Don't Break My Heart (Straight from the Heart #3) (5 page)

“Hell if I know. Alex was out there getting people that were in the water. It was getting too rowdy in the place for him, I guess. Frickin pussy.”

“I’m sorry he’s acting like this,” I whispered to Liam. “Damon can be a sloppy, dickhead drunk.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve seen worse than him up here before,” Liam chuckled.

“I don’t think I’m ready just yet, though,” Damon whined. “I thought we’d sit down and watch a movie.”

“Yeah and you’ll zonk out a second after it comes on,” I snickered. We stood on either side of Damon, hoisting him up to his feet, and holding onto him as we lead him back inside. I couldn’t believe my eyes when we opened the sliding door to the living room. There wasn’t a soul in sight, except for Emily, who was stumbling around, trying to pick up the red solo cups that were smashed on the floor.

“I guess they really did kick the people out,” Liam said to me as we gently set Damon down onto the closest seat we could find. He turned to me and kissed me on the cheek. “I better get going. My friends probably got a cab, but it was an absolute pleasure meeting you Lucy.”

“You, too. I might pop in sometime to your restaurant,” I told him and he gave me a huge grin.

“That’d be amazing. It’ll be on the house,” he winked. “See you around Lucy,” and he walked out the front door, briefly waving at Emily who nodded in return.

Once the door clicked shut, Emily squealed and frantically ran over to me. I heard Damon groan again behind us as she reacted to my encounter with Liam.

“Holy hotness on a stick, Lucy! That guy is fucking beautiful, and he is totally into you,” she said, and I couldn’t stop smiling.

“You think so? I can’t believe I didn’t scare him away with all of these crazy people here.” 

“Please, girl. He’s seems like a gentleman if he didn’t try to put the moves on you. I respect him for that because otherwise I might’ve kicked his ass out… with a little help of course,” she giggled. “So are you going to go see him again?”

My first thought was why wouldn’t I? “I told him I’d eat at his restaurant sometime, so more than likely, yes, I’ll see him again, Em.”

Emily appeared even more excited by my news.

“That guy was trying too hard!” Damon shouted behind us. He had a shit-eating grin on his face.

I narrowed my eyes and said, “He acted just fine, Damon. And by the grin on your face you seem perfectly fine, too.”

He shrugged his shoulders and met my stare dead on. “Maybe I am.” I put two and two together.

“You fucker, you pretended to be drunk?” I yelled, pointing a finger at him. “Why the hell would you do that?”

“Because Pauly didn’t like that Liam dude and told me to do something about getting him out of here, along with the rest of the crowd. So I yelled parties over and kicked everyone out. Even though there were a few pretty gorgeous ladies hanging out…”

“Damon Charming, you never cease to amaze me.” I shook my head, giving him the middle finger. For acting, he had done a pretty damn good job of it. “If Pauly didn’t like him, he should have told me. Besides, why does he care anyways? What was he doing, sucking face with a girl or is that what he’s doing right now?”

“I can’t confirm or deny what he’s doing right now, Luce.” This only meant it was a matter of time before I heard random screaming coming from his bedroom. Great. “Now, how about we turn on a movie and you can fall asleep on me and I’ll carry you to your bed like a princess?”

I couldn’t contain my laughter any longer. Anyone that would hear us talk would assume we had feelings for each other, but that’s never been the case. But we still crack jokes about it nonetheless.

“Since it’s just the three of us apparently, why not?” I replied, and Emily and I plopped down on each side of him as he turned on
American Pie 2
to round out our night.

I must’ve fallen asleep during the movie. I could hear Damon whispering something to Emily as I was carried, like he promised.

“Staying true to your word, huh?” I mumbled, my eyes closing again once I knew he had a good grip on me.

“You bet, sis. Plus, I wanted to sleep in my bed; no offense to you sleeping on my shoulder or anything,” Damon joked, rounding the corner to my room. I heard complete and utter silence, so that meant all the others must’ve had their fucking fun and were finally sleeping like I was about to.

