LAYLA ABRAHAM

"Let me cook for you tonight."

Layla sent him a funny look as they walked up to her apartment building. "You cook for me every night." She pointed out the obvious.

He grinned but rolled his eyes, feigning annoyance. "Why did you have to ruin it? I was being romantic for once."

"You're always romantic with me."

He quirked an eyebrow at that, not believing himself to be romantic in anyway.

"Okay," she smiled. "But I like you the way you are."

"I'm the luckiest man in the world." He retorted, clearly happy with himself.

Layla giggled as the elevator pinged and they stepped foot onto her floor. "I wouldn't go as far as to say that."

Alejandro looped his arm around her waist and pulled her flush against his side, dipping his head to place a kiss against her hair. "Well, it's a good thing it isn't up to you then, isn't it?"

She grinned and placed a hand against his chest to stop him in his place. "I'm sorry I ruined it." She craned her neck up to place a kiss against his pouting mouth, unable to hold back her smile at his ridiculous reasoning.

He could be really dramatic when he wanted to. Also romantic, even if he refused to admit it.

"You're laughing at me." He accused and pulled away from her, refusing her anymore kisses.

"No, no. I swear I'm not." She shook her head but failed to conceal her giggles.

"You're going to have to pay for that." He murmured quietly, hooking his arm around her neck and reeling her in until she stood flush against his hard anatomy, her hands pressed against his chest and her face angled up as she stared at him from under hooded, desire filled eyes.

She craned her neck further up to meet his awaiting mouth. "What kind of payment are we talking about?"

"We can discuss this later in bed tonight." He promised, paying another kiss square on her mouth.

"Oh, is that so?" She asked, coyly.

"What are you doing?"

They both glanced up at the sound of a third voice. Layla had to crane her neck, still locked in his loving embrace, to take note of the man stood waiting impatiently in front of her apartment door.

She hadn't realised they had an audience.

Layla took her hands off his chest but when she moved to step out of his arms – suddenly feeling uncomfortable with knowing that Byron had just stood there and watched them flirt and maul each other with their mouths, especially since she was still supposed to be pretend-dating him, which now technically meant that she was pretend-cheating on him – but Alejandro's arms refused to let her go.

When she patted his chest and sent him a pleading look, Alejandro sighed and loosened his hold on her just enough where she was able to turn around so now she was able to face Byron, the man she had been pretending to date for the past 2 weeks and fellow trauma victim.

Alejandro kept his arm around her middle and kept her back flush against his chest, his eyes not once wavering from Byron's.

"Byron, what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

Alejandro snorted. "She lives here, genius. Where else would she be?"

"Not in your arms."

Touché. Alejandro smirked unapologetically at that.

Layla couldn't help but feel uncomfortable with the fact that technically, he was right.

Even though she wasn't doing anything wrong by openly embracing her loving boyfriend, Byron wasn't aware of that fact.

Where she expected to see hurt and maybe even pain and sadness in his eyes, all she saw was surprise and disbelief.

That was strange.

"Layla. Are you going to explain?"

Layla wished she could say no.

Layla wanted to say something to ease him, but she couldn't think of anything that could appease him right now. She didn't want to lie about her continuous relationship with Alejandro, especially since they had worked some things out between them earlier that day in the interview room.

Whatever the repercussions, she didn't care as nothing was worth jeopardising her relationship with Alejandro. She just wished she would be able to do so without conflicting too much pain on the people around them, namely Byron.

"I don't know what to say." She murmured, honestly at a loss for words.

"You could start by explaining what you're doing with him." Byron crossed his arms over his chest, a stern look on his face.

"He's my bodyguard." She attempted lamely, but grimaced when that only appeared to anger him more.

When she felt Alejandro inhale from behind her, most likely to say something that would aggravate Byron further, she was quick to reach behind her and place her hand on his arm in warning. Turning her head to glance at him, she silently pleaded for him to keep mouth shut as she knew that if he were to say something, Byron would far from appreciate it. She doubted she would either.

Alejandro wasn't happy and his lips thinned, but he abided with her silent plea.

"Stop looking at him!"

Layla turned her head to face Byron again but before she could say anything, Alejandro beat her to it.

"Don't tell her what to do."

At this rate, she was going to get whiplash.

"You both need to stop." She sighed and pressed down on Alejandro's arm that was wrapped around her middle. She cast another pleading look at him over her shoulder.

He wasn't happy but he begrudgingly released his hold on her and watched as she walked away from him.

For a second, he scarcely allowed himself to believe that she left his arms only to walk into Byron's open and awaiting ones. He clenched his jaw tight and forced himself to watch as she walked, his heart twisting painfully in his chest.

He knew that they had known each other for only 2 months now, but the lack of time meant nothing in comparison to the extent of his feelings for Layla Abraham. Albeit, the last 2 weeks had been terrible for him, having to watch as she went out with Byron, – even if under pretence – but he was willing to take her anyway he could get.

But could he watch her walk into another man's arms? Would he not try to stop her? Would he not try to convince her to take him back?

Would he allow her to throw away the happiness they could both have by choosing Byron over him?

The answer was simple. No.

There was absolutely no way that he would be able to sit back and watch her gallivant through the rest of her life with a man that was not him. Now that he had experienced a taste of what the rest of his life would shape to be, he refused to go back to the fruitless way he was living before he met Layla.

His fists clenched and unclenched as she continued walking but when she reached into her bag to pull out her keys, completely walking past Byron without so much as sparing him a sideways glance, he exhaled.

Immediately, he berated himself for doubting her. For doubting them. He hated that he had allowed his insecurity to cloud over their relationship.

Once she opened the door, she held it open for the both of them. "Let's get inside and talk." She sighed and walked in.

