An Education in Business: A Somerset Novel (Somerset Series Book 3)

by Heather C. Myers

  Avery took another breath and placed her lips on him once more. Her left hand began to explore his testicles, surprised at the soft, fragile texture. Lucas moaned but from where Avery was, she could see his eyes had yet to open.

  She had no idea what she was doing. Maybe she should have read an erotic book or watched porn to get an idea of any tricks she could use. He seemed to enjoy what she was doing now, but without him being conscious, she couldn’t tell. Her head bobbed up and down, and the longer she kept him in her mouth, the more she got used to it. She stopped playing with his balls in order to grab his length with her right hand, pulling the skin gently back with her left at the base of his cock. Following the bobbing motion of her mouth, she began to jerk him off while simultaneously sucking his cock in one fluid motion.

  “Holy shit.”

  Now, he was most certainly awake.

  “What are you” –

  She shot him a look that told him not to question her. He stopped himself from finishing his sentence but not because of her. Because his jaw was locked and his eyes were closed and he was in a moment of pure ecstasy.

  Her heart started beating hard against her chest and she realized she liked causing him such pleasure, rendering him speechless with a harmless little tug. His reaction urged her even further, causing her to tighten her lips and hasten her ministrations. She managed to illicit moans from him. His back was arched, his pelvis thrust up as far as it could go into her mouth and she nearly gagged on the size of him. She managed to control it by releasing her mouth and jerking him off using the saliva she left on him.

  When she managed to get a hold of herself, she continued to jerk him off and bob her head. His body twitched underneath her until his hand found the back of her head. He didn’t hold her in place so he could thrust himself into her nor did he force her to take more of him in. He wanted to touch her. He needed to hold onto something, and she was their best option.

  His breathing hastened. “I, I’m going to” –

  She kept going. Her friends said they never did, letting them finish in their mouths, but she kept going because… Because, why not? Because she knew it would make him feel good. Because she was slightly curious as to what he would taste like, what it would be like.

  She flinched when he emptied himself into her. It was sweeter than she anticipated, with a hint of bitterness. She swallowed every last drop until he was writhing beneath her, pushing her away. He laughed as he did so.

  He smiled at her as he urged her up to him so she could place her head on his shoulder. He turned on his side so he could wrap his arms around her tightly. “Where’d you learn how to do that?” he asked, smiling against her skin. “Actually, don’t answer that. You are amazing. Why…?” He opened his eyes and Avery noticed curiosity in them, genuine curiosity.

  “You pleased me last night,” she explained. “I wanted to do the same for you.”

  “You know I didn’t…” He let his voice trail off. “I don’t please you because I want to be pleased. It’s important to me that you know that. I want to please you because I want to please you.”

  Avery smiled. “I like pleasing you,” she said with a shy smile.

  “And you are extremely good at it,” he replied. His eyes traveled downward and his voice got heavy with anticipated slumber. “You know what this means, right?”

  “What?”

  He smiled even though she could tell he was already drifting off. “I’m never letting you go,” he murmured.

  “I…” She let her voice trail off, her face turning red against the cream-colored sheets. She didn’t expect that response, truth be told. She pressed her mouth together and swallowed. Her brain searched for some way to tell him how she felt, but if she was being honest with herself, she wasn’t sure what that was.

  The aftertaste wasn’t as bad as she thought. Even his taste wasn’t entirely unpleasant. She rubbed her lips together, trying to savor him on her lips. She liked it, she realized. She liked the taste of him.

  A light snore caught her attention, and before she could say anything, she realized that Lucas was already sleeping, a content smile on his face. She crawled up next to him, craning her neck so she could look at his face. Before she could stop herself, her fingers began to caress his silky black hair. She would gently tug out the curl and it would immediately spring back. Her lips curled up and she shook her head.

  Lucas Cruz was the last person she ever thought she would fall for. He had curly hair and came from an entirely different origin. Werewolf. What would it mean if they had kids? How different would their cultures be if they were to…

  What? Get married?

  She shook her head and stifled an embarrassed laugh. She was getting ahead of herself. This was ridiculous. She could not believe she had done that. She had never thought she was that type of girl. Her friends made her believe it was a dirty thing, to do that, but she found it… fun. It made her feel powerful.

  She would do it again. Especially if he reacted like this every time…

  He was beautiful. He was vulnerable. He was almost angelic. Her heart swelled just looking at him, and she couldn’t look at him any longer in fear that it might burst. She buried her face in the crook of his arm, and his arm somehow coiled around her waist, even in his sleep. Her eyelids suddenly got heavy, and his steady breathing rocked her into a relaxation she didn’t expect. Before she knew it, she fell asleep right along with him.

  15

  It was odd sitting next to Lucas and pretending that nothing had happened between them just hours ago. Avery still felt extremely guilty for what happened between them - not that it happened at all and most definitely not because of what they did – but because technically speaking, she was still with Rick. They were engaged to be married. This was cheating, hands down. She could justify it in any way she wanted; she could pretend she was doing this for the betterment of their relationship, but cheating was cheating, no matter how she dressed it up.

