“Yeah? What kind of plans?”
“I’m going to the nightclub,” I answered with a shrug. “Going to watch the drag queens perform and get a little more courage in my bones to make another performance.”
“Alone?” Lucas asked.
“Yes, alone,” I answered. “I can take care of myself, and you should not use the incident of me ending up at the police station for indecent exposure against me.”
Lucas sighed. “Just be careful. Call me if you need anything.”
I nodded. “Sure will.”
In reality I had no plans to go to the nightclub, but when they left, I found the idea appealing. I didn’t want to stick around the apartment, consumed with thoughts of what they were doing and how much they were enjoying the evening. I needed a distraction, and seeing the girls again would be ideal. You couldn’t really be melancholy for long around them. They had such an infectious spirit and were guaranteed to make me laugh.
An hour after Lucas and Becca left, I was dressed for the night. It might or might not have been a coincidence that I was wearing Becca’s red pumps.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lucas
“Tonight went well,” Becca remarked as we walked to her apartment door. I could have walked her inside the apartment building, then left, but I was curious whether or not Jason had made good on his promise and had gone to the club alone. I didn’t like the idea of him partying on his own, but who was I to try and curb him when I couldn’t even take him for dinner with my father and Becca?
It had hurt like hell to turn him down when he asked if he could come with us. Surprisingly, no one had called bullshit yet on our upcoming nuptials. We’d needed tonight to go smoothly, and Jason being there would have been confusing. It was already going to be hard explaining to my father that he was Becca’s son. I couldn’t lie about that, and he’d likely not forget what he had seen that day he had visited my home.
With luck, he’d think I was just a sick man sleeping with both mother and son. He wouldn’t care as long as I got hitched to a woman and he believed children would come from the union. He’d already signed the agreement that once we were married, he would pay for the damages to the restaurant and sign over his share of the house to me. I’d get half of my trust once we were married, and the remaining portion when we conceived.
That was a part of my inheritance I didn’t expect to see a dime of, but just half was enough to get me out of my current mess. In fact, I’d lived without the trust fund all this time, and I sure as hell didn’t need it. The most important thing for me right now was having total ownership of my house. I would also be broke if I paid the restaurant out of pocket, but I’d do that too if my father reneged on his agreement. The house was the important thing as well as getting that restaurant job.
“You were brilliant,” I told her. She’d played the part of the loving fiancée well. Another reason I hadn’t wanted Jason to be in attendance. Becca and I hadn’t kissed. We were reserving that for the wedding ceremony, but she’d been quite convincing with all her “honey” and “sweetie.” She had charmed my father, and I couldn’t remember my old man ever looking that content.
It was sickening to know that he could be a decent person if he put his mind to it. Most of the time he just didn’t want to. Tonight, he’d been the perfect gentleman with Becca.
“Your father sure doesn’t seem like the monster you paint him out to be.” I groaned as she spoke my thoughts out aloud. “What? It’s true. He was quite nice to me.”
“He will be. You’re a woman and a beautiful one. He’s not blind to that.”
She led the way inside the apartment, and I had to resist sprinting by her to check Jason’s room.
“It was a good dinner though,” she remarked. “There’s so much to do in just two weeks. You and Jason will have to help me handle some of the details.”
“I’m not sure we should expect Jason to help.”
“Maybe you’re right, but I’m just afraid we’ll never get everything done in time if we don’t get as much help as possible.”
“Well, my dad did say we could have the ceremony in the gardens,” I reminded her. “So at least the venue is taken care of.”
“Yes, then there’s the catering, the fitting of tuxes, wedding dress, compiling our guest list, choosing invitation cards, floral arrangement. Trust me, it’s a lot.”
“Crap. That does sound like a lot.”
“I’m going to change out of this dress. Why don’t you check his room if he’s in. I know you’re just dying to.”
Without responding, I walked around her to get to Jason’s bedroom. I knocked on the door but didn’t hear any response from inside. It was just a few minutes after ten. If he went to the club, I didn’t expect him to be back already, but if he was in bed…
I pushed his bedroom door open and peeked inside. He wasn’t in bed. I flicked the light on and found he’d left a mountain of clothes scattered on the bed like he’d been desperately searching for a special outfit or something. I didn’t like that at all.
“He really went out,” Becca murmured over my shoulder. “I thought he was bluffing as much as he was lying about not knowing where my red shoes are.”
“Why would he lie about your shoes?”
“Because he knew I’d be wearing them tonight,” she replied. “Jason might have agreed to this, Lucas, but I know him. He’s the closest person in the world to me, and he’s not going to let this wedding happen without a little bit of protest.”
“But he agreed,” I said.
“Yes, he did. He won’t do anything to ruin the wedding per se. Maybe just inconvenience us a little so we’re as miserable as he is.”
I wiped a hand over my face. “I’m already as miserable as he is.”
She took me by the shoulder and turned me in the direction of the hall. “Then go fix it. You know where he is. Go for him and take him home. I’m convinced once he accepts that nothing will change between you two, he’ll allow this wedding to happen without fear of losing you or things changing. You need to convince him of that.”
