“Christ.” This time, his voice was definitely rough.
“The family meeting –” I went on.
“You aren’t near Zano unless I’m with you.” The roughness had a new dimension now.
“Why?”
“He wants this.” His thumb did another nipple swipe while his hips bucked and I bit my lip as heat shot through me. “And I’m not givin’ him the chance to go for it.”
My other hand curled around his neck and I looked at him. “But,” I whispered and then slid my fingers to where we connected. “I only want this.” I dropped my forehead to his. “You don’t have to trust Ren, Luke, but you can trust me.”
At my words and my touch, his eyes went molten, his hand slid into my hair, twisted and he kissed me, hard, hot and deep.
When his lips disengaged, he murmured, “You got it, beautiful.”
Yay! My mind screamed.
There it was. Proof positive. Luke was The Best Guy Ever.
“Thank you,” I said softly.
Then I went back to focusing on my target and while I did this Luke watched. It wasn’t embarrassing, it was sexy and it was hot. After awhile, it was so sexy and hot, I arched back, ready to let it happen, but he pulled me forward again.
“I want you looking at me,” he demanded, voice now hoarse.
I tried to look at him but my eyes were half-mast, I was deep in a hot-sex fog and I couldn’t focus.
“Jesus,” he muttered. “I’m gonna come just watching you.”
I smiled, leaned forward, thinking to kiss him but instead I gasped his name just as I climaxed, hard, my mouth against his.
I wasn’t even close to finishing before he flipped me to my back. My arms wrapped around him as he lifted my hips and slammed into me, over and over again, prolonging my orgasm and once the first one was done, another one rolled in right after it. Luckily, the second one coincided with Luke’s.
It was heaven.
In the end, my manipulate a macho man plan only half worked.
I won on the Family Meeting, lost on the Range Rover and tied on the living arrangements.
I could live with that.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Two Kinds of Women
In the middle of the night I woke up, limbs tangled with Luke’s in Nighttime Alpha Position.
I pressed into him, he fell to his back, I rolled over him and he came with me.
I settled on his other side, assuming Nighttime Beta Position, hooking my thigh around his hip.
His arms came around me. “Babe,” he muttered, voice sexy-husky-drowsy.
“No pain tonight?” I whispered.
His arms got tight. “Not anymore.”
I cuddled closer to his warm, hard body then I fell back to sleep.
* * * * *
Wake up call number one:
Luke, sliding the covers down my back while saying softly, “Ava Babe.”
“Sleepy,” I replied as I snagged his pillow and hugged it to my body.
I heard a chuckle, my torso was pulled up, I kept hold of the pillow at my chest as I was twisted and the pillow and I hit something solid. I burrowed my face into Luke’s neck as I wrapped my arms around him (and the pillow) and I mumbled, “Kiss me quick so I can go back to sleep.”
I didn’t really want him to kiss me quickly but I did want to go back to sleep.
The pillow was tugged, it slid out from between us, my breasts hit bare chest and my eyes opened.
“I don’t want to just kiss you, beautiful, I wanna fuck you,” Luke said.
I lifted my head to see Luke, fresh from the shower, towel wrapped around his hips, cheeks cleanly shaven and droplets of moisture still on his shoulders. As if possessed by Bad Ava (and I probably was), I leaned forward and licked a drop off his collarbone.
Then Luke demonstrated the undeniable fact that days of hunting intermixed with fighting with me, lots of sex, parking lot fisticuffs and not much sleep had absolutely no effect on him whatsoever. It was so energetic we ended up on the floor having rolled there after a short wrestling match over who would get to put their mouth (me) or their fingers and mouth (Luke) where (I lost).
After, he moved us to the bed, me on top, one of his arms locked around me, the other hand drawing patterns on the small of my back. He had a knee lifted and I was part straddling, part wrapped around his thigh, my nose pressed into the space between his ear and jaw.
Then Sissy’s idea from yesterday popped into my head.
“Luke?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you keep handcuffs on you all the time?”
“No.”
“Most of the time?”
“Depends. Why?”
“Just wondering.”
The arm locked tighter and the hand stopped drawing and cupped my ass.
“Why?” he pressed.
I lifted up on my elbow and looked at him, feeling weirdly shy even though I was sprawled on top of him naked after having energetic, part wrestling sex. “How would you feel about being, um… cuffed to the bed and erm… letting me have my way with you?”