  The problem was, she didn’t know what she wanted. She loved Rick. They had known each other since college and he had been with her for a while now. She felt like she owed it to him to stick this out and indulge in sex because he had been this patient with her. But then there was another part of her, a new part that was dangerous and wild and didn’t think sex should be shared with someone who didn’t deserve it. Also, if she felt obligated to have sex with Rick rather than want to have sex with him, there was a problem.

  And there was a problem. Avery could acknowledge it.

  Its name was Lucas Cruz and he was sitting right next to her in the small, familiar lobby of the LunaApp headquarters.

  Avery was much more attracted to him than she anticipated she would be. She didn’t know if it was because he was the most attractive man she had ever seen – don’t lie to yourself, even more attractive than Rick – and she got nervous whenever she was in the same room as him. She didn’t know if it was because he was a wolf and she had never been with a wolf before, which made it new and exciting and a little bit dangerous. She didn’t know if Lucas had this ability to make her feel wanted and desirable and special. His eyes were constantly glued to her and when they were together, he always found little ways to touch her. Rick never made her feel like that, in all the time they had been together.

  Was it a talent Lucas possessed? A gift he was born with? Or a strategy he knew would win over even the most reserved woman?

  Avery didn’t know. And she didn’t know if she was willing to risk the last five years for someone she knew for a few weeks, at best. She definitely knew she wasn’t in love with him. Of that she was certain, but when she tried to remember what it felt like to fall in love with Rick, she couldn’t remember. And she didn’t know if that was a bad sign or not. She had no one to compare him to, since he was her first and only serious relationship, and maybe Lucas was something new to explore.

  But being with Lucas in whatever capacity wasn’t fair to Rick. She needed to break things off with Lucas. M
ore importantly, she needed to tell Rick. Surprisingly enough, Avery felt her body coil up at breaking things off with Lucas than it did for telling Rick. Like telling Rick was preferable to stopping whatever was going on between she and Lucas.

  God, she was a terrible person. Surely, she would go to hell.

  She pressed her lips together and forced herself to remember why she went to Lucas in the first place. Rick seemed to have zero interest in her; in fact, he was clearly checking out their gorgeous waitress when she finally decided enough was enough. Avery wanted to change that. She didn’t want to be seen as some high-strung, non-sexual prude; she wanted to be seen as a woman who had her own desires; a woman who had the power to make men fall to their knees and worship her body.

  The problem was, Rick was worshipping her, she just didn’t want him to anymore. It felt weird, probably similar to what it might feel like had Rick been her brother or some other family member.

  Her desire shifted from Rick – although Avery wondered if the desire for him had ever been there at all – to Lucas in no time. She had done things with him, felt things for him, that she had never experienced before. It made her feel shaky and uncertain. Dangerous, to a degree. Lucas Cruz made her feel like a dangerous woman. And Avery craved exploring that more.

  Rick wouldn’t be able to help her with that because Rick didn’t give her those feelings. Rick made her feel comfortable. Boring, maybe. Secure. There were days when she felt in love with him, other days felt like they were friends that liked to make out. Recently, there had been no romance between them. Even their dates consisted of business chatter rather than travel plans and hand holding. Maybe what she had with Rick compromised the majority of typical relationships; there was no way the infatuation for Lucas would last. Giving into temptation – cheating, because whether she wanted to admit it or not, she cheated on Rick – caused breakups, divorce, heartache, trauma, the list went on. But something had awakened in Avery because of Lucas and maybe it was one of those things she had never explored during her youth and needed to get it out of her system before she settled down, but she couldn’t imagine giving up the chance to at least give this a try.

  And she wasn’t dumb. She knew Lucas’s reputation, and she knew reputations while not always the entire story of who someone was had a fraction of truth at the root. She wouldn’t deny that it was dangerous to risk a stable relationship, the comfort of knowing someone for so long, for someone who might not feel the same way about her that she did about them. But she didn’t care.

  Call it a quarter-life crisis. Call it selfish. Call it wanting to live. Call it anything. But Avery wanted to change and in order to do that, she needed to breakup with Rick. As difficult and as heartbreaking as the thought was.

  “You okay?” Lucas asked. His arm twitched, as though he was going to reach out and squeeze her thigh, but stopped himself. Instead, he lifted his elbow so it rested on the back of his chair and twisted his torso so he could face her in his seat.

  “It seems as though you both are getting along,” Gary said, surprising Avery since he seemingly came from nowhere. He clapped his hands together and looked between Avery and Lucas.

  Avery couldn’t help but look at Lucas. She was shy when she looked at him, afraid Gary would be able to see her feelings for Lucas simply by looking at him. Her cheeks turned pink. Unlike Avery, Lucas was better at playing cool, his face passive, but there was something warm about the look on his face as he regarded Avery with a small smile.

  “We’ve spent some time together, getting to know the competition,” he said, turning to look back at Gary. He shot the App creator a charming smile, completely at ease. “Good networking, you know.”

