Playing With Her Heart by Blakely Lauren

Author:Blakely, Lauren [Blakely, Lauren]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Lauren Blakely Books
Published: 2013-08-16T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

Jill

I wash my hands then dry them, checking out my reflection one last time. My cheeks are still rosy, and I have that just-been-fucked look still. I don’t think that’s going to disappear any time soon, and I’m okay with that. I toss the paper towel in the trash can, smooth my hands over my red sweater and return to the backstage hallway, then to the stage. I still feel like I’m floating, but there’s another feeling surrounding me and it’s harder to get a handle on.

Nervousness maybe? Chased with a touch of hope? I’m honestly not sure, and maybe that’s because I don’t know what’s going on. I barely even understand who I become around him, how I can spin out of my carefully constructed world of happy-go-lucky, everything-is-fine and transform into this ravenous woman grasping at pleasure as if I need it for my very survival. As if the release I feel with Davis has somehow become as necessary as breath and air.

I move the curtains aside and walk to the piano, trying to compose myself. But into what I don’t know. The actress here for rehearsal? The woman unfazed by her boss? Or the person who doesn’t have a handle on herself?

He’s on the bench, straddling it rather than sitting at it, and he’s swiping his index finger across his phone.

“Texting someone?” Something annoys me about the fact that he’s doing something so ordinary—texting—while I don’t have a clue how to act. I wish I could abort the snottiness in my voice, but it’s too late.

He shakes his head. “No. I’m reading the news.”

“Oh.” Now I feel foolish, but also relieved. I sit down next to him. “Anything interesting going on in the world?”

“It’s snowing, and the government still has a deficit,” he says with that wry smile. I want to reach out and touch his face, trace the outline of his lips. So I do, and he leans into me, like a cat who likes being pet. Then I stop because I want to know more about him. I want to understand him.

“Are you a news junkie or a weather junkie?”

“Both. But in this case, news. I read the New York Times religiously.”

“What else? Do you read books?”

“I have nothing against books. But I would have to say nearly all my reading is the newspaper. Well, the paper online.”

“Cover to cover?”

He nods, and it seems fitting that he’s a news hound. It works for him. It suits him. He seems like a man who wants to understand the world, and so that’s what he does. But I also think there’s more to it. “Do you think you lean towards news so much because you spend your day with make believe?”

His lips quirk up as if he’s intrigued by the question, considering it. “I hadn’t thought of it that way. But yeah, maybe that’s part of it. I spend all my hours constructing the most believable artifice I can, so when I’m not playing pretend, I want to know what’s real.

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