by Lauren Wood
I sucked in a deep breath and considered it for a moment. It suddenly occurred to me that we did have a very real thing working in our favor—for the sake of our arrangement, our image, and me feeling more secure about Trent and his stupid little crush.
“Maybe we’re not in a real romantic relationship or whatever,” I admitted, trying not to sound too resentful. “But Vic...we are best friends. And have been for a long time. That’s a very real, long-standing thing with real chemistry and everything. People will see that.” And, I reminded myself, it was something Trent couldn’t hold a candle to. “All the fleeting chemical shit people are so wrapped up in when it comes to love—it all fades after a while. At the end of the day, it’s the stuff you and I have that keeps people together. I’m sure that will translate.”
I swallowed hard as she studied my face. Shit. Had I said too much? Given too much of how I really felt away? That was the surest way to make Victoria back out for good.
“Maybe you’re right,” she said softly, looking thrown. “But...Lucas, if we were such good friends...why did you pull away? Why did you start avoiding me? And now all of this?”
I racked my brain for anything to put her at ease. “I was seeing someone,” I blurted. Great, Lucas. Throw another lie on the pile. “She was super jealous and didn’t like me having female friends. But I couldn’t stand it. I ended it right before you showed up here with Trent, and it seemed like the perfect chance to make up for lost time.”
“Oh. I’m...I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I had no idea.” She glanced down at her watch. “I need to get going, but...thanks, Lucas. This gives me a lot to think about.”
And just like that, she was gone again. What did she mean...a lot to think about? I thought we were all good. Now we were right back on the fence again. Maybe she was right. If something didn’t change, the press was going to rip us to shreds—if we didn’t do that to each other first.
11
Victoria
My stress levels were through the roof and playing themselves out through my appetite. I sat at my borrowed desk on the Heartstring workroom floor and binge-ate pastries, chocolates, and biscotti with coffee like a bottomless pit. All while scrolling through extensive searches on couples we could potentially feature in our new campaign.
I took a big bite of a cream-filled danish and chewed it resentfully as I stared down at the happy couples in the photos smiling back at me. How did they pull it off? Did they have no careers or lives distracting them from whatever paradise they were trying to construct together? How people had time for relationships was baffling to me. Though I supposed I was just as mad for thinking I could pull off being a single mother while juggling my career.
Of course, now things had changed...and I wouldn’t exactly be single. Lucas would be helping. And nothing could go wrong with that, now could it?
I hated the way Trent and Lucas were talking about me—like two rabid dogs fighting over a slab of meat—and it was all overshadowing the job I was there to do. It was my worst nightmare. But then there was another flutter of feeling inside of me. I kept trying to ignore it. Don’t feed into it, Victoria, and it will go away.
But the truth of the matter was, even if I was ashamed to admit it...Lucas’s possessiveness over me kind of turned me on.
A few hours later, I was covered in crumbs and my stomach was in knots with worry. I finally decided there was nothing I was doing at the office that couldn’t be done from home, so I packed up my bag and left. I was relieved to avoid Lucas, Camille, and Trent on my way out. I’d had enough of them for one day.
Walking through the front door of my apartment, I sighed and slumped my shoulders—letting everything slide off of me into a pile on the floor. I couldn’t remember the last time I was so eager to change into some comfy sweats, throw my hair up in a bun, and veg out in front of the TV. But no sooner had I sat down than a knock came at my door.
I shuffled over to answer and was promptly met with a big, beautiful arrangement of blue roses. I knew who they were from without even reading the card. Lucas knew blue was my favorite color.
I thanked the delivery man and placed the vase on the table so I could pluck out the notecard and see if my guess was accurate.
Sorry this morning was so rough. Let me make it up to you…
—Lucas
Thinking back to Lucas’s determination to flirt around what happened the night before, I had a strong inkling as to what he had in mind as far as ‘making it up’ to me. I bit my lip and smiled, reminding myself to stay strong.
It troubled me to think of him seeing someone who would want to come between our friendship. But I guessed that kind of thing happened all the time. I had lost a number of guy friends from college or past jobs over the years because they got married and settled down, and their wives didn’t think it was appropriate for them to have a close female friend. I got it. They had a right to be cautious. But Lucas? I never imagined him letting a woman boss him around like that.
It stirred up all kinds of confusing, jealous feelings, and before I knew it...I caught my hand lunging for the phone against my will. Barely giving it a thought, I fired off a text to Lucas—inviting him over.
But this time, I wasn’t going to let things unravel as quickly as they had before. I ordered us a pizza and scanned the TV for movies we might watch. That’s what we needed. An old-fashioned movie and pizza friendly hangout with a few beers to clear the air. Lucas kept insisting we were good enough friends to pull this off, but all the drama had me thinking otherwise. Maybe if I could be reminded of how effortlessly our friendship flowed, I would feel more at ease with this whole thing.
Lucas showed up just moments before the pizza did. He looked me up and down in my sweats with the big greasy box in my hands and laughed to himself.
“What? What’s your problem?”
