Chapter 23
“Don’t hold back.” Sarah, liberated from every piece of clothing bedecking her torso, landed on Lucas’s bed late in the evening. I’m not staying the night at my place. Not with her mother taking over her room for as long as she was staying. “Counting on you, Luke.”
He yanked his undershirt over his head. “You can always count on me.”
“Prove it.”
He fell on top of her, his hands going straight for her wrists and his mouth crashing against hers. Sarah’s legs encircled his waist and brought his hips closer to her crotch. “Making me prove myself to you every damn day, I swear…”
I like reassurances, okay? Sarah wanted to know that this man couldn’t have anyone else but her. Everything beyond this apartment was a wasteland of busy-bodies and jealous ex-wives. If Lucas was willing to spend the rest of his life defending Sarah’s honor, so be it, but she was more interested in feeling this love of his spread through her body.
Even better if he speared her with his cock.
“We’re wrecked,” he groaned against her skin. Sarah reached down and rubbed his erection through his trousers. Where was the zipper? “Wrecked every fucking day.”
“As long as you’ve got my pussy, it’s worth it, right?”
His invigorated growl transformed into approval. “Depends on what I do with it.”
“Fuck it, of course.”
“Fuck it with what? You gotta help me out here, Angel.”
He really did love his dirty talk, didn’t he?
“Just fuck me. Now.”
Good enough for him, apparently. Before Sarah could ask again, he smothered her with a kiss and thrust between her legs.
It should’ve been bliss.
It would have been bliss if it weren’t for the ringing doorbell.
“Ignore it.” Sarah grabbed his shoulders, enticing him to stay between her legs by grinding her thighs against his. “Anything they want they can come back for later.”
Didn’t that always work? Lucas considered his caller for two seconds before shoving Sarah back down and continuing to make love to her.
Yet the visitor persisted.
“Fuck.” Lucas sat up with a start, hands going straight to his disheveled trousers and the erection within. Sighing in defeat, Sarah rolled over and grabbed his undershirt. So much for that. Hopefully the feeling wouldn’t be dead by the time he came back from dealing with a courier or whoever it was. “Sorry. It might be from my lawyer.”
“Can’t he email you? I’m dying.” The day had been stressful enough to make Sarah sleep for another day. “I need you to fuck me. Like… now.”
“Sorry, Angel. Trust me. I want to make your wishes come true.” He finished putting on the bare minimum amount of clothing and went into the other room. Sarah pushed herself up and grabbed one of his gently worn T-shirts from the back of a chair. As soon as it was on – nipples poking through, because she was aroused and why not – she followed him to his front door. She might as well see what this bullshit was about.
She should have stayed locked in his room.
“Oh, good.” Jill Blackbourne pocketed her Prada sunglasses the moment the door opened. “Your slut’s here.”
“Oh, good!” Sarah was already waving Jill off as she walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. “The ex-wife’s here!”
“The hell do you want, Jill?”
“Sorry, am I interrupting? Thought that maybe you’d have other things on your mind, with what’s going on in your life right now.”
“Watching the news, are you?”
She pushed into the spacious rental with nothing but amusement on her face. Her dark and curly hair was pulled back from her face and into such a tight bun that it was no wonder she was a cranky bitch. Yet I can totally see Victor in that face. Until then, Sarah had assumed the cheekbones were all Blackbourne, because Lucas had a nice pair of his own, but Jill’s were identical to her son’s.
“Of course I’m keeping track of you. I have to think about Victor, don’t I?”
“Jill, I don’t believe you’ve formally been introduced to…”
“I know who she is. Our son won’t shut the hell up about her.”
That made Sarah smile in satisfaction. “Can I offer you some tea, Ms. Blackbourne?”
The ex squared her shoulders at being called that, let alone by her former husband’s new girlfriend. “I suppose. Black, please. Bombay breakfast, if you have it.”
“Of course.” Sarah had no idea what kind of tea leaves, if any, Lucas stocked. She found a stash of French breakfast, and they would all like it. “My mother always said that black is best, in nearly every situation that calls for it.”
Was that a reference to the Blackbourne name? Perhaps. It was also a reference to Sarah’s black outfits she often wore around town. One of those outfits showed up in the PI’s leaked photos.
“Anyway,” Jill continued. “We need to talk about Victor.”
Lucas crossed his arms. You should look that stern more often, honey. Sarah loved the way his arms bulged out of his sleeves whenever he stood as coolly and confidently as that. Wasn’t it grand having such a naturally large boyfriend? Sarah almost wished she wasn’t above the national average when it came to women’s height. Imagine being a sweet, petite thing and climbing a body like that? More fun than the monkey bars on the playground. Then again, being taller than average meant she could comfortably ride him in bed. Short women wouldn’t be able to grind their knees into the bed for leverage while grinding their inner walls against his cock. Ho boy. That’s right. We were interrupted during sex, weren’t we?
