“Yeah,” she said, shaking her head. “My mom is just being the typical Marlene Montgomery.”
Lucas’s lips curled up. “Tell me,” he urged her gently. “You’ve never really talked about your parents before. I want to get to know them if I’m ever going to get to know you.”
So Avery told him everything about her mom. How she was beautiful and witty and intelligent. How she knew exactly what she wanted and went after it. How she really loved Avery’s dad. But with that beauty came ignorance. Ignorance of what Avery experienced living in her mother’s shadow. Ignorance of what it meant to possess common sense and make decisions that had consequences. How her ambition blinded her to potential problems and others’ feelings. How her love made her incessant in her desire for Avery to fall in the same love at a time her mother deemed as perfect.
“And now she wants me to go to the Masquerade with Rick,” she finished with a roll of her eyes. “As friends, obviously.”
Lucas growled without meaning to. Avery shot him a smirk and he cleared his throat.
“Sorry,” he mumbled. “No disrespect to your mom but…” He gave Avery nothing short of a predatory look and Avery felt herself pulse with immediate desire. “You’re mine.” He tilted his head to the side, grabbing her smartphone and flipping it over so she wouldn’t be able to read any incoming texts should they arise. “Have you thought about when you’re going to tell your mother about me?” He perked his brows when her eyes found his.
“Honestly?” Avery said, her shoulders slumping forward as exhaustion took over her muscles. “This is still so new for me and I just… I don’t want to ruin this.”
“How could she possibly ruin what you and I have?”
“You don’t know my mother,” she muttered under her breath. “What about you? When are you going to tell your family?”
His eyes turned the color of ash and he looked away. “I don’t have a family,” he reminded her. His tone was bitter but it wasn’t directed at her; just the situation he found himself in. “I withdrew from the pack; I’m a Lone Wolf. So even though I have blood, alive and well, if we were to pass each other on the street, they would look right through me. Pretend I didn’t exist.”
“That’s harsh,” Avery murmured, more to herself than to Lucas.
Lucas shrugged his muscled shoulders. “That’s wolves,” he said.
“Could you create your own pack?” she asked.
“Technically, yes,” he said, “but having a pack of Lone Wolves isn’t the best idea. Normally, Lone Wolves are independent, don’t bend to the pack’s will, or they’ve been ex-communicated, like me. You get a bunch of those types together and there’s really not much loyalty. In fact, I’ve heard rumblings of a pack made up of Loners, run by some wolf named Noah Tamlin. The guy is nuts because he makes his own law and extracts the punishments. I hear he tortures people with an aluminum baseball bat even though he can shift and rip someone to shreds. I’d rather be by myself.”
“What would he need to punish?” Avery asked, pinching her brow together. “Can’t the NDS or the cops or something arrest him?”
Lucas shook his head and Avery watched as his curls followed each swift movement of his head. “It‘s not that simple,” he explained. “The (name) Woods house a lot of reject wolves. It’s dangerous. While the NDS are trying to infiltrate and arrest those they deem as fatal, they haven’t been able to do so because it’s such a tight-knit community. Anyone they encounter would be treated with suspicion, and more than that, anyone that the NDS tries to bribe or talk into going undercover and being an informant is somehow gone from the pack. Disappearing from Somerset, from existence. Personally, I think the pack has an informant in the NDS but I haven’t had that confirmed.”
“How do you know about all this stuff?” Avery asked, shaking her head. “It hasn’t been on the news.”
“The NDS is good at containing stories that could potentially lead to violence in the community,” he explained. “Think about it: if you, as a human, heard that there are wolves who belong to an unorganized, undocumented pack that beats the shit out of people, rapes their women, kidnaps children, wouldn’t you look at all wolves with suspicion? Even the good ones?”
Avery paused, letting the words sink in. She pressed her lips together and gave Lucas a look she hoped he’d be able to decipher.
