Exposure (2 page)

The ticket was there waiting for me at the
box office, just like Nathan said it would be. He’d scrawled a note on the
back:

Enjoy the show. See you later. Nathan x.

That sent my heart fluttering even though I
knew other girls might be getting similar notes from him. Were there other
women there looking forward to the party? They would probably enjoy it more
than me. Parties weren’t my thing, not if I hardly knew anyone. The only reason
I wanted to go to the party at all was so I could see Nathan.

Despite my uncertainty over the
after-party, I managed to enjoy the play. James was outstanding, but it was
Nathan who made the play come alive for me. Maybe I was prejudiced. A lot of
the audience had clearly come to see
Doctor Devlin
, not just
A
Midsummer Night’s Dream
, judging by the comments around me, but at least
they were seeing a Shakespeare production at its best.

At the end of the performance, I wasn’t
sure how I would find my way backstage, but Nathan texted me.

Have a drink in the bar. I’ll see you
there. Just getting all the grease paint off x.

He wasn’t long joining me. I had hardly had
time to order before he appeared by my side.

“What are you drinking? Water? I think we
can do better than that.”

“I’ve got the car.”

“Leave it here. We can get it in the
morning.” He was looking at me in that intense probing way of his, sensing my
reaction. I blushed and nodded.

“Good, let me take you to meet the cast,”
he said.

James remembered me from his visit to my
school. “Did the play live up to expectations?” he asked.

“Yes, I loved it,” I said. “Great
performance.”

The cast were in high spirits. It had been
a good run. But I could tell a couple of the women were less than happy with my
presence. Had Nathan bedded them in the past, and they had hoped for an encore
after the party?

It wasn’t easy sticking by Nathan’s side.
He kept getting swept off by various members of the cast. There was one woman
who seemed determined to get her claws in him. Her face seemed familiar, but I
couldn’t place her.

“That’s Lavinia Taylor. You know, the one
who does the gossip column in the
Sunday Globe
,” James Willoughby said.

I blushed that he’d caught me watching what
Nathan was doing so closely.

“You’ve got to keep on the right side of
the media in this game,” he said. “She can be a bitch in print if she doesn’t
like you.”

“You’d think she’d want to talk to you.”

“That ship sailed a long time ago. Let’s
just say we have a past and leave it at that. For all I know she’s trying to
dig up dirt on me. You know, juicy gossip from backstage. But from the look of
things, I don’t think they’re the kind of dirty things she has in mind tonight.”

It didn’t look like it to me either. She
had Nathan in a corner, and he didn’t seem to be any hurry to get out of it.

James moved off when someone called him
over. So much for my great night.

It was time for me to go. I should have
known not to expect anything better. How could I even think about it? Me and an
actor. Even a minor, not-very-famous actor.

But I was stuck at that awful hot and
crowded party, and I’d had too much wine to even think about driving. I would
have to get home somehow or stay in a hotel. What was I thinking, going all
that way wearing my new undies and just about agreeing to stay the night with
Nathan when he hadn’t so much as kissed me that evening? He must have women
falling at his feet all the time.

If I wasn’t careful I was going to cry in
the middle of that crowd. I had to get out. I picked up my coat and found the
stage door. I just wanted to leave without being noticed. They’d all know I was
there because Nathan invited me and that he had found bigger fish to fry. Well,
I wasn’t going to stand around waiting to feel even more humiliated.

It was dark outside and raining. I thought
I’d go to the pub across the street and call a cab to the nearest hotel. I
couldn’t face having to come back the next day for my car. I put my coat collar
up against the howling gale as if the rain by itself wasn’t enough to make me
miserable. Stupid, stupid me! Why did I expect anything any different?

“Hey Melissa!”

I was halfway across the street, being
splattered in dirty rain water by passing cars when I heard Nathan shout.

“Hey, it’s well after ten-thirty, and that
didn’t send you home, so it must be midnight and there’s a pumpkin coach
waiting around the corner.”

I wasn’t in the mood for jokes. I turned
away again and continued to the other side of the road. He caught up with me.

“I’m sorry. I left you alone too long. I
didn’t think what it would be like in there for you.”

“Well, I know exactly how it was in there
for you. You weren’t lonely at all. You seemed to be enjoying yourself a whole
lot more than me, so don’t stop on my account.”

“I already stopped. I came out to find you.
At least I hoped I could.”

“I’m not sure I want to be found.”

“Too late. You can’t run off now, not
without leaving a glass slipper behind or something. Or a smile.” He led me
under the eaves of a pub roof where the rain wasn’t quite so bad.

