by Nikki Ashton
“Does that apply to you too? You’re the one who took her out last night.”
“That was purely platonic; call it a team meeting if you like.” Luke grinned. “Anyway I’m not a twenty year old, good looking boy who needs to lay someone at least every two days.”
Noah ran his hand through his already messy hair. “I’m not like that,” he cried.
Luke laughed. “Noah please, when I was your age that’s all I cared about, and you’re no different.”
“But you were in a band at my age. You had women throwing themselves at you.”
“We were only just starting to make it when I was your age, so believe me I had to work hard for my booty calls.” Okay, so that was a lie, but Noah didn’t need to know that. “It was years before the groupies started appearing. Anyway, this isn’t about me, it’s about you staying away from Betty and not treating her like all the other girls you’ve ever had.”
Noah shook his head and pushed his chair away from the table.
“Sometimes you underestimate me Uncle Luke. Maybe I didn’t treat those girls well because they weren’t worth it and just wanted the same as I did, and maybe Betty is different and I feel differently about her.”
Luke groaned as he watched Noah disappear from the room. Perhaps he did underestimate his nephew, and maybe he would treat Betty properly, but at this moment Luke was more worried how it would affect Martha if her daughter disobeyed her, and that in itself scared him, because why should he care?
Chapter 8
The following day, when Martha walked up the drive for work, she could see Luke jogging up in front of her. As he reached the house, Martha let out a groan as she watched him stretch. When she approached him, Luke looked up and gave her the most dazzling smile that lit up his emerald green eyes.
“Morning,” Martha said, not only was she still embarrassed about Saturday evening but the fact that she’d just had to almost push her tongue back into her mouth didn’t help either.
“Hey, how are you today?” Luke asked, stretching his arm behind his back. “Got over your hangover?”
Martha blushed and gave a nervous cough. “Yes, sorry again about that.”
“Stop apologising, it was good fun. The best I’ve had for a while to be honest.”
Martha couldn’t help but agree, they’d had a great time, from what she could remember.
“I didn’t know you jogged,” she said as her gazed raked up and down Luke’s body. The way his sweaty t-shirt clung to his body made a heat rise in the pit of her stomach.
“Yeah, I try to keep fit. Perhaps we can go together sometime.” Luke lifted up his t-shirt to wipe the sweat from his brow.
Martha’s mouth dropped open as she caught a glimpse of his tanned six pack, and the fine line of hair leading down into his low slung shorts. God, she definitely did feel like she was fifteen again, but now her thoughts were rather less innocent that wanting a quick snog with him behind the science block. She knew that she shouldn’t feel like this, but she was only human.
“Martha, I was just saying that we could go jogging together sometime.” Luke grinned. He knew exactly what he’d done to strike her dumb.
Martha’s cheeks flamed and her pulse quickened. She realised that he knew how he’d affected her. He was supposed to be her boss and wasn’t really acting very professionally. Okay, so she was the one who was gawping at him, but then he shouldn’t be flaunting his damn sexiness all over the place.
“I’m not sure,” Martha replied. “I’d probably hold you back, I’m not that good.”
“Oh I bet you are.” Luke smiled and arched his eyebrow. “I bet you’re fast and can keep going for hours.”
Martha coughed and pulled the zip down on her jacket to try and cool herself down.
“Well I should get breakfast started,” she said, moving towards the door. “Will you be wanting any? I’m doing poached eggs on toast this morning.”
Luke thought for a second and then nodded. “Yeah, as soon as I’ve got out of these sweaty clothes and soaped myself down in a long hot shower, I’ll be down.”
“Okay,” Martha squeaked as she disappeared into the house.
“Boy oh boy, am I going to have some fun with you?” Luke whispered, his eyes firmly fixed on Martha’s backside.
Lucia and Luke ate their breakfast in the kitchen, chatting to Martha while she made a chicken pie for dinner. Martha had tried not to make eye contact with Luke, but every time that she glanced at him he was staring at her. He was making her so hot and bothered that she’d stripped down to her vest.
