They hadn’t made love again last night, but that didn’t stop Trick from taking her to climax after climax. Lyla hadn’t admitted to him that no man had ever used his mouth on her before he did. Now she felt like a veteran. But he didn’t just use his mouth. He used his hands, his fingers and his penis, letting her wriggle and writhe all over him to lose herself in the bliss of orgasm.
When she woke up to him kissing her, she’d asked him to make love to her again, and he did after a little pleading on her part. He was so preoccupied with the idea that he might hurt her that he was reluctant. What he didn’t get was that she liked the feeling of him stretching her. It was overwhelming, just like him and the emotions he was invoking in her.
Taking his sweet time, he wouldn’t push too hard or be too rough, and it was the most incredible way to welcome the day. They’d literally just come when Paul came storming in to the suite again. Trick had leapt out of bed, grabbed his own robe and ran out without telling her the plan.
She overheard Trick greeting Paul and deliberately glazing over all their director’s questions about any intimacies they might have shared since he left.
Breakfast was brought to the room because they had a long day ahead.
The hotel was on the outskirts of a national park, so this morning, they’d all been piled onto the bus for a quick journey up through the park to the two-story outdoor center, which was built to resemble an old stone fort.
Their directors were talking to the guides while everyone rambled around. They’d all been given proper hiking boots, told to wear jeans, layers, and provided with a waterproof jacket which had a hood and a whole bunch of pockets.
The producer, who wasn’t here as a producer but as one of Trick’s colleagues, was looking at the plastic device that she was holding up in the air like a cell phone.
“How do I know which way to turn?” Sadie asked, going clockwise, then counter-clockwise.
Lyla laughed. “It doesn’t matter, you’ll get there eventually.”
While still wrapped around Sadie, Lyla could only go so far before she came to the edge of the bench and when they got to that limit, both women laughed. “What’s all the hilarity?” Trick asked, coming over. “There’s to be no jokes I’m not in on.”
Sadie took her eyes from the compass to glance at him. “Lyla’s making my needle point north,” she said.
Trick got to them and leaned in to whisper to his friend. “Don’t beat yourself up, she does the same thing to mine.”
Sadie tutted and exhaled, but took the bottle of water Trick handed her, and turned around to face Lyla. Lyla sat back down on the table, keeping her feet on the bench, and took the bottle Trick gave her as he went to the head of the table to prop his ass against it.
“This place is beautiful,” Sadie said, looking up at the building behind Lyla. “I wonder if they do weddings.”
Trick finished gulping his water and twisted the cap back on. “Who are you marrying? I thought Adam went to Poland… and he was never going to marry you… just saying.”
“Ukraine,” Sadie said. “He left three months ago. I’m just, you know, for… whenever.”
“Well I recommend it,” Trick said, leaning back to bump Lyla’s arm with his back. “Marriage is great.”
Sadie smiled. “You’ve got that big, ‘I just got laid’ smile on your face, it’s been there all day.”
Trick shrugged. “Won’t see me hiding it. I’m happy. Who’d have thought it, huh? That I’d be married before you… Watch out for spinsterhood, Say, that shit sneaks up on a girl.”
“Uh,” Lyla said, her head coming up from reading the back of the water bottle. “I’m offended.”
“You?” Sadie asked. “I’m the singleton.”
“Trick didn’t marry me because he loved me, he did it because he thought it was a lark,” Lyla said. “I would say ‘ouch’ except I only did it because…”
Hmm, well, she picked at the edge of her label. “Because the Cronies said I never took risks, never had adventures, and because… they said the only man who’d sleep with me was a fifty-year-old virgin who lived in his mom’s basement.”
“Look good for your age,” Sadie said to Trick, then turned to her. “The Cronies, that’s what you call them?”
“Faith, Dinah, and Chelsea from my department,” she said. “I call them that in my head—but I don’t mean it as a way to disparage them, no. The word ‘crony’ comes from the Greek language, it’s a beautiful language, it’s like art when you see it written on the page… I need to take the time to really study it. I’ve always wanted to visit Greece. It’s a gorgeous country, beautiful beaches and the history… The period of Classical Ancient Greece has been of particular interest to me for a long time, that’s around 800 to 500 B.C, give or take… There were major advances in art and technology during that time period. It’s surprising to know how much of their culture reverberates through to ours. Oh, and one for you, Trick, honey, they held the first Olympic Games in 776… B.C., of course… though there is evidence to suggest they actually started before then. The games were held in honor of Zeus and carried on for hundreds of years. All contestants were male… and nudity was common.” Smiling at Sadie, Lyla shrugged. “If I can relate something to sex or sport, it’s more likely to stick in his mind.
