“Babe.”
I looked to the side and Luke was standing in the door, fully dressed, watching me.
God, he was good-looking. Even with the angry cut on his cheek, or maybe especially with the angry cut on his cheek, he was unbelievably hot.
“Hey,” I said, thinking I’d not had nearly enough quiet space to ponder all that was tumbling around in my head. I needed at least an hour or maybe two hundred and seventeen of them.
He walked in, sat down beside me and rested an ankle on his opposite knee. He put his arm around my shoulders, pulled me into his side and kissed the top of my head.
“You okay?” he asked.
“No,” I answered, staring straight ahead through the window to my yard. “Are you okay?”
His arm got tighter. “I’m fuckin’ great.”
Well, he would be.
Not to be conceited or anything but I got a little carried away thirty minutes ago and I knew Luke liked it. He’d got me so turned on, I made him lie back and let me have my way with him for a good long while. If I didn’t miss my guess (considering the low growl he made when it happened), I’d assisted in his having an even more mind-blowing orgasm than the one he gave me.
And, I had to say, I was pretty proud of that.
He plucked the soda out of my hand and set it aside. Then he pulled me into his lap and turned me to him, his arms loose around me.
“Gotta say, babe,” he said in The Voice but it was The Voice mixed with a kind of sexy rumble. “You’re good with your mouth.”
See! I told you.
“When you aren’t usin’ it to speak,” he finished.
I glared at him. He grinned at me.
I stopped glaring at him when I noticed his grin was like the grin he’d given me last night. It was sexy and warm and in the light of day I could put my finger on what was different.
His face had lost its hardness. It was completely soft and unguarded.
Oh.
Wow.
His hands came to either side of my head and he tilted it toward him, close, closer, until our foreheads were touching and our noses were alongside each other’s.
He looked me in the eyes. “We straight?” he asked softly.
I nodded.
“You cool with everything that’s gone down?”
I shook my head.
He touched his lips to mine. “You’ll get there.”
I didn’t share his positive attitude. He noted this on my face, I knew because he chuckled. I ignored the chuckle and lifted my head away from his. His hands moved, one went to my neck, the other one sifted into the hair at the side of my head, going through it, down my back then his arm came to rest around my waist.
I carefully touched my fingers just below his cut.
“Does it hurt?” I whispered, my eyes on the cut.
“No.”
“Do you think someone should look at it?”
“No.”
“Will it leave a scar?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
My eyes moved to his and my hand opened on his face, cupping his jaw, my thumb trailing down the side of his ‘tache.
“It was the song,” I said quietly.
“Come again?” Luke asked.
I took in a breath, scared of sharing, not wanting another episode but thinking, because he had bled for me and might even carry a scar for me (even if it really was his own damned fault, it was also partially mine, I knew better) that he deserved an explanation.
“Ren had just told me if you weren’t keeping Sissy safe, he would. I was grateful to know he was a good guy, there aren’t many out there.”
When I saw Luke’s eyes turn intense and felt his body go still, I rushed on. “Then Stella sang ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’. It’s a beautiful song. Ren put his arms around me and I didn’t even think.”
Luke’s mouth got tight which I took as a warning sign (finally, I was learning) so I continued. “Anyway, something weird was happening. It seemed like she was singing it to Mace. What with the song being so pretty and my mind on Mace and Stella –”
“Mace had a thing with Stella,” Luke told me.
My gossip antennae perked up. “Really?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“What happened?”
“None of my business, none of yours either unless Mace or Stella want to share.”
One thing I knew for certain, Mace was never going to want to share. That meant Stella’s name was scratched on my list of people to call that day.
“Babe.”
My unfocused eyes re-focused on Luke and he hadn’t lost any of his intensity.
“Let’s get back to Zano.”
“I still feel you,” I blurted in an effort not to talk about Ren.
Luke just looked at me.
Crap.
In for a penny…
My thumb moved to trace his bottom lip and I watched it go, my eyes on his fantastic mouth and it hit me that I knew, intimately, how that mouth felt on practically every part of me. That knowledge made my stomach feel funny and my voice sound lower and kind of raspy when I spoke again.
“Between my legs,” I whispered, my gaze lifting from his mouth to his eyes. “I still feel you.”
His eyes turned to ink, right before he muttered, “Jesus.”
“I really love your mouth,” I told him. Do not ask me why, I was having a moment.
“Ava.” Now his voice sounded lower and kind of raspy.
I took a deep breath and pulled back a bit, dropping my hand from his face and purposefully breaking my moment before I said something ultra stupid.
“Just thought you’d want to know,” I said.
Luke didn’t feel like having the moment broken. He brought me back to him and gave me a quick but hard kiss.
“Beautiful,” he said when he was done, his eyes on mine and his intensity had changed to something that made me shiver in a good way. “You just demonstrated exactly why I would fight and bleed for you. Zano knows that’s what I’ve got and he wants it and I’m not gonna let him anywhere near it. I’m askin’ you to help me with that and I’m askin’ you to help Zano by not giving him mixed signals.”
