He Loves Lucy

by Susan Donovan

  “Peanut brittle?”

  “Better.”

  Lucy pulled away the paper and Theo watched as she held the Special Olympics creed in her hands, reading, saying nothing. He saw a tear plop onto the shiny brass surface of the plaque.

  “It was supposed to inspire you, Luce, not make you sad.”

  She looked up at him and grinned. ‘Thank you, and please tell Buddy I said thank you.“

  “Will do. It was his idea. He misses you almost as much as I do. Even Norton seems out-of-sorts.”

  Lucy laughed. “And you, Theo? How are you?”

  Theo just loved this. The cadence of this whole conversation with Lucy felt so damn good it amazed him. Being with her felt like home, like peace, like where he was meant to be. “I’m nothing without you, Luce.”

  “Clearly just a shell of a man.”

  “I’m even having trouble with my hair gel.”

  Lucy placed the plaque on the coffee table and curled back up in a ball, chuckling. Theo reached his hand toward her. Tentatively, she took it.

  Lucy shook her head slowly, her ponytail gently swooshing over her shoulder. “I’ve really dropped the ball these last few weeks, Theo. All our hard work-”

  “We’ll just start from here. It’s just a place to start.”

  Lucy’s beautiful face twisted with disappointment. “With my gain last month, I’ve got thirty-four pounds to go in twelve weeks. We’re probably not going to make our goal.”

  “Hey, sweetie…” Theo moved to the edge of his chair and leaned closer, cradling her hand in both of his now. “If you don’t lose another pound from now until December, you still would have made it.”

  She nodded, giving him a brave smile.

  “That goal was just a gimmick, Luce. An even number that sounded good. You don’t have to go there if you don’t want. You are healthy and fit and beautiful right now. You’re ready to take on the world.”

  Lucy nodded. “I rock.”

  “You do.” Theo wanted to put his arms around her and smell her hair and feel her warm skin against his. He wanted to love her, soothe her, make her laugh. He wanted to kiss her.

  “The important thing is we make the most of the time we’ve got.”

  Lucy laughed softly. “Is this Theo-the-Trainer or Theo-the-Philosopher talking?”

  He grinned. “Both, Luce.”

  “I’m in.”

  He was up out of the chair and on the couch before he realized he was moving.

  “Theo-”

  “Look, I’ve got to tell you something. Will you hear me out?”

  Lucy giggled. “I think I should charge a per-confession fee this evening.”

  “A what?”

  “Nothing.” She smiled at him. “I’m all ears, Theo.”

  “No, you’re not.” Theo’s gaze strayed to Lucy’s pretty forearms, wrists, and hands, then to the hollow at the base of her slim throat, to her shoulders, breasts, thighs, hips…

  “Does your confession have to do with lust?”

  “No.” Theo looked up quickly. “I mean yes! I mean-” Theo brought his arm up over the back of the sofa and stroked her shoulder. “That night at the Mandarin-”

  “Theo, look. I’m aware my feelings for you don’t come at a great time, and I also know women have this annoying habit of falling for you-”

  “Are you done yet?” Theo brushed his fingertip down the curve of that beautiful, sweet face.

  Lucy swallowed and nodded.

  “I don’t care about any other woman. Just you. Only you.”

  Lucy’s lips parted and her eyes became huge. “What exactly are you saying?”

  “The night of the party wasn’t my best work, Lucy. I blew it. I wanted to tell you I loved you, but I was so screwed up in my head that I couldn’t. It was a disaster and I apologize.”

  Theo drew his thumb along her bottom lip and watched her turn in to his touch. “I saw you standing there in the ballroom and the force of your beauty and strength just about knocked me over. It was like everything had come to the surface for both of us, right at that instant, and I was in awe of you, so crazy about you, and so afraid.”

  “I scared you? I hadn’t even had my first margarita at that point.”

  “I’m walking toward you, ready to strip bare my soul to you, and Tyson picks that moment to tell me that you deserve to be savored, enjoyed, and spoiled. Do you know he goes around talking about you like that?”