***
The last thing I expected when I entered the nightclub was to find Jason onstage after the fright he’d had the last time. He was easily recognizable this time because he wasn’t dressed in drag which was all the more confusing as to what he was doing onstage. He was in between two drag queens, swinging his hips in those sinful tight jeans of his.
And Becca’s red pumps.
This time I didn’t create a spectacle by racing to the stage to rescue him. He didn’t need rescue this time. He seemed to be having fun, his cheeks flushed, as he performed with the skimpily clad drag queens who I recalled from the last time. They’d taken a shine to Jason that night, full of encouragement and reminiscing about their first moment on stage in drag.
I found a seat and watched the show. Although he wasn’t in drag, the patrons of the bar didn’t seem to mind, and it was easy to see why. He was infectious. He fit into the routine well, and he was cute enough that he got enough money tucked into the pockets of his impossibly tight pants.
Someone had at least tried to make him out to be more feminine. His shirt was knotted at the back, leaving his flat belly bare. The stage light glinted from the ring piercing his belly button, and when he rolled his hips like he did when we were in bed, I couldn’t help getting hard.
It was torture watching him onstage, and I had to remind myself that he was doing nothing but performing. I cheered with the others when they finished their routine, and he blew kisses to the audience. One landed in my direction. I playfully plucked the kiss out of the air and held it to my heart. His eyes widened as they connected with mine.
I waited for them to get off the stage, and five minutes later he walked through the crowd toward me, waving at the men who recognized him from the stage who called to him. It took everything out of me not to clear a path to meet him, but the club had gotten additional bouncers since the incident, and he got to
my booth unscathed.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, reaching for the drink I’d ordered at the bar. I’d been watching him so intently that I hadn’t even touched it. He took a sip and fanned his face.
“I came to get you,” I answered.
“Why?”
“I didn’t like the idea of you being here on your own.”
He placed the glass down on the counter. “Now you want to be my Daddy?”
“I always want to be your Daddy,” I growled at him. “I blame you for putting the idea into my head, and now it’s stuck.”
I reached for him and pulled him to my arms. He didn’t resist, but he didn’t make it easy for me either.
“This guy bothering you, honey?” one of the bouncers asked, appearing at our table out of nowhere.
Jason smiled at the man. “We’re fine, Horatio. He’s just my stepdaddy.”
I scowled at Jason, and the bouncer glanced between us. I could see the questions in his eyes about the familiarity of our embrace, but he gave Jason a thumbs-up and moved on.
“You’ve been making friends here,” I commented.
He nodded. “Yup, so you better be nice to me. This has been my comfort spot since you and Becca got engaged. The girls are nice, and they let me be a part of their routine tonight to cheer me up.”
“Are you ready to go?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Okay, sure.”
Hand firmly pressed to the small of his back, I guided him from the club, pretending that I didn’t hear someone mention “lucky bastard” in our wake. I dropped my arm to wrap around his waist, and Jason tilted his head to the side to regard me, but I pretended that I didn’t notice.
Once we were outside, I nudged him in the direction of my SUV. He didn’t say a word until I pulled out of the parking lot.
“Can you take me home?” he asked, confusing me at first until he clarified. “I mean back to my apartment.”
His request stunned me. I’d taken it for granted that we would go back to my place where he could spend the night in my arms.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’m a little tired, and I just want my own bed.”
“Am I allowed to stay the night with you?”
“That would be weird with Becca there. I-I just want some space tonight.”
We drove in complete silence after. Since Becca had come up with this scheme, this was the first time I’d really thought about losing him. What if this was where he started pulling away until he lost patience with the situation? A couple of months ago I wouldn’t have cared if he stopped flirting with me, but at the thought of him not kissing me when he felt like, climbing up onto my lap and teasing me by calling me daddy, I felt a cloak of panic descend upon me.
“Stop it,” he said when I pulled into a parking spot at his apartment building.
“Excuse me?”
“Stop making me feel guilty for not coming back to your place with you,” he answered.
“I’m not,” I replied. “I’m just thinking.”
“Well, stop doing that too. You’re wrong about us.”
“What am I wrong about exactly?” I turned to him so I could gauge his reaction while he spoke.
He slumped back into his car seat. “That because I don’t go home with you tonight I’m calling us off. I may not like it, Luke, but I understand why you’re going through with this scheme.”
“It’s not ideal, and I wish there was some other way, but let’s make the best of this. Can you do that?”
“Just as long as you know I tried my best,” he said, leaning forward and pressing his lips to mine. When he would have retreated, I cupped the back of his head and pulled him closer to me, making promises I couldn’t utter with words. Like him, I too was worried that my marriage to Becca might change things, but I hoped.
Dear God, I poured all my hope into that kiss.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jason
“Jason, are you paying attention?” Becca asked me, luckily right after I wrapped up my new video to upload to my vlog.
