Reading Keeps Me Sane Book Blog: Blog Tour- Playing Dirty by Jessie K

A full length standalone.

One kiss set the stage.

I knew my acting partner was too young for me, but I didn’t care.

One unforgettable night in my bed was the performance of a lifetime.

Now I can’t get the memories out of my head.

When she shows up in my life again in the worst possible place, I have to think we’re as doomed as Romeo and Juliet.

“Tell me you don’t love me anymore, and I will walk out this door. I’ll walk out of this town and never steal sight of you again, Fiona.” He rose and took her by the shoulders. Under the bright stage lights, she looked like an angel. “Say it. Tell me you don’t fucking love me anymore.”

“I don’t fucking love you anymore!” Lynn grabbed the collar of his shirt and pressed her sweet mouth to his. Matthew lifted her up to his waist, holding her tight and letting her devour him. This surpassed a stage kiss, this was magic wrapped around the tongue of a gorgeous girl. He lost himself in her, forgetting the stage and Vance and Fiona.

Lynn rocketed him to a place where it was just the two of them, where the floors spun and an erection was begging to burst from the prison within his jeans.

He could do this every day. Oh God, could he do this every goddamn day.

She finally broke it off, leaving Matthew slightly shocked from the absence of her. He helped her slide down him, taking care to lift her off of him and set her down gently before she could get too close to the bulge in his jeans.

They stood side by side and bowed their heads slightly, completely in sync with one another.

“Thank you.” The headless voice floated out from the seats.

They exited on the opposite side of the stage and were funneled into section with the others who went before them. Man-bun high-fived him as he took a seat. Somehow during their crabwalk across the tight aisles, he lost her. Matthew looked around but Lynn was gone.

He tried to push down the disappointment chewing up his chest. This was just an audition, their time together was finished. Expecting her to stick with him was silly and he had always parted ways with his scene partners in the past.

But this time, he couldn’t shake his attachment to the brunette whose kiss made him pitch a tent in the middle of a crowded theater with his potential employer.

Matthew stretched out in the chair and tried instead to focus on his competition. He had missed several auditions while running lines with Lynn in the hall, but there were plenty of others to whittle down. He knew for certain he was better than a solid seventy-five percent of the males auditioning for Vance.

He didn’t just perform the role, he was the role. So many of these guys were choppy and robotic or bland; they lacked the soul needed for a man as complicated as Vance Gray.

How would the blond in skinny jeans handle the role when he went spiraling down the drug trip? He didn’t look like he could dominate a woman the way he dominated Fiona in that scene.

Just like that, his mind shifted from sizing up performances to undressing Lynn and throwing her onto his bed, exploring every inch of that nubile girl, owning her with his lips and tongue. She was like snake venom, tearing up his system and shutting everything else down. A girl hadn’t been able to take ownership of his mind like this in years.

Not since Nadia.

Not since his last show.

He gritted his teeth and pulled his focus back to the stage. In some ways, Nadia was a lifetime ago, but she had taught him an invaluable lesson: don’t let love interfere with your craft. What started off as the best sex of his life turned into a nightmare rapidly spinning out of control. She slept with directors, stagehands, his fellow actors, anyone she could to further her career in New York City. She’d just neglected to share this information with him while sharing his bed.

Matthew became a goddamn laughing stock and had to leave his last company. His career went down the shitter because of a girl with fake tits and faker commitment. As innocent as Lynn looked, he hadn’t expected Nadia to screw him over, either.

“Never trust a starving actress.” That was what his old mentor told him during his MFA program. Words he needed to heed this time and forever, even if he could be missing out on the best pair of tits he’d seen in a long time.

This was his career on the line. His dick could mind its own business until after callbacks.