Team Lucas (The Saints Team #1) (20 page)

“Oh get over yourself,” I said, taking my cup to the sink and rinsing it. “They’re your friends, I get it. I’ll text Jase and tell him I can’t come.”

“No, I think he’d rather have you there than me.” Lucas scowled. “Just don’t hang off me.”

“In your dreams,” I said. It was really my dream. “You are such a bighead. When have I ever hung off you?”

“Ah, last night,” he said.

It was cruel of him to make fun of me needing him.

“Not a bad way to work your way into my guest room,” he scoffed.

I couldn’t believe he would use that awful experience against me. Just when I thought he’d run out of nastiness, he made a fresh batch. I shook my head at him.

“You haven’t had many people need you, have you?”

He stopped to think about it.

I’m sorry I leaned on you,” I continued. “I’ll try not to let it happen again. Of course I wouldn’t have been in danger if you hadn’t put the spotlight on me.” I rolled my eyes and started towards the stairs.

“Where are you going? We’re having a terms and conditions discussion about your contract!” He held his hands up in disbelief.

“You know what Lucas, go fuck yourself,” I said and stormed downstairs. Before I got to the bottom stair, he ran down, his long strides outmatching mine two to one, and he beat me to the door, blocking the entrance to my pad.

“You can’t talk to your boss that way.”

“You’re not my boss and if you want to fire me, then ring your father and tell him to ring my boss because that contract is still valid.”

He waved a wad of paper at me that he held in one of his hands.

“I think you’ll like these terms and conditions, and having me as your new boss.” He gave me the contract. “I’ll leave it with you to sign.” He turned and returned upstairs. He stopped midway. “It was okay you staying last night,” he added.

Oh so gracious. I watched him turn and stared at his tight ass going up the stairs; every job had to have some perks and God knows I earned every single one of mine.

I went into my area and slid the door closed. I glanced at the contract: in a nutshell I was at Lucas’s beck and call and that was a very dangerous game. I was to do the swabs at a time convenient with him, well that defeated the purpose of them to start with. I was to provide physio exclusively and there was no bonus but the weekly rate was higher. I think I liked having a third party in control—his father or his manager—and stalling on this new contract might be the best way to play it.

Chapter 30

Cam and Jessica were delightful—real people, like Jase and Sarah, and good anchors for Lucas-bighead-sports-star. If there is truth in the saying that good couples look like each other, then Cam and Jessica had a big future. While Jase was a mountain and Lucas towered over the six foot mark, Cam and Jessica were blond and bookish. They were the perfect couple: he was tall, conservative and handsome, she was equally tall, slim, and sophisticated.

Jase and Sarah had done a wonderful job; everything was relaxed and easy—salads, pre-cooked curries, a simple table setting. But the best part of the night was that Lucas’s friends ganged up to tell me all about him and boy did he score a roasting. And with Jase being a lawyer, Sarah a psychologist, Cam a doctor and Jessica a teacher, the brain bank was in and Lucas couldn’t get away with much.

Sarah did her best to break up the table so that I wasn’t sitting next to Lucas as though it was a date: so instead, the table was like a school dance, all the guys on one side, the girls on the other.

“You see Mia, we’ve had to put up with Luke since high school,” Cam was explaining. “You’ve barely had one month with him. He’s won the sports awards that should have been ours, he’s upstaged our weddings with a media scrum, and he’s generally been a pain in the ass.”

I laughed as Lucas grimaced at Cam.

“Give me a break.” Lucas rolled his eyes. “You hated all sports.
‘Don’t throw the ball at me, I have to protect my hands’
,” Lucas imitated him.

“These hands were destined for greatness.” Cam looked at his hands, turning them over.

“Think of the lives you’ve saved,” his wife Jessica played along. “I didn’t know you had your calling to be a doctor so young.”

“It’s true,” Cam nodded, keeping a noble expression on his face.

“He was just crap at sport,” Jase added, breaking everyone up.

“Can’t remember you being much better at it,” Cam reminded Jase.

“This body was not made for speed,” Jase agreed. He looked at me. “When you’re a man mountain like I am, every idiot wants to go you. So, I prefer to use my strength for good not evil.”

I grinned. “And that you have.”

