Rock Chick 05 Revenge (23 page)

My arms were around him, the fingers of one hand at the back of his head but at the roll my other hand went to his wrist, holding it steady, telling him I wanted more.

“Ava,” he muttered and my chin dipped to look at him.

“Do that again,” I murmured.

He did as I asked. I couldn’t help it, even though my eyes were mostly closed I felt myself smile.

“Fuck,” he muttered against my mouth and his finger slid inside me.

My hips moved pressing against his hand and his finger slid out then in then again and again. My hand stayed wrapped around his wrist as his finger worked me, my other hand still at his head. I pressed up, not just my hips, my whole body, seeking contact with his and he didn’t disappoint me, pressing his body into me.

His finger slid out of me while he kissed me, his tongue sliding in my mouth as his finger did another roll, right on target, followed by another one then another one. I stopped kissing him, ready, close, my mouth against his panting. I opened my eyes to see him watching me and I knew he liked what he saw and I found that I liked that he liked what he saw.

“Show me,” he muttered, his voice a deep rumble and at the sound, I felt it coming, my tongue wet my lips and it was then the fucking door buzzer went.

His finger stopped rolling, his head jerked up and my body stilled. Then the door buzzer went again this time for longer. This was difficult to ignore. It became worse when Luke’s phone rang. Both of these were impossible to ignore. But then my purse started ringing.

“You have got to be fuckin’
kidding
me,” Luke snarled.

The buzzer silenced then started again immediately.

Luke’s hand moved away, his arms wrapped around me and he rolled, taking me with him and knifing to a sitting position on the side of the bed, me in his lap. He snatched the phone out of its cradle and growled into it, “This better be fuckin’ good.”
 

I was still out of it, trying to wrap my thoughts around this terrible turn of events when Luke said, “Ma?”

Oh… my…
God
.

I was sitting, nearly naked (Luke
was
naked) in Luke’s lap, post-nearly-having-a-Lucas-Stark-induced-orgasm (something I’d wanted since I was sixteen and learned what they were) and Mrs. Stark was on the phone.

This was
not
happening.

I tried to tug away but Luke’s arm went tight and his eyes sliced to me.

“I’ll buzz you in,” he said, looking at me.

Eek!

My mouth dropped open and my eyes bugged out, totally affecting a Sissy Gawk. He put the phone down.

“My mother’s here,” he told me, totally calm (though his eyes were still ink).

I didn’t have time for inky eyes. I flew into a tizzy.

“Holy crap. Oh my God. Holy crap,” I chanted as I pulled out of his lap and threw myself on the bed, crawling over it to the other side where Luke tossed the Triumph tee last night. I nabbed it from the floor and whipped my legs around into a sitting position, my back to Luke, and tugged it on. Then I snatched my glasses off the nightstand and slid them on my nose.

I jumped up, ready to sprint to the bathroom and ran headlong into Luke whose arms closed around me.

“Ava, calm down.”

I tilted my head to look up at him. “Mrs. Stark is here!” I shouted.

He grinned. What there was to grin about, I did
not
know but I didn’t have time to ask.

“Let me go. I need to get dressed.
You
need to get dressed.”

I looked down and saw he was wearing his cargos.

Thank God for that.

I gave another tug but his arms went tighter.

“Babe, seriously, calm down. Ma likes you. She’s always liked you.”

I stared at him again in a gawk.

I knew this, of course. Mrs. Stark had always been nice to me. She was a nice lady. I sometimes wondered why she was friends with my Mom but then again she was friends with everybody.

“I know that, Luke, but she doesn’t want to catch me up here with you going commando in your cargos and me in nothing but a Triumph tee and a pair of panties.”

“She’ll do fuckin’ cartwheels. She’s hated every woman I’ve ever dated.”

Whoa.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

That had to go so deep. I needed to bury it next to the molten core at the center of the earth.

I tried to pull away but it was too late, the elevator doors were opening. My head snapped toward the doors and I froze, still standing in Luke’s arms as Mrs. Stark walked out of the elevator.

This is interesting,
Bad Ava said, sounding sleepy.

Good Ava yawned.
What’d I miss
?

Mrs. Stark turned, she had a small smile on her face but it went wonky when she caught sight of us standing across the room. Luke didn’t drop his arms and as I was frozen, my hands resting on either side of his chest under his shoulders, I didn’t move.

Luke looked like his Dad. His Mom was petite, kinda round, she had blonde hair but now it was mostly gray (and she left it at that). She was a motherly-type mom who dressed like a mom, talked like a mom and acted like a mom. Therefore she stood there wearing a pair of slacks with a neatly pressed crease, a flouncy blouse, a set of classy but mom-like pumps with short heels, appropriately-sized earrings and her hair had obviously been recently set.

“Oh my,” she said softly, her eyes moving to her son. “Luke you should have –”

“Hey Mrs. Stark,” I broke in nervously, taking my hands off Luke’s chest and turning. One of his arms dropped away from me, the other one kept me close to his side by slicing across my waist, his fingers putting pressure at my hip.

Mrs. Stark blinked.

I hadn’t seen her since her husband’s funeral. Considering her son’s reaction to the new me, I felt it was a good idea to cut to the chase.

“It’s Ava,” I said.

“Ava,” she repeated and kept looking at me. After a beat, the light dawned and she whispered, “Ava.” Then her eyes moved to Luke then back to me then to Luke. Then, I kid you not, she looked like she was going to burst into tears.

“I just need to…” Her head swung around, for some reason frantically. She spied the bathroom and started toward it. “Freshen up.” She disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door.

I whirled on Luke and, completely at a loss for words, leaned forward, hands straight down to my sides in fists and
glared
.

