“Hanging up now,” I shared with a giggle.
“Alright, sister. Hang up. But just know, I expect to be maid of honor when all this finally goes down exactly the way my mind has conjured it up,” Ashlyn warned with a smile in her voice. “Seriously though, I love you, Chells, but you gotta have some faith. Faith in Luka, but also faith in yourself. You aren’t your parents. You aren’t responsible for their mistakes; you are only responsible for your own. Don’t let walking away from Luka before he’s done something to deserve it be one of those mistakes. I’m not saying to not make him work for it. I mean, showing up and announcing his intentions to your office before he talked to you about it? Not even a little bit cool. I’d definitely make him pay for that. But what he wants for the two of you in the long-term? That’s the kind of life we dream of getting when we’re little girls. Don’t bite off your nose to spite your face. You hear what I’m saying?”
“I hear you,” I replied, my voice low and pensive as I turned over what she’d said in my mind. “I promise I’ll give it some thought tonight.”
“I take it you’re seeing him again soon?”
“Tomorrow morning. Sunrise,” I shared. “I told him we’d get an early start.”
“Sunrise isn’t early, it’s freaking sunrise.”
I could hear the revulsion in Ashlyn’s voice. Neither my gal pal nor l were overly fond of mornings. “At the time I suggested it, I was trying to punish Luka for his hare-brained stunt. Looking back, I think I might have punished myself a little more.”
“Ya think?” she chortled. “What a sucker!”
“Shut up. I’m pretty sure you and I can’t be friends anymore,” I huffed, shifting the phone to my other hand. “I was working with what I had. At the time, I thought maybe he’d renege on the whole must-buy-Michelle-a-big-ol’-house thing. I was wrong.”
“Oh, this is gonna be fun to watch. Call me after and let me know how it went. I want all the dirty details,” she ordered.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I returned. “You’ll be my first call.”
“I’d better be. Talk soon. Bye, babe,” she said in farewell.
“Bye, Ash,” I offered with a smile as the call disconnected. Dropping my phone on the cushion beside me, I threw my head back against the couch, barely resisting the urge to howl. I don’t know what I’d expected to hear from my best friend, but a determined lecture on giving love a chance hadn’t been it—even if she had made some excellent points.
One thing was sure. I needed to think things through.
And I needed to do it with another pint of Chunky Monkey.
Since I’d already devoured my emergency stash, it looked like a trip to the grocery was now on my agenda.
Blech. I hated the supermarket.
It looked like the hits just kept on coming today.
Chapter Seven
Luka
Trudging up the cobblestone path that led to Michelle’s house (or cottage, if I was being honest about the size of the place), I yawned as I tried to hang onto the white bakery sack. Yep, I had the cake pops I knew Michelle preferred AND two steaming cups of coffee I’d grabbed from the little gourmet coffee shop over on Bleaker Street that she seemed to love so much. Truthfully, the joint was a little too froufrou for me. I mean, who really needed a caramel macadamia nut frappe or ate cake pops for breakfast? When did eating scrambled eggs and bacon and drinking plain old black coffee go out of style?
I knew the answer to that question didn’t matter. I’d get Michelle whatever she wanted, for breakfast or otherwise, but still… if you asked me, it was weird. Moving my eyes from my loaded hands to her doorbell, I sighed, lifting my elbow to jam the button.
I waited a minute or two before glancing down at my watch. 5:45 a.m. She’d demanded I be here by six. I hadn’t heard her wrong. She’d been real clear. Lifting my elbow again, I hit the lighted disk mounted next to her door again, only this time, I depressed it for several seconds, the high-pitched peal of the buzzer echoing through the closed door.
“Okay, okay! I’m coming! Hold your damn horses out there!” I heard Michelle’s order, her shout muffled by the wood door between us.
I couldn’t help my chuckle when the door was yanked open and her irate flushed face appeared. “What the hell are you doing here so early?” she complained as she lifted a hand to rub her bleary eyes. “I said six, not four.”
Arching one eyebrow as I peered down at her, I tried not to grin as I brushed past her. “Well, good morning to you, too, sunshine. Get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?”
