“Will do,” Mike said stiffly.
“Thanks,” she said, backing away. “Have a good night.”
“You, too,” he replied lamely.
“Well, not as good as you,” she said with a wink.
What the hell was that supposed to mean? Mike hesitated in asking until it was too late to ask without chasing her down first. Instead, he simply watched his dream woman as she walked away and grabbed her packed suitcase from inside the front door of his parents’ place just as a cab pulled up.
Then she was gone.
Chapter 26
Over the years, Kris had imagined herself in bed with Luke a million times. Minimum.
On the days she’d hated Luke, Kris had tried to imagine other men in his place—especially on the mornings when she drove past another girl’s car parked in Luke’s driveway as she left for work. On those mornings Kris told herself that she was a fool to wait for Luke, that he wasn’t even worth it. That he didn’t deserve to have her wait for him!
Yet every time another man’s hand snaked beneath her pants or sought to undo her bra, she’d always stopped. Once or twice she’d tried to push past the sick feeling in her stomach by imagining it was Luke kissing her. But her body knew what it wanted. So had her heart.
This, she thought, memorizing the feel of their spooned position.
There were so many things perfect about this one moment. First off, Luke was sleeping which was a rarity. He was normally too tightly wound, his mind too active for rest, regardless of how fatigued his body might be. Yet after making love to her twice, he was spent. His last coherent action had been to snuggle in behind her and hold on before blacking out.
That alone would have been worth waiting for, but the sex? Holy shit.
Kris had not really seen that coming. She’d known what to expect, of course. She’d heard story after story from friends and most movies left little to the imagination, but somehow she’d always imagined sex as being something ethereal and dreamlike. She realized now that she had always imagined it in snapshots, skipping over some parts, while focusing and lingering on other parts.
But in real life, Kris now there was nothing ethereal about sex. It was an unapologetically physical act, and thank God for that! To have Luke take over her body like he did? She could have sworn he actually rewired her brain somewhere between the part where he made her world go white and when she felt his own release inside her.
Kris had thought she’d belonged to Luke before, but this? This was different. She didn’t quite know what it was, but she was glad her man was sleeping so she could do her best to figure it out.
My man, she thought. Hell, yeah. That’s exactly what he was. And she was his. No question. And when he woke up, Kris would be more than happy to remind him of that fact. Although, knowing him, he might be equally interested in food as sex when he regained consciousness. The guy had the metabolism of a rabbit, and the clock on the wall showed that it was nearly dinner time. It had been just before two when she and Luke had come into his room.
How time flew when you were losing your virginity.
Pizza, she decided. Fast, easy, and good cold. Now all she had to do was get to her phone. And as endearing as it was that Luke wanted to hold onto her in his sleep, it also left her quite stuck.
Luke’s arms flinched inward as she pried his arm off of her, his instinct to keep holding on. That was nearly enough to weaken her resolve of finding her phone, but she knew Luke too well. When his eyes opened, he’d be looking for food and she wasn’t currently in the mood to cook.
“Luke,” she whispered over her shoulder. “Let me up. I’m going to order pizza. I’ll be right back.”
He didn’t make a sound, but she felt his grip loosen. She slid away, purposefully not fixing the sheet so she could take a look at the man who had her heart. Luke Foster. Naked as the day he was born, and much less intimidating when he was soft and asleep than he was hard and awake. But intimidating or not, he’d already proven that they fit together quite well, and with excellent results.
How things could change in a day. Only a few hours ago she’d been sitting at lunch, pretending she was interested in Caleb. Now she was standing naked in Luke’s room fighting the urge to push him on his back and see how long it would take to get him at full attention.
After I order the pizza, she told herself while searching for her phone. It was in her purse… wherever that was. A quick search let her know it definitely wasn’t in his bedroom, which meant it was probably in the TV room, where they had been fighting before Rori walked in on them.
Rori.
The girl was an anomaly, for sure. And without Rori’s intervention, Kris wasn’t entirely sure that she would be naked in Luke’s bedroom at the moment. She owed the other woman a thank you… or an apology. Or maybe both—not that Rori would want either. What a mess. But Kris would figure it out later. For now she just needed to find her damn phone and order some pizza.
“You’re killing me with all that bending over,” Luke’s sleepy voice said from behind her. Kris’s first instinct was to be mortified at what he must be seeing, but when she turned and saw the change in his body, her embarrassment waned.
“Yeah?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said motioning to her. “Come here.”
She sent him a teasing smile. “Not until I find my phone and order some pizza.”
“You are the perfect woman,” Luke said, reaching over the edge of the bed to grab his jeans so he could grab his phone out of the pocket. “But ordering pizza is the one thing I can do both faster and better than you.”
She raised an eyebrow, her eyes locked on the parts of him she’d only imagined before. Some voice in the back of her head told her she shouldn’t be looking, but she shut that nonsense up real quick. She was going to look. She was going to touch. She was going to kiss, and she was going to do whatever she liked with all those parts. And if Luke didn’t dial quickly, she might start doing it before he ordered the pizza.
