Love Me Read Online Free Page A

do.
No wonder they don’t tell you about any of those in school
, Margo thought breathlessly.
If they did, you’d never want to do anything else
. She just hoped they were enough for him. She explored his mouth hungrily, trying to kiss away her doubt, feeling herself begin to relax into his embrace.
Maybe this is it
, she thought, sighing at the feel of his calloused hands on her skin.
Maybe this time it’s all going to come together
.
    The phone rang.
    Dane was up like a shot to answer it. Eyes widening, he turned to Margo, covering the receiver with his hand.
“It’s the studio.”
    Margo sat straight up, her heart beating so hard she thought it was going to burst out of her nightgown in a bloody mess. This was it, all right. Just a different kind of
it
.
    “Yes.” Dane nodded. “Yes, I see. Well, thank you so much for calling. I appreciate it.” He hung up the phone.
    “What?” Margo practically shouted. “What did they say?”
    “That was my line producer. Seems I’m off today. Some kind of problem with the locations, so they have to rejig the shooting schedule.”
    “Oh.” Margo felt cold.
How dare they call with something like that, this morning of all mornings?
“Oh, I see.”
    “I can’t say I mind,” Dane said sexily. “Now. Where were we?”
    He dropped his face back to Margo’s. His kisses were growing more urgent now. In spite of her nervousness—or maybe because of it—Margo felt her breathing grow shallow as Dane’s warm hands began creeping their way back up her nightgown, exploring what was underneath.…
    The phone rang again.
    Margo froze. “Answer it.”
    Dane’s lips were buried in her neck. “Oh, baby, come on. It’s just my producer again. If he changed his mind about me going in today, I don’t want to know about it.”
    “Dane.”
Margo jerked roughly out of his embrace.
“Answer it.”
    Dane seized the receiver.
“Yes?”
he snapped tersely.
“Oh.”
His breath caught in his throat. “Larry. Hello.”
    Larry!
Margo stopped breathing.
    “No, no, of course I didn’t forget,” Dane was saying. “No … oh.” His eyebrows shot up. “Oh. Well. I see. No, that’s … that’s quite something.… Yes. Of course. Well, thank you for calling.… Yes. I appreciate that. I’ll see you soon.”
    Dane hung up the phone. Margo lay motionless beneath the covers, too terrified to move. “Well?” she gasped finally. “What … what did he say?”
    Dane didn’t seem to see her. His face was deadly pale and his eyes looked as wet and unfocused as a newborn’s.
    “It seems,” he began, in a soft, small voice, “it seems I’ve been nominated for an Academy Award. For
The Nine Days’ Queen
.”
    You?
Margo wanted to scream.
What about me?
“That … that’s incredible,” she stammered instead.
    “I can’t believe it.” Dane’s hands were shaking. He lookeddown at them stupidly, as though they belonged to somebody else. “I just can’t … I mean, who would have thought?”
    Not me
, Margo thought meanly.
    Not that Dane hadn’t been perfectly marvelous in his five scenes as Lord Guilford Dudley, nearly all of which had been filmed prior to Margo’s being cast in the leading role of Lady Jane Grey after the original star, Diana Chesterfield, had disappeared without a trace. But he’d barely been mentioned as more than a “typically handsome presence” (
The New York Times
) who “puts his matinee-idol profile to good use” (
Variety
) in any of the notices, let alone in any of the lead-up speculation about just who might have a chance with one of the little gold men who were suddenly the hottest date in town.
    “Dane,” she ventured carefully, “that’s wonderful, and I’m so happy for you. But … Larry didn’t say anything about me, did he?”
    Dane looked at her with surprise, as though he’d forgotten she was there. “You? No. He didn’t say anything about you.”
    Margo’s heart was racing. “Nothing” was hardly the same thing