by Stella Rhys
Yet here I was.
Alone with him in his apartment at 11PM, wearing nothing but a soaked robe that still refused to unglue itself from my skin.
“You know what you should do? You should hate-fuck him.”
“Sara!” I pounced on my phone, which I’d set at the foot of the bed in the upstairs guest room. “You’re on speakerphone because I’m changing, so don’t say anything crazy!” I hissed, lowering the volume even more. Since Tess was no longer answering texts and I had no clue where she kept my spare key, I’d gone with plan B, which was to borrow her clothes, call a car and rush to Sara’s while the key situation was being resolved – because considering my pulse had not stopped racing since I first laid eyes on him, there was no way in hell that I could survive another ten minutes with Lukas, let alone a fucking sleepover with him.
“Why not though?” Sara asked.
“Is this a serious question?” I whispered furiously as I yanked on the brand new sweater and leggings taken from Tess’s guest room closet. I was relieved to hear that everything inside was set for donation – not so relieved to discover that nothing was bigger than a size four. “Shit, woman, you might need to come here and drop off a hoodie and sweats. I don’t have a bra or panties and I’m pretty sure I’m stretching everything see-through!”
“Good. Walk downstairs, do a twirl, ask him how you look. You’ll be having sex in minutes.”
“Sara – ” I snatched my phone up and jabbed it promptly off speaker. “Hi. Can I talk to my best friend, please? The one who knows that I don’t do that sort of thing? Like – ever?”
“Yes, hi, it’s me. I know you don’t do that sort of thing – in fact, I know for how long you haven’t done that sort of thing,” Sara mused. “But you said literally yesterday and the day before that you need to get back into the dating game at some point or you’ll never have a family.”
“I only said that because of the cute baby clothes at H&M!”
“And because you keep getting orders for weddings of brides who are several years younger than you.”
“Damn, woman. Take it easy.”
“I’m quoting you,” Sara laughed. “So all I’m saying is you gotta start somewhere and if there were any night to break the dry spell, wouldn’t it be tonight? You were literally dripping wet when you met this alleged babe and ten minutes later, you’re getting conveniently naked in his apartment. Also, in the three years that I’ve known you, I’ve heard you describe a man as ‘crazy hot’ like, three times tops and two of those times we were watching a movie.”
“Inception,” I murmured. “All those tailored suits.”
“Exactly. And that still averages to like, once a year,” Sara pointed out. “Yet in the past eight texts and two minutes of conversation with me you’ve dropped ‘crazy hot’ at least three times and there was also mention of…” She trailed off while undoubtedly scrolling through our texts. “‘Pecs the size of my face.’ So… maybe all this is a sign? I mean it really feels like God’s dropping some major hints tonight.”
I snorted as I went over to the mirror and stared at my reflection. “First off, leave God out of this mess. Second, getting back into the dating game and having sex with my womanizing prick of a neighbor are two very different things.”
“How do you know he’s a womanizer?”
“I looked at him, Sara. And then I heard him talk.”
“Maybe he’s not as bad as you think.”
“I think I’m going to spend the next month listening to him take a new girl home every night.”
“Because you’re a pessimist when it comes to men and relationships and all that jazz. But you are attracted to him, right?”
“Physically.” I trudged toward the bed and plopped myself down. “But I feel like I had no choice in the matter. He’s like… aggressively good-looking. I swear every single muscle on his body is an attention whore. They keep flexing and rippling when all he’s doing is standing there and crossing his arms. It’s stupid.”
“Well, it still counts,” Sara laughed. “So I say try and end this night on a positive note. I mean if he’s related to Tess, there’s gotta be a nice guy somewhere under there.”
“I wouldn’t count on it.”
“Well, I would. Matter of fact – I’ll bet you your cab ride that if you stick around and talk it out with him, you’ll find there’s actually a decent person under all that sexy muscle,” Sara said, ever the optimist. “It beats hating your home life for the next four weeks, right? You know I’m right.”
“Yeah, yeah, fair enough. I’m calling a car in about five, okay? See you soon,” I sighed before hanging up, taking in a deep breath and heading for the door.
But I was barely halfway down the stairs when I stifled a gasp and ducked behind the wall. Because standing at the front door with Lukas was a beautiful blonde – in a trench coat pulled open to show off her bright, red lingerie.
“What the fuck?” I whispered under my breath, stumbling backward and contorting my face over the fact that I was right. I was fucking right! I’d barely just hung up with Sara and I’d already proved the different-woman-a-night theory true.
Crouched at the top of the steps, I clasped a hand over my mouth, leaning against the wall to listen to the murmured conversation. I was expecting the filthiest of dirty talk but to my surprise, when I heard Lukas speak, his voice was steely – tinged with more than a hint of annoyance.
“I told you not to come.”
“You also told me you wouldn’t open the door if I did, yet here we are.”
“Noelle, go home.”
“But Nadia and I wanted to give you a housewarming gift. She’ll be here in a couple minutes – and she’ll be wearing your favorite little red thing. You always prefer us in matching colors, right?”
No fucking way.
