Play Hard (The Devil's Share Book 5) (7 page)

I arched into his dick. This man turned me on, there was no getting around it. If he’d slipped inside me right that moment, I wouldn’t stop him. I cleared my throat to keep the want from my voice. “What’s that other sound? That banging?”

“What banging?” He handed me my phone and placed a kiss on my shoulder. Wrapping his arm, surprisingly affectionate, around my waist when I propped up on one elbow to look at my phone.

I groaned when I saw it was my stepmom calling, a picture I’d found on Pinterest of a “crack whore Barbie” as her contact photo. Why did she think we were besties because she was leeching off my too-rich-for-his-own-good father? I silenced the call the same time as the banging started up again. “That banging.”

Luke’s eyes flew open. “Shit. They’re here.”

I assumed by
they
he meant his bandmates. He meant Lexi. I hated the feeling that crawled in my stomach. I hated that after just one night with Luke, I cared. He didn’t feel the same. It didn’t matter how many soft kisses he pressed to my bare skin. He was in love with another woman.

“Luke, open the door. It’s noon. I’ve been calling you for hours. What are you doing?”

He immediately got up and started pacing. He was whispering frantically. “Maybe if we’re really quiet she’ll go away. Maybe she’ll think she has the wrong room or something.” He put his finger to his lips, giving me the universal sign for
shhh
.

I gave him an exaggerated nod and pretended like I was locking my mouth closed. I was all for that chick going away. My head was pounding, I wanted to close the curtains and go back to sleep for another five hours. I actually really enjoyed using Luke as a mattress too. And if he wanted to mess around a little bit before I never got to see him again, I’d be down for that. Anything to prolong our inevitable good-bye. The knocking and yelling had stopped.

Luke did a really hilarious little victory dance on his way back to the bed. But the second his hand touched the cool white sheets, my phone started ringing again. I silenced it as fast as I could, but it was too late.

“Luke Matthews, open this door, right freaking now.”

Luke hung his head and shuffled over to unlock the door. Well, hell. What was I supposed to do? Hide? I did an impressive army roll over his side of the bed just as he opened the door. I’d decided the bathroom was my best bet until she left, but then I heard his voice.

“Lexi.” He didn’t sound like himself. He sounded like his dog had just died, like it pained him to say her name. It stopped me in my stealth mode tracks.

“Luke.” Her voice, on the other hand, sounded ecstatic. I watched from around the corner as he leaned out the door and gave her a big hug. His body was blocking my view of her face, but it was obvious that she had missed him. She didn’t let him go for several long seconds. I sort of wanted to kick her in the shins. If she liked him so much why was she engaged to another man?

“We’ve been calling you since we landed. Are you okay? Didn’t you hear me knocking?”

“Uh, yeah. Sorry. My phone was on silent and I was asleep.” I looked up at the ceiling, rolling my eyes in exasperation. This guy had it bad. The confident, sexy man I’d spent the last twenty-four hours with was gone. And in his place? A sad sack. My phone started up again; this time it was my dad’s number flashing across the screen, accompanied by a picture of a donkey. I declined the call as quick as I could, but once again, she heard it.

“If your phone is on silent, then whose is ringing?” What was she, a freaking private eye?

“Oh, uh, that was Lo’s. She’s my, um—”

I knew what I was about to do was dumb. I knew it’d only end in heartache for me, because I’d end up falling for his sexy, unavailable ass. But I just couldn’t let him suffer any more than he already was. Call me a saint, because I was. I took a deep breath, cursed my luck, and then put a big smile on my face. “Luke, babe, who was at the door?” I walked up behind him and wrapped my arm around his hips. “Oh my gosh. Hi. You must be Lexi. I’ve heard so much about you. It’s so nice to finally meet you.”

The surprised look on her face told me I’d shocked her. Good. Maybe next time she wouldn’t be so nosy and she’d leave well enough the hell alone. “Uh, hi, um, it’s really nice to meet you too.”

I held my hand out. “Harlow.” She shook it, her eyes darting between Luke and me. “When did you guys get in? Sorry it took us so long to realize someone was at the door. We had a long night.” I winked. It wasn’t a total lie either. We had been locked out of this place for hours.

