--Angelina POV--
"He's my best friend," Giggling, I pointed at Lucian who was sat beside me, the amused look unmoving from his face while the barista stood on the opposite side of the counter, a small smile on his face as he stared at me.
"Congratulations, signorina," He said as I laughed, covering my mouth as I did.
"I think she's drunk," I think I am too. Turning to look at Lucian, I moved to rest my cheek against my knuckles, simply staring at him and after a long moment, he did the same, breathing out a deep sigh as his hand outstretched to brush my hair away from my face.
"Has your ex-husband ever seen you drunk?"
"I don't think I've ever even been drunk before," I shook my head. "Why?" I added, raising a curious brow as I watched him.
"You would probably be with him instead of me right now if had ever gotten the privilege to see you drunk, it's adorable," And I giggled again, shaking my head.
"He doesn't love any part of me anymore, not even the parts of me he hasn't seen. He's become a total and complete simp for the maid I hired to work for us a few months ago, it's quite pathetic if I'm being honest," I moved to take another sip of my wine, but failed as he gracefully swept the glass out of my hands, pushing it further away from me.
"I wasn't done with that," I glared at him as he continued to innocently look at me.
"On the bright side, you now have a best friend," He pointed at himself as I nodded. "What do best friends do together? Is there some sort of line that shouldn't be crossed?" He continued to think aloud, bringing me into his thoughts as he did.
"How about we start simple. Nicknames," I snapped my finger.
"Nicknames? Not a bad idea," He nodded along.
"Do you know any common nicknames that are shared between best friends?" I asked the barista as he paused in front of me, taking a moment to think.
"I've heard that the term BFF has come quite far," He advised as Lucian and I shared a glance, until I eventually leaned in a little closer to him, whispering quietly.
"What do you think a BFF is?" I didn't want to seem too ignorant; these are things that people with friends learn earlier on in life, and I didn't have that chance. So, better late than never.
"Big Facebook fan?" He guessed.
"What's Facebook got to do with friendship?"
"You know, cause you make friends on Facebook. Why? Have you got a better idea?" He dared me to give a better example.
"Not really, my first thought was big friendly flowers," I shrugged as he laughed at me.
"Facebook is more believable than friends," He sounded confident.
"I believe it means best friends forever," The barista decided to cut in, probably had it with our consistent bickering about the stupidest of things.
"I think he's onto something," I nudged my head towards the man behind the counter as he went back to cleaning the cups at hand.
"So, should we call each other BFF now or what?" Lucian asked.
"BFF is a term, we need an actual nickname for each other. But that's quite difficult with your name," Putting a hand on my chin, I thought about it, reading his name over my head as I tried to come up with a good nickname.
"What about Lina for you-"
"No. My ex-husband called me that, I hate it,"
"Fine, I guess I'll do the opposite of him then... Angel," I paused, moving to look at him as he smiled at me awaiting, looking like he had found the perfect nickname and wasn't planning on changing it not matter what.
"I found the perfect one for you too," I poked his cheek.
"And..." He pushed.
"Lucy." His amused look fell, being replaced with one that was asking me if I was being serious. "That's the perfect one, and no, I won't be changing my mind," I satisfactorily stated as he gave in with a sigh, the smile slowly creeping back onto his face.
And as the evening submerged itself into the night, Donovan and his mistress became blurrier and blurrier at the back of my mind while I drank glass after glass of wine, trying the occasional sip from Lucian's drink before going back to my own.
"He must have been mad to have let you go,"
His breath tickled my cheeks as I laughed, jokingly glaring at him as he stared at me, biting his lip while his hand came to gently rest against my cheek, his thumb stroking back and forth.
"I must have been mad to have picked him from the beginning," I retorted.
I don't remember the exact moment when my imagination became disfigured from my reality, but whenever it was, I have no idea, and there was no going back.
Because when I next opened my eyes, the bright morning lights seeping through the floor to ceiling length windows blinded me as I fell back on the comfortable mattress, putting a hand to my raging headache.
And I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut as I turned my body over, pulling the bed cover up to shield me from the cold chill that fanned itself against my skin.
Feeling the headache becoming more bearable, I slowly blinked my eyes open, the hazy image in front of me taking a moment to become clear as the light shined through the windows, perfectly projecting itself onto the body beside mine.
Wait... What?
Squinting my eyes open, I rubbed the sleep out of it before picking my head up, gasping at the sight in front of me as I fell back onto the bed, the feel of my arm hitting against my bare stomach causing me to look under the covers to where my nude body lay.
Oh no.
"So... I don't think it's normal for best friends to have sex..."
His voice was deeper in the morning, laced with sleep, and when I moved my head to hesitantly look at him, he was tiredly rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with the back of his hand, his hair messed up in the most perfect way, the complete opposite of yesterday's neat style.
And I lay back down, turning on my side so I faced him, and he did the same, perching himself up by his elbow as he smiled at me tiredly, and somehow, this made him look sexier than the perfect neat smiles he gave last night.
"Did we..." He nodded his head as I sighed.
"That was irresponsible," I mumbled. "First time in my life that I get drunk, and I end up sleeping with a man that I know nothing about,"
"Come on now, you know my name, and the fact that I proposed to a woman yesterday and it didn't end well, and... I'm sure there's more," Rolling my eyes at him, he chuckled.
