LUCI (The Naughty Ones Book 2) Read online

  “So, you want to introduce us to the little angel?” I hear Woody say when Luci gives her one last kiss and hands her over before Percy starts having a full-on tantrum.

  Jack and Callie both share a look and smile and I find my own mouth curving as I hold out my hand and make a “give me” gesture at Woody. The dunce just rolls his eyes at me and shakes his head till Callie drops her bomb.

  “Everyone, we’d like you all to meet Jack Athena Iona Levin,” Callie crows, her smile so bright it lights her entire face.

  Jack’s mother looks ready to faint. His father starts laughing and Gruffy and her love slave both gape while I laugh my ass off.

  “Jack as in little Jacqueline?” Dot asks softly, patiently waiting her turn as Luci steps to her and giggles quietly.

  I can’t stop my mirth when Jack shakes his head at a scowling Woody, who is indeed rifling through his wallet as we speak.

  “Dude, I told you it’s Jack and that’s final, didn’t I?”

  “But she’s a girl!”

  “Yeah. We got that when she came out without a wiener, genius.” Callie laughs, her face starting to scowl the longer people hog her baby.

  “But, but she’s a girl,” he says again, refusing to let go of the money as I yank hard.

  “We know. Isn’t it great? Daddy’s little angel is gonna be a chip off the old block, huh? I’m gonna teach you how to spot a good investment a mile away, and to negotiate the hell out of the little dicks who’ll think you’re just a girl and can’t string a good deal together. Daddy’s little boardroom shark!” he croons when Percy relents and places Jack back in Callie’s arms.

  The man is so close to his wife and daughter, you’d think he was on the bed with them at this point.

  “Son of a bitch. How did you know? Did he tell you? It’s not a fair bet if you had insider information, you idiot,” Woody grumbles, making me laugh harder.

  “I didn’t. He hardly spoke two words to me the last month and a half and you know it.”

  “That is completely true. I guess asshole Cage over here just knows me better than most. Even Callie didn’t want to believe it when I told her a few minutes ago.”

  They start arguing and throwing insults while the old people give Callie and little Jack another kiss and hug and bid all farewell. I take the time to watch Luci where she’s standing in the corner quietly, eyeing the baby and Callie the same way I saw her eyeing me not too long ago.

  That look makes my balls draw up tight and I get a chill of foreboding. She’s up to something, I can see it and smell it. If I’m going to win her the way I resolved I would just moments ago, I’m going to have to plot.

  “What the fuck are you up to now?”

  My attention is pulled away when Woody comes up beside me and glares the skin off my bones, his own gaze darting toward Luci before coming back to land on me with a narrow-eyed focus that would have most other men shrinking in fear.

  “Leave her alone. She’s had enough pain and humiliation where you’re concerned, she doesn’t need you hurting her more than you already have.”

  “Stay out of it, Woody. I have no intention of hurting Luci again.”

  “Then what do you intend, because I’ve seen that predatory look on your face before. If I remember correctly, this very same woman was your prey. That did not end well for her, and fuck, man! She just started talking to people again. Leave her the fuck alone,” Woody snarls, his face a picture of anger and disgust.

  I’ve known this man for a long time, and not once in all that time has he ever looked at me in quite this way, with equal parts anger, violence, and disappointment.

  The anger and violence I can handle, I’ve seen it on faces before, but the disappointment is such that I feel compelled to explain before I wake up to find a horse’s head in my bed.

  “I need her, Wood. Jesus. I fucking love her and I need her,” I grit out, my chest doing crazy things as I say the words for the first time in so long, they feel foreign.

  The last time I said these exact words my mom looked down her nose at me and told me to stop nattering like a baby and grow some steel.

  The words bring Woody up short, though, and I see his head rear back in shock before a bright smile lights his face. When the ass starts rubbing his hands together and crowing I just know my life’s about to become a misery.

  “Oh hell yeah! Levin, get your ass over here, man. We have a situation.”

