by Tracy Ellen
I noticed his eyes glittering from several feet away.
Bel’s had been closed for a while and Luke had no idea Anna was over at the Fare finishing her own work. She must have been down behind the service bar and he thought I was alone.
With no return smile, he pinned me with a look. It was rife with sexual intent. My body responded by shooting pings of tingling awareness down to my very favorite vacation spot in the Universe. I didn’t say a word, finding myself fascinated and unable to look away from Luke’s mesmerizing eyes. I wondered vaguely if this was how a staked goat felt being stalked by a ravenous lion, happy to be the sacrificial offering and eaten alive. He strode up behind the counter, and then my back was up against my closed office door while his mouth met mine with a demanding hunger.
His kisses seemed almost harsh or angry, but I was too busy loving the touch of his lips and tongue to care too much right then what his problem was. When I moaned my desire softly into his mouth and pressed closely up against him, Luke paused in his sensual assault on my senses.
Straightening up, he slid his hands down from encircling my waist to cup my bottom. He was staring down at me, broodingly silent and unmoving while he held my ass in his hands. I felt his fingers slowly gathering up the hem of the back of my short sweater dress. Feeling the thin fabric moving up higher, inch by inch, I was glad I’d chosen not to wear tights tonight. There was nothing but smooth skin above my boots. His long fingers lightly stroked high on my thighs. Soon they were outlining the lower curves of my butt left exposed along the bottom edge of my boy shorts. Those fingers would come close, but never quite touch, the wetness his caresses and kisses caused between my legs. His eyes were veiled beneath the lowered fan of his dark lashes and his mouth was serious, but I caught a flicker of satisfaction pass over his face at my unconcealed pleasure from his touch.
He slowly raised his eyes. I didn’t try to hide the aroused smile of happiness I wore as a result of his greeting. I didn’t know if I could hide my desire should I even want to; it felt like it would shine through any attempt at subterfuge. The man could bring me from zero to creaming my bikinis with only his knowing stare. His passionate kissing and intimate touches set me on fire in a way I’d never experienced. I burned for him and let him know it.
I sensed something coiled in Luke unwind and relax at my candid look. He smiled slowly, and hot desire flared openly in his eyes before I closed mine to his slower kisses. They were expert and thorough, his soft lips not missing any area of my parted mouth.
My hands flat on the door, I tilted my head back to offer my exposed throat to that talented mouth. He leisurely kissed and sucked on me while his hands trailed up my sides. Fingers teasingly skimmed over my breasts. At the feel of his teeth gently biting and then his tongue licking against my neck, my nipples hardened to tight, distended points obvious even through my bra and sweater dress. Luke continued to ignore them, except for brief, feather light touches with his fingers, as he traced the curving fullness of my breasts with his hands.
I ran my fingers up the back of his thighs and squeezed his ass, digging into the rounded, taut muscles. Pulling him against me, I rubbed his heavy arousal against my lower stomach. I brought my hands between us and ran my nails up the front of each thigh. Lightly tracing over his balls, I cupped and softly squeezed him. Using both hands, I stroked up the length of his erection straining against the zipper of his pants. I allowed my roving fingers to apply harder pressure around the head of his dick for a moment, moving up and down. Luke murmured encouragement in my ear and pushed against my hands.
It was his turn to groan faintly when I sent my hands moving slowly up under his open jacket and along the hard ridges of his stomach muscles. Caressing across his chest, I lingered over his flat nipples, lightly pinching on the tips until they hardened into points beneath his shirt.
Luke pulled my hands away and held them down against my sides. He whispered compliments while placing slow, open-mouthed kisses down my neck and across the tops of my breasts. I smiled dreamily at his sweet words.
Earlier that evening, I had dashed upstairs to get ready before my crew clocked out. Black is my color and I was all about it tonight, except for the sparkle of my silver jewelry. My mid-thigh length sweater dress was incredibly soft cashmere. A wide belt cinched in my waist and I wore suede, high-heeled boots that zipped up the back. A multi-strand necklace of delicate silver chains graduated down from my throat and over my cleavage partially revealed by the scoop of the sweater’s wide neckline. My streaky blonde hair was twisted and piled up on my head in a tousled look. I wore tiny diamond studs in my ears.
