Ho-ly crap.
Okay. It was official. I was The A-Number-One Dork of All Time.
I told you that you should have talked to him, Good Ava admonished.
Bad Ava was silent.
Good Ava looked around my neck at Bad Ava. Nothing to say?
Bad Ava looked around my neck at Good Ava. Then she put her thumb to her nose and wiggled her fingers at her.
I let out my breath and my eyes slid to the side. “Sorry,” I whispered.
Luke’s thumb slid across my wet cheekbone. “Babe, please look at me.”
It was the “please” that got me and my eyes slid back to his.
“I’m guessin’ that was the drama yesterday, why you needed to get your head together.”
I didn’t answer. I didn’t need to. It was obvious.
“What I want to know is, why you came back to me last night, considerin’ you thought I was in love with Jules.”
I forgot how to breathe again.
Oh… my… God.
I’d given it all away. I didn’t even mean to but I did, I didn’t expect him to find out I thought he was in love with Jules.
Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck.
I bucked my hips a bit, a tester to see if he was off guard (he wasn’t).
While I did this, his face came closer, his lips came to mine and he said, “That’s what I thought.”
“Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop right there.”
Shit! Did I say that aloud? I did.
Hell and damnation.
I was going to have to go with it.
His head came up an inch.
“I didn’t have anywhere else to go,” I told him. “Bad guys were after me, remember?” That wasn’t bad, it was even the truth.
“You could have stayed with Zano,” Luke replied.
Shit, shit, shit.
He was right. I could have.
Why hadn’t I thought of that?
I started to think of something else, a lie, a fib, anything. Luke’s body started moving like he was laughing and I knew he read my face.
I didn’t think this was funny. Not even a little bit.
“Please get off me. I need to go home.”
The amusement faded from his eyes when he heard my tone but he didn’t move his body from mine. Instead, his finger traced my hairline. His eyes watched this and then they came back to mine.
“Beautiful, I told you that you were going to have to clue in yourself but tonight I’m gonna give you a little help.”
This did not sound good.
I didn’t want any help. I wanted this to be over. It was much better to be over now than over later when he left me because he was bored or done with me or whatever. Or worse, when I had to identify his bullet-ridden body at a morgue.
“First…” he started, interrupting my thoughts.
Oh no! It had multiple parts.
“I’m gonna fuck you until you feel it until I know you feel it. ‘It’ being what we have between us. I thought I was gettin’ through last night, you talkin’ about your Dad and today, you callin’ me when there was trouble or when nothin’ was happening at all. We’ll see if that took but either way, I’m gonna get through to you I don’t care what it takes.”
Okay, maybe lying wasn’t the way to go, maybe begging was. “Luke, please, please, just let me go home,” I said softly.
His hand came back to my jaw, his thumb sliding along my lower lip and he ignored my pleas. “The second part you gotta get, babe, is that I’m not lettin’ you go. I’m not lettin’ you push me away and I’m not giving up. I’m gonna keep working until I piece together what your Dad and those assholes tore from you. I’m gonna keep at you until you let me in. I’m not gonna stop until you tell me you’re mine, until it comes straight from your mouth, preferably when I’m deep inside you and you’re lookin’ at me like you look at me when I’m close to makin’ you come.”
Against my will, I felt my insides melt as his fingers sifted into the hair at the side of my head. His eyes got ultra warm and his mouth came to mine.
“I love it when I make you come,” he muttered against my lips, his hand sliding all the way through my hair then down my back as his arm closed around me. “Every time, you say my name and you smile this unbelievably sexy little smile.”
Oh crap. I didn’t want to believe I did that but I could believe I did that. I mean, this was Luke we were talking about, which would have been enough, but there was also the fact that I’d never climaxed as hard as I did when I was with Luke and that would make anyone smile.
Then he said what sounded like a vow to a sacred quest. A sexy, modern-day vow but a scary one for me because Luke was the kind of guy you just knew would find the Holy Grail. I was pretty certain he’d make old Lancelot look like a putz.