Lucas rolled his eyes. “If you’d stood still in defense and we rammed the opposition into you we could have won, but we couldn’t even get you on the field.”

“Forget me,” Jase said generously. “Luke, we’re all very proud of you. You’ve got it all—except for beautiful partners like Cam and I have, love, good parents, a dog...”

“I have a dog,” Lucas said and looked at me.

What an asshole. He wasn’t getting away with it; I wasn’t going to be downtrodden in front of his lovely and clever friends. There was a moment of awkward silence as I leaned forward.

“He’s right, I’m his bitch and my bite is as bad as my bark,” I said glaring at him.

Sarah grinned and squeezed my shoulder. I was used to working and studying with guys and Lucas would have to do better than that if he was going to take the piss out of me.

“Don’t worry, Mia,” Jase stepped in. “You’re not the only bitch in Lucas’s life. There is a whole wing of the male prison that has Luke’s photos wallpapered everywhere; they’d love Lukey to be their bitch, especially Boris the leader, I hear.”

“Gross.” Lucas frowned.

I watched their interaction; Lucas was so different with these friends—different than he was with me and his team mates. He was quieter, relaxed, no edges and defenses that he displayed with everyone else. I watched their interactions and realized they were a family—they were probably the closest thing to a family that Lucas had ever experienced. He had known Cam and Jase for more than half his life, grew up with them. He had known Sarah for over a decade now and Jessica for only a few years, and you could tell—they still treated each other with wariness.

As I watched Lucas with them, I realized the other major difference—he wasn’t the center of attention. They had their lives and they didn’t revolve around Lucas like everything else seemed to. Sometimes they went to his games, but they weren’t that into soccer. Lucas, Cam and Jase were part of a triathlon group and Lucas did the running leg. No-one cared who he was in that world, it was Jase’s hobby.

I heard Lucas groan again and say, “Here we go.”

Jase was going on about their school days. “For years I had to watch his back.”

“You got off lightly,” Lucas said. “I spent half of my school years sleeping in the bunk under you, waiting for boy mountain to crash through on top of me and crush the life out of me, or I had the bunk on top of you while you kicked the bottom of the bed every time you couldn’t sleep.”

“I don’t sleep well,” Jase admitted.

“Lucas can be handy, though,” Jessica contributed. “After he stood me up at the school and the hundreds of parents, friends and students had all gone home...”

Lucas dropped his head into his hands and groaned. “I’m so sorry... I know I’ll never live that done... I’ll make it up to you...”

“Disgraceful,” Cam growled and shook his head.

Jessica continued. “He at least twittered to his 485,000 Twitter followers...”

My mouth dropped and I looked at Lucas sitting parallel at the other end of the table. “You have 485,000 Twitter followers?” I said.

“Um, 519,000 now.” He shrugged.

Jessica continued. “He at least tweeted to those followers that he had a signed jersey and shirt up for grabs at our school auction and we made a killing.”

“Least he could do,” Cam agreed.

Lucas shook his head, taking the punishment.

“You have 519,000 Twitter followers?” I said, again.

“I know, right,” Sarah agreed. “People should get a life.” We three ladies laughed.

“Oh ha ha,” Lucas said. He turned to Jase. “Why did you let them sit together like that? Women always stick together, so they were always going to gang up. They should be separated.”

It was great to feel like I was one of the girls and I was with, but not ‘
with’
the most gorgeous man alive, Lucas Ainswright. Imagine if this was my life and I was with him. I came back to reality—I was still stuck on his fan following.

“What do you say to them? The Twitter followers?” I asked him.

Lucas clasped his hands on the table and looked down the length of the table at me. “Yet again Mia, I’m a little upset and disappointed that being my number one fan, you are not following me on Twitter. Why don’t you know this stuff?” He tried for his best defeated look. “I’m guessing you’re not following me on Facebook then, either?”

“Oh spare me,” I said, making everyone laugh. “How many likes do you have on Facebook?”

He shrugged. Jessica rose and grabbed her phone from her handbag. Lucas grimaced.

“I’ve got a few,” he said. “Leave it at that.”

Jessica found the page and held it up to me.

“Oh my God, you have over two million likes on your Facebook page!” I looked at him as though he had just walked on water.

“But Mia, even more impressive, I have 128 friends,” Cam said.

