“Why are you being so nice to me?”
Sighing, he shifted behind her so that her head was right beneath his chin and found himself giving her an honest answer. “I don’t know.”
“You do realize that you’re ruining your reputation as an asshole, don’t you?”
“Not if no one finds out,” he said, hoping to tease a smile or a laugh out of her, but instead she simply yawned.
“Your secret’s safe with me,” she said around another yawn as he debated leaving her to nap so that he could get some work done, but the way she wrapped her hand over his had him accepting the fact that he would be here, at least for a little while longer.
He’d wait until she fell asleep and then he’d go downstairs and make sure that everything was taken care of so that he could be here when his brother delivered the test results, confirming that he really had been an asshole.
Chapter 11
“Rebecca, Dr. Bradford is here,” Melanie announced, sounding amused which she found rather annoying first thing in the...umm, afternoon? Evening? She really had no freaking clue how long she’d been asleep.
“What?” she groaned unhappily as she shifted and realized that something very bad had occurred while she’d slept.
Was that a hand on her ass?
Yes, yes it was, she realized with a resigned sigh as she cracked one eye open and confirmed her suspicions. Not only was she using Lucifer, who was still sound asleep, as a mattress, but at some point while she’d slept she’d apparently felt that it was necessary to snake her hand beneath his shirt and feel up his six pack.
Or maybe this should be considered an eight pack? Yeah, definitely an eight pack, she decided, tempted to find out if his muscles dipped into that “V” shape that she was a sucker for, but that would be wrong, very, very wrong. Granted, having her leg thrown over his probably was wrong too, yet here she was, practically straddling him.
This wasn’t the worst way to wake up, but it was definitely something that the bitch standing over her bed, taking pictures with her phone wasn’t going to let her forget.
“This is my new profile picture,” Melanie said, sounding happier than she’d ever heard her before.
“Mine, too,” Aidan, Lucifer’s brother, said as he angled his phone to get the perfect picture.
For a few seconds, she simply glared at the duo who were smiling and comparing pictures, noting that while Aidan was an incredibly handsome man with an easy smile and vibrant green eyes, he wasn’t as striking as his brother. Maybe that’s because Lucifer gave off that homicidal vibe that tended to make men sexier, she mused for a few seconds even as she considered the pros and cons of killing them and destroying their phones before they could upload those pictures.
“Are you caressing his stomach?” Melanie asked as she took another picture.
“No!” Rebecca snapped a little too quickly as she forced her hand to ignore temptation and remain still.
“Uh huh,” the traitorous bitch said, snapping yet another picture.
“Are you done yet?” she asked, acting like she could care less that she’d just been caught groping her boss.
“No,” Melanie said with a shake of her head as she continued to take pictures.
“Evil bitch,” Rebecca muttered as she pulled away from Lucifer and sat up.
“Umm, his hand is still on your ass,” Melanie pointed out with a slight nod and another freaking picture!
Blinking, she looked down and yup, there was his hand, curled around her ass. She looked back up at the duo, who looked like they’d just won the lottery and said, “Can you blame him? It’s a really nice ass.”
Melanie nodded as she solemnly agreed, “It really is.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been happier,” Aidan said with a smile that said it all.
Lucifer was probably going to kill him before the day was over.
“Why don’t we get this over with?” she suggested as she climbed off the bed and headed towards the living room, knowing that there was no point in trying to put this off any longer, especially since she already knew how this was going to end.
*-*-*-*
“Do the tests again!” a woman screamed, waking him up from the first nap he’d taken since he was a kid.
“No!” Lucifer heard his brother yell as he rolled over onto his back and rubbed his hands down his face, wondering what time it was.
“Do them again!”
“No!”
“They’re wrong! Do them again!”
“No! Oh, my God, stop going for my nipples!” Aidan screamed, hitting all the high notes and making Lucifer shake his head in disgust as he reluctantly got up and headed for the living room where all the screaming was coming from.
“What the hell’s going on in here?” he asked as he stepped into the living room.
“Take it back!” Melanie demanded as she gave up her hold on his brother’s nipples and decided that the best approach to making him change his mind was to start throwing pillows, blankets and basically everything soft enough that it wouldn’t leave a mark at his brother’s head.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Aidan demanded as he tried to duck out of the way of an extra firm pillow.
Many things, Lucifer thought with a yawn, admittedly already bored with the scene before him. He shifted his attention to the woman sitting on the couch, looking as though she’d just been hit by a freight train. Fucking Aidan, he thought walking over to the fridge and grabbed two Cokes. He’d given his brother one fucking job and he’d fucked it up miserably.
She was sick. Anyone with two working eyes could see that, but these fucking doctors didn’t know how to do their fucking jobs. He’d thought that his brother was the exception, but he’d been wrong, because there she sat on the couch with her arms wrapped around her indrawn knees, looking completely broken.
“Nice job, asshole,” he said as he passed his brother, deciding that he’d deal with him later.
“Are you going to help me?” Aidan demanded, sounding desperate as Melanie continued with her attack.
“No,” he said, already dismissing his brother’s cry for help as he sat down on the couch next to Rebecca and handed her a Coke.
Without a word, she took the Coke. She popped the top and took a sip as he did the same. What the hell was he supposed to say to her? He’d promised her answers and nothing had changed. They still didn’t have any idea what was causing her to be sick and worst of all, she probably believed whatever bullshit his brother had told her.
“I’m sorry, Rebecca,” he said when he couldn’t figure out anything else to say to her. She didn’t respond as she sat there, taking another sip so he didn’t say anything else.
“The tests were wrong!” Melanie yelled as she gave up throwing pillows at his brother and settled on beating him with a particularly fat throw pillow.
“Look,” Aidan said, looking just as pissed and taking Lucifer by surprise, because he couldn’t remember a time when his normally easygoing brother lost his cool. “I ran the tests myself and I even had my father double check the results. You may not like them, but they’re accurate. So, get the fuck off my back!”
Melanie opened her mouth, no doubt to tell his brother where he could shove those tests, but Lucifer had had enough. “Get out.”
Melanie snorted at that. “This is my apartment, buddy. I’m not going anywhere,” she said, but one look from him had her rolling her eyes, calling him an asshole and dragging Aidan out the door behind her.
Within seconds they were alone and Rebecca still hadn’t said anything, making him wonder how badly he’d fucked up. It looked like his tenth grade science teacher had been right, he really was the devil reincarnated. He should have never stuck his fucking nose where it didn’t belong. She’d accepted things the way they were, but he hadn’t been able to let them go. He had to push her into doing something that she didn’t want all because he had to know the truth and now look at her.
Broken, depressed and-
“I have Celiac’s disease,” she said with a watery smile that quickly disappeared as she lost it.
“Christ,” he swore, reaching over and pulling the sobbing woman closer so that he could wrap his arms around her and hold her while