Tempting Her Best Friend (14 page)

The only thing she
did
see was Dillon’s plane pulling away from the gate to taxi its way into position for takeoff.

Charlie pulled the cart to a quick stop. Alyssa ran to the wall of windows, the flat of her hands slamming against the glass as her heart got stuck in her throat. Logically, she knew it wasn’t the end of the world. She knew that she would see Dillon eventually and that she could tell him how she felt then. That she could and
would
apologize for being so blind, so afraid, and hurting him like she had. It was only a little matter of the world turning several more times. Not very much at all.

Except that wasn’t how it felt.

As tears streamed silently down her cheeks, she closed her eyes and thought of how strange time was. It ticked away in exact increments, never changing no matter where you were in the world. Whether in Rome, Italy or Rome, Wisconsin, a day was twenty-four hours long. One thousand four hundred and forty minutes. Eighty-six thousand four hundred seconds.

And yet, for something that was so mathematically sound and scientifically constant, time could feel so relative.

Alyssa had spent the last twenty-four hours with Dillon as lovers. Long spans of time had been eaten up as he explored every inch of her body with his hands and mouth, learning what she liked and what drove her positively crazy. But that day passed in the blink of an eye, gone before she’d even had time to fully appreciate the magic of what they’d shared.

Unfortunately, the day she now had ahead of her wouldn’t go nearly as quick. Instead, the hands on her watch would drag with each passing hour until the minutes barely crawled and the seconds mocked her with stutters and pauses. And it would only get worse until she finally saw him again.

“You okay, sweetie?”

Trent’s words and arm wrapped around her in a compassionate embrace. Alyssa wiped the tears from her face and blinked the rest back. She turned to see the whole group fanned out around her with concern for her—someone they’d only just met—etched into their features. If she’d ever doubted in the kindness of strangers, it would have been eradicated in that moment.

“Thank you, all of you, for putting your lives on hold—and maybe even your jobs on the line—to help me. I’m just sorry it was all for nothing.”

Marilyn reached out and gathered Alyssa’s hands in hers. “Everything will work out, honey, you’ll see. The most important thing is that he loves you. The rest is just details.”

Alyssa gave the woman a quick squeeze before letting her go. “I’m fine,” she said. Looks of doubt or outright disbelief met her gaze. “Really, I am. I’ll just tell him everything another time.”

“Why don’t you tell me now?”

…

Dillon had to assume he was sleepwalking, but with the deafening buzz of his swarming thoughts and the piercing headache punishing his skull, he’d doubted even a bed at The Ritz could have lulled him to sleep. However, when he considered the scene in front of him, dreaming was the only logical explanation. Either that or he was being Punk’d.

A small group of people—Correction. A
strange
group of people, half in airline uniforms with the other half in costumes, stood in the empty terminal. An older gentleman had his arm around the waist of a mostly naked showgirl standing on one leg. A dude too good-looking to be anything other than a model or one of those actors you see in a dozen movies but never know their names was arm in arm with a baby-faced ringmaster wearing a tux puked up by the hotel that was puked up by Mardi Gras. The rest of the ensemble consisted of Salma Hayek, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and Betty White, celebrities that ranged from young to dead to, well, almost dead.

And in the center of it all, still wearing the regal white gown from earlier, Alyssa held court like a queen over her oddly random subjects.

“Why aren’t you on the plane?”

Because the thought of not having you in my life terrifies me. Because even if it makes me the biggest pussy in the world, I planned to beg you for a chance to show you how happy I can make you.
Dillon locked those thoughts down. If he’d learned anything in Vegas, it was to hold his cards a lot closer to his chest. So he offered her a half shrug and said, “My horoscope said I should stay away from pressurized metal tubes today.”

“Dillon…” She exhaled his name as though the very sound was a balm to her soul. It sure as hell worked on his. Next to her shouting it when he made her come, saying his name with love on her lips was the best thing he’d ever heard.

Unlike everything he’d heard from her earlier.

He rubbed a hand over the stubble on his face, the sound giving life to the scratches her cold words had etched onto his heart. “Why are you here, Alyssa?”

“I, um, wanted to apologize for the things I said earlier.”

