Chapter 27
“Come on, girl. It’s time for you to saddle up and get back on the horse,” Nia said, delivering one of her motivational speeches.
They were at Leila’s place, each enjoying a pint of chocolate ice cream as therapy, but Nia was ready to call an end to the pity party. “Come on, hon. Enough of this. So you had a little blip.”
Leila dropped her spoon in her pint and looked at Nia. “I swear, woman, your talent for downplaying astounds me. A blip? Tripping on the runway is a blip. A major one, but a blip. But having your ex premiere his smash video, in which he simulates multiple sex acts involving women who are made up to look like you on a screen, while you’re walking the runway? Well, that’s more than a freaking blip. That is an ‘off the Richter scale’ earthquake.”
Nia sighed. “Okay. I’ll admit it’s a bit of a quake. But not one you can’t recover from. Miles showed his ass. Royally. Donetta too. And now they are both pariahs in their field for it.”
“And what about me? What will people think of me now? I was supposed to be making my image better, not worse. Not to mention Carter’s reputation. With this disaster, I’ll be lucky if they don’t take that stupid comedy off the table.”
“Well, has he said anything about taking it off the table?”
Leila frowned. “No, but he’s not that type. I don’t think he would say it. At least not yet. Not now while I’m down. But still, I can tell he’s disappointed.”
Nia shook her head. “He’s probably just pissed.” Leila groaned, and Nia reached out to take her hand. “It’s not like that. It’s that he’s probably so pissed at Miles. I don’t know what’s really going on with the two of you, but I know it’s getting serious. He feels for you, and it’s not just business. He was seriously wanting to pummel that guy, and not for embarrassing him, but for hurting you.”
That realization stopped Leila cold. Could what Nia was saying be true? She knew she wanted to kick Miles’s ass for so many reasons, for embarrassing her, for potentially derailing her plan, but mostly, she knew that when she saw the hurt and anger on Carter’s face, she wanted to kick Miles in his ass for putting that pain there. When she had taken those vows on a bet or whatever, she had still become Mrs. Carter Bain, and that meant something. That came with a certain amount of responsibility to live up to her and his name.
Suddenly, Leila felt like she had to redeem herself. But how, she didn’t know. She looked at Nia. “Time to get back to work, you say. What type of bookings have been coming in?”
Nia smiled. “Well, for one, we need to respond to Shelley and her winter play contract calls.”
Leila’s jaw dropped as tears came to her eyes. “You mean to tell me she didn’t pull it off the table after this mess?”
“Of course she didn’t. She wanted us to tell you she still wants you and believes in you.”
Leila smiled brightly, feeling it down to her heart for the first time. “That’s amazing. Now what else?”
Nia grinned. “Oh, honey. We’re about to have a good time, and the best is Jasper is going to have to give me a raise because of this one.”
Leila gave her a high five. “I’ll be sure he does.”
* * *
Carter was shocked to find Leila up and smiling and in the kitchen when he got home. After the fiasco at the show, she’d dramatically taken to her bed for a while. He hadn’t blamed her. The whole scene had been so embarrassing, and he wished more than anything that he’d gotten a few more blows in with that ass Miles. He could take a lot, but seeing the pain in Leila’s eyes as she stood on that runway had just about done him in. Miles had had the nerve to try some shit about suing him, but he had gotten lawyers to squelch that right quick. Carter had threatened to countersue him for damaging his reputation and for slandering his wife, and he’d warned that Leila stood to take a piece of the profits, if not all, from “Darling Leila.”
When he’d told Leila all of that, it hadn’t raised her spirits much. He’d been trying all his best moves to bring her out of her depressed mood. Then, finally, after a blessed visit from Nia, she had seemed to bounce back, if not to her normal self, then to a version of herself. A woman driven and on a mission. Suddenly, it was as if their roles were reversed, with her spending long hours working with Shelley Atwood on her upcoming winter production or doing the rare print campaign.
