Divided Interests Page 9

  I pulled in a quick breath as I ran my finger along the edge of her dress, lightly touching her skin. Paige’s breath hitched at the touch, as well.

  “Did you also hear me say you look beautiful?”

  Her eyes watched as my fingers moved over her skin, and it only made my dick grow harder. Hell on wheels, this woman could always make my cock rock solid just by watching me touch her. It was one of the hottest things I’d ever experienced with a woman. I moved my hand down the side of her dress, feeling every sexy curve on her body until I touched the bare skin of her upper leg.

  Paige opened her mouth and drew in a shaky voice as she asked, “What are you doing, Lucas?”

  “I know what you like. I know how to make you come within seconds. Do you remember that?”

  Her tongue darted out to lick her lips. My hand moved under her dress, and I loved that I could feel her body tremble. I loved it even more that she wasn’t pushing me away.

  “Are you drunk again, Lucas?”

  I smiled. “No, I’m very sober.”

  Pushing her dress up, I looked down to see she was wearing black lace panties. I moaned. I would bet my half of the house it was a black lace thong.

  “How long has it been, Paige, since you’ve had a man make you come?”

  Before she had a chance to answer, I moved closer and slipped my hand into her panties. When she sucked in a breath, memories of the first time I ever made her come with my hand flooded my mind. The sweet moans she made as I pumped my fingers inside her. The way she ran her fingers through my hair, begging me to finish her off. I had nearly blown my load in my own pants when she finally let herself tumble over the edge. Watching Paige have an orgasm had been one of my all-time favorite things to do.

  I didn’t even have to touch her to know she was soaking wet. I could practically smell her arousal.

  Dipping my head down, I buried my face into her neck and lifted her leg, then slipped a finger inside her. When she moaned, I let out a primal growl. There was no fucking way any other man would be touching her tonight. Paige Miller was mine. She’d always be mine.

  I moved slowly at first, then slipped another finger inside her.

  “Lucas,” she gasped, jerking her hips, silently begging me for more as she grabbed onto my shirt to steady herself.

  Drawing back, I smiled when I saw her head leaning against the wall, a slight O formed on her lips, her eyes closed tightly.

  “Do you want more, baby? Tell me you want more. Do you want me to stop this time?”

  Her eyes opened, and our gaze met. She opened her mouth to speak, then quickly shut it. Her hands went to my chest and she pushed me away hard. A look of pure anger swept over her face.

  “You fucking asshole. You do remember last night!”

  I stared at her, not saying a word.

  “Last night. You touching me, kissing me. You remember it, don’t you?”

  Rubbing the back of my neck, I looked away, trying to figure out how to explain.

  “Why did you act like you didn’t remember?” she asked while pulling her dress back down.

  “Why did you act like you didn’t care?” I asked.

  She looked mad as hell. “I asked you first!”

  “I…didn’t want to make it awkward.”

  Her eyes turned black as night.

  Clearly that had not been the right answer.

  Paige

  I STOOD THERE, staring at him. I had never been so angry in my entire life.

  “You didn’t want to make it awkward? Do you do that often, Lucas? Feel up a woman and then pretend like you don’t remember?”

  He let out a gruff laugh. “Don’t be silly. I’ve been with Bianca for…”

  He stopped talking when he saw me draw in a slow, angry breath.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid! I let him do it to me again. This time I let him go farther and Lord knows how far it would have gone.

  “I can’t believe how stupid I am,” I said in a disbelieving voice.

  “What? Why would you say that?” He honestly looked confused.

  “You don’t want me, Lucas. You only want this house and will stop at nothing to make that happen.”

  He shook his head, staring with a befuddled expression.

  “Is that your game plan? Get me to fall for you again so you can sweet talk me right out of my half of the house?”

  “Paige.” He looked at me like I had lost my mind, and maybe I had. When it came to this man, I wasn’t sure which way was up and which way was down, and I didn’t need him using that to his advantage.

  Poking him in the chest, I walked toward him, causing him to walk backward.

  “From this point on, you do not touch me. I don’t want you to make any comments about my clothes, how I’m dressed, who I go out with, nothing. None of it is your business. And if I want to have a one-night stand, I’ll have one. And I couldn’t give two shits if it’s with one of your friends or not. I do not belong to you. You made sure of that when you broke up with me and walked away like our relationship was meaningless. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m late.”

  Turning, I headed down the steps. I could feel his eyes, and it took more willpower than I knew I had to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

  When I reached the front door, his voice stopped me in my tracks.

  “I’m sorry.”

  I took a shaky breath. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know what he was sorry for. If he told me that touching me like that had been a ploy, I wasn’t sure what I’d do. My ego had been taking shots from this man for the last few days, and I wasn’t sure how much more I could take.

  “I would never take advantage of you like that, Paige. I thought you knew me better than that.”

  With a quick look back over my shoulder, I let out a humorless laugh. “I stopped knowing who you were a long time ago, Lucas.”

  Once I opened the front door and stepped outside, I slammed it. My heart raced and the intense throbbing between my legs hadn’t eased with my anger.

  “Damn him!” I mumbled as I made my way to my car and slipped inside. I pulled out my phone and texted Jen.

