I turned to flash him an incredulous look. “What?”
“For a drink,” he laughed. “Just one so I can smooth things over. The way we started doesn’t have to be the way we end, right?”
“Sorry,” I answered curtly. “It’s late and I should get back to sleep.”
“You were sleeping just now?”
“Yes,” I lied. “Soundly till you came along.”
He nodded and smirked for a moment, his gaze dipping again. “Pretty wet for someone who was just sleeping.”
My cheeks burned.
Goddammit.
I had no comeback but at this point, I also had no interest in further conversation with Lukas Hendricks aside from perhaps calling him out for the arrogant asshole he was, especially as he leaned back all relaxed, head tilted up to show off that perfect jaw. God, he so deserved to be cursed out. But that reaction would only serve to amuse him and I refused to let him win again so breathing deep, I kept it as classy as I could.
“Goodnight, Lukas,” I bit out as I turned and pushed open my door – rather, I tried.
But the knob refused to turn.
I was locked out.
2
LIA
So this is happening.
This is a real thing that is happening.
My head spun as I tried to process the turn of events. I’d met Lukas ten minutes ago and started hating him shortly after. He’d casually announced his plans to ruin the peace of my home life and I’d shot him a variety of death looks to refrain from cussing him out. In short, we’d gotten off to a rocky start.
Yet here I was.
Alone with him in his apartment at 11PM, wearing nothing but a soaked robe that still refused to unglue itself from my skin.
“You know what you should do? You should hate-fuck him.”
“Sara!” I pounced on my phone, which I’d set at the foot of the bed in the upstairs guest room. “You’re on speakerphone because I’m changing, so don’t say anything crazy!” I hissed, lowering the volume even more. Since Tess was no longer answering texts and I had no clue where she kept my spare key, I’d gone with plan B, which was to borrow her clothes, call a car and rush to Sara’s while the key situation was being resolved – because considering my pulse had not stopped racing since I first laid eyes on him, there was no way in hell that I could survive another ten minutes with Lukas, let alone a fucking sleepover with him.
“Why not though?” Sara asked.
“Is this a serious question?” I whispered furiously as I yanked on the brand new sweater and leggings taken from Tess’s guest room closet. I was relieved to hear that everything inside was set for donation – not so relieved to discover that nothing was bigger than a size four. “Shit, woman, you might need to come here and drop off a hoodie and sweats. I don’t have a bra or panties and I’m pretty sure I’m stretching everything see-through!”
“Good. Walk downstairs, do a twirl, ask him how you look. You’ll be having sex in minutes.”
“Sara – ” I snatched my phone up and jabbed it promptly off speaker. “Hi. Can I talk to my best friend, please? The one who knows that I don’t do that sort of thing? Like – ever?”
“Yes, hi, it’s me. I know you don’t do that sort of thing – in fact, I know for how long you haven’t done that sort of thing,” Sara mused. “But you said literally yesterday and the day before that you need to get back into the dating game at some point or you’ll never have a family.”
“I only said that because of the cute baby clothes at H&M!”
“And because you keep getting orders for weddings of brides who are several years younger than you.”
“Damn, woman. Take it easy.”
“I’m quoting you,” Sara laughed. “So all I’m saying is you gotta start somewhere and if there were any night to break the dry spell, wouldn’t it be tonight? You were literally dripping wet when you met this alleged babe and ten minutes later, you’re getting conveniently naked in his apartment. Also, in the three years that I’ve known you, I’ve heard you describe a man as ‘crazy hot’ like, three times tops and two of those times we were watching a movie.”