Carter was excited for her and the show. He could see she enjoyed acting and it gave her an energy that her other work didn’t. Though, he could admit to himself a certain sense of dread over the upcoming show, because with it would also come the end of their six months. And decisions had to be made. Hard decisions. He’d had a lot of blowback at work over his altercation with Miles G. His only saving grace had been Aidan, who had brought home to Everett how Leila had come out with even more fans than ever due to this altercation, and how they would look terrible as a company if they didn’t stand by her and Carter during this time.
Tonight, as Carter sidestepped Ollie and looked at his pretty wifey, he sniffed the air. “Hey, darling. Did my mom stop by with a care package?”
Leila gave him a cheeky grin. “No, she did not, though I did consult her.”
Carter raised a brow and looked from left to right, making an exaggerated face. “You didn’t?”
She nodded playfully. “Oh yes, I did.”
He dropped his bag on the couch, then ran into the kitchen, past her, and lifted the lids on the pots on the stove. There was his favorite—seared steak with mushrooms and wild rice. He closed the lids and took Leila in his arms. “What did you do all this for? You know you don’t have to cook for me.”
She shrugged, looking up at him, those brown eyes going to his very soul. “I didn’t cook for you. I cooked for us. Now, go wash your hands and let’s eat.”
Carter felt like an idiot for feeling so happy over this small act of domesticity. For a moment, he questioned himself. He didn’t want to be one of those guys, but damn it, he liked it and couldn’t deny it. He liked seeing her when he got home, going to sleep with her in his arms at night, and waking with her in the morning. As he rinsed his hands, he looked at himself in the bathroom mirror, half expecting to see someone else looking back at him. But no, it was still him. It was just the inside that had changed.
* * *
As Leila lay back on the couch, full and supremely relieved that her dinner had turned out well, Carter rubbed her feet and she considered how easily she could get used to this. Her husband really did have very talented hands. He rubbed gently but deeply, hitting all the right spots, and when he hit one, the sensation went clear from her foot up her leg to her very core. She arched her back and moaned.
“I swear, Mr. Bain, you keep that up and you’re going to have me screaming your name.”
He grinned and looked at her with a devilish glint in his dark eyes. “Well, then, let me continue for sure. If I knew this was all it took, I wouldn’t have been working so hard in the bedroom.”
She kicked her foot out at him playfully. “Don’t you dare. No need to go messing with perfection.”
Carter grinned wide. “Perfection, you say?”
Leila’s eyes went wide as she shook her head. “Wait a minute. I don’t think I said perfection. I think the word I was looking for was adequacy.”
“Oh, I know what I heard, Wifey.” Carter tickled her foot, causing her to giggle and kick and Ollie to start to jump and bark. Carter crawled on top of her, tickling her sides while kissing on her neck. She laughed even harder when Ollie jumped on his back to nip at his ear.
“Oww! Ollie, no. I’m not hurting her! I love her!”
Both Leila and Ollie froze. Eyes going wide. Leila stared at Carter, her heart beating so hard she thought he might feel it. She pushed at his chest. “Move please. I can’t breathe.”
He pushed back, got off her, and sat back on his side of the couch.
She looked at him. “Why would you go and say that?”
Carter shook his head. “I don’t know, Leila. I’ve never said it before. Is telling a woman you love her something you plan? Something you have to have a reason for?”
She jumped up, her anger simmering. “Yes. I want a reason, damn it. Why?”
Carter got up and started to pace. “God, woman, you are crazy. Who needs a reason when they say ‘I love you’? You either love someone or you don’t, and I said, ‘I love you.’ You want a reason? Fine. It’s all your fault. You cooked the damn steak. Why did you go and do that?”
Leila’s mouth dropped open. “The steak? You love me because I cooked the steak?”
“Well, you asked for a reason. That one is as good as any, isn’t it?”
Leila threw her hands up, willing her unshed tears not to fall. “Well, you can better believe that’s the last damn steak I cook for you, mister!”
Carter let out a low groan. Then a slow breath. “So why did you do it?”