Could Jill leave already?
“What about him?” Lucas said. He spared Sarah one look before turning his attention back to his ex-wife. “Is he okay?”
“He’s fine. Had to send him out of town to avoid the media vultures circling the neighborhood, but…”
“What? You sent him… where?”
“Relax, Luke. My parents took him to their beachfront cottage. But that means he won’t be able to make your visits this week, unless you go to Delaware to see him.”
“Delaware… Jesus, Jill, were you only going to now tell me that my son was hours away? The whole reason I moved here was to be closer to him!”
“Yes, and now you’ve got someone else to take up your time. Isn’t that lovely?”
“Sarah,” Lucas snapped. She gave him a defiant look when she turned toward him. Warning #1, mister. Don’t take that tone with me if you don’t mean to use it on me. “Could you give us a few minutes, please?”
She reminded him that the kettle was still on before shutting herself up in his bedroom. The covers remained tousled from when they were in the midst of making love. We should be having orgasms right now. Instead, Sarah pressed her ear to the door, determined to hear the verbal altercation between former husband and wife.
“You’re the one who leaked the video, aren’t you?”
Damn, he went right for it…
“What are you talking about? I hardly know how to procure such… entertainment.”
“You know how to hire the right man to do it for you, though. Sarah told me you accidentally bumped into each other on Friday afternoon.”
“Did she?” What a cruel chuckle. Sarah was willing to give Jill the benefit of the doubt, but there was no denying the intentions in a voice like that. “Yes, I saw her. Victor was so excited about it. I wouldn’t have ever guessed that was your new sweet honey, Lucas. She’s so… bland. Well, now I know why you fancy her. You always did like your sex life a bit on the nastier side.”
“For fuck’s sake, Jill.”
Was she still laughing? Good God. “Anyway, I knew you were going to take your sweet time introducing me to her and I wouldn’t get anywhere asking you directly. So yes, I hired someone. I wanted an unbiased opinion of Ms. Clayborn. I wanted to know what kind of woman the father of my child is dating and bringing into his life. I had to say, even I wasn’t expecting that tape.”
“Jill, I…”
She cut him off again. “Did I tell him to leak it? Absolutely not. You think I want that shit associated with you and my family? Please! I’m sure the man saw an ample opportunity to make some cash off it once it was on his hard drive, though. Wonder how much money he got for its leak?”
Lucas remained silent, yet Sarah could feel her boyfriend’s ire oozing through the door.
“He took the pictures. Don’t know how they got online.”
“So, ultimately, we have you to thank.”
“Me? Come on, Luke! You’re the one dating a…”
“Call her something I don’t like, and you’ll regret it, Jill.”
“Is that a threat?”
“No, but it should be.”
Something snapped open. “I don’t have to stand here and take is. Fact of the matter is, Luke, Victor isn’t going to be anywhere near this mess if I can fucking help it. That’s it. Do whatever you like with your new woman. Cast her in more porn if that strikes your fancy, but Victor will not be within fifty feet of it.”
“Are you saying I have to choose between my girlfriend or my son?”
“If you’re half the decent man I’ve always assumed you to be, it shouldn’t be a difficult decision to make.”
“That’s absurd. Sarah is my girlfriend. She and Victor get along more than fine. Don’t get jealous, Jill. She’s not going to threaten your relationship with our son.”
“Threaten me? Jealous? What the hell are you talking about? I don’t want anything to do with her! Don’t you get it, Luke? You bring in an influence like that, and there are consequences! Sometimes those consequences include shit you don’t like. Grow the fuck up. I had to.”
Is she comparing his choice in a girlfriend to her alcoholism? Sarah pushed away from the door around the time Jill finally called her a whore. Sarah had heard enough.
Lucas raised his voice more than once while Sarah sat by his bedroom window and stared at the orange clouds moving across the evening sky. When Jill finally left and Lucas entered the bedroom, it was hardly with a desire to return to their previous, interrupted frivolity.
“Isn’t the sky lovely this time of year?”
Lucas closed his mouth before he had the chance to complain about what had happened between him and his ex-wife. “What?”
“The sky.” Sarah pushed her finger against the glass, leaving behind a smudgy print. “I love the color orange. It’s so underused, yet it appears all the time in nature. You ever see orange daisies? My mother has a daisy garden back home. The orange ones have always been my favorite.”
“Sarah…”
Whatever happened to Angel? Sarah folded her arms against the windowsill and rested her head atop them. “We should go to the botanical gardens outside of town sometime soon. I wonder if they have orange daisies.”
Lucas squeezed her shoulder, his thumb brushing against a pressure point on the back of her neck. “The tea’s ready, by the way. Let’s not let it go to waste.”
Even so, they stayed by the window for another minute, Sarah committing the sensations welling up within her to memory.