Read The Bet (Addison #2) Online
Authors: Erica M. Christensen
It has been a long but wonderful week. PR information is flowing out of my ears and ass. Lucas and I have been having a blast. We’ve visited museums and art galleries, dined on new foods, and I’ve successfully learned how to play blackjack. Lucas is already becoming a pain in my ass, but I’ve gotten so close to him during this past week. Tomorrow is our last day in Puerto Rico and I really don’t want to go back. Everything will be different then. I fear that Lucas and I won’t be as close. I fear that here we’re all each other has and once we get back life will go back to the way it was before Puerto Rico and I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle that.
After the last day of the convention, we decide to go for a stroll down the blue and yellow colored brick streets of Old San Juan. The buildings are absolutely gorgeous. They’re tall, and painted with bright crisp colors, like turquoise, lime green, and peach. I hear Lucas’s stomach growl and mine echoes almost immediately.
“Want to stop and get some dinner?” I lightly smack his stomach and my fingers brush over a couple of his abs as I pull my hand away.
“Yes. I’m starving!” His eyes light up. Men and food…ha, who am I kidding? I love food too.
“Let’s go try some Cuban sandwiches!” I jump up and down excitedly.
“Whoa there, skippy…okay, let’s go!” He grabs my hand and we run back to the restaurant we just passed that’s advertising Cuban sandwiches.
“Have you ever eaten a Cuban sandwich?” he asks.
“No, but it smells like Heaven dipped in Heaven in here.” My mouth starts watering. All the different smells are making my stomach growl a thousand times louder. “Have you?” I ask.
“Nope, but I’m dying to.”
***
We walk out of the restaurant and down the old colored brick street again. I look at Lucas in his sexy suit, not a drip of sweat coming off of him. Then here I am drenched in sweat from head to toe. Yuck.
“Let’s go back to the hotel and shower, then change clothes. I’m hot in this business suit.”
“Shower together?” he mutters mischievously, so I lightly punch him in the arm. “I’m kidding! Jeez…what kind of man do you think I am? It sounds like a good idea, then we should get ice cream and go to the beach one last time!”
“You do realize it’ll be practically bed time by then, right?”
“You do realize we aren’t old farts yet, right?”
Once we arrive at the room, I open the door to find a trail of tropical flower petals leading to a bottle of champagne and lit candles surrounding the jacuzzi tub. “Did you know about this?” My gaze darts to Lucas, giving him an accusatory glare. Not that it’s not impressive, because it is. No one has ever gone this far to get into my pants.
“I wish I did, but no. They must have decorated the wrong room.” Lucas walks over to the jacuzzi tub and picks up the card that is sitting next to the champagne.
Happy 10th Anniversary Jarod and Julie!
“Well, apparently we’re Jeff and Julie this evening.” Lucas hands the card over to me and I read it.
“Where’s my anniversary present, Jarod?” I flick the card back at him.
“Ooh! You’re into role play, huh? What else don’t I know about you?” Lucas inches closer to me. I place my hand on his chest to push him away.
“Oh my God! I am not into role play!” Well…maybe I am today. But, if that’s the case…all bets are off, right?” I bite my bottom lip and smirk. Lucas grabs my wrist from his chest and pulls me into him.
“Oh no, the bet is still on. Addison or Julie, whomever you want to be…try to win,” He whispers in my ear.
“What do you mean, try to win?” I gently push away.
“The bet was $300 for thirty dates with no kissing and no sex. If I kiss you, I lose. Try to get me to kiss you.” Lucas stares at me with an intimidating smirk and backs away from me. He takes off his suit jacket and removes his bow tie. My palms are sweating, my knees are weak, and my stomach is gurgling. Bad timing, bowels…bad, bad timing. To mask my nervousness, I roll my shoulders back and puff out my pancake chest.
“Lucas, I drink whiskey out of wine glasses. You don’t intimidate me…you’ll kiss me by the end of the night.” His eyes accept the challenge and he takes off his white dress shirt.