“Do what?” she asked.
“Cook tonight.”
Leila folded her arms then and sat back on the couch. “You know what? This is a stupid fight. Let’s just forget it even started.” She started to get up to go to the bedroom and just forget it all, but he pulled her to him, forcing her to look him in the eye.
“No, no, we’re not going to just forget this. You can just forget that I told you I love you? Now, why did you make the damn dinner? Tell me!”
“Because . . .” She felt her lip start to tremble and willed it to just stay the hell still. “I thought if we made it to Thanksgiving, it would be nice if I could make you something, so that it’s not just your mother doing all the cooking. I had this stupid fantasy about all of us together for the holiday. I haven’t contributed to a Thanksgiving meal since my mother died. Usually, we went out, and since my brothers are married, we now do Thanksgiving at their homes.” She felt herself choking on her words and hated how ridiculous she sounded. “It was stupid. I know it now.”
“Shh,” Carter said, pulling her in tight. “It is not.”
She tried to pull away. “But it is. Our challenge portion of the bet will be over, and you’ll be free to go whatever way you want, and so will I.”
He looked down at her. “Well, I just told you I loved you, so I don’t see myself running for the hills anytime soon. Now, I’m not asking you to tell me you love me back. Just you thinking about spending a potential holiday with me, my darling, is enough for me right now.”
Leila let out a breath as he kissed the top of her head, and she leaned into his chest. Let his solid warmth soothe her. Finally, her breathing slowed, and she took him by the hand. “Can we just go to bed?”
“Darling, where you go, I go.”
Leila smiled at his easygoing words, which were meant to soothe her in her distress. Carter always seemed to know the right words to say. While his tactfulness used to make her distrust him, now, for the most part, it soothed her, though it did cause a small part of her to be scared to death.
“Besides, I still owe you an ending to that massage,” he added.
* * *
When they made love that night, all the jokes and the pretense were gone. Carter could barely breathe as he kissed along every curve of her body, worshipping her as the woman he’d now fully admitted to loving. He still couldn’t believe he’d let that slip. Not that he’d thought about it. Much. He’d like to blame Aidan and Vin. Ever since the dinner party and all their ribbing about the way he’d looked at Leila and all their talk of love, he couldn’t get the word love out of his head. And then he’d gone and driven the idea home by losing his cool with Miles at Donetta’s show, but honestly, he hadn’t been able to help himself. Just the thought of her being exposed like that and hurt by that ass’s actions had made him want to punish someone bad.
But Carter couldn’t hide what his admission had done to Leila. She wasn’t ready to accept his love or to admit that she might love him back. Who knew? Maybe she never would be. Not fully. And with the way negotiations were going at work with Sphere and the shows, she might good and well walk away from the idea of loving him forever.
Everett was now, for some reason, fully committed to the idea of Chloe for Shadowed Dreams, even without having her take a test. Carter had hoped to at least get Leila in for a test, but it wasn’t working out. He had a feeling that Grayson Hill was behind this push for Chloe, since he’d heard rumors about Chloe finding her way to Tennessee and Grayson taking work trips to both New York and LA. He was sunk. How had it got to this point? Carter had never been in a business predicament that he couldn’t think or negotiate his way out of.
He felt Leila tap him on his shoulder. “Where did you go?”
“Nowhere, darling,” he said, loving looking at her beautiful eyes in the moonlight as she wrapped her long legs around his waist. “Nowhere. I’m right here with you.”
Carter angled his body and placed himself at her center. He kissed her deeper, entered her in one long, swift stroke. As he suckled on her tongue, he matched each tongue stroke with a long stroke down below, until she was worked into a frenzy, as he was, and he felt the beginnings of her telltale quiver.
“Let go with me, darling. Don’t hold back. Please let go,” he whispered close in her ear.
Leila tightened around him even more, causing him to burst forth unexpectedly, while she breathed out a yes, which he imprinted on his heart as a promise of having her heart forever.