by Debra Elise
Kelsey shook her head. “No. Since he’s cleared to play, he’s on a plane to Greensboro. But it’s an early game tomorrow and the team is flying home the same day. So you’ll only have to wait less than twenty-four hours to hit him upside the head before you jump his bones.”
“Really, Kelsey. Jump his bones? What are we, back in high school?”
“Whatever, you know that’s what will happen.”
Luke entered his house and dropped his gear in the mudroom. He let Indy out of his crate and took the dog out back. He’d called the kennel on the drive home and asked if they would mind bringing him home since he wouldn’t make it back to town until after they closed.
He really needed a friend tonight and who better than his dog. He still hadn’t decided on how to approach Lara, but he knew he wanted to work it out. Maybe, just maybe, now was the time for him to take the leap with the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about.
On his way through the kitchen he grabbed a beer out of the fridge and went out to the back patio. After business was taken care of, he tossed Indy’s favorite ball until both he and the dog were spent.
He fed Indy and put him in his crate for the night. He walked around the kitchen and grinned at the island. Memories hit him of the last time he and Lara had made love on top of it. God, he hoped one day they’d be able to do it again. He couldn’t imagine being with someone else after her. And he . . . shit, he loved her. He’d gone and fallen in love.
Floored by how obvious it should have been, he decided he had to tell her. Screw seeing her face-to-face. He couldn’t wait any longer to let her know how sorry he was and that he needed her in his life. Forever.
He called her cell. She didn’t pick up or maybe she didn’t want to pick up. Damn. He called Kelsey to see if she knew where she was. No answer there either. Fuck.
Okay, Garibaldi, she’s still in town at least. She could be with Noel or even Caris, but he didn’t have their cell numbers. His cell buzzed and he jumped. It was Maverick.
“Hey, Luke, I need a favor.”
“Um, yeah sure I guess. What’s up?”
“I come home from a road trip and find that I have a bunch of women here at my house and the testosterone balance is off. I need some backup. They’re drinking wine like water and giggling about . . . I don’t want to know what. You gotta help me, man.”
Luke rubbed his neck and said a silent thank-you. “Well now, one of those women wouldn’t be a sassy green-eyed blonde who’s currently jobless and needs a place to stay?”
He heard Mav chuckle before he answered. “That would be a ‘yes.’ And I’m thinking she’s in sore need of an apology.”
“Yeah, thanks for listening to me on the way home about this whole mess, and thanks for calling me.”
“You’re such a stubborn ass, Luke. I can’t believe you’d question Lara’s intent. It shouldn’t have taken her flying to California and confronting that asswipe JR to make you see that she would never use you.”
Luke took the dressing down from his best friend because he deserved it. Mav was right. He’d screwed up. But now he needed to correct that and convince a certain physical therapist that he wanted more than a friend with benefits; he wanted her in his life—permanently.
Now he just had to come up with a way to apologize that was sincere enough that there would be no way she wouldn’t forgive him. “Listen, Mav, you think you could talk Lara into letting you drive her over to my place? Tell her I’m not home and the neighbors called you complaining about Indy barking or whatever. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Sure. Anything to break up the party. I had plans for Kelsey tonight.”
Luke ended the call and went over to Indy’s crate and let him out. “You and I are going to win our lady back.”
“Mav, I still don’t get why the neighbors called you. Wouldn’t they have called animal control?” Lara asked.
Maverick pulled into Luke’s driveway. “I don’t know, Lara. All I know is that Luke isn’t home and you’re the only person who has been around Indy enough to get him to calm down.”
They exited his truck and Mav used his key to let them in. “I’ll wait out here. You go see what’s what.”
“Oh, but . . .”
Mav had deserted her. In Luke’s house. The house she’d left for good. How crazy was this? Half tipsy and still a little bit weepy she walked through the halls she’d come to know well. She expected to hear Indy howling, but everything was quiet. And dark. Which was strange, because typically the perimeter lights were on at night.
She walked into the kitchen and over to the crate. No puppy. Hmm. She looked around and didn’t see anything out of place. A noise startled her as she turned back to head to the front of the house. It sounded like a bark coming from the outside patio. But how could Indy have gotten outside?
She flipped on the lights to the backyard and froze. There, not ten feet away from her, was Indy. Sitting at attention next to his owner. An owner who was not supposed to be home.
Luke stared back at her. He was holding on to Indy with one hand and grasping a bouquet of flowers in the other. And he was on his knees. What in the world. The man had lost his mind.
She opened the slider and stepped out onto the patio and walked over to the grassy area where the fire pit and loungers were. Where Luke and his faithful dog sat waiting for her.
“Lara, before you say anything I want to talk first, but I can’t hold Indy back much longer. He wants to say hi.” Luke loosened his hold on the puppy and it bounded forward jumping on her legs, begging for a rub.
“Oh, Indy. You rascal. I missed you too.” She bent down and scratched his favorite spot and looked back up at Luke. “What are you doing?”
“Apologizing.”
“Really? Because you look ridiculous and you’re getting grass stains on your pants.”