He took one look at me and burst into laughter. I lifted up both hands and gave him a big, old shove. He didn’t move back with the shove (of course). Instead, his arms closed around me and he pulled me close, his face went to my neck and he was still laughing so I could feel it against my skin.

“Babe,” he said against my neck when he finished laughing.

“I hate you,” I whispered.

His head came up and he was full on smiling which made my knees do a wobble, even though I was angry.

“No you don’t,” he whispered back.

I pulled out of his arms, ran to my suitcases and at least had a pair of jeans on by the time Mrs. Stark got out of the bathroom.

“Well, sorry about that. Nature calls,” she said, blushing even though the toilet didn’t flush and her eyes were looking funny.

I walked up to her, lips pressed together. “Mrs. Stark, I’m sorry if I upset you –”

Her head did a little jerk to the side. “Upset me? Oh, Ava, dear, you didn’t upset me.”

Then she walked right up to me and gave me a tight hug. Automatically, I wrapped my arms around her, confused. I thought she’d escaped to the bathroom to burst into tears of devastation that her handsome, tough guy, macho man, shit-hot, rich enough to retire at twenty-eight (now thirty-three) son had the likes of Ava Barlow in his loft.

Apparently this was not the case.

She pulled back and her hands went to squeeze my upper arms. “Well, look at you,” she smiled at me. “You always were a pretty little thing but now,” she leaned in. “You aren’t even giving Marilyn and Sofia a run for their money. You’ve left them in the dust,” she told me quietly.

I blinked.

“Well!” she exclaimed as she patted me on the arm and walked into the room, leaving me stunned and immobile in her wake. “I came by to see if I could take my son, who, by the way, never sees his mother so she has to show up unannounced at his house on a Sunday morning, to breakfast. Now, I’ll take you both,” she declared, clapping her hands together like this was her most fervent wish.

My eyes went to Luke who was standing there, arms crossed and still smiling this time at his mother.

“Lucas, put a shirt on. You’ll get a chill,” Mrs. Stark ordered.

I couldn’t help it, it was my turn to burst into laughter.

* * * * *

We went to Le Peep in Cherry Creek. This, I thought, was good as they had granola pancakes there. I wasn’t in the mood to search for my healthy living mojo, I was going to ask for extra butter and syrup and a double side order of bacon.

We took my Range Rover, Luke driving, Mrs. Stark making a big thing out of me sitting in the passenger seat by Luke. Of course I had to give in. Then when we got to the restaurant, I hung back intent on sitting at the table next to Mrs. Stark when she made a big thing out of Luke and I sitting side by side. Again I had to give in.

I knew this would be bad, but it got worse when Luke moved his chair closer than was seemly in front of Super Mom Stark, sat back and draped his arm across the back of my chair. He took it away to eat but even part of the time he was eating, he left it there. Worse than that, him being close meant his thigh was pressed full length down mine the whole time.

Argh!

To counteract the effects of Luke’s thigh, I ordered a triple side of bacon. I couldn’t eat it so Luke did and seeing Luke eat off my plate made Mrs. Stark sigh in motherly contentment.

Throughout all of this, Mrs. Stark blathered on, eyes shiny happy, about everyone in our old neighborhood; all of them she was still in touch with, I wasn’t surprised to note.

She also asked me a gazillion questions. So Luke found out I was a self-employed graphic designer; that my sisters hadn’t inherited as much from Auntie Ella because I was a favorite; that I fixed up my own house; and that I was allergic to cheap brands of cosmetics.

Then on the second pot of coffee, she announced, “Nature calls,” and got up, throwing a warm smile at the two lovebirds which was what we looked like, seeing as Luke, now done eating, had leaned into me, arm around my shoulders, fingers playing with a lock of my hair.

Once she disappeared in the bathroom, I turned to Luke, flipping my hair off my neck and out from between his fingers.

“Stop it,” I hissed.

“What?” he grinned.

“She’s going to think we’re together.”

“We are together.”

“We’re not.”

“We are.”

I made a noise in the back of my throat and leaned into him so I was close (or, I should say, closer).

“When she comes back, I’ll go to the bathroom and you tell her this isn’t what it seems.”

“And what should I tell her it is?”

“That I’ve got some troubles, you’re helping me sort them out and I’m staying at your place until it’s sorted. That’s it, nothing more.”

He shook his head. “I’m not gonna do that.”

“Why?” I cried.

“First, because she’ll worry if she thinks you’re in trouble. Second, because she’ll wonder what you’re still doin’ at my place when it’s all over. Third, because that would be a lie because that’s not all it is, it’s a fuckuva lot more.”

My heart did a stutter and I ignored it. “It isn’t.”

His hand came to the back of my neck. “I’m not sparrin’ with you about this Ava.”

“You aren’t being very nice to your mother. She actually
likes
the idea that we’re together. You let her go on thinking we are, when we aren’t, it’s just mean.”

I should (again) have realized what it meant when his hand came to the back of my neck.
 
I should have read the warning sign. I didn’t.

It was when his eyes got shiny dangerous, I read the warning sign. Too late.

“Tell me, after what happened in my bed this morning, how you figure we’re
not
together?”

“That was nothing. I was asleep,” I lied. “You took me off guard.”

Uh-oh.

His hand tightened on my neck and brought me even closer so we were ultra close closer.

“You’re too fuckin’ much. Throughout breakfast you’ve been decidin’ how to lie to me, and yourself, about what happened. That same time I’ve been strugglin’ with the urge to walk away from my mother, drag you back to my bed, rip your fuckin’ clothes off and bury myself so deep inside you, you feel me in your throat.”

Ho-ly
shit
.

Did Luke just say that to me?

He did.

“Luke –”