  “I do know that,” Gary said, sitting on the edge of the desk, filling up more space in the already-tiny lobby. “You know, Marcy and I were competitors for the longest time at MIT. We had to top each other with everything – grades, research, thesises, anything you can think of. It was only until after graduation that we decided to put our brains together and come up with something together.” He looked between the couple once more, a mysterious smile on his face. “Which is why we decided to call this meeting. We think you both have excellent ideas that would serve our little project well. Lucas, you know business. You’re friendly and charming and you know how the supernatural think and act and are. You’re a big picture guy.” He turned back to Avery. “Avery, you’re one of the smartest women I’ve ever met. You’re new to this whole business game so you bring a fresh look on old ideas. You know how to plan for the future so you sort out the pieces and put them in order. You’re organized. I think if both of you were to work with our company, you would both give insight we wouldn’t get if only one of you did. If both of you decide to invest, we would cut the asking price in half since we’ll be getting two of you instead of one. The downside is that the cut will be split four ways instead of three. I know it’s not something either of you signed up for, which is why I wanted to discuss it with you in person. Marcy would have been here, but she’s on a train to meet up with vampire royalty in order to secure a location for our fundraiser and then meet with the NDS to test out the final product. Should you both agree, we would make our announcement at the fundraiser.”

  When he finished, he offered them a smile.

  “I know it’s a lot,” he said. “And not what we originally talked about. No hard feelings. You can back out now. Go home and think about it. I’ll have the contracts drawn up tomorrow and send them over to you. If you like what you read, you can sign it and we can go from there.” He perked his brow. “Sound good?”

  Avery swallowed. Her instinct was to look at Lucas, try and read him, see if he was okay with this. She didn’t know why he wouldn’t be. They were already intimate with each other and Avery trusted him. She just didn’t know if he felt the same way about her, at least, in the professional world.

  “I can’t speak for Ms. Montgomery,” Lucas said, and Avery watched his profile from the corner of her eye. She liked the way his jaw popped when he spoke. And the definition of it was nothing short of masculine. It was difficult to look away. “But I have absolutely no problem with this. Combining our intellect and resources will do more for this app than anything else, and I look forward to working with her, and you, on a more intimate level.”

  Avery couldn’t help herself. Her eyes found his, and she wasn’t surprised – perhaps she should have been – to find Lucas staring at her with dark brown eyes, darker than they should be. She knew that look. Somehow, she knew what it stood for. She knew what it meant.

  Her insides twitched and she instinctively squeezed her pelvis muscles to try and gather some form of control over herself. But how could she, when he looked at her with those eyes. She was already soaking through her thong, and a small part of her worried that when she stood up, there might be a small pool of moisture on the back of her skirt, revealing her desire for him.

  His nostrils flared. He could smell it on her and he clenched his jaw.

  “What do you say, Avery?” Gary asked, turning his attention to her, a friendly smile on his face.

  Avery knew she should look at him, give him the attention he deserved, but she found she couldn’t pull her eyes away from Lucas. It was like he was a magnet and she was forced to look at him. Like he was an earth and she was pulled into his gravitational orbit. She couldn’t not look at him, which was not something she was used to.

  “I think,” she said, and her eyes dropped to his lips – those lips that did awful, pleasurable things to her, those lips she wanted on her again and again and again – and her own tongue darted across her bottom lip. She didn’t know what for. She didn’t know why. All she knew was that it happened and she had no control over it. His eyebrows perked and his eyes narrowed at her tongue and her lips and oh my God, I want him right here, right now, and I don’t even care that Gary is right here, watching us.

  Avery cleared her throat and forced herself to look at Gary. It was almost painful to lo
ok away from Lucas, but she had to.

  “I think that would be a great idea,” she finally said.

  “Great!” Gary clapped his hands together before pulling out two manila folders and sliding them toward Avery and Lucas. “Have your attorneys look these over, and if the terms are agreeable, get these back to me. No pressure, no rush, but I’m hoping to announce everything at the Hours’ Masquerade next week.” He shrugged sheepishly. “So I might have already had these drawn up on the off-chance you would agree.”

  “I think that’s not too much to ask,” Lucas said. He stuck out his hand toward Avery and offered her a charming smile. She didn’t want to admit it but her heart flipped. “I look forward to working you.”

  Avery snorted, her face burning.

  “I’m sorry, what?” she asked, sliding her hand into his.

  Lucas smirked as he shook it. “I look forward to working with you,” he amended.

  16

  When Rick asked to take her to dinner to celebrate her business run and to apologize for his deplorable behavior, Avery jumped at the chance. It was the perfect place to tell him that she didn't want to be with him, that she couldn't continue lying to him. She didn't think it was necessary to tell him why but she did think it was important to stop the lies and the betrayal and let him know upfront how she was feeling.

  She slid on a navy blue dress that hugged her curves just right - it was one of Rick's favorites and he deserved that much. Her heart fluttered with nervousness. She had never broken up with anyone before. She hadn’t talked about it with her friends. She definitely hadn’t told her parents yet, though she knew they would be disappointed, her mother more than her father. If Avery knew any better, she would suspect that Marlene had a crush on him.