Sweet Spot by Stella Rhys

2

LIA

So this is happening.

This is a real thing that is happening.

My head spun as I tried to process the turn of events. I’d met Lukas ten minutes ago and started hating him shortly after. He’d casually announced his plans to ruin the peace of my home life and I’d shot him a variety of death looks to refrain from cussing him out. In short, we’d gotten off to a rocky start.

Yet here I was.

Alone with him in his apartment at 11PM, wearing nothing but a soaked robe that still refused to unglue itself from my skin.

“You know what you should do? You should hate-fuck him.”

“Sara!” I pounced on my phone, which I’d set at the foot of the bed in the upstairs guest room. “You’re on speakerphone because I’m changing, so don’t say anything crazy!” I hissed, lowering the volume even more.Since Tess was no longer answering texts and I had no clue where she kept my spare key, I’d gone with plan B, which was to borrow her clothes, call a car and rush to Sara’s while the key situation was being resolved – because considering my pulse had not stopped racing since I first laid eyes on him, there was no way in hell that I could survive another ten minutes with Lukas, let alone a fucking sleepover with him.

“Why not though?” Sara asked.

“Is this a serious question?” I whispered furiously as I yanked on the brand new sweater and leggings taken from Tess’s guest room closet. I was relieved to hear that everything inside was set for donation – not so relieved to discover that nothing was bigger than a size four. “Shit, woman, you might need to come here and drop off a hoodie and sweats. I don’t have a bra or panties and I’m pretty sure I’m stretching everything see-through!”

“Good. Walk downstairs, do a twirl, ask him how you look. You’ll be having sex in minutes.”

“Sara – ” I snatched my phone up and jabbed it promptly off speaker. “Hi. Can I talk to my best friend, please? The one who knows that I don’t do that sort of thing? Like – ever?”

“Yes, hi, it’s me. I know you don’t do that sort of thing – in fact, I know for how long you haven’t done that sort of thing,” Sara mused. “But you said literally yesterday and the day before that you need to get back into the dating game at some point or you’ll never have a family.”

“I only said that because of the cute baby clothes at H&M!”

“And because you keep getting orders for weddings of brides who are several years younger than you.”

“Damn, woman. Take it easy.”

“I’m quoting you,” Sara laughed. “So all I’m saying is you gotta start somewhere and if there were any night to break the dry spell, wouldn’t it be tonight? You were literally dripping wet when you met this alleged babe and ten minutes later, you’re getting conveniently naked in his apartment. Also, in the three years that I’ve known you, I’ve heard you describe a man as ‘crazy hot’ like, three times tops and two of those times we were watching a movie.”

“Inception,” I murmured. “All those tailored suits.”

“Exactly. And that still averages to like, once a year,” Sara pointed out. “Yet in the past eight texts and two minutes of conversation with me you’ve dropped ‘crazy hot’ at least three times and there was also mention of…” She trailed off while undoubtedly scrolling through our texts. “‘Pecs the size of my face.’ So… maybe all this is a sign? I mean it really feels like God’s dropping some major hints tonight.”

I snorted as I went over to the mirror and stared at my reflection. “First off, leave God out of this mess. Second, getting back into the dating game and having sex with my womanizing prick of a neighbor are two very different things.”

“How do you know he’s a womanizer?”

“I looked at him, Sara. And then I heard him talk.”

“Maybe he’s not as bad as you think.”

“I think I’m going to spend the next month listening to him take a new girl home every night.”

“Because you’re a pessimist when it comes to men and relationships and all that jazz. But you are attracted to him, right?”

“Physically.” I trudged toward the bed and plopped myself down. “But I feel like I had no choice in the matter. He’s like… aggressively good-looking. I swear every single muscle on his body is an attention whore. They keep flexing and rippling when all he’s doing is standing there and crossing his arms. It’s stupid.”

“Well, it still counts,” Sara laughed. “So I say try and end this night on a positive note. I mean if he’s related to Tess, there’s gotta be a nice guy somewhere under there.”

“I wouldn’t count on it.”

“Well, I would. Matter of fact – I’ll bet you your cab ride that if you stick around and talk it out with him, you’ll find there’s actually a decent person under all that sexy muscle,” Sara said, ever the optimist. “It beats hating your home life for the next four weeks, right? You know I’m right.”

