A Midsummer Night's Fling (Much Ado about Love #1) (30 page)

A
fter the high
of performing
Henry V
to a standing ovation, Nicola was ready to retire to somewhere dark and private to have her wicked way with Max. After all, booze, laughing it up with friends, or great sex—those were about the only ways to ease down from a high like that.

Unfortunately, none of those options were available to Nicola. After the school program wrapped, she and Max and all the other fairies like Lachlan were still on the hook for a final costume fitting. They had to return to the RSF building to meet with Tierney.

“What does Tierney need
all
the fairies for?” Nicola asked on the car ride to the RSF. “I thought your costume was done. And Lach’s. No more fittings needed.”

Max gripped the wheel and bared his teeth in a grimace. “The hair dyeing is today.”

Nicola sincerely tried to choke back her snort of laughter. She didn’t
quite
manage it.

He shot her a very dark look indeed. “Hair dye. Burning. Peeling face.”

She folded her lips primly together. “Of course. How could I forget your trauma?” She reached out to stroke his bearded cheek. “Poor little bunny.”

“That’s not helpful.”

* * *

W
hen Nicola entered
the costume shop, Max slumping along behind her, she was amazed how the room had been transformed into a mini-hair salon. Tierney and several of the interns had set up shop in the bathroom area attached to the dressing rooms, which was situated on the other side of the costume storage room. One shower lay back there and a wide sink that someone very bendy could get their head under if necessary.

Tierney was applying blue dye to the already bleached head of one of Nicola’s fairy handmaidens. Another handmaiden stood in a bathrobe, drying her wet hair with a ratty towel that was already half-pink as the excess dye rubbed free from her hair. Lachlan sat on a stool, holding up a hand mirror to admire—or maybe stare in horror—at the multicolored highlights in his newly black hair.

He’d shaved off his red goatee too, and looked very different: all pale skin and cheekbones. His eyes seemed lighter too, more ice than blue. His hair had turned out beautiful, a silky black with blue and teal-green highlights that made it appear iridescent, like a raven’s wing. This matched well the feathered doublet Tierney had made for Puck’s costume.

“Ah.” Tierney approached Nicola and Max, pulling her stained dyeing gloves off with an ominous
snap
. “The King and Queen. Max, grab a junk T-shirt from the pile, then pull up a stool. It’s time to go blond or go home.”

“I thought it was ‘go big or go home’?” Nicola said, teasing.

“How much bigger do you want Max to
get
?” Walking away, Tierney mixed together the lighter blond for Max’s hair.

Max, for his part, moved through the room with the wide-eyed watchfulness of a lion cub about to be drowned.

“Do you want me to hold your hand?” Nicola murmured.

“‘You mock my pain,’” he said.

“‘Life is pain, princess.’”

Max turned his head and caught her lips in a deep kiss. She leaned into him, her blood humming.

“All right, all right.” Tierney bustled up, and nudged Nicola away from Max with her elbow. “Nic, can you go to the costume shop,
far
away from all of the dye, and try on your two Titania dresses for me? I’ve added a lining in them so the nipple situation should be sorted out now.”

“
Two
dresses?”

Tierney grinned, looking smug. “Day and evening wear for the fairy queen. You’ll see. It’ll mean a quick change for you, but I think it’ll be worth it.”

“All right,” Nicola said. “Hey, you never said what we’re doing with my hair since I’m not going pastel or blond.”

“Oh, I’ve got something wonderful planned for your hair. No worries.” Tierney made a shooing motion toward the costume shop. “Go change.”

Nicola rubbed her palms together, giddy now. Quick changes sucked, yes, but when would she get another chance to wear
two
such decadent creations as Tierney could make?

Nicola was out of the dressing rooms and walking through the costume storage area when Judith opened the costume shop door. Nicola’s blood pulsed through her veins with anger. She wanted to confront Judith about what she’d tried to do to Max, but he’d asked her not to. He didn’t think he could tell Isabelle without coming off bad himself.

