Chapter Nineteen

Lucas finished putting his laundry in the washing machine and was about to turn around and leave the laundry room, when Nicole came storming in. Yes, he had seen her pissed off before but tonight she looked mad enough to kill someone. Her face was a violent dark red colour and her eyes were flashing angrily. She was so busy mumbling under her breath that she didn't notice Lucas watching her until she was throwing stuff into a washing machine.

"Why don't you just take fucking picture?" she demanded.

Lucas raised his eyebrows, unaffected by her harsh words, "Who pissed in you cornflakes?"

"Brady." she muttered under her breath. Although it wasn't actually piss, she reminded herself, And it wasn't exactly cornflakes either.

Lucas helped Nicole with her laundry, throwing another shirt into the machine, "What did he do now? Oh, wait, let me guess. He rejected you for the millionth time?"

Nicole flushed a deeper shade of red, "Actually, he didn't exactly reject me. In fact, it was kind of the opposite. It proves that we're sexually compatible. I think it just means we might be a little bit too compatible sometimes."

Lucas looked at her in confusion, "Do I really want to know?"

"No, you don't." Nicole watched as Lucas picked up a black shirt from the laundry basket and would have laughed at any other time. If he had known where that had been, he really wouldn't be touching it right now.

"What happened to this?" he asked, dangling the shirt in front of her face, causing all the humiliating memories to come crashing back. Well, if it had been embarrassing for her, she could only imagine how Brady was feeling right now, "It looks likes it covered in white paint."

Nicole winced, "It's white but that's definitely not paint."

"Then what is it? It's like slime." he commented, throwing the shirt into the laundry.

"Well," Nicole decided to tell him the truth. It would be funny to watch his reaction and she could use a laugh after what she had just went through, "I was trying to seduce Brady again and I think it worked a little bit too well."

"What are you getting at, Nicole?" Lucas already looked disgusted so he probably had a very good idea of what she was talking about but Nicole spoke again anyway.

"He went and pulled a Jason Biggs in American Pie on me, dammit!" Nicole looked more frustrated than grossed out, "And he ended up doing it all over the front of my shirt."

Lucas looked really sickened at this news, "Oh, shit, you let me touch that!" he looked so grossed out and was trying so hard to wipe off any remains of the 'white paint' on his jeans that Nicole couldn't help laughing.

"So, he seriously popped his cork like a fifteen year old?" Lucas shook his head, "Are you sure you really want him, Nicole?"

"Yes." Nicole snapped, "I'm going to give him a hundred other chances anyways. Who cares if I might have to train him a little bit?"

Lucas made the sound of a whip cracking and Nicole scowled at him, "Stop that, it's not funny at all. Do you realize how close we were?"

"It sounds like Brady was a little too close, if you know what I mean. He couldn't hold it all in." Lucas burst out laughing and Nicole just looked at him.

"You really think you're funny, don't you?" Nicole shook her head and pulled the black shirt out of the washing machine. Holding it between two fingers gingerly, she gave Lucas a pointed look, "If you don't shut up, I'll throw it on you, I swear to God."

"You should get a sign painted on that shirt." Lucas said through laughter, backing away from Nicole and the soiled shirt, "It could say, 'Brady Black blew his load on this shirt'. I bet Brady would really like that."

"How do you get Sami to put up with you?" she asked, throwing the shirt back into the washing machine.

"Actually, you're one of the only people I purposely try to piss off. Sometimes, it's just so easy. I bet if I wanted to torture you now, all I would have to do is go back upstairs and tell Brady you let it slip that-"

"You wouldn't dare!" suddenly, Nicole grinned at him, "I don't really care what you say. Judging from how close I've already come to sleeping with Brady, there's no way Brady's going to resist me for another two weeks. And Sami still doesn't want to tell anyone and I don't think she's going to budge. She probably doesn't want anyone to know she's with you because it would be so degrading for her to let everyone know how much she's lowered her standards."

"That's not true." Lucas said angrily, "She isn't ashamed of me."

Nicole patted Lucas on the shoulder consolingly, "Keep telling yourself that, Lucas. Ignorance is bliss."

Lucas brushed off her hands and began stalking over to the laundry room exit, "Two weeks! That's all you have left!" Nicole called after him.

Lucas realized that Nicole was right. He only had two weeks left to get Sami to publicly show she had feelings for him. He had to find a way to get her to do it before those two weeks were up, just to prove Nicole wrong. Sami couldn't be ashamed of him. He wanted to get Sami to do it without having to manipulate her too much. He didn't want to trick her into doing it and he didn't want to force her into it either. What options did that leave?

By the time he reached Sami's apartment, he had a plan. He wasn't sure if it would work but it was the only way he might be able to get her to admit it without doing that something that might end up really hurting her. Although, she might not be very happy with him after he put his plan into motion.

He got inside the apartment and found Sami sitting on the couch. She looked up and smiled when she saw him. Going over to the couch, he sat down next to her and took a deep breath.

"Sami, I need to talk to you about something." Lucas began nervously.

"Like what?"

"When are we going to start telling people about us?" he asked after a moment's hesitation.

Sami looked a little bit annoyed, "Why do you keep asking me that? I'm not ready to tell anyone yet. I promise, we'll tell them soon, we just need to wait a little longer."

"All right." Lucas held up his hands in surrender, "I'm not going to ask you again, okay? I'll wait until you're ready to tell everyone and I won't do anything to force you."

"Good." Sami's body relaxed at his words.

"But until we tell everyone, there's going to be some..... conditions." Lucas finished, checking her face to see her reaction.

"What kind of conditions?" Sami asked suspiciously.

"Until we tell everyone, we're not going to have sex." Lucas told her.

Sami just looked at him in shock for a few minutes, then finally exploded, "What do you mean, we're not having sex? Oh, so you're not going to force me but you're going to give me this shitty ultimatum because you think it's going to make me break down and tell everyone? You're using your body to get what you want? Who do you think you are- Nicole?"

"Sami, I just can't take this keeping it a secret for very much longer." Lucas tried to explain, "I do want to be with you but I don't want it to be a secret. I want to be able to hold you and kiss you and tell you I love you wherever I want to and not have to worry about who might be watching."

Sami calmed down a little bit and rubbed her hand against the denim below his belt, "I can wait. Can you?" she purred seductively, eyeing his now straining fly.

Lucas bit back a moan and reluctantly pushed her hands away, "I forget to mention, not only is there is no sex, there's no foreplay, no kissing, no touching, no deliberate physical contact at all. Not until you decide you want to tell everyone about our feelings for each other."

Sami let out a shriek of outrage and jumped off the couch, "Do you still love me?" Lucas called after her as she stormed over to her bedroom.

"Have fun sleeping on the crappy mattress." she retorted, stepping into her room and slamming the door behind her.