Luke was indeed staring at her; in fact he couldn’t keep his eyes off her. From where he sat he had a perfect view of her bottom in her skinny jeans. It was high and rounded and looked absolutely delicious, like a perfect, juicy apple. Then when she shrugged off her shirt Luke thought that he was going to burst the zip on his jeans. God, if her arse was gorgeous her breasts were beautiful. He thought they’d looked good on Saturday night, but she must be wearing different underwear today, because today they looked amazing.
“Luke, wipe your chin, you have egg running down it,” Lucia said breaking Luke’s thoughts.
“Oh, sorry.” Luke wiped his chin with the back of his hand, never taking his eyes off Martha.
“So, Martha, Luke tells me that you went to school together. I can’t say that I remember you in his group of friends.”
Martha continued working the pastry that she was making. She didn’t want to turn around as she could feel Luke’s eyes on her, and she didn’t want Lucia to see her blushing.
“Yes, but Luke was a year older than me, so you wouldn’t remember me.”
“I have no idea how I missed you,” Luke said under his breath.
“You remember my friend more don’t you Luke?” Martha grinned to herself, remembering Luke’s comments about Tina.
“Oh really, what was her name?” Lucia asked.
“Tina Harding,” Martha answered. “Only what did you call her Luke?” Martha decided that if he was going to play with her then she would play with him too.
“Tina Harding?” Luke shrugged at Lucia and knitted his eyebrows together.
“No, you had another name for her.” Martha turned to look at him now, a huge smile on her face.
“Oh I can’t remember,” Luke said as he got up from the table. “You must be thinking of someone else.”
“No, you definitely said you had a nickname for Tina.”
As Luke moved over to the dishwasher he leaned closer to Martha.
“Don’t mess with me babe, because otherwise I’ll have to punish you,” he whispered seductively into her ear.
Martha shuddered and her stomach flipped as his hot breath whispered across her skin.
“Oh I know what it was,” Luke said suddenly as he turned to Lucia. “Titty Harding because she had massive breasts.”
“Luke!” Lucia cried. “There’s no need to be so coarse. Poor Martha, she must wonder what sort of people she’s working for.”
“Martha’s fine Mamma, she knows exactly what I’m like and I think she likes it.” Luke gave Martha his panty dropping grin, tweaked her nose and left the room.
While Martha vacuumed the bedrooms, she thought a lot about Luke. Admittedly it was mostly Luke naked and soaping himself down, but she also thought about his flirting. He was just messing around with her, exactly how he’d been at school. Flirting with girls and then ignoring them once he’d found a new victim was how Luke Mahoney worked. He led all the girls on, and each one of them thought that she’d be the one he would pick to be his girlfriend, but they were kidding themselves as Luke preferred older and more experienced women than the girls at school. Martha decided that she wasn’t going to be one of those girls again. She had wasted a whole school year craving for him, a year when she could have been going out with Joe Edwards, who was in her year and had a massive crush on Martha although why she had no idea. She was skinny and had boring mousey brown hair and he was quite good
looking, but back then her heart belonged to Luke. Well not this time, she would avoid him at all costs. Theirs would be a business relationship and nothing more.
Chapter 9
“Lucia, I’m off now if there’s nothing else you need me to do.” Martha smiled as she stood in the doorway to the lounge.
Lucia looked up from her book. “Oh, okay Martha. No, I don’t think so. Are you doing anything nice this evening?”
Martha shook her head and sighed. “No, not unless you count reorganising my kitchen cupboards.”
“Surely not, you should be going out and enjoying yourself.”
“Unfortunately I have no one to go out with,” Martha replied. “I tended to concentrate on Betty while she was growing up, so didn’t really have time to make many friends.”
“Oh dear, that’s a shame. Well enjoy your reorganisation then.”
Martha stood in front of her bedroom mirror and tried to determine whether she looked casually sexy or not. According to a conversation she’d heard between Betty and Emma, casually sexy was the latest look. Unfortunately for Martha they failed to discuss exactly what one wore to look casually sexy, so she was doing this with hope in her heart and no idea in her mind.