“Yeah, yeah, fair enough. I’m calling a car in about five, okay? See you soon,” I sighed before hanging up, taking in a deep breath and heading for the door.

But I was barely halfway down the stairs when I stifled a gasp and ducked behind the wall. Because standing at the front door with Lukas was a beautiful blonde – in a trench coat pulled open to show off her bright, red lingerie.

“What thefuck?” I whispered under my breath, stumbling backward and contorting my face over the fact that I was right. I was fucking right! I’d barely just hung up with Sara and I’d already proved the different-woman-a-night theory true.

Crouched at the top of the steps, I clasped a hand over my mouth, leaning against the wall to listen into the murmured conversation. I was expecting the filthiest of dirty talk but to my surprise, when I heard Lukas speak, his voice was steely – tinged with more than a hint of annoyance.

“I told you not to come.”

“You also told me you wouldn’t open the door if I did, yet here we are.”

“Noelle, go home.”

“But Nadia and I wanted to give you a housewarming gift. She’ll be here in a couple minutes – and she’ll be wearing your favorite little red thing. You always prefer us in matching colors, right?”

No fucking way.

And just like that, my different-woman-a-night-theory became the two-different-women-a-night-at-the-same-time theory. Oh my God. Fuck my life, I cursed as I pictured a month of waking up to rowdy sex parties and choruses of orgasmic moans.

“Lukie…”

“This is not a drill, Noelle. I need you to go home.”

“What the fuck, Lukas. Do not embarrass me tonight,” the woman hissed, though she promptly softened her voice. “I need your cock now. I’ve been wet for you all day and we might as well take advantage of poor Tessie being gone, right?” she simpered mockingly. “You know how much she whines and bitches when you fuck her friends.”

I peeked past the wall in time to see Lukas clenching his jaw at her remark. “Goodnight,” he said, closing the door. She pushed it back open with surprising force.

“Lukas – ”

“I have someone over,” he said.

My eyebrows jumped high as I watched Noelle stop and stare with hurt. But she recovered quickly.

“Well… if I don’t hear her she must not be very much fun,” she scoffed. “And if you haven’t taken your dick out yet, she must not be all that cute.”

Lukas’s laugh was curt. “Oh, but she’s actually one of those rare finds that pulls off cute and sexy at the same time,” he said low, barely loud enough for me to hear. “And trust me, my cock’s been hard as a rock since the second I laid eyes on her tonight but I’m trying out the gentleman thing for once,” he added, his voice an irritated rasp. “That enough detail for you to head home now or would you like to hear about how fucking perfect her tits are? ‘Cause I could go on and on.”

My jaw fell into my lap. And in seconds, Noelle was gone, her angry heels clacking audibly down the hall even after Lukas closed the door. My heart hammering, I waited another ten seconds, giving Noelle time to exit the building before I got up and flew downstairs, making a beeline for the door that Lukas leaned tiredly against. He exhaled a breath that was half-groan upon spotting me.

“Something tells me you’re displeased.”

I meant to ignore his dry remark but I couldn’t help myself. “Yeah – sorry I’m not completely charmed that you went into pretend-detail about having sex with me just to get rid of some poor girl.”

“Poor girl she is not, but do enlighten me on how I went into detail about having sex with you. If I recall correctly, I admitted to my dick being in my pants all night.”

“Well, I didn’t need to hear you talk so explicitly about everything else,” I snapped.

“What did I say?”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not going to repeat it just so you can hear me say bad words.”

“‘Bad words’? What are we, five?”

“Fine.” I crossed my arms and stared in disbelief at him. “I didn’t need to hear all about how hard you were or how… how…”

His lips turned up in a wicked grin. “How perfect I think your tits are?”

“Oh my God,” I said in his face as I physically pushed him off the door to let myself out. Holy shit. Mistake, I swallowed hard. Never ever touch his abs again, I scolded myself, dizzy over how absurdly hard his muscles just felt under my palms.

“Right, well, see you around,” Lukas called humorously down the hall. My heart slammed as I fought back the urge to respond or so much as look back. And I succeeded, but the second I was out the door of the townhouse, my fingers flew to send Sara the rare all-caps text.

ME: HE IS AS BAD AS I THOUGHT AND YOU OWE ME 10000 CABS!!! POUR TWO GLASSES OF WINE I’LL BE THERE IN 10!!!!