Team Lucas (The Saints Team #1) (18 page)

“It’s Chloe,” I said. “She can help you with those blue balls.”

Lucas’s countenance changed and he shot me a sour look. He gave her one of his charming smiles, waved and spun the VW into my allocated garage. He jumped out, opened the trunk and took out my makeup bag.

“Hi Chloe,” I called.

“Hi,” she called back. Clearly she couldn’t remember my name or never knew it. I grabbed my makeup bag from Lucas. “I’ve got this, you go do your thing. Get some relief.”

He smirked at me; one of his best prize smirks, and headed over to Chloe. He stopped midway, hesitated and looked back at me.

“Don’t let me hold you up,” I said.

“Right,” he sighed. “We have to talk later.”

“What now?” I asked, exasperated.

“Terms and conditions of your contract,” he said. “By the way, we’re training beachfront tonight. You can come down and help or watch from here.”

He reached Chloe and she leaned in to kiss him. She wrapped her arms around him. I stood transfixed, forgetting to move away from the scene in front of me. The pain surprised me. I had him in my bed this morning and now he’s got a woman kissing him.

Maybe I had been naive, but I thought something had changed between us; that Lucas’s finding me and bringing me back had made us more than superstar and minder, maybe a little more intimate than friends. But I must have thought it alone because Lucas was with Chloe.

My heart that refused to follow any terms and conditions shot more arrows of pain into my chest. I wasn’t jealous because I couldn’t compete with Chloe, I was just purely and simply sad. I had to protect myself better, put up more of my own walls.

This is why I can’t fall in love with Lucas Ainswright, I told myself and turned to go into my pad.

Chapter 27

Alice panted.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” I asked, concerned.

“Hot yoga,” Alice answered. “Just finishing up when you rang. You should come sometime.”

“Mm, I’m more of a jogging girl. I like to put on my shoes, run anytime and not pay to exercise.” I dropped down onto the white leather couch in my beach pad.

“Yeah well you’re more disciplined than me. I need to pay up so I feel guilty if I don’t do the classes and I need someone to push me and push me some more. Where are you?”

“Back at the posh loft,” I said.

Alice laughed. “Want some company?”

“That’s why I’m calling. Stay hot, come over for a beach swim and then we can do lunch.”

“Be there before you can say ‘bye’,” she said and hung up.

I grabbed my beach bag, stuck my towel, sun block and hat in there and put it near the door ready for Alice’s arrival. I quickly changed into my two-piece pink and black floral print swimsuit—which the catalogue said would lift the butt, firm the stomach and push up the breasts—and I threw on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt over the top.

I lay back on the couch and looked through some online sites on my iPad. The online story about Lucas and me was so ridiculous that I couldn’t believe people were allowed to print anything they like. I read one report: “The man who could have his choice of women, last night orchestrated a very different play from that of the soccer field and more like that of an undercover agent in an attempt to slip secretly into the apartment of college student, Mia Carter.” Yeah, well I guess that part was kind of true. I read on: “The woman believed to have captured the multi-million dollar sport star’s heart met him less than a month ago.” Okay, so that part was true too, except I hadn’t captured his heart. Right on cue I heard moaning from upstairs. “Gross,” I mumbled. “For fuck’s sake Lucas put some soundproofing in!”

I went back to the article and scrolled down. Just to make me feel even better about myself, there was a photo gallery of every glamorous girl that had even been on Lucas’s arm. Yep, and then there beside them was the pic of me jogging, again. I could hear the readers now: “How did she get him?” Well guess what folks, I don’t have him! At the moment Chloe has him and she’s well and truly having him by the sounds of it.

I heard Alice’s car as she pulled up and parked behind my VW. I jumped off the couch, pleased to see her and even more pleased to get out of the love shack, especially since I wasn’t getting any lovin’.

“So glad you’re back here,” she said, blowing me an air kiss and stomping in.

“Ugh, you do smell—like Lucas after a training session.” I grimaced.

“It’s hot yoga,” she said, again. “Hot and yoga.” She stopped, looked at the ceiling, then to the left where the stairwell was on the other side of our joint wall and then back at me. “Tell me that’s not...”

