“Lazy?” I shoved the phone in my pocket. “My sperm are ANYTHING but lazy, alright? Hell, you’d be LUCKY to have them floating down your river!”
“See!” She threw her hands in the air. “Floating! What? They don’t even know how to swim? Hmm, reminds me of someone else. Tell me, how were those swimming lessons with the five-year-old class? How old were you, twelve?”
“Go to hell,” I muttered. “And you’re getting off point. Many a woman is thankful for my . . . juices.”
Avery burst out laughing. “Your juices? Your perfectly golden and lazy-ass Lucas Thorn juices? Do you hear yourself?”
“Yeah”—I rolled my eyes—“and it’s like I’m losing IQ points the longer I discuss this with you. Just plan to go to the appointment. I’ll drop you guys off, you can spread for the dude, get your results. We’ll all do lunch, and I’ll make up a fake meeting we have to get back for—then in a few weeks, we’ll convince my mom that we decided to break things off.”
Avery tapped her fingernails against her luscious thigh. What I wouldn’t do for one night, just one night, when I could run my tongue up and down that smooth piece of skin.
“I hate going to the doctor. Ugh. When she mentioned making the appointment, I didn’t think I’d have to spread my legs for a total stranger.” Avery exhaled roughly. “A few weeks is nothing. Besides, it’s not like they live close to us. And we’re adults, responsible adults.”
“Who made out in the wine cellar,” I just had to add.
“Sexual tension is just that, sexual tension. Besides, don’t you have a few more girls to please this week?”
“Yeah.” Guilt stabbed me in the chest because suddenly the only lips I wanted to kiss were hers. What the hell was wrong with me? “I do. At least they don’t push me away.”
She glanced down at her hands, then looked out the window and whispered, “Yeah, well, some girls aren’t okay with sharing. Besides, you know that when I was little I stuffed animal crackers in my pockets during snack time, only to have them end up in the washer later. I didn’t do it because I was hungry—I just didn’t want other people to have what I had.”
“Still possessive, hey, Avery Bug?”
She glanced back at me. “In every way that matters, yes. When a man loves me, he’s going to get all of me, not twenty-four hours.”
Lucky bastard.
Lucky freaking bastard.
I wanted to say something else.
I wanted so many things.
My heart twisted and slammed against my rib cage in defiance of the words I knew I needed to utter.
It begged me to think before speaking.
But I’d stopped listening to my heart a long time ago.
Back when it told me to pick Avery.
And dump the only girl I’d ever been with—her sister.
“Yeah, well, don’t knock it until you try it.” I smirked.
Avery stiffened. I pulled the car up to the curb of her building. “See you tomorrow, Thorn.”
The car door slammed.
Blanketing me in darkness.
Leaving me to wonder if I was making another epic mistake with the one Black girl I swore I’d never hurt.
Chapter Twenty
AVERY
I dreamed of strangling Lucas Thorn with my bare hands and woke up smiling, only to stop the minute I realized that he wasn’t in fact dead—thanks to the text waiting for me on my cell:
Be ready in 40.
Why? I asked the universe that question over and over. First when I took a shower, again when I quickly got dressed and applied my makeup, and then when my unruly hair refused to do anything except shoot out in every direction, giving me a very hot Medusa look that I’m sure Lucas would comment on.
When I was finally dressed and ready to go, I had three minutes of freedom left.
Minutes before I was going to have to go to the gyno because of a stupid fake engagement I didn’t even want in the first place. But his face at dinner. I knew that look. He had taken a huge deep breath and lowered his head like he was about ready to tell the truth and, in the process, disappoint his parents. And for some reason I decided to fall on my own sword, and jump into the depths of hell with him.
I stared at the door, willing time to stop so that the knock wouldn’t happen. Hey, maybe I was in one of those alternate-universe movies, meaning the main character THINKS that everything is real but is actually hooked up to a giant human-hating computer.
I squeezed my eyes shut and mumbled, “I’m Neo, I’m Neo, I’m Neo.”
A knock sounded at my door.
“Why can’t I live in the damn Matrix?” I muttered, slumping all the way to the door and jerking it open.
“Did you say something?” Lucas asked, looking sexier than what should be allowed for the devil. His white shirt was crisp, ironed, and tucked into perfect-fitting pin-striped trousers that screamed class, money, man.
NO!
I shook my head. “I was just wishing on a falling star, asking it to fall right on your head.” I grabbed the coffee from his hand and peeked behind his back. “Where’s my pastry?”
He rolled his eyes. “It’s in the car.”
I scrunched my nose up and took a sip of coffee as I stepped out of the apartment. “Last night I killed you.” I smiled triumphantly.
Lucas exhaled and shut the door behind me, placing his hand on my back as we walked down the dimly lit hall. “Wow, tell me more, please. I’m dying to know. Was it a gunshot wound to the head or something more graphic, like a machete to the balls?”
“HAH, don’t give me ideas, Thorn.” I chugged more coffee, allowing the heat of the bitter liquid to soothe my nerves.
The last time I’d been to the gyno was right in the middle of college. Not only was the checkup expensive, but it was also after I’d stupidly had sex with a relative stranger just to get the whole thing over with.
