Getting Tricky Read online

  The pack went first, but Trick kept hold of the actual microphone as he put an elbow on the coffee table and moved back into view of the camera. His face would be in shot anyway though it was probably way too close to the lens, but with his lower body still pinning her leg to the couch, he panted into the mike he held an inch from his mouth.

  “Guys, you’ve got this right? It’s like five minutes,” Trick said, driving his other hand up over his hair.

  “Seven minutes,” Green said. “And I dunno, hmm… what do you think? Should we give him a break?”

  Trick’s face sank toward the table. “Come on!”

  Lyla laughed because her husband really did sound frayed. “You’ll make a horny wife very happy,” she called out.

  Trick kept his elbow on the table but whipped around to look at her and his surprise became a quick smile. “You’re gorgeous, baby,” he said then dropped the mike. “Let them fire me… You’re on your own, guys.”

  Trick scooped her up from the couch and forced her legs around his hips as he started toward the bedroom. “Bros before hoes, man!”

  Someone called out and he stopped but she caught Trick’s lower lip in her teeth. “He wasn’t calling me a ho,” she whispered and stroked his face. “Keep walking, husband… please… I need you inside me.”

  That was enough to make him keep on going.

  This side of her was new, but she liked it. Who knew that finding a man she could trust to guide her between the sheets would be so invigorating? She’d had no idea, none, that it could be like this. She felt so alive and desired.

  Trick had said there were no boundaries and she loved learning to push her own. Lyla was far more sexual than she’d ever realized and she’d only figured it out because of him. Trick made it ok to try things, to make mistakes, to learn, and to love wholly, freely, and completely.

  She loved her man and he loved her. She’d been promised an adventure, and that was exactly what she’d found.

  TWENTY

  Trick was walking through the lobby of the Prem building when he saw the gang of guys hanging outside the canteen, but he didn’t really think anything about it. Yeah, there were like thirty of them, but he knew how these things worked, one guy saw something, called a few friends over, who called the next group and it didn’t take long to get a posse going.

  He recognized it for what it was, a celebrity sighting. Most people around here were cool with the regular names, but once in a while someone came in for an interview or to cameo in something and it caused a stir.

  His plan was to keep going right on by, but then someone at the back of the group spotted him. “Oh, hey, hey, Trick, you’ll appreciate this, come check it out.”

  Ok, yeah, he could turn it on and admire whatever the guys were ogling. It was pretty safe to assume that it was a woman because everyone in the panting group were guys.

  Diverting his path, he went toward them and found himself patted and cajoled to the front of the pack. They were gawking through the glass pane in the canteen door. “Check out the babe in the red dress.”

  Babe in the red dress, babe in the red dress… he wasn’t really bothered about their slobbering until one of the guys pointed over his shoulder in the direction of the food line. “There, right at the end of the line, you see her? She spent ages at the fridge looking at the bottles. Man… you see her?”

  Did he see her? Uh, yeah, he saw her. He saw the shapely legs, the short skirt and the pert ass. He saw the tiny waist just peeking from behind the mass of her shining auburn waves that he knew from experience smelled like coconut.

  Looking over his shoulder, he examined each face. “You’re not serious,” Trick said. But the men were nodding and panting like dogs. “You are serious.”

  “She’s hot, she hasn’t turned around, no one can figure out who she is.”

  Ah, Trick had to smile. Yeah, he was pissed at all these guys checking out his woman, but man she had them all owned. “Check out that ass,” one of the guys said and they all seemed to exhale in unison. “I’d give a hundred bucks to the guy who had the balls to go over there and grab that ass.”

  Oh, an opportunity.

  Maneuvering his back to the door, Trick hoped to block the view and that she didn’t turn around. “Hundred bucks a piece from every guy here says I go in there and do it.”

  “What?” the first guy said as the second one stuttered. “But, hey, you’d probably get away with it, ‘cause of who you are.”

