The Somerset Series: A Box Set: Books 2-4

by Isadora Brown

  If Rick was smart, he would have understood that by being with her, by being with a virgin, he would have had the privilege of teaching her exactly what he wanted and how to please him. He would have had a clean slate, with no other man to compare him to. He would be all she knew; he would be all she craved.

  But he threw that all away.

  She couldn’t believe she didn’t recognize her worth until this very moment.

  The thought pissed her off more than anything – not at Rick but at herself. How could she have allowed someone to treat her this way? How could she believe she deserved it?

  Well, that was going to stop now.

  “I get it,” she muttered to herself, her eyes sweeping over Rick’s stuff, currently on the marble island in her kitchen. “And I won’t ever let anyone treat me that way ever again.”

  When she finished, she gave herself the day to do what she wanted. She bingewatched Scream Queens, she read curled up in her bed, she ate ice cream for lunch and munched on sour cream and onion chips throughout the day. She stayed in her pajamas until Rick texted her that he was on the way. Then, she threw her messy, unbrushed hair into a bun and threw on a slouchy shirt and yoga pants. She didn’t have to worry about impressing anyone but herself right now, not Rick. Not even Lucas.

  Right now, it was all about her.

  Rick showed up right on time. Avery stood aside so Rick could grab his stuff. There was quite a bit for him to remove or else she would have left it on the front porch. Even now, she didn’t like him being in her house.

  For the most part, Rick was quiet. Up until the point he had the last box in his arm.

  “Av,” he said, his voice shaking. Avery glanced over at him; she wasn’t used to Rick sounding so vulnerable. He looked… sad. And, despite her best efforts, it made her heart do a weird flutter in her chest. She was worried about this. She was worried he might try and say sorry or ask for her back. She didn’t want to deal with it because, despite all the changes, she didn’t want the confrontation. Not because she was worried she’d go back with him, but because she didn’t want to hear the sadness in his voice. Because she still did care about him, whether she wanted to or not.

  “Rick,” she murmured, reaching up to cup the back of her neck with her hand. “You should go. I don’t think it’s a good idea if you linger.”

  “Avery, just let me say…” His voice trailed off as his eyes honed in on her neck. Immediately, they burst into flames and his temper ignited in the blink of an eye. “Are those hickeys?”

  Avery reached up and her fingers brushed the marks left on her neck thanks to Lucas.

  “What the hell, Av?” he asked. He took a step toward her and Avery couldn’t help but take a step back, even though she didn’t want to. She wanted to hold her ground, remain unafraid, but her instincts kicked in, and the look on Rick’s face said this was not going to end well. “What the hell is going on? I thought what you said at the restaurant was bullshit, that you were just looking for an excuse to break up with me so you decided to find the one thing that would piss me off and use it to your advantage. But you really are fucking someone else, aren’t you? You slut!”

  Without warning, Avery reached out and slapped Rick across the face. Hard. Her palm immediately screamed as a million little needles stuck her and despite the fact that he deserved it, even Avery was surprised at how hard she had done so. It must be the pent-up rage she felt at all the ways he treated her so poorly.

  Rick grunted when her hand connected with his face, and the sheer force of the hit sent him back a step or two. When he looked back at her, his eyes were fire, and without warning, he lunged for her. He knocked her back so hard, her head smacked the door and he fell on top of her.

  “You stupid bitch!” he exclaimed. Once he got his bearings, he sat up and backhanded her across the face. “You dare disrespect me like that? First, you cheat on me. You, Av, you actually fucked up. It wasn’t me. Maybe I looked but I never touched. I waited for you, you whore. I waited for you, and now I come to pick up my shit and you’re wearing his hickeys like they’re some goddamn badge of honor. When you never let me do anything of the sort? And then I call you what you are because, guess what, Av, you are a slut, and you fucking slap me? Are you out of your mind?”

