Page 34 of Bad Luck Club

Lee pulled away, and she immediately felt the loss of his presence, of the touch that had begun to feel so familiar and right. “Do you need to get that?”

A glance at the phone revealed it was Dan, and the way her heart sunk told her everything she needed to know.

Everyone had been right about Dan. Bear. Maisie. Adalia. He wasn’t right for her—while he gave her the space she so desperately craved and made no attempts to insert himself into her life, she wanted more on some level. She wanted the honey on toast feeling she had with Lee. She wanted the strange intimacy that had been growing between them.

Part of her knew the truth: she wantedhim.

But he needed her help more than he needed her heart, and she didn’t know how to be with someone like Lee without losing herself. Without becoming, again, that little girl who’d wanted nothing more than to please her father. Who’d wanted to be the complacent wife Remy had pretended he didn’t want.

She knew she was in deep, deep trouble.

Herthingwith Dan—it didn’t really qualify as a relationship as they hadn’t agreed on exclusivity—wasn’t over yet. It wouldn’t be over until she saw him and could break the news in person. So what she was about to say wasn’t a lie. Which was important, because she really, really didn’t want to lie to Lee.

“Yeah, I should take it,” she said. “It’s my boyfriend.”

Chapter Eleven

Lee felt like he’d been punched in the gut.

Herboyfriend?

If she hadn’t already gotten up, he would have jerked away from her as though she had the bubonic plague.

“Hey, Dan,” she said as she answered. Her back was to him, so he couldn’t read her face.

A flood of emotions was raging through him, slipping through the cracks of his closed-off heart, and he needed to regain control, so he got up off the sofa and headed down the short hall to find the bathroom.

Shutting the door behind him, he placed his back to the door and took several deep breaths.

What the hell had just happened? Not the phone call part—okay, yeah, the phone call part too—but more specifically his reaction to Blue. Something about her vulnerability and honesty had pushed open the door to his emotions. He felt closer to her than he had to anyone in a very long time, and he liked it. No, he craved it.

Honesty.He almost snorted. He’d been snuggled up behind her in a very intimate position whileshehad a boyfriend. How was that being honest? Was she a cheater just like Victoria?

But she hadn’t initiated any physical contact between them. That had been all him. And while he had turned to engulf her in a hug from behind, she might have seen it as supportive—as he’d fully intended—and not sexual, which it hadn’t been until moments before the phone had rung. For all he knew, she’d been about to give him a quick thrust to his solar plexus with her elbow.

Except he didn’t think that was true. He’d felt her lean into his touch.

This had been a mistake. A horrible, terrible mistake. He needed to head out to the living room, make a hasty goodbye, and get the hell out of here.

But part of him didn’t want to, and he couldn’t figure out why. Was it because he was horny? He didn’t think so. While he wanted her in the most carnal of ways, there was something else he craved. He wanted to deepen the connection he’d felt between them. In those moments, sitting back-to-back and then front-to-back with Blue, sharing with her, he hadn’t felt so utterly alone.

He wanted that, and yet he couldn’t have it. Not with her.

Taking a deep breath, he turned and faced himself in the mirror, and he realized he didn’t much like the person staring back at him. Prescott Lee Buchanan, Jr. was a pompous asshole. Somehow he needed to fix that, and he knew the person he needed to see to get started.

When he walked back into the living room, Blue was pacing with an anxious look on her face, still holding the phone. Her giant rabbit—who knew they could grow to be so large?—was hiding around the side of the sofa.

Blue’s eyes widened when she saw him, and she grimaced. “Lee, I need to apologize—”

“Hey, it’s me who should apologize,” he said, forcing a nonchalant smile. “I suspect there’s a reason for the whole back-to-back thing,” he said with a short laugh. “You weren’t counting on me breaking the rule.” He ran a hand over his head, the flood of emotions within him rising like water in a sink with a plugged drain. He needed to pull the stopper. He just didn’t know where it was. “You know, I’m usually a rule follower. I’m a stickler for them, which is likely why my father kept me out of his Ponzi scheme. He probably worried I’d turn him in.” He released another laugh, more nervous this time. “Turns out he was right, huh?”

Worry filled her eyes. “Lee…”

“I really appreciate you trying to help me, but I need to go.”

She reached out and grabbed his forearm. “Please don’t leave. I’m so sorry about the interruption. I should have put my phone on silent.”

He was sorry about the interruption too. He hadn’t wanted to stop. He’d wanted a whole lot more, which was exactly the reason he needed to leave.

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