Page 14 of The Kiss that Captured a Billionaire
That kiss—it had cracked something wide open inside her. Something raw and frightening. She had nothing to compare it to. No string of wild romances, no list of previous lovers, no youthful flings. She was just a smart-mouth maintenance tech with a minor in sarcasm and a major in solitude.
Her reflection stared back at her from the mirror—eyes too wide, lips too swollen, cheeks too flushed against the sweep of dark hair that had fallen from her ponytail. She looked like a woman who’d stepped off a rollercoaster without a safety bar, thrilled and terrified all at once.
“Seriously?” she whispered to herself, her voice ragged. “What are you doing?”
Theo Kallistratos was wealthy, sophisticated, impossibly magnetic—and utterly out of her league.
She, on the other hand, was the theatre’s resident jack-of-all-trades. A walking toolbox in sneakers and duct-taped dreams. Sure, she had a shiny new degree in accounting—but her only real-world experience was managing her grandparents’ bills and fixing leaky pipes with a wrench too big for her hand.
She shook out the sweater, folded it neatly over one arm, and took a deep breath.
“One kiss,” she murmured. “You got your kiss. That’s all you needed—right? Now go.”
She nodded at herself in the mirror. Go back in. Say thank you. Then walk away. It was late—or early, depending on whether you were Cinderella or the cleanup crew. She had a theatre to clean, a to-do list as long as her arm, and no time to fantasize about a man who collected women the way some people collected selfie images.
Her resolve hardened.
Disappear, Rose. Just this once, listen to your good side.
She took one more deep breath before she stepped into the quiet hallway. Her sneakers whispered over the plush carpet. Themuffled pulse of the club grew louder with each step until she reached the door to the lounge. She squared her shoulders, drew in one final breath, and pushed it open.
And stopped.
Time crashed to a halt.
There was one sure way to burst any of her fantasy bubbles; and Theo Kallistratos wasn’t just bursting them, he was incinerating them with a freaking flamethrower.
She stared in disbelief at Theo, whose arms were wrapped around a tall, leggy blonde in a skin-tight silver dress that shimmered like molten moonlight.
His hand gripped the small of the woman’s back, his mouth locked to hers as if they were fused together. The blonde’s fingers were tangled in his dark hair as if she owned him.
Rose couldn’t breathe.
The sharp, unmistakable sting of betrayal punched through her chest. She took a step back; the door slipped from her fingers, clicking softly shut behind her.
He hadn’t even waited. Not ten minutes.
Her pulse thundered, fury bubbling up—hot and humiliating.
Of course.
Of course a man like Theo didn’t mean any of it. Of course he said all the right things, kissed like a god, made her body light up like the Fourth of July… and then moved on—at the speed of light.
I’m such an idiot.
Her fists clenched around the damp sweater.
She turned sharply, her breath coming too fast, and spotted the glowing red EXIT sign above a side door. Without hesitation, she darted toward it, wrenching the handle and slipping into the narrow stairwell beyond. It echoed faintly with the pounding of the bass and the throb of her bruised dignity.
She descended fast, taking the steps with practiced ease. Her cheeks burned with equal parts rage and mortification that she could be so stupid.
What had she expected? That he’d fall at her feet? That she, the theatre girl with a stubbornly unruly ponytail and a sarcastic streak, could hold the attention of a man like him?
Hell, no woman could. He was a player, and she’d just been played. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen it happen a million times at the theatre when she was growing up.
She shoved open the exit door and burst onto the main floor, the crush of bodies slamming into her like a wall. The club was still pulsing, oblivious to her inner apocalypse.
Head down, she elbowed her way through the mass of limbs and laughter and spilled drinks. Her only thought was escape.