"So, what? You're not going to say this was a mistake and run away like they always do in the movies?" He pinned me in place as he spoke, and I chuckled, shaking my head.
"It was irresponsible of both of us, and I'm not a very fast runner, so if you want to do the running away then, please, go ahead. I don't even have a clue on where I am right now," I said, pulling the covers further up my body as I looked around the unfamiliar space.
"My hotel room," He answered for me. "So? What now?" He added on after a moment of silence as I thought about it.
"I'm hungry," I grumbled, plopping back down on the bed as I got comfortable under the sheets, closing my eyes once more as I lulled sleep to come to me.
"Breakfast it is then," He chuckled, getting out of bed. And as he moved to put his trousers on, I only now seemed to notice the sleeve of tattoos that coiled up his arm, but I didn't say anything, only curiously watched him go over to his suitcase before pulling out a large black shirt and throwing it towards me as it landed on the bed.
"Your clothes... are a bit ripped... Sorry about that," He itched the back of his neck as I laughed, shaking my head in amusement.
"I am highly against sleeping with an intoxicated person, just thought I'd put that out there. I was out of my mind last night too, so forgive me, please," He sounded ashamed of himself as he spoke, coming to sit down on the bed once more.
"I thought I already said that the fault is both of ours. I guess these things happen sometimes, we just have to look passed it and move on," I said, sitting up as I pulled his shirt over to me, and he quickly looked away to give me some privacy.
"You're quite a gentleman, Lucy,"
He almost looked back around to glare at me, but managed to quickly stop himself before turning back around. I smiled at his back as I put the buttons on the shirt.
"If you were to forget about anything, I would have liked it to be that name," He stated.
"No can do," I shook my head as he gave in with a sigh.
"Take your time, I'll make us some breakfast," And he got up and left, picking the clothes up from the floor and neatly placing them to the side as he did, making sure to not even accidentally look back at my figure on the bed.
Chuckling after him, I moved to get off the bed, stumbling as my legs shook with the weight of my body and quickly moved to hold onto the wall, my mind reeling as my drunk memories flashed through my mind.
Our breaths intertwined as we both stumbled into the room, my hands tightly gripping onto his crisp white shirt, his waistcoat already half undone by the time he closed the door behind us. With my eyes shut, I felt his cold breath fanning over my eyelids before going to my lips where his own lips rested, his tongue sliding over my bottom lip, his teeth biting down on the skin.
"Has this cute little dimple always been there?"
His voice shook with his laughter as he asked, his finger gliding over the single dimple on my cheek as I laughed with him, opening my eyes to look at him as I nodded my head and his grin widened before he leaned back down to kiss me.
And a quiet, trembling gasp slipped passed my throat when he suddenly pulled me closer to him, his arms weaving around my thighs as he hoisted me up to sit around his waist, spinning around as my back came in contact with the glass of the large window.
And I angled my face down as he reached up, trailing his kisses down from my lips to my throat as his hands slid up my dress, expertly undoing the buttons as I felt the material begin to slip down my shoulders.
Gasping, I stood up straight, staring at my reflection as the memories made themselves known. Oh my gosh. Knowing what we did is one thing, but then seeing the vivid images replay in my head is another thing.
As I quickly showered, cleaning my body of all the sweat and germs, I grabbed the spare towel, stepping out as I wiped the foggy mirror clean, blinking in surprise once more when I caught sight of the red mark on my neck.
And seeing that mark was enough to trigger more memories in my mind.
"Look at me," His rugged voice ordered as I blinked my eyes open, being met with his waiting blue ones which seemed like they were glowing in the darkness of the room.
"Don't close your eyes," He whispered, leaning in closer as his fingers wove through mine, our palms resting against each other, and he pulled my arms up to rest beside my head, leaning his head down to shower kisses up from my stomach.
And for a moment, when he released my arms, I moved them to weave around his neck, as he crept back up, gripping onto my thighs before moving them to wrap around his lower waist.
Sitting up, he looked down at me as I looked up at him, and a satisfied smirk made its way onto his face before he moved down, carefully picking me up in his arms before going to sit me on his lap, his head situating against my shoulder as I felt him pepper his kisses onto my neck.
And as he held me in place by the waist with one of his arms, his free hand moved up and down my bare back, brushing my hair out of the way as his fingers played along my spine, leaving goosebumps and a warm trail in its wake.
Slapping my hands against my warm cheeks, I walked back and forth in the bathroom, fanning myself as I tried to get rid of the heated memories of last night.
A knock on the door almost caused me to jump out of my skin.
"Are you finished with your shower yet?" Even his voice was enough to cause a wild array of butterflies to swarm around in my stomach, let alone the picture of him naked in my mind. How am I supposed to ever look at him again?
"Um... Yes, I'll-I'll just be a moment," I somehow managed to squeak out.
"Okay, breakfast's ready so be quick or it'll go cold," I felt myself release a relieved breath of air when I heard the sound of his retreating feet, and I found myself sliding down the door, hugging my knees to my chest as I waited for my heartbeat to return to normal.
The plan was to come here, have a drink or two, and then return to my mother's home where my cat was waiting for me. But this... This is an unexpected turn of events.
...