A stream of messages pinged one after the other. Billy’s face grew more rigid, and our silence more intense, with each melodic beep until I felt forced to say something.
‘It’s a friend I’ve made.’
Billy arched an eyebrow. ‘You’ve made a friend?’
‘Yes. He wants to catch up in the city tonight.’
Billy stepped forward until he was almost pressed up against my chest, looking down at me with laser beams. ‘Tell me, Lucy. When did you meet this he?’
‘A few weeks ago at Railway Square.’
I was furious with myself for responding. Who the fuck was Billy? Why did he think he had the right to interrogate me?
My face turned to stone. ‘I like hanging out with him. He isn’t an asshole.’
Billy’s jaw clenched, and he stepped back. ‘And you think it’s safe for you to go into the city on your own? No ID, no clue where you’re going, to hang out with some random you met at Railway Square?’
Out of nowhere, my heart began drumming to a rhythm I’d never felt before. My arm twitched with an urge to clutch at the new sensation tightening around my chest. But I didn’t move.
‘I’m going,’ I said adamantly.
‘Fine. But I’m going with you.’
Turning away, Billy walked to his room and slammed the door. I slumped onto the couch, clutching onto my phone. Onto Billy’s phone. The phone I was borrowing for another week.
I read the four messages Tyler had sent me.
You’re coming yeah?
Don’t be late.
Don’t be late PLEASE.
My shout for dinner by the way. Figured you’ll need me to.
My eyes glazed. I hated that damn word. Need.
The phone rang in my hands, scaring the crap out of me. On seeing Tyler’s number flash on the screen, I swiped to answer it quickly, then hurried into the laundry and closed the door behind me.
‘You haven’t replied,’ Tyler said.
‘I was busy cleaning.’
‘You were cleaning the shelter?’
‘Something like that.’
‘If I had my car, I would’ve picked you up tonight.’
I considered telling him that Billy was joining us but decided against it.
‘I don’t mind catching the train.’
‘I’ll see you at five. Don’t be late.’ Pausing a beat, Tyler corrected himself. ‘Don’t be late, please.’
‘I won’t.’
With that, the call ended.
Reaching into my back pocket, I pulled out the appointment cards Lillian had given me, seeing she’d written a note on one of them.
I’ll take you this time so you won’t get lost :)
I tucked the cards back into my pocket and pulled out the ring. I hovered the gold band at the tip of my left ring finger. Holding my breath, I began to slip it on, just to see if it would fit. My pulse quickened.
And then my heart froze.
The ring fitted perfectly on my long, slender finger.
Yanking it off, I shoved it into my pocket. My heart pounded like a drunken drummer who’d lost the rhythm of the song he was playing. Flattening my palm against my chest, I closed my eyes and felt each erratic beat.
Surely, it wouldn’t be long.
I had one week until Billy returned to work.
Please, heart, don’t take too long.
14
Him
I’d heard Lucy’s shower running for much longer than it usually did, and I imagined she was paying particular attention to herself, making sure she’d look her best to see Tyler. Now that she walked out of her bedroom looking like that, with perfectly applied black eyeliner and glossy pink lips, black jeans, and a skin-hugging black tank that contoured around her small, perky tits, I knew it for sure.
I shook my head. Why the fuck did I care that she wanted to look good for Tyler?
The drive into the city was as quiet as it was chaotic. Without even having met him, I already hated this Tyler guy for organizing dinner at five p.m. on a Friday in the city. I parked as close as I could get, and we walked in silence to Smithes restaurant. A youngish guy stood out the front. From his dick-tight black jeans, oversized band t-shirt, and overgrown dirty-blond hair, I knew it was him. Lucy strolled beside me, her expression tight, and her chest rising and falling in a steady but quickened rhythm.
Tyler spotted Lucy. His lips rose into the kind of crooked smile that made my skin crawl. Lucy sped up as she made her way toward him. I lagged and just watched. They were carbon copies of each other—black everything, quiet voices, crooked, uncommitted smiles.
‘You’re late.’ It was the first thing Tyler said when he saw her.
