Team Lucas (The Saints Team #1) Read online

  “Then you’ll be nice to me for a small window of time, lull me into a fall sense of security and I’ll like you for a minute. But wait, there’s more; you’ll push me away and be horrible all over again. This is what happens every day in some form.”

  He frowned, listening to me, as if the concept was so totally foreign to him. Lucas dropped his hands in his lap.

  “Right then,” he said, still frowning. “So in order for us to go home, what do you want me to do?”

  I had thought a lot about this, all weekend actually.

  I looked directly into his light blue eyes. “I want you to trust me.”

  “Oh for fuck’s sake,” he muttered. He made a scoffing sound that seemed to stick in his throat and wary eyes studied me. He dropped his gaze.

  “Lucas,” I said again, demanding that he looked at me and when he did, I said it again, “you can trust me.”

  Chapter 26

  I lay on my double bed in my small room. I didn’t have much stuff and what I had was neatly placed somewhere: textbooks on a shelf, running gear on the floor in the wardrobe and clothes folded on all available shelves.

  Also lying on my double bed was the hottest man I’ve ever seen—Lucas’s feet hung over the edge of the mattress and every now and then he groaned or twitched. I studied his face. He agreed to try and trust me although I suspected Lucas Ainswright was the master of saying whatever is required to get his way. He didn’t even ask for my definition of trust, he just nodded his agreement. I figured that was a big step in itself and cut him a break. Besides, he was here, he came to find me. He came to me.

  After dinner, Lucas had glanced outside my window and we’d seen a volley of flashes.

  “They’re still there and probably will be for a while,” he said. “Why don’t we chill for another thirty minutes or so, and turn off the lights, then they’ll go. They are not going to camp there all night once we turn in. Then, we’ll head down to your car and get out of here.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. “Why don’t you watch some television or something while I take a shower.” I headed to the bathroom. I eyed off my bathroom to see how many embarrassing items were on display when Lucas was in here. It wasn’t too bad. I showered and brushed my teeth, then changed into some loose cotton pants and a long sleeved cotton top. I came back out and Lucas had given up on TV and abandoned the living area. He was lying asleep on top of my bed.

  I didn’t want to wake him, so I turned off the lights as he’d suggested, leaving just the smallest lamp on in my room; a lamp that couldn’t be seen from the front windows. I had nowhere to go but next to him so I lowered myself on one half of the bed, fully dressed. I propped my head up slightly with a pillow leaning on the backboard and watched him.

  He was so much nicer when he was asleep; he had a vulnerability about him that made you want to protect him. When he was awake he was all edges.

  He groaned again and said a name that I couldn’t make out. His shirt, or rather my shirt on him, had ridden up and I could see part of his toned torso. He flung an arm over and hit me in the chest. His eyes shot open.

  “It’s just me,” I said.

  “Jesus.” He exhaled and closed his eyes again. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I was just planning on lying here while you showered. Just five minutes, but I must have...”

  “It’s okay,” I said softly. I lowered myself down flat beside him on the bed and turned out the light. Lucas wasn’t moving anytime soon. As if reading my mind he muttered, “We can go soon.”

  “Uh huh,” I agreed.

  Then I did something. I couldn’t resist it. I softly brushed his long hair off his face, gently trailing my hands through it. He flinched at first, but he didn’t stop me. So I continued, just stroking his hair. I wonder if his mother or a lover had ever done that for him. It’s so relaxing and so comforting going to sleep knowing someone is watching over you. I thought of all those loveless years he spent at school, never going back to what remained of his family. His face began to relax and within ten minutes his breathing was steady. Lucas Ainswright was asleep on my bed.

  *****

  I woke with a start; the red digits on my alarm clock told me it 06:45. I didn’t move. I knew that when I turned over, Lucas would be gone. He’d be gone out of the bedroom, out of the bathroom, out of the unit. He’d text me during the day to tell me he’d see me tonight at his place and then next time he saw me he would be as cold as ice.

