The Wells Brothers: Luke (10 page)

Okay, maybe that was being a
little sardonic but geez, anyone in a mile radius could see the way Anna stared
into his eyes with hunger.  Yep, hunger.  She was looking at Luke as though she
could climb the counter and eat him.  Carnally.

“We’d both like to see the
photos,” Mikki added.

“Sure.”  Anna kept her attention
on Luke.  “Follow me.”

As she sashayed across to the open
section of the big half arched desk, Mikki leaned into Luke’s arm and
whispered, “I think she meant for
you
to follow her, not me.”

“Behave,” he whispered back.

“Oohh, so you
did
notice
her eating you with her eyes?”

Unable to answer because by now
Anna was approaching too quickly, Luke nudged Mikki with a muttered, “Later,
Red.”

Anna stopped in front of Luke. 
“So the Willock mansion, hmm?”

“Yep.”  He glanced around.  “Any
photos of the grounds?”

“You’re in luck.”  Turning, she
started walking down the aisles, a definite wiggle in her hips.  “Down here in
the local history section we have some wonderful photos in books.  Follow me.”

Mikki gave him a little push. 
“Just follow those hips, Lukey-boy.”

“You’ll keep,” he growled.

“Oooh.”  She faked a shudder. 
“I’m so scared.”

“Maybe your chemist bloke will rescue
you.”

“He won’t do it wiggling his
hips.”  Mikki smiled widely at Anna as the woman checked that they were
following.

The librarian gave her a brief
once-over, dismissed her as no threat and focussed on Luke.  “Right this way,
Mr…?”

“Luke.”  He placed a hand in the
small of Mikki’s back, completely surprising her.  “And this is Mikki.”

Anna’s eyes darted between them. 
“Mikki.”

Very conscious of his big, warm
hand, she nodded.  “We’re fr-”

“Close friends,” Luke cut in.

Anna’s gaze was calculating.

“
Very
close friends.”  Luke
looked down at Mikki, giving her a brief squeeze into his side.  “Right, Red?”

Not having a clue what was going
on his head, but catching the warning glint in his eyes, she responded with a
vague, “Yes?”

Anna gave her a look of disbelief
before smiling a little coyly and turning away.  “Right this way, Luke.”  She
added after a pause. “Mikki.”

Glancing up, Mikki couldn’t help
but see the grimace on his face.  Understanding dawned.  “Are you scared of
her?”

“Not interested.”

“Hey, I was just asking.”  She
tapped the hand that rested on her hip.  “I’m not the one clinging to me like
I’m a burr.”

“I meant, I’m not interested in
Anna.”  Luke steered Mikki through the maze of aisles.

Amusement bubbled up, the
temptation to tease too much.  Leaning her head against his shoulder as they
walked, Mikki cooed, “Am I your security guard?”

“Don’t enjoy this too much.”

“You mean you’re just going to use
me then dump me?”  She pouted, snuggled a little closer - which was actually
rather nice, because he was warm and smelled good.

He squeezed her hip in reply.

Before she could needle him
further, Anna stopped beside two tables facing each other and pulled out a
chair.  “Here you go, Mikki.”

The cynical side of Mikki said
that Anna had something up her sleeve, and she wasn’t wrong.  As she sat,
before Luke could pull out the chair beside her, Anna yanked out the one
opposite and smiled widely at him.  “Just sit here, Luke, and I’ll get some of
those books.”

Ever the gentleman, he took the
seat she held out.

“I’ll just get the books.”  Anna
turned to the library shelves right behind him, running her finger along the
titles.

Luke gave a barely heard sigh and
looked at Mikki in resignation.  The poor bugger knew the librarian wasn’t
finished with him yet despite the openly blatant hint that he and Mikki were
more than just friends.

As if
.  Mikki did a mental
snort, then spotted the little stack of papers and a couple of pencils in the
middle of the table.  Taking a piece, she wrote on it
‘I think she likes
you’
, folded it in half and slid it across the table to Luke.

Bewildered, he opened it, read,
and looked up at her in disbelief.

She met his gaze blandly.

“What are you?” he mouthed. 
“Ten?”

“Here we go.”  Anna placed a book
on the table right in front of Luke, leaning over his shoulder to open it, her dark
hair sliding down to tickle his cheek.

