Falling Into You (27 page)

“Leave her alone,
Sophia
.
You’re dangerously close to showing everyone what a real bitch you can be. I like her. And I’m going to spend all the time I can with her. You should be glad that I’m taking her off your hands. Isn’t that what you wanted, anyways?
”

Sophia
curls her l
ips into a smirk
. “Be careful, Christopher. You have a bad habit of falli
ng for the wrong kind of girl.”

I’m glaring at her now and she’s just smiling up at me. “You should ask
Hallie
why she’s really in New York with me and not home with all of her…let’s say, friends.” The words are carefully chosen,
but
the music stops
and there’s a moment of silence before the crowd erupts in cheers and both stop me from asking her what she means
.

Hallie
and Sam take a little bow
and then she comes running over to me.

“Chris!
Come dance with me.” She falls int
o the crook in my arm
, even though
Sam’s followed her like a little lost puppy.
I shoot him a warning
with my eyes
.

“Hands off,” Sam says, still laughing. “But no promise
s, man. No promises.”

“Let’s get out of here,” I whisper in
Hallie
’s ear.
“I have something to tell you.”

She nods eagerly at me.
I give
Sophia
one last look
, and she’s still smirking.
I think back to the seductive girl on the dance floor
and
Sophia
’s
words
and
I
try to reconcile that
Hallie
with the girl falling all over the ice a
nd telling embarrassing stories.

And then
Hallie
smiles up at me again and I’m lost
.

“I
know everything that I need to,
”
I tell
Sophia
, grabbing
Hallie
around the waist and leading her away.

I turn to
her
. “
Hopelessly uncoordinated, huh?
”
Sam’s
still watching us with a smirk on his face. I flip him off and he just chuckles and shakes his head.

She
gives me
a little smile.
“My mom was hoping that ten years of classes would turn me into a ballerina. I’m still hopelessly uncoordinated, but after a few drinks, I think muscl
e memory just takes over.
I guess the shots wer
en’t such a bad idea after all.
But I am
a very good
dance
teacher. I promise.
”
She’s
peering
at the dance floor wistfully, but I pull her towards the door instead.

“
We can dance later. Let’s get out of here.”

***

“Wow.
”
Hallie
takes a long look at the skyline from Sam’s roof
. S
he’s shivering, so I place my jacket over her shoulders and pour the bottle of champagne that I grabbed from Sam’s counter into two red plastic cups. “You were right. The view is insane.”

“You’re right. It is insane.” I kiss her then, long and slow
,
and her body falls into mine. It almost makes me forget what I have to tell her. “They didn’t hate me.”

“What?” Her eyes are glazed
with happiness and alcohol
.

“The director. The producers. They didn’t hate me.”

“What?” It’s a scream
and she’s holding my face in her hands and then she releases it and
she’s dancing all around me. “I know. They gave you the part of Boudreaux. It was the accent. I knew it was the accent.”

And we’re both laughing then.

“Chris, you’re going to be James fucking Ross.” She’s shouting from the rooftop, and grinning at me.

“I don’t think I’m ready for it.” It’s an honest statement. I’m not ready for it.

“You were born ready for it.” She’s certain.

“I don’t even know if I’m going to take it. I was thinking about alternatives. Going back to school. I hear Greenview provides an excellent education.”

She laughs, but she’s suddenly serious again. “
Come on, Chris. Stop.
You have to take it.”

“Maybe.”

“Remember what you said about acting? It’s the only place that you feel comfortable inside your own skin?
Even if you think sometimes it makes you feel like you aren’t yourself.
”

Jesus,
even drunk,
she has a memory like an elephant. “Yeah.”

“You don’t just let that go. You are James Ross. No one else could play the part.”

“There are other things that I don’t want to let go.”

Chapter 17

HALLIE

We’re swaying together, danci
ng without music on the rooftop. M
y head is fuzzy from all of the champagne and I’m perfectly happy again. I could definitely get used to this.
To him.

That thought scares me, because I know that it’s all going to disappear. In a matter of weeks, if not sooner. I know that Marcus is on his way to New York now, and he’ll snatch Chris away for press
appearances
and then the cameras will start showing up and he’ll be off on a set somewhere and I re
ally won’t ever see him again.
Of course I had known that they were going to give him the part. He is the part. He still seems unsure, but
I know that the doubts will subside as soon as he steps onto that set.

I could stay on the roof all night, but I’m unsteady on my feet and my fingers are starting to freeze.

“Come on,” he says, offering me his hand. “Let’s go.”

He gives the cab driver an address that I faintly recognize, but it’s not
Sophia
’s. M
y hands are everywhere
, all over him, on his chest and his arms and running up and down his legs
. He shoots me a warning
look
.

