Read Online Fair Play by Tracy A. Ward - Free Book Online Page B

facing, and the way she stared down at my hand that gripped her arm, ate at me. She seemed almost disbelieving, maybe even a little afraid. What I’d done had left me shaken and ashamed.
    As I walked down the back stairs of The Marshall Theater, I realized I shouldn’t have given in to her. I never should’ve agreed to act out that scene.
    Ashlyn knew how to get under my skin, how to push every damn one of my buttons and yank all my chains. She heightened my protective instincts. My reactions, good or bad, became magnified. The way she made me laugh, or caused me to want to kill the person who made her cry. The way her touch lit up every part of my body. The way her kiss made me ache to possess.
    More than that, though, it was the way she frustrated me, chipped away at my sense of control. Never had a woman made me want to punch my way through a brick wall the way Ashlyn Carter did. That’s what made me put an end to the charade. That’s what made me run.
    I’d never hit a woman before. Had never even felt the urge.
    Then again, neither had my father. Until one day he did.

Chapter Seven
    Ashlyn
    I hadn’t seen Noah since he left me in front of my door the day before. With rehearsals about to start, concern for his emotional well-being had taken a back-seat to the importance of actually giving the actors something to rehearse. That’s why I now stood in front of Lucas’s office, waiting for him to get off the phone so I could meet with him and hand him the revised act 1 and mostly finished act 2.
    Role-playing with Noah had triggered my creative juices. I’d been upset when Lucas had ordered Noah and me to act out the scenes together, but he’d been right—demanding I spend time with Noah in order to connect to my muse had done the trick. The stalker scene now in the script was something to be proud of. By channeling Caroline, I’d been able to come up with the right actions paired with perfect dialogue. I knew Lucas was going to love the scene.
    And I couldn’t wait to show him.
    However, not only had the improv left me nearly topless and completely vulnerable, but I’d also been on the verge of getting down and dirty in a stairwell with a guy I’d known forever but didn’t even like. Since that first kiss in my bedroom two days ago, I hadn’t been able to get Noah out of my mind. But that still didn’t change things between us.
    Just like my controlling father and overprotective brother, Noah thought he knew what was best for me. Having a hand in bringing me to Phair, shackling himself to me with party-favor handcuffs, and shoving an air-conditioning unit in my bedroom window were just the three most recent examples. What I couldn’t explain was how abruptly he’d not only pulled away, but stayed away.
    Finally, Lucas opened the door and I barged into his office. “Do you have time to look this over now?” I asked him, tossing the script on his desk.
    Peering up at me above the rims of his glasses, Lucas picked up the pages while I seated myself on a red velvet settee.
    Dressed in a mint green T-shirt and gray cardigan, he looked every bit the thin-skinned old man he was fast becoming. The issues with the theater, it seemed, had aged him over the last few months. I wondered if some of his old vigor would return once we won Best in Show.
    Lucas took a seat behind his desk, and as he read, his gray eyes darted my way every now and again, but I couldn’t decipher what he was thinking. Even his body language didn’t give me a clue. By the time he finished reading the act, our eyes finally met.
    That’s when I saw the tears.
    But what did they mean? Tension knotted my shoulders. Long seconds passed. His outright silence could mean only one thing.
    I’d failed.
    Again.
    I stood. Before heading out of the office, I let my gaze make a circle around the room, stopping on thirty-two frames that were featured prominently on the far wall. Each of those frames held an autographed script or playbill from a now