I slid in front of Luke, grabbed Sissy’s still-upraised wrist and pulled her into the entryway.
“What are you doing here?” I repeated.
She was looking between Luke and I and blinking slowly.
“What?” she asked in a dazed voice.
“You’re supposed to be in Wyoming.”
She focused on me. “The cops called, said you were kidnapped. Since it had to do with Dom and they thought whoever it was might come after me next, the Denver boys warned the local authorities in Wyoming and they came by my Mom’s house to talk about protection. I packed up early this morning and hauled ass down here.” Then realizing where she was and the current scenario of our lives her eyes narrowed. “Why didn’t you tell me you were kidnapped?”
Uh-oh.
“Um…” I mumbled.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were kidnapped.”
“Sissy, honey –”
“When a girl gets laid, she tells her best friend. When a girl finds a lump, she tells her best friend. When a girl finds a kickass shade of nail polish, she tells her best friend. And, I might add, when a girl gets kidnapped, she tells her best friend!” Sissy was shouting when she finished.
“Sissy, calm down.”
“I will not calm down,” she was still yelling and she turned her eyes to Luke. “Where were you when this happened, stud?”
Oh no. Sissy was channeling Olivia Newton-John from Grease. It was never good when Sissy channeled Sandy’s Pink Lady from the finale. Sissy didn’t normally lose her temper; usually sweet as pie, totally Sandy. She had not a single thread of Rizzo in her. When Sissy channeled Pink Lady Sandy, the results were disastrous.
I chanced a glance at Luke and he was smiling his sexy half-grin.
Shit.
“Luke, can you get her bags?” I asked and didn’t wait for his response. I pulled Sissy into and through the living room directly to the kitchen.
I stopped and turned to her. “Pull yourself together,” I hissed.
“Pull myself… pull myself…” she stammered, eyes wide. “Pull myself together!” she shouted then, still shouting, she cried, “Last time I talked to you, you were going out on the town, had everything sorted with these shit-hot private eye guys and were sworn off men forever. Hours later, you’ve been kidnapped, Mr. Beefcake’s in there barely clothed and you’re in your pajamas and glasses for God’s sake!” She stopped and looked around in mock confusion. “Have I entered an alternate universe?”
“I haven’t had a chance to call.”
“That’s no excuse.”
“We got home late.”
“We?”
“Sissy!”
She glared at me. Then I watched as her face fell, the anger faded, her eyes started shimmering and Pink Lady Sandy was a memory.
“I got my best friend kidnapped,” she whispered and then burst into tears.
I pulled her into my arms and held on tight. As I absorbed her shaking sobs into my body, I double-vowed revenge against Dominic Fucking Vincetti (rat-bastard).
“Sissy,” I murmured into the top of her hair and that was when I saw Luke leaning against the doorframe between the living and dining rooms. He’d put on a t-shirt, done up his belt, his eyes were on me and I could see the warmth in them from across the room.
Crapity, crap, crap, crap.
“You could have been hurt,” Sissy mumbled.
“I wasn’t,” I said, totally unable to take my eyes from Luke.
“You could have,” Sissy went on.
“I’m fine,” I assured her.
She looked up at me, saw my eyes and followed them to Luke. She realized what she was about, pulled out of my arms and swiped at her face.
“Hey Luke,” Sissy said in belated greeting and I had to press my lips together not to laugh.
“Sissy,” Luke replied.
“Sorry I yelled at you,” she told him.
He did a single shoulder shrug.
“I’m usually not this loud,” she went on.
He did the half-grin. Sissy stared, transfixed at all that was Luke. I rolled my eyes and caught a look at the clock on the roll back.
“Shit!” I shouted. “I’m supposed to meet Riley in twenty minutes!” I made a mad dash out of the kitchen and then halted and whirled. “Have coffee, get settled, I’ll be back in a couple of hours and we’ll talk,” I told Sissy and then whirled again and restarted the dash.
I got four feet and was caught short when Luke threw an arm out as I was about to pass him, so it caught me at my waist.