Holy abs and the V! Dear Jesus. I’ve seen these a million times this week, but never ever in a heated moment like this one. My fingers tremble as they unbutton my blazer, revealing a red lace camisole underneath. I remove the blazer and put it on the bed, kick off my new red Jimmy Choos, and slowly take off my pants. I glance over at Lucas and catch him staring hungrily. My subconscious must have known he was going down on me tonight…I mean something…was going down tonight. I’m in fancy ass black lace panties, and I got my Chewbacca legs waxed this morning, as well as a Brazilian. Now, if I can just keep my stomach under control…that would be fan-fucking-tastic. Lucas grabs his swim trunks from his bag and walks into the bathroom to change. I run over to my suitcase and pull out my brand new black and gold bikini. Thankfully the top is a padded push-up, so my pancakes look like pretty cupcakes now. I slip into the steamy hot jacuzzi tub and pour two glasses of champagne nearly to the brim. The sound of the bathroom door knob turning made my heart lurch.
“
Julie
, baby. Happy ten years, my beautiful wife.” Lucas walks out of the bathroom with his hair combed over and swim trunks pulled up to his belly button. A big belly laugh comes rolling out of my mouth.
“
Jarod
, thank you, my darling. Won’t you join me for a nice hot bath and champagne?” Lucas steps into the jacuzzi and sits at the opposite end from me. He grabs his glass of champagne, careful to sip a little off the top to avoid spilling any. “Don’t you feel kinda bad for them?” I ask.
“Jarod and Julie? Nah. If they’ve been together for ten years they don’t need flower petals and candles surrounding a nice jacuzzi tub to set the mood. I’m sure they’re parents and being away from the kids for the weekend is more than enough to set the mood for them.” Lucas dips his free hand into the water and messes up his hair. A simple act, yet it sends electricity through my bones.
“Good point.” I take a sip of my champagne and set the glass down on the side of the tub. “Let’s play a game.” Lucas’s eyes widen and a smirk forms at the corner of his mouth.
“Who are you, Julie or Jigsaw?” I crack up laughing at him, so hard that I snort.
“Twenty-one questions. We have to answer with the truth. You get one pass and if you use it, you have to take off your trunks. I get two passes, for obvious reasons.” Lucas leans back in the tub and smiles.
“Let the games begin.” He sips on his champagne.
“How do you eat your waffles? Syrup, peanut butter, plain, or what?” I ask the first question.
“Depends on my mood. Generally with peanut butter and syrup. Who’s the guy?”
“Ew, disgusting.” I shake my head in disapproval. “What guy?” He’s talking about Stephen…I don’t want to talk about Stephen.
“You know who I’m talking about—the guy.”
“Pass.” I take off my bikini top. Lucas gulps and stares me in the eyes, trying to keep himself from looking down even though he won’t really see anything under the water with just candle light. “Who is she? The one who forced you into making the thirty dates with no kissing and no sex rule. Oh. Excuse me…I mean bet.” He takes a big drink of champagne and lets out a sigh.
“You.”
“Me? Why me?” My heart is beating out of my chest. Please don’t puke, please don’t puke, please don’t puke. I try to calm my nerves.
“You’re not like the other women. I saw you walk into a country bar on New Year’s Eve all by your damn self, Addison.” He leans forward and grabs my hands and pulls me to his side. “I knew right then and there you were a different breed. You didn’t come prancing in there with a little posse of fake-tanned girls and your nose high in the sky. You walked in alone and went straight for the bar.” I couldn’t stop myself from giggling a little.
“And that’s a good thing?”
“Yes, because you’re different.” I roll my eyes. “You’ve wasted two of your questions. So, now it’s my turn to ask one.” Damn it, he’s right.
“Do you believe we were brought into each other’s lives for a reason?”
“That’s an odd question for a guy to ask. I do believe we were brought into each other’s lives for a reason, yes.”
“Okay, now it’s my turn. What’s going to happen when we leave here?” I almost wish I could shovel those words back into my mouth. I’m afraid of the answer.
“I was wondering the same thing, Addison. We’re business partners. You’re my publicist now. I’m not exactly sure what’s in store for us. Maybe more business trips.” He shoots me a devilish smirk.
“Lucas, I like you. I do. I want to know you and your story too. I just…don’t want to fall in love with you,” I admit. His fingers caress my jaw, under my chin, and lightly guide my lips toward his. I can tell he’s fighting the urge to kiss me.
