Chapter 11
‘I leave you alone for five days and this is what I come back to?’
Markus heaved his suitcase onto the bed in the Hunts’ second guest room, which Sierra had cleaned out for him. Although he was only staying through Sunday morning, his brown leather suitcase was as big as Nina’s.
‘What’s in there?’ she asked, eyeing the straining zipper. ‘You’re here for two nights.’
‘Only the essentials. And don’t change the subject. Five days, Neens. I leave you alone for five days and you move in with the cowboy and his family?’
‘It’s not like that,’ Nina insisted. Because it wasn’t. Technically.
… Yet.
‘I know it’s not like that,’ Markus stated. ‘I’m your best friend. I know you. And you barely date. You don’t do relationships – especially after five days. Which means that either something is wrong, or something bad has already happened and you never told me.’
‘I knew you would stress. I knew you would drop everything to be here, and …’ Nina sighed.
She wasn’t sure how to tell him he was worrying needlessly and smothering her in the process.
‘I don’t need you to worry. I’m doing fine, Markus.
’ She thought about the time she’d spent with the horses and with Maverick and Benji and José, and added, ‘I’m good. ’
Markus knew her better than anyone, so he knew that she was telling the truth. But he still asked, ‘So, why are you staying here? If you were warming the sheets with Maverick, I would be all for it. But seeing as though you’re not …’
Nina couldn’t quite contain her blush. The whole truth was that when Nina had told Mav that she was afraid, she had been talking about her inexperience.
She wasn’t exactly the siren her films made her out to be.
Markus saw her blush as it spread fire across her pale cheeks. ‘Oh. My. God. Are you banging the cowboy?’
‘Shhh!’
Markus gasped dramatically. ‘You are!’
‘No.’ Nina cast a panicked glance at the door. ‘And keep your voice down. There’s a five-year-old in the house.’
Markus lowered his voice to a dramatic whisper. ‘Are you banging the cowboy?’
‘No,’ she hissed back.
‘Oh.’ Markus’s face fell. ‘Boo.’
And because he was her best friend, she admitted, ‘But I want to.’
‘Yas!’ Markus started happy dancing right there in the Hunts’ guest room.
Nina watched him, and she couldn’t help but smile at his antics. ‘I missed you,’ she said loudly, trying to get his attention over his bopping and weaving.
Markus stopped dancing. ‘I missed you too, Neens.’ He tapped her on the nose. ‘But don’t think you’re changing the subject on me.’ He sat on the bed, crossed one leg over the other. ‘Spill!’
‘There’s nothing to tell really. Nothing much has happened yet.’ It wasn’t technically true, but Nina wasn’t ready to share the details of the kiss. She wanted to hold on to it, to keep it for herself, just a little longer.
‘Yet? All I’m hearing is that you want something to happen!’ He clapped his hands excitedly. ‘Nina, in all the years I’ve known you, you have never, not once, thought about jumping into bed with a man. Especially one who is so clearly relationship material.’
‘That’s not true.’
‘It is,’ Markus argued immediately. ‘You’ve hooked up a few times, sure.
But you only ever chose men you wouldn’t miss.
And once you landed Camelot and people started recognizing your face, you pulled back completely.
I mean, you know I don’t usually snoop in this area, but when was the last time your girl got some exercise? ’
Nina groaned aloud, anxious all over again. ‘Since about a month before Camelot came out.’
Markus was speechless.
‘It’s hard,’ she said, feeling the need to justify her actions, or lack thereof.
‘If I go on a date, do I have them sign an NDA beforehand, or do I just not tell them anything I don’t want the world to know?
And if I do that, are they really dating me or Famous Nina Keller?
And if I have sex with a date, do I have to worry that they’ll brag about it because I’m famous?
Do I have to worry that they’ll tell all their friends what my body looks like naked or if I’m bad in bed? ’
Markus didn’t focus on any of that. He said, ‘Camelot was … four … Are you telling me it’s been four years since you got laid?’
‘Shhh! Markus!’ Nina cast an anxious glance at the door.
‘Okay. Okay.’ But he still shook his head one last time as he came to terms with her celibacy.
‘Also, the world knows what your glorious body looks like since you did the nude scene in Dogs of Despair. Your problem,’ he told her, ‘is that you don’t trust men in general.
’ Before she could argue, he held up both hands, raised his voice.
‘I’m not saying I don’t understand why. Lulu did a number on you in that department, so it’s allowed. But not all men are untrustworthy.’
‘I know that,’ she insisted. ‘I trust you.’
‘Oh, baby. That’s only because I’m your soulmate.’
‘I trust Maverick Hunt.’
‘Well. Shit.’
