“Tell me and, I swear to God, I’ll make it so you won’t be scared ever again,” he promised.
I blinked at him. “Tell you what?”
“You know what.”
“I don’t know what.” After I said it, I knew what and my body went tense.
“Babe, I’ve been waitin’ since that day your family breezed into town.”
That’s when I knew that he knew all along. How he knew I did not know but then again, he knew everything.
“Do I have to say it?” I asked quietly.
He gave me a half-grin and an arm squeeze. “Yeah, you have to say it.”
I sighed.
He did another arm squeeze.
My hands slid up from his shoulders to his jaw and I looked him in the eyes.
Oh well, I had been waiting since I was eight. I had created extravagant daydreams about it. I had dreamed of it at night. I had written about how I would do it in my diary. I had hoped for a chance to do this, for over twenty years. I had even prayed for it.
There was no reason to wait any longer. If I waited any longer I’d be a serious wuss.
And there was one thing I knew about myself after the last couple of months, I was no wuss.
“Lucas Stark,” I whispered, “I love you.”
I hadn’t let my mind move forward passed the actual saying of the words to process what I thought his response to my telling him I loved him would be.
However, even in my wildest imaginings it wasn’t what I got.
His arms did another squeeze, this one so tight it crushed me to him. He kissed me, the kiss was so hot, so hard, so deep, it bruised my lips (truth be told, I didn’t really mind).
Then he let me go and I was in such a Luke Lip Fog that I went back on a foot, my hand curling around his upper arm to steady myself but I didn’t have to do that. Mainly because, all of a sudden, I was no longer on my feet. Instead, I was thrown over Luke’s shoulder, his arm wrapped around the backs of my thighs. He turned and started walking back toward the party.
Oh… my… God.
He was not carrying me to the party! Was he?
“Luke!” I hissed. “Put me down.”
He kept walking.
“Luke! Everyone is going to –”
Too late, we hit the open area, people were chatting, laughing, glasses were clinking.
As Luke walked through, the chatting, laughing and clinking glasses stopped and I looked around from my position hanging over Luke’s back, my hands at this waist, my head lifted up and I saw everyone stare.
“You the man!” Sniff shouted at us and there were a few low laughs.
I decided, in that moment, I was going to kill Luke.
“We’ll be back,” I heard Luke say to someone then he walked through the door and I saw he was talking to Vance and Jules who were both watching us go. Vance wearing his shit-eating grin, Jules’s eyes wide.
I gave them a lame wave.
Jules burst out laughing.
Luke kept on walking.
* * * * *
I sucked back the last of my champagne, slammed the glass on the table, turned my head and shouted, “Waiter! Fill ‘er up!”
Luke, who was lounging next to me in one of the lovely, little, linen covered chairs had his arm draped on the back of mine. His hand curled around my neck, he twisted me toward his body and his mouth came to my ear.
“How drunk are you?” he whispered.
I jerked my head back, gave him a glare and crossed my arms on my chest. Luke chuckled.
With his he-man, tough guy, macho man antics, he had bought himself an undefined period of the Ava Barlow Silent Treatment.
Okay, so he had whisked me back to the loft in his Porsche, dragged me in, made love to me slowly and told me he loved me right before I had my second Luke-induced orgasm of the night and that was all good. Very good. Super good. Ultra good.
Then he had taken us back to the party and I knew that everyone totally knew I had just been laid and good. That meant I was embarrassed for the second time that night by Luke.
The waiter came up with another glass of champagne.
“Thank you,” I said with feeling, smiling sweetly at him.
“Sugar, don’t you think you need to eat somethin’, considerin’ you’re drinkin’ enough for all of us?” Daisy asked, sitting across from me.
“I’m not hungry,” I answered.
“She’s pissed off,” Shirleen, sitting beside me, smiled.
“Damn straight,” I returned.
“Girl, I don’t know what you’re pissed about. A fine man carted me off to give me the business, and good, if your face and hair was anything to go by, I’d be doin’ fuckin’ cartwheels,” Shirleen replied.
Luke’s thumb started stroking my neck. I turned and glared at him again. He burst out laughing.
He was so annoying!
I turned back to Shirleen. “You say that now. It happened to you, you might not say it. You might do what I’m doing. I think a sentence of at least a week of Ava Barlow Silent Treatment is too nice. Maybe I’ll make it two.”
“Silent Treatment!” Daisy cried then giggled her tinkly-bell giggle. “Girl, you wanna get back at him, you cut off his water, comprende?”
Intrigued, I leaned toward Daisy. “Cut off his water?”
“No nookie, none, nada, no fingers, no mouths, no tongues, no kisses, no nothin’. Complete cut off. Works for me every time,” Daisy replied.
I sat back nodding somewhat drunkenly. “Daisy, you are the shit. I like that idea.”
Luke’s hand curled around my neck again, he twisted me toward his body and his mouth came back to my ear again. “You try to cut off access to that sweet body of yours, beautiful, you’ll find yourself cuffed naked to my bed for a week,” he hesitated, “maybe two.”
Ee-yikes!
He lifted his head, our eyes caught, we got into an Ava Barlow and Lucas Stark Glare to the Death Contest and, per usual, I lost.
I jerked away from him, gave him another good glower but turned back to the table and shared, “I don’t think cutting off his water is gonna work.”
Shirleen threw her head back and laughed.
I, personally, didn’t think anything was funny.
Roxie and Hank came up and Roxie collapsed in a chair while Hank grabbed a couple of glasses of champagne.
Roxie looked up at Hank. “You’re next for Lee’s job.”
“What you mean, girl?” Shirleen asked.
“Lee was Vance’s best man, Hank’s Lee’s best man. Indy and Lee are getting married in a few weeks,” Roxie explained.