“Do it,” I demand. Quite honestly, it was probably more like a beg…but I hope I played it off as a demand. My hand glides over his chiseled chest and up around the back of his neck. “Kiss me.” He inhales my words and our lips connect like magnets. My bare breasts rest against his body. The butterflies that had floated around in my stomach are now lifting me up toward the sky. His kiss is strong, but sensitive. Lucas’s tongue swirls around mine. He tastes like champagne and spearmint. I, however, probably taste like a fucking Cuban sandwich. But he doesn’t seem to care. I lightly slide his bottom lip through my teeth. He lifts my legs over his lap, not so I’m straddling him, just laying across him. He stops kissing me and looks at me.
“What?” I feel his hand between my legs, lightly tickling the inside of my thigh with his finger tips. He stops his fingers right before he touches my center.
“I want to kiss all of you, every part of you.” He kisses my jaw, right next to my chin.
“Come on. Go to the bed.” I slide over to the other side where I was sitting before, attempting to quickly put my top back on, but I fail miserably. I step out of the tub and grab the towel to dry myself off as fast as possible. Lucas drops his swim trunks to the floor and dries himself off. Unfortunately he’s facing with his ass toward me. Don’t get me wrong, he’s got a beautiful ass. But I’d really like to know what I need to prepare myself for. He wraps the towel around his waist, covering himself. So not fair…I fumble to pick up the towel I had dropped to the ground after drying myself off.
“Please don’t,” he says with puppy dog eyes.
“Don’t what?” My voice shakes.
“Don’t cover yourself. You’re fucking beautiful, Addison.” I assume his eyes will be traveling up and down my body. I get the courage to look him in the face just to see if I was right. To my surprise, I’m wrong. His eyes are locked in on mine. Lucas slowly walks toward me, the beads of water that he missed with the towel glisten on his muscular chest and tattooed arms in the candlelight. He runs his fingers over my collar bone, my shoulder, then down my arm to my hand. Lucas lifts my hand and kisses it as if I’m fucking royalty. Then he places one arm around my back, and the other under my ass, and lifts me up.
“Whoa! What are you doing?”
“I didn’t want you to slip and fall on the wet tile.” He carries me over to the bed and lies me down gently, his lips planting a trail of kisses from my temple to my lips, then down to my neck, my collar bone, and my chest. His fingers dance on my clit, making my legs shake. Lucas begins kissing my chest again, starting another trail down to my hipbones. My legs clench together, stopping him from going any further. I put my hands on his cheeks, and lift his head slightly so he looks up at me.
“Lucas, we can’t.”
The awkward tension in this hotel suite needs more than a knife to cut through it. I’m thinking maybe a buzz saw would work. A cloud of guilt is hovering over me, rejecting Lucas last night wasn’t something I intended to do. I just…couldn’t do it. He keeps reassuring me everything is fine and I don’t need to be sorry, but I can clearly see his pride is hurt and I wish there was a way for me to fix it. If I could I would take back the whole night and not let things get so heated up. It’s just that…he basically told me I’m the girl who made him want to wait, and then I turn around and try to speed things up. I felt guiltier then, knowing that, and I had to stop. Lucas respects me and wanted to get to know me before having sex. He could have taken advantage of me on New Year’s Eve and he didn’t. He took care of me. I wasn’t going to take advantage of his genuineness. Lucas is a real man and I refuse to screw this up.
“After we check out do you want to stop and get coffee before we go to the airport?” I offer.
“Sure.” Lucas nods in acceptance. I walk over to him, wrap my arm around his, and kiss his shoulder.
“I’m sorry, Lucas. I really am.” I squeeze his bicep. “Please don’t be mad at me. I just don’t want to screw this up.” He pulls his arm away from my grip and wraps both of his arms around me.
“I’m not mad at you, Addison. I swear. I didn’t plan on sleeping with you…well, not necessarily. I mean if it had led to that, it would have been fucking phenomenal, I’m sure of it,” he says with a smirk. “I just wanted to feel you, taste you, and please you. But there will be plenty more opportunities to do that. I don’t want to rush this.” He sure says all the right things, and I know deep down in my bones that he means it all, just by the promise in his arms. If there’s anything I’ve learned from past relationships, hell…even friendships…you don’t trust someone’s words. Trust their eyes, believe in their actions, and let your instincts guide you. There’s honesty in his eyes and embrace, his actions are filled with good intentions, and my instincts are telling me that it’s okay to trust him.
