by Ashley Blake
“Thank you.”
He looked surprised and gave me a soft smile.
“Anytime.”
I slowly played the scene over in my head as we stood there looking at each other in silence and one statement screamed out at me.
“Kinsley is my business.” Wait, did I just say that out loud?
“Yeah.” That was all he offered.
“What did you mean by that?”
Lucas looked uncomfortable as he shuffled from one foot to the other and I don’t think I had ever seen him look so vulnerable.
“I just meant that my father would probably want me to make sure that you are safe while you’re down here, so I have to look after you.”
I could feel my jaw tightening as the thought of my mother asking Arty to have Lucas look after me flooded my mind. Of course that’s really why he’s here! They sent him to babysit me! I put my hand on my hip and narrowed my eyes at him.
“My mom and Arty put you up to this, didn’t they?”
He chuckled as he saw me growing angrier.
“Not at all!”
“I am not a child, Lucas. I don’t need anyone to ‘look after’ me.” I added air quotes for emphasis and to be a little bit obnoxious.
“I know that, Kinsley. I just want to make sure you are safe while you are here, that’s all.”
“I appreciate you stepping in when you did, but I could have handled it on my own.” My pride was beginning to swell and I didn’t want him to know how scared I actually was when Eric was being a dick.
His voice was gentle and sounded sincere. “I’m sure you could have, but guys like that can be unpredictable so I am happy I was there.”
“How did you even know I was on the beach?” Was he following me?
“I didn’t know it was you, I just heard a woman cry out and I knew someone needed help.”
I mulled over his words, and decided not to push it. I was just grateful he was there when I needed him.
Chapter Twelve - Lucas
The adrenaline was flowing as I raced toward the familiar voice in the dark. I saw the guy holding Kinsley as she tried to pull away from him and it was like a bullet train was pushing me from behind. I pulled the guy off of her and when he finally left I didn’t want her to know that I recognized her voice. I just let her think I thought someone was in trouble. I would have gone to the rescue of anyone I thought was in trouble, but when I heard Kinsley’s voice it was like someone had literally lit my feet on fire.
As I stood there staring at her in the moonlight I lost all train of thought and could not think of one thing to say. In moments like that I could become a true idiot and that is just what I did. The fact that she was in Mexico during my fight was a complete coincidence and I had no idea she would be there, so I had to quickly think of why I said I considered her my business. That stupid thought came to my head and exited my lips before I could stop it and now she thought our parents sent me. That was the last thing I wanted her to think.
“Can I walk you back to your room? I know you can handle yourself, but you probably shouldn’t be out here alone. We are in a foreign country and even though this part is safe, I would feel better if you weren’t out here by yourself.”
I braced myself for a snarky comeback but she surprised me and agreed to let me walk her back. As we strolled along the beach I glanced over at her and saw her hair gently blowing across her face. Without thinking I reached out and smoothed it away, my hand stopping in mid-air once I realized what I had done.
Kinsley quickly moved away from me as if my touch had burned her.
“What are you doing?” She looked annoyed as her eyes shot daggers at me in the moonlight.
Wow, she really can’t stand me. I hated to admit that a chick had bruised my ego, but that is exactly what happened. I shook it off knowing that eventually she would be screaming my name. There was something in her eyes when I saved her from that asshole…I know I didn’t imagine that.
“Nothing, relax. I don’t bite, Kinsley.”
“Whatever. Your little bimbos might swoon when you brush their hair out of their eyes, but that won’t work on me.”
“You’re reading too much into it.”
“Really? You have a different girl with you all the time.”
“How do you know that? You’ve only seen me a couple of times.”
“I, I…I know. I just meant that of the times that I have seen you, you’re always with a different girl.”
I could tell she was embarrassed as she stumbled over her words and I decided to have a little fun with that.
“Oh, so you’ve been watching me, huh?”
She quickly became defensive. “No!”
I looked at her out of the side of my eyes and raised an eyebrow as we slowly strolled toward the hotel.
“Really? It sounds like you were, Kinsley.” I stopped and turned to her. “It’s okay, I know I’m irresistible.” I said it with a straight face and a few seconds later she tried her best to hold back a smile.
“You’re crazy, Lucas.”
“Oh, is that a smile I see?”
She really tried not to smile but I could see it breaking through.
“Whatever, Lucas.”
She wasn’t really giving me what I wanted, there was no banter and I started to feel like she really couldn’t stand me. As we walked in silence I started to get pissed because I had not given her any reason not to like me. Instead of letting it go, I decided to confront her.
“Kinsley, what have I ever done to you to make you dislike me so much? You look at me like I’m the most disgusting thing you’ve ever seen.”
She paused for a minute before answering me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her eyes were wide and innocent but we both knew I was right.
