A Modern Cinderella. Kate Hardy

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      Cassidy’s heart plummeted to the soles of her feet.

      Will released her and stepped back, turning abruptly and informing her in a flat, businesslike voice, ‘That works better. So, we’ll add that in and jump straight to the fight and the chase scene…’

      ‘Right.’ Cassidy nodded dumbly while she tried to get her breathing under control. The script. Nick and Rachel. Not Will and Cassidy. That was what the kiss had been about. He hadn’t kissed her because he’d wanted to. He’d just forgotten they didn’t have the same relationship now they’d had before when they would have played out similar Nick and Rachel scenes—apparently.

      Bending down to retrieve the sheets of paper on the floor, she took a deep breath and puffed out her cheeks as she exhaled. She could only pray he wasn’t planning on acting out the love scene they had planned for Scene Three…

      She didn’t think she could survive Will Ryan breaking her heart twice in one lifetime. She wasn’t entirely sure she’d got over the first time.

      The kiss changed things. At least it did for Cassidy. She tried not to let it, but she couldn’t stop it—partly because she couldn’t seem to get it out of her head…

      What she needed to do was focus on what they were doing. Heck, at this point she would even take a stab at rebuilding some kind of platonic friendship with Will. After all, she had to work across a desk from him every day. How was she supposed to do any of those things if every time she looked at him she was thinking about how it had felt to be kissed by him and to kiss him back? Why was she so obsessed by it anyway? It wasn’t as if she’d kissed him back because she’d wanted to—at least she told herself it wasn’t. She’d been playing a part, the same way he had, thinking on her feet, reacting to what he’d done—that was all. It didn’t mean anything.

      Darn it, he was looking at her again. She could feel it. Every time he did it the hair on the back of her neck tingled.

      ‘Stir crazy?’

      She kept pacing around the room, the same way she had for most of the two days since they’d kissed. ‘I’m fine.’

      ‘Well, I’m not,’ his voice rumbled back. ‘All that pacing is making me crazy.’ Will sighed heavily. ‘You’re not used to sharing space with someone these days, are you? I never pictured you as that much of a loner…’

      Cassidy stopped dead in her tracks and angled her head. ‘Excuse me?’

      ‘Lived with someone else after me, did you?’

      Her jaw dropped. What business was it of his who she had or hadn’t lived with? She could have lived with twenty men. Not that she had lived with anyone else, barring the time she’d lived in her father’s house while he was ill. But that wasn’t the point.

      A few times over the years she’d considered advertising for a flatmate, but by then she’d got used to having her own space. Living on her own, she didn’t have to worry about someone else’s opinions on things like what TV channel to watch, or how loud she could play music, or any of a dozen other compromises a person made when they shared living space.

      ‘Compromises…’

      Cassidy frowned when he said the very thing she’d just thought—as if he’d somehow stepped inside her head. ‘What?’

      ‘I said living with someone involves compromises.’

      ‘It does.’ She nodded. ‘And forced intimacy…’

      ‘Shared responsibilities…’

      When he looked up at her she turned away and began pacing again, the words quietly slipping off the tip of her tongue. ‘Never being alone.’

      She frowned sideways at him when she said it, confusion clouding her vision as he studied her with a curious expression that almost said he suspected why she’d been so uneasy with him of late. She hoped he didn’t! But while he continued staring at her there was an inexplicably heavy tension in the room.

      Her chin lifted. ‘Okay. Fine. You’re right—all are things I suck royally at. Barring the last one. I excel at being alone these days—it’s what I do best.’

      ‘Cass…’ He kept his voice low. ‘Living with someone is nothing like what we’re doing now. You know that. And being alone isn’t—’

      ‘Of course it’s nothing like this. This is artificial. And temporary.’ Cassidy tried to figure out why that felt so bad and couldn’t seem to find an answer. Maybe being alone for so long had affected her more than she’d realized? She started pacing again. ‘This isn’t sharing space. It’s temporary. A charade.’

      ‘A charade?’ he repeated dryly.

      She glanced sideways at him again as she changed direction. ‘Oh, come on. It’s miraculous enough that we’ve managed to work together this last while…’

      ‘We shared space before and it was never this much of a problem…’ Will reached for his mug and frowned when he discovered it was empty. ‘You want coffee?’

      He didn’t wait for an answer, reaching across the large desk for her empty mug and pushing his squeaky chair back. ‘I don’t think this has anything to do with sharing space with me. I think trying to keep me at arm’s length is starting to take its toll on you.’

      When he left the room her feet immediately followed him. ‘And what exactly is that supposed to mean?’

      ‘I think you know what it means.’

      How dared he assume he knew her every thought? Just because nine times out of ten he was in the ballpark area, it didn’t mean he could read her damn mind.

      She followed him across the living room. ‘So if I’m not throwing myself at you it means I’m fighting some inner battle, does it? How do you get that head of yours through doors?’

      Setting their mugs down on the breakfast bar, Will went about refilling the coffee-maker, replacing the filter and spooning in coffee granules. ‘Doesn’t have anything to do with throwing yourself at me. You’re determined not to allow yourself to even be friends with me again. It’s childish, frankly. We’re both adults.’

      Placing her hands on her hips, she stopped dead at one end of the breakfast bar, speechless.

      With the coffee set to percolate, Will turned around, leaning nonchalantly against the counter-top on the opposite side of the kitchen from her and calmly folding his arms across the studio logo on his T-shirt. ‘You’re different. The Cass I met in the Beverly Wilshire just over a week ago isn’t the girl I knew in Dublin. The girl I knew in Dublin was open-minded and honest to the point of bluntness, and she would never have let something brood in her the way you have since you got here. So let’s just clear the air and get it over with, shall we?’

      Cassidy opened her mouth to tell him to go straight to—

      But he looked her in the eye and knocked the air out of her lungs by saying, ‘You blame me for our break-up, don’t you?’

      He wasn’t done, either. Not content with opening the can of worms, he then twisted the knife she felt she had СКАЧАТЬ