Method Acting: An opposites attract, found family romance (Center Stage Book 2)

by Adele Buck

  He had chosen all of these things. He supposed they might say something about him. He had thought to do the same with her apartment, to suss out who she was by how she arranged her home and her life, but that wasn’t her home. She didn’t have one. She barely owned anything. For some reason, this bothered him.

  Glancing around the room again, he wondered what exactly anyone could glean from his home—aside from his tastes and the money he had to indulge in them. His house, his possessions, they said little about who he was.

  So, what was it that bothered him so much about her lack of a fixed address, of possessions? Was it that he wanted her to buy into the same structures that he had?

  Or did he just want her to stay?

  Restlessly, he walked back to the front door and, grabbing his keys, went outside. Another walk would do him good.

  Alicia wandered back through the little kitchen into the living room of her apartment. If she had been anyone else, she would probably be on the phone with a friend, picking the last twenty-four hours apart. Or maybe making plans to meet over drinks later. But Alicia’s experience had taught her friendships were transient things, sliding off her like her life was coated in Teflon. She remembered Kathleen and Wendy with a pang. They had really seemed to care, even celebrating her new job.

  But the production was over. Everyone always went their own ways when shows were done. Why should Kathleen and Wendy be different from anybody else in Alicia’s life?

  Alicia sat on the sofa and opened up her iPad. Oh, goody. An e-mail from Susan. The universe, fickle thing that it was, seemed to be saying, “You wanted a friend? Here. This is what you deserve.” She opened it.

  To: Alicia Johnson

  From: Susan Vernon

  Subject: All Good Things Must Come to an End

  Hey Sweetie—

  Great to hear from you. Yes, the show is getting a New York run, but I’ve decided to move on. It was a great part, but I want a new challenge. And also, not to deal with the nonstop drama that is the Paul and Cath show.

  Alicia shook her head. Yeah, her not staying with the cast was definitely not her decision. But leave it to Susan to spin—or outright lie—about a thing so it looked like it was her idea.

  I’ll be glad to be back in New York, though. When are you returning to civilization? Too bad the rich lobbyist didn’t pan out.

  Alicia almost snorted when she read that. How much had changed in just a few weeks.

  She was contemplating her response when a tap at the front door startled her. Standing, she rubbed her hands on her shorts and walked over to peer through the peephole. Unlocking the door and opening it, she leaned on the jamb, trying for an outward cool that she didn’t feel inside.

  “Colin.”

  His hair was disheveled, as if he had just run his fingers through it. His expression was exasperated.

  “I don’t know why I’m here,” he said, then stopped, looking at the ground. “No,” he said, looking at her again. “I do know. I can’t stop thinking about you.”

  Alicia felt a flutter in her stomach. She swallowed hard, trying to tamp the feeling down. “Well, you dropped me off about an hour ago. I’d like to think you couldn’t forget me that fast. I’d worry that you’d suffered a head injury.”

  The exasperated expression remained, but it was lightened by a humorous glint in his eyes. “That’s not what I mean and you know it.”

  The flutter intensified. “I…guess you’d better come in, then.” She stepped away from the door and waved him inside. His height, the breadth of his shoulders…he seemed to fill up the little space, even in his distracted state.

  “Sit,” she said. “You’re making me nervous.”

  “That wasn’t my intention.” Colin sank to the sofa and passed a hand across his face, the roughness of his unshaven skin rasping audibly against his fingertips. “Honestly, I probably shouldn’t have come. It was just…I went home, tried to work, couldn’t concentrate. I was restless and went for a walk. I ended up here.”

  Alicia shifted her weight, still at a loss for words, and folded her arms across her chest.

  Colin took a deep breath and rubbed his thumb and forefinger over his eyes. “I don’t know what to tell you except that you have gotten under my skin. You’re smart and lovely and maddening and defensive, and you challenge me in ways I didn’t know I needed or wanted challenging.”

