Chapter Nine
“The truth will set you free”? Apparently that didn’t apply to him.
Back at the restaurant, he’d been able to read the thoughts on her face. Horror had turned to resignation, right before his eyes. She thought this date was pointless now. Thought he was pointless.
It was fucking awesome.
Because while Roxy probably assumed her shift in attitude would shut him down, it wouldn’t.
This is where his lawyer mind went into warp speed, examining reactions from every angle, weighing words, actions.
It was a knee-jerk quality that usually irritated him outside of work.
Tonight, he wanted to buy that quality a car, because it was giving him some much-needed hope.
If Roxy felt as though pursuing anything with him was pointless now, it meant she hadn’t felt it pointless prior to his coming clean about Fletcher.
Before he’d revealed his future brother-in-law as the bachelor party’s guest of honor, she’d felt something, too.
She’d anticipated more with him. Or she wouldn’t have had any hope to lose in the first place.
Right?
Okay, this explanation was what he was going with.
For now. Otherwise, he’d have to face facts that he wouldn’t be spending any more time with this girl who made him hot and crazy, yet calm all at the same time.
That, he just couldn’t allow to happen. Being with her felt right, like this was where he should have been all along but he’d been epically late.
Yeah, that scared the shit out of him. He’d never been committed to another person.
Hell, he didn’t know how. What example did he have to go on?
His parents had been more committed to their personal shoppers than to their own marriage.
One thing he did know? The possibility of her not feeling the same, or finding him not worth the trouble, scared him even more shitless.
Basically, in either scenario, he was flat out of shits.
He just needed more time to figure her out.
Needed more time to figure out why he suddenly wanted to spend every night with the same girl, when they hadn’t even spent the night together yet.
Speaking of which, the night air was picking up that dress of hers and fluttering it around her thighs like a checkered flag at a Nascar race.
Worse, she kept pulling her jean jacket tighter around her, as if she was cold, but her look-but-don’t-touch vibe prevented him from warming her up.
In his arms, back where she’d been inside Eataly before he’d doused the sparkle.
“We’ve been walking east awhile.” She sent him an absent smile that made him want to kiss it right off her face. “Any further and we’ll fall into the river.”
“Almost there.” He heard the tightness in his voice and tried to clear it.
Jokes wouldn’t make this go away. His instinct where she was concerned told him that.
No, everything had to be out in the open before he could work through it.
So he braced himself and asked the question that had been plaguing him for days.
“You said Wednesday was your first time stripping. I know you needed quick cash, but wasn’t there someone you could have asked for help? ”
“Does this count toward your three questions?” She asked the question as if she’d been expecting him to ask, had already loaded her response.
“Yes. If there’s no other way to get you talking.”
She sent him a wary look, then released a slow breath.
“The day I showed up at your apartment, my roommate had just kicked me out. I didn’t have anywhere to go that night, so I stayed up in an Internet café looking for an affordable place.
” Louis’s stomach twisted. He’d been out with his friends drinking, and she’d been virtually homeless.
He wanted to go back in time and kick himself in the nuts, but she was still talking, so he put his time travel plans on hold.
“I saw an ad for the room in Chelsea. It was ... well. You saw it. I winged it with Abby and wrote her a bad check. I needed it to clear, and I didn’t have enough money in the bank, so I took the job. It was only going to be once.”
“It will only be once,” he growled before he could think better of it.
She frowned. “I don’t need a hero, Louis. I’m doing just fine on my own.”
“I’m getting that loud and clear.” It wasn’t lost on him that she hadn’t fully answered his question.
Did she have anyone to ask for help? He closed the distance between them and put an arm around her waist. When she stiffened, he only held tighter.
“Stop this. I want to see you, Roxy. Why won’t you just let me see you? ”
“Because I know what this is now. I see the kind of guy you are.” She rounded on him.
Finally. A reaction. He wanted to shout with relief, but he didn’t think she’d appreciate it.
“You’re decent, Louis ... maybe you feel a little bad for me after what happened at the bachelor party.
Maybe you want to make some kind of point to yourself, or your family, that you can look past money and jobs and things that matter.
