Catching Lucy

by Terri Anne Browning

  He dropped his hands and took another step back. I tried not to notice how my cheeks tingled where he had touched me. In the last few months he’d touched me often, but always in an innocent you’re-my-best-friend-so-this-is-okay kind of way. “Fuck, I’m sorry, Lu. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “You didn’t. It takes a lot more than my best friend standing up for me to scare me. You know that.” I reached for his left hand and entwined our fingers. “Let’s go to your office. Come on before Marcus calls my dad and makes me leave.”

  For the rest of the night we sat on the little sofa in his office and just talked. I had wanted to follow after Kin but she’d texted me to let me know that she was home by the time I was confident that Harris was safe to be left alone without killing Jace. By the time I really did have to leave, he was laughing. Jace had texted him and I was sure they were still friends. Guys were weird like that.

  That had been two weeks ago and Jace and Harris were back to being best buddies again. Last week had been Thanksgiving and Kin hadn’t come with me this week and I hadn’t figured she would tonight either, but when I’d told her that I was having a girls’ night out with my mom, Aunt Emmie and my sister Lana, she’d decided to come along. I was pretty sure it had been the lesser of two evils.

  Her dad was home from shooting on location in Canada and her step-monster, as she called Jillian, wanted the whole family to go to some fundraising event where she was expected to kiss a lot of ass. Chancing seeing Jace was a hell of a better option in my opinion. With my family there we would make sure that Jace or anyone else didn’t get within shouting distance to her, let alone touching.

  I sat at the bar on the second floor with Kin on my left, Lana to my right and Mom and Aunt Emmie right behind Kin. Because my sister was pregnant—again, seriously she seemed to stay pregnant—she wasn’t drinking, so neither was my mom and aunt. Nate had spent the first hour we’d been there flirting with me and making sure that our glasses of soda never got below half full.

  If I were being honest I would have to say that I enjoyed Nate’s flirting. What girl doesn’t like having a hot guy hitting on them? I didn’t, however, like the way my family teased me about it. Lana was the worst, because as my biological sister and the person who had spent the first four years of my life changing my diaper and potty training me, she decided she had the right to make me blush now.

  “I should tell Jesse. He needs to know that you have a twenty-something bartender trying to get into your pants,” Lana teased as she lifted her cellphone and pulled up my dad’s name. “Oh, wait. Maybe I should tell Drake first.”

  “Mom!” I didn’t care that it came out sounding like a whine. I didn’t want my sister getting my dad all hyper and finding yet another reason to try and keep me from coming to First Bass so much.

  Mom and Aunt Emmie reached around me for Lana’s phone. “No texting, especially my husband or yours,” Mom scolded. “You start talking to Drake and our whole night is ruined because he’s going to make you come home and try to knock you up again.”

  “Yeah, Lana.” Aunt Emmie gave Lana’s rounded stomach a disgusted glare. “Keep your legs closed for a little while, will you? This is getting ridiculous.”

  Lana flipped them both off but she was grinning as she lifted her glass of ginger ale to her lips. “If it keeps a grin on my man’s face, I’ll pop out ten more of these little demon babies.”

  I turned to Kin and pretended to gag on my finger, making her giggle. Truthfully I was happy for my sister and her husband. No one, and I mean no one, deserved to be happy more than my brother-in-law. When we had first met the members of Demon’s Wings, Drake’s soul had been lost in the madness of his past and his endless bottles of Jack Daniels. Then he’d married my sister and they’d had my first niece, Neveah. I haven’t seen that lost soul look in his blue-gray eyes since.

  “Boss wants to know if you want to grab a bite to eat later,” Nate said as he set a fresh glass of soda in front of me.

  I picked up the glass and took a small sip, noticing that Nate’s smile wasn’t as big as it had been earlier. “What else did Boss say?” I inquired, leaning forward against the bar. Harris must have said something to make Nate act like this. He didn’t like it when I sat and talked to the hot bartender for very long. I always got the cold shoulder for at least a few hours when he saw me flirting with him. Secretly I loved that Harris hated me talking to Nate. It was like he was jealous or something and that made me go all kinds of gooey in places that I had no business going gooey over my best friend.

