by Ashley Blake
I laughed when she said that because a few minutes always turned into a couple of hours and I wasn’t in the mood that night. I really did have a lot to do for my blog the next day.
I gave her a semi-stern look. “Gigi, we know how that always ends up. I have a ton of writing and editing to do tomorrow. Don’t worry about me, just go have a good time.”
Lucas turned to me. “I don’t have any other plans, so if you want to go clubbing, I’ll go.”
“I’m really not in the mood tonight. But don’t let me stop you.”
He leaned down and whispered in my ear.
“If you’re not going, I’m not going.”
I smiled to myself and told Gigi they were on their own for the night. I knew that she secretly was happy because she would have Dex all to herself.
She instantly looked concerned.
“How are you going to get home?”
Lucas didn’t hesitate. “I’ll give her a ride.”
I looked at him and smiled. “Thanks.”
It was late, I was in the art district which was barren at night, and it was chilly outside. There was no way I was turning down a ride home.
We all chatted for about an hour and then it was time for Lucas to shut down the party. Gigi and Dex left, and I went to the front to pay for my painting. While I was waiting for it to be packaged in a tube, Lucas stopped by to see me.
“Just a few more minutes.”
“Okay, thanks.” I tried to calm the butterflies in my belly but they were out of control.
A few minutes later, Lucas walked up wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket and I thought I would melt right there. I don’t know how it was possible, but he looked even sexier than before. We were the last people to leave the gallery, and as he locked up I shivered as the unseasonably cool summer air caressed my skin. He turned to see me rubbing my arms to keep warm and he instantly looked concerned.
“Are you cold? Here, take my jacket.”
His jacket was already warm as he slipped it on me, and it was the next best thing to having him wrap his arms around me.
“I hope you don’t mind riding on my bike.”
He pointed to his motorcycle that was parked right in front of the gallery and it was gorgeous. Shiny chrome flanked a sleek black body and it was unlike any bike I had ever seen. I didn’t know a ton about bikes but I knew that one cost a pretty penny.
“This is a really cool bike Lucas.”
He really seemed to appreciate my comment and he winked at me.
“Thanks. Here, you wear my helmet, and if you put this on your back, the painting will be fine.”
The painting was in a long tube and he had it in some contraption that I could wear on my back to hold it in place. I slipped my arms through the straps, the painting resting comfortably behind me, and I strapped on the helmet. Lucas climbed on the bike and I hiked up my dress and climbed on after him, wrapping my arms around his waist. He revved the engine and turned back to look at me.
“Where am I going?”
“Clark and Maple.”
“Okay, hold on tight.”
Not a problem.
We rode through the streets of Chicago and the way he controlled the bike turned me on more than I knew was possible. With my arms wrapped around his rock hard abs as he straddled the bike, all I could think about was him straddling me. We were in front of my building before I knew it and I didn’t want to get off the bike, I didn’t want to take my arms from around his waist.
He parked the bike, turned it off and I reluctantly hopped off, pulled down my dress and took off the helmet. Lucas leaned against his bike and crossed his chiseled arms as he looked at me.
Could he be any more beautiful?
“Were you okay on the bike?”
“Oh, yeah, I was fine. I love motorcycles.”
“You looked really good on it.” His eyes slowly made their way down the length of my body and then back up to my eyes and I could feel my cheeks flushing red, but I knew I looked good that night.
Once again I was tongue tied and didn’t know what to say, so I cleared my throat and handed him the helmet.
“Thanks for letting me use it.”
“No problem.”
I took off the straps holding my painting, slipped the tube out and gave him the straps.
“And thanks for letting me use this.”
“Sure, do you know where you’re going to get it framed?”
“Not yet, but I’m sure I can find a place.”
“If you need any suggestions let me know, I am in the business you know.” He winked at me and I felt like a giddy schoolgirl.
“Thanks, Lucas.”
“Any time.” His eyes captured mine and we stood there in silence for a couple of minutes, with me growing increasingly uncomfortable under his intense stare. I had to say something to break the silence.
“Thanks for the ride home. Um, well, I better get upstairs.”
“You’re going to leave me down here by myself?” His eyes twinkled under the street lights.
That caught me off guard so I stumbled over my words.
“Um, well, yeah, I guess I am.”
“I want to see you again, Sophie. Will you have dinner with me tomorrow night?”