  Lucy beamed. “That’s really nice of him.”

  “He was right, you know. And all I could think was that I wouldn’t have time to spoil and enjoy you and if that’s what you deserved, you’d be better off with someone who could.”

  Lucy shook her head. “That’s why you acted so weird all night?”

  “I didn’t want to let you in and then lose you. I’m sick of losing people, you know? When my parents died, the only thing that kept me going was how angry I was, and how much Buddy needed me. When Jenna left me last year, it was the same shit all over again.”

  “Oh, Theo-”

  “I thought I could keep my heart safe if I crammed my life so full that there was no room for anyone new to squeeze in. But you squeezed in anyway.” Theo smiled. “You found a crack and you pushed through. Does this make any sense to you?”

  She nodded softly. “It does.”

  “I never meant to play games with you, Lucy. But when I’m with you, I seem to lose my head. Plus I have a hard time keeping my hands to myself.”

  At that, her head popped up and her eyes widened further.

  Theo stroked her cheek again and put his mouth to her ear, whispering, “I want to feel you and bury my nose in you and kiss you all over. You draw me in, make me weak.”

  Lucy looked to her left and then to her right and said, “You talkin‘ to me?”

  “Yes, you,” he said, laughing. “And ever since you started ignoring me, I haven’t been able to remember the reasons why I shouldn’t be with you, just the reasons why I should.”

  “What reasons are those?”

  Theo got to his knees in front of the sofa. He smoothed her forehead and ran his fingers through her hair. “That you’re everything I’ve ever wanted. I need you in my life.”

  Her reaction wasn’t what he expected. Lucy winced and leaned over, clutching her sides. “Are you all right?”

  She peered up from her crouch and nodded.

  “Was it something you ate?”

  “You might say that.”

  Theo opened his arms, and Lucy fell in to him, pressing against his chest and sighing in contentment. He sighed, too. She was back where she belonged, in his arms and in his life.

  Theo put his lips on her hair and held her tight. “Now that you know how I feel, I want you to take off your clothes and make me glad I’m a man.”

  She giggled and brought her lips to his throat, flicking her tongue across his skin. “You’re so suave, Theo. No wonder the women throw themselves at you.”

  “So it worked?”

  Lucy laughed. “Will this disrobing be for professional assessment purposes only?”

  Theo reveled in the feel of her warm and soft kisses on his throat and face. He closed his eyes and wallowed in the scent of Lucy. “This is all horribly unprofessional.”

  “Good. Then kiss me.”

  He obliged, grabbing her with one arm and pulling himself up to the couch, falling over her, pressing his body down into her, cradling her head as he kissed and nibbled and probed and generally lapped her up.

  “You taste so good, Luce. You feel so damn good to me-” Theo’s hands moved along her back and onto her hip and up into the front of that T-shirt, and all he could think about was getting his palm on a breast- one of those round, warm female breasts that he’d missed desperately.

  Lucy had her hands inside his shirt as well, up underneath the cotton, her fingers splayed over his chest, her mouth meeting his and giving back every bit of what she received. Lucy was hot and sweet and Theo knew he had waited
far too long and made far too much of a very simple reality-this woman was what he wanted. He loved her.

  “Let me love you, Lucy.”

  “I thought you’d never ask.” She pushed up to a sitting position, then threw herself at him and knocked him back into the couch cushions, covering him with her heat and her smell and the silky sweet kisses and sexy little moans he didn’t think he’d ever be able to live without.

  He yanked on her T-shirt and pulled it over her head. He grabbed the waistband of those revolting pink sweatpants and pushed down until they cleared the mounds of her butt, which he then grabbed onto with both hands.

  “Let me feel you. Let me look at you. God, yes, I need you so much, Luce.”

  Lucy popped up and sat on his thighs. She smiled down at him as she reached around and unhooked her bra, shrugged out of it, and tossed it to the floor. Then she reached up and dragged the ponytail holder out of her hair.