And just like that, my different-woman-a-night-theory became the two-different-women-a-night-at-the-same-time theory. Oh my God. Fuck my life, I cursed as I pictured a month of waking up to rowdy sex parties and choruses of orgasmic moans.
“Lukie…”
“This is not a drill, Noelle. I need you to go home.”
“What the fuck, Lukas. Do not embarrass me tonight,” the woman hissed, though she promptly softened her voice. “I need your cock now. I’ve been wet for you all day and we might as well take advantage of poor Tessie being gone, right?” she simpered mockingly. “You know how much she whines and bitches when you fuck her friends.”
I peeked past the wall in time to see Lukas clenching his jaw at her remark. “Goodnight,” he said, closing the door. She pushed it back open with surprising force.
“Lukas – ”
“I have someone over,” he said.
My eyebrows jumped high as I watched Noelle stop and stare with hurt. But she recovered quickly.
“Well… if I don’t hear her she must not be very much fun,” she scoffed. “And if you haven’t taken your dick out yet, she must not be all that cute.”
Lukas’s laugh was curt. “Oh, but she’s actually one of those rare finds that pulls off cute and sexy at the same time,” he said low, barely loud enough for me to hear. “And trust me, my cock’s been hard as a rock since the second I laid eyes on her tonight but I’m trying out the gentleman thing for once,” he added, his voice an irritated rasp. “That enough detail for you to head home now or would you like to hear about how fucking perfect her tits are? ‘Cause I could go on and on.”
My jaw fell into my lap. And in seconds, Noelle was gone, her angry heels clacking audibly down the hall even after Lukas closed the door. My heart hammering, I waited another ten seconds, giving Noelle time to exit the building before I got up and flew downstairs, making a beeline for the door that Lukas leaned tiredly against. He exhaled a breath that was half-groan upon spotting me.
“Something tells me you’re displeased.”
I meant to ignore his dry remark but I couldn’t help myself. “Yeah – sorry I’m not completely charmed that
you went into pretend-detail about having sex with me just to get rid of some poor girl.”
“Poor girl she is not, but do enlighten me on how I went into detail about having sex with you. If I recall correctly, I admitted to my dick being in my pants all night.”
“Well, I didn’t need to hear you talk so explicitly about everything else,” I snapped.
“What did I say?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not going to repeat it just so you can hear me say bad words.”
“‘Bad words’? What are we, five?”
“Fine.” I crossed my arms and stared in disbelief at him. “I didn’t need to hear all about how hard you were or how… how…”
His lips turned up in a wicked grin. “How perfect I think your tits are?”
“Oh my God,” I said in his face as I physically pushed him off the door to let myself out. Holy shit. Mistake, I swallowed hard. Never ever touch his abs again, I scolded myself, dizzy over how absurdly hard his muscles just felt under my palms.
“Right, well, see you around,” Lukas called humorously down the hall. My heart slammed as I fought back the urge to respond or so much as look back. And I succeeded, but the second I was out the door of the townhouse, my fingers flew to send Sara the rare all-caps text.
ME: HE IS AS BAD AS I THOUGHT AND YOU OWE ME 10000 CABS!!! POUR TWO GLASSES OF WINE I’LL BE THERE IN 10!!!!
3
LUKAS
I leaned back in my chair, staring out the window into reception.
It’s a two-way mirror, I wanted to tell the new girl.
It was her first day and my guess was that she’d yet to catch on to the architecture at the office, considering she checked her reflection in front of me repeatedly – everything from her teeth to her cleavage before knocking on my door with yet another question she could’ve Googled. To be fair, I usually had patience for that kind of thing. There was generally nothing annoying about an attractive woman leaning over my desk to point at a memo she didn’t actually want me to look at. Eyes on tits – that was the sole purpose of those visits and I rarely minded playing along.
But my interest was low today.
Twelve hours later and I was still a fucking animal thinking about that painfully sexy neighbor of mine. I hadn’t stopped since last night. Her image was already seared into my brain, starting with the one I got when she first opened the door – dripping wet and barely fucking dressed. I was lucky her brown eyes locked right onto mine or the first thing I’d have looked at were her tits. They were unreal even before they started bouncing for me as she jiggled that key in my door.
Fuck, what a view that was.
I couldn’t get enough of that memory – Lia wrestling my lock with such fire and fury that she didn’t care about her robe falling open again. The girl hated me enough to nearly expose herself while trying to get rid of me. Technically unfortunate but also the hottest thing I’d ever seen in my life. All I could think of as I watched her was pinning her body up on the wall, ripping that robe wide open and sucking on her nipples till she begged to be fucked.
“Christ,” I groaned aloud. As if sensing my dick was hard, my assistant suddenly knocked.
“Everything okay in here?” Noelle asked, cocking her blonde head at me.
“Everything’s fine,” I answered as she sat her tight ass at the edge of my desk, crossing one long leg over the other. She rarely ever came in without pulling that move and I rarely ever stopped myself from watching her skirt ride up her thighs. But as the case had been all morning, I had trouble keeping interest.
“Stressed out?” Noelle frowned. “You’ve seemed off all morning. Are you worried about Tess?”
I studied her, hoping she remembered nothing of last night so we could bypass that conversation. “She’s in good hands right now so, no. No more than usual.”
