Craving Lucy

by Terri Anne Browning

  Two pairs of feet ran up the stairs with the force of a category-five hurricane. Thrusting my hands into my jeans pockets, I glared after them. Damn little troublemakers. And I was going to have to deal with them for the rest of my life if I wanted to be with Lucy.

  A deep chuckle sounded behind me and I turned to find Jesse stepping out of the living room. “You handled them like a pro. I had a feeling that they had something to do with Lu’s missing phone when she couldn’t find it before school.”

  “She left for school without a phone?” Panic for what might have happened began to choke me. What if she had needed help? I didn’t care that Marcus was with her and had his own phone. That didn’t fucking matter. Her phone was my lifeline to her. What if..?

  “Relax, Harris. Layla let Lu take hers this morning. She was fine, boy.” His eyes were laughing at me even as his mouth turned down. “You’re acting worse than me, kid. Don’t give yourself gray hair.”

  “She’s my best friend.” And so much more. “I worry about her every day,” I confessed.

  “She’s my little girl. So do I.” He turned his head to the right, eyeing me oddly for a long moment before finally grinning again. “I’m glad it’s you, Harris. Maybe I can sleep a little better at night now.”

  I tried to keep my eyes from widening but didn’t think I pulled it off when he threw his bald head back and laughed. “Sir?” Had I ever called anyone but this man ‘sir’? I couldn’t remember.

  “I’m not blind, boy. Or stupid. I know Lucy better than even you do. She’s my baby. I see that she loves you and I know that you love her, too. I saw it when she was eleven. I knew when your face fell the night that First Bass opened and she wasn’t with us. I haven’t said anything because I was letting you two find your own way, but she wasn’t the same the last week or so. Glad to see that you two made up.” His smile was still in place, but his eyes were telling me vehemently that it would be better for everyone if it didn’t happen again.

  I swallowed hard, trying to figure out if I was going to make it out of that house alive or not. I’d grown up in a not-so-pretty world. Rockers were scary motherfuckers. Yet it was only Jesse Thornton who terrified the living hell out of me. Not even Wroth Niall, the original rage monster and all-around scary bastard, had put the fear of God into me like the man currently standing in front of me.

  Maybe it was because Jesse’s best friend was Emmie Armstrong and she could make someone disappear with as little as two phone calls. You didn’t work as hard as she had for as many years as she did and not make friends with people in powerfully high places—and some incredibly low places, too.

  Or maybe it was something completely different that made me so nervous—and yeah, truly scared shitless—of Jesse Thornton. Maybe it was because I knew that he had the power to take away the one and only thing I knew I couldn’t live without. One word from Lucy’s father and I knew that anything we might have in the future could be thrown out the window. She said she loved me and I believed her, but Jesse was the man who had raised her, the first man to ever love her unconditionally. I knew that she hadn’t wanted to tell Jesse about us to protect me, but I also knew it was because she hadn’t wanted to know what he would do if he decided he didn’t want us together. She might not have admitted it to herself, but I knew that if Jesse didn’t approve of me being with his daughter, any chances we had of a future together were nil and void.

  “So…you’re okay with… what, exactly?” Jesse had to be the one to tell me what he was actually okay with.

  He shrugged his massive shoulders. To look at this big man with his bulky muscles, you would never think that he was one of the best drummers in the rock world. People made the mistake of thinking his bulk made him slower, less coordinated. It just made the show he put on when he took the stage for a show with his band-brothers all that more spectacular.

  “I’m okay with whatever you and Lucy decide you want to be. Friends, boyfriend/girlfriend, whatever. I’m not unreasonable, Harris.” He took a step closer, brown eyes rapidly changing colors right before my eyes, and the look that crossed his face suddenly had my fight-or-flight senses going crazy. My brain was yelling at me to run for my fucking life—this was one badass motherfucker who not only lived on the ocean and could easily get rid of an above-average large body, but his best friend would help him do it. Thankfully, my heart kept my feet planted firmly in place and refused to let too much of my actual fear bleed through.