I was the only virgin left in my group of friends, and for some reason I thought that part of growing up was giving my virginity up in the most awkward experience possible.
Not only was it the most unromantic experience of my life.
But I later found out the guy had given another girl an STD. I swore I’d never have random sex again and went to get tested.
Thankfully, I was healthy.
But the trauma of the Pap smear remained.
Not that I would ever reveal that to Lucas. Who knows? I wouldn’t put it past him to somehow use the info as ammo and turn the whole damn thing against me. That was the last thing I needed. Besides, he probably couldn’t have cared less about my sexual (in)experience. He was a complete man whore.
“In you go.” He opened the door to the back of the nice black Uber Escalade.
I slid across the plush leather seats, grabbed the paper bags of warm pastries, and inhaled them like a drug addict.
Lucas slid in behind me and slammed the door. “I figured the easiest way to put you at ease was to drug you with sugar.”
“I take it back.” I grabbed a sugary donut and stuffed half of it in my mouth. “I didn’t enjoy killing you last night. I shed a tear, it was small.” I held up two fingers that were almost touching. “Like this big. Hardly noticeable, kind of like your penis.”
Lucas choked on his coffee.
“Well, maybe not as small as that”—I elbowed him—“but close. At any rate, thanks for the donut.” I squeezed his leg, unable to keep my hands away from his stupid body.
“I got you a breakfast sandwich too. You know, protein.”
I waved him off.
“Typical,” he snorted.
“What?” I asked midbite. “What’s typical?”
“You need to take care of yourself, go to bed early . . .” His voice was strained. “Make sure you do your annual checkups.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, because that’s been so necessary this past year.”
Damn it!
I waited.
Hoping he missed it.
B
ut he was Lucas Thorn, so instead of missing my meaning, he leaned toward me and licked his stupidly attractive big lips. “Oh?”
I averted my eyes.
To the cleft in his chin.
Which made me think of our kiss.
I clenched my thighs together and then crossed my legs. Nope. Not happening, not getting anywhere near the lower region of my anatomy, not now, not ever.
My body was notorious for betraying me when it came to Lucas, and I wasn’t going to lose control again.
Ugh, the sugar on the donut didn’t taste as good as his tongue. The same tongue he thrust into other women’s mouths.
Lust cooled. I turned to him and shrugged. “What?” Lucas’s eyes pinned me.
“Admit it.” He grinned. “There is no Carl.”
“Fine, no Carl. Gee, you got me—doesn’t change anything. I’m still a sexually active wildcat just waiting to pounce on my next prey.” I tore a piece of donut and made a growling noise.
He swore violently and adjusted the collar of his shirt.
“What?” I smirked. “Something I said?”
“Nope, just imagining what that would be like, getting mounted by Avery Black.”
It was my turn to choke.
The driver stopped in front of a large building a few blocks away from our downtown offices, closer to Pike Place Market, which made me want to go shopping for flowers and toss some fish around while sipping coffee.
I reached for my seatbelt; Lucas pressed a hand to my fingers and whispered in my ear, “Admit it, you’re thinking about it too.”
I exhaled and tried to even out my breathing. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Liar.” His chuckle was warm, seductive. “You’re right—I bet you’re crazy in bed, wild, violent. If there was a Carl, I’d have half a mind to be jealous.”
“That would be the day.” My voice was raspy and stupidly turned on.
Our eyes locked.
He leaned forward, just as the rear door opened beside me.
I jumped back and quickly wiped my mouth of any remnants of sugared donut, then numbly reached for my purse.
Walking was an issue.
You know, for obvious reasons. You needed legs to walk, and mine had turned to jelly. I couldn’t even feel my legs, or my face, and it was all Lucas’s fault.
Hating him was difficult.
Being attracted to him was inevitable.
Because many years ago—my life goal had been to find and marry someone just like Lucas Thorn.
Not the one I was helping lie to his entire family or the one who slept with a different woman almost every night, but the one who had held my hand when I watched scary movies.
Or the one who’d kissed me on the night he was found in bed with my look-alike sister after promising me things he had no right to promise.
I was a pawn in his game.
He’d just needed someone to save him from himself.
Great. History was repeating itself, because back then I had been willing to save him over a stupid crush and maybe because I thought he actually cared more about me than about my sister. And since I’d always been in Kayla’s shadow—he made me feel special.
My morose thoughts really weren’t helping things.
The morning went from bad to worse when Lucas’s mom jumped up in the waiting room and shouted by way of greeting Lucas and me: “We’re GOING TO HAVE A BABY!”
“Run!” I gripped Lucas’s hand. “We can still make the elevator if we run.” The elevator doors closed in our faces.
Lucas cursed. “We could always jump through the glass window and pray a garbage truck is driving by.”
Patty barreled toward us, arms outstretched, tears running down her face.
“I’m in.” I nodded earnestly.
Lucas let out a defeated sigh as his mom gripped him by the ears and pressed a kiss to each cheek. She then turned her attention to me and began crying even harder as we all headed back toward the doctor’s office.
Why did she have to cry?
