His phone rang, loud and shrill, on the table, cutting her off. ‘I do,’ Noah said, picking it up. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me? It’s my agent.’
Even Melissa had to respect the importance of an agent’s phone call. She sat, sulking, in her chair while he got up and paced across the lobby and through the front doors out onto the steps.
‘Tessa? What’s the news?’ The winter air was bitter and Noah huddled against the side of Morwen Hall to stay out of the wind. He figured this weather was still warmer than the chill Melissa was emitting in his direction today.
‘Not your love life, for once. Not a hint of an inappropriate sexual encounter anywhere on social media today. I’m impressed.’
‘I can show restraint when it matters,’ Noah lied. ‘Did you get me the video audition?’
‘Yes, I got you your call,’ Tessa said. ‘But they want to talk early this afternoon—evening for you, I guess. You’re free, right?’
‘Right now, yes,’ Noah said. ‘But it’s the rehearsal dinner for this wedding in an hour or so—’
‘Then you’ll have to be late,’ Tessa interrupted. ‘If you really want this part, this is your one chance to convince him.’
Noah took a breath. This was his career at stake. ‘What do I need to do?’
‘You need to sell it, more than ever before. You need to show them that you get this guy, inside out.’ Tessa paused, and Noah knew she was wondering whether he was really capable of it. Ouch. ‘Should we talk it through now? Get some ideas going? I’ve been making some notes...’
‘No,’ Noah said firmly. ‘I’ve got this. I know this character. I do.’
‘So, convince me.’ When he didn’t answer, she sighed. ‘Noah. If you can’t sell it to me you’re sure as hell not going to sell it to these guys. Then we’ll both be on their blacklist for wasting their time.’
‘Fine. He’s...he’s grieving.’
‘I think we got that from the dead wife.’
‘Yeah, but he’s not just grieving for her. He’s not just lost a woman he loved. He’s lost all hope that he can ever have that again. He’s scared—so damn scared to take any more risks with his heart, now he knows how much it can hurt. How it can destroy you, take you right back to the bone and leave you to rebuild everything. And when you do...you’re not the same. You can’t be. You’re a mass of scar tissue that can’t feel anything any more, and you’re happy about it. Because at least it hurts less that way.’
Tessa was silent on the other end of the phone. Noah grasped for the stone balustrade lining the steps down from Morwen Hall, desperate for something to keep him balanced. Grounded.
Because he hadn’t been describing a character, he realised. He’d been talking about himself, the same way he’d talked to Eloise in bed the night before. The way he never talked.
‘Where did that come from?’ Tessa asked after a minute. ‘Noah, I’ve never... Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine,’ he managed. Then he laughed. ‘Let’s just say I’ve found a new muse.’
‘Are actors allowed muses?’
‘This one is.’ Except he wasn’t, not really. Eloise wasn’t his. She was just a temporary distraction.
‘Well, whoever she is, hang onto her. Sounds like she’s just what you need. As long as you’re not sleeping with her,’ Tessa said crisply. ‘Now, go. Get ready for that call. You’ve got thirty minutes.’
Time enough to get ready for the rehearsal dinner, so that when he was done with his call he could head straight down there and find Eloise. Not because she was his muse, or because she might be mad at him, or even because she was so sexy he couldn’t go another few hours without her again.
Just because he wanted to see her. And because they didn’t have much time left.
But Noah intended to make the most of every second.
* * *
Eloise smoothed down her cocktail dress as the lift doors opened at the restaurant floor. The dress the stylist had chosen—a beautiful silver and black-edged halter-neck—had looked so good in the photo shoot that she’d asked if she could keep it to wear to the rehearsal dinner that evening. Yes, it was a little more showy than she’d usually wear, but she couldn’t wait to see Noah’s face when he saw her in it.
If nothing else, it was definitely not a boring dress.
She might not be as beautiful as Melissa, in her pale pink gown that showed off every curve and slender line of that famous body, and she knew she couldn’t live up to the beauties Noah usually had on his arm. But, in this dress, Eloise felt beautiful in herself. And that was enough for her.
