She’d almost made it to the doors when her conscience attacked her. These people, the fans, HER fans, had come from Lord-knows-where and waited Lord-knows-how-long to see her. She couldn’t just brush them off like that; no matter that she wanted to see Justin so badly, her teeth ached. She bit her lip and cast a longing glance at the revolving doors of the hotel. She turned back to the crowd and the noise level went up a decibel or two. She smiled; she had to. It made her feel so good to know that she could have that kind of effect on people. So she stopped and signed as many autographs as Jacob would let her. He hustled her into the hotel after about fifteen minutes and there were still more eager, excited, smiling fans inside, anxious to go home with some sort of momento or memory of this moment.

“Oh my God! I can’t believe it’s you.”

Maddie looked up at the young man. He was an attractive guy, about her age, with pretty brown eyes and incredibly long lashes.

“What’s your name?” She reached out to grab the CD cover he held in his hands.

“Damian.”

‘To Damian,’ she wrote, ‘the guy with the pretty eyes. I wish you the best of luck in everything you do. Maddie.’

He took the CD cover back from her, his eyes still focused on her face. He hesitated, then seemed to gather his courage. “Can I have a hug?”

Jacob moved to step between them but Maddie held him off with a look. She smiled at Damian and spread her arms.

He embraced her gingerly, cautiously, as if she was fine china and he was afraid she would break.

“I hope Justin knows how lucky he is,” he said softly as he released her.

Her smile widened. “We both know.”

She signed a few more autographs and was in the process of signing another when she felt a tingle of awareness shoot up her spine. Her skin felt charged and the hairs at the nape of her neck stood on end. She looked up, eyes searching.

He stood, as if transfixed, at the top of the grand stairway. Their eyes met and locked. Those near Maddie, including Jacob and Britney, turned to see what she was looking at. The intense look on her face was matched by the expression on Justin’s. Britney looked back and forth between them, her mind whirling, a small smile on her lips. The few fans that were close enough to see the expressions on Maddie’s and Justin’s faces would later recount it as ‘they were eating each other up with their eyes’.

For Maddie and Justin, it seemed as if an eternity had passed; time stood still and the world faded away until it was just the two of them. In reality, only a moment or two passed from the time they first spotted each other to when Justin began to move down the steps toward her.

Madison wanted to push through the crowd to meet him halfway, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t function. All she could do was drink in the sight of him, the feline way he moved, the tilt of his head, the breadth of his shoulders, the sway of his stride. At that moment, he was the epitome of everything male and she wanted to surround herself in that, swim in it, get lost in it.

Justin single-mindedly plowed through the fans to get to Maddie, almost not even noticing they were there. He barely noticed that Wes walked in front of him, holding the majority of the fans at bay. All he knew was Maddie and the promise he saw in her blue eyes, a promise he intended to collect on. Just as soon as he could—

Britney’s manager stepped in front of him. “Whoa, there, lover boy. Don’t do it. Don’t you think you should save this little reunion for someplace more private?”

For the first time, Justin took his eyes away from Maddie to look around him. He saw the fans, the curious and fascinated expressions on their faces. Some had cameras poised, ready to capture forever the drama they thought was about to unfold.

“Damn, Larry, I hate it when you make sense,” Justin frowned.

“Yeah, well, just trying to avoid having to do a press conference to explain why you ravished your girl in front of a bunch of fans,” Larry joked as he stepped aside.

“Can I at least give her a hug? Hold her hand?” Justin grumbled.

Larry clapped him on the back and grinned good-naturedly. “I’m only telling you this for your own good and of course, you can hug her. Just don’t get carried away.”

Justin turned back to Maddie and once again, everything faded away into the distance. He walked to her, his eyes locked on her face. His heart swelled in his chest at the emotion he saw there. He reached out for her, his arms sliding around her waist, barely suppressing the shudder he wanted to let loose at that first electric touch of his skin on hers. He leaned over to bury his face in the crook of her neck.

It was a moment suspended in time and, for that moment, everything in Madison Morse’s world was absolutely right. She closed her eyes, almost wishing they could stay that way forever, wrapped in each other’s arms. The feel of his body next to hers, his hard to her soft. The strength in his arms around her and the comfort she took from them. The way he smelled—after-shave and sweat and a scent that was totally his. The gentle rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. The soft tickle of his curls beneath her fingertips. All of it was imprinted onto her brain--a perfect moment in time.

Neither of them was aware of the crowd around them, the flashes of cameras going off around them, Jacob and Wes hovering nearby. They stood, locked in an embrace so sweet it caused those watching to smile. Justin’s fans were just about swooning at this display of tenderness and affection from their idol.

Justin finally pulled back to look into her face. “Hey.”

Eyes glistening with unshed tears, Maddie gave him a shaky smile. “Hey.”

Larry knew what he was going to do before he even moved. The man in him thought it was sweet; the manager in him knew it could become a PR nightmare. He muttered under his breath, “Ah, Justin, don’t do it.”

He seemed to move in slow motion. His head dipped, his eyes locked on Maddie’s but slowly sweeping shut, his eyelashes brushing his cheeks. Maddie tilted her head, a slight smile on her face as she briefly-very briefly-thought about the lecture they were going to get. Then Justin’s lips were on hers and her soul sighed.

It was a very chaste kiss and over in a second, but she felt it down to the very fiber of her being. She felt as if she had been slowly perishing, dying of thirst for some intangible thing that she didn’t even know she needed until she had it. And then Justin was there, filling her to the brim with just one kiss.

He pulled back and smiled at her, eyes twinkling mischievously. Their serene moment was interrupted by Kendra’s droll voice.

“Is the show over or is there gonna be a buck naked wrestling match next?”

“The show better be over,” Wes moved to grab Justin’s arm.

“Yeah, really. What, we all gotta stand around in the lobby cause y’all are in love?” Britney teasingly sang the last two words.

The teasing continued as the group made their way over to the elevators.

“Y’all go up first,” Larry instructed Maddie and Justin. “Let’s hurry up and get y’all away from the fans.”

The two in question looked at each other and smiled.