Page 87 of Cosplay & Consequences

I tried to bolt, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

“Stop running away!”

I yanked my arm away from him, wiping back tears. “Danny! Don’t you see? We’re a car wreck waiting to happen!”

“I don’t care!” he shouted back.

Something inside me broke, a flood of mixed emotions raced through me. I couldn’t tell what I was feeling as it hit me all at once. Part of me wanted to bury myself into his arms while the flight instinct kept surfacing. I held myself back. “We’re just going to end up hurting each other!”

He shook his head vehemently. “You don’t know that! It could be Bray and Bennet’s first date, but for us it’s just a week!”

The determination on his beautiful face made me burst into tears. “I’m sorry, Danny. Every time we try to share a moment, every time we do something, it blows up in our face. You get a role, and I get the world to hate you. We have a one-night stand, and the next day I almost destroy your career. You put out a fantastic performance, and the studio undermines you. I gave a book to your niece, and now MaxFlick is after my family. I can’t be in your life if I know that somehow, some way, it’s going to ruin you.”

“You have never ruined me. And you never will.” He stepped closer, his voice firm. “This is everyday life, Jess. You win a role; you lose a role. All I know is that even with the highs and lows, I know I’m a better person for having gone through them with you. I don’t want to have it all and not have you in my life. I don’t want Tyrst’an. I don’t want the show. I don’t want any of it if I don’t have you.”

The ache in my chest turned to warmth. I realized that even though everything went to hell, the small and big moments we’d shared outweighed everything else.

“I just want you, Jess,” he pleaded. His voice broke and the sound of it went straight to my head making me feel tipsy.

I smiled at him despite the tears, and he smiled back, his body slumping in relief.

“I want to do everything with you. Good days. Bad days. All of it,” he added, and then he started to spiral, his hands rubbing his face and head. “Oh God, and carbs. If I can’t be Tyrst’an, I want to be with you and eat carbs.”

I laughed, tears still running down my cheeks. “Carbs? Have you eaten today?”

“What? No. I haven’t. It doesn’t matter. Oh, God. I want pasta. Potatoes. Those deep-fried dumplings with God-knows-what inside them from Kao’s. All I want is to sit on a couch while you read your books, and I eat gallons of ice cream.”

I pulled him close, my hands cupping his face. “I’m going to start kissing you, so you’ll shut up and not ruin this.”

He let out an exhausted laugh. “I’m okay with that.”

I pulled him down and his arms wrapped around me as our lips met. Everything, all the chaos, tension, and heartbreak slipped away.

We broke our kiss and smiled at each other.

“I love you,” he said, breathing like he ran a race.

My knees almost buckled as my heart melted. “That’s the lack of carbs talking,” I argued.

He kept shaking his head. “No, I’d still say that if I ate a pound of pasta carbonara.” His eyes glazed over. “Oh, God, that sounds good.”

“You’re losing me,” I teased, my emotions fighting their way out of me.

“Still in love with you,” he promised.

I teared up again as my hands and body trembled. “I love you too, Danny.”

He leaned in to kiss me, and I wanted nothing more than to melt into him. We were interrupted by applause as our declarations of love drew the attention of nearby convention attendees. Phones were out and recording us and cheering began.

Danny hung his head chuckling. “Oh god. I know that’s ending up on the internet.”

“It’s okay,” I said, leaning up to kiss him again. “They ship us.”

“Daniel! Jessica! What in the name of St. Genesius are you doing?”

We both jerked back to see Sebastian Glass, his arms crossed and a disgruntled expression on his face. “Have you two no shame? I’ve seen less tawdry emotional displays in brothels of Eastern Europe!”

Danny pulled me in closer. “Sorry, Sebastian. I was chasing down my favorite critic.”