He half-grinned and I thought he liked the idea and it made my very sensitive, post-orgasm, special girl parts tingle.
“I like to be the one in control, babe.”
My eyes narrowed, I dropped down and started to roll but he foiled my escape plan and came with me. This meant both his arms went around me holding me to him and his thigh was pressed deep between my legs.
His hand fisted in my hair and tugged it back gently so I would look at him.
His face was not amused, it was soft. “I might not like that particular idea Ava, but I do like that you’re up for adventure.”
“I’ve just decided it’s missionary position until the end of time,” I retorted.
That’s when he face got amused. “Bullshit,” he murmured.
He was right, it was bullshit.
Still.
“Are we gonna fight over how we have sex?” he asked.
“Maybe,” I replied, sounding bitchy.
“So now that we don’t have anything to fight about, you’re inventing things?”
“I’m not inventing things! You’re not being fair. How come you get to cuff me to the bed and I don’t get to do the same to you?”
“Because I’m stronger than you.”
This was true. This also didn’t make me happy so I scowled at him.
He got close or I should say closer. “Make you a deal. Tonight, I’ll bring the cuffs. Whoever manages to get the other cuffed to the bed gets to play.”
That was hardly a good deal for me.
“You just pointed out the obvious, you’re stronger than me.”
“Babe, you’re not using your imagination.”
I have a good imagination, Bad Ava reminded me, her voice dripping with anticipation.
Me too, Good Ava surprised me, her voice sounding dreamy.
I smiled slowly.
Then I said, “Deal.”
He touched his lips to mine, eyes open, and murmured, “Never thought life could be this sweet.”
My stomach got melty. “Really?” I whispered.
He rested his forehead against mine. “There are two kinds of women. The ones you go to bed with and the ones you wanna wake up with. Lots of the first, not many of the last. If a man’s lucky, he’ll find the last.”
He touched his mouth to mine again and I took that as a definite sign I was the last.
Oh… my… God.
My whole body went melty.
“You got somethin’ you wanna say?” he asked softly.
He knew. He knew I loved him. And he wanted me to tell him.
Eek!
I shook my head.
“I’ll wait,” he said then he kissed my nose and rolled off the bed. He dressed while I watched, came back to me, sat on the bed, pulled me into his arms and kissed me long and deep.
Then he was gone.
I cuddled into the pillows, smiled to
myself and went back to sleep.
* * * * *
Wake up call number two:
My phone in my purse all the way across the room started ringing.
I pulled myself out of bed, ran across the room, nabbed my purse and yanked the phone out, flipping it open and putting it to my ear.
“Yo,” I said.
“Hi there, sweetie. Your sisters and I are going to breakfast. Do you want us to come get you?”
It was Mom.
I was definitely digging the New Mom. However, I’d rather have a tooth extracted without Novocain than go to breakfast with my sisters.
Still, they were family.
“Okay,” I said. “But I need a change of clothes, can you bring some?”
“Sure thing. I’ll have Sofia go up and –”
“No!” I interrupted sharply. God only knew what horrors Sofia would drag out of my closet as payback for yesterday. “You pick,” I told her. “Jeans, t-shirt, belt, flip-flops and bring some of my silver jewelry.”
“Which pieces of jewelry?”
“Any of them.”
“Can do. We’ll be there in about twenty minutes.”
I told her my room number and we disconnected. Then I scrolled down to Luke and pressed the green button.
“Yeah?”
“It’s me,” I said.
“Babe, your name comes up on the display,” he informed me, a smile in his voice.
“Then why do you answer ‘yeah’ if you know it’s me?”
“That’s how I answer the phone.”
“Well, you could say something else like ‘hello’ or ‘Ava’ or even ‘babe’.”
“You want me callin’ you ‘babe’ now?”
“It’s better than ‘yeah’.”
“Let’s see if I got this right, now we’re arguing about how I answer the phone?”
Okay, he had a point.
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
“Dexter was wrong, you don’t taste like cherry pie, you taste a fuckuva lot sweeter. If you didn’t, babe, you’d be a pain in the ass.”
“Did you just call me a pain in the ass?” I asked.
He sighed.
Time to move on.
“Where are we staying tonight?” I changed the subject.
“Your family gonna be in town?”
“I don’t know.”
“The hotel if they are, your place if they’re not.”
