Burning Up. Sarah Mayberry

Becky. Did I kill my relationship?” Sophie asked in a small voice.

      “Soph, he could have spoken up, too. It takes two to tango. Maybe you were both hanging on because you’ve been together so long, neither of you could imagine anything else,” Becky said. “I can understand how that might happen.”

      We’ve been hiding with each other for too long.

      Maybe Brandon was right. It was a scary admission to make, but, oddly, it made her feel less conflicted about the way she’d reacted to Lucas. Maybe, if she and Brandon had actually been treading water for a long time…maybe she was more ready to move on than she’d thought. Maybe that was why she was more angry than sad about the way Brandon had broken up with her. And why she’d reacted so powerfully to the sexual appeal of another man. Maybe she really had fallen out of love with Brandon a long time ago.

      “Talk to me, Soph,” Becky said, concern rich in her voice. “Do you want me to take a few days off work and come stay with you? I’m worried about you being stuck up there in the mountains on your own.”

      “I’m not alone. Lucas Grant is here with me,” Sophie said absently.

      “Sorry. What?” Becky said, clearly stunned.

      “Lucas Grant. I told you I was working for Lucas Grant, didn’t I?”

      “Oh my God.” There was a clattering sound, then some fumbling, and finally Becky came back on the line. “I literally dropped the phone. And I think I may need to put my head between my legs. Lucas Grant! I can’t believe it.”

      Sophie laughed at her friend’s out-of-character reaction. “He’s just an ordinary guy,” she said.

      “No. No way is he ordinary. He is gorgeous. He is hot. He is a walking god. But he is not, nor will he ever be, ordinary,” Becky said fervently.

      Sophie shook her head at Becky’s over-the-top avowal.

      “He’s a dirty hound dog, is what he is,” she heard herself say before she could self-edit. Did she really want to get into a blow-by-blow description of what had nearly happened in the kitchen? “I’d barely known him an hour before he tried to get me into bed,” Sophie said.

      Apparently she did.

      The phone clattered to the floor again. “Let me get this straight. Lucas Grant wants to sleep with you?” Becky asked incredulously when she came back on the line. “And you said no?”

      “Correct.”

      “Sophie, you do realize that he is supposed to be one of the best lovers in Hollywood, right?”

      “Sure. Like there’s a poll or something. Maybe he has a survey outside his bedroom for women to fill out,” Sophie said disparagingly.

      Privately, however, a part of herself she didn’t even know existed pricked up its ears. One of the best lovers in Hollywood. What would a title like that encompass exactly? she wondered. Technique? Enthusiasm? Or was it more about equipment?

      “Apparently he’s also got the biggest cock,” Becky added in reverent tones.

      “Pfffttt. It’s probably a rumor his PR agent circulates,” Sophie said, struggling to hang on to her cool.

      The biggest cock? She wasn’t exactly experienced in this area, Brandon being her one yardstick, so to speak, but she figured there’d be some pretty hefty contenders in the running. Tommy Lee, for one. And Lucas was bigger than him?

      She squirmed, and was instantly glad that her friend couldn’t see her. It was bad enough having this conversation in the first place.

      “I can’t believe we’re even discussing this. I just broke up with Brandon yesterday,” Sophie said.

      There was a short, appalled silence.

      “God, Soph, I’m so sorry. I forgot for a second. Lucas Grant does it for me, you know. He’s so…Anyway, you don’t want to talk about him anymore. Although—crazy thought here—what a way to get back in the saddle, so to speak.”

      “Sorry?”

      “You know, move on. With Lucas. And his great big—”

      “Thanks, I got it. And it’s not going to happen,” Sophie said drily.

      “If you’re sure.” There was a world of disappointment in her friend’s voice.

      “I’m sure.”

      The sound of her friend’s other line ringing in the background signaled the end of their call.

      “That’s a client call I’m expecting,” Becky said apologetically. “But I’ll call again soon.”

      Sophie sat for a long time afterward, trying to pretend she wasn’t thinking about what her friend had just divulged.

      Lucas Grant was a great lover.

      A generously endowed great lover.

      It had been hard enough dealing with her unruly body’s reaction to him in the first place, but now every time she looked at him, she’d be thinking about what Becky had told her.

      A part of her wished that Becky hadn’t said anything all.

      But a bigger part of her didn’t.