Page 27 of Guarded Hearts
Her gaze flew to mine like a startled bird. “No.” She twisted one of the rings. “But getting you behind the curtain was.” Then she removed one of her rings and rotated it between her fingers. “The rest of it just kinda happened.”
Anger and frustration battled at the surface. She’d never been a bet or a joke. The feelings I had for her caused so much conflict, so much turmoil, and I was a body to her, a means to an end. The condom in her purse last night—who had she been thinking of when she’d put it there?
I cleared my throat. “Professional.” I wished I didn’t need her help, that I could storm out of here, avoid her like some strange disease for the rest of the tour. How could I return to my simple, easy life, the one I’d had before I peered behind the curtain? Life was so much simpler.
“Yeah,” she whispered.
I gazed down at her, filled to the brim with frustration, and she met my glare, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. The fortress I’d been building around my heart halted mid-brick. I wouldn’t be able to close her off, shut her out. There was no going back to before.
I’d seen behind the curtain, and I was forever altered. She was a worm in the apple of my heart, feasting on my emotions.
“I wanted something different from this, obviously.” She ran her thumb along the scruff on my cheek, and I suppressed a sigh at the contact. “All day, I’ve been dreading telling you.”
“S’okay,” I said, running my hand down her arm. “I understand. The risk is too great.”
She linked her fingers with mine, and she stared at our hands as she slid them together and apart over and over. “I think there’s something wrong with me.”
I tried to suppress a smile. All along, I’d thought there was something wrong with me. “Why?”
“Being with you will get me fired, but I don’t want to stop.”
Her lips were full and bare of lipstick. A flash of memory from last night burst into my consciousness—the way she’d curved into me, whispered my name with so much need. A minute ago, I could have left the room, done the right thing, taken the day to get some distance. Now, thoughts of kissing her were short-circuiting my logic. I wanted her more than I wanted my next breath, and she gave me a sliver of hope, a crack in a window.
“One for the road?” She rose on her toes, her lips connecting with mine as her arms slid around my neck.
A bad idea. A terrible idea. Against everything we’d just discussed. Where was my willpower? But at the first contact of her full lips, I lost the battle before it had even begun. I deepened the kiss.
Once I lifted her off the floor, I propelled us backward, her back hitting the wall, her legs coming around my waist. I cupped her ass to keep her steady, but my lips never left hers, never gave us a chance to breathe, to reconsider, to let logic rule again. Unlike the last two times, she wasn’t wearing a skirt. I wanted to rip her leggings off, bury myself inside her, let go of reason or sense.
A whistle pierced my consciousness, and I broke the kiss, looking over my shoulder to see Tyler enter the ballroom, Victoria in his arms. He wasfocused on his daughter, whistling the tune of one of Mia’s songs, and he hadn’t spotted us yet.
“Shit,” Alyssa muttered, breathless.
I braced against the wall, breathing heavy, and she lowered her legs. With my body, I tried to shield her, but when Tyler saw us, he stopped, an expression of stunned uncertainty on his face. This had to look like exactly what it was—the two of us pressed against a wall, faces close together, on the verge of ripping each other’s clothes off.
I closed my eyes at the stupidity of leading with my dick. She could get fired. Maybe I could get fired. I should have stopped this madness.
“Oh. I interrupted. I forgot you were practicing. I was trying to get Victoria out of the room for Mia to sleep for a bit. She’s a mommy’s girl at the worst times. So we decided to go for a walk, and this seemed like a good shortcut.”
I recognized Tyler’s ramble of discomfort. When he backed out of the room without another word, I wanted to go after him, but I needed a minute to get my body under control.
“I’m getting fired,” Alyssa whispered. “He’ll tell Mia. He’s going to tell Mia what he saw. I’m going to get fired.”
I kissed her temple and pulled her into a hug. “I’ll talk to him. He won’t say anything to Mia.”
“They don’t keep secrets from each other. I’ve heard Mia talk about it in interviews—theirnever to each otherthing they do.” Her voice was verging on distraught. “Why am I so stupid?”
I squeezed her tighter. She wasn’t the only stupid one here. I’d known the risks, and rather than taking the high, sensible road, I’d opted to roll around in the mud with her. “I’ll go talk to him.”
I found Tyler in the small garden at the back of the hotel, amusing Victoria by weaving flowers together. Petals were scattered on the pavement around them. When Tyler glanced up and saw me approaching, he said, “Man, I am sorry about that. I had no idea. I forgot you’d be practicing.” A hint of a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he passed Victoria another flower. “Though I’m not sure exactlywhatyou were practicing.”
Heat crept up my neck and threatened to invade my face. I took a seat at their table and scanned the small courtyard, checking for stray members of the tour who might have big ears and bigger mouths. “You can’t tell Mia.”
“She’ll be happy for you. Really. I’m happy for you. She’s the reason you’ve been in such a foul mood? I didn’t know who it was, but I thought that might be it.”
I leaned across the table so my voice wouldn’t travel far. “Alyssa doesn’t want to get fired.”
“Why would Mia fire her?” Tyler smoothed down Victoria’s hair when the wind caught some of the strands.
