Page 36 of Sweet Hate
Liar.
Coughing, I make eye contact with Lucas while trying to ignore his arm still curled around my girl.
“Lucas, I need to head out. Can we finish this?”
His eyes widen, and yep, he’d forgotten all about me.
“Shit! Yeah, sure! Haven, I’m about to be your white knight, you better reward me with a kiss when I'm done fixing that kitchen.”
White knight. Kiss.Then he winks at her. He. Fucking. Winks.
He’s obviously flirting with her.
Hell no.
This asshole wants to be dead.
I fist my hands on the bar and concentrate really hard on breathing before I give myself a heart attack. I’m pretty sure my pulse shouldn’t be racing this fast. Maybe I need to walk myself out of here and straight into urgent care.
I think I need medical intervention.
I needsomething.
You need her.
Bullshit. Besides she’s not so much as smiled at me, but she’slaughing right now as she swipes Lucas around the head. They always had this sort of banter, but I know that given half the chance, he would shoot his shot again. And thanks to my less than stellar attitude, I bet she’d have no issues agreeing this time around.
The girls promise to meet Lucas for dinner before they wander off arm in arm toward the dart boards. I do my best to drag my eyes away from her curvy ass in that skintight dress before they collide with Lucas’s knowing stare.
“So, you didn’t mention Haven was back in town. That’s a big deal. Is that why this is so urgent?”
“Partly. The Merryweather’s asked her to bake their daughter's wedding cake.”
He lets out a long, low whistle. “Fuck.”
“Yeah, fuck”.
I might want to murder Lucas for touching her, but he’s a good guy. He knows Haven almost as well as I do, so he gets what a huge deal this is. The Merryweather family is royalty around here, and the exposure it would give her would be huge.
“OK, man, I’ll do what I can. You know I will. So are you two?—”
I hold up a finger to stop his movement, his hands midway into rudely signaling exactly what I’m trying to avoid thinking about doing with her.
“Does it look like it?” I barely contain the snarl before sighing. “No. It’s not like that.”
His eyebrows arch, disbelief etched all over his face.
“But it could be. This could be your second chance, bro. You know how you were when she?—”
I silence him again because I can’t hear this shit. It’s bad enough getting it from Beckett, I don’t need Lucas in my ear too.
“I was young and stupid. It was just a bit of fun before she left, and I just got carried away. I’m not looking for a relationship, Lucas. You know this. I don’t want to be tied down toanything or anyone. I’m good.” I sigh, then through gritted teeth I force myself to say, “If you want to go for it, feel free. Although last I heard, she was with some dude in London.”
Mia shouts “Bullseye!” and they laugh loud enough to draw every eye in the joint to them. Haven looks relaxed and happy. She’s practically lighting up the room with how she sparkles.
Dammit, how long have I been staring at her again?
I turn back to face Lucas, whose eyes haven’t moved from me, his raised brow calling bullshit.
