Where was she?
When he’d gotten back to their hotel room from the afternoon event at the Italian press club, Autumn had already been gone. The only evidence that she’d ever stopped by their room at all since that morning was the large, wrapped painting in the corner and a pile of shopping bags next to the dresser. He’d called Brian to find out if Leighanne had made it back and had discovered that Lily was already hanging out in their suite. Leighanne hadn’t known where Autumn had gone as she’d simply assumed that Autumn would be in her own rooms.
There was a knot in his belly that clenched sickly when he thought of all the places and all the things that could have possibly happened to her. He’d called her cell phone dozens of times, left at least half a dozen messages, and she hadn’t returned a single phone call.
“Damn it! For the love of God, Autumn!” Nick kicked a side table hard then scrambled to grab it before it tipped over. “Great, just great. If you were where you were supposed to be, then I wouldn’t be freaking the hell out over where you are,” he continued to rant aloud to his invisible wife. “Why the hell wouldn’t you at least be cautious and let security know where you’re going? Or maybe, if it wouldn’t kill you, leave me a note?”
His muttering and complaining continued as he began pacing again. When he passed the credenza near the door of the suite, his gaze focused on the package he’d set upon it. To think he’d been so thoughtful as to actually spend time and energy thinking about what to get her for her birthday only to have her slip out without letting him know where it was she was going.
Or who she was going with.
He felt his heart stop at the thought before the scowl spread over his face. They might have been married for all the world to see, but that didn’t mean either of them weren’t allowed to discreetly see other people. After all, it wasn’t as though they were in love. Right?
It felt like a sharp dagger had been thrust into his heart at the thought of Autumn with another man. He could curse the fact that he had a damn good imagination and could easily see Autumn wrapped around some faceless guy who clearly wasn’t good enough for her and…
“Why the fuck should it make a difference to me who the hell she’s with?” he muttered aloud. “It’s not like we’re really husband and wife.”
But it felt like they were. Damn it, there were times when he’d forget himself and think that they really were together and not just for show. Sometimes, they’d stand together and watch Lily while she slept, and he’d feel so content to just put his arm around her shoulders and have her lean against him. She was the only one who truly understood everything he felt because she was going through the drama of their false marriage, too. They were friends…
But then there were times when he’d wake up in the middle of the night, aching and sweaty because he’d dreamt of being with her. It was embarrassing as hell, but he couldn’t quite stop his blood from burning whenever she was around. It was becoming harder and harder to keep his hands from touching her, but he had to for self-preservation purposes.
She would probably shoot him down if he tried anything.
He checked his watch again. Ten-thirty. No one had heard from her in the past five hours, and his gut was roiling with worry. Where could she be? What if she was lying in a dark alley somewhere, dead because she hadn’t taken security with her? What if she’d been kidnapped and, any minute now, the ransom note would show up?
He should call the cops, Nick thought and reached for his phone. He’d already begun to dial the phone when he stopped himself. He was acting like a worried father or something and had no desire to fall into that role. Autumn was a responsible adult with a smart head on her shoulders. She knew what she was doing.
Nick just wished she would talk to him more. Let him in more. There were things she was hiding from him, and he’d thought they’d gotten past that in their friendship. Obviously, he’d been wrong.
Dropping his cell phone onto a side table, he headed for the door. Since Autumn had decided to skip out on their free night out, he’d just do whatever it was he wanted to, too. Even if it meant just sitting in the hotel bar for a couple hours.
He stared. He couldn’t help it. He also couldn’t believe it. All that time he spent worrying and pacing and imagining a thousand horrible things that could’ve happened to her.
She was fine. She was so fine, in fact, that she was sitting at the bar, chatting it up with the bartender. There wasn’t a hair out of place on her head, and she looked perfect in the short, breezy white skirt and the slinky blue top that left her arms and back bare and dipped low at the neckline. His mouth watered before he controlled himself and reminded himself that she hadn’t responded to all of his calls and messages.
“Responsible, my ass,” he muttered and stalked over to her. He put his hand on her shoulder and nearly yanked her off the stool. “Where the hell have you been? Do you know how worried I’ve been?”
Autumn blinked before she gave him a big goofy grin. “Hi, Nick! Hi!” She turned to the bartender. “See, Luciano, this is Nick, my husband. He’s a great husband. Luciano and I were just talking about you, Nicky,” she told him happily.
