A/N: How did your Thanksgiving go, everyone? I hope you all enjoyed the holiday! Now back to our Kiss Thief. ;)

Chapter-6: Kiss Thief

For the first few moments … before her brain could play catch up to what was happening, Isabella feels her lips kissing him back. For a moment, all she can do is revel in the smoothness of his lips … the taste of his lips. And then, her brain catches up to her.

Shit! What are you doing? A voice seems to screech at her inside her head.

She pulls her head back, breaking their kiss and then tries to catch her breath, blinking in what probably looked a dazed manner. When she's sure she can speak again, she asks in a hoarse voice, "Why … why did you do that?"

He looks over to where the dark figure was standing and says with a shrug, "To make him realize that he doesn't have a chance when it comes to you."

A very small part of her heart chips away at his response that it was all for a show.

Stupid stupid Isabella, she admonishes herself. What did you think? Someone like him will actually like you?

Pushing that chipped piece of her heart away, she asks in a soft voice, "You couldn't think of any other way for doing that?"

A smile comes over his face … slightly crooked at one corner of his mouth. "Well ..." he says with a smirk. "I guess I could've hugged you or simply thrown you over my shoulder like a Neanderthal and run away."

She feels her eyebrows pull together in a frown. What does he mean? "What?" she asks at last.

He rolls his eyes and lets out a dramatic huff. "Fine. Then I guess I'll just have to come out and say it."

"Say what?" she asks, utterly baffled.

He takes a step close to her before reaching out to take her chin in his hand, a soft smile playing on his lips. "I kissed you ..." he says, making her breath hitch slightly. "... because I wanted to. Is that okay, Miss Swan?"

She feels her cheeks heat up at his declaration … at the blatant openness of it. For a moment, she closes her eyes and relishes his touch on her skin as his hand skims down to take hers, entwining their fingers together. Then he places one more feather light kiss on her lips, making her heart whole again.

After he walks her home that night, she finds herself slipping into a deep sleep … a peaceful and nightmare-free sleep for a change.

The day after, she's sitting in her own little corner on the set, going through her lines when she feels his eyes on her. For once, she doesn't feel threatened by feeling watched; instead she looks up from her notes and lets her eyes find his. The goofy grin he offers her doesn't fail to make her blush.

The way he looks at her makes her feel like the only girl in the room. She can't help but feel like they're inside their own little bubble, tucked away from the rest of the world. The bubble bursts soon enough, however, by the piercing voice of her make up artist, Jessica Stanley. "Isabella, come on! We need to get you fixed up for the next scene," she hollers from Isabella's dressing room.

With one last look at him, Isabella slips back into the room, her mind still full of the tenderness he sparked in her the night before.

Isabella's high doesn't last for long though. While sitting on the chair with Jessica flittering around her, parting her hair and putting it in an intricate hairdo, Isabella looks around the room. She takes in the customary glass of lemonade kept on her dresser as per request from her predecessor, Rosalie Hale, next to the morning newspaper.

Since she's not thirsty, she picks the newspaper up, planning on passing the time Jessica needed to work on her hair and makeup. However, one look at the front page and she slams it shut, her eyes tightly closed.

As if she knows what made Isabella act like that, Jessica pipes up from behind her, "It's a good picture. Although, I'm not a fan of the headline."

Slowly, Isabella opens her eyes before pulling open the newspaper again. There, right on the front page is a colored photograph of herself with Edward—locked in an embrace. As if it's not enough, the headline read, "The Cullen Stairway to Stardom: Hollywood heartthrob actor and philanthropist, Edward Cullen, takes his new co-actress on for the ride."

Isabella feels her eyes well up with tears … of shame and what must be heartbreak. Is that why he kissed me? She wonders.

All her old insecurities resurface then in the echo of a voice she's tried all her life to forget. "You are just a charity case. I'm going to fuck you because I pity you. That's what you deserve … pity, not love. You'll never be loved."

Something inside her seems to snap at the sound of the voice in her head. She raises a hand to make Jessica stop and gets up from her chair.

"But I'm not done ..." Jessica's complain dies in her throat after just one glance at Isabella's face.

Instead of acknowledging the woman, Isabella comes to stand at the door of the dressing room, her eyes scanning the crowd for bronze-tinged hair. As if he could feel her eyes on him, he turns around, a smile already on his face.

Purposefully, she walks toward him, her hands balled into fists by her sides. When she reaches him, he opens his mouth. "Hey ..." he starts. Before he can say anything else, however, Isabella raises a hand and brings it down forcefully, slapping him hard.

A/N: Hang in there, guys. It's a HEA, I promise.

Share your thoughts with me and leave a review.

Thanks for reading.

This Thanksgiving, I was thankful for all of you, my lovely readers, and of course for having an awesome Granma. ;)

Take care.

Ann