Page 51 of For the Love of Lily

“You had your back to me, it could’ve been an aubergine I was holding against you.”

I laughed too loudly. “Only one way to find out…” His entire body tensed against me as I slid my hand inside his shorts and took hold of him. He made me nervous, and giddy, and completely horny. His mouth pressed against my shoulder. “How have you kept this from me for so long?” I asked.

“I have no idea. But I need to know what you’ve been keeping from me.” He kissed me with an urgency as his hand flashed down my stomach. He lifted the lacy waistband and delved immediately in between my legs. This was incredible.

“Please don’t stop, Luke.” I pulled him even closer to me if that was possible, desperate for him. “I know I said not all the stuff a few minutes ago. But I want all the stuff.”

His tongue wrestled with my own as he pinned me down onto the bed with his mouth. “We can’t.”

“We can,” I whispered. Remembering the zip pocket in my handbag, which undoubtedly still had condoms in it, left over from before Zack and I stopped using them, I rolled to the side and rummaged around in my bag, grinning and holding a screwed-up foil package aloft in triumph.

“Lily, I can’t cope with you,” he sighed and pulled back from me. I tried to follow him with kisses, but he shook his head. “What if Zack calls you in half an hour, apologising and asking you to come home? Are you going to be able to tell him what we did?”

All the incredible feelings shooting around my body fizzled out, like damp fireworks that had let a crowd down. I pouted sadly. “How are you so good, Luke? Anyone else would’ve carried on.”

“I don’t want you hurt,” he stroked my cheek. “But I do need a cold shower. Want to order breakfast?”

Both showered and a little subdued, we ate breakfast together on the bed. Silently contemplating what was going to happen, where this was going to go. I couldn’t believe Zack was still blanking me. Luke was working on his laptop at the desk, so I decided to try and call Zack one more time. If he still wouldn’t pick up, then that sent a pretty clear message.

Yesterday the phone had been ringing for ages before cutting to voicemail. Today it rang once and then went straight to the ‘leave a message’ bit. I threw the phone across the bad, muttering, “Such a twat.”

Luke turned around and raised an eyebrow. “Me?”

I laughed, glad he was here. “Definitely not you.”

Grabbing the phone back as Luke made a call to the office, I decided to see if Instagram gave me any clues to what Zack was up to. Nothing. He wasn’t the most prolific poster though. I checked Adam’s too, see if they had posted anything when Zack was there, but nope, Adam only posted about games. Sighing, I flicked through my feed with lazy swipes, half listening to Luke’s phone call and legal jargon.

It seemed as though there had been an impromptu work night out. I was seeing lots of tipsy looking photos taken in the bar around the corner from work last night. People often went for a quick drink at five thirty, and occasionally, it progressed. Looked like it had been a crazy night. I flicked through the pictures nosily until I got to one and froze.

It was a selfie Anna had taken; she did love a good selfie. I’d always thought she was a bit of a bitch; she thought she was so superior with her bloody law degree. Zack and her were in the same team, so I had to smile and be polite. There she was, grinning into the camera but only filling a portion of the screen, which wasn’t like her. She’d done it on purpose because filling the background was Zack… with his tongue down a girl’s throat. She was petite and blonde, wearing an impossibly short skirt. His hand was above her knee. She was touching his hair- his hair that I loved. For some reason that made me angrier than anything else.

All these games - this was why I’d wanted to stay single. Screw him. I pressed on the heart to like the picture. Screw Anna too, she’d done this on purpose. Let them know I’d seen it. I took a screenshot of the evidence and threw the phone down again. Luke glanced my way as he carried on talking.

“I’m going to get us good coffee, back soon,” I whispered as I stroked my fingers over his hand, grabbing my bag on the way.

I walked to Starbucks in a daze, half tempted to detour to the office and tell Zack he was a twat to his face. But was kissing a random blonde any worse than me kissing Luke? Probably not. If I wanted to be with Luke, this was the opportunity, but I didn’t know what I wanted. This wasn’t a nice feeling.

Had Zack taken that girl back to our house? He wouldn’t, would he?

He was infuriating, the way he got so angry and jealous. Now he was blanking me like I was nothing. I knew I’d been far from perfect, but at least I was honest about it, didn’t get caught in a random selfie.

I let myself back into the hotel room half an hour later with two large caramel coffee creations. “Are you alright?” Luke asked.

“Yep, you?”

“You left your phone on the bed. Cassie rang, so I answered. Then I saw that photo…”

I sighed. “It’s no worse than what I’ve been doing, is it? He might as well make the most of being on a break, I guess.”

“I don’t think you mean that. Is he still not answering your calls?”

“Nope,” I replied. “And I’m not trying again. He’s going away tomorrow, so perhaps I leave him alone like you said.”

“Why don’t you go and stay with Cassie? Be better than being here. She won’t mind. You two need to talk,” Luke suggested.

“That makes me sad.” I looked down and pulled a sad face.

“What?” Luke looked confused.

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