Chapter Ten

"When did you finally get out of bed?"

Nicole whirled around to see Lucas and the mischievous, knowing glint in his eyes did nothing to help her still pounding head. She closed her car door and smiled thinly at him.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Nicole held her breath as she waited for him to answer. She had only gotten up about two hours ago and had still been feeling too sick to eat dinner. She had gotten hung-over before but her other hang-overs were nothing compared to this one.

Nicole couldn't remember any of the events that had taken place the night before. The last thing she remembered was getting into Jessi's boyfriend's car and getting driven back to the apartment building. She had asked Brady what had happened but Brady had said he didn't want to talk about it, making Nicole even more certain she had a fool out of herself in some way. But she hoped that Brady was the only one who had been around to witness it. If Lucas or anyone else had been around, it would be even more humiliating to think about.

"I just thought you'd probably be in bed for most of the day after last night." Lucas smirked at Nicole, "You were pretty out of it."

"Brady and his big mouth." Nicole muttered, staring at the ground.

"I assure you, Brady didn't need to say a word." Lucas responded, "In fact, you could say that I was a victim of your drunkenness."

"What do you mean?" Nicole asked, unable to help herself. She was actually pretty curious to know what had went on while she was drunk, even though she would probably be better off not knowing how she had acted. Especially if Lucas had been a 'victim' of her drunkenness. She could tell by the way he was looking at her that it had to have been pretty bad.

"You mean Brady didn't tell you?" Lucas shook his head, "Then again, that makes sense. You said some pretty nasty things about him. And Victor. And me?"

"You? Oh God, what did I say?"

"Hm, I don't know if I should tell you. It's pretty dirty, Nicole." Lucas told her as she squirmed uncomfortably. He knew he was enjoying torturing her a little too much but after last night, he couldn't resist.

"Stop stalling and just tell me, dammit." Nicole said, tugging at her hair with irritation.

"Fine. Well, I was trying to take a shower in my apartment and then you came back from wherever you had been. You got the idea into your head that I was Brady, so you jumped into the shower and asked me to help you take your clothes off. Then I told you I was Lucas and you said I was lying."

"I didn't." Nicole's head throbbed harder, and she didn't even notice the amused expression on Lucas' face.

"There's more." he added, pausing for a moment, "You couldn't see that well, considering you thought I was Brady. But you must have seen some things pretty clearly because you decided to give me a name for my, um-" Lucas noticed Nicole's face was colouring and knew she got the message, "You said it's name should be Goliath."

"In your dreams." Nicole shot back, "I would never say that about you."

"Oh, but you did. And if you think that's bad, you don't want to know what you said about Victor and Brady."

"Probably not because I know you're making all of this up." Nicole answered, hoping that she was right. She really wanted to believe that Lucas was just saying all this to embarrass her but if she had been so drunk that she couldn't remember a single thing that had went on, then anything could have happened.

Lucas ignored her last comment and he suddenly noticed her new car, "Damn, when did you get this? It's gorgeous." he ran his fingers along the surface of the midnight blue Lambourgini that Nicole had purchased several days before with her late husband's money. Nicole watched with growing possessiveness as he continued running his fingers along the car's surface. Stop fingerprinting my car, you bastard, she thought to herself.

"Lucas, it's a car. It does not want to engage in foreplay with you." Nicole snapped.

Lucas drew his fingers away from the car, "Someone's bitchy today. Must be that hangover still hanging over your head."

"I never would have gotten drunk if it hadn't been for Brady and his stupid excuse about Sami castrating him." Nicole tried to defend herself, even though she could tell it came out sounding like she was whining.

Lucas' eyes darkened, "What is it with those two? There's so much tension between the two of them."

"Tension? What, like sexual tension?" Nicole asked, unable to keep the envy out of her voice.

"No. Just tension. They've acted really tense around each other. Don't tell me you haven't noticed."

"Actually, I haven't." Nicole mumbled, looking more than a little confused.

"But it's so God damn obvious." Lucas shook his head, "Has anyone ever told you that you give dumb blondes a bad name?"

"Brady pretty much said the same thing a couple nights ago." Nicole admitted, "Which reminds me, I have to buy you a new microwave."

"What did you do to my old one? The last time I checked, it was working perfectly fine."

Nicole smiled sheepishly, "That was before I got this great idea to make a special dinner for Brady. It was going really well until I used the microwave. Brady got so mad at me. I don't know why though, it's not like I spend a lot of my spare time cooking. I mean, how was I supposed to know that you aren't supposed to put metal bowls in the microwave? Anyway, your microwave exploded and I need to get you a new one."

"You are such an idiot." Lucas leaned against the side of the Lambourgini, earning a deadly look from Nicole in return, "Brady is never going to have sex with you."

"Yes, he will." Nicole shot back, too angry to actually realize what she was saying, "I'd bet that car, which you're getting your ass prints all over the new wax job on by the way, that we will consummate our relationship by the end of the month."

Lucas took the hint and quit leaning on the car, "Seriously?"

"Yes!" Nicole confirmed, still too pissed off to stop herself, "I will bet this beautiful car that I can get Brady in bed with me by the first of May."

"You sound pretty confident." Lucas observed, "And it's a really nice car, so I'll do it."

"Fine but if I get Brady in bed by the end of the month and you don't get Sami to admit she loves you and be publicly affectionate with you by the same deadline, you owe me something."

"When did Sami come into this?" Lucas demanded.

"Please, I'm really not the dumb blonde you think I am. You're crazy about her and she can't stand you. Which is why I'm so sure I'll be keeping my car." Nicole said.

Lucas glared at her, "What do I have to do if I lose?" he asked.

"Well, I don't need your money and you don't really have anything else I might want." Nicole considered her options for a moment, then smiled, "You have to do whatever I tell you to do for the entire month of May, if you lose."

"I have to do anything you tell me to do?" Lucas repeated, "Look, I know it's probably getting to you about Brady not wanting to sleep with you but I don't want-"

"Don't think so highly of yourself." Nicole scoffed, "It would just be funny to see you make a fool out of yourself."

"That isn't going to happen because you're going to lose and I'm going to win." Lucas told her.

"So, we have a deal?"

"Wait." Lucas held up his hand, "If you sleep with Brady, it can't be when he's under the influence of any kind of drug or alcohol. You cannot pay him to sleep with you or bribe him with anything else. If you succeed in doing that and I can't get Sami to fall for me, I'll be your slave for a month. But if you can't get Brady and I end up with Sami, then you give up your car. And if we both succeed, then you give me the car and I'll be your slave."

Nicole narrowed her eyes, "I'm not going to need to use anything except my body once Brady realizes how much he wants me."

Lucas snorted disbelievingly, "If that's what you want to think, Nicole. But you better keep that car in mint condition because in a month, it's going to be mine."