Squeezing his hands, I arched against him like a purring feline under his kisses. Luke murmured against my skin, “You look pretty tonight and smell so good.” He kissed the top curve of my right breast. I felt his tongue lightly lick my skin. “When you didn’t answer my calls…”
“I’m finished!” Anna popped up from behind the Deli case, shutting the sliding door with a thud while wiping her hands on a towel. “I am going to have to….”
Anna’s voice trailed off when she saw us. Luke had instantly spun around at the sound of her voice while keeping his left arm protectively around me. Even plastered boneless against the door and still in a sensual daze from Luke’s ministrations, I had to smile at the identical shocked surprise on both their faces. Luke had made me forget we weren’t alone.
Anna recovered quickly. She made a beeline over to where we were standing. She glanced at me and I groaned silently. I knew that innocent, quivering lips from trying-not-to-smile look. She gave in and grinned broadly.
“Hey, I’m Anna Johnson, Junior’s friend and partner. You must be Luke.” She dragged her gaze from Luke’s face and looked at me again with bright, inquisitive eyes that didn’t miss a detail of my unfocused state against the door. Her grin got bigger, if that was humanly possible. “I’m so happy to meet you.”
Luke bumped Anna’s fist with his own, losing his dark glare and smiling back easily. “Thanks, Anna. It’s great to meet you, too. You two have been friends a long time, since grade school, right?”
“Yep, first grade. Did Junior also happen to mention that when we met she smacked me with her lunch box?”
I found my legs and pushed off the closed door to stand next to Luke while shaking my head and muttering, “And they’re off….”
Luke grinned, his dimple creasing his cheek. “No, she didn’t mention that part. She did that to you? Anabel seems to have violence issues. She smacks, she bites,” he squeezed my waist and slanted me a sly look, “she pushes. As her best friend, should I be worried, Anna?”
I rolled my eyes as Anna trilled with laughter. “Knowing her, I’d say you should worry most when Junior is quiet for too long. All the rest is just her way of showing affection.”
Luke chuckled, but I observed a calculating look fleetingly pass over his face when he spoke with Anna. If I hadn’t been watching him closely, I’d never have seen it flash by. It made me straighten to alertness, curious what he was up to.
“I think we’ll need to talk more about Anabel’s bad habits. This would only be for my future protection, of course.” Luke gave me a quick smile. He ran a hand lightly up my arm and settled his arm around my shoulder.
Laughing, Anna instantly agreed. “Oh, but of course.”
Protesting, I yanked on the zipper of his leather jacket. “You’re both crazy. I haven’t heard even one bad habit mentioned here yet. What are you two talking about, anyway?”
They both groaned. Luke hugged me closer while saying to Anna over my head, “Add delusional to the list, Anna.”
Anna was laughing, but I saw her fascination with Luke’s easy affection towards me. Moving away from his arms to walk a few steps to the checkout counter, I groaned silently again. I was really in for the third degree soon.
“Since Anabel has no bad habits,” Luke coughed into his fist and cleared his throat, “then what should you warn me about, Anna?” He lean
ed in and joked conspiratorially, “It must be all her dirty secrets only a best friend knows that you’ll want to tell me about.”
I relaxed. My earlier suspicions from seeing that calculating look pass over his face melted away. Surely he wouldn’t announce his intentions to pump Anna for info about me, not with me right there?
Luke and I have talked about anything and everything while we’ve explored getting to know one another. Anything and everything except our personal pasts, if we were currently seeing anyone else, or our wants and needs in a relationship. We’d been carefully dancing around those touchy subjects.
I’d be happy never to go there. Those types of conversations get out of hand too easily. Talks like that invariably bring up issues. Issues cause misunderstandings and problems. Problems mean explanations, discussions, and more discussions. Enter next the resolutions and then the ultimatums. Ultimatums bring on headaches. Who in their right mind actively seeks a headache? One minute you’re happily dating, thinking everything’s groovy and nothing needs fixing. The next, you’re depressed and contemplating lifelong self-pleasuring as the only answer.
