Kicking his stand and jumping off his bike, Luke unzipped his jacket and fished down the front of it for Achilles. The kitten gave a little meow as Luke pulled him out, placing him on his wide shoulder. Achilles had hung out there for a long time when he’d first brought him home. Luke suspected it was because he liked the scratchiness of Luke’s beard.
Achilles’ low purring buzzed against Luke’s neck as he swung the door open and entered the building. The receptionist’s eyes immediately snapped to him. She was a woman in her early-forties, with the first threads of gray beginning to slip through her hair, but she was still beautiful. People who worked in TV stations often were. She gave him a friendly smile as he approached, and when he stood directly in front of her desk, her eyes darted up and widened in what he took for pleasure as she noticed the kitten on his shoulder.
“Can I help you?” she asked. “Or your cat?”
“I saw on the news that a little girl is looking for this kitten,” he replied. “I’m here to return him to her.”
Her eyes washed over with adoration, and maybe a hint of lust. He should have guessed that saving a defenseless creature would endear him to the female population. They always loved a bad guy with a heart. He smirked at the thought. Did this woman—Sharon, according to her nametag—think that he’d get her in bed and show her the same gentleness that he did he cat? If so, she was wrong.
“I didn’t realize anyone would come so quickly,” she said, licking her lips. “Come with me.”
She rose from the desk and smoothed out the wrinkles in her tight black skirt. Luke watched her with interest. Maybe he’d come back and see her after getting Achilles back to his owner. He’d always wanted an older woman.
He followed her out from the desk to a door at the back of the room. Through the door was a long hallway, which apparently hadn’t gotten the memo about the modernity that the front half of the building had been subject to. It was cluttered, and the heels of his boots struck against the yellowing linoleum with a sick splat noise.
There were few people around, and those who he did see gave him a wide berth as he passed by. The receptionist strutted in front of him with her head high and her ass out, and he admired the view, though he was a little exasperated by the obviousness of it. He was starting to miss the chase. Sure, he could take her to somewhere skeezy and screw her brains out after he was done here if he wanted to, and knowing he held that power was thrilling, but there would be no real lead up.
He began eyeing the other women he passed in the corridors. The women who shrunk away. There were only a couple, and neither were his type.
And then he saw her.
The receptionist led him out into a large, open room full of monitors and computers, with a desk and a green screen at one end. That Anthony asshole was still standing near the desk, and talking to him was the hot blonde from the broadcast earlier. Rather, that Anthony asshole was talking at her. She was shrinking away from him, and the asshole was leaning into her space, clearly threatening her with his body, no matter what his words were saying. Luke didn’t know what they were talking about, but he didn’t like it.
The receptionist pulled up to a short, plump woman wearing a headset. “This is Amy, our producer.”
Amy gave him a once over, decided that she like what she saw, and extended her hand to him. Luke grabbed Achilles off of his shoulder. “Can you hold him for a minute?”
He dropped the kitten into Amy’s hand before she had a chance to reply, stalked to the other side of the room, and stopped where Anthony had his finger jabbing in the direction of Shayla’s face. Shayla. That was her name. He could remember the name of the girl on the news, but not the girl he fucked only a couple of hours ago? Typical.
Anthony was still up in Shayla’s space. Unacceptable. Anthony was the type of guy who thought that just because he went to the gym three times a week, he should be able to throw his weight around and bully whomever he pleased. He probably gave a hard time to everyone, especially the person who did his spray tan, considering how cooked he looked. Luke could hear the tail end of Anthony’s comments as he approached.
“...Just because you’re hot doesn’t mean—”
He’d heard enough.
Luke smacked Anthony’s hand down and inserted himself between the pair, roughly shoving his bulk against Anthony to get him to stagger back.
“Back off man,” Luke snarled. “Or I’ll make you.”
The producer had jogged up to his side by then, and Luke could only guess at the horrified expression that was splayed across her face. He kept his eyes hard on Anthony’s, even as a hissing sound erupted from beside him. Then the producer laughed.
Luke looked down. Achilles was struggling in the producer’s hands, not sleeping for once in his tiny life. He hissed again, his eyes glued to Anthony in the same way that Luke’s had.
Luke chuckled. “Even the cat doesn’t like you, man.” He brushed imaginary dust off of Anthony’s collar. “Might be time to get a cologne that doesn’t smell like piss.”
Anthony gaped like a fish out of water, but said nothing. Of course he didn’t. Luke hadn’t expected him to. As he thought, a guy like Anthony was a bully, and bullies only picked fights with people they knew they could win against.
Luke turned over to the producer and plucked the fierce kitten out of her hands, placing him back on his shoulder. Immediately, Achilles snuggled in under Luke’s chin and went still. Back to sleep, it seemed.