“Anyway, the word ‘crony’ means long-term, and those three have been friends forever, far as I can tell they’re friends anyway.” Frowning at the trio who were loitering at the edge of the pack, Lyla wondered at their internal politics. “They’re always together, but sometimes it feels like they don’t like each other that much, I don’t know, I don’t understand it.”
“You’re too nice to understand women like that,” Trick said, folding his arms.
Sadie was staring at her, but Lyla didn’t notice until she spoke. “You know that in your head?”
Lyla hadn’t thought about it and didn’t have time to say anything because Trick spoke with a grin in his voice. “Hot as hell, isn’t she? Keep your hands off, she’s mine.”
“Really? You know all that,” Sadie said and looked at each of their faces. “What the hell do you two talk about?”
“I don’t need to say anything,” Trick said and uncapped his water bottle. “I could listen to her talk all night.”
As he lifted the bottle to his lips, Lyla put her hand on his. “Don’t drink it all. We’ll have to get physical. Save some for after.”
The instant joy and innuendo on his face made her sag, she’d done it again, said a stupid thing. “You got it, baby. Stand back, everyone, husband emergency! I got this one,” he said, prodding his water bottle at Sadie who grabbed it just before Trick hooked Lyla’s closest leg and thrust it straight up in the air to put her on her back and twist her around so her ass was at the head of the table where he’d been propped. “Damn jeans, no problem, I can work around ‘em.” As his hands went to work unfastening his own jeans, he bowed his forehead to hers, “How do you feel about doggy style?”
“Trick!” Sadie was the one who called out his name this time and the exclamation made him straighten.
“Ok, everyone, if I can have your attention?”
The guide from the outdoor center was moving to the middle of the scattered group with his hands in the air and a clipboard held aloft. Sadie turned and took a few strides toward the guide.
Trick opened his mouth and inhaled, Lyla sat up so fast that her body hit his. “Don’t,” she said, pressing a finger to his lips to silence him.
She just knew that her husband was going to make a joke and draw attention to them. Their eyes met and suddenly she couldn’t hear, or focus properly. What was wrong with her? They’d had sex. Sitting on a concrete table with him between her thighs shouldn’t be making her awareness grow in time with the speed of her heart.
Her leg curled around his and she saw her hand coiling around the side of his neck before she even knew it had moved.
Turning her nails into the back of his neck, she felt the pressure of them digging in and winced. “Sorry,” she whispered and relaxed her hand. “I don’t know why I keep doing that.”
Bowing toward her, Trick brushed his nose over hers. “Because it feels good, baby. It’s passion, it makes you want to put your mark on me and I love it… I told you, there are no rules for you, no limits, no boundaries to what you’re allowed to do to me.”
“But I don’t want to hurt you,” she whispered.
Tipping his head, he made hers move with his until their lips were just a fraction apart. “Then don’t ever leave me,” he murmured.
The words hit her hard. He meant them. This relationship was everything to him. Some of his own vulnerability showed as his eyes closed and she realized she hadn’t returned his enthusiasm. In bed, sure, he had her, but she hadn’t told him how she really felt about him.
“What do you think about Greece?” she asked.
“The movie?” he asked, scooping his hands around her ass to pull her closer to him.
It didn’t take him long to switch back into playful mode. “The country,” she said. “Maybe we could go one day. Maybe in Spring, after the show’s done.”
Bending his knees, he kept her ass in his hands as he got lower. “For real?”
“They have nightclubs,” she said and had to half-shrug. “I’ve never been in a nightclub, but yeah… I’m sure they have them.”
He was grinning. “You’d come to a club for me?”
“If you’d come to the Acropolis with me,” she said.
Trick laughed. “I don’t even know what that is, but if you’re there, I’ll be with you… It could be our honeymoon.”
“We had a honeymoon.”
He sneered. “Nah, it doesn’t count if there’s no sex.”
Laughing, she leaned back. “So you expect to go clubbing and…”
“Get laid?” he asked. “Yep, if there are no cameras, you have no excuses.”
That was true. If there were no cameras, she didn’t have any reason to say no… and wouldn’t want to. “Uh, excuse me! Mr. Strickland!”
Trick didn’t pay attention to the guide who was shouting at him because he was too busy trying to kiss her. Lyla had to lean back and give him a push. “Honey, that man is talking to you,” she said because she didn’t know the guide’s name.
