The glare turned scary.
“And I lost seventy-five pounds.”
For some reason, at this Shirleen burst out laughing and I could hear other laughter in the room as we’d been joined by more people that I couldn’t see. I just kept my eyes on Luke who looked, for some insane reason, about to blow.
His jaw clenched and his gaze moved to the man behind me. “You wanna let her go?” he asked but it wasn’t really a question and the tone of his voice was downright frightening.
The arms around me loosened and I took a step away.
Luke stayed where he was. “What’re you doin’ here?” he asked, still weirdly pissed off and still angrily glaring at me.
I decided instantly I didn’t need a tough guy. I was going to go it alone so I lied, “Thought you might want to get a beer.”
“I called you,” he said, changing the subject suddenly, seemingly oblivious to our audience.
Crap, I was worried about this.
He had called me, half a dozen times after his father’s funeral. Two, I missed because I was out. Four, I had listened to, sitting there while he was leaving the messages and I didn’t answer. None of them I returned.
“I know,” I said softly.
“After my father died, I called you,” he repeated and the laughter swept out of the room just as quickly as it came in.
“I know,” I repeated.
“You didn’t call back and now you wanna have a beer?”
His tone was even more frightening than before. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible but there it was.
“Um… maybe not,” I muttered, deciding that perhaps I should go home, go to bed and get up again and try the day differently, next time making smart decisions about my actions (read: not going to Nightingale Investigations).
“What’re you doin’ here?” he asked again.
“I told you,” I answered.
“You lied,” he stated.
My mouth dropped open. I had lied of course but how could he know that? And anyway, he was accusing me of lying in front of other people.
I felt my temper flare.
“I did not,” I snapped (and lied again).
“Bullshit.”
“Don’t you say ‘bullshit’ to me, Lucas Stark.”
“Don’t lie to me, Ava. What’re you doin’ here?” He wasn’t going to let it go.
“I was going to ask you out for a beer. Then I remembered I have a dentist appointment and now I’m late so I’m just going to…” I was preparing for escape, I took two steps toward the door, mid-rant, and Luke moved.
One second he was several feet away from me. The next second, he was right there, bent over and, I kid you not, his shoulder slammed straight into my belly, he lifted up and started moving, taking me with him. I let out a small, surprised scream and I heard a couple of gasps as his shoulder twitched and he bumped me into a more solid position on it, his arm wrapped around the backs of my thighs. He walked from the room, opening a door and carrying me with him as he went through.
At this turn of events I was too stunned to move much less struggle. But I did lift my head to see Shirleen and Mace as well as another black lady, another seriously hot guy and a movie star gorgeous woman with black hair and violet eyes all watching us go.
We were in a hall and I saw the door close behind us right before I came to myself and yelled, “Let me down!”
Luke didn’t answer. He turned and we went through another door. He stepped free of the door, turned again and I saw we were in a kitchenette slash locker room. I heard the door close before Luke turned one more time, bent forward and set me on my feet. I would have done something (though I didn’t know what that something was) to get away but he moved into me. I had no choice but to move back and I slammed against the door. Luke came up close, the heat from his body hitting me, his face in mine and I stilled. He was so tall and broad, I couldn’t see anything but him. He was so pissed off and full of attitude, I was captivated by him and wouldn’t have been able to look or move away if I tried.
“What’re you doin’ here?” he repeated, dark blue eyes shining dangerously.
I ignored the danger, mainly because, at this point, I was seriously angry.
“Did you just carry me in here?” I snapped.
“Ava, I’m only gonna ask one more time,” Luke warned.
I put my hands in the spare space between us, right on his rock-solid chest and gave a mighty shove. Then my eyes widened and dropped to my hands.
I was pretty certain I had given a good, old shove but he didn’t move, not an inch.
Holy shit.
Okay then, new tactic.
“First, your friend physically detains me and now you’re carting me around against my will,” I yelled. “I’m calling the police.”
