“Why wouldn’t I?” she asked. “I don’t expect you to be loyal to me. You aren’t anything to me, really. Don’t let me stop you from living your life.”
He pushed up his brow. “Okay,” he said, “if you’re sure. Bring your fiancé to my club tonight – Hades. The one we went to last night.”
“Why?” Avery asked.
“Because I’m going to teach you another lesson,” he replied. “This one’s about jealousy and how to use it to your advantage.”
“But why” –
“For now, I’d prefer it if you’d leave,” Lucas said, cutting her off. “I don’t like seeing hickeys on…” He let his voice trail off and he clenched his teeth together again, so he wouldn’t say anything else that might be insensitive. “Also, you smell. Like your fiancé. And I refuse to have that in my house.”
Before she could respond, he slammed the door.
---
It was easy to convince Rick to meet her at Hades. She didn't want him to pick her up because she wasn't sure how she was going to respond to whatever it was Lucas had in mind for her and she didn't want Rick to pick up the confusion that would surely wreck any semblance of a poker face she would have attempted on her own.
For some reason, she chose a dress that revealed every single curve on her body. It was tight and short, a dark green color that emphasized her eyes. She straightened her hair and swept her bangs to the left side of her face, giving her a feminine touch to her heart shaped face. Her makeup with smoky and subtle. Her shoes were plain nude heels but they were stilettos and four inches. She had never worn anything like it, and judging by the dropped jaw from her fiancé when they met in the parking structure, she knew it was right on point.
Was it weird that Avery didn't particularly pay attention to Rick's reaction? Her mind was too muddled with Lucas's last words.
"You should know something about werewolves, Ms. Montgomery. We don't like to share our things."
What was that supposed to mean, anyway? There was no reason for her to be jealous. She was with Rick. Unless Lucas was going to have some hot girl hit on Rick, his words didn't make any sense to her. She was kind of worried but maybe intrigued? Maybe she was worried because she didn't know how she was going to react.
"Come on," Avery said when they made it to the sleek black entrance. A line was already crawling around the side of the club and it was just after eleven. "We don't have to wait."
"How the hell'd you swing that?" Rick asked, his fingers wrapped around her wrist. He hadn't let go since they met up and he was gobsmacked at how good she looked. "This is the hottest place in Somerset right now."
Avery shrugged because she didn't care. The bouncer - the same one from before - smiled and let her in. When she tried to pay the cover, he waved it away.
"Mr. Cruz would fire me if I accepted money from you, Ms. Montgomery," he said as she and Rick walked through.
Avery smiled. "Please, call me Avery," she said before the stepped into the dim dance floor with neon blue lights.
She didn't know how it was possible, but her eyes immediately found Lucas in a swarm of people. A woman had her arm wrapped around his neck, pulling him close to her and whispering something in his ear. He was smiling - that soft genuine smile that wrinkled his eyes and made Avery's breath catch in her throat at its beauty. The two were sitting in a secluded VIP area, off to the side of the main dance floor, just the two of them. Her legs were clad in a red skirt and flung over Lucas's lap like he was the arm of a chair. His hand rested casually on her thigh. Avery was livid.
"Let's go get a drink, Av," Rick said, reminding her that she was engaged to a decent guy whom she was here with.
"Let's say hi to Lucas first," Avery suggested because she couldn't resist. She hoped the look on her face was innocent enough. "Then we can do whatever you want."
"It's Lucas now?" Rick asked, quirking a brow but following her nonetheless.
Avery didn't respond. Avery hadn't even heard the question.
"Actually..." Avery tried to calm herself down. She tried to think about how to handle it like a business woman. Surprisingly enough, she didn't hear her father's voice in her head, but her mother's.
Don't get mad, get even.
Okay, if Lucas wanted to give her a lesson in jealousy, she could give him one in turn.
"Let's dance."
Before Rick had a chance to respond, Avery pulled him onto the dance floor, close to Lucas so he would notice them. She refused to look at him, however, and instead, kept him within her peripheral.
