Winning Moves (Stepping Up 3)
The doorbell rang and she hit the mute button on the remote control. She grabbed the forty bucks she’d put on the glossy maple coffee table for the teenage sisters who lived next-door who had hit her up for their school chocolate sale. She’d made them squeal when she’d told them she’d take forty bars. Kat’s mom and dad loved candy and she loved seeing the kids get excited. The bell rang again and she smiled. Eager teenage girls. Gotta love ’em.
Kat padded across the marble tiled floor to open the door, and before she even opened the screen, she flashed the money. “I have the cash.”
Jason grinned and leaned on the door frame, muscles flexing under a plain black T-shirt that didn’t look plain on him at all. “That’s not enough to make me go away,” he said, eying the two twenties in her hand. His gaze slid over her pink tank top and then lifted. “Not even close.”
She growled and shoved the money into her pocket, then crossed her arms in front of her chest as she inadvertently noted his clean-shaven jaw, all smooth and ready…for her skin. That little bad girl thought made her as angry as she was eternally hot for the man. “I’m going to kill Michael for giving you my address.”
“Your parents,” Jason supplied.
She rolled her eyes and dropped her arms in frustration. “Oh, good grief.”
“They always liked me.”
Oh, didn’t she know it. They loved the man almost as much as she did. “Why are you here?”
“You know why.”
“Save your breath.”
“Not a chance. Invite me in.”
“Not happening.”
“Why?”
“You know why.”
He stared at her, his green eyes cutting through the screen like a diamond on glass. “Kat,” he said softly, pressing his hand on the screen. “Let me in.” The words vibrated with a plea, and she knew he wasn’t talking about the door anymore.
“I can’t,” she whispered, unable to stop herself from flattening her hand against his. Warmth spread up her arm and over her chest. His head dropped to the screen and so did hers. She could feel him everywhere he wasn’t touching, everywhere he wasn’t—shouldn’t—be. She wanted to rip the screen away, to hold him and to feel him hold her—to get lost in him just one last time. It was always just one last time.
“I can’t do this again. This is what happens. The door is the only thing keeping it from happening now.”
“I’m not going to tell you we won’t end up in bed together,” he said after a long pause.
“That’s not helping your case if you want me to take this job,” she said, wondering why his assurance that they might end up between the sheets was comforting rather than the opposite.
“I’ve never lied to you, Kat,” he said, his voice thickening. “I’m not going to start now. I want you. I never stopped wanting you. And I want you involved in the show. Enough that I used my pull to double the salary offer originally sent to your agent’s office.”
She pulled back to gape. “What? That’s an insane amount of money.” She shook her head. “This isn’t about money to me. You know money isn’t why I do what I do.”
“You love spoiling your parents rotten, and you know it. This will let you do it in a big way. This is security for them and for you.”
“I spoil them because we spent a lot of years struggling when I was growing up.”
“You don’t have to justify it to me of all people. You know I love your parents, I know how they struggled. I was there when they were helping you through college, remember?”
Yes, oh yes, she remembered. Love, marriage and his career that started two years before hers and tore them apart.
“I admire you for what you do for them,” he continued. “You know I spoil mine as well. Look, Kat, I have to get you in or out by Monday. We have open call tomorrow and Sunday and with seventy spots to fill. Ellie can handle it, but if you’re in, I know you. You’ll want to cherry-pick the dancers. At least come to the set and observe. See how you feel being there with me. And if it’s still a ‘no,’ I’ll let this go. Just give me one day.”
“Why are you pushing so hard to make this happen?”
“Do you remember when we went to San Francisco and we got down to the pier and we couldn’t get a cab back to the hotel, and the trams were shut down?”
The weekend he’d proposed. “You know I remember that weekend.” She thought of that panicked moment on the pier and found herself smiling in spite of everything. “My feet were killing me and we just had to keep walking.”
“I carried you.”
“And fell down.”
“And you pulled me back to my feet, spotted a midnight movie joint, where we ate too much popcorn, and then the cabs were free. We worked it out together, just like we’ll work this out. We’re older, wiser and more mature. We’re both professionals.” He touched the screen again. “Tomorrow, Kat. 6:00 a.m. Please. Be there.” He backed up, his eyes holding hers. Her cell phone began to ring. “And take your agent’s calls. He might have something to say worth listening to.” He turned and started walking away.