  Nate let out a small, humorless laugh. “Wanted to know if I wanted a pink slip ‘cause that was what I was gonna get if I kept making you blush.” He winked and stepped back. “I don’t know, Lucy. That pink slip might be worth it if I could make you blush again.”

  I heard Lana snicker and aimed a kick at her leg without sparing her a glance. The kick didn’t land, as I figured it wouldn’t—I didn’t want to actually hurt my pregnant sister, of course. “Don’t worry about the pink slip, Nate.” I might like Harris’s reaction to my harmless flirting with Nate, but I wasn’t going to let it escalate to Nate losing his job. I took a few steps back and glanced at the four women I had been having a good time with tonight. “Excuse me while I go dick-punch my friend. Shouldn’t take longer than a few minutes.”

  Aunt Emmie gave me an approving grin. “I’ve taught you well, little one.”

  “Excuse me?” Lana put her hands on her hips and frowned at Aunt Emmie. “I was the one who taught her first. She wouldn’t be half as sassy if it weren’t for me.”

  My honorary aunt rolled her big green eyes. “Yeah, that isn’t a good thing, Lana.”

  Mom stepped forward, a small grin teasing at her lips. “Go, but don’t hurt him too badly. Your dad isn’t going to like it if he has to come bail you out of jail for aggravated assault.” Her forehead scrunched up and then she laughed when both Lana and Aunt Emmie gave her a look that said she was crazy.

  Who was she kidding? My dad would have been all too happy to bail me out of jail for aggravated assault on Harris or any other man on the planet. I didn’t know why he was like that, though. He knew that Harris and I were just friends and he shouldn’t have an issue with a girl and guy being friends. Aunt Emmie was his best friend, after all.

  “Just don’t hurt him, Lu.”

  I didn’t reply as I turned around and headed for the private elevator on the other side of the second floor. I knew the secret code that operated the elevator and punched it in. The doors opened and I stepped in, and less than ten seconds later they opened right into Harris’s office.

  “What’s the matter with you?” I demanded as I stepped off. “Do you have a problem with…?” I broke off when my eyes landed on Harris’s desk. My irritation at my best friend evaporated and something entirely different had my heart feeling like it was being ripped from my chest as I focused on the scene before me.

  His dark head snapped up and he pushed the chick off his lap. She landed on the floor with a loud yelp and he wiped his mouth as if he couldn’t stand the taste that was on his lips. I swallowed hard and turned my gaze on the girl getting to her feet.

  Blonde hair, nice chest, overly skinny, and lots of makeup. I wouldn’t say that she was pretty, but she wasn’t anywhere near ugly. I didn’t recognize her and I honestly didn’t want to know who she was. The jealousy and hurt that were eating at my soul like a freaking acid didn’t allow for much more than an overwhelming hate of this chick. A jealousy and hurt that I wasn’t allowed to feel because Harris and I were just friends.

  Fucking hell.

  “You should put a sock or something on the door if you’re going to be busy in here,” I tried to joke, but my stupid voice cracked and I felt tears sting my eyes. Damn, damn, and double damn.

  This was why I didn’t want to get close to Harris again. Right there, in that very instant I regretted letting him back into my life.

  He’d been so good at keeping his hookups aw
ay from me. I hadn’t seen him with one other girl since we’d started hanging out regularly back in September. I hadn’t even heard him and Jace talking about anyone who he might have been interested in. I’d been happily oblivious to his sex life only to have it shoved in my face and down my throat right then and there.

  It sucked being in love with your best friend when you knew that it could never be more than friendship. Hadn’t I told myself that just a few months ago? Hadn’t I promised myself that I wasn’t going to break my heart on this guy?

  Too late.

  Chapter 8

  Harris

  I hadn’t been able to leave the office all night. Between calls from suppliers, staff call-ins because of some freaking virus going around and having to find replacements, on top of paperwork that I’d let go the week before so that I could spend Thanksgiving with my family, I felt almost suffocated in what I’d once called my safe haven within First Bass.

