Rush by Beth Yarnall Page A

nearly stealing his breath. In a contest between the two of them, Lucas wasn’t sure who’d win. The only thing he knew for sure was when it was finally over there’d only be one of them left standing.
    And that man had to be Lucas.
     
     

 
    CHAPTER SIX
     
    “I can practically hear my bank balance ticking up and up.” Cal’s words penetrated Lucas’s covetous rage.
    As the red haze cleared his vision, Lucas really looked at his friend. Cal had been talking about Mi as though she were a valuable asset, not a lover. A thing to buy, sell or trade. He realized she meant nothing more to Cal than the cameras, the studio or even his precious Mercedes. She was an investment Cal had employed him to protect, nothing more.
    He shook his head. What had he been thinking? He’d been thinking with his dick, that’s what. Thinking with his dick always gotten him into trouble. Thinking with his dick had allowed Vanessa to fuck him over. And there sat trouble. All one hundred odd pounds of her, holding up a set of fuzzy, pink handcuffs and matching blindfold, looking like every man’s fantasy.
    Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
    He ran a hand through his hair, knowing he was in deep. Every time he’d get her within reach she’d slip away. He wondered if it was the chase that enthralled him. He’d never had to chase Vanessa and yet she had never really been his, had she?
    Cal mumbled something to him, but his attention remained riveted on Mi. She held up a strange looking rubber ring with a big nub and silver bullet thing attached to it. She switched it on.
    “One of our most popular couples toy, the Colossal Cock Ring from Tease and Scream keeps him up and at ‘em all night long . This powerful couples cock ring delivers a perfect O with a vibrating tongue that hits her spot every time. Only twenty-nine ninety-nine, the variable speed bullet lets you control the intensity wirelessly, so no twisted wires, only tangled limbs and pleasured sighs.”
    Now that one was on a whole other level. A level he wasn’t sure he’d ever be ready for.
    “Lucas.”
    He turned to find Cal regarding him as though he were sizing up a competitor he wanted to take advantage of. Always the worst position to find yourself in with Cal.
    “What?”
    “I was asking if you and Mi would like to have dinner with me tonight, but I think I already know the answer.”
    Lucas returned his attention back to Mi, ignoring Cal’s bait.
    They watched the rest of the show in silence. When it was over, Lucas peeled off the wall with a half-assed muttered goodbye to Cal and followed Mi to the makeup room. Cal’s low chuckle followed him.
    He stood outside the door, waiting for her to transform back into the fresh-faced Mi he’d come to like best. While he waited, he watched the crew, looking for what he didn’t know. A button on a lapel proclaiming allegiance to C.A.L.M.? A receipt for surveillance equipment hanging out a back pocket? Mi’s missing glasses clenched in an angry fist? He wished. What he saw was a group of people who worked well together and did their jobs with the practice of long employment.
    His phone buzzed in his pocket. He found an out of the way corner from where he could see the doorway to the makeup room and punched the phone on. “Vega.”
    “The cops are gone.” Malcolm said. “They left a right mess.”
    “I’ll take care of it.”
    “I dropped the key off at your place. The doorman has it.”
    “Thanks.”
    “I got news.” Malcolm’s voice held the excited quiver of a boy who’d pulled the prize from a cereal box.
    “Yeah?”
    “That background you wanted on Mi?”
    With an eye on the doorway, he rolled up to the balls of his feet, his body tensing. “Yeah.”
    “There’s no record of her ever having a child.”
    He relaxed back down to his heels, but the tension stayed with him. There was more.
    “She’s never been appointed a legal guardian either.”
    “Just cut to it,” Lucas ground out.
    “The only record I could find