The NOLA Heart Novels (Complete Series)

by Maria Luis

  Luke reached for her plate off the table, handing it back to her with a fresh slice from the cardboard box. She accepted the offer with a half-smile, dropping her knees to sit in a cross-legged position as she plucked off a piece of pepperoni and popped it into her mouth.

  “Tony—that’s what he went by—was all eighteen-year-old me could think about when I got into Tulane. He wasn’t anything special, I guess, but I’d spent high school dating mama’s boys and Tony was the complete opposite. Tattoos down his arm, a devilish grin that made my heart flutter. You know the drill.”

  He nodded again, reaching for his own pizza plate though his stomach was on edge. Listening to her wax poetic about a different guy was now on his Official Things He Never Wanted To Hear Again list. Right next to that scarring time he’d heard Amy get it on with her high school boyfriend in their childhood home.

  “We started dating within weeks of school starting. Or, I guess, dated in the way that only college kids date. Went out to the bars together, always with a group. Ate together in the dining hall—I always felt so lucky when he came back to the table with an extra slice of pizza for me. Pathetic, right?”

  Luke glared at the pizza box. Apparently, her vices weren’t the kind that changed every seven years, then. No longer hungry, he set his plate down and dropped his hands between his knees, elbows on his thighs.

  “We had sex a few times. It, uh, honestly wasn’t that good but I liked him too much to say anything about it. I think it was about two months into everything that he convinced me to let him do it without a condom.”

  “And you let him?” He tried to say it without sounding like a crotchety old man. Maybe because he’d seen what had happened with his mother, Luke had never foregone wearing a condom. Even though he was sterile, and even though the military doctors had told him he had zero chance of ever impregnating a woman. Certain things were sacred—going bareback was one of them, and Luke had never considered himself worthy enough for that honor.

  To say nothing of the practicalities of the situation, like transmitted diseases. One wrong move and Luke would have found himself out of the military so fast his dick would have still been hard.

  Anna’s blush deepened as she averted her gaze. “Trust me, I questioned myself even then. My only excuse, and it’s not really one, is that I wanted him to love me badly. So, I let him go without using a condom. You know that saying about how it only takes one time? I might as well be the poster child. Figured out I was pregnant two months later after two missed periods. When I told Tony that he was going to be a father, he turned tail so fast I think I may have suffered whiplash.”

  Taking the last bite of her slice, she chewed slowly and then swallowed. “It’s always been me and Julian. I’ve dated over the years here and there, but nothing has ever really come out of it. I want to have a family, to have a husband who supports me emotionally and who adores his kids, those of his own blood and the one who isn’t. I just want to be part of a pack.”

  I just want to be part of a pack.

  Until he’d heard those words, Luke had never realized how much he wanted the same thing. Except that his version of a “pack” would be decidedly different than hers. His would include a loving wife and a son that wasn’t his, but Luke didn’t give a damn about blood. He’d spent most of his adult life surrounded by brothers who didn’t share his blood, name, or face.

  Fuck, even Trinket was family. Albeit the black sheep.

  But that wasn’t what she wanted. His dream and hers were not the same, and he’d be a selfish prick to lead her on and pretend he could give her what she wanted.

  “So, what’s the plan now?” he asked, hoping to God that she didn’t detect the hollow note in his voice. He felt barren, literally and figuratively. The same as he had when he’d woken up in that hospital bed in Iraq with a bundled leg and the good Doc staring down at him with pity straining his expression. “You gonna hop on the dating wagon again? Take another crack at it and see if you hit gold this time?”

  What looked like disappointment flashed across her face before disappearing behind a blinding smile. “I guess I don’t have another option, do I?”

  She was giving him a chance to claim her as his, right here, right now. The desire to do just that was overwhelmingly powerful.

  Do not lead her on.

  Luke’s eyes slammed shut. Don’t be a prick, he instructed himself. “I guess we could give the whole challenge thing another go. If you wanted.”