“I’m the guy with the kitten, in case you missed it,” Luke said. “And I’ll hand him over, but I want to give him to the little girl myself.”
“It’s so late though,” the producer said, eyes wide. “Surely Jacklin will be in bed.”
Luke shrugged. “Find out. I doubt she’ll be sleeping when she’s missing her kitten.”
The short woman turned and scurried away, and Luke turned his attention back to Anthony. The other man had backed up several inches while Luke had been distracted. Coward. Luke mean mugged him and Anthony shoved off, pretending to get a call on his phone.
Luke turned to the girl who’d started it all: Shayla.
She was even hotter in person than she had been on TV. How was that possible? Her face was bright red, those juicy lips pursed together in either embarrassment or shock. He wanted to bite them.
But she didn’t immediately become flirtatious. She didn’t let her eyes slide over him as obviously as most others did. She was one of the ones who held back. Who feared.
And she was what he’d been looking for.
Chapter Five
Whoever this guy was, he was too hot. Like, use the back of your hand to touch the door handle hot. Shayla couldn’t believe that the guy from the video, who she’d been crushing on only an hour before, was standing in front of her, gazing down at her face with a wicked smirk and dark eyes.
Should she say something? Should she thank him for sticking up for her? Obviously she should do that, but how? What did one say when a stranger had just threatened their coworker for them?
Instead of saying anything, Shayla just stared, admiring the chiseled line of his jaw and cheekbones, and his patrician nose. He had such dignified features for a man who was so rough around the edges. She had a feeling that if she were to shave off his short beard, and stick him in something other than scuffed jeans and a leather jacket, he would look like a male model. A very tall male model, with big muscles.
Amy walked up to the man and tapped him on the arm, breaking their trance. Shayla looked down at her feet, then around the rest of the room, unsure how long she’d been staring at the sexy stranger. Had anyone else noticed?
Luckily, everyone was already getting the filming equipment ready and preparing a write up. Shayla overheard from Amy’s chat with the man that the girl and her family were on the phone, and the crew were going to film the conversation and show it on the morning and evening slots tomorrow.
Shayla turned her attention back to him, curious as to how he would rea
ct to that. He merely shrugged his burly shoulders, a movement that Shayla tracked with appreciation. He was the kind of guy she would have smiled at across the bar, but never had enough courage to approach. But what if he approached her?
Knowing her, she’d probably find a reason to excuse herself and go hyperventilate in the bathroom. He was too hot to talk to. It would be the equivalent of looking into the sun. Okay, maybe not quite as destructive, but it couldn’t mean anything good. He probably ate girls like her for breakfast, accumulating a trail of forlorn lovers like that old snake game she used to play on her mom’s cell phone as a kid.
Shayla took advantage of his divided attention and snuck off back to her desk. She’d be close enough there to watch the action without being directly involved in it. Amy hadn’t said whether she wanted Shayla to cover the phone call or the reunion, but Anthony had made it pretty clear that she wasn’t permitted to steal his spotlight anymore. There was only room for two things on her side of the desk, he’d said. Her tits.
Shayla had seen interns quit for less. Hell, she’d considered quitting for less. But news journalism was a tough gig to get into, and graduating from a backwater college in her hometown because she couldn’t afford to leave home after high school had done her no favors. She needed this job, and Anthony was, unfortunately, one of the perks.
Besides, you didn’t go into journalism as a woman unless you had a thick skin and a hard head. Shayla had both, and she’d use them to get Anthony back one of these days. Until then, apparently, she had a guardian angel in the form of a six-foot five biker with the coldest glare she’d ever seen.
Amy set the guy up on a chair in the center of the room, next to one of the conference phones. Meg approached him with a fluffy brush, but with one look she scuttled back into her corner and whipped out her phone, hiding behind the screen.
The studio quieted as Amy took the line with the kitten’s owner off hold.
“Hi Jacklin,” Anthony said. “This is Anthony Blake calling from the KTMA News. How are you doing tonight?”
“Do you have my kitten?”
The crew, as well as the biker, snickered.
The biker leaned forward toward the phone and waved Anthony away. Shayla had never seen Anthony so chastened.
“Hi Jacklin,” the biker said. “This is Luke Cinders. I’m the man who found your kitten.”
A gleeful shriek echoed through the phone. “You didn’t just find him!” she gushed. “You saved him.”
Luke. It was a fitting name for him. She pictured the biker Luke, and the male model Lukas. He looked amused by the little girl’s admonition, but not like he really felt comfortable with the title of “savior.”
“He misses you a lot, Jacklin. I’ll wait here with him until you get here to make sure nothing happens to him.”
“Thank you so much, Mister Cinders!” There was a quiet murmur from the other end of the line. “Mommy and Daddy say we can be there in half an hour.”
“See you then, kiddo.”
Amy hung up, and gave Luke what was almost a tearful grin. “That was beautiful,” she said. “This is going to be great news. We could go off of this for days.”
