His Wicked Ways

by Lorraine Beaumont

  “Okay.” She wiped her wet hair from her face and followed him.

  Lucian stopped and leaned back against the wall. “This is better, don’t you think?”

  “Ye-yeah,” she chattered.

  “Let’s get you warmed up.” He shrugged out of his jacket and placed it over her shoulders. “How’s that?” He rubbed her arms.

  “Much better, thank you,” she said, even though she was still shivering.

  “Here, this will help.” He lifted the bottle out to her.

  Molly took the bottle. “I didn’t bring my glass with me.”

  “Who cares,” he said. “Be daring.”

  Molly gave him a questioning look.

  “Drink straight from the bottle,” he said. “I promise I don’t have any germs.”

  Molly looked at his lips and swallowed hard. Taking the proffered bottle, she took a big swig. Coughing, she handed the bottle back to Lucian.

  “To us.” He tilted the bottle back and took a hefty swig of his own.

  Molly smiled up at him stupidly. She felt giddy, free, like she did before Dan. Back to when she was in High School, when she used to hide behind the bleachers at football games with Peggy and drink. With the only difference being, they were usually hanging out with a bunch of losers, never the hotties. But now, she was with a hottie and it was… amazing. When he handed the bottle back out to her again, she took another big swig not even stopping to think about how tipsy she was starting to feel.

  Like old friends, they took turns handing the bottle back and forth until it was halfway gone.

  Molly was always the quintessential ‘good girl’. She waited three months to sleep with Dan because she thought he was the one. The one she would eventually marry. That didn’t turn out to be true of course, obviously. But as she looked at Lucian, she couldn’t help but wonder if she had tried out Dan sooner, test drove him so to speak, if she would have stayed with him so long or gotten back together with him so many times. She wasn’t a quitter. She told herself she could make it work—like she had some kind of point to prove to herself and the rest of the world that she could keep a man. What a joke that had turned out to be. Now with Lucian, a man she barely knew, she wondered if she should just take the plunge; try him on for size. See if he fit. And if he didn’t, well, she would have a damned good time in the process.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  Her face heated. “No reason,” she said.

  Lucian was feeling no pain at this point. The lack of food probably had more to do with it than the whiskey he was drinking. Actually, he was surprised he hadn’t worked up a better tolerance since he had picked booze over eating lately. He could only afford one or the other and numbing his brain took precedence to sustenance.

  “What is the mine for again?”

  “Well, it does have an abundance of emeralds, per the name but what it is really famous for is the feldspar.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s a cleaning agent.”

  “A what?”

  “You know, to clean with, like comet.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “It was during the depression and the demand for emeralds and semi-precious stones weren’t that great, but the cleaning agent was. So the workers were actually told to throw out a lot of the stones.”

  “You’re kidding me?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “It’s the truth.”

  “Wow.”

  “I know, right.”

  “Did they really throw them out?”

  “Not sure. I think some of the workers may have kept some for themselves but I can’t say for sure.”

  “I would have,” Lucian said.

  “Me too,” Molly agreed and took another drink.

  “So,” he said after a few minutes. “You never did tell me what happened with you and that guy?” Lucian wasn’t sure why he was even asking. He didn’t care…at least he didn’t think he did.

  Molly shook her head. “He dumped me.”

  Lucian felt her pain. “What a dick.”

  She burst out laughing.

  Lucian raised his brow, giving her a curious look.

  “It’s not that bad. He did me a favor.”

  “How so?”

  “I wouldn’t be here with you and …”

  He slung his arm around her shoulders. “You know, I’ve never had a girl for a friend before,” he admitted.

  “Well,” she sighed, figuring this was just her luck. She finally found a guy that could make her forget all about Dan and he was cramming her in the friend zone. “I guess I’ll be your first.”

  “Yeah,” he breathed, his gaze smoldering as he looked down at her. “You would be my first.”

  Molly felt a rush of heat climb to her face. “So… is that a good thing?” She was pretty warm in other areas as well.

  Lucian wrapped his free arm around her back and pulled her firmly against his body. “What do you think?”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Lucian decided right then and there, that he was probably going to regret what he was about to do, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. Throwing caution to the wind, he lowered his mouth to hers. She parted her lips, letting his tongue slid right in without any hesitation at all. She tasted like whiskey and mint, a surprisingly arousing combination.

  Molly was in heaven. She wrapped her arms more securely around his broad shoulders as he deepened the kiss, reveling in the warmth of his tongue lashing against her own. If she had to rate the kiss on a scale from one to ten, she would give it an eleven,—it was that good.

  Lucian groaned. He was hard pressed not to take her, right here, right now. Tracing her cleavage with his fingertip, he freed her left breast. His thumb slid over her nipple, eliciting a trembling response. His other hand slid downward…

  “Ahem!”

  Lucian tensed and broke from the kiss. “Damn!” Using his body, he blocked her until she set her dress to rights.

  Molly felt like someone had tossed freezing water right on her. She looked warily over her shoulder and groaned.

