Page 7 of Reign
He was undeniably gorgeous, with sculpted cheekbones and tousled blond hair, his blue eyes hidden behind dark-framed glasses. Right now those eyes were trained on Nina’s with a pleading, hopeful expression—as befitted the declaration of love he was reciting—but there was a knowing glint there, too, as if he expected Nina to realize who he was. She tried, and failed, to place the slight accent in his voice.
This boy was clearly the theater kids’ anointed star. Nina wondered how many people in the audience he had hooked up with.
She glanced down at her paper. Someone had reordered the lines of this scene into a more rapid conversation. “ ‘O spite! O hell!’ ” she cried out, with genuine frustration. “ ‘I see you all are bent / To set against me for your merriment!’ ”
The young man stepped forward, and recognition nipped at the edges of her consciousness.Hadshe met him before?
His voice lowered into something seductive. “ ‘O, how ripe in show / Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!’ ”
Nina froze. His hand had strayed upward, as if to stroke her face, and she wasn’t sure whether she would lean into it or pull away. Everything slowed, fell still. The glow of his eyes turned molten, and as his fingers brushed her cheek, an involuntary gasp escaped her.
She stared down at the paper for her next lines. “ ‘If you were civil and knew courtesy, / You would not do me thus much injury.’ ”
His face was very close to hers as he replied, “ ‘O, let me kiss / This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!’ ”
In a single dramatic motion, the stranger dipped Nina back as elegantly as a ballroom dancer and lowered his mouth to hers.
For a moment Nina was frozen with shock. This boy was holding her entire weight on one arm with apparent ease,kissingher. Through the soft fabric of his sweater, she felt the contours of his body, the way his arm cradled the base of her spine.
She twisted, making an outraged sound deep in her throat, and the boy quickly swept her upright. He bowed to the audience with a flourish, grinning. Nina couldn’t see through the blinding stage lights, but she heard cheers and delighted whistles from the onlookers.
Heart pounding, she stormed off the stage and out the exit doors to the hallway.
Howdarehe kiss her without warning, without permission—and kiss her in a way that made her feverish and tingly all over? It didn’t mean anything, of course. It was just that she hadn’t been kissed since that night in the gardens at Bellevue with Jeff, all those weeks ago, and she hadn’t realized quite how much her body craved human contact.
“Wait a second!” the boy called out, jogging to catch up with her. “Are you okay?”
“I’mfine.” Nina tried to brush past him. She’d only taken a step before she was yanked abruptly backward.
“Seriously?” Nina stared down at the edge of his cashmere scarf, which had caught on the zipper of her tote bag. The fabric snapped taut between them like a leash.
“My apologies.” The boy was grinning again, that vibrant, dazzling grin. Clearly he found everything in life a source of deep amusement.
Nina was seized by an irrational urge to keep going and let his stupid scarf unravel in her wake. She took another step forward, forcing him to shuffle along next to her.
“As much as I love being dragged about like a fish on a line,” he drawled, “this is a bit much. Do you mind?” He gestured to her bag as if asking for permission to touch the zipper. Right, because he needed her go-ahead forthat,but not a kiss?
“Are you serious?” Nina gave the scarf a frustrated yank, which only succeeded in fastening it further. “Why do you wear this thing, anyway? It’s too skinny to keep you warm. And it makes you look like a pretentious jerk.” Apparently her filter had dissolved up there onstage, along with her dignity.
He unwound the scarf from around his neck. “Maybe I am a pretentious jerk. And I have other ways of keeping warm,” he added with a wink.
Nina fumbled with the fabric and finally unhooked it from her bag. The scarf fluttered down, forcing her to catch it. “Here,” she said ungraciously, but he didn’t reach for it.
“Great job in that scene, by the way. You were amazing.”
She couldn’t take it anymore. “What made you think it was okay to kiss me like that?”
He lifted an eyebrow indolently. “Have we kissed? I usually remember kissing girls like you.”
“What?” she spluttered, pointing wildly back towardthe door. “Just now, in the audition! You treated me like a human prop!”
He seemed genuinely puzzled. “You’re upset about the scene? That wasn’t me kissing you; that was Demetrius kissing Helena.” A light danced in the boy’s eyes as he added, “Trust me, Nina, when you and I kiss, it’ll be far better than a bit of improvisation.”
She wondered angrily how he knew her name, until she remembered the adhesive name tag on the front of her shirt. Somehow he’d gotten away with not putting one on, and she hated that it left her at a disadvantage.
“There is nowhen.There will be no kiss.” She spun on one heel and started back toward the exit, with faster steps this time.
He trotted to keep up. “You say that now, but we have weeks of rehearsals ahead of us.”
