Rock Chick Revenge

by Ashley, Kristen

  We trekked back to my place, I dug out my address book and called all of Noah’s friends (there were two), but neither of them had the same phone numbers.

  Then we swung by several of the places Noah used to hang out but no one had seen him in months and no one knew where he was now.

  Out of options, Indy, Roxie, Jet and Jules promised to “pump” their men for information and I went home with Tex as bodyguard and Shirleen for company. Uncle Vito came over to see how I was doing and not long after he arrived Mr. Kumar showed up for the same reason.

  Euchre ensued. The rest was history.

  I put on a kelly green camisole and a pair of chocolate brown, drawstring pajama shorts with big green polka dots and got under my covers.

  Then I picked up the phone and called Luke.

  “Yeah?” he answered.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “I hear the Rock Chicks called off the Bad Guy search for the night.”

  “We’re not giving up,” I told him.

  “Run out of leads?”

  We had. Or, more to the point, we never had any leads and we just ran out of ideas.

  Still, he didn’t have to sound so happy about it.

  “We’ll get more leads tomorrow.”

  I heard his soft laugh.

  Jerk.

  “Since you aren’t here, I’m taking it you haven’t found him yet either,” I said.

  “I’ll get him.”

  The way he said that gave me a shiver up my spine.

  New subject.

  “Are you hunting all night or are you coming to my place?”

  “I’ll be there.”

  “When?”

  “Soon.”

  “When’s soon?”

  “Soon is soon.”

  “Luke.”

  “Babe.”

  Silence.

  Stalemate.

  I broke the silence. “All righty then, just wake me up when you get home.”

  “Why?”

  “I want to know you’re safe.”

  “You want me to fuck you.”

  For goodness sake.

  So he was right. He didn’t have to point it out.

  “Who’s full of himself tonight?” I asked.

  “Someone’s gonna be full of me tonight,” he used The Voice and its edge was smooth as velvet.

  That got a belly melt.

  “I’m tired,” I told him, ignoring the belly melt and The Voice. “I’m going to sleep.”

  “Sweet dreams.”

  I could hear the smile in his voice before I heard the disconnect.

  Then I heard Tex boom, “Shee-it, Shirleen.”

  I turned off the light and settled under the covers with a smile on my face.

  Funnily enough, I didn’t feel scared at all of my house.

  * * * * *

  I felt my body roll and it wasn’t me rolling it.

  Then I felt hands roaming.

  “Hey,” I said sleepily as Luke’s ‘tache hit my neck, his lips coming with it.

  “Babe, you want me to fuck you when I get home, it’s a good idea not to go to bed with so many clothes on,” Luke told my neck.

  “It’s just a camisole and shorts.”

  His hands went into the camisole, up, and then it was gone.

  “It’s just shorts,” I corrected.

  I felt him smile against my mouth before he kissed me.

  “Was anyone here when you got here?” I asked when our lips disengaged.

  “Tex, watchin’ a movie. Shirleen was crashed on the couch. They both left when I got in.”

  I felt warmth spread through me and it didn’t all have to do with Luke’s hands and mouth.

  “They’re good people,” I was talking to his throat at the same time I was discovering the fact that he was naked. I took advantage and ran the tips of my fingers over his tight ass.

  “The best,” Luke replied then his hand came under my chin, tilted my head up and he kissed me again.

  After he kissed me, I wasn’t in the mood to talk anymore.

  So we didn’t.

  * * * * *

  My body was rolled, my torso pulled up and I opened my eyes as Luke shifted me into his lap.

  He was fully dressed and either it was a gray day (not many of those in Denver) or it was early dawn. I guessed (correctly) it was early dawn.

  “What’s going on?” My voice was scratchy with sleep.

  “I want a kiss before I go,” Luke replied.

  I squinted at him. “Where are you going?”

  “Shit to do.”

  I came fully awake. I did not think so.

  Time to try a new tactic in order to save Luke from doing something that could land him in prison.

  I cuddled into him and slid my arms around his waist. “Stay here with me,” I was working the sleepy voice, hoping it would have an effect.

  His hand went up my back and into my hair, twisting it gently in his fist.

  I thought I was getting somewhere but he said, “Sorry, babe.”

  Shit.

  “I’ll make you breakfast,” I tried again.

  He shook his head.

  “I do a great frittata with bacon and cheese.”

  He gave me a sexy half-grin but kept shaking his head.

  “Pancakes?”

  More shaking of his head.

  “Waffles?” I kept going.