“Huh,” Luke said, staring at his phone rather than dialing.
Kris crossed back to the bed. “What is it?”
“Your brother,” Luke said, looking perplexed. “Looks like we have his blessing.”
“Seriously?” she said moving onto the bed behind him so she could see the text. Rori left for New York. Don’t worry, she’s chill and sends her best. I’m taking the Mac to a motel to get some work done. Mom and dad think we’re all out together, so tell them what you will, when you will. I’ll be back in the morning. Be fully dressed when you come to the top level or I’ll shoot you both.
“Sounds like a blessing to me,” she said, hugging him from behind and loving his quick inhale when she pressed her breasts against his back in an attempt to distract him away from the part about Rori. They’d have to deal with that soon, but not then. Now was about the two of them.
“Oh, man,” he breathed. “That shouldn’t be turning me on as much as it is.”
“No?” she teased, walking her knees up so she could bring her body flush against him from behind. “What about this?”
In a flash, Kris was on her back with Luke on top of her, his mouth headed for hers and his hips one tilt away joining them.
“Uh-uh!” she chided. “Not until you order the pizza. If we have all night, I want to make sure you’re fueled.”
She watched Luke’s eyes register the challenge. And while his head moved away, his hips stayed right where they were, all but daring her to make the move for him as he hit a programmed number on his phone and waited for someone to pick up on the other side.
“Hey, Eric,” he said after Kris heard a voice on the other side. “Luke here. Get me a Luke special. Delivery. Gotta go.” Then he hung up.
“That was fast,” Kris said as he tossed his phone to the side.
“One of the perks of being their most frequent customer,” he said before covering her mouth with his and rolling her to the top.
Chapter 27
Exiti
ng the baggage area, Rori inhaled the tang of smog and unwashed bodies. Ah, New York. She made her way to a man wearing a simple black suit and holding a paper with her name on it. When he made eye contact with her, Rori gave him a nod of acknowledgment. His response was to fold the paper in half and turn to throw it in the trash.
Rori’s mom would have had a fit in the face of such matters, but Rori had come to a point where she found brusque New York manners charming. What the city lacked in refinement it more than made up for in diversity. It was the one place in the world where Rori smiled when someone was outrageously inconsiderate. Because it was New York. A place where most people either looked at you and saw either a buck or a speed bump. A place where you earned respect one person at a time, without anyone really cutting you any breaks along the way.
Rori didn’t know what it said about her that she liked the challenge of that mentality.
It was also a place where friends sent town cars to pick you up at the airport rather than picking you up themselves. Who had the time?
In New York, no one.
Unbeckoned, the image of Mike Cannon leaning against a faux marble wall in the Salt Lake airport sprang to mind. She’d spotted him from the top of the escalator as he scanned the crowd for Luke’s face before looking back down at his phone.
She could have sketched the scene from memory—a massive lobby where everyone moved to and fro, toting luggage, and talking. A large, extended family at the bottom of the escalator holding a sign that read in large letters, Welcome home, Nate! The entire lobby had been alive with energy, which was why Mike had stood out, reclined and resigned against the far wall. Loyal, but annoyed.
Mike would never send a town car to pick up a friend.
“Miss Townsend?”
Rori blinked herself back to reality, and sent a smile to the town car driver. “Yes.”
“Your bag,” he said, holding out his hand to take her luggage. She handed it over and followed him to the car. She took a deep breath once they stepped outside, then quickly let it out again. Smog. For the next three months it would have to qualify as air, just like pigeons and leashed dogs would have to qualify as nature.
When the driver opened the door, Rori slid into the car and immediately pulled out her phone to text Fredrik. Arrived safely. Found the driver you sent for me. See you at the school in a few.
Fredrik. It would be a blessing to see the man. He’d already agreed to go out and get a little drunk with her that night. Heaven knew she needed it, and there wasn’t a person she’d rather tell her crazy tale to than Fredrik. He was one of those melodramatic listeners who gasped, sighed, and threw fits on your behalf as you walked him through a story.
Rori wasn’t sure yet what parts of the story she was going to tell yet. Time would tell. As would her blood-alcohol level, most likely.
When her driver pulled away from the curb, Rori let her head fall back against the back of the seat and closed her eyes. She needed a nap. Her jetlag was mostly gone, but that last flight hadn’t helped it any. So Rori saved herself the stress of witnessing the daredevil driving tactics of New Yorkers by closing her eyes and checking out for a minute for the drive to the art school.
It was time to get back to normal—back to the people she adored, the life she knew, and the career she loved. It had been an interesting weekend, but it was over. Time to get back to reality and focus in on her very first American art show.
Chapter 28
Monday morning. That meant Kris had to make her way into work.
She’d managed to get up. Kris gave herself points for that. She’d also managed her third shower of the past twelve hours. But now that the steam of it had worn off, Kris was sore in places she’d never known possible. Not that she minded. Not even a little bit, but it was the kind of sore you that made you want to take the day off, and Kris couldn’t do that. She had some important appointments to keep.