‘That’s what happens when you make plans in the city during peak hour.’
Tyler reached his hand toward Lucy’s face. With unnerving comfort, he brushed his fingers down the length of her cheek and tucked her hair gently behind her ear, making me need to clamp my teeth together.
That’s when Tyler saw me.
His pale-blue eyes darkened. Flicking uncertain glances between Lucy and me, he finally nudged his chin in my direction but spoke to her. ‘You brought a date, did you? Or is he a chaperone from the shelter?’
So, she hadn’t told him she was living with me. Alone.
Lucy’s voice faded into the traffic, and I only just heard her reply. ‘That’s Billy. Don’t worry about him. He has to watch out for me. He’s been instructed to.’
I clamped my teeth down harder, tightening my jaw. That’s right. That’s all I was—her fucking babysitter.
Tyler took hold of her arm. No, he didn’t do that. He clutched his fingers around her wrist like he owned her. As if he feared she’d suddenly decide she didn’t want to have dinner with him anymore and run away. I entered the restaurant behind them, and Tyler chose a table in the back corner, sitting Lucy down beside him. The waitress approached the instant my ass touched the seat, and Tyler ordered himself and Lucy a chocolate milkshake each without asking Lucy what she wanted. I didn’t order anything.
He looked across the table at me. ‘Do you chaperone all the girls at the shelter, Billy?’
I wanted to punch the kink out of his smug smile.
‘Only the ones that are pursued by strange guys.’
His cheek twitched.
Lucy didn’t say a word.
The next hour unfolded without me speaking. Tyler ordered burgers and fries for himself and Lucy, and they sat turned in to each other, eating, laughing, and talking bullshit. They conversed without effort like they’d had the same conversation a million times before.
Neither of them looked at me once. I sat at the other side of the table like an ornamental statue, bored shitless, and dying to leave.
When they’d finished eating and after the waitress had cleared the table, Lucy nodded her head toward Tyler’s t-shirt. ‘Led Zeppelin isn’t a metal band,’ she said.
Tyler released a cocky laugh. ‘Let’s not start that argument. Everyone knows the jury’s out on that one.’
Lucy didn’t miss a beat. ‘Zeppelin is not a metal band.’
Arching an eyebrow, Tyler smirked. ‘Seriously? You can’t deny the generations of metal guitarists who worship Jimmy Page. But I’m not gonna get into this again. Not now, anyway.’
The conversation went right over my head, landing somewhere in the back alley. But the glimmer in Lucy’s eyes and the kick to her subtle smile told me she was right in her element.
‘I don’t doubt that,’ she continued. ‘But Zeppelin is not metal, whichever way you look at it. They’re progressive rock.’
Tyler flung his head back, something between a growl and a laugh blowing out of his mouth. ‘Don’t even go there!’
Lucy laughed at Tyler’s reaction. A proper laugh—one that shook her body, making her shoulders bounce. Their eyes connected, and Tyler’s expression shifted from mocking to serious. He leaned toward her and cupped her face, confidently, with a sense of ownership.
Tyler locked her in with a commanding stare. ‘Come back to my place, and I’ll teach you a thing or two.’
Lucy tried to avert her gaze, but Tyler tilted her face so she couldn’t, so her eyes remained locked with his.
‘Teach me what?’ she whispered.
‘Teach you about music. Fuck, I’ll teach you whatever you want me to.’
Impulsively, I flicked out my left leg from under the table, unintentionally kicking Tyler’s shin with my brace. He jerked back and swore, giving me a death stare.
Lucy’s shoulders sank inwards. Suddenly, she looked exactly the way she had on the first day Lillian brought her to my place. I hadn’t noticed it until this moment, but she’d been standing taller and talking louder around me lately. And now, in front of him, she’d changed again.
‘When are you heading back home?’ she whispered to Tyler.
‘As soon as I can. The quicker I can get outta this city, the better. I just have to finalize some shit first.’ He sucked down the last gulp of his second milkshake. ‘Honestly, I don’t know how you’ve handled livin’ here.’