“Thank you, Damon.” I said he set me gently under the covers and covered me up to my neck.

“Anytime, Luce.” Damon kissed me on the forehead and patted my arm. “See ya in the morning.”

I woke up this morning to some girl I vaguely remember from last night sucking my dick.

Really?

Not that I’m fucking complaining or anything; that’s the best way to wake up after a long night of partying. I gripped the girl’s hair as she bobbed her head up and down, her mouth taking in all of me.

As soon as she finished, I pushed her aside and sat on the edge of the bed. Enough was enough. It was a new day, and she needed to get the fuck out. I had to work on damage control with Lucy.

“You need to go now.” I didn’t even look this girl in the eye. Usually, I wasn’t this much of a dick to a girl after I’d fucked her, but today was different for some reason. I pointed to her skimpy dress on the floor and said, “Your clothes are over there.”

The girl huffed, getting off the bed butt naked, bending over in front of me, ass in my face on purpose. I had a look of disgust on my face. She didn’t even have a nice ass, I thought to myself. What was I thinking?

Lucy and new guy, Liam. That’s what.

“So am I going to see you again?” the girl asked me sweetly. She tucked her bleach blonde hair behind her ears as she slipped her dress on over her head.

“I’m afraid not…Uh… Amber…” I took a stab in the dark with her name.

The girl rolled her eyes and flipped me the bird. “My names not
Amber
you asshole, it’s Melanie” Then, without another word, she slammed the bedroom door behind her, her heels clomping down the hallway.

“Good fucking riddance,” I murmured, lying back in bed. All that was on my mind was whether Lucy actually went through fucking some random guy just so we could have some decent lyrics. Why had she even thought of that in the first place? Of course, at the party last night, I see her with some tall blond haired dude who looked like a cocky son of a bitch. So did his two sidekicks. I didn’t like any of them. Not at all. Maybe that’s why she invited him in the first place.

After seeing her walk outside with that prick and being gone for a long time, I bribed Damon into pretending like he was a sloppy drunk to scare Liam away. Being the best friend that he is, he drove all the guests out of the house with a few short words, except for the girls we had all scored and taken upstairs. I’m sure Lucy was cursing my name after finding out Damon faked being drunk, but I love seeing her pissed at me.

I loved seeing her no matter what. It crushed me when I’d told her we couldn’t have sex again, that we needed to stay friends. I wanted to run after her once she’d slammed the door shut and take every single word back. But it was what was best for the group, or so I’d thought. I wouldn’t look at her the same again though. It was completely obvious to the guys in the band that Lucy and I had a thing for each other, but that didn’t matter.

I got out of bed and found a clean pair of boxers and basketball shorts, not bothering with a shirt. This morning, we were going to start working on a few guitar lines for a song Lucy had written awhile back. Or at least, that was my idea. Walking downstairs, Alex, Mike, and Lucy were sitting at the island counter drinking coffee. Fuck, just the sight of Lucy bright and early in the morning made my dick as hard as a rock. Her black hair was stick straight down her back and she seemed to be happy this morning. Maybe I was in the clear.

I decided to sneak up behind her and startle her. “Did you have fun with prissy dick last night?” My hands quickly cupped her shoulders as I whispered behind her. Mike and Alex saw me coming, but Lucy immediately dropped her coffee cup and let out a high-pitched scream.

“Pauly, what the fuck?” She spun around in her seat and shot me daggers. Her blue eyes narrowed and her mouth twisted. I wanted to take those lips and claim them again; they were too fucking plump not to kiss them. “Why did you have to walk up and scare me like that? I could have spilled that all over my shirt.”

“I certainly wouldn’t mind that happening.” I winked at her. “I’d totally help you change, among other things…”

Mike and Alex stared hooting and hollering. Lucy rolled her eyes and tried not to crack a smile. “You’d like that wouldn’t you?” she questioned me, “What happened to that girl that came down here not that long ago? She wasn’t
good
enough for you? Oh let me guess, she wanted to have a relationship, and you shot her down?”