“I just knew it.” She wiped under her eyes. “I’m so sorry, but you’ve just always been my favorite of you three sisters, and when poor Lucas confessed his true feelings for you—”
“Mom!” Lucas yelled.
My mouth dropped open.
“Oh”—Patty covered her mouth with her hands—“I thought she knew?”
“Knew that I adored this little slugger?” He, no joke, pulled me into his arms and noogied my head, then poked me in the chest.
I smacked him in the arm and shoved him away.
His mom blinked in confusion at our exchange, while Lucas turned bright red and pointed to the receptionist’s counter. “Shouldn’t Avery fill out her paperwork?”
His mom’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, we’ll just . . . Why don’t we go get that and you can find a seat.”
Lucas laughed. “Mom, I’m not staying. I came with Avery, but I’ll go wait in the car.”
He was already backing away.
“No.” Patty shook her head sternly. “If you’re going to be together forever, you go through thick and thin together, in sickness and in health!”
“But Avery’s completely healthy!” he argued. “Look at her!”
I preened, couldn’t help it.
“She has a history of anemia!”
I paused as sweat started to pool down my back. How would she know that? There was no way unless—oh no, oh no, no, no, no. I squeezed Lucas’s hand, nearly cutting off the circulation. His eyes narrowed.
“Just how would you know that?” Lucas asked while Patty fidgeted with her purse and then cleared her throat. “Mom?” No doubt, he was ready to make a run for it. Again.
“I may have made a call.” She smiled cheerfully. “But it was for the best.”
Moms.
Whenever they did something wrong, they always justified it by saying, “It was for the best.” As if their manipulation made it all okay because, HEY, I’m looking out for your best interests.
“What was ‘for the best’?” I repeated, my entire body going numb this time. The sweat ran down my back and trickled even more—great, just great.
“The engagement party,” she said, dodging the question. “I’ll just go get a clipboard.”
I gasped.
Lucas swore and looked ready to commit murder.
I quickly dug into my purse to find I had five missed calls from my mom. Five.
I didn’t even want to look at the text messages.
“Not what I had in mind when I agreed to help last night.” I smacked him in the chest with my purse and glared at him. “You need to control her!” I pointed at his mom, who was already on her way back with the clipboard, practically skipping.
“Hey, you’re the one who just HAD to say something to my sister. If anyone points fingers, they go to you,” he said under his breath.
“Oh PLEASE!” I sneered. “Like it was my fault your best friend kidnapped mine and got everyone drunk!”
“Damn it, I should have left you on the street corner.”
I jerked away as though he’d slapped me. “So that’s what I get for helping you with all of your family drama? ‘I should have left you on the street corner’?”
His mom was dangerously close to us.
Ugh, why did I keep doing that? Imagining he cared about me when he was probably checking his watch, counting down the hours until he could be with his next girl.
“Well”—I fought back tears—“we agreed to do this together, to help each other. Though God knows I must have been drunk when I said yes last night. Either we make a plan for how to get out of the party, or we end up pissing everyone off and hurting our families . . . again. Grandpa still hasn’t forgotten what you did, and I can guarantee he still has nightmares from being a POW. The last thing you want is for him to turn all his attention toward you. He’s a very violent man.”
“Your grandfather makes bikes for children,” Lucas said dryly, rocking
back on his heels.
“He was a sniper.”
“Fine.” Lucas’s shoulders hunched. “Let’s just get this part over with, and we’ll deal with everything else later.”
I nodded, too tired to argue, then begrudgingly took the clipboard from his mom and started filling in my information.
Chapter Twenty-One
LUCAS
Don’t panic.
Don’t show fear.
My mom was sitting on one side of me with Avery on the other. I was in absolute hell and was going to have to change my shirt and get another brand of deodorant, since the one I had used clearly wasn’t doing the job.
Then again, deodorants aren’t made for situations that involve trying to right a wrong between two families in the worst possible circumstances. In my case that meant keeping my mom from finding out about my unique sex life while faking an engagement to the younger sister of the ex-fiancée I’d cheated on.
I think if it had been just that tangle, the deodorant would have been like, Chill, Lucas, I’ve got this.
But I was in a damn gynecologist’s office; no male deodorant should have to put up with that shit.
With my mother.
With. My. Mother.
The receptionist called out Avery’s name.
Avery directed a look of pure hatred at me before slowly standing and wiping her hands on her jeans.
The nurse eyed me up and down and smirked.
I tried to keep my groan in.
I knew that look. It was interest. Blatant interest.
But I was here with my girlfriend.
Fiancée.
Even with the fake fiancée, I didn’t appreciate the nurse’s leer.
I stood.
The hell?
I dated multiple women all the time!
Why would I have qualms now when my fiancée wasn’t even real?
Avery glanced back at me, her face pale.
Slowly, numbly, I reached out and took her hand in mine, and for reasons I would probably overanalyze later—I kissed her fingertips and winked.
Ignoring the nurse completely.
And locking eyes with the only woman that mattered.
Only to have my mom ruin the moment by shoving her body between us and wrapping an arm around both my waist and Avery’s. “This is so responsible of you guys.”