Read Online One Night by Diane Alberts - Free Book Online Page B

lied about other things, as well. After all, she was with a bloke who seemed awfully familiar with her. And awfully comfortable touching her.
    And he felt fucking gutted over this whole situation.
    Who was the asshole next to her? Why was he touching her? And why did she bloody well let him? He wished he could stop singing, storm off the stage, and demand to know the blasted truth about what she was doing here. Had she lied to him about her relationship status? Was she really married, or engaged—instead of a grieving fiancée left behind? Worse yet, had she known who he was all along?
    Perhaps she had led him on so she could brag to her friends about how she had bedded him the night before his big opening. Had he been played?
    It sure felt like he fucking had.
    Toward the end of the play, he couldn’t help but look down at her as he sang. Couldn’t help but sing to her and her alone, silently questioning her motives and the one night they’d shared together. She straightened when their eyes met, her own not dropping from him no matter how long he stared at her. He was forced to look away first, since he needed to kiss his fiancée on stage.
    As he closed his lips over his fiancée’s , holding the kiss for the required five seconds, he could feel Lexi’s eyes on him. What was she thinking right now? Was she angry with him for not telling her the truth? Her face had been closed off and unreadable. No big surprise there.
    He’d known she would be.
    When the orchestra played its last notes, the crowd rewarded them with applause. As the actors took turns bowing and smiling, Justin watched her . She stood up, one of those Sippy cups they gave perfectly capable adults in her arm, and clapped loudly. Her eyes still shined with tears—and she was looking right back at him.
    Gutting him on stage, for all to see.
    Her blasted companion eyed him, then leaned in close to Lexi and said something. She flushed and elbowed him, her mouth tight. The curtain closed, cutting off his line of sight, and he lunged into action. Shaking the hands of his fellow actors as he stormed across the stage, he hurried out the side exit of the stage and rushed into the crowd.
    Big mistake.
    One he should have known better than to commit. He barely made it a step before the crowd converged on him, begging for pictures and autographs. Normally he loved this sort of thing, but he could see Lexi getting closer and closer to the exit, while he was stuck in front of the stage. She was going to leave him. Again.
    And he couldn’t stop her … again .
    As he forced smiles and posed for pictures with fans, out of the corner of his eye he watched the woman he would never be able to forget leave his life. She obviously had no intention of speaking to him again. Or, seeing him again. He swallowed past his aching throat, cursing inwardly.
    Damn it all to hell, he had hoped he’d been wrong about her. Hoped she wouldn’t flee with the man by her side before he could confront her. She probably hadn’t wanted him to approach her because she didn’t want the man to know about them. That had to be why she left. It was over. They were over … if they’d ever really begun. One night did not a relationship make.
    By the time the crowd thinned, and he changed into his street clothes, he was buried in a foul mood. Sure, the night had been a success even if he had fumbled his lines when he first saw Lexi. But besides that, the musical had gone smooth. Perfect.
    Unlike his life.
    He growled, tossed his bag over his shoulder, and headed down the hallway. Once again, it was abandoned and he was alone. A feeling of deja vu washed over him, but he doubted Lexi would be waiting in the empty alleyway for him this time. By now, all of the other actors would have already signed their autographs and would be heading out to party.
    He shoved through the door, his breath catching in his throat when he saw the shadow of someone standing there in the alley. “Lexi?”
    She stepped