She swallowed, taking another step. “A change of heart?”

“I still think it’s a difficult situation, don’t get me wrong there.” He moved again toward her. “But relationships are about sacrifice and compromise. And as long as we choose each other more often than we choose our careers, I think we might have a shot.” He furrowed his brow. “I’m not sure if she’s completely thought about the sacrifices she’ll have to make for her own career.”

Maddie took a deep breath. She’d thought about it, but she knew that wasn’t the same as experiencing it. It wouldn’t be easy, especially facing her Beaumont past again, but Micah had given up a way of thinking for her. She could give up things for him as well. It takes two.

“Do you care what the press says about you? About her?”

“Not in the slightest.” He suddenly seemed to remember she was pretending to be a reporter herself. “No offense to you and your kind. But usually whatever you have to say is a bunch of bullshit.”

Another step toward him. “No offense taken. I’m sure she knows that as well. And if you can ignore them, I bet she can too. Since she loves you and all.”

His eyes twinkled. “You think she still loves me? Even after I’ve been such a dick?”

“I’d bet my life on it,” she said softly.

He beamed. Then his delight was replaced with a mischievous grin. “I’m not so sure.” He took two more slow steps toward her. “She can be pretty hotheaded. And stubborn. And non-compromising. Sometimes she runs away. Oh, and she can be a bit of a tease, so there’s that.”

Maddie raised a brow. “A tease? No way.”

“Yes, yes way. I’ve taken many cold showers because of her.”

“Hmm.” She was so near to him now, only a few feet away. She could touch him. But one more question. “With all her negative traits,” she said, her eyes lowered, “are you sure that you really…love her?”

He pulled her to him in one swift movement. “Oh yeah,” he said huskily, his mouth inches from hers. “I’m damn sure.”

His lips found hers, and she melted into his taste as her tongue darted playfully around his. She clutched to him desperately, and his body soaked her with his heat from the tips of her br**sts to the place where his arousal pressed into her belly to lower where her own desire burned. She wanted him, and he wanted her, and she reveled in this as he kissed her so thoroughly that her insides turned into complete mush and her legs could barely stand without his support.

When she thought she couldn’t take it anymore—that if he lingered in her mouth a moment longer she’d have to rip off all his clothes and make love to him right there in the ballroom of the Ritz Carlton—only then did he tear his mouth away to whisper in her ear. “Oh, Maddie.” His voice was ragged and low. “I’ve been such a shit. I’m so sorry it took so long for me to come around. I could live the rest of my life without ever seeing another script or movie set again, but I can’t live another second without you. I love you. Please tell me I still have a chance, that we have a chance.”

“Oh God, Micah. All I needed was for you to believe we did.” Maddie blinked back hot tears. “Yes. Yes! I love you so much.”

He leaned back to search her eyes. “You really do?”

“I do. I always have. Probably since I met you on the bench in that backyard on my graduation night.”

His mouth possessed hers again, this time the heat of the kiss turned her arousal from a simmer to a boil. When Micah pulled away to meet her eyes, his were dilated with ravenous desire. “Oh, baby, I’d say we need to get a room, but I don’t think I can wait that long.”

His sexual promise had her teeming with excitement.

His eyes swept the room and settled on the sofa near them. “Later we’ll take it slow and sweet. But I need to be inside you now, and it’s going to have to be quick.”

Her mouth fell open in surprise as he lifted her and carried her to the sofa. He lay her down and reached under her dress to remove her panties.

Panic swept through her. “Micah, what if someone—”

“Shh, we don’t care about anyone else, remember. I have to have you.”

She relaxed, trusting him, letting herself give in to his need.

His hand slid up her thigh to the bud of her want. “God, Maddie you’re soaked.” He swirled her cl*t with his thumb, sending a shiver throughout her body, then dipped a finger inside her.

Oh, f**k. She needed him too. Now. She squirmed, anxious for him to fill her. “Come on!”

He unfastened his pants and his c**k sprang free, causing a surge of excitement in her blood. “You ready?”

She answered by spreading her legs farther and bucking her hips.

He climbed into the V of her legs. “Is this what you want?” He plunged inside her and groaned.

“Yes!” Her memories of him—wonderful, heavenly memories—paled radically to the exquisite reality of his na**d c**k within her. And he still had farther to go. Her body opened to accept him and he slipped deeper inside.

Then he began to move. Not in the creative, circular motions that he usually tortured her with, but with sharp, piercing jabs. Each time, he stroked that spot—the one that made the lights flicker when it was hit just right and oh, was he hitting it right. So right in fact, that despite her concern that she’d never get off with people so close by, she found herself soaring over the edge in record time. Her orgasm was so fierce and so sudden she had to bite into Micah’s shoulder to squelch her cries.

“Yes baby, yes!” He pounded through her release to his own turbulent cl**ax.

Seconds after they’d finished, before her brain could even process a cool-down, voices—or rather a voice—drifted in from outside the room. Fudge, speaking louder than usual, said, “Yes, Mr. Santini, Micah’s in there. But before you go in—”

Maddie and Micah scrambled to compose themselves as Fudge resumed a normal volume of speech. “It’s so great to meet you. I’m such a fan.”

“Where’s my panties?” Maddie hissed as Micah tucked himself in his pants.

He grinned. “Do you really need them?”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

He joined her search. “I threw them behind me. Oh, they’re on the lamp.”

But before he could reach them, Martin Santini walked in the room.