  And that is how I end up wishing I’d kept my big mouth shut.

  Chapter Five

  Let’s Get Ready to Rumble

  Luci

  “No. Absolutely not,” Percy yells for like the hundredth time as I continue to scan the lease the realtor couriered to me just moments ago.

  I ignore her scowling, stomping fit and keep reading, my eyes catching and taking in every word the way a shark scents blood in the water. You don’t know this about me, and heck, my own friends would be flabbergasted, but I’m something of a genius when it comes to contractual law and fine print.

  Like I said before, my daddy, before he met Mum, was a financial shark and a boardroom king in his day. He wheeled and dealed with the best and worst of them, whoever the hell “they” are, and cut his teeth at the tender age of nineteen on a deal my grandfather threw at him to get him started.

  So yeah, I know my shit since my dopey, oftentimes scatty-brained parent took it upon himself to educate all his kids in the fine art of spotting what he calls a bad deal, and taking those asses down.

  So far I’ve noted three unacceptable clauses, such as the uncontrolled rent situation and the nonsense the board have just added on as if they have the right to restrict who and what I bring into my own home.

  Another thing you don’t know is that I am basically rich. I’m a trust-fund baby and have been since I hit the age of twenty-one and reached majority.

  My family is loaded after Daddy sold all of his interests and invested rather well when he married Mum. See, Mummy is what you would call a force of nature, and Daddy once confessed that he couldn’t be the high-powered businessman he was born to be and have his great love. Mummy wouldn’t have allowed him to work himself to death.

  So he gave it all up and moved here where Mummy could have her sunshine, ocean, and happy life.

  That meant that my father was obscenely rich and continues to be so, because even though he’s left the boardroom, the boardroom has never left him.

  The old man enjoys the stock market. A lot.

  And the money from my trust fund? It keeps growing at a terrible rate because as Daddy says, “Why just leave good money lying around when you can make more?”

  That’s what I am using now to buy myself an apartment instead of moving in with Dot. Not because I want to live alone and leave poor Dotty to her own devices, but because I have this plan and I can’t be sharing a two-bedroom place with Dotty if I achieve my goals.

  “Stop that infernal yelling and calm down, Percy. I need to do this. I want to! It’s long past due that I stop living like I’m still in a sorority and grow up.”

  “Sorority?” she snorts, rolling her eyes. “Girl, those stuck-up rich bitches would never have let you in, even if you’d wanted to try and get in.”

  That’s the reason that none of my friends know that I could buy and sell half the city with my own money.

  “My point exactly. I don’t want to live that way anymore, and I don’t have to now that the business has taken off, Percy. I can afford a good place in a good neighborhood and I’m going to do just that.”

  “Is this because that ball bag asshole broke your heart?” she hisses, pacing the kitchen at Delights as if she’s training for the freaking Olympics.

  It’s actually our one day off this week, but we’re both kind of pedantic about keeping things just so and we never let a day go by and not take the opportunity to come in and double-check that things are exactly as they should be.

  “No, you gobblehead. Stop sucking so much meat, Percy. It’s seri
ously addling your brain. I want to do this because…”

  I trail off because I do not want a soul knowing what I’m up to just yet, but I also don’t want to lie to my friends.

  “Because?” Percy pushes, watching me closely.

  Half-truths and some distractions, Luci, you know how to do this. You’ve been at it for years to keep them in the dark about your personal brand of crazy.

  “Well because I just want more out of life. I’m thirty years old, I’ve never even been out of the city unless you count visiting the grandpoops over the pond, and I just…I want more. I want to do things I haven’t done before and see things, and I want to do them knowing that I can do them without you or one of the girls holding my hand, protecting me from the big bad world.”

  “So move in with Dot!” she insists, taking a stool across from me and sliding a cup of cocoa my way.

  I accept and do not point out that it’s getting hot enough to fry eggs on the sidewalk. Percy loves the stuff and she makes it so good, you’d drink her concoction in the desert even.

