Rock Chick 05 Revenge (52 page)

“I’m asking you Luke, please leave it alone.”

“I’m telling you, beautiful, I can’t. It just isn’t in me.”

I burrowed deeper into him and shared what was really on my mind. “What if
you
get hurt? He said he had a gun.”

“Only one’s gonna hurt is Dexter,” I opened my mouth to interrupt but he kept talking. “Ava, beautiful, I won’t get hurt. You’ve got nothin’ to worry about.” His mouth came to mine. “Nothin’ to worry about,” he repeated.

My arms went around him and he kissed me. It was light, gentle and only hurt a little bit. When his mouth disengaged, his forehead came to rest on mine again, our noses side-by-side.

“You wanna sleep here tonight or at the loft?” he asked.

“The loft,” I answered.

“Then let’s get you home.”

He moved away from me but put his arm around my shoulders and started moving to the door. I halted and looked up at him.

“Shouldn’t we call the police?” I asked.

“No police. This is gonna be off the radar.”

A chill went up my spine.

Then I remembered something. “But, Hank and Eddie are police.”

“And?”

“Aren’t they going to have an issue with this being ‘off the radar’?”

“Lotsa shit is off the radar that Hank and Eddie know about. They don’t like it but I suspect they don’t lose any sleep over it.”

All of a sudden I was tired and I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. I wanted to sleep and yes, I was happy to admit, I wanted to sleep pressed up tight against Luke’s strong, warm, hard body and I would have put that in writing if he’d asked me (luckily he didn’t).

“Let me get my purse,” I said.

His arm dropped and I got my purse. When I was close enough again, his arm came back around my shoulders and we walked into the front yard where everyone was standing.

“We’re going to the loft,” Luke told Lee.

Lee nodded.

Luke looked at Tex. “You’ll lock down the house?”

Tex nodded.

Luke dug in his pocket and tossed Tex my keys. Then his eyes went back to Lee.

“Meeting first thing,” Luke said.

Lee nodded again.

I glanced at Eddie who was looking to the heavens.

Then I glanced at Hank who was looking at me. “Roxie will be over tomorrow,” Hank told me.

“Thank you,” I said and looked at Roxie. “Thank you,” I repeated.

She smiled at me, came up and kissed my cheek. “Sleep well, honey. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she whispered.

Then Luke pointed me to the Porsche but I pulled away and walked to Lee.

I didn’t say thank you to Lee. I just wrapped my arms around him, got up on my toes and kissed his cheek. I looked him in the eye a beat, hoping he understood without me having to say it (and I was pretty certain he did) then broke free and did the same to Tex. I didn’t break free from Tex as easily, mainly because he engulfed me in a bear hug before letting me go.

“Thanks everyone,” I said quietly to the crowd, feeling like a big dork but knowing at least a gesture should be made (I mean, it
was
late) before Luke’s arm came back around my shoulders. He took me to the Porsche and we were gone.

* * * * *

Luke was right, it hit me and it hit me a lot sooner than I would have expected.

It hit me the minute he flipped the light switch in his loft.

Light filled the space and I felt panic seize me. I ran to the switch and turned it off. Then I flattened myself against the wall, protecting the switch with my body.

“Babe,” Luke was close, his voice gentle.

“He’s watching,” I whispered, terrified.

I’d forgotten to tell Luke one little, but important, thing.

Shit.

Luke’s fingers slid under my hair to curl around the back of my neck. “Ava, come away from the wall. Let’s get you changed and in bed.”

“We have to go to a hotel.”

“Ava.”

“He’s watching.”

“He’s not watching,” Luke said softly, his hand dropped away from my neck and came around my waist and he gently tried to pull me away from the wall. I resisted, he felt it and instantly stopped trying.

“I forgot to tell you something,” I said.

I put my forehead against the wall and Luke’s body came close to my back, his arm went tight to hold me against him and his face came to the side of mine.

“Tell me,” he said softly.

“He followed us last night,” I whispered. “He broke in somewhere, across the street, next door, I don’t know. You don’t have any curtains, no blinds. We left the lights on when we did it. He watched us have sex, I know because he knew we did it against the wall. He –”

Luke interrupted me. “We’re going to a hotel.”

Thank you
God
.

* * * * *

Luke checked us into the kickass, cool-as-shit Hotel Monaco in Downtown Denver. I’d never stayed there but any hotel that had “The John Lennon Suite”
and
“The Grace Slick Suite”
and
“The Miles Davis Suite” had to be kickass, cool-as-shit, and it was.

Then we went to bed.

We were lying side by side in each other’s arms. Luke was quiet, likely deciding how to dispose of Noah’s body once he killed him.

“Luke?” I called.

One of his hands slid up my back under my tee. He’d located the newly-washed Triumph tee for me and I was wearing it. This I found incredibly sweet but I was trying not to dwell on it.

“Yeah, babe,” he answered.

I tilted my head back to look at his blurry, shadowy face. “Will you make love to me?” I asked in a small voice.

Don’t ask me why I asked this. I just knew, somewhere deep, I needed it.

“Ava, I’m thinkin’ that’s not a good thing,” he replied softly. “Right now, sleep is a good thing.”

I found his answer both disappointing and (probably hysterically) very alarming.

“Okay.” My voice was even smaller.

There was a beat of silence then Luke muttered, “Shit.” He rolled into me and his hand came up to the healthy side of my face. “This doesn’t bode well for my future,” he told me.

“What?”

“My inability to say no to you,” he said before touching his mouth to mine and his hand slid slowly down my neck, my side, my hip and then over my bottom.