As Anna opened the book and
flicked through the pages, Luke shot Mikki a warning glare.

Really, the woman had no shame.

Highly entertained, Mikki took another
sheet of paper, wrote
‘I think she really likes you’
underlined
‘really’
and folded it in half.  Then she waited.

“Now, here’s a really nice photo
of Willock mansion.”  Anna pointed to a photo.

Luke looked at it.  “It’s in black
and white.  Do you have any colour photos?”

“Glad you asked,” she said
brightly.  “I’ll be back.”  She returned to the shelf right behind him.

Mikki slid the second note across
the table and waited while Luke read it before his eyes narrowed.  Grabbing a
pencil from the middle of the table, he scribbled, folded the note in half
again and slid it back to her.

She picked it up as Anna placed
another book before Luke and opened it.  “This is a much bigger photo.”  Her
arm brushed against his as she pointed to it.  “You can even see the gardens.”

Luke studied it before flicking
through the book.  “Is this the only photo?  I was hoping for more with the
gardens.”

“Of course.”  She took the
opportunity to pat his shoulder.  “Hang on.”

Mikki opened the note and read
‘Not
as much as the chemist likes you’.
  Pooh, was that all he had?  Very aware
of Luke watching, Mikki wrote
‘She’ll do you on the table in a minute.  I’ll
go blind’
folded the paper once more and slid it across the table.

Luke picked it up, read it, and
pursed his lips.  Before he could think of a reply, Anna placed a pile of books
on the table and sat down, pulling her chair close to his as she grabbed the
first book.  “Now this one has a lot of photos in it, all in colour and some
quite large.”

“Like large…gardens, do you mean?”
Mikki asked innocently.

Anna shot her a glance of extreme
dislike.  Yep, no doubting the librarian knew exactly to what Mikki referred,
just as she knew that Mikki knew Anna was hitting on Luke.  Or trying to.

Mikki smiled serenely.

Luke gestured.  “Come here, Mikki. 
Look at this.”

She leaned over the table to get
an upside down view.

“No.”  He gave an affectionate
laugh.  “Come around here.  You can’t see it like that.”

Anna’s lips thinned.  Mikki
shrugged, got up and walked around the table.  What she wasn’t prepared for was
Luke to suddenly push his chair back, thrust out one leg, grab her around the waist
and yank her down onto his thigh.

She wasn’t sure who was most
shocked - she or Anna.  Anna’s eyes went round, her mouth dropped open, and
Mikki was pretty sure her expression was exactly the same.

“There you go, honey.”  Beaming
happily, Luke gave her a squeeze.  It looked affectionate but his arm around
her waist was like steel, his hand resting firmly below her breasts.  “Now
isn’t this cosy?  You’ll also be able to see properly.”

Mortified, she tried to take her
weight off his leg by attempting to stand.  “Luke-”

Ignoring her attempts, his grip
unyielding, holding her securely in place, he turned back to the books.  “Now,
these photos look great.  I can make out the garden beds, how they ran.” 
Ignoring her subtle shove on his arm, he continued, “A lot of roses.  What do
you think, Mikki?”  All warm and attentive, he looked at her.  “You like
roses.”

He wouldn’t know, the idiot was
making it up.  She groaned silently.  This was his revenge for her childish
teasing.  Cripes, her mother was always telling her to act her age, but she had
a bad habit of doing dumb things when around her siblings.  Luke wasn’t her sibling
but he made her teasing come out something shocking.

Now here she was, her bum on his
very muscular, hard thigh, his arm around her waist with his hand resting below
her breasts, keeping her securely pinned against him.

Anna was not happy, shifting her
chair as though Mikki was contagious.  “So, these are the books.  Have  a look,
I’ll be right over there if you need me.”

No sooner had she returned to the
main desk than Mikki demanded quietly, “Let me go.”

“Not happening, Red.”  Luke
studied the photos.  “Man, look at these grounds.  I really need to see them
blown up.  I wonder if there are some bigger photos.  Maybe we can blow them up
on the photocopier or something.”

“Luke!”

“No.”

“I’m too heavy!”

“You’re fine.”  He used his free
hand to turn the page, not looking at her as he added, “Suck it up, Red, you’re
staying right there.  I’ve got Anna hitting on me, which I don’t like, and you
teasing me.  You’re my security blanket, so get comfortable.  You’re staying
right here until we go.”  He shot her a determined look.  “Unless you want her
and the other patrons of this place to watch you struggling and hear you
yelling, because that’s the only way you’re getting away from me.”