I nodded. “Yes, today for your listening pleasure we present Lucas and Chloe. Lucas is trying the doggie position with a twist of lemon and Chloe, who likes walks on the beach and is a Virgo, is open for business.”

“Oh my God,” Alice said, grimacing as Chloe came close to orgasm. “I want to knock on the wall and tell them to keep it down.”

“Let’s go.” I grabbed my beach bag.

Alice grabbed her towel from her bag, dumped it with her keys and followed me out.

I locked the door and turned to her. “You know if you wanted to move in here with me for the last few weeks of my trial, I could ask Lucas. It’s got two bedrooms and two bathrooms. It’d be fun.”

“I would loooooove to, thank you, but I can’t. It’s too far from work and I’m on the opening shift at the moment. I’d have to leave home in the dark and then if Jack calls me up to fill in I wouldn’t get there quickly enough. The perils of a working girl.” She sighed. “How amazing it would be to stay here…” she glanced back at the house, “…but it would ruin me.”

“Yeah, I get that,” I agreed.

We walked across the driveway, down the path and we were on the beach. We picked a spot, spread out our towels and headed straight for the water. I spent five minutes getting used to the cold water before totally taking the plunge under a wave. Bliss, sheer freezing cold bliss. I surfaced and looked up at the house and level two where Lucas lay with another woman. I couldn’t imagine this life or what it was like to be Lucas Ainswright, his girlfriend, wife or lover.

No one had been yet.

*****

Lucas hadn’t surfaced after our swim; I thought he might have come out on the deck and gloated at me like last time, but nope, not this time. I hoped Chloe was clean and they weren’t doing anything other than hanging together.

When we had finished sun-drying, we wandered up the beach to a local cafe, had a coffee and lunch, my shout—I was doing a lot less than Alice when it came to earning dollars in our part-time jobs. ‘Working’ as Lucas’s minder was like being on holidays in a resort that I couldn’t afford to stay at.

We wandered back along the beach after lunch and Alice left to head back to Long Beach. It was an hour until training so I changed for a run. But first I had to get a crap task out of the way; I had to get a blood sample from Lucas—it was my least favorite way of testing but the contract required the occasional blood sample. I needed to get it before the close of business hours to get it collected, and before he went to training. Bet Lucas was going to be real happy about it too.

I looked outside after getting changed and Chloe’s car was still there, damn her. I was standing on my side of the adjoining door debating whether to knock and interrupt them or not when Lucas knocked on the door from the other side and scared the hell out of me. I opened it straight away and he jumped.

“Were you listening at the door with a glass or something?” he asked. He stood there half undressed as if he had just got up from the sack.

“Yeah Lucas, because that’s how I like to spend my days. Trust me; no glass is necessary; you should think about soundproofing.”

He gave me a satisfied look as though he had taken out an acting award in the
Best Screw in an Afternoon at a Beach House
category.

“Well, can I come in?” he said as I stood blocking the doorway.

I stood back and let him enter, checking out his form in a pair of red swimming trunks. He pulled on a white fitted singlet as he entered, covering his tanned, muscle-bulging body. Stupid singlet.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“I thought we’d have our chat,” he said, “about the terms and conditions of your contract, going forward.”

I glanced behind him and up the stairs. “Isn’t Chloe still here?”

“Yeah she’s in bed sleeping. I wore her out.” He shrugged. He moved to a white leather stool near the kitchen bench and sat down.

“Whatever.” Seriously I wished he would take his blatant sexual activity and stick it in a condom! I cleared my throat and tried to clear the image from my mind of Lucas having Chloe on his bed.

“Before we talk T-and-Cs, I have to...”

“Swab me,” he said, and rolled his eyes.

“Blood test,” I told him.

Lucas grimaced. “Are you qualified to do that?”

“No Lucas. They just send me out with the gear, tell me to have a jab at it and see what happens. Of course I’m qualified. I’ve done my pathology competency in blood collection. That’s how I got the part-time work.”

“All right, all right.” He held up his hands in surrender. “Can’t you just swab me or give me a jar?”

“I have to do blood occasionally, I have a quota,” I said, with as much of an apologetic tone as I could muster. “It’s in my contract.”

“Hmm, that contract. Fine, just get it over with.”

