The One Awakened: Book 1 in The One Trilogy (40 page)

Crawling into bed, I put my phone on charge and snuggle down, grateful for the cocoon of my meringue duvet. Replete, tender, fearful, annoyed at my own weakness and concerned at our lack of control in the contraception department for a second time this weekend. I turn as my phone’s screen lights the darkened room and with just a glimpse of the words glowing brightly, I am filled with intense longing.

It never seems to be enough with you Baby.
 
I always need more.

Amazing how he reads my mind like that. I’d just thinking the exact same thing.
 

The
need
is so great; it’s never enough. It scares the crap out of me and rather than give any more of myself, than I’d already done, I revert to protective mode and type my reply.

I’m confused. Is it really possible to have great sex with a friend and go back to how it was before?

I bite my fingernail as I await his response. Why am I testing him here?
 
- Because you
are
confused. Yes but surely now’s the time to shout
It was bloody amazing?
 

I look at the phone and sigh - serves me right. His response is nothing if not honest.

Me too. Honestly? I don’t know.

Don’t ever expect anything but the truth from a true friend. Now I’ve got total head-fuck.
 

The reality of my feelings for Lu sting sharply, wounding so deeply, my chest aches with the force. Bitterness rises, like bile in my throat. Of course I’d fall for a woman more stubborn than myself. Bloody fate - that’s what we are. What we’ve always been. But where do we take it from here?
 

I’ve one month of this blasted proposition to work through. One month to convince her that she could trust me. One month to convince myself that I can actually stick at a relationship.
Why did you send her FBR 5 then?

I’m not sure why I haven’t wanted to settle down before now. Business is great. I’ve achieved more than most in my 32 years. Women came easy to me but they also bored me quickly. One thing Lu had never done is bore me; one of the reasons we’d become fast friends. Maybe we should just have some fun and get it out of our systems but returning to what we do best? Mates!

I need to send her flowers, again - from that Fresh flower place, she loves in Lords. I make a mental note to ring through an order en-route to work. Women always love flowers and she deserved the best. This weekend I’d had the most incredible sex of my life - and I had sampled several delectable women over the years, from all over the world. The sheer need to possess her had crippled me, scared the hell out of me and consumed me all at once. I run a thumb along my bottom lip, envisaging her face as she shattered around my cock - my stomach somersaults.
 

I take a deep breath and try to focus on something other than the flickers of images running freely around my mind. Lucia naked and spread over the sheets, her gorgeous tits in my hands. Lucia begging me to fuck her. Lucia placing my cock at the entrance of her wet pussy. Lucia in the shower. Lucia handing me every blasted orange sweet from the fruit gum packet in the cinema - my mouth had been as dry as Ghandi’s flip-flop. Lucia making dinner. Hang-on these last two things weren’t sexy!

Fuck me
.
I need to get a grip.
I readjust myself, already hard again at just the thought of her.

It had been worth the wait.
 

Ten years had been too long but God it had been worth it. Her scent still fills my nose, clothing, is imprinted on my body. I’m not normally so bloody sentimental and I never procrastinate over sex.

“Seb - you still here?” I hear Chris’ holler from the back suite of the house and watch as his nearing footsteps bring him to join me in the kitchen.

“Ahh coffee.”
 

“Help yourself mate - new pot just on.”

He pours himself a cup and ignores the milk I grab from the fridge.

“Black. Gotta be black today.”
 

“Thick head?”

“Any noise is torture.”

I chuckle at his pained look, reach into a cupboard and pop out two pink pills from my hangover saviour box. “Take these, lots more coffee and we’ll grab a bacon sarnie at work. We’ve got to be in bright and early, heavy emphasis on the bright. I have a shareholders meeting in London lunchtime and I’m probably going to have to stick around a few days.

Chris looks up in surprise. “So the sale is really happening then?”

“Looks like.”
 

He refers to the Jannah Dubai Marina Hotel. It had been on and off for a few months now and finally, the paperwork was nearly ready to be signed. This was the project that I’d worked towards and would put me in the big league. I’d become a millionaire at 27 and at 32 I’d be in double-figures. It was too true what they said. Money talked. You needed it to make it and pretty soon I’d have enough to feel established. Enough to feel like I’m worthy of a family of Lucia?

“I need you to head on over to The Ashton today and keep on-top of the guys for me. Nathan will be there too.” I drain the last remnants of my mug and place it in the sink. “Right, Ralph is waiting. I’ll see you in the office briefly before I head of to LBA airport.”

“No probs Boss. Lucia will be fine with me. You and her seemed pretty cosy Saturday night? Anything serious going on there or is it just a drunk hook up now you’ve broken the seal with a mate?”
 

His sly wink should have softened the blow and normally would have but I’m on him in a flash. My blood boiling and teeth gritted, so tight I wince at the chalkboard crunch. I wish to God I’d never let it slip that we’d got in on, after the Champagne Bar.
 

“Don’t talk about her like that Chris.”

“Soz Bro. No harm no foul. Just messing.”

“I mean it. Lu and I, we have history and its complicated.”

Chris holds his hands up in defeat and with a nervous laugh adds, “So no chance for me then?” before looking at my stoney face.

“Alrighty then! Leave things with me today at the office, I’ll sort don’t worry.”

“I’ll call you for regular updates.”

“No probs. Good luck with the meeting. You sure you don’t want me there as back-up?”

“No. I’m all good, thanks Chris.” Last thing I needed was Chris with his big gob, disrupting the applecart. He was great on site and a good manager but he was starting to have ideas above his station and had a mouth that ran away with him more often than not. He’d be more likely to do more damage than good.
 

“OK. See you in half-an-hour.”
 

I head out to the hallway, before I say anything I’ll regret. I can see he’d keen to progress but I’ll need to keep him on a leash here and I’m not sure that the whole
‘Chris living here’
proposal was the best idea, even it was only short-term. We’d been mates for several years and worked well together in the construction industry but lately he’d been acting like a royal dick and if I’m completely honest his work had been more than a little sub-par. I’m starting to get the impression that he would like a piece of the Silver Con pie and that isn’t going to happen, not before Nathan. Nathan would always come first.
 

Grabbing my suit carrier, case and briefcase I head for the door, nodding to Ralph as he enters the main door and takes the items from me. He leaves to place them in the car. I take a last look at the house before sliding into the comforts of the Limo. Hopefully by the time Chris gets into work, he’ll have sobered up and stopped pissing me off. I’m not sure what grates me most, the fact that he’d talked about Lu so demeaningly, or that he’d made it clear he had intentions on bedding her himself.
She’s mine and no other fucker is getting his hands on her this time.