Lucas led her to a VIP level that overlooked the dance floor. There was a bodyguard that stood next to one roped off area complete with three low chairs formatted like a square without a top. There was a low glass coffee table and a small fridge next to the main couch black in color probably filled with refrigerated snacks and alcohol.
"Welcome, Mr. Cruz," the bouncer said, unlocking the velvet rope in order to allow the couple to walk through. "We haven't seen you in a while."
"Business, Bruce," he replied with a grin. His hand released Avery's and found the small of her back as he eased her into the couch next to him. "This is Avery Montgomery. Avery, this is Bruce."
Avery leaned over and shook his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Bruce," she said with a smile.
"And you as well," he said with a genuine smile. "If you need anything at all, please ask."
Avery settled in her seat and watched the dancing take place. Lucas sat next to her, close enough that their sides touched. Her entire body was magnetized but instead of dwelling on that unfamiliar feeling, she forced herself to relax... Until she didn't have to. The tension slowly left her body until she was settled and without question, a waitress in a cocktail dress brought Lucas a bourbon.
"Would you like anything?" she asked with a friendly smile.
Avery shook her head. "No thank you," she said, "but thank you for asking."
After a moment of surprisingly comfortable silence had passed, Lucas leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and cocked his head to Avery. He didn't say anything, simply just looked at her. She wasn't afraid or tense or uncomfortable. In fact, she smiles back at him, an easy gesture that came to her without much thought. This wasn't bad. This wasn't weird.
Without warning, he placed his hand on her bare thigh. Goosebumps shot up to the sky but she didn't move it. Her heart beat increased, her pulse echoed in her ears. But his hand was warm, surprisingly rough. Like he used them for other things than signing contracts and shaking hands. They glided up her thigh but the sight of it on her, the feel of it on her, caused something to drum in her pelvis, a painful pleasurable throb.
It felt right.
She swallowed. This was going to be a long night.
9
They pulled up to her driveway a few hours later. Lucas was wrong in his prediction - there was no dancing. In fact, there was no touching between them save for his hand on her thigh. In fact, he seemed to find any excuse to touch her whether it was to hold her hand, touch her back, hold her thigh. She didn't feel uncomfortable anymore. In fact, she didn't mind the touching the way she thought she might.
He turned off his lights and parked the car but left the engine running. He turned his torso toward her and curled a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
"I can't believe you're this beautiful," he said, and the crazy thing was, he sounded like he genuinely meant it. "Your fiancé has no idea what he has."
Avery wasn't sure what to say. He constantly rendered her speechless. But she continued to stare at him, continued to look at him with big eyes, unable to look away.
"I'm going to kiss you right now," he murmured.
She started to nod but it didn't matter because his hand cupped her cheek and he pulled her face to his until their lips met like two pieces of a puzzle and Avery saw nothing but fireworks and felt nothing but static electricity.
---
When she walked through her front door, she nearly toppled over.
"R-Rick!" Avery exclaimed. Her face turned red. Why was her face so red? "What are you doing here?" She tried to shut the door as quickly as possible so Rick wouldn't see Lucas pulling away from her door. Thank goodness she had been adamant that he did not walk her to her door. She didn't want to think about what would have happened had Rick caught her spending time with Lucas outside of business.
More than that, he almost caught them kissing.
She had kissed Lucas Cruz. Well, technically, he kissed her. And it was warm and tender and soft and perfect. She couldn’t walk straight. She couldn’t think. It was difficult to breathe.
She had never been kissed that way before, never had a reaction to a kiss like that before, and it scared her. It scared her because she didn’t know what it meant – if it meant anything at all.
Which it didn’t.
It couldn’t.
The problem was, she hadn’t been allotted any time to process the information. To process the kiss. To process how it felt and how she could use this information and apply it to business or to Rick.
"Avery," he said, clearly puzzled. He looked her up and down, his eyes darkening. With desire, Avery remembered. "Where have you been? It's nearly midnight. I was starting to worry."
Avery couldn't blame him. She was dressed to the nines and was coming home late – early, technically, in the morning – and hadn’t talked to her fiancé for the entire day. She didn’t even miss talking to Rick. She wasn’t even upset that he hadn’t called her. This was a problem.
Wasn’t it?
“I’m sorry,” she said. She opened her mouth to explain where she had been, the lie on the tip of her tongue – she had just gotten in from a girls’ night – but he cut her off.
“No.” He shook his head, his eyes traveling up and down her body again. “No. You look…” He let his voice trail off, and when his eyes found hers again, they looked awe-struck. To be honest, she had never seen him look at her that way ever. And she wasn’t sure what to think.
She gave him a smile, masking her emotions with a cool look. Not that he noticed. He was too busy staring at her.
“Beautiful.” The corner of his lips curled up in a smirk, his eyes sparkling with mischievousness. “You should dress this way more often. It’s a good look for you.”
