Page 13 of Retrograde
‘Just answer the question, Brett.’
‘I’d like to stay. But only if it’s with you.’
‘Then we’ll stay.’ She offered him a small smile and he took that as his cue. A wicked grin spread across his features as he placed the empty shot glasses on the table beside her and took her hand in his, enticing her into the mass of people. Lucie rolled her eyes playfully when she realised the DJ’s latest song choice. Only Brett Anderson could get away with dancing to ‘Get Busy’ in this day and age and look good doing it. Sean Paul would be proud.
‘You know you want to dance with me, Sunny,’ Brett smirked as she gave in. He was right, she did want to dance with him. She wanted every other woman in here to know that Brett had chosen Lucie over and above them. Because their friendship topped anything they could offer him. Call her possessive, she didn’t care. That green-eyed monster was even more prominent when she’d had a few to drink, whether it should be there or not.
Before she could start stressing about what anyone else thought of her dancing or her outfit, she was letting Brett turn her around so her back was against his chest, his hand on her hip. One look at them and you would think there was more to it, but this was just how they were. There were no boundaries between them, and yet no lines would be crossed. Whether it was a hand squeezing the curve of her waist, his breath on her neck, or their bodies touching where no platonic friends’ bodies ever should, Brett and Lucie didn’t know how tonotact like this. This was their normal.
How they had only crossed the line once in those ten years, when they had behaved like this since day one, was a miracle. Or maybe it was Lucie’s stubbornness. Regardless, on nights like this with everyone watching, her confidence rocketing and her skin tingling from his touch, her head was scrambled.
‘You are truly,’ Brett said, spinning her round to face him, ‘the most perfect woman on the planet, Miss Carolan. Anyone ever told you that?’
‘Ha! You’re funny. Also, you tell me that regularly. And every time you do, I laugh in your face.’ Lucie looped her arms around his neck, pulling him down closer so they didn’t have to shout above the music.
‘Yeah, why do you do that? You don’t believe me?’ Brett maintained his signature cheeky grin, and she wanted to wipe it off his face. He was still in that teasing mood he’d been in earlier, and she didn’t doubt that he’d stay true to his word and throw her over his shoulder.
‘You could have anyone, Anderson.’
‘That’s true. And yet it’s always you that I want to wake up to.’
‘You wake up to me frequently, fully clothed.’ She shrugged, pretending that when they shared a bed she didn’t consider herself extremely fortunate to be greeted by the sight of a shirtless Brett in nothing but his boxers.
‘Yes, but I know, thanks to our night in Italy, that youunclothedis a real treat.’
‘Do you ever behave yourself? Like, even for two seconds of your life?’ She tried to brush away the comment, the mention of Italy.
‘If I did, would I do this?’ He ran his hand along her jaw and even though she knew what he was doing, she allowed him to close the gap and capture her lips with his, their tongues dancing in a way that was far more magical than the way their bodies had been moving mere seconds before.
This was only the second time they had ever kissed, and it felt just as right this time as it had the first. Lucie didn’t want it to. She wanted it to feel wrong, for them to both want to pull away and go back to dancing like nothing had happened. But they had chemistry that they, or rather she, had been pushing aside for their entire friendship.
Maybe they were supposed to be friends who kissed on dance floors and in hotel rooms in the Italian Alps. Friends who took one look at each other and forgot the rest of the world existed.
‘Brett–’ She took his pause for breath as an opportunity. For what? She wasn’t quite sure. All she knew wasthat whatever she had been about to say went out the window once she saw the desire written in his expression, ten times more intense than it had been all night. It was just them. Their friends were gone, they weren’t at a work event, nobody would know. So, when Brett glanced over her shoulder at the exit to the club, a silent invitation, she took it.
6
The sunhurt. Every time Lucie drank alcohol, she woke up the next morning wishing she lived in Alaska where they could go two months without seeing any sunlight. What a bloody dream. Why had she chosen a life of travel? And a life with so much free-flowing alcohol?
She was meant to be on a plane to London tonight with Faith, but she failed to see how she was going to pull herself together in time, let alone actually look presentable enough to walk through the hotel lobby. Brett already had the hotel room for one extra night… she could crash here. Her finances could take the hit if she paid for a new flight, right? She could stay right here in this very spot and rely on room-service burgers and nachos to get her through the hangover from hell. She squeezed her eyes tight shut again, willing her headache to go away.
Lucie wished they’d been smart enough to close the blackout blinds last night, and that she had the energy to get up and search for the remote. All this money, and they didn’t have blinds that operated on clapping or clicking or mumbling ‘For the love of God’.
Then she remembered the specific reason the blinds had been left open. The gorgeous man lying next to her had led her to the window and come up behind her. The view from the Bellagio was stunning, and they’dbeen fortunate enough to have a room facing the fountain, but it seemed to act as a reset button. Brett had removed the straps of her dress from her shoulders, letting it drop to the floor, and then Lucie had let reality get the better of her poor, bruised heart and ruined it all.
‘Stop.’ She’d blushed under his touch, but it was out of embarrassment more than anything. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t do this, Brett.’
‘What’s wrong?’ He’d brushed her hair behind her ear.
‘I just… I don’t want to ruin us.’
‘Nothing could ruin us, Sunny. We’re grown adults, what’s a night of fun, no-strings-attached sex between friends?’ He’d shrugged like it was no big deal.
‘It’s not that simple, Brett. You’re my best friend.’
‘Yeah, and I respect you. Isn’t that enough?’
‘No, it isn’t. You know I don’t do casual sex. I need more from a partner.’