“And there’s already some tension still within the community,” he pointed out. “If word got out, there would be justified violence, an unsanctioned manhunt to try and bring the wolves to justice. Any Lone Wolf could get round up and put into some kind of regulation camp or be forced to commit to a pack when they’d rather be on their own. And any wolf could be seen as a potential threat.”
Avery felt her face turn ashen. “Yes,” she finally managed to say, “but how do you know about this? You’re technically a Lone Wolf, too. If it’s not in the news, how were you able to find out?”
Lucas shot her his lazy smirk. “Just because I’m not part of a pack doesn’t mean I don’t have friends,” he said. “The Cruz pack lives just on the border of the Black Woods. We’re north and the Sterling pack is south. We have our own borders not published on any map. They’re aware of the threat because it’s starting to affect their pack.”
“How?”
Lucas gave her a small grin and curled a loose strand of hair around his long finger. “And why are you so interested in wolf stuff?”
“If you’re a wolf, I’m a wolf,” she said with a small smile. “When you love someone, their concern becomes your concern. If it’s something that troubles you, it’s something that troubles me.”
His smile turned soft. “You don’t know how much that means to me,” he murmured, kissing the gentle mark on her neck. “So you love me, then?”
Avery’s first instinct was to deny it. She wanted nothing more than to take back what she had said, what had slipped out of her mouth unknowingly, accidentally. But she wouldn’t. She would stand by what she said and she wouldn’t be afraid.
“I do,” she said. “I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. It’s new and I’m afraid of my ignorance, but I trust you. I trust this.”
“I love you, too,” he told her, his tone serious as he placed another kiss on the tip of her chin. “I’ve loved you the first minute I saw you.”
She didn’t doubt him.
“You never told me,” she murmured, almost afraid to break the spell they were both under, almost afraid to ask lest it was too painful for him to say and for her to hear. “Why you are a Lone Wolf. Why you broke away from your pack…” She let her voice trail off. There was no need for any more explanation, no need to push him if he did not want to say.
His eyes found hers, and the utter sadness there made her regret pushing him. “I told you why I hate Rick,” he began, his voice cold. Though it was clear he had moved on from whatever it was that haunted him, it was still something he could not push past. Perhaps he never would. Perhaps he recognized that and that was why he ultimately left. “And you remember why Liv and I were together.”
Avery nodded, albeit stiffly. She didn’t like the mention of Lucas with anyone but her, even though his reputation was public and infamous. However, Liv was more than just a fuck but the woman he thought he was going to spend the rest of his life with. The woman he cared about. The woman he planned things with.
Until Avery.
“I can smell your jealousy,” he whispered against her skin, his nostrils flaring as though to emphasize his point. Avery clenched her jaw but said nothing. Lucas smirked. “I love it.”
She shook her head and leaned against his hard, muscled shoulder, allowing her eyes to shut. She had never felt more relaxed in a long time.
“Don’t be embarrassed by it,” he said in a low, serious voice. “Don’t be afraid of your emotions. You’re allowed to feel them.” He took her chin in his hand and pulled it to him. “Trust me; I feel them constantly. All the time.”
“You’re avoiding the sub
ject,” she said.
He grinned but did not pull away from her. “Even after everything between me and Liv,” he told her, his finger tracing the bridge of her nose before slowly running down her lips, “my pack still wanted me to marry her. I refused. I would not commit myself to someone who could not be loyal to my pack and to myself. So they excommunicated me.”
“But weren’t you going to be their Alpha?” Avery asked. She didn’t know why she was whispering, but she was.
He rested his forehead on hers as his hand came to rest on her chest, where her heart was pounding against her chest plate. She wondered if he could feel it thrum against him.
“Yes,” he answered, “but they’ll find someone else. A wolf’s pride is hard to overcome.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, and she meant it. She could understand what that was like, the pressure to put the good of others before the good of himself.
He cocked his lips into a grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’m not,” he said, and captured her lips with his.