“A large hazelnut coffee with cream and sugar, please. Thank you.” I order my drink from Joe, the barista. “What do you want to drink, Lucas?” I pull out my billfold to pay for our drinks.
“Um, just a black coffee with a little sugar—I’m paying for this.” Lucas takes his wallet out of his back pocket and I quickly hand Joe my debit card.
“It’s the twenty-first century, let a lady treat you to a four-dollar coffee.” I smirk and hand him his coffee.
“Well, thank you, my lady,” he says with a fake medieval accent. His fingers intertwine with mine and I follow him over to a little round table in the corner of the coffee shop, next to a big window.
“I can’t believe we’re leaving today.” Lucas takes a sip of his coffee and stares out the window.
“I know. It sucks.” I let out a sigh. My phone begins to ring.
“It’s my mom. It’ll just be a second,” I say to Lucas as I answer my phone.
“Hey, Mom!”
“Are you busy?”
“No, no. I’m just sitting here drinking a cup of coffee with Lucas before we fly back today. What’s going on?”
“Oh, where are you? Who’s Lucas?” I can hear the irritation in my mom’s voice.
“Puerto Rico for a convention. Lucas is…um…he’s my business partner. I guess you could say. I’m his publicist.” I look at Lucas and mouth to him, “I didn’t know what to call you.”
“A publicist, huh? Well, that sounds fancy. Puerto Rico! Why didn’t you call and tell me about this? What if you had died in a plane crash? I would have never known, Addi!”
“Ugh. Mom, I’m sorry. I was caught off guard. It was a deal that just got slapped in my lap. If I would have known I would have told you about it.”
“Mhmm…likely story. Anyway, I called because I have a surprise for you…I’m flying out to see you tomorrow and I’m bringing Thomas. I want you to meet him.” Excitement replaced the irritation in my mom’s voice.
“That’s perfect! I want you to meet Lucas.” Lucas’s eyes pop open and he chokes on his coffee. “I’ll chat with you later about this, I gotta go. Love you, Mom.” I go to put my phone back in my purse, but see that I missed a text message from earlier.
Stephen: Addi, this is killing me. It’s been months and you won’t return my calls, my texts, or anything. I need to talk to you. We didn’t get married. I don’t know if you saw any of those messages where I explained the situation to you or if you just deleted them as soon as you saw it was me. I’m sorry for bothering you, Addi…I just want you to know I miss you and I love you. Always…
“I, uh…I’m sorry, Lucas. I need to use the restroom. ” A rush of nausea comes over me, I run to bathroom. I need to cry and I can’t. I feel like puking, but nothing will come up. Why? Why does he fucking do this to me? It’s all my fault. The last few months of crying unbearably, the stress, all of the hate toward love in general…all my fault. The tears creep up and sting my eyes as they come rushing down. Stephen never got married…
***
“You can have the window seat.”
“Thank you.” I avoid any eye contact with Lucas. I’m afraid if I look at him, I’ll cry again. Lucas sits next me and buckles up. His fingers tap on his knee, and slide over to my hand, resting on my leg.
“What’s wrong, Addison?” Lucas squeezes my hand gently. I shake my head and stare out the window. “It’s him again, isn’t it? Just talk to me. I’m here, I’m not going anywhere.” He lightly rubs his thumb over my thumb. I pull my hand away from his and look into his concerned eyes.
“Please, let’s stop kidding ourselves. We barely know each other. Whatever these feelings are…they’re just…not real. Even if we were to get into a relationship, do you really think it would even last long? I need commitment, but I don’t need it right now. That being said, I don’t want to ruin our friendship or our work relationship.” My eyes break away from his and look out the window again. I feel his breath on my neck and ear, he kisses my cheek.
“If I told you right now that I want to spend forever with you, I’d be lying. You don’t even know if you want that…but I do know I want to spend today with you and maybe even tomorrow…I won’t make promises to you that I can’t keep, and I promise that.” He reaches for my hand and holds it. “I already told you…I don’t want to rush anything.” I turn to face him, tears welling in my eyes. He kisses me hard, passionately. “If at any moment you don’t want this…tell me, okay? Just tell me.” I nod, and kiss him again.