I stopped walking and turned to look at her. “Kinsley. Come on. Since the first night we met at the restaurant you have been giving me the freezing cold shoulder and I just want to know what I did to you.”
She let out a deep sigh and looked down at the ground. “Do we really have to do this?” She raised her eyes to mine. “We are just two very different people Lucas, that’s all. You do you very differently than I do and I’m not saying it in a way that means it’s bad, we’re just different.”
“Look, I don’t want you to think I’m a bad guy, I just like what I like.” I hesitated before I said the next words, but then I thought, ‘screw it’, I had nothing to lose. “And what I like is you.”
Before she could stop me I reached down and kissed her. She gently tried to push me away but I felt her lips moving beneath mine and I pulled her tighter, kissing her deeper. My tongue swept into her mouth, sliding over hers and I know I heard a soft moan escape her lips. No woman had ever made me feel the way I felt the second my lips touched Kinsley’s and I knew no woman ever would.
My hands slid over her back pressing her even closer and I couldn’t help that my member was hard as a rock. She must have felt it because she pushed away from me, tearing our lips apart, shock written all over her face.
“We can’t do this.” Her words were breathless as her hands flew to her swollen lips.
I took a step toward her closing the gap, my eyes searching hers.
“Why not?”
She looked at me incredulously.
“Because our parents are getting married, Lucas. It’s just not right.”
“Kinsley, you and I are not blood relatives and it’s not even like we grew up together. Us, you and me, this can totally happen.”
She looked at me with that sassy smirk and it got to me. As cool as I was trying to be, I was this close to actually begging her to give us a chance. It was crazy. No chick had ever done this to me, not even Sarah.
“What makes you think I even want this to happen?”
I leaned in and whispered, flicking her ear with the tip of my tongue. “Your body tells me you do.”
Chapter Thirteen - Kinsley
He was right, and my bod
y was betraying me. When he kissed me it felt so natural and so right. I didn’t want the kiss to end but I knew that it had to so I reluctantly pushed him away. He didn’t want to hear it when I told him we were not a good idea, and I didn’t really believe my own words, but it was the right thing to say. Then he licked my ear and everything I said went out the window.
I couldn’t hold back and I didn’t want to. I was on vacation hundreds of miles away from our parents, we were alone on the beach, I was giving in to temptation, and it felt so good. I wrapped my arms around Lucas’s neck pulling his mouth down to mine. He kissed me so good, gently sucking on my lower lip, I wanted to drop my panties right there on the beach. I didn’t care that our parents were getting married, I didn’t care that he was forbidden and I didn’t care that I would probably regret my decision in the morning. I was living in the moment and feeling his hands caress my bare skin turned me on more than anything I had ever done. Just his touch had me soaking my panties and I didn’t want it to stop.
I ran my hands over his taut arms and abs, savoring every second of what we were doing, not questioning any of it. My fingers trailed their way up to his hair and I raked my fingers through, sliding my tongue over his, pressing my body even closer. I wanted him to know that I wasn’t going to stop and I wasn’t going to push him away. I wanted him and there were no games about it. I didn’t normally have sex with someone I barely knew. When I thought about it, I had only seen Lucas a handful of times after our parents got engaged. My mom tried to arrange ‘family’ get-togethers but I’d had no interest in doing that, I thought it was best if I spent as little time around Lucas as possible. But there? On the beach in Mexico? There was nowhere else I wanted to be.
I knew it had to be close to the time for me to meet Sophie and the guys, but as Lucas ran his tongue along my neck I thought, ‘Andrew who?’ Sophie wouldn’t care that I didn’t meet her because I knew she would be happy to hang with Paul all night. I was pretty sure that Eric would tell Paul what happened and Sophie would know that I was with Lucas.
I pushed all of that out of my mind as I ran my hands along Lucas’s biceps, his smooth skin pulled tight over his taut muscles. I wrapped my arms around him pulling him closer, my fingers raking through his thick hair, opening my mouth to take his tongue deeper as my wetness began to moisten my inner thighs. I was in a haze of ecstasy, ready to give myself to Lucas right there on the beach when I felt him sharply pull away from me, sucking in air as if he was taking his first breath.
“We can’t do this here, Kinsley.”
I was totally confused. Lucas basically came to my rescue and all of a sudden he was a different guy in my mind. In that moment he wasn’t the cocky asshole I had presumed him to be, he was my knight in shining armour defending my honor. I did not even want to think about what could have happened to me if Lucas had not shown up when he did. The way he made that jerk Eric apologize to me, made me wet and I totally did not expect that. And there I was, ready to let him have me right there with the waves crashing against the shore, and he was turning me down. I felt embarrassed and mortified. Shit.
“Why not?” I could barely focus with my sensitive bud pulsating between my legs.
