Broken Juliet(98)

“I’ll buy Karen another bunch of flowers.”

He pulls the top of the dress down and starts kissing my chest. I’m trying not to groan when there’s a loud rap on the door.

In a second he’s released me and passed me my robe. I slip it on as I yell, “Just a second!”

Ethan sits on the couch and tries to look nonchalant. I gesture to his erection, and he crosses his legs and drops his hands in his lap.

Subtle.

I open the door to find Marco.

“You two realize everyone in the building knows what goes on in here after the curtain comes down, right? And Karen has made a voodoo doll of you, Ethan, which she sticks with pins every time you damage a costume. It now looks like a porcupine.”

Ethan chuckles.

Marco frowns. “It’s not funny.”

“It’s a little bit funny.”

“I think I liked it better when you two hated each other.”

“Yeah, we get that a lot.”

“Well, when you’ve quite finished molesting each other, please come to the lobby bar. I have someone who wants to say hello.”

“Can you give us fifteen minutes?” Ethan asks. “I wasn’t anywhere near finished molesting her.”

Marco sighs. “You have five minutes. And make sure Karen is stocked up on Valium before telling her you’ve ruined another costume. I saw her talking to a burly Italian man the other day. I can’t say for certain she wasn’t taking out a hit on you.”

Ethan laughs as Marco closes the door, As soon as it’s shut he’s on his feet and grabbing at my robe. He really does become a clumsy Neanderthal when he’s horny.

“Stop,” I say and slap his hands away. “This robe is silk.”

“I know. I bought it for you.”

“Yes, and I love it, so stop trying to shred it.”

I pull off the robe and carefully remove the rest of my costume.

He watches with hungry eyes. “Now?” he asks, his voice low.

“You have sixty seconds,” I say, and the words are barely out of my mouth before he’s kissing me.

Despite his obvious impatience, I love how rough he is when he’s desperate for me. It feeds my ego. Not to mention my lust.

He goes to work on my neck. “Oh, God. Okay, so … maybe ninety seconds, but that’s it.”

“Please shut up and put your hand in my pants.”

“Hell, yes.”

His zipper is a little sturdier than mine and copes with the rough treatment as I yank it down. Then we have a frantic two minutes of giving each as much pleasure as possible without getting naked. He’s not good at keeping quiet. I’m not much better. No wonder everyone in the theater knows about us.

When things start getting too steamy, we grunt in frustration and step away from each other. It’s not easy. We clean up and pull on our street clothes in frustrated silence, and just before we head out the door, he pins me to it and lays his weight against me.

“Just so you know, when we get back to my place, I’m going to f*ck you until you scream my name so loudly the neighbors call the cops.”

“What if I make you scream my name first?”

“Even better.”

We kiss once more then head out. When we reach the bar, we see a familiar dark-haired lady.

“Erika!”

She opens her arms as we approach, and Ethan and I hug her. “Ethan. Cassie. It’s good to see you two. You were both wonderful tonight.”

“You saw the show?”

“Yes. I loved it. I even brought a group of first years from The Grove. I think seeing two of our alumni up there provided a great deal of motivation. They can see where all their hard work may lead one day.”

“I wish we could have met them,” Ethan says.

“Well, perhaps you will. I was hoping to convince you both to come to the school next term to give some master classes.”

“I’m guessing you’d like me to impart my wisdom about working with masks,” Ethan says with a smile.

Erika laughs. “I’m sorry, did you say ‘working with masks,’ or ‘failing miserably with masks’?”

“Hey,” Ethan says. “I failed brilliantly. In the history of The Grove, no one has failed masks more spectacularly than I did.”

“Well, that’s true.”

Ethan takes my hand, and I don’t miss how Erika sees it and smiles.

“You know,” I say as I lace our fingers together, “if you tried masks now, you’d be much more successful.”

Erika looks at us warmly. “I think you might be right, Miss Taylor.”

Marco orders champagne, and we spend a couple of hours reminiscing about our time at drama school. Apparently, Erika is a cheap date, because after two glasses, she gets a little happy and does impressions of Ethan and me when we first met. Then she does us bickering, complete with silly voices and loaded stares. I laugh more than I have in years.

I’d forgotten all the good times I had at college. For too long, what happened with Ethan eclipsed all the fond memories. Now, I’m glad I can look back and smile.

“It was clear to everyone but the two of you that you’d end up together,” Erika says. “It was certainly clear to me. You two had a serious case of plove.”