Was I giving Ren mixed signals?
I was giving Ren mixed signals.
Shit!
“I’m such a dork,” I mumbled.
Luke shook his head. “You’re beautiful, you’re sweet and you’re funny. You’re also bein’ loyal to your friend and tryin’ to take care of her when she’s in a bad situation. You’re dealin’ with this at the same time you’re dealin’ with a lot of other shit, internally and externally.”
It must be said, I loved it that he understood. It made me feel all comfy, snugly warm but on the inside.
This I didn’t share.
His hand tightened on my neck and he brushed his mouth against mine again. “Let me deal with the external shit. You just focus on sorting out your head. Deal?”
I nodded.
He kissed my nose then his hand went away from my neck, his arms went around me again and he (thankfully) changed the subject.
“The bad guys know they gotta work out their issues with Vito. That’s why Zano’s called off Santo. You’re in the clear but I don’t trust it yet. I still want you callin’ into me regularly.”
I nodded again. I had enough dealing with the emotional trauma of Luke and the possibility of bearing him three sons. I didn’t need to get kidnapped again.
“What are your plans for today?” he asked.
“Sort out my Range Rover. Go see Sissy. Workout. Shop for groceries. Maybe Shirleen and I’ll go see Bobby. And I need to go to your place and get my stuff.”
“No.”
I looked down at him. “What?”
“Leave your stuff at my place, you can go there to unpack but leave it.”
“A lot of stuff I need is there.”
“You’re goin’ to the store. Double up.”
Shit.
Doubli
ng up on necessities between my house and Luke’s. Okay, so maybe I needed five hundred and seventeen hours to cope with all this shit.
“Luke, maybe we have more talking to do,” I made a suggestion that I didn’t think was a suggestion, as such.
His arms became tight. He leaned in, kissed my neck and then got up, taking me with him. He turned, set me back in the seat and put a hand on the seat on either side of me so his face was close to mine.
“Life’s too short, I’m through talkin’. This is happening, we both know it, we both feel it and you even admitted it. Ava Babe, stop fighting it.”
I sighed, because in the heat of one of my many freak outs, I did admit it.
I was such a dork.
This meant I was with Luke Stark. I was Luke Stark’s girlfriend. Worse, I was Luke Stark’s woman. There was a nuance of difference between being a man’s girlfriend and a man’s woman, but that nuance was pretty fucking significant.
Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck.
This should have made me happy. In fact everything that morning should have made me doing-cartwheels-of-joy ecstatic.
Instead, what I felt was scared. Shit scared to the depths of my soul.
I sighed again and told him. “I need my computer.”
“I’ll get Matt or Jack to deal with it.”
“Luke.”
He leaned in and kissed me, hot and heavy, proving he was indeed through talking.
When done, he lifted up and lightly kissed my nose. “Call in,” he ordered softly.
Then he moved away as I watched, my stomach still melty, my heart in my throat.
I wanted to be excited. I wanted to think Good-Ava-twirling-in-the-mountains-like-Maria thoughts but all I could do was think about what it would feel like when he walked away for good.
When he was at the door, he stopped and turned back to me. “One more thing,” he told me.
Shit, I didn’t think I could handle one more thing.
“What?” I asked, deciding it was best to get it over with quickly.
“I’m gonna get serious shit about this hickey today, beautiful. You owe me.”
Crapity, crap, crap, crap.
He gave me his sexy half-grin and I knew he didn’t care, not even a little bit, about the shit he’d get or the hickey.
“Lucas Stark, I do not owe you,” I shouted at his back but he was gone.
Chapter Twenty-One
Earning Retribution
After Luke left, I made coffee, poured myself a cup then I went to get my phone and walked back to my porch.
First up, I called Shirleen.
“Oowee, girl!” Shirleen yelled in my ear. “You are workin’ on bein’ the Premier Rock Chick, what with Luke Stark fightin’ in a parking lot over you. I heard there was blood. Was there blood? Oh wait…” she stopped and I listened as she shouted, “Oowee!” again but not in my ear, to someone in the office. Then she came back to me. “Luke just walked in. Girl, you are the Premier Rock Chick. Even with that nasty gash, that boy looks like the cat who just got his cream. He musta got the cream if that hickey is anything to go by. A hickey! I love it!”
Shit!
Why did I give Luke a hickey? Why? I was never going to live it down.
Shirleen kept on in my ear. “Did he get his cream? If so, how many times. I want details.”
I wasn’t going to talk about Luke getting his cream, not any of the three times he got it.
“Shirleen, I’m calling about Bobby. Any updates?”
“Fit as a fiddle, except that fractured skull. Functions coming back, two and two make four again. If all keeps goin’ good, they’re releasin’ him tomorrow to finish recuperatin’ at home.”
“Thank God for that,” I said and I meant it.
“Now, details,” Shirleen returned.
“No, now I want to know what’s up with my car.”
“Car’s bein’ delivered this mornin’, any time now.”
