Destructive Luxe-A Luxe Novel: Book 2 Page 25

  "Picked up on what?" Glowering at him like he were insane, she mentally began building another web she was going to weave.

  "You and Jacks. I've talked to him about you and he's tried to push other girls on me. I've seen the signs. They've all been there. Fuck, I'm a shitty lawyer."

  "Isn't it your job to defend people, not solve mysteries?"

  "Fuck, El." He put his hands to his face. "Shit," he breathed. "You gotta go." He didn't want Ian to find out about them. He already knew Ian was conscious to the fact that he wanted his girl, but he didn't want bad blood between their families.

  As he went to start the jeep, Lilith unbuckled and got out, jumping into a small puddle.

  "What're you doing?" he yelled at her. She lifted her middle finger as she started to march the way she thought they drove in. "El." He pushed open the jeep door but stopped when he saw a giant puddle under his door. "El!" he yelled, crawling to the top of the muddy jeep. "ZP, wait!"

  Jumping over marshy puddles, she began to rub her cold arms that were bared in only his t-shirt. The sprinkling rain felt like little ice pellets hitting her flesh and though she was freezing, she refused to turn back around.

  "El!" he yelled. "You can't fucking walk home!"

  "Yes I can, I have two legs!" she yelled into the air, seeing the brume of her breath.

  "Well then." Snatching her arm, he spun her and pointed to the trees. "That's how you get to the road."

  With a glance at him, she grit her teeth and headed toward the trees. He laughed at her.

  "I'm glad you find this amusing," she called to him, not stopping her tantrum march.

  "I do." He stood planted, watching her walk away. "Very."

  She lifted her finger at him again and he laughed harder.

  "Screw you, Borg!" Lilith snapped at him and spun around, stomping back to the jeep. "Take me home!" She climbed in.

  Justin smirked, shaking his head. He jumped onto the back of the jeep and climbed to the roof. Dangling over the side, he reached down and opened the door. She held in her laughter from the lengths he had to go to get back in. Carefully, he slid over the side and inside which was when she lost her will to fight back the laughter.

  "It's funny?" He started the jeep. "You acting like a child at the most inopportune time is funny?"

  "Yes." Her hands covered her laughing lips.

  He began to pull off the trail and she looked down at her wet clothes.

  "I'm freezing."

  "Here." He grabbed his zip up hoodie from the back seat.

  He didn't expect her to take the shirt off but she did before slipping into his warm hoodie. Distracted by her purple bra for the second time that day, he didn't see the small bush he ran over, stalling out the jeep.

  "Oh! Justin!" Lilith yelled into her hands. With huge eyes she looked over to gauge his reaction.

  Sadness made his pretty face look younger as panic for his beloved jeep's wellbeing made him whimper. Lilith's laughter forced its way out and she pushed the door open to look under the stalled out vehicle.

  "It was just a baby." Her words came out through laughter.

  "Shit." He looked at her from under the jeep and the smartass grin across her face made him chuckle. "Get in."

  Remaining silent and barely breathing, she scrunched her face while he tried to start the jeep.

  When he slowly pulled away, he rubbed the dashboard. "Sorry, girl."

  Lilith barked out another laugh and he smirked with embarrassment. Silence sat suspended between them and the closer they got to the city, the more she felt she needed to right the situation.

  "A beer?" The hopefulness wasn't in her tone, but when he nodded, her body sagged with relief.

  He wasn't giving her an option; he went to the bar he always hung out at. The same bar she met up with Caesar in. If she couldn't handle it, he had no business hanging around a girl like her.

  There were no complaints from her.

  "My pants are wet," she muttered as they walked in.

  The black hood to his hoodie was up to hide her flat, wet hair, and her arms wrapped around her stomach to press the warm material of the inside to her skin.

  "Sit down." He pointed to a shabby booth.

  Tensions were high and she wasn't going to push her luck, so Lilith did what he told her. Looking around, she noticed there were more people than the day she ran into him.

  "Aren't you cold?" she asked when he sat across from her.

  "Yeah, give me my coat." He nodded toward his hoodie.

  "If you insist." She smirked and feigned unzipping the coat.