22
The night of the Masquerade, Avery paid a personal shopper to pick out a dress – something professional but eye-catching – and had her hair and makeup done. The plan for the evening was that both Lucas and Avery would meet at the Grand Hotel, and interact solely as professional colleagues, nothing more. No dancing, no lingering gazes, and definitely no touching.
It would probably be harder than she believed. She knew how he looked in business suits; she could only imagine what he would look like in a tailored tuxedo with a mask on his face, making him exotically mysterious. She bit her bottom lip, regretting her insistence that they remain just friends in the public eye. It was going to be so hard to be near him and not find some way to find his skin with her own.
Before she left in her town car – waiting in front of her home for a couple of minutes – Avery looked at herself in her full-length bedroom mirror. She ignored the memories that immediately popped up in her head of Lucas taking her from behind, of watching him make love to her, of the clash in the skin tone, of the look on her face as he made her come. Her pelvis flinched with painful pleasure and she forced herself to focus. She needed tonight to go perfectly.
Avery wore a silver dress that flared at her hips and reached two inches above her knee – flattering but professional. The bodice was a sweetheart cut, the straps thin, and she had a strapless pushup bra that made her breasts look spectacular – much bigger than they really were. Her hair was pulled into a side bun, her bangs swept to the right side and pinned so they wouldn’t clutter her face. Her makeup was dark but not overdone, and her lips were painted red. She had never thought she could pull off red lipstick and still thought she looked somewhat ridiculous, but she forced herself to leave it on.
Tonight was not only the announcement regarding her and Lucas’s partnership with LunaApp. It was Avery Montgomery’s debut. The new Avery. The Avery she wanted to be. And that Avery wore red lipstick whenever she wanted to wear red lipstick.
When she decided everything was as perfect as she could make it, she locked her house and stepped into the town car. A flutter of butterflies tickled the inside of her stomach, like she was a fifteen-year-old girl going on her first date. She was nervous. Nervous but excited.
The event was being held at the Grand Hotel, one of the tallest buildings in Somerset. It had twenty-six floors, and one hundred rooms on each floor. There was a grand ballroom in the center of the hotel, just past the lobby, usually reserved for wedding receptions that booked out up to three years in advanced. It would be set up for Gary and Marcy’s reception tonight. The building glowed like the moon with its iridescent white brick that had this supernatural ability to shine, like marble or tile. There was also a beautiful private garden that housed hiking trails, exotic flowers, and fresh vegetables they used in their food. There were two, Olympic sized pools on the roof of the hotel and one on the west end of the hotel on the first floor, for those intimidated swimming twenty-six stories high. There was also an award-winning spa located on the east. The Grand oozed luxury, and the cheapest room for one night was $499 during the week.
It was one of Avery’s mother’s favorite places to vacation, since she didn’t like to travel much.
The town car pulled up to the valet. There was a line and Avery watched as prolific businessmen and women emerged from the cars, dressed exquisitely. She noticed many women dripping with jewelry and Avery touched her bare neck, her bare ears, and thought perhaps she should have at least accessorized. Especially considering she took off her engagement ring the minute she broke things off with Rick.
When her car was finally at the top of the line, a valet opened the door and helped her out, greeting her warmly. Avery carefully got out of the car, murmuring a thank you. Her eyes swept the glittering couples hanging outside, conversing in low murmurs. Lucas wasn’t among them.
Avery found her footing and walked through the doors that slid open before her. She wasn’t used to attending events by herself. Before Rick, her parents would take her along. If not them, she’d go with friends.
But Avery was different now, more independent. She could walk in with her head held high.
So she did.
Avery rolled her shoulders back and tilted her chin up. At first, she felt ridiculous, especially considering she did all of this while balancing in heels. However, with each stride, she began to feel a sense of calm confidence bury itself deep within her bones. She didn’t need anyone. She could do this all on her own.