“Friends are much better than likes,” I said, praising Cam.

“Med students that want to intern with you and are sucking up don’t count,” Lucas told him.

We all laughed.

“But what do you say to them?” I asked Lucas.

“I can string a sentence together.” He glared at me.

“He’s got a publicist in his staff,” Sarah cut to the chase. “Used to be Jessica when she was studying teaching and working part-time promoting Luke.”

“That’s how I met Cam.” She smiled. “The job was hell, but some good came of it.”

“I’m in the room.” Lucas held up his hands.

Cam hit Lucas on the back. “Jessica’s right. You might drive us nuts but you brought us together. At least now you’ve got Mia to drive nuts for a while and give us a break.”

Lucas smirked in my direction. God he was good at the smirk. I’d like to kiss that smirk right off his face. I changed the subject.

“So what do you teach, Jessica?” I asked. I can imagine the young school boys all having a crush on her and the girls wanting to be her. She was so elegant.

“English and history at high school level.” She smiled at me. “I’m doing tenth grade poetry at the moment, I love it.” She sighed.

“Tenth grade poetry... mm, Byron, Wordsworth?” I asked.

“Exactly.” She looked pleased and began to recite: “I wandered lonely as a cloud, that floats on high o'er vales and hills...”

“When all at once I saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils,” Lucas finished.

We all turned to look at him. Lucas rolled his eyes.

“What? It’s Wordsworth. We visited his house in Cumbria when I was a kid; you know, in the Lakes District?” We all looked blank except for Jessica who nodded. “It’s culture, you lot,” he teased. “Mom made us learn that poem on the drive there.”

“I like your mom,” Jessica said.

“Yeah. We had to learn
She Walks in Beauty
when we visited Byron’s estate too.”

“Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire,” Jessica said and Lucas nodded.

“Thank Christ
The Ancient Mariner
was set at sea or she would have made us learn that too,” he said.

“All seven parts,” Jessica added, with a grin.

I was seeing Lucas in a whole new light. I leaned down the table towards him.

“Who are you? What have you done with Lucas Ainswright?” I asked.

His friends cracked up and Lucas tipped his chin in my direction.

“You’ll keep,
Minder
.”

Jessica continued. “My favorite though is Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s
How Do I Love Thee
from
Sonnets from the Portuguese
. I had it read at our wedding,” she said with an exclusive smile to Cam. “Remember? Know that one, Luke?”

“Oh yeah, Mom loved that one too.” He noticed us all staring and explained, “Mom worked in admin for the British Poetry Trust—they put on an annual poetry festival. It’s how she met Dad, hit his company up for sponsorship.”

“So you do know
How Do I love Thee
by heart?” Jessica brightened.

“Only vaguely,” he said.

“Go on, make the ladies swoon,” Jase teased him. “Give us a few lines of
How Do I Love Thee
in your best British accent.”

I couldn’t believe that Lucas Ainswright actually reddened.

“Can’t remember it now,” he mumbled. “I’ve lost the accent too.”

“Trust me, your hybrid accent is still plummy. Go on.” Jase nudged him. Lucas frowned and pushed him off.

“Please Luke,” Sarah said.

“So not fair, Sarah.” He waved a finger at her. “You know I can knock back these two idiots,” he glanced at Jase and Cam, “but you...”

“I’d love to hear it too.” I leaned forward, knowing he would either refuse just to annoy me or feel the peer pressure.

“I really can’t remember it.” He shook his head.

“I’d really love to hear it too, Luke,” Jessica said.

Lucas glared at Jase. “I’m not coming to dinner again if you seat them together.”

Sarah grinned, held her hand up for a high-five and Jessica and I delivered. Jase laughed and sat back arms folded.

“Come on, Lord Lucas, deliver,” he said.

“Jase will back you up,” Cam said with a glance to Jase. They had something planned that they had done before. Jase laughed, rose and went into the second room. He came out with an acoustic guitar. The two ladies clapped with delight.

Lucas sighed and rolled his eyes. “Fine... I’m not sure what I can remember. Jess, you’ll have to back me up.” He pulled his chair back from the table and cleared his throat to begin. Jase strummed a few bars of something soft and swooning. Lucas began, looking at Jessica:

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”