  He pointed at her. "Don't." A smirk pulled at his lips while he observed her covered head. "You'd look good with black hair."

  She chuckled and flipped the hood off. "So now what?" she asked and he looked at her over his beer while he took a big drink.

  "Why'd you fuckin' lie?"

  "Lie about what?" She cocked her eyebrow.

  "The one dude—"

  "Shaun." Lilith rolled her eyes.

  "Shaun." He huffed.

  "I didn't lie." She took a drink of beer. "I'm seeing him." Her head nodded.

  "Christ," he breathed and looked around the bar feeling stupider and stupider. "Oh Christ." He let out a laugh and finished his beer in three gulps. "Eleanor!" he called out, raising up his empty beer then held up two fingers. "Two golds too." His gaze went back to Lilith. "You're popular."

  "I can be." She shrugged and took another sip of beer.

  He really wanted to say 'you're a whore', but he didn't want to insult the woman he possibly fell in love with after only a few dates.

  "Who's that from?" He pointed to the engagement ring. While she stared at the ring, silence kept him bated until he couldn't take it any longer. "Oh fuck, there's another one?" The loud clank of his beer bottle made Lilith jump.

  "No." She grabbed his hand and the bottle.

  "Who's the ring from, El? Is it real? Is it really an engagement ring?"

  "Yes."

  Eleanor reached the table with two beers and two Goldschläger shots, pausing their stilted conversation.

  "Thank you." Lilith managed a smile and Eleanor returned the polite gesture, then looked at Justin, immediately sensing his anger which sent her right back up to the bar.

  Justin took the shots one after the other, slamming the glasses onto the table. Lilith didn't jump that time. Instead, she picked up her beer and took another drink, warily watching him.

  "You want to just leave? 'Cause you're not telling me shit. You're kinda sitting there lookin' at me like you think I'll forget. You know what? Let me get a few more of these. Eleanor!" he yelled and held up the shot glass then two fingers.

  "Justin, I-you're. I'm not sure—" She stopped as Eleanor approached the table with two more shots.

  "You're not sure?" Justin snipped as Eleanor walked away.

  Lilith grabbed one of the shots, quickly drinking it down, then the second before he could. He smirked and rubbed his bottom lip, trying to fight what he felt for her.

  She cringed and took a sip of beer. "Ian Jacks is my boss," she blurted.

  "I know this. I met you because he's your boss." His derisive response was backed with a scowl. "Remember? I met you at that party where you were drummin' up business, then I started paying for dates, then you started warming up to me and I didn't have to pay for a few. You acted like you were interested in me and you told me you and your boyfriend weren't that serious, that he lives out of the state. You sucked my dick. Remember?"

  "Yeah, I do." A contrite glare was locked on her beer while she fiddled with the label. "I don't know what to tell you."

  "I gather that, Lily! You haven't said shit!"

  "I am interested in you." Reaching across the table, she hooked her finger with his, hoping he didn't pull away.

  "And a bunch of other dudes in Chicago." Sitting back, he yanked his hand from her.

  "Actually, Shaun's from Barbados." She halfheartedly smirked while he shook his h
ead, diving into his second beer. "I didn't plan on becoming interested in you for something other than paid for dates," she quietly admitted, leaning into the table.

  "Then you probably shouldn't have."

  "You shouldn't have made me." In a gulp, she finished her beer then grabbed the full bottle in the middle of the table.

  "How is this my fault?" he scoffed.

  "You had me meet your family! Your nephews and niece! You had me meet your friends! Your ex! All of this when you knew I had a boyfriend."

  "But I really believed you when you said it wasn't that serious."

  "It's a fucking engagement ring, Justin. How much more serious can you get other than marriage?"

  "So whose ring is it?"

  "Mine."

  Her smartass comment had him slamming the empty shot glass down then he pointed at her, leaning into the table. "Do it again." The threat in his tone held no conviction.

  Standing, she leaned over the table and pressed her chest into his finger he was still pointing at her.

  "And what?" she challenged.

  He dropped his hand and leaned back, fighting the urge to kiss her.

  "Who gave you the ring?" the defeated sounding question mumbled from his lips.