‘He’s different, Markus. Really, truly different. But he is so clearly a long-haul kind of guy. He has a kid, for Pete’s sake! And his ex really hurt him.’ Nina thought about what Maverick had told her about Shannon, and added, ‘He’s so good. And I don’t want to hurt him.’
‘Nina, I say this with all the love in my heart and the carnal motivation of a male sex drive: he’s a single man with a kid. The dude is probably in desperate need of a lay. You’d be doing him a favour, really.’
Nina laughed even though she knew it wasn’t that simple, that Maverick wasn’t that simple.
‘Good Lord, baby. Go for it! If you’re that scared about hurting him, just be clear from the start.
Maverick is a grown man who is perfectly capable of making his own decisions.
And I don’t have to remind you, you are seriously smart.
And you’re cautious. You don’t fuck around, so if you feel like you wanna do the dance with the cowboy, then do the damn dance!
We are thirty-three years old,’ he said, his tone turning serious.
‘Life isn’t going to slow down for us to live it anymore. ’
‘I’m thirty-four,’ she reminded him.
‘Not for another five days,’ he countered immediately. ‘And, even then, you’re only proving my point.’
‘I’ll think about it,’ Nina promised. Because as much as Markus was right about Maverick being a grown man, capable of making his own decisions, Nina knew that he never made any decision lightly and so she worried about that pull between them.
If she thought it would just be sex, she would have been more confident.
But she already knew it wouldn’t just be sex.
Yes, she liked the way he looked. Yes, she felt that same heat. Of course she did. But it was more than that. She was an actress, as used to working with handsome, charismatic men as she was brushing her teeth, which is how she knew that Maverick Hunt was different.
She liked how strong but quiet he was, how competent. If a problem arose, Maverick handled it without a word of complaint. She loved watching him with the horses. He was so openly gentle and caring. And she’d only had to see him once with Poppy to know that he was a great dad.
‘See that you do—’ Markus’s words were cut off by a timid knock on the door.
Poppy’s little voice followed. ‘Nina?’
‘Come in, Poppy,’ Nina prompted gently.
Poppy opened the door and walked in, a hairbrush in her hand. Her big brown eyes narrowed in on Markus sitting on the bed, close to Nina.
‘Is she gonna laser vision me to death?’ he whispered.
Nina introduced him. ‘This is Markus.’
Poppy didn’t say hi. She asked, ‘Is he your boyfriend?’
‘No. He’s my best friend,’ Nina replied, hoping to ease Poppy’s mistrust. ‘He came to visit me for the weekend.’
Poppy stopped a few feet in front of them, but she didn’t take her eyes off Markus. ‘Do you know the bad man?’
‘The bad man?’ Markus looked at Nina in question.
‘Oh.’ Nina’s heart hurt at Poppy’s anger on her behalf. ‘Markus is the one who saved me from the bad man,’ she hurried to explain. She turned to Markus. ‘The attacker,’ she explained.
Poppy seemed to consider this new information for a moment before nodding. ‘My dad’s not gonna let the bad man come here.’
Markus only raised both his brows in Nina’s direction, said, ‘Girl.’
‘I know,’ Nina replied.
‘If I don’t have ovaries, I just grew a pair,’ he muttered. But he turned back to Poppy. ‘Lady, I like your outfit.’
Poppy looked down at her white dress and brown cowgirl boots. ‘It’s my favourite.’ She shook her long hair back, said, ‘I dressed myself.’
‘Okay, diva. You have style.’ He made a twirling gesture with his finger, and when Poppy instinctually twirled, Markus clapped his hands. ‘Gorgeous!’
Nina looked down at her phone, noted it was near six o’clock. ‘Where are you going all dressed up?’
‘Oh, yeah.’ Poppy laughed. ‘I was supposed to ask you if you wanted to come to the barbecue with us.’
Nina opened her mouth to refuse. Just the idea of all those people made her feel queasy.
But Markus didn’t give her a chance. ‘We would love to! Especially if we get to dress up too!’
Poppy beamed at him. ‘It’s fun. And there’s dancing and music and food,’ she added in her sing-song voice.
‘My three favourite things,’ Markus declared.
‘Mine too!’ Poppy laughed, immediately forgetting her initial scepticism.
Nina sighed and resigned herself to the fact that she would be attending her first resort event. She saw the hairbrush in Poppy’s hand, noticed that her hair was still slightly damp from being freshly washed. ‘Did you want me to re-braid your hair?’
‘Yeah. The French braid.’ Poppy passed her the brush and knelt on the floor between Nina’s knees without being prompted.
Nina stoically ignored Markus’s shocked silence and instead focused on Poppy. ‘What about a waterfall braid?’
Poppy angled her head back. ‘What’s that?’
Nina pulled up a picture on her phone and showed it to Poppy.
The five-year-old stared at her with big eyes. ‘You can do that?’ she asked, her tone reverent.