  This time, he didn’t miss the flinch that jolted her body, and Luke felt like the worst sort of person. Just tell her! he hollered at himself. In the end, though, what would that do? Put off the inevitable when she left him for another man who could give her children? Luke wasn’t one for dramatics, but he was pretty damn sure watching that scenario go down would be the death of him.

  Delicately, Anna rearranged his T-shirt around her legs and made a move to stand up. “I think I’ll be okay on my own this time. Thank you, though.”

  “Are you thanking me for my participation in the original dare, for tonight’s escapades, or for my offer to help you find your soul mate?”

  At the sour note in his voice, she twisted around to face him with her hands planted on her hips. “None of it. All of it.” She shook her head and threw up her hands in frustration. “Does it really matter, Luke?” She turned away sharply. “I’ve got to go. I’m sure Brady and Shae are wondering where I am, and how much longer they’ve got to house Julian for.”

  “They took him to the movies.”

  Slowly, she glanced over her shoulder at him. “What?”

  “The movies,” Luke muttered, rubbing a hand along the back of his neck. “When I made the call for pizza, I texted Brady because I wanted more time with you. The five of them are currently enjoying the latest action flick on my dime.”

  “You wanted more time with me?”

  “Yes.”

  She picked her way back toward him, her hips swaying enticingly beneath the thin fabric of his shirt. “To do what?” she demanded, just as she reached his side. “For more sex?”

  His cock perked up at the word “sex” and Luke internally cursed his body. Now was not the time to get randy over something that was probably never going to happen again.

  “Hmm, Luke?” she prodded, dropping a hand to the waistband of his boxers.

  Yep. Total hard-on now. It wasn’t even his fault. There was only so much one man could take. “Honestly, I’ll take whatever you’re willing to give me.”

  “Is that so?” Her fingers dipped below the waistband and with a quick tug sent them down to his ankles. His erection thrust up unapologetically, and Luke forced himself to hold still.

  In a voice cut from steel, he ground out, “If you’re going to walk away, sweetheart, do it now.”

  “No.”

  Her small hand curled around his cock and the sight of it nearly sent Luke to his knees. “No?”

  “No.” Then, she dropped to her knees and flicked out her tongue across the head of his cock. Holy hell. “I have one more dare for you, Luke.”

  His “go for it” came out on warble.

  Blue eyes glanced up, past his throbbing cock, past his abs and chest, to his face. With her lips hovering just above his hard-on, she whispered, “I dare you to make love to me.”

  Then she wrapped those luscious lips around him and sent him to a place as close to Heaven as he’d ever get. And then, following that, he made do on her challenge. On the bed, in the shower, and even in his small-ass courtyard that resembled more of a shed than anything passably romantic.

  It was, hands down, the best night of his life.

  And it would never happen again.

  26

  “Are you going to touch that champagne? Because if not, girl, I can think of a way better place for it to go.”

  Anna didn’t want to give up her celebratory glass of the bubbly, not even to her favorite cousin. Who just so happened to be her only cousin. She stiffed Shaelyn
, drawing the glass up to her mouth, and took a hearty swig.

  Her red lipstick left a stain on the crystal.

  She didn’t bother to swipe it clean.

  “Good Lord, she’s moping,” Shaelyn announced to the empty boutique. “We’re celebrating and she looks like I just kicked her puppy.”

  Since she couldn’t really dispute the moping thing, Anna testily replied, “I don’t have a puppy.”

  “If you did have a puppy, then. Where’s your imagination?”

  Probably in the same place where she’d left her heart—with Luke. Anna tipped back the rest of the champagne, swallowing it in one go. Tears sprung to her eyes. “It took a vacation,” she told her cousin, “a much-needed vacation.”

  Shaelyn rolled her eyes and then refilled their glasses. “Yeah, well, you need to pull yourself together. We’ve got the news people coming by to do a segment on us in twenty minutes and then a party to host right after that. I need you on your A-game.”

  The local news station had recently caught wind that La Parisienne had once again made national headlines, this time as the supplier for Thick of the Woods, and demanded to put them live on air.

