“Honesty,” he said, “is necessary when you casually date seven women, right?”
“Oh please!” I locked eyes with him. “You’re excusing horrible behavior by saying the girls are aware, but the whole sex without strings doesn’t exist. That’s a fantasy like Santa Claus or the Easter bunny.”
“Holy shit! Santa’s fake?” He winked. “And they’re all okay with it. Besides, it’s not like I’m sleeping with you.”
I hated him for saying it.
Because immediately I had a vision of his mouth on mine, clothes on the floor, and every forbidden fantasy I’d had throughout high school flared to life, fanned by the words that he’d just released into the universe, words that would be impossible to take back.
I sucked in a breath, and he licked his lips, his eyes focusing on my mouth.
It was wrong.
And a small part of me liked that feeling, the wrongness of being in my boss’s office, the history, but it was only 1 percent.
Ninety-nine percent of me still wanted to nail him to a wall and use his balls as target practice with a shiny, new aluminum bat.
Lucas took a step toward me. I took a step back.
He stopped approaching, instead shoving his hands into his pockets and offering a lazy smile. “That’s rare.”
“What?”
“A girl running in the opposite direction.”
“I’m not one of your desperate women grateful for little cheap crumbs—plus there are only so many days in a week.” I tried to sound cheerful, like it wasn’t a big deal that he was a lying, cheating asshole of a man, and not the man I used to know.
“Pity,” he whispered.
“Hey, you two, meeting in five.” I jumped a foot at the sound of the feminine voice, and then Lucas became all business.
I scurried back to my desk and shoved the papers into my purse just in time for Lucas to lead me to the conference room.
Chapter Seven
LUCAS
I hated Saturday meetings—they threw off my entire week—but this time, I’d looked forward to going to the office on my day off.
And it had everything to do with a certain spitfire currently drawing a horrible stick figure that I could only assume was me, with an arrow going through its head, and then the heart. An airplane was going down in flames in the drawing, and it was about to flatten said stick figure that had my name written above it in giant block letters.
Nice.
“Lucas.”
I glanced up, acknowledging the speaker at the head of the table.
Bill was my boss. Hell, he was everyone’s boss. He was the founder of Grant Learning. This announcement had to be big for him to call in all the VPs like this. “I know you typically do a four-ten if you can, but I’ll need you to move back down to five-eights.”
Avery frowned.
“No problem.” I suddenly had no issue with being in the office more. Besides, I usually had so much work, it was rare that I could take Fridays off anyway.
“Thank you, everyone, for meeting on your day off. I know this is very last minute, but I have an update on the new tutoring app that I think you should be made aware of.”
I leaned forward. The app was my idea. I’d hired the tech team to build an app for students. It worked a lot like Uber. Whenever a student needed help with a homework assignment, he or she could check to see if a tutor was in the area. The tutors were all screened by us and put into our system, and with his or her parents’ permission, a student could hire a tutor immediately. That made it easier for students who lived far from our franchises to get help.
“We’re out of the beta testing and ready to launch.” Bill grinned wide. “Good job heading this up, Lucas. The results have been outstanding.”
Pride swelled in my chest. “That’s fantastic.”
Sure, I was a jackass, I “cheated” on women, or just dated multiples, depending on one’s perspective, but I loved kids. Adored them. They were still so damn innocent. They had the whole world ahead of them, and I wanted to make sure that they had every opportunity possible. My parents had given me that—I wanted to pay it forward.
Just thinking about Patty and Bill had me itching all over.
God, it had been way too long since we’d talked.
And I only had myself to blame.
Things were still tense—years later. It burned that my own parents still held me responsible for what had happened with the Blacks. Like I single-handedly ruined a twenty-year friendship on purpose.
What? Did they think I wanted to destroy lives?
My mood darkened as it usually did when I thought about the mistake, about how and why it happened. Hell, if Kayla and I had gotten married, I would probably have been teaching my own kids now.
The thought was absolutely terrifying. Not the kid part, but the part where I was married to a woman like Kayla.
Maybe that’s why I liked the opposite of what she represented.
My eyes focused on Avery.
She glared at me and then made a slicing motion with her finger across her neck. Yeah, message received.
“Your department is going to be in charge of visiting all of the local schools and doing a training tutorial on the app,” Bill said. “So for the next few weeks, you’ll be very busy.” Ah, that’s why he needed me to work Fridays. “And because Shannon’s taking maternity leave, we’ll need your new intern . . .” His eyes searched for Avery. “There you are. Avery Black, you’ll be assisting Lucas with his school visits and keeping his schedule straight during the launch.”
Avery swallowed and gave him a very strong nod, as if to say, I’ve got this, can do it in my sleep and won’t let you down.
That was her attitude about life—about everything.
I envied her that.
Even if it was a front. Her confidence had always been impressive. At such a young age, it was rare.
Especially considering how much shit she took from her sisters growing up. She’d always been a tomboy.
And now?
Now she had curves for days. She surpassed her sisters in ways that were astonishing.
And there I went again.
Staring at her.
Lusting.
Wanting.
Isn’t that what got me screwed in the first place?
Her strawberry-blonde hair was pulled into a high ponytail that kissed the back of her neck. Her white silk shirt hung loosely tucked into black-satin shorts, and she was wearing tall black stilettos.
I was sure Bill was still talking.
But I was too busy lusting after my ex-fiancée’s little sister, a tale as old as time—been there, done that—but I couldn’t help myself.
Being near Avery made the want that much worse. Whenever she used to give me the silent treatment, it had been torture. She was a talker, and I used to love it when she’d tell me about all the drama in high school while I was busy joining the workforce. Avery had always had a way with words, but not only that, she was animated. So animated that I used to make her sit on her hands when she talked because she made me so dizzy. I don’t remember a time when she’d ever sat and folded her hands while having a discussion. She was all action. I was suddenly thankful that hadn’t changed.