Dinner? I knew that most other women would jump at the chance to go out with him, and I was sure that the list of them was very long. Even though I’d had a great time with him earlier that night, I didn’t want to be just another girl. Someone as gorgeous as Lucas would be trouble for me, and I didn’t feel like dealing with trouble. I decided that it was probably best to stay away from Lucas Tate.
“I’m really flattered that you asked Lucas, but I’m going to have to say no. I’m just not in a place right now where I want to date. I recently got out of a relationship so I’m just doing me for a while.”
“Well this is a first.” I don’t think he meant to say that out loud. “I have to say that I’m disappointed but I respect your decision, even though I don’t like it.”
“Thanks, it’s nothing personal.”
“I would hope not, we haven’t even scratched the surface of getting personal yet.” His eyes drank me in and it was hard for me to put a sentence together, so what came out of my mouth was only one word.
“Yet?”
He looked extremely confident. “Oh, yes. This is not the end of us, we’ve only just begun.”
Is he deaf? Did he not hear me turn him down?
When he spoke to me it was if he had ESP.
“I know that you turned me down, but I don’t give up so easily. I’m coming after you, Sophie. Believe me, we’ll see each other again. You better get inside. I’ll wait until you are safely inside your building before I take off.”
I was shocked and I had nothing to say back to that. The trouble was already beginning and I knew that once things started, I would fall hard. I was practically in a daze as I turned to go inside my building and then I remembered that I was still wearing his jacket. I took it off, gave it to him and thanked him for letting me wear it.
“Take care, Lucas.” I tried my best to give him a casual smile and I knew that I failed miserably.
“See you soon, Sophie.” He winked at me and gave me that sexy little smirk as I walked inside my building, and I was kicking myself for turning him down.
Why did I say no again? Oh yeah, he’s trouble!
I went to bed a few minutes later, my mind filled with thoughts of sexy Lucas.
Chapter 4
The next morning Gigi was still sleeping while I made pancakes for us. I assumed the smell woke her up because she was sitting at the table before they were ready. Her hair was tousled all over her head and she turned sleepy eyes toward me.
“Please tell me these are your famous banana pancakes.”
“Of course they are, I thought we needed a treat.”
“Oh, awesome! Soooo, how was your night?” Gigi was cheesing all over the place.
I looked at her and
her mischievous grin was smiling back at me.
“You first, I’m sure it was more exciting than mine.”
“What? Lucas is crazy about you!”
“Nice try Gigi, you first. Which club did you go to?”
“Okay fine, but I want every detail when I’m done.”
I nodded at her. “Okay.”
“So, I had the best time last night Soph, I can’t remember ever liking a guy this much!”
“Oh, Gigi, that’s so awesome!”
“Yeah, we went to Soundbar and he knew a bunch of people there but he was only paying attention to me.” She skimmed her body, head to toe, with her hands. “He was all about this.”
“Yeah, I could see that he was all about you at the gallery.”
She instantly brightened. “Really?”
I playfully rolled my eyes at her. “Yes, you know he was.”
She grinned back at me. “Okay, maybe I did know that. Anyway, we had an awesome time and then we went back to his condo, which is gorgeous by the way, and we made out for a while. Best. Kisser. Ever.”
“Gigi! You barely know him and you went back to his place?”
“Yes, mom, I felt perfectly safe with him. I’m glad I went, he is super cool and super hot! He asked me out for Thursday night so you’ll have to help me find something to wear.”
“Don’t you have plans with Jacob on Thursday?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m canceling those.”
I dished our plates and we dug in. Gigi swallowed her first big mouthful and started on the next when she stopped with a full fork, mid-air.
“So, tell me about your night. What happened with Lucas?”
“Before we get into that, why didn’t you tell me that Dex asked you to meet him there and why didn’t you tell me Lucas would be there?”
She put down her fork and hung her head. She could be overly dramatic sometimes but it was one of the many things I loved about her quirky personality.
“Well, I was afraid that it wouldn’t be real if I said it out loud. I can’t remember ever liking a guy this much Sophie, it’s kind of freaking me out. You looked so hot that night and I didn’t think you would mind seeing Lucas again after the way you reacted when he didn’t get your number a couple of weeks ago. I thought it would be a nice surprise for you to see him again.”
I gave her a forgiving look and she looked relieved.
“You’re not mad?”
“No, I’m not mad. I’m glad things went well with Dex and I’m sure you’ll have the most awesome time this Thursday. He is gorgeous, Gigi.”
“I know, right? Those two together are smokin’ hot and I like it! So, what happened with Lucas?”
“Not much to tell, he gave me a ride home on his bike and that’s it.”
