“And I thought I told you to fuck off.” He grabbed a chair and sat across from her.
“You just want what you can’t have. I get it. Forbidden love is hot.” She smirked. “And even better, I won’t fight you over it anymore.”
His eyes narrowed. “You won’t?”
“If you sign the movie I sent you, I’ll let you have your fun with her, even give you my blessing. Let’s see how soon you’ll get bored with her once she’s no longer a taboo.”
“You’re in no position to be making demands, Andrea. I’m not just goofing around with Maggie because she’s ataboo.I’m in love with her with all my heart. We don’t need anyone’s blessings, especially yours.”
“You tend to forget, Mickey, that I’m the only one who can destroy this lovely relationship beyond repair.”
He scratched the back of his head. “Looks like you misheard me the last time. Do that, and you’ll have no career. The only reason I haven’t done it already is because Maggie made me promise I wouldn’t.”
Her thin eyebrow shot up. “If you’re no longer my client, what difference does it make? You’re my biggest account. My whole reputation is based on me being your agent.”
“I’m sure you’ll have no trouble finding a new eighteen-year-old and turning him into a star.”
“I’m not interested in starting from scratch.” She uncrossed her legs. “Not when I can still have you.”
“You can’t.”
“Then you’re leaving me no choice,” she said. “A person with nothing to lose can do whatever she wants.Hurtwhoever she wants.”
The piercing hazel eyes held his with an earnestness that made him want to turn away, yet he didn’t. Not anymore. His grip tightened around the arm of the chair. “So let me get this straight. I make the movie you want, and you’ll leave us the fuck alone?”
“Movies. Plural.”
“For how long?”
She sidled up to him and put her hands on his knees. “For as long as we both shall live.”
Bile filled his mouth. Her fingers felt like acid on his body. A memory he’d suppressed for years threatened to resurface, to ruin everything he’d ever worked for, to rob him of the one thing he wanted in life.
He glared from her hands to her eyes with one thought in his head; he’d no longer be afraid; he’d no longer be burdened by the face before him or by his past. Nothing was going to stand between Maggie and him anymore. Nothing.
He brushed Andrea’s fingers off his knees as if they were garbage. “I’m sick and tired of your shit. You think you can come here, blackmail me for the rest of my life, and I’d just stand still?”
“Well, what are you going to do about it?”
“What I should’ve done months ago.” He rose from his chair and grabbed his phone. “I’m gonna tell Maggie to get back here so I can tell her myself.”
She laughed, but there was a hint of something far from amusement in her eyes. “You wouldn’t dare. If you had the guts to tell her, you’d have done it by now.”
He held his breath as his finger tapped dial, everything inside him tight and wound up like a spring. “Watch me.”
This was it. The moment he could win everything or lose it all. But for Maggie’s sake, to rid her of this serpent that was poisoning both their lives, he was ready to do anything.
Andrea jumped to her feet, snatching the phone from his hand, her eyes wide with terror. “Mike! Are you crazy?”
“What do you expect when you’re trying to take away from me the only person that makes me sane? I swear if you weren’t her mother, I would’ve killed you by now for what you did to me sixteen years ago. What I haven’t even realized you did until the night Maggie told me about how you fucked her up.” He stared at her, his stomach revolting with disgust as his mind dredged up one particular night. The worst night of his life.
She winced, swallowing.
He watched the fear etching on her face as silence fell between them. “Look at you, all scared now. Weren’t you blurting out about telling her yourself a second ago? You’re so fuckin’ pathetic.”
“I never thought I’d really have to do it. We can’t tell her. It will ruin everything. I didn’t realize what was at stake until now.” His phone boomed in her hand. Her eyes fell on the screen, and then she blanched. “It’s her.”
“Give it to me.”
