Gavin kept pace beside him and asked, “Did you get Bailey the jewels? She’s not wearing any.”
“Yes, I sent her the damn jewels, and I got fucking eyes, Gavin.” Lucas sighed deeply for composure. He was unfairly taking out his anger on his friend. “Sorry about that, bro.”
“It’s cool. That shit Sandra said about Bailey and the dude ... don’t let her fuck with your head.”
“Bailey thinks I cheated on her with her friend.”
“Not your artist, I presume. They look pretty chummy over there.”
“Not Sienna.” He gave Gavin a quick rundown of the ordeal with Faith as they made their way over to Sienna’s group.
Patricia Blake stepped in his path. “Lucas Marx, you’ve just made my night.” She lifted up and boldly kissed his cheek.
Lucas’s gaze jumped to Bailey, and he felt her scornful glare slice deep into his jugular. Shit.
“Mrs. Blake, it’s good to see you. Are you here with your husband? I’d like to meet him.” He lacked the patience to deal with her.
“Actually, I’m going solo tonight.” She smiled suggestively with a touch on his arm.
“That’s too bad. Well, I was headed over to my lady. Please excuse me.”
Her eyes fluttered with her mouth popping open and then quickly snapping shut. “Oh, I see. It was good to see you.” She stepped aside.
Lucas walked on, dismissing her.
“Who was that?” Gavin asked and followed it up with, “Not important,” when he didn’t get an answer. “You said that you threw this Faith chick out, no harm, no foul. Hey, does Bailey have a sister? Twin preferably,” he muttered out the corner of his mouth.
Ignoring Gavin, Lucas stepped before Bailey. His eyes shifted and met Kevin’s challenging dark glare beside her, then dipped to the man’s hand stroking up and down the side of her waist. The fact that she was allowing Kevin to caress her so intimately made Lucas near violent. “We need to talk,” he managed through tight jaws.
“Lucas, this isn’t the place for this.” She looked around at their group, which was keenly watching. “This is Sienna’s night. I won’t do this here.”
“Then let’s step outside.” He reached for her.
“Whoa, man, ease back,” Kevin warned and gave a glance at Bailey when she took a side step. He tucked her back to his side. “You heard her.”
“Take your fucking hand off her.” Lucas’s voice dropped to an ominous, grinding pitch.
“Lucas!” Bailey gasped; her winged lashes flickered.
Kevin came in dangerously close to him with brows set low. “You had better back the fuck up before—”
“Before what?” Lucas moved in even closer, his smile a dark warning. “Don’t let this suit deceive you, my man.”
“Lucas, Kevin, stop this please,” Bailey said low with an anxious look around the room. “You two are going to cause a scene and ruin Sienna’s evening.”
“Guys, come on. Not here.” Sienna placed a hand on Kevin’s chest. “Kev.” She nodded when he finally dragged his scorching glare away from the one Lucas was firing back at him to look at her.
“Like the beautiful lady said, not here.” Gavin took hold of Sienna’s hand and brought the back of it to his lips. “I’m Gavin Crane. My buddy here was rude in not introducing us.”
Sienna stared back for a moment, giving Gavin a quick once over. “I’m Sienna Keller—nice to meet you. Now, if we could get these guys to dial it back.”
Lucas took Bailey’s hand and stepped back, bringing her out of Kevin’s clutches. “If you would just talk to me, hear me out.”
She and Sienna exchanged a look, a quiet understanding. With a sigh, Bailey allowed him to guide her over to a somewhat private—when the waiters and waitresses were not whizzing by—breezeway that led to the kitchen.
He jumped right in. “I didn’t have sex with Faith. Let me make that absolutely clear.”
“Then you admit that she was with you?” She crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “Was she at your house?”
“No. She came to my office with a proposition for sex, but I didn’t touch her. I threw her out.”
“That’s not what it sounded like to me,” she retorted. “Faith seemed pretty cheerful for someone who was about to be thrown out on her ass. I should’ve expected it. She’s more your type anyway.”
