“Feel free to change your mind at any time, hummingbird,” he murmured, winking at me as the waiter returned with my favorite wine. “Seriously though, I inherited Maybelle’s a few months back when my grandmother died.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry for your loss,” I said, dropping my voice as sympathy flooded me. “Were you close?”
Luka nodded. “Very,” he confided, his dark eyes softening with sadness. “I’m originally from Colorado. Denver, specifically, but I moved out here about six months ago when her health started declining. Three months later she was gone. Her cancer moved so quickly.”
I nodded my understanding as my heart went out to him. It was obvious just by looking at him that he felt his grandmother’s loss keenly. “I know what you mean. I lost the grandmother who raised me to pancreatic cancer a few years ago. It happened very fast for us, too. I’m just grateful she didn’t have to suffer long.”
“That’s what I keep telling myself about Grandma, too,” he confided quietly. “Doesn’t make me miss her less, though.”
“No, nothing will do that, I’m afraid.”
Taking a deep breath, I watched as Luka seemed to collect himself before he focused on me again. “At any rate, I’m enjoying getting to know this area and meeting new people. Especially the beautiful woman I found sitting alone tonight. Tell me, how did I get lucky enough to find you sitting in my restaurant tonight?”
Laughing self-consciously, I took a sip of wine before answering. “Actually, I was here for a blind date… one that’s gone horribly wrong.”
Luka’s relaxed face hardened. “Did some asshole give you a hard time, hummingbird? Point out the fucker and I’ll handle him personally,” he offered on a growl as his eyes narrowed and darted around the dining room.
“No, nothing like that,” I denied, waving a hand dismissively. “The asshole in question hasn’t shown up. I was actually just about to leave when you came over to the table.”
“Someone stood you up?” Luka asked incredulously before shooting me another killer smile. “Well, obviously the guy is an idiot, but his loss is my gain. Let me buy you dinner,” he entreated smoothly. “I have it on very good authority that the filet mignon is delicious. And you’ve absolutely got to try the Bananas Foster for dessert. It’s one of the chef’s specialties.”
It certainly wasn’t every day an extremely handsome, obviously successful man asked me out, and I wanted to say yes. Parting my lips to accept his invitation, I jerked in my seat as I heard my name being yelled across the restaurant. Whipping my head around, my teeth ground together as I spotted Alan strolling toward me. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I whispered, looking down at my slim gold wristwatch. “He’s almost an hour late,” I mumbled, watching as he drew closer.
“Relax, hummingbird. I’ll handle it,” Luka said softly, his gaze glittering with anger as he glared at my approaching “date.”
“No, no… that’s okay. I can handle him,” I disagreed, praying I was right.
Luka’s chin lifted as he turned his determined eyes my way. “No,” he stated simply.
“Michelle,” Alan said as he reached the table where I was sitting. “I’m sorry, but I got delayed. Some of the guys from my office went out for a quick beer after work and time got away from me. You know how it is,” he noted with a thoughtless smile.
You insensitive jerk, I thought silently. I could tell by the look on the butthole’s face that he wasn’t the least bit sorry for keeping me waiting.
“Man, are you serious right now?” Luka asked harshly. “You left a smokin’ hot chick sitting all by her lonesome for almost an hour in a busy restaurant on a Friday night without so much as a fuckin’ phone call, let alone a text message so you could hang with your buds? Where I’m from, not only does that make you a special kind of stupid, it also means you’ve missed your chance. Timing is everything, dickhead[AO3]. You need to move along. I’m pretty sure this fantastically sexy woman no longer desires the pleasure of your company tonight. Isn’t that right, gorgeous?”
“Nope,” I stated succinctly, popping the “P” at the end of the word dramatically as I crossed my arms over my chest, making sure I gave my boobs a bit of an extra lift. I smirked as Alan’s eyes dropped to my ample cleavage. I was no idiot. I knew my tits were one of my finest features. Let the asshole eat his heart out and see what he was missing by standing me up the way he had. It served him right!