  Dan was standing outside the mouth of the cave with a disgusted look on his face. “What do you want,” she snapped, frustrated.

  “Peggy is waiting for you at the hotel,” he snapped back.

  “Oh.” Flustered, she jerked on her dress, making sure she was covered. “Tell her I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “You tell her,” he said and stormed off.

  “Jerk,” she called after him. “Sorry,” she said, completely embarrassed, turning back around.

  “It’s all right, we’ve got all night.” Lucian gave her a wink accompanied by a sexy lopsided grin.

  Molly’s heart melted all over again.

  ♣

  After Dan’s rude interruption, the hot moment between her and Lucian was completely blown to smithereens. To make matters worse she had lost her buzz and now had a half-assed headache.

  The cool damp air revived her even more as they sped back to the hotel in the golf cart. She couldn’t believe she had not seen all the people from the wedding file past her and Lucian while they were making out or that the rain had stopped.

  She suddenly wished she had another drink.

  Once they were back at the hotel, Lucian put the golf cart in park and turned off the engine. He turned in his seat. “Now what?”

  “I guess we go inside for the cake cutting and dancing.”

  “Will there be food?”

  She smiled. “I can get you some.”

  “You’re the best.”

  So are you, she wanted to say but didn’t.

  As soon as Molly walked back into the hotel with Lucian, Peggy ran up. “I’m cutting the cake in a minute. Where have you been?”

  Molly cut her eyes to Lucian and back to Peggy.

  “Oh.” Peggy got her meaning and smiled conspiratorially.

  “Lucian, are you having a good time?”

  “Yes,” he said
. “As a matter of fact, I am.”

  “Good. Good.” She patted his shoulder affectionately, and winked at Molly.

  Molly rolled her eyes.

  “I’ll be cutting the cake in a moment,” Peggy repeated.

  “Sounds great,” Lucian, said.

  “Okay,” she exhaled. “I better go and don’t forget to come over for the dancing.”

  “I won’t,” he told her.

  “Great. I better get back.” And with that, Peggy took off across the room toward the cake that was set up near the back wall.

  Molly turned towards Lucian. “I think it may be a bit before I can get you some food,” she said.

  Lucian rubbed his flat belly. “I think I’ll survive for a bit longer.”

  Molly smiled; she couldn’t help it. He was so damned sexy. He made her hot and bothered just looking at him. “I guess we should get over there.”

  “I’ll meet you there,” he said. When she gave him a questioning look, he added,” I need to use the little boy’s room.”

  “Oh.” Molly laughed. “Then I’ll meet you over there.”

  “Okay.”

  They both went their separate ways.

  Molly was halfway across the room but kept stepping on her hem. She stopped to jerk her skirt up. When she stood back up, Dan was there, glaring down at her. “What do you want?”

  “What in the hell are you doing?” His face was red.

  “I’m having fun, that’s what I am doing.”

  “You are acting like a slut,” he accused.

  “No, Dan,” she said, surprised she was so calm. “You are obviously confusing me with the slut you brought to wedding.”

  He looked taken aback and then his expression changed. “You don’t even know that guy.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Marshall told me.”

  “So what? Like you know Tracy any better?” Take that asshole, she thought.

  “Actually, I do,” he said and then he averted his eyes.

  Right then, her relationship with Dan became crystal clear to Molly. Dan had been cheating on her. She waited for the anger to bubble up, or the sadness, at his obvious admission but none of those emotions came. Instead, she felt numb to her core. “How long?”

  “For a while now but it’s not what you think…”

  She put up her hand. “Just stop. Don’t bother, okay.” She shook her head.

  “But…”

  “You’ve said enough. I get it.” The numbness subsided and suddenly she felt like a weight was pressing down on her, smothering her. She was finding it hard to take a breath. “God,” she exhaled. “I’m so stupid.”

  “Molly,” he said, his voice taking on that tone that was a cross between placating and demoralizing.

  She shook her head. “Just stop. I don’t need to hear anymore.”

  “Well, it’s your fault,” he quickly defended his actions.

  She fisted her hands and inhaled through her nose, trying to keep it together. “My fault?”

  “Yeah. You kept getting all clingy with me. You were suffocating me.”

  “I was suffocating…you…,” she repeated.

  “I tried to tell you but then I felt bad.”

  “You felt bad…for me?” The numbness was back.

  “Come on, Moll’s…like I said, we can still be friends. That is…,” he added, “if you ditch that guy and start acting right.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Come on.” He swiped his hand through his hair in aggravation, making it stand up. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, Dan,” she said calmly. “I don’t need you to repeat anything. Everything you said is crystal clear, for once. Actually, I want to thank you for the clarification.”

  His brows creased. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that now I can tell you what I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time now.”

  “What’s that?”

  “To go and fuck yourself.”

  “God! What is with you? Grow up.”

  “Here’s a novel idea, Dan. I’ll grow up when you stop sticking your bendy noodle dick in other women. How’s that.”

  He threw up his hands in exasperation. “What the fuck ever, Molly.”

  “Well, at least we finally agree on something, Dan.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She threw her hands in the air just like he did. “What the fuck ever, Dan.”