Lucas released a deep chest exhale to maintain patience with her. “You seem to have a presumption about my type of woman. How does Faith fit the ticket? Is it because she’s white?”
She shrugged. “Not just that. I’ve seen the type of women you’ve been with, and none of them resemble me.”
“Good. I’ve improved my standards.” His grin was countered with an eye roll. “As for the jewels, I don’t deny that I had Kara purchase earrings for Sandra during that brief time I was involved with her. I, however, selected the items I gave to you. Painstakingly, I might add.”
The pinch between her finely arched brows softened. “They were very beautiful and went well with my gown.”
“That’s because with Kara’s help, I found out what you’d purchased to wear tonight. I coordinated the jewels to your dress.” Lucas came in close and palmed the right side of her face. His thumb stroked lightly along her soft cheek. “I was looking forward to you wearing them tonight and later when I took you to bed.” She bit her bottom lip in that sexy way he liked. “They weren’t meant as some sort of token—compensation—for sex. The jewels were a gift to express my feelings for you.”
Her smooth lips turned into his palm and planted a kiss. “I picked this dress for you.” She flared out the fabric slit at her thigh and smiled shyly as he looked her over.
“You look stunning ... beyond stunning.” Lucas tucked silken strands of hair behind her right ear, leaned in, and whispered, “Are you wearing panties, princess?” She chewed her bottom lip again while shaking her head. He came within a whisper of her mouth, ready to take her offering lips, but his eyes came up, distracted by the man walking up behind her. It was the other man who was with their group. “Can I help you?” he gritted.
Bailey turned around. “Oh, hey, Diego.” She looked up over her shoulder. “This is my friend, Diego Gutiérrez. Diego, this is my boyfriend, Lucas Marx.” She looked up at him again, and he smiled. Damn, how he liked the sound of that.
Lucas shook the man’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Diego’s a fantastic drummer,” Bailey cut in. “We have to go see him play.”
“How long have you played?” Lucas asked him with hands resting on his lady’s bare shoulders. “I tried to pick up the skill, but didn’t put in the dedication.”
“I’ve been playing since I could hold the sticks. My father played. When he saw I was interested, he taught me everything he knew.”
“As Bailey said, we’ll come to your show.”
“Cool.” Diego’s phone rang. He answered it, and his forehead creased as he looked at them. “Yeah, uh, Bails,” he eyed Lucas and then looked back at her. “It’s Faith on the phone. She wants to talk to you. She said she tried to call you, but got your voice mail. This is her third call,” he murmured.
Lucas stepped forward. “Good. She can tell you herself what took place at my office.”
“Really?” Diego questioned. “You really want Faith to talk to Bailey? Dude, I don’t think that would be wise.”
“Let Bailey talk to her,” Lucas insisted.
“You’re brave.”
Lucas turned to Bailey. “You’ll see that what I said is true. I told her to clear this up with you.”
Bailey took the phone. “Faith, what do you want?” The loathing she felt for the woman was palpable. “Yes, but the mere fact that you attempted that with Lucas is unforgivable. What? Now I know you’re lying. Just like you tried to stir up trouble with Lucas and me, you’re lying about this.” Her eyes met Lucas’s as she said, “They wouldn’t do that. Sienna wouldn’t. Don’t you ever speak to me again.” She ended the cal
l and gave the phone back to Diego. Then her head swung back to Lucas.
Seeing those green eyes flicker third-degree flames, there was no need for Lucas to try to discern what Faith had revealed. “Now wait, Bailey.”
“It’s true, isn’t it?”
Lucas reached for her, but she jerked back, rough and aggressive.
“How could you?”
Fuuuck me! “Allow me to explain.” He reached for her again, and once again, she stepped away.
“What is it about me that I habitually attract cheaters and liars?” she voiced in a self-addressing manor.
“Bailey, please.”
“You,” she pointed squarely at his face, “stay away from me.” Pain mixed with disgust flashed across her features as she shook her head and then walked off.