She gave me a scolding look. “Sophie, I am your best friend, and I was not born yesterday. I saw how comfortable you two looked together at the gallery. Did you talk to anyone else that night?”
I reluctantly answered her. “No.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
“Right, so why are you acting like you don’t like him?”
My best friend knew me too well.
“Okay fine, I had a great time chatting with him and he is hot as hell, but a guy like that is nothing but trouble, Gigi.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You know why. Did you see all the girls that were falling all over him at Urban and then at the gallery? He can have any girl he wants and he knows it. I don’t want to get into another situation like the one I was in with Steven. Besides, I’m not ready to date yet.”
“Sophie, I’m sure that Lucas is nothing like Steven. He seems like a really nice guy, and the fact that he is smokin’ hot doesn’t hurt. Did he ask you out?”
“Yeah, but I turned him down.”
She instantly jumped down my throat.
“Why? He seems really cool Sophie, you’re going to have to take a chance and dip your foot in the dating pool sometime. It may as well be with a gorgeous art dealer.”
“I don’t know, Gigi, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“You know what? I’m not going to accept that answer from you. I sat by and did nothing while you spent three years of your life wasting time on that loser asshole Steven, because you said it worked for you, but I’m not going stay silent on this one. I think Lucas is exactly what you need, so you are going to go out with him.”
“Gigi.”
“No, Sophie, you’re not getting out of this one. He seems like a really nice guy, he made sure you made it home safely and he is drop dead gorgeous. You’re going out with him.”
I let out a deep sigh. “There’s one problem.”
“What?” She was slightly irritated.
“He doesn’t have my number.”
“That’s an easy fix. I’ll tell Dex to give him your number.”
“Gigi, he will think I’m desperate.”
“No, Sophie, he will think you’re interested.”
There was no winning this one with her so I gave in.
“Fine.”
Her face lit up. “Good.” Then the mischievous grin returned. “I can’t wait until we go on a double date!”
I almost whined like a child but I caught myself. Sometimes my friend was too eager.
“Gigi, give me a chance to get to know him first, okay?”
She pretended to pout. “Fine. So tell me about your night with him.”
"It was no big deal. He gave me a ride home on his bike and then he asked me out to dinner. And now, thanks to you, I will take him up on his offer."
"Good! I can't wait to hear about it when it happens."
We finished breakfast and made plans to go shopping later that afternoon.
The week passed pretty quickly and by Wednesday night Gigi was sulking big time because she had not heard from Dex. He told her he would call her Tuesday, but Tuesday came and went with nothing from Dex. I kept trying to reassure her that she would hear from him, but I was kind of starting to doubt it. I had to hide my disappointment because the only way I would see Lucas was if Gigi talked to Dex to give him my number. Dex was screwing things up for everybody. I went to her room where she was studying her lines.
“Hey Gigi, did you cancel with Jacob yet?”
“No, I was going to wait until Dex called because I wanted to make sure I had a backup in case he cancelled. I know, it’s not nice to use him like that but I want to have someone else around so that I don’t get too caught up in Dex. I’m already so into him and do you see how he’s treating me? He could have called by now, he’s such a jerk! We should go out this weekend and meet other guys, we need to get our numbers up.”
I knew that Gigi was on the prowl whenever she said we needed to get our numbers up. She liked to have at least five guys lined up when she was trying to get over someone. I had to say something because she was giving up before she even knew what was going to happen with Dex.
“Gigi, you are already juggling how many guys right now?”
“I have three different dates set up this week and weekend.”
“Yeah, shouldn’t you just focus on those guys for now?”
“Sophie, you know me, when have you ever seen me act like this about a guy?”
She was right, I had never seen her be so into a guy so fast before.
"I guess this is the first time. Okay, I get it, you need to distract your mind from focusing on him. If you want to go out this weekend, I’ll go out with you.”
“Thank you, I need to forget about him because he has obviously forgotten about me.”
"Gigi, I wouldn't go that far, just wait a little while longer and see if he calls. You guys are supposed to go out tomorrow and it’s not even tomorrow yet. Maybe something happened and he couldn’t call you sooner. I say just wait and see.”
She let out a deep sigh. “I guess you’re right.”
We chatted for a little bit longer and then I went to my room to edit
my blog. I had a meeting with my biggest advertiser, Glitz, an online jewelry boutique, the next day about possibly partnering up to do a jewelry line and I was super stoked. I didn’t mention it to anyone because I wanted to make sure that it was real before I said anything.