I let out an “oof” and heard Luke say, “Just a minute,” to Sissy. He grabbed my hand and dragged me through the living room, up the stairs and to the bedroom.
I allowed this mainly because I didn’t want Sissy to hear me struggling and also I was mentally counting to ten.
When he’d closed the door to the bedroom, I turned on him.
Half-grin, Amused Luke was gone, brows drawn, Pissed Off Luke in his place.
“What was that?” I asked, foolishly ignoring Pissed Off Luke.
“I thought I made myself clear about Riley.”
“He’s my personal trainer.”
“He wants to fuck you.”
I looked at the ceiling seeking divine intervention. When none was to be had I looked back at Luke. “He’s a friend.”
“He wants to fuck you,” Luke repeated.
“Okay then, he wants to fuck me. He’s not going to fuck me. No one’s going to fuck me.”
“I’m gonna fuck you.”
I put my hands to my hips and leaned forward, yes now Pissed Off Ava.
“Luke, get it through your head. You and me, not… gonna… happen.”
His brows went up. “So tell me, what was that ten minutes ago?”
Hmm. He had a point.
“Temporary insanity,” I answered.
“Because you’ve sworn off men?”
Hell and damnation.
Sissy and her Pink Lady Sandy big mouth.
“Yes,” I snapped.
We stared at each other, Pissed Off Luke vs. Pissed Off Ava, the battle of the century.
Then to my surprise (and discomfort), he grinned. Not a half-grin, a full-fledged one.
I did not take this as a good sign.
“What’s with the grin?” I asked, wary.
“I like this,” he told me.
“What?”
Instead of answering my question, looking very pleased about something he said, “I’m gonna enjoy this.”
“What?” I snapped.
Again he didn’t answer my question, instead he said, “We still haven’t discussed your payment.”
I threw up my hands
Jeez.
I couldn’t take anymore.
“Oh for goodness sakes!” I cried and started to move toward the closet. “I don’t have time for this. I have things to do.”
He caught me and swung me into his body, both his arms locked around my waist and he looked down at me.
“I’ll take you to the gym. After you’re done, I’ll pick you up. I don’t want you going anywhere alone, so whatever you gotta do, wherever you gotta go, either I take you or I’ll arrange for someone to do it. Same with Sissy. Last night you likely pissed off some pretty dangerous people. I’m not fuckin’ around with this.”
“Fine,” I clipped, mainly so he would let me go so I wouldn’t have to think about dangerous people being pissed off at me and so I could get to the gym. It was rude to be late.
“Tonight, we talk about your payment.”
“Fine,” I lied, totally not going to talk about payment or be anywhere near Luke that night.
He shook his head while it dropped to mine and I knew he knew I was lying.
His face an inch away from mine he said, “If you think I’m gonna let you go back on that promise you made me in the kitchen, think again.”
“I didn’t make any promise.”
“Oh yeah you did.
”
I gave up. “Luke, let me go, I’m going to be late.”
He kept looking at me then his eyes got ultra warm and he murmured, “Yeah, I’m gonna enjoy this.”
Shit.
Chapter Eight
Get the Business
This was my morning:
Luke took me to the gym. Sissy decided to go with so we all trudged out to the garage. Luke took the keys to my car out of my hands and declared he was going to drive. Standing outside of the garage, we had a fight about who was going to drive.
Luke won.
Then Luke drove us to the gym. Luke got out when we got there and I told him he didn’t need to walk us into the gym. Standing by my Range Rover, we got in a fight about whether he was going to walk us into the gym or not.
Luke won.
Then when we got into the gym, Luke asked to talk to Riley privately “outside”. Standing in the reception area of the gym, Luke and I got in a fight about him talking to Riley privately “outside”.
Luke won.
I waited until they returned, both stony-faced with the addition of Riley looking way, way pissed off and I opened my mouth to give it to Luke for being a he-man, tough guy jerk when he grabbed my purse. I stared, still with my mouth open, as he dug through my purse, took out my phone and started to hit buttons.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Programming my numbers into your phone. Call me when you’re done.”