“Good,” Noelle murmured, her blue eyes drifting out my window. She was a childhood friend of my sister’s. It was the only reason I hired her. Three years and a hundred desk fucks later, I was beginning to regret it, though not enough to fire her. It was my fault for repeatedly mixing business with pleasure and Noelle was a good asset to have when clients needed a pretty girl to coax them into putting down the offer, even if the house was a million or ten out of the budget. Business-wise, she made perfect sense.
Of course more than that, I refused to let Cam poach anyone from my staff. I’d keep the most insubordinate and worthless intern if I knew my former partner was interested in hiring. In fact, I’d buy or claim anything he so much as looked at. After what he’d pulled, I was eager to ensure the struggle of his everyday life. Julian wouldn’t let me kill him, so it was the least I could do.
“Lukas…”
I blinked back into focus, fearing the way Noelle said my name because that trail-off always preceded some version of we need to talk.
“About last night.”
I clicked my pen shut. “We don’t need to discuss that. Is there anything work-related you want to address?”
She blinked as if I’d just thrown a drink in her face. “No?”
“How’s the new girl doing?”
“I’m training her to keep you as happy as I do,” Noelle smiled, tilting her head. “Anything specific you’d like her to know? How hard you like your massages?”
I let my stare linger on her for another second before returning to my screen. “Tell her that building security knows not to let Cam in, so if he calls and threatens to come by she doesn’t have to keep bringing it to my attention.”
Noelle bristled at the strictly work-related conversation. “Fine. I’ll let her know,” she muttered, crossing her arms as she rose to her heeled feet. She stared in a hard silence at me for several moments but when I didn’t look up at her, she broke. “I’m horny, Lukas. Do you want to fuck me right now?”
“Have I given you any indication that I do?”
“Are you being this much of a prick because it’s that time of the year?” she countered, going from zero to sixty as she was known to do. “For Christ’s sake, Lukas, just go away for a month like Tess does. Don’t make the rest of us miserable.”
The blank stare I gave her masked how thoroughly pissed I was. “Go back to work, Noelle.”
“Let me make you feel good.”
“No.”
She actually snarled in response. Like a cat. Still, she put on her best walk for me as she exited the office. I knew because I heard her huff when she got to the door, presumably when she looked back to see me already on the phone, my attention rapt as I read the new text on my screen.
I didn’t recognize the number it belonged to, but it didn’t take much to figure it out.
Hi. I got your number from Tess. She said she told you where my key was this morning and that you brought it to work. If you leave it at reception and text me your office address, I’ll be in and out quickly to pick it up. Thank you.
I smirked. Lia’s entire message was a thinly veiled way of saying that she preferred to do this exchange without seeing me, but I had no intention of leaving her key with Noelle so the reply I gave was simply that of my address. And within twenty minutes, the new girl’s voice sounded on my intercom.
“Mr. Hendricks? Lia Pope is here to see you?”
My eyes flew up and landed instantly on Lia as she stood at reception, enduring whatever interrogation she was getting from Noelle.
Damn. I dragged my hand down the lower half of my face. Wet and indecent had been an undeniably good look, but apparently dry and clothed was just as sexy on her. She wore a loose sweater and jeans – nothing I’d never seen on other women but on her, I couldn’t look away. The creamy color of her top brought out the sun-kissed glow of her skin and the snug fit of her jeans gave me the view of a perfectly round ass I hadn’t fucking known to look at last night.
Christ. I tilted my head to take in the side view of her lithe but curvy body as she leaned over reception, her tits just resting on the counter and making me wish I was that very g
lass surface.
“Mr. Hendricks?”
“Yes, send her in,” I finally said, watching Noelle glare as the new girl gave Lia the green light to enter. I willed my dick down as I got up to meet her.
“Nice receptionist you have,” Lia greeted me sarcastically, arms crossed and staring straight ahead as I closed the door behind her. I frowned.
“What’d she say?”
“Nothing overtly unfriendly but she was definitely very suspicious of my intentions here.”
I glanced out at Noelle, who was still staring into my office with unmasked contempt. I knew well what she was thinking – that I’d already stripped Lia naked, bent her over my desk and buried my cock deep inside her. Nothing I hadn’t pictured myself but still deeply inaccurate.
“Apologies on her behalf.” I resumed my seat behind my desk. “She shouldn’t have been so unprofessional.”
“Mm, well, I’m sure she’s just following your lead.”
“And what is it you’re trying to say with that?”
Lia’s arms remained crossed as she shrugged. “Just that her unprofessionalism is most likely a reflection of yours.”
“Is this about the fact that you saw her at my apartment last night?”
“Yes. And you told her that you had a woman over, which led her to be suspicious of me when I walked in here looking for you.”
“Why do you care what she thinks?”
“Because I do.”
“That’s not a reason.”
Lia glared. “Because.” She clenched her teeth. “I hate that once I get my key from you and leave, I have to do a walk of shame from your office to the elevator despite the fact that nothing went on in here. And don’t pretend that’s not the case, Lukas, it’s crystal clear what your receptionists think is happening in this room as we speak. Clearly, it happens often enough around here.”
