Chapter Sixteen

Lucas stepped into his apartment and yelled to see if Nicole was there. Nicole came prancing out of his bedroom in a mini-skirt and a skimpy t-shirt. Nicole saw the triumphant expression on Lucas' face and scowled. She could just about guess what had happened. After last night with that diary entry, you had to see it coming. She was going to kill Jan for this.

"Hand over the keys to your car, Nicole." Lucas smirked at her, "I won the bet."

"Really?" Nicole crossed her arms over her chest, "Are you sure about that?"

"Of course I'm sure." Lucas thought about the night before and couldn't stop himself from smiling, "You have to keep it a secret but Sami admitted she wants me. She just wants us to keep our feelings for each other a secret for a little while. She's afraid of how people in Salem are going to react. But I still won so give me the car."

"Right." Nicole looked unconvinced, "What would Sami do if I went over and told her you think that the two of you are involved in some kind of secret intimate relationship? She'd probably scream at you and say you're a delusional freak. Because I honestly don't believe a word you're saying. I think you just want my car."

"It's the truth." Lucas shot back angrily. There's no other explanation for her waking me up at four in the morning to lick honey off me. Besides, she said she wants it to happen again, Lucas thought to himself, "And you're not saying a word to Sami because then I'm going to tell Brady that you only want him to have sex with you so you can win a bet. Then he'd never sleep with you."

"You bastard!" Nicole sputtered indignantly, then remembered something and grinned, "Besides, even if your little story about you and Sami secretly being together is true, you still wouldn't win."

"What are you talking about?" Lucas demanded, "The bet was, I had to get Sami to admit her feelings for me by May. It isn't May yet, so I've won."

"Wrong!" Nicole flung at him, "I specifically remember saying that she has to be publicly affectionate with you. So having dirty little in-the-closet encounters doesn't cut it. Although, with someone like you, it's understandable why she'd want to keep it a secret."

"You did say that, didn't you?" Lucas thought back to the night they had made the bet, "That's not a problem either. Sami just wants us to be secretive for a little while, so we can sort some things out. I still have a month."

"It's not going to happen." Nicole sneered at him, "You're making all of this up. Sami doesn't even like you."

Lucas glared at her, "Note to self: do not make bets with Nicole. She cheats."

"Note to self," Nicole mocked his tone of voice, "Lucas is a pussy."

Lucas opened his mouth to throw back an equally nasty comeback, then decided against it, "What's wrong with you? Did you get your period or something? Or is Brady still rejecting you?"

"Shut up." Nicole grumbled, "Pussy."

Irritated at her for calling him that, Lucas shook his head, "I'm not going to lower myself to your childish name-calling level. I'm leaving."

"Suit yourself. Pussy." she couldn't resist adding cheekily, especially after seeing how much it pissed Lucas off when she called him that. Lucas left the apartment just as Brady was coming inside. Lucas turned around, looked at Brady and then winked at Nicole. Determination begin eating away at Nicole's insides when she saw the arrogant look on Lucas' face. He really didn't think she could get Brady. And Lucas couldn't be more wrong because Nicole knew she could do it.

Once Lucas had left the apartment, Nicole sauntered over to Brady. She came up to him from behind and wrapped her arms around him, "It's about time you got back." she whispered, her breath hot against his ear. Brady felt every part of his body tense and stiffen. Her hands found their way underneath his shirt and she rubbed her hands against the bare skin of his chest.

Brady knew he was slowly yielding to the sensations Nicole could create with her expert hands and mouth. This wasn't the first time she had done something like this but every time she began touching him, it got harder to push her away.

He turned around and pushed her arms away from him, "Nicole, don't. I do not want to do this."

"You're lying." Nicole stated bluntly, "I can tell that you do. You just keep running away from it. But you want to make love to me, Brady, I can see it in the way your eyes glaze over when you look at me and I can feel your body's reaction when I touch you. There's no reason to run from this. It's inevitable. You're a sexually repressed guy, Brady. If it's not me, it's going to be someone else. You're going to give in to it anyways, so why not with a woman who wants you, who needs you in her life?"

"Nicole, you don't know what you're saying." Brady said weakly, "I can't let myself give in."