“You say no to me all the time,” I told him, now feeling happy in that somewhere deep down inside. I was happy that he was touching me, holding me, kissing me, taking care of me and he didn’t find me dirty and repulsive.

“When have I said no to you?” Luke asked my neck where his lips had moved.

“You don’t say no, as such. You just haul me around until I’m where you want, doing what you want.”

I felt his mouth move and knew he was smiling against my neck. His hand cupped my ass and he pulled me against him but he didn’t respond.

I didn’t mind. I wrapped my arms around him and held on tight.

Then he started to make love to me and it was exactly that, slow and sweet and absolutely perfect. I forgot about everything: being taped in my basement in the pitch dark and Noah touching me while Luke was in the house.

It was perfect until Luke’s hand moved down my belly and between my legs. His fingers hit the target but instead of feeling the usual jolt of pure goodness, my body froze and I wrapped my hand around his wrist and pulled it away.

“No,” I whispered, my body came unfrozen and all of a sudden I was shaking and not the good kind of shaking. “I’m sorry. I was wrong. I can’t.”

I tried to move away, feeling like an idiot, but Luke’s hand pulled free of mine. He rolled off me and held me close.

“Ava, hold on to me.”

His voice was rough but he didn’t sound angry that I stopped the action when it was really getting good.

“I can’t,” I told him. “I need –”

“Quiet, beautiful, just hold on.”

I did as I was told. I felt him hard against my belly and felt like a huge dork because I was the one who started it.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered and I was. I was so sorry that my voice broke in the middle of saying it.

“Quiet,” he replied softly.

“I got you all worked up and –”

“Babe, I’ll survive.”

“Luke.”

“Ava, I’m good. Just be quiet.”

I went quiet.

We lay there for awhile, silent, holding on. The shakes left me and I eventually felt nothing in the world, nothing but our bed at Hotel Monaco, Luke and me in it.

Then out of nowhere something hit me, a flashback.

Not of Noah beating me up and touching me where I didn’t want him to, but a flashback of Luke. It was a flashback of when Luke took me for a ride on his new motorcycle when he was seventeen and I was thirteen.

His Mom wasn’t happy about the motorcycle but she kept this to herself (outside of telling my Mom). His Dad hated it and he didn’t keep it to himself. As usual he tore into Luke about it.
 

I loved the motorcycle and after I heard Luke have a rip roarin’ with his Dad and Luke slammed out of the house heading to the garage, I ran over and caught him. In my thirteen-year-old-girl usual blathering, dorky way, I told Luke I loved his motorcycle and I told him exactly how much.

When I was done, Luke smiled at me, the dark look fading from his face. I’d always loved it when I used to do that for him. It didn’t happen a lot, but it happened. Then he told me to hop on and I was so excited I did, without even thinking twice.

We rode for at least an hour and I thought I’d never forget that ride.

When we got home they were waiting for us in Luke’s driveway, Mr. Stark and my Mom. Luke’s Dad yelled at him for taking a thirteen year old out on a motorcycle without asking. My Mom yelled at him because she was a bitch.

Calm as could be (something that always pissed Luke’s Dad off, I knew not because I saw it but because I heard Mrs. Stark tell my Mom about it), Luke just said to his Dad, “I would never let anything happen to Ava.” Then he turned to me, touched my nose and said using The Voice, “Precious cargo.”

Oh… my…
God
.

Why hadn’t I remembered that? How could I ever forget that?

Finally, realization dawned.

I belonged to Luke. I was Luke’s woman.

Hell, I had probably been born to be Luke’s woman (if you believed that kind of shit).

I wasn’t going to St. Croix and I didn’t care about Jules and Roxie and Luke trying it on with them. Just like Daisy said, I was using that as an excuse to guard my heart.

Crapity, crap, crap,
crap
.

Not only that, Luke didn’t go gonzo about Noah probably because I asked him not to. He took me to a hotel when I freaked out at his loft. He made sure I had the Triumph tee. Lastly, he didn’t have a hissy fit when I stopped the festivities right when they were getting to the point of no return and held me, just like I needed.

So, not only did I belong to Luke, he was most definitely a Good Guy.

The warm melty feeling in my stomach could no longer be denied.

Shit.

This time my hand slid down his belly and my fingers wrapped around him.

He sucked in breath then said, “Ava.”

“Quiet, Luke,” I replied, rolled into him until he was on his back, climbed on top, guided him inside me and settled.

God, he felt nice.

I was chest to chest with him, my face pressed to his neck. “I could sleep like this,” I whispered.

“I know,” he replied and there was humor in his voice and my head came up so I could smile at him in the dark.

His hands slid up my back, one stopped midway to wrap around and the other one kept going and went into my hair.

“You mind movin’?” he asked.

“I guess I could do that,” I answered and I started moving, slowly, savoring it, letting it build. I would kiss him, he would kiss me, our hands would roam but it was as if we had all the time in the world. Luke let me control it completely, didn’t even try to take over. When I was close, I slid my hand down his arm and took his in mine then guided it between our bodies, straight to the target.

“Ava,” his voice was back to sounding rough and my name in that voice made my stomach turn (more) melty mixed with a shiver going through my body. His fingers pressed and rolled which made the melty stomach and shivery body intensify significantly.

“Yes,” I breathed.

I kept moving, he kept pressing and rolling, we kept kissing (in between panting) and eventually it hit me and when it did it was slow, long and
nice
. Seconds after mine was over, his hands went to my hips, holding me down on him tight, and it hit him.

He kept me where I was by wrapping his arms around me.

I pressed my face in his neck. “Thank you,” I whispered.

“Babe, I’d do just about anything for you but you gotta know, that was no sacrifice.”