The back of her hand fell to her sticky forehead and while she blinked to clear her spotty vision, she saw Trick there, still above her, grinning.
“I’m feeling pretty good right now,” she panted. “Please don’t make fun of me.”
But his grin only got bigger. “You said you were gonna be no good… that was the best damn lay I ever had.”
Letting herself smile and feel satisfaction collide with relief, Lyla was consumed by the positive endorphins that made her feel like she could do anything, like she was the most powerful woman in the world.
Bowing lower, Trick was about to kiss her, so she moistened her lips. Except the suite door opened and they both turned to see that the bedroom door was still ajar.
“Damn,” Trick said and leapt off her to run to the door. He slammed it just as Paul turned the partition wall that separated the entry hallway from the living room.
“I saw you, you bastard!” Paul called from the other side of the door as Trick locked the door and turned to fall against it. He pulled off the condom and tossed it in the trash, but stayed by the door.
“Why do you look like you’re having a heart attack?” Lyla asked, pushing on to her elbows. “We don’t have to tell anyone if you’re embarrassed about—”
“Embarrassed?” he said, returning to that scowl he always got when she offended him. “No, I just…” He smiled, a kind of dopey, easy smile she hadn’t seen him use before. “I don’t want to share you.”
Ok, that was a nice line and she flopped down onto her back as Paul began to hammer on the door. “We can’t leave him out there all night.”
“Why not?” he asked, sauntering back to the bed.
It was a real shame that Paul was out there having a fit. It wasn’t nice that the director had been ditched, and Kira was probably pissed off too. They’d waited well beyond what would be normal Trick lateness.
Trick dropped to his knees on the floor at the side of the bed. “For one thing,” Lyla said, rolling away, so she could grab the condom box to hand it over to him. “We only have two condoms left.”
“Hmm,” he said, frowning at the pack. “I see the dilemma.”
“So, the longest we can stay in here with him locked out there is two more nights.”
His avid attention rose from the condom box to her. “You think we’re going to have sex once a night?”
Oops, was that wrong? Lyla took a turn at frowning. “We’re not? Every other night? Once a week?”
“What kind of an idiot were you with?” he asked and laughed as he rose up over her and climbed back on top of her on the bed. “Gimme ten minutes and we’ll be going again.”
“Again?” she asked, her eyes bulging like they were on stalks. “You can’t really—”
“Oh, I can,” he said, nodding at her shock and brushing his nose on hers. “We’re gonna have a lot of fun, Mrs. Strickland… I’ve wanted you for a while, so I’ve got a lot of tension to work out.”
“And then we go to once a week?” she asked and he laughed again as he kissed her.
“Baby, we can have sex any time you want to have sex.”
“Any time? Like in the morning?”
“In the morning, the afternoon, inside, outside, in the shower, in the office—”
“In the office? You mean at Prem? We can have sex at Prem?” She gasped. “You have a dressing room, don’t you?”
Trick didn’t have an office, he had a whole living space in the Prem building. Lyla had never been in it, but because all his filming was done in the main studio building, he had a permanent dressing room. With a lock and everything she’d bet.
Her exuberance encouraged him and he seemed so enamored right now. “How have we been married three weeks and you’ve never seen my dressing room?”
“I’ve never seen you work,” she said and shrugged. “Well, I guess you could say I’ve seen you work.” Because whenever he adopted his character, even if it was just for fans, he was working. “But I’ve never been near you when you’ve been filming any show other than this one.”
“This isn’t a show,” he said, kissing her. “Not anymore. Not in here. This is just a husband and wife, enjoying each other.”
Paul began pounding on the door again. “I’ll have security up here in a minute! I’ll tell them you’re ODing in there.”
They couldn’t have that kind of scene or drama on the show. “Trick,” she said, squeezing his shoulders. “You have to talk to him.”
“What do you want me to tell him?” he asked, kissing her and then licking her lip.
“Nothing,” she said, curling her arms up under his to hook them around his shoulders from beneath. “I mean, you don’t have to admit that we… you know.”