I looked at the bed. It had a padded headboard, no slats for cuffs.
“If we stay here or at my place, we can’t play our, um… game.”
“We’ll play another night.”
He didn’t sound too broken up about it.
“Lotsa games to play, babe,” he went on softly. “I’ll get creative.”
I felt my knees wobble. If he hadn’t already been creative, I was looking forward to creative.
“Okay. Did Vance and Hector get Noah?”
“No.”
My stomach clenched. What did he mean “no”?
“No?” I asked.
“They didn’t go to Durango. Got a tip. He’s in town, they’re trackin’ him and they’re close. I’m just about to go out to assist. I want you to stay at the hotel. This shouldn’t take long.”
“But I’m going to breakfast with my family.”
Silence for a beat then he told me, “I’ll get a man on you. Don’t leave the room until he knocks on the door. You’ve met everyone now, it’ll be one of ours.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Luke!” I snapped.
“Promise me.”
“Why do you keep saying that?”
“Last time you called me, beautiful, Smithie was up a tree.”
Shit!
I hated it when he was right. And he was right all the fucking time (except for with Kurt Reid, but that wasn’t his fault).
I gave in. “All right, I won’t do anything stupid.”
“Christ, you’re cute.” The smile was back in his voice.
“Am I cute or a pain in the ass?” I asked, the bitch in my voice.
“Both and you can be a bitch too and for some fuckin’ insane reason, I like it all.”
What did you say to that?
I didn’t have a chance to say anything, he disconnected.
I took a shower and when I got out, my phone was ringing again. I padded to it, wrapped in one of the hotel’s robes. It said “unknown number’ but I flipped it open anyway.
“Yo.”
“We goin’ to the mall or what?”
It was Olivia. How she got my number I didn’t know but it was a moot point now.
“We’re going to the mall. I have to have breakfast with my Mom and sisters first.”
“I could do breakfast,” she invited herself which I was realizing was kind of her way.
Olivia would definitely make breakfast with my sisters a better experience. Hell, Genghis Khan would make breakfast with my sisters a better experience.
“Meet us at Hotel Monaco as soon as you can get here,” I told her.
“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” she replied.
“Gotcha.”
She disconnected but I had another call coming in before I got the phone flipped shut so I took it.
“Yo.”
“Where are you?”
It was Riley and I remembered I was supposed to meet him at the gym that morning. “Shit, Riley. I’m sorry. I forgot. My life’s a total –”
He cut me off. “That guy still in the picture?”
I sighed.
Then I said quietly, “That guy’s name is Luke and yeah, he’s still in the picture. He’s probably gonna be in the picture for a while.”
Silence then, “Ava, I’m guessing that you guessed where I’m at with this. Can’t say I’m thrilled that this Luke character shows up and your life becomes a disaster.”
“Luke didn’t do it, he’s fixing it.”
“Fixing, not fixed, means he’s taking his fucking time.”
“Riley, that isn’t fair. You don’t know what’s going on. It’s not good and he’s barely getting any sleep, he’s working so hard to fix it.”
More silence then, “You sure about this guy, Ava?”
I went back to speaking quietly. “Yeah, Riley. I’m sure.” Then for some bizarre reason I shared, “I’m in love with him.”
It was his turn to sigh. “You comin’ into the gym today?”
I closed my eyes because what he said meant we were going to be okay and that was a relief.
I opened my eyes again “I have to go to breakfast with my family. Do you want to come?”
Now why did I ask that? He was hot. He wasn’t just the personal trainer at the gym, he part owned it. Marilyn and Sofia would be all over him
Luke told me not to do anything stupid, and there I was, doing stupid shit. I couldn’t even control it.
“Since you’re not here, got nothin’ on. I’ll be there,” Riley responded.
Crap.
Crapity, crap, crap, crap.
“Um… I should warn you my sisters are kind of, how do I put it?” I used Luke’s words. “Man eaters.”
“You’ll protect me,” he teased and I drew in breath. The old Riley was back.
I told him where to meet us and flipped the phone shut just as a knock came at the door.
I looked out the peephole and saw my mother standing there so I opened the door and she shoved in. She was alone. I glanced out in the hall but no Marilyn and Sofia so I shut the door behind her.
“This hotel is something else!” she cried, looking around. “Luke must be doing well. Really, really well. A Porsche and putting you up here?”
Rock Chick Revenge Page 54