  Jesse lowered his voice as he angled his head closer to my ear to ensure that only I heard him. “But if you decide that you want something more than friendship with my little girl, make sure it’s what you want more than anything else on the planet, boy. Because once you make a commitment like that to my baby, that dick of yours had better not stray. You don’t want to know what I will do to you if you break her heart. You feel me, Harris?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  One massive hand lifted and gripped my shoulder, giving it a hard squeeze before he stepped back. “Good talk, boy. Good talk.” Laughing, he took another step back and I let myself breathe again.

  Chapter 5

  Lucy

  Maybe I left it in the bathroom and it fell behind the toilet.

  Even though I’d already checked there—twice—I went back into my bathroom and looked again. When it wasn’t there I slammed the seat closed and dropped down onto the lid before burying my face in my hands and finally letting out the small shriek of frustration I’d been feeling all day.

  I’d gone to bed the night before in some pain but feeling like I could conquer the world. Being woken up in the early hours to a text from Harris had put a smile on my face as I’d drifted back to sleep that morning. I’d planned on texting him again when I woke up, to tell him…

  Okay, so I wasn’t sure what I would have told him. Not ‘I love you’. I’d already said that a few times to him and he had yet to say it back, so until he did, no way was I going to let those words leave my mouth. He knew I loved him now. The ball was in his court. I wasn’t brave enough to say it again without knowing that he felt the same.

  I’d been saved from figuring out what to say to him when I realized that I’d misplaced my cellphone, though. Of course I’d overslept and had been running late that morning so I hadn’t had time to really look for the damn thing. Mom had given me hers without hesitation and I’d gone to school. As the hours had seemed to drag by, I’d contemplated calling or texting Harris from Mom’s cell, but still hadn’t known what to say.

  At home I did what little homework I had, then took a shower and got ready for dinner with Harris before I started looking for my phone. The search had begun two hours ago and now I was so pissed at myself for misplacing the damn thing that I wasn’t sure if I would be very good company for Harris at dinner.

  Maybe I should just tell him I couldn’t go. He was going to be mad at me for losing my phone anyway. He was a freak about my phone and I knew it was because he’d called me so many times the night my bio father had taken me. He’d had to find out about my abduction on the eleven o’clock news—making him feel like shit after he’d gotten mad thinking I was just blowing him off.

  Raking my fingers through my crazy-curly hair, I grimaced when a few of my fingers got tangled and I had to tug them free. I hadn’t taken the time to straighten it tonight. I pushed myself to my feet and went back into the bedroom to once again check under my bed, in hopes that it actually had fallen under there and I’d just missed it the ten times I’d looked previously.

  Harris was waiting on me. I had to hurry or decide if I was just going to bail on dinner with him tonight—something I seriously didn’t want to do. But I didn’t want to hear a twenty-minute lecture from him about the importance of my phone when I was already mentally yelling at myself about it.

  There was a slight tap on my door and I lifted my head as the door swung open. My brothers came into the room almost hesitantly and I frowned at them. Those two only hesitated when something was wrong. Conce
rned because I didn’t know if I needed to help them hide a body or possibly even hide them, I got to my feet. I would do both because that was how much I loved them. Didn’t matter what their reasons were; I would always protect those two not-so-little beasts.

  “What’s up, you two?”

  Lyric took another hesitant step forward and pulled something from his jeans pocket. It took me a second to realize what he was offering me, but when it clicked in my head I glared from him to his twin. “You little monsters!” I yelled.

  Okay, so my vow of helping them only went so far. If they messed with my stuff, then all promises were over. Lyric gave me a sheepish look while his identical clone stood in my room with his arms crossed over what I knew would one day be an athletic chest and determined but ever-changing brown eyes.

  “Why would you take my phone?” I demanded as I glared from one to the other. “You both know you aren’t supposed to even be in my room, let alone take my stuff. How dare you snatch something that wasn’t yours?”

  Lyric opened his mouth to say something but Luca beat him to it. “We were mad at you. Last night you scared us. We thought something really bad had happened to you. Then you and Mom and Dad picked us up at Aunt Lana’s and you seemed fine except for a bandaged hand. We wanted to ground you from your phone so we took it.”

