Remembrance: A Contemporary Erotic Romance (Iris Series Book 4) (50 page)

“I
loved
her,” Janie squealed while on their way back toward the City.

Luke laughed indulgently.  “She was great, wasn’t she?  Looks like you found a friend for life.”

“So, you think she’ll be a good fit?” Janie asked. 

He nodded.  “We have a lot more to discuss, but as a whole, I think she would be a good addition to
GSoul
.  You liked her stuff,” he stated with a smile. 

“Loved it.  Great selection of styles and all of the different designs with lace, florals and polka dots?  She does a great job of mixing the sexy side with the fun whimsical side.”

He nodded again, smirking at her.  “Maybe you can model some of that sexy whimsy for me tonight?  Right before you receive that punishment.”

She cocked an eyebrow.  “Yeah?  I still don’t know if you have a fire extinguisher, buddy.  Do we need to pick one up before going home?”

He chuckled.  “I must have one somewhere.”  He paused, his eyes still smiling.  “You’re too far away.  Come here.”

She did and cuddled up next to him.  “So, we’re heading to my parents’ now, right?”

“Yeah.  Did you need to stop anywhere else before we head over?”

“No.  So,” she hemmed and hawed.  “What are we go
ing to say to them?”

He tipped her head up.  “I’ll take care of it.  In fact, why don’t you hang with Robbie when we get there so I can talk to them.”

The butterflies let loose and a tentative smile crept over her mouth.  He stroked his thumb over her bottom lip, looking confident, sexy and completely at ease.  A mischievous glint lit his eye.

Her stomach fluttered some more and then she nodded.
  Luke was going to talk to her parents.  Breathe.

She cleared her throat.  “What are you go
ing to talk to them about?”

He shrugged lightly.  “We’ll probably reminisce about how our families have known each other for years.  Your mom will wish me a belated birthday, your dad will make some jokes.  And then I thought maybe we should talk about the real reason I’m there.  Because they really should know,” he took a deep breath while Janie held hers, “how forward their daughter is and how she’s been throwing herself at men for months now.”

She smacked his arm.

“And the only way to stop her from attracting so much attention from all these men is for someone to come in and permanently alter her single status.  Drastic measures may need to be taken.” 

She was chuckling nervously at this point, trying to hold back the excitement she was feeling. 

“And that’s all I’m saying on the matter.”  He pulled her closer and kissed all over her face, first her eyelids, her cheeks, her nose, then he settled perfectly on her mouth.  “Let’s talk about Christmas.  My mom told me we’re going to your parents’ like usual for dinner before going to the Christmas Eve service at church.  It’s been a few years now since we’ve all been together with my parents traveling
so much these last few years.”

Janie nodded.  Unless one of the families was out of state, the Daniels, Callahans, and McCallisters always spent Christmas Eve together for dinner and church. 
Again, because of the boys growing up together at school, the parents had all hit it off so early, and due to extended family living so far away, their families had always spent the night before Christmas together.  Christmas morning was for the individual families to celebrate.  “Ryann said her parents will be joining us on Christmas Eve this year so they can all be together on Christmas morning.”

“And how about Mike and Emily?  I haven’t talked to Mike yet about it.” 

“Last I heard, they’d both be with us on Christmas Eve.  Ayanna and Jonathan will spend Christmas Eve with Ayanna’s family, then come to church with all of us afterwards.  They’ll both be taking the train up to Boston with Emily and Mike on Christmas morning for a few days to be with Em and Jon’s families.  They’ll all be back in the City for when Mike and Em have to move into their new place on the 30
th
.”

“Nice.  I was hoping we’d see them on Christmas Eve.  I guess now that everyone’s finding their significant others, things are go
ing to shift a bit.”

“That’s usually the way of it,” Janie mused.  “It’s kind
of nice that our families already get together.  There won’t be a need for too much shifting there.”  She looked up and smiled at him. 