“You’re gonna tell me what’s going on. Are you in trouble?”
“Step back, Luke.”
“Are you in trouble?”
“Step back!” I shouted.
He didn’t step back. Instead, he got closer, so much closer, his body touched mine and one of his hands went to the door beside my head, the other by my hip. I was totally trapped.
I sucked in breath.
Yippee! Bad Ava shouted in my ear.
Oh my, Good Ava breathed.
It was safe to say I pretty much would have sold my soul to the devil a thousand times in my life to have Luke this close.
“Talk to me, Ava,” Luke ordered, his voice had dipped low. He didn’t sound pissed off now, he sounded patient and a lot like Luke had always sounded whenever he talked to me. Gentle. Affectionate.
I should have responded to his tone but he was so close, my head tilted back to look at him and my eyes caught on his mouth. That ‘tache was hot but it surrounded the most superior set of lips I had ever seen in my whole goddamned life. I had of course noticed he had a nice mouth but I never had the opportunity to stare at it in that kind of proximity.
The top lip was nicely formed, the bottom one full; the balance was perfect and there were these sexy ridges that made you want to explore. I found myself wondering if that mouth was soft or hard when he used it to kiss you. Then I found myself wondering what it tasted like. Then I found myself thinking I wanted to run my tongue along it.
“Ava,” I watched it move as it said my name and my eyes drifted dreamily up to Luke’s.
I was in kind of a fog and when my eyes hit his I was no longer thinking clearly, totally lost in the moment, so lost I licked my lips.
“Jesus,” he muttered, his voice soft and now he was staring at my mouth.
I watched, fascinated as his face stayed hard but his eyes went warm. Ultra warm. Warm in a way I had never seen before. He always looked at me with warmth in his eyes and I knew he didn’t look at everyone that way, but as he always looked at me that way I knew this was different, way different. His eyes were warm in a way that made me feel warm, all over.
He wasn’t that far away but he started to come even closer.
Ho-ly shit.
I blinked and, self-preservation in mind, I shoved at him again, pulling my head back with a jerk and cracking it against the door.
The moment was broken.
“Step back!” I shouted.
Luke’s eyes narrowed. “What are you playin’ at?”
“I’m not playing at anything,” I yelled. “I was in the neighborhood, I thought I had time on my hands. Mom told me you worked here so what the fuck? Stop by and see an old friend. Then you all act like Neanderthal crazies. Jeez. Forget it. I have to go to the dentist. He’s gonna be pissed.”
I shoved again but Luke still didn’t move.
“You’re lying,” he said.
“I am not!”
His face came closer. The closer I thought it would have come a moment ago when, for one heart-stopping, insane moment, it seemed like he was going to kiss me. This time, it came in threateningly.
“You waltz in here, after five years, not lookin’ like
you, not actin’ like you, jittery and bitchy, somethin’ I never would have expected from you. You lie through your teeth then stare at my mouth like you want to stick your tongue down my throat and when I’m ready to give you that opportunity, you go back to bitchy and lying.”
I was staring at him. I couldn’t help it. I’d never heard anyone be that brutally honest before in my life.
And he told me he was going to give me the opportunity to kiss him.
Um… wow.
“I’m not playin’ this game, Ava,” he warned, snapping me out of my thoughts. Gentle, affectionate Luke totally gone, we were back to dangerously pissed off Luke. “You got trouble, you tell me right now so I can help you. I find out another way, you’ll pay.”
My head jerked. “What?”
“You heard me.”
I had heard him and I couldn’t believe what I had heard. “Did you just threaten me?” I asked.
“It wasn’t a threat.”
Read: It was a promise.
Yikes.
I didn’t know what “paying” would entail and I sure as hell wasn’t going to find out.
“I’m not in trouble,” I told him. And I wasn’t, not really. Okay, maybe a little bit. But I was worried I was about to be in a lot in trouble.