  Me: What are you wearing?

  It didn’t take her long to reply with a picture of her dolled up in a dress. It didn’t look all that different from mine, and she had on high-heeled shoes as well. I glared back up at the house.

  Jen: Felt like dressing a little sexy. Hoping Gene will decide to take advantage of me tonight.

  I smiled.

  Me: Lucas remembers last night.

  My phone rang, Jen’s name flashing across the screen.

  “Hey,” I said, still sitting in my car parked in the driveway.

  “I knew it! I told you he remembered. And I bet you anything he wasn’t that drunk. How did you find out?”

  Chewing my lip, I replied, “Well, it’s a long story. Let’s just say he was going for a repeat and slipped when he told me not to stop him this time. Honestly, I think I slipped first.”

  “Holy crap. Did he kiss you again?”

  I crinkled up my face. “Well…”

  “He touched your nipple again!”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Then what exactly happened?”

  Dropping my head on the steering wheel, I sighed. “Dear God, when it comes to this man I’m weak. So very weak.”

  “Oh my God! You had sex with him!”

  “What? No!”

  “Okay, well, I’m waiting, and I’m going to guess this is not something we can talk about at the bar.”

  Laughing sadly, I leaned my head back against the headrest. “No. I don’t even remember how we got on the subject of me possibly having a one-night stand, but I said something about needing a man’s touch. Somehow poor Milo got dragged into the conversation, and before I knew it, his hand was in my panties, my leg hiked up, and he was on his way to giving me what I know would have been a mind-blowing orgasm.”

  Silence filled the line.

  “Jen?”
/>
  “I’m here. I had to walk into my bathroom. Gene was in the bedroom, and I didn’t want to pass out in front of him. Wow. Okay, y’all are really getting after it. You let him finger you, Paige?”

  I crinkled my nose. Somehow hearing her say it made me feel dirty.

  “I told you! I’m weak. He was talking so seductively, and I could tell the idea of me sleeping with Milo drove him mad. Everything just happened. I think the dress is to blame.”

  “The light blue one I told you to wear?”

  “Yep. He told me I was overdressed for this town.”

  She laughed. “He told you that because he knew every man in the bar would be staring at you and that didn’t make him very happy.”

  I started the car and waited for it to connect to Bluetooth before I drove off down the driveway and out onto the county road.

  “He’s confusing me, Jen. One minute he acts like he can’t stand me, the next he is telling me he knows how I like to be touched.”

  A loud gasp came through the speakers. “Bastard! We need to figure out what game he’s up to.”

  My heart felt as if it stopped beating. A game. That was all this was. Lucas wanted me out of his granddad’s house and it looked like he would do anything to make it happen.

  I turned the car around and headed back to the house. “I’ve changed my mind, Jen. I’m not coming tonight.”

  “What! Why not? Are you going back to kick his ass? Please tell me you’re not going back in hopes of finishing off that orgasm.”

  With a frustrated laugh, I said, “I need to figure out what William meant for us to find in the house. I love this place, and I don’t want to lose it. I’m not going to find anything out by sitting in a bar.”

  “Paige, you also need to have a life.”

  I scoffed. “I will, once this is all taken care of. Listen, have fun tonight, and I’m sorry. To be honest, I’m not much in the mood for it anyway.”

  Jen sighed. “I could kick his ass if you want.”

  I pulled back down the driveway. Once I got to the house, I frowned at the sight of a light coming from behind the house.

  “I’m back. Have fun tonight, and I hope you get lucky with Gene.”

  She giggled. “Trust me, I will once he gets a look at how good my boobs look in this dress!”

  “At least one of us will be having fun tonight.”

  Jen sighed yet again. “You could still come. Save the treasure hunt for tomorrow.”

  Walking up the front steps, I unlocked the door. “Nah. I’ll give you a call tomorrow.”

  “Okay. Good luck tonight, and remember, keep your distance from him.”

  With a firm nod, I replied, “Consider it done.” Even though every word of that was a lie.

  Oreo sat at the bottom of the steps and looked at me as I shut the front door. Then she meowed.

  “Oh right, like you knew I’d be back.”

  She rushed up the steps and waited by my bedroom door.

  After changing and putting on baggy sweats and an oversized T-shirt, I threw my hair into a ponytail and slipped on my sneakers.

  “Let’s go see what he’s up to, Oreo.”

  With a flashlight and my phone in hand, I made my way through the house and out the back door. Through the trees I could see the light better. Lucas was in the old greenhouse.

  I had yet to explore that disarray. Mainly because the memory of me and Lucas standing in there years ago, talking about getting married, made my head and heart hurt.

  As I made my way down the path, I thought back to William’s letter.

  I give you this house for you to find the answers. You can’t find the answers, though, without the key.

  One thing was obvious. William had wanted me and Lucas in this house together. And he wanted us looking for something that a stupid key fit into.

  The path opened up, and I could see the greenhouse. The light shining inside cast the most beautiful glow in the trees. It took my breath away.

  I walked to the glass door and quietly attempted to open it. I failed. A loud creak made Lucas turn and look at me.