“You’re drunk. If you think
I’m going to take advantage of you now, you are absolutely crazy.”

I am a little drunk. The champagne and the dancing did me in.
His eyes are heavy with desire and I hold out hope for being taken advantage of
. A
s we pull in front of the opulent building, I look up in surprise. “This is your apartment.”

“I was hoping to avoid it
for another day or two
, but there’s no way I’m giving you back to
Sophia
. She probably has jello shots planned at the very least.” He swoops me out of the cab and picks me up.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

He grins at me, kissing the tip of my nose. “I remembered that you didn’t do well with marble.”

He’s still carrying me when we get inside the elevator, when I finally manage to wiggle out of his arms as he inserts a key into a slot in the panel. The
ride seems to take forever, even longer than the one in
Sophia
’s building
.
W
hen the doors
slide
open, I find myself in the middle of a living room that’s bigger than my entire house in Ohio.
There’s no hallway, and I realize immediately that we’re in the penthouse, which apparently takes up the entire floor.

There are floor-to-ceiling windows
that offer a view out and
over the city
on two sides of the sunken living room
, and
enormous modern paintings cover the other walls. T
he furniture
is stiff-looking and expensive and it’s obvious that
a team of designers has placed every piece
of art, every bit of furniture,
to create a dramatic impact
.
It’s the most incredible apartment that I’ve ever seen.

“I can see why you were embarrassed
to show me your apartment
,” I say.
“
What a
dump.”

He looks at me sheepishly. “I hate this fucking place.”

His words do
n’t detract from the fact that the apartment is incredible.
But
I can tell that just being in the room is making him uncomfortable, so
I slide
my hand into his and he takes it gratefully
. “Lead the way, kind sir.”

He pulls me down
a twisting hallway to the last room and closes
the door behind us
, tossing
me a t-shirt and a pair of boxers
from a box in the corner. He
murmurs, “I’m going to call Marcus really quick. If you’re not asleep by the time I get back, I’m not making any promises about keeping up any gentlemanly behavior.”

“T
hat’s kind of what I was hoping for.”

“You are really going to regret that
statement.” He runs his fingers shakily through his hair
. “And that dress.”

I cluck
my tongue
as he leaves the room
.
The room is huge, but other than an enormous four-poster bed and some assorted pieces of furniture, like an overstuffed chair in the corner by the windows, it’s empty. It
seems
more like a guest room than someone’s
personal space
, and I remember the sad look in his eye
when he spoke about his father.
I know that this isn’t home for him, that there had never been a home here for him, except for maybe when he was a kid.

I’m lost in thought for a few minutes (the champagne is still bubbling in my throat)
when I remember his directive.
I’m peeling off the red dress
and grabbing for the t-shirt
when the door opens.

He’s still on the phone
but he doesn’t seem to see me
stand
ing by the windows, half-naked
.
He’s so handsome, talking feverishly about something, and
I stop moving
to stare at him. The red dress, unzipped, falls off one of my shoulders and I push it back impatiently
.

“Yeah, I’ll be there. What…” He’s turned and he stops talking.

He takes a deep breath and mur
murs, “Fine,
”
before hanging up the phone and staring at me with naked hunger.

He crosses the room in long strides and I’m
leap
ing
into him
, covering his face and neck with kisses. Before I know it,
he’s sliding the red dress over my shoulder, kissing my collarbone and running his hands over
my skin. T
he phone
, still in his hand, clatters
to the floor.

“
Hallie
, I…”

I don’t want to talk anymore, so I shrug the dress of my shoulder and he groans, pulling it further down and kissing my neck, my chest.
I’m reaching for the bottom of his shirt and I pull it over his head to reveal the golden, perfectly toned chest. Each of his muscles stands out in sharp relief and I send a series of quick, feathery kisses down his body.

“We really shouldn’t be doing this,” he manages
to gasp out
, but he’s unhooking my bra at the same time and his hands are cupping
my bare breasts.

W
e’re locked into each other
, and the feel of his hands on my bare skin makes me brave
.

“I want you.”
I feel beautiful and sexy and
free and uninhibited by the trappings of reality, because this is a fantasy world. I know that there’s no escape without total and complete heartbreak, but I’m all in
anyways
.

I’m yanking at his jeans and my mouth moves lower and lower
on his chest. He
pulls me to my feet impatiently and our kisses are rough and filled with need.

He whispers something and I can’t hear him, so I look at him, questioning. Did I completely l
ose my mind? What was I thinking? I wasn’t seductive or beautiful and he doesn’t want me after all.

The alcohol buzz is wearing off, and I try to turn away, to cover myself with the clothes, to get out of here, to run. H
e must see something in my face because he grabs my chin
and kisses me until I’m
dizzy.