  “But we didn’t realize how important our phones are,” Lyric continued as soon as his brother had stopped. “Harris explained it, though. We’re really sorry. Please don’t be mad.”

  Some of my anger faded as fast as it had come. Sighing, I sat down on the edge of my bed. “Guys…” I shook my head. “I’m so sorry I upset you last night. I promise you it wasn’t my intention.”

  Lyric moved across the room until he was standing right in front of me. His arms wrapped around my neck and hugged me tight. “I love you, Lucy. I don’t ever want anything to happen to you.”

  Tears burned my eyes and I blinked hard and fast to keep them at bay, but a few spilled free anyway. “Ah, Ric.” I hugged him hard to me. “Its okay, baby boy. Nothing is going to happen. I swear.”

  Another set of arms wrapped around both Lyric and me and I lifted my head long enough to press a kiss to Luca’s forehead. “You forgive us?” he asked after a few moments.

  I hugged them both tighter. “Nope. Give me ten minutes, though, and I’m sure that will change.” Pulling away I winked at them and they grinned, knowing that I was still the pushoverthat I would always be where they were concerned. “Stay out of my room, boys. And if you take anything of mine again I’m going to start spilling all those secrets you both have to the world. Pretty sure there are things that neither one of you want Mom and Dad or say Vi—” The way Luca’s face went white as a sheet and then closed up tighter than a Venus flytrap told me that I’d hit my mark. Grinning, I ruffled his hair and stood. “Remember that the next time you think about taking something that isn’t yours, big guy.”

  “Lucy?”

  Hearing Harris calling my name snapped me into action. I ran back into the bathroom as my brothers left my room. Checking myself over one last time, I made sure that my makeup was still perfect and my hair wasn’t too much of a rat’s nest. I had on black leggings with a purple mini skirt on over it and my top was a brighter shade of the same purple color, which hinted at my cleavage but wasn’t enough to send my dad into cardiac arrest if he saw me. Satisfied that I looked okay, I slipped my feet into a pair of black ballet slippers and grabbed my phone and purse.

  “I’m coming,” I yelled down as I headed down the hall.

  As I passed the twins’ bedroom, I paused and pushed the slightly ajar door open. They were sitting on their beds facing each other, talking in low tones that stopped as soon as they realized I was standing in the doorway. We had an extra bedroom and I was sure that one of them would move into it when they hit puberty, but for now they didn’t want to be apart. I guessed it was a twin thing.

  “I’m leaving,” I told them with a small smile, letting them know that for the most part they were forgiven. “I love you both.”

  “Love you, too,” Luca said, his eyes looking red and a little puffy. My heart clenched at the signs that my tough-as-nails little brother had been crying. He might be a rotten little brat at times, but he had a really tender heart that could get broken all too easily. It was him that I worried about the most when it came to him finding a girlfriend later on. It was probably going to be him that I was going to end up in jail over because I’d beaten the first girl to break his heart into a coma.

  “Love you, Lucy,” Lyric called from his bed where he was sitting Indian-style with one of his pillows hugged to his chest. “Be careful.”

  I blew them both kisses and then closed the door to give them their privacy before walking downstairs. Halfway down, I realized that my parents were standing in the hall talking to Harris. At my descent, they all looked up, three sets of eyes watching me closely.

  But I only had eyes for one of them.

  Harris was dressed as he normally was, in jeans that looked like they were made just for him and a white dress shirt half unbuttoned over a simple black T-shirt that I knew hid a body that was pure perfection. His short hair was styled with just a little bit of product in it and he was flashing me those dimples in a way that never failed to make my heart go crazy. I tried to pull my eyes away, honestly I did, but they seemed to have developed a will of their own, eating up the sight of the guy who had declared himself my boyfriend just the night before.

  “You look beautiful, Lucy.”

  I felt my cheeks fill with warmth, a mixture of a shy blush and pure delight that he liked what I was wearing tonight.

