Christ, would he ever stop having this effect on her?
Maddie fixed on Natalia, trying to pretend she was alone on screen. “Micah, we’ve worked together so you know how I love gossip.”
With nervous charm—Maddie had never seen him so anxious—Micah gave his best smile. “This is true. You’re a gossip queen.”
Natalia fidgeted with her long, red gown. “Gossip princess, thank you. But anyway. I’ve heard various rumors about your relationship status. Can you clear that up for us right now? Are you or are you not available?”
Maddie stiffened. Was this seriously the only thing people cared about where Micah was concerned? She couldn’t bear to hear this again.
On cue, Bree patted around for the remote. “You don’t have to listen, I’m muting.”
She found the remote as Micah said, “Nat, I am totally unavaila —”
The TV went silent as Bree hit the mute button and threw the remote down.
Unavailable? Maddie dropped her spoon. “Wait! What did he just say?” She must have heard wrong.
“I don’t know.”
“Unmute.” Maddie leaned forward and watched the soundless screen trying without success to decipher the dialogue. “Unmute!”
Bree twisted around on the couch. “Where’s the remote?”
Maddie ignored the ice cream melting down her arm. She needed to hear what Micah had said. “You just had it!”
“I know, but I threw—oh, there it is.”
The sound returned, “…you’ve broken the hearts of a million women across the world,” Natalia said.
“He’s broken hearts.” Maddie’s pulse quickened. “Why are there broken hearts? Rewind, rewind!”
Bree sounded just as frantic as Maddie felt. “I am!”
Keeping her eyes glued to the TV as the show rewound, Maddie instructed Bree when to stop. The show picked up in the middle of Natalia’s sentence. “…princess, thank you. But anyway. I’ve heard various rumors about your relationship status. Can you clear that up for us right now? Are you or are you not available?”
Maddie set down the melting carton of ice cream, all focus on Micah.
“Nat, I am totally unavailable.” He stressed the un. “I’ve fallen in love with an amazing woman.”
“Oh, my God.” Maddie gripped the edge of the couch with her fingernails. Fallen in love. He said he’d fallen in love.
Natalia tossed her black hair. “Wow. I never thought I’d see the day, Micah Preston! Tell us more?”
The camera closed in on Super Hot Micah. “Well, she thinks I’m a total douchebag—can I say douchebag on air?”
“I think you can.”
“Good, because she’s right. I am a douchebag.” He turned to look directly into the camera. “But I love you, Maddie Bauers—”
Maddie sucked in her breath.
“—and, I should have told you earlier, and I didn’t. So if this is what it takes to get you back, then fine. I’ll say it as many times as you need me to.” His voice softened. “Because I choose you, Maddie.”
Maddie felt faint. “Oh, my God.”
The actress winked at Micah. “Who could still think you were a douchebag after you’ve just declared your love on national television? You know you’ve broken the hearts of a million women across the world.”
Micah shrugged, not seeming to be bothered in the least about breaking the hearts of women across the world. And why would he be? He was in love—in love with Maddie. Her throat tightened.
The camera turned its focus to Natalia. “Are you ready to break four more hearts? Because we have five nominees for best actress and only one of them can be the winner.”
Bree turned down the volume again. Or else Maddie’s head zoned it out, because she never heard the names of the nominees. “Maddie, you have to go there.”
But Maddie couldn’t move. Micah Preston loved her. He loved her. “Oh. My. God.”
Alarm entered Bree’s voice. “Are you okay that he just outed you on national television?”
“I totally am!” He chooses me! “Oh my God.”
“Maddie!” Bree shook her arm excitedly. “Do you still love him?”
“Yes!” Yes, she did. More than anything. Maybe she always had, since they first met seven years ago in the backyard of that party. She had wished and longed that he would love her back, but in her wildest dreams she never could have imagined he loved her enough to tell the world on live television. Oh, Micah!
She stood up. “I have to see him.”
Bree nodded vigorously. “Yes. Go.”
