Treachery

She was cute, I’d give her that, but more than anything, this girl was an a

Her mere existence was making my life a living hell and for that I reason, I had every intention of spreading the pain around, inflicting as much damage on her as she was unknowingly inflicting on me.

Was it fair to her? Fuck no. But I couldn’t be bothered with specifics when I had a problem to solve and a person to destroy just so the puppet masters who pulled my strings would lay off for a change.

Staring up at me like we were a pair of warriors with swords drawn, ready to battle to the death, a sheen of red spread across Luca’s cheeks, her eyes dancing over mine as her expression tightened and a muscle ticked above her eye.

Focusing on the jumping muscle, I smirked, pleased to see it happen again. I was getting to her, and without meaning to, she was letting me know it.

“I’m Luca Bailey. You’re my senior advisor for my tort project. I called you earlier today and you told me to be here at six. I’m also the girl you…”

Her voice trailed off before her expression twisted with apprehension and she shook her head.

“None of this rings a bell?”

All of it rang a bell, in fact. But it was more fun pretending it didn’t.

“Can’t say that it does. All I see is a stranger standing in my living room claiming she has sex with three of the men who live in this house.”

“At the same time,” Damon called out from the couch, knowing good and damn well everything we were doing was designed to push Luca to her limits. “How does that work anyway? Seems like it’d be a tight fit for all that dickage. Do your cocks touch? Like rub together or some shit?”

Luca’s cheeks were on fire and I smirked.

It wasn’t her fault I was stuck playing this game, but just because her presence was pissing me off, she would bear the brunt of my aggravation.

Blowing out a breath, she swung her bag to her chest so she could unzip a pocket and pull out a folded sheet of paper. I almost laughed when she slammed it against my chest and practically growled, “Just look at the damn assignment.”

My brows shot up. I wouldn’t have guessed she had so much spine given how she fled when I yelled at her the first time we met, and how she’d melted when I kissed her in front of the bonfire.

Plucking the sheet from her fingers, I gri

Holding her angry stare for another few seconds, I flipped the paper open, glanced at the assignment and bit the inside of my cheek to keep from gri

Taylor, our resident hacker, had done an excellent job of ensuring the random assignment worked out in my favor.

“So,” I said, my eyes lifting to meet hers again, “what do you want me to do with this, exactly?”

Taken aback by the question, she reached to pull the paper from my hand, but I held it up high enough where she would have to jump if she wanted to get it back.

Given her state of mind, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she tackled me for it.

“I expect you to work with me on the project. I’m not thrilled about this, but it is what it is.”

Slowly lowering the paper down so that she could snatch it from my hand, she had to tug a few times before I finally released it.

I studied the way her face twisted with a

I didn’t want to admit my body had reacted to that kiss regardless of the fact this girl was nothing more to me than a problem that needed to be managed.

Three weeks ago, Daddy Warbucks had called in his demand about this girl, not giving a fuck that all of us were sick of his shit and the way he believed he could control us.

The crap our fathers were doing to Ezra and Damon was especially fucked up only because it had changed them over the years, had driven so much rage inside them that I feared they would never recover.

Our entire lives had been pla

People like pretty little Luca here, a girl whose father was presenting a significant challenge for a reason I didn’t give much of a fuck about.

But still, Warbucks gave a damn and had demanded she be handled, so here I was...handling it. I wasn’t happy about it, but realized, after seeing that Luca had just a little bit of spirit, I might actually be able to enjoy it.

My lack of a response got to her, the tension easing from her shoulders enough that it didn’t pain me to look at her anymore.

Rolling her head over her shoulders, she met my eyes again and forced a fake as fuck polite smile.

“I thought you might remember me because when I called earlier today, you told me to be here at six. Obviously, I was wrong in that assumption, so maybe we should just start from the begi

She extended a hand as if to shake mine. I glanced down at it for a second before lifting my eyes back to hers without moving to accept. Slowly, her arm dropped back to her side, defeated.

“My name is Luca Bailey. I have no choice but to be here because I’ve been assigned to work with you on this project. So, can we just attempt to be civil with one another long enough to get the project done? We don’t have to be friends or anything. In fact, I prefer we be around each other as little as possible...”

My brow arched. The fuck did that mean?

“...Maybe we can come up with a schedule or something to make that happen.”

From behind her, the peanut gallery watched with amused grins, Taylor speaking up to poke at Luca a little more.

“Did she just say she wants a schedule? Like a fuck schedule for all three? Would they hang it in the kitchen or something?”

Sawyer answered, “Maybe in the hallway between their bedrooms.”

My gaze dropped back to her just in time to watch crimson blaze across her cheeks, the muscle jumping above her eye again, and her body spin around to face the four men sitting behind her.

“I’m not having sex with anybody,” she yelled, so much noise coming from so little a thing.

Before this moment, I’d been a little jealous of the role Jase had to play in all of this. He was having a hell of a good time fucking Everly in order to keep Luca close. And wasn’t that some shit right there?

Jase was never the type to double dip. I would go so far as to say that it was his personal mission in life to fuck as many women on Earth as possible before he ended up six feet under. But yet, over the past few weeks, it appeared he was enjoying keeping Everly at his side.

Now that Luca was showing a little bit of fire, my jealousy for Jase had abated. This would be more enjoyable than I thought.

“We should go into another room to discuss this. I have a feeling you’re one comment away from starting a fistfight with four of my friends. Not that I would mind watching you try. You might even have a shot with how high they are at the moment.”

Her body swung back my direction, eyes snapping up to lock with mine.