So was Luke, for a moment, then he broke the silence.
“Ava,” his voice held a warning.
My mind raced for an excuse for another delay and it found none.
Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck.
Time to get it over with.
“Um… well. You know my friend Sissy?” I asked, eyes on the melon.
“Yeah.”
“She’s married to Dominic Vincetti.”
“I worked that part out,” he told me.
“Now, they’re kind of separated.”
Silence.
“She’s going to file for divorce.”
More silence.
“She’s up in Wyoming, staying with her Mom.”
I looked at the cantaloupe and realized I had cut far too much for just myself. Oh well, at least Sandra wouldn’t have to worry about cutting up the cantaloupe next time she was there. I put down the knife, picked up a chunk of melon and popped it into my mouth.
“Are you done?” Luke asked, my eyes slid sideways to look at him and I swallowed.
“Um… yeah.”
“That’s it? Your trouble is that Sissy’s filing for divorce?”
I grabbed another chunk and put it into my mouth while I turned to him and leaned my hip against the counter. “She’s my best friend. Her troubles are my troubles.”
Luke stared at me for a beat then said, “So why were you there last night?”
“She needed something and asked me to get it for her.”
“She needed something out of Vincetti’s nightstand?”
Hell and damnation.
I looked down at the melon and back at Luke. “I cut too much melon just for me. You sure you don’t want any?” I stalled again.
He shook his head, totally seeing through me, but took a chunk and put it in his mouth. I found watching him chew was weirdly fascinating and decided I was not a dork, I was a freak.
Once he swallowed, he said (his voice kinda scary), “Ava, I’m not gonna tell you again not to lie.”
Crap.
I took another chunk of melon and chewed while glaring at him. “You know,” I told him, again trying to stall. “This is really none of your business.”
“It became my business when you and I were caught in a hail of gunfire.”
Hmm.
In all fairness, he was kind of right, though I wasn’t about to tell him that nor was I going to give in. I didn’t ask him to be there.
I nabbed another chunk of melon and chewed it angrily, now seriously glaring at him. “I didn’t ask you to be there,” I pointed out. “You weren’t even supposed to be there.”
“Okay, then it became my business when you walked into the offices yesterday.”
“No it didn’t.”
“Yes, it did.”
“No. It didn’t.”
He took another chunk of melon and threw it in his mouth calmly then his eyes came back to me and I noticed he was totally oblivious to my glare.
“I don’t need your help,” I told him, switching subjects and still delaying.
“Right,” he said.
“I don’t.”
“Maybe you would have had the presence of mind to get out of the line of fire last night, maybe you wouldn’t. With the way you freaked out afterward, I doubt you would have. The way I figure it, you owe me double.”
I blinked with confusion. “Double?” I asked. “I owe you double for what?”
“Saving your ass last night and not telling me you have a situation.”
I shook my head, not following. “Excuse me?”
“You’re standing here, right now, because of me. And yesterday, I told you if I found out you had trouble, you’d pay. You’re paying.”
I was not getting a good feeling about this.
“I don’t… I don’t even know what to say. That’s just crazy,” I told him.
“Nope, it isn’t. Last November a friend of mine did something brave but stupid to save someone she cared about. She got a bullet to the chest and another one to the belly for her troubles.”
Yikes.
I sucked in breath at his announcement and the way he shared it. He looked angry and his body was tense and I knew this event affected him in a profound way (as it would anyone).
I stared at him but he wasn’t finished talking. “I saw her on the floor, bleeding while her man tried to staunch the flow with a fucking bath towel. Before she went down, she shot a man in the head, killing him. She’s got to live with two kinds of scars now. The kind you can see and the kind you can’t.”
Ho-ly crap.
“Luke,” I had lost my glare and my anger and my voice went soft.
Luke didn’t feel like responding to my soft voice. He came closer and it took a lot of effort, because his intensity was freaking me out, but I stayed where I was even when I saw his eyes were shining with anger.
“I’m not playing this fucking game with you, Ava. You told me last night you wanted to know why I cuffed you. So now I’ll tell you. You’re playin’ with fire and I’m not about to stand around and watch you get burned. Before Jules got shot, there was Roxie, another friend of mine’s woman who was stalked by her ex, beaten, abducted right from his fuckin’ house while he was out runnin’, and taken on a crazed, zigzag ride through three states. We found her cuffed to the sink in a sleazy motel. Before Roxie there was Jet, whose Dad got some poker debt and his loan shark tried to use Jet to force payment. She caught the attention of a fuckwad and ended up kidnapped and nearly raped. Before Jet there was –”
“Okay, I get it,” I broke in quietly.
Jeez.
I was freaked out and he hadn’t even gotten to the car bombs yet. Boy and I thought all the men I had met were assholes.
“Tell me right now what you and Sissy are up to,” he demanded, moving back but only slightly.
I gave in. I might as well, he wasn’t going to let it go, that was easy enough to read. And anyway, I knew this extent of sharing was taking some effort for him, what with being a tough guy, macho man and all. I didn’t like that he was angry and struggling with unhappy memories and I further didn’t like that I was the cause of it. It made me feel crap.