  "I can't tell you. It's a big fucked up secret which is why I'm here with you."

  He cocked his eyebrow staring at her, slowly putting the pieces together. There was still a shroud of mystery to it all, but things were falling into place. He knew where Ian's apartment was, yet he was at the condo with her. He knew she had an apartment and a condo. He knew Ian Jacks' girlfriend was Karen.

  "Justin?" Eleanor called his name holding up the Goldschläger bottle. With a nod, he waved her over.

  "Eleanor, this is El," he said when she reached the table.

  "Hi." Lilith smiled.

  "You were at Urban's set the other night." Eleanor filled the four shot glasses then put the bottle on the table knowing the look on Justin's face meant he needed it.

  "Yeah." Lilith's smile never faltered and it put Justin at ease.

  "Girlfriend?" Eleanor asked him.

  Justin looked at Lilith and her doe-eyed look while she bit the corner of her bottom lip slapped him in the face because he couldn't deny her if he wanted to.

  "Yeah."

  "That's good, Justin." Eleanor patted his shoulder. After smiling at Lilith, she walked away.

  "She used to be best friends with Layna," he mumbled, raising the shot glass to his lips.

  "Can we wait?" Before he tilted the liquid into his mouth, she grabbed the glass. "Can we talk this out before you get too drunk?"

  "Are you actually going to talk?"

  "What do you want to know, Justin?"

  "Who proposed? Who wants to marry you?"

  "Ian."

  "Are you going to marry him?"

  "Yes." Her head nodded and he let out an annoyed laugh.

  "Who's Shaun?"

  "I met him in Barbados. We talk, we fuck, he came to see me." She shrugged, taking a shot.

  "You said wait!" he complained.

  "I meant you wait. This will be better if I'm drunk."

  "How do you hide Shaun from Ian?"

  "I don't." She shrugged again and sat back.

  He cocked his head a little. "Because he's not hiding his girlfriend from you." The smirk that tilted his lips was more out of feeling ignorant. "So you rub other men in his face."

  "No." An offended chuckle huffed from her. "That's not it at all. We have an open relationship that he's not open about with Karen, his girlfriend. She doesn't know about me, I know about her. Ian asked me to marry him but told me he won't leave Karen. He wants a secret marriage, secret life with me. There are only a very small handful of people that know about us. His girlfriend is crazy and could do a lot of damage."

  "Didn't she try and kill herself? Ed Jacks told my dad that."

  "Yeah. She could do a lot of damage to herself and Ian's reputation so we will remain a secret."

  "What the fuck's wrong with you that you'd accept that? What kind of woman would let a man keep his girlfriend? He doesn't love you, you know." He took a shot. "If he loved you, he'd get rid of the other bitch."

  "That's fine." His words didn't make her feel like she had to defend her relationship. She was confident enough in herself and Ian that he wouldn't penetrate her reverence. "In return, Ian has no say in what I do in my non-secret life."

  "So you fuck dudes in Barbados and who else? Oh, well a lot of guys 'cause you just set your schedule for open leg business." He rolled his eyes and took a drink of beer.

  She reached across the table and grabbed his hand. "I'm not fucking anyone else. I haven't fucked any of my clients. None of them."

  "Cruddy bastard!" Kurt's bellowed words drew closer as he approached the table. "You dickhead." He slid in next to Lilith. Justin's bad mood was all over his face. "Trouble in paradise?" Kurt grinned at her.

  "I pissed him off." She smirked, her sight not leaving Justin's gaze. "Shot?" She pushed a shot to Kurt then grabbed the last one for herself.

  "Everyone pisses him off." He clanked his shot with hers.

  Lilith grabbed the bottle and set it next to her on the booth so Justin didn't refill the glasses to catch up. She wanted him sober when she asked him to consider a relationship with her.

  "Oh!" Kurt laughed through his elongated astonishment. "She cut you off. That's fucked up." He looked at Lilith. "That's fucked up, El. You can't cut this man off. Do you know who he is? Do you know what could happen if you cut him off?" Kurt's laughter kept up.

  "Shut the fuck up." Justin didn't find anything amusing about Kurt's empty threat. "Why the fuck would you do that?" He scowled at Kurt whose laughter stopped. "Why the fuck would you make her think I'm gonna beat her or something?"