Panic set in as Maddie looked down at her chocolate-stained white Jersey. “I’m not dressed—”
“You can borrow something from me.”
Maddie chortled. Bree’s waist was thinner than her thigh. “Yeah, right.”
Bree looked Maddie over. “Just go like you are.” She paused, dabbing at the chocolate stain between Maddie’s boobs. Giving up, she said, “You’re fine. He won’t care.”
“But I’m…” Maddie didn’t have time to change. She needed to get to Micah. “Okay, okay. Whatever.” In a daze, she looked around for her purse and spotted it on the kitchen table. She picked it up and slung it over her shoulder, then turned back. “How will I get in?”
Bree bit her knuckle. “Um, who’s there that we know?”
A name surfaced through the haze of Maddie’s mind. “Fudge. Fudge’s there. Micah’s, um, sorta-bodyguard. I’ll call him.” She opened her purse and rummaged for her phone.
“Call him on the way.” Bree pushed Maddie toward the door. “It’s going to take you forever to find parking.”
Maddie nodded. Parking could be a bitch. Good thing Bree’s Echo Park apartment was close to the Nokia Theater. It would only be a ten-minute drive.
Taking one more deep breath, Maddie crossed to the door. She trembled as her sweaty palms turned the knob.
“Oh, and Maddie?” Bree gave her two thumbs up. “Yay!”
“Yay” didn’t begin to describe how Maddie felt inside, but it would have to do since there were no words for the grand, earth shattering emotions that consumed her as she walked to her car. Her horrible sadness had been, in a matter of seconds, completely diffused in the same way shadows disappeared at the switch of a light. She loved Micah, a fact she had thought would remained buried inside her for the rest of her life. But now she was on her way to see him, to tell him how much she adored him and wanted him and yearned for him.
Tears rushed her eyes. Micah Preston loved her!
Thirty
Maddie’s chest constricted when Fudge didn’t answer his phone. She left a frazzled voice message saying she needed to find Micah and she was already on her way to the Nokia. But what if she couldn’t get ahold of him?
Thank God, he texted her half a minute after she hung up. Of course. He was probably in a place where he couldn’t take a phone call. Idiot.
She glanced at his message while stopped at a light. Park at the Ritz. Text me when you arrive.
She tossed her phone down on the passenger seat and turned onto Olympic Boulevard. With the few minutes left of her drive, she centered her thoughts. Micah said he loved her. On national television. But had he changed his mind about the future? Did he believe they might actually have a shot, even in Hollywood?
Micah loved her. And she loved Micah. Still, she couldn’t relax in that knowledge without more information.
Though still a block away, Maddie slowed her car as the Ritz came into view, hoping the change in speed would calm her sudden anxiety. But when she turned into the hotel’s driveway, her heart seemed to beat even faster.
“You’re in luck,” the valet attendant said. “A parking spot just came available.” He opened her door. “Are you staying in the hotel?”
“Visiting someone who is,” she lied.
As the valet drove her car away, she texted Fudge. Just parked.
I’m in the hotel lobby.
Smoothing down her dress—as if that
would help her disheveled state—Maddie pushed through the revolving doors and stepped into the cool lobby.
Fudge saw her first. “Hey, you!” He was dressed in a black T-shirt and black jeans, his “on duty” attire. He enveloped her in a bear hug. “You saw the show? What did you think?”
Man, was that a loaded question. It would take an hour to run through all her thoughts and feelings. She settled on the dominating one. “I’m shocked.”
He took her hand, leading her toward the main elevators. “But it was good, right?”
She nodded as he pushed the up arrow on the call panel.
Her brow furrowed. They were staying in the hotel?
Fudge didn’t notice her confusion. “I just knew you’d show up after that. Micah wasn’t so sure. He was really nervous about it actually. He’s gonna be real happy to see you. I’m real happy to see you. He’s been an ass since Colorado.”
“An ass?”
“Total ass. Moody. Mean. I’ve never seen him like that.” An elevator opened behind them and a formally dressed couple stepped out. Was that the guy who just won best screenwriter? Fudge ushered her in the empty car before she could look again.