She laughed, despite herself. She ignored the backhanded compliment. She let herself revel in the power she now had over Rick, at least temporarily. Wasn’t this what she wanted? Wasn’t this exactly why she was taking advice from Lucas Cruz? To get Rick’s attention this way? To get him to look at her this way?
“Thank you,” she said. She tilted her head to the side. “So, what’s up? Why are you here?” He looked confused for a moment, and Avery rushed to explain. “That wasn’t what I meant. Sorry. Is everything okay? You usually don’t show up at my place late at night.”
“Yeah, I just…” He shook his head, still staring. She felt herself get giddy just watching him react. To her. She still couldn’t believe it. This just didn’t make sense. He reached up and that was when she noticed the bottle of wine in his hand. “I wanted you to try this…” He walked around her kitchen sink to get to her cupboard so he could grab wine glasses. “I’m just surprised you’re back so late – and that you didn’t drive yourself. You’re always the designated driver. What’s going on with you tonight?”
“Oh, um.” Avery’s thoughts started swimming quicker than she could keep up with. He said so much that she was attempting to string together a believable lie but all she could come up with was, “I guess I wanted to try something new.”
Rick stopped uncorking the bottle – he was in the middle of twisting it off before he set it on the sink to look at her with narrowed eyes. Avery felt her spine straighten. She shouldn’t have said that. How obvious could she be? Try new things? Avery didn’t try new things. She had the same style, the same haircut, the same car, for as long as she could remember. She refused to get rid of an old pair of converses from the eighth grade because she loved how comfortable they were, even if they were a bit ratty. And now all of a sudden she was wearing a cute dress with makeup, with her hair done, getting rides from people – one man in particular, but Rick didn’t know that – and staying out late on top of trying to take the reins in business?
Had she pushed things too far? Because it certainly seemed like she did.
“Trying new things?” he questioned with a perk of his brow. Avery was quick to study his eyes, but there didn’t seem to be any suspicion in them. If anything, they looked sli
ghtly approving. “You seem to be doing that a lot lately. You’re getting into business, you’re showing off your assets.” His eyes dropped pointedly to her chest, the way the dress emphasized her curves. “You’re staying out late, you’re going out with your friends like real girls do…” He let his voice trail off and walked back over to her, finally meeting her eyes once more. “What other surprises do you have up your sleeve?”
He placed his hands on Avery’s hips but Avery didn’t notice. She was too caught up in what Rick had just said for her to even feel his hands on her.
Real girls? Real girls? Real girls?
What did that mean? Did he not see her as a woman? As a feminine being? Did he not see her as an authentic person? She knew he was trying to give her a compliment, but it came out the wrong way and just being near him caused her insides to churn.
But she didn’t want to start a fight or correct his diction. In fact, she didn’t want to even clarify it. She was too offended and she knew she would say something stupid, something she would later regret.
“Anything left for me?” he asked, cocking his head to the side and dropping his lips to her neck.
No.
This –
No.
Why did this feel wrong? This was her fiancé for crying out loud. He was the one entitled to these things! It didn't make sense that her entire body cringed at his touch. It didn't make sense that her entire body was tense, that she wanted to shed her skin and be anywhere but with him.
Something must be wrong with her. It had to be the kiss...
Lucas freaking Cruz had the nerve to blindside her with a kiss of a lifetime. Avery had to bite her bottom lip to keep from sighing out loud, though if she did, it wouldn't really matter. Rick was kissing her. It wasn't as though he would know she was thinking about anyone else.
Did that make it right? No. But it did make being with Rick bearable.
The kiss Lucas gave her was firm and insistent but gentle at the same time. It wasn't incredibly passionate or a full-on makeout session by any stretch but his tongue flicked out of his mouth to trade her bottom lip, moisten it, and then slide back into his mouth as his lips closed the kiss. It last a few moments, longer than a simple peck, but it felt like the longest and slowest moment in the entire world. She got breathless just thinking about it. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and suddenly, being with Rick wasn't as difficult as it had been. In fact, being with him felt right and good and -
There was a strong sucking on her neck. Was he leaving her hickeys? Did she care? She was finally getting what she wanted and it was all thanks to Lucas. Maybe this whole thing with him really was working.
--
After another half hour, Avery gently kicked Rick out of the house. They now officially had their first make out session and he attempted to feel her up while they kissed on the couch. Avery didn't allow it but it still felt good knowing she was starting to accumulate the power she wanted to have over him.
When she was by herself, she padded into her bedroom and slowly removed her clothing so she stood naked in front of her full-body vanity mirror. Her eyes traced the curves of her body, the way her nipples hardened because of the cold, the maintained patch of hair between her thighs. She liked the freckles on her skin, the birthmark on her thigh.
