Winter (Four Seasons #1) (29 page)

The bar area
empties as close to every single patron of the club joins the crowd
in front of the stage to watch D.M.F play. Before long it’s just
Morgan and me propping up the bar with Papa Joe talking to the
bartender. Papa looks pissed. Probably because he just realized
that none of his packed out club goers are ordering drinks now that
the music is playing, and he’s not making any money after
all.

Morgan finally
picks up her beer and starts to down it, her eyes still locked on
the stage. They round out as a commotion kicks up behind us. She
nearly spits her drink out altogether when the screaming suddenly
gets louder. “Holy shit, Ave! He just jumped off the stage. He’s
walking right over here.”

“
Who?” I hiss.
Stupid question, though. I know exactly who she’s talking about. My
body heats up like the fucking surface of the sun as Luke gets
closer, closer, closer. I’m surprised there isn’t steam coming out
of my ears by the time I hear him clear his throat behind
me.

“
S’cuse me.
You mind turning round a second?”

Hell to the
no. This can’t be happening. I grip hold of the wooden bar top and
suck in a deep breath, trying to form a mask of nonchalance. Yeah,
right. My cheeks are crimson—there’s no way I’m hiding that. I pick
up my beer, place the glass against my lips, and drink. I drink
until there’s nothing left, and then I turn around.

Holy. Mother.
Of. Mary.

Luke Reid is
standing right in front of me with an electric guitar strapped over
his chest, wearing a worn singlet that exposes the black ink
spiraling all over his biceps and shoulders. His hair is all over
the place, disheveled and dripping with sweat. In fact, his face
and his arms are covered with a sheen of sweat that reminds me of
one thing and one thing only: him on top of me; him inside me. My
legs start trembling the moment a smile develops on his
face.

“
Ahhh, I knew
it was my beautiful girl,” he growls. The way he says that is so
possessive, I’m instantly turned on. “It’s very distracting playing
to the one turned back in the room, y’know, Beautiful…”

The hundred or
so girls standing behind him, all gawking, shoot me evil looks as
the man of their dreams gives me his best
fuck me
grin. Not that he knows he’s
doing it, though, right? That’s not Luke’s style. Or at least not a
Luke I’ve ever met before, anyway. This guy is an entirely
different person. And he’s so intimidating, I can’t even
speak.

“
I need your
undivided attention please, Ms. Patterson.” Luke takes another step
forward. “Give it to me.”

The oxygen
won’t travel into my lungs quick enough. I clasp hold of my empty
beer bottle with both hands, my body tensing. The whole room has
gone silent. I can tell Morgan’s watching the exchange with an open
mouth, as are a few other girls in the audience. Luke smirks,
closing the remaining gap between us. He extends a hand and takes
my beer bottle, leaning close enough to brush up against me as he
places it on the bar to my right.

He looks away
briefly to make eye contact with the bartender as he says, “Two,”
holding up his index and his middle finger. I hold my breath, a
mixture of panic, anger and extreme arousal warring within me while
Luke accepts the two shot glasses from the bartender and throws him
a twenty. Luke holds out a glass. The amber liquid is filled right
to the brim, and I can already smell that it’s Jack.

“
I’m not
drinking that,” I whisper.

“
Why not?” His
ruinous smile spreads even further. “I thought you liked
Jack?”

“
Only when I
want to black the fuck out.” I cheer myself internally, because I
sound like a stone cold bitch when I say that. Luke shakes his
head, still smirking.

“
I don’t want
you to black the fuck out, Ms. Patterson. I want you to remember
this.” Luke turns and grins over his shoulder, finally
acknowledging that we have a crowd of mildly put out, horny college
girls watching us. “You guys think she should drink?”

“
Hell
yes!!”

“
Yeah!”

“
Drink it,
bitch!”

“
I’ll take
it!”

The response
is deafening. Back on the stage, Cole, Pete and another giant guy
with a shaved head sitting behind a tricked out drum kit, all start
booing. Cole leans over and talks into the mic Luke left behind.
“Better do it, mystery girl. We’ll be here all night otherwise and
I wouldn’t mind finishing our set so I can grab a shot of jack
myself.”