I wanted to stay angry. I really did. But I
just had to see the way his eyes twinkled at me when he smiled to melt. It didn’t
solve my predicament though. I had to get home somehow. There was no way I was
going back to his place. Not now. I learned my lesson there.

“Where were you going, anyway?” he asked.

“To find a hotel.”

“You’ll be lucky to find anything at this
time on a Saturday night with all the weekend visitors. And there’s a big
Shakespeare production on…” He smiled.

“Then I’ll get the cab to take me home or
something.” The pub would be closing soon. I’d have to do something.

“I’ll take you home.”

“No, Nathan. You won’t. You’ve been
drinking too.”

“I meant to my home in a cab.”

“No.”

“No?”

“I decided not to join your harem.”

“My harem?” For some reason the idea of
having a harem amused him. I bet it did.

“Your cast of thousands. Whatever. I prefer
being on my own at a party than being one of your groupies.”

“Groupies now, is it? Melissa, I think you
got me mixed up with James.”

“I don’t think so, not after tonight. Not
after seeing you in action.”

“In action? You mean dealing with Miss
Catty Bitch from the
Globe
? Occupational hazard.”

“The only hazard you seemed to be in danger
of was getting tighter into that corner with her. You didn’t seem like you were
worried about it to me.”

“It’s called acting, pretending to like
people you find it hard to like. The ones who can make or break your career.”

“So are you pretending with me too?
Inviting me here? Pretending to like me?”

“No. No acting required there. I do like
you. I like you a lot.”

“It didn’t look that way to me.”

He took hold of my hand and kissed it
gently, and then the inside of my wrist. “Forgive me, my lady,” he said looking
at me, his big eyes sparkling as if he knew I’d give in.

“I think you’ve been in too many
Shakespeare plays,” I said, trying hard not to be charmed by him. “And I’m
getting soaked.”

He pulled off his jacket and held it over
our heads, and then he kissed me on the lips once, so softly and gently with
the briefest of touches, as if he didn’t dare go any further. I smelled the
heady scent of him—his aftershave and whatever soap he’d used to clean off the
greasepaint and the champagne we’d drunk to celebrate the end of the play. I
felt the slight stubble on his face, in contrast to his soft lips, and I was
lost again. I think he knew it, because his kiss deepened and I couldn’t help
responding.

When we broke apart, we were both breathing
heavily.

“I think we should get out of the rain don’t
you?” he said. “I’ll help you find that hotel room if you still want one.”

It took a lot of willpower not to give in
and say, “Maybe we should go back to your place after all.”

Of course, if I’d been desperate to get a
room in a hotel, there would have been none to be found. But the second place
Nathan called had a cancelation.

“You’re in luck. You have a room for the
night,” he said. “Let’s get you there. It looks like I’ll be the lonely one
after all. I’ll have to call up my harem and make a night of it.” He laughed,
but he didn’t seem awfully happy about the idea.

I almost changed my mind then. But the cab
came and drove us off. Nathan said he’d take the taxi back to his place after
he dropped me off. The Avon Manor Hotel wasn’t far, he said.

He held my hand in the back seat of the
car, his thumb massaging my palm, and then he put his arm around me and hugged
me. He was quiet, and I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to leave him to
go off home in that taxi alone. I thought that might be the last I saw of him.

“It’s just down this road,” he said. “I’m
sorry I ruined your evening. It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way.”

“No,” I said. “It wasn’t my idea of a
perfect night either.”

The cab turned into the drive, the rain
still battering down. This was the end of the road then, in more ways than one.

It was late. I expected the Avon Manor to
be quiet with a sole late night receptionist to greet guests arriving at that
time, but the hotel was a hive of activity. All the guests were outside on the
front lawn, most of them wearing night attire, getting soaked and looking none
too happy.

“Looks like the fire alarm went off again,”
the cabbie said. “That’s the third time this week I heard. False alarm every
time. I think their system’s faulty. I took a couple to the station earlier.
They’d had enough.”

“Can you wait,” Nathan said, “until
everyone is allowed back in?”

“Got to pick up another fare in fifteen
minutes. I doubt the fire service will turn up and get the place checked out
before I have to shoot off.”

Nathan turned to me. “I don’t want to turn you
out into the rain. You can still come back to my place if you like.”

“I don’t know, I…”

“I can’t leave you here. You’ll get soaked.
I promise not to touch you. It won’t be easy, but I’ll sit on my hands if I
have to.” He was smiling. He must have known I was warming to him again. He
took hold of my hand and kissed it, and I could feel my resolve evaporating
under his gaze.