  And there she was, naked from the hips up, all pink and soft and sexy, and those eyes were sparkling and daring him and Theo wanted this woman so much he thought he’d bust.

  He brought his hands up and cradled her breasts, watching with fascination how the large dark pink nipples puckered and elongated from the gentle touch. He stroked his fingers across the pale freckles on her chest, then across the beat of her blood as it pulsed through her carotid artery, thinking such a profoundly simple thought-that a human body could be exercised and molded and trained, but it was the spirit inside that made a person who she was.

  And he’d always loved the person inside this body.

  Theo rose up and brought his mouth to her left breast and suckled on her, felt her move back and forth on his thighs, heard her moans grow deeper and louder.

  “Do you think we could possibly ditch these butt-ugly pink sweatpants, Luce?”

  She nodded enthusiastically and rose on her knees and shimmied the pants down, then reached behind her and pulled them off her calves and feet, tossing them to the floor.

  Lucy was now just wearing a pair of lacy underwear, not a thong but not granny panties, either, and Theo could see her like never before. Her hips were smooth and curvy and her belly-the one they’d worked on for ten months-was soft and rounded and vulnerable, and he stroked her there, spread his hands over her, and she rolled her head back and groaned. She was simply beautiful.

  He let his hands travel downward, and he cupped her mound through her panties. Her head flew upright.

  “Wait,” she gasped.

  “For how long? And why?”

  Lucy grabbed his wrist and held his hand still. She looked down at him. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Oh jeez, Luce. Not this again.”

  She was already off him, and he watched her as she ran into her bedroom. Before she could change her mind, he ran in there after her, catching her just as she slipped a slinky little camisole over her top. He came up behind her and nuzzled the back of her neck, all while he slipped off her panties.

  “I want all of you.”

  “You can have all of me. I’m just not ready for you to see it all, not all at once.”

  “I adore you. I want to see every inch of you.”

  “Someday soon. I promise.”

  “Maybe that could be my reward at the end of all this, Lucy,” he joked. “We reach our goal and you get Jamaica and I get your totally naked body to look at as I please.”

  She turned in his arms, a thoughtful look on her face. “Maybe we really should use this as our motivator. No sex until we’ve reached our goal. I would be positively driven to succeed.”

  She placed her hand on his shorts and slipped the belt free, unzipped the zipper, and reached inside his boxers. “Think about it,” she whispered, stroking him until dark splotches danced in his vision. “You’re the expert on motivation, aren’t you? Didn’t you say I needed a reward that was decadent, luxurious, something waiting for me that I wanted more than anything?”

  “Forget it.”

  “It’s just twelve weeks.”

  “No way.” Theo slammed his lips down on hers, stroked the bare flesh of her bottom and her thighs, reached around between her legs, touched the hard little button between her pussy lips.

  “I’d be ready to explode by then,” Lucy gasped.

  “I’m ready to explode now,” he said, pushing her down onto the bed.

  “Let’s flip a coin,” she suggested.

  Theo couldn’t believe they were having this conversation. Lucy was on her back, her legs open, her sex exposed, and she was suggesting they flip a coin to determine if they’d proceed.

  As Theo ripped off his shorts, he rooted around in his pocket for a quarter. Lucy sat up on the edge of the bed, holding the coin and staring at his hard cock.

  “I’ve missed you,” she said, momentarily distracted. “OK. Heads or tails?”

  “I want head and tail,” he said.

  Lucy laughed. Theo didn’t.

  “All right,” she said with a sigh. “Heads, we hose like rabbits for the next twelve weeks. Tails, we torture each other for motivation and after the last weigh-in you get me naked, no delaying on my part, no more excuses. Ready?”

  This was insane. “No.”

  Lucy flipped the coin and smacked it down on the back of her hand. She peeled her top hand away. ‘Tails.“

  “Fuck that.” Theo rolled with her on the bed and they laughed and in between kisses and guffaws they agreed that it would be just this once… then they’d go on the clock.

  They did everything they could think of in the next five hours, and Theo got his head and his tail, and at four in the morning Lucy walked Theo to the door.