Nick tamped down on his anger and studied her face. Her eyes were glassy as a result of the alcohol, and he sent Luciano a small smile. “Hello. What’s she been drinking and how much?”
“Only two margaritas, signore. She just wants to talk more. Your wife, she is a lonely person.” Luciano’s eyes held understanding, and Nick looked back down into Autumn’s face and felt like he’d kicked a small puppy.
Hadn’t he known she wasn’t telling anyone anything that was really on her mind? He didn’t care that he was just her fake husband, he wanted to be her friend. Being a friend meant talking about how you felt. Then again, he thought, it wasn’t as though he shared everything with her either.
“Autumn.” He cupped her face gently in his hands and had to smile at the way her eyes were suddenly wary.
She put her hand on one of his wrists and kept her eyes on his. There was something different in them tonight. It made her heart beat thickly. “Nick. I’m really not that drunk. I can hold my drink. I swear.”
He chuckled and pressed his lips to her forehead. “Autumn, if you wanted to talk, I was right upstairs in our suite. I’ve been waiting for you for hours.” He tapped a finger on her nose. “We haven’t celebrated your birthday yet, you know.”
“My birthday?” She seemed confused for a second and then remembered. “Oh, my god! How could I forget my own birthday?”
“It must be all the traveling,” Nick suggested. “Anyway, why don’t we go up and end your birthday by just relaxing? I got you a present.”
Her eyebrows winged up. “A present? Really?” She slid out of his reach and off the barstool. “Hey, Luciano? Can I have a bottle of your best champagne? We’re gonna go celebrate me being twenty-four!”
Luciano looked over at Nick questioningly. When Nick nodded, Luciano held out a bottle to Nick. “Enjoy your evening, signore, signora. Happy birthday.”
In the elevator, Nick passed the bottle back and forth from hand to hand as he watched Autumn. She couldn’t stop moving and was nearly jumping out of her skin as she babbled about film shoots, touring, and anything and everything but herself.
“Autumn.” Nick’s voice was quiet but caught her attention. “Are you always this jumpy when you’re tipsy?”
She blushed furiously. “No, ah, no. I’m not. It’s just, it’s weird that I forgot my own birthday. I feel all turned around and inside out. Like I’m not myself. Luciano was nice, wasn’t he? He just listened when I told him about all of our touring and everything we’ve seen and done. I swear, the Italians are so sweet.” And she was babbling again.
When the elevator stopped on their floor, Nick took hold of her elbow and steered her out and toward their room. Once he’d unlocked the door and let them in, Autumn sank into one of the plush sofas in the parlor and sighed.
“I swear, walking the city of Rome kills your feet. Mine hurt so badly.” She slipped her shoes off and wiggled her toes. “So, Nick, how was your day?”
He unearthed a pair of short glasses out of the bar and set about tearing open the foil on the bottle of champagne. “It was okay. The showcase went well, and the press club thing wasn’t so bad. AJ made fun of me because he thought I missed having you with me.”
“Oh.” The single word was drawn out. He didn’t look over to see the expression on her face. “So, was he right?”
Her voice was tinged with nerves, he noted and nearly smiled as he popped the cork off the bottle and poured. “Maybe. A little. I just missed being able to make snarky comments about the people who were there. It makes things more fun whenever we do that.”
“Yeah.” She sighed. “It does.” She took the glass he handed her and waited until he sat across from her.
Nick clinked his glass with hers. “Happy Birthday, Autumn.”
“Mmm.” She sipped a little. The margaritas had already gone to her head, and she knew the champagne was bound to do the same. You only live once, she thought philosophically and drank more. “Happy birthday, indeed.”
An hour later, they were sprawled on the floor, the bottle of champagne finished off and lying next to them. Nick had opened up a bottle of Cristal for her and bourbon for himself that he’d found in the suite’s mini-fridge, and it was well on its way to being finished, too.
“Okay, pay attention,” Nick instructed as he arranged cards and dealt out cards to both of them. “I don’t think I’ll be able to do this again, so you gotta pay attention. ‘Kay?”
Autumn squinted her bleary eyes. She’d definitely consumed more than her limit. “Okay. I just didn’t know poker was this hard.”
“It’s not. You’re drunk.”
“Well, yeah. But I can still think…I think.”
