Lyla couldn’t refute that. He’d been worried about her going out with his friends and what trouble she might end up in. If she didn’t text, he might assume that she was in trouble and feel it necessary to come chasing after her.
“No, he won’t,” Bunyan said and picked up a sheet of paper. “Because this will only take a minute… All we need you to do is sign this.”
“Oh,” Lyla said and began to move, but Sadie put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.
“She’s going to have her lawyer look at that first.”
“Lawyer?” Lyla said in time with Bunyan and Paul. Lyla didn’t even have a lawyer, though she could get a lawyer if it was necessary.
“Why would she need a lawyer?” Bunyan asked. “She signed the initial contracts without a lawyer.”
“Yeah,” Sadie said. “And that was just three weeks ago. Follow up contracts this quickly usually mean something was missed in the first contract or someone wants to change the rules of the game… Which is it? ‘Cause if this was about Boys Night, Damon would be here.”
“Damon?” Lyla asked Sadie.
“Their executive producer and director,” Sadie said.
Bunyan glanced at Paul. “We need to ensure there won’t be a lawsuit brought by Miss Malloy about the footage aired on Boys Night last night.”
“Why would Lyla bring a lawsuit?” Sadie asked. “She knew Trick was live. Knew what was happening. She addressed the studio and spoke to the guys even after she was on her back.” Sadie put her hand on Lyla’s shoulder again. “Sorry, honey.” Lyla shook her head because Sadie was right. “And that’s exactly what a lawyer would say if this ended up in court… What is it you want, Bunyan? You won’t find a person more accommodating than Lyla, so if you spell it out, she’s the most likely person to agree.”
Paul stood up. “We need you and Trick to go back to the hotel.”
“The hotel? Which hotel?” Lyla asked.
“Where you had sex,” Bunyan said.
“We can build a set,” Paul said. “But it will be easier just to reserve the suite for an hour.”
Bunyan projected his voice. “We need footage.”
“Footage,” Sadie said. “Of them having sex?”
“Just the usual,” Bunyan shrugged like it was no big deal. “We’re not filming porn. We have no problem with them staying under a blanket or trying to conceal what they’re doing.”
Sadie laughed. “You can’t be serious.”
Bunyan’s expression got sterner. “This is not your business, Miss Lawrence. This is between the studio and our cast. We need the footage. It is necessary and they have to comply. It’s in the initial contract. They both gave up rights to any and all intimate acts. We are allowed to have footage of it. We could sue them for subverting our access to the act.”
“Sue them?” Sadie spat out, then nodded at the desk. “Is that what that contract is?”
“No, actually,” Paul said. “This is an out.”
“His idea, not mine,” Bunyan muttered.
“It’s a waiver that allows us to use stand-ins,” Paul said. “If she signs this, we can get actors to recreate the moment.”
Recreate the moment she and Trick had first been intimate? The idea made Lyla feel sick. “How can you do that? You get look-a-likes? Won’t people notice it’s not us?”
“More of the action will happen under the covers.”
“But we didn’t do it under the covers,” Lyla said.
Sadie looped her arm through hers. “Don’t give them any details. That was your special moment with Trick. Don’t sell it to them.”
Bunyan laughed. “Both of them sold themselves to us when they agreed to do the show. This isn’t deviant curiosity. We need to enhance the appeal of the show. If viewers think they’ll get better footage on Boys Night, they’ll switch.”
Oops, yes, that was true. Lyla worried her lip as she tried to decide what they should do. “I don’t feel right about faking it,” Lyla said.
Cliff laughed. “I think Trick would have a follow-up line for that too.”
Yes, he would. Geez, all she ever did was say stupid things. “You won’t have to fake anything,” Paul said. “Sign the paper and we’ll use stand-ins.”
Other people, pretending to be them? How would she watch that? What if they did something that embarrassed her or Trick? If Bunyan was pissed enough he could make it seem like she was unsatisfied or that Trick was no good in bed.
