The Marriage Deadline
Автор
Niobia Bryant
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One
Lucas Cress took a sip from his flute of champagne as he stood before one of many massive poster-sized black-and-white photos hanging in the entry hall of Manhattan University Prep as the sound of “Low” by Flo Rida and T-Pain loudly blared from inside the gym. It had been the number-one song from the year he’d graduated from the prestigious private school for the city’s wealthy and famous. He was currently at his fifteen-year high-school reunion.
The photo?
A reminder of what he used to be.
He frowned as he took in the chubby kid with curly hair who was over fifty pounds overweight. Not the favorite of the girls or the jocks. Not as popular as his brothers when they’d attended the school before him. Not comfortable in his skin. Shy and reserved. So unsure of himself.
He felt sad for the kid.
For me. The old me, anyway.
Now he was an acclaimed pastry chef and an executive at Cress, INC., his family’s successful culinary empire. He had worked hard five years ago to lose the extra weight put on during decades of indulgence in the food he and his entire family created. He was no longer out of shape and lacking confidence. With his good looks and chiseled frame, he enjoyed a level of popularity with the ladies that he’d sorely lacked in high school.
“Luc Cress?”
He took another sip of his champagne as he turned at the sound of his name. His heart skipped a few beats and a warmth of nervous energy radiated over his body as he eyed the woman standing there with a soft smile and surprise-filled eyes. Eve Villar.
Even with her once long jet-black hair now cut into a short pixie style, she hadn’t changed very much. Medium brown complexion. Thinly shaped eyebrows. Deep-set eyes. High cheekbones and the most luxurious full mouth covered with a deep maroon lip gloss. Very akin to the singer Teyana Taylor. Very intense and sultry without even trying.
Still as beautiful as ever.
He remembered her well.
He remembered a lot very well, unfortunately. The memory caused him to clutch the stem of his flute just a little tighter...
Lucas and one of his older brothers, Coleman, had been sitting on the wrought-iron bench of the quad of their high school dressed in the school uniform of navy cardigans and khaki pants with white shirts and striped ties. They were both looking across the courtyard at a group of girls gathered atop a wooden table with their legs crossed as they talked, laughed and drew the eyes of those who either wanted to be them, or be near them.
Like Lucas.
As he sipped from a bottle of fruit juice, his dark eyes locked on Eve Villar as she dragged the tips of her pink glittery nails through her long dark brown hair streaked with auburn. She moved with an awareness of her beauty. Every move seemed to be the pose of a model. Every expression was meant to please or tease.
The very sight of her made Lucas feel nervous energy. His heart beat faster and his palms sweated whenever they were in the same junior classes. There was nothing about the beauty that didn’t tempt him in his dreams. The idea of barely seeing her over the summer made him regret the coming end of the school year...and made him feel emboldened to finally reveal his adoration.
“I’m going to do it,” Lucas told his brother, who was a year ahead of him and graduating in a few months.
Coleman smoothed his long fingers over his close-cropped hair as he shook his head. “I don’t know about that, Luc,” he advised. “Eve Villar and her crew are a piece of work.”
“Beautiful work,” Lucas countered, as he handed his brother the bottle of soda, then picked up the plastic container of strawberry-shortcake cupcakes he’d prepared the night before.
Just for Eve.
Being from a culinary family—and enjoying sweets from a very young age—Lucas was already a capable pastry chef with plans to attend culinary school upon graduating high school next year.
“More like beautiful chaos,” Coleman warned with another shake of his head as he eyed her.
Lucas felt his eyes widen a bit as Eve tilted her head back to laugh, exposing her neck. As his heart pounded in excitement, he wondered if she smelled of candy or flowers—either way, he knew it was sweet.
And if she was his girl, he could plant a kiss there.
Lucas picked up the clear plastic container holding the half-dozen strawberry-shortcake cupcakes he’d created for her. He wasn’t as popular with the girls as Cole, who was already lean and chiseled, but he was cute and knew it. And he was one of the Cress brothers, chubby or not, and with those things going for him he felt he had a chance.
For Eve, I’ll take that chance.
He felt he had no choice. He was too distracted by her to do anything else.
Coleman gave him a comforting clasp on the shoulder. “Good luck, little brother,” he said.
Lucas nodded and began walking. His palms dampened the container as each step across the manicured grass brought him closer and closer to Eve.
“What’s going here?” one of Eve’s friends asked as he neared their table.
“Definitely the wrong Cress brother,” another said in a tone meant to mock.
The girls all giggled.
Lucas paused and he felt uncomfortable even as he focused his gaze on Eve’s face.
“What’s that?” she asked, notching her chin toward the container he was carrying.
He loved the husky timbre of her voice. He wanted nothing more than to hear her say his name.
“I m-m-m-made you some cupcakes,” he said, extending his arms to hand them to her.