“I find out you are…”
“You won’t find out I am. In fact, I can promise you won’t see me again,” I bit out, glaring at him.
“I’ll see you again,” he said in a way that I felt a thrill go up my back.
Seriously, it was high time to escape.
“Step back,” I demanded.
He stared at me.
“Step back!” I shouted.
He stepped back.
I whirled, threw open the door and stomped down the hall.
Then I was twirled around, a hand at my elbow and I jerked my arm out of Luke’s grasp. He was, for some reason, now grinning, face relaxed, one corner of his lips tipped up.
“Wrong way,” he said and he looked about ready to laugh.
Great.
I was a total dork, making my grand exit and going the wrong way.
I threw him a look that should have made him spontaneously combust (of course, it did not) and stomped the other way, Luke beside me the whole time. His vibe had morphed from pissed off to amused and I didn’t like it one bit.
He opened the door to the reception area for me and I hightailed it across the room, focused on the outer door and escape and not looking at anyone.
“Later,” I said to the room at large because I didn’t want to appear rude.
For some reason, this was met with Shirleen saying, “I’ll put money down that she’s livin’ with him in four days.”
My confused gaze swung to Shirleen but she was looking at the movie star glamour girl who was looking at me.
“Three days,” Glamour girl said, smiling at me and I thought, in other circumstances, I would have liked to meet her.
“A week, she’s got spirit,” the other black lady said. She was smiling at me too, not like I was the butt of some joke, but in a kind way.
I shook my head, I needed to focus, leave these nutsos behind and go, go, go.
I opened the outer door.
Before it closed behind me, I heard Luke say strangely, “Tonight.”
Then everyone laughed.
Chapter Two
A Little Bit of Trouble
I was standing in my dinky little kitchen, taking my post-Luke episode attitude out on an innocent cucumber.
That didn’t go very well, Good Ava said on a sigh, resting the side of her head in her hand and her elbow on her thigh.
I thought it went great! Bad Ava yelled enthusiastically, jumping up and down.
I tried to ignore them both and pounded the big cleaver into the cucumber, chopping it in a cucumber-decimating frenzy, trying to get the confrontation with Luke and everyone in his office out of my head.
* * * * *
I lived in a row house in the Highlands area of Denver. I called it The Best Little Row House in Denver.
See? I’m a dork.
It had a living room with two big, arched windows at the front separated by double doors that rolled into the walls and led to dining room also with two big windows, these facing the back, a small kitchen off the dining room and a screened-in porch out the backdoor of the kitchen. All hardwood floors, except in the minuscule kitchen, which I’d tiled in slate with the counter tops tiled in shiny black. I put in white cupboards, all the hanging ones glass-fronted and displaying my huge collection of Fiestaware. There were two bedrooms and a massive bathroom with a claw-footed tub upstairs. I had a big, old basement its door leading off the kitchen which had two rooms and an old coal room. It was more of a pit than a basement, un-renovated and long-since unused, wallpaper peeling and exposed light bulbs. I only went down there to do my laundry because it creeped me out.
My row house was historically registered and had three fireplaces (dining room, living room and bedroom) and a sweet, little shady backyard with big trees kitty-corner at the ends.
It wasn’t in the best neighborhood, but who cared? It had character, grace, history, a low mortgage, a garage out back where my Range Rover could be safe and I dug it.
I’d lived in Denver my whole life and was never going to move away. Denver was home. It had everything you needed, the big city choice of culture, food, shopping and entertainment all with a small town feel.
My family felt differently.
* * * * *
After my Dad left us when I was fourteen (rat-bastard number one in my life) and all us girls graduated high school, Mom took off to Phoenix like a shot. She hated the cold and the snow and all the familiar reminders of my father. She also liked to be tan but felt claustrophobic in sunbeds.
