by H. M. Irwing
Lucy rushed like mad, tossing clothing into bags and getting dressed for the party. New Year’s Eve at the Littles’ was clearly going to be a solemn affair with no one in the mood to party, but that was still preferable than going to Richard’s. Anything was preferable to that. She had just sufficient time to stuff some underwear in her suitcase before Jace was there. Only it was not Jace alone.
The white limo that drove up the slope to their house looked as if it would topple bonnet-over-tires back down the steep incline. But somehow it held, waiting precariously on the edge for Lucy to emerge from the safety of her home and plunge straight for the vortex of doom.
Which she did only shortly after, gingerly climbing into her seat and buckling up her seatbelt. Lucy exchanged the barest murmur of greeting with the rest of the occupants, and then Jace was sliding in beside her. And they were off in Richard’s limo, heading to the Reeves’ farmhouse for the weekend. The stony silence in the limo was unbearable. Lucy ran a hesitant hand down the ruffles on the front her dress and grimaced at the gold colour.
The four of them riding in the limo to Richard’s country home was not the ideal combination. A grumpy Jace, who looked decidedly unhappy in seeing Lucy attired in Richard’s choice; Celine, who appeared to be overly unaffected by it all; and Richard, who hadn’t even spared her a glance. She wondered for the umpteenth time why was she was there at all.
Her glance shifted back to Jace’s, and the accusing stare within them. He’d known of the unexpected change of plans; Richard had made it a point to let him know. Never let it be said he’d gone about kissing his friend’s girlfriend sneakily behind his back. Although that was exactly what he’d done. Lucy returned Jace’s accusing stare. As far as she was concerned, all this was his fault.
Lucy hadn’t wanted to go to the blasted New Year’s Eve party, she hadn’t wanted to go shopping for a stupid dress, and she hadn’t wanted to do it with Celine. But Jace had overruled her on all counts, so as far as she was concerned, he deserved his comeuppance. He deserved to know that not only was Lucy clad from head to toe on Richard’s account but that his two best friends were eating face behind his back. Not that she would ever dare to tell him that last part.
Lucy silently exchanged fire for fire with her gaze on Jace’s. But Jace was never one to hold a grudge for long. The blue chill of his gaze simmered and warmed up with amusement. Jace was always easiest to laugh than to blow his top. That was Lucy’s prerogative. But even her temper could not outlast his persuasive bent.
She felt the fire in her gaze fizzle out at the warm glint in his. No longer was she having to shoot lasers at his deep chill; instead she felt the urge to warm his waters with a mere glimmer of candlelight. Lucy blushed and looked away, only to catch the sardonic amusement of Richard’s gaze.
She ran a nervous hand along her dress, smoothing down yet another ridiculous ruffle on her dress. She could not say she was enamoured of the ruffles, but the fit was perfect, and the colour did bring out the gold in her eyes. But it was really her darkened skin tones that were brought into sharp contrast. The golden bronze of her skin, in her eyes, had never looked so attractive as it did now.
She could relish in the deeply tanned hues of her skin and knew Celine secretly eyed the same, quite jealously knowing her own bottled tan would never come close. Lucy could safely say she could now happily view possibilities in the world in all its varying shades of sun-primed gold, but here in the approaching dark, with nightfall about them, there were no answers to be sought within the depths of its black, white, and the spectrum shades of grey.
The drive was endless as it was boring. After the awkward avoidance of the first half hour, Lucy threw good manners to the wind and dug out her phone to immerse herself in a romance that would hopefully shed light over her own muddled attempts.
The tale lasted throughout, even when they moved past the line of civilisation and her network lost coverage. But the shrouding darkness moved in to enclose the four of them with uncomfortable intimacy. The muted lights within the limo serving to cast a shadow over the world outside while playing softly over the attractive features of those within. Lucy found her gaze helplessly caught within the equally dark glittering depths of Richard’s hooded look. She tugged her vision away with effort to fix on the dark scenery, sporadically lit up by car headlights before vanishing past her window and once more being eaten up by the gloom. She stared out unimpressed, ignoring with all determination the reflection of the man who kept staring right at her until her neck ached.