Avery positioned her body the same way many of the dancers did; with her back against his chest. If Rick questioned her, she didn't hear him. For one, the music was so loud it drowned out thoughts but also because she had this inexplicable urge to make Lucas jealous, to turn the awful, territorial feeling that was currently coursing through her the way blood did to go away. And to make him feel the same way. Rick's hands were all over her body. He seemed to drop whatever was bugging him and focus on feeling her up in front of everyone here. She didn't particularly care. She didn't even feel him clawing at her body. All she cared about was Lucas and his reaction.
She didn't have to wait long.
Before she knew it, she was ripped from Rick's grasp and dragged to the back of the club where seclusion was key and only employees were allowed. Avery didn't look back at Rick. She would decide later if that made her a bad person or not. All she cared about was Lucas right here, right in front of her, tension rolling from his body the way she had been rolling her hips just moments before.
When they were down a dark, empty hallway, Lucas pushed against the wall so her back hit the cool material.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he growled, his face inches from hers.
"You said today's lesson would be about jealousy," she replied, her eyes unblinking, her chin tilted up stubbornly.
"You being jealous," he corrected. "Not" -
"You were jealous," she stated and smiled at herself. She had the power to make Lucas Cruz jealous.
"Of course I was," he seethed. "You..." It sounded like he was going to say something but stopped him from finishing it. "You don't know what you do to me."
And then his lips crashed onto hers.
11
Avery didn't know how long they were connected at the lips in that secluded hallway of Hades. Was it wrong if she didn't particularly care? Because the minute he kissed her, time stood still. Everything slowed down, everything froze, save for just the two of them. She didn't hear the pounding music emitting from the adjacent dance floor, she didn't feel the vibrations shaking her body, she didn't feel that tightness in her ears when something was too loud and she was trying to acclimate to it, she didn't smell the stale cigarettes from smokers or the body odor from sweaty dancers.
It was all him. She was surrounded in him.
It was getting more natural to kiss him now. Her fingers slid into his hair and tugged on the dark tresses. It was her hair to pull, no one else's. She loved the soft feel of them between her fingers, she loved the sound he made when she tugged it with her fingers. She felt his hands on her waist, running up and down her back, pulling her even closer to him like he couldn't get enough of her and needed her in his space. He wanted to be congested with who she was and all that she had to offer, which was such a new and odd feeling. To be wanted. To be desired.
When his tongue slid across her bottom lip, she opened like he waved a wand over a lock and allowed him to explore this new personal piece of her. He took complete advantage of the opportunity and ran his tongue everywhere without slobbering. If anything, he wanted to dance with hers while exerting dominance. She refused to be so easily taken over and put up a decent fight. But Lucas was stubborn and whatever he wanted, he fought for until he had it. She relinquished control of her mouth, and she was so happy she did because once she did, the feeling in the pit of her stomach was like starting a fire on a cold night and she all but melted into him.
But it didn't matter because with his arms securely around her body, she felt strong and stable. She was going to be okay.
When they finally had to break for air, Lucas rested his forehead against hers. It was like he wasn't ready to be apart from her. Not yet. Avery attempted to catch her breath, sucking in air desperately. She probably looked like a fool but she didn't care. In all her years of kissing, she had never been kissed like that. It felt liberating, exhilarating, mind-bending. She was glad his arms were still wrapped around her because her knees would surely have buckled underneath her. Even now, she trembled. Even now, she couldn't control her erratic heartbeat.
"Wow," he murmured, his lips grazing the column of her throat.
It tickled her. It also shot bolts of lightning straight to her core and she felt herself moisten under his lips. She had never experienced this painful throbbing that sent quakes of pleasure throughout her body. It was as though her pelvis and his were magnets that were attracted to each other because now, it was pressed into hers and she found she liked the feeling of it against her. She wasn't intimidated. She wasn't even shy.
