Maddie stiffened. Heather Wainwright was totally flirting with Micah. How could Maddie ever compete with Heather Wainwright?

And did she just admit that she wanted to compete over Micah?

Micah removed himself from the actress’s clutch. “Uh, Heather, we weren’t ever really…anything,” he said.

Weren’t ever really anything? Maddie’s heart thumped loudly in her chest. Why would Heather think otherwise?

He leaned back on the boulder. “And aren’t you back with your boyfriend?”

Heather shrugged. “I was with him the last time we hooked up.”

“You were? I didn’t realize…” Micah trailed off.

Maddie’s thumping heart dropped to her stomach. Micah and Heather had already hooked up. Heather had kissed and fondled and stroked and done all the things that Maddie longed to do with Micah. She wanted to throw up.

It doesn’t matter. He had been with so many women it didn’t matter if Heather was one of the hordes.

Except that the actress named as one of the fifty most beautiful women in the world by the biggest entertainment magazine in the industry was right there, right now, inches from him. Was he sleeping with her while he hit on Maddie? Please, oh please, let that be a no.

Maddie didn’t have to wait long for an answer to her questions. Heather’s proposition came soft but distinct over the headphones. “Come over tonight, Micah. We have tomorrow off. We could spend all day in the hotel like old times.” She leaned into him and whispered, “Doesn’t that sound fun?”

He stood up and turned to face his costar, leaving what Maddie considered an appropriate distance between them. “Heather, I’m just, you know, I’m not really feeling it.”

Yes. Maddie could have jumped for joy if she weren’t afraid of drawing attention.

Heather slumped down on the boulder, pouting. “What a shame. I thought I could always count on you for a roll in the hay. Are you sure you’re not coming down with something?”

“Ha–ha-ha, yes. I’m fine. I’m just—”

“Micah,” Joe interrupted. “Let’s talk about that moment at the beginning of the scene.”

Maddie slipped the headphones off and handed them to Chloe. She was still surprised about the exchange. Micah had slept with Heather in the past and he wasn’t sleeping with her now. Half to herself she said, “He totally turned her down.”

Chloe raised her eyebrows. “He did? Hmm. Bummer for Heather. Well, I guess that fits his M.O. He’s generally a love ’em-and-leave-’em guy, isn’t he? Still, lucky her for getting whatever she got.”

Maddie nodded in agreement, but she wasn’t so sure. Surprise, surprise. Not sure about Micah. Again. “Chloe, would you sleep with him knowing it was going to be a one-time thing?”

“Uh, duh. Who wouldn’t? Girlfriend, if Micah Preston showed even the slightest bit of interest, I’d rub myself all up and down him before he could say, ‘April Fool’s’. That man is fine.”

Maddie rubbed her chin. “Really? I mean he’s hot.” Super, mega-amazingly eye-blindingly hot. “But it wouldn’t be like just a normal one-night stand. You’d see his face everywhere after and that would just be—”

Chloe cut her off. “It would be awesome, is what it would be. Every time I saw his face I’d say to myself—and probably everyone I know—‘yeah, I hit that.’”

Maddie laughed. Chloe had a point. Sleeping with a super-hot actor wouldn’t be something most people would frown at.

Oh, hell. Why was she such a frickin’ prude? Had she always been this way? Or just with the one guy in the universe that she actually wanted to fuck royally?

“Besides,” Chloe added. “You always wonder if you could be the one—the one that the hot guy finally settles for. But you never know unless you go for it. I mean, I’d never go for it. But that’s only ’cause I’m all talk.”

Maddie sighed. This was crazy. Her and Micah and chances and all of it. Absolute madness. She’d read somewhere that the definition of crazy was doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. Over and over she’d said she was finished with Micah and over and over again she returned to him like a boomerang flung into the wind. If she really wanted to be done with him, she had to do something different.

But what if she abandoned her entire agenda? What if she decided returning to Micah’s arms was actually an okay ending? Heaven knew that was exactly where she wanted to be.

What if he really could give them a chance and she was the one who was holding them back?

What if…

She thanked Chloe for the entertainment and returned to her place at the camera, struggling to hide her sudden giddiness. She’d made a decision and she wasn’t backing down. For the first time since Micah reentered her life, she felt sure.

Micah ran his hand through his hair as he waited for the hotel clerk to make him a new keycard. He’d thought he’d made progress with Maddie that day. Their run—okay, walk—had been tough to get through, even without the physical exertion, but it had ended on a promising note.

The night’s shoot, the last before a much needed day off, had gone well too. Except for a minor awkward moment early in the evening when Heather had tried to resume their occasional sexual activity. Uh, no. If not for Maddie, maybe, but that was hard to even imagine because Maddie was all he could think about.

But after that the shoot had been nice. For the first time since he’d arrived in Colorado, he didn’t try to avoid or seduce Maddie. Instead, he’d stood for all his focus measurements, chatted with her between takes, exchanged glances with her when Joe got off track. It was all natural and easy and fun.

On top of that, his acting had been on fire. He’d remembered all his lines and hit all his marks. The scenes had gone so well, they’d wrapped early.

And that was when things started going downhill.

He looked around for Maddie the second they were done to no avail. He even asked others about her whereabouts, not caring about what they thought or what rumors his inquiry started. No one had an answer. Then he walked down to video village where Adam said she’d taken the camera hard drives. He didn’t find her there either.

He decided to hit his trailer and shower then search for her again. When he couldn’t find her after he’d cleaned up, he wondered if she was avoiding him again. He considered calling her, pulled out his phone more than once to do so, but he didn’t want to push her. She’d said she’d consider giving them a shot. He had to trust her.

Then to top off his already anxious mood, he couldn’t for the life of him find his room key and had to have a new one made at the front desk.

He pulled out his phone again while the night clerk fiddled with the key machine. While he didn’t want to be pushy, he wanted Maddie to know he was thinking of her. He deliberated over what to text her for an embarrassingly long length of time. In the end he went with short and simple. Sweet dreams, baby.

She didn’t return his text, and he worried. But what could he do?

Nothing. Nothing but wait.

By the time he stood outside his room, he was tired and frustrated. And alone.

He considered knocking on Fudge’s door. The idea of entering an empty suite was almost too desolate to imagine. But Fudge had taken off while Micah was still searching for Maddie. He was most likely already asleep. And what use would Fudge be in keeping Micah’s mind off a woman?

With a heavy sigh, he stuck the new key in the card reader to open the door.

And there she was. Standing in his room like a vision.

He stood blinking in the threshold.

“Um, hi,” she said.

Lost for words, he silently stepped in the room, letting the door close behind him. She’s here, he thought. She’s here. Everything but that splendid realization dissolved away.