Cheater (Curious Liaisons, #1)(2)

She took the cup and swallowed a large gulp, with her big blue eyes locking on mine for longer than necessary. “I think I’m ready to be done.”

“Alright.” I said it softly, as if it didn’t bother me that women used me just as much as I used them. “Today?”

“Yes.” She nodded and then shook her blonde hair. “I mean, no.” Her lower lip trembled. “Lucas, maybe we can—”

My coffee order was called out.

“Hold that thought.” I went over to grab my macchiato. Anna was working; she was my Thursday.

“Lucas Thorn.” She shook her cropped hair and sighed, placing her hands on her wide hips. “As I live and breathe.” She had a teasing Southern accent that got me hard in all the right places.

“Gorgeous.” I smirked and leaned in to press a hungry kiss to her mouth. She returned it but then gave me a slight shove. “What?”

“I’m at work.” She blushed brightly.

“Green looks good on you.” I meant it. She was beautiful, not model thin, but with curves for days. Shorter than most women I typically dated, but a hell of a beautiful mind, and those eyes, I loved them. She deserved someone incredible. It just wasn’t me.

“I, uh . . .” She bit down on her bottom lip, then nearly ran into another customer. “Should get back to work. Are we still on for next week?”

“Of course.” I hated her insecurity. Then again, I wasn’t exactly helping that situation, now, was I? “We’ll do dinner. How’s that sound?”

“Good.” Her smile was bright. “Really good. Have a nice day, Lucas Thorn.”

I tried not to laugh out loud. Always both names.

Lucas?

I should have picked up on the seriousness of Jess’s tone; she’d called me by just my first name.

And she’d used it again for the first time since we’d met at a bar a few months back.

I turned around just in time to see Jess wipe away a tear and look down at her coffee.

She’d seen the kiss.

But she knew the rules.

I refused to feel guilty about the way I dated—the life I lived.

“So . . .” I sat down. “You were saying.”

“How can you do it?” She didn’t make eye contact, just stared down at her coffee again, then grabbed a green straw and started twisting it tightly between her fingers. “You have seven girls for seven days. And you’ve never fallen in love with one of them? Not ever?”

“Jess . . .” Honestly, I didn’t want to have this conversation with her. She’d been one of my favorites, always positive, exuberant in bed, willing to try anything, and I do mean anything, but sometimes, you need to cut the apron strings. “When we started dating, I told you, if you weren’t comfortable with my lifestyle that you always had an option to leave. It’s not like you signed some sort of psychotic ironclad contract that says I own you.”

She stared me down, eyebrows both arched. “You do realize that sounds exactly like something you would do, right?”

“Very funny.” She didn’t need to know that I once went to a lawyer and asked if I needed some sort of contract so I couldn’t get sued if one of the girls got pissed or something.

But as long as I had a verbal agreement from every girl that she fully understood I was dating a plethora of women and that she was one of many, I was good to go. Lucky me! Lucky them.

“Go.” I grabbed her hand and kissed it. “You know, Fridays always were my favorite,” I said, laying it on thick.

“Oh please.” She snorted out a laugh. “I’ve seen your Monday, remember?”

“Ah, Molly.” I laughed. “You’re all beautiful.”

“I think that’s the problem.” Jess frowned. “We’re all interchangeable. We may look different, have different body types, represent various races and demographics, but in the end, we’re just another way for you to please yourself. Not that you don’t please us, or me, I just . . .” She shook her head. “It’s too confusing, like being on The Bachelor without the possibility of getting you in the end.”

“Trust me, you don’t want me all to yourself. Done that once, it didn’t end well. I can’t be trusted, and that’s the truth.”

“That,” she said, standing, “makes me sad.”

“It shouldn’t.” I shrugged it off. “It’s life, Jess.”

“Life is more than sleeping with a different woman every day, Lucas.”

“Are you sure about that?” I winked, then eyed her up and down. “Because I’m pretty sure I love it.”

“Pig.”

“Love you too, beautiful.” I pulled her into my arms and kissed her temple. “Don’t be a stranger.”

“Hah!” She swatted me on the chest. “You’ll have a new Friday by lunch.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” I pulled my sunglasses from my pocket and put them on before grabbing my coffee. “Let me walk you out.”

“And there it is.”

“What?” I opened the door for her and followed. “There what is?”

The Seattle morning was perfect; sun peeked through the thin clouds, causing a pretty glow to land across Jess’s face. “You’re a total asshole yet a complete gentleman at the same time. What’s worse is I can’t hate you. Even when I saw you kiss another woman five minutes ago, my only thought was, ‘She seems nice—I see what he sees in her.’ That’s the Lucas Thorn effect.” She stabbed at my chest with a finger. “You make cheating okay.”