He swallowed then rubbed his nose with hers before kissing her again.  Janie’s phone went off just then, alerting her that two messages had come in almost simultaneously.  Luke released her a few moments later so she could check them.

The first was the response from Miguel Gastaldi.  Janie read it first, then out loud to Luke.  “It says, ‘I’m sorry to hear it, but am happy for you.  Any chance it’s a very handsome CEO that my family is now working with?’  Then he put a smiley face and ended with ‘have a great Christmas and New Year.’”

“He’s no dummy,” Luke murmured with a smug look.  “Why don’t you confirm his suspicions?  That will help get the word out for other men to stay away from you, Tinkerbell.”

She shook her head in exasperation and texted back that he was right, thanking him for being so kind and understanding.

She looked at the next alert which had come in and raised an eyebrow with interest.  “Well, well, well,” she murmured and held it up for Luke to see.

One of the entertainment sites had posted a photo from when they’d gone out to dinner the night outside the restaurant.  It was of them kissing then another smaller one of them smiling for the camera.  Seeing pictures of Luke Daniels kissing the shit out of her would never get old.  There was no doubt about it, it was just plain hot to look at.  Right next to that picture was one of Vanessa and…none other than Detective Danny Fernandez, holding hands and walking into a night club.

The caption read:
Looks like the chef knows what she’s havin’ for Christmas dinner…some yummy Luke Daniels!  Not to worry…Vanessa has already found his replacement.
  The mini article went on to say that Danny was Janie’s ex and apparently both he and Vanessa were forming the lonely hearts club to console each other.

“
Cristo
,” Luke muttered.

Janie watched his reaction as he read the article.  “Are you upset?”  Her stomach dropped a little, wondering if Luke was uneasy seeing Vanessa with Danny. 

He looked up at her and frowned.  “I don’t care who Vanessa sees, Janie.”  He cupped her face so she was really paying attention to him.  “Okay?  I’m glad she’s off my hands, quite frankly.”

“Why do you look pissed?”

“Because it seems a little convenient for the two of them to have found each other, don’t you think?”

Janie shrugged.  “The girls told me that on Labor Day, Danny and Vanessa sat and talked together for a while in the living room at Jem and Ryann’s.”

“That would’ve been while I was yelling at you in the back hall for your choice in Danny as a boyfriend,” he said giving her a look.

Janie made a funny face at him.  “Apparently everyone heard us.  Ryann told me we were loud, as did my mother.”

Luke smirked.  “You were the one who was loud.  I can control myself, thank you.”

“Shut up,” she laughed.  “I can’t help it if you piss me off.” 

He shrugged, still smiling. 

“Are you go
ing to give Vanessa the same advice you gave me about Danny?”

“Nope.  I don’t give a shit what they do.  I’m just glad that the ‘chef knows what she’s havin’ for Christmas dinner.’  Who knew I was so ‘yummy’?”

“You are pretty tasty.”  Janie smacked her lips.  His eyebrow went up just as his phone rang.  He answered by the second ring.

“Hey, Javi.  What’s up?” he answered and waited while his publicist spoke with him.  “Actually, we’re looking at it right now…Oh, you did?  What did you find out?”

Luke’s face hardened as he listened and his eyes went flat.  Several moments passed. 

“Well, isn’t that interesting,” he said quietly and continued to listen.  “Perfect.  I’ll call Greg too so that he knows we’ve talked…Great, thanks.  Good work, my friend.”  Luke then looked at Janie, his eyes smiling.  “Yeah, I decided to snag her before she got away…Uh, huh.  I’m aware that you’re very happy I’ve found a woman who can keep me in my place.  Tell that husband of
yours he can stop looking for gay men for me, would you?”  Luke laughed.  “Will do.  Talk to you soon,” he said, then disconnected.

Janie felt warm and gooey inside just listening to him talk about her.  She couldn’t help but be giddy over it.  “Everything alright?  The first half of that conversation didn’t sound good.”

His jaw clenched.  “Nothing for you to worry about.”  He didn’t elaborate.

She continued watching him.

“What?”