“Our first time together can’t be like this. Not here on this beach like this.” He took a step toward me and placed a finger under my chin, gently raising my eyes to his, a slight smile touching the corner of his mouth. “You deserve better than that.”
The reality of what we were doing there began to sink in and I felt like I was yanked out of a drunken haze. I took a big step away from Lucas as I put my hand over my swollen lips, looking at him as if I was seeing him for the first time. What was I doing? I think I got caught up in the romance of it all and I was not thinking straight. It was a beautifully warm night, we were alone on the beach in an exotic location under the moonlight, and he basically rescued me from harm, so why wouldn’t I just give in to the feelings all of that could cause?
“I should not have let that happen, Lucas. I think I was too caught up in everything that just happened. You’re right, we shouldn’t be doing this.”
“I didn’t say we shouldn’t be doing this, I said we can’t do this here on the beach. We definitely should be doing this Kinsley, it is going to happen.”
I ran my hands through my hair, looked up at him and did my best to be nice about letting him down easy. I felt like I had led him on and that was not my intention. I had no idea my emotions would take over the way they did and I would lose my entire logical thought process. The problem was that is what happened to me when I was around Lucas. I couldn’t make sound decisions because all I wanted to do was be with him. But he was bad news and the situation just would not work. Our parents were getting married in less than two months and there was no way around the fact that we were going to be family. So whatever lust I had churning down in my scared place for him, had to be suppressed. I had to accept that it was not going to happen with us, it just was not possible.
“Look Lucas, there is no way we can do this. Our parents are getting married and aside from the fact that they told us to keep our hands off of each other, it just would not be right. We never should have let things get as far as they did tonight.”
He took a step toward me and I could barely breathe. He gently lifted my chin so that I had to look at him.
“Yes, we should have. Just not here. Look, I can see that you’re a little confused so I will back off for now, but will you please do a favor for me?”
I was afraid of what he was going to ask me because I knew it was going to be hard for me to say no to him again, but I decided to hear him out.
“It depends.”
“Okay, come watch me work out tomorrow.”
The thought of watching him prepare to violently fight another man did not appeal to me. As much as I hated to admit it, I couldn’t wait until the fight was over so I could stop worrying about him.
“Um, no thanks.”
“Kinsley, I really want you to be there. I could tell the first night we met at the restaurant that what I do bothers you, and I want you to see that I know how to protect myself so that I don’t get hurt.”
“Lucas, Sophie loves that world and she has told me how brutal the fights are and how beaten the guys are afterwards. I really don’t want to watch that happen to you.”
A tiny twinkle glimmered in his eye. “So, you care about me.”
I felt my cheeks getting warm and I could have kicked myself for letting that slip out. He was cocky enough and I didn’t want to inflate his ego bigger than it already was. I did my best to change the subject, or at least I thought did.
“Lucas, I wouldn’t want to see anyone getting beat up, it’s just not my thing, so don’t go reading more into what I said.”
“Okay fine, I’ll let it go for now but just know that I know…” He winked at me and I wanted to melt into the sand. He was so damned sexy and it really pissed me off how attracted I was to him.
“I should probably get back to my room because I’m sure Sophie is looking for me.”
“Okay, but please think about coming to my workout tomorrow. I want you to see that there is no need to worry about me getting hurt.”
“We’ll see.” It was the fastest way for me to end the conversation but I had no intention of going to watch him get ready for a fight.
When we got back to my room my heart was pounding as we stood in the hall, wondering if he was going to kiss me. Lucas looked at me, a slight smirk touching the corner of his mouth. I felt like I was missing something so I cocked my head to the side and gave him a curious look.
“What?”
“Life is funny sometimes.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean some things are just meant to be.” He took my key from my hand, opened my door for me, leaned down and gave me a sweet kiss on the cheek. “I hope I see you tomorrow, Kinsley. I’ll be at the gym all day.” With that, he pulled his room key from his pocket and entered the ro
om directly across from mine.
I stood in my doorway, staring at him, and my mouth dropped to the floor.
No way.
Chapter Fourteen – Lucas
I smiled to myself as I walked into my room. Kinsley must have been the girl across the hall Zach was talking about the first day we got there, and he was right. She had a great ass. I don’t know how I managed to sleep that night knowing that Kinsley was right across the hall from me, but I did. She was the last thing I thought of when I fell asleep and the first thing I thought of when I woke up.
I couldn’t get the way her mouth tasted and the way her body felt pressed against mine out of my mind as I lay in bed just a few minutes longer than usual that next morning. I relived our kiss in my mind hoping to temporarily satisfy my ache for her, but gave up in frustration a couple of minutes later when my desire for actual physical contact with her body took over. I hopped out of bed and went through my normal routine before heading to the gym. The fight was the next day and I had to stay focused, so I was going to use that frustration in the ring.
