Andi squealed, throwing her hands in the air. She'd probably have whacked them on the headboard if David didn't move faster and catch her. One of his big hands wrapped around both her wrists, pinning them against the pillows over her head while he touched the finger of his other hand to her lips.
"Shhhhh," he hushed through his own low, rumbling laugh. "You're going to wake up the whole house. Or, at the least, hurt yourself."
Andi just kept laughing and squirmed out of his grasp enough to wrap her arms around him and hug him so hard he lost his balance and his weight pushed her into the bed. Not that she complained. She showered his cheek, temple and brow with loud kisses until she found her way back to his mouth.
"Thank you," she said against his lips, kissing him again. "Thank you. Thank you." Each sentence punctuated with a kiss.
"Not that I'm arguing--" Kiss. "But what are you thanking me for?"
Andi settled into the pillows again, but kept her arms linked behind his neck to hold him close. She let go a long sigh, taking a few brief moments to just look at him. Sometimes, in moments just like this, everything became so surreal she had a hard time believing she wasn't in the longest and most vivid dream ever in documented history. She'd had many moments like that since the first time she tried to convince herself his kiss was just a vivid dream. The effect wouldn't be more real if someone slapped her across the back of the head and said 'Are you insane?'
Sometimes, especially when the paparazzi followed them or an excited fan approached with flushed cheeks and rapid breath to ask for an autograph, she realized the man beside her was David Bishop, the man who had been making young hearts flutter for nearly twenty years. David Bishop who had been voted Sexiest Man in Hollywood, Sexiest Man Alive, Most Eligible Bachelor... the list went on and on.
Sometimes, it wasn't about who the world saw. Sometimes, he made her pause because he was just David and he was wonderful. He played basketball in the backyard with her son for three hours on a Saturday afternoon. He brought Maggie flowers when she wasn't feeling well. He called his mother every three days whether he had something to tell her, or not. And when his mother called him to say Caroline had delivered her new baby girl, he hadn't tried to hide when tears filled his eyes. He made breakfast with all Jake's favorite foods, and helped Jake on his homework. If she was within his reach, he touched her. Maybe he held her hand, maybe he let his fingertips brush the inside of her elbow, or maybe he kissed her when given any opportunity, but he sought her out and told her he craved her.
It was that David that made her breath catch and her heart pound, that David that made her faint with panic at the thought that he might be gone from her life some day, and that David she made love to... not David Bishop. Just David.
She didn't realize she was crying until his expression changed, his lips sliding from a smile to a frown, and he ran his thumb across the slick skin at the corner of her eye. She sniffed and swiped the tears away with her fingertips.
"I'm okay," she said before he could ask. "Didn't you know women cry when they're happy?"
His frown relaxed a little. "I thought that was just my sisters."
Andi laughed, even though tears ran across her temples to her hair. David finally smiled again, his thumb still stroking her skin. With a deep, shuddered breath Andi finally managed to answer him. "Thank you for everything." Her voice was still rough, but she couldn't make it any louder.
David drew in a breath, releasing it with a soft sound that Andi couldn't interpret. He shifted over her, bracketing his weight on his elbows. "I love you." The weight of his words was tangible, real, like a caress and before the tears renewed, Andi curled up from the pillow to kiss him.
Before the pitch of the kiss shifted to something more, David pulled back enough to look down at her. "You have managed to completely get me off topic."
Andi pulled her lower lip through her teeth and made a half-hearted attempt at looking innocent. "Did I?" At his mock scowl, she scooted up the pillows to partially sit up. "Please, continue."
David shifted with her so his shoulder rested in the pillows at her side and he looked up at her. He slid his hand beneath her shirt again, his warm skin smoothing over her stomach.
"Has Maggie talked to you about doing publicity appearances?"
"You mean past book signings?" He nodded. Just the thought made her skin flush. "She talked about panel appearances and maybe some conventions."
"What about the talk show gambit?"
Andi pulled her legs up, wrapping her arms around them. David had to move his hand, and sat up beside her, his back to the headboard. But, his attention stayed firmly on her. She was a chicken, plain and simple and undeniable. Just watching from the audience while David did the live interview with Brooke Halle had made her break out in nervous gooseflesh. David twisted toward her, laying his hand on her raised knee, rubbing his thumb against the worn cotton of her pajama pants.
She signed, knowing exactly what he waited for. "Yes."
"And..."
Andi shot a look at him, the focused again on his thumb stroking the inside of her knee. "And... the entire idea scares the living daylights right out of me. But..." She looked at him again. "I don't think you needed me to tell you that."
"What if we did it together?"
Andi squinted and contemplated reaching for her glasses, just to make sure she saw his expression perfectly clear. In the end, she rolled sideways and retrieved her spare pair from the nightstand. He hadn't moved when she rolled back, looking at him again.
"Is this your idea? Or Avi's?"
David shrugged, canting his head to the side. "Avi mentioned it first, but I've been thinking about it since I did Brooke's show."
"Of doing the circuit together?"
"It's not unheard of. Co-stars on a film do the circuit all the time, to promote together."