  “Smartass,” he mumbled.

  “Asshole.” She couldn’t believe she was even having this conversation with him. “I got to go. Peggy is waiting on me.”

  He grabbed her arm. “What about that guy you’re with? What are you going to do with him?”

  Molly thought about that for a moment and then smiled. “I’ll be doing whatever I damn well please with him and for once, I will be enjoying every moment.” She jerked her arm from his grasp.

  Dan face showed his surprise. He looked like she slapped him.

  Molly smirked. Happy her dig hit its intended mark; she pressed her shoulders back and walked away, holding her head high.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Lucian walked out of the men’s room and pulled up short. “Hey,” he said.

  “Hi there.” Tracy traced her finger down her décolletage, and bit her lip. “Where are you going?”

  “I’ve got to ah, meet someone.”

  “Oh.” She stepped closer and placed her hand on his chest. “I was thinking, I mean, I remember what you said to me, but I was wondering if you might have changed your mind.”

  He frowned. “Changed my mind about what?”

  “You know,” she said, walking her fingers up his chest. “About staying with me,” she said and then added, “Until you get settled.”

  “Thanks,” he said. “But I’ve got that covered.”

  “Let me guess,” she said, toying with the button on his jacket. “You and that little bridesmaid are hooking up tonight?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “You’re not denying it either.”

  Lucian had a sudden urge to tell her it wasn’t any of her damn business.

  “Well, I guess…” Tracy looked over Lucians’ shoulder and suddenly narrowed her eyes.

  “Take care,” he said, trying to be nice and get away from her at the same time.

  “Wait,” she said.

  Before Lucian knew what she was doing, Tracy threw herself against him, and wrapped her arms around his neck.

  “What are you…?”

  Her mouth landed on his.

  Lucian was going to object but her hand slid down between his legs. She cupped his balls and a zing of pleasure shot through him. “Damn,” he groaned against her parted lips.

  Tracy sucked on his bottom lip. “You like that?”

  Lucian shook his head, getting his wits about him again. “I’m sorry. I can’t…” He pushed her back.

  “I told you,” she said loudly. “I’m seeing someone.”

  “What?” Lucian frowned not understanding what she was even saying.

  She jerked her bodice back up and then smiled not at him but at something or someone behind him.

  Lucian had a bad feeling.

  He turned then and saw Molly standing there. Her face was unusually pale. “Molly…” He took a step forward.

  Molly stood there stupidly feeling like a knife was just stuck in her heart. Granted, she didn’t know why she was surprised. Who wouldn’t want Tracy over her? Dan obviously did, and now Lucian. It was too much. She couldn’t stand there looking like an idiot any longer. Therefore, instead of saying anything, or letting him talk, she turned and ran in the other direction. Halfway down the hall, she remembered she was supposed to be with Peggy as she cut the cake, but she couldn’t. Not right now. She had to get to her room. That was all she could think of. To get to her room and get a moment by herself before she lost it completely.

  Lucian narrowed his eyes at Tracy. “What
did you do that for?”

  “Sorry.” She shrugged. “I couldn’t help myself.”

  Lucian noticed she didn’t look sorry at all.

  “Now that she’s gone,” she said, stepping forward again. “You want to come back to my room and finish what we started?” She made eyes at him.

  It was the damndest thing. Normally, Lucian would have gladly taken her up on her blatant offer but he found he wasn’t the least bit interested in doing anything with her, and that, in itself, scared the ever-loving shit out of him.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Molly slammed the door shut to her room. She was torn between wanting to cry and scream. She ended up doing neither. What was the point? Really, who was she kidding, thinking that someone like Lucian would be attracted to her? She should have learned her lesson with Dan, but oh no, not me, she thought dejectedly.

  Walking across the room, she sat down on the edge of the bed. She wanted to crawl under the covers and cry herself to sleep but she couldn’t do that. She had to get herself together so she could go back out to the wedding and be with her friend. She grabbed a pillow, pulling it onto her lap and proceeded to punch the crap out of it. Wishing it was Dan or even better, Tracy.

  Ten minutes later, after she got all her anger out, she let out a heavy breath, making her hair flutter upward from the action.

  “Well, Molly, it’s time to get it together.” She sighed, standing once again. She crossed over to the bathroom. Her shoes made a soft clicking sound on the marbled tiles as she made her way to the sink and turned on the faucet. Leaning forward, she scooped up the cold water and splashed it on her face.

  Taking a white fluffy towel down off the rack, she blotted her face, and then set the towel aside. Grabbing her makeup case, she pulled out her tube of Dior lip venom, reapplied her lip-gloss, used some more mascara, and lastly, brushed powder over her face.

  Surprisingly, she didn’t look too bad, considering how wretched she felt. After she blew out her bangs with the hairdryer, she used some deodorant, and then brushed her teeth.

  After she freshened up as much as she could, she turned to leave the bathroom and headed back out to meet Peggy before she missed anymore of her friend’s wedding.

  Closing the door to her room, she turned and her breath caught.