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

by Isadora Brown

  She shook her head.

  If someone else opened the door – or worse, another woman – she could pretend she was coming over about their joint investment. Of course, it wasn’t officially joint, but the way the app designers were dicking around with them both, it almost felt as though this was going to end in a “We’ll be happy to take both of your investments” than an individual coup.

  She took a breath, thought for a moment. Did she want this? Like, really want this? Was this a good idea?

  “Well,” she managed to say, her tone raw. “What do you suggest I do?”

  “Get experience,” he told her. “A lot of it.”

  Logically, Avery knew Lucas was talking about business. But he compared business to a relationship. He basically told her he didn’t want to waste his time teaching someone the ropes – and this time, he was speaking of a relationship. He knew she wanted to wait until she was ready, but Avery had never told him she was a virgin. He might just assume that she had done it before but wasn’t ready to do it with him yet.

  What if he broke up with her because she was a virgin?

  Then he’s Dock Johnson from high school all over again. You didn’t care about Dock and, deep down, you don’t care if Rick does the same thing.

  If you want experience because you want to please Rick, then admit it to yourself. There’s nothing wrong with that. You’re an excellent fiancée who wants to make sure her man is taken care of. You want to make him quiver and beg and do whatever you want. You can’t do that without some type of experience. And that’s okay. But don’t do it out of some fear that Rick will leave you because you are what you are. That’s bullshit, and you know it.

  Avery nodded her head to herself. She got out of the car and dashed to the awning at his doorstep. She was already soaked and had only been in the rain for a manner of seconds. Her hands shook even in the smart leather gloves. She took a breath, and then another. If she didn’t knock now, she’d lose her nerve. That couldn’t happen. So she took a final breath, raised her right hand, and knocked on the door.

  It took him only a moment to answer. Lucas stood there in the doorway in an undershirt and pajama pants. He looked younger than he normally did in a suit. More approachable. Vulnerable. Avery realized her assessment of him was wrong. He appeared lean in his business suit but now that she saw him up close, he had surprisingly broad shoulders and well-muscles arms. He was compact, sturdy. Beautiful. His olive skin clashed with the white shirt and he wore black pants that looked so casual and comfortable on him. His black hair curled naturally and was wet and slicked back, probably from a shower. He looked surprised to see her. She couldn't blame him.

  "I need your help," Avery stated. It was hard to speak. She didn't know if it was because she was nervous or because she was cold. Probably a bit of both. "Can I come in?"

  Lucas blinked. "Of course," he said and took a step back in order to let Avery in.

  Avery didn't hesitate. She stepped out of the rain and into his home, her eyes trying not to stare at his room. She didn't want to be a fool.

  "Let me get you a towel," he said after shutting the door and locking it. "I have the heater on and coming from cold to hot could make you catch a cold. I want you healthy and fresh so when I take the LunaApp away from you, there'll be no other excuse save for the fact that I'm superior."

  "Thanks," she said, completely missing his humorous dig. Her thoughts were too consumed with why she was here in the first place, what she had come to ask him. It didn't help that her body was reacting to him, to the way he looked and dressed and smelled. She wanted as much distance between them as possible, especially due to the nature of his reputation. They were in his house, in an environment he was comfortable in, that he knew like the back of his hand. She needed to keep her wits if she was going to come out of this unscathed. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

  "Are you asking me if I have a girl back here?" he asked, stopping just as he reached the hallway and throwing her an inquiring look over his shoulder.

  Avery felt her cheeks burn even further and Lucas smiled then, revealing the points of his canine teeth.

  "Because I don't," he told her. "It's just you and me." With that, he disappeared.

  Avery took a breath, trying to drown out the hammer of her heartbeat that echoed through her ears. She needed a distraction, anything to help steady her. She decided to look around the room, try and learn more about the icon, the bachelor, the man everyone wanted - Lucas Cruz.

  He preferred dark furniture. Everything looked polished, pristine. It reeked of masculine energy but a sophisticated masculinity that Avery didn't see much. Everything was in its proper place. Everything matched. Avery didn't have as much preference for her bedroom the way Lucas had in his house. She wondered if a woman organized this for him and then immediately felt bad because that thought was sexist and their last two encounters consisted of her berating him for being sexist.

  The one thing Avery noticed which was just plain odd was that there was no television located anywhere in the living room. There was a grand fireplace with a banister nearly as tall as she was - empty, no pictures, no books, filled only with space. The walls were a lighter shade of oak, off-setting the dark tones, but they, too, were bare. There weren't any paintings of artwork. The furniture still looked new - black leather pieces with matching pillows. There were black inconspicuous speakers so there was probably a radio or an iPod dock somewhere so music could play. There was a glass coffee table low to the ground but there weren't magazines or table books. There weren't even any coasters. For an alpha male, he sure seemed lonely.

  "Here."

  His voice surprised her, caused her to jump. She almost felt guilty for having such an intimate look into his life.

  Lucas handed her a towel and she immediately started drying her hair with it, expertly avoiding his eyes.