“Excuse me? I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but I’m not going anywhere,” I heard my would-be date bluster snottily as he reluctantly forced his eyes from my breasts back to my face. “I was a little late. It’s no big deal; we can get this night back on track, Michelle,” he added, sounding more than a little patronizing as he shot me what he probably thought was a confident smile and pressed a heavy hand to my shoulder. Unfortunately, I never got to tell him what a pompous asshole I thought he was because it was at that moment Luka smiled. And it wasn’t a pretty smile. Nuh uh. It was the kind of smile a hunter gets on his face right before he takes the legs out from under some hapless buck. Yep, Alan was about to take a metaphorical shot to the heart, and I found I couldn’t care less.
“That’s where you’re wrong, fuckwit. Because I’m the guy that’s about to kick your ass if you don’t get your fuckin’ hand off her. This is my restaurant, and we play by my rules here. So, trust me, you’re going. Whether you go out on your own two legs or loaded on a stretcher is up to you,” Luka threatened silkily, rising from his seat to face Alan.
Alan immediately dropped his hand from my shoulder, but wasn’t smart enough to stop posturing. “This is bullshit. I’ve got plans with Michelle, you asshole.”
Oh, shit! Okay, I’d never had two guys arguing over me before. And unlike the romance novels I read, this wasn’t nearly as exciting as I thought it would be. “Uh, guys, let’s not make a scene, okay,” I said, trying to bring an element of calm to what looked like a rapidly deteriorating situation to me.
Luka looked at me and grinned. “It’s alright, gorgeous. I’ve got this.” Taking another step toward Alan, Luka smiled coldly. “Let me clarify a couple of things for you, dumb fuck. You had plans with Michelle. Past tense. Your plans got canceled when you were a total shithead and decided to leave a beautiful woman sitting alone. You missed your shot with her. And now I’m taking it. So you now need to make a choice. Either leave on your own or get your ass beat all the way out the door. Which is it gonna be?” he asked, turning back to Alan and staring him down.
I swallowed hard as I looked from one man to the other. Clearly, Luka had the size advantage. He towered at least half a foot above Alan’s head and outweighed him by fifty or so pounds of pure muscle. Hell, one punch from Luka’s meaty fist, and it would be lights out for a beanpole like Alan. Luckily for all of us, while Alan might not be able to be punctual when showing up for a date, he was self-aware enough to know he was very definitely sporting a size handicap in the event of this particular fight. Holding up both of his hands in the universal sign of surrender, he backed up a couple of steps from the table.
“Whatever, bro! There’s way too much snatch on the market to break a sweat over one chick—even if she does have a killer rack. You can have her,” Alan yielded with a dismissive look at me.
“Yeah, you play the part of a pussy, and you’re the one that gets fucked, Alan,” Luka snarled. “Get the fuck out of my restaurant before I give in to the urge to pound your face into something not even your mother will recognize.”
“Seriously, Michelle? You’d rather stay here with this guy?” Alan questioned impatiently as if he was doing me the favor of giving me one last chance to spend the evening with him. Ugh, not likely, I thought with a disgusted look at the red-faced man.
“Yeah, asshole! Seriously! I’d rather spend the night with a corpse than waste one more second on somebody like you. You almost ruined a perfectly good night for me! I crammed my legs into control-top pantyhose for this nonsense! Do me an enormous favor and g
et gone before I give into the urge to claw your eyes out myself,” I growled, glaring at Alan’s back in disbelief as he spun on his heels and hot-footed it out the door. How the hell had I almost hooked up with that son of a bitch? There was no way I was that damn desperate.
“Jesus! That’s it. No more dating for me. I clearly suck at choosing suitable men,” I ranted to myself, throwing my unused napkin on the table before reaching to retrieve my black clutch from the table beside my water glass. “I don’t care what Ashlyn says. I’m just gonna auction my V-card off on Ebay to get rid of it! It’s gotta be easier than puttin’ myself through the torture of dating,” I continued to mumble, freezing as I heard Luka’s low chuckle. “Son of a bitch!” I moaned as I felt the sharp bite of embarrassment hit my belly. I knew my face had to be tomato red, too. “I said that out loud, didn’t I?” I asked, staring at the table because there was no way I could meet Luka’s incredible eyes. “I really should have gone with my gut and stayed home and watched Gilmore Girls on Netflix. I could have seen if Lorelai picked Christopher or Luke, but no….I decided to take a chance on Alan the Asshat,” I continued to babble—a little habit I had when I got particularly flustered. Finally forcing myself to look at Luka’s face, I found him grinning at me with an amused glint in his piercing eyes. “Is there any chance you could just, you know, delete the past ninety seconds from your mind?”