The restaurant floor was already buzzing by the time Eloise arrived. Whereas a more normal wedding might just have a rehearsal dinner for the wedding party and family members, Melissa and Riley had wanted a wedding extravaganza and that was what Laurel and Eloise had given them. For the rehearsal dinner—ignoring the fact they hadn’t actually had a rehearsal of the wedding itself because Melissa said she’d played a bride on screen often enough to know what to do—they were holding another drinks reception in the bar area, then a special dinner for all the guests in the restaurant. The wedding party, along with Melissa and Riley’s families, would then retire to a private room, where they could do the usual speeches and gift presentations.
‘Now that is a dress.’ Noah’s voice, warm and appreciative, behind her, was already so familiar that Eloise smiled even as she turned to face him.
‘Somehow, I had a feeling you might like this one.’
‘I do.’ He raked his gaze up and down her body and for once Eloise didn’t even blush. He’d seen more, after all. ‘It looks fantastic on you.’
‘But let me guess.’ Eloise leant closer to keep her words private. ‘It would look better off.’
Noah met her gaze and smiled, and Eloise knew there was a promise in that smile. ‘That goes without saying.’
‘You’re in a good mood,’ Eloise said, taking in his sparkling eyes.
‘I just gave the best audition of my life, over video chat.’
‘For the part? Eight Days After?’
‘That’s the one.’ Noah grinned again, as if he couldn’t quite bring himself to stop. ‘If they don’t give me the part after that, then they never would have. I gave it everything and was pretty darned good too.’
Eloise wondered what it must be like to live with that sort of self-confidence, even if only in a professional sphere. ‘You found a way to go deeper, then?’
‘Yes.’ His expression dropped into something more serious, but so compelling Eloise couldn’t have looked away if she’d wanted to. ‘You. You helped me talk about Sally, helped me examine what I felt back then, so I could transfer it to the character. I’d been putting off dealing with that for a long time.’
‘I’m not sure one conversation counts as dealing with it,’ Eloise warned. Grief was a tricky thing—especially when it had been blocked and ignored as long as Noah’s had.
‘But it’s a start,’ he said. ‘And I have you to thank for it. However can I repay you?’ His lips curved up into a smile again, but this one felt more intimate. More seductive.
‘I have some ideas...’ she said.
Noah leant in, just a little more, and in a flash Eloise remembered where they were—in the middle of the bar, surrounded by celebrities and at least one photographer. She pulled back, and spotted Melissa watching them from across the room. She didn’t look happy.
‘Time to mingle.’ Eloise gave him an apologetic smile. ‘But I’ll see you later?’
‘Most definitely.’ She felt Noah’s eyes on her as she walked away and she knew, deep down, he was definitely imagining her naked. And she loved knowing that.
She spent the drinks reception chatting with the other guests, many of whom she’d failed to speak to at all before then—a side effect of b
eing so caught up with Noah, she supposed. Since many of them just expected her to nod and smile politely as she listened to them regale her with their best stories of celebrity life, she had plenty of time left for daydreaming about the night ahead, once she and Noah were alone again.
Tonight, there would be no secrets between them. No emotional outpourings and confessions.
Just them, and one perfect night before the wedding from hell.
She couldn’t wait.
Eventually, it was time for the party to move through to the restaurant for the dinner. Eloise groaned inside when she spotted the menu, and remembered that Melissa had wanted a seven-course tasting menu, with matching wines. Add in the speeches and the gifts for the groomsmen and bridesmaids and it would be hours before she could escape with Noah.
Then she saw him, sitting beside her place at the table, and realised there was no way she was going to make it that long.
‘You switched the place settings,’ she whispered as she slid into her seat. ‘Melissa will be mad.’
‘It’s worth it,’ Noah replied. ‘I’m not taking the chance of another groomsman seducing you away from me while you’re wearing that dress.’