s throat only encouraged her as Lara kissed her back, her hand warm against Charlotte’s cheek.
This was not supposed to happen.
As the evening went on, Charlotte had felt that tug of attraction several times, but she just filed it away, knowing that she needed to prioritize dating again, that three uneventful dates didn’t mean she wasn’t going to meet someone who made her pulse jump or her skin tingle in anticipation.
Someone who made her feel like she did right now.
Charlotte moaned when Lara’s hand slipped under her shirt, her fingers delicately grazing her stomach, almost as if she was afraid to touch her properly, like she was holding back, and Charlotte knew that feeling. She was so close to fisting Lara’s shirt and kissing her with an intensity that should have scared her.
Lara’s lips parted against hers again and again, her tongue searching now, and Charlotte lost that last tiny bit of self-control that she’d been clinging onto, because fuck, she’d never been kissed like this before.
Somewhere at the back of her mind, she knew she should pull away. She knew that Lara Soler was not who she was supposed to be having a moment like this with.
Lara was Ada and Sydney’s agent.
She’d been Kerri’s personal assistant.
She was young. Too young. Although a vague memory of Kerri mentioning giving Lara a long weekend off so she could celebrate her thirtieth birthday flashed across her mind.
At least she was in her thirties.
And if Charlotte had questioned Jaqueline Steele’s relationship with Henley Hughes when she’d first found out they were dating, completely thrown by Jackie being with someone sixteen years younger than her, then why was she kissing someone so much younger than her right now?