  "So," he said, crossing his arms over his chest, causing his arms to pop. Avery felt herself start to react to those arms. They were like secret weapons. Lucas Cruz wasn't the tallest guy and he didn't have a lot of muscles, but his arms... They were definitely something to look at. "Why are you here?"

  Avery wasn't offended by his direct question. She didn't care that he didn't make small talk or ask if she was okay. They weren't friends. They weren't lovers. They were two people conducting business. Because that was all this was, a business visit.

  "I'm here," she said slowly, "because I want to take you up on your offer." She swallowed but she was able to make direct eye contact with him. Her heart was in her throat but she felt more powerful than she had in a long while. "I want you to teach me about..." She needed to get it out. She needed to say the word. To make it real. "I want to know how to please a man. And myself."

  6

  Lucas’s mouth dropped open and Avery swallowed. She knew she was blushing; her cheeks always turned pink at the most inopportune moments, and she probably looked like a wet dog shivering under an expensive towel he might very well never use again. A part of Avery was proud of herself; no one caught Lucas Cruz off-guard except her, it would seem. So, as embarrassed as she was, she was also pretty proud.

  "I'm sorry," he said, blinking slowly as he tilted his head to the side. "What?"

  He genuinely looked perplexed, like he had no idea how to respond to what she had just requested of him and couldn't even think of a response.

  "I thought about what you said," Avery told him. She pressed her lips together, looking at him through her long eyelashes. "About experience. About how I can relate sex to every aspect of my life. About how experience trumps knowledge acquired through others means - like reading or television or even music. And I want that experience."

  "So go ask your fiancé," he said. His posture was stiff but he didn't seem entirely uncomfortable with this conversation. At least, not the way Avery was uncomfortable. "Isn't that his job? Isn't that one of the perks of marriage and being in a committed relationship? Having sex whenever you want? That’s wha
t they tell me, anyway."

  "You're not in a committed relationship," she pointed out, "yet every morning while I'm eating my Frosted Flakes, there you are, on the cover of another tabloid, getting laid. And with a different woman each time."

  He crossed his arms over his chest and his eyes sparkled with amusement. "And how do you know I'm not in a committed relationship?" he asked. "Are you just taking the stereotypes I happen to fall easily into and perpetuating them by assigning me those characteristics without even knowing me?"

  Avery swallowed, hesitating. "Are you in a relationship?" she asked slowly. "Because if you are, I will leave and..." She shook her head. Now she wasn't just pink, she was red. And embarrassed. And she had to face this man for the next foreseeable month due to scheduled business meetings until the app creators finally chose the investor they wanted to work with. She had completely embarrassed herself and there was no taking it back. "I am so sorry. If I had known, I never would have" -

  Avery got cut off with a laugh.

  Before she knew what was happening, Lucas reached out and cupped her cheek with his palm. His hand was much bigger than she expected; it nearly covered a fourth of her face, and his long, spider-leg fingers curled past her ears so his fingertips touched her hair. It was such an intimate gesture from a near-stranger, she couldn't help but flinch at it.

  His dark eyes sparkled. "And how are you supposed to learn anything if you don't feel comfortable with me touching you?" he asked, his voice low and soft. It was decidedly serious, a tone Avery had never heard from him before. It caused goosebumps to prick her arms and the back of her neck.

  She swallowed again. God, she was doing that a lot. She was in way over her head. Maybe she shouldn't have come... The way his warm palm touched her cheek, though; the way his fingers started caressing the locks of her hair. She had no idea what she was doing. She had no idea what she was in for.

  "You're right," she said. Her throat was dry despite the numerous attempts at getting it wet. She shouldn't have come. This was dumb. Hopefully, Lucas wouldn't be a jerk and hold this over her head during their business meetings. Granted, he would never take her seriously anymore from here on out but that was okay as long as he didn't tell anyone about this. He didn't seem like the type to do something like that. In fact, Lucas seemed a lot more quiet than his public persona indicated.

  His brow pushed up in surprise but he still didn't let go of her. Was it wrong that Avery was okay with that? In fact, she was almost a little bit relieved about it, if she was being honest.

  "Is that so?" he asked. "What am I right about?"

  "I shouldn't have come," she said, and before she could stop herself, she licked her bottom lip. It wasn't supposed to mean anything. It just happened. She wanted to moisten her lips for no reason other than to moisten her lips.

  But his dark eyes honed in on the gesture and his irises became even darker than they already were. And then he was staring at her lips and she, for whatever reason, was staring at his. They were thin, with just enough definition to make him look like an expert kisser. Surprisingly enough, they appeared soft. Avery wasn't sure what she was expecting from his lips, exactly. Maybe she thought they would be bruised or marked in some way due to the amount of people he had supposedly kissed.

  "You should know something about werewolves, Ms. Montgomery," he told her. Was it her imagination or was he tilting his head closer to her? His eyes still hadn't reached her eyes; they were focused on her mouth. "We don't like to share our things."

