Page 43 of Bad Luck Club

He chuckled a little under his breath. “You know, radical honesty insists I tell you that you sound like a self-help greeting card right now.”

A smile drifted onto her lips. “And it insists I tell you that I take that as a compliment.”

She turned into Bear’s long drive, and Lee cursed a little under his breath.

“We’re here, aren’t we?”

“This is it. You’re looking at the Cluster.”

There was plenty of parking for everyone, thankfully, but the people who lived closest to each other usually carpooled for meetings. That made it hard to tell who’d already arrived, but it looked like they were among the last. She couldn’t decide whether that was a good thing.

She parked the car and turned to Lee, who was giving her a pointed glance. “Cloister? That isn’t helping dissuade me about the whole cult thing. The whole cabin in the woods thing doesn’t seem like a great sign either.”

“Not cloister. Cluster, like cluster…fudge.”

A smile played on his lips. “Let me guess, your father didn’t like it when you swore.”

“Of course not,” she said, smiling back. “It wouldn’t be ladylike.”

“And why, may I ask, do they call their own house a cluster—” he gave her a wicked look, “—fudge?”

“I guess you’re about to find out.”

They both unbuckled their seat belts, but he made no move for the door. Gazing at her, the gold flecks in his eyes like mica, he asked, “Blue, what part of last night convinced you to break things off with Dan?”

She didn’t answer right away, her heart still choking her, and he smiled at her—a sexy, unreserved smile—the kind that made her wonder how many people he’d looked at this way.

“Radical honesty, remember?”

Her whole body hummed like a tuned instrument. It hadn’t been like this since the beginning with Remy.

And if that wasn’t a thought to wake her up . . .

Except it didn’t jar her enough. Because she found herself leaning toward Lee a little, as if caught up in a whirlwind of his making. As if those vines were cinching their very bodies together. “Because I wanted you to kiss me,” she admitted. She silently added,Because I felt more connected to you in one night than I did to him in two months…

But Lee was reaching for her then, his hand weaving into her hair, pulling her to him, and those lips that had driven her to distraction the night before, the ones that had hovered over her neck, were suddenly on hers. They were warm and commanding, and Blue felt lost to the longing that unfurled within her, to the heat that ignited in her core. He’d probably meant it to be a soft kiss, exploratory, but his hand burrowed deeper into her hair, pulling her closer, and she found herself moaning as his tongue swept into her mouth. She wrapped her hands around his arms, mindlessly trying to bring him closer, needing to feel him against her like she had last night, like she’d dreamed of, and suddenly he was lifting her up onto his lap. They were facing each other this time, and she had a flash of what it would have been like if they’d talked like this last night—looking into each other’s eyes, bodies locked together—and the intimacy of it was more arousing than anything she’d ever experienced. She was the one who kissed him this time, reveling in the fact that he’d given her control by pulling her on top of him, until she caught a glimpse of the bench Cal had made, beneath the willow tree in the Cluster’s back yard, and oh God, what the hell was she doing?

She drew back, panting, feeling Lee’s arousal against her again, making her want to forget the meeting and suggest they go back to her house to get to know each other in a different way.

Only now that she had the chance to breathe, she felt a stab of misgiving. She couldn’t control herself with Lee. She’d gone completely unhinged just now. And the club…if anyone found out about this, he wouldn’t be able to join as her sponsee.

If anyone found out, she might just get kicked out altogether.

Lee grinned at her. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

She loved seeing him like this. Exposed and open. Warm. Unworried. And she hated that she was going to be the one to break the moment, but she had to.

Pulling away, she plopped into her own seat, still feeling the searing touch of his lips, the press of his body that hadn’t been nearly close enough.

Space. She needed space between them.

“We can’t, Lee.”

She’d expected his face to fall, but it didn’t. It went stony.

“Oh?”

“It’s a rule. Sponsors and sponsees can’t date. It’s…there are a lot of reasons why it’s a rule. Bear said it would disrupt the process if it ever happened.”

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