Page 120 of He's The Reason Why

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” She wiggled her eyebrows at him.

“You drive me crazy, you know that?” He brushed a hand through his hair.

“Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?”

“It’s a wish-you-were-here thing.”

“Me too.”

Quiet stretched for a heartbeat.

Blake looked at her with thoughtful eyes.

“What’s on your mind?” Piper asked softly. “Besides the obvious.”

“I want to ask you something,” Blake said. “But I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and it has nothing to do with our past or future extracurricular activities.”

“Okay.” She couldn’t interpret his tone. He sounded serious, but also hopeful, or nervous.

He looked at her with those steady, cornflower-blue eyes, and she knew whatever he wanted, she would probably say yes.

“How would you feel about playing the lead inConned?”

She blinked. She couldn’t possibly have heard that right. “I’m sorry, what? What did you say?”

He held her gaze. “I’m offering you, Piper Bellamy, the role of Tessa Sullivan in my upcoming blockbuster hitConned. I can offer you two million, but I’d rather offer you points if you’ll take them. I think they’ll add up to a lot more than two mill in the long run, but it’s up to you.”

Her thoughts swirled so fast it was hard to follow them. She thought maybe he wanted to go away for the weekend, or he could have been asking her to go with him to the premiere, or hell, maybe he wanted to ask her to be more than just friends with occasional benefits. She’d already been planning on pouncing on any or all of those offers with enthusiasm.

This wasn’t any of that.

This was an official job offer.

A live-acting job, not an animated behind-the-scenes one.

“You okay?” Blake’s lips quirked up. “I’m going to need a verbal answer of some sort. Or you could use hand signals.”

She sucked in a deep breath. “You’re serious?”

“I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life.” His face softened. “I’ve been wanting to ask you for weeks.”

She had to point out the obvious flaw. “I’m not an actor.”

“You are now,” Blake said. “You’re an excellent voice artist with a lot of potential.”

“Yes, but you’re talking live, camera-in-your-face, full-body stuff. What happened to that list of potentials you were working on?”

“None of them is more perfect for this role than you.” He said it so firmly she almost believed him. “Marshall and I both agree, and even Mom thinks it’s a great idea. We wantyou.”

She let that sink in. Two—no, three—Hollywood legends thought she was perfect for a movie role. Not as a stand-in, a backup, or a side note, but as the lead love interest.

Blake Ryan’s love interest.

He studied her face. “I think I just saw a hundred different emotions race across your face just then.”

“It’s a lot to process.” She blinked rapidly, trying to clear away the fog. She’d wanted this, she just didn’t expect it to happen this way. In all the discussions they’d had about the missing lead, she’d never once pictured herself as a possibility.

Rachel had practically insisted the role belonged to her, and she’d done it so forcefully Piper hadn’t even considered it.

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