So, as Judith approached, Nicola stretched her mouth into something resembling a smile even as her nostrils flared with rage.

“Hello, Nicola.”

“Judith.” Nicola brushed past her, not trusting herself to say more to the woman.

But Judith caught her arm. “I heard something happened between Max and Lachlan at the school program?”

Nicola shrugged and waved that away. “They didn’t practice the fight enough and accidentally beat on each other a little during the show.” It wasn’t the best cover, but it was better than telling everyone the two men had gotten into a fistfight backstage. Rumors spread faster than spilled milk in the theater world. The last thing either Lachlan or Max needed attached to their name was a reputation as a brawler. Especially Max.

“Hmm.” Judith narrowed her cool, gray eyes at this, then stared Nicola up and down. “Did you ever go on the diet I suggested, dear? You’re still looking a little plump.” Before Nicola could reply, Judith let out a small titter. “Ah, well, too late now isn’t it? Let’s just hope Tierney can work with what you’ve got.”

Fuck you very much
. But Nicola gritted her teeth and managed a jerky nod, holding on to her temper through sheer will. One fistfight between company members was enough for today.

Satisfied with her win, Judith turned from Nicola and continued into the costume room. Unable to stop herself, Nicola leaned in the doorway and watched reactions as Judith entered the shop. All of Nicola’s fairy handmaidens, in their various states of hair dyeing and undress, greeted Judith with cries of delight. Judith was the director—how else were the actors going to treat her?

Max, who was busy having his hair painted with dye by Tierney, nodded politely to Judith. Tierney, distracted by her work, also simply nodded.

“We’re taking a break while the set designer tweaks some things, so I wanted to check on the hair salon operation,” Judith said.

Tierney started talking to the director about the various shades of pastel hair they’d chosen for the fairies, when in the performance schedule they would do any root-touch-ups, and other minutia of hair color.

Uninterested, Nicola turned toward the costume shop to change into her dresses. She was still jazzed to see them, and nothing Judith could say or do was going to take that away from her.

Peter sidled through the costume shop door. He saw Nicola and waved, striding toward her with long, powerful legs.
Such good genes in Max’s family
.

As he walked up, he kissed her cheek. “I heard you killed it as Henry V today?”

“It was amazing, Pete.”

“Of course you were.” He grinned at her, and a ball of worry inside her loosened. Peter had always been like a big brother to her, a precious friend. She hated the fact he didn’t want her with Max.

“Is Lachlan here?” Peter asked.

She pointed. “There he sits. Admiring his new look.”

“Black hair. Huh. Man, he is
pale
.”

“We can’t all tan in the Caribbean on a weekly basis, movie star,” she said.

“I’ve got some news for him.” Peter tried to keep his lips in check, but the smirk on his face blossomed anyway, big and smug and delighted.

“The movie? He got the part.” She hung on Peter’s arm and bounced, happy for Lachlan. He’d been a dick lately, but he was still a great actor. He deserved all the work he could get. She shoved Peter’s shoulder. “Well, tell him. Tell him.”

Lachlan walked up to the two of them, perhaps having seen them watching him. He stared back and forth from Peter to Nicola, his brow creased in a frown, his face suddenly even paler. He had a small scab on his mouth and his eyelid was red and swollen. The lid might turn black along the fold beneath his brow, but other than that, he had weathered the fight with Max all right.
Luckily
. Isabelle would have killed both men if either had seriously messed his face up a week before they opened
Midsummer
.

“Peter has news for you,” Nicola said.

“What news?” Lachlan glanced at Peter, looking as if he were about to get a cancer diagnosis and not an acting part.

Peter grabbed Lachlan by both arms. “I got you a part in my new movie. That World War II thing I was telling you about.”

Lachlan swallowed. Once, twice. He slapped a hand to his mouth, then ran into the bathroom in the dressing room. The fairy maidens scattered with startled squeals. Sounds of retching filled the dressing room.

“What the fuck?” Peter said.