To my complete surprise, I had close to a hundred subscribers already. Not great, but not bad either. I just needed to continue adding more content, and hopefully I would reach more people. I’d been working on a few face chart sketches for Becca’s makeup for the wedding, and in this video I’d done a live face chart that I planned to edit and upload later today.
“Yes, I heard you the first time, Mother,” I answered, having adopted the title recently. It was childish, but I wanted her to remember every time I called her “Mother” that she was marrying her son’s partner.
She appeared in my bedroom, scowling. “How long are you going to keep doing that?”
“Doing what, Mother?”
“I’m trusting you to place the orders for the flowers,” she replied, ignoring my petty behavior. “I can’t believe Lucas canceled on me at the last minute.”
I shrugged. “He said he had a meeting with his father when he called last night.”
She waved a paper at me. “Here’s the list with the different types of flowers and the quantity that we’ll need. Don’t forget the paper. I already called the florist, and they are expecting you on the hour. We already talked pricing, but these people have a way of changing the price when you’re there. For God’s sake, please do not go over the budget indicated. The Wedding Experience is only giving us a small budget.”
“I’ve got this, Becca.” I made a shooing motion with my hands. “You go handle your fitting.”
She sighed. “I do wish you could be there for me when I choose my dress. You have a good eye for these things.”
“Well, I could go with you if you didn’t need me to go to the florist.”
“You definitely have to go to the florist, but keep your phone within reach. I’ll send you pictures, and you help me choose.”
“Sounds good.”
“Great. Now I really have to go. Thanks again for volunteering to do this. I know it’s not easy for you.”
“I know this is just temporary.”
“Yes, it is, and we’ll all come out of this happier and more secure financially. Remember that.”
How could I forget? It was the only thing that kept me sane about this wedding. The past two days had been filled with wedding preparations. Lucas popped by to spend some time with me each day, but we’d not had time to be intimate beyond a few kisses. I still hadn’t gone back to his house with him. A part of me was scared of falling for him any more than I already was. This was the real thing, and it was so different than what I thought love was back then. Love was scary and made even scarier by the man you loved marrying someone else.
Soon after Becca left the apartment, I took a shower to get ready to start my day. I had just stepped out, a towel wrapped around me, when the doorbell rang. My heart skipped a beat, but I deliberately made myself walk even paced to the door although I longed to get there to yank it open and launch myself into his arms.
I swallowed my groan when I opened the door to Lucas looking damn fine in a pair of close-fitting dark blue jeans and a long-sleeve shirt. The inner me wanted to jump his bones, and the urge was stronger now that I knew what sex with him was like: spine-tingling bliss into a dimension where only we existed.
“Hey, come on in.”
I stepped aside, but he followed me inside and dropped a kiss to my forehead.
“I caught you in the shower?”
“I was finished,” I answered, noticing the way his gaze roamed my figure. His nostrils flared, but he kept his desire under control. Perhaps because I had been turning down anything between us but for a few kisses. And as soon as those got heated, I called a halt to it.
“Where’s Becca?” he asked, glancing around me.
I turned my back to him, pulling the towel from my body and walking naked in the direction of my bedroom. I didn’t bother to check if he was staring or following.
“She left,” I answered.
His
footsteps sounded softly on the carpet, and he was almost at my heels, trailing me to my bedroom.
“What? We’re supposed to check out the flowers for our wedding.”
“She asked me to go with you,” I lied and didn’t even feel bad for it. “She had to do her fitting for her wedding dress.”
“Oh.”
After checking that his eyes were on me, I stopped at the dresser and removed a thong from the drawer. I usually only wore them for special occasions, but since he was standing inside my bedroom watching me, why not?
With as much grace as I could muster, I got my feet in, then shimmied the sheer black lace up my legs. I pretended not to hear the harshness of his breathing in the room as he watched me. I hooked my finger in the string at the back and playfully pulled it between my ass cheeks. I ran my fingers around the waist to ensure it was straight, then released it to smack against my skin because it sounded hot.
Mother of all that was holy! The elastic stung. I muzzled the grunt of pain and turned to find myself face-to-face with Lucas. When had he moved?
“Are you teasing me?” he asked, his voice low.
I swallowed hard at the hunger in his eyes. The sheer thong I wore could hardly hide my erection.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I quipped, then turned away from him, but his arm shot out and clamped around my waist, pulling me to him. My back hit into his chest. As far as manhandling went, it was the gentle kind, but it was a bit rough, and apparently my body had a field day responding.
His lips found the back of my neck, and I tilted my head to the side, giving him better access. His mouth was hot and wet against my skin, his hands gripping my thighs and running up my body, spanning my slender waist.
“Do you want me to stop?” he asked.
“No, please. Don’t.”
I had gone from a show of indifference to begging, but I didn’t care. The last couple of days I’d been trying to be as aloof as possible to spare myself, but the damage was already done. I couldn’t be indifferent to him for long. I’d wanted this man to be mine for so long, had been infatuated with him forever and a day.
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