Page 103 of Resist

“I know. What is it with Darwin?”

“Must be the water.”

“Or the heat, perhaps?”

“Well, our boys are certainly hot enough, so it can’t be that.”

I sighed. “Lucas is next. I just hope the dead sea out there doesn’t impact his performance.”

“Don’t worry. It won’t.” She retracted her head from the curtain, so I followed.

“How do you know that?”

“Because I don’t think he’ll be performing for them.” Patsy waggled her eyebrows. “It’s all for you.”

The butterflies in my tummy fluttered because a part of me knew she was telling the truth. From the moment I first met Lucas, he’d been trying to impress me, sans his inability to be on time. And it wasn’t so much as an I-need-to-impress-my-boss kind of effort. It was more I-need-to-make-her-smile-because-she-deserves-to.

He truly wanted me to be happy.

Blushing like a teenage version of myself, I nearly jumped out of my skin when soft lips touched my neck just below my ear.

“Heyyyyy, Karate Kid.” Lucas laughed and held his hands up in defence of my martial art style swatting.

“Oh my God, you’re like a mouse—”

I cut my words short when my eyes roamed his face and body, my smile itching to burst into a full-blown cackle. His hair was parted in the middle and smoothed back with gel; thick black plastic glasses rimmed his eyes; and red suspenders held up a pair of black trouser pants that peeked through a white lab coat. It was all very geeky.

“What do you think?” he asked, stretching his suspenders with his thumbs.

“I think you look like a nerd.”

He stepped closer. “A nerd you want to fuck?”

I walked a slow inspection circle around him, my finger tracing his shoulders. “A nerd I want to punish.”

“Kinky,” Josh said, as he walked past. “You ready, Dimps?”

“Yep.” He brushed my lips with his, deep smoky eyes boring into mine. “We’ll revisit this conversation later.”

I smacked a kiss on him. “We will. Now go. And good luck.”

“Don’t need it.”

Shaking my head at his cheeky confidence, I knew deep down that he wouldn’t need luck as I made my way into the room full of women softly chatting to one another while they waited for the intermission to finish. He was more than ready; he’d worked his arse off for the past few weeks.

The rap of knuckles on a microphone echoed through the room, so I found a spot front and left of stage and settled in, my excitement at bursting point.

“Hello, ladies. Have you had a moment to calm yourselves?”

Dex shone the spotlight on Patsy, her red sequined t-shirt glittering like a Christmas bauble.

She gestured to a lady on a table close to the stage. “You relaxed?”

The lady raised her glass of wine.

“Good. Need a massage?”

The lady performed a ‘maybe’ tilt of the head.