Ten minutes later he kicked off his shoes and moved back to rest against the headboard.
Twenty minutes in, he was on his stomach, crawling through a dusty tunnel beneath a pyramid, scraping spider webs off his cheeks and sweating in the heat and the dark.
The grandfather clock in the hallway chimed midnight just as Beau readThe End.He let the pages fall to his lap as he reveled in the fading image, the sense that right could triumph over evil. The main character, an Indiana Jones type, had overcome his personal demons in such a way that Beau believed even he could change.
If he wanted to.
He slipped the manuscript back into the envelope and found his cell phone. “Lori?” he asked as his agent answered the phone.
There was a muffled reply and loud music.
He sat up. “Where are you?”
She laughed. “I’m in your basement.”
“Great. Get up here and read this script.” He settled his hand protectively over the Knight Studios seal. The noon deadline had him scrambling off the bed.
“Now?”
He thought of the mystery woman’s intensity, the tenacity she displayed in marching into his home, the way she’d helped the server and sacrificed herself in the process, and the connection that left him stunned. He grinned. “Now.”
“Come on down and enjoy your party, and I’ll have a look at it.”
“I’m on my way.”
Pocketing his phone, he held the script in both hands, much likeshehad. Did she know what was in here—the drama, the character arcs, the brilliance? She’d clutched the envelope to her chest as if it were important—and not just important to Knight Studios, but important to her on a personal level. Even though she didn’t like her job, she took script delivery seriously.
Maybe he was overthinking things.
Maybe he was overthinking her. He had felt like she was in the room while he read, an essence of her lingering behind and not just in the puddle she left at his door.
He couldn’t believe he’d almost kissed her. Not that he had anything against kissing a woman he’d just met—happened all the time in his line of work. The strange thing was how much hewantedto kiss her. Really kiss her. No cameras. No staging. No director telling him to amp it up or slow it down. Just him and her seeing where their lips and desires would take them.
Every red shirt that passed by had his head turning, searching for her. He knew she wouldn’t be here, but he couldn’t stop himself from scanning every blonde’s face for the passion he’d experienced for that small moment in time.
The party was still going strong. The security guys were bobbing heads, and a couple of them danced in the flash mob on the patio. He frowned. That was not acceptable. He’d have to find a new company before the next party.
Lori met him in the sunken front room. She wore a little purple dress. Her chin-length hair was silky and smooth, and she carried a plate in one hand, her clutch tucked under her arm. She shoved a piece of sushi in her mouth and dusted off her fingers. “Let me see that.”
Beau hesitated to hand over the only piece of his mystery girl. He hadn’t gotten her name. He’d been so stunned by his reaction to her that her number was the last thing on his mind. Not that he didn’t trust Lori; he just wasn’t ready to part with the feelings script girl stirred inside of him. There was attraction—yes, there was plenty of that. But for a moment, he’d seen inside her soul. Which was sappy and dumb and not at all something he ever thought was possible.
His buddy and fellow actor, Mark DuBois, claimed that when his and Allie’s eyes met for the first time, he knew she was his soul mate. Beau had scoffed. “There’s no such thing.”
Yet, he had this distinct impression that never seeing this woman again would be the biggest mistake of his life. After divorcing his second wife, Tanya, he’d sworn off any relationship longer than a week. If the two of them—who had lusted after one another from the second they met—couldn’t make it work, then he wouldn’t be able to make it with anyone. He’d believed Tanya was the love of his life, yet the passion they’d once shared morphed into angry fights and cold shoulders quickly enough that he questioned if anything he’d ever felt for her was real.
Now, after holding his mystery girl in his arms, what he’d felt for Tanya paled by comparison.
If he could feel a connection that went beyond attraction and lust with a woman he’d only met once, then everything he’d thought about love up to this point was off-point.
Maybe Mark was right. Maybe there was a soul out there that was his perfect match. Maybe he’d held on to her tonight—and then let her flit away like a lightning bug on a summer’s evening.
“Beau?” Lori shook his arm.
“Here.” He thrust the script at her, needing to make the separation quickly. “I’m doing this movie—set it up first thing.”
“Wait? You can’t just—” Lori’s bangs dropped over her eye as she stared down at the seal. “Knight? I thought they were into teenybopper junk now.”
“This—” Beau reached out to take the envelope again and then pulled his hands back. “—is gold. It reminds me of Robert’s stuff.”