She nodded her head in response to his rhetorical statement. She didn't have anything much to say; she felt like she was in a haze. Everything was so slow motion; everything was a dream.
"So that's what jealousy feels like?" she asked, tilting her head up so she could look at him. She still clutched his body tightly, balling the material of his expensive shirt into her hands. He didn't seem to mind and if he had, she would have bought him a new one. She liked the feel of it between her fingers.
He cocked his head to the side, his hair messy and falling into his face. God, he was gorgeous. This was what Heaven must feel like. "You've never been jealous before?" he asked. "I find that hard to believe."
Avery shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "I just don't see the point, to be honest," she said. The thump of the music was like an obnoxious fly buzzing around her head but it wasn't loud enough to be distracting. She didn't have to shout over it. "If Rick is going to cheat on me, he's going to cheat on me. I can't stop him from cheating on me, so why worry about it? It's a negative emotion I want no part in."
"A negative emotion?" Lucas leaned his head back against the wall behind him. "See, that's where our cultures differ. Wolves don't believe that jealousy is bad. We look at it as a positive; feeling it tells us that we care about something."
"What about trust?" Avery asked. She wasn't defensive, just curious.
"Jealousy has nothing to do with trust," he explained. His hands were on her shoulders, his fingers tracing patterns on her skin. "Don't get me wrong, there is a line we shouldn't cross. But we don't view jealousy as something we should be ashamed of. We look at it as an integral part of a relationship. If I get jealous, it means I care." He pushed stray strands of hair from her face.
"And when you say jealous," Avery said, "what do you mean by it?"
"Not anything crazy," he said. "I'm not going to toss you over my shoulder and forbid you from leaving the house unless you like that kind of thing and it adds to our sex life. I'm not going to control you. Jealousy isn't an emotion about you in our culture, it's an emotion about me. I shouldn't act on it; it should be an educational tool that allows me to dig deeper into my feelings for this person. Does that make sense?"
Avery nodded. "Yeah," she said. "I suppose."
There was a comfortable silence that hung between them. Their hands still clutched each other, their bodies still invading space. Avery didn't want to leave but she knew Rick would wonder where she was and there was only so much time a busy women's restroom allotted her – if he even bought that after Lucas grabbed her from him.
“We should head back,” she murmured but she sounded like that was the last thing she wanted to do.
He nodded his head once. “We should.”
They said all the correct things but they weren’t moving. They had no intention to. Not yet. Why should they, when their touch was paralyzing?
“Rick will be” –
“I don’t give a fuck about Rick, to be honest,” Lucas said. Another lightning bolt struck her core, causing ripples to vibrate throughout her body. Her knees almost buckled from underneath her. Luckily, his hands still gripped her waist so tight, like he was worried she might disappear on him.
“Your date will be waiting for you,” Avery pointed out but her heart wasn’t in it. Her eyes were clouded with something – a desirous fog that blinded her from her environment, caused a dark haze to crawl over her thoughts and priorities. The only thing that mattered was being with him, touching him, tasting him, memorizing his breathing when she ran her fingers through his hair and dueled with his tongue.
“I don’t care about her, either,” he said. His eyes were black, a color she didn’t think irises could possess. Perhaps werewolves were different. “She’s just someone I brought here, knowing you were coming, knowing how you would feel, seeing me with her.”
Avery perked her brow upon hearing this, her tongue moistening her bottom lip. “You put a lot of weight in the fact that I may or may not have reacted to seeing you with someone else,” she said, her voice taking on a hint of a challenge.
He cocked his head to the side, a ghost of a smile on his lips. “I should teach you more about werewolves,” he said, tilting his head closer to his. He bit his bottom lip and Avery almost lost it. It was such an off-hand gesture but it was the most sensual thing she had ever seen. And then he said, “We can smell it on you. I can smell how wet you are for me, how much you want me, how seeing me with another woman makes you crave me even more.” He clenched his jaw, causing it to pop, his eyes lifting from her collarbone to her throat then back to her lips, lingering like a suntan, making her skin start to boil under his scrutiny. “But it’s okay, because I feel the exact same way about you. You might not be able to smell my desire, but you sure as hell can feel it.”