I had two older sisters. My oldest one, Marilyn, moved to St. Louis after high school and got married to a car salesman then divorced him and almost immediately got married to a lawyer with whom she was currently involved in a bitter divorce at the same time dating a doctor, thus moving up in her chosen career as trophy wife. So far Marilyn had managed to work approximately four months of her life and spent the rest of it in spas and malls and on her back with sweaty slimeballs pumping away at her. I knew this because she talked about her active sex life a good deal, a kind of gross good deal, read: ick.
My other sister, Sofia, moved to San Diego and became a cheerleader for the San Diego Chargers. Sofia worked her way through the offensive line and then the defensive line of the Chargers (something, I might add, she also did as a cheerleader in high school). Now, retired from her career as an active cheerleader and football player groupie, she was running a cheerleading camp and engaged to a sports agent who was more of a slimeball than both of Marilyn’s husbands put together and that was quite a feat, considering Marilyn’s husbands were seriously the scum of the earth.
By the way, my Mom had named us all, with high hopes, after Hollywood bombshells. My sisters had both been bombshells from puberty, all thick, dark, shining hair, big boobs, tight asses, flat stomachs, long legs and sultry eyes. I had to work hard at bombshell status, and even then didn’t quite make it because I was a big dork.
It was safe to say my sisters and I weren’t close.
Sissy Whitchurch was another story.
* * * * *
Sissy and I had been best friends since second grade and we were close. She was the bestest, best friend in the world. Good at keeping secrets, happy to rip my silly and sometimes mean sisters to shreds with me, loyal to the core and always up for an adventure.
One problem with Sissy, she had shit taste in men.
Though, considering good men were non-existent, all women didn’t have much choice.
However, Sissy’s husband, Dominic, was beyond the pale in the shit-men stakes. Dom was a world-class asshole.
Dominic Vincetti was very good-looking (and knew it), made his money dubiously (and didn’t hide it) and treated Sissy like shit (and nev
er apologized). He didn’t hit her, but he cheated on her (openly), walked all over her and talked down to her in a way that made my teeth go on edge.
Before Dom, Sissy was funny and sweet and there was no one in the world who was better to go to a rock concert with. She loved music like I did and she went wild at concerts, dancing, screaming, she always knew all the words to the songs and sang them loud.
After five years of marriage, Dom had forced all that good stuff out of Sissy, making her quiet, shy, uncertain and a homebody and Sissy didn’t even notice it was happening.
I noticed and it pissed me off.
Sissy loved him though and put up with it and it wasn’t my place to say anything. If she wanted him then I was there. My only other choice was to stop spending time with her and a life without Sissy, well, I couldn’t imagine it.
But when I changed, lost weight, dyed my hair, Dom noticed.
In fact, a lot of people noticed.
In fact, even though I’d dated when I was heavy, I started to get some serious male attention as the weight dropped off then more then more. Since Luke’s Dad’s funeral, I’d had my first three longish-term boyfriends. I must admit, in the dream world I had in the back of my head, they were all practice for Luke. Of course, I never told them that and I could have fallen in love with any one of them, if they hadn’t all turned out to be jerks.
There was Rick, who cheated on me (um, no).
Then there was Dave, who had a collection of pornography so big he could have opened his own store. And he called phone sex lines, like, a lot. Neither of these were bad things, as such. Except, phone bills over five hundred dollars month after month were a bit much. Not to mention, he wanted to have sex, like, twelve times a day, walked around naked at all times and tried to get me to go to swingers parties (um, no again).
Then there was Noah who took my Auntie Ella’s jewelry and pawned it. This, I didn’t find out until he also took my ATM card, found out my PIN number and cleaned out my checking and savings accounts before he disappeared. Luckily, I had the inheritance money my Aunt Ella gave me in a different account. She gave me her jewelry and a shitload of money, but only gave Marilyn and Sofia a token, which pissed them off big time but they’d always been mean to her and I hadn’t, so fuck them.
Rock Chick Revenge Page 2