And they’d never catch the emotional intensity of their joining. They could make it dirty and cheap. An actress could make her sound loud and ridiculous, or an actor could make Trick seem like a sleaze, something the studio was good at.
“No,” she said. “I won’t… I don’t want you to use stand-ins.”
“Then you have to go back to the hotel with him and do it yourselves,” Bunyan said. “It’s that or…”
“Or what?”
“We need something bigger,” Bunyan said. “Something that will make our viewers forget they missed the first time.”
“Something not under the covers,” Sadie said like she was translating and it turned out she was right because Bunyan nodded.
“Ideally it wouldn’t be in the bedroom either, it should seem spontaneous and…”
“Dirty,” Cliff said and it was sort of sweet that he sounded annoyed.
But Lyla couldn’t focus on that. Spontaneous and dirty… Turning to Sadie, Lyla set her determination. “You usually work on the quiz, right?”
Sadie glanced at everyone. “Uh, yeah, I took tonight off because of the team-building thing, I thought I’d have a backlog.”
“Can you get me into the studio?”
TWENTY-THREE
Lyla was nervous.
Thinking about it now, her question to Sadie had been stupid because they’d been in one of the top execs offices, anyone could’ve gotten her into the studio. But it was access she needed. Access to Trick.
Sadie was with her as she walked into the studio through a hidden door. “Are you sure you want to do this?” Sadie whispered to her.
“Don’t have a lot of choice,” Lyla said, trying her best to ignore her trembling hands.
Sadie grabbed a runner. “Spread word in the audience that the stunner about to walk on set is Lyla Strickland,” Sadie said, presuming that people wouldn’t recognize her without her baggy clothes, glasses, and tight chignon. “Keep it quiet from Trick.”
The runner nodded and ran off; Sadie put an arm around her. “It’s no big deal,” Lyla said. “I’ve slept with Trick before.”
“But not on film,” Sadie said. “Not like this.”
Her new friend’s expression was full of contrition. But Lyla couldn’t think too much about it, she had to be confident. Yes, confidence and determination, that’s what would get her through… and if she just focused on Trick…
“We’ll cut there and setup for the next game…” Someone called from the front of the fixed bleachers that she was standing in the shadow of now.
“Ok,” Lyla said and smiled at Sadie. “Sex with my husband. Piece of cake.”
Whirling around, she kept her spine straight and her shoulders back as she strode around to the front of the audience. As she moved through the space between the bleachers and the edge of the set, a cheer went up, a big one, one she wasn’t expecting.
Widening her smile, Lyla waved to the audience and then turned to the set. There were two desks of contestants on either side of the quiz host’s desk. Trick’s chair had been turned away, but when he heard the cheer, he turned and followed the audience’s focus.
To say he was surprised to see her was an understatement, but he smiled and left his seat, digging his phone into his back pocket as he rose. He must have been checking for her overdue message, but it didn’t matter, she was here now.
He jumped down from the raised platform his desk was on and ran across the floor to meet her halfway. “Babe,” he said, brushing his fingers across her cheek. “What’s
wrong?”
Taking his hand, she smiled at the panel members who tried to say hello and offered them a wave. She pulled Trick around to the back of the set, away from everyone. Going to a door at the rear of the huge studio, she dragged him through it. This was a backstage area, one that would be deliberately deserted. Except for those who were planted there.
Taking him down the half-dozen metal stairs, Lyla said nothing just moved a dark curtain aside to go into another part of the space. She’d been directed to go to the square area with its door on the far wall, a door which had a glass panel in it…
Dropping the curtain, she pushed him to the wall and swallowed her nerves while trying to keep her smile in place. If he thought she was nervous, he wouldn’t want to do this. Locking her eyes onto his, Lyla read his confusion, but pushed on. Confidence. Determination. Yes, that was it, just keep looking at Trick.
“Kiss me, Trick,” she whispered, pulling his shirt from the front of his jeans.
“What?” he asked, but sank his hand into her hair to take hold of her neck. “Here?”