  “Are you allowed to do that? Aren’t you married or something?” guy two said.

  “Ok, then I won’t,” Trick said and took a step away, but they all chorused their objections. Ha, suckers. “Let’s see the green.”

  Everyone fumbled around until the money was in guy one’s hand. Trick held out his hand. “You gotta do it first,” guy one said.

  Trick plucked the bills from him. “You know my face, I don’t do it, come after me. I’m not chasing down thirty guys I don’t know.”

  “Ok, but you gotta squeeze it real hard,” guy two said, “not just like touch her by accident and apologize.”

  Trick had to laugh, these guys were real dweebs. Taking a backward step, he felt the canteen door at his spine. “Word to the wise,” Trick said. “Before you make a bet with a guy about a woman, make sure the guy isn’t sleeping with her. Oh, and if I catch any of you pervs drooling over my wife again, it’ll cost you a thousand times as much… in medical bills. Now, because you paid, I’ll let you watch, but after that, get lost.”

  Backing through the door as their objections followed, he turned to stride across the room and folded the money to tuck it into his back pocket.

  Tossing one leg then the other over the metal barrier that separated the line from the rest of the room, Trick walked up behind her, and slid a hand down her hip over her ass where he squeezed her real hard and glanced back at the door.

  There, he’d done what he’d promised.

  Lyla gasped and twisted toward him, but when she saw it was him, she just swatted his chest without any force. “Sheesh, Trick, don’t do that to a girl. You scared me.”

  “Who else would be grabbing your ass?” he asked and pushed her hair aside to kiss her temple as he put his arms around her from behind. “Hold on, let me rephrase that, anyone else grabs your ass and you call me, immediately.” Kissing her temple again, he noticed something was missing. “Where are your glasses?”

  “I put my contacts in,” she said, looking at the illuminated menu above the kitchen. “I went back to the apartment to change. Ritchie said he didn’t need me for the rest of the day.” They’d got back from their team-building weekend that day and been brought back to the Prem building for everyone to get straight back to work. “I didn’t have time to make lunch.”

  “You’re hungry? I can take you out somewhere,” he said.

  He liked it when she bumped her head back against his shoulder, holding her weight like this showed a trust that he never realized he cared about having with a woman. “We’re not supposed to be together right now. Paul only lets us off without cameras if we’re at work and not interacting… this feels like interacting.”

  “I told him I’d check in with him when I got back from the gym. But since when do we care what Paul thinks?” he asked, enjoying her hair though he didn’t know why she’d let it loose.

  “We got in so much trouble for last night,” she said. “You don’t think we should cut him some slack?”

  Paul had gone postal at them for getting busy on Boys Night when they hadn’t even given Opposites any decent intimate footage. Trick didn’t care. Apparently, Lyla was nice enough to feel bad.

  Splaying his hands on her stomach, he wasn’t sure he liked that he could feel the contours of her abs through the material. He was used to there being layers over her beautiful form. Everything she usually wore had no shape, which gave him the honor of being the only one able to check out her body.

  Even he hadn’t had the luxury of seeing it every d
ay, not until they were sleeping together. Yeah, the world had seen her in her bikini, but he liked to think about that as little as possible now that she was officially his woman.

  “It’s too late for lunch anyway,” she said, holding up the smoothie bottle in her hand. “I just wanted to put something in my stomach… I’m not sure if I like this one, it’s been so long since I drank the pre-packaged stuff; you know I prefer to make my own… All this drama has made me realize that I’m a homebody. When we go away places, my routine gets all screwed up.” Turning her face toward him, he felt her smile. “Risk was so pleased to see me though, he was purring and bunting me for the longest time. He was following me all over the apartment too. I almost didn’t want to leave him.”

  She really loved that cat. Trick had never thought of himself as a pet person, but the black fur-ball wasn’t bad… for a feline. When she moved forward a step, he went with her. “He’s a smart cat,” Trick said. “I rub myself all over you as much as I can too.”