Because she looked so adorable when she scrunched up her nose in thought, Nick leaned over and smacked a kiss on her lips and grinned when she scowled. “You can’t think. Your brain is swimming in Cristal. S’okay, ‘cause I’m headed that way, too.”
She flopped onto her back, giving Nick a fantastic view of her ivory smooth skin. He shut his mouth to keep his tongue from flopping out onto the floor. “Can we play a game that I know already? That way, I can actually play.” She paused. “I think my ears are swimming in champagne,” she decided. “It sounds like my voice is coming from far, far away.” For some reason, the thought made her giggle, and she burst into peals of laughter.
Nick didn’t get it, but he couldn’t resist and ran his fingers over her shoulder and neck. She felt smooth, so smooth, but he knew she was definitely off limits. The game, he reminded himself. Focus on the game. “We can play Go Fish.”
“Ooh!” Autumn sat up again, her shirt shifting and affording Nick even more glimpses of her skin. Her skirt was riding high on her legs, and he decided if he could make it through the night without touching her, he’d be a saint. “I love that game! But.” Her voice dropped. “Let’s add a twist to it.”
“A twist?”
“Uh huh.” She nodded enthusiastically. “I trust you, Nicky. That’s why I have this idea. Every five times I say Go Fish, you lose one piece of clothing. And every ten times, you say Go Fish, I lose something.”
He frowned. “How come it takes longer for you to take something off?”
“Because you’re wearing more clothes than me, silly! It wouldn’t be fair because I’d be wearing nothing before you even took off your shirt.”
“Oh.” Nick wasn’t sure he could handle the idea of a game of strip Go Fish, but the alcohol had muddled his brain. Saintly thoughts could go hang themselves, he thought. “Okay. You’re on.”
After one game of Go Fish, he was down to his boxers and one sock, while she wore her slinky top and white lace underwear. She was good, he thought. Go Fish was definitely her game. If they’d played strip poker, though, he figured he would’ve won.
Autumn shuffled the cards clumsily and smiled over at him. “Wanna play again? You’d lose everything in five minutes.”
“No, I wouldn’t. Besides, you cheated.”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Yeah, you did.”
She rolled her eyes. “This is my game, Nicky. I’m unbeatable. Have been since I was six. Get over it.”
“I don’t have to get over anything. You’re the one who can’t get over me,” he pointed out and tried to grab the cards from her. “Admit it. You just wanted me to strip ‘cause you like my body. You know you want me.” He wiggled his brows at her. Or at least, he tried to.
Autumn burst into laughter and was practically rolling on the floor. “Want you? That’s so funny, Nick! That’s hysterical. Why would I want you?”
He folded his arms over his chest, his ego dented. “Prove it. Prove that you don’t want me. That you didn’t like all those times I kissed you.”
“I don’t have to prove anything.”
“Scared?”
“No.”
He shrugged. “Then prove it.”
Autumn stared at him. His face was slightly blurry through her alcohol-hazed vision, but his cocky grin came through bright and clear. “Fine.”
She clambered over the cards and knelt on her knees in front of him. Her hands rested lightly on his shoulders as she leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss. Just a slight amount of pressure then she’d backed off. “There. Happy?”
“Dude, that’s how I kiss my sisters.” Nick grinned. “I think you’re just scared to really kiss me because you know you want me. You’re afraid you wouldn’t be able to resist.”
“Shut up, you big jerk.” Autumn pushed him back against the couch and, straddling him, she pressed her lips to his.
The shock was instant, the pull too much to resist. He’d been right, she thought in a dim corner of her mind, she wouldn’t be able to resist. His hands had fisted in her hair as his arms had banded her against him. The kiss was potent, powerful, and she shifted, changing the angle of it, needing more.
“It’s the alcohol,” Autumn muttered against his lips and nearly plastered herself against him.
Nick couldn’t think, could only feel. The punch of the kiss had gotten through the haze of alcohol, and he only knew that he needed her the way he’d needed no other. Even as his mind raced to catch up, his body had taken over. Holding her close against him, he stood in one fluid motion. Her legs stayed locked around him.
“This is probably a mistake,” he told her even as his lips raced across her neck, her shoulders.
Autumn just pressed closer. “It’s an aberration. I don’t really want you.”
“Okay.”
Not knowing or caring where it was going to lead them, he turned and headed towards the bedroom.
