Page 22 of Directing You
She blinked, holding my gaze, locking me into a stare down with her as the warm light of the streetlamps made her skin glow in the twilight. Did she have any idea what she did to me? That those gorgeous eyes, the color of the sky just after sunset, and her pouty pink lips made my pulse pound in a way that might make a doctor think I was on the verge of a heart attack?
Once more the phone buzzed in my palm, interrupting our moment. This time, it was alerting me to a new voice message. “Okay, then,” Hazel said. “If it’s not a fiancé, or girlfriend… who keeps calling you? An ex-girlfriend?” She grinned playfully and I was pretty sure Hazel Moon is the only person in the world I would let push my buttons like this, even about such a touchy subject. No matter what the conversation, I didn’t want it to stop. I just wanted the night to continue.
“Worse,” I said. “A student.” Her gaze darkened, her mouth hardening. “One of your classmates, actually,” I added, clarifying. “Probably pissed about the cast list.” My mouth went dry when I brought it up. I didn’t want to be the one to bring it up. I wantedherto mention it tome. But she hadn’t. Surely, she had seen the cast list by now, right?
“The cast list?” she repeated. “It’s up?”
Or maybe not. “You didn’t see it yet?” I asked on a sharp inhale. Maybe my wish would come true. Maybe I’d get to see her reaction after all.
She shook her head. “Not yet, no…” she answered carefully. “I was… after waiting all week, I figured it wouldn’t be up until tomorrow.”
I shrugged, shoving my hands deep into my pockets to stop myself from doing something stupid like linking my fingers with hers. “I figured Clay and I kept you all waiting long enough. I posted it to the chat board a couple hours ago.”
I watched as she looked up at the moon, glowing bright against the darkening sky. Her fingers clutched her phone tighter and she turned it over, looking at its dark screen before dropping it down by her side once more.
“This is me,” she said, stopping in front of a red door and pointing at it.
I stopped as well, leaning against the wrought iron fence. “So,” I said. “You going to check the list?” I tilted my chin toward the phone in her hand.
There was a tic in her jaw as she looked down at the blank screen in her hand, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth before glancing up at me. “Is it weird that I’m looking at the cast list with you right here in front of me?”
I chuckled and pulled my hands free from my pockets. “It’s… untraditional. Then again, nothing about our relationship is traditional.”
She swallowed and I followed the line of her throat as the muscles there tightened. Her neck was long and delicate, and I licked my lips, wishing I could nibble my way down that damn neck. “Relationship?” she repeated on a whisper.
My gaze jerked from her neck to her eyes, and I shrugged, trying to seem laid-back. “For lack of a better word.”
She inhaled a deep breath through her nose. “I’m scared to look at the casting,” she admitted.
I slid my hand to hers, threading her fingers into mine. Her skin was soft and warm and did things to my insides that I didn’t want to admit. “Don’t be.”
She inhaled another sharp breath, and I resisted the urge to look at her breasts as they hitched. “But I am.”
“Hazel,” I said pointedly and dipped my head down to catch her gaze, which was very intentionally not set on me. “As the director…and the person who helped cast this in tandem with the writer, I’m telling you…don’t be scared.” I lifted my brows, my smile growing, as I tried to convey to her that she had nothing to be nervous about without flat out telling her she got the lead role.
Her brows dipped as she continued chewing that lip. I lifted my free hand to her face and grazed my thumb over her mouth, tugging her lip free from her teeth, relishing the tiny gasp that escaped as the corners of her mouth began to curve. Then, realization lit up her face and her brows lifted, disappearing behind the dark fringe of her bangs. “No,” she whispered.
I wiggled my brows. “No, what? You have to check the cast list.”
Her smile lit up her face and she brought her phone under her nose, punching in the website. The screen illuminated her face and she grinned wildly, clutching the phone to her chest with a squeal. “I got the lead?” she whispered, this time biting that lip through her grin.
My thumb circled over her knuckles, squeezing her hand tighter. “You did. You earned it.”
Her hand clasped mine, squeezing tightly. “Thank you.” Tears filled her eyes as she leaned forward, arms outstretched, and yanked me into a tight hug.
I let out an audiblemmmwhen she pressed her soft, T-shirt clad breasts against my body. Despite the fact that she’d had her bare breasts in my face two weeks ago…this felt more intimate than that.
I slipped my hands around her narrow waist, squeezing her tighter into my body and burying my nose in her hair. The light scent of lavender and vanilla was like a balm to my jittery nerves, and any anxiety I had about us being seen together in public melted away.
Her breath deepened against me, shifting from erratic and excited to deep and heavy. She slid her hands to my shoulders and pushed herself off of me, pausing inches from my face. Her gaze latched onto mine, lips wet and parted as we stood there in each other’s arms in the cool autumn evening.
She brushed her thumb along my jaw, the edge of her long nail scraping my tender flesh. “I want to kiss you,” she whispered, her eyes dropping to my mouth as she spoke.
My cock was hard and pressing viciously against the metal teeth of my zipper. It was already a bad idea for us to kiss as student-teacher. But now? Now that I had cast her in the lead role, it was an evenworseidea. Not only was she my lead actress for this class, but if this worked out how I hoped, we would eventually move into official production with some of the team we formed here, like with most workshops. And my gut told me Hazel would be on our team. She would be our star, or rather, we were going to make herastar.
It was so fucking complicated, or maybe it really wasn’t. If there was ever something I refused to do again? It was date one of my actresses. I’d seen how that story ended and it wasn’t good.
I opened my mouth to say no, but before I could, Hazel leaned forward, taking my lips in a heavenly kiss. Her tongue ran slick along the seam of my mouth, and I groaned, opening for her, our tongues meeting in a tangle of silk. I lost all sense of where we were and sank into that kiss.