  I sighed and rolled over and he was there, beside me. I think I gasped.

  “Morning,” he muttered.

  “Morning,” I said with way too much excitement in my voice—way uncool, Mia, way uncool. Do people still say cool?

  “Cup of tea?” I offered. OMG, I’m offering to bring a man a cup of tea in bed. I should offer to shine his shoes too.

  “Yes please. I can’t get up,” he said.

  I turned completely to lie on my side and study Lucas as he lay on his back staring at the ceiling. Even first thing in the morning he was the sexiest man alive.

  “What’s wrong? Did the bed do your back in?” I frowned.

  “No.” He shuffled slightly and turned his head to look at me. “Morning wood... so heavy it’s pinning me down.”

  “Eww, you’re revolting.” I jumped off the bed and hit him with my pillow.

  Lucas laughed out loud but he was right, he had a huge bulge in the front of his pants and given he was going commando in there, it was unrestricted. How I’d love to assist with that.

  “You don’t want to deal with it? It’s not in your contract?” he asked.

  I turned to glare at him. I knew he’d be an asshole as soon as he could muster it, but he gave me a wink.

  I tried to hide my smile, shook my head and walked from the room to make us both tea. I heard him laughing to himself. You’ll keep, Lucas. I caught a glimpse of him as he rose to go to the bathroom to take matters into his own hands. If the time came where I’d be helping Lucas Ainswright with his erection, he’d know about it!

  *****

  He insisted on driving my VW Golf and put the seat right back to fit his long legs in. We had sneaked out of the building but still got caught by one or two amateur photographers keen to sell their pics. I could see the headlines now: Lucas has sleepover or Physio working overtime or Student gets lessons from Lucas or heaven forbid, Ménage à trios with a photo of the poor unsuspecting Adrian photoshopped in.

  “It’s not a bad little car,” Lucas said turning my VW out into the traffic and home to his place.

  “It’s a great car,” I told him. “Might not have cost half a million but it moves.”

  “Visibility is good,” he added, looking through the rear view mirror to the back window.

  It sure is, I thought, looking at him.

  He squirmed in the seat, repositioning himself. “I’ve got blue balls,” he said.

  “Shut up!” I put my hands up to my ears and he tossed his head back and laughed. I looked sidelong at him, not removing my hands. “You can’t have blue...” I didn’t want to say the word, “... you only get that if you have a build-up and who are you kidding? You get serviced regularly.”

  “Serviced?” He smiled.

  I hid a smile and took my hands off my ears. “Yes, serviced.”

  “But you’ve given me several hard-ons now, Mia,” he said, in an accusatory voice. “Once when you were in my mouth...”

  “I wasn’t in your mouth,” I corrected him. “I was swabbing you for drugs. Big difference. Big.” I gave him a ‘don’t push it’ look.

  “So when do you put out?” he asked.

  “That’s none of your business and nothing you’ll ever have to worry about,” I said, crossing my arms.

  “Not the first date clearly,” he continued trying to calculate when my dates would score. “The second? No that would be too soon as well... I bet you’re one of those girls who doesn’t put out until the guy has said, ‘I love you, Mia�
�.”

  He wasn’t far wrong.

  “Or,” he continued, “maybe the third or fourth date... once you think you know them enough to reward them with your pussy.”

  “You’re seriously off sometimes, Lucas,” I said, grimacing. I held my chin up and looked over at him. “I put out when I trust someone.”

  “Ah, the old ‘T’ word again, huh?” He shook his head. “Very over-rated let me tell you. Whereas sex is rarely over-rated. So what’s your favorite position? Missionary? Doggie? Butterfly?”

  “What’s got into you this morning?”

  “I’m unserviced,” he said.

  “You’re just saying this stuff to get a reaction.” I refused to look at him.

  “You’re right and because you’re so prudish.”

  “I am not! I’m so not prudish.” I turned and hit his arm. “I bet I’ve done things you wouldn’t dream of doing,”

  “Like what?” He indicated and turned off the main road down to the beach road. I got my first glimpse of the ocean and felt the rush of relief and excitement that came with it. Lucas prodded me again. “What have you done?”

