I pull her closer, deepening the kiss, unsure what’s acting and what’s just pure primal urges to kiss this beautiful woman.
She kisses me back too, her mouth feeling urgent on mine, her breaths short gasps. Oh no… no, no, no. I can’t do this. I can feel the desire rising in me, the feelings that screamyou have a crush on her, in the back of my mind. This is no fake acting kiss.
This is the real deal. And I have to stop it before it goes too far.Stop this,I tell myself.Pull away and end the kiss, you fool!
Then a crashing sound fills the crowded ballroom and someone screams in pain.
I wasn’t able to pull away from the kiss, but nature just did it for me.
CHAPTER9
Annie
“My hand!” someone yells as chaos erupts in the ballroom.
Someone is very clearly hurt, crying in pain, and needing assistance. I am a nurse. Helping hurt people is literally my best skillset. And yet, it takes me several shell-shocked seconds to finally blink and come back to reality and realize what’s going on around me.
I blink and look around, coming back slowly from that kiss.
That kiss!
Whoa. If kissing Trevor Owens like that is part of being an actress, maybe I should quit my nursing career and move to Hollywood. That was the most incredible kiss I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. It was powerful enough to make me forget about the newly formed blisters on my heels from spending hours dancing around in these uncomfortable shoes the costume designer put me in. That kiss made me forget every single thing in the world except for Trevor, and me, and our lips, and the electricity bursting through us.
Mentally, I yell at myself.Get it together, Annie!
I rush off the dance floor toward the sound of the shrieks, pushing extras aside as I drop to the carpeted flooring in front of the woman who is screaming for help. She’s wearing rugged, ripped up and dirty jeans, sneakers, and a black t-shirt with the word CREW on it.
Taking in the scene quickly, it’s easy to see what happened. She had been standing on the nearby ladder, replacing a light bulb, when she leaned too far, the ladder slipped, and she fell. It was just a few feet to the floor, but the bulb in her hand shattered and cut her palm. Blood is everywhere.
“It hurts!” she yells to no one in particular, holding her hand out while blood spills everywhere.
“It’ll be okay,” I say, touching her knee and offering her a small smile. A panicking patient is never good, so anything I can do to calm her down will help everyone out.
I look back toward the first adult who makes eye contact with me. “You need to call an ambulance.”
“There’s a golf cart just outside,” another crew member says. “We can take her to the medical tent.”
“I need something to stop the bleeding,” I say, looking around. “Something clean.”
I don’t know where Trevor came from, but suddenly he’s grabbing a box from a nearby coffee cart and pulling out a brand new cloth napkin from it. “Will this work?”
Seeing him, his eyes on mine, brings back tingles of desire that roar to life in my stomach and wrap around my throat, making me feel woozy and delighted at the same time. Whoa, this is bad. I take a deep breath and nod, reaching out my hand for the napkin.
I wrap it around the woman’s bleeding palm as tightly as I can, then I tuck the end into the top of it, securing it in place “Hold it up high,” I instruct, lifting her hand high as Trevor and I help her stand.
“Am I going to bleed out and die?” she says, her words strangled with fear and sobs.
“No, you’ll be okay.” I shake my head. “You’re going to need stitches, though.”
Her eyes squeeze shut at the thought. I hold her damaged hand in the air and wrap my arm around her side as the people move out of the way for us to get outside to the golf cart.
I hear a familiar voice curse out loud, then I see the person talking. It’s the costume woman who helped me get into this dress. “We only have one of these dresses in your size!”
She fusses about, brushing imaginary dirt off it. “You shouldn’t be doing any of this,” she complains, following us outside. “You can’t damage this dress.”
I feel bad, but emergency circumstances overrule her.
“If there’s an injured person, I have to help,” I explain.