  Now it was his body shaking, with laughter.

  Crap.

  Crapity, crap, crap, crap.

  Time to pull out all the stops.

  I pressed close and put my lips to his neck, ran them up the side until my mouth was at his ear. “I’ll do my punishment,” I whispered and his body went still.

  Now I knew I was getting somewhere.

  I pulled his tee out of his cargos, slid my hands inside and up the muscles on his back. My mouth moved around, lips on his jaw until they were against his. Our eyes caught, we were ultra close and I saw his were ink.

  Yep, definitely getting somewhere.

  “You can watch,” I said low, my heart beating fast, half hoping he would say no, half excited about the possibility that he would say yes.

  “Fuck,” he muttered and I was pretty certain I had him.

  That’s why I smiled.

  He saw the smile, his eyes went molten and he repositioned me so I was straddling him.

  I sucked in breath, thinking he was taking me up on my offer and not wanting to touch myself while straddling his lap. At the same time I was pretty fucking turned on about the idea of touching myself while straddling his lap.

  One of his hands cupped my ass, the other one stayed in my hair and tilted my head down to his.

  “Babe,” he said.

  “Yeah?” I breathed.

  “You scared?” he asked softly.

  I licked my lips and nodded.

  “But you’d do it anyway?”

  I nodded again.

  “Would you do it even if you weren’t tryin’ to manipulate me into not doin’ somethin’ you don’t want me to do?”

  He knew my game.

  I wasn’t surprised. First, he knew everything. Second, I was being pretty obvious.

  I thought about it a beat. Then a bit more hesitantly, I nodded again.

  His eyes dropped to my mouth then he muttered, “My beautiful Ava.”

  I tremor shot through my body at his words and then he kissed me, hard, long, wet and very, very nice.

  When he stopped kissing me, I was deep in a Luke Lip Fog and his hand slid from my ass up my spine.

  “Tonight,” he whispered. “I want you right here, but with my cock inside you, while you make yourself come. Right now, beautiful, as much as it kills me, I’m gonna find Dexter.”

  That cut through The Fog. “Luke.”

  “I know you think you’re protectin’ me but I told you, this is somethin’ I gotta do.”

  “Luke.”

  He ignored me and carried on. “My woman is sittin’ in my
lap with a torn lip and a black eye. This is not just about revenge. It’s about sendin’ a message.”

  My body started getting tight. “Luke.”

  His arms moved to wrap around me.

  “Beautiful, I want everything you offered this morning but I can’t enjoy it until I know you’ll be safe. What I do puts you out there. Anyone who thinks to fuck with you has got to understand there’ll be consequences. What I’m doin’ will make you safe.”

  “You can’t guarantee that.”

  “I can sure as fuck try.”

  My body finished getting tight and I glared at him.

  “This is who I am,” he told me.

  “I don’t like it,” I retorted.

  He half-grinned again. “Yeah you do.”

  How unbelievably arrogant.

  “No I don’t,” I snapped.

  The grin went full-fledged. “Babe.”

  I tried to pull away. His arms went tight.

  “Let me go,” I bit out.

  “Not gonna happen.”

  I went back to glaring and Luke burst out laughing. “One thing’s certain, life with you is never gonna be boring,” he informed me.

  He said that like he wasn’t sure it was a good thing but he was looking forward to it anyway.

  If I wasn’t naked, I would have put my hands on my hips. Instead, I tried to pull away again.

  His hand went back into my hair, he tilted my head down and he kissed me. I fought it for a few beats, lost the fight and kissed him back.

  When he stopped kissing me, he was back to grinning. “Try not to do anything today that’ll get you in trouble.”

  “You try not to do anything that will get you incarcerated,” I shot back.

  He laughed again (the nerve!) touched his lips to mine, shifted me aside then he was gone.

  I know you don’t like it but I think he’s sweet for wanting to protect us, Good Ava shared.

  It isn’t sweet, it’s HOT, Bad Ava chimed in.

  Yeesh, Bad Ava thought everything was hot.

  I crawled under the covers and fell back to sleep.

  * * * * *

  The phone ringing woke me up.

  I rolled and nabbed it off the nightstand.

  “Yo,” I muttered.

  “Babe.”

  Obviously, it was Luke.

  I got up on an elbow. “Please tell me you aren’t calling from a police station.”

  He laughed like what I said was extremely funny (which I thought it was not) then said again, “Babe.”

  “What?”

