by K. A. Linde
“She’d better not throw up in here,” the Uber driver said.
“She won’t,” Lucas said. He eased her into the backseat, and she leaned her head against the window to watch the streetlights. “She hates throwing up.”
“I really, really do.”
When they got back to his apartment, he put an arm around her to help her into his place. “You know, Savi, it’s a good thing you didn’t bet,” he muttered as he opened the door for her.
“Bet?”
“Our kiss.”
“Mmm…”
“I would have definitely won.” He closed the door.
She shook her head. “No, everyone wants you.”
“Blatantly false. I had to hover over you all night to keep the creeps away.”
“You did not!” She smacked him again playfully in disbelief and then nearly fell over.
He shook his head and then scooped her up into his arms. She sighed and rested her head on his chest as he carried her into the guest bedroom. He set her down on the bed and then carefully removed each of her shoes, tossing them to the side.
She stood on wobbly feet. He completely towered over her without the shoes. God, he was so tall.
“You should try to sleep this off,” he suggested.
“Will you help me out of this?” She twirled around and pointed at the zipper on the back.
“I…” She could hear him audibly gulp. “Let me get you a change of clothes.”
He snagged the zipper and then hastily retreated to her suitcase. He found shorts and a T-shirt and tried to blindly hand them to her. She slipped the T-shirt over her head and let the romper fall to the ground. She couldn’t be bothered with the shorts. That sounded like effort.
“Are you ready?”
“Uh-huh.”
He turned around, and his eyes went straight to her legs. “Shorts?”
“Nah.” She reached out for him and drew him down onto the bed with her. “You sleep here now.”
“Savi, you’re drunk.”
“Nope.” She curled her body into his and let the room spin all around her.
“Sav…”
She tilted her head up to look at him, and he stopped talking. That energy that had coursed between them on the dance floor ignited once more. She slipped her hand up into his curls, running her fingers through them.
“Scared?” she murmured.
Then, his lips were on hers, crushing her, tasting her, needing her. A desperate, feverish kiss. Passion and aching and yearning all rolled up into one touch. His bulk pressed her back into the bed, carefully leaning on top of her. The shirt she was wearing bunched up to her stomach. She hooked a leg around him, trying to get him closer, needing this like she’d never needed anything.
His hands explored, running up into her hair, over her neck, down her sides. All while their tongues melded together. Their bodies rocking in a motion that was all too familiar.
“Oh God,” she moaned as he started kissing down her neck.
A hand snaked up her T-shirt. He traced the outline of her breast, teased her pert nipple, and then cupped it fully. Her back arched off of the bed. Her body demanding more, more, more. Her brain on rapid fire.
“Please,” she whispered.
Then, suddenly, Lucas was gone. He was standing a foot away from her. His chest heaving. His eyes dilated. His erection very, very evident.
“Wha…”
“You…don’t want this,” he finally said. “And I’m not going to have you hate me in the morning because I took advantage of you when you were drunk. If you want me, then you want me sober. A week ago, you could hardly look at me. I know this isn’t right. I knew, and I kissed you anyway. Fuck. But I want you.”
“Lucas,” she whispered.
He turned away, cursing under his breath. “Go to sleep, Savannah.”
Then, he marched out the door and slammed it shut behind him.
She blacked out before he was even back in his own room.
5
Whoops
“Shut. Up,” Savannah groaned.
She reached out and slammed her hand down on her cell phone, trying to cease the insistent buzzing noise coming from the nightstand. She cracked an eye open and winced at the blast of sunlight. Her head was the size of a watermelon, and any minute, it was going to split open.
For a brief second, the noise cut off. She sighed and rested back. She wanted to go back to sleep for another century or two.
She wasn’t that lucky.
The buzzing started again. She grabbed her phone and brought it close to her face. She saw through slit eyelids that Easton was calling. Oh, this wasn’t going to be fun.
“Hello?” she asked groggily.
“Savannah, fuck,” Easton growled into the phone.
She tugged it a bit farther from her ear. “Can you keep it down? My head is throbbing.”
“Keep it down?” His voice was sharp.
“Please.”
“I’ve been calling you for hours. It’s one in the afternoon, and you just answered your phone. I didn’t know if you were dead or what the fuck had happened after seeing your social media blow up all night long.”
“What’s blowing up? I’ve been asleep.”
A harsh breath pushed into the phone. Easton was pissed off. That was what that breath meant. She needed to get her head on and figure out what he was pissed about. Slowly, she eased into a sitting position, which didn’t help her head, but was better than nothing.
“Easton?”
“What did you do last night, Savannah?” he finally asked.
“Oh,” she muttered. She put her head in her hand. Well, that wasn’t how she wanted to have this conversation. “I went to a graduation party for the basketball team.”
“Yeah. I think the entire world knows that by now.”
“It was nothing, Easton. I should have told you, but we just had a few drinks and then came home.”
Or at least…that was about all that she remembered. How exactly had she gotten back here last night?
