Chase Me (Broke and Beautiful #1)(28)

“Hmm.” She curled her fingers around his collar and tugged him lower. “Why don’t we start with a kiss and see how you do?”

Their hips met on a mutual roll and his eyelids lowered like they weighed two tons each. The slide of her body against his sucked the breath out of his lungs and filled them with something else. Need. Determination. Her. They were on a busy street and he couldn’t see, couldn’t feel anything but Roxy. For just a split second, her playful pretense dropped and he saw what she’d kept hidden until now. The ache he’d been feeling since they’d met was displayed on her features for him to see. To memorize. He only took a moment to savor it before the prevailing urge to satisfy her ache took over. He’d put it there. He’d made her ache, and now he needed to take it away.

“Why haven’t you kissed me yet?” she breathed.

“Good question,” he managed before—

She vibrated. She . . . vibrated?

“Shit.” One of her hands left his collar to dig in her jean jacket pocket. “My phone . . . I have to answer. It could be a callback from an audition, or—”

He couldn’t form words, so he just nodded woodenly. Close. He’d been so close.

“Hello?” The apologetic look she sent him froze on her face. “Yes, this is Roxy Cumberland. Who d-did you say was calling?” A beat passed. “Wow. I thought I’d heard you wrong.”

A feeling of dread took up residence in Louis’s stomach. No. It couldn’t be.

“But I’ve never auditioned for Johan Strassberg, how did he . . . ?” Roxy trailed off, nodding a moment later. Jesus, no. Louis wasn’t supposed to be with her when she got this call. Who called someone on a Saturday night to schedule an audition, anyway? He hadn’t expected Johan to contact her until Monday, when Louis would be safely in work, thinking about her but not looking right at her. And lying. Pretending he had nothing to do with Johan calling her to read for a part in his upcoming movie.

Now? Now, he’d have to smile and congratulate her. Keep the truth to himself. Again. This is why he hated lying, because one lie almost inevitably led to two. Then three. Until you couldn’t see your way clear of it.

Johan Strassberg was a family friend turned wunderkind filmmaker. They’d been brought up in the same circles, attending the same parties, the same private schools. While they’d never been close friends, this was how things worked in their world. Louis’s father was one of Johan’s parent’s legal advisors. Louis had called Johan and asked for the favor because he knew Roxy was talented, knew if he could get her in front of someone with a little influence, it might be the break she needed. But she would never see it that way, however, especially after what she’d said to him moments ago. It would be charity to her. So he had no choice but to suck it up and lie.

Or he risked losing her, right here and now.

When her face broke into the most heart-stopping smile he’d ever seen, Louis decided that maybe, just a little, the deception had been worth it.

For now.

ROXY DISCONNECTED THE call and swore everything around her was sparkling. This couldn’t be the same street she’d walked down five minutes ago. That street had seemed like nothing more than a gray pedestrian walkway, but this? It reminded her of that moment in Wizard of Oz when everything turns to color. Only this wouldn’t turn out to be some elaborate dream. At least she didn’t think so.

Louis shoved both hands into his pockets. “Everything okay?”

A laugh shuddered out from somewhere deep down. Like she’d been saving it up for something amazing to happen. And it had. Johan Strassberg, the filmmaker of the moment, wanted her to read for a part. Monday afternoon. In less than forty-eight hours, she’d be reciting lines as he watched. Everything she’d worked for, all the miles she’d put on her high heels, would all come down to a handful of minutes.

Yeah, okay, there was a chance she would fail. A big, fat chance. But at least she’d know afterwards if she had what it took, or if this was just a pipe dream she shared with a million other aspiring actresses. She’d given herself two years to pursue this dream, and the end of that allotted time had come and gone. This was it. Her make-or-break moment.

“Rox.” Louis stooped down and looked her in the eye. “You in there?”

“Yeah.” She nodded vigorously. “I’m here. I—”

Oh, the hell with it. She clutched two handfuls of Louis’s hair and dragged his mouth down to meet hers. Unexpectedly, he hesitated, even though she could feel his breathing go shallow the second their lips touched. She didn’t let it stop her, though. Kissing Louis was her only way of knowing she hadn’t hit her head and imagined the phone call.

A throaty groan signaled the change in him. His arms banded around her like steel, yanking her up against him as he sunk into the kiss. He met her mouth with such force that she had no choice but to arch her back or lose balance. She could feel his belt buckle, the muscles hidden underneath his clothes, pressing and moving over the light material of her dress. Rubbing, chafing her skin until she got hot. So hot. It had started as long, indulgent pulls from each other’s mouths, but it graduated to something more. Louis licked inside her mouth and drew his tongue out slowly, all the while squeezing handfuls of her dress’s material. As if he wanted to rip it off her body. She kind of wanted him to. Kind of?