“Ava Babe, I’m tellin’ you, you’re gonna admit you belong to me because you belong to me.”
Ee-yikes!
I tried one more time. “Luke, please, let me go home.”
His lips brushed mine then he lifted his head.
I noticed his eyes had gone ink right before he smiled.
“No fuckin’ way.”
Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck.
Chapter Nineteen
Cornered
He kissed me.
I tried not to let it penetrate but he was good with his mouth, he was an amazing kisser and my melty insides intensified.
Unfortunately, my outsides turned melty too and my body relaxed under his. He felt it and rolled, taking me with him so I was on top.
Something about this cut through the Luke Lip Fog, reminding me I was still in escape mode. I lifted my knees like I was going to straddle him. Instead, I broke my lips from his, pushed up swiftly and started to exit the bed.
I got one foot on the floor before he tagged me. Twisting me, I fell into his lap and one of his arms closed around me tight. I struggled, of course, and since he wasn’t paying attention I thought I had a chance. Still, he managed to hold me to him (which was way annoying). He wasn’t paying attention because he had the drawer of the nightstand open and he was rummaging in it. I was too busy trying to get away to notice what he was doing until I heard the clink of handcuffs.
I stilled, my head jerked around and I shouted, “No!”
That’s when I really started to struggle. I didn’t want to be cuffed to the bed, not ever again.
I pulled away, gained my feet and ran to the elevator, slapping the button, stopping and realizing too late that it sucked Luke had an elevator. It was cool until you had to make a quick exit. If you had to make a quick exit, you were screwed.
Foiled, fucking, again.
I whirled to face him while I waited for the elevator and watched as he approached me, shoving the cuffs into his back pocket. “I’m leaving,” I told him.
“No you’re not,” he replied, calm as could be.
“I am. You can’t keep me here,” I went on, not calm at all.
“Yes, I can.”
I didn’t want to admit it but I was pretty sure he could.
Shit!
He got up close just as the elevator doors opened. I had started edging back when he moved, faster than I’d seen anyone move before. One second, I was heading backward toward the elevator, the next second I was pinned against the wall by the side of the elevator.
Once again. I had to ask.
Why me?
“Luke, don’t!” I shouted, sounding desperate and not caring anymore. “Please don’t cuff me to the bed again.”
He moved away an inch and, with a quick tug at my shirt, the buttons down the front unsnapped all the way up.
Shit again!
I moved out the inch he moved away but he pressed me back to the wall with his body while his hand went inside my shirt at my midriff and then slid up my side sending happy tingles in its wake.
His lips came to mine, his eyes open and not leaving my own. “Relax, beautiful, I’m not cuffing you to the bed,” he said before his hand
came around and he slid the shirt off my shoulder and down my arm.
“I’m not going to relax. I’m going to go home,” I told him while I wriggled my arm to get away from his hand. Unfortunately, this also had the effect of assisting my shirt to fall off one side.
“You aren’t goin’ home,” Luke said and I had to admit (to the secret, private place buried deep down where I buried everything else) that I loved it when he talked against my mouth.
“I have to go home,” I went on, still sounding desperate, still not caring and searching for an excuse, any excuse. “I have to check my mail and water my plants.” The last part was a lie. I didn’t have any plants. The first part was a lie too. I never got any good mail.
His head came up and he grinned at me and let me tell you, the grin was good. It was unlike any grin he’d given me. It was sexy and warm and there was something about his face, something I’d never noticed before but I was too freaked out to put my finger on it.
“You can water them tomorrow,” he told me.
“Tomorrow will be too late, they’re really thirsty,” I said and lifted both my hands and pushed against his shoulders (this, per usual, had no effect but I still kept at it).
“They die, I’ll buy you new plants,” he replied.
“I don’t want new plants. I like the plants I have,” I lied again.