“I don’t want Sissy to come back here,” I blurted and Luke’s body went still, likely preparing for what I would say next. “Dom’s good at sweet-talking her back to him and he’s a total jerk and no good for her. I won’t get into it but trust me, he’s seriously no good for her. While she’s gone, I promised to get the goods on Dom, find some evidence to use so the divorce would go well for her.”
“So you were searchin’ his shit last night to find somethin’ on him.”
“Yeah.”
His body visibly relaxed and I felt my body relax in response. I didn’t know his tension was making me tense and I didn’t know what to make of that. I decided not to think about it as I watched him nab another chunk of melon and throw it in his mouth.
“It’s covered,” he told me, mid chew.
I stared at him. “What?”
“I’ll get what Sissy needs.”
Yee ha!
“Really?” I breathed.
Yay! No more breaking and entering and stupid behavior, Good Ava shouted happily.
Damn, there goes all the fun, Bad Ava pouted.
“Really,” Luke said.
I couldn’t help it, I smiled at him. This was good, really good for Sissy. I imagined Luke knew what he was doing, considering the loft and the Porsche showed that people paid him a lot to do it.
His eyes dropped to my mouth and watched me smile. When they did this, his face, as usual, stayed hard but his eyes lost the shiny, dangerous anger and became soft and warm.
I ignored this because it made my knees wobble.
“What do I do?” I asked. “Do I go to the offices and talk to Shirleen? Set up an account?”
His eyes moved back to mine. “You aren’t gonna pay Nightingale Investigations.”
My smile widened and I had the
happy thought that maybe there were good guys out there and Luke was one of them.
“No, that’s okay. I have money and Dom’s loaded. Once Sissy nails him, she’ll have more than enough to cover –”
“You aren’t payin’.”
“Luke, really, it’s cool,” I told him.
“I’ll rephrase. You aren’t payin’ in money.”
My smile died, my heart clenched and I feared that he was going to prove my earlier thought wrong about there being good guys out there.
“Excuse me?” I whispered.
“This means you owe me triple,” he told me.
“Excuse me?” I repeated.
“You owe me triple.”
My body stiffened.
Nope, there it was. No good guys. Of course he wouldn’t do something for nothing. Of course he wouldn’t do something just because he was a good guy.
Fucking hell.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“Okay then, what does that mean?” I pushed, my eyes narrowed on him and I found it kind of hard not to yell or cry or go out and buy an island for just me and my girlfriends; no men allowed.
He cut into thoughts of my Girls Only Island and said, “That means tonight, we’re havin’ dinner and I’m gonna find out what happened to the Ava I knew. Once I find that out, I’ll decide.”
Holy shit.
“Nothing happened to the old Ava,” I told him.
He shook his head. “The old Ava was funny, smart and sweet. The new Ava acts more like Marilyn and Sofia.”
It felt like he had slapped me across the face. I even felt myself flinch at his words. Seriously not a good guy and knowing this about Luke hurt more than his words.
“That wasn’t nice,” I whispered.
“No, it wasn’t, but it’s true.”
Damn, but he was honest. Still, he didn’t know what he was talking about. He didn’t know the half of it about Dom and he didn’t know anything about Rick, Dave and Noah. It wasn’t like I was being a bitch for the fun of it. I had reasons and he didn’t even bother to find out what they were before he made a judgment. I didn’t care about his offer of dinner so he could get my explanation. He knew, maybe more than anyone (except Sissy and my Dad), how much it would hurt to compare me to Marilyn and Sofia.
“A lot has happened since I last saw you,” I said not about to go into detail, never going to go into detail. He could blow for his explanation.
“Yeah, that’s obvious.”
Time for an evasive maneuver. This talk was beginning to sap my strength, suck my energy and make me want to stay in bed for a week eating rolls of chocolate chip cookie dough, bags of cheese puffs and tubs of ice cream (of all flavors).
“I can’t go to dinner tonight, I’m meeting some friends,” I told him.
“We’ll talk after you meet with your friends.”
I thought about Ally and The Hornet. I figured it was a taxi night for certain, considering nearly any time I had spent with Ally ended up with me being shitfaced and sleeping with a foot on the floor so the room would quit spinning. Not the disposition I wanted to be in for the next brutally honest third degree.
“It’s probably going to be a late night.”
“I’ll wait.”
“It might be a wild night.”
He gave me a half-grin. “That’ll work.”
Shit.
“Luke,” I said, sounding like I was putting a line under this conversation.
He ignored my line. “I’ll give you a remote for the garage and a key. You don’t come here after you’re done, I’ll find you. You make me find you, you owe me quadruple.”
This talk was not going my way in any way.
“Why can’t I just pay money for your services like normal people?”
“You aren’t normal people.”
“I am.”
“You’re Ava.”
“I’m that too.”
“I’ve known you since you were eight.”
“So?”
“I’ve liked you since you were eight,” he said.
Oh! I like him again, Good Ava told me.
Jump him! Rip his shorts off! Bad Ava urged.
Luke kept talking over Good Ava and Bad Ava’s blathering. “That makes you my people.”
Whoa.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Stop right there.