Without warning, Avery clawed at him, wrapping her legs around his waist, forcing him to lift her up and slam her against the wall behind her. He pressed into her and she could feel his hardness push into her thigh and she let out a garbled moan. Yes, she could feel it. No, she was not afraid. She wanted him. God, she wanted him.
Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she had no problem if he took her right there, against the wall, like they were animals, like they didn’t care where they were and who was watching. Like they didn’t care they each had significant others here, as dates, who could walk in on them at any time. Yes, they were in a secluded hallway and Rick never particularly cared before about coming after her when she slipped away during the parties he would take her to. But he just might now..,
And honestly, it wasn’t fair to him. This wasn’t right – it felt so right – that she tilted her head back. The fog had lifted; she was getting her senses back. And one of them was compassion. Consideration. Guilt.
Guilt was a big one.
“What’s wrong?” Lucas asked in a heavy whisper. His brown eyes were still at half-mast and he regarded her with a territorial smile on his perfect face.
God, he was perfect. Why had they stopped…?
“Rick…” His name on her lips felt wrong. It sounded hollow. It sounded like it wasn’t hers to say.
His eyes narrowed, and his senses sharpened as well. “Rick?” he asked, his tone sharp. It came out like a growl, his eyes bronzing. His inner-wolf was coming out.
“He’s out there, waiting for me,” she said. “He could catch us. That’s not right, Lucas.”
“Why do you care so much about him?” Lucas asked, furrowing his brow. “Don’t you think it’s problematic that you’re here, hiding away, making out with me instead of him? That doesn’t bode well for a healthy relationship.”
“Of course I know that,” she snapped, her eyes flashing at him. “And why do you suddenly care? It’s not like you love me. It’s not like this, whatever this is, is going anywhere.”
“I care about you,” Lucas said.
<
br /> Avery’s widened, but not because of what he said. Something dawned on her, something big. “You’ve always had problems with Rick,” she said. “There are some unresolved issues between the two of you and, in order to get back at him, you’re using me.”
“That’s ridiculous,” he said, and to his credit, he did seem genuinely offended.
“Is it?” Avery raised a brow. “Deny it, then.”
Lucas clenched his teeth together. She could feel his anger roll off in waves, but she didn’t care. The pieces fell in place and her eyes burned with tears, blurring her vision. She refused to cry. Not for Lucas. Not for anything.
“I can’t believe you would even think I would do that to you,” he said. His voice was like a knife, deep and cutting, but stealthy and soft. She heard him perfectly, as if there was no music pounding in the adjacent room. “That you think I’m that type of person.”
Avery bit her bottom lip hard to keep from saying anything. That wasn’t a denial. Without another word, she pulled her body away from him, turned away, and got lost in the crowd. She would not look back at Lucas, but somehow, she knew he was watching her as she left.
12
When Rick saw her, he smiled. It was like a punch to her gut and she had to look away. She was chicken-shit. Rick deserved better than her. She couldn’t even rationalize that she started this whole thing with Lucas in the first place because of him, for him. Rick all but told her he didn’t want to be with someone inexperienced and being a virgin basically screamed inexperienced, like a big scarlet A on her chest.
No. Now, she was doing this for herself.
She liked Lucas. She liked him a lot. And God, she was attracted to him. The way her pelvis pulsated whenever he was near, whenever she thought about him, really. In all her years with Rick, she had never felt that way before.
Maybe it was because he offered her something Rick couldn’t. He had his own business, he was a self-made man – wolf. The fact that he was a wolf was also a bit of a turn on, though she couldn’t quite explain why. It was almost like being with a wolf was different. Exotic. Dark.
The Somerset Series: A Box Set: Books 2-4 Page 23