“Not possible,” Trick said, trying to kiss her again. “We’re the only two people on Earth.”
Laughing, Lyla pressed both hands to his shoulders and straightened her arms to put space between them. Trick growled and turned toward the guy who was closer than he had been, and had drawn the attention of the whole group to their private conversation.
Though “private” was a relative term. The cameras were on and had been for most of the morning though the crew were keeping their distance.
“I’m sorry, sir, we need everyone to be safe,” the guide said.
One of Trick’s hands slid off her ass, but he kept the other arm hooked over her shoulders. “It’s ok. We’re married. We’re both clean and open to the idea of children, so, thanks man, but we’re good with the protection thing.”
She shouldn’t laugh and didn’t know what the camera was picking up, so she turned her head away to hide her face. It probably appeared that she was embarrassed, which was good because it fit with her role in the performance. But she was too used to Trick and his ways now, so she actually found his behavior funny not offensive.
“Oh, no, I…” The guide sounded mortified, Trick really knew how to embarrass people, he’d done it to her enough, but she was accustomed to it now, others weren’t as lucky. “I mean, we need a demonstration.”
Trick exhaled impatience and sagged before straightening, like the suggestion was a major inconvenience. “Ok, fine, man, but you owe me. I’m not packing rubbers, so you’ll have to provide, and she’s wearing jeans, so are we all ok if I come at her from behind?”
“Trick,” Lyla said, and frowned at him as she gave his shoulder a slap.
“What?” Trick asked, exuding innocence. “The guy asked for a safety demonstration.”
“Not a safe sex demonstration,” she hissed at him then smiled past him at the guide. “I’m sorry for him. Really.” Scanning the group, she saw some smiling faces who were amused and others who were shocked, like the Cronies. “He can’t help but… be him.”
Nuzzling his face against her temple, Trick let his lips slide around to her ear. “There’s something hot about you apologizing for me.”
His breath tickled her neck, making her shiver. “You think everything’s hot,” she murmured.
“Everything about you, sure.”
Sadie cleared her throat. “Maybe you two should, uh…”
“Get a room?” Trick asked. “What is it with me having to finish women’s sentences these days?”
Lyla nudged him. “I think she meant we should cool it and stop being rude. Sit down there.”
“What?” he gaped. “You’re benching me?”
But he didn’t argue, just stomped the step to drop onto the bench her feet had been on when she was sitting here initially. Folding his arms, Trick slouched back against the table, grumbling to himself. But Lyla wasn’t punishing him and to prove it, she brought her legs onto the table and twisted to hook her knees over his shoulders.
He didn’t expect her to do something so physical, or intimate, but he welcomed it by curving his hands around her shins. When he tried to tip his head back to look at her, Lyla put her hands on his face and directed it toward the guide, then when Trick was looking at the guy, she ran her fingers through her husband’s hair then let her hands slide down his body until her chest was on his head. Holding him firm like this meant he’d keep his eyes front, which was what everyone wanted.
“We’re listening,” Lyla said to the guide and smiled. “Please carry on.”
Everyone was given a whistle to go with their compass and the guide gave instructions on what they should do if they got lost or hurt because cell phone coverage was non-existent out here.
The guide was coming to the end of his speech. “I’ll call out a name and that person will pick their partner for the day. You are responsible for your partner’s safety. If anything happens to them it’s your responsibility to stay with them, keep them calm and provide any medical care that’s required. You must not leave your partner alone, not for any reason. Pairs will each be given a map, and on the map are three checkpoints. You must find the checkpoints, retrieve the ribbon, and move to the next checkpoint before you return here to this rendezvous. Right here. Some checkpoints are individual, others will overlap. Some people will hit all the same checkpoints, some will have one or two checkpoints that overlap. Every pair will set out with another pair, but may split ways for the second or third checkpoints. The four of you may help each other, but you must maintain your link to your original partner at all times.”
Trick turned his face toward her knee. “We have to maintain our link, did you hear that? How does he know about our link? Do you think they need pictures? I guess he’s not an advocate for the pull-out method.”
“Trick,” Lyla murmured, burying her face in the top of his head. “You’re not listening to the man. He’s trying to keep all of us alive.”
“Uh, hello? Husband,” he said, clutching her legs tighter, squeezing them around his head. “I’ll keep you alive… We should do some mouth-to-mouth practice though, just in case.”
“So when I call out your name, simply state who you want to be paired with,” the guide said, consulting his clipboard. “Kira Levine!”
