AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“To start.”
“Would your manager be willing to orchestrate this? Give us some staged events, like the fundraiser, so that Kane can see we’re the ones in control?”
“The fundraiser is only one event. I want to see you more than that.”
He wasn’t going to think about the fact that they lived on different sides of the continent. He had a month, if that, before he would be called back to start training for the next movie.
If the producers still wanted him.
He had a window of opportunity here, and Megan was letting him open it. He’d do whatever she said, for as long as she told him to.
“Right, so.” Her cheeks were getting redder. “I thought that if your manager is willing, we could tell Kane all the events we’re going to. So he could calm down about them.”
“What other events?”
“Just dinner or a play or something. Something where we know they’re going to look at us and we can prepare.”
“Megan,” he said. “If we tell them we are dating, they willalwayswant to look at us.”
“Yes.” She bit her lip. “And we can control what we look like when we go where they will see us.”
“So… no sweats?”
Megan released her lip. Alessandro wanted to kiss the light swelling there, but he let her answer. “I know you’re joking, but yes, sweats. Just sweats that fit.” She looked at his chest, and Alessandro laughed at her.
“You are thinking like a publicist.”
She smiled on only one side again. “I guess so. It’s what Kane did before he got married.”
“You watched him a lot back then.”
“And now. I watch a lot of people.”
He ducked his head to catch her eye. “Did you watch me?”
She blushed all the way this time. “Of course.”
He took her fingers and brought them to his lips. “Did you watch Grace and Sophia and Roman like you watched me?”
“Actually, yes,” she said, then caught her breath. He’d been kissing her fingertips, but at her answer, he bit down gently on one. “Well, it’s the truth!” she protested. “I need to watch them to know—”
She brought herself up short. Then, to Alessandro’s deep regret, she got off his lap. While he mourned the loss of her weight against his thighs, she went to the windows and looked out at the darkness.
He didn’t speak; he didn’t want to say the wrong thing again. She knew that he knew she was an observer of people—he’d told her that the other day. A thousand years ago. But he wasn’t going to ask her to share more with him now. They’d come so far in these few minutes. He would wait for the rest.
“I don’t want to just observe this time,” she said to the window. “I don’t want to watch what I say to make sure it doesn’t stand out.” She began stroking the ends of her hair. “I want to see what it’s like to enjoy a moment becauseIenjoy it. Like you said.”
Alessandro walked over to her but didn’t touch her. “As an actor, all I do is observe people. Learn their ways. We are more alike than I realized.”
That made her look at him. “I’m not acting.”
“You can call it something else,” he said. “When you are mirroring what people do and searching for their responses to cues—cara, that is what actors do. And it is okay,” he added quickly at her frown. “You know your way to exist is just fine—as long as it does not make you tired or make you do things you do not want to do.”
Megan sagged against the window frame. “Idoenjoy the events I go to. I enjoy my friends. Afterward, I’m tired, yes, but I can be both.”
“Your video the other day shows that you are a professional at being both. If we do what you suggest, I hope you will enjoy it.” Megan looked up at him and rolled her eyes with a sideways smile, and Alessandro laughed. “I will make sure you enjoy it very, very much.”
Now she shivered, and he dared to put his arms back around her. Megan allowed it but lowered her head. “I want to see more of you,cara. I want to help all the people you want to help. I want your brother to accept me—or perhaps not to reject me just because of my work. But my manager told me this world loves a romance. She meant it as a good thing, but if we go public, you will be subject to the kind of publicity you can’t always control.”