  “No, I do not want to move in with Dot. I want to live by myself, in my own place where I am responsible for things, Percy.”

  Namely my baby.

  I have planned this out to a bloody tee and I’ve done all the research. I’m going for IVF and I’ll use a donor to get what I want.

  It’s pretty cool, too. I get to research the men and choose from the best. One guy I’ve been eyeing is a physicist who also enjoys outdoorsy activities and has sandy-blond hair and blue eyes.

  Yes, yes, I know. Freddie has those features too, and blah, blah, blah…

  “But you’ll be all alone.”

  I won’t be. Not for long anyway, I muse, biting my lips to restrain a smile.

  “Percy, my darling, get over your mama bear feelings and move on already. I am doing this with or without your consent. Now then, tell me about that hunk of hotness I saw creeping out at four this morning. Was all that yelling for a reason, or did the two of you open a portal to the afterlife last night?” I tease, enjoying her blush and bawdy giggle.

  “He knew what to do with what God gave him.”

  My giggle and eye roll have her cackling and I enjoy the mirth till she gets serious again and looks at me in a soft and altogether motherly way. It’s always been like this with us.

  Dot and Callie gelled and formed their clique within the group. Indie and Percy with their abrasive personalities and adventurous spirits formed their own, and I was just sort of the floater in that pot.

  Percy, love her to death, saw that as her in to molly coddle me to death because though I was more with her and Indie, I wasn’t quite with them all the way.

  Somehow she interpreted that as her chance to baby me and try to always include me. It’s great at times, but sometimes it makes me feel like I’m sitting in the bloody principal’s office for an infraction.

  “I don’t know what’s going on with you lately since you won’t talk to anyone and I don’t know if what you’re doing is a good or bad thing, but I do know that I’ll be behind you one hundred percent. Just promise me, Luci, swear to me that you’re not still messed up about that idiot and that you’re doing this for you and not to shut yourself away like you usually do when things get hard.”

  “I swear it. This isn’t about Freddie Cage. This is just me wanting to spread my wings a little. And maybe do something for Dotty. Why don’t you and Indie talk to her and see if she’ll give up her place and move in here. She doesn’t do well alone.”

  “Aw, but she likes watching those sappy movies. And she cries during commercials.”

  “You know you love that about her. Besides, she cooks at home, you know, and she’s a laundry whizz. Callie still moans about her clothes not smelling right after she moved in with and married Jack.”

  That seems to perk her up quickly and by the time I’ve reworked the lease and signed on the dotted line I know that things will go just as I want them to.

  ***

  “Okay, Miss Braxton, I think that ought to do it. We’ll get everything ready for the implantation next week.”

  My breath is choppy, giddy as Dr. Sparks smiles at me and leans in to shake my hand as I fight not to hop around like a five-year-old in a candy store.

  It’s been two months of living on my own and taking those damnable hormones, but I’ve finally reached the stage where they’ll implant the embryo thingies.

  I’m one step closer to being a mom and I am so damn excited I can hardly sit still.

  After my talk with Percy and a raging argument with Indie that only wound down once I let her sniff the afghan I stole from Dot’s place, she finally relented and started babbling about how awesome it would be to have clean laundry and a clean apartment.

  With a live-in cook.

  I moved out at the end of that month and right into my own place, which Daddy personally inspected and deemed fit for his little princess.

  I’ve been all on my lonesome for a good month now while I went through tests, hormone injections, and scads of other gruesome things to start the next phase of my plan.

  The injections were harsh and the mood swings and weepiness had my crew on the verge of a meltdown many a time.

  It sucked ass but every time I would question my plans, all I’d have to do is look at Callie and little Jack and I’d find my resolve again.

  All they’re doing now is ensuring that the embryo-egg thingies are ready and viable and I’m hot for an implantation. The process is a lot more complicated, but whatever. It boils down to my physicist’s spunk being joined with my egg and then going into me via a needle I’m having nightmares about.

