Flesh: Part Nine (The Flesh Series Book 9) (3 page)

“
Alright.”
I stand and allow him to lead me to the door. “I had a
wonderful night,” I tell him as I turn on his doorstep to say
my goodbyes.

“
Me
too.” He flashes me that charming smile that I've fallen for
time and time again.

“
I
guess I'll see you later.” I lift my hand to wave awkwardly at
him, but he catches my wrist, pulling me toward him until our bodies
crash together.

I don't even have
time to recover before his lips find mine and he's stealing my
breath. There's the slightest taste of coffee on his tongue, and it
makes me want to grin. I place my hands on his broad chest, leaning
into the kiss, secretly hoping he'll pull me back inside for one
final romp between the sheets. Even though I'm horribly late for
work—even though I know it would make him late—I don't
care. I just want to be with him. I don't want the amazing time I've
had to end because I'm afraid that as soon as I drive away, things
will return to the way they were.

I can feel Lucian
disengaging from me, and I greedily follow him, my lips still
reaching for him even after he's broken free from the kiss. I open my
eyes and blush, then instantly turn away and practically jog down the
path leading to his driveway.

“
Bye,”
I say over my shoulder.

“
Bye.”
His voice is filled with amusement and trails off into a chuckle that
makes my cheeks burn even more.

It was such a
desperate kiss on my end. I shouldn't have done that.

When I climb into my
car, I sit there for several moments staring back at the house. I'm
trying to savor the memory, to stamp it firmly into my mind to give
myself hope that he might have meant everything he did and said. Only
time will tell though.

Now that the dream
is over, I have reality to face. Lucian never called Tyra to tell her
that I would be coming in late. My body tenses at that realization,
and I briefly think about going back to his front door to remind him.
I'm still embarrassed from the kiss though, so I decide to text him
instead.

It's an extra worry
that I don't need, but one that I'm not too horribly concerned about.
What I am worried about though is facing Derrick. He's going to be so
disappointed in me and hurt. Perhaps I'll break it to him gently. Or
maybe it would be better just to avoid the subject for a while. The
last thing I want him to know is that I spent the night with Lucian.

With a sigh, I tell
myself that everything will work out before I put the car in drive
and head back to my apartment. Even if I sometimes don't believe that
things will work out, they always do somehow. This will be no
different. At least, that's what I thought.

CHAPTER THREE

Ever since leaving
Lucian's house, all I've been able to think about is what everything
that happened means for us. We made love and I slept in his arms and
he confessed so many personal things. Then he cooked me breakfast
this morning and we cuddled in his living room like a couple. Does
that mean we're dating now? Am I in a relationship with him? I
desperately want to know the answer, but it's way too impersonal to
ask over text, and I don't want to seem naive. I'll have to find out
some other way, though I have no idea how.

It's not until I
pull up in front of Environ Design that I realize there are more
important things to think about. Lucian hasn't sent me a text back to
confirm that he spoke to Tyra. Even if he didn't though, I very
rarely come in late, and at least I let her know. I shouldn't get in
too much trouble for it.

I walk through the
glass double doors, and instead of going straight to my desk, I head
to Tyra's office. By some miracle, she's actually in there though
she's on the phone. When I open my mouth to speak, she holds up her
hand to silence me. Briefly, I think about just coming back later,
but then I decide to wait. I'd rather talk to her privately about
being at Lucian's house early this morning than wait for her to come
to my desk where Derrick might be able to hear our conversation.

My nervousness
increases as the minutes tick by. Tyra's expression—happy
before I entered the room—flattens into something serious and
deadpan. She's annoyed that I'm still standing there, and I know I'm
pressing my luck. I already came in late. The last thing I want to do
is piss her off more than I probably already have.

Finally, she starts
to say her goodbyes. I feel a rush of relief wash over me, but it's
cut short as I catch a glimpse of Derrick in my peripheral vision
coming into Tyra's office. A hard lump rockets to my throat, choking
out any words I might have said to Tyra about being with Lucian this
morning.

“
Hey
ladies, I just wanted to come see if there was anything new about the
Reddick project I should know about.” Derrick stops right
beside me, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking completely
nonchalant.

Inside, I'm raging.
He's being nosy, purposely prying.

“
I
don't know. Amy, is there anything new?” Tyra gives me a queer
look.

“
No.
Nothing at all.” I shake my head, my lips feeling tight as I
force a smile. “I just wanted to let you know that I showed
up.” It's a lame excuse, especially given the fact that I've
been standing in her office waiting for her to get off of the phone
for at least a good five minutes.

“
Alright.
Nothing new, then.” She smiles at Derrick.

Internally, I sigh.
Bullet dodged. I'll just email Tyra instead. Hopefully, she won't
come to my desk afterward.

I turn to walk out
of the office, and Derrick follows. My whole body is tense knowing
that he's behind me, maybe because I feel like I've wronged him
somehow. I'm not sure why. It's not like we were ever really dating.
I just lied about it.

“
Oh,
and Amy,” Tyra's voice catches me off guard, making me stop in
my tracks and Derrick nearly run into me.

“
Hm?”
I cast a glance over my shoulder, feeling my insides begin to twist.

