“Nobody’s going to be on board with that!” she’d huffed. “They’ll see through it as a sugarcoating ruse and they’ll all have finally had enough with you.”
Lo and behold, the people loved it. There were already two hundred people listed as attending on the Facebook group, and local bakeries had been invited to donate goods in order to make up for the fact that there was no way Luke and his club could bake as many cookies as there were people coming. Though she now had some lovely fantasies about his big, burly body wearing nothing but a frilly apron. God, he’d probably faint if he knew she’d had that little daydream.
It was going to be a great way to cap off a great week, and everyone had been given the afternoon and evening off to prepare, except Sparky. He and some teenager he’d taken under his wing were busy baking up a storm under Pierce’s watchful lens. As much as Shayla wanted to see that in person, she had gratefully accepted Luke’s offer to go somewhere quiet and relax.
He drove them to the south side of town, which looked a lot like where Jacklin lived, but with more greenery. There were tree-lined boulevards and fountains, and the buildings looked older than the ones in the rest of Templeton.
Luke parked in front of a white, Georgian building with columns on the porch. Shayla hopped off and looked around her with glee. “I can’t believe I’ve never been to this part of town before.”
Luke grabbed her hand and pulled her close, kissing her sweetly on the lips. “This is where I grew up,” he explained. “If you can believe it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?” She cocked her head to the side. “We could have included that in the broadcast. This would have been a great place to shoot.”
Luke laughed and shook his head. “No, sweetheart.” He kissed her cheek. “This place is only for me and you. No camera crews, no bullshit—just good wholesome fun.” He began to lead her up the building’s steps. A sign declared that it was the South Templeton Library, which caused Shayla to give Luke a look.
“You’re not about good wholesome fun, Luke,” she said warily. “Please don’t tell me you brought me here ‘cause you want to fuck me in the library.”
Luke halted and keeled over with laughter, his back shaking with it. He righted himself after a moment and wiped a tear from his eye, all the while Shayla watched with wide eyes.
“Don’t get me wrong, little one,” he said, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her close. “I definitely want to fuck you in a library someday. Definitely. Tell you that if ever make a sound we’ll be found out and humiliated – and even worse, I’ll stop. But that will happen at a library I’m will to be banned from.”
“You don’t think I could stay quiet?”
He didn’t say anything, just lifted and eyebrow until she huffed out a breath. Sure, she was noisy during sex. But she didn’t have to be. Probably. He snickered at her expression and headed into the library while she followed behind.
He made no move to explain what made this library so special, so Shayla walked quietly up the steps beside him. She assumed she was about to find out, anyway.
Not two steps through the doors and they were attacked.
“Luke!” a croaky voice called from the desk to their left.
Shayla looked over, to where a woman who looked like she should have been well retired by now was waving a wrinkly hand at Luke. Luke waved back and the woman began to shuffle over, calling behind her, “Agnes, Luke’s here!”
“I don’t normally get this kind of welcome,” Luke murmured to Shayla.
The woman apparently had amazing hearing. “Well, normally when you come in I haven’t just been watching you on the web.” She approached them and peered up at him through her glasses. “You’re looking a little thin, have you been eating properly?”
Before Luke could answer, another woman, slightly less old but with a perm that spoke of a different time, emerged from the back room and made hasty steps toward them. “I thought you said Luke was here!” she said. “Though for a moment I thought you said that he was queer.”
Both Luke and Shayla barked with laughter. Shayla couldn’t imagine anyone who liked sleeping with women more.
“It would be fine if you were, dear,” said Agnes. “Though I see you’ve brought your lady friend.” She followed that with a wink.
“You told your librarian friends we were a thing?” Shayla asked, amusement threatening to spill out in another laugh.
“Oh no,” said the older lady. “But we’ve got eyes, haven’t we? We’re not dead yet. You two have a chemistry that only two people who having been doing the dance could have!”
Shayla wasn't sure about that, since she saw people with chemistry all the time who definitely were not sleeping with each other, but she applauded the woman for her observational skills.
“And now, the feather in the hat, he’s brought his girlfriend to see the old biddies at the library!” declared Agnes. “And we are delighted.”
Heat flashed on Sheila's face. It was the first time that someone had referred to her as Luke’s girlfriend. Even he hadn’t referred to her as his girlfriend! What if it made him uncomfortable? What if it was too much, too soon? What if—
“That’s right,” he said, pulling Shayla to him. “I wanted to introduce my girlfriend Shayla to you so that she’d think I’m cool.”
“Well then you should have taken her somewhere where there are more things to do than read books and eat prunes in the back room,” Agnes scolded. “Though we are delighted that your misguided intentions brought you here.”
Shayla liked these two. They could have their own talk show.
“Shayla, this is Agnes and Clara,” Luke said, pointing between them. “They’ve been the librarians here...for how long, girls?”
“Near forty-odd years now, I’d say.” Clara scowled. “They’ve been trying to get me to retire for the past ten of those!”
Maybe she should have taken their advice, Shayla thought. The woman looked like she could barely lift a finger, never mind a stack of books. But then, lots of little old ladies were also tough old broads, and neither Anges nor Clara looked fragile.
Shayla decided it was time for her to get active in the conversation. “So, have you ladies known Luke for long?”
Agnes and Clara shared a conspiratorial grin. “Since he was a little tyke. He used to come in here and dog-ear all of our books, and I nearly rapped him across the knuckles for it once or twice. But I’d never seen a kid with such a passion for reading.”
“Do you remember, Clara, how we had to replace our copy of The Iliad four times from the time he first read it to when he finally went out and bought his own copy? He kept losing the damned thing.”
Clara laughed. “Oh, I remember. Thought he was Paris and could get away with it!”
The two old biddies laughed good-naturedly, and Shayla turned her own smile up to Luke. He didn’t look in the least embarrassed. He had the same shit-eating grin on that he always did. And, somehow, he’d never looked more attractive.
“I hope you got him to pay for all those copies,” Shayla said.
Clara nodded. “Oh, he paid for it. Worked summers here during high school, until his parents split and he moved across town.”
“Such a shame, that was,” said Agnes. “Never could find another person who’d memorized the Dewey Decimal System so perfectly.”
Shayla was on an information overload. Though she would greedily eat up all the things she could about Luke, she had failed to realize that he had a childhood. Besides her one fraction of a second of panic when she thought he might be taking her to meet his parents, Shayla more or less went by the assumption that Luke had roared onto this world as a fully grown, fully sexy human being—bike and all.
Now it was clear that she’d missed something. There was, of course, more to Luke than met the eye. And he’d clearly brought her here because he wanted to share that part of himself with her, but didn’t have the words to tell his story himself.
Shayla was touched.
“You’ll still come visit, even though you’re rich and famous now and can afford your own books, won’t you?” prompted Agnes.
Luke stooped and pecked each of the women on the cheek. “Of course I will.” He gave them a smile so warm it could melt hearts. It had probably melted a few. “After all, you need my late fees to keep this place running.”
“Damn right we do,” said Clara. “And don’t forget that your copy of The Aeneid is due on the twenty-first.”
Luke and Shayla said goodbye to the two aged librarians, and he flung his arm over her shoulders as they left the building. The sun bathed them in its warm, ethereal glow, lighting up the marble colonnade. The fact that the rain and clouds had held off all week was a near miracle. It seemed that the great weatherman in the sky was fond of Luke and Shayla’s broadcasts, too.
A buzzing in Shayla’s pocket pulled her down from her cloud, and she wrenched her phone from her jeans to see Amy’s face flash across the screen.
“I should get this,” she said, tapping the accept button.
Shayla had been Amy’s favorite person lately, so any call from her was probably just another check-in to see how she was doing and if she needed anything for her segment tomorrow.
“Hey, Amy.”
“I don’t know whether to classify this as good or bad news,” said Amy. “But I have news for you.”
“Okay…” Shayla furrowed her brow and held up a finger to Luke to tell him she needed a minute. “What’s up?”
“Well, Naomi has finally put in her notice. She’s going into rehab and won’t be coming back as an anchor.”
Shayla’s heart dropped into her stomach. “Oh my god!” She raised a hand to her mouth. “I had no idea. Is she okay?”
“I’m sure she’s fine. But anyway, Mr. Putnam and Mr. Green want you as a permanent anchor. So the job is yours, if you want it.”
Shayla felt a wave of relief wash through her. She hated that Naomi was going through a rough time, and she wouldn’t for a second hesitate to give up her spot if it meant that Naomi pulled through with as little pain as possible, but she couldn’t deny that she’d been on edge about her position lately. Yes, her endeavor with Luke was widely regarded as a roaring success, but Anthony had been nothing but a thorn in her side since she started the project. And, with his sway at the station, she’d been worried he’d talk the executives out of keeping her around. She’d even seen him muttering to them at times, then quieting as soon as he saw her looking.
This was exactly what Amy had said: not good news, not bad news, just news. But welcome news, nonetheless.
“Yes, I’ll absolutely take it.” She gave Luke, who’d been looking at her with a concerned expression, a thumbs up. “I’ll see you this evening for the broadcast. Thank you, Amy.”
Shayla hung up. Luke didn’t even wait to hear what Amy had said; he gathered her in his arms and pressed a loving, firm kiss on her lips.
Everything seemed to be falling into place.