Dillon raised an eyebrow and glanced at their eclectic audience. “You came all the way here…with them…to apologize?”

“Yes. Wait, no. I mean—” Alyssa huffed out a frustrated breath. Taking a step toward him, she tried again. “You were right earlier. I
am
in love with you, Dillon. Crazy, hopelessly in love. I’ve known for a long time, but I was too afraid to tell you.”

Despite he’d just heard the words he’d been waiting for Alyssa to say, he couldn’t bring himself to swing her around in his arms like they were in a Taylor Swift music video. Back at the hotel she’d cut his chest wide open. He needed major surgery, not a butterfly bandage.

Seeing Alyssa act so completely out of character had skepticism and cynicism perching on his shoulders. He needed to press her for more. He needed to understand how she’d suddenly pulled a one eighty from an hour ago.

“So what’s changed?” he asked. “I know you, Aly. You take days to analyze the pros and cons before committing to a new toaster. How can I trust that over the next week, or even month, you’re not going to reevaluate things and tell me you made a mistake?”

Alyssa’s hands clenched at her sides, her shoulders pressed back the slightest bit, and she took a commanding step forward. “Because I realized something, and it sent my entire process into hyperdrive.” She furrowed her brow and bit her lip for a second. “No, scratch that,” she said, shaking her head. “My process went right out the window. There
was
no process and yet I can tell you with absolute certainty that I’ve never been more sure of myself.”

Dillon balled his fists inside the pockets of his tux pants, digging his nails into his palms to keep himself grounded, but his pulse jackhammered in his ears as his hope began to swell despite his efforts to tamp it down. “What did you realize?”

“That the very thing that’s kept us from being together all these years is the same thing that will keep us together.”

Maybe he was too exhausted to use his brain properly, but he couldn’t think of anything that could fit both roles as she claimed. “And that thing is…” he said, dragging out the last word.

Without hesitation, she answered, “Fear.”

Mentally, he reared back. He didn’t know what he’d expected her to say, but it sure as hell wasn’t that. “Fear,” he parroted.

“Yes.” She took another step forward, her eyes lighting up with excitement like she’d discovered the answer to an age-old mystery. “Our entire lives we’ve been afraid of failing at relationships, and not only that, but for lack of a better term, our fears complemented each other. You were afraid you wouldn’t be able to commit long-term, and I was afraid of loving someone who wouldn’t love me enough to stick around.”

“Aly, none of that is exactly news for me. I don’t get where you’re going with this.”

She took a steadying breath and continued. “I heard a song a few weeks ago, and one of the lines said that
fear
is at the heart of love. I thought it was ridiculous, that it made no sense. But now I get it.”

She killed the last couple feet of space between them. Her warm vanilla scent wrapped around him, weakening his resolve to hold himself in check and keep up the wall he’d erected to protect his battered heart.

“To love someone is to know fear. Gut-wrenching, soul-crushing fear. Fear that your love won’t always be enough. Fear that something terrible could rip them away from you. There are dozens, hundreds of scenarios, but they all come down to the same thing: when you love someone with all your heart, the scariest thing imaginable is having to live without them.” Bright blue eyes stared up at him, imploring him to understand. “Wouldn’t you agree?” she asked softly.

He had to clear his throat before his voice cooperated. “Okay, yeah. So what are you saying here, exactly?”

She took a deep breath and exhaled. “If there’s one thing I’ve always been certain of in my life, it was that you would uphold your promise to always protect me. What I realized tonight is that you included yourself in that promise. You wouldn’t have asked me to overcome my fear of abandonment to be with you if you thought that for one second there was a chance you’d ever leave me.”

She pressed her hands to her belly as though physically trying to suppress her nerves. “I love you, Dillon. With all that I am and all that I ever hope to be, I love you. I can’t tell you that I’m not scared, because I am. I’m terrified. But not as much as I am at the thought of living without your love, for however long you’ll give it to me.” Alyssa blinked back the moisture gathering in her eyes. “So if the proposal I never let you get to still stands, I’d like to accept.”

His heart raced as his brain processed her words. She wanted him the way he wanted her. She
loved
him the way he loved her. He heard her say it, and he had plenty of witnesses. No way in hell he was letting her hide behind their parents’ mistakes anymore.