“Then we’ll go tonight, after I make love to you.”
I stopped pushing, my heart stopped beating, my lungs stopped working, my knees wobbled and I stared at him.
“What did you say?” I whispered.
His mouth came to mine again, he brushed his lips there and then they trailed down my cheek to my ear. I tried not to do it but this made me shiver.
“I’ll take you home tonight after I’m done with you. You can water your plants and we’ll sleep at your place.”
My heart kicked in as did my lungs, but I didn’t resume the struggle.
He didn’t repeat what I wanted him to repeat, the “make love to you” part. He’d always called it “fucking”. He’d never called it “making love”.
Still, I was pretty certain he said it.
For my safety and for my sanity I had to try one last time.
I took my hands from his shoulders and moved my head back so it was fully pressed against the wall. His head came up when I did this and I placed my hands on either side of his neck and looked into his eyes.
“Luke,” I said softly. “Please, let me go home.”
He dropped his forehead to mine just like Ren had done.
With Luke, it was different, it was better, so much better it wasn’t funny. In fact it was so not funny it was world-tiltingly not funny. He came in so close, his nose rested along the side of mine and he took that opportunity to run his tongue along my bottom lip.
There were only two words to describe the feeling this whole maneuver gave me and those words were: Oh my.
I felt my eyelids get heavy as my knees got weak, I saw his inky eyes smile and I knew that he knew that he had me.
Damn.
“Babe, I told you I’ll take you home,” his face shifted and his mouth came to mine. “Later,” he said there, right before he kissed me.
* * * * *
Luke and I had wall sex.
I’d never had sex pressed against the wall and let me tell you wall sex was very, very good. In fact, wall sex was so good, it was my new favorite position. In fact, it was so good, I couldn’t believe that Eddie and Jet had only done it four times. They’d been together months!
After wall sex, as promised, we got dressed and Luke took me to my place.
This freaked me out since we were going to my place so I could water plants that I didn’t own. The whole way there I tried to figure out how to get out of the new mess I made for myself and decided that I was just going to have to wing it.
First, I tried to get him to leave me at the door by barring his way but, as was becoming his custom, he just leaned down and, hands at my ass, he picked me up. I should have known I wouldn’t succeed at barring him from my house, but I told myself at least I wasn’t a quitter.
As was becoming my custom, my legs went around his hips and my hands went to his shoulders (by the way, this was Wall Sex Position but in clothes). He stepped in, kicking the door shut behind him, ignoring my hands pressing against his shoulders. He turned and locked the door (still ignoring my pressing hands) and then walked us up my stairs.
I gave up on the shoulder press and tried another strategy.
“I have to see to my plants,” I told him. I decided I’d pretend I had plants, maybe get him to wait for me in the bedroom and hope he didn’t follow me around while I watered my non-existent plants.
“You don’t have any plants,” Luke said.
Shit, shit, shit Did he know everything?
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re annoying,” I told him when he made the turn at the top of the landing toward my bedroom.
“At least you aren’t tellin’ me you hate me anymore.”
Hell and damnation!
I forgot my own kill line.
I made a frustrated noise in the back of my throat.
Luke chuckled. Yes, he actually chuckled.
“Okay, now I hate you,” I told him, sounding bitchy.
We’d made it to the side of my bed and he let me go in a way that my soft body slid down his hard one until my feet hit the floor. This felt nice, as in, ultra nice.
“No you don’t,” he replied on a grin, his gaze scanning my face and I knew he could see I liked the body slide.
I powered passed the body slide. “If you knew I didn’t have any plants, why’d you bring me home?”
“Two reasons,” He answered then he bent his head and touched his lips softly to mine (the lip touch was ultra nice too, might I add). He continued when his head came back up. “One, because I’ve wanted to fuck you in your bed since that night we spent here. Two, because it amuses me to watch you when you’re cornered.”
