Before Daylight. Andie J. Christopher

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ point? And she knew why she wanted to kiss him—she liked the way his very kissable lips moved, and the sound of his voice made her hot and achy.

      He was basically the human equivalent of the flu: contagious, debilitating, and possibly deadly.

      While she’d been thinking about how dead sexy he was, he’d been fast-forwarding through video. He must have felt her gaze burning into the side of his face after a few moments because he looked up and said, “What?”

      She shook her head. “I guess I’m still in shock. Can’t believe I married you.”

      One corner of his mouth rose, revealing a dimple deep enough to stick her whole thumb inside. God, the editing room was cold. That had to be the explanation for her tight nipples and the goose bumps on her arms. And the reason her ribs felt tight around her lungs.

      “Come on, I’m not so bad.” His gaze returned to the monitor, and she felt like she could breathe again. “Some women even find me charming.”

      “I don’t believe you.” Her words had no fire because she found him charming, but she couldn’t show it. She wasn’t about to start showing weakness now.

      She watched as he fast-forwarded the tape, stopping here and there. His hands were kind of beautiful. He had long fingers. Although he was way too rough and tumble to be a ballet dancer, there was something about him that moved with grace and economy.

      Needing to stop looking at him, she turned toward the monitor, too. The tape revealed the sun diving behind the horizon, and she knew that the moment—if it was on tape—was coming.

      Charlie stopped right at the moment he’d walked over to her at the bar. When she saw her own face, screwed up, trying to feign some imperious nature she didn’t possess, her cheeks flamed. Her parents might have sheltered her from a lot growing up to keep her focused on her burgeoning ballet career, but they’d never taught her to be rude. And she’d been rude to Charlie. But something about him scared her, as though he was going to tip her apple cart right over and destroy the life she had built for herself.

      She liked the way he looked too much—and he’d been even better in a linen shirt and pants that had shown his top-shelf ass. Not sure if it was out of embarrassment or a need to see that his posterior really was that distracting, she glanced over now.

      Yep. Top. Shelf. Ass.

      He just happened to turn at the same time, catching her. Her skin all over was on fire, and it made her feel like she was losing her mind. She was around gorgeous bodies all the time, and didn’t have this reaction. Hell, men nearly as good-looking as Charlie had their hands right up near her business on an almost daily basis, and she didn’t get to the same level of worked up that she was at right now.

      Hastily, she looked back at the screen, just in time to see them do the first in now what she remembered as a series of shots. So many shots. And she couldn’t even blame him for getting her drunk because she was clearly making a motion at the bartender for more. And more. And more.

      “Can you fast-forward this?”

      “No.” His voice held a kind of bewilderment. “I need to understand how you didn’t throw up.”

      “We can’t know that I didn’t throw up.”

      “Sure we can. I remember kissing you later that evening, and I clearly remember that you didn’t taste like tequila vomit.”

      Laura only remembered flashes and scraps of kisses, and she suddenly felt like she’d cheated herself out of something special. She felt even more cheated when past-Laura grabbed Charlie’s hand and dragged him out onto the dance floor. It made her downright salty to not recall the feel of his big hands with the graceful fingers all over her body as they swayed to a slow song. Past-her was such a bitch to be keeping all of those smiles and whispers and jokes that had actually made her laugh to herself. Past-Laura knew how to have fun, and past-Charlie had known how to give it to her.

      She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed. Because she certainly hadn’t done much laughing since returning to work three months ago.

      “Can you please just fast-forward?”

      Charlie complied, and she was both thankful and bereft of the moments she was now deliberately, soberly ignoring. He stopped the tape again when they surrounded the officiant and dragged him into a corner. After a few minutes of what looked like tense negotiating, past-Laura, past-Charlie, and the officiant disappeared from the screen.

      He stopped the tape and they stared at each other for a long moment, neither of them saying anything.

      “Well?” She wasn’t precisely sure what she was asking, never having accidentally married a stranger who happened to be a family friend.

      “I can call Javi and see who handled his divorce.” That wasn’t a call that Laura wanted to make. Her older cousin would be discreet if she begged, but he would hold her shenanigans over her head if it suited him. “I think we can get an annulment because we were both drunk and we didn’t fuck.”

      When she said the word “fuck,” Charlie flinched as though she’d punched him. “I like that you’re blunt, Delgado.” He seemed to collect himself, and nodded. “Go ahead and call Javi. I don’t want to pull in the studio’s lawyers on this one.”

      “You have lawyers on hand for accidental weddings during shoots?”

      The amusement was back in Charlie’s gaze, and it immediately affected her below the belt. “No. We have had on-camera personalities and producers get into legal trouble, but the people we have on staff are business affairs guys. If it was someone else, I’d probably hand this over to them, but neither of us needs my mom finding out that I got married.”

      “Would you be embarrassed if your mom found out you’d married me?”

      “I thought the whole point was that no one should find out?” He sighed, and clenched his jaw so his dimple made an appearance. “And I’d prefer it if neither of my parents found out about my second failed marriage.”

      She was surprised to hear him joke about it, and felt a pang in her chest. Getting married had been a terrible decision for both of them.

      “Yes.” She almost choked on the words because she didn’t want anyone to find out, but the idea that she was an embarrassment to him didn’t sit right with her. It probably sat about as well as her coming in here, guns blazing, demanding to know how he’d tricked her into marriage had less than an hour ago.

      After that, they sat in silence for long moments. Very awkward silence. Finally, as she was leaning over to get her purse, he said, “Want to grab dinner?”

      She wanted to say yes. It seemed like the right thing to do, the normal thing to do, grabbing a bite to eat with her husband, but she couldn’t. Even this hour in the editing room was stolen from her true love—ballet.

      “I can’t. Rehearsal.” He winced again when she said that. “Maybe some other time.”

      He stood as she did, like a gentleman. Though she’d stormed into this room, thinking he was the bad guy, he was a gentleman. “How about tomorrow?”

      She had rehearsal tomorrow evening, too. Most tomorrows she was busy. A pang of regret roiled her СКАЧАТЬ