Emily hugged her friend goodbye. “You want me to walk with you to your apartment??
?
Meghan shook her head. “I’m fine. You stay and have fun.”
“What about you?” Lucas asked. “You want to stay here for a while or are you ready to go to your apartment?”
“I’m not on schedule tomorrow.”
“Does that mean you want to stay?”
She met his gaze, her lips slightly parted. “What do you want, Lucas?”
For her to say his name until they were both satiated. To hold her in his arms and wake up beside her and do it all over again. Day after day. Night after night.
Where the thought came from, Lucas didn’t question. Just that his whole mind filled with the overpowering response.
“Whatever you want is fine, Emily. Just so long as I get to be with you.”
* * *
Emily frowned at Lucas’s answer. Why, she wasn’t sure. Just that it was sweet and she didn’t want sweet from him.
She wanted to keep him neatly compartmentalized.
“Let’s go back to my apartment.”
“If that’s what you want.”
“That would be why I suggested it,” she snapped, then instantly felt bad. He hadn’t done anything wrong. She knew that. “Sorry.”
“Are you okay, Emily?”
“Fine.” But she was lying. To herself. To Meghan. To him. She might want to stay in control of her feelings for Lucas, but to think that was what she was doing was just downright hilarious.
She laughed. Then again.
“How many of those did you have?”
Not realizing what he meant at first, she thought of the empty soda glass she’d left on the table. “One.”
“Lightweight,” he accused, one corner of his mouth tugging upward.
“I’m not drunk. I told you, it was soda.”
“I’m glad.”
“Why?”
“Because I wouldn’t have sex with a drunk woman.”
“Not ever?”
“Never. Where’s the pleasure in that?”
“Is that what sex is about to you?” she asked. “Pleasure?”
“Pleasure plays a big role,” he admitted, his fingers tracing over her lower back. “What’s sex about to you, Emily?”