For the first time all night, I felt compelled to say something. ‘Where are you from?’ I asked Tyler.
He replied through a strained throat. ‘North somewhere.’
‘And how much do you know about Sydney?’
‘I know that the bigger the city, the bigger the asshole.’ He smirked. ‘That’s all I need to know.’
I turned to Lucy, knowing that if I looked at his face for one more second, I’d smash my fist through it. ‘You ready to go?’
She didn’t respond, her eyes on the table, and her expression distant.
‘Lucy …’ I tried again.
Tyler stiffened, and I felt him burning a hole through me with his glare.
‘Hey! Lucy!’ I blurted more aggressively.
She snapped back from wherever she’d disappeared to. ‘I just need to go toilet first,’ she said.
I stayed opposite Tyler at the table.
Fixing his lips into a fake smile, he leaned back against his padded seat. ‘She doesn’t live in a shelter, does she?’
‘No.’
He nodded. ‘She lives with you?’
My muscles tightened. The kink in his smile made me insane. ‘Yep.’
‘Tell me this, how is it that a woman who knew no one in this city ended up living with you?’
I wasn’t playing his game.
‘You’ll need to ask Lucy that.’
His expression hardened. ‘That isn’t her name.’
I shrugged. ‘That’s what she wanted me to call her.’
Tyler’s lip twitched. Leaning forward onto the table, he fixed a casual smile at me. ‘You fucked her yet?’
My breath got stuck between my lungs and my throat. I locked my jaw, heat sweeping through my body like wildfire.
‘I’ll tell you something about girls like her,’ he continued when I didn’t reply. ‘They’ll only let you take them from behind. Make it rough. Fuck her until her brains hit the bedhead. And as a special tip, pull her hair. Really.Fucking.Hard. That’ll get her screaming.’ He laughed. ‘That’s what I plan to do to her anyway … that is, if I haven’t already.’
My stomach clenched as tightly as my fists, and pure acid ran through my veins, leaving me seething from a rage I couldn’t expel. Lucy returned from the bathroom, and without bothering to ask if she was ready to leave, I reached for my keys and stood.
‘Let’s go,’ I snapped.
Tyler leaped from his seat and clutched her arm. Seeing him touch her now made me wild.
‘You don’t have to go with him,’ he said to her. ‘I’ll make sure you get home safely.’
Lucy flicked hesitant glances between Tyler and me—her chest performing its usual erratic rise and fall. I sliced her a stone-like glare. If she decided to go with him, I wouldn’t stop her. But there was no way in hell I’d allow her to keep living with me.
Lucy’s gaze landed on me, and she didn’t blink. The intensity between us grew until I saw Tyler tighten his grip around her arm.
I didn’t hear what she said to Tyler then, her voice too quiet over the drone of the restaurant, but whatever it was made Tyler’s blue eyes turn black. He released her arm, and leaning forward, he kissed her cheek and whispered something in her ear before striding out the front door.
Without a word, I charged from the restaurant to my car. Dropping into the driver’s seat, I clutched the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. Lucy opened the passenger door and slid in beside me, and I sped away from the curb. The only sound on the drive home was my fire-filled breath. But as we approached Gabby’s café, my anger boiled over, and I couldn’t remain silent anymore.
‘You sure know how to pick ’em,’ I snapped.
‘I never asked you to join us.’
‘What the hell does that have to do with anything? Tyler’s an asshole. Do yourself a favor and stay clear of him.’
‘Coming from you? That’s something,’ she said bluntly.
‘Yeah, I’m an asshole. But not like him. He’s—’
‘He’s the only friend I have,’ she said firmly, cutting in.
Her words tasted like charcoal. Rounding the corner into my street, I pressed my foot to the pedal, speeding toward home.
‘You don’t need friends like that.’
I swung into my driveway and killed the ignition.
Lucy unclipped her seat belt and spun around to face me. ‘What I don’t need is an asshole like you telling me who to keep as friends.’
My throat burned. I lowered my voice, and my words came out like fire. ‘Fine. You do whatever the fuck you want. But if you’re stupid enough to spread your legs for him, don’t you dare do it in this house.’