“
Doctor
Reddick called. He confirmed that you were at his house all morning.”

***

“
Amy,
how could you?!”

I'm standing outside
of Environ Design rubbing my wrist. Almost the second that we walked
out of Tyra's office, Derrick grabbed me and practically dragged me
out of the building. I knew this lecture was coming, I had just hoped
it could wait until at least lunch time.

“
Derrick,
this can wait.” I roll my eyes, using rudeness as a defense
mechanism.

“
We
talked about this,” his tone raises an octave, then he looks
towards the door to make sure that no one can hear us. Everyone is
staring.

“
We'll
talk about this at lunch,” I growl.

“
Did
you fuck him?” Disgust is written all over his face.

For a moment, I
think about lying. It will calm him if I say no. Then we can go back
inside and work peacefully until lunch. I'm really not up for the
tension of telling the truth. But at the same time, I just want to
get this over with. Telling him now will be like ripping off a
band-aid. Plus, I don't want to string out the betrayal of his trust.

“
Yes,”
I admit, keeping my nose up. I'm not ashamed that I slept with
Lucian. Perhaps if he had been dismissive as usual, I would be. But
things were different last night. Worlds away from what they have
been.

Derrick draws his
hand up to his face, and I can almost feel the anger radiating off of
him. I stay silent, waiting for him to say something—to pitch a
fit or have an all-out fight with me. He doesn't say anything though.
And after about two minutes of just standing there looking angry and
wounded, he steps past me to pull open the door and go back inside,
not even glancing at me.

Inside I crumble.
It's entirely unexpected, the pain that comes from him not saying
anything at all. His disappointment in me is crushing, almost
suffocating. Tears well up in my eyes, and I know I'm going to need
another minute before I can go back inside. I don't get that minute
though. Tyra pokes her head out the door, and I have to suck up my
emotions immediately.

“
Is
everything alright?” she asks though she looks more irritated
than concerned.

“
Yeah.
I'm fine.” I wipe my face with the back of my arm, praying that
I don't smear my makeup.

She holds the door
open for me, practically forcing me back inside. Silently, I curse
her for not giving me a few more minutes to recover. This is her job
though, making sure that I'm doing my job.

“
I'm
not sure what's going on with you two,” she tells me softly,
though her softly is still loud enough for everyone in the office to
hear. “But I need you to separate your emotions from work.
You're here to do a job, remember.”

“
Mhm.”
I nod weakly, biting back the vile things that are rolling around in
my mouth begging to be spat out. I am doing my job. My job is to keep
Lucian Reddick happy, and that's exactly what I've been doing all
morning. And it's kind of hard to separate my emotions from work when
they're entwined with the project. This fucked up love triangle I
have going on. I don't know how to deal with it. Everything would
have been fine if she hadn't said anything about me being with Lucian
this morning. If Derrick hadn't been nosy and come into her office
trying to figure out what was going on.

I suppose it's just
deserts though. Only yesterday, I was in Lucian's bedroom turning
over all of those pictures. I had no business to do it, yet I did it
anyway because I desperately wanted to know his secret. Everything
turned out alright though. Better than alright.

This is my karma.
Not all secrets revealed have a happy outcome.

***

Even though I came
in to work late, the day seems longer than usual. At lunch time,
Derrick whizzes past my desk to go eat alone. It hurts, but I
understand. The wound of knowing that I spent the night with Lucian
is still fresh. Hopefully, he'll get over it in a day or two. He told
me before that we could still be friends even if I wasn't interested
in him. I hope that holds true.

I text Lucian
periodically throughout the day, though he never responds, which only
makes me feel worse. By the time I get off from work, I'm beginning
to think that he played me again. It wouldn't be an unrealistic
possibility. He's very good at pulling me in and pushing me away. At
least now I know that he does it because he's damaged. That makes the
thought a bit more bearable.

I come home to find
Janice sitting on the sofa in the living room watching television.
She doesn't even look at me as I walk through the door and set my
purse on the bar.

I sigh deeply as I
come to sit down on the sofa next to her and kick off my high heels.
That's when I notice she has a bowl of popcorn on her lap and is
shoving a handful in her mouth while her eyes are glued to the
screen. It only takes a few seconds for me to realize that she's
watching a horror movie.

“
Having
fun?” I ask.

She waves her hand,
shushing me. “This is the best part.”

I lean back and wait
for it, the part of the movie where the girl makes the wrong turn and
gets stabbed to death by the murderer, an undeniably attractive guy
in a mask. It's an old slasher movie. Well, not old, but older. We've
both seen it at least half a dozen times, so I'm not sure why she's
getting so excited about it.

“
Do
you want me to tell you who he kills next?” I whisper into her
ear teasingly.

She pushes me away,
furrowing her brow. “You suck, Amy.”

“
Not
yet, but I've been thinking about it.” I trace my tongue across
my bottom lip as I recall Lucian's cock being so close to my face,
how it smelled, how his pre-seed tasted, how much I wanted to stick
that big, fat shaft down my throat and feel him throb in my mouth.
Just thinking about it gets me all hot and bothered.

“
Another
late night with Blue Eyes?” She sounds completely unamused.

“
You're
getting good at guessing.” I reach over to grab a handful of
popcorn.