He raked a hand through his hair, tugging it. He looked like he was at war with himself. “She’s a good girl. She deserves to be happy, and that cunt makes her happy, I guess.”
It was good that he was coming to his senses. The last thing we needed was to save him from his rotten unrequited love. Knightly didn’t need to have to go and protect his cousin by having a go at it with Kensington. If that day ever came, I was sure the stocks would probably plummet a tad, and we didn’t want people losing money. Especially not since I had just started my firm. That would be quite the bad luck.
+++
The next day, I was surprised when Chad announced that we were having lunch with Lucy.
I had missed her tremendously, however I wasn’t sure if I could face her at the moment. Lucy was the only person in the world I was scared of, and with good reason. She had the capability of breaking me in two with her mean words alone. I needed a couple of more weeks until I could face her without having a problem with my pretend mask slipping off. I needed to learn how to fight this hunger I had for her. It didn’t help that, each time I saw her, I wanted to ravish her on the spot. I was sure she wouldn’t welcome that.
“I’m quite busy at the moment. You guys go right along without me.” I focused my attention back on the screen before me, but when I heard Chad clear his throat with his fingers tapping on my desk, I looked up and gave him a patient expression. “Yes?”
“You can’t bullshit a bullshitter.”
Right on. “Good to know. Anything else, Chad?”
He pouted like a petulant child with great persistence. “You’ve been cranky for the entire day. She might lighten your mood.”
“Well, didn’t it ever occur to you that she might be the cause of why I’m cranky right now?” Let’s face it. I was a miserable fool. The whole divorce battle with Amelia was not progressing as I would’ve liked, and knowing Lucy was in love with another man… neither was a sure recipe for pure bliss.
He blew out a breath. “God—you need to go jackoff or something!”
“Still ineffective.”
“Seriously?”
I shrugged. “So will you leave me alone now?”
“Fuck that. Maybe I could convince her to sleep with you. Would you like that?” he teased, winking.
Chad was a bit mad, but still… just the thought of having her for a night had already gotten my blood roaring. The tightening of my pants sure didn’t help, either.
“I’ll see you later, mate.”
Chad sighed, knowing that I wasn’t going to be convinced. “Fine. But I’m inviting her out to party with me tonight. Up to you if you want to tag along, beeotch.”
Last year, I used to find it amusing that Chad used these sorts of tactics on Blake to get Sienna back. Now that he was doing the same thing with me, I wasn’t quite sure if I liked it at all.
Chapter 9
Lucy
“I think I need to go on a mission to get Toby laid.”
The melon and prosciutto were halfway to my mouth when I froze after he’d dropped that bomb. Had I heard him right? “I beg your pardon?”
He smiled brightly at me. “He’s been so moody. I think the poor baby needs some good lovin’.”
Clearing my throat, I reached out for the chilled water and took a lengthy sip. “And you know this because…?”
“Hey, it’s been a while for him. He told me so—sort of.”
“Huh.” They were that close? Good on them… but his sex life? I wasn’t aware that Toby was forthcoming about his sexual endeavors.
I was about to take another bite of my antipasto when I noticed that he was silent, not eating at all. He just kept staring at me. “What? Is something the matter?”
“It is a matter of pleasure.” He cleared his throat. “I think you guys need to hook-up. Even just for one last fuck. You know, release all that anger and tension in quick thrusts and orgasms.”
“Have you gone bloody mad?”
“Nah.” He thought a moment before shaking his head entirely. “I don’t think so. Why?” he blinked those dark, sooty lashes at me.
What? Gah, this bugger was about to give my heart convulsions. “Why? You know bloody why! He might think that we’d get back together again. Besides, things are quite complicated as it is. Add sex in it, and it just doesn’t make sense.”
“Lucy, I love you. I fucking do. But I also remember hearing your screams in the bedroom. When was the last time someone rocked you that well?”
Not since Rome. “You’re crazy.” Like I would consider it. Chad was being silly. “Did he put you up to this?”
“Yeah, right. I think he’d more likely bang someone random, anyway,” he said thoughtfully, making me slightly aggravated. “Not like you care about that.”
I sure did, but I wasn’t going to admit it. While Chad was now jumping subjects to Sienna and Blake’s return tomorrow, I was left with my damning thoughts… Toby with another woman. Surely after his divorce, he wouldn’t be single for long.
Toby was sinfully gorgeous with a lean, sculpted physique that held grace and elegance. He was eloquent and had impeccable manners to a T. He was also not only brilliant in finance, he was an amazing lover. Add the fact that he had the filthiest mouth during sex only drove me crazier about him.
Yeah, he wouldn’t be single for long.
After my lunch with Chad, and since I didn’t have any classes for the rest of the day, I randomly took a chance at spontaneity when I walked past a salon. Since I was bent on starting over, the stylist didn’t have to convince me that hard to chop some of my locks off. Since Toby used to like my hair so much, I thought it best to let go of him—his memories—one at a time.
That night, I met up with Chad and a few of his artsy buddies in South Kensington for drinks then later on dancing somewhere close by. The bar lounge was medium sized compared to most places I was accustomed to, but I supposed with all the eclectic paintings on the wall, it made sense to have a cozier feel to the place. The red, leather sofas that were scattered about in different angles gave it an edge. Add the corset-wearing waitresses with winged black eyeliner on their eyes, and it certainly made quite the impression for folks that were plain and boring like I was. The air was lively, the chatters were loud and people were having a nice evening.
After dipping my nose from one book to the other, it was nice to be out and feed off other peoples’ energies. Even if I felt like death inside, it was an amazing feeling to be surrounded by laughter and positivity.