Page 45 of Getting Lucky Number Seven

My heart pounded in time to the loud music, the bass echoing through me as I ran my hands down Lyla’s fine ass, pulling her closer and swirling her tongue with mine. She slid one of her legs between mine and I moaned into her mouth. My thoughts went fuzzy as she lightly bit at my bottom lip.

There really was something different about Lyla lately. It wasn’t just the hair or the clothes or her goal to be bolder—maybe that’s what it’d taken me to finally see her, and I felt like a chump about it. More than that, though, she finally understood the power she possessed, and in turn, power over a guy like me, who’d do pretty much anything she asked right now. She was more confident and hands-on than she’d ever been, and it drove me wild.

I’d been trying to keep the lines to sex or friends, none of this in between stuff, but with her breaths becoming mine, her tongue stroking mine until my body burned with the need to have her, I didn’t care anymore.

When we came up for air I glanced around—there’d probably already be other couples hooking up in every room. We could wait for them, but then someone might bang on the door and interrupt us, and I didn’t want to be interrupted, or for her to hold back. At this rate, though, I wasn’t sure I could make it all the way to my apartment.

Lyla ran her hands up my chest, and her hot breath hit my neck a moment before her lips did. “You wanna get out of here?”

My cock leaped at the suggestion. Then she ran her hand over the bulge in my pants and I nearly came right there. “Feels like you do.”

I’d created a monster. A beautiful, sexy monster. All I could do was nod and follow her closely as she started through the crowd, trying not to sway too much and failing.

In the parking lot I went to step over a concrete divider, and the next thing I knew I was eating pavement, my knees and hands stinging.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Lyla said, squatting next to me and putting her hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay? If I had realized you were having that much trouble walking, I would’ve stuck closer so I could catch you.”

“Catch me? I would’ve crushed you, Lyla.”

“But I’m supposed to be taking care of you the way you did me when I was drunk, and, well…” She clamped her lips as she took me in, and then she laughed. She quickly covered her mouth with her hands. “I’m sorry, now that I know you’re okay, it’s…” She laughed again, her shoulders shaking. “I’m just glad I’m not the only one to make a fool of myself when I’m drunk.”

“Fool of myself?” I pushed up to my knees and wiped gravel from my torn up palms. “What are you talking about? I’m suave as shit.”

This got another round of giggles, and she laughed so hard that she braced herself against me to keep from tipping over. That mademelaugh, and then we were two idiots laughing in the middle of a parking lot, our clouded breaths filling the air around us. Wiping tears from her eyes, she straightened and held out a hand. I took it and let her pull me up. Then I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. She put hers around my waist and leaned her head on my shoulder.

“You’re perfect in your not perfect,” she said, kissing my cheek.

I wasn’t sure if it was being drunk that made the words hard to put together, or if she wasn’t making sense, but I liked the way she said it anyway.

…

“I think you need to come meet with the lawyer over your spring break, Beckett,” Aunt Tessa said when I answered the phone. Lately, she’d been on me to do it, and I kept putting it off, telling her I’d take care of it over the summer.

“Why doesn’t he just run it by you?” I asked as I continued on my way across campus—I’d spent an hour in the weight room after practice, so my arms and legs felt like jelly. “I don’t know enough to make those kinds of decisions.”

“He says another lawyer has a client who insists on meeting with you as soon as possible. I asked him what it’s about, and he said he doesn’t know, but that the woman insists on meeting with you in person, and claims it’s a family matter, not business.”

That was probably what those calls from Mr. Hawthorne, my dad’s lawyer—and I suppose mine—were about. At first I thought Megan had gotten herself into trouble again. Once I’d heard another person’s lawyer demanded a meeting, I blew it off. If this was my last semester at BC I wanted to be living in the moment, not have one foot in the business, doing a half-assed job at both things.

I pushed into the library, and the woman at the front desk glared at me and pointed at the cell phone. “I gotta go. I’ll come down next week. Will you set the meeting up for me? Just nothing too early in the morning.”

“I think that’s the right choice,” Aunt Tessa said, the relief in her voice clear. These days, almost every sentence she said to me started with “I think,” followed by a long list of everything I needed to take care of, and it was all apparently urgent. I appreciated her holding back till now at least. I could tell the stress of making decisions in a company she had no desire to be part of was wearing on her. I wanted to say, “Welcome to my world,” but it wasn’t her responsibility, it was mine. Without her helping out with Megan, I’d have to say good-bye to even more of my independence, so the least I could do was take care of whatever this was.

“Young man.” The librarian had followed me. “Nocell phones.”

Aunt Tessa had already disconnected the call anyway. I showed the woman that I was putting it in my pocket and made my way to the second floor. I scanned the desks until I found the messy bun held up by a pencil. Lyla had recently dyed it again—something about roots showing—so it was extra bright. She had on the chunky brown frames she wore when she’d been studying for so many days in a row that her eyes couldn’t deal with contacts anymore.

I came up behind her, ran my hands down her arms, and kissed her cheek. “I thought I’d find you here.” Ever since she’d scored a low B on her literature test, she’d freaked out and started logging in crazy long study hours—the other night I’d had to pry the book out of her hand and drag her into the bedroom to get her mind off classes for a while.

“It feels like I live here lately.” She tipped her head back to give me access to her neck, and I took advantage, kissing her soft skin. Since the party a few weeks ago, things had been more like this. What I imagined most relationships were like, but with us, there was no pressure or questions like, “Why didn’t you call me?” or “Where are you?” with our lives revolving around each other. And we still hadn’t spent an entire night together, although I’ll admit I’d been tempted to ask her to stay a couple of times, not wanting to let go of having her next to me all night. Which was the exact reason it was important to keep my mouth shut about it.

“So come over,” I said. “I’ll even order pizza with your completely unnecessary, nasty warmed-up tomatoes on top.”

“Mmm. That sounds amazing. But I have to meet this guy at my place in an hour.”

My muscles tensed, even as I told myself to be cool. “A study buddy?”

“No, a friend who’s got a friend who does tattoos, so he said he can get me a deal. We’re going to check out the shop and then I’ll probably make an appointment.”

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