Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
JULIET
NOVEMBER
I never did one-night stands. Ever. So, of course, my first one came back to bite me in the ass.
Now that Halloween was over, the dinner show I had been starring in had closed its run, and the cast wanted to go out to celebrate. Tickets to New Generation Theatrical's Gothic Tavern were half price for industry professionals. I had my next gig lined up, but it hadn't started yet, so I couldn't think of a good reason to say no. Two drinks and a show for twenty bucks? I couldn't pass that up.
No one warned me how strong the drinks were.
I found myself sitting next to a guy who looked like he’d stepped out of a fairy tale. Perfectly styled blonde hair. Eyes the color of a mossy spring glade. A jawline that could cut glass. Though his jacket hid most of his physique, but he was all muscle from what I could see. I’d never seen such perfection up close. I wanted to run my fingers through his hair. The entire night, I wound up paying more attention to him than the show.
He introduced himself at intermission. Mason Wood. Lost in those emerald pools, I never asked where he worked or mentioned what I did for a living. I’m not entirely certain I managed a coherent sentence. I batted my eyelashes, he smiled, and I melted. We sat and talked at the bar for an hour after the show. When he asked if I wanted to relocate the conversation back to his place, I didn’t think twice.
In twenty-four years on this earth, I’d had sex with exactly three men. Ones I'd known for months or even yearsbefore we fell into bed together.
Mason, with his perfect teeth, dimples, and mossy eyes, made me lose all sense.
It was still dark when I snuck out of his apartment the next morning, absolutely mortified. I called my sister while waiting for my rideshare so she could calm me down. Thankfully, the time difference back home meant I wasn’t waking her up at the crack of dawn. Melody was not a morning person.
“It’s fine, Juliet. So, you had a one-night stand. They happen every day. God knows you need to live a little. Did you have fun?” she asked, her accent making me so very homesick. I didn’t regret moving to the United States, but sometimes I missed home. When I’d been touring around Europe, it had been so easy to pop in to see my family between jobs.
Now they were an ocean away.
“Yes,” I admitted. More fun than I'd had in years.
Mason had a magic freaking tongue, but I didn’t have it in me to go into detail while I was still making the walkof shame.
“Then stop worrying. You had a good time, good for you. You don’t have to see him again unless you want to.”
My little sister had never been so wrong.
Imagine my horror when I walked into rehearsals for my first job at Epic Studios only to discover Mason Wood–my new aerialist partner.
I tried so hard not to think about him in the weeks that followed. Convinced myself I exaggerated how good looking he was–and how great the sex was. Nobody could really be that perfect.
But there he was. In all his glory.
Even better looking than I remembered.
His face lit up like it was Christmas morning and Santa had left him exactly what he asked for under the tree. Meanwhile, horror spread over me like someone had poured a bucket of water over my head.
“Juliet, this is Mason Wood. He’s appeared in a few of our shows and productions over the last two years. Mason, this is Juliet Wright. This is her first show with Epic Studios, but she had a spectacular audition. We think you two are going to be great together.”
Years of masking my feelings in competitions helped me keep a neutral expression on my face as I fought the urge to melt under his megawatt smile.
I had to be the picture of professionalism. This job was the gateway to many more just like it. Christmas rolled into Mardis Gras, and there was Blockbuster Summer promoting whatever movie they just released. Then Nights of Mayhem , the Halloween event, ran from the end of August to the beginning of November. I needed to impress everyone here. A blackball at Epic Studios would take me out of the running for more than a third of the aerialist gigs in the city.
I don’t care what they say about Orlando. It might be a big city, but theme parks are just small towns. Everyone knows everyone.
I spent the summer working a cirque show at Ocean Kingdom. I thought gossip spread fast in Colchester, but it moved through theme parks at lightning speed. It was frightening how quickly rumors spread in the five weeks I spent performing in Song of the Siren . I saw the tension first hand when a couple of dancers broke up in the third week. It was a mess.
I was determined to avoid the drama. Keep my head down, perform my heart out in every performance, and build a life. A real life. I moved here so I could stop traveling for work, to perform and go home to my own bed instead of living out of a suitcase. To have plants that didn’t die the first time I left. Maybe even a pet.
To live somewhere where no one remembered the girl who didn’t medal in her Olympic debut.
I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of that.
Not even Mason Wood and his perfect freaking cheekbones.
He’d been here two years. If there were any problems, of course they’d keep him and boot me. I did the only thing I could. I stuck my hand out.
“Hi Mason, it’s nice to meet you.”