I needed time to bury that deep before I set myself up to start thinking he was a good guy again only to find out he wasn’t. To buy that time, I said quietly, “Luke.”
“We’re not talking about this anymore,” Luke told me.
“We are.”
“We’re not.”
I glared. “We are. Give me something to go on here, what’s triple payment mean?” I asked, sounding kind of bitchy.
“I told you, I haven’t decided.”
“Which way are you leaning? Maid service? Vacation planning? Darning your socks?”
He threw back his head and laughed. I crossed my arms on my chest.
“This isn’t funny,” I told him.
And it wasn’t.
Before I could react, his hand snaked out and wrapped around my neck, pulling me forward with a gentle jerk and my hands came up to shield my fall. They hit his chest right before my hips slammed into his.
I tilted my head back to look at him and pulled at his hand at my neck. This served no purpose. So I glared at him and pushed against his chest. This also served no purpose.
I saw, in close proximity, that his eyes were very warm.
Eek!
Danger, danger, retreat, Ava Barlow. Retreat!
Before I could push away, he spoke, sounding lost in thought. “Maybe, part of your payment is makin’ you worry what your payment will be.”
See? There it was again.
Not.
Nice.
I pushed against his chest again and pulled my hips away. His other arm slid along my waist and pulled me back, pinning my hands and arms so they were helpless between our bodies.
“That’s really not nice,” I told him but he didn’t respond. I demanded, “Let me go.”
His eyes moved over my face and hair and then settled on my mouth. I pursed it angrily. The minute he saw the pursing of lips he did the half-grin.
“Gotta admit, I’m beginning to like the bitch.”
“Stop calling me a bitch.”
His eyes came back to mine. “Stop actin’ like one.”
“Men suck,” I told him because this was true.
“See you don’t feel like not actin’ like a bitch.”
“You suck too,” I went on, going for the gusto. Why not? I had nothing to lose.
“Babe,” he said, sounding like I was entertaining him.
“Stop calling me ‘babe’. It’s demeaning. I’m not a babe, I’m a woman.”
The fingers of his hand at my neck slid into my hair then twisted it, wrapping it around his hand. This wasn’t a rough gesture, it was a sensual one and it made tingles slide across my scalp, the good kind. I stared at him, realizing belatedly we were ultra-close and my eyes dropped back to his lips on their own accord.
“Where’s Matt with my diet?” I asked, sounding desperate and kind of breathy and not taking my eyes from his mouth. My body was going pliant and I couldn’t control it even if I tried (though, I didn’t).
I knew he felt me melting into him. I knew this because his arm around me drew me closer and his fist in my hair gently pulled my head back. This was not a good position to be in, plastered against him, arms pinned, head tilted back in a way that my face was an open target for anything he wanted to do. My eyes shifted to his, the warmer than normal warmth was still there and my knees got weak.
Shit.
I tried to pull myself together, mentally chanting “men suck” and reminding myself I knew exactly where to place the vibrator to get ultimate orgasmic pleasure, thus no fiddling around and experimenting with hitting t
he target like most men found difficult to do. Even so, I found it impossible with his mouth so close to me, his lips being so fantastic and my eyes dropped to them again.
They were fine.
I licked my lips.
“Ava.”
My eyes drifted back to his and I was in a Luke Lip Fog. “Yeah?”
“You lick your lips while looking at my mouth one more time, you’ll find that pretty pink tongue of yours in my mouth.”
Ho-ly shit.
His face came closer and I watched, frozen and fascinated, mainly because that meant his lips were also coming closer. His indigo eyes had melted to pure, liquid ink and I forgot totally that men sucked.
“You wanna taste me?” he murmured.
Yes, I wanted to taste him. I would pay every penny of Aunt Ella’s inheritance to taste him.
“No,” I lied.
He did a full grin this time, a full satisfied grin. It was hot, so hot my knees totally buckled and he took all my weight into his body.
“Liar,” he whispered, knowing he had me (he couldn’t actually miss it, considering I’d lost the ability to stand on my own two feet).
I watched as his lips started to get closer. In response, my eyes began to close and my lips parted in preparation for contact. Honestly? I hated to admit it but I could barely wait.
It was then the doors to the elevator glided open. My eyes flew open and our heads twisted to watch Matt walk out, carrying a case of diet soda.
Thank you God.
I instantly tried to pull out of Luke’s arms but he didn’t let me move an inch even though his hand went out of my hair. It only did this to wrap around my back to keep me where I was.
“Hey, sorry,” Matt said, grinning like an idiot, not looking sorry at all and even with the idiot grin I wanted to kiss him for interrupting. My vibrators were going to divorce me if I kept going like this.
I looked at Luke and saw his lips were pressed together and he didn’t seem happy. “Next time, buzz up,” Luke’s voice proved my theory correct and made me slightly concerned about his use of the words “next time”.
Matt put the case of soda on the counter. “Will do,” he replied cheerily, ignoring Luke’s pissed off voice. “I’ll just be going.”
“Good idea,” Luke said.
Matt lifted a hand in a small wave as he walked across the room and then he hit the elevator button. I pulled again at Luke’s arms. He looked down at me, still with an unhappy expression, but let me go.