Shayla hoped not. The fact that a rough and tumble biker had saved a kitten and was returning it to its rightful owner was cute, definitely. But was it really all that newsworthy? It made for a nice fluff piece, but it bugged Shayla how easily Amy was willing to take the easy shot on the program. The standards of news on the show were only as hard hitting as whatever dropped onto Amy’s desk that day.
But who was Shayla to complain? She was only as relevant as the next cup of coffee she brought. She’d filled in for Naomi tonight, and yet nobody but a complete goddamn stranger had stood up for her when Anthony had decided to tear her down for “stealing his spotlight.” This all only further solidified Shayla’s belief that she had to get her break at this station soon so that she’d be able to get out into the rest of the world, where she could actually do some real reporting.
Shayla glanced over at Luke, who was standing talking to Amy. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they kept looking over at her. Curious, Shayla looked down at her paper so they wouldn’t see her trying to listen in. She still only caught snippets.
“It’s not traditional…” Amy’s pleading tone, the one that she used when a guest on the show was being difficult. In its essence it was designed to get the person to lay off whatever it was they were asking for, in the hopes that she could avoid having to explain to anyone higher up why she’d made the call she had.
“I don’t care.” Luke’s voice was like a brick wall—rough and unyielding. There was no moving past him. No way to break him down. Amy should have stopped before she even began. Whatever this guy was asking for, he was getting it one way or another.
“Shayla!” Amy called over.
He couldn’t have been asking for her, could he? To what end? Oh god, had Amy just pimped her out to the biker guy to entertain him while he waited for the little girl? Was she finally going to have to quit? Or would she just let him take her for a ride in one of the empty offices for the sake of the story?
She stood and smirked to herself. As if it would be for the sake of the story. Having an excuse would be nice, though. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to let loose enough to enjoy it, otherwise.
The searing look that he gave Shayla as she approached sent heat straight to her core. God, it had been a long time since she’d gotten laid. How long now? Six months? Eight months? It’d been less than a year, but the desire in his gaze awakened a thirst in her that made it seem like it had been centuries.
Shayla managed to put one foot in front of the other, and stopped her shaky walk when she reached Amy and Luke.
“Mr. Cinders would prefer that you cover the rest of the story,” Amy said, clearly hating every second of it. She might have earned no more than a B for effort on a good day, but Amy was a control freak. It had nothing to do with professionalism, ironically enough. She would hand over the reins of anything if it had a big enough benefit to her. But if she knew that a situation out of her control was going to come back on her, it caused a vein to practically pop from her forehead.
“Me?” Shayla repeated. She looked at Luke. Big mistake. He had a slight curve to his lip that made her knees go weak all over again, and the kitten on his shoulder let out a mewl that sent every biological alarm in her body off.
Hot guy with kitten was almost the emotionally dangerous as hot guy with baby. And damn, was this guy hot.
“You’ll do it better than Ryan Seacrest over there,” he supplied, eyes glued to hers.
Shayla’s face heated. So many emotions rose in her that she had no idea what her face was giving away. She was aroused. Flattered. Embarrassed. Awkward.
She focused on flattery in the emotional downpour and held onto it like a life preserver against the buffeting waves of lust that Luke was sending her way.
“Thank you.” She smiled, but her smile dropped when she saw the look Amy was giving her.
The message was clear: Tell him no.
But would she? Absolutely not.
“I would be honored to, uh, cover the end of this saga.”
Luke let out a bark of laughter, nearly dislodging the kitten from his shoulder. “Glad to have you on board.”
“Why don’t you show Mr. Cinder where he can wait for Jacklin and her parents?” Amy said, her tone bitter. “Put him in the conference room.”
Shayla gave her producer a brief nod and gestured for Luke to follow her, swinging her hips around the cluttered heaps of desks and paperwork that were characteristic of the newsroom. She’d spent her first six weeks at KTMA knocking over knick knacks and stacks of paper everywhere she went. Anthony had been so crass as to suggest it was because she had a fat ass, but when she had reproached him for it said that she should be flattered—that it was a good thing.
She could feel Luke’s eyes on her “fat ass” now, and it was the first time that
she’d actually felt like it was a good thing. Anything that could attract the attention of a man like that was okay by her. Whether she wanted to keep his attention was another thing.
After all, it was always cute to watch those videos of lions and tigers playing with humans. Nuzzling their faces against them. Playfully jumping on them. But Shayla knew better than to think a wild animal like a lion, or a tiger, or a rough biker, would stay gentle for long after the cameras had turned off.
That was how people got mauled.
“You been working here long?” Luke asked from beside her.
His musky scent clouded her mind, urging her body to sink toward him. But she resisted.
“About a year.”
Devil's Claim: Apaches MC Page 25