“I don’t care. It’s the best I could come up with. I wanted to do this thing right, let you know how sorry I am—for everything. So I thought, flowers and a dog might earn me some extra points.”
Lara sighed. She decided he didn’t look ridiculous at all. His silly way of showing her how much he cared would forever be imprinted in her memory, but she wanted the words to go along with the gesture.
“So, you know everything now?”
“Yes.” He stood up and walked over to her. He handed her the flowers. “Let me put Indy in his crate and we’ll talk.”
She nodded and pressed her nose into the flowers. What girl could resist a bouquet, especially when given to her by the man she loved?
When Luke returned he guided her over to one of the lounge chairs and sat down next to her. He left an inch between them, but she felt his heat and his nervousness as he rubbed his hands through his hair.
She broke the ice. “So, is there something you wanted to tell me?”
He sighed and laid himself bare. “God, please forgive me, Lara. I should’ve believed you from the start. I should’ve realized that my feelings for you were the reason I acted like an ass when Nate showed up. I’m so sorry, baby.”
Stunned and joyous at his words, Lara bit her lip to keep from saying anything.
“After all the time we’d spent together I should have known that you would never have betrayed me. My lame ass excuse is that I did it because I didn’t want to be hurt. I didn’t want to believe that the one woman I thought had finally been able to get through all my barriers had used me.”
“Oh, Luke. I’m so sorry that you had to go through this, that you had to see such ugliness from my past.”
“You don’t have to apologize to me, Lara. But can you forgive me? Can you give me, us, another shot?”
He didn’t give her a chance to say anything. He pushed her backward and lay down on top of her. Luke pressed himself into her core and kissed her until they were both out of breath.
He trailed his kisses along her jawline and onto her neck and down the open neckline of her blouse. He looked up and said the three words she w
ouldn’t have dreamed Luke would ever say to her.
“I love you.”
“You do?” she whispered. Her heart pounding, she wanted to say the words back to him but . . .
“Yes. It took me awhile to realize why I was fighting so hard to keep things purely physical. Plus, I’ve never been in love before, so I didn’t know what I was dealing with.” He wound a hand into her hair but stopped short of kissing her.
“Let me prove to you how sorry I am.” He captured her lips in a soft caress. This kiss was different. It held promises. He took his time, suckling her tongue and kissing her so long her lungs protested.
When he lifted his head she had to make sure she’d heard him correctly.
“You love me? But . . . I . . . didn’t think, I mean, that’s wonderful.”
“I do. And I was thinking that I’d show you just how much.” He rolled his hips and pressed his erection against her and kissed her long and deep again.
She broke free from the kiss. Before she forgot herself she needed to get something off her chest. “Luke, you have to promise me that no matter what happens from now on, you understand I’m not your mother. I’m not like any other woman you’ve been with. And I won’t have your past used against me again.”
“I promise. You, Lara Andretti, have captured my heart and I’ll treat you as you. I plan on proving to you that what we have is exactly what I want.”
She brushed away the tears that had begun to fall and laid her head on his shoulder. “Oh, Luke. I love you too.”
This wasn’t the same Luke she’d fallen into bed with all those weeks ago. This was the real Luke hidden beneath years of hurt and anger who, along with her, learned that trust and honesty were the foundation for their love.
“I can also promise you it may not be easy, but it will be worth it. Besides, the benefits are excellent.”
As he said those words, he worked his hand up and under her blouse and freed her breasts with a chuckle and another rotation of his hips.
She let out a small moan and pressed herself closer. He bent and took a nipple into his mouth and suckled.
As he kissed his way down her stomach, she stopped him. “Oh, by the way, I need a place to stay. You think you can help me out with that?”
“It depends.”
“Depends? Wait . . . depends on what?
“If you’ll let me make an honest woman out of you?”
“Huh? What did you just say?”
He grinned at her and went back to trailing kisses along her stomach. “Remember the last time we were on this chair?”
She moaned her answer. Yes, she remembered very well.
“I’m thinking you might need a repeat performance before you give me your answer. Just to make sure you’re ready for a lifetime of . . . benefits.”
Lara couldn’t think of anything better. “Luke Garibaldi, you are the catch of a lifetime.”
Author Bio
Debra Elise lives with her husband and their two sons in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. She loves to read, nap, write, watch reality TV, and daydreams how to make her characters come alive for her readers. She also enjoys hanging out with other author-type individuals and teasing her three ‘boys’ into displaying their killer smiles.
Most days find her carpooling, avoiding laundry and spending too much time on Facebook and Twitter, and Pinterest, and Instagram, and Tumblr (sigh). She will soon be starting a self-help group for social media addicts—maybe. You can connect with her on the following sites:
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Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New Delhi, New York, Oxford, and Sydney
Copyright © 2016 by Debra Elise
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This electronic edition published in 2016
First published in December 2016
by Bloomsbury Spark, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc.
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available upon request
ISBN 978-1-68119-320-5 (epub)
ISBN 978-1-68119-682-4 (XML)
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Cover design by Maggie E. Hall