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Right now, he didn’t even have his mind on a specific woman, unless he counted that woman he’d met. The hard-as-hell-to-get-her-attention Maxine Summers.
Maxine was that hot chick he’d met through the agency that hooked up his grandfather’s fifth wedding to the younger nurse Shelly. The wedding didn’t exactly go as planned but his granddad was sure glad they had made arrangements for him to get hitched in style.
He’d always thought it was crazy the way Maxine seemed to ignore him every time he was near her. She wasn’t stuck-up or anything remotely close to hoity-toity. Lucas could tell she was interested in him, but she was perhaps shy about expressing herself around him. She’d even told him she’d heard about his reputation with the women and seen it for herself and that’s what piqued his interest in her. She was brutally honest. He hadn’t met too many girls who carried those qualifications. That really turned him on.
“That’s twenty-eight reps, man. Sure you wanna go on?” Zack commented as he handed Lucas his bottled beverage that was ever present by his side while he worked out.
Lucas replaced the weights on the rack and sat up to take a good swig of his energy drink. “Thanks.” He wiped the sweat off his face with the white towel and then flung it over his shoulder.
“Granddad’s going to want to meet with us soon,” Zack said, leaning against the treadmill sipping on his bottled water.
“I can’t wait,” Lucas said, his tone sharp as acid. He growled knowing full well that a scolding would follow very soon.
“Let Granddad know I’m coming,” Lucas added. “I’m going to hit the shower first.”
“Sure thing,” Zack agreed. He then grabbed his cell phone and headed towards the main area of the mansion.
CHAPTER THREE
A few moments later, Lucas stripped off his gym vest and track pants and headed to the shower of the home-built gym. He turned on the faucet, making sure the water was cool enough. He knew full well that it wasn’t good to shower immediately after working out. He should let his body cool down a bit first. Trouble was, he knew damn well nothing could cool him down. He was fired up. Seething. Beside himself. He rubbed the stubble on his chin and got inside the stall allowing the water to splash on his skin before lathering up. All the while thinking. Women. Nothing but trouble. He turned cold inside thinking about the latest headlines he’d seen in the morning papers:
“Another Romero Weasels Way Out of Trouble with Family Connections.”
“The Bad Boys of the Romero Family,” followed by a caption of “Lucas and Zack at it again!”
“Romeros Want to Rule,” followed by a story about how the family was likened to modern-day barbarians who seek to buy up as many properties and take over as many businesses as possible to “take over” and “now they want to sow their wild oats!”
Tabloids!
Didn’t they have anything more newsworthy to cover? Like the massive layoffs and high unemployment rate? Growing up, he and his family didn’t have much until they’d found out about their long-lost grandfather, Toni. When Lucas's father Jack was unemployed, their family home was repossessed by the bank and they were forced to live out of their dad’s old minivan until the authorities got involved. That was why no matter how successful or rich they were, they never forgot where they came from and would do everything in their power to help those up.
What was that saying again? “When you have more, you should give more!” That being said, he also knew one didn’t have to be rich to give.
Yeah, he lived on the edge at times! Sure, he wasn’t perfect. He sometimes could be a real jerk in the business arena but he still couldn’t get his head around the press mentality.
Anything to feed the story-making machines! The Romero family sold papers! That was something he would never get used to.
“When Money Affords Everything…Even Bribery!” was the headline that irked him the most. The same woman claimed that Lucas was trying to buy her off from coming public—which was completely fabricated. She even took a selfie on her camera phone at the time while they were entwined in some exotic dance move. Yeah, the music was pumping and the energy at the club was electric. People go to clubs to have a good time, let loose. Unwind. Unfortunately, when snapshots are taken and a little airbrushing on a photo manipulation program is applied, things can look ten times worse than they are.