Make the point with someone else, all right? ”
Ouch. He hadn’t quite been expecting that.
If that’s how she saw him, he had more work ahead of him than he thought.
“You know what? That’s a load of horseshit.
” Swing for the fences, why don’t you? “I don’t need to make a point to anyone, especially my family.
In fact, I make it a point not to make points to them. ”
“What does that even mean?”
“Hang on. I’m going somewhere with this.”
“Okay.”
He blew out a breath. “The only opinion that matters to me is yours. Yes, you were hired to give my brother-in-law a lap dance. Stranger things have happened.”
“What if your sister finds out?”
“Don’t joke like that.” A laughter bubbled from her throat, but she still looked sad. He brushed her hair back from her face and decided to focus on the laughing part. “Why did your roommate kick you out? Do you have some terrible habit I need to know about?”
“That’s question number two. And, no. I was just late with the rent one too many times.” She pursed her lips. “I did eat her bag of flaxseed tortilla chips, though. Even though they were clearly labeled with her name. I think it might have been the straw that broke the roommate’s back.”
“Those chips are horrible.”
“I was in a pinch.”
God, she was cute. “Still, friends don’t just throw each other out onto the street.”
“We weren’t friends, we were roommates. Just like my roommate before her was just a roommate.
” She looked away. “You’re the kind of guy who makes friends easily, aren’t you?
You probably stop to pet strangers’ dogs on the street and talk to them about the weather. I don’t do that. We’re too different.”
Louis stepped closer until she was forced to tilt her head back.
Awareness shone in her eyes, and he absorbed it like a drug.
It meant he wasn’t imagining this draw between them.
Gradually, her curves relaxed against his, and a small sigh drifted past her parted lips.
“Dammit, Rox. Stop trying to pick a fight to get rid of me. It’s not going to work. ”
“It works with everyone else.” Something seized inside of him at the mild panic in her eyes. “Is this what I get for hooking up with a lawyer?”
“Are we hooking up?” He slid his fingers into her hair and let his mouth ghost over hers. God, it felt amazing to have her close. Oh yeah . She’d definitely just looked at his mouth. “Come on, beautiful. Put me out of my misery.”
“Hmm.” She curled her fingers around his collar and tugged him lower. “Why don’t we start with a kiss and see how you do?”
Their hips met on a mutual roll and his eyelids lowered like they weighed two tons each.
The slide of her body against his sucked the breath out of his lungs and filled them with something else.
Need. Determination. Her. They were on a busy street and he couldn’t see, couldn’t feel anything but Roxy.
For just a split second, her playful pretense dropped and he saw what she’d kept hidden until now.
The ache he’d been feeling since they’d met was displayed on her features for him to see.
To memorize. He only took a moment to savor it before the prevailing urge to satisfy her ache took over.
He’d put it there. He’d made her ache, and now he needed to take it away.
“Why haven’t you kissed me yet?” she breathed.
“Good question,” he managed before—
She vibrated. She . . . vibrated ?
“Shit.” One of her hands left his collar to dig in her jean jacket pocket. “My phone ... I have to answer. It could be a callback from an audition, or—”
He couldn’t form words, so he just nodded woodenly. Close. He’d been so close.
“Hello?” The apologetic look she sent him froze on her face. “Yes, this is Roxy Cumberland. Who d-did you say was calling?” A beat passed. “Wow. I thought I’d heard you wrong.”
A feeling of dread took up residence in Louis’s stomach. No. It couldn’t be.
“But I’ve never auditioned for Johan Strassberg, how did he .
.. ?” Roxy trailed off, nodding a moment later.
Jesus, no. Louis wasn’t supposed to be with her when she got this call.
Who called someone on a Saturday night to schedule an audition, anyway?
He hadn’t expected Johan to contact her until Monday, when Louis would be safely in work, thinking about her but not looking right at her.
And lying. Pretending he had nothing to do with Johan calling her to read for a part in his upcoming movie.
Now? Now, he’d have to smile and congratulate her. Keep the truth to himself. Again. This is why he hated lying, because one lie almost inevitably led to two. Then three. Until you couldn’t see your way clear of it.