  “He wants affection or food,” she said, curving an arm around to loop her thumb into one of his belt loops between their bodies. “Your motives aren’t as pure.”

  Yeah, he wasn’t going to deny that. “Hey, I like getting me some affection,” he said, turning his mouth against her. “And you know I’m always happy to eat you.”

  “Trick,” she whispered and although he couldn’t see it, he could hear the blush in her voice, which led him back into the thoughts he’d been having for most of the day.

  After the bus dropped them off at work, he’d done his rounds at the studio and gone to the gym because he wouldn’t have to work until later.

  All day he’d been wondering what would happen tonight, would they be sharing his bedroom? Would he be able to make love to her knowing that there were cameras focused on the bed? Would he be able to sleep knowing that they were being watched?

  But before he asked her about that, he had to solve another mystery. “What’s with the get-up?” he asked. “You’re creating a drool tsunami in the hallway.”

  “I’m... what?”

  “I grabbed your ass to win a bet with the guys in the lobby perving on you, so expect flowers at your desk every day next week.” When she twisted around to look towards the door, he got a look at how low cut the dress was. Despite looking almost corporate from behind, except the length, he was learning fast the garment was anything but demure. “You’re letting the ladies out to play?” he asked, trying his best to hold onto his temper though his mood was taking a nosedive.

  Her gaze fell from the door to her boobs that were spilling over the top of a neckline he considered too low. “I don’t really have many social outfits,” she said. “This is actually a size too small. I bought it on the internet like a year ago for a date I thought about going on for half a second. The dress was too small and the date never happened, but I never bothered to return it. This was the best I could do at short notice.”

  “Best you could do for what?” he asked, trying not to think too much about who she’d been thinking about dating.

  “Sadie’s taking me out for drinks,” she said and smiled.

  He didn’t mind Lyla getting close to his friends, but he did mind the two of them out alone while his wife was dressed like that and the star of a TV show.

  “Tonight?” he asked and she nodded. “Babe, do you think that’s a good idea?”

  Her smile dropped away. “Sadie said it would be fine. She won’t leave me standing anywhere on my own… We worked well together at the team-building thing. I like Sadie.”

  Mm hmm, his wife was so trusting and naïve. “Yeah, I like Sadie too,” he said.

  When they got to the front of the line, she opened her purse, but he’d already pulled a bill from his back pocket and paid for the drink before she got near her wallet. Urging her out of the line, Trick guided her over to the nearest table and tossed a leg over the fixed bench so he could straddle it while she sat with her back to the table, wearing a flummoxed look.

  He rested his hands on her thigh. “Did I do something wrong?” she asked.

  “No,” he said and smiled to calm her. “But I just want you to know what you’re getting into. Sadie knows how to party and you said you’d never been to a nightclub before, so I—”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that. We’re just going to the wine bar a couple of blocks over, we’re not going dancing or anything.”

  She didn’t get how agreeing to go to a bar for a drink after work could lead to an all-nighter. “Right, but the cameras will be with you, that draws attention… the wrong kind of attention.” Holding up his hands, Trick wanted to be clear. “Don’t get me wrong, baby, I have no problem with you going out and enjoying yourself. No problem at all.” Her blank expression made his heart grow; she didn’t even understand how innocent she was. “But there’s a lot of attention on you right now, people will want to talk to you, to get near you, and when there’s alcohol involved, sometimes people don’t realize they’re pushing too far.” Sometimes they did and it was those people he was really worried about. “I just want you to be safe. You and Sadie alone—”

  “Oh, we won’t be alone,” she said, grinning as she slid a comforting hand onto his shoulder.

  If she even thought about citing the camera guy or the director who wanted into her panties, Trick would snap. “You won’t?”

  When she shook her head, her hair moved over her breasts and for a second he was distracted by memories of last night when she’d been sitting on him… in bed… her pussy wrapped around his—

  “Sadie asked Noah and Nathaniel to come with us.”

