Bound to Love by Emma Lyn Wild Read Free Book Online Page A

was beaming. “Like it?”
    “You know I did. It was amazing.”
    He kissed my temple. Sonia found her husband, a tall man with a delicious gray stubble and eyes that twinkled. They were still in costume, and they didn’t stay long. The security guy ushered Cindy in with a smile. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they had something going. But I hadn’t spent as much time with her, so what did I know?
    Uncaring of who was watching, Troy swept me into his arms and kissed me. Unlike the public kiss of before, this was for us. He shared his joy with me in one searing, passionate kiss, and then he dragged me into his dressing room.
    His mother sat there, and her friends stood around.
    Troy closed the door quietly, far too quietly for my liking. He kept me by his side. “Who let you in?” he said, his voice soft and low with menace. He wasn’t acting now.
    His mother, a small, delicate woman with a face that was far too smooth for nature, smiled easily. “I just reminded them I was your mother and here we are. I wanted to be here to congratulate you, dear.”
    “Out.” His gaze went from his mother to the three women watching him. “All of you, out. I have nothing to say to any of you.”
    I hated to see him treated like this.
    “But dear—”
    He gave her such a look of contempt she should have burned where she sat. “Did you get the point of my performance tonight?”
    Forcing a smile, she waved her hand airily. “It was magnificent.”
    “It showed what happens when an older woman gets her claws into a young man. How she can exploit and destroy him. If I had stayed with you, that wouldn’t be a play out there. It would have been me.”
    She lost the smile. “Do you really want to discuss family matters before strangers?” She glared at me. How could she be more embarrassed by my presence that what she’d done? “Childhood games are gone and forgotten. We need to stick together as a family. I can tell some very influential people to come.”
    “By tomorrow we’ll be a sellout,” he said. “At least, I’ll make sure we are to you.” He stood aside and with an exaggerated flourish, opened the door. “Now get out. If I see you once more before I die that will be one time too many.”
    His mother got to her feet, bridling. “I can make things very difficult for you. This is my town.”
    “I think I can survive without your help,” he said. “If you want to take this public, then go for it. If you try to ruin this, then I will take what you did to the media.”
    The fraught moment of silence was complete in the room. Outside people laughed and celebrated, but in the room, son confronted mother in a battle of wills that could only end one way.
    Troy won. She tipped her chin up, and left without a word. Her friends trailed after her, their bright clothes a mockery of what they had done.
    Troy closed the door, took me in his arms and shook. After the celebration of the play, then the shock of meeting his mother, he was done. “What do you have to do now?” I said.
    “We’re supposed to have dinner, then sit up for the early critic reports. That doesn’t happen like it used to, though. The early reviews will be up in an hour.”
    I stroked his back. His costume was harsh under my hands. “You don’t have to.”
    “I want to. This is a turning point in my career—I know it. I want you with me.” He’d stopped shaking. He lifted his head, and although his eyes glistened suspiciously, he was smiling. “That was nothing. I’m getting showered and changed, and you can sit there, drink some champagne and look beautiful.”
    I was wearing contacts tonight, and a simple dress that, had he but known it, had been a lucky find at a thrift store. A very lucky find. I’d need more clothes if I was going to be with him, but I could afford them now. If I took the museum job, that was.
    We went out to dinner with the cast and the director. Everybody was happy, celebrating and drinking champagne like it came