  She continued to look at him, eyes scanning his face, coming to a decision.

  “I’m intruding. This was a mistake. I should go.” He started to push himself to his feet.

  “No.” Her voice was quiet, but she uncrossed her arms, extending one hand, encouraging him to stay seated. “No. It’s okay. Let me get you a glass of water.” She moved to the kitchen and filled a glass from the tap. Returning and handing it to him, she walked out again, this time to the bedroom.

  Puzzled, Colin sipped the water and put the glass down on the coffee table.

  When she returned, her steps were slow. She had something in her hand—a postcard or a photograph, he couldn’t tell. Folding herself into the opposite corner of the couch, she looked at the paper—it was a photograph, he could see that now.

  “You were more right than you knew about my performance,” she said, handing him the picture. He took it, but didn’t look at it immediately. Her eyes held his in a steady gaze. “More right than I knew either. I didn’t like to think about it until you brought it up.”

  Baffled, he looked at the photo. A faded group shot. A family, it seemed, from the resemblances on display. A large family. His gaze found Alicia at once. She was instantly recognizable, though much younger, and her wheat-blond hair was Rapunzel-long. She stared ahead, her expression serious, not quite looking into the camera lens, but somewhere beyond the photographer.

  Then he registered the toddler on her lap. Boy or girl, it was impossible to tell at that age. The child’s clothes were faded but clean, and Alicia’s arms were curled protectively, hands curving around the baby’s rounded belly. Hers?

  “My baby sister Gracie,” she said as if she could read his thoughts. “My Juliet, you might say.”

  Pulling her bare feet up onto the couch, Alicia wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knees. Colin looked from the photograph to her face, then back to the picture.

  “I raised her. At least for a few years.” Alicia’s voice sounded like it was coming from far away. “Mom was…well, she got pregnant way too fast after Gracie. Then lost that one. It wasn’t the first time that happened.”

  Colin set the picture on the table, then reached a hand out toward her. She looked at it, her expression blank for a few moments, then placed her hand in his and allowed him to pull her over to him, turning her body so her back was cradled against his chest.

  “Mom was pretty sick and weak for a long time. And also probably depressed, though I didn’t know anything about that at the time. Dad didn’t seem to care, just went around expecting the house to operate like it always had. And Gracie…she needed someone. She needed me. And when Mom got better…sort of…Gracie kept being my responsibility.”

  “That’s a lot to take on for—what? Sixteen?”

  “Fifteen.”

  “Jesus, Alicia.”

  “I knew kids who took on a lot more a lot younger. I mean, I had always helped out with the younger kids. But Gracie was…it was like she was mine. So yeah, I really was like Juliet’s nurse. I do know how it feels to fail a child that isn’t your own but feels like it is.”

  Colin squeezed his arm tightly around her, pressing her closer.

  “For three years, she was my responsibility. And then…on my eighteenth birthday, I left. I ran. I left a note explaining that I was done, not to look for me. I didn’t want to turn into a missing persons case—I just wanted out. But I couldn’t take Gracie with me. Even if she had been mine, I barely knew what I was going to do to take care of myself.”

  “Alicia…”

  “Don’t say it.” Alici
a pinched the bridge of her nose, her voice thickening.

  “You don’t know what I was going to say.”

  She leaned her head back to his shoulder, looking up at him. “Well, you were either going to blame me for leaving her behind or tell me what a hero I was for getting out. Either way, it doesn’t help.”

  He paused for a moment, choosing his words with care. “Actually, I was merely going to say that it sounds like you had your pick of bad choices to make. Save yourself or stay for your sister. No matter what you chose to do, it was bound to hurt.”

  Alicia swallowed. “Yeah,” she said, her voice barely rising to a whisper. “So. Now that you know what kind of fucked up situation I came from, you still want to be here?”

  Colin pressed his cheek to the crown of her head. “You don’t get any less interesting the more I learn about you,” he said.