  That deluge of ice-water over his head was more intense than the ice-bucket challenge had been. His mouth opened and his chin moved forward, but there were no words. “You…” How did he even process this? “You’re going out with Tate and Green?” he asked and she nodded. Damn. She was smiling. Smiling! Oh hell, this was a disaster. “You, Lyla Malloy, are going on a night out with Noah Tate and Nathaniel Green?”

  Again, she nodded. “And Sadie too… I’m looking forward to it.”

  Grabbing her hand, he clutched it to his chest like he was struggling to find his last breath. “Baby… you can’t. You have no idea what the hell you’re getting into.”

  Her frown didn’t slow his heart rate. “But you didn’t want me to go out alone. Noah and Nathaniel will be there to look after me and Sadie. You don’t have to worry about other guys—”

  “Other guys?” he asked, his eyes growing. “I’m not worried about other guys! I’m worried about those guys.”

  Her eyes moved left to right and she leaned in. “You said Nathaniel was with Samantha. And Noah wouldn’t hit on me, would he? I’m married.”

  Trick laughed. “Tate doesn’t care if a woman’s married or not. But I’m not worried about them trying to sleep with you. You’re right, both of them would defend you with their lives. You’ll be safe from other guys, but you won’t be safe from them. They don’t know how to say no!”

  Lyla gasped. “You think that I would proposition them? That I would invite your closest friends into my body?”

  “This is not about sex,” he said, straightening his back. “If you tell them you want to strip naked and go skinny dipping in the river, they’ll jump in right beside you…”

  Laughing, she touched her lips to his. “The river is far too cold at this time of year for swimming.”

  Oh, hell.

  Damn.

  His head was shaking, but he couldn’t shake the panic clenching around him. “That’s not the right answer, baby. It doesn’t matter what it is, they’ll encourage it. This is about your safety! This is about your life!”

  “But you go out with them all the time. You’ve been hanging around with them for like a decade and you’re still alive.”

  Yeah, barely. She didn’t have a clue about half the crazy stuff they’d done. Most of it never even made the papers, especially the stuff that happened overseas. Some of it he’
d just got out of by the skin of his teeth.

  He was stronger than her, more street smart, less trusting. If she got drunk—and she would because his friends knew how to drink—and someone suggested something crazy, either she’d do it and get hurt, or she’d be left alone while the others went off to be nuts.

  “Sweetheart, will you please just trust me and wait until we can go out with them together?” At least if he was there, he could keep an eye on her. “I promise, we’ll do it soon.”

  Sliding closer, she angled a little and lifted her legs to let them hook over one of his thighs. Man, she was so hot, and the way she was gaining in confidence with touching him was incredible. She was more relaxed without their Opposites camera crews around, but didn’t even seem to care that the people in the vast canteen were openly gawping at them.

  “What if I promise to be home by midnight, can I go out then?” she asked, tucking her head against his shoulder.

  The warmth of her breath and that innocent tone laced through her voice undid him. Letting his eyes close, his hand slid up the curve of her waist. “Ten,” he said. “If you’re home by ten PM… and you call me every half hour.”

  “You’ll be filming,” she said, tipping her head back.

  “I don’t care,” he said, understanding her want to get to know the men he spent so much time with and appreciating it, even if it was giving him palpitations. “I’ll work around it. You’re the most important thing.”

  “I’ll text,” she said. “That way you can put your phone on silent and it won’t interrupt you.”

  Trick had no idea he was so good at compromise. What he wanted to do was tie her up and lock her in the apartment, but part of her newfound confidence was his fault. He’d encouraged her to try new things, and introduced these people into her life. It wouldn’t be right of him to try to dampen her curiosity when it suited his inability to be rational.

  “Ok,” he said and linked his fingers into hers. “You said Ritchie didn’t need you for the rest of the day?”