Page 4 of Sweet Spot

I read the texts with a mounting fury and a feeling of total helplessness. I didn’t realize how hard my jaw had clenched till I heard my molars squeak against each other.

“Got your little confirmation?”

Four words and I could hear how thoroughly entertained Lukas was by all of this. God, he was such a prick. Just for sticking that condescending “little” in there, I hated him. Quite possibly despised him.

And because of that, I hurried my ass up to help him.

I wanted Lukas gone ASAP – out of my sight and out of mind. So with some kind of grunt of a noise, I paced past him, hand out and going to work the second he slapped his key in my palm. Shoving it into the door, I used my other hand to grip the knob, wiggling and jiggling both at once the way I’d learned over the years, as hard as I possibly could till the door finally popped open. Then snatching my robe shut again, I glared up at my new neighbor and despite wanting badly to just flush it down the toilet, I returned his key in his hand.

“All good then?”

He peeled his eyes off my chest. “Just about.”

“Well, I can’t help you with anything beyond your lock.” I stalked past him and reached for my door.

“Come in for a minute.”

I turned to flash him an incredulous look. “What?”

“For a drink,” he laughed. “Just one so I can smooth things over. The way we started doesn’t have to be the way we end, right?”

“Sorry,” I answered curtly. “It’s late and I should get back to sleep.”

“You were sleeping just now?”

“Yes,” I lied. “Soundly till you came along.”

He nodded and smirked for a moment, his gaze dipping again. “Pretty wet for someone who was just sleeping.”

My cheeks burned.

Goddamnit.

I had no comeback but at this point, I also had no interest in further conversation with Lukas Hendricks aside from perhaps calling him out for the arrogant asshole he was, especially as he leaned back all relaxed, head tilted up to show off that perfect jaw. God, he so deserved to be cursed out. But that reaction would only serve to amuse him and I refused to let him win again so breathing deep, I kept it as classy as I could.

“Goodnight, Lukas,” I bit out as I turned and pushed open my door – rather, I tried.

But the knob refused to turn.

I was locked out.

2

LIA

So this is happening.

This is a real thing that is happening.

My head spun as I tried to process the turn of events. I’d met Lukas ten minutes ago and started hating him shortly after. He’d casually announced his plans to ruin the peace of my home life and I’d shot him a variety of death looks to refrain from cussing him out. In short, we’d gotten off to a rocky start.

Yet here I was.

Alone with him in his apartment at 11PM, wearing nothing but a soaked robe that still refused to unglue itself from my skin.

“You know what you should do? You should hate-fuck him.”

“Sara!” I pounced on my phone, which I’d set at the foot of the bed in the upstairs guest room. “You’re on speakerphone because I’m changing, so don’t say anything crazy!” I hissed, lowering the volume even more. Since Tess was no longer answering texts and I had no clue where she kept my spare key, I’d gone with plan B, which was to borrow her clothes, call a car and rush to Sara’s while the key situation was being resolved – because considering my pulse had not stopped racing since I first laid eyes on him, there was no way in hell that I could survive another ten minutes with Lukas, let alone a fucking sleepover with him.