Page 77 of Puck You Very Much

“Are you okay, Lucy?” Her sister looked at her with concern. “Did you get some of my cocktail on you? You look disgusted.”

“Really? I feel more like I’m panicking,” she blurted out.

Maddie’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh my God. Are you taken? You’re not just saying that?!”

“No, no.” She shook her head quickly. “Of course I’m not taken.” Her voice croaked. “It was simply a knee-jerk reaction.”

“So, why the knee-jerk reaction?”

“From all the incredibly hot sex with Dax,” she whispered, hastily hiding her face behind her cocktail glass.

“What?” Maddie put her glass down so hard that liquid slopped over the edge. “I thought you hated him!”

“Well, you know…” She shrugged guiltily. “It turns out I don’t hate the orgasms he doles out.”

“Oh God, I’m jealous.” Maddie threw her head back with a groan. “I want to have sex with a hot hockey player, too.”

“Take Matt,” Lucy suggested, grinning. “I’ve heard he’s good in bed.”

Maddie frowned. “No way. He’s already held my hair back as I puked after too many margaritas. He’ll never associate the wordsexywith me again. Besides, I know he likes mint-flavored chocolate. So he’s obviously crazy. You don’t have hot sex with crazy people. You only have sex you regret with crazy people. So, is Dax crazy? Will you regret this escapade with him?”

“I don’t think so,” Lucy replied slowly. As long as her brain stopped being thrown off track when she thought about Dax.

“No?” Maddie looked at her skeptically. “Okay. Tell me. What’s it like?”

“It’s…surprisingly easy.”

“Sleeping with him? Well, I would hope so.”

Lucy chuckled. “No. Spending time with him. The whole affair is amazingly…uncomplicated.”

Maddie snorted loudly.

“What?” she asked, surprised.

“Nothing about affairs is straightforward, Lucy! Nothing. Why do you think I never have one? Someone always gets hurt because he or she suddenly wants more.”

Now Lucy snorted. “It’s not like that. We have rules. We know what we’re getting into. We expect nothing from each other except discretion. It’s the perfect arrangement.”

“Oh, please. Everyone always thinks that, but in the end, it’s nonsense. Are you seriously telling me you don’t have feelings for him?”

Lucy gnawed on her lip and listened to her heart for a moment—briefly. There were a lot of emotions swirling around inside, most of all longing and other warm emotions. But none so big that she couldn’t easily ignore it!

“I have feelings—in moderation,” she said, convinced of that.

“Oh, is that why you just said you were taken?” Maddie asked.

She waved her hand. “It was a Freudian slip. Let’s talk about something else. You know…honor the discretion.”

Her sister rolled her eyes and nodded. “Fine. Dad asked about you, Lucy.”

She groaned. “Why do you always have to get out the sledgehammer, Maddie?”

“Because that’s the best way to knock down walls. So, what’s going on?”

Lucy lowered her gaze, pulled the plastic straw out of her cocktail, and spent a moment bending it into a small staircase. “I’m angry at him,” she whispered.

Maddie nodded. “I know. Me too.”

---