  Chapter 14

  “Have you ever told anyone before? About your sister?” Colin smoothed her hair, tucking a wisp behind her ear.

  Alicia shook her head, rubbing against his shoulder. This prosaic little gesture, affirming what he had already suspected, felt warm and intimate. Trusting in a way that even their lovemaking hadn’t been.

  “No,” she finally said. “I’ve never told anyone. I don’t talk about my family. I don’t know why I told you, except that what you said today forced me to think about it.”

  Colin pressed a kiss to the top of her head and felt her relax a little more against him. “Well, I’m honored that you trusted me enough to tell me.”

  Alicia turned toward him a little, her cheek pressing against his shoulder now. She toyed with a button on his shirt. “You’re not what I expected when I met you.”

  Startled, he huffed a brief laugh. “What did you expect?”

  She glanced up at him through her eyelashes. “I don’t know…rich, a know it all, used to getting his own way, mistrustful…”

  Colin’s eyebrows lifted. “Not an attractive prospect. What changed?”

  Alicia focused again on the button, touching it lightly with a fingertip and biting her lip. “Oh, you were attractive. Are attractive. And you can be a bit of a know-it-all. But when you let your guard down…you’re kind. You listen. You don’t assume.”

  Considering this, Colin let his fingers drift up to tease at the short, soft hair that bristled at the nape of her neck. She shivered and shot him a reproachful look. “Sorry,” he said. “I was just reflecting that we both have let our guards down, haven’t we?”

  Alicia merely nodded again.

  “How long have you been alone, Alicia?”

  He expected her to stiffen, to reject the implicit statement behind his question. But she closed her eyes and leaned harder into him.

  “Since I left home. Since I was eighteen,” she said.

  Fifteen years. Alicia shut her eyes. Her head ached. Colin’s large, warm fingers began to massage her neck, and she let herself relax into him another fraction. His chest was solid and warm against her body.

  “That’s a long time to be alone,” he finally said.

  “Yeah.”

  “Setting out on your own at eighteen…that can’t have been easy.”

  “It wasn’t.”

  “You’re rather remarkable. You know that?”

  Alicia tried to laugh, but it came out as a sort of watery gurgle. She shut her eyes and forced back the tears that threatened.

  “Hey.” He moved, shifting away and then turning to cup her cheeks in his broad palms. “Are you all right?”

  She nodded, trying to smile. “Just…tired.”

  “Understandable.” He pressed his lips to her forehead, and Alicia sighed. “Should I go?”

  “Only…only if you want to.” Alicia began to sit up, but Colin’s arms pulled her back against his chest again.

  “I don’t want to,” he declared. “I’d rather stay here and have this impossibly sexy little haircut tickle my nose.”

  “You like it, huh?” she asked, spearing her fingers through her hair so it flipped against his face. He blew the strands away, his breath puffing across the top of her head.

  “I do, you minx.”

  “Most guys seem to like long hair.”

  He shuddered. “Now that I’ve seen that photograph, the only thing long hair makes me think of is underage girls, and I want nothing to do with that.” He pointed at the picture lying on the coffee table. “Why was it so long, anyway? It looks like it had never been cut.”

  “It hadn’t. Dad didn’t let us.”

  Colin blinked, almost not comprehending what she had said. “He didn’t allow you to cut your hair?”

  “No. The girls at least.”

  “That seems…extreme.”

  She shifted in his arms, shooting him a look over her shoulder. “Colin, I left home the day I turned eighteen. You don’t do that if things aren’t more than a little…extreme.”

  “Fair point,” he said, feeling stupid.

  She shifted her weight, sitting back so she could swing her legs across his lap, then curling against his chest again. He settled a hand onto her leg, rubbing the smooth skin of her calf.

  “So…what was your childhood like?” she murmured.