Why shouldn’t one of the most beautiful women in the world be first? She’d been on the bus this morning, but Trick had stayed with Lyla. Even when Lyla tried to get him to talk to his ex, to at least apologize for standing her up, he wouldn’t. As much as Lyla appreciated his loyalty, it wasn’t really fair to Kira that she’d been brought here and then messed around.
“Trick,” Kira said and strode into view on the other side of the seating area behind the guide.
“Could’ve seen that one coming,” Sadie said, returning to them and seating herself next to Trick.
“Ok,” the guide said, taking notes and calling out another name.
Lyla started to open her legs to free Trick, but he snatched them and pulled them closed around him. “Don’t you dare,” Trick said, maintaining eye contact with the model who was fixated on him, waiting. “I’m not going nowhere.”
Combing her fingers through his hair, Lyla kissed his head. “Don’t make a scene. You’re the only person here who she really knows,” Lyla said. “I’m not getting into a cat fight. It’s one day, you can be polite, go on, go to her.”
He hissed. “I hate how you say that,” he said, but exhaled and let her move her legs away from his body.
Turning around to show her his displeasure, Trick’s eyes sank to her mouth. Lyla stood on the bench and bent over to put her arms around him before smacking a kiss to his cheek and whispering in his ear. “Don’t have sex with her.”
Trick knew she was joking because he smirked out a fake and unimpressed, laugh. “If that Tony guy says your name I’ll put him in traction before I’ll let him walk an inch out of my eyeline with you,” he said, backing away.
“Sadie Lawrence!” the guide called out as Trick turned to march over to Kira.
“I’ll go with Lyla,” Sadie said, picking up Lyla’s hand.
“Thank you,” Lyla said as the guide noted down the pairing. “I thought it was going to be like gym when whoever was left was just stuck with me.”
Sadie nodded to the Cronies. “Looks like there are some issues over there. Guess it doesn’t pay to have an odd number in your group,” she said, then turned to Trick and Kira. “He’s really pissed off.”
“I don’t see why,” Lyla said. “Kira hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“Oh, come on,” Sadie said. “You two have been all over each other all morning, then the first chance she gets, she throws a spanner in the works.”
“Please don’t forget that I’m miked,” Lyla said, pushing her chest toward Sadie who glanced down at the device attached to her jacket.
“Hey, the point of reality TV is to be real,” Sadie said and leaned down to the microphone. “Kira Levine is a brat who deserves to be taken down a peg or two.”
The guide finished pairing everyone. They were given a new bottle of water and a chance to use the restroom. Paul was talking to the guide when Lyla came back from the bathroom and Sadie came over with their map.
“Do you know how to read maps?” Sadie asked.
Sheesh, this was going to be a day. In a world of modern technology, the participants today were going to struggle. Some were already trying to open the maps in their phones, but it didn’t matter, they didn’t have GPS coordinates and there was no signal to patch into the satellites.
The map was in a plastic pouch that was around Sadie’s neck. They’d have their work cut out today, the map print was small and it gave her an idea. “Trick has a Swiss Army thing on his keys.”
Weaving through the other groups who were all poring over their maps, Lyla approached Trick from behind. “I don’t care, Kira, I really don’t,” Trick was saying.
“I think you do, or I think you should,” Kira drawled.
“Uh, excuse me,” Lyla said, hesitant to interrupt, but she also didn’t want to be accused of eavesdropping.
Trick turned around and his fed-up expression became happy. “Babe. Did you miss me?”
“Desperately,” she said, her eyes flicked to Kira, but she didn’t want to stare, so returned her focus to Trick. “Do you have your house keys on you?”
“My house keys?” he asked. “No. They’re at the hotel. Why? Are we making a break for it? ‘Cause we can swing by—”
“No. No problem,” Lyla said and turned away to see Sadie approaching with Paul and the camera crews, both of them.
“Turns out we’re on the same path for the first two checkpoints,” Sadie said as she got closer.
Of course they were. It made sense now why Paul had spent time with the guide, they were matching up the group, Lyla probably should’ve seen that coming. Everyone began to head off in different directions, and the four of them had no choice but to go together.
With one camera crew far in front and another behind, everyone was miked before they started the trek, but it took a good five minutes of walking before anyone spoke. They were on a worn grassy path with a ditch on either side and trees flanking them.
“So, Trick,” Kira said, her voice was slow and sultry, perfect for seduction, but her accent was too manufactured to be real. “Your dick’s been in every pussy here… does that make this awkward for you?”
“Nope,” Trick said.