“
I’ll buy you
as much Jack as you want, sweetheart,” Morgan calls. Cole winks at
her, and I know we’re all in trouble now. Looks like she’s well and
truly over Tate abandoning her and hitting all those strip clubs.
Luke raises an eyebrow at me.

“
Come on, Ave.
One shot.”

Morgan elbows
me in the ribs. “Drink the fucking shot, girl. Jeez!”

I glare at her
but then reach out and take the glass from Luke. “Fine. But then
we’re leaving.” I can’t seem to make myself look up at Luke to see
if this bothers him. I’m too nervous and pissed off to make eye
contact. Instead I begin to lift the glass to my lips. Luke’s hand
shoots out to stop me.

“
Not like
that, Patterson.” Confusion swamps me for a second, and I do it—I
look up at him. Mischief, arrogance and lust all bear down on me
from his gaze, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. Who
the hell is this guy? Luke slowly guides my wrist so that I lift up
the shot glass to
his
lips, and I suddenly understand what he wants me to do. He
wants me to tip the Jack straight into his mouth. My fingertips
brush the rough stubble on his jaw as he presses his full, lower
lip to the glass, daring me to finish the job with his eyes. Fine.
I can do this. It’s not that big a deal. I tip the glass, the amber
liquid flowing into Luke’s mouth, and he never takes his eyes off
me. I snatch my hand back as soon as the glass is empty, but Luke
doesn’t swallow it. He rushes forward and buries his hands into my
hair, pulling me to him. He shoves his guitar behind him as his
body slams into mine, and then Luke is pressing his lips firmly
onto mine.

The crowd
starts whooping like crazy, and I freeze. For a moment I just stand
there trying to figure out what the heck is happening. Luke’s
fingers entwine themselves even further into my hair as his kiss
deepens, and my anger finally kicks in.
What the fuck
does he think he’s
doing? Nothing has changed between us since the other night, not
really. Even though he did drive all the way to Wyoming to try and
clear my father’s name. I grasp hold of his arms with both hands,
trying to pull away from his grip. Nothing. I’m well and truly
being kissed. I’m seconds away from kneeing him in the baby maker,
shame though that would be, when Luke’s tongue brushes against my
lips, his body curving towards me, and everything changes. My mouth
wants Luke more than my head wants to do him serious injury. He
manages to tease my lips apart with his tongue and then suddenly
fire is passing between us, burning and warm and so freaking hot.
He’s sharing the Jack I just gave him.

Somehow,
despite my usually terrible luck, I don’t choke on the warmed
alcohol. I swallow it, and Luke groans into my mouth, pressing even
closer up against me. He doesn’t pull away, I doubt in that moment
that I’d let him. I kiss him back.

Understatement
of the century.

I kiss him
like this is my first kiss and I’m minutes away from dying a
virgin. I kiss him like he’s just been called up to war and I may
never see him again. I kiss him like he’s cared for me, looked out
for me the past five years, shared his heart with me and given me
everything he thinks I need. Because he kind of has. Applause fills
the club, and when Luke finally pulls away, his arrogance has
slipped a little. He tilts my chin up towards him with his
fingertips, studying my face intensely, before he smiles again.
It’s like sunshine breaking through clouds.

“
Fuck, Reid,
you’re giving us hard-ons up here. Get your ass back on the stage,
damnit!” Pete yells. Luke backs away, still grinning, until the
crowd swallows him and he makes his way back to the stage. They’re
only halfway though their set and I know there’s no way I can hang
around to watch it now. Not after that. Not after it feels like
everything just changed. Cole is helping Luke back up to his mic
when I decide I have to run. I glance and Morgan and she
knows.

“
You realize
you’re ridiculous, don’t you?” she asks.

I nod. “Of
course I do. Now get me the hell out of here.”

