“Why do you think I’m so good at fighting? It isn’t because I fought myself. Lucy thinks that fuckwit Brian was the only one I’ve ever beaten up for her. There have been dozens of guys that have nearly crossed the line with her. A few in high school spread rumors about being with her, and in college, my knuckles stayed bruised. Lucy was too trusting. She saw the good in everyone, and now, while I’m glad she isn’t with Brian, I’m afraid she won’t trust anyone again.”
Not true. She’d trust me. It would take some doing, but it would happen. “I’ll have to agree to disagree with you, Logan.” I decided to stop calling him by his last name. I wasn’t a pretentious asshole, and I wanted a good relationship with him since I’d be around for the rest of his life. I hit his shoulder a few times and made my way to Lucy, prowling toward her like a lion waiting in the tall grass about to jump on his prey.
I sat down next to her, the hard concrete scratched the skin of my thighs, and I dipped my feet in the pool right along with her. She didn’t move, but she did swirl her tongue around the straw, teasing me like she would my cock.
“Are you h
aving fun?” I asked, not knowing what else to say. It seemed the only thing her and I did when we were around each other, was tear off each other’s clothes, and then I’d spend the next however many minutes or hours trying not to slide inside her.
“Yeah, this is great. I can’t believe you do this every year for your employees. That’s really respectable.”
I placed my hand behind me, the porous concrete dense beneath my fingers. “I’m a respectable guy. Does that surprise you?”
“A little bit.” She smiled around the straw, and her teeth nibble the clear plastic. “You seem so demanding otherwise that the fact that you remember your employees are human beings is pretty remarkable.”
“I don’t know if I should say thank you or be offended.”
Her hand landed on my arm, and it was clear she felt bad when she shook her head, giving me those big green puppy dog eyes. “No! Oh gosh, that wasn’t what I meant. I just meant—”
“I know, baby,” I said, letting the endearment slip from my lips on accident. It was getting harder and harder, not claiming her for my own in front of everyone. Before she could say anything else, I hurried to say something else. “Remember, my father is the CEO of the company. He doesn’t like how I run my department. That’s where my father and I are different.”
“If your father is the CEO, why does he allow it?” she questioned as she reached her right foot for one of the beautiful yellow flowers floating in the water. If she wanted flowers, I’d give her all of them. She never had to ask.
I exhaled and placed my beer on the ground and scooted a bit closer to her until our thighs touched. I had to touch her in some way. Had to. Once our skin touched, both of us at the same time exhaled, like our bodies were in pain from not being near one another. How much torture could we take before we broke? “Well, it’s a little difficult to explain. My father is the CEO, but he handed over the architecture department to me. I kind of run it by myself, so he gives me free rein even if he disagrees with me. He wanted me to have some type of control in the company, and when he found out I wasn’t interested in being the CEO over thousands of people, he gave me the department. I’m happy about it. I’m pleased. I didn’t want the responsibility that he has. I’m not sure who will run the company when he decides to retire, but it sure as hell won’t be me.”
“I can understand that. You want to be able to live your life.”
“Exactly.” I brushed my thumb over her thigh for a quick second. All I wanted to do was pick her up, take her to one of the lounge chairs, and hold her against me. “How about you? Do you feel like you can live your life? Tell me about you.”
She sipped her drink again and tilted her head to me, glancing at me with a face free of makeup. A few people were looking at us and whispering, probably coming to the conclusion that there was something between us. I wouldn’t deny it. I also didn’t have a fraternization policy about coworkers dating. I hadn’t cared before, and I’m glad I didn’t because if I had, I’d been breaking my own rule right now.
I hated rules.
“There isn’t much to say that you don’t already know.”
“I doubt that, Lucy. I want to know everything about you.”
“Don’t do that,” she said in a small voice. “Don’t act like you’re actually interested in me. We both know what this is.”
“Do we?” Just beneath the surface of those two words, fury simmered. She seemed to have drawn her own conclusions about us, and I didn’t like that. It seemed we were on different pages, and two weeks ago, I would have agreed with her. Caring about someone like this only left someone cold on the inside after a while, like my parents, but I had a feeling, Lucy would always keep me warm. I trusted my instincts, and while before they always screamed to never love; now, they were screaming at me to jump in with both feet, or I’d regret it.
“We are clearly attracted to one another, but we both know this isn’t going anywhere. I have too much baggage, and you are a public figure in this city. I’d just bring you down. And I’m not looking to feel worse than I already do.”
“You think I care about that? The public? You think I’m going to let some deranged man stand between us? I know he is what is causing your fear.”
“Godrick,” her voice broken and torn as she spoke through the emotion almost choking her. “It isn’t just him.”
“Then what is it? Tell me, Lucy. Let me show you that you have nothing to worry about.” My hand landed on top of hers, and she jerked her hand away. I didn’t like that. She wasn’t just pulling away from me; she was pulling away from us.
“What are you going to do when you get bored of me, Godrick? You can’t fool yourself into thinking I’m going to be enough for you. I don’t have the strength to be with someone again for a year, five years, another ten years, and get completely crushed because I find you in bed with some supermodel because look at you? You’re fucking Godrick Stoneridge, one of the wealthiest men in the city, top bachelor, a man that has women flocking toward him all the time. I don’t feel like getting destroyed again. I really don’t have the energy for it again. And I need to deal with Brian. As long as he is in my life, I’ll never be able to have a normal love life or sex life, which let’s face it, that’s all that this is.” She removed her feet from the pool, and water splashed on my shins as she stood. “Excuse me.” Lucy grabbed her drink and rushed away from the pool, leaving me confused and angry with all the conclusions she just drew.
Just sex.
We hadn’t even had sex! Didn’t that prove that there was more to this than just sexual tension? If I only wanted sex, I would have had sex with her already, or I would have had sex with someone else while I waited for Lucy. She wasn’t wrong, I did have women flocking toward me all the time, but I hardly ever took them up on it. Having sex all the time wasn’t something I did like people assumed.
She assumed something about me, and I really didn’t like that. Lucy was running away from me, but I wasn’t going to let her.
Not this time.