Lyla and Kira hadn’t been formally introduced. But Lyla didn’t mind foregoing that mortifying pleasure. Introductions would be a bit of an insult to the successful model, shouldn’t everyone in the country know who Kira Levine was? And who was Lyla? A nobody as far as Kira was concerned.
“What about you Lyla, is it awkward for you?” Kira asked.
“Kira,” Trick warned.
But Lyla wasn’t intimidated, she switched on her ability to let rude comments roll off. Kira wanted a reaction, so the last thing Lyla was going to do was give her one. “No,” Lyla said, but didn’t stop there. “And to be fair to Trick, I don’t imagine this situation is unique… Every time he goes into a nightclub there are probably several women he’s had trysts with… And we’re all adults here.”
Kira wasn’t deterred. “But it must be difficult to know that your husband has such a… colorful past.”
“I can’t judge him for where he’s been,” Lyla said. “I wasn’t around for any of that. We didn’t know each other… The only thing I care about is the future and what he does from here on out.”
“But on the show, on your wedding night, he was—”
“We were strangers,” Lyla said and smiled.
The path narrowed, so Lyla and Sadie fell back to walk behind Kira and Trick. “Other women would not be so understanding,” Kira said, casting a glance over her shoulder.
“If I were the same as every other woman on the planet, Trick might not feel for me the way he does.”
Trick laughed. “Oh, snap, baby,” he said. “She’s got a point, Key, so just drop it, ok?”
Kira and Trick exchanged a few more comments between themselves before Sadie took Lyla’s arm and drew her to a stop. When she glanced at those in front, Lyla guessed they were waiting for some distance to grow before they spoke.
“Are you ok?” Lyla asked her partner. The rear camera crew was a good twenty feet away and had stopped when they had. The front crew would focus on Trick and Kira who were still walking and probably hadn’t noticed that the women had stopped.
“Are you really ok with it?” Sadie asked, seeming confused and shocked at the same time. Lyla smiled and nodded. “I didn’t even know that you knew about Trick and me.”
“He told me,” Lyla said and then shrugged. “Well, I asked him… it was pretty obvious.”
“Pretty… how was it obvious?”
“It’s in the way you talk about him, you just… you know.”
Sadie was taken aback and opened her mouth then huffed and closed it as she tried to figure Lyla out. “I know what?”
“The effect he has on women,” Lyla said. “You get this look in your eyes.”
Sadie’s mouth opened and she paled. “I don’t… I don’t feel anything toward him now, I mean we’re friends, I care about him, but… there’s nothing between us.”
“I know that,” Lyla said with a nod. She really wasn’t stressed, no matter how much everyone else wished she would be.
“How are you so cool with this?” Sadie asked like she just couldn’t get a grasp on how calm Lyla was.
“Look, this is the way it is,” Lyla said. “I can’t ask him to apologize for a past that I wasn’t a part of. Sure, there are times I worry that I won’t live up to the thrills he’s had before. But when it comes to specific women and will he, won’t he?” Biting her lip, Lyla tried to figure out how she could make it clear, but didn’t really have the language, so she just exhaled and turned her eyes back to Sadie. “If he’s going to screw around, then he’s going to. If he’s going to dump me, then he’s going to. Would I be heartbroken? Sure. But… I have to enjoy him while I have him. I can’t stress about what might or might not happen, and if I start driving him crazy with my paranoia, I’ll kill the relationship. If I have worries, I tell him what they are. But I try to be sensible about it.”
“Noticed what?”
“That he’s different, he’s different with you.”
She hoped in a good way. “I can’t speak to that. I didn’t know him before me, did I?”
“You knew the stories, the media portrayal,” Sadie said and when Lyla dropped her eyes and smiled, Sadie got closer, making Lyla look up at her.
The women shared a moment of silence, just examining each other and slowly Sadie smiled too. They both knew it. The Trick that played up to the camera wasn’t the same one that made them smile like this. They both loved him, in different ways, and tolerating, or playing with, the character was part of embracing him.
“Yo, what’s the problem?” Trick’s voice carried from further up the path and they both turned to catch up. It took them a minute, but as they got closer, Lyla read the concern in his eyes and it didn’t lessen even after she smiled. “You ok?” he asked her when she got within ten feet. “If you need something, sweetheart, we can go back to the—”
Reaching up, Lyla closed her hands around his face and pulled him down. He came without any fight and she closed her eyes as she opened her mouth under his. The camera could have their field day and the public wanted love. But all she wanted to do was show her man how proud she was of him.