“You sure?”

He hesitated.  When he spoke, his voice was low, controlled.  “It looks like it was Weston who took the picture of us kissing at the holiday party and leaked it to the entertainment rags.”  He let that sit for a moment.

She blinked, then, “Are you serious?”

He nodded. 

Janie looked away, thinking.  “What does he have against you, Luke?  He warned me off of you when we went out.  I can’t imagine it was because he fell madly in love with me and he was looking out for me.”

Luke looked out the window for a second, then finally turned back to her.  “Weston and I have a little history.”

Janie’s brow furrowed.  “Meaning?”

“Meaning a couple of years ago I dated a girl who had,” he paused for the right wording, “been pursued by him.  She went for me instead.”  He said it matter of factly, if not a bit dryly.

She waited a beat, then, “Seriously, Luke?”  She sighed.  “You do get around, don’t you?” 

He shrugged then sighed himself.  “Needless to say, Weston doesn’t like me very much. 
Weston Watches
was brought into the conglomerate before that happened.  I didn’t know the girl had blown him off for me until we were ending it.  She made mention of him, said he wanted in her pants, came on to her pretty strong, and she was going back to him.  She was saying all kinds of things to make me jealous.”  He waved his hand.  “A few months later, I bumped into her at a gathering.  She and Weston were there together, she flirted with me, and as a result she and Weston got into it.  Without caring who heard, he embarrassed her, told her she was sloppy seconds.”

Janie pressed her fingers into the bridge of her nose. “Why didn’t you tell me all of this before?”

He shrugged.  “I don’t know.”

“Unbelievable,” she muttered.

“Listen, I don’t like the guy.  He’s a dick.  Which is why I didn’t want you going out with him.  I should’ve said something, but I didn’t.  I was trying to give you your space to date.”  His voice was getting pissed.  “But I wasn’t sure if he was going to take his dislike for me out on you.”

“So you think that’s why he showed interest?  To piss you off?”

“No.  I think he showed interest because you’re a fucking sexy beautiful woman.  I think when he discovered we had a connection when I interrupted you two, he took it upon himself to make sure you knew that he was a better choice.  Which is why he took the picture of us at the party to start that ball rolling.”

Janie sighed at hearing the information.  “Who knew my sparkle was so addictive?”

He gave her a look.

“Well, he definitely comes on strong.”  She sent him a pointed look.  “He made a lot of negative comments about you, which never did sit well with me especially since he was a part of
GSoul
.  He doesn’t hide that he doesn’t like you which is not only unprofessional, but could be dangerous in the business.”  She thought for a moment.  “What are you going to do?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“I’m not worried about it.  I’m just curious.  It’s obvious he can’t be trusted.  Are you going to do anything about them being a part of
GSoul
?”

Luke was rolling his tongue over his teeth, thinking.  “More than likely.  He broke the contract from the party.”  Luke was silent, then, “And then there’s Vanessa.  Javi discovered she was behind the picture of her and I outside my loft.  I told you she’s hurting with the modeling.  I think she hoped the picture of us would help. I’m also thinking she’s after Danny to try to keep the story going in the press so our names are linked for a bit longer.”

“I saw her talking to Eric at the holiday party.  They know each other?”

He looked at her, letting that information sink in.  “Yeah.”

“She interrupted us right after we kissed.  He took the picture while we were kissing.  She said no one was around to give her a ride, yada, yada.  Are we seeing connections here?” Janie pointed out.

Luke pressed his lips together, looking off to the side then shook his head in annoyance.  “I’ll take care of it.  Javi is making Greg aware, then I’ll deal with them both later, if necessary.  I’ve got more important things to do this evening.”  His eyes stayed on hers.

Janie leaned back and looked at him, a wry twist to her lips.  “I seem to recall a certain Luke Daniels yelling at me months ago, warning me to stay out of trouble because all of the women of my acquaintance were putting themselves in harm’s way.  Now, I’m blameless and you’re the one who needs to be taking your own advice.”