Lovescenes

Shannon took a deep breath. ‘I didn’t come here to quarrel with you, Mr. Morgan,’ she said carefully. ‘I’m here because my agent asked me.’

‘I see.’ His smile curved. ‘I guess that means Jerry and your agent discussed the possibility of our working together, hmm?’

‘Well, yes, but I think...’

He nodded and dug his hands into his back pockets. ‘You think it’s a lousy idea, right? Well, I’ve got to admit, I have some doubts...’

Thank goodness, she thought, letting out her breath. ‘Good, I’m glad to hear it. I was afraid...’

His eyes darkened. ‘Yes, I’ll bet you were.’

‘The thing is, I’ve been an actress for a long time and I understand what happened today.’

&nbs

p; ‘Do you?’ he asked softly.

At least he was listening, she thought. And he’d admitted he had doubts about Craw­ford’s insane scheme. Go on, she told herself. Get to it.

‘You see, you came along just after I’d blown a crucial scene. That’s why Mr. Crawford misinterpreted what he saw—what he thought he saw—happen between us.’

‘I see,’ he said evenly. ’“So it was simply Jerry’s error of judgment.’

‘Yes. No.' She knew she was blushing. 'What I mean is that I’m a seasoned actress. And Tony’s a trained actor...’

‘Which I’m not,’ Cade said bluntly.

It was a statement, but it was more than that. There was a challenging tone to his voice, one it was imposs­ible to ignore. Shannon hesitated and then she took a deep breath.

‘Claire—my agent—told me you’d thought about taking a guest role on Tomorrows,. I think that’s a great idea. There’s so much you could pick up that way.’

A cool smile flickered across his face. ‘Don’t be so polite,’ he said, brushing past her and reaching for a cashmere sweater draped across the back of a chair. ‘What you mean is, you think I’d be overstepping myself if I took an ongoing part on Tomorrows.“

‘I didn’t say that, exactly.’

He pulled the sweater over his head and turned to­wards her. ‘Then what did you say, exactly?’ he asked in an empty voice.

His eyes had gone flat, and a coldness suddenly gripped Shannon’s spine. She looked at Claire, but her agent was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, gazing upward with a vacant expression. Where are you when I need you, Claire? she thought desperately.

‘All I meant was that performing isn’t the same as acting. People think it is, but...’

‘That’s what I told Crawford.’

‘Did you?’ she said eagerly. ‘Well, then...’

‘He told me to let him be the judge of that.’ Cade smiled politely. ‘Don’t you think that’s good advice, Miss Padgett?’

‘My agent said...’ She looked across the room again. Claire had said she’d go back and try to talk Jerry out of this if she thought it was for the best. But that wasn’t what she’d intended to do at all, Shannon suddenly realized, staring at her agent’s bemused expression.

How could she have been so naive? Claire had just said whatever had to be said to soothe her.

The truth was that the agent had brought her here so she could see first-hand what Jerry Crawford had seen. And, dammit, even if there was nothing to see, she’d pretend there was.

Everybody bowed and scraped, Shannon thought bitterly, even the people you thought were your friends.

This man standing before her, this man who made her tense with anger, was going to re­place Tony. She knew that as surely as she knew the sun would rise tomorrow.

Without warning, the afternoon’s disastrous love scene flashed into her mind. If she hadn’t been able to play it with Tony, how in hell would she manage it with Cade Morgan?