“Luka, I don’t know if you’re blind or what, but there is neither sun nor shine out there,” Michelle retorted, jerking a thumb over her shoulder toward her still darkened yard before she slammed her front door closed. Whirling to face me, she crossed her arms in a classic defensive pose and asked, “What are you doing here so early?”
Damn, she looked adorable standing there in her bare feet and her rumpled pink baby doll pajamas. It was everything I could do not to drop the coffee and pastries where I stood and fuck her against the nearest wall I could find. “Gorgeous, you set the time to meet. I’m only fifteen minutes early. It’s 5:45.”
“Yeah, well, that’s ten more minutes I could have gotten to sleep,” she grumbled, trying to cover her yawn with a growl.
I couldn’t help it. I had to laugh at that. I knew she was going for the bearing of fierce lioness, but with her delicate looks and petite stature, she seemed like more of a drowsy kitten no matter how loudly she hissed, and it only made her more lovable. Not that I’d share that. I wasn’t a stupid man. Instead, I asked, “Why the hell did you want to meet so bright and early if you weren’t a fan of EITHER bright OR early?”
Michelle cocked her head to the side and blinked sleepily at me, running a nervous hand through her long, wavy red tresses as I watched her try to come up with an answer that wouldn’t make her look like a crazy person.
“It seemed like a good idea when I thought bright and early would bug the crap out of you. It seems, however, in your true whackadoodle style, that you’re immune to normal shit like hating early mornings.”
“Not really. I just think I hate them less than you,” I returned with an easy smile. “However, getting up at the ass-crack of dawn o’clock was worth it to be able to see you in those pajamas,” I imparted as I moved my eyes down her body, licking my lips as I noted the way the soft camisole hugged her breasts.
Michelle’s eyes dilated slightly as it dawned on her that she was standing in front of me wearing nothing but a very brief pair of PJs. “Oh, fuck a duck!” She moaned, whirling around to grab the quilt she had draped over the back of her couch and wrapping it around her. “I’m not exactly accustomed to having visitors at this time of morning,” she muttered as her cheeks turned a pretty shade of pink.
“Maybe this will help,” I suggested, holding out the mocha-flavored cappuccino.
She paused long enough to take her coffee from my hand before marching past me to her bedroom. “Give me ten minutes. I just need to throw my hair up in a ponytail and put on some shorts and a tank top.”
Groaning low at the thought of all the skin she’d have exposed today, I held my own coffee a little tighter. Christ, I was never going to manage keeping my hands to myself. She’d be lucky if I didn’t have her half-naked in the front seat of my truck by lunch. And if any other man happened to get a glimpse of all that ivory skin she’d just had on display, I’d end up in jail. That’s just what she did to me. The woman would be uncontrollable if she ever realized just what kind of power she held over me.
“Okay, I’m ready,” I heard Michelle announce. I turned and spotted her walking down the short hallway that led from her bedroom into the living room and automatically began shaking my head.
“Hell, no. Go change,” I growled, my hot gaze cataloguing every bare inch of her flesh in her cutoff jean shorts and entirely too short tank top. Hell, even her shoes screamed sex appeal, little sandals that
wound all the way up her slender calves. No! Just no!! I’d be throwing punches at leering assholes all day with her in that get-up. Fuck that. I wanted to spend my night with her this evening, not in county lock-up for attempted murder. “I mean it, hummingbird. Turn your firm little ass around and go put on something else.”
Michelle froze, her eyes slowing swinging to mine and nearly freezing me with the icy glare I saw reflected there. “I’m sorry?” she breathed, her narrowed stare promising me a painful death if I wasn’t careful when I chose my next words.
It was unfortunate that I’d never been much good at the art of subtlety. “Too. Much. Skin. Fix it,” I growled, leaning toward her as my protective hackles rose the longer I looked at her gorgeous body. In an outfit like that she’d be the star in the X-rated fantasy of every man who saw her.
