Put Me Back Together(53)

“Wait,” I said, gently pushing him away. His eyes, which had been clouded over, cleared just a little as they focused on my face.

He leaned back so we were essentially lying down facing each other, our faces just inches apart.

“Wait?” he said, his hand cupping the side of my face as his thumb slid over my bottom lip. I felt my eyes begin to roll back in my head.

“Stop it!” I snapped, swatting his hand away, and he let it rest on my waist instead, which wasn’t exactly better, but at least I could mostly think clearly.

“Am I stopping for a reason?” he asked, and I saw his dimples make their first appearance of the night. My God, it had been a while since I’d seen them, and they were looking good.

I tried to articulate my thoughts, but the emotions that were rushing around in my body had me all turned around. Why exactly had I asked him to stop? Did I even know?

“What about Taylor?” I asked abruptly, and watched Lucas’s eyes narrow as though he were trying to place her name.”

“Don’t act like you don’t know who she is,” I said with irritation. “Redhead, perfect body, big red lips planted on your cheek whenever she gets the chance.”

“Right, Taylor,” Lucas said, looking amused. “Sounds like you don’t like Taylor’s lips touching me, Hero.”

My temper flaring, I grabbed his arms and wrestled him back until he was pressed against the headboard. “Stop. Calling. Me. Hero,” I said though gritted teeth. He held up his hands in a gesture of innocence. “I promise,” he said seriously. “I will never call you Hero again…unless I want you to press your whole body up against me like that. ‘Cause that was kind of great.”

“Ugh!” I pummeled his arms with my fists and he fended me off until we were both lying on our backs, spent.

“So what’s all this about Taylor?” Lucas said.

“Well, you two are obviously—”

“Obviously?” Lucas said with interest, rising up on his side again.

I sighed, looking up at the ceiling. “I know you said you’re not like that anymore, but I also know your reputation, Lucas,” I said. “You’ve got Taylor and Monica and Jenny and God knows how many other girls waiting in line.”

Lucas made a strange sound and my eyes snapped to his face. Was he actually laughing at me? I stared at him, as he struggled to get himself under control.

“First of all,” he began, his face still red with laughter, “I don’t have Jenny. She’s an old family friend. We grew up together, but there’s absolutely nothing going on there. I’m just really fond of the kid.”

“She’s not a kid, she’s the same age as me,” I said, frowning at him.

“Jenny will always be a kid to me,” Lucas said, pressing his finger into the frown line between my eyebrows, trying to smooth it away. “I will never have feelings like that for her, trust me.”

I wanted to bring up the moment I’d seen on the bench, but I didn’t want to invade his privacy or embarrass him. I was willing to concede that maybe I’d misconstrued what I’d seen, though I still didn’t see how. Did Lucas really go around caressing the cheeks of his childhood friends? Then I remembered that she’d been yelling at him that night and for the first time it occurred to me to wonder what she’d been yelling about.

“Monica is in the past, and I mean the distant past,” Lucas went on, “and Taylor…Taylor is the type of girl who’s used to getting what she wants. That’s all I can really say about her.”

“And what she wants is you,” I said, realizing after the words were out of my mouth how pouty they sounded.

“Just because she wants me doesn’t mean she gets me,” Lucas said gently. “I have to want her, too, don’t I?”

“I saw the two of you out together last weekend.”

“Keeping tabs on me, are you?” Lucas said, raising his eyebrows.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “By coincidence we happened to be in the same restaurant Sunday night. And don’t dodge the question.”

“My roommates dragged me out for dinner and Taylor and her friends joined us,” he said. “I admit she was coming on pretty strong that night. She’s not used to hearing the word no, like I said. But I didn’t encourage her and I didn’t go home with her. I didn’t want to.”

“Didn’t you?” I challenged. Taylor was every guy’s fantasy—gorgeous, experienced, and a little naughty. She was everything I knew I could never be.

Lucas groaned loudly and then his body was on the move. He braced his body over mine, putting his weight on his forearms, both his hands cupping my face.

Oh, wow.

“What do I have to do to convince you how crazy I am about you, Katie?” he said. His eyes were drawn to my lips and I thought for sure he was going to kiss me, but he held back. I suppressed a whine of disapproval.

My God, he was so beautiful. Looking at him just never got old. A few locks of his hair hung down over his forehead and I pushed them back with my fingers. He hadn’t shaved in a few days and there was a little bit of scruff across his cheeks, which only made him look deliciously disheveled, as if he’d just rolled out of bed, still warm from sleep, and naked, of course—because when I imagined Lucas in bed, and this wasn’t the first time, he was always naked. The very idea made me flush. And he wanted to know why I couldn’t believe he was interested in me?