Liam silenced him with a glare. “I sent the necessary amount.”
“Here you go,” said Ashleigh, ushering Petra into a suite down the hall. “This is the biggest guest room. Do you think it’s okay?”
Petra stared around in awe. Okay? It was magnificent. It was pale blue, with designer furniture and a striking canopied bed made of tangled iron branches. “Why wouldn’t it be okay?”
“I guess because we’re right across the hall. But the other guest rooms aren’t as big and—”
“This’ll be fine,” Rubio cut in. “I’m sleeping here too.”
Petra slid a look at him. The room was more than large enough for two, as was the beautiful bed, but...wow. A couple hours ago they’d still been debating whether they should sleep together. Now they were...kinda...moving in together.
Ashleigh looked between the two of them, blushing beneath her long, black hair. “Sorry. I wasn’t sure what the arrangements were going to be. But that’s fine if you both want to stay in here. Half these bureaus are filled with Ruby’s stuff anyway.”
He walked over to one of them and opened a drawer. “I haven’t left that much here.”
“Yes, you have,” said Liam. He turned to Petra. “If he starts to threaten your sanity, kick him out. There are other guest rooms down the hall.”
She laughed as Ruby made a face. She wished she had friends like these. She envied their easy camaraderie. She needed this feeling of warmth and support tonight. She wondered if Paulsen was heading to her apartment right now, or to Rubio’s loft. She wondered if Liam had stationed men at her apartment. At her door.
She wondered what was in those hundreds of emails, for Liam to take all this so seriously. Was it just precautionary, as he claimed?
She studied his face but she couldn’t find any answers. A moment later, Rubio left with Liam to get their stuff from downstairs, and Ashleigh sat on the edge of the bed, tracing a finger over an intricately crafted branch.
“This bed is amazing,” Petra said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Ashleigh glanced up into the twisting tangle of the canopy. “Liam bought it for me shortly after we met. The first time I saw it, I thought the same thing.”
Petra couldn’t help staring at the pronounced curve of Ashleigh’s belly. She forced her gaze away and toward the door. “Speaking of beautiful things, you have a very attractive husband. Not that I’m a home wrecker or anything.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” Her grin broadened. “While we’re on the subject, you have a very attractive boyfriend. Very talented too.”
“Rubio’s not my boyfriend.”
Ashleigh threw back her head and laughed. “Liam wasn’t my boyfriend either when we started hanging out together. They need that distance for some reason, at least in the beginning.”
Ashleigh thought it was Rubio insisting they keep things casual, and Petra let her think so, because she didn’t want to explain the whole deal. How could Ashleigh understand? She’d already given up dancing, quit the company to settle down and have kids with her fine, rich husband. “It is what it is,” said Petra with a shrug. “I don’t think we have a future together. We’re both so focused on our careers, and besides, we’re so different.”
“Careers don’t last forever in this business. And he obviously cares about you.” Ashleigh shook her head and looked sheepish. “Forgive me. I’m trying to match-make for my friend. The truth is, I completely understand the need to keep a distance. Good luck doing it though, with Rubio’s super grabby hands.”
Now Petra was the one laughing. “He’s awful, isn’t he? He gropes me during every lift.”
“Yep,” agreed Ashleigh. “Does he still do that thing where he spreads his fingers out on your waist and then accidentally brushes his thumb over your nipple?”
“He does that all the time. Sometimes he just blatantly feels me up. Like, we’ll be in a break from rehearsal and he’ll reach out and literally fondle my boob, and then pretend it wasn’t intentional.”
“He always told me he had to do it so he could get to—”
“—know my body. Yes, he tells me the same thing. He’s a deviant.”
“Who’s a deviant?” asked Rubio, returning with a suitcase and his own bag slung over his shoulder. He dumped them on the floor by the bed. “Is not very nice to talk about Liam while he’s away.”
Petra and Ashleigh exchanged looks while Liam brought in a couple more bags. Mem brought up the rear with Petra’s box of odds and ends. “If you forgot anything, we’ll go back and get it,” Liam assured her. “I want you to feel comfortable here, even if it’s a short stay.”
“I hope it’s a short stay,” said Petra, and then she flinched. “That didn’t come out right. I mean that I hope Paulsen leaves right away. It’s not that I don’t want to stay here. I just feel terrible for causing all this trouble.”
“It’s not trouble,” Ashleigh said. “Our house is yours for as long as you need it, and we hope you’ll make yourself at home. To that end...” She stood and took her husband’s arm. “We’ll get out of your way. If you need anything, you have the run of the house. Kitchen, laundry, gym—”
“Play room,” Ruby interjected.
“Just ask one of us for help if you need to leave,” Liam said, talking over him. “So we can show you how to disarm the security system first.”
After smiles and good nights, the married couple and Mem excused themselves, leaving Petra and Ruby alone. She glanced down at her bags, thinking she should unpack, but she was fading fast. She took a shower instead, only faintly complaining when Ruby climbed in with her and took up all the space. She pushed Paulsen out of her head. If he wanted to come all the way to London to stalk her, that was his problem. His money, his time, his inconvenience.
She had other things to think about right now, like adjusting to having a roommate for the first time in a decade. Not just any roommate. As soon as she dressed in her pajamas, Rubio walked across the room and took them off her. No words, no cheeky flirtation, just his hands pulling them off and throwing them over a chair.
“I want you naked,” he said. “I want to hold you and sleep with you with no clothes.”
I want. There was something assured and confident about the way he said it, like he’d never expect her to say no. She loved the way he took whatever he desired, or at
least went after it. He drew her over to the bed, his hands spreading out over her breasts, her skin. He kissed her neck and pushed her back on the sheets. “You want me, Petra?”
The way he said her name, with that catch on the ‘r’ and the long, breathy ’a’—it was an aphrodisiac. She wanted him like crazy. “Yes,” she said. “I want you.”
“Say please.”
She stared at his lower lip. She wanted to be good at these games, like him, but he was way out of her league. “Please,” she said, but it sounded desperate, not flirty. His face changed, his expression softening. He held her face and nuzzled against her, giving her a kiss. “It was a hard day, yes? Maybe you’re too tired.”
“I’m not too tired.” Now she really sounded desperate, but his closeness made her crave more. She wanted him. As tired as she was, she couldn’t just fall asleep. His I want and his Say please had started a drumbeat of desire in her veins.
He traced a finger down the curve of her jaw. “Little liar. You lie so much. Okay, then. I’ll make love to you soft and slow, and put you to sleep before I’m done. Yes?”
“I don’t think I could sleep with you inside me.”
“Hmm. A challenge.” He turned and opened the bedside drawer, rooted around and pulled out a condom. Manwhore. He kept condoms in this room, just a couple floors above the dungeon. He stayed here often. He might have slept with two hundred women in this bed. Five hundred.
Five hundred, Petra? Really? It didn’t matter. She wanted him anyway. Rubio fished out the box of Magnums and showed her the dates. “See? I check the expiration to be extra careful. No babies for you. Not like your mom. Not like Ashleigh.”
Petra felt a sick, nervous feeling every time she thought about Ashleigh Keaton being pregnant. She didn’t know why. Pregnancies were supposed to be happy things. “Did she get pregnant on purpose?” she asked.