He was still—unfortunately—gorgeous.
With big hazel eyes and chocolate-brown hair that curled around his ears, a strong chin with a cleft in it, and a wicked smile that probably killed nice little old ladies with heart conditions—he was the devil himself.
My stomach clenched.
It sucked, watching your hero turn into someone you hated all within the span of minutes—seconds, really.
Four years ago, he’d walked out of our lives. He hadn’t just dated my older sister—he’d been a part of our family. A huge part.
They were high school sweethearts. Homecoming king and queen, prom royalty, the quarterback who won state and the cheerleader who held his hand afterward.
It made someone like me—a more bookish, slightly nerdy girl—insanely jealous, because if you looked up “American dream” in the dictionary, Lucas Thorn and Kayla Black would have been the definition.
Until the day which shall not be spoken of.
With the estranged jealous psycho sister who I only saw on holidays.
He’d destroyed my family.
And I hated him for it.
Almost as much as I hated Brooke for allowing it. I’d wanted so badly to blame her instead of him.
He’d been so protective of me. Seemed so . . . perfect, in every way.
And now I was angry, not just uncomfortable and nervous but so angry that energy poured out of me. I channeled that anger into my work. I answered emails, called the schools that Lucas needed to visit in the week ahead, and went over the new marketing brochures.
And it wasn’t even lunchtime yet.
Coffee was helping—but I imagined that my productivity was generated more by the adrenaline coursing through my veins because Lucas was mere feet away. As if sensing his presence, my heart rate sped up like I’d just taken a shot of caffeine through an IV.
If anything, I expected to start hovering over my desk Red Bull–style, any minute, and I’d sprout legit wings and have to explain to everyone why the new girl didn’t use chairs.
“Hello.” A heavily accented feminine voice interrupted my psychotic daydream. I wiped my mouth, just in case I had coffee dripping down to my chin, and glanced up.
She had long, wavy hair that went on for miles; it was brown and silky, and I had the sudden urge to cut it all off and superglue it to my own head—yeah, I needed to lay off the coffee. I scooted my cup away and folded my hands on my desk.
“Hi, how may I help you?”
“You.” She pointed at me and giggled. “You are so young and small to be working at big office.”
“Oh, well, it’s Bring Your Daughter to Work Day.” I winked. “You know, Daddy’s so proud and all.”
“Oh, this makes so sense!” I think she meant to say “so much sense,” but her English wasn’t that great. Alrighty then, moving on. “I need to see Lucas Thorn.”
The way she said his name made me want to throw my coffee in her face. She was dreamy and seductive, everything I wasn’t, not that I could even try to compare myself to someone like her.
“Who should I say is asking?”
“One of his girls.” Of course, now she would wink—it was a condescending wink, one that made my hands twitch. “He’ll let me right in.”
Alarm bells went off in my head as my stomach clenched. “One of his girls,” huh? Sharon? Sharie? The pregnant lady had warned me, but I was afraid to ask for details—and now I was too curious for my own good. With shaking hands, I picked up the phone just in time to see Lucas stroll out of his office, give the woman a smirk, and hold out his hand.
“Lucas Thorn.” She said his full name. Again. Like he wasn’t aware he had a last and a first. “You’re looking good.”
“So are you, gorgeous.” He winked. “Shall we?” He led her into his office and then, much to my dismay, closed the blinds and shut the door.
Well, that’s completely not helpful.
I tapped my pen against the desk while I waited for them to finish. Ten minutes later . . . and nothing.
Though I did see movement—not enough to know what was going on but enough to be even more curious about why the door needed to be shut.
After thirty minutes I’d come up with at least ten different scenarios. Maybe she was from a school in a foreign country? Maybe the kids there needed help reading too! Maybe he was saving children! Or maybe he was a self-serving man whore who was taking advantage of her like he’d done to my family.
Forty-five minutes, they were still in his office.
Should I send in a search party? I wondered.
He did have a meeting that I’d forgotten to tell him about in like fifteen minutes, so did it make sense for me to knock? Call?
Just when I stood, the door to his office opened. His shirt was torn open, its buttons basically hanging by their threads as the woman dabbed her lips with her hand and again winked at me. Her makeup was spread across her cheeks, and her beautiful hair was a complete mess. My mouth dropped open when she limped—yes, limped—to the elevator and then turned to blow him a kiss. “Until next Friday, Lucas Thorn.” She pulled out a compact and began fixing her face.
“I’ll put you down for every Friday.”
“Thank you.” She grinned. The snap of the compact shutting closed made me jump in my seat. “For allowing me to take the open position.”
“You proved your worth!” he called back. His smile was so shameless, I didn’t know what to do—with my body or with my hands.
The elevator doors closed.
I was still staring at them when Lucas whispered over my shoulder, “You gonna be okay?”
I jerked away from him. He smelled like perfume. Lipstick and bite marks marred the golden skin around his neck. I wanted to cry.
And I had no right to be upset.
He wasn’t my problem.
Or my boyfriend.
He wasn’t anything but my boss.
But the lipstick hurt—just like the bite marks did and the scent of another woman, a woman who wasn’t my sister or, if I was being really honest, me.
Any girl would have crushed on him.
Hero worship sucked—he’d fallen so far.
And now? What? Quickies in his office?
“Good meeting?” I licked my lips, sat down, and tried to look busy by stacking papers that I’d already reviewed.
“Great.” He patted my back. “I should probably go over my other schedule with you when we have time.” He paused as if he was reading his own schedule over my shoulder. “But it looks like you forgot to tell me about a meeting, so I’m just going to go change shirts, and we’ll continue this discussion later.”
“Looking forward to it,” I said through clenched teeth.
“You blush when you lie,” he called over his shoulder. “Also, those papers are upside down.” Then he shut the door to his office.
And I blew out a frustrated huff of air. Bastard.
Chapter Five
LUCAS