  “I’m not telling you. I don’t kiss and tell.”

  He laughed again. He just loved it when he could make me squirm and have one up on me. He drove in through the gated entrance at the start of the community and waved to Ed on security who let us in. We continued to drive down the street to his home.

  “Anyway, it doesn’t sound really tough when you’ve got that British accent thing going,” I told him and pretended to imitate him: “I say, would you like to suck my morning wood, old girl?”

  Lucas roared with laughter. When he stopped he glanced over at me and started up again. I sat there smirking with my arms folded. Guess that backfired. The laugh was on me again, somehow.

  He indicated and we turned into the beach street where my beach pad waited. I wonder if it missed me as much as I missed it.

  As we drove down his street I saw a little red sports car in his driveway.

  Lucas groaned. “I don’t feel like drop-ins.”

  I recognized the gorgeous goddess I had seen leaving in the driveway on my first morning at Lucas’s place. She was leaning against her car. She didn’t realize it was Lucas in the VW until he came up closer and then she gave a wave and smile that would have melted any red blooded guy.

  “It’s Chloe,” I said. “She can help you with those blue balls.”

  Lucas’s countenance changed and he shot me a sour look. He gave her one of his charming smiles, waved and spun the VW into my allocated garage. He jumped out, opened the trunk and took out my makeup bag.

  “Hi Chloe,” I called.

  “Hi,” she called back. Clearly she couldn’t remember my name or never knew it. I grabbed my makeup bag from Lucas. “I’ve got this, you go do your thing. Get some relief.”

  He smirked at me; one of his best prize smirks, and headed over to Chloe. He stopped midway, hesitated and looked back at me.

  “Don’t let me hold you up,” I said.

  “Right,” he sighed. “We have to talk later.”

  “What now?” I asked, exasperated.

  “Terms and conditions of your contract,” he said. “By the way, we’re training beachfront tonight. You can come down and help or watch from here.”

  He reached Chloe and she leaned in to kiss him. She wrapped her arms around him. I stood transfixed, forgetting to move away from the scene in front of me. The pain surprised me. I had him in my bed this morning and now he’s got a woman kissing him.

  Maybe I had been naive, but I thought something had changed between us; that Lucas’s finding me and bringing me back had made us more than superstar and minder, maybe a little more intimate than friends. But I must have thought it alone because Lucas was with Chloe.

  My heart that refused to follow any terms and conditions shot more arrows of pain into my chest. I wasn’t jealous because I couldn’t compete with Chloe, I was just purely and simply sad. I had to protect myself better, put up more of my own walls.

  This is why I can’t fall in love with Lucas Ainswright, I told myself and turned to go into my pad.

  Chapter 27

  Alice panted.

  “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” I asked, concerned.

  “Hot yoga,” Alice answered. “Just finishing up when you rang. You should come sometime.”

  “Mm, I’m more of a jogging girl. I like to put on my shoes, run anytime and not pay to exercise.” I dropped down onto the white leather couch in my beach pad.

  “Yeah well you’re more disciplined than me. I need to pay up so I feel guilty if I don’t do the classes and I need someone to push me and push me some more. Where are you?”

  “Back at the posh loft,” I said.

  Alice laughed. “Want some company?”

  “That’s why I’m calling. Stay hot, come over for a beach swim and then we can do lunch.”

  “Be there before you can say ‘bye’,” she said and hung up.

  I grabbed my beach bag, stuck my towel, sun block and hat in there and put it near the door ready for Alice’s arrival. I quickly changed into my two-piece pink and black floral print swimsuit—which the catalogue said would lift the butt, firm the stomach and push up the breasts—and I threw on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt over the top.