Bored after finishing her reorganisation in record time, Martha had decided to try it out with the contents of her wardrobe. She wore cut off denim shorts, an original Guns n Roses t-shirt, that she’d found under a customer’s sink to be used as a duster, thick black tights and had her hair pulled strategically into a messy bun on top of her head. It had taken almost an hour and a half. There was nothing bloody casual about it.
“God I’m so bored,” she groaned into the mirror. “I need to get a bloody life.”
After a few more minutes berating herself, Martha made her way downstairs. She heard Ernie barking, closely followed by a knock on the front door. She glanced at her watch, it was only seven o’clock, so it wouldn’t be Betty having forgotten her key, and she knew that even her uncle Graham was on a date. As she padded down the stairs, she recognised Luke through the frosted glass. What the hell was he doing here? She desperately wanted to maintain a professional relationship with him, but he just kept appearing, looking sexy, and was making it very difficult for her.
“Oh shit, shit, shittety, shit,” she gasped, pulling her t-shirt down and patting the back of her hair. “Hi,” she said breathily as she opened the door.
Whatever the ‘look’ was that Martha had gone for; it certainly seemed to have an impact on Luke. He swallowed hard and his mouth fell open.
“How the hell did I miss you at school? ” he asked.
Martha felt a sudden rush of pride, realising that casual sexy was a look she’d managed to pull off. Her cheeks pinked slightly as she gave him a dazzling smile. Then, as she looked at his super confident grin, she remembered vividly the night of the concert party, when she’d followed him around just hoping for a glance in her direction. She had been love sick for him and had thought she would just die if he didn’t acknowledge her in some way, which he did by vomiting on her just before he got thrown out.
“You missed me because you were stoned, pissed or shagging Miss Chambers," she said, arching her eyebrows. “But don’t worry about it. Come in”
Martha nodded and stood aside and let Luke in.
“Did you actually huff at me then?” Luke stopped in front of Martha and held her chin as he looked intently into her eyes.
Martha shook her head and gently pushed him away, her palm against his chest. “No.”
Luke cocked his head to one side and wagged his finger. “It sounded decidedly like a huff to me. Listen, I’ve said I’m sorry about not remembering you.”
“It’s not a problem to me.” Martha walked into the lounge feeling conflicted. She was annoyed that he didn’t remember her, and was annoyed with herself for being annoyed. She was supposed to be thinking of him purely in a professional manner.
“Hope I’m not interrupting anything, but I thought I’d better let you know the travel arrangements for Italy,” Luke said as he flopped down onto the sofa.
Martha smiled not once wondering why he couldn’t have told her the next day when she was working.
It had taken Luke almost two hours and eight bottles of beer between them, for him to tell Martha the details of the trip – those being that they would be travelling on the band’s private jet. Martha, who was much more adept at drinking beer than wine, was feeling mellow and enjoying Luke’s company. He was funny and interesting, and let her in on a lot of secrets about other bands and famous people in the music business. There was nothing too salacious, just funny stories about walks of shame, missing clothes and disgusting toilet habits on tour buses. Martha guessed that there were a few of his contemporaries that Luke had little time for, as she noticed his smile would fade and he quickly changed the subject at the mention of certain bands and their members, but he didn’t give any of their deepest, darkest secrets away and she admired him for that.
“So, what about you, what do you get up to when you’re not working or challenging the whole pub to a game of darts?”
Martha shook her head as she stretched her legs out from under her. “I’m never going to live that down, am I?”
“No,” Luke said lifting up Martha’s legs and placing her feet in his lap.
Martha squirmed a little at this intimate gesture. She wanted to pull her feet away because Luke’s hand was resting on them, and it excited her, which in turn scared her.
“Stop fidgeting, or you’ll end up kicking my little fella.” Luke moved his hand from her feet and clamped it down on her legs.
“Sorry.” Martha looked away at the mention of his ‘little fella’.
