Chapter 10
Harris
Mondays were normally my day off, with my assistant manager coming in and handling things since it was the least crazy night of the week. This week she was on vacation or I would have followed Lucy home.
She’d been gone by the time I’d gotten out of the shower, just as I figured she would be, but that hadn’t stopped me from hoping. I’d gotten the third degree from Kin, though, which had made me even more late getting to work since I had to stop by my apartment and change first.
I hadn’t been thinking about who could hear us when Lucy and I had made love. I hadn’t been thinking, period. If I had been, my latest fuckup wouldn’t have happened and Lucy would still be a virgin. I spent thirty-five minutes convincing Kin that I wasn’t going to hurt Lucy this time around, that I was going to fight for her and not let her go again.
Now, as I sat behind my desk trying to go over the latest liquor order I needed to make, I couldn’t stop thinking about that morning. Each second from the moment I’d woken up until I came back to reality after the most incredibly mind-blowing release I’d ever experienced in my entire life replayed over and over again. The taste of Lucy’s lips, her skin…her pussy lingered on my tongue. The memory of how her scalding heat had felt around my dick as I’d slipped into her tight little body was driving me crazy and I’d been in a state of full-blown arousal despite the second shower I’d taken when I had gotten home earlier.
I was thankful that my staff was competent enough to handle things without needing my constant supervision because I couldn’t have helped them even if I’d wanted to right then. Not unless I wanted an entire club full of people to know exactly how affected I was.
“Boss, London and Genesis are here.” Tiny’s voice came through loud and clear over the Bluetooth system on my desk.
I bit back a groan, wondering what those two wanted now. Genesis and London were in the new band I’d hired to take over the Thursday night shows when Tainted Knights’ contract expired. The Blonde Bombshells had increased my revenue tenfold in the few months since they had been doing the shows. Of course, seventy-five percent of the attendance was dudes, but as long as they kept bringing in the money I wasn’t going to complain.
Not about their shows at least.
Their constant bickering, which I had to play referee to, was getting old. I felt more like their fucking father than their boss. Especially when it came to Genesis and London. They couldn’t get along at all and that was one of the main reasons Emmie Armstrong was hesitating to offer them a contract when the one with First Bass was up. I couldn’t see the all-chick band lasting past their contract anyway.
“Not in the mood to deal with their shit, Tiny,” I told him, not caring if they heard me or not.
“Sure, boss. I’ll get rid of them…Er. Wait!” My head of security said something vicious under his breath I didn’t catch, but I heard the familiar voices of Genesis and London crying foul. “Heads up, boss. Miss Thornton is headed right for you and she’s not happy.”
My dick twitched at just the mention of Lucy’s name. “I can take care of Lucy. Just get rid of the blondes, man.”
“You got it, boss.”
I stood and crossed to the office door that led out into the lower level of the club. Opening the door, I was just in time to see her marching toward me. Tiny had made the understatement of the year when he’d said she looked unhappy. Her eyes were red and puffy, telling me she’d been crying, but there was no sign of those tears right then. There was venomous anger glaring out of her dark eyes as she came toward me with the force of a tiny freight train.
“What happened?” I demanded, stepping through the door to catch her around the waist.
She struggled against me, her curls flying in all directions and smacking me in the face more than once. “Did you think no one would tell me?” she seethed. “Did it even cross your mind that you should have been the one to tell me?”
Confused, I released her waist to grasp her wrists when her fists started hitting my chest. Fuck, she had a good left on her. The spot just under my collarbone she’d connected with was already smarting. “What the hell are you talking about? Tell you what?”
“About Tessa,” she screamed. “You didn’t tell me about Tessa.”
Fucking hell.
When I didn’t say anything, Lucy tried fighting me harder. “You should have told me,” she yelled, causing the waitresses that were getting the lower level ready to open to stop and stare at us. “Not them, you!”
“Fuck, Lucy.” I lost hold of her right wrist in my surprise and she slugged me in the jaw, causing my teeth to snap together and I bit my tongue. I turned my head, spit out a mouthful of blood and then bent, catching her around the waist once more and tossing her over my shoulder.
“You fucking pig,” she raged, her fists pummeling down on my back in sharp blows. Jesse Thornton had taught his daughter to defend herself well, that was for sure. “I hate you right now, Harris. I hate you.”