I snatched my purse out of his hand, which he allowed. Then I went for the phone, which he didn’t allow and stopped me by pinning me to his frame with one of his arms and holding my struggling body while he beeped buttons with the phone held behind my back.
He let me go and handed me my phone.
“I hate you,” I snapped.
“No you don’t,” he replied calmly, grabbed the back of my neck, yanked me into his body and kissed me, hard, open-mouthed and hot until my knees buckled and I melted into him.
Then he let me go, gave me a half-grin, touched my nose and left.
Jerk.
I whirled around and Sissy was standing there. “Oh my God, you totally need to fuck him or you’re going to spontaneously combust,” she said.
Argh!
Needless to say, my workout nearly kicked my ass. I was so pumped up and Riley was so pissed off, I pushed myself hard and he ran me ragged. I tried to talk to Riley a couple of times but he wasn’t in a talkative mood. He was in a kick Ava’s ass mood therefore I quit trying to talk to him when I couldn’t talk at all because I was breathing too hard.
After we were done, I called Luke, saying only, “We’re done,” then I hung up on him.
Ha!
We showered and changed into normal clothes and I took my sweet time in the locker room in order to make Luke wait. I did my hair, my makeup and put on a pair of jeans, a cornflower-blue blouse with a silver-thread design on the front, a square neckline and cap sleeves and finished my ensemble with silvery-blue flip-flops (because seriously, Luke was in the picture, I hated him and thought he was a jerk, but I had been crushing on him since I was eight, I wasn’t going to look like garbage when he was hanging around).
I breezed through the reception area but Luke wasn’t in the reception area, he was waiting outside in the Range Rover which made my efforts at “breezing” moot.
We got in the Range Rover and Sissy suggested happily, “I know, let’s get some coffee!”
I turned in my seat and glared at her. She grinned at me. Luke took us to Fortnum’s.
We got there and everyone was there. Indy, Ally, Daisy, Shirleen, Jules, Jet, Roxie, Vance, some guy who looked a lot like Hank (who I found out was Lee, Indy’s fiancé and Luke’s boss) and even Matt.
Shirleen took one look at me and announced, “Nope. They haven’t done it yet. You’re out,” she said to Matt and then smiled at me. “I’m still in. I got my money down that you get the business on Monday.”
I felt the heat hit my face just as my stomach dropped.
Sissy, to my total disbelief, burst out laughing and asked, “Which days are free? I want in.”
Oh… my… God.
“That’s it!” I yelled at her. “You aren’t my best friend anymore. I’m filing for best friend divorce.”
Sissy just kept laughing.
“You must be Sissy. Come here, child, sit by Shirleen. I think we got Wednesday open but that’s nearly a whole week after this all started. It ain’t good odds,” Shirleen informed her.
Everyone was staring at us and I whirled on Luke who was standing behind me. “This is all your fault.”
“Babe,” he said, his eyes warm, his tone gentle and affectionate.
Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck.
I like it when he calls us “babe”. It’s sweet, Good Ava said.
It isn’t sweet, it’s HOT, Bad Ava contradicted.
I dropped my head and looked at my toes. They were painted hot pink. I inspected them because if I was thinking about my toenail color I wouldn’t think about how my life had gone out of my control.
This wasn’t a smart thing to do, letting my guard down when Luke was close. His boots came into my vision very close to my toes and his hand wrapped around the back of my neck. His fingers started to knead my muscles and I lifted my eyes to his.
“You’re tight,” he said low, eyes no longer just warm but ultra warm.
“Are you surprised?” I snapped. “My life is total shit. I’m completely stressed out.”
His fingers kept kneading but he also put a different kind of pressure there so that I leaned closer to him. I had to tilt my head back further and, so I didn’t topple over, my hands went to his stomach (which, by the way, was hard as a rock).
He tipped his face to mine and murmured, “After we talk tonight, I’ll give you a rubdown.”
Ho-ly crap.
