Lucas didn’t take his eyes off his wife. “Oh, I’ve been told everything is nearly perfect, at least as far as my wife’s career goes.”
Lexi O’Malley was a writer. From what Jen had heard, she was becoming very popular. A couple of women in Bliss read her works religiously—including Jen. Lexi was very prolific. She wrote books that combined BDSM and romance in a way Jen completely understood. “She works a lot, huh? I’m married to an artist. I know how they can get. It’s hard to get them to notice you’re alive when they’re really focused on the work.”
Jen was an artist, too, but somehow she never got lost the way Stef did. She could always pull herself away. It might have been different if she hadn’t married another artist, but she had and she needed to be the grounded one. It never bothered her when Stef was focusing on his work. She’d always known he would come back to her, but now she wondered.
Lucas stared back out at the woman pacing on Jen’s lawn, a hollow look on his face. “Yes, I suppose so.” He turned back and his face cleared. He was right back to being charming and handsome, without a hint of worry in the world. “I’m a big fan of your husband’s work.”
Jen gave him a smile. “And I have to admit, I’ve read all your wife’s books. So we’re both married to successful artists. Why do I have the feeling neither of us is very happy with them right now?”
Somehow what she couldn’t admit to her friends was easy to say to Lucas.
“I’m not good at hiding it anymore.” Lucas sighed a little. “I used to be quite good at hiding my dissatisfaction. Maybe because it didn’t mean as much.”
“I was always terrible at hiding anything at all. I think I might have been born without the patience to prevaricate.” It had gotten her in trouble on many occasions. “I’m afraid I can be a bit of a brat.”
Jack Barnes was firmly in the lifestyle. Lexi wrote lifestyle romance novels. It only made sense that Lucas was in the lifestyle, though she couldn’t figure out if he was a Dom or a sub. He didn’t seem to fit either title completely.
“A little brattiness never hurt anyone. Sometimes it’s the only way to get what you need.” His handsome face grew contemplative. “The question is what to do when the brat loses interest.”
A deep sympathy welled. She knew that feeling except it was her Dom who seemed to be losing interest. “It’s funny. I thought once I’d gotten that man to collar me and put a ring on my finger that the rest of it would be a breeze.”
“You too, huh? It must be something about the whole wedding thing. Watching someone else starting a life makes you think about the state of your own marriage. It makes me think about a lot of things. I watched my parents be utterly miserable for most of their lives. Oh, my father wasn’t unhappy. Marriage just made it easier for him to cheat. My father wouldn’t have been truly happy without someone to cheat on.”
Jen knew the feeling. “My mother kind of rambled through life. She wasn’t a bad mom. She just never settled down. We lived all over the place.”
“When the going got tough, she got going, huh?”
God, she didn’t want that life for this baby. She wouldn’t have it. She would do what she needed to do in order to make sure her baby had a stable home and family. And that meant Stef couldn’t pull away every time he got a little scared. Babies were scary. Kids were even scarier. Kids didn’t necessarily follow the plans their parents set out for them. Stef couldn’t always be in control. It was easier for Jen. She’d accepted that control wasn’t an option a long time ago. “Yeah, I don’t know that she really knew who my dad was. She always said he was a military man, but she never gave me a name. The father’s name on my birth certificate is mysteriously missing.”
She wasn’t sure why she was being so open with Lucas O’Malley, but he seemed very easy to talk to and to have many of the same problems. All around them people were happily talking and toasting the bride and she and Lucas were the only two who seemed to be standing apart. And she was the hostess.
Though Nell seemed to be doing a fine job. Her friends picked up the slack. While Rachel and Callie dealt with the chaos that tended to follow Cassidy around, Nell and Holly were making sure the guests all had what they needed. Holly was walking around the lawn talking to all the guests. She was wearing killer heels and a smile that went on for days. Nell was dealing with the caterers. God, Jen hoped she wasn’t convincing them to change her crab dip for tofu, but it was wonderful and it left Jen with a whole lot of time to think. And she thought way too much.
It felt good to talk.
“I know where you’re coming from. Not that I didn’t know who my dad was, but the rambling part.” Lucas seemed to relax as though he was happy to have someone to talk to as well. “I spent a lot of time in various boarding schools. I was very good at getting kicked out of them. It was all an attempt to get my parents’ attention. It didn’t work. They had a list of schools. I just got sent on to the next one. I didn’t stop trying though. I finally did something shitty enough to get someone to notice me.”
“Who?” She was curious. His story wasn’t so far from her own. She’d acted out trying to get Stef to notice her.
A little smile curved his mouth up. “Jack. I tried to blackmail Jack. He threatened to kill me and bury my remains all over the ranch and I very nearly crapped my pants.”
She shook her head, laughing a little. Lucas O’Malley was a brave man. “I can’t imagine anyone threatening Jack. I have to admit, Stef can be intimidating, but Julian and Jack are a one-two punch.”
“Oh, I threatened Julian, too,” Lucas admitted, his eyes soft with the memory. “Julian didn’t do anything so gauche as tell me how he was going to kill me. He would have simply had me brutally murdered by a well-paid contract killer so he wouldn’t have to get his suit dirty. Lucky for me, Jack likes a challenge.”
“He took you in?”
“Oh, yes. It was the first time my bad behavior got me the attention I wanted and it was pretty much the last time I behaved poorly. Jack’s been more like a father than a brother to me, though he’s not that much older. I learned everything I know about life and love and making a home from Jack Barnes. I married his stepdaughter.” He sighed a little. “She’s trying to make everyone proud. This was her dream, you know. Jack or Julian could have made it easy for her, but she wanted to do it the hard way. She wanted to earn it.”
“I can understand that. I paint, too. I’m not as ambitious as Stef, though. I really just do it for myself. I don’t care if the world knows I can paint. But Stef does. He won’t admit it, but art critics get to him. I can imagine it’s the same for reviewers with your wife.”
“Oh, Aidan ordered her to stop reading them a long time ago. She can have ten great reviews and one bad review and guess which one she remembers? No, I want her to have her career. I just wish she would take a breath every now and then.” The longing was right there in his eyes as he watched his wife.
“Do you ever feel like she doesn’t see you anymore?” It was how she felt about Stef.
“That’s a good way of putting it.” Lucas’s face settled into a grim mask. “And I spent so very much of my life trying to get someone to see me. I guess I never thought she would stop looking.”
“Lucas?” A tall, ruggedly handsome man with dark blond hair stood in the doorway, a concerned look on his face.
Lucas’s expression cleared and the sexiest smile crossed his face. “Hello, Master.”
God, she needed to visit Texas more often. All of the threesomes here were about the girl. Texans seemed to be a little more open in their sharing practices. Despite the fact that she loved her husband deeply, she couldn’t say that the idea of two hot guys going at it didn’t do a little something-something for her libido.