******

Leslie’s out
at her sister’s again, so my apartment is empty when I finally make
it home. I go to bed feeling exhausted but strangely wired at the
same time. It’s the early hours of the morning when my phone
buzzes. On silent, it shouldn’t have woken me, but the vibration on
the nightstand has my eyes snapping open immediately. The lit
screen shows a text from Luke.

Luke: You
awake?

I shunt myself
upright in bed, tucking my hair behind my ears, feeling a
combination of annoyance and relief.

Me: Yeah. You
at an after party or something?

Luke: I’m
outside.

Outside?
Like,
here
outside? I fling back the covers and push the blinds aside,
flinching at the cold when I rub the back of my hand over the
frigid glass so I can see out. I spy Luke’s Fastback parked
illegally under a street lamp straight away. He is out of the car
and leaning with his back against the passenger door, looking up at
the window. Great clouds rise up as he breathes, highlighted by the
yellowed sodium burn of a street lamp. His hands light up blue as
he focuses on his phone.

Luke: Are you
busy?

I let the
blinds fall back. Why am I so relieved that he is here? My stomach
tightens. I shouldn’t be. I should be worried after him kissing me
so publicly, about what that means for him and for me.

Me: No. You
want to come up?

A minute
passes by and I hear nothing. What is he doing? I press my back
into the wall and clench my eyes shut, waiting for the phone to
buzz in my hand. It doesn’t.
Shit.
I draw back the blinds again and he’s still
standing by his car. His head’s tipped down, though, and for a
moment I can’t figure out what he’s doing. When his back
straightens I see that he’s on the phone. I curse and throw my cell
down on the bed, running my hands through my hair. What the hell is
happening to me? Why am I so jittery?

I growl at
myself and storm to the wardrobe, tugging out a folded pair of
jeans and a light grey sweater. Shoving my arms forcefully into the
sleeves of my coat, I gather my hat and gloves and go out to meet
him. As I close the apartment door, I notice that the Way Out of
Wyoming poster is still there. Someone has drawn a Hitler moustache
on my dad’s face. I scowl and stomp down the stairwell to the
ground floor. My phone buzzes as I exit the building.

Luke: Sorry
if I woke you, Ave. This is probably a bad idea. I can call you
tomorrow. Go back to sleep.

“
Little late
for that,” I say, startling Luke, who is half in half out of his
Fastback. The snow muffled my approach and he obviously didn’t hear
me. His cheeks are blushed red, eyes incredibly bright in the dark.
My heart twists when a shadow of concern darkens his
expression.

“
A little late
for a lot of things, I guess,” he whispers. “I came to
apologize.”

“
For kissing
me in front of a bar full of people or for calling me drunk the
other night?”

He scuffs at
the snow with the toe of his boot. “Yeah, I guess. For both. Mostly
for the kiss. I get a little carried away when I’m in that
environment.”

“
So you share
Jack with a girl every time you perform, then, huh?” That thought
makes me feel pathetic and small. And also stupid for kissing him
back.

Luke laughs
softly. “No. Never. Only with you.”

A heavy
silence steeps between us as I take that on board. Eventually he
says, “I also wanted to come and tell you that I found something
when I was in Break. Well, someone else found something. I thought
you’d want to know.”

“
At my
parent’s house?”

“
No.” His eyes
are distant for a second. “There was nothing there.
Only…memories.”

“
You remember
the place?”

Luke’s smile
is sad. “I remember throwing up in your garden. And, of course, you
smashing the window.”

“
Oh. Yeah.”
That probably wasn’t something you forgot in a hurry. I’d been
hysterical. “I just thought maybe my dad…maybe he’d taken you there
or something.”

A small shake
of his head. “No. We always met at the diner. Your dad knew I loved
the milkshakes there.”

“
Yeah, he used
to take me there for shakes, too.” Why had he never taken us
together? Had Luke been that messed up as a kid? I shake off the
awkward feeling and bite my lip. “Brandon said some new evidence
has come to light?” Luke nods and I brace myself. “Was it in my
dad’s favor, or against him?”