"We aren't co-stars. We're--"
"--together. I know. But, we can still promote Rise of Dawn together."
Andi squinted at him. "It's not going to be released for months."
"So, we just..." David huffed and shifted away. "Okay, fine. Sometimes being seen is just being seen. Call me a pretentious Hollywood... whatever... but sometimes, I just have to 'be seen'. With the announcement of The Forgotten being adapted to film, it's an opportunity."
"So, why do I have to be involved?"
David laughed, resting his head back against the wall. "Why would you have to be involved in the promotion of the film adaptation for one of the best selling book series since Rowlings and Meyers?" He dropped his hands in his lap, palms up. "Oh, I don't know, sweetheart... because you wrote it?"
Andi shook her head and tossed the blankets back, climbing from the bed. Wide-awake now, nervous energy making her clench and unclench her hands at her side as she beelined for the bathroom. Okay, so she'd accepted a certain level of weirdness in her own psyche -- it came with the territory of writing down everything voices in her head told her to write down -- but even she knew that a need to brush her teeth when she was nervous went beyond the normal author psychosis.
She avoided looking at herself in the mirror, squirted green gel on her toothbrush, and scrubbed at her teeth. She didn't hear him come into the bathroom over the rush of water in the sink, and jumped nearly swallowing a mouthful of toothpaste foam when he stepped behind her and laid his hands on her hips. She spit and rinsed, finally straightening to look at him in the mirror.
"I've seen you with your fan," he said, drawing her against his chest. He stared at her in the reflection. "You're wonderful with them. What makes you believe you can't do this?"
"I can't speak to people in public," she argued, not even thinking about what she said because she'd heard the reasons so many times before. "I'm a mouse..."
You're like a little mouse, Andrea, and the truth is people listen more closely to someone they find appealing. Moreover, you don't have the training, and you won't convince anyone you know what you're talking about anyway. Just stay quiet, do
n't speak, and for heaven's sake don't draw any attention to yourself.
"What?"
Andi closed her eyes and released a long sigh. She swallowed and shook her head before looking at him again in the mirror. "I realize more and more each day just how--" She shook her head again.
David shifted his feet apart so his chin rested on her shoulder, his cheek brushing hers. "How long will it take before you hear my words over his?"
"Only once." Andi raised her hand and laid it against his far cheek, leaning her own cheek into his other. "I just have to figure out which mantras in my head are mine, and which ones are his that he stuck there."
David moved back and set his hands at her hips, turning her around to face him. He kissed her forehead and held her face between his palms before looking her in the eye. "I want to ask you something."
"Anything."
"This morning, I made light of it just to piss off Pinky, but he said something that..." His eyes pinched at the corners and he paused. "Forgive my ad libing, but he said he warned you I wouldn't stay--"
"Once you realized I was pathetic in bed." Andi hitched her head and tried to smile. "Forgive my ad libing. But, I've already heard several variations of the same statement." She swallowed and turned away as much as his hands would allow. "It was my fault, you know. The affairs. That's what he said... because I was inadequate."
He groaned just before turning her to face him, covering her mouth with an open-mouthed kiss that she felt clear to her toes. His tongue slipped past her lips, and before she could take a breath, he scooped his hands behind her legs and lifted her to sit on the edge of the counter. In the span of two heartbeats, Andi wanted all of David and wanted him now. His hands tugged at her, bringing her closer to him until she wrapped her legs around his waist. Desperate fingers dug into her thighs and backside, pulled at her clothes. When he sucked at the sweet spot at the point of her collarbone, Andi threw back her head and gasped.
David pulled away, his breath ragged and hot against her cheeks. He pulled her harder against him, the thin material of their night clothing doing nothing to disguise his arousal. Andi panted, trying to catch her breath as he pushed his fingers into her hair and titled her head so she looked up at him.
"I can't get enough of you," he rasped, leaning in so his lips brushed hers when he spoke. He pulled her lower lip between his, and Andi shifted against him, eliciting a low groan that rumbled through his chest. "Andi, I couldn't walk away now if I wanted to, and I don't want to."
He pushed his hand beneath her shirt, sliding his palm up her spine to support her shoulders. His other arm hitched her higher on his hips and he lifted her off the counter, carrying her back to the bedroom. All doubt, all fear that continued to niggle at the back of her mind, was lost as she lost herself in David.
*****
"The important thing is to relax."
"She knows that, Avi," David said, shooting a glare at his manager. "Telling her a dozen times in five minutes won't help."
Avi shrugged. "Hey, just doing my job."
Maggie gave Avi a good shove with her shoulder into his chest, sending him back two steps. "Yeah, except Andi isn't your client. Back off, bucko. Andi is fine, and she'll be fine. You are the one who needs to relax."
Avi smoothed his tie and popped his eyebrows. "Pushy as ever, Ms. Connelly."
"I push as hard as I need to, but you should know that by now, Mr. Siegel."
