Chapter 10

10

DAWSON

I stared at Jem as he began crying in front of everyone. “I didn’t take it,” I said quickly. “I got the role but didn’t accept it. And now I can’t fucking figure out what you want or how you feel about this. Are you happy I’m not leaving or disappointed I’m not leaving? Did you want me to stay or go?”

Was he upset because he’d had too much to drink, or was he truly upset I hadn’t taken the job?

At first, I didn’t notice our friends quiet down around us. I was focused only on Jem. His tears were twisting my gut. I didn’t want him to be upset, especially if it was about something in my control.

“I want you to be happy,” he said, swiping roughly at his eyes. “I want you to be… happy.”

I took his hands in mine and held them tightly. “I am. Don’t you see? I’m so fucking happy, I don’t want to leave the show. I love it here with you… with them,” I said, nodding at the cast and crew surrounding us. Some of them let out little aww sounds. “But I want you to be happy too.”

He sniffed. “You make me happy,” he said softly. “But I want you to have the best role ever. You deserve the lead in all the best plays. I don’t want you to stay in the ensemble because of me.”

I reached up to brush a tear away with my thumb. “I wasn’t about to let anyone else kiss you, Jem Sinclair. That’s my job.”

He looked horrified. Before he could squawk out an argument, I quickly corrected him. “It wasn’t only because of you. I didn’t get a good feeling about a couple of the people involved. My gut told me not to take it. Something else will come along when the time is right for a change. Now is not that time. Not when we’re having this much fun and the show is sold out every night.”

Jem smiled and nodded. “Yeah. Good. So maybe you can go to Colorado? You said you weren’t sure.”

“My brother is getting married in June. That’s why my mom called just now. I texted her at the theater to ask when the wedding was in case it conflicted with the trip. It doesn’t. So, yes. I can go to Aster Valley.”

He blew out a breath and shook out his arms and shoulders. “Fuck. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have had so much to drink on an empty stomach.” He looked around at our friends, who were watching the two of us like a telenovela. “Shit,” he breathed. “Dawson…”

I reached around to clasp the back of his neck before pulling him in for a possessive kiss, not at all caring that it was the third time Jem and I had kissed in front of an audience that day, because this was the kiss that mattered most.

“It’s okay,” I whispered. “So what if they know we’re together now? We are together, right?”

“Yeah,” Jem murmured. “We definitely are.”

Everyone around us erupted in cheers and shouts of “It’s about time!” I tried ignoring all of them so I could kiss Jem again.

And again.

With as much practice as I’d had kissing him, it still made my stomach flip every single time.

Now he was mine and I was his, even when the curtain closed and the lights went out.

I stood up and reached for his hand. It was time for celebrating but not with a crowd. “Let’s go home.”

The cold night air sobered him up a little, and when we reached our apartment building, he’d decided to be completely mortified by his behavior at the bar.

“I’m sorry,” he said for the tenth time since leaving the Retro. “I didn’t mean to freak out. I would completely understand if—”

I shut him up with a kiss in front of the building. I knew he’d been trying to give me an out, and I didn’t want it. Kissing him was way more fun than arguing.

He tasted like alcohol which was sexy as fuck. “Upstairs,” I said against his mouth. “No more talking.”

Jem looked at me with a teasing grin. “What in the world will we do instead of talking?”

“Rehearse,” I said, reaching past him to unlock the door.

“Hmmm,” he said thoughtfully, trailing behind me into the small entry and up the stairs. “Funny you should say that, because I’ve been thinking it might be time to… shake things up a little bit.”

“Is that right?” I pushed him up against my apartment door and ran my teeth over the curve of his chin, just because I could. “My kisses getting too predictable for you, Jem?”

Jem shivered in my arms, his fingers helplessly clenching my waist, and I smirked a little bit smugly before touching my lips to—

“Oof,” I said a second later as Jem reversed our positions and my back thumped against the door. “Hey, what—” My words and my thoughts cut off abruptly as the man—my man—threaded both hands into my hair and pulled me down into a fiery, consuming kiss that left me breathless and hard as a rock.

“Holy shit, baby,” I moaned. “That was… that was…”

“That was improvisation, Dawson,” he whispered, grinning broadly. “Just go with it.”

I laughed out loud. Then I bent my head and touched my smiling mouth to his.

This man would keep me on my toes for the rest of my days, and I couldn’t fucking wait.

The kiss would be different every night. But as long as it was me and Jem, it was always going to be perfect.