The Lion’s Forbidden Mate

Standing up, she slowly walked toward the door, leaving the television on and staring at it like it was a mystical portal to another time and space. How was this possible? How was this happening? She didn’t understand any of it, but as she walked toward the door, she really hoped that it was actually happening.

“Lucy, are you asleep?” James hissed through the door.

She felt the smile spreading across her lips, regardless of what she wanted. She reached for the door and twisted the handle, opening it and looking at him with the broadest smile on her face.

“Didn’t think you’d come,” she said with a shrug. “Thought you were a chicken.”

“I am,” he assured her, but she didn’t believe it for a second. A chicken wouldn’t have kissed her and a chicken definitely wouldn’t have shown up here as brazen as a dog. “I like your look.”

“I’m not looking to impress anyone,” she said indifferently, wishing that she’d left her clothes on from earlier. Why was she so negative and why was she so doubtful that he’d ever be interested in her? Would it have killed her to dress nicely? Would it have killed her to actually put forth any kind of an effort? She stared at him as he walked into her little corner of the hotel and looked around. “Want something to drink?”

“Yeah,” he answered with a grin on his handsome face.

“You’ll have to call room service,” she said, challenging him to do so and returning to the bed.

Instead, he flopped down on the bed next to her and stared at the television where she was watching an infomercial to some kind of skin product that was going to revolutionize the way she aged. She had no clue what it was, but as she looked at him, she knew she didn’t care. His eyes turned from the television to look into hers. He had the most beautiful eyes in the world and she hated how she was a su*ker for them. She was such a su*ker for everything about him. She couldn’t contain it.

“You’re staring at me,” he said after a moment, looking into her eyes and pondering her, thinking her over for a moment.

“Yeah,” she nodded.

“I like it when you stare at me,” he said with a soft grin on his lips, not cocky, but rather grateful, like he was blissful about something.

She leaned in and kissed him softly on those grateful lips and she pulled away, grabbing a bag of nuts she’d taken from the minibar. She didn’t know who was going to pay for it, but she knew that she had an allowance. She was middle management, which meant that she got special privileges. She could feel his eyes still on her, burning a hole into her skull as he lay there watching her.

“What if you got me pregnant?” she asked him after a moment, popping one of the nuts into her mouth and chewing it slowly.

“You know how to set the mood,” he chuckled softly.

“What if last night, you got me pregnant,” she said, throwing the question out nonchalantly as she looked at the television screen, watching a woman overly dramatically checking her face for age marks and wrinkles. She knew she wanted the question answered but she wasn’t going to make things heavy. She wasn’t going to drown him in her psychotic ramblings. She just wanted to know what it was he would do. “What would you do?”

“Well,” he took a deep breath and blew it out through his closed lips, making a funny sound that she didn’t smile at or give a hint of amusement towards. She didn’t want to show him how easily she could be entertained by him. She wanted to be as stoic as one of the great philosophers of old. “It would probably be the happiest day of my life.”

“Be serious,” she said, frustrated that he’d turned it around and made it into a joke.

“I am being serious,” he said with a serious tone. She looked at him and she could see it in his eyes.

Yeah, he was being honest. He was being utterly serious and maybe that was what was terrifying to her.

“It would be the best day of my life. I’d take it upon myself to be the noblest of all men who impregnates his lady friend and I’d demand that I help raise it. I’d propose to you and I’d never let you go. I’d waltz right up to my parents and I’d tell them that I was done with my engagement to Violet and I’d walk away with my head held high. I’d let Violet keep the ring and I’d let the press eat me alive. Because in the end, I’d be going home with the prettiest and most fascinating girl that I’d ever met. I can’t think of a better way to spend your life than that.”