Biting her lip, she tried to keep on smiling and nodded as she slid his belt from its buckle. Dipping down, he kissed her.
Yes, sinking into the pleasure of his mouth, Lyla let herself ride the wave. If she could get aroused, like she usually did when he kissed her, then she could forget that they were being spied on. Surely, she could.
“Dressing room,” he murmured against her and took her hand.
But she put her hands to his chest and pushed him back against the wall when he tried to move away. “No,” she said, unbuttoning his jeans to slide her hand into his underwear. “Here.”
“Here?” he asked and something crossed his gaze.
Oh no.
He was suspicious.
But he couldn’t guess, surely, he couldn’t guess what was going on. Lyla would never ask him to expose himself or to do anything intimate without telling him they were on film. But he’d said there were no boundaries, that she could do anything with him that she wanted to… did that include this?
Reaching around to unzip her dress, she pulled it only part way down, so that when she guided her arms out of the wide straps and drew the top part of the dress down, her skirt stayed on her hips.
Trick grinned and tossed his head back in a laugh as he wound his arms around her. “Ok, I get it,” he said and kissed her forehead before he grabbed her upper arms and spun her around to thrust her against the wall. Pushing himself closer, he laid a forearm on the wall above her head as he drew her face up with a finger. Instead of kissing her, he kept his lips a whisper away from hers. “The guys put you up to this… It’s a bet, right? A dare?” He kissed her quickly. “You don’t have to do it, baby. Of all the things I thought they’d ask you to do… Ok… this is up there as one of their better ideas…” His next kiss was longer, harder, more relaxed, but his assumption made her feel worse. He thought this was a game for his friends when this couldn’t be further from a fun game. His voice dropped to a growl. “That said, if you want me to do you hard and fast right here, baby, you just hop on up and my cock will do the job.”
Some of the heat in his gaze chilled when their eyes next met, could he tell from the way her heart was racing that something was wrong? Bunyan had told her not to tell him, Bunyan had said it would be smart not to, but she couldn’t lie to him, she’d promised not to.
Picking up his loose hand, she pressed it to her throat. His hands were so big, so talented, so amazing that she didn’t ever want to take them away from her. But letting her eyes wander up to his, she slid his hand down her front to her breast and he was happy to take a handful of her.
Lyla covered his hand and moved his thumb under hers, guiding it to graze the tiny portable microphone that Paul had positioned on the edge of the lace cup while telling her that its range would still pick up their voices even if she took the bra off.
As soon as she saw the moment of clarity in Trick’s eyes, she squashed herself back and slid down the wall. She wouldn’t ask him to perform for her, or for them, but she could perform herself. Keeping her bent knees together between his legs, Lyla put her hand into his jeans and opened her mouth.
But before she could take him out, Trick stepped back and grabbed her arms again to haul her up. With fierce anger in his eyes, he grabbed the neck of her dress and stuffed her arms back in the sleeves.
“Where?” he grumbled and she turned her attention to the door.
He spun around and began to stalk toward it. “Trick!” she called out and hurried to follow him, but he was already throwing the door open. Paul, Bunyan, and Sadie were all there with the camera crew, who were falling back on themselves to get out of the path of this raging bull.
“You?” Trick shouted at Sadie. “What the hell, Say!”
“I didn’t know,” Sadie said.
“You let her go through with this? You let her do it?”
Darting around her man, Lyla put herself between him and everyone else because she didn’t know where this mood would end up. The last thing Lyla wanted was for Trick to get himself into trouble.
“They didn’t give her a choice,” Sadie said. “Trust me, this was the best of a bad bunch of options.”
When Trick’s attention flew to Bunyan, Lyla felt the heat of his fury. “Trick!” she said and reached for his face, but he threw her hand away. “Please, baby, it’s fine!”
“You have a contractual obligation,” Bunyan said and although Lyla heard a lot of bluster, she heard fear as well. “You have to fulfill your duties to this station!”