  Avery couldn’t hear what he said because of the ringing in her ears and the grunting she made as she attempted to get free from underneath him. Her face burned, her hand still hurt. She was certain she was going to bruise. The crazy part of this whole thing was that Rick was the last guy she ever thought would raise a hand to her, even if she did something to upset him. He hadn’t seemed like the type. How wrong she was.

  “I don’t care who your daddy is or what your last name is,” he went on, holding her wrists over her head. All she could do was move her body underneath him in order to try and throw him off balance but even that wasn’t yielding the results she needed. “You think you can hang in the Somerset business world, Avery? You’re a joke. You’ll never work in this city. I’ll make sure of it.”

  Avery didn’t know why she said it. She didn’t know if it was because trying to get free through force wasn’t doing anything and maybe, if she distracted him by using her words rather than her body, she might get different results, but she needed to change it up and catch him off-guard if she had any hope of saving herself. From what, she didn’t know. She couldn’t predict what Rick was going to do to her, and that scared her the most.

  “You would know a joke,” Avery said, her words slurred. She could taste blood in her mouth. “Your fiancée wouldn’t even touch you but she’s fucking a wolf behind your back and bigshot Rick Ashton didn’t even know until she told him about it.”

  Avery had never expected to see a man break right before her eyes. Even more than that, she never thought she had the power to break one. Especially not Rick. Not when he was usually so strong and tough and everything she wasn’t.

  But the words were out and they wounded his pride more than he would ever admit. That was okay because she saw it in his eyes, she saw the way he broke, and whatever the repercussions might be, she didn’t regret it one bit.

  Everything happened in slow motion. Her eyes honed in on the motion, on Rick’s hands reaching for her, his fingers outstretched. He was going to choke her, squeeze the life out of her, perhaps even strangle her to death. Then, without warning, something knocked him off of her with such force, he toppled a few feet from her. A loud growl accompanied the attack, and before Avery could get a hold of her senses, she heard a couple of crunches – loud, sickening crunches. She craned her neck, and there was Lucas, on top of Rick, pummeling him to a pulp if she didn’t stop him right this second.

  “Lucas,” she managed to get out, but his name was weak in her mouth. She cleared throat and blinked so she could focus more clearly. “Lucas.” He didn’t exactly stop but he did turn to look at her. There was anger there, clear, dark anger even as he looked on her. “Stop.”

  He looked like he was going to keep going. He looked like he wanted to argue with her. But something stopped him, something made him hesitate.

  “What the fuck is Lucas Cruz doing here?” Rick managed to get out. When Avery saw him, she winced; he was bloodied and bruised. He might even need stitches above his brow. “Is he the one who gave you those hickeys? He’s the one fucking you, isn’t he? I know what you told me, I just didn’t think you’d actually like him.”

  “I’m here on business,” Lucas all but spat out, disgusted with Rick’s mere presence, breathing the same air that he was. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”

  Rick opened his mouth to argue, but Avery intervened. “Get out,” she told him, her voice as cold as her insides felt. She picked herself up slowly and walked over to her ex-fiancé. Her legs shook and she thought for sure she was going to make a fool of herself and have them give out on her. But she managed to get to Lucas’s side with no one’s help but her own. “And never come back here. I’m serious, Rick. Take your
stuff and go.”

  “You’ll regret this, you bitch,” Rick said.

  “You call her something like that again, I’ll make sure to break you in two,” Lucas snarled, his shoulders high, his nose wrinkled. It was the first time Avery saw his as even resembling a wolf. “You have my word.”

  “You belong with each other,” Rick snapped. He managed to get up on his own and head to the doorway.

  Lucas didn’t relax until Rick was out of the house and the door was shut and locked behind him.

  18

  Avery pressed her lips together, sighing through her nose. Lucas leaned against the locked door, his hands hanging loosely from his pockets, his eyes on his shoes.

  “Listen,” she said, her voice coming out stronger than she anticipated it to. She thought it might shake; she thought she might hesitate, but it came out strong and direct. It came out the way she wanted to be as a person. “You don’t have to tell me what happened between you and Rick. You don’t have to tell me anything. But clearly something did happen, and I want you to know, I’m here for you.”