“We just got to the hotel about thirty minutes ago. Everyone is starving, but we wanted to see Luke…and meet you of course. Have y’all eaten?”

Luke was right, she was very pretty. Like sultry, sex-kitten kind of pretty. I could see the appeal. Plus, her affection for Luke was apparent to anyone looking. She had missed this man; it was written all over her pretty face. “Not since we landed yesterday, and I am starving.” I rested my chin on Luke’s arm. “Let’s get dressed and meet them for lunch, babe.”

He smiled, the sexy one I’d seen the night before. “Whatever you want, Pix.” He turned to Lexi. “Just text me where and we’ll meet up. Give us, twenty, maybe thirty minutes to get ready?’

She nodded. “Yeah sure, I’ll just, uh, get Halen packed and ready.” She reached out and touched Luke’s cheek, “It’s so good to see your face, Lukey.” She stepped back and let her hand fall. “I’ll see you soon.” When she headed, reluctantly, down the hallway Luke closed the door.

I wrinkled my nose. “Lukey?”

He dropped down to his knees in front of me and put his forehead on my boobs. “You are the best fairy in the world and I owe you the biggest favor in the history of favors.”

I ruffled the top of his head. “Well, you can start by going down to my room and getting all my stuff.”

He hopped up. “Done.”

I put my hands on my hips. “And then, you can promise me that you will never get so damn low around that woman again. It’s like all the fight left your body. That was painful to watch, and you are better than that.” I put his hands on my face and tilted it up toward him. “You understand me?”

“Thank you, Pixie.”

I gave him an eh-what-are-you-gonna-do type look.

He leaned down and kissed my lips, softly. I felt it throughout my body.

“And I am not your fake girlfriend. I am your friend, we’re hanging out. If they think we’re together, I won’t correct them. But I am not spending the next week batting my eyelashes and acting like I worship the ground you walk on. Got it?”

His face filled with uncertainty. “But I told Lexi we’d already been together a few weeks…”

Ugh. “I will
fib
about that one little thing. That’s it or no deal.”

He smiled, that cocky one that I loved when I really should have despised it. “Deal. My beautiful non-girlfriend girlfriend.”

He turned me on, and he made me laugh. Being here, being with him like this, I was going to fall for this stupid gorgeous man. And he was going to break my heart. Clearly he wasn’t over Lexi. If I was anything to him, I’d only be a rebound. This wasn’t going to end well.

And I had no one to blame but myself.

Chapter Eleven

Lexi

My mind was working overtime as I walked down the carpeted hall and boarded the elevator. I was shocked as hell to see a chick in Luke’s room. Every fiber of my being told me he’d lied to me on the phone. He’d scrambled to make it sound real, he’d tripped over his words, and that was something Luke rarely ever did. But still, his whole body responded to her, to Harlow; his face lit up when she’d wrapped an arm around his waist. I hadn’t seen him act that way, have that reaction to another girl, ever.

Well, not including me.

She was stunning, I’d give him that. She was blonde like Luke, and she had a banging body—on the shorter side, but taller than me and thin. She looked young, and she looked happy. Light just seemed to radiate from her. I’d met her for all of three minutes and I already knew she was exactly what Luke needed. And I’d do whatever it took to make him see it too. I used my key card to enter our suite.

“Hey, Kitten,” Dash called. “Did you see Luke? How did he look?”

I smiled as I joined him and Halen on the makeshift pallet he’d made on the floor so she could play. “He looked cheerful. And tan.” I tickled Halen’s rounded tummy and kissed Dash on the mouth. “I met his ‘girlfriend’ and they are going to meet us for lunch.”

He grinned. “Still think he’s lying about their relationship?” I’d told Dash about my phone call with Luke. Ever since our daughter was born, Dash had been much more understanding and accepting of my bond with my best friend. Which made it much easier to share that part of my life with him, to be honest about all my feelings. Even the ones about Luke.

I snorted. “Without a doubt.” I shrugged and let out a sigh. “At least about some of it. But she’s beautiful, babe. She’s happy and light and smiles. She’s just what he needs.”

Dash shook his head, the ghost of a smile on his face. “There isn’t any way I’m going to be able to convince you to stay out of it, is there?”

“What do you think?”