Diego stepped forward. “You ever see a bad accident about to happen, but there really isn’t anything you can do to stop it? That’s what this looked like. That chick, Faith, got issues, man. I was hanging out with her one night and got the vibe quick on how whacked out she was. I advised her not to tell Bailey, to leave it alone, but dude, she was hell-bent on outing you. The woman wouldn’t stop ringing my phone. She said Bailey had a right to know what you did.”
“She doesn’t give a shit about me. Her aim was to hurt Bailey.” Lucas stepped out of the breezeway and observed Bailey standing over by Sienna. They were arguing at a whispered pitch.
Diego came up beside him. “Personally, I believe you. Like I said, Faith has issues, but I’m not the one you have to convince. Now if what she said about you bribing Sie is true ...” Diego ran his hand over his buzz-cut hair. “Not good, dude. I’ll go see if I can help Kevin calm the ladies down.”
Lucas followed and came up to Bailey and Sienna, who were still arguing at low volume. “Bailey, I’m to blame here. Sienna did nothing to—”
“Like hell she didn’t!” Her anger acute, looking between them, she said in a harsh whisper, “You two were in it together. I was a joke to you both. Gullible, naive Bailey, twist her in any way, shape, or form you want.”
“Bails, it wasn’t like that.” Sienna took in a breath, tears visibly brimming her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re not sorry. You wanted to compete in this event, so you used me, pimped me out to him.” Her voice shook with eyes glistening from the onset of tears.
“I went to Sienna. She didn’t—” Lucas started.
“You thought to use them both.” Kevin glowered, then moved to Bailey’s side and used the tense moment to put a comforting arm around her shoulder.
“You stay out of this,” Lucas gritted in stark warning.
“People, they’re about to announce the three finalists,” Gavin said, breaking into the blended verbal melee. “Lucas, man, come on.” He tugged him away from Kevin off to the side.
They all stood watching the art director at the front of the room, not a smile to be had among them.
The third-place artist’s name was called, followed by the company sponsor.
Lucas looked at Bailey standing next to Kevin. He was bending near her ear, likely stirring the fire. “He’ll make the situation worse.”
Glancing over at Kevin, Gavin whispered, “When this is done, you’ll handle it, brother.”
Everyone looked on as the second-place artist and sponsor made their way to the front.
Lucas’s eyes stayed glued on Kevin as he voiced to Gavin, “In dealing with the whole Faith shit, I forgot about the arrangement I made with Sienna. If Bailey would listen to reason, she’d see that I helped her friend and that what I did was in order to get to know her.”
“That may be, but I don’t think she’s able to see anything positive about the situation right now. First, she thought you cheated on her with her friend, and then she found out that you bribed her other friend. Right now, the best bet for you both is to let things settle down a bit.”
“That bastard will try to make her see otherwise.” Lucas kept hard eyes trained on Kevin with Bailey. Just then, Kevin swept a tear from the corner of her eye. Lucas started to charge over, but was intercepted by Gavin blocking his path.
“They announced Sienna! Lucas, she won!” Gavin nudged him and Sienna came over to them.
“Lucas, we have to go up,” Sienna told him dolefully.
Lucas blinked and looked around. Practically the entire room stared at him. He turned his head to Gavin beside him, who nodded and mouthed the words, get moving. He and Sienna made their way through the crowd to stand at the front.
He half listened to the art director offer congratulations to Sienna and hand her a plaque. The man then thanked him and MVC for participating and supporting the arts. Basically, he was thanked for his very generous contribution that likely paved the way for Sienna. She clearly won on her own merits. Her work was superb, but his substantial monetary generosity surely left a mental stamp with the organization.
The director announced to the crowd all of what Sienna had won. Lucas’s attention, however, was fixed on Bailey and Kevin. They had moved off to the side. Kevin was still jabbering in her ear. She stepped away from the man and headed for the exit. Kevin was in step right behind her.
Lucas moved to go after her, but was blocked by reporters and photographers. He stood with limited patience next to Sienna, whose face wore a forced smile as they took photos and gave repetitive responses to several of the local news channels and art magazine columnists. Inside, he paced like a caged animal, wanting to break and run after his female.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Seated across from Sienna in his limo, Lucas watched as she stared out the window at the whizzing traffic while dabbing her eyes with a tissue that was already soaked with her tears.