  "Well, um." She swallowed and her arms currently crossed over her chest shook. However, she forced her eyes to meet his. Her mouth instantly went dry again when they locked with his dark ones. Somehow, they were even darker than normal, which she originally thought was impossible. There was more in that look than she had ever seen in anyone's glance ever. Even now, something sparked between her and Rick but that was rare and it was never like this. "It's a, uh, a good thing I'm not yours."

  He took a step toward her. She felt herself shiver but she didn't know if that was her rain-soaked clothes or if it was because of something else entirely. Something that came directly from him. She felt herself take a step back on instinct and clutch his towel closer to her body. Lucas's smirk deepened upon seeing the actions.

  "Actually," he corrected, taking another step forward, "you are. At least, in body." His eyes trailed up and down her form, dragging up, dragging down. He stared at her blatantly, openly, which darkened his eyes even further. His tongue danced on the corner of his lips as he did so, like he was preparing for supper. Like she was going to satiate each one of his hunger pains.

  It was only then she realized he desired her. He wanted her body and he had no problem letting her know just that. His pupils were dilated, his tongue was out. He slowly stalked toward her like she was his prey and he was going to consume her thoroughly until there was nothing left. But regardless, he wanted her. He wanted her badly and fully to the point where she was affecting his body chemistry. She had never seen that look on Rick's face when he looked upon her before, even when she was cleaned up with a blowout and a short dress. Well, only then. Never casually. Never on a daily basis.

  She didn't understand why Lucas desired her so. She was still soaking wet, her clothes clinging to her like skeletal hands wrapped around her body, choking the life out of her and causing shivers to run up and down her spine. Her hair was tangled and would frizz when it dried. She was shivering, her bottom jaw clattering with the top row of teeth. And somehow, he thought she was worth pursuing. Somehow, he was looking at her like she was his answer to everything and he had to have her right now.

  Lucas took another step forward. She took a step back. They played this game until Avery's back hit the plain wall behind her, causing her reflexes to flinch in surprise. She wasn't expecting that.

  Avery felt her heart race but she was not afraid of him. She was thrilled, she was excited and nervous and she had no defenses, no protection against this man, this werewolf, that looked at her with pure and unadulterated desire written clearly in his eyes. His teeth looked sharp and deadly but a small part of her wanted to be bitten by him, even though it would turn her into one of them. All it took was a bite. She had heard stories about werewolves turning humans in the throes of passion. Many a time it was consensual so no charges were ever brought against the wolf but a few cases were considered transformative rape, condemning the wolf to a lifetime in prison if not actual death. Despite equal rights, the justice system failed the supernatural just like it continued to fail minorities.

  When her back hit the wall behind her, her pulse started to tap into her throat like a doctor trying to restart her heart by pounding on her chest.

  "You're back is up against the wall," he said in a soft tone, stopping a foot away from her. "Where do you go from here, Ms. Montgomery? The choice is yours, of course. I can teach you what it's like to have complete control over your body, to bring yourself to pleasure you've never experienced before. I can teach you to manipulate a man and turn him into nothing more than a puddle at your feet. I can teach you everything you want to know. All you need to do is trust me. Are you able to do that?" He perked a brow.

  Avery's throat went dry. Again. She didn't want to swallow. She didn't think it was going to work.

  "I can hear your heartbeat," he told her. "I can smell your fear mixed in with the slightest hint of curiosity. You want this. You want to learn. You wouldn't have come to me if you didn't."

  "I don't know what I want," Avery said. She couldn't look away from him. Not when he was so close to her. Not when she could reach out her arm and touch him.

  "No," he agreed. "You don't. That's why you came to me. To be honest, I'm surprised your pride didn't stop you."

  "I," she began but stopped. She didn't know what to say. "I want to learn."

  "And I can teach you," he assured her. "You came to me, soaking wet in the middle of the night to educate you about the art of intimacy. I've never had anyone b
e so bold." He reached out and curled an errant strand of hair behind her ear, his fingertips lingering on the curve of the body part just long enough so she could feel the spark that cackled when they touched. This must be normal, this feeling of electricity.

  "Have you taught someone before?” she asked? It was almost laughable, that she was asking about his credentials in love making, if he had had sex with a virgin before.

  Lucas smirked so the tips of his teeth hung over his lips just barely. "Actually, no," he said, shaking his head once. "You'd be my first."

  Avery didn't know what to do with that information so she did nothing, letting the silence hang between them.

  "Come on," he said, tilting his head to the hallway and offering her his hand. "Let's go to bed."

  Avery hesitated only a fraction of a second before placing her hand in his and letting him lead the way.

  7

  Lucas led Avery down a long hallway, rich in design - it was wide enough for two people to walk side by side, with dark oak - yet empty in accessory. Avery took in everything the hallway had to offer, which wasn't much, considering just how wealthy Lucas Cruz was. Rumor had it he was deep into the billion-dollar level due to his oversea investments - especially in technology and innovation in Japan - and growing. He had all of this but nothing and no one to show for it.

  "You don't have pictures," Avery said before she could stop herself.

  Lucas paused his walking to glance back at her. There was slight surprise in his gaze at her realization of this and even more so that she felt compelled enough to comment on it. He didn't say anything, even as he opened the last door of the hallway to the left.