  On top of being smothered in work I’d been forced to watch my best bartender flirting with the one girl I wasn’t supposed to get jealous over on the security feed linked to my phone. I didn’t normally watch the live feed unless I knew there could be a problem, but Lucy had told me that she was having a girls’ night out with her sister, aunt, mom, and Kin.

  It felt like I hadn’t seen her in weeks, when I’d just seen her two nights ago. This thing I had for her, this love that felt like it was eating at my goddamn soul, was crippling me from the inside out. I was quickly giving up the fight to keep away from her and after nearly taking my friend’s head off two weeks before, I’d realized that it was time to act on my feelings before I actually hurt someone.

  I wasn’t even going to think about what had happened on Halloween night when she and Kin had shown up at First Bass dressed as two of the sexiest cops I’d ever seen in my freaking life.

  Shit.

  Scrubbing my hands over my face and stabbing my hands through my hair I tried to block out images of that night but they refused to be repressed. My body woke up at the memories, making me bite back a curse. Next year I was going to outlaw sexy outfits, especially on hot little goddesses that fucking owned me.

  “Fucking hell,” Jace growled from beside me.

  We were sitting in a corner on the second floor, people watching. I couldn’t remember whose idea it had been to have a damn costume party but I was already bored with the entire thing tonight. The guys were all dressed as zombies, so freaking original. The chicks were all something sexy and normally I would have been watching them more closely, deciding which one I would be taking home and stripping what little clothes she was wearing off.

  So far I’d seen three barely-dressed angels, one of which was an actual angel if you considered the fact she was a Victoria’s Secret angel. I’d lost count of the sexy nurses, and the leather-bound dominatrix chicks had left Jace biting his knuckles as he watched them pass us. I’d barely given any of them a quick glance. I was definitely not feeling this tonight.

  Fuck.

  I hadn’t been feeling any of this shit since Lucy had come back into my life. When I’d imagined having Lucy’s friendship back I’d thought things would have gone back to the way they were when we were kids. I hadn’t realized that everything would be so different, so intense for me. I’d given up on fighting how I felt for her. I loved that girl and there was no denying that.

  It was everything else that I needed to keep in check. The way my body would catch fire if she got too close. I hadn’t been interested in any other chick in weeks. My body was going on strike, it seemed. If we couldn’t have Lucy, we didn’t want anyone.

  “What now?” I lifted a brow at my friend when he glared at something over my shoulder, his eyes about to bug out of his head. “She that hot, man?”

  Jace shook his head as if to clear it and lifted his chin at something over my shoulder. “That’s gonna be a problem, bro. Better contain it before things get crazy and you have an enraged Demon on your hands.”

  Confused, I turned around to find five guys surrounding two sexy cops. Even with their backs to us I knew exactly who they were. There was no denying it from the way my dick suddenly thickened and bit into the zipper on my jeans.

  With her hair straightened, it fell halfway down her back. The top she wore didn’t cover more than her chest and the shorts she wore with the heavy-looking cop belt hung low on her hips and ended just under the curves of her ass. Legs in ripped black stockings and leather knee-high boots that had a goddamn five-inch heel on them made my dick throb to have them wrapped around my waist.

  Beside her stood Kin, but I didn’t even give her a second glance before I was out of my seat and pushing through the crowd to get to Lucy. A quick glance behind the girls told me that Marcus was on high alert, but for now he was keeping his distance. He knew my security staff would watch over his charge, but this was one time I wished he’d been glued to her instead of giving her a little independence.

  One of the five guys who surrounded the girls was getting a little ballsy by the time I reached them. He was standing way too fucking close and the way he was looking down Lucy’s half-buttoned top made me want to slam my fist into his face. As if he felt my icy glare, the guy lifted his head and met my gaze. Recognition filled his eyes a second before he realized that I was headed right for him and his death warrant was already being considered in my mind.