For some reason, she imagined what Lucas might do if he were standing right behind her. He would cup her breasts with his big hands, making her gasp, making her head roll back and hit his chest. He would attack her neck with kisses just the way Rick had excepted to do so that he would have access to her entirely.
Her fingers started to dance against her clit, her legs falling open naturally. Her eyes rolled back as she began to imagine Lucas dropping one hand from her breast so it coiled to her mound. His insistent fingers would spread her lips until it got access to her clit and then he would tease her - tracing her nipple before tugging them and doing the same thing with her clit. She could feel him harden behind her, pressing into her lower back and she was not afraid, she was not intimidated. She wanted him. Badly. So she opened her legs further for him until, until -
When Lucas kissed her, she saw stars. When she touched herself to this fantasy of what he might do to her, she saw stars. She felt like a firework, exploding into the sky and coming down in waves of twitching. Her entire body was on fire. Her entire soul was consumed.
This was... This was...
How had she survived this long without this in her life?
10
When Avery appeared at Lucas’s door, she was giddy with excitement. What happened with Rick last night was more than anything she ever expected and she couldn’t wait to tell Lucas.
Which made no sense because she barely knew the guy. Except… as she thought about it, being around him made her feel as though she had known him for a long time. Known her longer than anyone. It was something she had never felt before, something she wanted to explore but also didn’t, because she was afraid of the implications. She was afraid of what it all meant. But instead of trying to figure it all out, she chose to push it down and ignore it. She knew she liked being around Lucas. She liked what she was learning. And everything he was teaching her actually worked. So far.
The minute Lucas opened the door, Avery all but skipped in, a big smile on her face. She was brimming with electricity, and when Lucas muttered a teasing, “Oh, hello Avery. Won’t you come in?” she actually giggled.
Giggled.
Her.
What. The. Heck.
“What’s going on with you?”
She spun on the heel of her boot in order to face him. He wore a tight plain white t-shirt and sweat pants that clung around his ankles. His feet were covered with black socks and there was a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead. She wondered if she just interrupted him working out. Her words caught in her throat. He was too good looking for his own good. She swallowed and forced herself to look away from and hoped he hadn’t caught her staring.
“You smell.”
Her eyes snapped back to his, an affronted squeak slipping out of her lips as all thoughts of how beautiful he was temporarily forgotten.
“Excuse me?”
Lucas’s nostrils flared and he took a step closer to her, his eyes dropping to his neck, narrowing until –
“Is that a hickey?”
Avery went back to beaming, nodding her head enthusiastically. “Yes!” she said. “Lucas, yes. After you dropped me off last night, he was at my place, waiting for me.”
“Why was he at your place?” Lucas asked. For some reason, he did not seem as excited as she was. But it didn’t matter. She wasn’t going to let him bring her down. Not when she was succeeding.
“I…” She shrugged. “I didn’t ask. But anyway, you have to let me finish. He was waiting for me and when he saw me in what I was wearing, he called me beautiful and” –
“Well, you are beautiful,” Lucas said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. Avery couldn’t be sure but it almost sounded as though Lucas were annoyed with something. But what, she didn’t know. “He should tell you that. Every day. This isn’t a revelation, Avery.”
“No need to be snippy,” Avery said, her voice still bubbly. “But anyway, before you interrupted, he said all these things and we kissed and I let him feel me up. Over my clothes, of course. Nothing further. I wasn’t ready for that. He wasn’t too happy about it either but I wouldn’t let him stay the night and then I came to you. In the morning, I mean. To tell you. Because it’s only been a few days, Lucas, and Rick couldn’t keep his hands off of me.”
She finally looked back at him, finally paused in order to catch her breath. That was when she noticed the hunched shoulders, the clenched jaw, the narrowed eyes. They were on her neck, probably on her hickey. It made her squirm on the inside to find him staring so thoroughly at it. In fact, if Avery was being honest, she didn’t want him staring at it at all. She almost felt ashamed that she had something so juvenile on her neck
in the first place. She was an adult after all, and this wasn’t a professional look. How was she supposed to be taken seriously?
“What?” she asked, furrowing her brow. “Why are you looking at me that way?”
Lucas’s eyes snapped into hers, almost as though she had lifted him from some sort of spell. “You’re” - He stopped himself, looked away. Then, “I told you about wolves, Av. We don’t like to share. How would you feel if I was with another girl while I was teaching you this? Would you be okay with it?”
“I’m not your property,” she told her, her eyes flashing emerald. “I made out with my fiancé. I think that’s appropriate considering he’s my fiancé.” She crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. “If you believe this” – she pointed between them – “is keeping you from hooking up with other girls, feel free to continue to do so. I know wolves can’t catch any STDs and they can’t pass any along so I’m not worried about that, especially since we’ll be using protection anyway.”
“So you’d be fine if I continued to date while teaching you about this?” Lucas asked. He still didn’t sound as though he believed her.
The Somerset Series: A Box Set: Books 2-4 Page 22