However, before Alejandro could recover from the tormentous thoughts that had swirled haphazardly around in his mind, Byron ran in behind her and slammed the door shut in his face. Locking him out.

It took a fraction of a second for it to settle in before he stalked up to the door and slammed his fist against it three times.

"Open the fucking door, Byron!"

Byron stood against the door on the other side, the wood vibrating under him as Alejandro smacked his hand against it. He looked at Layla and she noted the regret in his eyes clear as day. It was almost as if he was begging her to save him, knowing that he had made a grave mistake by locking Alejandro out of her apartment.

"Byron!" The brute of a man roared from the hallway, not caring if her neighbours were listening. That was the least of his worries, right now.

Her lips turned down into a vicious smile and she crossed her arms over her chest. "You made a mistake. Now move out of the way so I can open the door."

"You didn't answer my question." The words rushed out of his mouth, almost as if he was buying time until his inevitable death that Alejandro was sure to deliver. He had been so angry out in the hall, having to watch them wrap their arms around each other in their own little love bubble.

"What question?"

"What are you doing with him?"

"He's my bodyguard." She repeated, growing more and more frustrated every second. "Now get out of the way so I can let him in."

Byron shook his head frantically.

"The longer you leave him out there, the angrier he's going to get." She tried to reason with him. "If you open the door now, I'll tell him it was an accident and hold him back so you can leave."

"What if he hurts you?"

"Alejandro would never hurt me." She spat, her eyes blazing with anger and her voice laced with irritation at the mere thought that Alejandro would ever lay anything but a welcoming and pleasurable finger on her. The man may be stubborn, irritable and difficult 99.99% of the time, but she loved him that way and never willed for him to change. That was the man she had first met and now, found herself quickly falling in love with.

She had not even a doubt in her mind that Alejandro would ever hurt her.

He wasn't a man of many words but his actions spoke loudly, clearly announcing that he would rather take the fall than watch her get hurt, and especially not by his own hands.

"You don't know that."

"I do!"

"Layla!" His thunderous voice called out to her. "Open the door for me."

Before Byron could reach out for her, she took a step back and raised her voice. "He's blocking the door."

An audible growl sounded as he continued banging on the door. When the banging suddenly stopped, both of them found themselves staring at the door in disbelief.

Why had he stopped?

"I can't believe you were kissing him when you're supposed to be my girlfriend."

"I'm not your girlfriend." She was quick to deny the allegation. "We were barely going out."

"How can you not be my girlfriend if I'm your boyfriend? That doesn't make any sense."

Layla rolled her eyes and huffed. "We're not an item. You never asked me to be your girlfriend and I certainly don't recall asking you to be my boyfriend."

"So, that makes it alright for you to go around making out with your bodyguard?"

"Of course not." She sighed and rubbed a hand down her face, tired of this conversation.

Layla understood why Byron was upset with her but frankly, the situation wasn't completely in her control. This wasn't her idea, but rather the only way she could stay with Alejandro and him stay in job as her bodyguard. It was selfish and she knew that, but Byron didn't appear to be completely innocent in all of this either.

"Look, I'm really sorry for what you saw back there."

"Why did you kiss him?"

She chewed on her lip, debating internally whether to tell the truth or continue the lie. Detective Hardy did demand that she let him down lightly so as to not raise any red flags.

Layla was pretty sure this was not letting him down lightly.

"Just tell me the truth." He demanded.

"I kissed him because I wanted to. Because I care about him."

"More than you care about me?"

She nodded, refraining from telling him that she didn't care about him all that much. That would just be too brutal.

"I'm sorry."

"Then why did you agree to go out with me?"

This time, she had no choice but to lie. "It's not right for me to have feelings for my bodyguard but I didn't know what to do. You kept asking me and you seemed like such a good guy that I was willing to give it a shot. But frankly, I can't stop thinking about Alejandro." Technically, she wasn't lying. She just wasn't telling Byron the whole truth and something told her it was better that way.

Byron appeared to be the type to act out when his feelings were hurt.

Before he could reply, their conversation halted as another knock sounded on the door, this time, the sound timid and quiet, a deep contrast to what it was only minutes ago.

They both froze and turned to look at the door.

Before he could stop her, Layla ran at full speed and yanked down on the handle, forcing the door open despite Byron trying to hold her back from doing so, genuinely afraid that Alejandro would come bursting into the apartment and end his life then and there.

When he saw a shorter, rounder and blonder man instead of her ferocious bodyguard, he froze in shock.

"Who are you?"

"Kevin. Who are you?"

"Byron. Layla's boyfriend."

Kevin turned to look at Layla, needing her to confirm it.

"Is this true? You've got a new boyfriend already?" He accused her, having the audacity to look hurt.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't act so surprised. It's been nearly a year since we broke up." She glanced over her shoulder at Byron. "And, it's complicated."

Looking over Kevin's shoulder, she craned her head up to lock eyes with the stormy, thunderous grey eyes of her actual boyfriend.

How had she gone from being single to 3 men at her door in the short span of 2 months?

"10 months!" Kevin screeched. "We've been broken up for only 10 months!"

Byron snickered. "Only 10?"

Layla rolled her eyes again – genuinely concerned that if she was forced to continue rolling them, they would actually roll out of her sockets from overuse – and reached behind Kevin to grab her boyfriend's hand.

Alejandro didn't need more than that as he pushed Kevin out of the way – albeit lightly, as he wasn't completely heartless as some liked to believe – and strode into the apartment. He made a show of pulling the blonde beauty into his arms and smirked when she sighed and pressed her face against his chest, his menacing eyes not wavering from Byron's cowardly figure.

At that, Byron was quick to scurry around them and out of the apartment.

This time, Alejandro had the satisfaction of slamming the door in Byron's face.

-

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Layla Knight

07.06.2020