A Midsummer Night's Fling (Stage Kiss Series Book 1) by Beth Matthews Read Free Book Online Page A

stretched her legs out and pillowed her cheek on one hand to study him with simmering, heavy-lidded eyes.  
    Somehow, even though Nicola sat on a bare stage in blue jeans and a white shirt, somehow she managed to appear decadent, lush, pure temptation made of sweet, supple flesh. Venus waiting in her bower for Mars to ravish her. Cleopatra inviting Antony to negotiate terms for his surrender.  
    The sight of her was too much to resist. He maneuvered around behind her and sat. Resting an elbow on his knee, he reached forward and tucked a strand of soft brown hair behind her ear. He let his fingertip linger against the skin of her neck and she shivered at the contact. He didn't know if that was Nicola or just Nicola acting, but the sight had heat building low in his gut. "'How long within this wood intend you stay?'" his line came out throatier than he'd intended, the low rasp of a desperate man.  
    And dammit he was desperate. You'd think five years would have done something to dim his desire, but he found himself swamped by it, awash in images, wants.
    Like right now he imagined everyone else gone. To lunch. To Hell. Wherever. Didn't matter. Just away . Then he'd be free to kiss Nicola until her mouth was swollen, to touch her skin and smell and taste her until she was trembling against him, then he'd ease her back flat on the stage and –  
    "'Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day,'" she said, cutting into his thoughts. She tossed her head, shaking out her curtain of soft brown hair, projecting indifference, but it was a fragile façade to hide how much she wanted him to stay here with her.
    As Oberon, or maybe using Oberon as an excuse, Max leaned into her shoulder and pressed a kiss to her collarbone. She shivered again, the instinctive tremble of a woman who was just as turned on as he was. That wasn't acting, or not only acting.
    "'Give me that boy,'" he murmured, "'and I will go with thee.'"
    Nicola swallowed, aroused heat and brittle fury burning together in her eyes. "'Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!'" She shot to her feet, striding offstage without a backward glance, the muscles in her shoulders taut, her hands clenched into fists. Their small audience erupted in applause. Tierney even whistled.
    Max rolled to his feet. Nicola emerged from the stage left wings, looking shaken and pale. He tried to catch her eye, but she was staring into the audience at Judith.
    Gil distracted him, patting Max on the arm. "You two were wonderful together."
    Tierney gave Max a rough slap on the back. "I think I just got a contact high from all the pheromones you two were pumping out."
    Nicola flashed a wild look Tierney's way then wiped her face blank. Except her mouth, which tightened into a grimace.
    Max's stomach dropped. Crap . Nicola was pissed.
    Her gaze slid his way, and her eyes were dark, actually smoldering with wrath.  
    Make that really pissed .  
    Which, the more he thought about it, pissed him off too. He'd played his part for her, and pretty damn well all things considered. Nothing he'd done had been out of character for Oberon. Nothing had been over the line.
    Maybe kissing her neck was tiptoeing close to the line, but Max felt he was on the side of right there. She had a great neck. Sometimes a guy has to do what he has to do.
    For the scene, of course.
    Everyone froze as Judith stood, the sound of her seat flipping up oddly loud in the large theater.  
    She was the unknown quantity here, and Max prayed she would act for the good of the show. Isabelle had been known to let her ego get in the way at times. Please, let Judith be different .  
    Judith started down the aisle, glancing at a small notebook as she scribbled things. Tierney rolled her eyes. Gil shrunk into himself, trying for invisibility. Rita twisted the silver bracelets on her arm.
    Nicola folded her arms and waited, cool and collected as a queen.  
    That's my girl .  
    Judith stopped at the foot of the stage and, without even