Only for You by Beth Kery

about what happened two years ago at that cancer benefit. Do you really think that’s
normal
, Seth?”
    He glanced wryly back at the chair and table he’d arranged in preparation for her makeup. “I’d have trouble finding anything about this whole thing that’s
normal.”
    Her eyes seemed to blaze as she took a step toward him. “I know how much you have a thing about avoiding actresses in your personal life. Liza told me.”
    “I know. She told you before we ever met that night, didn’t she?”
    Gia blinked. “I . . . I don’t remember.”
    “You’re lying,” Seth replied levelly, turning to the chair and picking up the breast binder with subtle shoulder padding that he’d brought. “Liza told me she’d mentioned to you beforehand that I avoided actresses in my personal life.”
    “Why
do
you?” she demanded suddenly, as if her curiosity had trumped her anger. Not that she still wasn’t pissed. Her indignation had flushed her cheeks and lips. He yanked his gaze away from her mouth. “How can you be so self-righteous about such a blatant prejudice? It’s unfair to the women you work with, day in and day out.”
    “A lot of people don’t mix business and pleasure. It’s not surprising. Besides, you’re changing the subject,” he said, unzipping the binder. “You knew that night I avoided actresses, and that’s why you didn’t tell me you were a working Broadway actress—one who had a hit big enough to attract a Hollywood agent like Cecelia Arends,” he added, unable to fully disguise his sarcasm. “
That’s
why Cecelia was annoyed at Tommy Valian that night. Because he’d alienated the girl she was desperate to sign, and eventually
did
sign.
That’s
why she was chasing after you. A casting agent had already earmarked you for the part in
Glory Girl
. Cecelia was in hot pursuit. That’s what you were avoiding telling me that night.”
    “I never lied to you.”
    “Sometimes lies of omission are even more blatant than telling a falsehood.”
    “You misled me as well,” she accused in a shaking voice. “According to Liza—and Cecelia, for that matter—things were a lot more serious between Cecelia and you than you led me to believe.”
    “I can’t help it if that’s what Cecilia thought. I was being honest when I said I wasn’t involved with her. Time has proven that, hasn’t it?”
    “Well, I was being honest that night too. Or as much as I could have been honest around a man with irrational prejudices about a profession.”
    “Or about an age?” he muttered darkly. First confusion and then guilt flickered across her face. He had to say this about Gia, lying didn’t come naturally to her. He must have been half-crazed with lust that night not to notice her sleight of hand.
    “What?” she asked breathlessly, recovering. “You’re upset because of my age?
Seriously?
”
    “You lied about it. You made me think you were Liza’s age,” he said, repressed anger starting to pulse in his veins.
    “I was twenty-two then. You were ten years older. What’s the big deal?”
    He grimaced slightly. “You’re worshipped by a horde of infatuated teenage boys and girls. After you hit it big, I felt . . .
indecent
realizing I’d been with you.”
    “It’s not my fault if my first movie was a young adult hit.
I’m
almost twenty-five right now. I was a consenting adult when we were together. And for your information, you
were
indecent that night. So was I,” she added darkly.
    He snarled, irritated at her flippancy. Or honesty. Or the heat that flashed through him at her reply. He couldn’t say which. “Don’t try and deny you didn’t mislead me about your age on purpose.”
    She choked on incredulous laughter. “Oh my God. I can’t believe how unreasonable you are. I wasn’t a teenager! Is
that
really why you didn’t call me?”
    “You had my number as well.”
    The silence swelled. Frustration spiked through him. He hadn’t meant to betray the fact that he’d