Lovescenes

‘Do you think Jerry will introduce us?’ he asked. ‘I’m not sure the peasants get a shot at visiting celebrities...’

‘We’re not peasants,’ she said sharply. ‘And I’m not going to stand around waiting. Cade Morgan is a guitar player, that’s all. That’s why Hollywood hasn’t bothered with him. They have more sense than we do. Why people with stage credits and years of training should make fools of themselves over someone like that... ’

Her words seemed to echo through the sound stage, bouncing off the walls of the cavernous room. Shan­non’s face turned crimson with embarrassment. Somehow, what she’d intended to be a whisper had turned out to be a roar. Every head in the room turned toward her; every eye fastened on her.

‘Bye, bye, kid,’ Tony whispered in a mocking tone ‘it’s been nice knowing you.’

She felt him move away from her. In fact, everyone seemed to have moved away from her—except for Cade Morgan. He had turned at the first sound of her voice and now he was standing a few feet away, smiling politely.

‘We

re you speaking to me?’

His voice was low and husky, but she was sure it carried into every nook of the room.

‘No,’ she said, trying to sound calm, ‘I wasn’t.’ '

Cade Morgan smiled and moved towards her. ‘About me, then. You were speaking about me, Miss... ?’

She tilted her chin up and her eyes met his. ‘My name is Padgett,’ she said clearly. ‘Shannon Padgett.’ He was smiling, but his eyes were cold. What color were they, anyway? Blue? Black? Indigo, perhaps. ‘And I didn’t mean what I said—not quite the way it sounded.’

Morgan stopped inches from her. ‘Really?’ He grinned lazily. ‘You mean, you don’t have stage credits?’ She shook her head and his smile broadened. ‘Then, perhaps you’ll explain which part you didn’t mean the way it sounded, Miss Padgett. That you’ve had years of training? Did you mean that?’

Shannon closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath. In the two weeks she’d been working here, she’d never heard the studio this quiet. Like a graveyard, she thought, flinching inwardly at the simile, for she might be at her own funeral. Her glance flickered to her di­rector. Jerry was standing just behind Cade Morgan, and the expression on his face was unreadable.

‘I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t play cat and mouse with me, Mr. Morgan,’ she said evenly. ‘You know what I said as well as I do. And I apologize. It was rude. It was insulting. It was...’

‘It was true,’ Cade Morgan said easily. ‘At least, part of it was. I am a guitar player,’ he said, giving the words the special emphasis she’d afforded them. ‘I take it you think that’s not a respectable occupation?’

‘I’ve already said I was sorry, Mr. Morgan.’

‘You made it sound like an obscenity, Miss Padgett.’

She looked past him again, silently pleading with the director to interrupt, but Jerry’s face was a blank.

‘Mr. Morgan...’

‘I’m a musician, Miss Padgett. I’ve never pretended to be anything else. And I’m as proud of that as you are of being an actress.’ His indigo gaze drifted over her, and she felt as if he’d undressed her and left her naked and defenseless. ‘You are an actress, aren’t you?’ he asked, his eyes lingering on the long expanse of bare leg visible beneath her thigh-length robe. She resisted the urge to try and tug it down. His cold gaze met hers. ‘Although I can think of other ways you could earn your living.’

Someone in the crowd tittered nervously and Shan­non’s head snapped up.

‘I beg your pardon?’

Morgan shrugged. ‘As a dancer, for ex­ample. ‘Or a model.' His smile was slow and challenging. ‘What did you think I meant?’

‘I’m an actress, Mr. Morgan, and you have no right to—'

‘An actress. And a damned good one,’ Jerry Crawford said, walking towards them. He smiled broadly. 'Shannon’s one of our new cast members, Cade. She’s playing the part of the girl who shows up in Clover City claiming to be the Dunbar heiress.’

Cade nodded. ‘I should have figured that. Sure, the one who seduces the guy at the party.’

Shannon stiffened imperceptibly. Somehow, it irri­tated her no end to learn that her director had discussed her part with this man. After all, he had nothing to do with All Our Tomorrows. In fact, he had nothing to do with acting. And he certainly didn’t know her character, she thought grimly.

‘She doesn’t seduce anybody,’ Shannon said to Jerry. ‘Not Alana Dunbar.’

But it was Cade Morgan who answered. ‘Sure she does, Miss Padgett. She meets this guy—what’s his name, Jimmy or Johnny... ’

‘Johnny,’ she said automatically. ‘Look, Jerry...’