Page 114 of Lucas

The unfamiliar exclamation jolts me awake. I open one eye.

It’s not Lucas.

I look down at myself. While napping, I must have rolled onto my back without realizing it, and now my breasts are exposed to this stranger’s gaze.

“Ahhh!” I scream, snatch a towel from the pile and cover myself.

Michelle awakens too, sitting up, a bewildered expression on her face.

Lucas comes running. “What happened?” He looks between us all. “Why did you scream?”

“Who is that?” I point at the strange man who’s grinning and chuckling. “And why is he ogling me naked?”

“Ogling you naked?” Lucas’s jaw drops, and he rounds on the man. “Noah, you were staring at my wife nude?” He raises his hand and smacks him upside the head.

“Ow,” Noah yelps, rubbing his skull. “It’s not like I meant to. She was just lying there with her tits out. But it was only for a second. I swear, I barely saw anything.”

“Fuck,” Lucas curses. “Why are you sunbathing topless?” He waves his hands at me. “I’m going to have to kill you, Noah.”

“I didn’t know she’d be here, man,” Noah says, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender.

“I thought we were alone,” I yell back. “Why are you bringing people here without telling me?” Anger and embarrassment war within me, heating my face.

“I’m not people,” the man says, extending his hand to me. “Noah Monroe. I’m a friend of Lucas’s.”

I don’t shake his hand, crossing my arms over my chest instead, making sure the towel is secure.

His smile dims, but he offers his hand to Michelle, who’s looking at him with an expression I can only describe as starstruck. What the hell?

Lucas shakes his head. “We meet here sometimes, at the pool on weekends. I didn’t know you’d be out here. Otherwise, I would have given you a heads-up.”

“Who’s we?” I tilt my head, my brow furrowing.

“Me, Noah, and Kaleb.”

“So there’s another one of you?” Michelle smiles, her eyes not leaving Noah.

Oh boy.

“Yeah, but Kaleb couldn’t make it today.” Noah grins at her. “Lucky me.”

I rearrange my bikini under the towel, tying it and making sure everything is in place before I let the towel drop.

Lucas’s eyes widen, and he covers me with the towel again.

“What are you doing?” I rasp, batting his hands away.

“You’re not dressed.”

I shrug off the towel once more. “Now I am. I have a swimsuit on. And your friend here already saw me without it anyway.” I glare at Noah, who has the good grace to look abashed.

Lucas’s jaw clenches. “I’m gonna gouge his eyes out for that. And that’s not a swimsuit, it’s barely a scrap of fabric.” His gaze rakes over me, hot and possessive.

“The store would disagree, especially given how much I paid for this scrap of fabric. I’m going to swim for a bit. It’s gotten hot.” I turn to Michelle. “Wanna hit the water?”

Michelle glances at me, then at Noah. “Want to join?” she asks him, a flirtatious lilt to her voice.

He nods and pulls off his shirt, revealing an inked, muscular chest.