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her off her feet when she touched his tongue with hers. Squeezing her tighter and tighter as their fervor grew, Trick held her close, making it hard for her to breathe, but all these layers between them would be frustrating him.
When her head fell back, she moaned and threw her arms around his neck, as he kissed her throat once. “Ok, I wasn’t expecting that,” Sadie said.
Trick rubbed his cheek against her neck before Lyla brought her head forward and pushed on his shoulders to ask for her feet back. “Thanks, Say,” Trick said, keeping his arms around his wife. “Whatever you said to her down there, it worked.”
This time when he tried to kiss her, Lyla let their lips touch, but she kept it short. “I didn’t say anything that would warrant… that,” Sadie said.
“I kind of like that no one gets it,” Lyla said, smiling at her husband. “And shocking people is kind of fun.”
“You sure shocked me… and feel free to do that any time,” he said and lowered to kiss her, but she bowed back.
When he groaned, she laughed, he’d just never know what he’d get with her in any given minute. “Can I have a ride?” she asked and his brow crooked as he lifted his gaze to the woods behind her. “A piggy-back ride.”
“Not as fun as what I was thinking, but sure,” he said and turned around to let her leap up onto his back.
“Uh, he’s my partner and I have to look out for his wellbeing,” Kira said as they started to walk again. “And I really think that if he’s carrying anyone, it should be me.”
“And she’s the only one allowed to suck his dick, so yeah, she gets priority, deal with it, Kira,” Sadie said.
Locking her arms around Trick’s neck, Lyla rubbed her face in his hair and opened her hands on his jacket. But she didn’t want to feel the fabric, so she fumbled for the zip and pulled it down to the middle of his chest then unbuttoned the shirt he had on underneath. She knew he was wearing a vest and a tee-shirt, but still moved her lips to the back of his ear.
“Tell me if you get cold,” she said, sliding her flat hands inside his shirt to spread them on the planes of his warm, hard chest.
Lyla hadn’t meant for this to be intimate, but she kissed behind his ear, then kissed him again, and again. She’d been on the receiving end of his neck kisses and knew how good they felt. She hadn’t realized it would feel good to give them.
Boosting higher, she used his grip on her thighs as her anchor point to slide her hands deeper into his shirt and reach more of his neck with her mouth.
“Is this a team-building exercise or a dirty vacation?” Kira sneered.
“When my wife’s around, my thoughts are never far from dirty,” he said.
“She’s all over you,” Kira said. “Does she know there are other people here? I thought this show of yours was in trouble because she didn’t want you.”
Lyla stopped kissing her husband.
Paul wouldn’t mind that being stated because anything could be cut in editing, but she didn’t like the way Kira said it. The show portrayed her as a prude, Lyla knew that, and she’d learned to adopt that role in front of the cameras. Now that she’d been intimate with Trick, she didn’t feel so inhibited, she felt… free, and it was enlivening to think she might get to explore the sexuality she’d always kept closed off inside herself.
But, the cameras were rolling. Oops. “Put me down,” Lyla said, pushing at Trick’s shoulders.
“No,” Trick said, squeezing her thighs tighter. “She’s just being a bitch, baby. Ignore her. You kiss me any damn place you like.”
“She’s jealous,” Sadie said.
“I’m not,” Kira said. “Why the hell would I be jealous? I could’ve had him if I wanted him.”
“Oh, really?” Trick asked on a disbelieving laugh. “When are we talking about? ‘Cause I don’t remember ever thinking about proposing to you.”
“You didn’t propose to her,” Kira said and laughed. “Your manager probably did, or Sadie.”
“You want to see me propose to her? You want to see—”
Lyla planted her hand over his mouth. “Ok, everyone needs to calm down. This is silly. Kira, I apologize if I made you uncomfortable. You’re absolutely right that my behavior is inappropriate. Trick, put me down, please.” He stopped, but didn’t let her down. “Please, Trick. Just behave for a minute.” Grumbling, he bent his knees and put her on her feet, but he immediately pulled her to his side. “Let’s just all work together to find these checkpoints and avoid talking about personal issues.”
No one agreed with her, but no one argued either. It was going to take a lot to get this group working together, but for the sake of the camera, Lyla had to keep her cool and forget about her intimacy with Trick for the day. She had to remember her role and it wasn’t to be a woman in the throes of early passion.
Her role in this show was to be smart and sensible. Smart and sensible women didn’t grab men and kiss them. No, they read the map, helped with directions, and gave everyone a chance to participate… and they kept their mouths to themselves.