The second hour saw an attempt of conversation between Jace and Celine, both having had enough of the stifling tensions within. It was at that point that Lucy turned to face the other occupants of the limo. Richard was now immersed in his laptop, no doubt doing work. Celine was recounting some event or other, and Jace was laughing at her little jokes.
The third hour saw Celine immersed on her phone and Jace asleep, lounging against Lucy’s shoulder. Did he not get a good rest last night? Lucy stared at the tired lines about his eyes and wondered how his day had gone. Normally they would have made an easy time of it, the miles of a journey turning to nothing with conversation. At least that had been the case before last weekend. Lucy wasn’t sure she didn’t regret all that has happened since. She turned more fully so that she may take in her fill of him.
His golden blond hair was tousled, his clothes carelessly tossed on, and his sleeves were rolled up to display a fine sprinkling of soft, golden hair. In a short time, the immaculate man dressed in a suit who’d met her at her door had been reduced to looking more like himself. Lucy ran an absent hand down his arms to test the softness of his skin.
A grunt from Richard’s direction had her stopping and yanking her hand back as if she’d done something wrong. Lucy stared on, at first confused and then angry. She met Richard’s fierce gaze with her own, but the dark seemed to have lent terrible depths to voids of his and Lucy found herself involuntarily shrinking back into her own seat. If Jace and Celine had not been in the car with them there was no knowing what he would have done.
The violence in his gaze was unmistakable. But it was a violence of the sensual kind. Primitive and possessive. The thought of his kisses rushed forth to her mind, overpowering all else. She barely contained her reaction, watching as his gaze burned hotter as though in sync with her thoughts. Desire flooded her, and Lucy squirmed in its heat.
Her hand reached out blindly, in search for an anchor to ground her, and found it in Jace. Her hand latched on to Jace’s arm.
“Huh?” Jace woke up with a jolt.
Lucy blurted the only thing that came to mind, “Are we there yet?”
She got a lot of sardonic brow lifts at that. The car fell silent again after that and Lucy turned back to stare out the window. It was not long before she thankfully felt her eyes droop shut in fatigue.
“Lucy?”
A hand pressed down on her shoulder and gently shook her awake. She snuggled further up against the warm chest she was lying on. “Hmm…Jace?” Lucy murmured sleepily.
“Lucy we’re here.”
She raised her head up then to look about and he was right, they were there. Her heart lifted in unexpected excitement. Outdoor torches lit up the long drive in. The farm was abuzz with activity. Its rolling plains swallowed up by the dark so that it was only the house itself, all lit up, that drew their eyes.
The sounds of horses whining and dogs barking was all that could be heard as they sped on past. The farm was unusually alive that night. It felt almost magical. It was as though the party spread out to its four-legged habitants as well. A couple of drovers rode in on horseback, herding the limo off the path and guiding it away to where a huge marquee had been set up not a distance away from the main house.
As if out of nowhere, another limo glided by right along them bouncing along on the uneven terrain and guided by its own pair of drivers. The vehicles pulled up alongside each other, and Lucy noted there were already many others parked side b
y side. The horses lingered with their riders and Lucy emerged from her vehicle to find out why.
“A pretty Sheila like you can’t be having her pretty little ankles in a twist. Hop on here, darlin’,” he said, patting to the spot between the spread of his legs. “… and I will ride you to safety.”
The grin he flashed down at her was positively wolfish. Lucy was not so dumb not to notice the double entendre to his words, but she grinned back recklessly anyhow, already caught up by the magic of the moment and proffered her hand. In a move so quick it left her literally gasping, she found herself hauled up and seated across from him. She lifted shocked eyes to take in the drover’s widened grin and then they were off, with Lucy clinging on for dear life for the short moonlit ride. He pulled to a reckless halt a short distance later and had the horse rear to purposefully send Lucy to cling to him harder. He smelt of horse and leather and a brutish cologne. It was fitting. Lucy felt her temper sizzle at his attempt to show off and impress, invariably putting her at risk.