There was no doubting the set of
that square jaw, no doubting the look in his eyes.  Luke was dead serious.

Crap on a stick.  She was going to
spend the time looking at these books from her perch on his thigh.  Feeling the
flex of muscle beneath her bottom, Mikki bit her lip.  Concentration was going
to be a big problem.

Especially when he suddenly
snuggled her closer while returning his attention to the book.

An unexpected heat coiled through
the lower regions of her loins.

Holy heck.

Big problem.

Chapter 4

It had been a brainwave to grab
the teasing chit and plonk her on his thigh.  It kept the voracious librarian
from pressing against him.  Luke was pretty sure if he’d tried that on a woman
who’d given out unmistakable ‘keep back’ signals, he’d have been done for
sexual harassment.

Once Mikki was on his lap, Anna
had backed off big time.  So far back, in fact, that she had returned to the
main desk at the front of the library and was now ignoring them.

He was amused that Mikki was
sitting stiffly against him even when he’d snuggled her close.  Man, he
couldn’t help but notice that she was a sweet smelling, warm, cuddly armful. 
All soft and womanly, with that big bosom pressed against him.  It was either she
lean against him as he’d designed his grip to do, or she had to lean away, and
that, sir, was not on the table for his Red.  She might like to tease, could almost
drive a man to his knees with her sometimes withering wit, but scenes weren’t
her thing.  She’d go to great lengths to avoid them, which was kind of funny
considering she liked to poke the angry hornet’s nest now and again.

But now she was caught in her own
trap.  Sitting on his lap, suffering in silence.

Grinning, he settled down to study
the photos in the books.

With a sigh, Mikki finally relaxed
enough to lean forward a little and study the photos with him.

“See that?”  He pointed to one of
the photos with his free hand.  “That pathway was originally lined with
flowering bushes.  Some of those flowers are okay for winter months, but I’d
need to do a good mix of winter and summer flowering bushes otherwise it’s
going to look very unwelcoming.”  He pondered, his mind already ticking on
possibilities.  “I’ll see what I can come up with for drought-hardy plants with
flowers.”

“Didn’t know drought-hardy came
with flowers.” Mikki pulled one of the books about historical houses towards
her.

  “You’d be surprised.  Did you
know established roses actually do well in dry weather?”

“Don’t you have to keep watering
them every day?”  Giving up on leaning over enough to read, she hefted the book
in her hands and flipped through it, her arm brushing against his side as she
shifted.

Man, her bottom was really lush
and soft.  Nice.

“A good watering a couple of times
a week is all that’s necessary.”  He studied the pathway.  “Hmm, they were originally
cobblestones.  But that could cause a problem.”

“Not able to do cobblestones?  I am
so
disappointed in you, Lukey-boy.  I thought you could do anything.”  Bracing
her thumb on the edges of the book pages, she fanned them swiftly.  The
disturbance caused by the sudden rush of air blew one of her wayward curls that
had escaped her braid to tickle across his cheek.

Anna’s hair might have annoyed
him, but the peach-scented tress caressing his skin had him inhaling deeply.

Odd action
.  Pushing that thought
aside, he tapped the photo.  “Take a look.”

“The landscaping is your
department, not mine.”

“Listen, smart-arse, you’re
disappointed in me.  I want to prove a point.”

With a sigh, she looked at him. 
Sitting on his thigh made her slightly higher than him so she was looking down
a little.  Right down that cutely freckled-nose, in fact.

Now they were so close he could
see a faint sprinkle of freckles across her upper cheeks, not many, just a few,
but man they were cute.  Combined with those sparkling green eyes, it was a surprisingly
cheeky, yet winning, combination.  “I bet you were a real tear-away as a kid.”

She stared.  “What makes you say
that?”

He honestly had no idea, it had
just slipped out.  But no way was he going to admit it.  “Thinking of you
scribbling notes and giving them to me while Anna’s back was turned.  Like a
naughty schoolgirl.”

Naughty schoolgirl.  He got a
sudden picture of her in his mind in school uniform with that red hair in piggy
tails and a devilish look on her face.  Not so different now, he thought, as he
considered her pretty features.  Yeah, he could just picture her passing notes
in class.

