Rock Chick 05 Revenge (2 page)

“Well, Mace, I need to go,” I told him.

He shook his head.

I stared at him, thinking maybe he didn’t hear me right. “I need to go,” I repeated.

“Luke’ll be here in five,” was all he said.

He stood with his arms crossed on his chest and I got the (correct) impression that for some reason he wasn’t going to allow me to leave. I found this somewhat alarming. I gave up on him because he was big guy and he didn’t look like he was easily swayed and turned back to the receptionist.

“Um, really, I’ve got to go. I just remembered a dentist appointment. They get kind of touchy when you miss your appointments.”

This made her laugh.

“No, really. Sometimes they charge you,” I went on.

“Girl, so I can watch whatever’s gonna happen next,
I’ll
pay if they charge you,” the lady said.

Okay, it was safe to say I’d left the real, sane world and entered a loony bin.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“First, I’m Shirleen,” she told me.

“Um… hi?” I asked, still not following and wondering why it was clear I couldn’t leave and everyone in the room (but me) was okay with that.

“Hey there,” Shirleen said. “Second, to understand what’s going on you gotta know all that’s gone on before you. Since Luke’ll be here in five –”

“Three,” Mace interrupted from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder at him, beginning to feel out and out panic and then turned back to Shirleen.

“In three,” Shirleen went on. “There ain’t enough time. Just trust me, girl, go with the flow.”

She was making no sense at all. “What flow?” I asked then shook my head because I didn’t have time for information about the flow. I had to
go
. I turned and started toward Mace. They couldn’t actually keep me there; I was pretty certain that was against the law.
 

“I’m leaving,” I said to him.

His hard body went alert. I not only saw it, I felt it.

“Luke wants you here,” he told me.

I took two steps toward him, which meant I was a foot away from him and about ten away from the door. I tipped my head back and looked at him, surprised at what he said, “He doesn’t know I’m here.”

“He knows.”

“He doesn’t.”

“We told him.”

“How’d you know?”

He pointed and I followed his arm to see a camera in the corner of the room, the light on it was green.

God-damn.

The boys in the back had been watching.

My eyes went back to him. “You can’t keep me here,” I said.

He shook his head to tell me I was wrong.

This made me angry.
 

I had kind of a temper (okay, so maybe one could say I had a helluva temper) and right then I needed to go before Luke got there (and calculating I had about a minute to make my getaway) and not being able to go got the better of me (frankly, when I had a moment to look back, I was kind of shocked it took that long).

“Get out of my way,” I snapped, charged ahead and tried to dodge him at the last minute. He caught me and swung me around. I struggled and, laughably quick, he subdued me, my back pressed tight to his front, my arms crossed in front of me, his hands at my wrists.

We were both slightly bent at the waist and I was still struggling, flipping out that all of a sudden I was stand-up wrestling with a guy named Mace at the same time trying to pull free, when the door opened.

Mace and I stayed locked together but we both froze and our heads jerked toward the door.

Luke stood there.

Fuckity, fuck, fuck,
fuck
.

I noticed instantly he looked even better than ever. Tall (at least four inches taller than me and I was five foot eight), lean and built, wearing a skintight black t-shirt, black cargo pants and black boots. His thick hair was clipped short to his head, not a buzz cut, but short. The beard was gone and in its place was the baddest-ass mustache I’d ever seen; thick and black across his lip and trimmed neat down the sides of his mouth.

Holy cramoly! I wanted to know at that very moment what it felt like to have that mouth, with that ‘tache, on me; on
any
part of me. I didn’t care which part and I wouldn’t have been choosy.

His eyes came to me, slid to Mace then back to me.

Then one side of his mouth went up in a half-grin. At the sight, I melted into Mace and even though he had to feel the fight had gone out of me he didn’t let me go.

“Too late again,” Luke muttered, sounding amused, his eyes on me but I got the feeling he wasn’t talking to me.

“Not quite,” Shirleen told him and she sounded like she was trying hard not to laugh.

This exchange confused me but I had no time to ask or say anything at all. Luke’s eyes moved away from me and scanned the room. Obviously looking for something then not finding it they sliced back to Shirleen.

“Where’s Ava?” he asked, his eyes narrowed, the arms around me tightened and both my captor and I straightened.

“What do you mean, where’s Ava? Boy, you looked right at her,” Shirleen answered.

I heard a door open but, since it was behind my back and there was a big, solid guy there I couldn’t look. Not that I would have. Luke’s eyes had cut to me and pinned me to the spot.

I went still and he stared at me.

“Hey Luke,” I said, feeling and sounding stupid.

His brows came together. “Ava?” he asked.

“In the flesh,” I tried for a jaunty smile even though Mace still hadn’t let me go and I felt like a big dork.

Luke did a body scan then his eyes came back to mine. “What the fuck happened to you?”

There was definitely a sort of pissed off accusation in his tone. Not the reaction I had dreamed of (quite a lot) when Luke saw the new me.

“I got contacts,” I told him.

He glared at me.

“And I dyed my hair.”

The glare turned scary.

“And I lost seventy-five pounds.”

For some reason, at this Shirleen burst out laughing and I could hear other laughter in the room as we’d been joined by more people that I couldn’t see. I just kept my eyes on Luke who looked, for some insane reason, about to blow.

His jaw clenched and his gaze moved to the man behind me. “You wanna let her go?” he asked but it wasn’t really a question and the tone of his voice was downright frightening.