  At a loss for words, Kurt looked between them. "I'm gonna let you two talk." Practically jogging, he left the table and headed for the bar. "Fuck, there's gonna be a fight tonight," he muttered to Eleanor.

  "Yeah, little shorty's been pissin' him off since they got here."

  Justin looked at Lilith and she put the bottle back onto the table.

  In the most unthreatened tone, she asked, "You gonna beat me?" She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and he cracked a partial smile. She refilled the four shot glasses and pushed them all toward him. "Don't want to make you angry, Mr. Borg. I don't think I understood who I was dealing with."

  Justin clenched his fists as an annoyed laugh that was backed by lust rumbled from him. He pushed the drinks to the side, willing to accept her request of waiting until they finished talking.

  "Where were we?" The tense question hung between them.

  "I'm not fucking anyone else," she finally said.

  "So does Jacks know about me?"

  Lilith slowly nodded her head. "I told him."

  He smirked, but not amused. "What'd he say?"

  "What can he say?" She took another shot then muttered, "Fuck," pushing the shots away from her.

  Her finger raised and she excused herself from the table. Justin watched her walk to the bathroom then rubbed his face fervently. The second an unwelcome voice sounded by the door, he dropped his hands.

  "Bingo," he muttered, settling on a fight with the asshole Layna cheated on him with; he took a shot.

  His gaze went from the asshole to Kurt. Knowing Justin's unvoiced plan, Eleanor approached Pat, the asshole, telling him to leave.

  "Fuck you, bitch. You don't own the place." He pushed her away from him and Justin sat up straight.

  The only path back from the bathroom to the table was right by the asshole and Lilith unknowingly took that route.

  "Hey," he yelled at her; she looked over her shoulder with her hands in the hoodie pocket. "Sweetheart, your seats right here." When he gestured to his crotch, Lilith attempted to ignore him.

  Getting to his feet, Justin paused to take one more shot.

  "I'm talking to you, sweetheart." Pat grabbed her arm.


  "Don't call me sweetheart!" Lilith growled, instinctively punching him in the only weak spot she could reach on the tall man.

  Almost dropping the shot glass, Justin rushed over. Pat held himself up by a table, gasping for air while holding one hand to his throat that Lilith jabbed with her boney knuckles.

  "Out!" Eleanor shouted at the impaired man.

  Kurt and another man grabbed him, ushering him out the door. Lilith shook her hand that was throbbing in pain and tried to justify to herself what she had done. Her mouth opened to apologize, to defend her actions, to do something, but Justin grabbed her, dipping her back as his mouth covered hers. When he stood her back up, the room was spinning. Whether it was from the kiss or her tilted equilibrium, she didn't know. His mouth on hers quenched a craving she'd been having for hours.

  "Will you be my non-secret boyfriend?" she asked, her eyes locked on his royal blue gaze of adoration.

  "Yes." His head bobbed with his answer like there was no question about it.

  Kurt wandered back in and grabbed Lilith's shoulder. "You okay? Holy fuck, she's a bad bitch." He laughed.

  "I hate when people call me sweetheart." She flexed her hurt hand.

  "Note taken," Kurt said. "I'll buy a round to that. Eleanor." He lifted his finger and spun it in a circle, getting a round for everyone.

  After walking her back to the table, Justin looked over Lilith's hand.

  "Where's it hurt?" His finger pressed to her first knuckle. "Here?" He slid to the middle knuckle and she yanked her hand away.

  "Yeah, stop," she bitched.

  With a proud grin, he pulled her hand back, softly kissing it.

  "So do I still have to pay for dates?"

  She smirked. "You need to send more of your rich friends my way."

  "Fuck that noise. None of my friends are touchin' my girl." As the inaccuracy of the words hit him, he looked away.

  Lilith saw the look on his face. She'd had the same look so many times herself.

  After sliding into the booth next to him, she put her hand to his face. "Don't think about it," she softly said, giving the best advice she could think of. "I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be. You're not just filling my time."

  "You love him? Jacks?"

  Unable to hold his stare while answering, she nodded her head.