Sparked (city2city: Hollywood) Read Online Free Page B

like sunshine.  
    She was sunshine to him, scattering the cold, gray clouds of winter with her warmth. “I don’t want it to be. The end, I mean.” He swallowed nervously, mouth gone dry, and lifted a hand to tuck a silky strand of hair behind her ear. “Is that okay?”
    “Is what okay?” She sounded breathless, cheeks turning pink as his thumb gently petted the sweet curve of her jaw.  
    “That I don’t want to say good-bye to you right now.” He shook his head and dropped his bag at their feet before stepping closer, until he felt the press of her body through the placket of his coat. Her face, so delicate, so lovely, fit perfectly between his cupped palms. “That I…can’t say good-bye.”  
    He was alone on Christmas Eve in a foreign city with nowhere to go. He needed to find an ATM and a phone book, and figure out where the heck he would sleep tonight and if the limit on his credit card would allow him to book a return flight back to Chicago, or if he would be forced to stay in England until his original roundtrip ticket said he could go home, three days from now. He needed to not think about Jon or his mom and dad, and he needed…he needed….  
    Sadie. He needed Sadie. Standing on the quickly emptying platform in King’s Cross, the puff of their breaths clouding the air between them, she warmed all the places deep inside him that had been cold since the day he’d found out his parents never made it home from O’Hare International Airport.  
    He shivered, once again blinking away the threat of tears. He was twenty-two, and not a boy anymore. Not for eleven months and eleven days. He was a man now, alone in the world, and men who were alone in the world did not cry .  
    But he wondered, a little bit, if it might be safe with Sadie, just to let one tear fall. Only the one. And then he could—would—get control of himself and be a man again, for both of them.  
    Moisture collected on his lower lashes against his will. So he leaned down and covered her perfect mouth with his at the same moment she went up on her toes to meet him halfway, grabbing him by the lapels.  
    She was…she was . Oh, God. He sensed tears trailing down his cheeks, but he didn’t care. Her lips were soft, sweet, open and giving. So giving.  
    She gave and gave and gave to him, filling him with her glow as he held her face with large, often-clumsy hands. Harsh, panting breaths, the slick slide of lips and tongue, her quiet moan—or was it his?
    No, it was hers, the vibrations of which tingled across every last one of his senses until his hand slid from her jaw to cup her skull, his other moving around to palm her lower back, urging her petite frame to mold itself to him.  
    Then it was his turn to groan. Even through their winter layers, he could feel every subtle curve with exciting clarity. Thighs and hips and bellies and chests, separated by far too much clothing, but it didn’t matter because she caught his upper lip between her teeth, the barest nip of a bite, and he forgot what it was like to ever be cold.  
    Pulling away seemed impossible, but he did it anyway, though the sensation of her body sliding against his as she lowered onto flat feet nearly had him grabbing her up once more.  
    He didn’t let go of her.
    She didn’t let go of him.
    Instead, she stared up at him, gaze flicking over his face, lips parted and swollen. He watched her as intently as she did him, and when she broke into a smile, an answering one curved his own lips.
    “Wow,” she said, eyes alive with some emotion he couldn’t identify but which mirrored the storm of feeling that swirled dangerously beneath his rib cage.  
    “Yeah,” he whispered. “Wow.”

THREE

    Los Angeles, Present Day

    They took the stairs leading to the balcony level quickly, but instead of pulling her into the theater, Ryan led Sadie toward a door labeled STAFF ONLY and tugged her into the empty projection booth.  
    As soon as the door closed behind them,