“That’s my kidney, Lu.” I groaned when she hit me in the exact spot again.
No one bothered to move as I got Lucy into my office and kicked the door shut behind me. Before the door closed I saw Nate standing up on the VIP floor grinning down at me. I wanted to go punch him in the face. Nate had been just as moody as I was when Lucy left for Georgetown. Our once easy work relationship was gone, replaced by my jealousy over the friendship he and Lucy had once had.
Behind closed doors now, I sat Lucy on the edge of my desk and struggled with her until I got control of her flailing arms. My mouth was full of blood once again and my tongue was starting to swell, made worse when one of her fists connected with my chin. Shit, my little spitfire was beating the fuck out of me.
And it was turning me on in a way that belied my earlier release inside her incredible little body.
“Will you stop?” I growled and shook her as carefully as possible until her head jerked back and she met my gaze. When I saw the pain in her eyes I nearly let her go so she could beat the shit out of me a little more. Instead, I grasped both wrists in one hand and pushed her hair back from her face with the other, cupping her jaw so she couldn’t lower her head and block me out. “Who told you?”
“Dallas,” she snarled. “Not my mom or Lana or even Aunt Emmie. It was Dallas.”
Turning my head, I spit out more blood, giving myself time to think. Why had Dallas told her? She had no reason to tell her or anyone else what she’d made me understand months ago. The relief I’d felt when I’d realized I hadn’t done the things those fucking videos had made it look like I had was short lived when it hit me that I’d let Lucy go without even trying to fight for us. Something that she had begged me to do. Something I hadn’t had the balls to attempt.
Because I’d been too twisted up. Too ashamed of not having control of a situation I wouldn’t have ever been a part of had I not been drugged out of my mind. I’d been weak and I’d hated that weakness.
It shouldn’t have made me push away the only thing that had still been pure and good in my world. I shouldn’t have told her to go. I shouldn’t have made her think that I didn’t need her as much as she needed me.
All those regrets had been eating at me, but until I realized Lucy hadn’t moved on, I hadn’t wanted to ask for another try. She deserved so much more and if she had moved on, I wouldn’t have even approached her again. But she hadn’t and now I wanted a second chance.
“You should have told me.” She was starting to lose steam now, but the glare was just as fierce as it had ever been even as tears filled her eyes. “I had a right to know.”
“Yeah,” I agreed with a grimace. “You’re right, Lu. I should’ve told you as soon as I knew it didn’t happen. But I thought you’d moved on. It killed me not to go after you when I knew the truth, but I didn’t want to mess up your life again.”
Two fat tears spilled over her lashes. “If you loved me, you would’ve done it whether I’d moved on or not.”
While her anger was burning out, my own was stroked by those words. My hold on her wrists tightened. I wanted to shake some sense into her. “Do you really think I didn’t love you, Lucy?”
“Right now, knowing what I know, yes.” Two more tears spilled over followed by a dozen more. “Maybe you thought you loved me, but when it really came down to it, that love fell pretty short. Instead of fighting for us, you sent me away. Then when the truth came out, you didn’t even try to set things right. If you loved me even half as much as you said you did I never would have left.”
I dropped her hands and stumbled back, needing to put space between us before I did something stupid. I would never touch her with violence. Never. But right then I wanted to knock some sense into her. She could have hit me until my body was black and blue, but it couldn’t possibly have hurt even a fraction as badly as what she’d just said to me.
“You don’t know shit, Lucy. I’ve loved you all my life. Not one day has gone by where I haven’t loved you. Not one. Letting you go was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. The fucking hardest. But I did it because I loved you. My head was messed up from what had happened with Tessa and I didn’t want that to taint you. Fucking hell, girl, you deserved so much better than a guy who couldn’t even think straight.”
“I could have helped you. I wanted to help you,” she screamed at me.
“Don’t you think I know that?” I was screaming too, but right then I didn’t give a shit. Talking wasn’t working, maybe yelling would. “It took me weeks to figure that out, but once I did, it was too fucking late. You were gone. I thought I’d lost you and I was prepared to live with that mistake. It would have slowly killed me, but I would’ve done it. Everyone said you were okay so I stayed away because I loved you too much to pull you back into my fucked up world again.”