“Nothing. I just didn’t realize this was such a formal evening,” he quipped, still in his suit from the office.
“You’re just jealous that you don’t have something more comfortable to change into.”
“You are one hundred percent right about that,” he replied, sliding off his jacket and loosening his tie.
I tossed several slices of pizza onto paper plates and plopped down on the couch with Lucas following suit. He watched me as I snatched up the remote and continued scanning through the options.
“So...did you want to talk?” he asked, seeming confused.
“Not really.” I sighed. “But we can if you insist.”
“We probably should, right? You were so upset this morning...and you left saying you had a lot to think about it. Sorry if me mentioning seeing someone was weird…”
“Of course it’s not weird.” I scrunched up my face. “Why would it be weird?”
He held his hands up in the air. “No reason.”
I flipped off the TV for a moment and leaned forward. “The thing is...I wouldn’t want someone I was dating to cause tension between my friends and me. That sounds super stressful and frustrating. And I just wonder if you throwing us into this whole arrangement isn’t reactionary for you. Like you were scared of losing me as your friend, and now that your ex is out of the picture...you’re overcompensating. Maybe this is all just because you’re afraid of losing me.”
His face twitched, but his expression remained unreadable. Lucas was the king of not wearing his emotions on his sleeve, even if recent days hadn’t been such a shining example of that. It was what made him such a great businessman.
“So what if that was part of the reason?” he offered. “Would that be so bad?”
“Just seems like a drastic move for something that doesn’t have to be so complicated. Just don’t date jealous women and stop avoiding me. The end.”
“But those aren’t exactly the only circumstances we’re dealing with here,” he reminded me. “Anyway...mind if I use your bathroom real quick?”
“Go right ahead.” I waved him off.
I returned to my pizza
, but could tell by the sounds from the hallway that Lucas had opened the wrong door. I cringed and jumped up, running over to stop him. But it was too late. He was standing in the doorway of what was intended to be a guest room...now mostly empty, aside from a big chest that sat in the middle.
“Wrong door,” I scolded him.
“What is this?” He stepped inside, getting close enough to see the contents of the trunk.
It was too late to try and hide it now. I leaned against the doorframe, crossing my arms. “I told you I was serious about having a baby on my own.”
“You weren’t kidding.” He smirked as he walked around the future nursery, glancing over the clothes, toys, and other mementos I had been collecting for when I became a mother.
“I was planning to paint and decorate once I actually got pregnant and knew the gender,” I explained.
He picked up a stack of papers and cards that rested on the edge of the open trunk. “And you’re already shopping for nannies, I see.”
“Never too early to start. Good ones are hard to come by, but I definitely have no intention of quitting my job. I couldn’t afford to anyway.”
He brushed his fingers over a stuffed bear and turned back to me. “Holy shit. This is all...so real.”
I wrinkled my brow and waited for him to elaborate. But my gut twisted with suspicions about how he was feeling. Leave it to a man like him to impulsively agree to something only to realize later, when it got too real, that he had acted rashly.
“Not in a bad way,” he quickly added. I exhaled with relief. “I just...I guess I never realized just how badly you wanted this. It seemed like...I don’t know. Like a thing you were checking off your list.”
I laughed. “That’s a horrible reason to have a child.”
“But people do it for that reason all the time...and worse ones.”
“I really am ready to be a mother,” I said, running my hand along the blank walls, imagining what colors I might paint them later on. Maybe I could hire an artist to come in and do a mural, depending on the theme. “I’m going to put a rocking chair over in that corner. And I’ve picked out a crib—it’ll go over there by the window.”
We both stood side by side and stared at where I’d pointed like we could see a movie reel of midnight lullabies and bedtime stories projecting across the wall. Suddenly, Lucas turned to face me and I couldn’t help but meet him in the middle.
“I want to give you all of that, Vic,” he said in a deep, serious tone that made my heart swell. “But I don’t just want to give you that, I want to be a part of it. I’m sorry for what happened today, I really am. Maybe I needed to be reminded of the other side of this...outside of all the PR shit. Real marriage or not, we’d be a family.”
“I thought we already were family,” I said softly, noticing how the space between us was suddenly shrinking.
“We are. And we’ll continue being one,” he whispered, brushing his hand along my cheek.
My eyelids grew heavy, forcing shut as my chin tilted up towards him. It wasn’t exactly my plan for him coming over that evening. I wanted pizza and movies. And yet, it seemed inevitable. We drifted closer, and soon his tender lips were pressed to mine.
12
Lucas
The space between our bodies was sucked up like the room had turned into a vacuum, catapulting us together with what felt like no air to breathe—unless it was coming from her sweet mouth. Our lips sparked together and I made no secret of how badly I wanted her. She was so intoxicating, and finally being able to touch and kiss her like that—it was a whole vortex of newness, wrapped up in my old best friend.
I kissed her neck and slid my hands under her t-shirt, sucking in her exhale as I brushed my fingers along her bare skin. She leaned deeper into the kiss, wrapping her hands around the back of my head.