  Which was why both Anna and Shaelyn had stuck around after the boutique had locked up for the day, waiting for their five minutes of TV fame to sweep them down an imaginary red carpet. On any other day, Anna would have been over the moon that all of their hard work was paying off. Today, she just felt . . . disappointed. And stupid—mustn’t forget that one.

  Shaelyn blew out a big sigh and made an out-with-it-already gesture. “Okay, let’s do this. Why do you look like I kicked the puppy you don’t actually have?”

  Anna bit her lower lip, torn between keeping the whole thing to herself and opening up to her cousin and best friend. The secret-keeping had been eating her alive these last few days, and she just had to come out with it.

  “I had sex with Luke.”

  Shaelyn’s champagne glass clattered to the marble-topped table where they kept the register. “You did what?”

  “I had sex with Luke.” She held up four fingers, and added, “Four times.”

  “Holy crap. I need to sit down for this.” Sweeping a hasty glance around the boutique, Shaelyn snagged a stool and planted her butt on it. She held up a hand, palm facing out. “Okay. I’m going to need you to repeat this again to me. You had sex with Luke O’Connor. The Luke O’Connor.”

  “Yes.”

  “Four times?” Shaelyn murmured in what could only have been awe. She wiggled four fingers in the air. “Are you sure you counted correctly? How many fingers am I holding up right now?”

  “I’m not blind, Shae. And, yes, I counted correctly.”

  Her cousin still didn’t seem inclined to believe her. “In one night?”

  “No, in eight nights. Yes, in one night.”

  “Wow.” Shaelyn dragged her champagne to her mouth and took an unladylike gulp. “Guess you decided to end your five-year re-virginity streak with a bang. Pun unintended, by the way.”

  Anna dropped her forehead to the marble top and let out a groan of despair. “I don’t know why I did it.”

  “Because he’s hot as hell and anyone would be out of their mind to turn him down?”

  Blowing her hair out of her face, she peered up at her cousin. “Are you supposed to notice things like that about your fiancé’s best friend?”

  Shaelyn shrugged. “What did you say? Oh, right—I’m not blind. The guy is good-looking. I recognized that way back when. I just always thought Brady was hotter.”

  “I’m sure he’ll be glad to know that,” Anna said dryly.

  “Oh, Brady does, trust me. That man is my soul mate, and he knows it.” Another easy shrug. “Anyway, enough about me. Let’s get back to you. Sex with Luke? How was it? Scale of one to ten with ten being, my panties are on fire just thinking about it.”

  That was easy enough to answer. “Nine for the first round. Ten for the second two, and twelve for the last one.”

  “Twelve? Imagine what it’ll be like when you’re sixty. By that ratio you’ll be somewhere up in the hundreds.”

  “That’s the thing,” Anna said after taking another sip of her champagne, “there isn’t going to be a when-we’re-sixty thing. It was just that one night. That’s all.”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t think I heard that correctly. You’re giving sex with Luke O’Connor a twelve-rating and you don’t plan to make the relationship permanent? Are you out of your mind?”

  No, but perhaps he was out of his. Sighing, she admitted, “He doesn’t want marriage, kids, any of it. I do. There’s no point in prolonging the inevitable. I’m going to want more; he’s not going to.”

  Shaelyn didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure about that?”

  “He said so himself. He asked if I wanted more children, and when I said that I did, he got this . . . weird expression on his face. I can’t really explain it.”

  Nodding slowly, Shaelyn murmured, “Maybe he was constipated.”

  “Oh, my God, Shae, that’s what your first thought goes to?” Had she called Shaelyn her best friend? Anna needed Jade. At least Jade was normal—mostly. Okay, not really. The woman watched way too many crime shows to be considered anything remotely normal.

  “I’m just saying, it’s a possibility. You shouldn’t leap to conclusions.”

  “He told me that he didn’t want kids.”

  “Okay, so that’s when you leap to conclusions. So, what are you going to—ah, crap, they’re here. Quick, let’s put away the bubbly. We have to save it for the party later.”

  As Shaelyn went into hide-the-ten-dollar-champagne-bottle mode, Anna smoothed out her hair in a full-length mirror and went to greet their guests from the 6 p.m. nightly news crew.