“Had sex?” he said and grinned before kissing her again. “You don’t say any of the words.”
Scratching her fingernail on him, Lyla turned her head away from his next attempt at a kiss. “You knew what I meant.”
“You’ll get comfortable with this stuff, you’re just out of practice… it’ll take time. But you can push any boundary you like with me. You know when it comes to you I don’t really have any. So anything you want to do or try, I’m up for it. Just do what feels right for you… for us.”
“I…” She was nervous about what she wanted to say next because Lyla wasn’t quite sure where the emotional boundaries lay. He’d said he loved her, but that was before sex, maybe he’d changed his mind. “Trick, I…”
“What?” he asked, his tone laced with concern. “Is something wrong? If you think about dumping me now that—”
“No!” she said, wouldn’t it be funny if the rookie had used him for sex only to cast him aside after. “I’m not having second thoughts, I… I want to be with you. Now more than ever.”
He bobbed his head in cocky acceptance. “Yeah, I’m killer between the sheets.”
It was nice that she could laugh when he was being an idiot, but Lyla understood it was just his sense of humor. “You were incredible, baby.”
“Hmm,” he hummed. “I sense round two getting closer by the second.”
He tipped his head to kiss her, but before he touched his lips to hers, she blurted out. “I don’t want you to sleep with Kira.”
Lifting his head, Trick was frowning at her. “What?”
“I don’t know if it’s my place to say that to you or not, but… as soon as we open that door, Paul will want to drag you downstairs to do… well, what you were supposed to do and… it would make me really uncomfortable if—”
“God, you’re adorable,” he said and kissed her hard, letting his tongue slide deep against the roof of her mouth to taste as much of her as he could reach before withdrawing.
Laughing was an instinct, though it may not have been appropriate. “Trick, who am I going to sleep with?”
He wasn’t laughing, in fact he looked pissed. “I know plenty of guys who want to screw you,” he said. “But it’s not just about sex… I don’t want you sneaking into empty offices with Curtis and letting him touch your face. I don’t want you sitting at bars with random guys who proposition you… I don’t want you getting into cabs with lecherous assistant directors who think it’s ok to ask if they can film you getting undressed.”
He was so passionate about each point that she was left dumbstruck for a minute when he was done. “Ok, well… I guess that helps me figure out what the rules are between us.”
“The rules are we’re together,” he said. “Not for the show. Not for the studio. We’re together. For real.”
Outside the room, Paul was screaming at the crew who had to be out in the living room too. “What are we going to do about the show?” she asked.
“The world knows we’re married, and I’m proud of us. I’m proud of you. Don’t ever say I’d be embarrassed to be with you again, it hurts me.”
That was honest, clear, and shocking, but in a good way. “Ok, I’m sorry,” she said. “So, we don’t mind if they know we had sex?” she asked and he shook his head. “We’ll have to figure out how much we let them… see…”
“That’s completely down to you,” he said. “Just like before, ok?”
“You’ll still be hitting on me?”
His glee made her laugh. “Probably more.”
“But you won’t… you won’t say derogatory things about me when I’m not around, will you?”
“I wouldn’t say derogatory things when you were around either,” he said. “But you have to guide me on this. You know sometimes I’m a prick. I wouldn’t say anything mean, but… are there words you don’t want me to say or… what am I talking about? Let’s just tell them we’re out. Tell them we’re through with the show and you don’t ever have to worry about me being like that ever again.”
But she shook her head. “We made a commitment and just because we actually developed real feelings doesn’t mean we should back out of that. We’ll figure it out as we go. Just… I don’t mind you talking about us… sleeping together, just don’t… talk about doing me anywhere that’s not…”
“Up the ass,” he said. “Stuff like that.”
Her mouth fell open and she hissed, “Trick!”
“I’ll be respectful, I promise, baby,” he said and kissed her before he jumped off the bed and swiped his jeans from the floor. “You stay in here, I’ll go talk to Paul and tell him it isn’t happening.”
Pulling up his jeans as he hopped toward the door, she sank back on the bed and exhaled when he turned and winked at her before going out and closing the door behind him.