I had no idea how Luke would react to finding out I was dating other men. Men could be so contrary. Too often in the past, it had seemed to drive men nuts when they understood I wasn’t looking for a shout-it-to-the-world, sexually monogamous boyfriend scene. They saw it as an insult or a challenge to overcome. But you can’t force loyalty with words. It’s a gift you give with actions. It seems a simple concept to me. If I care enough about one man, I will be monogamous to him because I want to be with no other man. Relationships don’t automatically come with a thirty-year guarantee of devotion, regardless of the wear and tear of daily life, nor should they, in my opinion.
I had no idea what Luke intended to say to me about missing his recent calls before Anna interrupted moments ago. But all those thoughts made me unsettled and slightly nervous, so I excused myself to finish closing.
Walking into my office, I heard Anna giggling and saying to Luke, “Junior is so full of dirty secrets; I wouldn’t even know where to begin. It doesn’t matter though, since I can’t tell you a single one.”
‘Crap!’ With a man like Luke, that was the equivalent to waving the red flag in a bull ring.
“Anna, was that a challenge?” was Luke’s teasing response.
‘Crap and more crap! Anna, use your brain here…’
“God, no!” was Anna’s cheerful answer.
‘Thank you, I love you Anna!’
“There’s no challenge, Luke. Best friends are vaults. Period. The end. It’s a girl thing.”
“Vaults and best friends are only a girl thing?” Luke asked.
“Oh, for sure. Most straight guys don’t have a clue how a woman really thinks.”
“Yes, men are basically clueless idiots, aren’t we?” was his silken reply.
Anna and Luke laughed happily together.
‘Reminder to self: kick Anna’s ass later.’
I had no clue where Luke was going with this, but somehow it didn’t sound good for Team Anabel.
I quickly took care of the rest of my closing business. All the while, I was intensely aware of Luke’s eyes tracking me around the store from where he stood chatting with Anna. I didn’t glance over at them, but I was aware of his every movement as well. It gave me a thrill of heightened excitement for the night ahead. Maybe Anna’s right and this is not normal behavior coming from me about a man near our sixth date. But since I’ve never had a sixth date in over a decade, I couldn’t be sure what’s normal for me anyway.
Grabbing my purse, I was ready to go. As I approached the pair, I was momentarily surprised to hear Luke casually inviting Anna to join us for dinner. She was pleased as punch but demurred, not wanting to horn in on our date.
I thought it was a great idea and seconded the invite, happy Luke had suggested it. Anna knows I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t want her, or if I thought Luke was asking only to be polite, so she cheerfully accepted.
I figured I had all night to be with Luke. A couple of hours of him getting to know my best friend would be a good transition into letting people know we were dating and that it was no big secret.
Luke led the way out as I locked up. Behind his back, Anna kept giving me big eyes while grinning and nodding her approval of Luke.
Mouthing the word “Wow!” she silently clicked her fingers like pincers. Okay, she was specifically pretending to pinch Luke’s ass. Even as I elbowed her to behave, I had to agree his backside looked very fine from where I was standing.
On that note, the three of us walked our merry way down a block to Rueb’s to have a drink and some food. Anna and I were both starving since neither of us had taken time for lunch that day. Inside Rueb’s, it wasn’t too crowded. Luckily, we’d arrived between happy hours. Luke had gotten us settled at a table, ordered a round of drinks, and proceeded to get to know Anna.
When I’d introduced them, I had a vague notion that Anna’s giddy bossiness might put Luke off or his supreme confidence would repel Anna. Not so. He encouraged her to talk about growing up with me in Northfield. He listened attentively and soon had her forgetting any self-consciousness around him.
I was supplied with drinks and then, for all practical purposes, ignored.
Anna gets very excited and animated when telling stories. She jumps and bounces all over the place, or up and down in her chair if restrained by locale or seat belts. She laughs often and she’s also a toucher. The girl’s always grabbing someone, or something, or herself, but I’m used to her ways and they don’t faze me.