“Well, your new best friend, Amanda, posted pictures of you together. Remember those?”
Fuck…she didn’t.
“Uh…”
Easton let loose another breath. “Great.”
“I mean…I didn’t know she was posting the pictures.” She only briefly remembered that she’d taken pictures with Amanda. She was also pretty sure she hadn’t liked Amanda at the beginning of the night.
“Just tell me…would you have even told me about you and Lucas if someone else hadn’t posted pictures?”
Her heart started to race. What the fuck had Amanda posted last night? She put Easton on speakerphone and started scrolling through her social media. There were dozens of pictures. She and Amanda dancing on tables, taking shots, watching the guys do keg stands. She and Lucas standing close together, one of them dancing together, one of them laughing about who the fuck knew what, smiling up at each other, and on and on. So many fucking pictures. Well, shit.
“I…yes,” she finally said. “I was going to tell you this morning that I had gone with him. But these pictures, they look bad…but nothing happened.”
“What would you think if you saw this and I didn’t answer?”
She tilted her head to the sky. “I’d think the worst.”
“Yeah.”
She chewed on her bottom lip. “It’s really not what it looks like.”
“I want to believe that.”
“We were just hanging out. There’s nothing between me and Lucas.”
“I’m pretty sure he doesn’t agree with you.”
“Well, his opinion doesn’t matter.”
Easton sighed. She could practically see him rubbing a hand down his face. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“What else am I supposed to say? I almost booked a flight to Nashville this morning. But I thought I should talk to you before I got there and put my fist through his fucking face. He knows what he’s doing
. That’s for sure.”
“It’s not like that.”
“I know the party line. You’ve known each other forever. Your parents are best friends. The Maxwell-Atwood wedding was planned in infancy.”
“That’s not fair,” she muttered. This was doing nothing for her headache. “That’s not how I feel, and you know it.”
“You’re right,” he said on another sigh. “It’s not what you want, but that’s how the pictures were painted.”
“I’m sorry that I put you in that position.”
“Just come home soon, okay?”
“As soon as I can.”
“I love you, Savannah.”
She smiled. “I love you too.”
As soon as Easton hung up, Savannah jumped out of bed. Holding her aching head, she threw open her door and stomped down the hallway to Lucas’s bedroom. She didn’t even bother knocking on the door, just stormed right inside.
“Lucas Nathaniel Atwood,” she yelled.
The shower turned off, and a second later, Lucas appeared in the doorway, wearing nothing but a white towel and a shit-eating grin. “Can I help you, Savi?”
“First, put some fucking clothes on, and second, what the fuck happened last night?”
Lucas flipped his wet hair out of his eyes. Savannah was careful not to let her eyes drift any lower to the sculpted body below. To the built chest or the six-pack abs or the V peeking out of the top of the towel. Her eyes snapped back up. Focus.
“You’re the one only wearing a T-shirt,” Lucas pointed out.
Savannah’s gaze dropped to her bare legs. Jesus Christ, how the hell had she gotten into this position? She tugged her shirt down lower to cover more of her thighs. “Ugh! How did I even get into this T-shirt?”
Lucas walked over to a drawer and tossed basketball shorts at her. She caught them and quickly slipped into them, rolling them down about ten times so they fit her.
“You really don’t remember?”
She shook her head once.
“Fuck,” he groaned.
“I need to know what happened. There are pictures of us together all over the internet, Lucas. Your friend Amanda is a real peach.”
The smile slid off of his face. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
Her cheeks heated. “We were dancing at the party. Then, I had another drink, and it gets fuzzy from there.”
Lucas didn’t answer her. He rifled through his drawers until he pulled out a shirt, basketball shorts, and boxers. Then, he disappeared back into the bathroom for what felt like way too long just to change. Savannah tried not to tap her foot in irritation. She knew that she shouldn’t have gotten that drunk. She’d put herself in this position. But damn, it’d be great if Lucas filled her.
The man who stepped back out of that bathroom was a different person than the one who had walked in. Gone were the easy smiles and playful demeanor. He looked serious and irritated.
“What?” she asked. Fear struck her. “Did…something happen?”
Lucas didn’t look at her as he shook his head.
“Lucas?” she whispered.
“The one time I’m a good person, and you don’t even remember.”
Savannah swallowed. “What does that mean?”
Lucas looked her in the eyes. “Nothing happened, Savannah. Go home to your boyfriend.”
He brushed past her and out of his room. She felt tears pricking at her eyes, and she couldn’t even explain them. She didn’t want something to have happened. But the way he’d said it…it sounded so hopeless. Like something could have happened, but it didn’t because of him and not her. Her stomach turned.
She’d had no expectations for this weekend. If anything, she thought that she would watch him graduate and get out of there as soon as possible. At best, she hoped that they could get their friendship back on track. Even that had seemed unrealistic after what they’d been through. Now, here she was, thinking that she had somehow made it worse and she didn’t even know how.