“Fuck. You!” She bit out, leaning toward me. “You are neither my father nor my man, Luka. And even if you were, I’m over the age of eighteen and can wear whatever the hell I want. Right now, I wanna wear this,” she yelled, holding her arms out to her sides and spinning in front of me. “Not that I owe you any explanation. It’s supposed to be over a hundred degrees this afternoon, and this outfit is cool and comfortable, two things you’ll learn to appreciate real quick if you plan on staying long in the Tennessee heat! Jeez, what is it with men suddenly thinking they have the right to tell Ashlyn and me how to dress?” she continued to mumble to herself as she turned away from me to grab her purse and keys off the end of her coffee table. “We’ve been getting dressed on our own for over twenty years and suddenly everyone’s a critic.”
“I’m not criticizing, and I don’t even know this Ashlyn,” I felt compelled to point out. “I love what you’ve got on. I just don’t want every other swinging dick we pass on the street to get hard looking at my woman. I’m selfish that way, hummingbird.”
“Well, thank God, I’m not your woman then,” she growled without looking at me as she checked her face in a compact she’d withdrawn from her purse.
“It’s way too early to have that argument with you. I need at least two more cups of coffee and a donut.” Extending my long arm, I rattled the paper bakery sack in front of her nose. “Peace offering?”
Michelle’s eyes lit up as she spotted the familiar bakery’s brand on the white bag. “Ooooohhh! Treats,” she squealed. “Gimmee!” she ordered, making grabby hands.
I chuckled as I watched her dive into the sack and extract a long caramel-flavored cakepop and pop it between her lips. Her appreciative moan made me harder than a rock, and I grimaced as I adjusted my dick behind the fly of my jeans. “Jesus, woman. You cannot make those noises when there’s a red-blooded man anywhere near you.”
“Why not?” Michelle asked around a bite of her goody, her fingers wiping the crumbs from the corner of her mouth.
“Because, gorgeous,” I said, moving closer as I bent to nuzzle her ear, “It makes a man like me think of all the different ways I could make you murmur that wanton little sound again. Would you make it if I pushed you up against the wall and filled you so full of me that you’re near to bursting? Or would you make it if I bent you over the back of that couch over there and ate that pretty pink pussy I know you have? Maybe we should cancel today’s hunt and stay here and find out,” I suggested, my lips ghosting her neck as she shivered in front of me.
Swallowing hard, Michelle turned in my arms and held her cakepop between us like a switchblade. “Y-you’re dangerous,” she accused shakily.
My smile was slow but sure. “Yep, I am, but only in the very best ways as far as you’re concerned. Anybody that might threaten you, though….those folks will see a different kind of danger from me.”
Michelle looked at me closely. “I’m not quite sure what to make of all that, but I can tell you I’m not changing my clothes. If you want to work with me today, I’m wearing this.”
My lips pursed when I realized this was a battle of wills she wouldn’t compromise on. “Fine, but the first time I catch a man staring at that perfect ass of yours, I’m not going to be held responsible for my actions.”
“Nobody is going to stare at my butt, Luka.”
Snorting when Michelle rolled her eyes at me, I shook my head. “You really have no idea of your own appeal, do you, Michelle?” I asked softly, lifting a hand to finger a silky piece of her hair framing her face that had fallen out of her high ponytail. “Men look at you every single day. The difference now is that you have a man that’s always going to stand between them and you.”
Michelle’s expressive eyes softened the longer she stared at me. “You shouldn’t say things you don’t mean,” she warned.
“I mean every word, Michelle.”
Clearing her throat, her eyes gaze darted away from mine as she changed the subject. “We need to get going. I really want to show you this first property as the sun comes up. The land is really, really pretty,” she confided, shouldering her handbag as she stuffed the last of her cake into her mouth.
“I can’t wait to see it,” I replied, although honestly, I’d do anything or go anywhere that allowed me to spend time with her. Buying a house was just one of the ways to achieve that goal. I had plenty of money, and we’d eventually need a place to live anyway since I hated my own place and her cottage was way too small for the family I had in mind. Purchasing a house for us seemed like a logical step to me. I knew she thought I was crazy, but soon, I hoped she’d understand I was just crazy for her.