Eve shifted her eyes down to the treats without moving her head at all. She arched her left eyebrow high before frowning.
“Th-th-they have a fresh strawberry filling and are topped with cotton candy,” he explained, hating the stutter that appeared when he was nervous.
Eve glanced back over her shoulder at her friends, then faced forward again as she rose from the tabletop. She stood before him with her hands on her hips. “Do I look like I sit around and scarf down cupcakes?”
Alarm filled him as he shook his head. “No. I thought you would enjoy them—”
Eve gave him a tight little smile as she took the cupcake container from him. “If you knew like we all know, you would stop eating these,” she said, then turned to drop the container into a wrought-iron garbage receptacle. She at stared him, giving him a withering look, from his dark curls down to the soles of his Air Jordans. “It’s the last thing you need.”
As her friends began to laugh at him, enjoying her ridicule, Lucas stood there as his heart shattered into a million tiny pieces. He lowered his head, unable to do otherwise, and turned to walk away.
“Oh, hell no,” Coleman said, suddenly beside him. His brother had pressed one hand to Lucas’s chest and had tipped up his chin with the other. “You’re a Cress...”
As the memory faded, Lucas smiled a bit at how his brother had skewered the entire lot of them with harsh words and profanity that sent them running from his reproach. Back then, he had needed Coleman to defend his honor. Not anymore. That had been sixteen years and over fifty pounds ago. That Lucas was long gone.
Eight years ago, he had lost weight via exercise, chiseled his frame with weights and claimed the title of the family’s Lothario, with plenty of willing candidates for his attention.
Life was great.
Eve stepped closer to give him an air kiss. “You look amazing,” she said.
Lucas tilted his head to the side as he took in the emerald-green strapless jumpsuit she had on, along with strappy copper heels. Her physique was toned but still curvy and her cinnamon-brown complexion gleamed. “So do you,” he said, before taking another sip of his drink.
She glanced over at his reunion photo and then back at him, giving him a hesitant look. “I’m glad you’re here, Luc,” she said, reaching to squeeze his wrist.
He glanced down at the connection and felt warmed by her touch. Like a spark.
“I just can’t believe how much you’ve changed,” Eve said with a shake of her head and a deeper smile.
Luc’s eyes searched hers and he clearly saw her appreciation of his looks. Perhaps even desire. One skill he had honed since his weight loss was how to read a woman’s level of interest in him and Eve Villar definitely liked what she saw.
And maybe enough for me to woo her right out of that jumpsuit.
With a slow smile he knew dazzled women, Lucas covered her hand with his. He felt her slight tremble—another telltale sign of attraction. And desire.
“And I can’t believe how much you look the same,” he told her, infusing his voice with the same deep warmth that he felt.
“Thank you,” she said.
They fell silent and shared a long look filled with sexy intentions.
Oh, this is happening.
“Listen, I wanted to apologize for my behavior back in high school,” she said, her thumb lightly stroking his.
He remembered her words. “It’s the last thing you need.”
“That’s in the past,” he said, pushing aside the remnants of embarrassment that lingered even after all that time.
“But there’s so much that’s—”
“Eve!”
They both looked over at the trio of women excitedly walking up to her with champagne flutes in their hands and the desire to celebrate brightening their eyes and smiles.
Lucas and Eve released each other’s hands. He stepped back as the same friends she’d had in high school rushed to surround her with excited chatter.
“Look at you, Eve!”
“Eve, how have you been?”
“It’s so good to see you, Eve!”
He turned away from them and looked at the photo of himself as he raised his glass in a toast, then took a deep sip and walked away with one last glance at Eve. He found her looking back at him as her friends steered her deeper into the party. He gave her a wink and smile and promised himself that he would bed Eve Villar—something he would have never been able to do in the past.
Even though he knew with his fame as a celebrity chef—a Cress nonetheless—that many of his classmates had seen him in the press, coming to his reunion had been the opportunity to show off his muscular physique that he’d worked so hard to obtain. Making Eve Villar see him and regret turning down his tender offer of love had been a hope, but the opportunity to get in bed and fulfill a high-school fantasy was more than he could wish for.
The chase is on.
Eve entered the restroom of the school and released a sigh of relief that it was empty, and she was free of the cloying attention of her high-school friends, Claudia, Ashanti and Lorn. She set her metallic clutch atop the marble counter. She used the tips of her gold glitter-covered nails to tease her short haircut, then opened her purse to refresh her sheer hot cocoa lip gloss in the ornate wood-framed mirror. Like everything at Manhattan University Prep, the design of the lavatory was embellished with plenty of carved woodwork, hinting at its century-old history.
There was plenty of history she wished she could forget.
She closed her eyes, wishing she could erase the memory of her mean and judgmental behavior.