  Lucas picked his eyes up from his shoes so they locked onto hers and Avery almost buckled due to the amount of emotion she saw in those big, brown eyes. Her breath caught in her throat and she reached out to grab the edge of the kitchen island, the marble smooth underneath her fingers.

  “Do you…” She let her voice trail off, a small flush tainting her cheeks. Now she hesitated. “Do you want to take a bath with me? I have a Jacuzzi bathtub and I’ve never gotten to officially break it in just yet. What I mean is, I’ve rarely used it, and never with anyone, and I’d like to use it with you…” He shot her a warm smile and her blush turned even darker. “I’m babbling, aren’t I?”

  “It’s cute,” he assured her. He rolled his shoulders back and freed one hand from his pocket so he could place it on the small of her back. She shivered underneath his touch. He had touched her in more ways than one and yet she still had no idea how he was able to cause such a reaction within her. She hoped it never stopped. “I would love to take a bath you.”

  She smiled and led him to the master bathroom, attached to the master suite in her home. Not Rick’s home, not their home, but hers and only hers.

  Avery hadn’t been lying when she said she had barely used it. Rick wasn’t much of a bath man and Avery didn’t have much time where she could take a bath, even by herself. But she had always wanted a Jacuzzi bathtub and now she was so glad she had been insistent on getting one. It wasn’t attached to the stainless steel shower, though it was placed beside it. It was a large porcelain tub that could fit both Lucas and Avery comfortably. There was a small light brown nightstand that had different shampoos, conditioners, body washes, and a couple of bath rags just in case placed to the side of the tub for easy access. Avery always imagined she could read in the tub and use the stand for her books as well.

  “This is gorgeous,” Lucas commented. “Why don’t you fill the tub?”

  Avery grinned and did so. She always liked things a little bit hotter than normal, which was another reason why Rick would not bathe with her. She slid into the water with ease and leaned against the porcelain edge of the tub, where there was a curve that fit her neck perfectly. The water pinched her skin and she knew it was turning pink due to the heat but she didn’t care. She loved the feeling; it was soothing, relaxing, and she felt her entire body’s tension ease out of her. The aches, the headache, the bruises, were starting to subside. Her eyes rolled closed and she settled in, feeling the bubbles push into her body.

  “Holy crap, Avery,” Lucas said as he eased himself into the tub. “How has your flesh not melted off of your skin?”

  Avery smirked and opened one eye. “I like it,” she told him.

  “Well, I must like you if I’m subjecting myself to this,” he said and she chuckled.

  “Oh, hush.” She lifted her head up and positioned herself behind Lucas, wrapping her arms around his shoulders so her hands dangled on his chest. He relaxed against her, his head against her shoulder, her chest against his back.

  “It happened a long time ago,” he told her, looking at the water lapping at his skin. “We were both in the same Brit Lit class at Somerset Academy. Some vampire was our professor. He was a popular kid. I guess he’s good looking. I don’t know.” He shrugged. “At the time, no one knew what I was and I wanted to keep it that way. At the time, no one knew vampires or werewolves existed.”

  “Then how did you know the professor was a vampire?” Avery asked, resting her head against his broad shoulder.

  “Because he still teaches there and hasn’t aged a day,” Lucas said with a grin. “Trust me, all the girls in class had a thing for him. Anyway, we’re getting off point. We were both in class. I was dating a girl, Liv, a wolf from my pack. We were encouraged to be together for the pack. She would have made an excellent Alpha female. We weren’t serious yet but I really liked her. I wanted it to get more serious but only after we graduated. She was in class, too. She would laugh at all of his jokes – and he made lots of jokes.”

  Avery nodded against his shoulder, her grip on his chest tightening. She felt his muscles twitch in response and she knew he was finally relaxing in the hot bath.

  “I didn’t like the guy,” he said. “Can’t tell you why. Maybe it’s because I heard he was dating a freshman at the time while he was a senior.”

  “That was me,” Avery said quietly.

