Acting Brave (Fenbrook Academy #3) (61 page)

BOOK: Acting Brave (Fenbrook Academy #3)

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There was a knock at the door. I practically ran there and threw it wide.

Ryan was standing there with his arms full of bags. Party food and beer. I’d also made sure that Nat had made some Orange Skittle Vodka, but that was exclusively for us girls, to start the night off right. Funny, how we’d once used to drink it to commiserate failed auditions. A lot had changed. Nat had Darrell, Clarissa had Neil, Karen had Connor..., and I had Ryan.

I grabbed the bags off him and dumped them on the kitchen table, then launched myself into his arms, my legs going around him. It was my preferred way of greeting him, when I hadn’t seen him for a few hours, and I only kneed him in the groin occasionally, these days.

He’d thought long and hard about
Blue & Red
and eventually agreed with Dixon that he’d do the first season and then his character would move down to a smaller role. He enjoyed the acting, but he
needed
to be a cop. With his anger in check, his captain welcomed him back part time, with a view to making it full time again in the future. It probably worked out better than the two of us having too much screen time together. Every time we did lock lips in a scene, the fans would go nuts. Keep them wanting more, and all that.

He was so much happier, these days. He hadn’t said much about it, but I was pretty sure he’d let Hux go. Certainly, he’d visited the grave a few times, and I figured that was a good sign.

I seemed to be doing okay myself, too. The nightmares were getting less frequent. Nat had given me the number of the therapist she and Darrell went to. I’d thought about it, but decided to leave it for the time being. Seeing my dad and the three rapists in jail had given me a certain amount of closure. What I really needed now was time—time to build new memories with Ryan. I was myself, for the first time in a long while, and I was going to relish every second of it.

Tyler had become a firm friend of both Ryan and me. Kissing him had become a lot less weird. It wasn’t awkward anymore—now we just had to resist the temptation to make each other laugh.

Nick had gone straight into rehab when he came out of court and had now been clean for months. He had a new job, had moved into a shared apartment and had re-enrolled on the cooking course. This time, he had me to back him up when he wavered. With the past laid to rest, we were talking much more freely and reconnecting. It felt good to have a brother again.

Ryan spun me around and then carried me through the living room, where Nat had joined Clarissa and Karen, arguing playfully over the playlist. He marched straight through to the hallway that led to the bedrooms and looked meaningfully at the two doors.

“We can’t!” I hissed. “They’re right there!”

He adjusted my position slightly, handling me as if I weighed nothing. My groin settled against his and I gasped. “At least do the decent thing and wait until the party’s started and we can sneak off to the coat room,” I told him.

He pushed me up against the wall. “If I wait that long, do I get The Full Jasmine Experience?”

I wriggled. “I’m not sure you can handle The Full Jasmine Experience.”

“You’re
that
good?”

“I’ve been known to give lessons.”

He leaned forward and gave me a long, slow kiss that ended with him nibbling on my lower lip. I shuddered and writhed.

“I’ve been known to make women come so hard they faint,” he whispered in my ear.

“That was a one-time thing,” I said breathlessly.

“Let’s find out.”

I can’t believe I’m considering this,
I thought, and glanced back into the living room. Nat, Clarissa, and Karen were all smirking at me.

“It
is
my birthday,” I reasoned.

Ryan grinned and carried me toward Nat’s room.

“Wait,” I said, remembering how I’d deafened the sound guy. “Better use Clarissa’s room.”