  She spotted Claudia, the main news anchor, right off the bat. Her dress was skintight and the color of the Mississippi River (i.e., a muddy gray). Behind her was the crew itself, equipped with all sorts of tech stuff Anna didn’t understand.

  “Hello there,” she greeted as she opened the door and let their guests filter in. “Thank you so much for wanting to feature us this evening.”

  Claudia turned around, her brown eyes narrowed. “We don’t have much time to get everything set up the way we wanted. My boss decided to inform me that today is the day we are launching a new series—do you know how hard it is to launch a new series? No, you wouldn’t. TV is hard. It’s hard and it’s always changing, and we’re going to have to get this right from the start otherwise it’s all a waste of time.”

  Anna and Shaelyn traded a glance. Straightening her back, Anna feigned a soft chuckle. “I can only imagine how busy you must be, what with your hectic schedule and all. I can never say thank you enough for taking the time out of your day to give us just a small bit of the limelight you hold.”

  Beside her, Shaelyn coughed into a closed fist and even Anna had to purse her lips to keep from laughing. It was either that or be insulted, and Claudia seemed the sort to be so wrapped up in her own world that there was no point feeling slighted.

  Claudia harrumphed, snapped fingers at one of her cameramen, and said, “There. I want this done right in front of that window.”

  A cameraman lifted his finger. “Ma’am, there isn’t any light by the window at this time of day? It’s dark out.”

  “By the window, Trevor.”

  “It’s TJ.”

  “Whatever. Let’s get this done.”

  For the next five minutes, the crew set up shop by the window, all mumbling beneath their breaths about their anchor. A makeup artist unloaded her bag on the register counter, snagged both Anna and Shaelyn by the arms, and proceeded to primp them. Shaelyn basked in the attention like she was receiving a massage, while Anna resisted batting at the woman’s hands when she tried to pluck Anna’s eyebrows.

  “They’re fine,” she growled, “I just got them done last week.”

  “Whatever,” the makeup artist snapped, and then plucked one last hair from
the bunch. “There, you’re good.”

  Rubbing her eyebrow, Anna wondered if Hell had swallowed them whole. She should have known that things could and would get progressively worse.

  Claudia was at the helm.

  “Are we ready? We have exactly TEN MINUTES. Do you hear me? TEN MINUTES to get this entire segment done.”

  Anna was shuffled forward, thrown into one of those actor’s chairs that was part stool, part lawn chair. A camera light filtered down into her face, interrogation-style.

  “Okay, okay!” This from a production team member. “We’re going to be starting in three . . . two . . . one . . . go.”

  Claudia flicked her voluminous brown hair over her shoulder, smiled serenely and then, in the sweetest voice, exclaimed, “Thank you so much for welcoming us here to La Parisienne today. It’s such an honor to be sitting here with the both of you.”

  Anna’s mouth dropped open at the transformation. Was this the same woman? It almost didn’t seem possible to reconcile the two variations of Claudia Depuy.

  Shaelyn, thankfully, recovered quicker. “No, thank you, Claudia. We’re excited to have you here.”

  Claudia turned to the camera. “For those of you just tuning in,” she announced in her best news anchor voice, “WWZN is here today with Anna Bryce and Shaelyn Lawrence, co-owners of the hottest lingerie boutique in town. Recently, La Parisienne has been featured in magazines like Cosmopolitan and Fame, and the shop’s apparel has even landed on the set of the major hit series, Thick of the Woods. Anna, Shaelyn, can you tell me how it felt when you were first approached by such a huge production company?”

  In the past, Anna had always held the reins when it came to interviews. Shaelyn was new to the scene, having been involved for only a year now, and Anna had never wanted her little cousin to feel thrown into the wild.

  She hadn’t given Shaelyn enough credit.

  Her cousin seemed to recognize that Anna was still in a “mood,” and didn’t allow for any hesitation about who would answer the question. “It’s been great,” Shae gushed appropriately, “An absolute dream come true. Although, to be honest, I don’t think we even dreamed that this might happen for La Parisienne.”