“Fine. I’ll come stay with you.”
Lily raised a brow and tilted her head. “Seriously, Nash. I’m fine. I’m not going to do anything but sleep and work.”
“That’s what concerns me,” he retorted. “You’re getting tired and you’re pushing yourself because the film is almost finished. You passed out, for crying out loud.”
“I can’t stop working.”
Moments ago he’d been ready to take her up to the loft. Now he was struggling with how many more lies he would have to tell before this was all over.
Horses shifted in their stalls behind him, the sunset cast a bright orange glow straight through the wide-open stable doors. The setting epitomized calm and serenity...too bad the storm inside him was anything but.
“What about after you’re done filming? What will we do about the baby?”
And there it was. The ultimate question that wedged heavily between them, but he had to throw it out there. He had to know what her plans were. He wasn’t ready for a family by any means, but considering he and Lily lived on opposite sides of the country, they needed to figure out how they could both be in this child’s life.
Lily smoothed her hair away from her face, turned away from him and sighed. “I don’t know, Nash. I truly don’t know.”
They had time to consider how to deal with the baby. For now, Nash needed to stick with his original agenda and nothing could get in his way. He’d done enough spying, enough eavesdropping to calculate his next move.
He’d had many reasons—professional and personal—for taking on a new identity. But the main reason was the horses he needed from Damon. Those horses were the final pieces in the stable he’d spent years creating. He would move heaven and earth to get them.
As he watched Lily, her worried expression, her still-flat belly, Nash came to the realization that the truth he’d come here to disclose had nothing to do with Lily. Yet, because of a decades-old secret, Lily and his baby might pay the price.
All he had to do was figure out a way to get Damon to sell him the horses, go back to his own estate and keep his child in his life.
One monumental obstacle at a time.
Two
Well, she’d lost only part of the battle. She wasn’t going back to Nash’s place, but he was escorting her to her trailer. And she was almost positive he intended to spend the night.
A thrill shot through her, but would their cover be blown? He’d promised to be up and in the stables working before sunrise so he shouldn’t be spotted. She didn’t want him to think she was ashamed, far from it. Unfortunately, her reputation was always at stake and after the scandal from years ago, the press would love to see her “backslide” into bad girl mode. She refused to give them any fodder.
Nash knew of the sex video that had been leaked and he knew how sensitive she was about her privacy. Being a very private, secretive person himself only made their hidden affair the perfect setup. They’d been able to sneak around on the private grounds for months now.
Thankfully, the press wasn’t on-site because of the security who kept them outside the gates. Still, she worried. What if a member of the crew spotted them together? What if they leaked a story? She couldn’t endure another scandal, she just didn’t have the energy to fight it, and she wouldn’t put her mother through that again.
“Relax.” Nash squeezed her hand. “Nobody can see us. It’s dark.”
He was right. Nobody was around, but she was used to being in the loft of the stables where she was sure no one would see or hear them. Right now, walking across the Barringtons’ vast estate to head toward her on-site trailer, Lily just felt so exposed. Their footsteps were light and all was quiet except for an occasional frog croaking, a few crickets chirping and a horse neighing every now and then. They were utterly alone.
Before discovering the baby, Lily had wanted to talk to Nash about her feelings...feelings that had grown deeper than she’d expected. They’d both agreed that everything they shared was temporary and physical, but somewhere along the way her heart had gotten involved. She didn’t want to open up now or he’d probably think she was just trying to get a husband to go along with the baby to keep the gossip at bay.
With Nash’s rough fingers laced through hers, Lily had to admit she loved the Neanderthal routine when he’d gone all super protective of her. She’d known from the moment she met Nash that he was a man of power, of authority.
Her stepfather had been a man of power, too, waving his money around to get what he wanted. Nash was different, though. He was type A, without all the material possessions. He appealed to her on so many levels; she just wished they weren’t facing this life-altering commitment together when they barely knew each other.