  Lucas furrowed his brow. “What?” he asked.

  “I met Rick when I was a freshman at SU,” she explained. “We’ve been together ever since.”

  “So… so you know what he did and you’re still with him?” Lucas asked and Avery could feel his entire body tense under her touch. He sounded angry. Angry and disappointed.

  “What did he do?” Avery asked.

  Lucas craned his neck and locked eyes with Avery at an awkward angle, trying to read her face. She hoped he saw the truth of her ignorance, that she really did have no idea what he was talking about. Rick did a lot of things while they were in college, many of which she didn’t want to know about. Clearly Rick had done something to piss off Lucas, but Avery had no idea what that was.

  “He slept with my girlfriend,” he told her. “I walked in on them. Liv thought I was at the pub with the guys, watching our basketball team, but I came back early because I was over it and wanted to hang out with her. Plus, our basketball team sucked at the time.”

  Liv, Liv, Liv…

  Why did that name sound so familiar?

  “So I went back to her dorm and I walked in on them,” Lucas said. “The minute I saw them together, I was livid. I ripped Rick off of her and socked him a couple of times in the face. I think Olivia screamed at me but I couldn’t hear her. It didn’t even matter that I was twice his size. That smirk that was on his face… Like he knew what he did and didn’t care.”

  “Yeah,” Avery murmured. “I saw how you reacted when you saw Rick on top of me.”

  Lucas immediately shifted, pulling away from Avery so he faced her in the tub. “No,” he said, shaking his head. The ends of his hair stained his neck, clinging to his skin for dear life. Avery couldn’t blame them; she would do the same thing. “No. What happened back then was nothing to how I felt when I saw…” He bit back a growl and his jaw popped, indicating his fury. “My feelings for you surpass what I felt for Olivia Steinback, for anyone.”

  If Avery slowed down and really heard what Lucas had said, she would have realized he all but told her he loved her. However, the first thing her ears picked up was the name – Olivia Steinback. She knew that name. How did she know that name?

  “Olivia Steinback,” she finally said, picking her eyes up from the water so she could meet Lucas’s. “Rick would tell me a Liv Steinback was his study partner for Brit Lit class…” Her voice trailed off and she shook her head. “I didn’t even think to question it. I didn’t want to be that girl…”

  “Hey.” He picked her chin up with his thumb.
“You aren’t that girl. Rick was an asshole and Liv was a slut. You are” –

  “Exactly like them,” Avery said. Lucas opened his mouth to argue but she stopped him with a smile. “Lucas, you can’t tell me what we did – regardless of our logic – wasn’t the same thing that they did to us. At least I know he did cheat on me. I always suspected but didn’t have proof and didn’t want to assume…” She shrugged her shoulders.

  “You don’t regret what happened between us?” he asked, tilting his head to the side. “Do you?”

  “As long as you didn’t use me specifically to get back at him,” Avery said, looking him directly in his eyes.

  “Of course not,” he said, giving her a sharp look for even suggesting such a thing. “You don’t realize what I feel for you, do you? You think that this is some kind of game, that I’m only attracted to what you look like and how you might be in bed and how you can help me get back at Rick?”

  Avery opened her mouth to respond but she couldn’t formulate words. She wasn’t sure what to say or how to respond. To be honest, she hadn’t really thought about it.

  “Av, I’m crazy about you,” he said, sitting up and locking eyes with her. They burned gold, intense and passionate, wanting her to believe in everything he said. “You have no idea just how much I” - He cut himself off and she wished he hadn’t. Instead, he leaned forward so his forehead grazed hers and his eyes dropped to her lips, causing her heart to flutter against her chest, as delicately as a ballerina’s footsteps. “When I care about someone, when I bring them to my place or to my club, they mean something to me. I’ve never done it before. I’ve never met anyone I deemed as worthy seeing that side of me. You’re different, Av. Don’t doubt yourself. You’re better than that.”

  He pulled her close to him so she straddled him in the water. Just by her movement on top of him, she could feel him start to respond.