“Yeah, you were so fucked up you hopped into bed with the first piece of strange who came sniffing around.” She pushed off the desk, her eyes blazing up at me once more. “Then a new one the next week and every week that followed.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” She was giving me fucking whiplash with this new turn of topics. I couldn’t keep up with her.
“The blondes, Harris.” She spoke like I was completely dense and maybe I was because I had no idea what she was talking about. “The tabloids have been printing everything they can get their hands on about you and your long line of blondes. Two of which I passed on my way in here just now.”
“London and Genesis?” She had lost her mind. “For real? You’re going to accuse me of banging the Blonde Bombshells?”
A humorless laugh barked out of her. “Nice. I approve of their names. It fits them perfectly.”
I raked my hands through my hair. “That is their name. They’re the band I signed to take over for Jace and the guys. I’ve taken them out a few times to different music events to get them some publicity. That’s it. End of story. I’ve never touched them.”
“Whatever,” Lucy muttered. From her tone as she turned away from me and moved toward the door, I could tell she didn’t believe me. Fucking hell. This chick was going to kill me. “I shouldn’t have bothered coming. I don’t even know why I did.”
I knew that if she left right then that it would really be over between us and I wasn’t about to let that happen. No matter how insane she drove me, how pissed off she made me, I loved her and I wasn’t letting her go this time.
My hand slammed against the door before she could turn the knob and I moved so that my body was between her and the exit. “Not whatever. You’re mad. Okay. So be mad, but do not leave here thinking stupid shit, Lu.”
She opened her mouth to blast me with something cold and vicious again but I was quicker. I grasped her waist in both hands and pulled her up against my body. Lowering my head, I caught her lips in a kiss that shouldn’t have left her doubting how I felt about her. She struggled against me for half a second before I smothered her moan with my mouth and she melted against me.
I kissed her long after I’d lost all my breath and my lungs were demanding to be refilled. Pulling back, I pressed my forehead against hers. “There has only ever been you, sweetness. The chicks in my past are nothing but shadows to me now. Faceless shadows that mean nothing. The second I saw you upstairs that first night, was the moment everyone else disappeared. Until this morning I hadn’t had sex since before you came back into my life in September.”
“I-I don’t believe you,” she murmured, but there was no conviction in her voice and I knew she was only being her stubborn self.
That made me grin down at her. “Don’t believe me then, but give me the chance to prove to you how wrong you were about me not loving you. Because I do, Lucy. I love you so fucking much it hurts.”
“I-I…I don’t believe you,” was whispered against my lips as she pressed her mouth to mine in a slow, soft kiss.
“Liar,” I whispered back.
“Shut up, Harris. Just. Shut. Up.” Her arms went around my neck, her fingers thrusting into my hair roughly as she held me in place while she kissed me until we were both gasping for air.
Having her so willingly in my arms was quickly clouding my mind to anything but sliding between her legs. I wanted to tear her clothes off and fuck her on my desk, but a small piece of sanity prevailed and I was able to lift my head and take a half step back. Her body must have been sore after what we’d done that morning and I wasn’t about to cause her more pain. She deserved better and I wasn’t going to give her anything less.
“Will you go out with me tomorrow night?” I breathed against her ear.
She stiffened. “No,” she muttered, shaking her head. “I can’t.”
“Okay. Wednesday night, then.”
Lucy dropped her arms and stepped back. Reality was returning and I could see that she was trying to grasp on to her anger again. “I can’t. I promised my family I’d give them this week.”
Unreasonable jealousy burned through my chest, but I nodded. Family was important. I wanted her all to myself, but I could share her with her family. “Fine. Then next week.”
She shook her head again. “I’m leaving for Florida on Sunday.”
“What?” No. She couldn’t be leaving again. Not this soon. Not ever. “Wait, what? Florida?” Florida meant she wasn’t going back to school. I could work with that. Some of my tension faded.
“My parents are taking me and the twins on vacation to Panama City Beach,” she informed me with a little shrug. “Then we’re all going to Disney World for a week. Luca and Lyric have only ever been to Disneyland.”
“When will you be back?” I’d wait a few weeks if I had to. Fuck, I’d waited this long, I could wait a little longer.
She lowered her eyes to look at the carpet and I got a sick feeling in my stomach. “I’m not coming back. I’m going back to Georgetown for the summer semester.”