A rubdown from Lucas Stark. I had barely processed the kiss-and-carry through the living room, I couldn’t even begin to contemplate a rubdown. I felt my nipples tingle.
“I need cookies,” I told him to move talk away from rubdowns. “Cookies are the only thing that works on stress.”
That and tequila but I wasn’t going to get snockered anywhere near Luke. I lost all inhibitions when I got snockered and that would not be good.
The warmth in his eyes was tinged with amusement. “I’ll also get you cookies.”
“Nutter Butters and Chips Ahoy, not the soft ones, the hard ones,” I ordered, blathering on for some ungodly reason. “And those Pepperidge Farms Milano thingies. And Oreos with double stuff but not dipped in chocolate, because that’s too much of a good thing. And if I have Oreos, I have to have milk. I can’t eat Oreos without milk.”
He was laughing now, softly. I liked the sound and I liked that I could make him laugh. I’d always liked it when I made him laugh.
Boy, was I screwed.
“Anything else?” he asked.
“I think that’ll do it.”
His eyes moved from me to across the room then back to me. “Vance and I got shit to do. Stay here. If you go home or anywhere, go with Lee, Matt, Duke or Tex.”
I knew Duke. He’d worked at Fortnum’s for years and was like Indy’s second father. He was an old Harley guy, long gray braid, gray beard, always wearing a black leather vest and a red bandana wrapped around his forehead. I didn’t know any Tex.
“Tex?”
“Coffee guy,” Luke told me. “You might have one of his coffees, it may soothe the cookie craving.”
“Nothing soothes the cookie craving.”
His face got even closer, “I know something that’ll soothe the cookie craving.”
Eek!
I walked right into that one.
New topic!
“What are you and Vance gonna do?” I asked.
“Hunt down Vincetti and Dexter.”
Ee-yikes!
My already tight muscles turned to steel. “Luke –” I started but he touched his lips to mine to stop
me from speaking.
“Gotta go,” he said.
My hands grabbed fistfuls of his t-shirt so he wouldn’t move. “Why are you hunting down Noah?”
Without hesitation, he gave me an answer that made the world tilt under my feet.
“He took a piece of you. I’m gonna find him and get it back.”
Oh my goodness gracious. I LOVE him, Good Ava trilled.
I hope he kicks Noah’s ass. Noah was a rat-bastard, Bad Ava groused.
“Luke,” I whispered, not knowing what I was feeling just knowing it felt really, really nice.
He squeezed my neck one last time then his fingers wrapped around my wrists, pulled them away from his shirt and he said, “Later.”
Then he was gone.
I watched the door close behind him and Vance.
“Oowee, now I’m thinking Monday’s odds aren’t good,” Shirleen, eyes on me, declared to the room.
* * * * *
This was my afternoon:
Tex, the coffee guy, was a huge, blond man with a wild russet beard, even wilder eyes and a very loud voice. And Luke was right, Tex made me a skinny, vanilla latte and it was so good, it totally soothed the cookie craving.
Lee and Matt escorted all the girls to Las Delicias and we had Mexican food. Lee, by the way, was absolutely gorgeous and very nice but even so he kind of scared me. He was intense the way Luke was intense. A tough guy, bad boy so deep to the core, you just knew that you did not mess with him.
Luckily, all through lunch no one mentioned when I was going to “get the business”. After Las Delicias Matt followed Sissy and I home, did a walkthrough of the house before he let us in, stood and chatted for awhile and then he left.
The minute he was gone and we’d locked the door, Sissy turned to me. “You want to talk about Luke?” she asked.
No, I definitely didn’t want to talk about Luke. I didn’t want to talk about him, think about him or see him ever again (liar, liar, liar).
“I need to get some work done,” I said.
“Do you want to talk about the kidnapping?”
I shook my head and gave her a small smile. “It wasn’t as bad as it sounds.”
She stared at me a few beats to assess if I was lying, since I wasn’t (really) she nodded. “Get some work done, I need to call my Dad.”
I went upstairs and worked for a couple of hours. Around five o’clock, Sissy walked in and started to sort through her suitcases. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door.
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