They didn’t seem to faze Luke, either. He sat back and nursed his beer, kept the drinks coming for us, and smiled often at Anna’s antics. She told him many adventures of our growing up years that had Luke chuckling, even while he sent me appraising looks. That was probably due to the fact I was usually the one getting us in and out of trouble. He was most likely reconsidering my offer to have his children. If I was a scary sister, imagine what I’d be like as a mother.
Typically, I don’t drink that much when I’m out. My norm is to sip on one cocktail forever. I don’t have anything against drinking per se, I just don’t need alcohol to let loose and party. I have fun talking with friends and dancing without getting drunk, even though people often mistakenly think I am drunk.
Tonight, Anna and I were totally wasted within an hour.
Later, I understood it was all part of a diabolical Luke Drake plot to infiltrate, divide and conquer, then interrogate. I think I now have a firmer grasp where the details of his career path will lead. Something like head man in the neo-Spanish Inquisition sounds about right. It might be time to find out exactly what this man is up to when he was out of town.
After plying Anna with several drinks, no food, and his smiling regard, I was astonished to see my male-savvy best friend drunkenly lulled into completely putting her guard down with Luke.
I unconsciously finished off my third vodka tonic. It was one of those nights when it felt good to kick back and the drinks were going down real easy. I shook the cubes in my glass while Anna’s giggles ran up and down the scales. Luke was entertaining her with sexist blonde jokes and politically incorrect, tiny person one-liners.
I snorted into my empty glass. ‘Yeah, go ahead and giggle, Anna; you’re a 5’5” brunette, and not a short, little Blondie like me.’
I caught Luke’s small smile at hearing my snort.
Our server, a woman I didn’t know named Cindy, quietly delivered a shot to me. She nodded towards a man I also didn’t know sitting alone at the bar.
Raising the shot glass in a toast, I threw it back in one motion. Sputtering, I nearly threw it right back up.
‘Woo-wee!’ I slammed the shot glass down on the table and shook my head in revulsion while the unidentified clear liquor burned down my throat.
Once I was sure I wasn’t going to die, I became aware Anna was laughing uproariously at Luke’s dry retelling of how we’d first me
t at Reggie’s. Instead of taking my female side like a proper best friend, she kept telling him it was “so funny.” Anna thought the part when Luke attempted to leave me standing there talking to myself while he exited Reggie’s house was “flipping awesome.”
I snorted again. ’Ha-ha. Too bad Anna didn’t know the story of our first date that same night. Then she’d REALLY have something to laugh about at my expense.’
The faithful Cindy arrived a few minutes later with a tray. She set down a fourth vodka tonic for me and a rum and coke for Anna- courtesy of Mr. Funny Man himself. She then put a second complimentary shot at my elbow.
Cindy sang softly out of the side of her mouth, “Somebody loves you….” and nodded towards the same guy at the bar. He raised his glass, smiling, when I glanced over.
I turned my head to Cindy and smiled wryly. “You mean somebody’s trying to kill me.” Resolutely, I cheered myself on. “Okay, man up, Anabel!”
As Cindy giggled, I took a deep breath and bravely threw this shot back after the first. It went down more smoothly. My body involuntarily shook for a minute like I was having a seizure, but it didn’t burn as badly as the first shot.
‘I was getting good at this!’
In victory, I held up the shot glass and grinned with numbed lips at my two new friends, Server Cindy and Guy at the Bar. They clapped in praise, and then a laughing Server Cindy whisked the shot glass away.
Luke had paused in his current story to Anna to watch me take the shot. I saw him watch my new friend, Guy at the Bar, who was talking with the bartender and unaware of Luke’s once-over. He watched my finger when I rubbed it slowly over my lips to restore feeling. He watched as I propped up my suddenly buzzing head with palms on my hot cheeks and elbows plopped on the table.
I couldn’t help smiling happily at Luke’s watchful, unsmiling face. I think he’s the hottest man I’ve ever seen in my life.
“Thank you, Anabel.”
“Sure. For what?” I grinned.