“But good for you,” he continued. “Not letting him force you into less than you both deserve.” He pushed the number four on the panel and the doors shut.
Maybe Micah was waiting for her in a hotel room. With nothing on. Yummy. She grinned at the thought. “Does he know I’m here?”
“Nah. We’re surprising him.” Fudge tapped his foot, watching the dial as they climbed.
So no naked in a hotel room. "Um, where are we going? Is Micah here or at the Nokia?”
Fudge hit his head as if he just realized he were an idiot. “Duh. Sorry. He’s here in the hotel.” The doors opened and he led her down a hall following a sign that pointed toward the hotel ballrooms. “All the presenters and award winners are sent over here to the press room for pics and interviews and stuff.”
Maddie halted, panic setting in. “There won’t be pictures of me, right?”
“Maybe. Everyone wants to know who the mysterious Maddie Bauers is, after all. Is that not cool?”
She gestured at her outfit. “Look at me. I’m a mess! I’m wearing an Old Navy Jersey. I have a big old chocolate stain on my boobs.”
Fudge scanned her over, as if seeing her for the first time. “Hmm. Yeah, we’ll keep you out of the limelight then. No worries.”
He resumed his trek down the hall. Hesitantly, Maddie followed. He stopped outside a corridor where two security guards stood. Several feet behind them, a sign on a set of heavy double doors read “Ballroom A.”
Fudge flashed a badge and pulled her past the guards and through the double doors. “Micah was up next when I left him.”
Inside, the room was abuzz with activity. At least two hundred people were spread around the small ballroom. Light bulbs flashed and boom mics bobbed above the photo area at the end of the room. Maddie stood on her tiptoes to see above the heads of the press. There he was. Posed in front of the America’s Choice Awards logo, looking like the hot God he was.
“I haven’t had a girlfriend in years,” Micah said in answer to a question Maddie hadn’t heard. “I have a lot to learn.”
“Micah, where did you meet Maddie?” a reporter near the front asked.
They were talking about her!
“You’ll dig it up soon enough.” Micah was all suave and charming. “Some of you are especially talented with that kind of thing.”
A few people laughed.
Fudge waved his arm, signaling to Micah.
Maddie raised herself on her toes again and nearly choked on her own spit as she briefly met his glance. Her stomach flip-flopped at the look he gave her, his eyes wide, full of longing and love.
Fudge tugged at her sleeve. “We gotta get outta here if you don’t want to get photographed.”
Maddie followed as he crossed behind the crowd to a small room off the ballroom. “This is a lounge for while the stars wait for their turn with press.” He gestured for her to enter. “But no one’s been using it. I’ll tell Micah you’re here.”
Maddie entered the room, finding it furnished in old Hollywood décor. A white couch and two armchairs created a sitting area around a television showing a live feed of the award show next door. The winner of Best Director was giving his award speech. And it wasn’t Beaumont. This night’s getting better and better.
After several minutes of unsuccessfully trying to concentrate on the show, Maddie paced the room. Where was Micah? What would he say when he saw her? What would she say when she saw him?
Spotting a sink at the bar on the opposite side of the room, she crossed to wash her hands, sticky from nerves and chocolate ice cream. While drying, she had the eerie feeling she was being watched. She turned and saw him, leaning against the doorframe. Excitement and desire rushed through her and the only reason she wasn’t running into his arms was fear that her knees would collapse before she reached him.
Micah looked her over from head to toe. Her body trembled under his ravenous gaze. When his eyes reached her chocolate stain, he chuckled. Maddie cringed. Of course he’d notice all of her. He stepped into the room, still saying nothing.
She had an idea. In what she hoped sounded like a reporter’s voice, she said, “Micah Preston.”
He cocked his head.
She took a step toward him. “Rumor has it that you don’t believe you can have a successful movie career and a girlfriend. Do you care to comment?”
He relaxed, understanding settling on his face. “This is true.”
