Lyla wasn’t particularly hungry, but if she didn’t eat something now, she’d get hungry later and she didn’t like to eat late. It was already approaching nine PM, way later than she’d usually have dinner. But the day had run late and then they’d done interviews after their briefing about the next few days. So time had just gotten away from her.
She’d gone into the living room to try to find the room service menu, but stopped to consider whether she could order anything or if maybe that would look suspicious. If she was really sick, she wouldn’t be ordering dinner, would she? She wouldn’t be in the mood to eat.
Maybe if she just picked something light or—
The suite door opened, which was weird, no one should be coming in, everyone should be busy downstairs.
Spinning around, she saw Trick barreling toward her, a man on a mission. “Forget something?” she asked, but barely got the words out before he grabbed her face and pulled her up to him.
Lyla was so stunned by the pressure of his mouth that she didn’t react for a good ten seconds. But when his tongue touched her lip, she thrust a fist to his chest and struggled to get away.
“What the hell?” she asked, leaping back and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand that was still clutching the room service menus.
His chest was moving up and down fast, his eyes were determined and unblinking, and he didn’t hesitate to start moving toward her again. “I love you.”
“What the hell, Trick!” she said again. “There’s no one here! It’s not funny to—”
“I’m not laughing,” he said, moving another step in her direction.
But she squawked and held up the menus, thrusting her fist into the air once and twice to stop him from moving forward and keeping a good six feet between them. He smiled, but it wasn’t an expression she recognized, he looked… relieved.
Trying her best to breathe and find some sense in this whacked out moment, Lyla was still recovering from that kiss… He’d kissed her.
Trick had kissed her!
Touching her lips, she lost herself for a second, had he really kissed her? He’d never done that before.
“I don’t understand,” she whispered.
“I know, baby,” he said and this time when he walked forward, she let him pass her menu-clasping hand and put his arms around her waist.
But she still felt disconnected from reality and herself.
Lowering his face to her hair, Trick nuzzled his mouth down to above her ear, which meant he had to open his legs around her in a crouch and when she felt the rub of something decidedly erection shaped, she squawked again and tried to push away. To her surprise, he let her go, but there wasn’t much space. With the window at her back, a cabinet on the wall at her side and the bedroom door just beyond that, behind where Trick was, she was cornered.
Without even thinking about letting herself look downward, Lyla found his smiling eyes. “You have to go. Kira is waiting for you. You have to have sex with her and—”
“No,” he said, shaking his head and opening his arms as he exhaled a sound of relief. “The only woman I want to have sex with is you. You are the only woman I want… God, Malloy, you don’t know what a relief it is to finally figure out why I’ve been feeling this way. I want to be near you all the time. I don’t want to lose you. I want us to do this. To be this. All the way. For real. I want this to be real. I want us to be together.”
Wow, he was good. He really made that speech seem cathartic.
Glancing left and right, Lyla wondered where the hidden camera was as she twisted and leaned toward him to whisper, “I didn’t get a script for this, Trick.”
They didn’t exactly get scripts, but if something big was supposed to happen, they did usually get direction. “Not Trick, Nairn,” he said, coming to her to take her hand. Pulling the menus away, he tossed them to the floor and pressed her hand against his chest. “And there’s no script, baby. This is it. Me. Just me. Asking you to be mine. Everything real. All the way.”
Narrowing her eyes, she couldn’t help but be suspicious. “All the way like sex?”
“Yes,” he said, nodding his head. For some reason, he couldn’t take his eyes from hers and the scrutiny was beginning to make her prickle. “Sex, yes, we’ll have sex. But not now. Whenever you want it. Whenever you’re ready. I don’t care if it takes ten years. I want you, Malloy. No, I want you to be Strickland. Mrs. Strickland, my Mrs. Strickland. Completely. No expiration date. No backing out. No walking away. No setups and scripts. Just us. A man and a woman making it work. Compromise. Figuring it out. Communicating. Together… Hell, I’ve known you three weeks and I’m so in love with you… Damn, how did I miss it? I knew I was attracted to you, but geez, Malloy, you’re… you’re my everything. You’re so smart.” Keeping one hand over hers on his chest, he used the other to stroke her face. “So beautiful. Funny. Kind. Considerate. You’re warm and talented and—damn, baby, I could go on all day.”
What the hell was this? Why was he looking at her like that? Why did he look so happy just to be standing there? “Trick,” she murmured. “You have to sleep with Kira.”
