Page 29 of Once Upon a Beast

Hand-in-hand, we walked out of the event and toward our waiting car. The paparazzi were there but not as many as before. The flashing of the lights, the calls, and the commotion were just as jarring as they had been earlier. I squeezed Layla’s hand hoping to reassure her and she squeezed it back.

She smiled and waved as we walked to our car but stopped when she got right in front of it. I reached over to open the door but she made no move to get it. I gave her a questioning look as she smiled up at me.

“Do you want to give them a bit of a show? How about we make sure that there’s no doubt that we are together?” she asked.

“Sure, what do you have in mind?” I asked, confused.

“This,” she said and pulled me toward her.

Chapter 16

Layla

The kiss blew me away, knocked my socks off, took away my ability to breath, think, or move. All I could do was hold on to Nic for dear life and enjoy every second of it. His mouth pressed up against my lips. I immediately opened my mouth and his tongue dove inside. My hands went to his arms and clung to him as our tongues danced around each other. My mind melted away any thoughts but Nic and how it felt to be held by him. He tightened his grip on me and pushed me up against him. It gave me first-hand knowledge of just how much he was enjoying the kiss.

I let out a deep moan in the back of my throat as Nic broke the kiss. His eyes were a little hazy as they looked at me. I swayed toward him and knew if he hadn’t been holding onto me, I would have fallen. My smile was immediate and I felt a thrill through my entire body. I had hoped that kissing Nic would be good but I hadn’t counted on it being that good.

Ara had been right, I needed to figure out what I wanted with Nic and from Nic. Once I had, everything fell into place. I wanted to be with him, I wanted to see what would happen if we were a couple. The realization came as if it had always been there. The thoughts filled me with happiness and I couldn’t wait to tell him. Deciding what I wanted was easy in comparison to having to figure out how to tell him.

I had been nervous the rest of the evening. It hadn’t helped that my father was standing right there when I came up to talk to Nic. All I wanted to do was get Nic alone so that we could talk, and hopefully do other things.

It had seemed like a stroke of genius to kiss him when we got outside. What better way to tell him that I wanted to be with him then by showing the whole world at the same time? I wasn’t an open person and I figured that Nic would see the gesture for what it was. I had thought he would give me a simple kiss, one that held a promise for more. I thought it would be sweet and gentle, but it wasn't. It had been raw, passionate, and out of this world amazing.

Nic didn’t smile back at me but instead stepped away and motioned for me to get into the car. I did and then he followed right behind. He didn’t look at me but told the driver to go to my place.

The tension in the car was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I thought the kiss had been good, amazing, incredible, but apparently Nic didn’t. He wouldn’t look at me. I wasn’t even sure if he would talk to me. All of a sudden, the night that I had thought would end so well had turned into a disaster.

Maybe I had read him wrong, maybe he had only been joking when he said he had a crush on me. Maybe he hadn’t said crush at all. I couldn’t think of what other word he might have said, but obviously it wasn’t that. His reaction to my kiss and after told me he didn’t want to be with me.

My mind raced as I tried to think of something to say, some way to apologize to him. I could say that I drank too much but that wasn’t the case. The two shots of tequila weren’t enough to make me do something reckless. It came down to the simple fact that I had wanted to kiss him and he hadn’t. I needed to apologize, even if I didn’t want to. I didn’t regret the kiss, I regretted that Nic hadn’t wanted it.

“I’m sorry. That shouldn’t have happened,” Nic said.

My head turned as if it was on a swivel. I thought I knew the man; I thought I knew how he thought and what he wanted. The last five minutes had shown me I had no clue when it came to him.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” I replied.

“Yes, I do.”

“You weren’t the one who initiated it. I did. I’m the one who should be sorry,” It hurt to say the words but they needed to be said.

“I was the one who took it too far.” He still wouldn’t look at me and I was desperate for him to. I thought if he did, I would understand what he was saying because he wasn’t making any sense. He had wanted the kiss, but he hadn’t wanted to kiss me that much? I certainly hadn’t thought he had taken it too far. I thought he hadn’t taken it far enough.

“Don’t worry it won’t happen again.” His voice was gruff as if he was annoyed with me and the situation but he didn’t want to show it. Any hope that he had wanted to kiss me, that he had meant what he said earlier, that he had any feelings towards me were gone by his statement.

“That’s fine by me,” I muttered. I turned and looked out the window. I didn’t want to look at him. I didn’t want to think about how it was going to be having to be around him and have this hanging between us.

We didn’t speak as we headed toward my apartment. It was late and the streets were deserted. I was glad there was no traffic. The sooner I could get home the sooner I could get the evening and everything that happened behind me.

“Your father thinks everything is going well. He thinks the story has been killed and there is little-to-no chance that it will be coming out.”

“So, we don’t have to do this anymore?” I tried to keep the hope out of my voice but I couldn’t. I hated thinking I would have to pretend to be in love with Nic and smile so everyone would know we were happy when it was all just a lie, at least on his part. I didn’t want to be around him if he didn’t feel the same way. I was too ashamed.

“Unfortunately, no,” Nic said. “He thinks we should keep up appearances for a few more weeks, a month at the longest. Don’t worry, it won’t have to be as public as tonight. Nor will there be any more public displays of affection. We will need to be seen out a few more times. I was thinking you should come over to my place, even stay the night.”

“Stay the night?” I turned to look at him and could feel myself blushing.

“There are four bedrooms in my penthouse. I’m sure you can find one that will be suitable for your needs. Once the paperwork has been signed on the project, we can slowly start distancing ourselves from the other. Hopefully, people will lose interest but if not, we can put out a joint press release saying we have decided to end our engagement but remain friends, and all that other bullshit.”