  It’ll be worth it, though. I think.

  “Okay then, Dr. Frankenegg, I’ll see you next week. Just remember that I feel calmest with some Queen playing in the background and a nice leg rub. You have that done and we’ll all get through this alive,” I joke. Rising to leave.

  The good doctor laughs his head off at me and lets me go with yet another warning that sex is off the table for the next month or so.

  Admittedly I have been super randy of late, thanks to those hormones, and I can’t look at a man without wanting to jump him.

  The ride home is relatively quiet and I walk into my apartment with a giddiness that has me vibrating with glee. Till I set eyes on the idiot I’ve successfully been avoiding for two bleeding months since Callie gave birth to Jack and I told Freddie to take a leap. Off a tall building preferably.

  Coming to a dead halt as the door bangs shut, I take him in in all his blond, delicious glory. Oh hell.

  The man is ten kinds of delectable as I just stare at him where he’s taken to reclining across my sofa as if he belongs there.

  ***

  Cage

  The look on her face is priceless and I have to bite down on my bottom lip to stop a chuckle when her green eyes start caressing me the way a lion looks at a gazelle.

  I know exactly what’s going on inside that little body of hers right now, and it’s making me hard just thinking about how hot and ready, how ripe she’ll be with all those hormones coursing through her.

  You think I’ve let two freaking months pass by without at least watching my Luci? Not in this lifetime.

  I knew my little sprite was planning something.

  Something I knew I wouldn’t like.

  That proved more than true when I started tailing her and understood what the hell she was up to. I almost blew a gasket when she visited the freaking sperm bank and put in a freaking order for some other asshole’s swimmers!

  Imagine that. My woman, my freaking Luci thinking I would ever allow some other dick’s seed to get into her body and take root.

  The day I saw that and realized what the little kook was up to I had to go home and drink two thirds of a bottle just to keep myself calm enough not to set the sperm bank on fire.

  Somehow I don’t think she’d be too happy having the father of her children behind bars for arson.
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br />   When Woody and Jack found me three sheets to the wind and slurring curses at the wall, I caved and spilled the truth. They eventually stopped laughing—Woody did when I punched him in the face—and started helping me put a plan together to cut Luci off at the knees.

  What we came up with was so freaking diabolical it makes me want to laugh when I see her finally reel in her lust and fold her arms across her chest, her lips pursing as her eyes narrow.

  “Get out.”

  “Now, Luci baby, is that any way to talk to an old friend?”

  I know I’m goading her here and that chances are she’ll kick me in the balls before she lets me touch her, but I can’t help it. I’ve missed all that fire and attitude.

  “You. Are. Not. My. Friend. Alfred. Nolan. Cage,” she grits out as her nose flares.

  I can almost see steam coming out of her ears even as she valiantly attempts to ignore the sight of my erection. I always want the woman and I haven’t had sex since the last time I was in her.

  I have a big load in here.

  “Not nice, Luci. That hurt my feelings, baby.”

  “Feelings? You?” she scoffs in amusement, her head tilting in just that way to let me know how ridiculous she finds that statement.

  Oh baby, you got no idea, I think, running my eyes over her lush body and licking my lips with a slow slide that has her eyes going lazy with lust.

  Hell yeah, baby, want me. Look at all this need and feel it.

  “I’m hurt, Luce. Of course I have feelings. In fact, I came over here to let you know that it’s hurting me the way you’ve been ignoring me.”

  “Get over it, asswipe, I had to. I had to get over a lot of things. Like you ignoring my calls and texts. Being booted out of your building…basically being made to feel like I don’t exist. I got over it and so can you.”

  The hit is direct and I feel myself falter just the tiniest bit when she seems to collect herself and stomps away to the kitchen, her cute ass twitching with every step.

  My dick just gets harder when I see it and I have the overwhelming urge to go after her and touch her. I want to fuck her so badly right now, it feels like my balls are about to implode.