Shirleen blew out a sigh. “Gonna be an expensive year for the friend of a Rock Chick. You all see Jet’s finger?”
Everyone turned to look at Jet’s finger. On it was a princess cut diamond with an unmistakable meaning.
“Oh my God!” I mini-screamed.
“She didn’t say anything to me,” Daisy’s voice was stunned and she sounded upset.
“Eddie asked her a couple of days ago,” Roxie explained. “I only know because I dragged her into the bathroom and made her spill. She didn’t want to take any of the limelight from Jules.”
Daisy rolled her eyes. “That’s Jet’s way, she’s not big on attention.”
I felt a light touch on my shoulder. It wasn’t a Luke Touch so I looked up to see Jules standing there. Her eyes were on Luke, “Can I steal her?”
Luke lifted his chin, I got up, Jules took my hand, we walked away and she stopped and pulled me girlie close.
“You okay?” she asked.
God, she was so nice. Here it was, her wedding day and she was worried about me and my latest drama.
“Let’s not talk about me, are you okay?” I returned.
Her face got soft, her eyes moved around the room until they fell on Vance and her hands went to her belly. I saw the solitaire there, the band of her engagement ring was slim, the setting was plain, the diamond was magnificent, on her right hand was the sup
er-fly silver band I knew (because she told me) was the promise ring Vance had given her last Christmas.
“Bliss,” she said.
I looked from her belly to her eyes. “What?” I asked.
“Bliss. For the first time in my life, I feel bliss,” she got close. “Do you feel it? With Luke?”
That’s when I got close. “I told him I loved him tonight,” I shared.
She nodded and her lips tipped up in a smile. “The fireman’s hold out the door, right?”
“Yeah. Why do these guys act like that?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Who knows?” Her eyes went back to Vance. “Thank God they do though.”
I grabbed her hand. “I’m so glad you’re happy.”
Her tippy lips turned to a full-fledged smile just as Indy came near.
“Are you guys talking about the fireman’s hold?” she asked softly.
“That was hot,” Ally said, coming up beside me.
“I’ll say. Luke’s making the rest of the Hot Bunch look like amateurs,” Roxie joined our group.
“They’re gonna have to step it up,” Ally said and then we all giggled at the thought of the Hot Bunch “stepping it up”. If these boys stepped anything up, civilization would go back in time about fifty thousand years.
Jet shoved in and her arm came around my waist. “You okay, you know, after the fireman’s hold?” she asked.
“Are you okay, after you got engaged a couple of days ago?” Jules cut in.
Everyone looked at Jet and her cheeks got pink. “I didn’t want to steal your thunder,” Jet said to Jules.
Jules grabbed her cheeks in each hand, pulled her forward and gave her a big old kiss, right on her forehead.
This started a bunch of sloppy girlie kissing and hugging and carrying on. Daisy, Shirleen, May and Nancy joined in and it got sloppier and louder.
Finally Tex boomed, “Will someone change this crappy music? We need some goddamned rock ‘n’ roll!”
The Rock Chicks all turned to stare at Tex. He tugged his tie off, threw it in a plate filled with half eaten hors d’oeuvres and aimed a scowl at us.
This made the girl huddle burst into laughter.
Then someone put on some rock ‘n’ roll.
My hand was tagged, pulled and I moved in its direction, following Luke. Once he got me away from the gaggle of Rock Chicks, he turned me into his arms.
“Done bein’ mad at me?” he asked.
I glared, giving him his answer. He ignored the glare, bent his head and nuzzled my neck.
“You may be mad at me but you still love me,” he said close to my ear and he sounded pleased with himself.
He was right, as usual. I didn’t share this.
His head came up and he rested his forehead against mine as his hand came to my jaw, his thumb stroking my cheek.
“Babe, I’m not gonna let the woman I love tell me, finally, that she loves me, slide by without a celebration.”
“You didn’t have to carry me out through a crowd of our friends, acting like a caveman.”
He smiled at my broken silence. “It’s who I am,” he said quietly, honestly and without a hint of remorse.
“It’s annoying,” I told him (but I had to admit, just to myself, I didn’t really mean it).
“Yeah,” he said this like being annoying was an acceptable personality trait. Then, deciding to move on to a different subject, he asked, “Is Jules happy?”
I melted a little, I couldn’t help it. It was a nice party, these were great people and Jules and Vance were folks who deserved happiness.
“She said this is bliss.”
His head slanted, his fingers splayed against my jaw, his thumb slid along my lower lip then his mouth came to mine.
With his lips against my lips, I watched close up as his eyes went ink.
Then he said, “She’s right.”
####
About the Author
Kristen Ashley lives in the beautiful West Country of England with her husband and her cat. She came to England by way of Denver, where she lived for twelve years, but she grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana. Her family and friends are loopy (to say the least) but loopy is good when you want to write.
Kristen’s Mom moved her and her brother and sister in with their grandparents when she was six. Her grandparents had a daughter much younger than her Mom so they all lived together on a very small farm in a small farm town in the heartland. She grew up with Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched). Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up.
And as she keeps growing up, it keeps getting better.
Discover other Titles by Kristen Ashley
The Rock Chick Series:
Rock Chick
Rock Chick Rescue
Rock Chick Redemption
Rock Chick Renegade
The ‘Burg Series:
For You
At Peace
The Colorado Mountain Series:
The Gamble
Sweet Dreams
Other Titles by Kristen Ashley:
Penmort Castle
Three Wishes
Connect with Kristen Online:
Official Website: www.kristenashley.net
Kristen’s Blog: www.kristenashley.net/menu/blog.html
Kristen’s Facebook Page
Cover Art by Maxine Hayes, Contact: [email protected]
Denver Skyline Photograph by Derek, Kar Tsot Wong
Rock Chick Revenge Page 52