“That’s okay; now carry on telling me about what you do with your life.” Luke took a swig of his beer, his other hand still placed on Martha’s legs.
“Nothing much, I work and take care of Ernie and Betty and that’s pretty much it.”
At the sound of his name, Ernie jumped up onto Martha’s knee. He turned two full circles, scratched his head and then flopped down and closed his eyes.
“That’s one contented dog.” Luke sighed and wished he could do that; curl up on Martha’s lap. He’d jumped at the chance when his Mother had suggested that he come down and keep Martha company. Lucia really liked their new cook, and felt sorry for her; Luke also had a suspicion that Lucia was also trying a spot of match-making.
“Hmm, he’s very much loved.” Martha replied.
“Seriously though, you don’t go out with friends at all?”
Martha shook her head and stroked Ernie’s ear, enjoying the feel of the soft, silkiness against her fingers. “I don’t have many friends. Tina and I were pretty much inseparable, but she moved to Scotland with her family when we left school and lost touch. Plus I was too busy looking after Betty and trying to sort out my future.”
Luke frowned and gently rubbed Martha’s leg. She shivered involuntarily and thanked the Gods of depilation that she’d shaved her legs last night and no nasty, little, spiky suckers were poking through her tights.
“Did you not make any friends as Betty got older?”
“Not really, a couple of mums and I go to the cinema a couple of times a year, or we have Christmas drinks, but that’s it. Everyone seems to think that when you’re a single mum you must be after their man.”
“Really?”
“Yep, really. It’s okay though. Betty’s made it all worthwhile.”
Luke smiled, a warm, smile that caused Martha’s heart to bang against her rib cage. God, he was gorgeous when he smiled like that, his deep green eyes were like jewels catching the light and Martha just wanted to lose herself in them.
“I enjoy watching a good film, so maybe you and I could go one night? I’ll even share my popcorn with you.” Luke nudged Martha’s leg.
“You’d go to the cinema with me? Come on Luke, you’ve got your own cinema room at the house.”
Luke scratched his head and
sighed. “Okay, I do have a cinema room, I admit, but you don’t get to see the latest films. It’s pretty much a beefed up DVD player if I’m honest.” Luke shifted in his seat. He really liked Martha, not just to look at, but she was easy to talk to and didn’t try too hard with him. There was no hair flicking, or lip licking, she was just...normal, and normal, he realised, was something he’d not experienced for a long time. He even wondered if normal was something he craved. He could sense that she was attracted to him, but it didn’t stop her berating him if she felt he deserved it. She didn’t treat him like a celebrity and he found that as much of a turn on as her tight, sexy body. He knew that it could be seen as overstepping the mark as her employer, in the way that he flirted with her, but hey when did he ever stick to the rule book? They were just enjoying each other’s company anyway – that was all.
“So, are we on for the cinema or not?” Luke said, tapping Martha’s knee with his beer bottle.
“I don’t know, Luke. Don’t you think it’s a bit strange, you taking your employee out to the cinema?”
Luke shrugged. “Not really. Let’s face it, this is hardly a hip and happening village for young people is it? If I don’t make friends with you I’ll have to go clubbing with Betty and her friends, or worse Noah. He’s a handsome boy and that would damage my ego if he got more attention than I did.”
Martha giggled and thought for a few minutes. “Alright, you check what’s on and decide when you want to go and we’ll go.”
“Excellent, although I do need to know if you intend on snogging my face off on the back row?” Luke laughed. Martha made a noise and rolled her eyes.
“And that, Mr Mahoney, was a huff.” Martha said, unable to stop the smile spreading across her face.
“Luke really, two huge tubs of popcorn wasn’t necessary. We could’ve shared,” Martha groaned, gaping at the barrel sized tub that Luke had passed to her.
True to his word, Luke had checked the cinema listings and insisted that they go the following evening. Martha still wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do, but he was good fun, and she didn’t really have anyone else her own age to talk and laugh with, so agreed to go and see the latest shock horror with him.