your ass off my stage.”
Matt snapped out a count and the accompanist played the introduction. He started to sing, his eyes following Maggie as she moved down the aisle, back to her seat. He could see the shine of unshed tears in her eyes, and he knew she’d realized that he’d let Dan Fowler push him around because of her. And she would, no doubt, chalk it all up to friendship. He was just her good old pal Matt, doing something nice for his buddy Maggie.
And yet there was attraction simmering between them. Although if it scared her even a third as much as it terrified him, was it any wonder she kept trying to ignore it, to push it aside?
But, God, imagine if she could let herself love him….
She looked up at him, and he channeled everything he was feeling into the music. Like most actors, he could be super critical of his own performance, but this time… well, even he would have cast himself.
He stopped the song halfway through, looking out at the director. “That’s enough, don’t you think, Dan?”
“Thank you,” came the standard reply. Then, “Stick around to read.”
Victory. He was going to get a chance to read lines. Whoopee.
Matt swung himself gracefully off the stage to find Maggie waiting for him. She silently took his hand and pulled him down the aisle to the back of the auditorium, ignoring all the curious eyes that were on them. She led him out the closed double doors into the lobby and started for the door to the street.
“Whoa,” he said. “Where are we going?”
“We’re leaving.”
He planted himself. “No way.”
“Yes way. That man is a creep.” She was seriously angry.
“He’s a good director, though. Wait and see.”
Now she was angry with him. “You’re only doing this for me, aren’t you?”
Yes. And he’d do far more for her, too, if she’d only let him. “Nope,” Matt told her. “I’m doing it for myself.”
Maggie didn’t buy it. “Matthew, you’ve had enough crap dumped on you from your father—with the will and everything. You don’t need to deal with this, too.”
“Hey!” He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her gently. “It’s okay. Really. It’s just my lurid past catching up with me. It happens. I don’t mind drug testing—”
“Liar.”
Matt laughed at the look of intense indignation on her face. God, she was wonderful.
“Well, okay,” he admitted. “It sucks. But life’s not always fair, and it’s no big deal.” She started to react, and he put one finger on her lips. “Really. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past few years, it’s to know the difference between big problems and little problems. And Dan Fowler is definitely a little problem.”
The woman with the clipboard and the cat glasses poked her head out of the door. “Stone and Stanton?” she said. “He’s looking for you. On stage, to read.”
“I want to do this,” Matt said, looking into Maggie’s eyes. “Let’s do this, okay?”
Maggie nodded, letting him drag her back into the auditorium. He took the bag from her shoulder, put it onto a seat and pushed her up the stairs to the stage.
“Take a few minutes to read it over,” Fowler called out from his throne behind the bright lights, a benevolent monarch lazily granting the peasants some crumbs from his table.
Maggie quickly skimmed the scene. And oh, God. She could feel herself start to blush. Of course. It had to be this scene. She glanced up to meet Matt’s eyes. He raised an eyebrow at her, then looked back at his script.
Oh, God.
“Whenever you’re ready, boys and girls,” Fowler’s indolent voice commanded.
“I read the entire play last week,” Maggie quickly told Matt. “This scene is part of a fantasy that my character is having. She’s just imagining that you’re there in her bedroom, okay?”
“Got it,” Matt said. He looked out toward the director. “We’re ready, Dan.”
“Quiet,” Fowler roared, and suddenly the room was still.
Sieg heil. Maggie couldn’t believe they were still here, auditioning for this tyrant. But then Matt read his first line, and she thought of nothing but the script.
“Lucy, are you still awake?” he read.
“Go away,” Maggie read, with weariness and annoyance in her voice.
“Hey,” Matt read, throwing up his free hand. “I don’t really want to be here. I’m just part of your overactive imagination. You want me to leave, you have to imagine me gone.”
“All right. I will.” As the script directed, she squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating for a moment. When she opened her eyes, he was still standing there, of course. “Oh, damn,” Maggie read.
“Cody Brown, at your service,” Matt read.
“What kind of name is Cody, anyway? It’s a ridiculous name for a man born in Manhattan. You sound like a cowboy or a rodeo rider. What were your parents thinking?”
“Aha,” Matt read. “So that’s why I’m here. You want to insult both me and my parents. Well, go for it, Luce.”
“I’m much too tired to be properly insulting,” Maggie sulked.
“Why else would you have imagined me here in your bedroom at one o’clock in the morning?”
Maggie looked up at Matt, her alarm not entirely feigned. He smiled, a smile that started very small and grew across his handsome face. “I know why I’m here,” he said as he advanced across the stage toward her.
Maggie stared at him, frozen in place. Was he really going to…? “No…”
“You’re wondering what it would be like to kiss me,” he read, moving closer to her. “Aren’t you?”
“No!”
As Maggie stared up at him, he came closer, until they were less than an inch apart. But he still wasn’t touching her.
Matt had the next line, but he waited a moment before reading it. The look in his eyes was remarkable as he gazed down at her, the perfect mix of nervousness and desire on his face. Oh, he was such a good actor. “You’re wondering what it would be like if I put my arms around you, like this,” he read, then tossed the script onto the floor as he did just that.
“And you’re wondering what it would be like to put your arms up