“Not a chance, babe,” he denied with a shake of his dark head.
“Why?” I whined as I fought the desire to bang my head against the expertly laid table in front of me.
Luka winked. “Because, gorgeous, you’re the best kind of trouble to hit my life in a long time.”
“Trouble?” I yelped indignantly. “May I remind you that you’re the one that waltzed your admittedly fine ass over to my table and invited yourself to sit down?”
Smiling at my statement, he sat back down on the upholstered chair across the table and shot me a wicked smile. “So you think my ass is fine, huh?”
“Whatever,” I snapped, reaching up to play with my necklace to give my hands something to do besides try to strangle him.
Chuckling, Luka’s eyes bored into mine before he demanded, “So, my little hummingbird, tell me more about this V-card you’re so anxious to unload. Because I gotta say, if you’re sellin’, I’m definitely buyin’.”
“You can’t afford me,” I popped off tartly even as my lady bits did a happy little jitterbug behind my panties.
“Don’t be so sure, gorgeous. I’m a very rich man,” Luka replied smoothly, “And you’d be worth every penny.”
“Oh, please,” I sneered, rolling my eyes. “I wasn’t actually serious and you weren’t supposed to be listening to me anyway,” I grumbled, feeling my cheeks heat again. Jeez, this guy was trouble. All kinds of wrong for a girl like me. Sadly for me, the not-so-dearly-departed Alan was probably more my speed. Yeah, a handsome devil like Luka Templeton was way out of my league, but I couldn’t help wishing that he’d be the right kind of wrong for a girl like me.
Chapter Two
Luka
I knew I was ruined the second I spotted her sitting at a table in the corner across my busy restaurant while she talked animatedly to someone on her cell phone. It only took one look. She shifted her tight, sexy body in her seat, uncrossing then re-crossing her slender legs as she tossed her hair over her shoulder with a careless hand. I accepted the fact that the thump I’d just heard echoing through my mind was the coffin lid slamming on my wild pussy-hound days. My player days had just come to an abrupt end. I was done because she was mine. Or she would be… sooner than she realized. Damn it. The endearingly clueless petite woman with the russet colored hair and lively green eyes had done the impossible. She tamed me without lifting a single finger.
And every second I spent in the company of the woman I now knew was called Michelle Buchanan (though I’d found hummingbird or gorgeous much more fitting descriptions) convinced me my instincts were on the money. Listening to her as she continued to grumble about me under her breath, I tried not to laugh. But, damn, my little hummingbird was funny as shit when something—or someone—crawled under her skin.
Even as she ranted, I counted my blessings, knowing that if I’d remained holed up in the restaurant’s back office the way I usually did every night, I would never have crossed paths with this gorgeous creature. It was dumb luck that I’d listened to the voice deep inside me that had urged me to get out of my leather desk chair and check on the dining room tonight. I never did that, trusting my floor manager and the head chef to keep the trains moving in the dining room and kitchen. Tonight, though, that niggling feeling that something was incomplete had compelled me from behind my desk toward the crowded dining room area. Thank God, I’d gone.
Turned out, the something incomplete was me… and the beautiful woman now seated across from me was what had been missing from my life.
That was an easy enough problem for me to fix.
The moment I’d crossed the room and her eyes had met mine, I’d felt her bright light fill the emptiness inside me, burning the chill from my heart. She’d been worked up about being stood up by another man for a blind date, but I’d quickly set about soothing my sweet Michelle’s agitated mood. I’d talked and flirted and taken great pleasure in watching my nervous little hummingbird begin to relax. I’d almost convinced her to stay here and enjoy dinner with me tonight. Everything had been going perfectly. Right up until that asshole she’d scheduled a date with had shown up at the eleventh hour and tried to pick up his plans with my fucking girl.