  “What are you doing here? I thought you went out,” he asked.

  “Turns out my mood was ruined. I figured I would come back to the house and start looking for this chest or whatever. Why are you out here?”

  Lucas stared at me for the longest time. He looked conflicted about something. Maybe he had been up to something and had been caught red-handed. Or maybe he had been hoping he’d have the place to himself.

  “Okay, fine,” I said. “You can go ahead and stay out here by yourself, I’ll head back to the house.”

  “No, wait. Don’t leave.”

  Lucas closed the distance between us and handed me a small, old leather notebook. “I found this in Granddad’s room. Actually, in the closet that was Gram’s. Oreo had been sitting on an old chest of drawers in the room and knocked something off the back. When I moved it, I found this.”

  I ran my fingers over the old leather book. Lucas’s grandmother’s name was carved into the leather.

  May.

  “This was May’s?” I asked, meeting his gaze.

  “Yes, I think so.”

  “You haven’t opened it yet?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “After reading the first few words of her journal, I decided to come out here and read it.”

  I opened the book and read the first page, understanding why he needed to be in the greenhouse when I read the opening line.

  Tonight I sat in the glass house, alone in my thoughts. I’m not sure how I will ever be able to forgive him, but I know I must. I know I will, for I love him so. He has hurt me beyond all I could ever imagine. My heart feels as if it might stop beating altogether. All I had wanted was for us to share in this. For it to be ours. Both of ours, and he took that away.

  My head jerked up. “May wrote this?”

  He shrugged. “It’s her journal, so I’m thinking yes.”

  I shook my head in confusion. “Who is she talking about? William?”

  “I think so. By the date on the journal, she would have been twenty-six when she wrote it.”

  Glancing down, I ran my finger over the date. “And it was in her closet?”

  He nodded. “Granddad had never emptied it. Everything looks exactly how it was when she died.”

  My heart ached. “Do you want me to read more out loud?”

  “I’m almost afraid to. What if my granddad cheated on Grams? I’m not sure how I would feel about that.”

  I swallowed hard and turned the page. The handwriting continued on.

  The babe would be one today. My heart still suffers the pain of that dreadful day. The day God took my baby from me. My anger toward him is slowly ebbing. Maybe William and I will have another babe. Our baby, to share together.

  My eyes lifted to Lucas. He had turned his back and was looking around the greenhouse.

  “I think she’s talking about God.”

  He spun back around. “What?”

  “May, she lost a baby, I guess, after she had your father. She’s talking about forgiving God, not William.”

  Relief washed over Lucas’s face, and he closed his eyes. “That would have really sucked if Granddad had turned out to be a jerk.”

  I smiled slightly, then walked farther into the greenhouse. “It’s just like I remember it.”

  A grin spread over his face. “Do you remember afternoon tea in here with Grams?”

  “Yes!” I said with a light chuckle. “I loved afternoon tea, and you hated it.”

  “I was sixteen at the time. What sixteen-year-old boy wants to sit in a greenhouse with his grandmother and girlfriend and drink tea?”

  “What else did you want to do?” I asked as I ran my finger along one of the glass windows.

  “I’m sure you probably know what I wanted to do, Paige.”

  Heat rushed to my cheeks, and I quickly looked away. We walked around the greenhouse in silence. I wasn’t sure what
we were looking for. It was empty. Completely empty save for one chair and small table that sat in the middle of the glass room.

  When I walked up to one of the windows, I pushed it open and smiled when the cool night breeze hit me in the face. Fall was finally here, my favorite time of year. And although we wouldn’t see cooler temperatures for another month or two, I still loved this season. It reminded me of sitting in the bleachers, watching Lucas and his friends play football. Sitting around a campfire while we all drank alcohol we’d smuggled from our folks’ houses.

  Warmth moved through my body as I took in a slow, deep breath and let it out. This building had been a place where I thought all my dreams would come true. Now, I wasn’t sure what it represented because my life and my heart were in complete turmoil.

  I opened my eyes and saw the reflection of the chair in the window. “We said we’d get married in here,” I said, almost in a whisper, but loud enough for Lucas to hear. “Just you and me with our families.”

  When he didn’t say anything, I turned to look at him. He was at the end of the greenhouse, his hands in his pockets, staring into the darkness beyond the glass windows. Did he have any idea how much I had wanted to marry him? How much I had truly loved him? Glancing down at the ground, I forced myself not to let the tears spring free.

  How much I still love him.

  Lucas

  HER WORDS RATTLED around in my head, hitting from side to side, instantly forming a headache. Or maybe my head was trying to take on the pain my chest felt when she mentioned the dream we once shared.

  I wanted to turn and face her. I could feel her eyes on me. Hell, I was almost certain I could hear her heart beating. Or maybe that was mine.

  “I’m going to see if Milo knows someone who can take a look at the greenhouse, make sure it is still safe,” I said, doing my best to change the subject.

  “You don’t think it’s safe?”

  With a shrug, I finally looked at her. It had been a dick move not to acknowledge her comment about the wedding, but I couldn’t bring myself to admit how badly I had messed up.

  “The damn thing is over a hundred years old. It needs to be looked at.”