“Best behavior?” I didn’t want it to seem
as if I was giving in too easily.

“The very best.”

I had a good idea Nathan’s best behavior
might be very bad indeed, but I didn’t have a clue how bad he could be at that
point.

***

 “Where are you living just now?” I asked
once the cab turned around. Actors often stayed in awful B&B digs when they
were away from home.

“Oh, I borrowed a place. Friends of my
mother’s. I’ve been house sitting while they did a sabbatical abroad. They get
back in a couple of months I think.”

When we stopped outside a tiny little
cottage with a thatched roof, I was surprised. Will Shakespeare himself would
have looked at home there.

Nathan had to bend his head to get through
the front door, and I only just made it without stooping, though I was a good
few inches shorter than him.

“Quaint, eh?” he said.

“I didn’t imagine you living anywhere like
this. I thought you’d have some bachelor pad—all chrome and leather.”

“Did you now? Don’t you think this is
suitable for my harem?”

“I don’t think you’d fit more than one or
two belly dancers in here.” I laughed.

“I can’t allow belly dancing here anyway.
Rattles the plates on the kitchen shelves something terrible. Huge racket last
time I tried it.”

We laughed.

“Coffee?”

“Please.”

The place was as tiny inside as it looked
on the outside. I was pretty sure there was only one bedroom, but I’d cross
that bridge when I came to it.

“What do you think of my little abode
then?” he asked when he brought the coffee, and we sat down on the tiny loveseat
to drink it.

“I love it. Great place for one.”

“Or two but only if you’re
well-acquainted.”

“Which we aren’t.”

“Not yet, but we could be. I’d like to get
to know you better.”

“There’s not much to know. I’m a school
teacher. I like reading and Shakespeare and the occasional picnic in the rain.
But what about you? I’m not sure who I’d be getting to know. You’re playing
Nathan the rescuer of damsels with no hotel room tonight, but tomorrow you
might be Nathan the harem keeper.”

“Tonight, I’m just playing me.”

I looked at him, and I thought he was going
to kiss me. I wanted him to but he didn’t. He put his coffee down on the little
lamp table by the side of the couch and sat on his hands.

I laughed.

“I keep my promises,” he said. “I might
have to sit like this all night.”

“You might need one hand to er…” His face
lit up at my words like a small boy at Christmas. “…drink your coffee.” He
laughed and picked up his cup.

“Please, Miss!” He raised his other hand.

“Yes.” I wanted to giggle all the time.
That might have been the effect of the wine, or maybe it was just the effect of
Nathan.

“Permission to break my promise? Just a
teeny little bit.”

He was looking at me so intensely, I couldn’t
resist. I couldn’t speak. I just nodded. And then he put down his coffee and
tucked my hair behind my ears and without taking his eyes off me, kissed me
gently on the lips. It was a long slow kiss at first, but when I responded so
did he, and with the increasing pressure from his lips, I felt myself melting
into his arms, his hands at my back pressing me to him.

When we broke apart, it was obvious that
wasn’t the end of the touching that night.

“Call that a teeny little bit?” I asked,
smiling.

“You ain’t seen nothing yet. Should I sit
on my hands again?”

“Depends if you’re going to misbehave with
them…”

“Oh, I think I am.”

“I think they’re better where I can see
them then.”

“Can you see them here?” he asked, running
his finger over my lips, still tender from his kiss, not taking his gaze from
me.

“Yes.”

“How about here?” He ran his finger from my
chin down my throat with a delicate, butterfly touch.

“Yes.” I gulped. How much further would he
go?

“And here?” He ran his finger inside the
neck of my blouse, and my breath hitched.

Suddenly I felt more nervous than ever. Was
I ready for this with Mr. Lady Killer Waite? I’d had so little experience—just
one boyfriend in high school who I regretted sleeping with. And things weren’t
much better with the guy I dated in college. I hadn’t even had sex in a couple
of years. Would Nathan think I was crap in bed compared to all the other women
he had been with? I sat there as awkward and foolish as a gangly teenager.

“You’re looking worried. Don’t. I know a
great cure for anxiety.”

Shit! He wasn’t going to offer me drugs,
was he? He might have a bohemian lifestyle, but that wasn’t me at all.

But he didn’t offer me anything of the
kind. He just gathered me up in his arms, pulled me onto his lap and kissed me
so thoroughly, so expertly, it drove every anxious thought out of my brain and
sent pleasure tingling down my spine.