“No,” he said and seemed so sure as he stepped in closer to her. “I’m your guy. I promise you, baby. I won’t ever be with another woman. Never again. I belong to you and I want you to belong to me. We’re going to be together in every way two people can be. I want to be your best friend. Your lover. Your husband. I want us to do it all. For real.”
“You just… You just said ‘promise’, but you… you never make promises.”
“Unless I mean them,” he said, squeezing her hand in his. He was working it in his fist as he took it up to his mouth. When he kissed her knuckles, he closed his eyes like she was the most delectable thing he’d ever had near his mouth. “I mean it, baby. I’m going to be there for you. For everything. I’ll spend the rest of my life proving to you that I’m worth it. I know… I know you’re so much better than I am, worthy of so much more than a dumb schmuck like me, but I—”
“Trick,” she said, stepping in to touch his lips.
She didn’t want to hear him saying anything negative about himself. It actually hurt her to think that he might believe he was in any way better than her. “I love you,” he whispered, looking straight into her, straight through her. “This isn’t a game. This isn’t a show. Right now. We’re alone. All alone. A husband with his wife… I love you, Lyla Malloy, for real. All the way.”
It was liberating for her to see this man she cared so much for freed. He really did seem to be lighter, though she couldn’t begin to understand why he was saying these things. How could he love her? How could he be making promises to her and turning away from Kira to come back to her?
“I want to be special to you,” she admitted in a whisper.
After tossing and turning all night, she did eventually fall asleep, but woke up feeling guilty. She couldn’t ask anything of Trick, he’d never made her any promises. It made her feel awkward to be near him when she knew how she’d been stupid enough to care for him so deeply. It felt ridiculous to ask him to return those feelings when he was Nairn Strickland, the Nairn Strickland.
Except here he was, making her promises. Was this for real?
“You are,” he said on a wide smile that turned into a laugh. “Geez, baby, don’t you hear me? I love you! You are the single most special person in my life. You. No one else. You are my priority. This is it for me now. We’re going to do this and I don’t care if I have to jack in the show, the career, everything. Whatever it takes to make you happy, I’m going to do it. You just say the word and I’ll do it. Anything.”
“Anything,” she breathed. “Is this real? Trick, if you’re playing me—”
“No playing,” he said, dropping the smile and gathering her in to his arms again. “I promise you, sweetheart. I wouldn’t do that to you. I wouldn’t hurt you or use you like that.”
He’d corrected her to call him Nairn and that was something she only did when she thought they were having an intense or genuine moment. “This is crazy,” she said and wriggled out of his arms. “You can’t love me… you just… you can’t! You’re Nairn Strickland!”
“And you’re Lyla Strickland,” he said, watching as she bowed her head and walked past him.
“All that means is you’ll do anything on a dare… is that what this is?”
“A dare?” he asked, shocked by the implication. “No! You think I’d go that low?” No, she didn’t, not really. She’d told him last night that she trusted him and she’d meant it. “Are you telling me you don’t feel anything for me? That these three weeks? It’s all meant… it’s meant nothing to you? Eating together, our walks, hanging out… the phone calls, the conversation… All the touching, sitting wrapped in each other all the time… it’s meant nothing to you?”
“No,” she said, spinning around to see the angry disappointment written all over his face. “I care about you… I care about you a lot. But I—”
“No but,” he said with a flare of hope in his step as he lunged toward her. “Care is good, care I can build on. I know it’s hard for you to respect me when I’ve acted like such an idiot, but I’ll stop all that, I promise. It’s all real from now on, just me being… me.”
“But the show—”
“I don’t give a damn about the show,” he said, scowling at her. “The show can go to hell. Let them drop me from the network, I don’t give a damn. I have savings. I can look after us for a while, and I’ll always find work somewhere.”
Look after us.
He was thinking of the future and taking her with him wherever he went. Could it be true? Could he love her? Taking the chance that he meant it was a massive risk, and there was a high likelihood that she’d get her heart broken, especially if this all turned out to be some big con.
But it did mean her life would change. She’d lose her roommate. Her friend. The man she cared so much about that she’d felt physical pain when she thought of being without him.
Could she…?
Could she be in love with him too?
Lyla knew herself well enough to know she could convince herself of anything. She could also block out and dampen her emotions. It was how she managed to let all the negative comments roll off. She said they didn’t hurt, but they probably would, if she let them.
So, what would happen if she let herself love Trick… for real… all the way?