Page 50 of I Would Die for You

He’d pulled a face at her sarcastic tone. “Sorry, are you embarrassed to be seen with me?”

Nicole sighed. “No, but it’s not always about you. Other people have lives they don’t want splashed all over the front pages of the newspaper.”

“Have you got a secret boyfriend who doesn’t know about me?” he’d teased, sailing a little too close to the truth to be funny.

Aaron had stepped up his efforts to win her back in recent weeks, even going so far as to sit in on her set at Dallinger’s and follow her home, begging her to give him another chance. His pining made her nervous, the thought of him finding out about Ben ever-present, though it didn’t cause her quite as many sleepless nights as the thought of Cassie finding out.

“There’s nothingtoknow,” she said to Ben, shutting down the thoughts in her head. “We’re making music—that’s it.”

“You know, most girls would go out of their way to get photographed with me,” he said. “Some have even leaked where we’re going to be, just for the exposure.”

“Well, I’m not most girls.”

Ben had smiled. “You think I don’t know that?”

So, against Nicole’s better judgment, she had agreed to Ben dropping her off outside the cinema on Curzon Street, before having his chauffeur drive around the block a few times to give her time to get the tickets and popcorn. Then Ben had rushed through the foyer, careful to avoid eye contact with anyone, and they’d sneaked into the back row just as the lights went down.

They’d giggled about their subterfuge once they were inside, but getting back out again was a different matter. He’d left first, expecting to be able to put his head down and get straight into the waiting car outside, but it seemed that word had got out. Because by the time the film had finished, there was a baying mob in the foyer who the management were having trouble controlling.

The screams had echoed around the still-dark cinema as Ben had opened the door, and Nicole had instinctively slid down into her seat, frightened by the noise but even more terrified that her cover would be blown. Not to the population of 56 million, but to the young girl sitting at home who would feel so utterly betrayed by her sister’s deceit.

“OK, so Nicole, how do you feel about Ben leading on your mum’s lines?” asks Vaughan from behind the glass partition.

Nicole screws up her face. “Like a duet, you mean?”

“I just want to hear how it sounds with a dual perspective,” he says. “Because the words can so easily lend themselves to any parent talking to their child.”

“But…” starts Nicole, stopping when she asks herself why not.

“It’s just an idea,” says Vaughan. “We don’t have to do anything with it, but I think it’s worth getting it laid down, even if it’s just for yourselves.”

Nicole looks at Ben, who shrugs his shoulders compliantly. “It might be fun to give it a go,” he says.

The difference between singing all the words herself and splitting the lines with Ben brings out emotions that Nicole wouldn’thave thought possible. Her fingertips tingle as they share a microphone, the spark between them so intimate that it feels as if they’ve transcended boundaries she hadn’t even known she’d put up. When they finish, there’s an electrically charged silence that weighs heavy in the air.

“Wow!” says Vaughan, breathlessly into their headphones.

Nicole shifts awkwardly, avoiding eye contact with Ben, even though it feels like they’ve just seen each other without their clothes on.

“Did youfeelthat?” asks Ben, looking at her, awestruck.

“No,” she says quickly, needing to nip whatever that was—this is—in the bud.

Ben sighs as he gives a nod to Vaughan, who discreetly lets himself out of his soundproof box, disappearing from view.

“What are you so afraid of?” Ben asks, standing up.

“Me?” retorts Nicole. “I’m not afraid of anything—only the things I can’t control.”

He nods knowingly. “And you feel you can controlthis?”

Nicole bites down on her lip, refusing to let him see the resolve, which she’s tried so hard to uphold these past few weeks, from slipping.

“You can’t be so blind as to not see what’s going on here?” he says, his eyes burning into her, offering no escape.

She wants to scream at him thatof courseshe can feel it. She’s felt it ever since he spoke to her at the bar, ever since she heard his voice on the phone, ever since he pulled her to him in the car. But she won’t give in to it—she can’t.

“You’re not like any other girl I’ve ever met,” he says, coming toward her.

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