“My duty is to my wife and hers is to me. Did you tell her to lie to me? Did you?” Trick shouted so loud, that Lyla’s ears started to ring. When Bunyan didn’t answer, Trick tried to take a step forward, but she pressed into him with everything she had. Lyla didn’t stop him from moving, but she hoped to slow him down enough to give the others a head start. “Don’t you ever speak to my wife without me, ever! Any of you bastards go anywhere near her without me and I’ll take every one of you apart, understand?”
“Trick,” Sadie said. “Don’t threaten them.”
Lyla liked to think Sadie was worried about Bunyan being litigious, but it didn’t seem that her husband thought that. “Don’t talk to me, Say. Screw you. Seriously? She trusted you! I trusted you! A drink? Did you plan to take her out or was it all a setup?”
“No!” Sadie called. “We were out, with the guys, we got called in. We thought something was wrong with you! We came here and… They wanted her to sign a follow-up contract!”
Like he knew what that meant without further explanation, Trick’s attention fell to her, but he didn’t look any less angry. Lyla nodded. “They wanted to use stand-ins to recreate our first night together. I couldn’t let them do that, Trick. What if they… What if they made it dirty or sordid? What if they made you out to be something… depraved or inferior?”
The studio could get him into a lot of trouble. They already had footage of him touching her and her arguing with him, telling him to keep his hands to himself. If they chose to make it look like he’d forced her into sex then he could find himself in hot water. It might be great television and create extensive publicity, but it would ruin him.
“They threatened you,” he murmured and his anger flared with renewed energy when he raised his attention and his voice at the men behind her. “You threatened my wife?”
“Oh, give us a break,” Bunyan spat out, not seeming to get that it wasn’t smart for him to adopt an attitude right now. “Your wife? This is all bullshit! It’s a setup! A goddamn show! And you do this right, you’ll be a star! Don’t be a moron! Everything we’re doing will benefit you and your career! You, Strickland!”
Someone touched her back, and Lyla glanced back to see Sadie was zipping up her dress. Trick kept his focus on the men who were somewhere in the background. It seemed only right if someone was worried about her modesty that she should be worried about Trick’s. So, with an exhal
e, Lyla began to button his jeans and when he draped an arm around the back of her neck, she hoped it was a sign he might forgive her.
“You ever wonder why we’re protective of this?” Trick said to Bunyan.
The anger was still in her husband’s eyes, but his voice was calmer.
“You’re protective of her because you’re an idiot,” Bunyan said. Lyla planted her hands on Trick’s abs before he could lunge, but he did growl. “You’ve got some hard-on for the vulnerable nerd thing she’s got going on, but look at her! She’s got this! She’s a babe who won’t remember your name in six months. I promise you! You think you know what this show will do for you? Think about what it will do for her! She’s going to be famous! Probably more than you! She trapped the playboy Nairn Strickland! Got him panting like a puppy! Him and half the nation! You dumb bastard. Fine! You want to run this? Run it. But don’t think for a second she’s not playing you! You think she’s not a thousand times smarter than you? You think she hasn’t played it through to the end?” Bunyan scoffed in disgust. “You’re an idiot, Strickland.”
Lyla didn’t want to look up, but she heard the retreating footsteps and assumed the others had left when Sadie moved into her peripheral vision. “You ok, honey?” Sadie asked and took her hand. But as she tried to take Trick’s, he snatched it away and backed away from both of them. “Trick?”
“Take Lyla home,” he said, his sneer fixed over their heads. “I’ve got a show to shoot.”
Turning away, he stormed through the door that would take him into the studio. Sadie sighed and put an arm around her. “He’ll be fine when he calms down.” Sadie turned Lyla around and began to lead her away.
“Sadie,” Lyla said, feeling the shudders that came after the adrenaline wore off. “I don’t want to be famous.”
“I know, honey,” Sadie said, stroking her back.
They got another ten paces before Lyla stopped and turned around to look back the way she’d come. “You need to go back there and make sure Trick doesn’t hurt himself.”
Getting Tricky Page 23