My body got stiff, also for two reasons. One, because he was back to using the word “fuck” and two, because he thought it was amusing to watch me when I was cornered.
“That isn’t nice,” I snapped.
His arms were around me and they tightened, bringing me closer. I watched as his face got serious.
Uh-oh.
I wasn’t getting a good feeling about his serious face.
“We should be straight about somethin’, beautiful.”
Oh shit.
Luke was straight enough about everything. I wasn’t sure I could cope with him being straight about being straight.
Before I could stop him (not that I could stop him), he kept talking. “To get through to you, I don’t intend to be nice. I intend to keep you cornered. You try to get out of that corner, I’m gonna push you back in. I’m gonna keep you pinned there until you give me what I want. You aren’t gonna like hearin’ this but I gotta tell you, I think you’re damned sexy when you’re bitchy. I’ve also decided to think it’s adorable rather than fuckin’ annoying as hell when you’re lyin’ to me and yourself about what we’ve got. I decided this mainly because you’re incredibly sweet when you forget to fight it, not to mention you’re a shit liar and I find that hilarious. Considerin’ this is how you act when you’re cornered, babe, you gotta know, I’m enjoyin’ almost every minute of this, even the parts when I’m pissed at you or fightin’ for you and I’m not gonna be sorry that I am.”
Yep, I was right. I couldn’t cope with him being straight about being straight.
I decided not to tell him I hated him again as this had no effect. Instead, I glared.
After scorching him with a good long glare (well, I liked to think of it as scorching him, but if I wasn’t mistaken, his lips started twitching toward the end), I pulled out of his arms, walked to my dresser, got a nightgown and stomped down the hall to the bathroom.
I took out my contacts, cleaned and moisturized my face with travel-sized bottles
I kept in the bathroom closet and changed into the nightgown. The nightgown was a Christmas present from my Mom. I’d never worn it before because it was ugly as all get out. It was white with little flowers on it, dowdy, high-necked and old-maidish, just where I was sure my Mom thought I was headed. When I was done, I stomped back to the bedroom.
The lights were out, the blinds still up and the streetlights filtered in through the windows.
Luke, of course, was on his back in bed, hands behind his head, relaxed and Zen.
Argh!
I dumped my clothes on the wicker laundry hamper then I walked back to the door.
Before I reached it, I heard Luke say, “You get near the couch or that fuckin’ futon, there’ll be consequences.”
I turned to him and felt my hold on my temper slip.
This wasn’t surprising. I’d had a rough night, a tough day and a killer of a week. I didn’t have any control of my life, none, zip, nada, and Luke was scaring the shit out of me. Not in a way where I feared for my safety, in a way where I feared for my heart.
And that was worse.
My temper-hold slipped so much, my hands went to my hips, my foot came out and the Barlow Bitch Blood started to flash through my veins.
“You were straight, Luke, so I’ll be straight too and this time I want you to listen,” I told him, voice chock full of attitude. “I’ve had a pretty hectic day, what with Dom’s Streetcar Named Desire antics and you fighting with Ren in a parking lot, though I still cannot believe you fought in the parking lot of a bar. And ended up bloody in the process! Then throwing a light across the room for God’s sake. I mean, who does that? Now you’re going to have to go out and buy a new lamp and that was a nice lamp. And I want to know, who’s going to clean it up? Not me, I’ll tell you that right now. Next time I throw a lamp, I’ll clean it up. New rule, the person that throws the lamp cleans it up.”
I took a deep breath, mainly because I’d run out of oxygen, and kept on going. “Not to mention all your straight talk. No one talks like you. It’s nuts. And you should know it freaks me way the hell out.”
I watched as Luke threw the covers back and got out of bed. For the first time, I took this as the warning sign it was but I was pissed off enough that I held my stance even as he walked toward me, his naked and, even though he was fuzzy without my contacts in (it must be said), magnificent body illuminated by the streetlights.
Rock Chick Revenge Page 31