I was an awful human being. Just vain and cruel.
During the last year, she had left so much of her past behind, and fought hard to do better and be better. Her only reason for even attending the reunion was to show her former schoolmates that she had changed and to make amends to those she’d hurt in the past with her snobbery.
Like Luc.
Eve grimaced, remembering her harsh words to him.
“If you knew like we all know, you would stop eating these. It’s the last thing you need.”
He had poured out his heart and she’d taken it and crushed it in her grip, then slammed his delicious-looking cupcakes in the trash like LeBron taking it to the rim with force. Even as his brother had laid out in brutal clarity what he felt about her treatment of his brother, she had feigned boredom because Eve Villar never let anyone see her as anything but cool and composed.
“Luc Cress,” she said aloud.
The chubby teenager had morphed into an even more handsome version of Regé-Jean Page, the handsome actor from the TV series Bridgerton. Shortbread complexion with dark close-cropped hair and the faint shadow of a beard that emphasized his high cheekbones and soft mouth. Deep brown eyes that were slanted and intense were framed by lush, long lashes. Tall. Broad. Fit. Strong.
She had known he and his brothers had gone on to be just as famous as their parents, Nicolette and Phillip Cress, Senior, in the culinary world, but she had not given them any of her real attention over the years. Seeing the new Lucas Cress had been quite a shock.
An arousing one. She pressed her hand to the pulse of her opposite wrist and found it pounding at the thought of the long look they’d shared. It had made her swoon a bit, but she hadn’t been able to look away.
Never would she have imagined that she would be in a bathroom having naughty thoughts about Lucas Cress. She’d envisioned him being bigger and sadder than in school.
Boy, was I wrong!
The door to the bathroom opened and the blare of “Better in Time” by Leona Lewis entered along with her old friend Lorn, who was wearing a smile that Eve returned. “We wondered where you disappeared to,” she said, setting her crystal-adorned, heart-shaped clutch on the counter before leaning against the edge as she crossed her arms over her chest in the sequin pantsuit she wore. “Can you believe Luc Cress?”
“Not at all,” Eve admitted.
“He’s won most improved, that’s for sure!”
Eve just smiled as Lorn began to give a salacious rundown of the scandals of their former classmates. Who was sleeping with whom? Who was on drugs? Who faced financial ruin? And on, and on, and on. So much had changed in the five years since she’d last spoken to or seen her friends. And she was okay with that.
It was a reminder of who she used to be.
Lorn fell silent as Eve didn’t serve up the usual oohs and aahs to the catty gossip.
The bathroom door opened again. Eve leaned to the left to look past Lorn as a woman she didn’t recognize entered.
Lorn turned and gave the woman a frigid smile as she turned her by her shoulders to guide her back out of the restroom.
“Lorn!” Eve gasped in horror.
“Could you find another bathroom? We’re having a private chat. Thanks,” Lorn said, pushing the woman out into the hall as she sputtered in disbelief.
“Sorry!” Eve called out to the stranger just before Lorn pressed a hand to the door to shut it.
Wham!
Eve hung her head as she pressed her fingertips to the spot just between her eyebrows.
“I was hoping to catch a moment alone with you, Eve. We haven’t spoken since Aaron’s death,” Lorn said, lightly touching her elbow.
She shook her head a bit as she fought the instinct to shy away from her touch...and from a clear mirror of just who she used to be. “Not now, Lorn,” she said softly, gripping the edge of the counter as she released a long, ragged breath that still did nothing to empty her of the emotions that had arisen.
The grief and the guilt.
“I called you—”
Eve gave the woman a forced smile. “Thank you for that. Seriously,” she said. “But I’m not ready to talk about it.”
Lorn nodded, her emerald eyes filling with pity, then she turned to face the mirror and smooth the edges of her red hair pulled into a sleek ponytail. “That’s understandable,” she said.
Eve felt like a specimen under a microscope because of Lorn’s hawklike stare at her reflection in the mirror. “Listen, it’s been nice catching up with you and the other ladies,” she said, having had her fill. “But I’m going to have a quick chat with someone and then head home.”
Lorn frowned.
Eve picked up her clutch and tucked it under her arm, then leaned in to give an air kiss to each of the woman’s cheeks. “Get home safe,” she said, before moving past her to open the heavy wood door.
“Why does this feel like a very polite ‘get lost’?” Lorn asked.
Eve paused and looked back. “Because it is,” she said, then stepped into the hall and let the door slowly close behind her—slowly enough for her to hear her former friend’s gasp of shock mingle with the sound of Santana’s “Into the Night” as the DJ continued to remind them all of 2008 with his music selection.
