Beverly Hills King by Claire Marti

Author:Claire Marti [Marti, Claire]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Claire Marti

Chapter 13

Lucas removed his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose. Now he had more insight into why she’d passed out in the dark tunnel, and how her mom had shaped her lifestyle. No surprise she didn’t know how to set down roots––because she’d never had any.

He tucked away her revelations to ponder later. What would make her want to stay? And why did he want her to stay so badly?

“Your turn in the hot seat.” Her smile was mischievous, and her full lips were bare and tempting as hell.

His throat tightened––she was so damn beautiful. Tonight was the most casual he’d ever seen her––dressed in a pair of black leggings and a slim striped tunic. No Southern California athleisure style for her.

He took a moment to put his glasses on––he’d promised to share his sad little story and he didn’t renege on his word. “Are you sure you want to hear this?”

“Oui. Now stop stalling and just tell me.” Her slate-blue eyes narrowed, and she wagged a finger at him.

He inhaled a steadying breath. “So this happened a really long time ago, at the end of eighth grade.”

“Your school system is different than what I grew up with. Were you eleven? A teenager?”

“I was thirteen and believe me when I tell you I was a really awkward kid.” Talk about understatement.

She didn’t respond but simply waved her hand for him to continue.

“So I was skinny, like painfully skinny. And pasty with freckles and this damn red hair. My eyes were terrible, basically legally blind, and back then, the choice of glasses was pathetic. Let’s just say they looked more like goggles. If you ever saw that Napoleon Dynamite movie, that was me.”

She giggled. “I believe you exaggerate. I cannot imagine you skinny, but I can picture the glasses.”

His lips twitched. “I bet you can. In addition to being the goofiest looking kid, I was also really good at math. So I was the perfect target for the popular kids to bully.”

“Oh, Lucas.”

“Yeah, at least those were the days when nobody had smartphones yet. So there’s that. Anyway, Jason was the ringleader of this group of boys who used to wait for me after school, shove me around, occasionally beat me up.” His jaw tightened recalling every one of those little dickheads.

Brigitte’s pale brow furrowed. “Couldn’t someone at the school have stopped it?”

“Oh, my mom talked to the Principal a few times but usually it would only make it worse. They would wait for me off school grounds. Anyway, that was just how it was. But the incident that really made me realize I had a temper was a little different.”

“Okay.”

His mind rewound to that day. “It was the week before finals and two things went down. I’d really wanted to play football over the summer and maybe even in high school. But Jason and his little cronies threatened me and told me no way would they let me play on their team.”

“Little shits,” Brigitte muttered, her dark brows drawn together.

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