  The guy took two quick steps back and caused Lucy to frown and lift her head. When those nearly black eyes met mine, she grinned and stepped forward to hug me. I pulled her tight against me, her arms around me acting like a natural calming agent as my rage started to cool down.

  “I’ve been looking for you,” she murmured as she stepped back and did a little twirl. “You like?”

  I gritted my teeth before giving her the grin I knew she’d been expecting. “How the fuck did you get out of the house in that, Lu? Jesse Thornton is going to kill me dead if he finds out you’re dressed like that in my club.”

  “Kin helped me sneak out. As far as Daddy knows I’m dressed like a nun.” She grinned and hugged me again, her arms staying around me this time. “Please, can we sit down? I hate these damn boots. My feet are killing me.”

  I led her and Kin back to the couch where I’d left Jace. The four of us sat there all night, with Kin ignoring Jace and Jace doing everything he possibly could to get a reaction out of the redhead. I kept my attention focused on Lucy, taking her shoes off and messaging her feet for hours while everyone around us partied.

  I had more fun that Halloween night than I’d had the year before when my frat had had a topless party. There had been two hundred chicks walking around with their tits bouncing free. I’d hooked up with three different girls that night. Yet, this year, with Lucy beside me and her feet in my hands, I’d had ten times as much fun.

  Yeah, I was so fucked.

  I was tired of fighting what I felt for her and I’d decided that I wasn’t going to anymore. Now all I had to do was wait. Wait until the 2nd of January, which was a just a little over a month away. Lucy would be eighteen then and I wouldn’t feel like a fucking sleazebag for wanting my best friend.

  A month.

  Shit.

  A. God. Damn. Month.

  I raked my fingers through my hair and groaned. A fucking month. How was I going to survive a goddamn month when all I wanted to do was grab that girl and kiss her every time I saw her?

  There was a light tap on my door and I lifted my head in hopes that it was Lucy. I’d called up to tell Nate that if I saw him flirting with her again, if I saw her fucking blush one more time, I was going to give him his walking papers and then beat the mortal hell out of him. I’d done it in hopes of making the guy stop driving me mental from watching him flirt and make her giggle—because even though I hadn’t heard her on the security feed I knew she was fucking giggling—but I’d also done it knowing that Lucy would find out and come hunting for me.

  Yeah, I was that fucking desperate to see her that I was willin
g to face her wrath. I was so screwed.

  “Yeah,” I called out and the door opened enough to let in a long-legged blonde. I bit back a groan. Fuck. I should have known better. Lucy would have come storming in here, not have knocked so meekly. I’d been aching to see her. This girl? I could have lived a peaceful hundred years without seeing her ever again.

  Tessa smiled flirtingly as she walked into my office. Dressed for a night out partying, she was nice to look at. If you went for half naked blonde chicks who were skin and bones and had a coke problem. I didn’t. I didn’t go for much of anything these days unless it was crazy curly brunettes with a body made for sin.

  I had to see Tessa on a regular basis since Jenna was still in rehab and wanted her girlfriend to stay at our apartment. For the most part I tried to avoid her. If I wasn’t at the club I was with Jace or Lucy. The only time I went home was to sleep, and sometimes I just crashed at Jace’s so that I didn’t have to deal with the chick waiting for me at home.

  And she was waiting. Since Jenna had said that she was going to spend a little longer in rehab working more on herself—which I was happy for because I felt the longer she was in there the better her chances of a full recovery—Tessa had been trying to get me to notice her.

  It had started out as simple things that had taken me a while to catch on to. Leaving her bra in odd places that she knew I would see it. Then walking around the apartment in less and less clothes. She’d started calling me a little more often when it had been a rare thing to get a call from her at all before Jenna had left. Then I’d come home one night and she’d been sitting on the couch naked. I’d turned around and walked right back out, thankful that Jace and one of his bandmates had been able to find an apartment to share in the same building as me.

  I still hadn’t really caught on, thought it was just her getting back on the coke. I hadn’t wanted to talk to Jenna about it, afraid that she would get set back in her recovery if I upset her right then. But I’d decided that I was going to tell Jenna Tessa needed to go when she got home.