But a flash of white teeth later and Lucy found herself out of breath but firmly on the ground. She gasped and turned, looking around, trying to still her erratically thumping heart, only to find Celine standing there beside her, looking as cool, calm, and collected as ever.
It was a moment later before the men joined them and Lucy was swept on ahead under Jace’s reassuring arms, into the brightly lit canopy with glittering lights. An hour later and the lights dimmed to a sultry glow and the party took on a wild flavour, just crazy enough to appease the most discriminating reveller. The party began in earnest then, in a whirl of delicious food, loud music, and plenty of booze. Lucy didn’t waste time regretting her night and instead danced to the beat, swirled and swung to rhythm, and welcomed the New Year with all the gusto expected of high intoxication.
She lost count of the many dance partners she’d had, she also lost awareness of the many groping hands and inappropriate suggestions she’d had to fend off. There were only two sets of arms that controlled her awareness so completely that whenever they were set about her lusciously writhing frame, Lucy was never in doubt of who partnered her.
With Jace, she melted right up against him, openly encouraging his wandering hands and lips but with Richard… with Richard, she felt herself shake and then shake even harder at his soothing whispers to relax and enjoy herself… to relax and enjoy him.
“Shhh…,” he whispered hotly into her ear. The sound of his voice oddly carrying over the din of the music. “Relax, Lucy,” he murmured encouragingly, as he rubbed a soothing hand down the exposed back of her bodice, running it caressingly down her naked spine and drawing an unbidden whimper as Lucy fought desperately not to give in. Not to simply melt into his arms as he wanted her to.
His lips brushed down her neck to settle open-mouthed at the base, drawing another involuntary whimper to escape her lips. The alcohol in her brain urged her to simply give in. But Lucy’s inherent stubbornness came to her rescue. She shook her head in denial but was otherwise unable to help her reactions. The intoxicated crowd pushed and shoved around her until her resisting frame trembled helplessly against him.
He held her to him tightly, driving the rhythm of their dance to the slow thrust of his pelvis. It was sensual. It was hot. It steamed her to a boiling point. But it was also a shameless tease. For no longer than he’d started her blood pumping than he was gone. Off to another dancer and herself, swung on into the arms of another. Her partners were varied. Some made her laugh at their absurdities, others made her mad at their unwanted groping. Lucy was swift to settle the score with those.
Her stiletto-clad feet finally made sense. There was only one reason women would subject their feet to these torture devices and that was to administer that torture on their unsuspecting dance partners. Lucy deployed that at will. Laughing hard as her abused partners stomped away for safety.
It was on her third send-off that she caught Richard’s dark eyes laughingly meeting her own. His look of approval had her flushing unexpectedly, and that sent her into a panic. She threw herself into her next dance with a lot more vigour but was unable to stop her arms from closing around Richard’s when he came for her again later and then again and again after.
But it was in Jace’s arms that she welcomed the new year. Silently praying that it would not be as fraught with confusion as the end of the last one. Lucy rubbed her mounting frustration against Jace, guiltily knowing it was Richard’s priming that had her wild in Jace’s arms. Her lips devoured his hungrily just as his ate at hers happily.
“Happy new year, Lucy darling,” murmured Jace, grinning down at Lucy.
“Happy new year, Jace.” She whispered back, staring up at him with utter confusion. Overwhelmed by all that she was feeling, Lucy drew away, suddenly weary of it all. The alcohol and lateness of the hour all working against her. She teetered on her heels, woozy on the drink, and was unhappy that she had indulged at all. It had seemed like the thing to do at the time.
Three hours of Richard’s presence in the close confines of his limo scraped her nerves raw. She’d needed a drink for fortification, and the others that had mindlessly followed had consequently been out of her control. She’d always been light with her drinks, and so now felt the punch smack on her dulled senses.
