Page 91 of Cast to be Mine

I bypassed my floor entirely and hit the button for his. The elevator doors opened and I was moving before I could second-guess myself, my feet carrying me down the familiar hallway to his suite.

I thought about all the times he’d looked out for me. The way he’d coached me through my worst moments on set. The way he’d believed in me when I couldn’t believe in myself. He was a good man.

An impossible, wonderful, infuriating man.

I reached his door and raised my hand to knock.

Then I stopped.

What was I going to say? Thank you for saving my reputation? Thank you for being a good man and a great director?

We were supposed to be professionals, and we had been, but it wasn’t working. I couldn’t stay away from the guy.

I knocked and waited, imagining him still in bed, hair tousled and wearing nothing but his briefs.

Or maybe nothing at all.

30

MICAH

The knock came just as I was contemplating whether to order room service or drag myself down to the restaurant for a quick breakfast. I’d been up most of the night working with Toby on the video, catching maybe two hours of sleep before my phone started blowing up with notifications.

Totally worth it.

I looked down. I just got out of the shower. Whoever was at the door could deal with me in my briefs. I was too tired to care about modesty.

I opened the door expecting Toby with another crisis or maybe room service he sent up.

It was Grace.

She stood there in the hallway, her hair thrown up in a messy bun, her face bare of makeup, wearing shorts and the ugliest t-shirt I’d ever seen.

“Grace, what’s wrong?”

She pushed past me into the suite, grabbed the door from my hand, and slammed it shut behind her.

Then she kissed me.

Her hands fisted in my hair, pulling me down to her level. Her mouth was warm and desperate against mine. I forgot every reason we were supposed to be keeping our distance. My arms wrapped around her automatically, pulling her against my chest, feeling her heart hammering through the thin fabric of her shirt.

When she finally pulled back, we were both breathing hard.

“What was that for?” I managed.

“For being amazing.” Her voice was thick with emotion. “For doing what you did. The video. Chantilly told me everything.”

“Ah.” I rubbed the back of my neck, suddenly self-conscious. “You saw it.”

“The whole world saw it, Micah.” She laughed and shook her head. “I woke up to about a million notifications. Everyone’s talking about it. And for once, they’re not calling me a homewrecker.”

“That was kind of the point.”

She shook her head, her eyes never leaving mine. “You didn’t have to do that. The studio wanted to ride the buzz. Chantilly was loving the attention. You could have just let it play out.”

“I couldn’t. I hated it, Grace. Every single day, watching you carry that weight. Seeing those headlines, knowing what people were saying about you online. It was killing me.”

“Micah, I’m a big girl. If this movie is a success, those will not be the last headlines. There will be plenty more. I imagine a lot worse.”