Nicola’s gut churned in abrupt sympathy with Lachlan’s.
What just happened?

“Lachlan?” Tierney called, but she was deep in on the application to Max’s hair and couldn’t leave that task to check on Lachlan. She frowned at Nicola. “Do you think it was the fumes from the dye?”

No
. But Nicola nodded. “Oh, probably.” She started toward the bathroom at the same time as Judith did. The older woman cast Nicola a
you’re not needed
scowl, which Nicola ignored.

“Lachlan?” Judith knocked on the bathroom door. “Lach, are you all right?”

More retching, then a harsh, strained voice that was barely recognizable as Lachlan’s said, “Leave me alone.”

“Lachlan?” Judith said, looking startled.

“You leave me
alone
.”

The hollowness in her gut growing, Nicola brushed past Judith’s shoulder. “Lachlan,” she murmured. “It’s Nic. Can I come in?”

A long pause followed and then, “I wouldn’t recommend it, petal.”

Vanity
. She rolled her eyes. “My boyfriend used to be a drunk, remember? I can handle it. Can I come in?”

Another long pause. “
You
can.”

Nicola shot Judith a dark, suspicious glower, then pushed into the bathroom.

The stall door hung open, and Lachlan sat hunched in one corner against the wall, his knees drawn up, his face scary-pale. He tried to give her one of his usual smirks, but the expression wobbled on his face. He pressed a fist to his mouth as tears shimmered and pooled in his eyes.

Nicola crouched next to him and touched his knee. “Are you all right?”

A muscle in his jaw ticked, and his hand trembled as he squeezed his fist. “I look all right, don’t I?”

Sounds of furious activity and voices raised filtered through the bathroom door. Nicola ignored all that to focus on him. “This isn’t the usual reaction of an actor landing a big break.”

He hung his head, the water in his eyes shimmering. “Peter’s giving me a part. A wonderful part. The big break I’ve been waiting for.” He swallowed as he dropped his head to his knees. “I did it for nothing. I did it for
nothing
.”

Nicola grabbed his arm. “What?”

He drew in a ragged breath and cut his gaze over to Nicola, his face was slack, empty. “Judith is going to announce today that
I’ll
be playing Henry V.”

Nicola’s eyes prickled, with horror at Judith, with pity for him. “Oh,
Lachlan
. No.”

“I met her at the pub last night. I’d already had a few drinks when she showed up. She gave me to understand that Max wasn’t…right for Henry. But I could be. She said I could show her how much I wanted the part.” He huffed out a bitter laugh. “So I did. I don’t have the scruples your Maxim does.”

“You wanted the part that bad?”

“Badly enough to whore myself? I thought I did. God.” He pressed a shaking hand to his eyes and squeezed the moisture from them.

“This is why you were so awful today.”

“More or less. The sight of Maxim offends me on my best days, but
today
… Apologize to him for me, would you?”

Nicola blinked back tears of her own. “Lachlan, I’m so sorry.”

“Ah, my blossom. Don’t pity me too much. Like all the great idiots, I did this to myself.”

“We have to do something about Judith. This is wrong.”

“What can we do? We’re theater folk. We sleep together all the time. There doesn’t have to be a quid pro quo involved.”

“But there
was
. If a male director did this to his actors, people would call it rape. It’s sexual harassment, at the very least.”

Pressing a hand to the wall, he levered himself up. He grimaced at the toilet, flushed it with his foot, then offered his hand to help her stand.

She grunted as he hauled her to her feet. She felt heavy, weighted with this horrible new knowledge. “I’m going to Isabelle,” she said.

Keeping her arm around Lachlan’s waist, the two of them stepped out of the restroom—

To find Judith all alone in the dressing room, leaning against the doorframe into the storage area. She bestowed one of her tight, sharp little smiles on Nicola. “Isabelle, eh? And what could you possibly tell her?”

Lachlan gritted his teeth, but he couldn’t look at Judith. “The truth.”