Yanking my car door open, I jumped out and slammed it shut. I stormed into the house, slamming my bedroom door shut behind me. I paced like a trapped animal gone insane. I was wild, and I needed to calm the hell down.
I pulled off my clothes, leaving on nothing but my boxers, and jumped onto the bed.
Why the hell did I care if Lucy wanted to keep seeing him? Good fucking riddance to her. She’d be gone once I returned to work anyway.
My bedroom door burst open, and Lucy charged in, her cheeks flushed bright red, and her fists clenched into tight balls. I opened my mouth to kick her out, but she exploded before I got a chance.
‘Firstly, who I sleep with is none of your business! And secondly, how dare you assume I’d ever bring someone into Lillian’s bed! What kind of person do you think I am!’
I would’ve retaliated, except I was too distracted with her ragged breathing.
She caught each breath and hung on to it as if it could be her last. Like she was suffocating even though she drew in air. She stood tall, but I could see her struggling to keep her body up. A chill ran down my spine, cooling my raging heat, and making me sick with uneasiness.
Cautiously, I stood from the bed.
Lucy’s strangled breath filled the silence. I edged toward her, not dropping my gaze once, feeling the struggle of every desperate gasp.
‘Why are you breathing like that?’
She didn’t respond, and even though I knew she wouldn’t tell me, I asked again.
‘Lucy, why are you breathing like that?’
I stood so close; her chest grazed mine every time she inhaled. She’d changed since coming home, out of her black uniform and into a white tank and plain cotton underwear.
‘Touch me,’ she said.
I swallowed hard. ‘Touch you? Where?’
‘Anywhere.’
This time, I couldn’t tell if it was my heart pounding or hers. I cupped the base of her neck, sliding my hand up until her black hair fell through my fingers. Closing her eyes, she gently parted her lips. A moan drifted from her mouth, and I sucked it in, allowing it to tease every fiber in my body. Her nipples puckered at my touch
.
Reaching out, she caressed her fingers along my stomach, up to where my hair peppered between my ribcage. My dick hardened, barely contained by my boxers, and I wanted to break all my rules. I wanted her sweet perky nipples in my mouth. I wanted to be inside her.
And yet, somewhere, a fiber of self-restraint remained.
I stepped away and dropped onto my bed, leaving Lucy by my bedroom door. She looked deflated—battered—like she’d been trampled by a stampede of elephants and left to get up on her own. Neither one of us blinked. I expected her to leave. Part of me desperately hoped that she would. But she didn’t.
With hesitant steps, she walked toward me and climbed into the bed. Resting her body against mine, she mumbled something that sounded like touch against my skin. She wanted me to touch her. But if I did, I wouldn’t stop until I had her—fully.
Her hands roamed freely over my body. My neck, my belly button, the top of my groin. Her touch was electric.
‘Lucy …’ I whispered.
She didn’t stop, nor did she look up. Instead, she pressed her lips against my ribcage, planting long, sensual kisses on my chest, only stopping to study my tattoo. She kissed each stroke and curve, taking her time before she moved her lips to my neck, teasing me as she edged across my jaw and toward my mouth.
Her lips grazed mine, so soft and tender, and I couldn’t hold off any longer. Cupping the back of her head, I slammed her mouth to mine. She released a guttural moan as I claimed her tongue with an urgency I couldn’t control. Pulling down my boxers, she slid on top of me, knees spread over my body. She rubbed herself on me, my dick pushing into the thin fabric of her drenched underwear.
I sucked on her neck, tasting mouthfuls of her delicate skin, and slipped my hands under her tank. Her soft whimpers sent me insane, each cry begging me to touch more of her, and I clutched at her back, savoring her warmth against my fingertips.
She stopped to open the drawer of my bedside table.
Lucy reached for a condom as if she’d known where I kept them. I groaned when she clutched my dick in her hands, and with practiced ease, she slipped the condom onto me. It had been so long since I’d had sex that the gentle tugging of her hands nearly made me come.
Call me Lucy: An Enemies to Lovers romance Page 13