She tensed. Did this mean he still believed they had no future?
“I have historically stood my ground on the idea that romance has no place in Hollywood.” He stepped toward her. “But recently I’ve had a change of heart.”
She swallowed, taking another step. “A change of heart?”
“I still think it’s a difficult situation, don’t get me wrong there.” He moved again toward her. “But relationships are about sacrifice and compromise. And as long as we choose each other more often than we choose our careers, I think we might have a shot.” He furrowed his brow. “I’m not sure if she’s completely thought about the sacrifices she’ll have to make for her own career.”
Maddie took a deep breath. She’d thought about it, but she knew that wasn’t the same as experiencing it. It wouldn’t be easy, especially facing her Beaumont past again, but Micah had given up a way of thinking for her. She could give up things for him as well. It takes two.
“Do you care what the press says about you? About her?”
“Not in the slightest.” He suddenly seemed to remember she was pretending to be a reporter herself. “No offense to you and your kind. But usually whatever you have to say is a bunch of bullshit.”
Another step toward him. “No offense taken. I’m sure she knows that as well. And if you can ignore them, I bet she can, too. Since she loves you and all.”
His eyes twinkled. “You think she still loves me? Even after I’ve been such a dick?”
“I’d bet my life on it,” she said softly.
He beamed. Then his delight was replaced with a mischievous grin. “I’m not so sure.” He took two more slow steps toward her. “She can be pretty hot-headed. And stubborn. And non-compromising. Sometimes she runs away. Oh, and she can be a bit of a tease, so there’s that.”
Maddie raised a brow. “A tease? No way.”
“Yes, yes way. I’ve taken many cold showers because of her.”
“Hmm.” She was so near to him now, only a few feet away. She could touch him. But one more question. “With all her negative traits,” she said, her eyes lowered, “Are you sure that you really…love her?”
He pulled her to him in one swift movement. “Oh yeah,” he said huskily, his mouth inches from hers. “I’m damn sure.”
His lips found hers, and she melted into his taste, his tongue darting playfully around hers. She clutched hi
m desperately, and his body soaked her with heat from the tips of her breasts to the place where his arousal pressed into her belly, to lower where her own desire burned. She wanted him, and he wanted her, and she reveled in this, as he kissed her so thoroughly that her insides turned into complete mush and her legs could barely stand without his support.
When she thought she couldn’t take it anymore, that if he lingered in her mouth a moment longer she’d have to rip off all his clothes and make love to him right there in the ballroom of the Ritz Carlton, only then did he tear his mouth away to whisper in her ear. “Oh, Maddie.” His voice was ragged and low. “I’ve been such a shit. I’m so sorry it took so long for me to come around. I could live the rest of my life without ever seeing another script or movie set again, but I can’t live another second without you. I love you. Please tell me I still have a chance, that we have a chance.”
“Oh God, Micah. All I needed was for you to believe we did.” Maddie blinked back hot tears. “Yes. Yes! I love you so much.”
He leaned back to search her eyes. “You really do?”
“I do. I always have. Probably since I met you on the bench in that backyard on my graduation night.”
His mouth possessed hers again, this time the heat of the kiss turned her arousal from a simmer to a boil. When Micah pulled away to meet her eyes, his were dilated with ravenous desire. “Oh baby, I’d say we need to get a room, but I don’t think I can wait that long.”
His sexual promise had her teeming with excitement.
His eyes swept the room and settled on the sofa near them. “Later we’ll take it slow and sweet. But I need to be inside you now, and it’s going to have to be quick.”
Her mouth fell open in surprise as he lifted her and carried her to the sofa. He lay her down and reached under her dress to remove her panties.
Panic swept through her. “Micah! What if someone—?”
“Shh, we don’t care about anyone else, remember? I have to have you.”
She relaxed, trusting him, letting herself give in to his need.
His hand slid up her thigh to the bud of her want. “God, Maddie you’re soaked.” He swirled her clit with his thumb sending a shiver throughout her body then dipped a finger inside her.
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