I nodded and went to get my kit again. I could see Lucas looking out at the beach.

“Are you coming to training?” he asked.

“Yep, I’ll run first and finish there and catch up with Doc and Andy,” I called, washing my hands. I came back in with my small box of testing material. I looked at him.

“What?”

“I’m just working out the best way to do this, the best position to get you comfortable.”

“I can help with that,” he said, his head swelling. He was such a bighead.

I ignored him. “I need you to rest your arm on the bench and you can either stand or stay seated but you’ll have to sit up against the bench so I can... get access.” I frowned trying to get him to a better position.

He put his arm flat on the kitchen bench, grabbed my T-shirt and pulled me between his legs. I stumbled into place.

“Better?” he asked, his face so close to mine I could feel his breath on my skin.

I stepped back a little. “It’ll do,” I said, not looking at him. “You don’t faint at the sight of blood do you?”

“I haven’t yet, but there’s always a first,” he said, watching me. His eyes followed my every move. I know he was doing it to unnerve me; watch away Lucas, see if I care. Please heart, stop with the rapid beating immediately!

I grabbed a vial and wrote his name on the tag. I asked him for his birth date and wrote that as well.

“I’m a little hurt you don’t know that, Mia,” he said. “My fans would.”

“Remiss of me,” I agreed. “I’ll start a dossier and gather as much personal information as I can to become your number one fan,” I said it with a slightly manic look.

“Now you’re just freaking me out,” he said.

I slipped on a thin glove and tapped his arm to find a good vein to slip in my needle. The man was a dream pin cushion, plenty of veins popping. I probably tapped a little longer than I needed but it was good to feel that arm definition—oh so good. I picked a spot, put the tourniquet band on, secured it and gave the skin a quick clean with a swab of alcohol. Lucas didn’t say a word, but just continued to stare. I glanced at his eyes and he looked amused. Never laugh at a girl with a needle, sports star.

“Okay make a fist,” I ordered my patient.

Lucas did that and his arm bulged with muscles. Be still my beating heart—I could hardly concentrate on getting his blood when the blood was rushing to all my girl parts. I cleared my throat, blinked a few times and refocused.

“You can stop making a fist now,” I said. What a ham. I took a deep breath, grabbed his arm firmly and anchored the vein. In went the needle—not even a flinch, my hero! I filled the tube with his blood. His eyes could have reduced me to a pile of ash or a sweaty mess depending on his mood; at the moment it was the latter.

“Wow,” I said in a low voice.

“What?” He frowned.

“I just thought, well... that it would be blue.”

Lucas smiled. I loved it when he smiled naturally, even better when he laughed. He shuffled slightly.

“Don’t move!” I ordered him.

“Then don’t be a funny Minder,” he said.

I grinned, not making eye contact with him. Yep, that’s one for me, chalk it up. When the tube was filled with his royal red blood, I removed the tourniquet and released his arm and those gorgeous muscles. I pulled the needle from his arm, swabbed the area and put a bit of cotton wool on it.

“Just put pressure there for a minute.” I instructed him to press down on the area where I had just drawn blood while I disposed of the needle in a container I had.

“Don’t move,” I warned him. “Given the way you sleep around, the last thing I want to do is risk being jabbed by your needle.”

He flared with anger, his body stiffened; you never could tell with Lucas.

“I wear protection,” he snapped. “I’m careful and I’m regularly tested, and I’m clean. Take some more blood if you don’t believe me and run a full set of tests,” he challenged me.

I looked at his arm and was sorely tempted. I shrugged. “I don’t need to. If you think you’re clean and the girls humping you are prepared to take the risk or you on them, it’s got nothing to do with me.”

I grabbed a plaster, removed his hand and the swab he was holding in place and plastered him. I fantasized about doing many things to Lucas but plastering him wasn’t one of them.

“All done. Want me to kiss it better or give you a lollipop?” I gave him the conventional options and flicked my glove off.

“Wouldn’t want you to catch anything,” he said. Lucas pulled his stool back, careful not to knock me over this time, and stormed out.

I sighed. We were good at that, pissing each other off.

I texted for the test van to collect it and, leaving Lucas’s specimen it in a locked storage container at the gated entrance, I headed out for a run.