  His hand stilled its stroking. “Mostly unremarkable,” he said with an attempt at lightness. “We lived in southwestern England. Devon. I think you know my father is a doctor. Mother had been a nurse—that was how my parents met—but she stayed home to raise us.”

  “And you have a brother and a sister?”

  “Yes. Both older.”

  “I have a hard time imagining you as the baby, big guy.” Her voice had dropped to a sexy murmur, and he laughed.

  “My mother was from northern England. My uncles look like Viking throwbacks. But yes, my brother is still resentful that I grew taller than he did.”

  “And broader, I am sure.”

  “You like muscles, do you?” His arm tightened around her, and she looked up at him, her eyes crinkling with humor.

  She traced the line of his shoulder with a slow palm. “Not always. I like yours though.”

  “Do you now?” Tightening his grip further, he encouraged her onto his lap. She responded, moving one leg so she was straddling him, settling her weight back onto his thighs. In this position, her face was almost on a level with his. He brushed her fringe away from her eyes with gentle fingertips and saw her pupils had spread across her irises, the flecks of amber almost completely hidden in the velvety blackness.

  Her fingers traced along his lips, and he nipped at her, capturing a finger in between his teeth.

  “Naughty,” she said warningly, her eyes glinting with challenge. In response, he sucked, swirling his tongue around the tip. She slid down his thighs until her hips were flush with his, pressing against his hardening length.

  Releasing her finger with a pop, he murmured, “Naughty indeed,” leaning forward to taste the salt at the hollow of her throat, pulling her hips tighter against him. Feeling her hands tunneling into his hair, he groaned and tugged at the neckline of her tee shirt where it scooped low across her chest. Her hips undulated against his, and he groaned again, hands tightening on her ass.

  “Please tell me I can take you to bed again,” he said, lifting his head and brushing his lips against hers.

  “I thought you’d never ask.”

  Alicia squeaked as Colin stood, hefting her body with ease. Her legs tightened around his hips, and her hands slid from his hair to the back of his neck, gripping tightly.

  “I won’t drop you,” he murmured, nipping at the angle of her neck and shoulder. “Bedroom back there?” His head tilted in the direction of the kitchen, toward the back of the apartment.

  “Not much choice, is there?”

  “No, but it seemed the gentlemanly thing to inquire.” Alicia laughed as he began to move, crossing the small space with long strides.

  “You’re silly,” she said, brushing her lips across his.

  “Guilty,” he said, st
opping to kiss her, eyes closed, lips crushing against hers. Alicia let her tongue play along the seam of his lips until they opened and his tongue met hers. She moaned, her muscles relaxing against him as she dissolved into his kiss, grinding her hips against his erection.

  “Mmm,” Colin said, pulling his head back and looking at Alicia with heavy-lidded eyes. “You need to stop that or I’m going to walk us into a wall.” He released his hold on her a little, and she slid slightly down, legs and arms tightening to stop her descent.

  “Whatever you say,” she replied, nestling her face into the angle of his neck and shoulder, nipping and teasing with her tongue.

  Colin’s chest heaved in a sigh, and she chuckled as he began to walk again.

  “You’re lucky this place is so bloody small. Otherwise we might never have got here,” he said as he bent to lay her on the bed. Alicia gripped his hips with her legs as he tried to straighten and he relaxed on top of her with a laugh. “I’m going to crush you,” he said.

  “No, you’re not.” Alicia took a deep breath as he supported himself on his elbows. “See? Easy.”

  “Rather difficult to get your clothes off if I’m on top of you, though.”

  “And yours. But don’t be in such a hurry.” Alicia fisted her hands in his hair, tugging him closer. “Just kiss me for a while.”

  “And here I had been thinking I needed a haircut,” he murmured as his lips descended.

  “No. I like it,” she murmured, smiling then giggling as he bypassed her mouth and teased at the sensitive column of her neck. His fingers traced up the sides of her ribs, feather light under her tee shirt, and she shrieked with laughter, squirming and helpless.