She made her way down the wide hall, with its polished black tiles, and reached the auditorium at the center of the main hall of the campus. With a pause, she allowed her eyes to adjust to the dark interior that was lit by colorful beams of flashing lights. She opened her clutch to check the time on her phone. It was just after nine and she really was ready to head home. She had an early start in the morning with an onsite class for CPR recertification for the entire staff of her private lifeguard company, Aquatic Safety Solutions. Her days of late nights and early mornings were no more.
She looked at the gyrating bodies for the sight of Lucas Cress. By the stage, she spotted a small crowd gathered around someone and headed in that direction. As she approached, she saw the crowd was women, and their centerpiece was none other than Luc. She stopped just on the edge and looked on as he signed a stack of yearbooks with flourish, then flashed a smile that was charming and disarming.
He’s enjoying this, she thought as she continued to watch his eyes brighten as a woman whose bright blond hair and massive bosom defied realism leaned in to press a kiss to his cheek, leaving bright pink lipstick behind.
He looked up and locked eyes on her just as a beauty with waist-length braids whispered something in his ear. Eve bit down on her bottom lip as she raised both eyebrows at him. His smile was bashful as he held up both of his hands.
He’s a flirt!
She watched him closely as he rose to ease through his fans. She missed not one detail about the man. His height. The breadth of his shoulders and the leanness of his hips. The navy suit he had on was tailored to fit his frame and suited his shortbread complexion, which seemed a bit darker than when he was younger. The chubby kid had morphed into one sexy man. It all worked for him.
And he knew it.
It wasn’t ego or cockiness. Just bold confidence.
She released a breath that shook with her awareness of him. He came to stand in front of her and towered over her by at least four inches, just upping the intensity. “I wanted to talk to you...if your fans don’t mind?” she said, looking past him at the dozens of eyes piercing into them.
He looked back and gave them all a wave. “Sure,” he said when he refocused on her.
“In private,” Eve added.
His face filled with interest as he smiled. Slowly.
“Seriously,” she insisted, winning the fight not to return his smile.
He made a show of straightening his designer silk tie, standing taller and clearing his throat as he gave her a mock-serious face.
Eve turned and led him through the crowd as some other 2008 rap song played. She felt eyes watching them and ignored them all. She was sure many of them remembered the massive blowout of her embarrassing Lucas before his brother, Cole, had put on a show that led to him being suspended for a few days. To see two of the key players now strolling together across the gym was enough to get tongues wagging.
In the hall, she turned just as he leaned his back against the row of lockers.
“I need to apologize to you,” Eve began, nervously raking her fingernails through the short hair on her nape.
“For?” he asked, watching her closely.
“How I treated you back in high school,” she said. “Especially the day you tried to give me the cupcakes you made for me.”
He looked down at the tip of his polished handmade shoes and then back up at her with a glint in his eye. “No worries,” he said. “It’s in the past.”
Eve wasn’t sure what to make of the moment.
“Then again, dinner and drinks at my place might make the lingering hurt go away,” he added. The look in his eyes was one of appreciation and attraction.
“And why does ‘drinks’ feel more like my panties on the floor by your bed?” she asked.
His eyes lit with fire. “If you’re attached to them, I can just ease them to the side,” Lucas said, pushing off the lockers to take a long step toward her.
Eve stiffened her lower back and her knees to keep from stepping back from him and his overwhelming presence. She refused to run. With a notch of her chin, she was thankful her heels gave her added height as she looked up into his eyes. “I’m offering apologies, not sex,” she said.
“Damn,” he said in obvious regret.
She chuckled, unable to help herself as she shook her head at him. “It’s good to see that you are doing very well, Luc,” she said.
“I could be better,” he said, raising his hand to lightly touch her upper arm. “For both of us.”
Eve closed her eyes for a moment at his heated touch. “My plans for the night are for a long and hot bath before climbing into my bed alone. Good night, Lucas,” she said, then turned away from him.
“Eve?” he called behind her.
She stopped and looked back.
“Okay. I pressed too hard, and I forgot my manners,” he said, his voice echoing in the hall along, with the steady bass-line thump of the music. “Thank you for your apology.”
She held her clutch with both hands in front of her. “Thank you for hearing me out,” she said, before turning away from him again. “And good night again, Luc.”
“Tu es encore plus belle qu’au lycée,” he said.
Eve paused as his deep voice speaking French echoed in the hall.
“You’re even more beautiful than you were in high school,” he said.
“You speak French?” she asked fluently in the language as she met his gaze yet again.
Lucas shook his head and laughed. “We were in class together all through high school, Eve,” he said.
“Right. I forgot that,” she admitted.
Or I was too caught up in myself to see anyone outside my bubble.
“I better go,” Eve said, turning one last time to walk down the length of the hall. Her heels hitting against the tile echoed until she reached the double doors.
“Jusqu’à ce que nous nous revoyions,” Lucas called behind her.
Until we meet again.
Eve felt like it was a promise.