A groan escaped my mouth as I realized she wasn’t wearing a bra. My cock twitched from the surprise of meeting her exposed, hardened nipples, just waiting there for my hands. I rubbed each one and felt her tongue plunge deeper into my mouth, her body going limp in my arms as if I was chiseling away at her ability to stand.
With her shirt out of the way, I moved to the hem of her pants. My hands slipped beneath it, smoothing across her silky thighs and down to the folds between her legs.
“Oh, god, Lucas,” she whispered against my lips. I swore I would never take it for granted—her saying my name like that. I had tried to imagine it in so many fantasies, and my brain felt like it might explode every time I got to hear it in person.
“Does that feel good?” I murmured.
Her head rolled back as she relished in my circling fingers. “So good.”
She spread her legs wider and reached down to wrap one hand around mine, guiding my touch where she wanted it to go. I could feel how wet and open she was—another part of her that was just waiting for me.
“Fuck me,” she exhaled, pushing into the bulge in my pants.
“Victoria Sloan...you are one very bad girl talking to me like that,” I teased, sliding another finger inside of her. I could feel her legs start to shake. “A bad girl who is very, very wet.”
“You made me that way.” She grinned, rocking into my hand.
“I haven’t even started yet. Not really.”
In one sweep, her pants and panties were gone—tossed aside. She pulled my shirt up over my head, but I had to take it the rest of the way since I was so much taller than her. Then she set her sights on my belt and pants. Our eyes burned into one another in quick glances between kisses and the removal of clothing.
I shuddered as her hand wrapped around my shaft and began sliding back and forth. There were many things old friends knew about each other that most people didn’t, and somehow that translated into the bedroom without us ever even discussing the details. She had an intrinsic knowledge of all my favorite things to have done to my body. She knew just how to move and when.
We stumbled back until she was pressed against the wall, wrapping one leg around me. She kept stroking me as I dipped my head down to suck her nipples, flicking each one with my tongue.
Suddenly, she stopped.
“Maybe we shouldn’t do this in the nursery.” She laughed. “I know it doesn’t look like one yet, but still...it feels weird.”
I smiled and lifted her into my arms, carrying her towards the bedroom. By the time we crashed down onto the bed—she was begging me.
“Please, Lucas,” she whimpered in breathless murmurs.
I pulled back and admired the sight of her, naked and lying beneath me. Her breasts moving up and down as she panted with need. I was already poised in between her legs with my tip teasing her. She smiled as I ran my thumb around her lips. She sucked it into her mouth just as I thrust forward, filling us both with an electric jolt.
I filled her completely as she spread her legs wider, arching up into me.
“Is that good, baby?” I rasped, running one hand around to clench her ass.
She seemed to smirk for a brief second. Was calling her ‘baby’ too much? But it quickly faded away into an all too serious moan of pleasure. I pinned her hands above her head, pulling out and pushing in again—slowly.
Our eyes locked as I moved inside of her. The way she looked up at me and squirmed underneath me...it was overwhelming, pushing both my heart and my cock too close to the edge. This was the second time we’d done this and I still couldn’t believe it was actually happening.
I pulled her legs tighter around me and watched her close her eyes as she angled up towards me, sending me impossibly deep. Each thrust forward filled my whole body with a warm rush, and I could tell she was feeling every ounce of it right along with me.
“I’m getting close, Lucas,” she murmured in her honey-smooth voice that deepened when she was filled with ecstasy. “Fuck me harder.”
“If you keep saying things like that, you’re not going to get a chance to cum before I do,” I warned.
A coy smile spread across her face
as she reached up and pulled my lips down to hers. She sucked my bottom lip between her teeth, causing my cock to spasm and twitch inside of her clenching muscles.
With her nails dragging down the skin of my back, I picked up my pace—guiding us both closer and closer.
“I’m close,” I whispered into her ear. “But I need to feel you cum first.”
Her cries grew louder, each one more broken than the one before. I pulsated inside of her as our mouths danced in between thrusts—my tongue plunging in between her lips with every pounding motion of my hips. I reached down and caressed her throbbing clit—coaxing her to erupt into primal noises as she writhed against the sheets.
Thrusting harder and deeper, I watched her close her eyes again and toss her head to the side as her whole body tensed and convulsed with release. I loved watching her cum, and I loved being the one to get her there. It was enough to send my own climax ripping through me with a powerful force as I spilled out inside of her.
There was something so erotic about knowing I was pleasing her...and potentially giving her another thing she wanted so badly at the same time. The very thing she had an entire room in her apartment set aside for—just waiting.
“Fuck, Victoria,” I growled against her ear as we tried to recover.
She cradled my head against her chest, gasping for breath as the final shudders rippled through us, with me still half-hard and inside of her.
I could have told her how I felt earlier, or a million times before. I’d had so many opportunities, but I didn’t know if I would ever be able to take that plunge. There was too much at stake and it was far too great of a risk. But if I had to settle for anything—making her cum over and over again and lying there like that with her afterwards was not a bad second place.
When I finally rolled over beside her, we stayed silent for a long time—me just watching her stare up at the ceiling.