  I lay back on the couch and looked through some online sites on my iPad. The online story about Lucas and me was so ridiculous that I couldn’t believe people were allowed to print anything they like. I read one report: “The man who could have his choice of women, last night orchestrated a very different play from that of the soccer field and more like that of an undercover agent in an attempt to slip secretly into the apartment of college student, Mia Carter.” Yeah, well I guess that part was kind of true. I read on: “The woman believed to have captured the multi-million dollar sport star’s heart met him less than a month ago.” Okay, so that part was true too, except I hadn’t captured his heart. Right on cue I heard moaning from upstairs. “Gross,” I mumbled. “For fuck’s sake Lucas put some soundproofing in!”

  I went back to the article and scrolled down. Just to make me feel even better about myself, there was a photo gallery of every glamorous girl that had even been on Lucas’s arm. Yep, and then there beside them was the pic of me jogging, again. I could hear the readers now: “How did she get him?” Well guess what folks, I don’t have him! At the moment Chloe has him and she’s well and truly having him by the sounds of it.

  I heard Alice’s car as she pulled up and parked behind my VW. I jumped off the couch, pleased to see her and even more pleased to get out of the love shack, especially since I wasn’t getting any lovin’.

  “So glad you’re back here,” she said, blowing me an air kiss and stomping in.

  “Ugh, you do smell—like Lucas after a training session.” I grimaced.

  “It’s hot yoga,” she said, again. “Hot and yoga.” She stopped, looked at the ceiling, then to the left where the stairwell was on the other side of our joint wall and then back at me. “Tell me that’s not...”

  I nodded. “Yes, today for your listening pleasure we present Lucas and Chloe. Lucas is trying the doggie position with a twist of lemon and Chloe, who likes walks on the beach and is a Virgo, is open for business.”

  “Oh my God,” Alice said, grimacing as Chloe came close to orgasm. “I want to knock on the wall and tell them to keep it down.”

  “Let’s go.” I grabbed my beach bag.

  Alice grabbed her towel from her bag, dumped it with her keys and followed me out.

  I locked the door and turned to her. “You know if you wanted to move in here with me for the last few weeks of my trial, I could ask Lucas. It’s got two bedrooms and two bathrooms. It’d be fun.”

  “I would loooooove to, thank you, but I can’t. It’s too far from work and I’m on the opening shift at the moment. I’d have to leave home in the dark and then i
f Jack calls me up to fill in I wouldn’t get there quickly enough. The perils of a working girl.” She sighed. “How amazing it would be to stay here…” she glanced back at the house, “…but it would ruin me.”

  “Yeah, I get that,” I agreed.

  We walked across the driveway, down the path and we were on the beach. We picked a spot, spread out our towels and headed straight for the water. I spent five minutes getting used to the cold water before totally taking the plunge under a wave. Bliss, sheer freezing cold bliss. I surfaced and looked up at the house and level two where Lucas lay with another woman. I couldn’t imagine this life or what it was like to be Lucas Ainswright, his girlfriend, wife or lover.

  No one had been yet.

  *****

  Lucas hadn’t surfaced after our swim; I thought he might have come out on the deck and gloated at me like last time, but nope, not this time. I hoped Chloe was clean and they weren’t doing anything other than hanging together.

  When we had finished sun-drying, we wandered up the beach to a local cafe, had a coffee and lunch, my shout—I was doing a lot less than Alice when it came to earning dollars in our part-time jobs. ‘Working’ as Lucas’s minder was like being on holidays in a resort that I couldn’t afford to stay at.

  We wandered back along the beach after lunch and Alice left to head back to Long Beach. It was an hour until training so I changed for a run. But first I had to get a crap task out of the way; I had to get a blood sample from Lucas—it was my least favorite way of testing but the contract required the occasional blood sample. I needed to get it before the close of business hours to get it collected, and before he went to training. Bet Lucas was going to be real happy about it too.

  I looked outside after getting changed and Chloe’s car was still there, damn her. I was standing on my side of the adjoining door debating whether to knock and interrupt them or not when Lucas knocked on the door from the other side and scared the hell out of me. I opened it straight away and he jumped.