Touching the Billionaire - Holly Jaymes Page 0,58

when Mr. Darcy started walking across the field toward Elizabeth Bennet, Theo watched for a few moments as the music swelled and then he lifted the remote and turned it off.

“Hey,” I said, turning to look at him. “This is the best part.”

“No, this is the best part.” He put our wine glasses down and then he pushed me back on the couch, covering my body with his. “I’m going to make you forget all about Mr. Darcy now. Unless you have a problem with that.”

I pulled him close, loving his weight pressing me into the couch. “I have no problem with it.”

Then he proceeded to use his hands and his mouth and all of his body to make me forget about Mr. Darcy.

I Am Madeline’s

Theo

I spent the drive back from Woodstock to Manhattan second-guessing the wisdom of having gone up there in the first place. Yes, I’d convinced Madeline to spend time with me again, and yes, I suspected that re-igniting our fling would fix the chemistry we lost in our work. But spending time with her family made me realize that she deserved more than what I had to offer. I respected her and I wanted to help her further her career, but I couldn’t give her the kind of love and security that she clearly got with her grandparents. It seemed unfair of me to take up her time when it could be used with somebody else better suited for her. At the same time, I was selfish enough to take what she would give me.

I spent the next day home doing production company work and reviewing scripts and other materials that my staff had sent over. We had already selected our next production and so I went through the plans that were started on it.

Although the day was still warm, I decided to take a run in the afternoon to get rid of the pent-up energy and the lingering guilt I was having over Madeline. When I arrived home, I’d just finished gulping down a glass of water when there was a knock at the door. Opening it, I saw Madeline stood there, looking so beautiful I almost thought she was a mirage. A figment of my imagination conjured because I was wishing she was there. But she was real, and all my good intentions at not being selfish completely vanished, which was how she ended up in my shower naked, with me making love to her once again. And then again after dinner, when I realized I was feeling jealous of Mr. Darcy in the way Madeline was enamored by him walking across the meadow on my TV screen. It was clear that Madeline held me under some sort of spell. I was helpless to do the right thing because she felt so necessary to me. The way I was feeling right now. I couldn’t give up Madeline any more than I could give up breathing, so I didn’t.

On Monday I was back on set, ready to work again. Madeline didn’t have any work until midweek, so I didn’t have to worry about giving us away.

As I exited my trailer ready to do a heist scene, Corrine met me on the way to set.

“Is everything good between you and Madeline?” she asked me.

I looked at her and wondered if maybe she knew for sure that Madeline and I were more than just friendly coworkers. I put my acting skills to work by giving her a shrug. “It’s all fine.”

“So you talked to her?”

Starting to feel a little irked, I said, “Yes, I talked to her. It’s gonna be fine.”

She held out her hand, grabbing my arm to stop me. “It doesn’t sound fine, Theo. This is really important. You need to do whatever you did before to spark that electricity on film. You’ve got to use that Theo magic to seduce her back into being charmed by you.”

I stared at her for a moment, feeling pissed that she thought I was the type of man who would pretend to be into a woman simply to get a performance. It wasn’t just disrespectful, it also suggested that Madeline and I weren’t very good actors.

“We know our job and we’re going to do it,” I snapped and then left her to deal with makeup and hair.

I did my work for the day and arrived home that evening just after seven. I’d messaged Madeline when I was on my way back, and I found her at my door