She brushed a hand under her eyes and followed after him. She found him in the kitchen, brewing coffee. “Come on, Lucas. We should talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” he said with his back to her.
“I thought you wanted to fix this. I was dragged here for your graduation. You can at least have the decency to explain to me what happened last night. I don’t want to walk away this weekend with us on bad terms. We’ve been friends for so long.”
Lucas whipped around. “We’re not friends!” he roared.
Savannah took a shocked step backward.
“We haven’t been friends for years, Savi! We grew up together and have been one step away from fucking since high school. That’s what we are,” he spat. “We went different ways. You chose North Carolina. I chose Vanderbilt. We come together every summer, get fucked up, and fuck. You feel guilty about it. You get pissed at me. You blame me. But this is what we are. I don’t know when you’re going to see that.”
She swallowed hard. “Fuck you, Lucas.”
“Yeah, I probably should have. At least you’d have a real reason to feel guilty when you run back to him. Again.”
“God, I don’t even know why I bother.” She shook her head. “You’ve led me on for years with your bullshit. I should have seen through you long ago.”
“Whatever lie you have to tell yourself.”
“Lie?” she nearly shrieked.
“Who led who on, Savi? You dated every other guy in high school other than me.”
“So, what? You’re punishing me for not fucking you in high school?”
“I’m not fucking punishing you. I’m telling you the truth you don’t want to hear.” He stepped forward until they were nearly touching. His breath hot on her face. “When you’re drunk, all you want is me inside you, and when you’re sober, all you do is try to convince yourself that isn’t true.”
Savannah narrowed her eyes. “You’re full of shit.”
“So, if you want to fuck right now, then I’m all for it. Otherwise, get out of my face,” he snarled.
“I hate you.”
“Good.”
“I’m leaving!”
“Even better.”
Savannah wanted to scream as she stalked back to the room she’d been staying in. She threw all of her stuff back into her suitcase and hurtled toward the door. “Thanks for proving time and time again why we never fucking work.”
“Right back at you, babe.”
She glared at him once more before walking through the front door and slamming it in his douchebag face.
6
Early Bird Gets the Worm
Savannah took a deep breath and then turned the key in the lock. Before the door was all the way open, she could see Easton had jumped up from where he was seated on the couch among several stacks of papers. A rerun of West Wing was playing in the background. His hair was mussed, as if he’d been running his fingers through it all afternoon. He had two days’ worth of growth along his jawline and circles under his eyes. Still, he looked like home.
“Savannah?”
“Hey,” she said, pushing her suitcase into the living room.
“You’re not supposed to be home until tomorrow.”
“I know. I changed my flight.” She shut the door behind her and dropped her purse on the floor. “I never should have left. I missed you.”
She crossed the small room and threw her arms around his neck. He pulled her close, breathing in her scent. This was what she needed. Just to feel his arms holding her and their hearts beating as one.
“I missed you too,” he murmured against her cheek.
“I’m sorry about this weekend, Easton,” her voice broke.
She was still so upset about Lucas and their fight. So mad that she’d let him get under her skin. Why should he have that kind of power? She should have been here with Easton, where she was happy. Not being stupid with Lucas.
He wasn’t wrong. They were constantly on a pr
ecipice that felt precarious at best. Like she was going to free fall at every turn. And it wasn’t good for her. It never had been. This, this right here, was what she wanted.
“Shh,” Easton said. “You don’t have anything to apologize for.”
“You didn’t want me to go. We both knew it wasn’t a good idea, and I did it anyway.”
He brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. “That wasn’t you. That was your parents. You can’t blame yourself.”
“Yeah, but then the party and the pictures. I know it looked bad.”
“That did look bad,” he agreed. “I can admit I was worried. And I wish you had just been honest with me about going.”
“I know. I should have. I don’t know why I didn’t tell you, and I definitely didn’t think I’d drink that much.”
“Look, if nothing happened and you just had a lot to drink, then it doesn’t matter. Okay?” he said, his voice so earnest.
There was so much she wanted to say to that. How guilty she felt. How she should have the blame. And it did matter. The more she thought about last night, the more pieces seemed to filter through her brain. Lucas had said nothing had happened, but…had it? Why did she remember asking if he was scared? And what did that mean?
The fact that she didn’t know made it worse. Because…she could have done anything with him and not know. That wasn’t right. Let alone healthy. It certainly wasn’t how she wanted her relationship with Easton to be. She’d flip her shit if it were the other way around. So, why was it any different when it came to her and Lucas?
It wasn’t any different. Lucas had been coming between them long enough. She needed to keep that door closed. For good.
“I know, but…” she began.
“It’s behind us,” he insisted. “Let’s just move forward. That’s what this move was about, right?”
“Right,” she whispered.
His lips landed on hers, soft and inviting. A gentle coax to open her mouth and let him in. Let him back into her heart.
She leaned into him, feeling the gentle caress and the ease with which she landed in his arms again. His strong tennis arms that circled her, claimed her.