  My dad shifted beside Harris, completely draining away the pink from my cheeks as I focused on the behemoth of a man standing between my boyfriend, whom I hadn’t yet told him about, and my mom. I bit my lip, feeling guilty that I hadn’t told him about Harris and me. I’d only ever kept one other thing from him—something I’d never told another living soul about—so keeping this from him felt so damn wrong.

  But I wasn’t going to tell him just yet. Not for a little longer. I wanted time to enjoy where things were going with Harris before my dad put him in a full body cast or worse—a casket.

  “Are you going to First Bass after dinner or coming home?” my dad asked as he stepped forward to hug me when I reached the last step.

  “First Bass for a little while,” I told him and gave him a hard squeeze. “Marcus is going to pick up Kin and meet us there, so you don’t have to worry about me being without him.” I felt Dad’s lips in my hair and savored having my father’s unconditional love for a moment longer before pulling away.

  “Okay, then. Have fun, baby girl.” He turned to shake Harris’s hand while I hugged my mom.

  I kissed her cheek and then spoke into her ear so that the other two didn’t hear me. “Check on Luca in a few minutes. He’s a little upset with himself.”

  Mom nodded her head, her chocolate-brown eyes full of a mother’s concern. “Have fun, baby. I love you.”

  Dad handed over my jacket and opened the door for us. When Harris and I had first started having our weekly dinner date together, my parents hadn’t even blinked when I asked them if the two of us could have some privacy during that time. Letting me go out to an actual restaurant with him, alone for two hours or so… Yeah, that was how much my parents trusted Harris Cutter. For my dad especially, that was a big deal.

  He knew that Harris would protect me, that I was safe with him.

  That only made my guilt at not telling Dad about Harris and me all the harder to swallow as Harris put his hand on the small of my back and walked me out to his car parked in the driveway. In that moment, I decided that I was going to tell him soon. Like, on my birthday. Yeah, that seemed like the perfect idea. He couldn’t say no to me on my birthday. Never had been able to before, anyway.

  Opening the passenger door, Harris waited for me to take my place inside his Maserati before shutting the door and
moving around the car to climb in behind the wheel. The crazy-fast, crazy-expensive car had been a present from his dad and stepmom when he’d graduated from high school, so it was several years old. Yet it still had that hint of new car smell. Harris rarely drove this car, usually opting for the SUV, that he’d bought himself, to take Trinity places.

  He knew I loved riding in the Maserati, though, and always picked me up in it for our dinners together. Of course, neither one of us was brave enough to actually let me drive it. Jesse Thornton would blow ten gaskets if he saw me behind the wheel of a car that went this fast.

  As soon as Harris was behind the wheel, I expected him to start the car, turn on the radio and get us as far away from my house as quickly as possible. Instead, he just sat there, his body turned toward me slightly, and those mesmerizing aquamarine eyes were devouring me from head to toe.

  Having his eyes on me like that was something I wasn’t used to yet. I thought his gaze was hungry, or maybe that was just me, because my eyes were taking everything about him in and making me ache in places that were going to get me in a hell of a lot of trouble if I wasn’t careful. Last night I’d told him I wasn’t ready for sex yet. That was true, but I knew that he could change my mind all too easily if I wasn’t careful.

  Lifting one large hand, Harris pushed a few long curls back from my face. “You are so fucking beautiful, Lucy. All I can think about right now is tasting those ripe lips. I’m not going to, though. Not yet. We’ll never make it to dinner if I start kissing you now.” His thumb caressed over my cheek, lingering at the corner of my mouth. “So beautiful,” he murmured again.

  I couldn’t help the shiver or the gooseflesh that popped up over my entire body that his touch, combined with the look in his amazing eyes, caused. My lips began to tingle, aching for a kiss just as badly as he was. Clenching my thighs together in hopes of assuaging the same tingle in my most intimate place, I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch.

  “Fuck,” he growled and pulled away. I opened my eyes to find him gripping the steering wheel, his long body facing the front and his head leaning back against the seat with his eyes closed. “I haven’t even kissed you and I’m ready to explode. No one has ever done this to me, Lu. No one but you.”