Mikki regained her composure to
drawl, “Like you were such a prize.”

“I’m not talking about me.”

“As a kid, you took on a dare to
kiss as many school girls as you could behind the gardener’s shed.”

His eyes widened.  “How did-”

“You kissed so many girls your
lips got chapped.”

“They did not!”

“If you were older than twelve,
you might have taken on the dare to shag as many girls as you could con into
it.”

His mouth fell open.

Mikki grinned.  “You’d have gotten
the clap instead of the chap.”

“Who’s been gas-bagging?”

“Aaron.”

“Aaron?”  Surprised, Luke
blinked.  “Since when does he spill things to you?”

“I was at Izzy and Jason’s, and
Aaron arrived.  We got talking and stories started being told.  You got pride
of place.”  She piously re-opened the book she held.  “But don’t get too
big-headed, it was a dubious place.”

“Seriously, you lot had nothing
better to do?”

“We ate pizza.”

“Like that’s better?”

“You should try this pizza.  It’s
awesome.”

“You are seriously twisted.”

“Says the man who has me trapped
on his lap.”

“That’s not twisted.  That’s
ingenious.”  And unexpectedly pleasant.

Mikki slanted him a look from the
corner of her eye.

Her face was side-on to him, and his
gaze drifted down from those eyelashes that could hide a multitude of wicked thoughts
by simply lowering over those sparkling green eyes, to that pert nose, down to
full lips and lower to a determined little chin.

Mikki was pretty.  He’d kind of
noticed before in passing, more subconsciously because they were usually busy
trading barbs, but now with her sitting on his lap so close to him with no one
else around, he was struck by just how pretty.  Kind of cute.  And her humour
kind of made him smile, made his own humour perk up and snap back retorts.

He never thought he’d ever find
himself noticing her. 
Really
noticing her.  It plain out surprised him.

Not to mention piqued his
interest.

As if feeling his renewed regard,
Mikki turned her head to look at him.  “What?”

Blinking, he reorientated. 
“What?”

“Something on your mind?”

You
.  Not sure where that
thought had come from, Luke refocussed on safer ground by pointing back to the
picture of the garden pathway.  “Before you got side-tracked with the stories
of my glory days as an adventurous youth-”

Mikki snorted.

“-we were discussing pathways.”

“No, you were.  I was trying to
find photos of the mansion in its hey-day.”

“No, you were giving me heaps
about not being able to do cobblestones, which, I should just point out now, I
can
do.”  Before she could add anything to that, he continued, “Look closely at
that photo.  What do you see?”

She glanced at it.  “Pathway. 
Garden.”

“Look closer.”

“Still seeing the garden and
pathway.”

Shifting his arm from her waist,
he placed his hand on her back and gave a subtle little push.  “Look closer at
the pathway.”

With a sigh, she leaned forward to
study it.

Luke leaned forward with her.

Now their heads were close
together, the warmth of their bodies meshing with each other.  Oh yeah, that
was nice.

“It’s a pathway,” she declared, obviously
not as affected as he by their closeness.  “A cobblestone pathway.”

He pointed at the pathway.  “Imagine
someone walking on it.”

Growing serious, she studied the
photo, a small frown creasing her brows.  Her head inclined slightly to one
side, the heavy braid sliding across her back to brush against his hand.  He’d
never noticed before how soft her hair was, his fingers shifting to play with
the curls at the end of the braid.

“It’s uneven.”  She turned her
head to look at him.  “Unsafe?”

Man, her face was near his, their
heads so close that her breath was warm on his lips. 

Something strange slid through
him, strange because it was Mikki, strange because it was a sensation he’d
never dreamed he’d experience when in her presence.  Normally he was amused,
exasperated, annoyed.  But this emotion now, this sensation, it was sudden and
unexpected.  And disturbing.

They looked at each other, both
growing so still.  Her eyes widened a fraction at something she saw on his face
but she didn’t draw back.

Everything around him disappeared,
growing distant, the only being he was now aware of the one sitting on his
thigh.  Luke’s hand slid lower, trailed into the small of her back before
shifting slowly lower to spread out over the back of her hips, his fingers curving
ever so slightly beneath her bottom.

