Cinder & Ella
Page 30
I didn’t see Brian anywhere.
My stomach churned at the idea of having to get from where I was standing to the doors of the theater that seemed miles away. I wasn’t sure I could do it, but I no longer had a choice. The people closest to me had already taken notice and were starting to whisper.
I took one step, and then, slowly, another. My joints weren’t thrilled with the cold weather, so my gait was off a little more than normal. My limp caught people’s attention and the murmurs turned into cheers. “It’s her!” someone cried. “It’s Ella! She came!”
At once, a wave of deafening noise erupted and worked its way from my end of the block to the entrance of the theater and back across the street until it was loud enough it could have been heard in Boston.
People screamed and shouted. They reached out as if to touch me. Cameras flashed in my face, blinding me. The frenzy was so much more than I could have imagined. Overwhelmed, I stumbled back from the ropes. A man twice the size of my father, wearing an expensive suit and some kind of earpiece, caught me. “Are you all right, Miss?”
I gazed at the crowd, unable to think. “This is crazy.”
The man chuckled and set me back on my feet. “No one will cross to this side of the ropes. You’ll be safe.”
The people on the carpet ahead of me all stopped to see what the commotion was. They watched me with curious eyes. Some of them smiled while others didn’t seem to appreciate my having stolen the attention from them. Kaylee looked as if she wanted to shred me to pieces with her bare hands.
“You’d better get moving, Miss,” the security guard said, giving me a gentle nudge. “The show starts in fifteen minutes.”
I nodded and started to walk again, but when I did the cheers grew impossibly louder and I felt as if the chaos had swallowed me up. I was afraid I was going to panic, but then I saw a commotion on the carpet ahead of me that made everything around me fade away.
Brian pushed his way through the crowd of celebrities toward me. I could tell he was calling my name, though I couldn’t hear him over the noise. His movements were frantic; they matched the feeling inside my chest. I thought I would burst if I didn’t have my arms around him in the next five seconds. And then he was there, coming to a stop a few feet in front of me. I didn’t understand the distance he kept between us. I wanted to close it. Needed to close it. I needed to feel him, and smell him, and get lost in his eyes.
“You came,” he breathed. When he spoke, a hush fell over the crowd. People were desperate to hear what we were saying. My focus drifted toward the audience for a moment but then snapped back to Brian when he said, “After the show, when you didn’t call me, I thought…”
He thought he’d never hear from me again.
He couldn’t say the words, and I didn’t make him. “I…went away…for a while…after what happened.”
I wasn’t sure if Brian knew exactly what I meant, but the look of guilt and devastation on his face suggested his thoughts were on the right track, if not exactly correct. I hoped my smile would reassure him that I was okay. I’d have that conversation with him, but not right now.
“I only got home three days ago,” I said. My smile turned wry. “My therapist played your interview in front of everyone I know. I was the only one who hadn’t seen it. I had no idea what was going on and everyone stared at me the whole time. I had to watch that interview with my father standing over my shoulder. It was so embarrassing.”
Brian crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow. “My love for you is embarrassing?”
Miracle of miracles, I managed to keep a straight face. “There’s such a thing as subtlety, Brian. You could benefit from a few lessons on the subject.”
I’d been doing well, but when Brian’s face fell into a pout I burst into laughter. “I loved it.”
Brian finally stepped forward and pulled me into his arms. “You’re such a brat. I can’t believe you made me sweat it out until the last possible second.”
I shrugged. “After seeing that interview, I figured we were striving for dramatic. Surprising you seemed like the way to go.”
Brian chuckled and scanned the near-riot my arrival had caused. “It was definitely that. You managed to cause quite the scene.” He grinned at me then in a way that melted my heart. “I bet I can do better.”
I smirked. “Of course you do.”
The wicked glint in his eyes was the only warning he gave me before he dipped me back into a deep kiss.
Our first kiss had been tender. It had been a kiss to get to know one another. This kiss was entirely different. This kiss was hungry. Brian kissed me as if he were trying to fuse our souls together for eternity. He wasn’t doing this for show. It had nothing to do with the hundreds of people watching and going crazy around us. It wasn’t possessive, either. He wasn’t staking a claim on me. He wasn’t even trying to prove his feelings to me. He was simply taking what he needed.
I could feel his yearning, his ache for me, and it turned me into a puddle of mush. Whatever he needed, he could have it. I would gladly give it. He could have all of me. In fact, by the time he brought me back up and ended the kiss, he did have all of me.
“I love you so much, Ella,” he whispered.
I didn’t know what was cuter: his smitten expression or the bright red lipstick smeared all over his face. “I love you too, Cinder.”
He gave me another quick kiss and then slipped his arm around my waist and led me toward the theater doors. When we got there, he stopped and turned us toward the crowd. “Say ‘cheese’, Ella,” he teased.
I stood there and smiled until my face hurt, but it wasn’t hard to do since I was so deliriously happy. Brian could totally tell too, because every time I looked up at him he chuckled as if I were the most amusing thing in the world.
I must have missed the signal, but eventually Brian decided it was time to move on. As we turned to leave, a man on the other side of the velvet ropes thrust a microphone at us. “Brian! Brian! Won’t you give us a statement before you go inside?”
Brian stopped walking.
A hush fell over the crowd. The atmosphere turned almost reverent as the world waited to hear what Brian Oliver would say. I hoped, for his sake, whatever he came up with was good. I had a feeling this moment of ours was going to go down in Hollywood history.
Brian looked at the man and then back at me. His grin spread the entire length of his face and he said, “How about, ‘And they lived happily ever after’?”
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
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Thanks!
Kelly
Kelly Oram wrote her first novel at age fifteen–a fan fiction about her favorite music group, The Backstreet Boys, for which family and friends still tease her. She’s obsessed with reading, talks way too much, and loves to eat frosting by the spoonful. She lives outside of Phoenix, Arizona with her husband and four children. Connect with Kelly through social media: Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Blog.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you so much, as always, to Josh for your endless support, feedback, your beautiful covers, indulging me when I ask you to make me book graphics, for taking over a lot of the “mom” duties so I can have time to write, and especially for loving me despite my crazy writer quirks.
And thanks to Josh Jr., Jackie, Matthew, & Daniel for actually preferring foods like cold cereal, frozen waffles, yogurt, and pizza over home-cooked meals that I don’t have the time, energy, or skill to make. You’re the best kids a mom could ever ask for! (Yes, even though you fight so much.)
To Jen (Literally Jen),
and Lisa (A Life Bound By Books) for your invaluable feedback and excitement for this project, and to Heather for always being willing to sit and listen to me talk plot issues out. (And for eating my extra donuts when I end up with too many!) You all help me to make my books the best they can be.
Thank you to all my friends and family for your love and support over the years, I couldn’t do it without you. And I’m especially thankful to my Father in Heaven, for blessing me with a little talent and creativity, a healthy dose of patience, and the insane amount of personal drive it takes to be a writer! Through Him, all things are possible.
Table of Contents
TITLE
ALSO BY KELLY ORAM
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
AUTHOR'S NOTE
ABOUT KELLY ORAM
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS