You Again (a novella)

by Carolyn Scott

  "That's the general idea."

  "But I want this to last."

  Because it would never happen again.

  But she was beyond dissecting that thought any further. For now, she just wanted to feel Luke moving inside her. She lifted her legs and wrapped them around his waist. Another groan gurgled deep within him as he abandoned his go-slow policy for one far more satisfying for Lily's hunger.

  It must have been more satisfying for him too because the groan became a roar that filled her apartment, her ears, her soul.

  CHAPTER 3

  The only reason Luke stood up was because he was afraid of crushing Lily. If the couch had been big enough he would have rolled off to lie beside her instead so he could continue to touch her.

  God, she looked so beautiful. All languid and wistful, like a movie filmed in soft focus. Her skin shone and he wanted to wrap himself up in her again, bury his face in her neck and breathe her in.

  She groaned as she sat up.

  "Did I hurt you?" he said, kneeling in front of her. Damn it, he'd gone too hard and fast. He’d been unable to stop once he hit the point of no return. She was so small and fragile... If he'd hurt her...

  A lazy, wicked smile teased her swollen lips. "No, but I think we hurt the couch." She tapped her bare foot against the old couch's arm causing it to separate from the base with a loud creak.

  "I'll buy a new one. Actually," he added, "I have a new one at my place." There. The statement said everything he wanted to say—come back to me, move in with me, love me again.

  Her smile withered and his hope with it. She gave him a guarded look that slid away before he could read it. She stood and moved past him without touching.

  He probably shouldn’t have mentioned his new couch yet. Start slow.

  "Well," she said, picking up her leggings and panties, "that was interesting."

  He'd screwed up. He could tell by the tone of her voice and the way she kept her back to him as she covered herself up. Maybe he should have waited before having sex with her. Maybe they should have sorted out their differences first.

  Too many maybes.

  And no way could he have waited a second longer.

  "It was better than interesting," he said, reaching for her. "It was—."

  "Stupid."

  His hand dropped to his side. "Right," he said. "Of course." He watched as she pulled her t-shirt on. Fortunately it wasn't long enough to cover that deliciously round butt. The butt he'd just seen in the flesh. The butt he'd massaged. The butt he wanted to... "No."

  She turned. "What?"

  "No, it wasn't stupid." He could tell by her narrowing eyes that she didn't want to hear how amazing it had been, how it was the best thing he'd done since they broke up. So he spoke a different, balder truth. "We both wanted that particular itch scratched. We scratched it, now we can move on."

  She stiffened. "Move on? In case you haven't noticed, Luke, I already have moved on. As have you, I'm sure."

  He hadn't. Not really. He'd not dated anyone since their break up, hadn't wanted to. "I mean move on from here. Together."

  "Together?" She picked up his shoes and shoved them into his chest. "You seem to have forgotten that us being together isn't possible." She tilted her head to the side and placed a finger at the corner of her mouth. She was mocking him. "Yes, that's what you said two years ago. You and I together aren't possible. Something about me being the daughter of a thief and you being a ruthlessly ambitious cop and never the twain meeting." She hooked her foot beneath his shirt and flicked it off the floor, catching it easily and throwing it at him in one fluid move.

  He caught it and opened his mouth to dispute the ruthlessly ambitious part of her accusation but closed it without saying anything because she was right. He had been both ruthless and ambitious in his pursuit to move up the ranks. But now he was near the top and the view wasn't as enjoyable as he'd hoped. Not when he was up there alone.

  "You're right," he said, wishing he could erase all those God-awful words he'd spoken to her two years ago. "I did say those things. But I don't think that way anymore."

  "Convenient," she muttered.

  "In what way?"

  "Get dressed." She glanced at his groin. "I can't argue with you while that's out."

  He grinned. "Too distracting, huh?"

  She rolled her eyes. "Just get dressed.

  He put on his shorts and jeans but not his shirt. "So, what's convenient about me wanting to be with you again?" He thought his persistent feelings for her were pretty damn inconvenient. Life would be so much simpler if he'd gotten over her after they broke up. Instead, it had been filled with lonely nights and no laughter. He really missed the laughter. And the sex.

  She crossed her arms. "Well, since my family's criminal record was the reason for our break up, it seems awfully coincidental that you want to be with me now that my father's dead. Do you deny that?"

  He couldn't because she was right. Her father's death did pave the way for he and Lily to have a relationship without compromising himself or invoking condemnation from his superior officers. "I'm sorry he died, Lil. I really am because I know how much he meant to you." He shrugged. "But you're right. His death does make things easier for us."

  Lily's face darkened and her lips pursed. She looked like a bomb about to explode. She took a step towards him and poked her finger into his bare chest.

  "You are unbelievable, Luke Tanner." Poke.

  He caught her hand. "Does it really matter why we can be together now? Shouldn't it matter more that we can."

  When she responded with a shake of her head, he added: "Look, I'm not proud of the fact, but it's the truth. I thought you deserved the truth."

  "Gee, thanks."

  Crap. This wasn’t going well. He needed to undo some of the damage he'd caused. "Anyway, it doesn't make it completely smooth sailing for us. There are some other members of your family to worry about. Don't you have two cousins and an uncle in jail? And that's only the ones who got caught. I bet there's a whole bunch of your relatives I should be worried about ruining my career."

  "Ruining your career?" She spoke low, a dangerous edge to her words. He got the sickening feeling he'd said the wrong thing. Again.

  And here he thought the truth would save him. He should've known better. Goddamn truth never got a man anywhere when it came to women.

  "Maybe ruin was too strong a word," he said.

  "So let me get this straight," she said. He let go of her finger but she'd didn't continue to stab him with it. He'd keep an eye on it just in case. "You want to get back with me despite my family and despite your misgivings about who I am." Her laugh was brittle. "Against your better judgement."

  Well, yeah. But he said nothing because it wouldn't come out right. So he stood and stared like an idiot, hoping she could see how much he needed her, how much he loved her in spite of her relatives. Didn't that make his love bigger, grander? Didn't women want a grand passion and all that kind of noble stuff?

  Hell. He didn’t know women at all, least of all the one standing before him. So he kept his mouth shut. He’d dug a big enough hole. No need to fill it with more wrong words.

  "Well," she said, after a moment of cold silence, "I'm still the daughter of a thief and you're still a cop. Nothing has changed, so if you didn't love me enough when Dad was alive, how can you love me enough now?"

  She turned and stomped up the hall to the front door. He took the hint. He followed her, pausing at the door which she held open for him. The raw anger in her eyes stopped him from apologizing. He couldn't say anything at that moment to make it better. The best thing he could do was leave.

  He stepped outside but realized he was still bare-chested. "My shirt."

  The door slammed in his face.

  CHAPTER 4

  Lily expected a lecture when she told her mother about her recent illegal activity. But Daisy McAllister said nothing. She simply continued to add ingredients to her muffin mixture. To the untrained e
ye, it appeared as if nothing was wrong, but Lily knew differently. Her mother’s usual precision had vanished. Instead of filling the measuring cup with flour and flattening the top with the blunt end of a knife, she dunked it into the bag and tossed the flour into the bowl. Clouds of flour dust puffed out of the bowl and settled over the kitchen bench in a most unDaisy-like mess.

  Lily sighed. The lecture was going to be a real killer.

  "How could you do something so stupid?" Daisy finally said, turning to look at her daughter sitting at the little square table. "You know these mansions have tight security. You should have expected a hidden camera."

  Lily blinked back at her mother. What, no ‘why did you break the law?’ "Okay, who are you and what are you doing in my mother's body?"

  Daisy swiped at an errant lock of white hair, smearing flour across her cheek. It looked a little like war paint which was appropriate because Lily got the feeling she was about to do battle.

  "That was a strange reaction considering I just informed you I've done something slightly illegal," Lily went on. "I was expecting..." she shrugged, "I don't know, maybe a lecture about not going into Dad's line of business, how he wouldn't want it yada yada yada."

  "He would want it," Daisy muttered. "And you're not getting that particular lecture because I'm saving it for later. The lecture you're getting now is the one about protecting yourself no matter what you choose to do with your life. Including going into your father's line of business as you call it."

  She turned back to the kitchen bench, picked up the bowl and a wooden spoon and began stirring the hell out of the muffin mixture. A full minute later, she stopped to point the wooden spoon at Lily who'd been waiting patiently for the next installment of her reprimand.

  "Why were you trying to put that necklace back anyway? It's a worthless piece of junk," Daisy said.

  "You knew it was a fake?"

  Her mother waved the spoon around and a glob of wet mixture splattered on the bench. "Well, of course. Your father told me everything."

  "Then why didn't you tell me?"

  "If I'd known you would try to return it to those lying, sneaky Haywood-Smiths then I would have." She pounded her wooden spoon into the bowl to punctuate the lying and sneaky parts.

  "Right," Lily said, eyeing the spoon in case her mother decided to use it as punishment like she did when Lily was a kid. Although Daisy had never actually smacked her daughter's bare bottom with it, the mere suggestion had kept Lily on a straight path. "So you think they did it as an insurance scam?"

  "Absolutely. And now it seems they're doing it again." She clicked her tongue as she spooned muffin mixture into the tray holes. "Some people are just dishonest. And don't fling your father's name back at me," she said with a wave of the spoon. "He at least was an honest thief."

  Lily rolled her eyes. There was an argument she was never going to win.

  "So what do you think I should do?" she asked. "Get a good lawyer? Hire a private investigator?"

  "All lawyers are scum and private investigators aren't much better than cops. If I were you, I'd leave the country."

  "Mom! I can't leave the country. I have my business to take care of. And who'll look after you in your old age?"

  Daisy sighed as she filled the last of the muffin holes. "I was joking, Lil. No need to bring my age into this."

  "No jokes. I'm about to go to jail for something I didn't do."

  "That'll make you the first McAllister ever."

  "Mom!"

  "Alright, I'm being serious now." She opened the oven door and slid the tray in. "You said the cops visited you last night to question you." She closed the door and joined her daughter at the kitchen table, bringing the bowl and spoon with her. She handed the bowl to Lily. "Do you know who it was? Is he crooked? If you're not sure, I can find out."

  They'd come to the part Lily wanted to avoid even though she knew all along she'd have to tell her mother. "Yes, I know him and no he's not crooked. Not even a little kink. It was Luke."

  Her mother's gaze met hers, assessing, no doubt looking for an indication her daughter still held feelings for Luke. Lily gave her nothing. Or hoped she didn't.

  Daisy humphed and licked the spoon. "That's not good."

  "Why?" Lily asked, running her finger around the inside of the bowl to scoop out as much leftover mixture as she could.

  "I don't trust him."

  "Why not?" Lily licked her finger. Mmmm, apple cinnamon.

  "He's a cop."

  "Any other reason?"

  "Yes,” Daisy said quietly. “He broke your heart."

  For the first time since her arrival that morning, Lily saw a chink in her mother's tough shell. "I thought you were happy we broke up. I recall you saying something about me being too good for the likes of him."

  "You were. Are. And I was happy." She looked away. "I think." She shrugged. "It doesn't matter. All water under the bridge now that it's over between you two. But whatever I think of him, if he's your only chance at getting out of this then I'm afraid he's just become my new favorite person." She pointed the wooden spoon at Lily. "Don't tell anyone I said that. Especially him."

  Lily smiled but it quickly vanished. "Don't worry. I don't think he and I will be doing much talking at all." She made a face at the bowl. It was almost clean. "Because I kind of screwed up. We can strike him off our list of people who'll help."

  Daisy shook her head and licked the wooden spoon. "What did you do? Or should that be, what did you say?"

  Lily was about to deny it but knew she'd been caught. Lying to her mother had never been something she was good at. Actually, lying in general had been her lousiest subject. That made her quite unique amongst the McAllister clan, and somewhat of an outcast.

  "I kind of kicked him out before we resolved anything," she said. "He said he believed me though, so that's a good thing right?"

  Daisy said nothing, just licked her spoon and looked doubtful.

  "I'm sure he'll try to convince his superior officers that I didn't do anything wrong," Lily continued. "All he has to do is put the squeeze on the Haywood-Smiths and they'll admit everything and I'll be off the hook. Simple. Hopefully I won't even have to see Luke again."

  Except she wanted to see him again. Her body had throbbed all night after they'd made love on the couch, keeping her awake into the early hours. She couldn’t forget the warmth of his skin against hers, the weight of his body, the exquisite pressure of him inside her.

  "Darling," Daisy said, leaning forward. "First of all, ‘squeeze’ is only used in the movies. Second, the Haywood-Smiths aren't the kind of people who admit their crimes. They don't have to. They have judges as their friends and neighbors. Thirdly," she took Lily's hand and gave her a reassuring smile, "you're going to have to see Luke again. There's no other way."

  Lily groaned and thumped her head on the table. "Now I really wish I hadn't slept with him last night."

  "You did what?"

  CHAPTER 5

  Luke sat in his boss's office waiting for the Chief to return from a meeting. He should have been thinking about how he was going broach the subject of Lily's innocence but all he could think about was Lily's body.

  And wishing he hadn't slept with her.

  No. Not true. More like wishing that sleeping with her had got her out of his system.

  It hadn't. He couldn't stop thinking about her, more than ever. Their sexual encounter had been over too fast but he could remember every detail. The way her caress gave him an aching hard-on and how her feathery kisses sent a shiver through his tautly strung body. Not to mention the way her heat surrounded him, pulled him in until he was submerged so deep he felt like he was drowning.

  Yep, he was screwed. He had it worse for her than ever. And she didn't want anything to do with him even though her freedom depended on him.

  "Make it quick, Tanner, I've got to meet the Commissioner in ten." The Chief barreled through the door, coffee mug in one hand and a fat briefcase in the other. He sl
apped both items down on his desk and sat with a loud grunt. "Your message said something about the Haywood-Smith theft.” He popped the locks on his briefcase and pulled out a stack of papers. "Tell me you solved it already," he said without looking up.

  "I've solved it already."

  The Chief reached for his coffee mug with one hand and a pen with the other. He flicked through two sheets of paper, signing both at the bottom with a loose scrawl. "Good result, Tanner. Expect nothing less from your team. So what's the problem?"

  Luke sighed. There was no easy way out of this. "My ex girlfriend."

  The Chief finally looked up, coffee mug half-way to his lips. "The McAllister girl?" He frowned, doing his best impersonation of a bulldog. "You better tell me. And don't leave out any details."

  Luke told him about the theft, starting with the CCTV footage landing on his desk and ending with his visit to Lily's place. Minus the sex part—although he suspected the Chief might like to hear those details too. He summed it up with: "As you can see she's not guilty."

  The Chief snorted but it was hard to tell if it was from laughter or anger. Either way, the folds of his face didn't move out of their frown. "Don't tell me you believe her? Christ, Luke, you of all people should know you can't trust a McAllister. Bunch of low-lifes the lot of them."

  "Not Lily. She's different."

  "Yeah, she's too dumb to look for the hidden cameras."

  Luke clenched his fists and pressed them into his thighs so he wouldn't be tempted to leap across the desk and use them on his boss's face. "She's not dumb. And she's not a criminal."

  The Chief's gaze never wavered. He made no movement, no sound, but somehow Luke knew that his boss could tell he wanted to punch the crap out of him.

  "You really think she was trying to return the necklace?" Chief asked.

  "Yes."

  "And that the Haywood-Smiths are committing insurance fraud?"

  "Yes."

  Chief grunted. "You're a fool, Tanner."

  "Maybe."

  "She's got you by the balls."