That was a direct hit if I’ve ever seen one before. Should I tell her that I regret saying those things and that I wanted nothing more than to be the guy that makes her smile, not pissed off?

“I’m a sucker for girls who wear corsets.” I admitted, looking directly at her. “This girl didn’t fit the bill.”

“Damn, you’re harsh, Donovan,” Alex piped in.

“When is he ever nice?” Lucy interjected. “He’s Pauly for Christ sake, harsh is his middle name.”

I put a hand to my heart and pretended to sound sad. “What’s with this ganging up on me? It’s no different when we brought girls to the bus or the hotels.”

Alex stood up and patted my back. “I’m messing with you,” he smiled, lowering his voice “She’s pissed you bribed Damon, by the way,” he said, making sure Lucy didn’t hear us.

I chuckled. “Figured that much. I didn’t like the looks of that prissy dick.”

“Me either. But hey, that’s her choice,” Alex replied. “I’m going to get the equipment downstairs ready. I’ve got a killer idea for a new song, and I’m itching to play.”

“Alright bud. I’ll go change and meet you down there.” I said to Alex and Mike; Lucy purposely ignored me. What the hell was her problem?

I ran back upstairs to grab a T-shirt and bumped into Lucy as she came out of the bathroom.

I couldn’t take my eyes off hers. There was a hint of sadness in them and I knew I was the cause.

“Are you done staring at me?” She cocked her head to the side, trying to move past me so she could walk downstairs. “And we have practicing to do.”

She was cute when she got pissy with me.

“What is wrong with you?” I blurted out. “Even after I thought we were cool, and at least civil, you turn stone cold against me again, Luce.” Her facial expression softened, and she stepped closer to me, almost causing me to hit my back against the wall.

“I don’t even fucking know anymore, Pauly.” She groaned, her hands messing up her hair. “I told myself I had to get over what happened with us, how I was just a one night stand to you, and I think I might’ve met someone I’d like to get to know.  You get rid of him while keeping some woman here but all I can think about is you. I hate this. I never used to be like this. What is wrong with me?”

I immediately pulled Lucy into a hug. “Tommy girl, it’s okay.” I whispered, my hand running over her hair, smoothing it out. “You’re the most important girl in my life you know that right?” She nodded in between sniffles. “I never want to lose you. I don’t want to see your heart get broken again, like what happened with Pelton..”

My shoulder was soaking wet from her tears, but I didn’t care. My best friend was crying because of me and I needed to fix this. Somehow.

She lifted her head up and all I saw were her blue eyes, shining from the tears she’d just cried. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to get so emotional. You bring out that in me, you know that, right?”

“I just thought most of the time I pissed you off,” I replied, rubbing her back. “And I still think you’re hot when you yell at me and call me names; it’s a big turn on.” Just having Lucy this close to me again was making me horny. Fuck. This couldn’t be happening.

I don’t know what the hell I’m doing or thinking anymore. I changing my mind like a girl changes clothes; yes, I just quoted Katy Perry.

“You confuse the hell out of me, Pauly,” she sighed. “You say we need to be just friends, but then you say things like that to me. How am I supposed to act? How am I supposed to move on?”

“It needs to be that way.” I said tight-lipped, making my painful decision again. “As much as it kills me to say that, Luce, and believe me, it does.”

I tried to meet Lucy’s eyes, but she walked away. She grabbed a notebook from her bedroom and stopped in front of me again. “That’s fine; you made your choice, and now I’m going to try to make it work with Liam.” She seemed pretty calm for a woman who had been crying just a few minutes before that, and that made me feel like a dick. “We’ve got music to play.”

The whole time we were in the basement playing out the group’s new ideas for songs, all I could think about was how I needed to get this Lucy shit out of my system. She said she was going to make it work with Liam, then fine, have at it. Guy seemed decent, even though I only met him for a split second anyway.