  “Ma called. She showed up at the loft again, wants to take us to breakfast. I told her I couldn’t go but she could take you. She’s heading to your place now.”

  I shot into a sitting position. “Excuse me?” I asked.

  “She’ll be there soon.”

  “I can’t go to breakfast with Mrs. Stark. The girls and I have plans.”

  “You gotta go. She’s lookin’ forward to it.”

  Shit!

  I knew what he was doing. He was stopping me from searching for Noah like I had tried to do with him earlier that morning.

  And he was better at it.

  “I cannot believe you,” I snapped.

  “Ava Babe, you were sleeping. If you were all fired up to find Dexter you would be hunting. It’s just breakfast. You and the girls can go after Dexter when you’re done with Ma.”

  “Call her back, tell her I have plans.”

  “Can’t. She would be disappointed. I don’t like to disappoint her and I get the impression she wants time just with you.”

  Mrs. Stark wanted time just with me? This was not good. In fact, this freaked me way the hell out.

  “Call her back,” I repeated then I heard a knock on my door. “Shit!” I cried. “She’s already here.”

  “I’ll make it up to you,” he told me as I jumped out of bed and started searching for my clothes.

  “Impossible.”

  “Nothing’s impossible.”

  “No, Luke, mark my words. This is impossible. I’m seriously pissed at you.”

  “Ava.”

  I pulled on my panties the phone in the crook of my neck. “You’re lucky I’m even speaking to you right now. Get ready. Once we’re off the phone this episode bought you at least forty-eight hours of the Ava Barlow Silent Treatment.”

  “Jesus, you’re cute when you’re pissed,” he said and he sounded like he meant it.

  Argh!

  Without another word, I yanked the phone from my ear, pressed the off button and threw it on the bed. Then I pulled on my camisole and pajama shorts, rammed my glasses on my nose and ran downstairs.

  I threw open the door and stared. Mom, Marilyn and Sofia were standing on my doorstep.

  What… the… fuck?

  “Oh my God!” Mom shrieked. “What happened to your face?”

  Shit.

  “Mom –” I started.

  “Did Lucas Stark do that to you?” Marilyn asked, staring at me as she opened my screen door.

  “Of course not,” I replied, pissed that she would think that and having a sinking feeling that she invoked Luke’s name. They knew.

  “How did your face get like that?” Sofia asked, pushing in behind Marilyn, all of them shoving forward, all of them carrying suitcases.

  Okay, it was so official, it could be written on a tablet of stone.

  My life sucked.

  “What are you guys doing here?” I asked, trailing them into the living room.

  “Ava, don’t change the subject. How did your face get like that?” Mom snapped.

  We were standing in my living room. They had dropped their bags and they were all staring at me. All of them looked glamorous, dressed to the nines with glossy, two hundred dollar hair styles, designer clothes, handbags that cost the moon and stars and faces made up as if they had just bought a session at the MAC counter.

  Hell and damnation.

  “I have a situation,” I said, sounding like it was nothing. “I’m sorting it out.”

  Me, Luke and half of Denver.

  “Now,” I continued, sticking to my earlier theme. “What are you doing here?”

  “Josie Stark called, said she had breakfast with you and Luke and that you two were seeing each other,” Mom told me, sounding put out. “She said it looked serious.”

  Ee-yikes.

  Mrs. Stark thought it was serious. It was, of course, serious. However, a week ago, it wasn’t supposed to be.

  “She was pleased as punch,” Mom went on, now sounding extremely put out, which, for my Mom, was a very bad thing. “What I want to know is, why am I hearing this from Josie Stark? Why didn’t my own daughter tell me this news?”

  “Mom –”

  “Are you dating Luke?” Marilyn asked before I could formulate an answer to Mom.

  “Marilyn –” I started again.

  “I cannot believe you’re dating Luke,” Sofia put in and she sounded incredulous.

  Bitch.

  I felt my temper rise at the same time I felt like a knife had been plunged into my gut. My eyes moved to Sofia and as usual I tried to hide the hurt. Though it wouldn’t matter if she saw the hurt, she didn’t care and never would.

  “Ava. Answer me,” Mom demanded before I could say anything to Sofia.

  My eyes moved back to Mom. “Why are you here? Why didn’t you just phone?”

  “We had to see it with our own eyes,” Marilyn informed me, sounding like me being with Luke was akin to finding a vision of the Virgin Mary in your morning coffee.

  I was saved from having to answer by the phone ringing at the same time we heard a “Yoo hoo,” called from the front door.