  “I’ll see you at the gym in an hour, Cunningham. Don’t be late.”

  She snickered, straightening the camisole. “Be nice to me today. I can hardly move.”

  Theo stared at her. “I can’t go twelve weeks without you, you know. The coin flipping was amusing, but you can’t really be serious about this no-sex policy.”

  Lucy shifted her weight and leaned against the hall table. She brought her eyes to his and said thoughtfully, “Theo? What if I said the sacrifice would keep me focused?”

  “You’re serious.”

  “Think about it. I love you and want you and need you, and I have millions of people watching me make this last push toward my goal. What if sexual tension spurs me on? Think of what I would do to get my hands on you again.”

  Theo felt his eyebrows rise high. “Spinning classes?”

  “You’re not that good.”

  Theo laughed. “My goodness, Miss Cunningham. You’re a shark.”

  Lucy gave him one of her sweet, wonderful smiles. “No. I’m just a practical woman. You’ll be my carrot on a stick. You’ll be my Miller time.”

  “I won’t last four days.”

  “I’ll wear my pink sweatpants a lot.”

  “That’ll help.”

  “Be brave. Be strong.”

  “I’ll see you in less than an hour now, Cunningham.”

  Theo kissed her cheek, and as he turned to leave he picked up a small slip of paper from the foyer table. He turned and frowned at her.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Did you order pizza last night?”

  Lucy’s jaw fell open and her eyes got huge. “How the hell did you know? Did you taste it on my breath?”

  Theo smiled and shook his head. “The only thing I tasted on your breath was paradise, babe. But here’s your receipt.”

  “She’s not fat enough! She needs to be fat! You promised she’d stay fat!”

  Stephan winced at the sound of Murray Goldstein’s New York bellow, wondering how he could gently point out that technically, he’d promised no such thing. He’d only promised that Lucy would fail to meet her goal, making the Palm Club look bad, and that would, in turn, stop Murray from losing customers to Ramona Cortez.

  That’s all he’d ever promised. Not that that wasn’t bad enough.

  “She’s attractive now! Y
ou’re ruining me!”

  Stephan felt the sweat break out on his upper lip and wiped it off with a shaking hand.

  “I’m done with you. You put a stop to this right now or you have seaweed growing out of your eye sockets. Your choice.”

  He supposed it was a blessing to know the truth about his fate instead of worrying about it. At least Murray had not used the expression “sleeping with the fishes.”

  It’s a good thing he’d taken the time off to prepare for his escape. He’d acquired a fake Canadian passport. He’d rented a house in the Caymans. He was ready to go at a moment’s notice.

  Stephan reached for his ibuprofen but found a Snickers bar instead and unwrapped it. He finished it in three bites and added the latest wrapper to the pile in the trash can. He really should cool it on the carbs. Maybe Lola had been right.

  “Are you listening to me, Sherrod? Your time is up.”

  Stephan hung up on him and had begun to root around for another Snickers when he felt someone’s presence in his doorway. He looked up to see Lola Di-Paolo, which shocked him for two reasons-she’d never come to his office before, and he wasn’t used to seeing her with clothes on.

  She frowned at him. “Have you been eating candy bars?”

  “Huh?” He looked down at his hand and shoved the Snickers back in the desk drawer. “Of course not. What are you doing here?”

  Lola closed the door behind her and made herself comfortable in one of the chairs facing his desk. “That fat bitch got me fired.”

  Stephan smiled. “So I heard. But I think you helped yourself out a little, there.”

  “It’s not fair!”

  Stephan nodded. “Look, Lola, I have a meeting. Is there something I can do for you?”

  She huffed, and looked quite hurt. “I want you to give me a job.”

  Stephan nearly choked. “Uh. Doing what exactly?”

  “I’ll help you with your Lucy problem, maybe see if I can find a way to pop her balloon. If I weren’t out of a job, I’d do it for free, of course.”

  Stephan nodded. Maybe Lola really did understand how this game was played. “And your salary would be in platinum toe rings or cash?”