A broad smile stretched his face as he reached into his pants pocket and withdrew a soft black velvet box. He tilted the lid back and revealed the stunning two-carat diamond ring he’d picked out for her. “I was going to give you this tonight on our first official date.” He got down on one knee and there was an audible gasp from the peanut gallery. He’d forgotten they had witnesses, but he didn’t give them a second thought as he lost himself in her bright blue eyes.

“Alyssa, I would be honored if you would let me help you tip the statistical scales in favor of successful marriages, prove that our parents’ pasts have no bearing on our future, and break the Miller Curse once and for all. Will you marry me?”

Tears fell unabashedly down her cheeks. “Yes.” She laughed and nodded emphatically. “A thousand times yes.”

Heart soaring, Dillon stood, held the sides of her face, and kissed her like a man starved. He tasted her salty relief as it flowed down her cheeks and between their lips. It wasn’t slow and sweet, but deep and all-consuming. He, too, now recognized the different fears that came with love. Even the irrational kind that told him if he let the kiss end, he’d find it was all a dream.

At last he had the woman he’d loved all his life—not only for a weekend or the occasional night, but for a lifetime—and he’d be damned if he was ever letting her go. Coming up for air, he rested his forehead against hers. “You know this is forever, right? No way I’m ever leaving you or letting you leave me. You’re mine, now and for always.”

Her eyes twinkled with tears of joy. “Sounds perfect. I can’t wait to get started.”

“Places, everyone!” The Mardi Gras ringmaster started arranging people like he was moving pawns on a chessboard. Before any of them knew what happened, Elvis stood behind the ticket podium with Alyssa and Dillon in front. Marilyn was placed next to Alyssa with the TSA model guy on the other side of Dillon. Everyone else was ushered into the seats behind them.

Alyssa raised her brows at him. “Um, Trent? What are you doing?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” he said, gesturing to his handiwork proudly. “You said you couldn’t wait to get started, so I’m getting you hitched. I know the airport terminal is a tad gauche, but I figured since Elvis is a minister and we have plenty of witnesses, we can do this lickety-split and you two can move on to the honeymoon phase.”

Dillon’s entire body snapped to attention and he decided Trent was officially his new favorite person outside of his fiancée. But Alyssa seemed a bit more startled than excited, if her wide eyes were anything to go by. Dillon swallowed the bile creeping up the back of his throat at the thought of her shutting down again.

“Hitched,” she repeated. “As in married?” She swiveled her head, taking in their surroundings and the people gathered around them. “Here?”

Trent raised a dubious eyebrow. “Asks the girl who wore a wedding dress to the airport.”

“It’s
not
a wedding dress, it’s a ball—” she started, then cut herself off with a sigh and shake of her head. “Okay, you’re right.” She turned her attention back to Dillon and placed her hands inside his. He placed a kiss on the tops of each before holding them over his heart, hoping she could feel how strongly it beat for her as she continued. “It
is
a wedding gown. The moment I tried it on I fell in love with it. So I bought it for the masquerade ball on the off chance the Miller Curse is, you know, an actual thing.”

Dillon brushed a thumb along her cheekbone. “Well, you don’t have to worry about that anymore. And you can wear it every day for all I care. But you might want to think about replacing the buttons with Velcro.”

She screwed up her face in distaste. “Why would I do something as tacky as that?”

“It’s either that or get a seamstress on retainer to reattach the buttons I constantly rip off.” He lifted a corner of his mouth in a sly grin, then spoke softly against her ear. “Because I’ll have zero patience when I want you naked and writhing beneath me.”

He pulled back and watched a flush sweep up her chest and settle in the apples of her cheeks. He could almost see the illicit images running through his mind reflected in the swirl of lust in her eyes. Alyssa swallowed and wet her lips. “What do you say we follow Trent’s lead and throw up that framing you mentioned earlier with a quickie Vegas wedding so we can get to the teamwork part of this relationship?”

Dillon searched her face for signs of uncertainty…and found none. Her features were serious, waiting for his answer. He barely suppressed the need to haul her against him and kiss her breathless and damn their audience to hell. Instead, he opted to wrap his arms around her and pull her in until nothing but layers of fabric separated them.