He learned quickly that wasn’t fucking happening. Ever.
It had only taken me a few minutes to get rid of that fucking pipsqueak, but those were precious minutes with my girl that I’d lost. Because of that, I still wish I’d landed one good punch to that fucking coward’s face. The only reason I hadn’t was because I’d known Michelle was uncomfortable with the attention our argument was attracting to us. Plus, the successful business owner in me knew that a bloody brawl would probably be bad for sales. So, a few well-placed threats had gotten rid of Asshat Alan, but unfortunately not before he insulted Michelle one last time.
That insult was what had sparked the irate rant she was still quietly babbling about. Something about control-top pantyhose, a wasted evening, Gilmore Girls, and the overwhelming relief that she hadn’t handed over her V-card to a world class dickhead.
I gotta admit, it was the V-card comment that had finally gotten my full attention. This unbelievably sexy woman still had her cherry intact? How was that even possible, I thought to myself as I watched her unique green eyes flash while her full pink lips formed words I could no longer hear. I was in shock. Michelle possessed a body made for fucking. Running my eyes down her body, I noted she had the best pair of tits I’d seen on a woman in my life. Firm and high on her petite frame, they bounced slightly whenever she moved. Her waist was tiny and made even tinier by the cinched black belt she wore wrapped around her middle. Her legs were short, but lean—perfect for wrapping around my hips when I finally fucked her hard and deep. Since meeting her, she hadn’t stood up yet, but I couldn’t imagine a world in which her ass wouldn’t be a work of art. The fact that she was still a virgin was fucking stunning. The fact that she was looking to unload her innocent burden was fortuitous, too, because I knew just the man to help her with that little problem she thought she had. Once again, I congratulated myself on my stroke of good luck.
“So, my little hummingbird, tell me more about this V-card you’re so anxious to unload. Because I gotta say, if you’re sellin’, I’m definitely buyin’,” I declared, wiggling my eyebrows at her and grinning when I noticed the blush staining her cheeks deepening.
“You can’t afford me,” I heard her pop off sharply, tilting her little nose up in the air. God, she was cute.
“Don’t be so sure, gorgeous. I’m a very rich man,” I replied smoothly, “And you’d be worth every penny,” I added, my eyes trailing down her bod
y before lifting back to her glittering eyes. I could tell I’d not only surprised her, but pissed her off and excited her in equal measure.
“Oh, please,” she sneered at me, quickly finding her voice and rolling her eyes at me. “I wasn’t actually serious, and you weren’t supposed to be listening to me anyway.”
“Chelle, something to know about me: I’m always listening. I’m attentive like that.”
“If you were that attentive, then you’d know that no woman likes it when a guy implies she’d play the part of the whore for him,” she snapped.
My eyebrows lifted at that remark and I felt a surge of anger hit my bloodstream. The word ‘whore’ sounded vile coming from her pretty lips. It was certainly never a word I’d use in connection with her. “I wasn’t the one that was talking about selling my virginity on the internet,” I reminded her, striving for calm, my lips twitching slightly when she huffed out an irritated breath. I’d beaten her at her own game, and she hated it. I didn’t wanna come off as that kind of guy, though, so I quickly added, “And if you ever suggest I think you’re a whore again, I’m gonna introduce your ass to my hand. Because let’s be clear, there is no part of me that believes that you are a whore. How could I when you’ve shared that you’re still untouched?”
“Untouched,” she repeated scoffing. “That sounds almost medieval. I’m not some fair maiden locked up in a tower. I’m just a woman that hasn’t been boinked yet. And it’ll be a cold day in hell before I let any man—especially one that thinks he can boss me around—spank me.”
“Keep talking, gorgeous. I love a challenge. Being pure isn’t anything to be ashamed of, Michelle. You’re still cherry sweet, and that’s one hell of an aphrodisiac, babe. I’m not gonna lie and say I don’t wanna be the man to take the first taste.” And the last, my mind added silently.
“I don’t… you can’t say things like that to me,” she blustered, her tiny body almost vibrating with energy in her seat. “You don’t even know me.”
Happily Ever Alpha: Until Sunrise (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 2