She walked through the lobby – filled with growing trees and an indoor creek – to the grand ballroom. She checked in with a smiling plump woman sitting in a baby blue pant suit and was afforded a name badge Avery decided to clip to a strap of her dress.
At that moment, her entire body tensed, but in a pleasant way. Someone was watching her with a feral, possessive look on their face. She couldn’t see anyone do so just yet but she could feel it. It was a hard feeling to describe.
When she picked her eyes up to survey the crowd, she immediately locked eyes with Lucas, and her breath escaped her. He looked beautiful in a tuxedo with no tie, just a white collared shirt unbuttoned to his collarbone. The clothing was fitted specifically to his body, revealing the rippled muscles the wolf possessed. He made no move to conceal the look on his face; if anyone were to look at him, they would clearly see that he wanted her in more ways than one, and he wanted everyone to know it. He wasn’t wearing a mask, which didn’t make much sense because it was a Masquerade, but that little spurt of rebellion caused a painful spark to flare in her pelvis.
Oh, God, she wanted him. Now.
Avery knew she should look away. She should pretend she hadn’t seen the look on his chiseled face. She should go find people to talk to, to network with, to formally introduce herself to. But she couldn’t bring herself to move. Maybe she couldn’t. Maybe she was pinned to the spot where she stood, opened and exposed like an unwilling burlesque girl.
And then he did the unthinkable. He inclined his head to the right, where a long hallway was. It was unoccupied and completely isolated.
This was a bad idea. This was trouble. This was…
He gave her one last smirk and – was that a wink? Had he had the balls to wink at her so publically? – placed his hands in his pocket, heading down the hall at a leisurely pace as though he were going to the restroom. As though he wasn’t about to do anything wrong.
She followed him before her mind realized what her legs were doing on their own accord. Avery glanced over her shoulder – to the left and then to the right – before continuing down the secluded hallway. She couldn’t find him, however. He had disappeared. She was about to spin around and head back to the ballroom when a door to an innocuous room sprung open and an arm shot out to latch onto Avery’s arm and pull her into a dimly lit, cramped supply closet.
She blinked once before looking up at Lucas with a feral grin on his face. “You look amazing,” he told her in a husky p
urr. It shot heat waves rippling across her entire body and she moved closer to him, like he was some kind of magnet attracting her to him. “I want you.”
“Here?” Avery asked, her heart pounding a heavy beat in her head. She was surprised he hadn’t said anything about it just yet. “Now?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he pushed her against the wall behind her and sucked on the crevice of her neck – where her throat met her shoulder. Where he left his mark on her. A mark she had made sure the makeup artist would cover up. She threw her head back and smacked it against the wall behind her. It throbbed with pain but she didn’t care.
He kissed her mouth hungrily, desperately, while his hands pulled and tugged at the skirt of the dress so he could hike it up. He disintegrated her panties with a quick rip of the cloth and they disappeared somewhere Avery couldn’t keep tabs on.
“Touch yourself,” he ordered in a raspy whisper, his mouth against her throat once more. “You aren’t leaving here until you come for me.”
“You can’t leave any hickeys on me,” she instructed, though she did as he told her. Her fingers found the lips of her center and soon, she was sliding her fingers over the swollen pink nub that contained her pleasure.
“You don’t get to tell me what I do,” he all but barked. “Not here, not now. You are mine, and if I want everyone to see that I’ve claimed you, I will.”
His words sent a shock to her system. Her eyes rolled shut and her shoulders leaned against the wall while her pelvis tilted away from it, almost like an offering to Lucas to take her. He needed no offering – he took what he thought was his without any hesitation. Without even asking.
His big hands gripped her waist and in one swift movement, her legs were wrapped around his waist and his cock slammed into her like he was returning home after a long absence. He let out a cross between a howl and a groan and Avery had to use her free hand to clamp over his mouth and prevent him from giving them away.
An Education in Business: A Somerset Novel (Somerset Series Book 3) Page 13