Mikki’s breath caught even as his
blood suddenly slowed, thickened, the sensation of her body so close to his,
her warmth seeping into him, her scent tantalising his senses.

His gaze dropped to her lips, so
alluring in their soft lushness.  Would they be as soft and sweet as they
looked?  As her lips parted slightly in a sharp inhale of breath, he couldn’t
help but wonder how she tasted.  Wanted to know how she tasted.

His blood stirred hotly, coiling
in his loins, pushing through his veins in a hot, heavy flow that pulled at his
baser instincts, and he leaned forward without thinking, his attention on those
plump lips, the need to get closer making his hand on her lower back pull her
towards him, bring her nearer-

A book dropping sharply down on
the table had them both leaping apart - or as apart as Mikki could go, because
his hand tightening reflectively prevented her from jumping off his lap.

Luke looked up to find Anna
glowering.  In her hands she held another book which she placed with
deliberation onto the book she’d dropped onto the table.

“This is a public place,” she said
tightly.  “Please have a care what you do here.”

Astonished, he watched her walk
back to the desk.  No sway in her hips now, nope, she was striding along like
she wanted to kick something out of her way.  Probably him.

“Um…”  Voice a little shaky, Mikki
said, “I think it’d be wiser if I got up.”

“Not likely,” he growled.

Mikki froze.

Well shit, that growl was unexpected,
not to mention how low it was in his throat.  What the hell was wrong with
him?  She was watching him with a hit of wariness, unease and uncertainty. 
Well crap, no wonder.  He’d been about to kiss her.

Kiss Mikki Horton, the sometimes
annoying prickle in his existence.

Maybe his blood sugar was low.

Maybe he needed something sweet.

Like Mikki’s lips.

No!

With effort he dragged his
attention back to the photo, tapping it with more force than needed.  “People
will trip on cobblestones.”

“Yep,” Mikki almost croaked.

“I’d need to ensure the grounds
were as safe as possible.”

“Good thinking.”

“People are quick to sue today,
even if it is their fault.”  He stroked over the photo with a fingertip.

“Yep.”

“I know Elspeth will have good
insurance, but I’ll help where I can in making sure as much as possible that
things are safe.”

“That’s nice of you.”

“I can make pavers look old and
authentic if I can’t find and use the original cobblestones.”

She cleared her throat.  “Maybe I
should get up.”

Yeah, she should get off his lap. 
He should let her go for his own sanity.  So he didn’t, God knew why.

Okay, Luke knew why.  He liked her
sitting on him, liked the feel of her soft, warm body against his, her scent
teasing his nostrils, the sensation of those pillowy boobs nestled into his side
because yep, he held her against him.  She might be trying to hold herself
stiffly, but he had her in a tight enough hold that she was mashed up to his
side.

With her palm braced on his lower
abdomen.  God, he could feel the warmth through his t-shirt.  Man, he’d like
nothing better than to lean back and dare her to slide that hand lower, to tug
his jeans open and move further down, to trace his stiffening length and palm
him, to-

“I couldn’t help but overhear,” a
voice said brightly.

Dragging his thoughts from
nefarious paths, Luke looked up to find a tall, thin man with a dour expression
standing beside the table.  Luke was pretty sure no one could hear his boner
starting, that was nigh on impossible, so Lanky had to be talking about
something else.

Wait
.  Luke almost froze,
his eyes watching the man’s mouth move, but the whole time his thoughts banging
away inside his head.  Kind of like his boner wanted to bang around inside Mi-
Jesus!
What the hell am I thinking? A boner?  For Red?  Am I insane?

Or hormonal.  Yeah, hormonal.  Men
got hormonal, didn’t they?  Shit, he had no idea.  All he knew was that he had
a stiffy starting to form at just the thought of the redheaded sheila perched
on his lap groping him. 
Bloody hell!

Grappling to come to terms with
what he’d just realised, Luke became aware that Mikki and Lanky were talking. 
Glancing up in a little bit of a self-induced daze, he saw that she was talking
quite earnestly.

Hey, obviously he was the only one
affected by what had almost transpired between them.  She’d sure as heck
recovered fast.

That was enough to make him shove
his disreputable thoughts down deep and concentrate on what they were actually
saying.  She could do it?  So could he.  It meant
nothing
.

“Luke?”  Mikki tapping him on the
shoulder had him blinking.

“Yes?”