David suppressed a growl and looked at Andi. She stood by the Green Room window, staring into the mid-morning sunlight. It was chilly today, the distinct nip of winter in California leaving layers of frost on the cars and a nip in the air. With a private grin, he recognized the sweater she wore as the one she'd worn the first time they made love. That sweater and the yellow sundress with the tiny flowers would forever be his favorite articles of clothing on her.
"Look, she can't go up there looking as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs," Avi said in a stage whisper. David caught Andi's quick glance over her shoulder.
"Like a what in a what?"
Avi rolled his eyes to Maggie and back to David. "Brooke may not harp on it, but you know--"
"Lay off," David growled.
"With all the negative press lately, you've got to go out there and not bat an eyelash."
"Are you deaf?" Maggie snapped.
"Just give us a few minutes." David pushed Avi toward the door and gave Maggie a pleading glance. She didn't skip a beat and followed them to the door.
Avi looked at his watch. "You're on in ten."
Maggie gave Avi another hard shove. "Let the man do his job," she ordered, and winked at David. "We'll be in the first row."
David nodded, shutting the door behind them. He sighed and let his chin drop toward his chest.
"I'm sorry," she said softly as soon as the lock clicked. "I don't want to ruin this, but--"
"Stop," he said gently, crossing to her. He wrapped his arms around her and rested his cheek against her hair. "You're not ruining anything. You'll be fine. I swear."
"Easy for you to say. How many times have you done this?"
"How many times have I been interviewed? I don't know. How many times have I been interviewed with my girlfriend?" He grinned at her low growl. "Never."
"That's because it's not done."
"I wouldn't say it's 'not done', it's just--"
"A kiss of death. Like... making a movie together or getting matching tattoos."
David laughed. "It's not always a kiss of death."
"Tell that to Tom and Nicole, or Billy Bob and Angelina--"
"Paul Newman and Joanne Woodworth."
"Okay, fine. You got me on that one." She ran her hands over his arms where they crossed over her stomach, pausing to toy with the leather bracelet on his left wrist -- a gift from Jake, something he'd made at school. She drew in a breath that shuttered through her when she let it go. "Do you know what I'm most afraid of?" Her voice was so low he almost didn't hear her. He kissed her cheek and waited. "I'm afraid I won't know an answer."
"About the books or the movies?"
"About us."
David nodded. "Yeah, she'll probably ask about us." He loosened his hold enough to turn her in the circle of his arms so she had to face him. "Andi, after this long, are you really unsure?"
She shrugged and tried to smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes enough to convince him. "I'm sorry--"
"Stop saying that," he said a little harder than he intended. Her eyes shifted away, but he tightened his hold before she could step clear of his arms. "Andi..." He didn't know what to say, so he pressed his lips to her forehead and embraced her, holding her until he felt some of the tension ease in her shoulders.
The last week and a half had been hell, no other way to put it. Since Pinky put her in the ER, and Theresa filed the petition and restraining orders, Andi's ex had done everything within the statutes of the law to make her life miserable. He filed his own petition, just as he'd threatened, and he'd added accusations that ranged from immorality to endangerment of their son.
No one had been left untouched, including David and Maggie. Every dark secret was thrust into the light for public consumption. 'Facts' were created from nothing, and those stories with even the smallest kernel of truth had been twisted and repainted into sinister, unpleasant half-truths. Each article and news report chipped away at Andi, dimming the light in her eyes. He saw it each day no matter how he tried to keep them from her.
It was impossible.
"Both Avi and Maggie made it clear to Brooke's people that there's a line we won't cross. I trust Brooke to stick to that line. She likes a good story, but she's not into sensationalism."
Andi nodded against his chest, not looking up. David ran his hand over her hair and across her shoulders. "And as far as the inevitable question about us... where we are and where we're headed... I already have the answer for that."
She pulled back then, looking up with a touch of a grin on
her lips. "You do?"
David smiled and held her face in his hands. "We're headed exactly where I've always known we're headed. Since the first time I kissed you, I knew exactly where this would go."
"Where is that?"
He grinned and stroked his thumb across her lower lip. "All the way, sweetheart."
"And that's what you'll tell Brooke?" she asked with an arch of her eyebrows.
"Well," he said with a hitch of his head. "Something to that effect, yeah."
"Sounds like something from a romantic movie," she said with a light smirk.
David laughed and linked his fingers together behind her back, and she mimicked his stance. He spread his feet to bring him closer to eye level with her. "Yeah, well, I guess that's what I get for falling in love with a romance novelist."
"Next you'll be telling me I complete you or..." She pulled a face. "That you're afraid of leaving this room and never feeling the rest of your whole life the way you feel when you're with me."
He kissed her, smiling against her lips and felt her smile back. "I'm just a guy, standing in front of a girl, asking her to love me."
She groaned, ending it with a laugh. "You're crazy."
"In love."
"I think that's a song, not a line." Andi shook her head, laughing again softly. She slid her hands around his sides and up his chest to link behind his neck. "And you're very good." He arched his eyebrows and she laughed again. "I'm referring to your ability to make me relax."
A soft knock at the door preceded an aid sticking her head inside. "We're ready for you to approach the stage, Mr. Bishop. Ms. Parker."
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