He’d possibly destroyed a friendship, a close bond between two women who were like sisters to one another.
“Sienna, I’m sorry about all of this.” As if those words could fix the colossal turmoil he’d caused. Regrettably, there wasn’t much else he could say. It was at least the fifth time he’d apologized. She didn’t acknowledge him, but the tears seemed to flow freer down her cheeks each time he did.
He retrieved several tissues from the sidebar and handed them to her as long minutes passed listening to her soft cries, hating himself for being the cause of her grief. Suddenly, she looked at him. Silence, then a quiet deep breath before she turned back to the window.
“Faith thinks I’m overprotective of Bailey,” she said. “She feels I shelter Bailey. I believe it was the reason she slept with Andrew, Bailey’s ex. Faith argued that Bailey needed to know what the real world was like, that she need to be shown how the rest of the world functioned outside of her protective bubble.”
Lucas scowled hard. “That woman is bad company. Why you and Bailey bother with her, I’ll never understand.” He didn’t even want to hear the bitch’s name spoken.
“Faith’s mother was an alcoholic. She told me that one night she was at a party and her mother showed up drunk, staggering through the house, shouting for her. When she found Faith, her mother screamed that her father was having an affair. Faith said her mother always accused her father of cheating when she was drunk. Her so-called friends at the party found her mother’s behavior amusing. Several even offered her more to drink for the entertainment. Faith managed to get her mother out of the house and into the car. She said the drive to her house was only four blocks, but they didn’t make it home. Her mother grabbed the wheel, sending the car head on into a utility pole. Faith’s learner’s permit was scarcely a week old. She could barely control a car, let alone an inebriated mother. She was sixteen when her mother died. She blames herself for her mother’s death and believes her father still does as well.”
Lucas shook his head. “It can’t be easy carrying that guilt, but I would expect her to be a bit more reverent to you and Bailey, considering that you all care about her despite the malevolent things she does.”
“Bailey and I know Faith’s deal. I, in particular, know what it�
�s like to have a mother so wrapped up in her own shit that she forgets you exist.” Sienna wiped away the tears that fell and sighed glumly. “Anyway, we try to cut her some slack.”
“A lot of slack,” Lucas muttered.
“There’s some jealousy with her at Bailey, I know that. She sees Bailey as having had a perfect upbringing—the perfect home—perfect parents—and that I perpetuate it by sheltering her. What Faith doesn’t understand is I haven’t been protecting Bailey. Bailey protects me.” She dried her eyes once more, her long sigh labored by anguish.
“I was raised from the age of twelve by my grandmother. Not because my mother wasn’t around. Oh she was around, along with the current man she was sleeping with at any given time. My grandmother took me from my mother when I told her that my mother’s boyfriend paid a visit to my bed.” Seeing his jaws clench, she supplemented, “He came close, but he didn’t get to do what he intended only because the bastard was too out of it to get it up. He beat me instead. Somehow he felt it was my fault his ass was limp.”
Lucas scowled, wishing he could find the bastard and strike him down.
“Anyway, I took to sleeping with several hat pins punctured into my mattress. Whenever one of my mother’s boyfriends came at me, I’d whip one out and stick the bastard hard,” she said with a light chuckle. “They’d literally squeal like a stuck pig. That particular night I ran to my mother and told her that he came into my room ... he touched me. Like two of her previous boyfriends, he denied it of course, and she blamed me as usual. She always claimed that I wanted those pieces of scum for myself. I like to believe it was the drugs that prevented her from caring about me.” She shook her head as though attempting to push the mental pain away and went on, “After that last attempt, I got the courage to tell my grandmother what happened. She took me in and raised me until she died two weeks before I graduated high school.”
“God, Sienna, I’m really sorry.” What she must have suffered, Lucas couldn’t imagine. He felt even worse for possibly destroying her and Bailey’s sisterhood. Bailey could be all she had as family. Damn.
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