“Do they expect payment on delivery or are they going to invoice me?”
“Luke’s taken care of it.”
I went silent.
“Ava, you there?” Shirleen asked.
“What do you mean Luke’s taken care of it?”
It was Shirleen’s turn to go silent. Then she muttered, “Uh-oh.”
“You say he’s there?” I asked.
“Uh, yeah.”
“Can you please put him on the phone?”
“Maybe you need to deep breathe,” Shirleen advised.
“Please put him on the phone.”
She sighed and put me on hold.
For some reason, of all the shit that had gone down between Luke and I, this was something I could not allow. I’d let him be a pretty pushy, tough guy, macho man with me but I could pay my own goddamned way.
“Yeah?” Luke said.
“It’s Ava,” I told him, sounding snippy.
“I know, beautiful,” he replied, sounding like he was smiling.
I ignored the melty feeling in my belly at his calling me “beautiful” when he sounded like he was smiling. I liked it even before I knew he meant it in every way it could mean. It was way better than “babe”.
“Did you pay for the repairs on my Range Rover?” I asked him.
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Why not?” he answered.
I felt my hold on my temper slip. “Luke, it’s my car.”
“Ava, you’re my woman.”
I ignored the melty feeling that gave me too. “So?”
“So you’re my woman, I take care of you.”
“Luke –”
“This isn’t up for discussion.”
“It sure as hell is!”
“I’m thinkin’, as payback for the hickey, I want you in that pink teddy thing tonight.”
Was he for real?
“Luke!”
“Later.”
Disconnect.
Argh!
I fought the urge to throw my phone through the window but instead I called Ally.
“Hey,” she answered.
“Yo,” I said.
“You okay after last night?” Ally asked.
“I’m officially Luke’s woman after last night.”
“Yep, that’s the way since the dawn of time. Two men want the same thing, they fight over it and winner takes all.”
“What with struggling with Iron Man Mace, I wasn’t keeping close track but it didn’t seem like anyone was winning.”
“Luke won when he behaved like a Neanderthal, elbowed you in the head and still, without a peep from you, you got in his car with him.”
Yikes.
I had to admit, that was true.
“What was that about Luke thinking about someone else when he was with you?” Ally asked.
Shit.
I knew I’d have to get into that.
“Luke explained I had the wrong end of the stick,” I told her.
“Well, chickie, just to warn you, the girls have been chewing over that all night and all morning. Roxie thinks you think it’s her. Jules is pretty certain you think it’s her. Who was it?”
“Jules,” I answered. “I saw them together and got the wrong impression.”
“That’s what I figured. Listen, Jules and Luke had a thing. It was brief, she thought Vance had broken up with her. Once she found out that Vance –”
My stomach plummeted. “What?” I whispered, interrupting her.
Silence for a beat then, “Oh shit.”
“What did you say?” I asked.
“Ava –”
“What kind of ‘thing’ did Jules and Luke have?”
“It was nothing.”
Oh… my… God.
“What kind of thing?” I repeated.
“It only lasted a couple of days.”
My heart was racing and I was pretty certain I was going to throw up.
“Ava? You there?”
“I have to go.”
“Ava.”
<
br /> “Later.”
I disconnected then I punched in Luke’s cell number.
“Babe,” he answered, sounding amused. “I want you to call in but you don’t have to do it every five minutes.”
I didn’t dilly dally. “You had a thing with Jules when she thought Vance broke up with her.”
Silence, then he hissed, “Fuck.”
He didn’t deny it.
Shit!
I felt an ugly feeling slide through my body, a feeling I’d felt once before in my life. It was the day my Mom sat Marilyn, Sofia and I down and, while crying and carrying on, she informed us Dad had left us.
I pulled myself together and said, “You forgot to mention that last night.”
“Ava –”
I heard a knock at my front door. “My car’s here. I have to go.”
“Leave it, we have to talk.”
“Life’s too short, Luke. I’m through talking.”
Then I disconnected.
I ran to the front door and got the keys to my car from a black guy wearing greasy, blue coveralls. My phone rang while I did this but I ignored it and it stopped when the answering machine kicked in. No one left a message.
Then I ran upstairs, got dressed and shoved clothes in my workout bag. My phone rang again while I did this but I continued to ignore it.
Then I ran out to my Range Rover, tossed my bag in and took off.
* * * * *
I had a feeling Luke would come looking for me so I went to a different gym and paid for a day pass.
While working out I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt.
However, there was no denying that we’d had several hot and heavy discussions about a variety of things and not once did he mention he had a “thing” with Jules, no matter how short.
Furthermore, not only was Roxie Luke’s first guess about who I thought he had feelings for, Roxie also thought that and I wanted to know why.
After my workout I showered, dressed, went and sat in the Range Rover and opened my phone.
I had seven missed calls. Two were from Luke, three from Ally, one from Shirleen and the last one from Jules.
So, of course, I called Daisy.
“Sugar, everyone is lookin’ for you. Where are you?” she answered.
Rock Chick Revenge Page 34