"Brady, you're too smart to hold back because of limitations that aren't there." Nicole knew she was so close to getting him to give in. She pulled him onto the couch with her and wrapped her arms around him. She drew them into a kiss and she knew she had him. He wasn't going to fight her anymore. It was a matter of minutes before he had his shirt off. Nicole watched as he removed his belt, then popped open the button on his jeans.

Brady reached down to unzip his fly, but to his mortification, the zipper was stuck. He pulled on it harder but it still wouldn't budge. Shit, he thought to himself, tugging at it as hard as he could. He looked up at Nicole and gave her a humourless smile.

"The zipper is stuck." he explained.

"Let me try." Nicole began pulling on the zipper. When it still wouldn't come down, she began yanking on it aggressively. Making a disgruntled noise, she stood up and walked into the kitchen. She came back with a container of butter and a roll of paper towels. Sitting back down, slid a paper towel covered in butter along the teeth of the fly. The zipper finally glided down easily but by that time, Brady was freaking out. He was so close to losing the bet and that couldn't happen.

In his hurry to stand up he ended up falling off the couch. Grabbing his shirt and his belt, he began dressing himself while Nicole watched in confusion.

"What are you doing?" she asked, trying to keep fear from creeping into her voice.

"It's a sign." Brady said gravely, "The zipper wouldn't go down because I know I'm not supposed to be doing this."

"It was a crappy zipper!" Nicole exclaimed angrily, "Don't give me that shit about it being a sign. That is so stupid. You know you want to be with me."

"I have to go." Nicole watched Brady rush out of the apartment and pounded her fist against the couch cushion. Getting off the couch, she went into the kitchen and found the two large bottles of vodka she had been keeping stashed under the sink. She opened the first bottle and downed half of the bottle in a matter of minutes. Then she took both bottles back into the living room, already beginning to lurch around drunkenly.

"Note to self: Jeans are evil. I must destroy them." with that, Nicole walked into Lucas' bedroom to find all of Brady's jeans.

Lucas threw the newspaper down and looked over at the apartment door curiously. Sami had left to go talk to Nicole about something about twenty minutes ago. She had said it was only going to take five minutes. Lucas frowned and started towards the door.

"Can they not go two minutes in the same room without killing each other?" Lucas muttered, chuckling to himself as he envisioned Nicole and Sami engaging in an all-out cat-fight. Actually, that could end up being kind of hot.....

He opened the door to find Sami and Nicole sitting on the floor, surrounded by scraps of cut up denim. Both Sami and Nicole were holding up pairs of jeans and using scissors to slice them into smaller pieces.

"What the hell are you doing?" Lucas roared angrily, "Those had better not be my clothes you're destroying."

"Don't worry, they're Brady's." Sami assured him, tossing another scrap of denim to the side.

Nicole was humming to herself as she mutilated the pair of jeans further with her scissors, "No more jeans for Brady." she sang to herself, "Then nothing will be in the way."

"What is she talking about?" Lucas asked Sami, deciding that Nicole was already too drunk to give him a proper answer, judging from the empty liquor bottles.

"She and Brady were going to have sex. Then Brady's zipper got stuck and he ran away." Sami looked pretty pissed off about this herself, even though Lucas could not figure out why.

"And it never would have happened if he was wearing sweatpants!" Nicole added, reaching for another pair of jeans, "And that's all he's going to wear now." suddenly, she flung the jeans down and let out a frustrated groan, "Why won't he sleep with me? Is it because I don't have enough cleavage? Or is it because he thinks I'm an insane Barbie doll?" she glowered at Lucas as she said those last words, letting him know who she held partly responsible for her failure to get Brady into bed with her.

Sami handed Nicole the pair of jeans she had been cutting up, "It's okay, Nicole. This is the last pair of jeans. After this, Lucas can help us clean up and we can burn them. And don't worry, you'll get Brady to have sex with you soon."

"No, she's won't." Lucas spoke up confidently, receiving angry looks from both Sami and Nicole.

"Yes, I will." Nicole retorted as she slashed the remaining bits left of the jeans into smaller pieces. Sami got to her feet and went into Lucas' kitchen to find a garbage bag. Not wanting to get into another childish argument with Nicole, Lucas resigned to helping Nicole pick up the jeans while Sami held the bag open. Lucas could not figure out why Sami was helping Nicole but he decided it wasn't worth fighting about. Not when he and Sami were getting along so well. Besides, if he was going to get Sami to go public with their relationship before May, then he was going to have to turn his charm on full force.