He picked up Halen and held her over his head, making airplane noises like a boss. “I think you should let Luke run his own life. I think you should let him make his own choices. If he and this girl are supposed to be, they will. Without your help.”

I lay down next to him, smiling at our daughter. “It was a rhetorical question, babe.”

“I know it was, Kitten.”

Chapter Twelve

Luke

Harlow was my hero. When I asked her once again to help me out last night, I was sure I’d find her gone when I woke up in the morning. But not only had she stuck around, she’d rescued me from a week in hell. I knew the second I opened the door and saw Lexi standing there that I wouldn’t survive this promo tour on my own. I was immediately heartbroken, all over again. This beautiful girl who I had wanted, had loved for all of my adult life and would never be mine. And there wasn’t anything I could do about it. There was nothing I
should
do about it either. Dash loved Lexi with everything inside him. He treated her like she was the most important thing in the world. He was an amazing father to Halen. I’d lost her to a good guy, a guy worthy of her. A long time ago, that had been my only wish.

“Hey, Lukey. I didn’t know you were coming to visit us this weekend. What a great surprise.”

I inhaled deeply when Lexi threw her arms around my neck. I had it bad for this chick. “Yeah, I had some news I wanted to share in person.” I took a step back and set my bags on the ground.

“Well, Ams isn’t here, I was actually on my way to go meet up with her and Patrick. Why don’t you come with? I know the bartender, I’ll get your under aged ass a drink.” She grabbed my hand in hers and led me out of the apartment.

We walked a few blocks, talking and laughing about nothing important. I wanted to tell her my news when my sister could hear it too. We stopped in front of a place called Crown and Anchor. Everyone greeted Lexi as we walked to a table in the back. She smiled and handed out hugs. She never seemed to meet a stranger.

When my sister saw me, she jumped up and pulled me into her arms. “Lukey! What are you doing here?”

“Well, I had some news I wanted to share with—”

“Hey, baby. Where the hell have you been?”

I turned and watched in horror as some polo-wearing ’roid-raged jerk grabbed Lexi by the arm and hauled her over to him. I took a step in their direction to intervene, but Lexi just rolled her eyes and pushed him away. “I told you I was going to be a little late.” She sat down and then patted the chair next to her. “Come on, Luke, sit by me.”

I sat down and couldn’t help but grin when the big meathead had to sit across the table. I didn’t know she was dating someone. And that guy seemed like an asshole.

“So tell us your news.” Amy leaned forward, a big smile on her face.

“We’re going on tour. We have three months full of gigs, from here to Oklahoma.” Amy clapped her hands and Lex smacked a kiss on my cheek. I couldn’t help but get excited all over again. Their reactions were perfect. I took a deep breath, gathering strength, then turned to the girl of my dreams sitting next to me. The real reason I’d come to Austin. “What do you think, Lex? Wanna come with?”

Her face lit up, and she didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

Jock ass across the table snorted. “You’re not spending the summer on tour with some band, Alexis.”

I opened my mouth to tell him to fuck off, but Lexi beat me to it. “Yes I am. And if you keep talking to me like that, you’ll be spending a lot of time with your hand before I leave.”

He got up and went to the bar without another word. I turned to her. “Are you dating him?”

She shrugged. “It’s nothing serious, we’re hanging out.”

“He’s a dick.”

She nodded. “I know, right?”

“Why are you with him?”

She smiled at me, this little mischievous smile. “Who cares? We’re going on tour.”

Lexi and Amy started talking about the tour and what film and cameras Lexi would need to pack. I drowned them out while I studied the guy at the bar. If Lexi was ever mine, I’d treat her like a queen. I’d never talk to her like that. And if she wasn’t ever mine? I just prayed that she wouldn’t end up with a guy like that. He didn’t deserve her. That was the mark of true love, right? I wanted her to be happy, even if it wasn’t with me.

I opened the door to Harlow’s room and was assaulted with her floral scent. I grabbed all her matching suitcases and her hanging clothes. Harlow was a badass. She really was. She was funny, and odd, and sexy as fuck. I knew we’d have a great time together over the next week. But I also knew I had to let her leave. I was no good for her.

Like she said, she’d been disappointed enough by men. Until I could put my heart back together, I was no good for anyone.