that because you're madly in love with me." I was teasing, trying to lighten the intense mood in the car, but Lucas's gaze was dead serious when he turned his face to meet my eyes.
"Hell yeah, I am," he murmured. Then he licked his lips, and my nipples hardened. Shit's sake. "Anyway, just my perspective."
We drove in silence for a while, and his words rolled over and over in my mind, making me experience a whole rollercoaster of emotions. Eventually, I sighed and rubbed my eyes.
"You'd probably make a good psychologist one day," I told him. "You've got an impressive way of opening my—"
"Legs?" he guessed, grinning wide and shooting me a wink.
I rolled my eyes. "I was going to say my mind. But yeah, that too."
"It'd be an interesting area to study, for sure," he agreed. "I never really had a career plan before."
I smiled. "Well, you're almost finished with senior year... Do you want to go to SGU? I can get you enrolled."
Lucas arched a brow at me and gave a short laugh. "Nice subject change, babe. Subtle. So, so smooth."
We'd reached Zed's front gate and paused briefly to wait for the gates to open before continuing up to the house. Surely the guys’d had enough time to set up our little surprise for Lucas because I'd already kept him away several hours longer than planned. I sent a quick text to Zed letting him know we were back, just in case.
"Why do you look so mischievous?" Lucas asked suspiciously as we got out of the car.
"Hmm?" I batted my lashes up at him. "I'm not."
He clearly didn't believe me but didn't push the issue as we headed into the house. When we got to the courtyard, I pushed the doors open with dramatic flair.
"Happy Birthday!" I announced with a wide smile. The courtyard was all decorated as I'd instructed Cass and Zed with balloons everywhere and a huge cake from Nadia's on the table. No one else yelled happy birthday with me, though, and I glared death at Zed and Cass, who sat on the lounge with drinks in hand and unamused expressions on their faces.
"Seriously?" I glowered. "That's all the enthusiasm you could muster up?"
Zed and Cass exchanged a look, then Zed sighed. He sat forward and snagged a pair of pointed party hats from the table and placed one on Cass's head and one on his own. Meanwhile, Cass pulled a party blower from the seat beside him and gave it a loud honk as the sparkly streamer unfurled. All the while maintaining a dead straight face.
I glared at him, then shifted my attention to Zed, who was now waving a little flag that read "Happy tenth birthday" with colorful gumdrops all over it.
"You suck."
An amused smile cracked his straight face. "You love it."
With a groan, I spun around to face Lucas and looped my arms around his neck. "They both suck. Happy late birthday, Lucas."
The grin on his face damn near lit up the night sky, and he kissed me hard. "This is incredible. You guys are amazing. I've never had a birthday party before."
Cass honked his blower again, the streamer smacking Zed in the cheek. "Well, you're in luck then. Red even sorted out presents." He held the blower between his teeth as he spoke, and it was ridiculously attractive. Actually ridiculous, with his party hat still on.
Lucas wrapped his arms around me, tucked his face into my neck, and kissed my skin. "Thank you, Hayden. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. No one can ever say otherwise."
I knew he was thinking about his mom, and it tightened my chest. But I couldn't even feel bad. I loved that he thought that about me. I loved Lucas. And I'd go to the ends of the earth to make him smile like that every damn day.
10
Sitting around the courtyard fire eating birthday cake and drinking Scotch, I could almost convince myself we were just normal people. Normal polyamorous people, not killers, gang leaders, teenaged strippers or ghosts.
"Okay," Cass announced after some time, placing his empty cake plate down on the table. He grimaced as he stood up. "Let's get this shit done before I'm too wasted to see straight lines."
He pulled a joint from his sling as he said that, bringing it to his lips, then indicated for Zed to toss him a lighter.
Lucas gave me a confused look. "Get what shit done?"