Chapter Twenty Five
Luke had never run a bake sale in his life. When would bikers ever need to run a bake sale? That being said, this was the most successful bake sale that Luke had ever even been to or heard about, so he had a mind to make it a recurring feature of Trojan life.
They sold out within an hour, and he, Shayla, and the guys were so busy handing out cupcakes and brownies and taking money that they barely noticed the cameras were rolling. Anthony, of course, did notice the camera was running. He always noticed. Luke was acutely aware of just how much slower than everyone else Anthony was working, probably because he didn’t want to sweat through his makeup.
But Luke refused to let that get him down. Nothing, as it turned out, would be able to get him down today. He had his beautiful woman at his side, his club at his back, and they’d raised a bunch of money to help better the lives of needy animals all over the city. There wasn’t much else that he could wish for in terms of fulfillment. That dream of a white picket fence still poked at him, but for now running a bake sale with his favorite people was doing wonders to placate his inner Martha Stewart. Not even that pretentious prick could get him down.
After they’d sold out, and the cameras had stopped rolling, Luke walked around and gave high fives to the crowd still gathered around his shop. He and Shayla chatted separately to different local celebrities who’d showed up, but he kept eyeing her across the room. Life with her had been perfect, so far. And he hadn’t heard anything else from Raven, either. He didn’t know what she planned, but he had a good feeling that he’d be able to squash her plan into itty bitty pieces before it even had chance to take root.
There was a lull as the crowd began to disperse, and Luke took the opportunity to walk over and kiss his woman. Shayla’s lips were sweet from the treats she’d sampled, and he chuckled against them. “Someone’s been a naughty girl.”
“Don’t you know it.” She wrapped her arms around him briefly, then pushed him away before the kiss got too out of hand.
Luke caught Anthony scowling at him from across the room, and he sent a smirk back at him. Who did that guy think he was? In one week Shayla and Luke had knocked him down from his high horse. It was them that he answered to now, and Anthony hated it. But hey, it was what the people wanted.
And it was sweeter than anything Luke had sold today.
“I have a phone call to make, so I’m just going to wait in the car for you,” said Shayla. “Is that okay?”
Luke nodded and released her, watching as she practically skipped over to her car. He couldn’t wait for the victory sex they’d be having—within the hour, if possible.
Luke’s mood took a sour dive when Anthony slid up to him. “I need to talk to you.”
“I don’t want to talk to you.” Luke attempted to budge past Anthony, but Anthony shook his head.
“You’re going to want to see this.”
It was the wording that caught Luke’s attention. See this? He followed Anthony into the adjoining tattoo parlor, which was devoid of people.
“What is it, Blake?” Luke growled through gritted teeth.
Anthony smirked and held up his phone in front of Luke’s face. Luke knew what the video would be before Anthony even hit play. It was him and Shayla, fucking in the cemetery like a pair of wild animals. She was screaming, he was grunting, it was the hottest thing he’d ever seen.
Except nobody else should have ever seen it.
“Raven gave you this?”
Anthony nodded, pulling the phone back and slipping it in his pocket. “And I’m going to post it online unless you break up with Shayla right now.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, I would. And it’ll ruin her career—poor thing. I doubt she’ll stay with you after that. And, as a fun bonus, Raven will finally have the proof that she needs to divorce you and take you for everything you own.”
Luke bristled with rage. Everything was tinted red, and he practically feel the vein pulsing on his forehead. “And what’s to say if I break up with Shayla, you won’t just do it anyways, huh?” He squared up with Anthony. “You like to play the tough guy, so why not just duke this out with me right now?”
Anthony clicked his tongue and shook his head. “This is way more fun. And way more my style. I’ll leave the smashing and hollering to the gorillas, thanks.”
He stepped around Luke to leave, but Luke whirled on him and fisted Anthony’s shirt, pulling him up to Luke’s height. “If you do anything, it’ll be the last mistake you ever make.” He tossed Anthony down, to where he nearly lost his balance and fell to the ground.
Still, that did little to stop the horrible laugh that pealed forth from Anthony’s lips as he left the tattoo parlor, triumphant.
Chapter Twenty Six
Shayla’s stomach fluttered with a nervous excitement, her heels tapping along the linoleum on her way through the empty office spaces. Though no official decision had been made or broadcast yet, it was clea
r to her that her performance over the previous week could be seen as nothing short of exemplary.
She had wrangled a sexy biker, gotten a week-long scoop that had gone viral nationwide, and had captured the beating heart of her city. All while still technically an intern. They were impressive feats, to be sure. And Shayla was beaming with pride and satisfaction.
She wondered where her career would go next. It was full of potential. Her only true anxiety was that if she did manage to make it out of Templeton, as she’d always dreamed, she didn’t know what Luke would do. Would he stay? Would he go with her? Would she end up staying for him?
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