Following her out her front door. I watched as she locked up and pocketed the key, waiting until she turned her back to test the lock for myself. Hearing her irritated huff, I knew she’d caught me double checking her door, but I couldn’t help it.
“Still locked?” she mocked as she started down her front porch steps.
“Yep,” I answered, refusing to rise to the bait. She’d learn soon enough that where her security was concerned, I never take any chances, even if it seemed over the top to her.
I caught Michelle’s frown as she looked toward her driveway and found only her Jeep Cherokee sitting in the gravel lane. “Did you take an Uber over here? I don’t see your car?”
“I brought my truck today,” I said, gesturing toward the gleaming black Dodge extended cab truck parked in front of her house. “I figured we’d be riding around in the country today and didn’t want to get the car all dusty.”
Michelle’s forehead wrinkled as she turned to look at me. “You have both a truck and a car? Why? You can only drive one at a time.”
My lips curled slightly as I shrugged. “Somedays feel like a truck day. Somedays feel like a car day. I’ve got a Harley, too, but there’s no way I’d put you on the back of my bike with all that fragile skin exposed.”
“I… you…. nobody needs that many rides, Luka. It’s a waste of money!”
“Well, since your Jeep looks like it’s on its last legs, when you move in, you can drive the car,” I proposed, privately thinking my offer was pretty generous.
Michelle’s jaw dropped before she dropped her hands to her hips and squinted up at me. “You bite your tongue, Luka Templeton! Excuse me all over the place, but some of us don’t waste our hard-earned money on rides we don’t need. Gutsy Gertrude has been with me through high school, college, and three jobs. She’ll be here long after you’re gone,” she defended her beloved SUV with a stiff nod in the red Jeep’s direction. “Right now, I think she’s probably got more character than you do!”
Okay, it was clear I’d unintentionally insulted my girl and I needed to rectify that shit, pronto. “Babe, I’m not some rich douche. I have my truck for when I have to haul supplies around for the restaurant. I’m actually opening a second Maybelle’s in mid-town Nashville and have been running a lot of supplies back and forth with it. I have my bike because I enjoy riding when the weather permits. It’s a hobby. Last, I have my car because it’s more professional than a truck. When I have meetings with investors, distributors or the bank, I drive that. I’m not some weal
thy fuck on an ego trip. There is a purpose for everything I do. As for you thinking I’m dissing your vehicle, I apologize. Gertrude looks like she’s seen you through some tough times, but she is getting older. I want you behind the wheel of something safe. Since I use the truck more than the sedan, you driving the Lexus is the most logical solution.”
Despite the still darkened sky, I saw Michelle’s eyes flash. “I’m not giving up Gertrude no matter what happens with us. I have her serviced every three thousand miles, and she’s the perfect vehicle for me. Your Lexus can suck it,” she growled before flouncing down her sidewalk.
I tried not to stare at her bouncy little ass as she stomped away, but that was an impossible challenge. Mesmerized by the seductive sway of her hips, I followed her on automatic pilot. The woman could have led me off the side of a cliff as long as I got to stare at her phenomenal ass all the way down.
“So I assume that even though I know my way around this area, you want to drive, huh?” Michelle asked over her shoulder as she paused at the passenger side door of my truck.
“My wheels, my way, gorgeous.”
“Figures. You’re suffering from one of the worst cases of AMS I’ve ever seen,” she muttered, ignoring the hand I held out to her as she attempted to haul her amazing backside into my truck without my assistance.
“AMS?” I grunted as I cupped the firm globes of her denim-covered ass and gave her a helpful boost into the cab of the vehicle, pointedly ignoring her low snarl of annoyance.
“Yeah. AMS. Alpha Male Syndrome. You seem to be a chronic sufferer,” she spat, scowling down at me as she yanked her seatbelt across her waist.
I laughed as I slammed her door shut and circled the vehicle, fishing my keys out of my pocket as I moved. The good news was my woman had a wicked sense of humor. The bad news was I had a feeling she wasn’t trying to be funny.
Happily Ever Alpha: Until Sunrise (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 11
