Page 19

Seven

It tookthe entire walk back to set for Maddie’s heartbeat to settle down to its regular pulse rate. Even then, her head still spun from her Micah encounter.

What the fuck just happened? No, don’t think about it. Think aboutwork.

Except there wasn’t any work for her to do. She’d adjusted her focuses earlier with the stand-ins and Adam didn’t need anything from her at the moment. She watched as Joe walked Heather through the blocking on the lone cabin where the scene took place. It was a beautiful location. The aromatic purple grape-like flowers—Maddie didn’t know their name—mixed with the tall green and yellow grasses against the rustic wood of the log home, creating a quite visually appealing setting. It would look good on film. Especially when the ruggedly handsome Micah was added to the scene, leaning back against the rough post of the deck, thighs hardand…

Stop!

But she couldn’t stop thinking about it. Micah Preston had kissed her. He kissed her. And he had been into it. And he had wanted more. Then, did she end things? Yes, she was pretty sure she had. Was that really what she wanted? Yes, yes it was. There must be a good reason, though she couldn’t manage to think what it was. All she could think of were his lips, his hands, his bulging pants…

No, stop it, stop it, stopit!

Think about something else.Usually, she spent dead time on set working on her own movie, editing on her laptop. But her computer bag was in the crew’s trailer and that was too close to Micah’s trailer.

Micah’s trailer…

She pulled out her phone and scanned her Facebook newsfeed for distraction. Nothing interesting. She was tempted to update her status, but was afraid “Just made out with Micah Preston and am now lost in thoughts of him naked against me” was an inappropriate post. Though it would probably garner several “likes.”

She pocketed her phone and looked up to see Micah, complete with fresh makeup, strolling onto the set. Even with several yards between them, he met her eyes and an undercurrent of electricity rushed through her. She tapped her foot to direct the frenzied energy somewhere. Did he do this to every woman or just her? Probably all women. She wasn’t special. But there he was, maintaining eye contact, looking at her with—what? Yearning?

“Let’s talk,” he mouthed toher.

She was confused. Should she talk to him? Why did he even want to talk to her? He was into women for a quick roll in the hay, and if he thought that was what he was getting from her, then he had another think coming.

But that yearning look he gave her…Maybe he wanted something different from her. Somethingmore.

Right. And fairies were real and rainbows had pots of gold at the end ofthem.

She wished she were invisible, wished she could fade into the background like she usually did. She closed her eyes, as if it could make her disappear. When she opened them, Micah had moved his attention to his scene partner. The absence of his gaze chilled her. Despite how easily she’d pulled herself from his embrace, she wanted him; there was no doubt of that. Wanted him so much she practically needed a change of panties whenever he was in theroom.

It was possible she’d been too hard on him. So he’d pretended to not remember her. That was shitty. But he was right—she hadn’t let on that she remembered him either.

It was his reasons for pretending that bothered her. That he’d thought she’d want to take advantage of him just because he was a famous actor. He had some superiority complex.

Except, maybe most women did that to him. Assumed things about him or showed an interest because he was who he was. She should give him a break.

But that just illuminated the whole reason she shouldn’t get involved with him in the first place. He was an actor. A famous actor. And his life was, as he said, different. One main highlight being the rapid-fire way he went through women. All of it suggested that Micah was just a whole jumbled up mess of stuff not to get involvedin.

She was stupid for being attracted to him in the first place. It was the memory of him she desired—a fun night in the past. That wasall.

Well, and he was super hot. And famous. And charming.

And he’d kissedher!

This was so not like her. She was usually cool and collected and together, but Micah fuddled her up too much to sort out on herown.

Maddie pulled out her cell phone again and typed a text to Bree. He remembers me afterall.

Yes! What did hesay?!!?

He kissed me.She shook her head not believing the words as she typed them. She rubbed her fingers across her swollen lips while she waited for Bree’s response, remembering the feel of his mouth onhers.

OMG. Did you jumphim???

No!Maybe she shouldn’t have included the exclamation point. After all, she was consideringit.

R U gonna???