“Hey, you alright darling?” Jace’s concerned blues peered down at her questioningly, but Lucy only blinked back uncomprehendingly.
“You’re completely soused, you know that?” Laughed Jace.
Lucy grimaced. “I don’t feel so well, Jace.”
“You’re not about to spew are you, Luce?”
But Lucy didn’t dare shake her head. Any movement on her part just might dislodge altogether and then where would she be?
“Come on, let’s get you out of here,” Jace grinned, shaking his head in amusement. Lucy allowed him to lead her away, glad to be leaving the party. She had never been one for late nights and the last week had seen her up to all hours of the morning. The fatigue was clearly catching up to her. That and the alcohol. But Jace being Jace meant the long route on the way out. He saw the need to stop at many points along the way to greet and laugh with people she’d never met and was too soused to meet now.
It was at some point during that round that another, firmer hand slipped onto the small of her waist, successfully dislodging Jace’s hold on her. A heated exchange blurred overhead and then Lucy was being led firmly and surely out. She could have cheered at this outcome but was too tipsy to do more than just slur out something incomprehensible.
The grip on her waist tightened and another hand slid around her front to hold her up and keep her steady. Lucy leaned against the strong frame, happy to be led out. The din of the party slowly quietened, and Lucy realised they had moved away. The chill of the night air set about her and Lucy accepted the warmth her escort provided as he tugged her closer still, shielding her from the cold and the chilled wind.
The walk to the house was slow. Not only did her heels keep digging awkwardly into the soft ground but all the fresh clean country air was making her head spin. It just didn’t go with the alcohol fumes she had been inhaling only moments earlier. Feeling light-headed, Lucy hardly winced when a fluent blue streak lit up the night skies.
It was only when the ground decided to rush up to greet her that she realised she had been falling. A moment later and she was whisked off her feet. The floating sensation that came with that stayed with her past the brightly lit entrance that had her burying her face against her valiant escort and on past the flight of stairs that led to the room that would be hers.
It was only as her body slid down his to be stood wobbly back on her feet that Lucy really looked into her escort’s dark void for eyes. Richard. Lucy stared on, unsurprised.
“Thanks for that, Richard. Don’t think I could have managed it myself, old chap. Feeling a bit tipsy myself. What was in that punch? A pond of gin?” Jace slapped Richard’s back as he came around them, only to walk on past and fall carele
ssly across the bed. At any other time, Lucy would have grinned at his antics but at that moment, for the life of her, Lucy couldn’t seem to tear away her glance from Richard’s blazing depths to spare him a thought.
It was only when Richard suddenly smirked in a way that was both taunting as it was mocking that Lucy could come back to herself. But still she stood there, silently staring until that mockery of a grin wavered then fell away altogether. Instead, his brow furrowed in a frown worthy of Lucy’s own taunting grin. But she found she still could do nothing more than stand there helplessly and simply stare.
Richard took a step back and then another, before with a muffled curse he turned heel and simply left.
Lucy felt her world come back into focus then. She looked around the large spacious room allotted to her and then narrowed her eyes on the king-sized bed in the middle.
“So, this is to be my room then?” She asked hesitantly. The room was strangely masculine, but it was not the stark design in furnishing that caught her glance but the largess of everything within.
“Your room? Babe, this room is ours.” He said smugly.
Lucy only glanced about again, glad to note that her bags had somehow made their way there. She longed to slip out of her dress and into something normal. She took the few steps needed to drop to her knees and dug out her usual t-shirt and shorts, only to have a wave of nausea making her dash for the bathroom.
The rest of the night passed in a blur, most of which Lucy spent curled into a ball on the surprisingly lush bathroom carpet. She was not even aware of when she passed out and how she got transported from the bathroom to the bed. But there was no guessing Jace had had a hand in that. Lucy woke up late and parched the next morning, with Jace still sound asleep beside her.