She acted as casual as possible on the short walk from Luke’s place to her parents’. Kris had made the walk a thousand times. No one would take note of her crossing from one of the property’s to the other unless she gave them reason to. Once inside, she went about her morning routine as if she’d slept at home the night before.
In the shower Kris took note of all the new marks on her body. Bruises that might have made her frown any other day brought a smile to her lips as recalled how they had been formed.
Yeah, concentrating that day wasn’t going to be easy. Not at all. She missed Luke already. It hadn’t even been twenty minutes, and
she missed him—wanted to see him, touch him, taste him.
By the time she went down to the kitchen for her morning coffee, Kris was twitchy again and more turned on than a contributing member of society should be. Seriously. How did people function when they were in love?
It was Kris’s first true glimpse into how devastating it might be to break up with someone she truly cared about, making her think of Rori again.
Was Rori really as okay as she said she was? The whole situation just seemed so unfinished with her. Maybe because there hadn’t really been any goodbyes, or that she and Luke hadn’t really broken up officially. Sure, it was implied, but no one had said the words.
Rori had just left, leaving good wishes and an aura of indifference in her wake. Yet it couldn’t be that simple. Things were never that simple.
Kris nearly let out a squeak when Luke came up behind her while she was pouring her coffee, sliding his hands around her waist, and kissing the side of her neck.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked, all but wiggling his eyebrows at her. They would have to tell her parents soon, because if there was one thing Luke wasn’t, it was discreet.
“Morning, handsome,” she said, turning and pressing her lips to his. She’d always wanted to do that. “I was thinking of Rori, actually.”
Luke smile froze, and his voice grew cautious. “Yeah? Why’s that?”
“Did it seem to you that she and Mike had a thing between them?”
He visibly relaxed. “Mike didn’t say anything.”
Kris leaned against the counter and took a sip of her coffee. “But let’s say they did have a thing. Would you have an issue with it? Would it be against your man code or something?”
Luke shrugged, pouring himself a cup of coffee. “Dunno. But I guess not. Rori and I never slept together, after all, and we only really made out once. We were engaged and stuff, but it was way different. I just thought she was hot and awesome.”
The flash of jealousy that flashed over Kris was astonishing in its intensity, and very nearly derailed her into an argument. But this conversation had a point: Mike. He liked Rori more than Kris had ever seen him like anyone. He’d kept his mouth shut about it, but Kris knew her brother. He was smitten. And Kris had been the main reason Rori had hopped on a plane and flown out of his life.
There had to be something she could do.
“So you’re okay if Mike thinks she’s hot and awesome?” Kris asked.
“Sure,” he said with a casual shrug. “He’d have to be dead not to like what he sees there. That girl was groomed from birth to be a hottie. It’s in her blood.”
Again, Kris didn’t know whether to slap or hug Luke for being so perpetually honest.
Kris sipped her coffee and considered this new angle. What if the reason for Rori’s haste in leaving really wasn’t related to Luke? What if it had everything to do with Mike? The two of them definitely shared a connection of some type. There had been a whole lot of eye contact going on there.
“Do you think they’ve kissed?” Kris wondered out loud.
Luke shook his head. “Nah.”
His confidence got her attention. “Why not?”
“Because Mike’s acting too normal,” he said, flashing a conspiring smile. “If he’d kissed her, we would see it on him. That girl can kiss like a professional.” He paused, brow furrowing. “Although I guess it’s not nice to say that a girl kisses like a professional, ri
ght?”
“Really, Luke? That’s the part of your statement you think you should retract?”
He blinked, and Kris could tell he was trying to figure out if it was a trick question. “Okay, so I get you’re pissed. Wait, is it because I know Rori’s a good kisser?”
“Ya’ think?” Kris snapped. “We just spent the last sixteen hours in bed, and now you’re standing here telling me that Rori is an off-the-charts kisser?”
“You asked!” he said, putting his mug aside and crossing over to her. “You can’t turn a request for information to help Mike into a girlfriend trap. It’s not fair.”
“Luke, everything is a girlfriend trap by default. You saying that Rori kisses like a professional is like me saying Caleb could have a career in porn based on the size of his penis.”
All the humor was immediately gone from his face. “How the hell would you know that?”
“I’m just saying that you might want to reserve your high praises for sexual prowess for me from now on. That’s all. In your book, no one should be a better kisser than me. Got it?”
For a few beats Luke simply looked her before crossing over to give her a light kiss.
“You know, I just realized that I have no idea if you’re a good kisser, because the second we touch everything becomes a blur.” He reached up and threaded his fingers through her hair. “And when I say Rori kisses like a professional, I’m saying it was like kissing someone who had great technique but absolutely no heart. It was why it was so easy to say no to her when she offered more. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but everything about how she was with me felt a bit like hiring an escort. Cold. Detached. It was just too weird, no matter how hot she was.”
Well, when he put it that way…
“Babe,” he said, pressing his forehead to hers. “I choose you. All day, every day. And if Mike can find a heart in Rori, well then, I wish them the best. Because I’ve already got my best, and it’s you.”
Mr Imperfect Page 13