Chapter 0443
“Hi, Piper!” Susie said, suddenly rushing past me. “Bye, Piper!” She took the stairs of the stage.
Bridget’s gaze never left mine. She didn’t say anything more, just winked at me, then turned to follow
Susie up the stairs.
I stared after her for a few long moments, shaken inside and out. Just what had Bridget meant by that?
A true kiss of passion, she’d said. With Nichs?
No. I couldn’t believe it. Nichs had said he won’t kiss anyone he didn’t want to, and I couldn’t let
Bridget’s words shake my faith and trust in him.
But what if Bridget was someone he wanted to kiss. The lights of the stage could be intoxicating, and
Bridget was a good actress. If anyone could convince a man to kiss her, it would be Bridget.
My stomach twisted into tight knots. Maybe I shouldn’t watch at all. Maybe I should just return to the
sitting room with Elva and wait for Susie to tell me what happened.
Yes, that was what I would do. Decided, I turned away from the stairs, only to notice a figure lingering
at the other side of the backstage, half in shadow. No one really went to that side, since this side was
far more convenient.
Yet I recognized that shadvenient
Julian.
My worries dimmed a little under the wave of determination that rolled over me now. I still needed to
talk to him, and here he was. We could speak privately there, and an escape would not be easy for
him.
Resolved, I started toward him.
Onstage, the scene began, with Bridget talking to Susie. Susie delivered her one line. Her voice
trembled with obvious fear, yet she still managed to say the words. I was proud of her. I would tell her
later. But for now…
“Julian, we need to talk,” I said.
Julian didn’t even nce at me. His eyes were glued to the stage.
“Julian,” I said, more forcefully.
“Shh.” Did he just shush me?
I moved into his line of sight, blocking his view of the stage. Face nk, he simply leaned over to look
around me.
Okay, I got it. He wanted to watch this scene as much as I wanted to avoid it. Was he some kind of
masochist? Liked the pain? Or was this way of dealing with the potential rejection? Did he need to see
Bridget and Nichs interact like some kind of proof? Even if it was only an act.
Fine. I wouldn’t stand in his way, if this was what he felt he needed.
+15 BONUS
Sighing, I moved to stand beside Julian instead. I was annoyed though, and wouldn’t put it past him to
try to sneak away again. So I reached out and clenched his wrist in a vice grip. If he wanted to escape
me, he’d have to break my hold. That would be much harder to do now, since I had a wolf.
Onstage, Nichs had climbed through the makeshift window and was sharing romantic words with
Bridget. The scene made my stomach clench no matter how many times I witnessed it.
I nced at Julian beside me. His nk expression had not changed. Suddenly, I began to worry about
him even more than before. It wasn’t like him to not be quick with a grin and a quip. Something was
definitely going on with him.
I’d promised Nichs I would speak with him, but I would want to anyway. Even if I didn’t want the truth
about what happenedst night, I would still want to talk to him, to find out why he looked so broken.
“Julian…” I whispered.
“Later, Piper,” he said, still not looking at me. “I’m watching the show now.”
I closed my mouth again. He really did want to torture himself.
I guessed that meant I had to be tortured too.
When I returned my attention to the stage, it was time for the kiss. Beside me, Julian tensed. I tensed
too, holding onto his arm for dear life.
I couldn’t see Nichs’s face from here, only Bridget’s. She looked up at him with such pure devotion
in her eyes. She was a great actress, but I wondered if not all of that was fake.
Slowly, so slowly, they leaned in toward each other.
My breath caught in my throat.
Please, Nick. No. Don’t.
At thest moment, Nichs turned his head and kissed Bridget on the cheek.
A rush of relief pushed through me.
But then, Bridget, apparently having expected this, grabbed Nichs’s face to center him, pressed
herself up onto her toes, and smashed their lips together.
The crowd began to wildly cheer. So much for being on my side.
Beside me, Julian sighed. He gently ced his hand over mine, and I realized how tightly I was holding
him. Still, I couldn’t force myself to let go.
Nichs stilled for the length of the kiss. He looked like a statue, unmoving. When Bridget pulled back,
smiling, he knocked away her hands then stormed off the stage.
Bridget watched after him, surprised for a moment. But then she corrected herself. She smiled as she
turned toward the confused audience.
“My lover waits for me in the bedchamber!” she said, adlibbing. “He’s so passionate! I must join him at
once!”
+15 BONUS
The crowd hooted and hollered.
Bridget ran off the stage. She caught up with Nichs halfway to the sitting room. Much slower, Susie
came down the stairs. She gave the pair arge berth, inching around them.
“Nichs!” Bridget hurried in front of him to stop his pace. He started to walk around her, but then she
said, “Do you truly hate me so much?” Finally, he stopped.
“I made my position clear from the start, Bridget. No kissing,” Nichs said. “You disrespect that and
disrespected me.”
“I respect you,” Bridget said. “Of course I do. But you cannot think that a passionless kiss would have
convinced that audience we are in love?”
“It is a y,” Nichs said. “It does not need to be convincing.”
“It does if I am to have any chance in thispetition!” Bridget said, voice raising. Then she cleared
her throat and lowered her voice again. “Do you truly hate me so much that you want me gone? If we
do not both y our parts, it makes me look bad.”
I could not imagine a universe in which Bridget, the professional actress, would receive less points in
this event than anyone else. Especially not because Nichs wouldn’t kiss her.
Perhaps it was professional hubris that drove her words now.
I suspected she just wanted a proper kiss from Nichs. Jealousy rose like a growl in my throat. I bit it
down. I bit it all down. To be fair, I couldn’t me her. Nichs’s kisses were hot and fiery. I would do
so many things to be able to burn in him.
“I don’t hate you,” Nichs said, sighing. “But the kiss was unnecessary.”
This text is property of N?/velD/rama.Org.
“I assure you it was very necessary. It’s the easiest way to convince the audience –”
“Easiest way, not the only way.”
“Nichs.” Bridget ced her hands on her hips. “You are being purposefully difficult.‘
“You are being difficult, Bridget,” Nichs said. His voice was proud and sure, unwavering. It had been
for the length of this conversation. “In this, you are in the wrong.”
Bridget suddenly looked taken aback, properly scolded.
“You’ve overstepped,” Nichs said. “See that it doesn’t happen again.”