The arms around me loosened and I took a step away.

Luke stayed where he was. “What’re you doin’ here?” he asked, still weirdly pissed off and still angrily glaring at me.

I decided instantly I didn’t need a tough guy. I was going to go it alone so I lied, “Thought you might want to get a beer.”

“I called you,” he said, changing the subject suddenly, seemingly oblivious to our audience.

Crap, I was worried about this.
 

He
had
called me, half a dozen times after his father’s funeral. Two, I missed because I was out. Four, I had listened to, sitting there while he was leaving the messages and I didn’t answer. None of them I returned.

“I know,” I said softly.

“After my father died, I called you,” he repeated and the laughter swept out of the room just as quickly as it came in.

“I know,” I repeated.

“You didn’t call back and now you wanna have a beer?”

His tone was even more frightening than before. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible but there it was.

“Um… maybe not,” I muttered, deciding that perhaps I should go home, go to bed and get up again and try the day differently, next time making smart decisions about my actions (read: not going to Nightingale Investigations).

“What’re you doin’ here?” he asked again.

“I told you,” I answered.

“You lied,” he stated.

My mouth dropped open. I had lied of course but how could he know that? And anyway, he was accusing me of lying in front of other people.

I felt my temper flare.

“I did not,” I snapped (and lied again).

“Bullshit.”

“Don’t you say ‘bullshit’ to me, Lucas Stark.”
 

“Don’t lie to me, Ava. What’re you doin’ here?” He wasn’t going to let it go.

“I
was
going to ask you out for a beer. Then I remembered I have a dentist appointment and now I’m late so I’m just going to…” I was preparing for escape, I took two steps toward the door, mid-rant, and Luke moved.

One second he was several feet away from me. The next second, he was right there, bent over and, I kid you not, his shoulder slammed straight into my belly, he lifted up and started moving, taking me with him. I let out a small, surprised scream and I heard a couple of gasps as his shoulder twitched and he bumped me into a more solid position on it, his arm wrapped around the backs of my thighs. He walked from the room, opening a door and carrying me with him as he went through.

 
At this turn of events I was too stunned to move much less struggle. But I did lift my head to see Shirleen and Mace as well as another black lady, another seriously hot guy and a movie star gorgeous woman with black hair and violet eyes all watching us go.

We were in a hall and I saw the door close behind us right before I came to myself and yelled, “Let me down!”

Luke didn’t answer. He turned and we went through another door. He stepped free of the door, turned again and I saw we were in a kitchenette slash locker room. I heard the door close before Luke turned one more time, bent forward and set me on my feet. I would have done something (though I didn’t know what that something was) to get away but he moved into me. I had no choice but to move back and I slammed against the door. Luke came up close, the heat from his body hitting me, his face in mine and I stilled. He was so tall and broad, I couldn’t see anything but him. He was so pissed off and full of attitude, I was captivated by him and wouldn’t have been able to look or move away if I tried.

“What’re you doin’ here?” he repeated, dark blue eyes shining dangerously.

I ignored the danger, mainly because, at this point, I was seriously angry.

“Did you just carry me in here?” I snapped.

“Ava, I’m only gonna ask one more time,” Luke warned.

I put my hands in the spare space between us, right on his rock-solid chest and gave a mighty shove. Then my eyes widened and dropped to my hands.

I was pretty certain I had given a good, old shove but he didn’t move, not an inch.

Holy shit.

Okay then, new tactic.

“First, your friend physically detains me and now you’re carting me around against my will,” I yelled. “I’m calling the police.”

“You’re gonna tell me what’s going on. Are you in trouble?”

“Step back, Luke.”

“Are you in trouble?”

“Step back!” I shouted.

He didn’t step back. Instead, he got closer, so much closer, his body touched mine and one of his hands went to the door beside my head, the other by my hip. I was totally trapped.

I sucked in breath.

Yippee!
Bad Ava shouted in my ear.

Oh my,
Good Ava breathed.

It was safe to say I pretty much would have sold my soul to the devil a thousand times in my life to have Luke this close.

“Talk to me, Ava,” Luke ordered, his voice had dipped low. He didn’t sound pissed off now, he sounded patient and a lot like Luke had always sounded whenever he talked to me. Gentle. Affectionate.
 

I should have responded to his tone but he was so close, my head tilted back to look at him and my eyes caught on his mouth. That ‘tache was hot but it surrounded the most superior set of lips I had ever seen in my whole goddamned life. I had of course noticed he had a nice mouth but I never had the opportunity to stare at it in that kind of proximity.

The top lip was nicely formed, the bottom one full; the balance was perfect and there were these sexy ridges that made you want to explore. I found myself wondering if that mouth was soft or hard when he used it to kiss you. Then I found myself wondering what it tasted like. Then I found myself thinking I wanted to run my tongue along it.

“Ava,” I watched it move as it said my name and my eyes drifted dreamily up to Luke’s.

I was in kind of a fog and when my eyes hit his I was no longer thinking clearly, totally lost in the moment, so lost I licked my lips.

“Jesus,” he muttered, his voice soft and now he was staring at
my
mouth.
 

I watched, fascinated as his face stayed hard but his eyes went warm. Ultra warm. Warm in a way I had never seen before. He always looked at me with warmth in his eyes and I knew he didn’t look at everyone that way, but as he always looked at me that way I knew this was different,
way
different. His eyes were warm in a way that made
me
feel warm, all over.