“Donovan, I like that solo at the beginning, try it again.” Damon said to me as my fingers warmed up to play another solo. I let my fingers do the talking as they moved up and down the guitar as fast as slippery butter. “Yeah, that’s fucking killer.” We were working on another new song Lucy had written called
Backstabber
. When she showed us the lyrics, she explained exactly how she pictured the song going, and shit was it dark and heavy.

But that was what we played, and the fans were going to eat it up.

We played, wrote, and sang our asses off all day long, only stopping once when Emily brought us a couple of pizzas.

I noticed Lucy was texting on her phone after she ate her pizza, and she was grinning like a little kid.

I threw one of my guitar picks at her face and said “That’s about the first time I’ve seen you smile all morning kid. Is it your
boyfriend
?” I teased. This time I was thankful she didn’t shoot me those daggers because that look killed me every time.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, Pauly?” she winked, strapping her bass back on. She had the nicest instrument out of all of us. It was a Nikki Sixx custom bass signed by the man himself when we met the band backstage a few years ago. I had been lucky enough to have a six string signed the legendary Mick Mars, but Damon trashed it one night we were partying in my house. I never forgave him for that shit. “For your information, Mr. Nosy Ass, it was Liam. I’m going over to his restaurant later for some dinner and dessert.”

“I bet he wants you for desert, not the pie…” Mike interjected, and we all started laughing at Lucy. Her face flushed deep red and she tried ignoring all of us heckling her. “What? That’s how guys think, Luce.”

“I’ve been around you guys ever since we were little, I think I know pretty darn well how you guys think,” she grinned. “And that’s with your dicks not your brains. NOW can we get back to practicing?”

That mouth would get her into trouble at some point.

We finished practicing and wrapped up a few songs late in the evening when Lucy headed upstairs to change for her ‘date’. The rest of us voted on building a bonfire by the lake and Emily went with Alex to gather up the firewood. I’d told Alex it was a matter of time before he screwed her. They dated back in high school during freshman year, but he messed up big time by losing her. In addition, Emily was Damon’s cousin, so that made her cool in my book.

“Damn girl, you’re dressed to impress.” I commented on Lucy’s zip up hoodie and T-shirt look she had going. She did a little spin for me and I saw the sparkly angel wings on the back, hugging her small frame.

“It’s just a restaurant Pauly. There’s no fancy schmancy places up here unless we went to Mackinaw.” She replied, grabbing her purse, sifting around for her car keys. “You guys having anyone else over tonight?”

“Don’t think so.” I shook my head. “The bonfire will probably still be going on by the time you get back so we’ll be down by the lake. Ya know, singing songs by the camp fire like we used to do at music camp.”

Lucy giggled. “How could I forget that?” She ran up to me, leaning up onto her tiptoes to give me a one armed hug. “I’ll see you later.” Way too close. She smelled like a mix of fruit and flowers. It was intoxicating. I waved at her as she hurried out the door, immediately retreating to the fridge to grab a beer.

The only thing that was going to be on my mind tonight was what the hell Lucy was doing with this Liam guy. Drowning my sorrows with beer and s’mores wasn’t going to cut it.

“Awe, you’re watching her walk out the door like a poor little puppy watches his owner leave for the day.” Emily teased, walking up to me and nudging my side.

“Shut up, I was not,” I defended myself.

“You broke her heart after that night, Donovan. Lucy cares about you more than a friend and you shot her down,” Emily scolded me. “She hasn’t been with anyone since the love triangle debacle and I don’t blame her for going to see this guy.”

I rolled my eyes at Emily’s response. “I said that to her for good reasons, Em”

“Good reasons, my ass,” Emily retorted. “Sounds like someone is afraid to let go of their sleeping with a different girl every night ways, huh?”

“It’s not like that at all,” I said through gritted teeth. Although, that had been my lifestyle choice for many years now, I made no commitment to any girls. They knew that whenever I approached them. One time, one fuck, that’s it, get out the door. Don’t let it kick you on the way out. Most of them accepted it, but some still left their numbers behind for me in case I was ever back in town. Those pieces of paper were quickly thrown in the trash. Not by me, but by Lucy.